Chapter 4

As Deputy Captain Carter led the team back to the village on the vast plains of Neshemia, they finally arrived at their destination. The scenery before them made Rody, who was still dizzy from the alcohol, shiver suddenly.

“Nolan Village.”

Rody stared at the wooden sign at the village entrance, sitting motionless on his horse, momentarily forgetting to dismount.

“Rody?”

Deputy Captain Carter, leading his horse to the stable, turned back and asked. Rody swallowed hard, his movements stiff as he dismounted and limped along behind.

Like all the villages on the border of the Kalen Kingdom, Nolan Village was small, with only three or four dirty streets. As a typical feudal domain, Nolan Village had a manor, which belonged to Lord Kirk. Surrounding the manor were scattered farmhouses and fields, with a population of about two hundred. There was a blacksmith's shop and a simple small square. The largest building was the windmill by the river, where the huge blades no longer turned in the sunset as the farmers returned to the village. The atmosphere was peaceful, with the occasional barking of dogs and clucking of chickens. Farmers, having finished their work, were discussing various topics, and everything looked like a normal village.

Nolan Village had no walls or protective facilities and no permanent military presence. However, due to its special location on the border, the highest lord, Duke Lucifer, had exceptionally stationed two permanent reconnaissance teams here. The original lord, Kirk, only visited once a year, so the village's largest leader was the steward sent by the lord to manage the manor. Since the reconnaissance teams belonged to the duke's direct army, the steward had little authority over Rody's team.

It was already late, and Deputy Captain Carter dismissed the team, carrying a bag of orc heads to Lieutenant Sordin's room. Rody, still dizzy from the alcohol, followed a few "comrades" to the communal dining tent at the village entrance. His steps were unsteady, unsure if it was due to his wound or the strong drink. Rody rubbed his eyes several times but still felt as if he were in a dream—because he gradually realized an important issue he had overlooked...

Everything he felt seemed too real.

The villagers in his field of vision were dressed simply, and occasionally, shepherds herding sheep passed by on the dirt road that ran through the village. Children playing in the mud ran by, the blacksmith's shop clanged, and in the sunset, smoke rose from the chimneys of the farmhouses... Everything made him feel that the game didn't have such realistic details.

Walking into the simple "dining hall," Rody sat on a wooden bench, listening to the "comrades," who should have been NPCs, discussing today's battle. He looked at everything with a complex expression, a sense of panic rising in his heart...

What was going on?

He had many questions—what he most wanted to know was why he seemed to have entered a place that felt like reality.

Where was the game server? The menu? The option to exit the game?

For a modern person who had been thinking about whether to go to McDonald's for dinner that night, suddenly finding himself in such a world was overwhelming.

"Exit game..."

He quietly tried the voice command for "Rift," a holographic simulation MMORPG. Rody hoped this was just a game bug, but as the command failed, his mood sank.

"...This doesn't work."

"Force logout doesn't work...?"

"Are you kidding me..."

The scouts eating nearby looked at Rody, who was muttering incomprehensible words, with strange expressions. But Rody was too preoccupied to pay attention, still mumbling like a wizard casting a spell.

None of the commands worked. Rody bit his lip, thought for a long time, and decided to make one last attempt. He stopped using Chinese and spoke in Brinjar:

"Character status panel."

"Damn!"

A scout who was drinking soup next to him spat it out all over the table at Rody's exclamation. Rody hurriedly apologized and sat back down, his eyes wide with excitement and surprise as he looked at the clear status list.

Seeing the clear status list, Rody was convinced that this was a bug in "Rift." He was about to call up the "exit game" option, but his face froze in disappointment.

Still nothing?!

A chill spread through his heart. Rody tried various methods, listing all the menus he could, including the quest log, equipment list, and character status, but he couldn't find the "main menu" to exit the game!

The idea he had been reluctant to accept resurfaced—could he really be in the real world, not in the game world?

Taking several deep breaths, Rody remembered a way to confirm if he was in the game—food in "Rift" could be eaten but never tasted. Drinking wouldn't get you drunk, and food had no flavor because the holographic simulation technology couldn't achieve that, and the game company hadn't done any research in that area...

He looked at the black, unleavened bread in front of him, swallowed, and solemnly broke off a piece.

Seeing the bread crumbs on the table, Rody's heart sank. The game didn't have such realistic physics, but he still nervously put the bread in his mouth and chewed slowly.

Sour, bitter, dry. The black bread tasted worse than the toast he bought at the supermarket, but the terrible taste was insignificant compared to the reality it proved...

At this moment, he finally realized that he might never return to his original life.

