Prisoners of VR

"Mu...hahaha!" The Elven King laughed maniacally as a strand of grass grew large enough to slingshot him far away until he disappeared from view. Following that, the strand of grass reverted in size, returning to normalcy.

"Was this his true character?" Rahu muttered as he stared at the Invoker Crystal in his hand. It was slightly warm to the touch and wafted out a scent of crushed grass. He brought it towards the Leaf Guard on his left and watched it fly into a socket on its own. A screen flashed immediately and displayed its qualities.

[Skill: Grass Stick]

[Quality: Basic]

[Grade: Inferior]

[Brainpower: 10]

[Willpower: 4]

[Empower: 1]

"How do I use this..." Rahu merely had a thought when the Invoker Crystal lit up on its own. He felt a mild sense of exhaustion while a strange urge to touch grass enveloped him, prompting him to kneel and place his hand on the ground.

The grass swirled and coiled into a thick stick, growing in size until it reached the length of a metre. The strands of grass feeding into the stick cut off on their own as the stick fell to the ground.

Rahu picked it up and observed it, tapping it on the ground to feel its sturdiness, "Feels weaker than a wooden branch."

"How...did you do it...bleh!" A girl ran towards him in wonder and intended to inquire when she fell to her knees and barfed everything in her stomach. She cleaned herself up, acting as if she wasn't the one that had puked moments before, and approached Rahu casually, "Can you teach me?"

Rahu stared at her, noticing that she was just a schoolgirl, asking after a moment of consideration as he covered his nose, "What are your stats?"

"I can show it to you," The girl said and manifested a screen that displayed her stats. A second later, the status screen became visible to third parties too, allowing Rahu to observe it.

[User: Pearl]

[Race: Elven]

[Affinity: 16.11%]

[Brainpower: 28]

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[Willpower: 8]

[Empower: 0.6]

'That's the status of a normal person.' He then pointed at the Stat of Empower, "Are you trying to create a Grass Stick?"

"Yeah," Pearl nodded, "That NPC gave everyone the same Skill. But none of us can activate it. Most of us have the necessary Brainpower and Willpower to do so. But, the problem is with..."

"Empower," Rahu nodded and asked, "Did the Elven King say anything regarding that?"

"Elven King?" Pearl tilted her head in confusion, "Who are you talking about?"

"That NPC..." Rahu frowned, "Wait, before that, what did the NPC say to you?"

"Well..." Pearl trailed off as she spoke with a snail's pace, "He's just a game NPC, nothing more, nothing less. When I arrived here, he gave me the Grass Stick Skill's Invoker Crystal and told me to train until I'm able to activate it. The Quest gave a deadline of seven days. But..."

She winced in worry, "I've already been at this for two days now and I still can't do it!"

'Right, time flows ten times faster here. So, this is already the third day in Worldcraft since its launch.' Rahu stared at the Quest details shared by Pearl, understanding the reason why everyone continued to puke.

[Beginner's Quest #1: Activate the Grass Stick]

[Quest Description: Brave User! The only way to succeed is to keep trying until you puke. Persevere, and you'll succeed!]

[Time Limit: 7 Worldcraft Days]

[Reward: Brainpower +2, Willpower +1 (Beginner's Quest #2 will be unlocked)]

[Failure: You'll lose qualifications to challenge the Beginner's Quest]

"The rewards..." Rahu was surprised at the fact that the developers attained the method to stimulate the brain's growth artificially. These Quests were geared in the favour of that.

"Stats as rewards are pretty normal, but it's just that trying out the Skill makes me feel as if my internal organs are getting wrung dry." Pearl complained, "And once my Brainpower reaches zero, I'm automatically logged out. I also felt a searing headache once I woke up in reality."

"Argh, I want to raise a complaint against the developers already!" Pearl cursed.

"Why haven't you complained then?" Rahu asked. Even though it was unlikely, he wished for people to protest Worldcraft, because all it did was stimulate the potential of the human brain to the extreme. It would result in endless problems for him and all DOVA Agents in the future. He didn't wish to become busier than he already was.

"Many did, but there has been no response from the other side." Pearl was sullen, "And, some users posted on the forum that once they succeeded in the Quest and woke up in reality, their minds felt clearer than usual."

"Because of that, there's only confusion among the users on whether or not to protest. On that note," She grabbed Rahu's hand, "Since you're able to activate the Skill, can you give me a tip?"

"If you wish to increase your Empower Stat, exert your dominance," Rahu said.

"Should I emote or something?" Pearl asked innocently.

"No, just repeat as the Quest stated. That's the only way to raise your Empower Stat. Just be more egoistical as you do so and you'll succeed soon enough." Rahu stated, 'Bringing it to one unit should be easy within the time limit. Anyone's brain is capable of that. But increasing it further will require an endless effort but net a minimal result.'

