I had already done my research, going into the game. I hated to be unprepared, and while it ruined the fun of discovering builds for some people, to me it gave me a clear goal and journey to take. My plan was to create a mainly-unarmed character, with a sword to fall back on if things went wrong. I had seen a lot of people complaining that swords were the only weapon they saw and that it was so overplayed, but they were popular for a reason: they were easy to wield and killed quickly.
While I hadn't taken too deep of a look at things other than builds for Pelnorah Online, I knew that this game was "questless." How much that was true, I didn't know, but that was an impressive claim nonetheless. To create a game that depends entirely on player interaction, and without help from AI, was an unimaginable feat. But last I checked, there were over three million players online, so at the very least, they succeeded. 
Kicking myself out of my thoughts, I put the headset on and booted it up, laying back in my chair. The intro, as well as checks to make sure everything was setup correctly, sounded off. At the end of it, it played an interesting music flourish and then I was zoomed into darkness. A light slowly appeared in front of me, and there was a distinct shift in the atmosphere and how my body felt; a telling sign that I was now in the game. 
Another zoom and I was suddenly standing on top of a rock outcropping, sparse grass and a tree surrounding me. In front of me lay the Pelnorah menu, and behind that lay a large medieval-inspired town with a large tower in the middle. It was situated on top of a flattened area of the mountain, almost tailor-made for it, and it had a great vantage point to look out at the sprawling world that lay before me. I had a better vantage point up here, though.
Noticing the simple clothes I was wearing, I was surprised at how comfortable I was. Being this high up should have been cold, but maybe they didn't want to start out on a bad note. With how realistic the game simulated life, I was thankful for the easy start. 
I clicked the "Create Character" button, and the menu disappeared to the left, being replaced with a floating mirror-like object and a bunch of customization options to it's left. The pure amount of tweaking overwhelmed me, and I clicked on my savior: the "Simulate Body" button. After I clicked that, the starter character was replaced by a fairly accurate representation of me. 
I was never the tallest person in the room; in fact, I was usually the shortest. Standing at a sobering height of five feet and two inches, my baggy and unkempt blonde hair covered my blue eyes. I had a fairly average build: it was nothing to write home about, but I could at least hold my own against similarly-average people. At least, I thought I could. I had never actually fought anyone before, and this was my first Real-VR experience, so whether I actually could remained to be seen. But physical strength was determined by a stat here, so it probably wouldn't be the same. 
Worried about my hair getting in the way, I clicked on it and went to the bald option. Before I pressed it, I hesitated. I already wasn't a pretty person, and without hair, I would look downright criminal. That was nothing to say of the size of my forehead. But, I reasoned, no hair would be better than being stabbed because I wasn't able to see an attack coming. Jumping to it, I pressed the button and quickly pressed "Finished," not wanting to know what the finished product was. 
The mirror and settings disappeared to the left, and a text box was brought up for my name. A keyboard appeared in front of me, and I typed my name for every game: Lasquatas. I couldn't explain the name if I tried; it was just some gibberish I thought of that stuck. Clicking "Ok", the name flew to the left as well, and I was greeted with the page I had been waiting for: the stat screen.
First up was attributes. There were four, which were Strength, Stamina, Speed, and Health. Pretty barren as far as RPGs were concerned, but unlike traditional video games, the missing attributes were fully dependent on the player as a person here. Technology wasn't magic and it couldn't make your smarter with a push of a button. 
From what I had read, attributes were the only things that didn't have a level cap; as they depended on the level and not skills, which did have one, they could theoretically keep going. Of course, past a certain point, it had to get extremely tedious and borderline torturous to advance your levels any further, so it could be said that there was a soft cap.
Each started at level one, and I was given 20 points to distribute into them. Seeing as I was going be playing an unarmed character, I needed Strength and Speed to be the highest. I could build Health and Stamina later. Putting ten points each into them, I moved on and scrolled down to skills.
Within it lied probably the biggest list of skills I had ever seen in a game. It bordered on redundant and unneeded, perhaps crossing into that point a few times. And the crazy thing was, these were just the base skills. Scrolling down the list, I was gobsmacked at the choices I had. Some made sense, but others sounded pointless: why would anyone need a skill for breathing?
Breathing out, I scrolled back up to the top and considered my options. In Pelnorah, a player had three skills that they could choose to be his main ones. The chosen skills would level up faster as a result and be placed at the top of the character sheet. Considering my choices, I settled on Thrust Strike, Horizontal Strike, and Jumping. The first two choices were no-brainers, and with Jumping, I could be a lot more versatile on the battlefield, which would help immensely when avoiding a lot of opponents. 
