Would you like to play The Game?
(Yes/No)
I stared at the screen in front of me with a blank face. Or at least what I thought was a blank face. I couldn't exactly feel my body, it was more like I was just floating around in an endless nothingness.
A game huh? I didn't really know anything about my situation, but I was slightly intrigued. What kind of game?
Why the most elaborate, exciting, and immersive game of all time!
Life.
I felt the urge to scoff at that. Life wasn't a game.
But despite my thought process, what the floating text box said kind of intrigued me. "Life", it said? Did that mean I was dead or something? If that was the case—which I assumed it was—then I didn't have much of a choice, did I? It was between saying "yes" and living, and saying "no" and staying here doing… well nothing.
Well, I wasn't going to ponder over the decision, my mind was basically made up. I mentally chose the "yes" option and watched as the textbox morphed.
Congratulations, you didn't make a stupid decision.
Well, that was unnecessary—is what I wanted to say, but unfortunately, my lack of body prevented me from doing so.
So what?
What, you can hear my thoughts?
Yes, I read them earlier, remember. When you asked what kind of game this was.
You did? ...Oh right, you did.
Anyway, welcome to the game of life. You are one of the lucky people to be blessed with the ability to live your life as a video game.
Your body and world have been preselected.
That was helpful, I was never really good at character creation anyway.
Once you enter your world, think "Main Menu" to access your main menu.
Now, are you ready? I'll be sending you to your world in,
5
Wait, what?
4
There's no tutorial or anything?
3
Not going to answer, huh?
2
Whatever…
1
I opened my eyes slowly, the light filling my vision as I did. My body felt extremely sluggish, and I honestly didn't feel like getting up. Holy hell that was an unpleasant experience.
After a few seconds of laying down, I resolved myself, and curled my body up, getting into a sitting position. Looking around, I saw towering trees surrounding me, and I was laying in a patch of green grass.
I pushed off the ground and got to my feet. I gazed around the area one more time, and my eyes stopped at the body of water behind me. Is that a lake? Perfect. I walked over to the lake and peered down into it, my reflection showing itself to me.
I looked… good! Like, really good! I was around a 7 in my past life(self-proclaimed), but now I could confidently say I was a good 9 in this one. I reached for my face to make sure it wasn't an illusion of some kind. Yeah, this is real. I'm in a completely different body.
For some reason, I also didn't have clothes. That was an… inconvenience to say the least—I would have to find some later.
Oh right, the mysterious voice from before had said to think something when I got here, didn't he? "Main Menu'' or something. Was Mysterious Voice even here? I called out in my mind. Mysterious Voice? Mysterious Voiiiiiiiice?
…
Okay, it was safe to assume that Mysterious Voice wasn't going to answer me. Whatever, their loss for not getting to talk to me.
Main Menu.
As I thought that, a number of transparent boxes filled my vision. The first thing that came to my sight though was an option that read "status".
Name: Lilin
Level: 1
Race: ?
Age: 16
HP: 140
MP: 240
STR:15
END:14
DEX: 23
INT: 24
WIS: 23
Points: 0
So my name was pre-chosen as well? Lilin… I liked it. Definitely could have been worse.
Also, my race seemed to be a question mark. Did that mean I wasn't a human? I mean, there would be no reason to hide it from me if I was a human, so I assumed I wasn't. Still, the fact that I was not a human was a bit less… troubling to me than I would have assumed it to be.
All right, time to see what was next. I picked skills.
[Dagger Proficiency—Novice]
Your ability at using daggers and knives in combat is at a novice level.
[Fire Magic—Novice]
Your ability at using fire magic is at a novice level
[Fireball]
Cost—100 MP
Deals 120 fire damage
Only 3 skills? Well, that was fine really, better than nothing. Still, was this some sort of starter pack or something? I didn't even get to pick. Though, I'm pretty sure if I did get to pick, I would have chosen these options anyway. Dagger and fire magic were great.
Okay, okay, let's try this out.
I held out my hand and imagined a flame forming in the palm of my right hand. On command, a bright orange flame materialized in my hand, dancing to my will. Holy shit, this was way too cool. It didn't even hurt either, it just felt a bit warm.
Okay, time to try out the Fireball thing. I held out my right arm again and pointed it towards the water in front of me.
Fireball.
The actual word wasn't nearly as important as the intent behind it. The flame in my hand grew bigger and bigger before it propelled itself in the direction of the water. Right as the fireball hit the water, it created a huge splash that partially got on me.
I pull my hand back and stare at it in awe. So that was magic; it really was amazing. Too bad I couldn't use any more fireballs though, I didn't have enough MP since I used some playing with fire in the beginning.
