Gnarled claws, caked with mud, swipe at your face as you deftly maneuver yourself out of their way. The beady black eyes of the giant brown bear focus on your own as the creature moves to stand upon its hind legs, releasing a guttural growl that rips through your eardrums. The thunderous sound amplifies your adrenaline rush, causing you to shiver with anticipation. As the bear lurches forward in an attempt to rip you apart, you utter a war cry and dodge, willing magical energy to burst forth from your palms in the form of luminescent blue, crackling electricity. 

“Take this, mangy beast!” you scream as you shove your palms in its direction, willing the volatile electric chains to propel towards the bear. You quickly dart backwards, feeling the electrostatic charge throughout the atmosphere as the bright chains of energy consume the bear violently. The beast emits an agonized wail as it plummets toward the ground. The residual static clinging to its still form subsides, as do the crackling sparks dancing across your palms.

You kneel beside the lifeless body and activate it to loot the spoils you earned. “I’m glad I at least got a pelt out of this,” you sigh with exhaustion. “And that I don’t actually have to skin this creature.”

There is no hesitation in your movements as you drop onto the ground and lie on your back beside the bear’s body. You turn your head to watch attentively as its form dissipates into scattered pixels. You stretch your hand toward the space the bear had occupied, feeling mystified despite having already seen it occur several times during your elemental skill training. You allow your extended arm to drop on the ground within the space and take a moment to scan the forest setting before you. You were lying in a small clearing, surrounded by thick, vibrant green trees. Sunlight seeps through the foliage, greeting the blades of grass while embracing the ground generously as a blanket of bright warmth. Near the coarse trunks of trees were many colorful patches of fungi sprouting from the ground. You listen carefully to the collective chirping of a flock of birds flying over the canopies of trees above you, eyes locking onto their graceful forms as they fly away from the clearing. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” you whisper in awe, as you absorb the sensory details surrounding you. 

When your best friend, Eun-hye, had suggested that you play a virtual reality game to relieve the stress of University life - and in her case, medical school - you had not anticipated how much of the game would truly resemble the “reality” part. Her uncle, a programmer for the ground-breaking MMORPG Animus Online, had offered to you both the chance to become beta-testers for the game and provided you with the virtual reality headset that made it possible for you to explore this new dimension. In return, you had promised to log onto the game as often as possible to experience the game while checking for any glitches and bugs that the programmers could have missed. As of now, the game had been available as Open-Beta for several months for players who were either willing to purchase the pricey brain-computer interface headset or lucky enough to receive one from a developer.

You had played massively multiplayer online role-playing games before, but the new technology required by Animus Online had been beyond the scope of your imagination until the memorable day you first connected to its server. The amount of detail, both sensory and aesthetic, had floored you during your first play-through. 

After setting up the complicated headset, which contained a series of strategically placed electrodes, your consciousness seemingly transcended to a new plane of existence. You had appeared in a blank, white world, helplessly formless as you stared at your own body. It felt strange and uncomfortable for you to feel so literally disembodied. Fortunately, the game system, incorporeal as well, appeared to assist you throughout the character customization process by providing you with a visual interface to navigate selections. Using your real body as a template, you gradually sculpted a new look for yourself. While the idea of looking entirely different appealed to you for a moment, you decided to abstain from making too many drastic changes. Your friend was expecting you, and you didn’t want her to have trouble finding you amongst a crowd. You also admitted to yourself that you weren’t willing to rob yourself of the little familiarity you had in this strange dimension. That however, did not stop you from giving yourself violet eyes just for the hell of it.

You explored the fantasy races available within the game thoroughly before making a decision about your own. Unfortunately, although there were many unique races, such as angel and demon races, many were locked. You could only assume there would eventually be special events available that could help you switch races. After some deliberation by reading each race description, you decided to become a part of the Elf race due to its increased mana, which would be most suitable for your desired character class as an Elementalist. 

After confirming your decisions with the game’s interface, you were immediately transported to another world, appearing before a quaint village. An icon appeared before you briefly, the name “Silvius” flashing for a moment before fading away. ‘Must be the town’s name,’ you reasoned. Simple wooden homes and stone buildings surrounded a cobblestone path ahead of you. You noticed a man in worn, simple attire pushing a wheelbarrow ahead of you. 

“Excuse me, sir!” you called to him, and walked towards him as he stopped pushing his cart to look at you. 

“How may I help?” he asked in a kind tone, smiling. You noticed his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. 

“Sorry to bother you. I was hoping you could tell me where the marketplace is in this town?” 

“The marketplace is just ahead, down this path. There are several shopkeepers. I’m sure they’ll have whatever you need,” he answered immediately, his vocal tone sounding slightly stiff. 

“Oh, thank you,” you said, bowing your head, a little taken aback by his curt reply despite his warm greeting. The man smiled blankly, uttering “good day” before returning to his wheelbarrow, casually making his way down the cobblestone path. You stared after him with curiosity. “Must be an NPC.”

Shrugging off the awkward encounter, you started traveling down the cobblestone path, passing by the man with the wheelbarrow. As you passed by the lumber homes, you marveled at the details in their designs. They all looked relatively the same, but the texture of the wooden planks of the porches and the doors caught your interest. As you examined the woven wattle of the house’s panels, you felt as if you had stepped out of a time machine and into the medieval era that was dramatized on television. A light breeze caressed you, making you pause in your tracks with shock. How in the world could somebody program a sensation? It was your first time using the Animus Online gear, but its advanced technology made the Oculus Rift seem like something from the Stone Age.You quickly became giddy with excitement and an overwhelming urge to explore every corner of this realistic virtual world struck you like a lightning bolt. 