Once those were clicked, I pressed "Ok" and the screen disappeared to the left. The next one that came was the starting equipment. I chose a leather vest, a coat, and an iron shortsword as my starting gear, and then pressed "Ok." After that screen, it gave me a summary of my choices thus far and asked me to confirm. I did, and then that one disappeared and was replaced with a word box, telling me that I was going to be teleported in five seconds.
My excitement rising with each second, a smile came across my face as I waited with baited breath. The last second went, and I was suddenly surrounded by darkness again. After a few seconds, the first thing I felt was the weather change. It got noticably colder, with my jacket blocking most of it. The next thing to return was sound, and then soon after that, my view was flooded with light. I was then standing in a random inn, surrounded by people. Looking around wildly, I caught the sneers and laughs of a few people sitting down.
"Man, this shit never gets old! Look at his face," a burly man with blond hair sitting down in front of me bellowed, with his friends sounding their agreement. My cheeks burned up, and I quickly looked for an exit, finding it and leaving behind the laughing man. Bursting through the wooden door, I was greeted by a bustling street lined with people. The NPC's were clearly marked with indicators, so it was distinguish them from players. I pulled up my arm in a motion like I was looking at a watch, and a half-transparent menu appeared. 
I clicked on the map icon, and I was greeted with a fleshed-out map of the streets and shops of Alfrent, the starter city. From my position, the south gate, the one facing out towards the rest of the world, was a bit of a ways away. I was never good at estimating distance, and I never really walked anywhere, so I couldn't see how long it would take. But at this point, it didn't matter a whole lot, so I set off in that direction. For the amount of people in them, the streets were fairly narrow and the second floors of the buildings jutted out a bit, providing a fair amount of shade. After weaving through the buildings and streets, I came out the main road, which had the gate lying to the left of me a fair bit out. To my left, it looked like it continued forever, and I could only see people on it. Turning left, I started walking towards the gate. Within three minutes, I reached it.
The gate was monstrously big, only a little bit shorter than the wall. It towered way above me and cast shade for a little ways behind me. It was jam-packed with players and NPC guards watching the area, presumably keeping the peace. I braced myself and headed forward, breaking through the group and popping out the other side. That's when I was fully graced with the view I had only seen from afar.
In front of me lay an unbelievably picturesque panorama of the world, with almost perfect visibility. Rolling plains and forests laid out in front of me, with beaches and deserts lining the ocean that bordered it all. To my right off in the distance, there was a large lake with a river extending from it. That same river cut across the whole landscape and emptied out into the sea, which was glistening. Almost directly across the landscape from me was a huge city, sitting on the aforementioned river. Other small cities dotted the landscape, but that was the most prominent one. I dialed that away as a future destination after I got my skills up. 
Looking around, there were a few people with the same reaction as me, and I was glad I wasn't the only one. Not wanting to stick around for a repeat of the inn story, I ran out, or rather, down the path that led away from the city. It was a fairly steep climb, but on the way down, there were pockets of fairly flat land that held monsters ripe for the killing. This was where I was headed.
If I remembered correctly, you didn't unlock a merged skill until you reached the required level of the base skills it used, and actually using the weapon was a must. I had to get Horizontal and Vertical Strike up to Level 6, and then Thrust Strike up to Level 10 to unlock the Martial Arts skill, which would be my main skill for this character. 
It would take a while to level those skills with my fists alone, so I intended to use my sword to boost me up to that point. With that in mind, I headed down towards the first grinding grounds, which held slimes. They were a quintessential beginner monster in RPGs, so it made sense that they would be close to Alfrent. As I descended onto the grounds, I spotted some players ahead of me, dressed in the same way and with the same nooby gear as I had. Most of them were wielding swords, but a few were wielding spears and hammers, which mixed up the fighting scenery nicely. I spotted a slime that was alone, and joined in. 
Unsheathing my sword, it felt fairly light in my hands, which I attributed to my high starting Strength. Like most video-game slimes, the one that stood before me was blue and about knee height, with a core in the center where real damage would be done to it. At my approach, it turned it what was presumably it's front to face me, and started squirming in place. 
I readied my sword, fumbling with the best way to hold it, and settled with it out front like I had seen in many movies. The slime shot forward at a reasonable speed, and I barely sidestepped it, lifting my sword up and slashing down. It's bubbly body caught it just short of the core and held it in place before ejecting it out the same way. It did it's charge-up squirming and I jumped back, readying my blade again. 
Looks like thrust attacks are probably going to be the only effective one, I thought as I prepared to sidestep. It burst forward again, but this time I was ready, thrusting my blade into it after I had sidestepped. It went in cleanly, piercing the thigns heart and causing it to shake heavily. It then ejected my sword again, jumping at me in retaliation. With no telegraph, I was helpless and my left leg was absorbed in the slime. As soon as it entered, searing pain flaired through my leg and I screamed. I tried to shake it off, to no avail; this slime had a better grip than a bodybuilder. 
