MMORPG: Descendant of Sin Chapter 8: Ashtear village

Read chapter 8 of MMORPG: Descendant of Sin by GuideofHeaven on NovelPedia.

I gave up thinking too deeply about the issue. With so little information available, worrying about it would be pointless. It also did not seem to have any immediate effect on my life. Thus, I put it on hold until I could gather more information. A very mature decision. Also known as avoiding the problem. "First of all, I should find a way into civilization. Isn't there any map function?" I tried shouting. "Map!" Silence. Nothing happened. The meadow remained a meadow. The flowers remained flowers. And I remained a man who had just shouted "map" into the wind like an idiot. This game had no visible UI, and everything looked like the real world to a scary degree. "I guess the only thing I can do is search this place for a road or NPCs." I decided to walk around the meadow. The sun was warm above me, and a gentle breeze brushed against my face. It was refreshing to be in nature after living so long in an iron jungle. "Even if that nature is basically a forcibly induced hallucinative state created by a super-advanced AI." Rustle. My gaze shifted toward the sound. The grass moved. Then, from within it, a person suddenly popped out. I did not want to judge a book by its cover. However, the fact that he was holding a knife and rapidly moving in my direction made that very difficult. My body reacted before my mind could properly organize the situation. I jumped back and raised my arms into an awkward stance. [Human opponent detected.] [Marked by Curse activated!] [All stats are temporarily raised by 25%.] I tried to sidestep. Unfortunately, my body had suddenly become lighter and faster than expected. Instead of calmly dodging to the side like a skilled warrior, I launched myself much farther than intended and nearly lost my balance. Very graceful. Very heroic. A legendary start. I clumsily raised my fists, ready to counterattack. But the attacker suddenly dropped the dagger. Then he fell onto his backside. "P-please do not hurt m-me." The attacker declared this while trembling on the ground. For a moment, I stared at him. Then at the dagger. Then back at him. If a third party saw this scene, they would definitely think I was the one who had ambushed him with a knife, not the other way around. "Is this some act to make me lower my guard since the ambush failed?" I asked, doubting whether the attacker's reaction was genuine. The attacker shook his head desperately. When I tried to get closer, he immediately started crawling backward to increase the distance between us. No. Why are you acting so scared? Hm? "Wait. Could it be because of the passive trait?" One of the effects provided by Marked by Curse was instilling the Fear status effect in human enemies. "I thought it would be at the level of mild discomfort, but the effect is quite strong." I looked at the trembling boy. "Or maybe you are just weak?" I shook my head and carefully bent down, picking up the knife the attacker had dropped. Since he had increased the distance between us himself, I was less worried that he could catch me off guard now. [Zephyr's Dagger Replica acquired.] Oh? So I could see the details of items as well? The wall between realism and game mechanics sure was thin in this game. I would love to check the details of this dagger, but first I needed to resolve the issue of this strange first encounter. Was he an NPC or a player? Honestly, it was hard to tell. There were no indicators above his head. No name. No level. No helpful red text saying Suspicious Tutorial Bandit. A very inconvenient design choice. "Are you local, or a player like me? State your name, and if you cooperate, no one will get hurt." Pointing the dagger at the cowardly attacker, who was now trembling on the ground, I spoke while trying to imitate the most threatening tone of voice I could muster. It was a bit embarrassing. So I repeated in my mind that this was roleplay. This was normal in gaming. Probably. "Noble Sir, can you promise that you will spare me? Can you promise on the name of our