This was the real world, and he had somehow traveled to a world just like "Rift"!

Chewing the bread mechanically, Rody was stunned for a few minutes before he began to adapt to the reality.

Tech geeks rarely have emotional moments, and Rody wouldn't be like a woman, lost and confused for days. He thought for a moment and decided to check his status again.

Then... he sighed heavily.

The status panel, once filled with titles and various values, was now empty, with only the basic profession "Legion Soldier" and the level "1" hanging there, which looked like a middle finger from the goddess of fate, making his lips tremble.

Below were the attributes:

Strength: 13 (+3)

Agility: 8 (+1)

Spirit: 6 (+1)

Constitution: 9 (+3)

Intelligence: 5 (+1)

The values in parentheses were the growth points from the basic profession "Legion Soldier," which Rody had chosen in the game. He was familiar with this profession, and in the game, attributes couldn't be allocated; they increased automatically with each level based on the profession. He didn't care about this; as long as he leveled up, everything would be fine.

Just thinking about this, he found it amusing—could he actually level up in the real world?

Thinking about this, he looked at the experience bar, and his expression changed dramatically. The 159 experience points from killing orcs were clearly displayed.

Laughing bitterly, Rody temporarily accepted this absurd world. He then thought about today's battle—considering the experience he had gained, it wasn't insignificant. Nolan Village was like a "newbie village" in the game, where level 1 players wouldn't dare to fight orcs, only killing wolves or delivering messages between villages. The orcs he encountered yesterday were level 2-4, which were challenging for beginners because they often traveled in groups and sometimes had wolf mounts, making encounters usually deadly.

Rody saw that he needed 300 experience to level up, and he was already halfway there. He then called up his equipment list—head, neck, shoulders, chest, arms, wrists, waist, legs, feet, special accessories, rings, and weapons, a total of fourteen slots, all clearly visible.

Of course, most were empty.

With two ring slots, the fourteen slots highlighted the importance of equipment in the game. In the later stages, a player's equipment could add attributes several times greater than their base stats, and the best players always had top-tier equipment.

Rody, confident in his abilities, might have been among the top players if he hadn't started PvP later than others. But looking at his equipment list, he sighed—worn-out white equipment with no significant attributes, a short sword with the lowest attack power, and a single equipped item on his neck.

Rody didn't examine it closely, assuming it was just a simple chain, as there were no additional attributes listed.

Thinking about the orc horn bow he had confiscated yesterday, Rody felt better and checked his health—72/90. He felt strangely uneasy but shook his head, knowing there were no "health potions" or herbs to speed up recovery in this world.

Closing the options, Rody's gaze returned to the present, and he began to think about his current situation.

This is Nolan Village... Nolan Village...

His frown deepened as he recalled his experiences in the game—Nolan Village had been completely destroyed by orcs, becoming a supply station in the orc-occupied area. How could there be humans here?

Not just Nolan Village, but in Rody's experience in "Rift," the orcs had almost taken over the entire western territory of the Kalen Kingdom, infiltrating from the northwest. This was due to the incompetence and lack of backbone of the royal family and the Lucifer family, and the city of Holier, the base of the Lucifer family, had become a bridgehead for the orcs' invasion of the Kalen Kingdom.

The unknown environment made Rody increasingly anxious. He tried to calm his rapid breathing, stood up, and walked to the water pool next to the tent to wash his face. But when he touched the water, he froze.

In the clear reflection, a strange face appeared. Rody was certain he wouldn't forget his own face, but now... he clearly understood what was wrong.

He seemed to have become someone else, in this bizarre game world, at an even more bizarre time!

Not far away, a few scouts who had previously ignored Rody now looked at him with newfound respect after today's events. Seeing him staring at the water, they didn't dare to mock him, but the atmosphere gradually became strange.

Because Rody stared at the water for five minutes.

"R... Rody?"

"Hmm?"

Rody, startled, raised his head, his confused gaze gradually refocusing. He looked at the scout who had spoken and asked, "What's the date today?"

The unusual phrasing made the scout pause, thinking Rody might be crazy, but considering his performance today, he cautiously answered, "April 10th."

"Which year?"

This question made the other soldiers in the tent turn their heads. The mood had been somber due to the deaths of several scouts, but Rody's question made some laugh. The scout captain, Rugar, grumbled, "Did you fall off your horse and get a concussion? You don't know what year it is?"

His disdainful tone showed he didn't take Rody seriously, but the surviving scouts from the second team were more respectful, swallowing and answering, "This year is 588 Aelon."

At this, everyone saw Rody's body tremble violently.