The pain was making me lose my focus, and I let out another yelp as I started to panic-stab it. I missed the first few times, the pain making my aim bad, but the fourth stab landed cleanly, causing it's core to implode. With a shudder, it quickly melted to liquid on the ground. It had dropped something too, but I couldn't focus on anything but the immense pain on my leg. I risked a look down to it, and immediately regretted. Most of the skin was melted off, like a patchwork Frankenstein project or something like that. I was almost as repulsed as I was in pain, but the second won out and I fell to the ground. 
Something hard tapped my head, and I looked up. A potion lay in front of my eyes, and behind it was a huge man, rippling muscles lining his body. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, and probably the most "American" face I had ever seen. It was as if he was tailor-made to be an ultra-masculine 80's movie star. He wore an iron breastplate and greaves.
"First time? Take this," he said with a neutral face. Embarrassed about having to be helped, I took the potion and immediately drank it. Suddenly, a numbness filled my leg and a green light surrounded it, slowly patching it up. I heaved a sigh of relief and nodded towards the man.
"Thank you," I said. He nodded and then spoke.
"Always be ready to move, because you never know when your opponent is going to attack. They telegraph most, but as you've just experienced, that isn't a hard rule," he said sternly, like he was admonishing me. My embarrassment got even higher and a flame of anger sprouted up. My leg was nearly burned off, and he's lecturing me. If he's so good, he should do it, I thought as I nodded to his words.
"Let me demonstrate," the man said, basically reading my mind, and set out towards the nearest slime. My leg fully healed, I stood up and watched him. He walked with confidence, setting into a fighting pose when he was within fighting distance of the slime. It turned to him as it had with me, and begun shaking. And then he shot forward, shooting his straight hand into the slime's core, instantly killing it. My jaw dropped at this showing, as he picked up the loot and walked back to me. 
"Giving it the chance to attack was your first mistake," he said matter-of-factly, with seemingly no mocking in it. While it pissed me off even further, I couldn't actually disagree with what he was saying, nor did I want to. So I just nodded and thanked him again. 
"Watch yourself out there," he said as he stalked off to another slime. I was a bit confused why someone that skilled was still hunting slimes, but it wasn't a pressing question and I moved on to the next slime with a bit of hesitation. Once I found my target, I shot forward like he did and attempted to stab it's core. It plunged into the slime, missing by a mere inch, and then the slime started to squirm. A cold chill ran up my spine, and I felt a primal urge to get the hell out of there.
Ripping my sword out, I jumped to the left, rolling onto the ground as the slime pounced, barely missing me. I scrambled to my feet, heart beating faster than it ever had before. That pain was not something I wanted to experience again, and I would have rather run away and abandon fighting slimes than go through that again. 
My hand started to shake, and I tried to steady it with my other one, holding the sword forward. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I focused back on the slime, who was busy turning back to look at me. Urging my legs to move, I tried the same thing again, plunging my blade into it before it could finish it's rotation. It hit the core, but not enough to kill it. My whole body turned cold as I realized what was coming next. 
I let go of my sword and threw myself to the right, feeling a slight burn on the back of my calf. Wincing, I breathed out a sigh of relief. I had avoided the worst, but had lost grip of my sword in return. The sword was in the side of the slime facing away from me and I would have to wait until it turned to try and pull it out. But I wasn't sure if it would even telegraph it's attack anymore, so it seemed risky. 
I bided my time, trying to distance myself as it turned. Once the blade was pointed my way, I tensed my legs in preparation to jump, if needed. It jumped without warning again, and I shot to the left, dodging it and reaching for my sword. By some stroke of luck, I was able to grab the handle and ripped the sword out with all of my might. I wasted no time, and shoved my sword into the core, striking a hit and killing it. As it melted on the ground, I breathed out a sigh of relief. Along with it came the full realization that it was going to be difficult to level up my skills. Regardless, I set my sights ahead and got to grinding.

Before I knew it, the sun had started to set, and both my body and mind were exhausted. I walked over and sat on a nearby rock, clear of any spawning slimes. While the grinding spot was still active, most had left to other things, and I was probably going to follow suit. I had made good progress on my Thrust Skill, bringing it up to Level 10 and then moving to work on the other ones. Horizontal Strike was going to be hard to level, but I had gotten my Vertical Strike up to Level 6. I debated whether to keep going since the sun was still out a bit. I eventually decided against it, as I would be mistake-bound with how exhausted I was, and I didn't want to go through getting my skin burned off again. I shivered as I thought that, and I quickly went to log out. 
When I pulled up my menu to click the logout, a message indicator popped up. Who would be messaging me, I wondered as I clicked on the mailbox icon. The menu expanded to a larger rectangle, and at the top of the message list was one from the system. I was about to dismiss it and close it out when I read the subject: "Your New Life and Questions." I clicked on it, a bit weirded out that a message like this was being sent from the system admins. I reasoned that it was either a troll or an intro message that was trying to stay in character with the world. I started to read.
