The World of the Game

In his previous life, Pan Long had lived in a world of advanced technology and plenty. Back then, gaming had been his favorite pastime outside work and household chores. After he started working, he had even saved several months' wages to buy a reclining VR gaming rig.

Lying in the VR rig, he could experience landscapes both real and imagined and embark on thrilling adventures without leaving home. Apart from their time, all players had to spend was the money for the equipment and games.

It was no small sum, but the enjoyment it brought was clearly worth it.

Among young people in that world, VR gaming was a common pastime.

...They couldn't help it. None of them had been particularly skilled at choosing the families they were born into, so this was what they got to enjoy.

Heroes Chronicle was a fantasy strategy RPG produced by Luna Company. From the PC era through the VR era, seven installments had been released, each with excellent sales. The series was one of the gaming industry's golden brands. Among them, the fourth installment, Sword and Lament, held a special place.

It marked a major turning point in the series' art style. Beginning with this installment, Heroes Chronicle shifted from a semi-chibi look to full realism. It was also the first VR game in history to truly unite realistic visuals with popular tastes, opening a golden road for the VR games that followed.

The game used a stage-based structure. Players took the role of a young Warrior determined to become a hero, braved adventure after adventure, and ultimately achieved great things. He could become a hero who saved the world, a tyrant who ruled humanity, or an ally of Demonkind who spread disaster and fear across the land... In later DLC expansions, players could even become a primordial dragon and reign over the three realms, or become a god outright.

Whichever ending they pursued, the first stage every player faced as a novice was Luna Village.

But the Luna Village Pan Long knew was the one in the game, engulfed in flames and strewn with corpses, not this peaceful village before his eyes. The difference was so great that he had failed to recognize it at first.

Not until he saw Lilina, who looked exactly like the statue of the Moon Goddess.

This girl had inherited the Sacred Mark of Luna, the Moon Goddess, and was one of the most important characters in the game's story. On the light route, choosing her as the heroine could lead to a perfect, happy ending; on the dark route, she was an indispensable sacrifice for the ritual that summoned the Demon God; on the tyrant route, the battles sparked by her were crucial to weakening both light and darkness; on the wanderer route, players would be drawn into those battles again and again as they roamed the world...

Unless you knew the plot inside out, stayed out of everything, and stuck firmly to the slacker route, there was no avoiding her.

Pan Long had little interest in the later plot. He doubted the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment could manifest the whole story of Sword and Lament anyway. That was a vast war spanning an entire continent and unfolding across more than a hundred locations, with parts set in the heavenly, underworld, demon, and elven realms. What he needed to consider was what he could gain from this "beginner stage."

He tried to recall his experience playing the game, along with the guides and plot analyses he had read online, and couldn't help sighing.

As the first stage for novice players, Luna Village had weak enemies: only a small group of soldiers from the Imperial Holy Legion, left behind to set fires and make sure the whole village burned after they had taken away the "witch" and slaughtered the villagers. Naturally, a village reduced to a sea of flames had no shops or temples where players could buy things or receive blessings.

Apart from two hidden treasures, there was nothing else of value on the map.

Even those two treasures were fairly ordinary.

The first was a pair of Feather Boots that increased movement speed by five, roughly equivalent to an extra ten kilometers per hour. The second was a Slayer Sword with unremarkable base damage that dealt double damage to humans.

Besides those two hidden treasures, there was a Moon Shard that players were guaranteed to obtain through the story. It was one of the three materials needed to reforge the Divine Artifact Luna's Sword later on.

Of the three treasures, Pan Long thought only the Moon Shard might have some value to him. The other two simply weren't worth spending spiritual energy to bring back.

Bringing a treasure from the Illusory World created by the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment into reality consumed the treasure's own spiritual energy. The more it consumed, the more energy would have to be replenished before the Illusory World could be opened again. Unless something was hard to obtain, an ordinary item just wasn't worth bringing back.

Why had generations of Pan Lineage ancestors liked creating Illusory Worlds full of spiritual herbs? Because they could stuff themselves inside those worlds, turning resources directly into their own power. It didn't matter if they ate until they were bursting; they could take their time digesting it all after they returned.

Resources already in their stomachs consumed no extra spiritual energy.

His father had once said that an ancestor had also tried exploiting the idea that anything swallowed counted. He had forced down some rare treasures, planning to pass them after returning to reality, or simply vomit them up. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked. Even swallowed whole, things the human body couldn't digest still consumed spiritual energy before they could become real.

