After finishing his character creation, Elian, well now officially Hades, was given a rundown of things he needed to keep in mind.
Unlike most games where NPCs follow preset dialogue, Origin's NPCs were all powered by advanced AI. Talking to them wasn't much different from talking to real people. And with that realism came strict rules, one of the biggest being that players were absolutely forbidden from telling NPCs that they were, in fact, NPCs. Doing so would lead to severe punishment, possibly even a permanent ban from the game.
And it wasn't just an idle threat. The game pods had full biometric data from iris scans, fingerprints, body details, everything. It was all part of the terms players agreed to before logging in. So no, you couldn't just make a new account and start fresh. If you got banned, that was it. Game over.
Other than those rules, living in Origin wasn't all that different from the real world.
"I'll be sending you off then. Good luck, Hades!" Mia said with a smile.
Without another word, the world around him faded.
Everything turned pitch black.
[Synchronizing...]
[10%]
[35%]
[80%]
[Anomaly Detected...]
[Recalibrating...]
Time felt meaningless in that void. Elian had no idea whether seconds or hours passed. So he closed his eyes and waited.
[Adjustment in Progress...]
Unseen to him, a warning started flashing in red on the panel,
[Energy of Decay and Death Detected!!!]
The interface glitched violently, as though something was actively suppressing the signal. The alert kept pulsing for a few tense moments then, just as suddenly, everything returned to normal.
A few seconds passed. He suddenly felt movement around him, finally he opened his eyes. But what greeted him wasn't a bustling city or signs of life. He was in a forest. A dark forest.
The air was heavy, the ground soft beneath his feet. It was eerily quiet, with the only sound coming from the occasional caw of black birds, maybe crows or ravens, perched on the leafless wrinkled trees. The trunks looked old and dry, as if they'd been standing there for centuries.
Overhead, the sky was cloaked in a dull gray, thick with clouds. Flashes of lightning occasionally lit up the forest in sudden bursts of cold light.
[Welcome to the World of Origin]
[May the Gods be in your favor!]
A panel blinked into view, offering the standard greeting with a bit of luck for the road ahead.
Elian... no, Hades now, wasn't shaken by the gloomy setting. After all, this was just a game... right?
The first thing he did was call out, "Status." Surprisingly, it didn't pull up a full sheet of stats like most games would. Instead, it just gave him the basics:
[Hades]
[Level: 1]
[Class: None]
[Race: Human]
[Talent: None]
That was it. Hmmm, just the basics. Apparently, once you learned skills or spells, they'd show up here too. The panel also had a few other functions, like Forums, where you could chat or interact with other players, a Global Chat, and a Friends tab… if you actually had any friends to add, that is.
There was also an Inventory, which could store up to 10 types of items, with a max of 64 units per item. And of course, the Settings tab. That's where you could log out, tweak the sensitivity to reduce pain, or adjust the graphics, like toning down how realistic things looked, if they got too intense.
After checking his status, Hades took a good look around. For the first time in years, he could move freely, and naturally, he did what anyone stuck in bed for quite a while would do.
He touched some grass...
Well, what little there was. Sparse patches of dull, almost gray blades poked out from the cracked earth.
"Hmmm… it's a bit cold. I must be in a highland… or a desert? Or maybe both. A highland desert?" he muttered to himself, squinting at the sky.
His eyes drifted to the dark birds perched overhead. "Those look like crows… or maybe ravens. I think crows have the higher-pitched call? Or was it the other way around? Not like I'm an animal expert."
He let out a soft chuckle.
"It's been so long since I could speak properly. Just talking to myself like this… it's actually kind of fun. Though if someone saw me now, they'd probably think I've got a few screws loose."
"So… normally, the first thing to do is level up," Hades muttered to himself. "But they didn't exactly mention how. Should I just… kill something?" He scratched his head. "Well, anyway, if I run into a monster, I'll give it a shot. For now..." He paused and took a deep breath. "let me appreciate the environment first."
