Chapter 3 : Alas, Newdie’s world is full of heresy…

〔Death〕

“Ahhh!!! Damn it, seriously!”

Tuni’s scream echoed.

What appeared in front of her was a system message announcing her death.

-Please don’t swear

-Why not just quickly head to another village?

-This is the first time I’ve seen someone do the basic quest for three whole days

-Was Tuni always this scary?

-Return the innocent Tuni

“Ah, ah… Ah, seriously, how could you *not* curse at this…”

…While it wasn’t necessary to complete quests in the highly free world of New-D, Tuni, who had her head smashed twenty-four times over the past three days, was now doing the basic quest purely out of spite.

-If that’s the case… perhaps that too is love…

If it’s sniping, it’s seriously the worst

-That person’s famous in the New-D community. They smash the heads of any priest they see.

“Wait, really? Not sniping, but smashing heads just because they’re priests? …No, that’s even worse!”

-Seeing how diligently they’re smashing your head, maybe it’s not the case?

-In situations like this, just spam ‘ㄹㅇㅋㅋ’ (for real, lol)ㅋㅋ

ㄹㅇㅋㅋ

-Why don’t you just go somewhere else?

The chat was giving Tuni a headache just by looking at it, so she furrowed her brow slightly.

Although leaving for another village would solve everything… Tuni’s unnecessary pride wouldn’t let her run away. The problem was that she had no confidence in defeating this “Inquisitor” (self-proclaimed).

Clang, clang.

“…Ah.”

Then, how could she overcome this situation?

What could she do to avoid running away, while not getting killed by the self-proclaimed inquisitor?

As Tuni was racking her brain trying to figure it out, that sound started again—the heavy clanging of full plate armor, now engraved in her body, signaling death.

Running was impossible.

Despite wearing full armor, the difference in levels made the enemy much faster, so even if she tried to escape, she’d soon be caught and have her head smashed again.

In the end, Tuni decided to talk with the terrorist who had smashed her head twenty-four times.

〔The Inquisitor has requested a 1-on-1 conversation.〕

“…Huh?”

There wasn’t really any particular reason for it.

The opposing priest seemed like a newbie who hardly knew about the game. I thought there was still a chance for them to repent if they were that kind of opponent.

“Um… hello?”

As the woman’s voice softly echoed in my ears, I quietly tapped on the virtual keyboard.

When I responded affirmatively to her question, the opposing priest switched to chatting, seemingly to match my communication style. It wasn’t necessary, but she was accommodating, and she seemed like a kind person.

Why would someone like this become a heretic…?

[Tunieyeong: Could you tell me why you keep killing me whenever you see me?]

[Inquisitor of Heresy: Because you’re a heretic.]

[Tunieyeong: What?]

[Inquisitor of Heresy: Because you’re a heretic.]

Why is she asking such an obvious question? You could tell just from my nickname.

Well, thinking about the heretics I’ve encountered before, her reaction might be understandable.

Heretics always hated admitting they were heretics.

A small smile crept across the corner of my mouth as I typed my response, feeling something between amusement and a subtle annoyance at her naivety.

[Inquisitor of Heresy: Hello.]

“Oh, is voice chat uncomfortable for you?”

[Inquisitor of Heresy: Yes.]

[Tunieyeong: Then I’ll use chat too.]

When I agreed to her question, the priest also switched to chat, seemingly to match me.

It wasn’t necessary, but the fact that she was going out of her way to accommodate me made her seem like a pretty kind person.

Why would someone like this become a heretic…?

[Tunieyeong: Could you tell me why you keep killing me whenever you see me?]

[Tunieyeong: Is it because my character class is a priest?]

[Inquisitor of Heresy: Yes.]

It seems I wasn’t wrong after all.

The other priest player I encountered before refused to admit they were wrong until the very end.

[Tunieyeong: But isn’t killing someone just because they play as a priest in the game kind of bad etiquette?]

[Tunieyeong: Plus, there’s a specific inquisitor class for rooting out heresy. But you’re just a traveler, so maybe you’ve misunderstood your role a bit.]

Oh, so it wasn’t that after all.

She had already fallen prey to some deceitful influence. She was a heretic after all.

[Inquisitor of Heresy: Be quiet.]

[Tunieyeong: Huh?]

So I decided to directly tell her that she was a heretic.

Those with strong convictions won’t understand their wrongdoings if you beat around the bush.

You have to be honest and point out their mistakes directly if there’s even a slight chance they’ll understand.

[Tunieyeong: Is it because my character class is a priest?]

[Inquisitor of Heresy: Yes.]