When the Empower Stat of a DOVA Agent trainee reaches 10, they would take up an official position. 3000 Brainpower, 100 Willpower, and 10 Empower; that was the threshold necessary for one to become a DOVA Agent.

And the majority of the trainees were held back by their Empower Stat. Even the fastest trainee spent a year raising the stat by a single unit.

"Eh? Is there no shortcut?" Pearl asked as she fluttered her eyelids, intending to appeal her beauty to Rahu in an effort to pry more information out of him.

"There isn't." Saying so, Rahu excused himself.

"Wait!" Pearl shouted in a hurry as she ran after him, "Add me as a friend. My Id is Pearl!"

[User 'Pearl' sent you a friend request]

[Accept] [Ignore]

Rahu craned strength into his legs and bolted out of sight. He of course ignored the request. Unlike others, he didn't come here to play but to investigate and become aware of all the troubling aspects.

During the short interaction with Pearl, he noticed that there were no restrictions imposed on him or her or for that matter, anyone else. It meant that everyone exercised full freedom here, just as in their Virtual Space.

On a positive outlook, it was a good thing as people could feel, explore, and live the expansive world of Worldcraft. But on a negative outlook, it meant that bullying, rape, and murder were also possible.

"This is pretty much another word," He was worried about this part, especially since there weren't any rules or government institutions here to maintain law and order. It was a free world without any existing setup.

Town, cities, people, culture, etc. none existed here. Larkrood Village was just a massive stretch of plains in the centre of a forest. There wasn't a single building in sight.

As for the NPCs, Elven King was the sole individual. Moreover, his only task seemed to be in giving users their first Skill, nothing else.

This implied that the users could carve a world of their own here. Village, Town, City, anything they thought of was possible, with the rules derived from the founder's imagination.

As he ran through the grassland, Rahu observed the expressions of the people. Most were busy training their Skill. Expressed on their face was one of excitement. But some existed among the masses, already displaying suspicious traits.

Thankfully, excitement was the emotion expressed by the majority. After all, the Skill of Grass Stick was the first genuine game element they experienced in Virtual Reality. Of course, there existed Virtual Reality Games before Worldcraft. But they were all a mimicry of the real world.

Football, Cricket, Badminton, etc. The games were just played in Virtual Reality. There were game companies that intended to release first-person shooter games, but Pomegranate Corporation denied them a public release.

First-person shooter games were strictly restricted to the military. Beyond that, for the general public, there were racing games, deep sea exploration, and the likes, all of which could be done in reality.

Virtual Reality only proposed a cheap alternative to reality.

But now, for the first time, a proper Skill was introduced, giving a game-like feel. Even though it was merely the creation of a Grass Stick, the gamer hearts of the users became hyped. After all, they could easily guess based on the existing clues that thousands of Skills existed, with way more complexity and creativity than Grass Stick.

They were like Pokemon, waiting to be collected.

"I...succeeded!" A user roared in joy as he clenched a Grass Stick and flailed it around. Though, a couple of seconds later, the Grass Stick crumbled into hundreds of loose grass strands. The user fainted and was logged out.

"What happened here?" Rahu noticed the strange occurrence and approached the location where the user logged out from. He observed the ground to see the patch of grass there was missing. It was what had been extracted to create a Grass Stick.

Rahu looked around, noticing plenty of barren patches. He then focused on the strand of loose grass that dropped when the user's Grass Stick crumbled. He picked up a strand and noticed it being compressed into a thin string, resembling hair.

"What the...?" He stared in wonder as the hair-thin strand of grass gradually expanded until it resembled a normal blade of grass.

Rahu held his Grass Stick and observed it, failing to notice any signs of it collapsing anytime soon. He then pulled up his stats and observed a minute difference.

[Brainpower: 4869/4879]

[Willpower: 136/141]

[Empower: 16]

"Wait a second..." Ten brainpower was consumed as the Skill of Grass Stick necessitated. But there was an error in his Willpower in that five units were consumed. Grass Stick only consumed four Willpower.

It meant that Willpower was a constantly depleting resource as long as a Skill was active. Rahu sat on the ground and stared at the Grass Stick for a couple more hours, understanding when one more unit of Willpower was consumed.

[Willpower: 135/141]

Rahu stared at his Leaf Guard, focusing on the Invoker Crystal of Grass Stick to observe that it continued to faintly glow. He willed for it to deactivate, succeeding after a couple of minutes of effort.

The moment the Invoker Crystal got deactivated, the Grass Stick in his hand crumbled into loose strands of grass. A few seconds later, the compressed grass strands relaxed into their original forms.

Staring at the small pile of grass before him, Rahu gained an inkling about the power mechanic installed in Worldcraft, "I see, so that's why it has been named as such."

"World...Craft."