Location: Forest of Village Uri,  South of Diptabhumi

 

A roar sliced through Eka's seemingly pleasant conversation. Note the sarcasm.

 

Eka found herself teetering on the edge of despair. The scene before her seemed to defy the laws of survival.

 

The lebrout descended upon the humans with the nonchalance of someone leisurely playing golf. A wooden baton swung, effortlessly detaching a human male's head, which then went on to strike another unsuspecting victim – a roaring female. The gruesome spectacle unfolded relentlessly, and Eka lost count after the twentieth decapitation.

 

The stranger stood beside her, whistling at every severed head that sailed through the air. "Oooh, Chaya's eye, that's a goal..."

 

"Mmmh...ngh."

 

"Huh?" The stranger shot Eka a sideways glance.

 

"Mmmnh...you—," Eka nearly spat at the stranger's masked face. Her anger seethed, unwavering even though he was her savior. "You...you...you..." she stammered.

 

"Hmm?" The stranger raised a curious, invisible eyebrow. "Seems you're at a loss for words. Don't worry. They're just puppets. This person and the assistant here are the only ones truly alive. These lifeless bodies house enchantments that grant them extraordinary abilities. See that one over there?" He pointed to a female expertly hurling shurikens at the gigantic lebrout. "She's a prototype, an attempt to make a dead body as lifelike as possible." The stranger whistled again as the female's head flew and landed at his feet. "That was a home run."

 

The stranger's assistant cleared his throat and continued where his boss had left off. "As the boss mentioned, this is our latest collection – our pride and joy. We've managed to replicate human anatomy down to the finest detail, even emotions. We're still not sure about the drawbacks, though. They were brought here for a field test, but it appears they won't survive this time."

 

The stranger clapped his assistant on the shoulder. "Ah, you're learning to speak like this person. Keep it up, and you'll become this person's partner in no time."

 

Eka couldn't contain her impatience any longer. "Mr. Whoever you are, as my savior, shouldn't your priority be to untie me first?"

 

The man gasped in mock horror and turned to his assistant. With equally feigned disbelief, he said, "Leonar, untie the fine lady's limbs. Didn't this person teach you to prioritize the care of victims? Your training seems to be slipping. We may need to double it when we return home."

 

Leonar, the assistant, simply rolled his eyes and retorted, "When do you ever teach things properly? The grand mentor oversees my training." He deftly untied Eka's hands and feet using a small dagger. She groaned as the blood rushed back into her limbs, and she tested her wrists and ankles for any injuries. Leonar handed her a glass vial filled with a purple potion.

 

Eka was sweating, wondering if this was the moment her life would end. She fell to her knees and pleaded for mercy.

 

The man chuckled. "Fear not. This is no poison. The potion is tinted purple to deter thieves. We've had our fair share of attempts to steal its formula."

 

Eka eyed Leonar cautiously before swallowing the elixir in one gulp. She closed her eyes, feeling the potion work its magic within her. The thick, bluish-black bands on her wrists and ankles vanished, and the small cuts on her back mended, dislodging the embedded pebbles.

 

As Eka rejoiced in her unexpected stroke of luck, the massive lebrout finished its macabre puppet show and began advancing rapidly toward the group. Eka calculated two more giant steps and a swing of its baton before it would reach them. She urgently shouted, "Watch out!"

 

The Saviour conjured a gun from thin air and aimed the charging lebrout. With a deep breath and a relaxed exhale, he fired a golden bullet into the center of the lebrout's forehead. The lebrout let out a deafening death cry before collapsing with a resounding thud that shook the ground.

 

Eka, still in shock from the dramatic rescue, finally managed to speak, "Wha—ah?"

 

"Speechless again, huh? Since you've saved this person's life, you've earned the right to know this person's name. This person is Jakal— are you even listening?"

 

Eka found herself mesmerized by the gun twirling in Jakal's index finger. Memories that shouldn't exist flooded her mind, memories of a life she never thought she had lived, and the gun, an item from a world she shouldn't know.