It seems I wasn’t wrong after all.

The other priest player I encountered before refused to admit they were wrong until the very end.

Oh, so it wasn’t that after all.

This person had already fully succumbed to the lies of some falsehood, becoming a heretic.

[Inquisitor: Be quiet.]

[Tunieyong: Huh?]

I immediately ended the one-on-one conversation and swung my old friend, the Warhammer.

*Bang!*

Someday, this person will understand my goodwill…

If someone asked me why I started NewD (New Dimension), I wouldn’t have much to say.

Why did I start NewD? Honestly, there’s not much to say.

I was completely captivated by the scenery shown in NewD’s PV, and what more explanation do you need?

But just thinking about living expenses with this as my only reason made me add another one…

Hmm. As someone who’s always stuck indoors, I need to go out sometimes, so I decided NewD would be my method.

Isn’t the purpose of going out usually to see new sights you’ve never seen before?

If that’s the case, then just being able to travel this vast world already counts as going out.

Besides, since this is virtual reality, simply connecting to NewD gives me the effect of physically going outside in reality.

What a flawless logic.

In my past life. In the other world. And now.

I’ve always lived as an unhealthy shut-in, but now, I can take care of my health.

Yeah. If it’s for my health, I guess I can afford to spend this much.

Well, truthfully, this body is blessed by a goddess, so I’m always healthy even without doing anything… But let’s just say this also takes care of my mental health.

In other words, now I am invincible.

*(May this world be the one you’ve been dreaming of…)*

After character creation, I chose a starting village, and suddenly, there was a flash of light, and a new world spread out before me.

The vast plains and golden barley swaying in the refreshing breeze were a perfect representation of the idiom “the sky is high and the horses are fat.”

It was a place called Barley Town, marking the beginning of my fantasy life.

“What should I do first?”

As I pondered that, I looked around and saw an arrow hovering above my head.

Was it telling me to go in the direction the arrow was pointing?

For now, I just blindly walked in the direction the arrow pointed while looking around.

The golden landscape was truly beautiful, more than enough to captivate me once again with this world.

But… Why are there so few people here?

It wasn’t that there were no people at all.

There were NPCs managing the barley fields, and I could see a few other players scattered around.

But no matter how I thought about it, there seemed to be too few players.

Was it because the servers were divided by country?

But I heard that pre-registration in Korea alone had surpassed a million the last time I checked.

…I don’t know.

I’ll have to look up some info on forums or galleries later.

Anyway, I kept walking toward the arrow, and the place I arrived at was… an old man standing before me.

*[Talk to the village chief!]*

“…Huh?”

Oh, crap.

Talk? Me? To that old man… the village chief?

I’d rather they tell me to go hunt a dragon…

The company that made this game clearly doesn’t understand people’s feelings.

There may be people who find talking to others difficult. We should be considerate of that too.

What should I do about this?

“Sigh, really…”

…There’s no other way.

It’s not like that person is real anyway, just an NPC. There’s no need for me to be nervous.

Take a deep breath. Step by step, slowly. Yeah. I can do this.

“U-Um, excuse me, uh….”

[Ah, you’re the one who came to help this time!]

“Oh, yes….”

[It seems you’ll need to go to the field back there and harvest some barley.]

“Yes….”

All I could do after that was nod while muttering an agreement with my head down.

I can’t talk to people.

It’s not that I don’t want to, I just can’t.

It’s not because of my personality or some past life influence.

Well, maybe a little bit… but at least it’s not the main reason for my inability to communicate.

It’s all because of my job in the other world.

In that world, my job was an Inquisitioner.

In simple terms, I would track down heretics, capture them, and crack their heads open.

After that, I’d send them to a priest for recovery, and if they didn’t repent, I’d crack their heads again….

After doing that repeatedly, I started avoiding eye contact and became uncomfortable looking at others’ faces.

Even before that, other priests already avoided me because of my unusual hair color. So, as that habit grew, my chances of having conversations with others dwindled even more.

Eventually, I became someone who couldn’t make eye contact or hold conversations with people, resulting in the creation of a reclusive, hermit-like Inquisitioner.

Living like that for so long gave me bad habits too…

In the end, the only thing I became good at was cracking heads.

Even heretics whose heads I had cracked admitted that it was a clean break with no pain.

…But thinking about it like this, doesn’t that mean I shouldn’t even be on Earth?

It’s not that I particularly want to go back to the other world, though.

Anyway, what I mean is that I can’t talk to people, and that applies to NPCs in this virtual reality world too.

It turns out, virtual reality is just as real as actual reality…