Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 4

Chapter 4: You Have Been Disconnected From Reality

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【Experience gained: 100 Exp】

The same experience gain prompt also appeared on Croft’s side, as team experience is shared, though team members need to inflict at least one hit on monsters. Regular monster drops belong to whoever lands the killing blow, while elite monster and BOSS drops are distributed through team discussion.

But Croft seemed mesmerized by Nolan’s fighting stance, his attention not on the experience prompt.

“Wow, Nolan, your moves are so cool! How did you do that?”

Croft sat on the ground, looking up at him with admiration. In his eyes, Nolan had seemed to float in mid-air, and he appeared to understand the stagger mechanics perfectly. His movements were like those of a true swordsman, not a beginner at all.

Nolan twirled the sword handle in his hand, drawing a few arcs of light in the air before sheathing it at his waist.

“With enough practice, you can do it too. This isn’t turn-based combat. After you attack, you don’t need to wait for the enemy’s turn. In fact, except for BOSS skills that can’t miss, any attack can be defended against, blocked, or dodged.”

“Skills and their combinations are entirely executed through the player’s own movements. For example, if you’ve learned swordsmanship in real life, you’ll definitely be in your element during combat in this game, creating your own style based on the system’s basic skills. If you have good motor reflexes, you’ll find dodging and similar maneuvers easier than others.”

“And regarding that wild boar earlier, purple cast bar skills can be interrupted by attacks, while red cast bar skills cannot be interrupted. If you don’t panic, charges are actually easy to avoid, just step aside and the system won’t register a hit.”

“I see! So it’s exactly like fighting in real life!?”

“Exactly, that’s the greatness of a fully immersive virtual reality game… it’s a complete other world.”

And the game world map is unimaginably vast. Just the first floor alone has the Pure White Holy City as the main city, with at least six satellite cities surrounding it, followed by towns and inns scattered throughout, connected by roads stretching in all directions.

Players can accept different quests in each town, gaining different rewards. Everything requires personal exploration.

During the one-month beta test period, players weren’t able to fully explore the first floor map, reportedly accessing only about 30% of the content. If there are ninety-nine more floors like this, it’s not an exaggeration to call it an entire world.

“A complete other world…” Croft unconsciously repeated his words.

Looking at Nolan’s especially bright eyes as he said this, that expression could only belong to someone who truly loved this game. These players would surely treat this virtual reality game as another life.

Sitting on the ground, Croft couldn’t help but smile and said, “You really love this game, don’t you?”

“Yes. That’s without question. I was looking forward to today’s public launch right up until the last moment, and I couldn’t resist logging in immediately after finishing work.” As Nolan spoke, he gradually lowered his face, looking at his palm.

After a long while, he looked up and continued:

“In the real world, my legs are disabled and I can no longer move freely. But in this world, I can have another body. At least here, I can stand again.”

Hearing this, a flash of surprise appeared in Croft’s eyes, then gradually faded.

So that’s it. Nolan had unfortunately suffered an accident in real life, making this world especially meaningful to him. It seems the advancement of technology and the times can truly help many people achieve what was previously unimaginable.

In this world full of fantasy, anything can be achieved, right?

Isn’t that the charm of a second-dimensional world of swords and magic? Everyone comes here for their own fantasies, seeking the adventure they’ve always dreamed of. And judging from the game’s current completion level, it’s clear this adventure will be very long and exciting.

Afterwards, Croft gradually began to adapt to the game’s combat system. Together with Nolan, they spent more time grinding monsters on the Wild Boar Plains, both reaching Lv.3. Time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and two hours had gone by.

“Alright! I need to log off now.” After just finishing another battle, Croft looked at the system time and said, “I’ll come back online after I finish some assignments from school! This game is really addictive; once you start playing, it’s hard to stop.”

Nolan paused while wiping monster blood from his blade, “Huh? So Croft is still a student?”

“Yeah, there’s still a lot to do at the end of the semester. Hehe, I accidentally made my character too tall in the game, and the viewpoint feels strange. I’ll fix it later and come back to play with you, probably around 10 PM?”

“Oh… okay.” Nolan nodded.

Indeed, character creation in the game allows complete freedom, but because it’s so realistic, Nolan had unconsciously associated Croft’s tall, muscular game character with reality.

The virtual world has always been like this, but this game has blurred the line between reality and virtual much more than others.

“By the way, I’ve already added you as a friend, right? Oh, the social system is quite rich — teams, mentorship, and even romantic relationships?”

Croft looked at his chat window with interest. Suddenly, he moved closer, putting his arm around Nolan’s shoulder and winked at him, “I have to say, Nolan, your character looks quite handsome. You might be quite popular later on, even with men.”

“I hope not.” Nolan didn’t have that kind of special interest.

“But Croft, you should be careful too. Blind online relationships in games can easily turn into scams. Someone who appears as a cute, petite girl in the game might actually be bigger than you in real life…”

Of course, there are also people who only want to keep relationships in the virtual world. 《Floating Island: Fragments of the Stars》 deepens this aspect, but ultimately it’s about fulfilling emotional needs as desired, with different meanings for different people.

“Hahaha… I-I know.” For some reason, Croft’s expression became unnaturally embarrassed after hearing these words, though it might have been imagination.

So, the two bid farewell to each other. Croft prepared to log off, while Nolan would stay in the game, as today was his free play time.

Indeed, when a newly made friend in the game logs off, one inevitably feels a bit disappointed. But the appeal of this game is strong enough that people will log back in as soon as they finish their real-life tasks. It’s safe to say they’ll both be spending a lot of time in the game for a while.

By evening, Nolan estimated he could reach level 10.

By then, he could take Croft to higher-level areas for more efficient leveling and equipment farming.

“Huh?” Suddenly, Croft, sitting on the grass behind him, made a puzzled sound. “Nolan, do you know how to exit this game? Why does it seem like… I can’t find it?”

“Hmm? No logout button? Could it be an Easter egg? After all, this is a tradition in virtual reality games.”

Nolan then opened his system interface as well.

But he also suddenly noticed that the original 【Game System】 text at the top had been replaced with 【Star Terminal】 at some point. It’s understandable that the game developers would want to enhance player immersion with these details, but… why now?

Although many players had joked about “not playing games with logout buttons” before the game’s launch.

But if this actually happened, perhaps not everyone would react as they had imagined. Or rather, no one would believe it at first. Nolan was the same.

Even on today’s game forums, there were people speculating whether there would be an event Easter egg where players couldn’t log out.

But when Nolan opened the system, he found that there really was no logout option. This absurd guess had actually been verified.

“Strange, there’s no notification in the activity list or announcements…”

“Hey, Nolan, look at this. What’s this popup?”

Indeed, if it were just this, it might not have caused such unease. But at that moment, a more alarming and confusing prompt appeared, flashing in red before all players simultaneously.

—【System Notification: You Have Been Disconnected From Reality】