 

[Hello, NPC Eka Modou. It's always a pleasure to discover NPCs like yourself becoming aware of the hidden world.]

 

"Me, an NPC?"

 

[Yes.]

 

"Stop this, system. I chose my character as the daughter of the late Moha Modou. I should be a player." It didn't take long for Eka to revert to her true self.

 

[Eka Modou, the daughter of the late Moha Modou, has been listed as an NPC. There's no historical record of a player in the Modou family since its inception.]

 

Eka's thoughts raced. "If I'm not a player, I should be able to log into my administrator account." She commanded the system, "Log into my account. Name, Eternity."

 

[I apologize. The rights to the administrator account have been temporarily restrained.]

 

Eka, who had been composed until that moment, felt a surge of panic as she read the message. "No. No. No. This can't be happening. Gods know how long I've dedicated to this game."

 

With twenty-six in-game years, she had invested twenty-two real hours, an unusually long time for a beta test.

 

As she muttered to herself, a voice interrupted her thoughts. "Hello, lady. It's rude to stop listening to someone who has graciously taken a break from their work to lecture you about the inner workings of the item you've been staring at for the last five minutes," Jakal said.

 

Eka inquired, "What did you say this item's name was?"

 

Jakal, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, confidently replied, "This…" He twirled the gun once more before carefully palming it as if it were a precious prize, "is a legendary item—a gun. I acquired it at an auction in The Amera Isles for forty thousand ameris. Quite a fine creation, wouldn't you agree?" He proceeded to kiss the shiny metal for emphasis.

 

Eka couldn't help but agree. Her dedication had paid off in the form of this masterpiece. To get the nitty-gritty details of a gun when a player decided to dismantle it was one of the game's unique features. You could dissect an item to its core layers and watch it in exquisite detail.

 

In a world that was supposed to be a serene medieval realm, where bullock carts were the commoners' mode of transportation, everything took a chaotic turn with the arrival of an unexpected element – a gun. Eka, feeling the onset of an intense headache, realized she had lost access to her own account within this virtual world. She couldn't even borrow Jakal's account since he couldn't log out.

 

"Jakal, if that's your name, are you a player in this game?" Eka questioned urgently.

 

Jakal simply nodded.

 

Eka continued, her frustration evident, "This game is still in its development stages. You should get out. The world isn't complete yet, and I don't want bad reviews from players once you decide to share your experience."

 

Jakal hesitated but finally replied, "But..."

 

Eka cut him off firmly, "I need to reduce the difficulty level for the players. It's too intense. I nearly panicked when facing those lebrouts. Weren't they meant to be disorganized, like goblins but with milder qualities?"

 

"Ma'am," Jakal began, "This person knows you're an NPC, and you're likely the most advanced character this person has encountered in this game. But this game is highly acclaimed in the market. Nonetheless, that's not what matters. What's crucial is why you're telling this person this."

 

Eka was exasperated. She couldn't let herself be sidelined just because she had chosen the wrong character. Then, an idea sprang to her mind.

 

"Jakal, my purpose is to assist the game's administrator by gathering feedback and information from players for future updates."

 

Jakal's eyes widened in realization, and he let out a chuckle, "Clever move, creating an AI as an NPC to collect data. So, what should this person do?"

 

Eka's heart soared with hope. She had been losing it with each passing moment in this virtual world. She took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully, "Jakal, log out, and seek out a person named Mohira Karmakar. She's the game's developer. When you find her and report this, she should reward you generously for completing this mission."

 

As she finished her sentence, a sudden notification sound rang out. Jakal read it aloud with wide eyes, "Congratulations, Player Jakal, for finding the hidden Awoken within the first try. As a reward, your Legendary Item has been upgraded to stage two."

 

Eka couldn't believe it. This wasn't supposed to happen. Was life as an NPC always this constricting?