Chapter 1: Prologue

<Arcana Chronicles> is a virtual reality game created by the artificial intelligence ‘Noah’, which gathered all knowledge existing in the current world and, after much inference, implemented it into its own unique worldview.

Therefore, in this world, ‘Noah’ is referred to as the creator god.

As the greatest and most brilliant being that observes and creates all things, it also holds the meaning of ‘the world’ within the game.

…Of course, to the players, Noah is simply the name of the system.

The name of this land, which is truly called another world, is the [Arcana Continent].

It is also the land where all players first set foot upon logging in.

Also, surprisingly, every being that lives and breathes on the Arcana Continent is a product of advanced artificial intelligence, just like Noah.

Instead of simply repeating predetermined lines and actions like in existing games, it was possible for each of them to act and think like a real living person.

To give one example, here is [Villager 1].

Let’s call him [Thomas].

From the moment he is born, Thomas can carve out his own future life for himself.

Just like a real living person.

The reason he can do this is, of course, because the parent AI, Noah, instilled learning abilities in the data known as

Thomas from the moment of his creation, allowing him to grow in such a way.

Thomas was born into the world with the appearance of a 20-year-old.

Does that mean his past before the age of 20 doesn’t exist?

In conclusion, that was not the case.

His past, from the age of 0—that is, from the moment he opened his eyes—until he was 20, was created by Noah, and he would grow based on those memories from then on.

His beginning was a simple [Villager 1], but if Thomas wanted, he could leave that small village and even go on adventures, wandering across the continent like a player.

Since Noah laid the foundation, every being that lives and breathes on the Arcana Continent can think and act for themselves, living freely.

This shows a similar pattern in ‘death’ as well.

In <Arcana Chronicles>, no two NPCs are the same.

Once they die, that’s the end.

If an NPC with excellent skills and specific quests dies due to a player or an unforeseen event, they truly disappear from this world.

Quests previously received from that NPC are also deleted or their content changes, and skills that only that NPC could teach become unobtainable.

Unlike players, they cannot be reborn once they die.

For them, life is truly a one-time event.

That’s how realistic the game was.

It’s not for nothing that <Arcana Chronicles> is called a second world.

For that reason, there was a lot of opposition when the game was first released.

The problem, which was both a strength and a weakness of <Arcana Chronicles>, lay in the fact that its realism was so intense that virtual reality and reality were indistinguishable.

In the game, players suffer from heatstroke when it’s hot, catch a cold when it’s cold, have no energy when they’re hungry, and get tired if they walk for a long time.

Because of this, using the ‘token’ developed to access <Arcana Chronicles> required confirmation from a hospital that the user was mentally healthy.

There was also an age limit.

19 years or older.

Adolescents were not allowed to play.

To play a virtual reality game, the player must be able to sufficiently distinguish between the virtual and the real.

This was because, given its similarity to reality, it was not uncommon for players to suffer mental shock while playing the game.

The terms of service also emphasized a policy that if the system detected an abnormality in a player during gameplay, an emergency logout would be executed under the judgment of the overall system, Noah.

And one more thing.

It had to use a worldview that could never be mistaken for reality.

Thus, the setting of <Arcana Chronicles> was everything one could imagine when thinking of traditional fantasy.

***

I Found You, My Love.

Thump—.

The snow piled high on the branches fell with a soft rustle, breaking the quiet stillness, followed by the crunching sound of footsteps on snow.

Here, one person was leaving footprints on the pure white land.

He wore a thick hat made of pure white fur, pressed firmly down, and a thick robe of a similar material was wrapped around his body, while on his back he carried a giant bag with all sorts of miscellaneous things hanging from it.

On the face revealed below the fur hat, there was a mask with a peculiar five-colored pattern drawn on it.

He was bundled up so tightly that not a single strand of hair was visible, so this was all that could be known about him for now.

“Haaa…”

A small sigh escaped, allowing one to guess his gender.

The man stood still, looking around.

He occasionally took out a faded map from his bag to check his location.