Who knew whether that ancestor had ended up vomiting them up or passing them...

Pan Long certainly wasn't going to do anything that foolish. If he wanted to take something with him, he would carry it out directly. Then, on returning to reality, he would spend spiritual energy to make it solid, following the normal process.

But was the Moon Shard really worth the spiritual energy it would take to bring back?

For that matter, could he even bring it back?

He considered it for a moment, then shook his head to himself.

The Moon Shard was a fragment of the Moon Goddess Crystal, but the story never explained what the Moon Goddess Crystal actually was. According to players' old analyses, there were only two possibilities: it was a crystallization of Luna's divine power, or it was part of a shattered Divine Artifact of the Moon Goddess.

Either way, it was something on an entirely different level—so far beyond ordinary treasures that the spiritual energy stored in the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment might not be enough to manifest it.

And even if he could make it real and bring it back, what would he do with it?

Use it to forge a Divine Artifact? Perhaps a sword that drained an enemy's life force with every kill and ignored any invisible defensive field, including protective aura?

Pan Long couldn't imagine where he would find a swordsmith that skilled.

Without a swordsmith, even the finest material would only gather dust in a storeroom. Bringing it back would be a waste of spiritual energy.

"Forget it. There's no point..."

He muttered to himself and gave up on taking the Moon Shard.

It seemed the only thing he would gain from this trip to Luna Village was a chance to see it before the Empire’s great army destroyed it, and to watch a European festival with a distinctly Chinese flavor up close.

...That felt like a bit of a loss!

In theory, if he took nothing away, the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment would lose very little spiritual energy. It would be easier to refill and open another Illusory World. But after going to the trouble of coming here, leaving without so much as a wisp of cloud tucked into his sleeve...

"Feels like I've lost a hundred million."

Pan Long sighed and turned to leave.

The festival activities were mostly hymn-singing and the like. There had been a church near his home in his previous life, and he had seen plenty of that.

Rather than waste time watching the festivities, he might as well find somewhere to practice. He wanted to see whether training in this world worked any differently than it did in reality.

He headed toward the village entrance and left Luna Village, passing the statue of the Moon Goddess that stood by the gate with a longsword in hand.

Before he reached the nearby woods, however, he saw two people in black robes riding toward Luna Village in a carriage, escorted by five or six fierce-looking men.

Pan Long noticed crescent moons on the chests of their black robes.

"Holy Servants of the One God Religion? What are they doing here?"

Muttering to himself, he stepped aside and watched the group storm into Luna Village. Curious, he followed them to see what would happen.

The group soon clashed with the villagers of Luna Village.

They belonged to the Frees Empire, whose government recognized the One God Religion as the only lawful faith. It regarded the traditional polytheistic religions of other regions as heresy and had long used the law to suppress them. For instance, only followers of the One God Religion could become officials or soldiers. Regions with different beliefs faced higher taxes, while publishing religious books of other faiths was banned, as was publicly creating or displaying art and literature about them.

That was bad enough. Worse still, the Frees Empire had established a Holy Legion centered on fanatical believers of the One God Religion, recruiting large numbers of thugs and bandits to attack followers of other faiths wherever they went. More than once, under pretexts such as "arresting wizards" and "hunting witches," they had raised their butcher's blades and slaughtered entire villages.

In the game, players came into fierce conflict with the One God Religion no matter which route they chose. Even if they wanted to stay out of worldly affairs and live as a slacker, its fanatics would come looking for trouble. There was no hiding from them.

Pan Long had no fondness for those deranged religious zealots. In fact, he would have loved to see them get what was coming to them.

And that was exactly what happened. The newcomers aggressively ordered the villagers to smash the statue of the Moon Goddess at once, renounce their faith, and convert to the One God Religion. The villagers of Luna Village refused to yield. The argument soon became a brawl, and with numbers on their side, the villagers swung pitchforks, hoes, and other farm tools, sending the One God Religion's men scurrying away with their hands over their heads. In the end, the men could only throw out a threat—"You'll regret this!"—before scrambling into their carriage and fleeing with their tails between their legs.

Having driven off the troublemakers, the villagers of Luna Village eagerly returned to their celebration. Pan Long, however, narrowed his eyes and nodded slightly.

"I think... I finally understand how the game's first stage came about..."

With that, he went to the festival grounds and found the Village Chief, who had led the argument with the two missionaries of the One God Religion.

"Village Chief, do you realize a terrible disaster is about to befall Luna Village?"

Can you guess what benefit the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment will bring our protagonist?