Whatever, I could play with my fire some other time. I went back to check the rest of my options and decided on inventory.
Okay, now how should I do this? Do I just reach into it and- Oh, it worked!
[Basic Dagger (Common)] x2
Deals (5+STR) damage.
[Basic Robe (Common)]
It's just a robe, nothing much to say.
It wasn't the best of gear, but it would have to do. I took the robe and wore it around my body. It was still a bit breezy, but it was still better than nothing. I put my daggers back in my inventory and brushed myself off.
Okay, now I just needed to find out where I was.
Quest added
[Where am I?]
Objective—Find out where you were dropped
Rewards—Full set of clothes, 3 WIS
My first quest. Okay, so all I had to do to complete it was find out where I was. It aligned with my goals at the time perfectly. I looked around to see anything resembling a trail that I could use to get out of here. I found it rather quickly, an opening between the trees that didn't seem the end from what I could see. I resolved myself and started to walk towards it.
Okay, the first thing I needed to do was find a human settlement. Once I reached a human settlement, I could ask around and get a general idea as to where I was.
After that… hmm… maybe a shelter of something? To do that though, I needed money, which was another problem I had. For some reason, my starter pack didn't include any money for me to spend.
Well, I was in a fantasy world, right? I assumed it was since I had magic, and I was pretty sure non-fantasy worlds didn't have magic. Maybe if someone tried to rob me—such as bandits or something similar—I could kill them and take their stuff.
Another problem arose at that. Say such a situation were to happen, would I even be able to kill them? I believed I could do so. I believed I could end someone else's life to preserve my own. But talking about killing someone and actually doing it were two different things.
I sighed.
I could only hope that if something like that did happen, I would be able to take the appropriate measures. Otherwise, I would be the one that would pay.
Suddenly—interrupting my thoughts—I heard a low growl behind me. It wasn't loud exactly, but that didn't change the fact that it was intimidating as fuck.
I slowly turned around and found myself staring at a gray wolf, its glowing yellow eyes staring daggers into me. It growled a second time, revealing a row of razor-sharp teeth.
Okay Lilin, calm down. It's just a wolf, no matter how scary it looks. Just calm down and don't pay attention to how much bigger it is than you, or how its claws look like they can kill you in a single swipe… or how there's a bit of blood on those razor-sharp teeth—
I shook my head out of those thoughts, and reached into my inventory, grabbing both my daggers. I got into a fighting stance and glared at the wolf—my body still shaking slightly in fear. I had to do this. It was either I don't fight and die, or I fight and maybe survive.
The wolf kicked the dirt and charged at me. It was fast, but the attack was a bit predictable—even a novice like me could see it. I moved to the left and dodged the attack, but at the same time something strange happened. It was an instinct, my right arm with the dagger unconsciously moved and dragged across the side of the wolf's body, allowing the momentum from the pounce to make the cut for me.
Was this my dagger proficiency? Holy shit this was good. I thought I would be fighting with no combat knowledge at all, but that wasn't true, was it? I was a "novice" according to my skill, and that meant some experience at least.
The wolf howled in pain from the wound I inflicted and fell to its knees. Okay, now's my chance. I raised my right arm in the direction of the wolf and activated Fireball.
A ball of fire came out of my hand, and flew in the direction of the wolf, engulfing it in flames at contact.
That was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Look at me go, I had just beaten my first monster, no sweat! Though I was pretty sure luck played a huge part in it, but whatever, I was still proud of myself.
I walked up to the corpse and saw that it was still slightly breathing. Really? It wasn't dead? Just didn't want to die, huh? I guess I'll end the suffering for it.
I plunged the dagger into the wolf's neck, finally killing it.
+100 XP
[Wolf Fang] added
Dismissing the screen after a quick glance, I looked back to the corpse of the wolf. Now, what should I do with the body? I could cook it or something, but I wasn't exactly hungry at the time. Though, it probably wouldn't stay that way. I picked up the wolf's body off the ground and put it in my inventory.
I was definitely not going to eat it raw, so I needed to find a way to cook it as well. But how would I do that? I didn't have any survival skills, so building a fire out of scratch—
I paused for a second and looked down at my hands.
On second thought, I think I was going to be fine.
4 hours later…
Finally, I'm out of that god damn forest! I thought in glee, as I looked at the plains in front of me. Ah, the feeling of the plains was absolutely amazing. Why did the forest stretch out so long anyway? Maybe I had just gone the wrong way and gotten unlucky. Whatever the case, I was out now and that was all that mattered.