With that, he crouched down and began observing everything around him in detail, the jagged stones embedded in the soil, tiny holes burrowed in the ground that looked like something lived in them, strange root-like tubers with cracked, dry skins, and the dark bark of the ancient trees looming above. Every texture, every scent, every subtle detail fascinated him.
Then...
Tada!
A panel popped up in front of him with a soft chime.
[Skill Learned due to recent actions: Inspect (Lv. 1) – Analyze any material, skill, or creature.]
Hades blinked.
"Well… that was easy."
"What?" Hades looked at the floating panel. He knew players could learn skills based on their actions, but he hadn't expected it to be THAT easy. Curious, he knelt down, picked up a small, dull pebble from the ground, and activated the skill for the first time.
[Rock: A small piece of rock]
He stared at the message for a solid three seconds. "I don't know what I was even expecting." With an exaggerated sigh, he stood and, with a dramatic flick of his arm, launched the rock into the distance like it had just insulted him.
With some protagonist-level luck, the rock flew through the air, cutting through the wind.
*Pffft.*Insert dramatic sound effect of a stone flying in slow motion.
It smacked into a massive tree, one of the few standing tall in the area. Unbeknownst to Hades, the rock hit just the right spot to stir up trouble. Nestled high up in the branches was a huge hive, and the sudden impact startled its residents. A low buzzing sound started from within, slowly growing louder, like a massive beast waking up.
Then, without warning, a swarm of hornets came pouring out. They hovered for a second, as if searching, and then locked onto their target.
Hearing the buzzing behind him, Hades turned around, only to see a massive swarm of hornets headed straight for him. Without a second thought, he turned on his heels and bolted.
"Ahhh shit! Ohh god, I'm sorry! It wasn't personal! Stop chasing me!" he yelled, sprinting for his life.
While running, in a moment of panic-fueled curiosity, he looked at one of the hornets and used [Inspect].
[Venomous Hornet (Lvl ???)]
"...Great."
It didn't show him any stats, skills, or anything useful, but honestly, it didn't need to. Just from the name alone, he knew the venom wasn't something a level 1 player like him could deal with. So he kept running. Running. And running. The hornets were slowly gaining on him.
But then, out of nowhere, they started dropping. One by one, straight to the ground. Lifeless.
Alarmed, Hades came to a quick stop. "What the... Is there some kind of miasma or poison in the air?" he muttered, quickly covering his mouth and nose with his tunic. His eyes darted around the area, suddenly on high alert.
Without realizing it, his surroundings had already changed. He had run quite a distance from where he started, and it definitely wasn't a casual jog. That was a full-on sprint for his life. The last thing he wanted was to get stung to death on day one.
The trees were gone now, replaced by a more open, eerie terrain. The sky looked even darker than before, and the temperature had noticeably dropped, probably by a couple of degrees Celsius. "Huh… I wonder how people would react if they knew I use Celsius instead of Fahrenheit," he muttered, panting from the run.
Grass was barely present now, and the ground had turned dry and cracked. Scattered all around were bones that looked like they'd been there for ages, bleached and brittle. Rusted, broken weapons lay among them, hinting at what looked like an old, forgotten battlefield. The cawing of birds from earlier had faded, replaced by the sharp whistling of the wind, eerily similar to ghostly wails.
Hades wasn't exactly a coward, but even he felt a chill creep up his spine. He didn't bother checking how the hornets died. All he knew was they dropped the moment they entered this area, and that was enough.
Still covering his mouth and nose with one hand, he crouched to inspect one of the remains. "Inspect," he muttered.
[Skull: ???]
Maybe because his Inspect skill was still just Level 1, it didn't even say what kind of skull it was. Just a generic label. Still curious, he picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched the bone, chaotic voices flooded his mind. Whispers filled with rage, pain, and an overwhelming thirst for vengeance. The sudden surge made him flinch, but before he could react, his vision went black.
The next thing he saw?
[You Died]