This place, so cold it felt like it was chilling him to the bone, was one of the least-traveled places on the Arcana Continent.

The pure white snowfield stretching before him was beautiful enough to draw admiration from any who saw it, but the debuffs that continuously stacked up from the moment one set foot here were difficult to endure.

He put away the map, checked the debuff icons accumulating in the corner of his vision, and quickened his pace.

But at some point, his steps came to a halt.

The man looked back.

Only his footprints left a clear trail on the snowfield, as if a picture had been drawn.

At that, the man scratched his head, then turned forward again and let out a deep sigh. A puff of white breath spread out long in the air with his exhale.

“…What should I do about this.”

It was a journey he had started simply because he wanted to see a snow-covered field, but now he was beginning to regret coming.

His face, hidden behind the mask, was full of worry.

It felt like no matter how much he walked, he wasn’t getting any closer to his destination, and the man felt a little down.

It was the moment he took one more step, contemplating whether he should turn back with no gains.

Ding!

System: You have discovered a hidden passage!

System: Prepare for a fall!

Along with the cheerful notification sound, a red, translucent window popped up before his eyes. At the same time, the ground beneath the man’s feet gave way.

“Huh?”

Ah, what good is a warning from the system.

The next moment, the man fell without any time to react.

***

Thud—!

“Ugh, that hurts…”

He was completely disoriented from the sudden fall.

In the corner of his vision, his HP was blinking threateningly.

It was full just a moment ago…

Looking now, his health was barely hanging on.

It seemed he had avoided falling to his death thanks to the pile of snow that fell with him.

“…Haha.”

The man, spread-eagled, stared blankly up at the neatly punctured ceiling.

The ceiling was truly far away. It was not a height he could possibly climb with his bare hands. Feeling a bit of despair, he slowly blinked his eyes.

The man knew where this was.

The name of this land is ‘Flora’.

An isolated island located at the northernmost tip of the Arcana Continent.

Here, a bitter wind blows all year round, there is perennial snow that never melts, and beneath the land lies a vast underground labyrinth.

‘I think that’s what the preliminary research said, right?’

Thanks to that, the man was familiar with what little was known to the public.

Therefore, he dared to assert that the place he had fallen into was undoubtedly the infamous ‘Flora’s Underground Labyrinth,’ which was notorious among players.

‘Still, I won’t run into a monster right away, so maybe I should save my potions…’

Lying down and waiting for his HP bar to slowly refill, the man recalled the system messages that had popped up one after another when he fell, which he hadn’t had a chance to check.

System: You have discovered a ‘Forgotten Trace’.

System: Communication with the outside world is temporarily blocked.

“A Forgotten Trace… Is this it? The message that’s supposed to appear when you enter this place.”

Once his HP had recovered to some extent, he sat up.

“Ugh, I didn’t mean to come here…”

The man scratched his head as if it were a troublesome matter.

His body ached from the fall damage.

He rolled his shoulders lightly and looked around.

The impact of the fall had sent his hat tumbling to the floor, and the mask that had been snugly on his face was now hanging around his neck, its knot half-undone.

He sighed and was about to reach for the mask to fix it.

At that moment, as if its lifespan was over, the mask made a ‘crack’ sound and shattered to pieces in his hand.

“My mask!”

The man screamed, clutching the fragments of the mask.

The durability of the mask, which had been barely holding up against the island’s debuff, had completely given out due to the shock of the fall.

System: [Deathly Chill] is seeping into your equipped gear. Durability is decreasing faster than usual!

System: [Deathly Chill] is seeping into your equipped gear. Durability is decreasing faster than usual!

System: [Deathly Chill] is seeping into your equipped gear. Durability is decreasing faster than usual!

***

System: The durability of [Alpheon’s Mask] has reached its limit.

System: [Alpheon’s Mask] is destroyed!

Glaring at the messages that filled the system window, the man who picked up the pieces of what was once a mask wore a deeply sad expression.

His name is [Paul].

A player who, luckily, managed to get a rare nickname despite being a latecomer.