I had fought a few wolves on my way through the forest. They were still a bit hard to fight in the beginning, but after every fight, the battles became easier and easier. I could say with confidence at the moment that I could kill them with ease. Hell, I had just killed 2 at once earlier—albeit, it was a bit harder.
Lilin
Level – 3
HP – 170
MP – 280
I had also leveled up twice during that time. There were a few things that happened whenever I leveled up from what I had noticed. First, all my stats went up by 1 point. Second, I got 5 points for each level. It had taken me a bit of time to figure out what these "points" did, but essentially, I got to distribute these "points" into my stats however I wanted. One point equaled one stat of course. I was actually quite relieved I could do that since that meant I didn't have to grind the stats that would be harder to get naturally—such as WIS and INT.
Suddenly, I felt a bump beneath me that almost made me trip over. Hm, what was this? It looked like a crystal of some sort. I reached down to the crystal and grabbed it, rolling it around in my hands. Yeah, it was the same type of crystal that was littered around in the forest I was just in. To be honest, it didn't look very valuable, but it was still worth more than nothing. And with something as versatile as my Inventory, it would be dumb not to keep them.
Well, into my inventory you go.
Right as I was about to close my inventory, I caught sight of the numerous wolves resting in there, untouched.
I'd said I would cook them up when I got hungry, but that was the problem—I didn't feel hungry. I felt completely fine, just like how I felt when I first arrived in this world.
I assumed it was my race. A race that didn't eat…
Nothing came to mind.
I was sure that there were races that matched the description, but I just couldn't think of any. I didn't exactly have the most knowledge on fantasy races.
"Hey, hey, is that a person over there?" My thoughts were interrupted by a male voice behind me.
What, there were people there? I hadn't realized.
"Holy shit, it is. Finally, we've been walking for hours," another voice said, this one sounded a bit more mature, "And would you look at that, it's a woman too."
I turned around slowly and saw three men facing me. They all had similar sets of armor on, and for some odd reason—they were all bald.
"Oops, looks like she noticed us."
"That's 'cause you were talking so loud you idiot."
I opened up my inventory and grabbed one of my daggers. They hadn't done anything yet, but my gut was telling me that they were not very good people.
"Ooh, would you look at that, she has a knife," one of them laughed mockingly.
"Why don't you put that knife down girl, you know you can't beat us," the middle one says with a smirk.
I grit my teeth, but relented, putting my knife back in my inventory.
As much as I hated to admit it, they were right—I couldn't beat them. With the MP I had, I could fire 2 fireballs, which wouldn't be enough for all three of them. And even then, suppose I did try and fight them, the fireballs wouldn't be a guaranteed kill either. If the wolves could survive a fireball in an injured state, I was pretty sure a human could too.
I just had to wait for a better opportunity,
"Come on, let's just kill her and get this over with."
"What are you talking about man, look at her. Isn't she quite the beauty?"
"I know she is, we can just have fun with her after she's dead."
"Eww, that's fucking sick, I'm not into that shit." Though, by the look he had on his face, he really didn't mind that much.
Shit, if they did decide to kill me, I would have to fight. Fighting head-on was something I wanted to avoid, the chances of living if I did that were very slim.
"No, no, no, we can't do anything to her. Remember what the boss said?" The bandit on the far right—who I will be naming "Bandit 1" for the time being—said.
"Ahh, fuck the boss, let's just have some fun for once."
"You say that, but last time when the boss spoke with you in private, you looked like you were about to cry."
The middle bandit—Bandit 2—flinched at that remark, "Y-yeah, you're right, I really don't want to go through that again."
"And he would probably want her back a virgin too. This honestly sucks, I don't even know why we stay around with him anymore," Bandit 3 said, throwing his arms up in the air.
"Shut up, you're luck boss didn't hear you say that," Bandit 2 said with a roll of his eyes. He turned his gaze towards me, and spoke, "Oi, girly, come with us."
"...Are you going to kill me?" I asked.
Bandit 2 walked up to me with a scowl, and grabbed my hair, pulling me up to him, "Are you fucking deaf? No we're not killing you stupid bitch, we're not allowed, but that doesn't mean we won't beat the shit out of you, so don't fucking ask questions," He said, and I nodded my head meekly. "Also, where's that knife you had earlier? Hand it over, can't have you being sneaky after all."
I opened up my inventory, took out my knife, and handed it to him. I could have taken that chance to attack him, but it was honestly not worth it.
I squashed the urge to glare at him gratefully and looked down. It was okay, I just needed to continue this act for a bit longer.
"Hmm, nice knife you got, eh? This'll fetch a good price on the market—hey Rob, catch this for me," he said as he threw the knife to Bandit 3—Rob. "Keep up all right?"
