[Complete Scan]
[Efren (Andi Lingga)]
Two transparent screen panels suddenly appeared in front of me. The system windows floated gracefully in the air, following wherever I looked.
"What is this?!"
When I tried to touch the edges, my fingers passed through the middle without resistance. Strangely, though, when I swiped my finger, the panels responded and moved along with the motion.
I could interact with them, but I couldn't touch them. How weird.
A moment later, the transparent screen panels simply vanished.
[Player memory fragment data found]
They were replaced by a new screen panel that appeared out of nowhere. After that, countless life-recording video screens appeared all at once.
*Plop!
*Plop! Plop!
*Plop! Plop! ....
One system pop after another echoed through the air. In an instant, dozens—even hundreds—of new video windows sprang up like soap bubbles bursting all at once. The panels expanded, piled over one another, and filled every corner of my field of vision.
"What?!"
There were so many... hundreds? No, no—thousands?
The screens played snippets from the lives of all kinds of people. From warriors swinging their weapons to natives busy with their daily routines. Each video represented one life in a world set in a fantasy medieval era—complete with robes, armor, and distinctive old-fashioned tools that were nowhere near as advanced as those of the modern age.
They didn't just show visual recordings. The right side of each video also displayed numerical statistics and the person's ability status. It was incredibly detailed—far too detailed for something that was only supposed to display these people's ability stats.
"Wait! Isn't this...?!"
Yes!
This was the life of a game!
The VRMMORPG Tales From Players!!
Tales From Players—TFP—the number-one life simulation and adventure VRMMORPG. The game that had consumed most of my youth.
The game that had once been part of nearly my entire life.
I recalled those days as I watched the various players' lives being displayed before me.
It was back when I was still in high school, when I first started playing Tales From Players. I became part of that game.
I wasn't one of the great players, but I knew the game fairly well—almost all of its ins and outs. It was the game that had given me the chance to earn an income and find a decent job.
You could probably say I wasn't exactly a socially useful person, since my entire life revolved around games.
But what did any of this have to do with these videos?
Could I have transmigrated into the world of Tales From Players?
I didn't remember any village massacre being part of the story presented by the developers.
"Was there an event like that?"
As I examined each video one by one, the question slipped from my mouth. It was an impulsive question, but the moment I said it, something miraculous happened: the videos floating in the air vanished one after another.
Until not a single video remained.
[No Data Source Found]
A single answer panel appeared in its place, floating in the air before my eyes.
"Oh, so this works like an AI system."
If so, where was I right now?
Was this the consciousness space of some advanced computer system, or a supernatural room with strange abilities?
I waited for a while, but no other answer appeared in the floating panel.
Did I have to ask the question out loud for it to work?
I waited patiently, hoping the answer would soon appear in the floating panel. No answer appeared.
So what functions did this place have?
Was it only capable of displaying videos of TFP players?
"Show me how to make potions."
*Plop!
*Plop! Plop!
*Plop! Plop! ....
The moment I gave the command, videos of various players brewing and crafting healing potions appeared one after another.
"Filter them! Remove recipes with a success rate below five stars!"
I gave another command and began testing my luck. Afterward, many of the displayed videos disappeared, leaving only fifteen.
In TFP, potions were divided into several tiers. One-star potions were the standard brews made by beginners, while five-star potions were the highest tier, producible only by an advanced Alchemist. Only those who had reached the Apothecary profession or higher were capable of brewing them.
It wasn't surprising that so few videos remained.
"Oh, these people... It's them. No wonder their videos are the ones left."
I recognized five of the fifteen figures displayed on the screens. They were famous players who had chosen the path of potion crafting as their full-time profession.
"Unfortunately, I've only ever interacted with one of them."
And even that had been because of a quest—one brief encounter.
The way I played was pretty pathetic.
Sigh...
"Delete the videos."
I gave the command again, and the videos on the screens vanished.
Was this the only function this room had?
There was no answer. Damn, I forgot—
"Is this all this place can do?"
[Sanctuary of Players, Displaying Player-POV Information Only]
"Oh, so that's the name of this place—the Sanctuary of Players. Pretty cool."
This place was like a consciousness archive—a gigantic library storing all the data and experiences of the players.
There were all kinds of sayings about how knowledge was power, or how whoever controlled information controlled the world.
A place like this...
In a world where death could come at any time, with no background or superpowers to rely on. All I had was the body of a village teenager who possessed nothing, and death was the end—unlike in a game, where you could come back to life.
Terrifying...
I had no choice but to move forward and keep going.
Now I had to think about how to live this new life.
How did this world work? Was it the same as TFP, or was it different?
The fact that the village massacre from earlier didn't exist in the game's official archives proved that there were differences.
"....Wait! If the story is different, doesn't that make all the knowledge from those videos useless?!"
Do you think I was panicking over something like this and being overly dramatic?
Of course I was!
This was a dangerous fantasy world!
It wasn't just the monsters. The humans and other races here had mindsets from the Dark Ages, completely different from those of modern people. Not to mention supernatural creatures and the existence of magic!
You could die suddenly without even knowing what killed you!
Or worse, you could be afflicted with an eternal curse and live miserably in torment for the rest of your life...
Just imagining it...
"Huh... I need to pull myself together. This place, these videos, and this world have to be connected somehow. It all has to be related."
Yes, there was no reason to despair yet. I'd only just begun this new life.
"Tell me where I am right now—the village, city, kingdom, or even world."
[Sanctuary of Players]
"Not this place. I mean my real body, the body outside this place. Tell me."
[You Are in the Sanctuary of Players]
"Fuck you!"
It was useless to expect anything from it.
Think carefully. Search based on the clues I had. I had to figure out the current location and date. At the very least, I needed to know where I was. Then I could plan my future objectives.
Monsters...
Right, what about the monsters? Creatures with pig-like bodies that stood on two legs, commonly called Orcs, and bald creatures with pale green skin called Bogarts.
You thought those green-skinned creatures were goblins?
Because that's how goblins were usually depicted in generic fantasy?
No. Goblins existed in TFP, but they were small, weak, and neither large nor tall—let alone capable of riding forest wolves.
There was no way a goblin could attack a village, much less carry out a massacre alongside Orcs.
Back to the main topic: monster traits differed from region to region. I could use that to find information.
"Show me what these monsters look like!"
*Plop!
*Plop! Plop!
*Plop! Plop! ....
"There! It worked!"
Yes!
That meant this place's information was useful!
If so, was the world I was in now the world of TFP?
Had I become an NPC?
Or was this some other multiverse?
A world based on TFP. I'd figure that out later. Right now, I had to find out where I was.
I examined and analyzed every video that appeared. I rewound and fast-forwarded them one by one, looking for any information related to the name of a village, city, or kingdom—or even the smallest piece of information I could get: the name of a continent.
TFP had seven continents. The world was so vast that there was no need to learn specific information about every continent. I didn't want to explore the world. As long as I could live a comfortable, easy life around wherever I settled, that would be enough.
"...Wait!"
Besides the monsters' distinctive traits, several people had also appeared in my flashback memories. There were three of them—yes, three. One of them had even tried to save me.
Their clothing was definitely characteristic of the place they came from. I was certain they were soldiers from the way they dressed. Hopefully, they were wearing knight uniforms; that would narrow things down further.
"Show me videos displaying the distinctive traits of those people who appeared earlier."
*Plop!
*Plop! Plop!
*Plop! Plop! ....
Yesss!!!!!
They appeared! I was an idiot for running around in circles just to find information about the location!!
Another danger...