The Unbearable Weight of Reality

As my shoulders trembled, Azrael quietly placed a hand on them. Lacking the strength to move, I simply lifted my gaze to meet his. Without a word, he pulled out a magical artifact and used it to remove the blood staining my body.

As the bloodstains that had spread to my fingertips and dried vanished, I wondered for a moment if what had just happened was even real.

But in the place I didn’t dare look, a corpse certainly existed. Without realizing it, I gripped Azrael’s arm tightly. No, I couldn’t grip it tightly. A chilling fear swirled in my brain that if I applied even a little pressure, Azrael might crumble like tofu as well.

Even though I knew there was nothing left to come up, I retched again. The entire world turned pure white, regained its color, and then turned blurry in a repeating cycle.

However, I was not forced to log out.

Clutching my head in a state of terrible exhaustion, I desperately wished for a forced logout. I wanted to realize, as quickly as possible, that this world was merely virtual and entirely separate from reality.

Cruelly, however, the logout did not trigger.

My body swayed, and my vision went dark.

When I opened my eyes, it was already the middle of the night. Looking around, I found myself lying on a bed somewhere.

“Haaa…”

As I let out a heavy breath, something moved in the darkness. As he lifted his head, blue eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Eyes of a familiar color looked at me clearly.

It was Azrael.

He brushed back my sweat-soaked hair and wiped the cold sweat from my face with a cold, damp cloth. His movements were quite practiced.

As a prince and a commander, had he cared for those around him often? Or was it for his fiancé, whose identity has never been officially revealed? Useless delusions cluttered my mind.

I forced my mouth open with difficulty.

“What happened to the body?”

“Naturally, it seems his crystal was located elsewhere. After about fifteen minutes, it vanished like smoke, leaving only a mark behind. By now, he has likely obtained a new body near his crystal.”

In that voice, there was no reproach toward me for brutally killing a person. A new body. Resurrection. At that answer, I felt a little more certain that this was not reality.

“…Right. In this place, as long as one’s crystal isn’t destroyed, they can resurrect as many times as they want.”

Azrael, who had been readjusting the blanket over me, paused in his movements.

“Is resurrection not possible in your world?”

“It wasn’t possible. Only players like me could resurrect.”

“If that is the case, it seems there would be countless people dying every day.”

I opened my mouth to respond to Azrael’s words, then closed it. The emotions rising within me were so strong that I had to take a moment to suppress them.

“There were no people dying there. Only those who reached the end of their lifespan left the world.”

Even though I had composed my emotions once, my voice trembled uncontrollably. Azrael seemed more surprised by the state of my voice than the content of my words.

He asked cautiously.

“Andrealphus, by any chance… is this the first time you have used magic against a person?”

The moment I heard those words, the world blurred, and tears streamed down my cheeks. I hurriedly covered my face. I hadn’t intended to cry, but as the tears came, I felt like a child.

A game is just a game; there’s no need to be this over-invested.

I was an adult old enough to clearly distinguish between games and reality. I was ashamed of myself for being so shocked by a game that even high schoolers enjoy without much trauma.

“It’s not the first time I’ve used magic against a person…”

The words I muttered defensively sounded unreliable even to me. But they were true. I had used magic against a person before. However, it was always a lighthearted prank where both parties knew it was a joke; the magic was extremely weak, and because it was used against a person, it didn’t actually deal any damage.

Azrael silently sat me up and hugged me, patting my back. Like a commander who had stood at the front of countless battlefields comforting a soldier standing on one for the first time.

Moving Forward

Once I confirmed that even a forced logout wasn’t happening, I gave up on obsessing over logging out. This was clearly a situation that couldn’t occur through game bugs alone. Forced logout is a feature where the VR device forcibly cuts the connection when a shock is applied to a person, executed compulsorily for human safety regardless of the game.

The fact that it wasn’t triggering implied a few possibilities.

First, the game bug was so severe that even the device’s ability to recognize my mental and physical state was malfunctioning.

Second, my body and mind had been separated.

Third, I had already died.

It felt like I was only assuming the most serious scenarios, but I couldn’t help it. There was no point in assuming what had happened to reality anymore. This was especially true now that even the in-game inquiry window wouldn’t open.

Our group had passed through several villages, but we hadn’t met a single user. I should have noticed the discomfort sooner, but stupidly, I had mistaken it for the fact that I was only traveling through outlying areas.

That couldn’t be right. Areas with strong monsters are dangerous zones for NPCs, but conversely, they are places where users inevitably flock for experience points.

In the midst of all these ominous assumptions, my only consolations were that my character was strong enough to be perceived as non-human in this game world and that my favorite character was here in this game that didn’t suit my tastes at all.

Objectively, except for the fact that my favorite character is quite busy and I’m a coward who suffers trauma for months even if I kill an NPC, this is heaven.

I had countless items and game currency obtained through thousands of item traders, there was no particular danger of dying, and my favorite character was by my side taking good care of me. If this situation is a bug, I’ll surely be able to log out someday, so I just need to hold on until then.

Making such dull assumptions, I wiped my face with my hands.

After roughly organizing my thoughts, I first changed my class to a Healer and treated the knights. This annoyingly realistic game hadn’t restored the NPCs’ health even though several hours had passed since the battle ended. Once I filled the health bars that were grating on my eyes, my irritation toward this game subsided just a little.

The knights wore faces that seemed to be a mix of caution, fear, and questioning.

Azrael was the only one not looking at me like that. Was it because he had seen my skills before? I thought as I straightened my clothes. If Azrael hadn’t joined me in a monster raid during the collaboration quest, would he have looked at me with those same eyes? Looking at the health and mana stats of the people here, such a reaction isn’t surprising.

Though the situation as a whole caused me stress, I decided to start with the highest priority among the things I could do now.

“As you all know, I came from another world.”

I continued, ignoring the looks that seemed to ask why I was saying something so obvious.

“If you have anything you’re curious about regarding me, ask everything. I’ll answer you.”

“What…?”

“And in return, you all answer what I’m curious about.”

Information gathering. That was the first thing I had to hurry with in order to do anything now.

“…….”

The knights fell silent with uncomfortable faces. What’s the problem this time? I frowned and rested my chin on my hand, looking around at everyone. The person with a face that looked like an answer might come out was…

“Sir John, is there something you want to say? Speak up.”

When I gestured with my chin, the young knight was startled and took a step back instinctively. Did he think I was going to eat him?

“That… regardless of what His Highness thinks, we are knights of a nation and cannot leak information to just anyone.”

“Ah… is that the problem?”

I don’t need that kind of information. From a knight’s perspective, it was a valid concern. I swept back my bangs that had fallen irritably and answered.

“I’m not even hoping for that level of information right now. What I want is just something ordinary… like information about why these assassins appeared before my eyes, or information about this world.”

“Hmm.”

Saul, the older knight, let out a sound that seemed like a mix of agreement and disagreement. Levi, another elderly knight standing next to him, opened his mouth to speak.

“If you agree to the condition that we will only answer matters that do not pertain to classified information, we will answer your questions.”

“That’s enough for me.”

“Very well. Then I shall ask. What was your position in your world?”

“That’s broad. Are you asking about my social status?”

“By my humble judgment, you appear to be someone who has surpassed the realm of humanity. I am asking what position you held in your world, including that aspect.”

I tilted my head.

“I’m sorry, but your judgment is wrong. It’s a bit much to say it myself… but while I’m quite outstanding, I haven’t surpassed the realm of humanity. If we’re talking purely about skill, I wouldn’t even make it into the top twenty in the whole world.”