Getting up to my feet, I brushed myself off and started to follow them. I kept my head down most of the time so they couldn't see my face. Now, what should I do? I could attack them right now with a Fireball. It would be so easy, they have their backs turned. All I need to do is activate the spell, and I get a free shot in.
But I mercilessly killed the urge to act upon those thoughts. Getting one sneak attack in wouldn't do anything. I wasn't even sure I could beat them one on one, and the fireballs weren't a guaranteed kill. I had another knife in my inventory, but I could see one of the bandits keeping his eye on me. They didn't trust me enough to let their guard down.
"So what were you doing in the forest anyway?" Rob asked me. He had an amused smirk on his face, didn't seem concerned about my situation, just curious for the sake of it.
"I… I was thrown away from my family," I said, my head lowering even further. From the corner of my eye, I saw Rob flinch, but he regained his composure almost immediately. . The other two looked back at me, mildly interested by the situation.
I took the silence as a cue to continue, "I've always been the outlier of my family. My siblings were always good at everything, while I always lagged behind. Even my younger brother was better at most things than me. Due to that, my parents would always dote on them more than me. It went on for years, and I mostly handled it, until yesterday, when it was my younger brother's birthday. They were having a huge celebration to celebrate him turning 13. My mother told me to stay in the room and not disturb anyone, but I still wanted to wish my brother happy birthday properly, s-so I tried going out of my room to see what was going on," I paused, fake tears forming in my eyes, "And I accidentally broke one of my mother's vases. It was something her mother had given her before she died. S-she got really angry at me, so she stripped me and threw me out of the house, telling me not to return."
I fell to my knees, and placed my hands on my face, "All because I broke a vase. I… I thought they l-loved me, I loved them, but they just threw me out like trash. My siblings… they didn't even care…"
They all stayed quiet for a moment, taking my story in.
It was a pretty unbelievable story, and there was a bit of doubt in their eyes, but I could tell it worked to some extent. Bandit 2 and 3 were not really affected by the story, but the same couldn't be said about Rob. He tried to put on a tough face, but from the way his shoulders were shaking, even an 11-year-old could tell that he felt something after hearing it.
"W-well, it looks like you have some bad luck, missy. You get kicked out of your parent's house, and then you get caught by bandits. Oh, I would hate to be you," There was a bit of hesitation in his voice, but that died down as he continued speaking. He started to laugh at my misfortune, and Bandit 2 followed shortly after.
"Well then guys, wanna set up camp here? It's getting kind of late, and I hardly doubt we'll reach base at this rate." Bandit 2 said.
"Oh shit yeah, it's getting pretty late. Setting up camp here would be a good idea." Bandit 3 agreed.
"Wait, who's going to watch her to make sure she doesn't do anything suspicious?"
"I'll do it," Rob volunteered.
"Don't worry, you were going to do it anyway. I stayed up last time, and John stayed up the time before that." Bandit 2 says with a smirk.
Rob rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I know. Oi missy, wear this." He tossed me a set of clothes.
"W-why?"
"Yeah, why are you giving her clothes? She looks so much better half-naked with that robe."
Rob rolled his eyes again, "I just don't trust you guys not to do anything to her. I don't know about you, but I don't want to get in trouble with your boss. And if one of us does something, we all get in trouble."
"Boo, what a buzzkill," Bandit 3—John—said.
While they were arguing, I took the clothes and started to wear them. They were a bit uncomfortable, and definitely a few sizes too big—but they were still better than what I had before. I gazed at my inventory one more time, before I closed it, my other knife being the last thing I saw.
Rob Barmoot looked up at the night sky with a troubled look on his face. That girl from before—as much as he hated to admit it—brought more than a little sympathy out of him. Someone that was thrown out of their family because they couldn't match up to the rest of them.
It reminded him of himself.
He came from a line of swordsmen. They were not the best, and they most certainly weren't the most well known, but they did have their pride. His brother had always been better than him at swordsmanship, by a wide margin. As a result, his parents favored his brother over him.
When he turned 17, he gave up and left the house in order to find a new life. A life that would compliment him better than one of violence. Sadly, it led him to the life of a bandit.
His fellow bandits had always told him that he was too soft for the job, he knew it as well, but he still continued being a bandit. Killing, raping, and looting was part of his daily routine.
At first, it was hard. He couldn't kill an innocent woman—his family's traditions had drilled that into his mind. But instead of running away from it at that time, he had resolved himself, and killed the woman. In cold blood.
