But my body, unable to regain its balance, rolled on the ground, and only after burying my head in the sand did I realize something was wrong.
âWhatâs going on right now?â
I lost consciousness while watching the game intro.
And when I came to, this was the situation.
Itâs a very confusing situation, but my mind remained surprisingly calm.
âThis isnât my body.â
Thick hands. Muscles that would make a fitness trainer weep with envy.
This isnât my body. But it feels as vivid as if it were.
Moreover, judging from my tightly bound hands and the current situation, Iâm being dragged along.
When I lifted my head, I saw hundreds of men also being dragged in a line.
Combining the fact that I was whipped with the current situation, the answer became clear.
âWar slaves.â
Defeated soldiers. Captured as slaves after losing a war.
But what was even more astonishing was the large monster leading the way.
âHydragon!â
The monster with nine heads and the lower body of a dragon is very familiar.
Although itâs a monster Iâve never seen before, I recognized it immediately.
Hydragon.
A creature that every player of the game inevitably encounters, like the first major obstacle!
A graphics blob materialized in front of me.
Having raised and defeated nearly a thousand characters, I couldnât help but be familiar with it, but it was still abnormal to recognize a game monster so quickly.
âI need to get up.â
Thereâs no time to be lost in thought.
If I stay down, Iâll die.
As soon as I stood up, a whip flew at me.
The intense pain made my hair stand on end, but I forced myself to suppress a groan.
"If you fall again, I'll throw you to the Hydragon."
... It must be the Hydragon.
Now everything is clear.
âPanginea. Did I enter the game world?â
An incomprehensible situation.
I should be confused, but surprisingly, I remain calm.
I quickly grasped and adapted to the situation.
âAll senses, including touch, are no different from reality... Then...â
Itâs a game, but itâs not a game. Itâs extremely realistic, but I remember rolling the dice at the end.
All random.
Didnât I roll everything randomly?
If this is the result, thereâs something I need to confirm.
"Status window."
At that moment.
Swish. A rolled parchment appeared before my eyes and slowly unfolded.
The status window did appear, but the things that appeared made no sense.
First, the stats.
Originally, stats are determined within a range of 1 to 10 based on talent. But they exceed that, starting at 12, and all are uniformly 12.
A golden start Iâve never seen in five years of playing Panginea.
Not only that.
âHow many talents are marked here?â
The parchment goes on endlessly. Over 200 talents are marked, and more than 10 hidden traits are activated.
Just one hidden trait can make you a supreme being with the strength to move mountains and the spirit to overshadow the world. I have exactly 13 of them.
â13 hidden traits.â
Even named NPCs who have eaten stars and transcended, or the strongest beings in the world, donât have 13 hidden traits. At most, they have five.
Unprecedented.
One of them stood out.
âIron-Blooded Rulerâs Heart!â
A hidden trait and a linked trait that appears when all physical talents are marked.
It roughly has the function of ânot tiring easily, not being surprised by ordinary things, and quickly adapting to situations.â
Additionally, it increases âStaminaâ and âHonorâ not visible in the stats window, grants better quests, and bestows the âQualities of a Ruler.â
To have 13 of such traits.
After taking in all the hidden traits, I looked at the next content.
âPanginea collapse. Boundary with reality? I donât understand what this means.â
I donât understand. Whatâs clear is that things happening to me far exceed normal comprehension.
However, I canât remain lost in thought forever.
âHey.â
I called out to the man in front of me.
A man with his right middle and index fingers cut off weakly turned his head to look at me.
âWhy?â
âWhere are we?â
â...? Itâs the Kaltsman Desert, of course.â
He turned away, his eyes suggesting I had lost my mind from the heat, and I asked again.
âKaltsman Desert? Surely weâre not heading to Faisalmere?â
The Kaltsman Desert, located in the southeastern part of the continent, is a notorious land inhabited by three major tribes.
All three tribes are madmen who make a living from slave hunting and constant warfare.
And Faisalmere is a middle city where captured slaves are sold.
âYeah. So, give up on going back alive.â
The reason the slavesâ eyes had no light was because of this.
Slaves captured and taken to Faisalmere never return alive.
âA starting point that should never be designated. If youâre dropped in the Kaltsman Desert, itâs better to delete your character and start over.â
Itâs a notorious desert from the start.
I once started here out of curiosity but gave up.
Since then, Iâve never chosen the Kaltsman Desert as a starting point.
âDamn.â
Itâs my mistake for setting the starting point randomly. Who can I blame?
I asked the last question.
âDo the Kaltsman tribes usually handle slaves in such large numbers?â
No matter how big a slave trader, they usually handle only a few dozen slaves. This procession looked to be over 300.
The man frowned.
âHow would I know?â
âWhy are we being dragged along?â
âOur reason for being captured? Well, maybe weâre stragglers from an expedition?â
âExpedition? What expedition?â
âHaa... An expedition to the Demon World led by the Eight Heroes. We were captured while fleeing after our defeat. Are you heatstroke?â
Eight Heroes? Demon World expedition?
âAh!â
... Itâs my story.
Or rather, the story of the character I played right before creating this one.
I gathered the eight strongest characters and the eight unique items to form an expedition.
And I messed it up completely.
We made it to near the Temple of the Demon God in the Demon World but couldnât open the final door, leading to a game over.
It seems this is known as the Eight Heroes and the Demon World Expedition.
âDamn. If it werenât for the internal conflict, the expedition would have succeeded...!â
Internal conflict?
What internal conflict?
I was about to ask, but at that moment, the ground shook.
At the same time.
ăMain Quest 1: Survive!ă
ăReward: Varies based on contentă
ăFailure: Death â Both the game and real-world bodies will die.ă
A quest appeared before my eyes.
Survive? In this situation?
Whatâs even more shocking is the penalty for failure. Could the real-world body really mean my actual body?
The intro scene came to mind. Panginea and Earth colliding.
Rumble! Rumble!
But there was no time to think further.
With a rough sound, a massive creature was approaching from a distance.
âThree Hydragons!â
âForm ranks! Prepare for the attack!â
The slave traders, who were also skilled soldiers, drew their weapons and braced themselves.
The enemies, leading three Hydragons, began to slaughter the slave traders without mercy.
âSnake Princess! Snake Princess!â
âSnake Princess! Have you forgotten the non-aggression pact?â
âAaah!â
Screams filled the air.
They were engaged in a massacre, disregarding any agreements or rules.
Yes, it was a one-sided slaughter.
âIf I stay here, Iâll die!â
My instincts were screaming.
They showed no hesitation in killing slaves.
It seemed their goal was to wipe out everyone.
I took the key ring from the dead slave trader who had whipped me.
After freeing my handcuffs, I picked up a scimitar and prepared for the attack.
âMe, me too!â
âFree me too!â
The soldiers from the expedition shouted when they saw the key ring.
They were soldiers who had set out on the Demon World Expedition, so I could expect them to fight alongside me.
But they were all broken in some way.
ăLv. 1ă
ăLv. 2ă
As evidence, all the soldiersâ levels were between 1 and 2.
Their levels had dropped due to physical and mental damage.
But even so, their levels were too low. The expedition was worse than a militia?
Thud!
âMe, me first!â
âOuch! Get out of the way!â
I threw the key ring, and a fight broke out.
It means to figure it out on their own. I had no time to free them one by one.