"Welcome to Pelnorah. You'll notice that we've dropped the 'Online' moniker; we feel that at the current stage, we have outgrown it. Now, Pelnorah itself exists as a fully realized world, and changes are being made to complete that vision. One of these changes you may have noticed is that the logout button has been removed from the menu. Don't worry: this is functioning as intended. One of only two ways to exit this world now are your death; both you and your character's death, to be specific."
I stopped reading there. While I had to applaud the troll's effort, going so far as to hack the sysadmin's account, I had seen better. Closing it out, I went to the menu and swiped to the settings screen. But there wasn't a log-out button. A blank space stood where it usually was, with the other settings still aligned as if it was there. 
"Wow, this guy's dedicated! Who knew a troll could pull strings like this," I heard someone to my right chuckle and repeat my sentiment. Smirking a bit myself, I decided to head back up to Alfrent. This bug would be fixed, and I'd rather wait it out in the comfort of an inn room than out in the wilderness. I hopped off the rock and made my way back to town. 
In around ten minutes, I reached the gate, still packed with players. I was a bit surprised there were still this many players online. Pelnorah Online's day was equal to a day in real life, so I reasoned most players should have been going to bed now. As I worked my way through the crowd, I heard a lot of people talking about the missing logout button, and was impressed by the scope of this prank. 
Working my way past the crowd and into the city, I kept my eyes out for an inn sign. After a few minutes, I finally found an inn, stepping in to a busy tavern full of players having a good time. Going to the counter, I started talking to the NPC, who navigated me through the process of getting room. I gave her some of the coins I had earned from grinding slimes, and headed up the stairs and to the third room on the right. At my touch, the door automatically unlocked and I opened it, stepping in and closing it behind me. 
The room was fairly cozy for the price, with a fireplace sitting in the wall in front of me. A table with a flower pot on top of it lay to my left and a wooden bed lay to my right. From a glance, it didn't look like the most comfortable thing, but it's not like I was going to be sleeping on it. Luckily, a fire was already going in the place; I would not have been able to make one myself. Going to sit at the table, I looked out the window at the building across the way, with it's window holding a player doing much the same thing. When he noticed me, he waved, and I returned it, not wanting to be rude.
I killed time like this for an hour or so, waiting until they fixed the logout button. Eventually, I started to get so drowsy that I actually considered sleeping on the bed. It couldn't hurt to try, and if I actually fell asleep here then that could log me out. I had work tomorrow, and I was already up pretty late. Laying in the bed, I let myself drift off to sleep.

I woke up to sunlight streaming through my window, and pulled myself out of bed. I then realized that I was still in the inn room. My heart sank, and I started to panic. If it's day here, then I'm late to work! I thought and went to the log-out screen. I knew I had actually gone to sleep, so by all accounts, I should have been logged out. Swiping over, I saw that the button was still missing. How had a prank been allowed to go on this long? I couldn't wrap my head around it. After racking my brain, my focus went to the message from the sysadmins. For a second, I actually considered the legitimacy of that message.
Could that have actually been a serious move by the game makers? I couldn't imagine any scenario where they would actually consider doing this. Not only would it ruin the relationship with the players, but it would most likely tank their stock price too; Real-VR was already a touchy subject, and this wouldn't help it. Jumping up and walking to my door, I opened it and headed downstairs. This way, I could hear what other players were thinking. 
"This is crazy! I've got work today, I can't be stuck here," a voice came from the tavern, followed by more of the same. The tavern was a crowded mess as players typed into their arms, presumably sending messages to the sysadmins about this. The panic started to rise even further as I stood stock-still on the stairs. My mind was going in circles, wrapping around the same points and failing to see any logical reason why they would do this. 
I was roughly pushed out of the way as a tall swordsman moved past me, walking down to join his friends. Coming from the rooms, I assumed he had tried to sleep like me. Opening up the message again, I started to read the rest of it.
"While this game was questless, every player has been assigned a quest: beat the Indomitable Dungeon and be released from this world. To give an idea of the difficulty and avoid premature deaths, the first enemies are each level 100. Work together, live, and thrive in this new world. For some, it’ll be their last.”
Level 100 monsters as the first enemies? I thought, hardly believing it. But unfortunately, all signs were pointing to it. It didn’t make sense why they would do this, but they did. I had to come to terms with that fact, but I couldn’t face it. I slinked back up to my room and entered, moving to sit on the bed. For an hour straight, I tried to take the headet off forcefully and log out. Any action that could have done anything, I did. But there was no escape. I was stuck here. I broke down from the panic and started crying. I didn’t want to die here, I didn’t want to live here. I just wanted to go home.