After that encounter, he kept doing it. With each person killed, the job kept getting easier. It didn't matter if they were children, women, men—he killed them without mercy. At some point, he didn't even think about it anymore and just did it cause he was so used to it.
But the girl's story brought back memories. Back when he wasn't such a bad person. He wanted to help her. For once, instead of being an evil person, he wanted to do good.
He chuckled wryly. I thought I promised myself not to show weakness anymore. Some promise that was.
He stood up and walked to the girl. She had still not slept yet and was looking outside.
"Is there something you need?" She asked in a soft voice.
"Get up, I'm getting you out of here," he said, reaching an arm out for her to grab on to.
"W-what, why?" She asked, in complete disbelief from what she had just heard.
"The reason doesn't matter, either you come with me and get the chance to live, or you stay here and become a sex slave for our boss."
Hearing that, she immediately got onto her feet, taking his hand meekly.
"Follow me," Rob told her, and he walked out of the tent. After a few minutes of walking, he started to speak again, "Okay, just keep going straight from here. If you keep going straight, there should be a town called—"
Rob's words were interrupted by a sharp pain near his chest area. It was hot, extremely hot, but nothing that he hadn't felt before. During his time as a bandit, he'd gotten stabbed multiple times, so he knew the feeling well.
But never had he gotten one so close to a vital area before.
He turned around slowly and saw the girl holding a dagger to his back. The sides of her mouth were twitched up slightly as if she was proud of her action. As if she had accomplished something.
"W-why?" He asked shakily, falling to his knees – blood seeping out of his mouth.
"Why? What do you mean why? Because you're a bandit of course. You've killed, you've raped, you've stolen. All from innocent people, and you're asking me why I killed you? You're a bandit that kidnapped me, of course, I'm going to kill you," she said, her smirk still present on her face.
"B-but, I tried to h-help you—"
"So? That doesn't change anything." Seeing the confusion on his face, the girl continued, "Don't you understand? From the beginning, it was a lie. I never got abandoned by my family, that was just a story I fabricated to gain sympathy from you fools, and by the looks of it, it worked."
Rob closed his eyes, taking her words in. Of course, it was a lie, why would a girl being kidnapped tell them about her situation right off the bat? It was foolishly naive for him to believe her, and even more foolish for him to sympathize with her.
The girl walked up to him, dagger in hand, and placed it on his neck.
From the beginning, this was her plan. To get him to feel bad for her, and then kill him.
Her hand moved, and he saw darkness.
He really wasn't cut out for the life of a bandit, was he?
I sighed, looking down at the body of the bandit I had just killed. Weirdly enough, I didn't feel any guilt from killing him. No empathy. No regret. Perhaps it was because I didn't know him? Not that it mattered, I wasn't complaining or anything.
Such emotions would only slow me down. What I needed to do now was survive, I didn't have time for guilt and regret.
I had gone up a level after killing him, which meant all my stats went up by 1, and I had 5 points to spend. I put 1 point into INT, 2 into WIs, and the rest into DEX.
I could now cast fireball 3 times, which was good
I walked back to the camp the other two bandits were sleeping in. Sure, I could have just followed the direction the other bandit told me to go, but the other bandits would have noticed something was wrong soon enough. It was better to kill them both, just in case.
Entering the camp where they were resting, I walked up to Bandit 2, and placed my hand over his mouth, muffling any scream that could come out of his mouth. Surprisingly enough though, he didn't wake up. Deep sleeper I guess. Well, it only made it easier for me anyway.
Skill Acquired
[Sneak]
Extra 1% chance to go unnoticed while sneaking.
I dismissed the textbox, I would look into it some other time—at that moment, I had to focus. I held my knife to his neck, and slit his throat, killing him instantly.
I didn't need to be as silent for the other one though. I walked up to him and stabbed him in the throat—not bother to go through the same precautions I had gone through for the other one. He let out a few screams, that were muffled by his own blood he was choking on, before he, too, perished.
Whew, that was something all right. It was my first day in the new world, and I was already killing wolves and assassinating bandits in their sleep. Though, it didn't say many good things for the future.
From the corner, I saw a folded paper falling out of Bandit 2's pocket. Curious, I grabbed it and unfolded the paper, revealing the contents. I scanned the paper and widened my eyes when I recognized some of the names.
Quest Completed
[Where am I?]
Objective – Find out where you were dropped
Rewards – Full set of clothes, 3 WIS
Full set of clothes added to Inventory
3 WIS Gained
Well, out of all the worlds it could have been, Fairy Tail was definitely not the worst.
Yeah, welcome to my new fic. I decided to make this a female gamer fic cause... you know... why not?
Don't really have much to say. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.