You began to sprint down the rest of the cobblestone path. “I even get tired here,” you panted out as you ran, feeling the familiar sensations of the strenuous activity throughout your legs and chest. You passed by more people and began to hear more noise, a sure sign that you were headed in the appropriate direction. Once within the market square, you widened your eyes as your senses were overwhelmed by the sights and sounds before you. You took in the image of the bustling market, filled with beings of many different races engaging in their own activities. Their appearances varied widely, as many players had seemingly opted for radical hair colors and physical attributes. You noticed the characteristic pointed ears of the Elf races, the menacing sharp tusks of the dark-skinned Orcs, and even the delicately ornate wings of Faeries. 

“This can’t be possible,” you gasped, trembling with awe. How could you feel like you were actually in a real physical world, rather than currently lying on your bed? Realizing that you hadn’t felt your ears yet, you quickly reached to tug on the pointed helix of your right ear. “Oh my goodness!”

“What can’t be possible?” a smug voice responded from behind you. You whirled around in surprise to face the owner of the familiar voice. “Eunhye!”

“That’s my name. Although my friends here call me Destiny,” she winked. 

You examined your best friend’s appearance, noticing that her usual straight and long black hair now was chin length and wildly tousled with subtle dark blue streaks. Her eyes, normally brown, were instead a bright blue hue. Her ears were not angled like yours were, leading you to the assumption that she must have picked a human race. The iron plate armor she was wearing looked polished and new. In contrast, her legs were completely covered in rusty iron grieves matched with tough, but ornate leather boots. Before you could comment on her interesting choice of armor coordination, she spoke again.

“I’m a little disappointed about how easy it was to find you, [Y/N].” She examined you closely before continuing, “The purple eyes you chose almost threw me off. I see your hair is more tame-able in this place, though.” 

You pursed your lips in fake annoyance as you reached towards your loose curls, thinking about your actual unruly hair, which almost quite literally had a will of its own. No amount of mousse or hair product would be able to force it to do your bidding. You normally opted to just tie it up, rather than to bother struggling with it every day. At least here, it would probably never be less than flawless. Or would it? Before you can continue down that train of thought, Eunhye continues to talk.

“Even if you looked completely different, I would be able to find you anyway,” she claimed proudly. You raised your eyebrow, willing her to explain. “It’s simple. I knew I had to look for the person oozing with newbie-ness. Just look at you! You’re wearing peasant clothes and you stumbled into the marketplace looking as if you’ve never seen people before.”

You rolled your eyes at her lame gamer colloquialism. You knew your clothes were unremarkable and generic at the moment, so her teases were not really effective. “And you, Destiny? What kind of fashion statement are you trying to make here?” you bit back with good humor, smirking as you watched her pout.

“Look. I only started a day ago. This is the best stuff I could find so far,” she huffed, crossing her arms. “Which reminds me… we’re going to go dungeon crawling. We need to get you out of these frumpy clothes... and I need a better armor set. And since we’re both broke at the moment, we’ll earn our items the old-fashioned way.”

“Well, what are we waiting for then?” you grinned, cracking your knuckles in anticipation.

While you are lost in your memories, a low growl rumbles to the side of the clearing, interrupting the peaceful atmosphere of the clearing. You spring up to your feet immediately, attempting to summon more elemental magic from your core. A warm flame manifests in your palm for a split second before it peters out in smoke. You become agitated as you find yourself unable to summon anymore magic. The large black figure of a menacing bear looms into the clearing. You take a step back, mentally sorting through your inventory. ‘! I forgot to replenish my mana potions!’ you panic, shoving your hand into the moleskin pouch hanging off your waist. ‘It’s no use. I have to ru-‘

Your thoughts are interrupted by the sight of the black bear lunging itself into a sprint towards you. You summon a simple steel dagger from your inventory and roll away before the bear can maul you. Although you don’t have a very good grasp on offensive weapons, you had stored it into your inventory just in case. You hadn’t planned to use it before learning the basics better, but now there was no choice. As the bear turned and lunged towards you again, you attempt to dodge while slashing its body. Unfortunately, you miscalculate the amount of force it would take to attack with the weapon and leave the dagger lodged in its side as you roll away. 

‘ing brilliant,’ you curse inwardly, watching in horror as the beast bellows with rage in response to the sharp object embedded into its skin. It charges forward with renewed blood-lust and you take off immediately in the opposite direction. You fail to notice a tree root in your path and trip, landing on your hands and knees abruptly and painfully. The beast closes in the distance between you two. 

‘Well this is it. Hopefully the pain of death isn’t realistic as well.’ Your eyes tighten shut and your body stiffens as you wait for its claws to rip through your skin and send you to respawn in the nearest village. However, instead of feeling pain, you hear the schhwaff of a projectile cutting off the growl of your attacker. A loud thud directly behind you startles you from your tense position, and you immediately turn from your position on the ground to face the source of the noise. The bear was splayed across the ground with an arrow protruding from its head. You look up from the bear to see the form of another person across the clearing, grasping a drawn bow. Your eyes meet as the stranger disarms an arrow from his bow. 

“Are you alright?” A deep voice breaks the silence. Your eyes follow him as he walks across the clearing, his bow held loosely in his grip. Your eyes widen in surprise as his features are illuminated by the sunlight seeping through the canopies of tree. You notice the pointed tips of his ears as he draws closer. He reaches the shaded area where you were splayed out on the ground and squats beside you. You take in the sight of his warm brown eyes, framed delicately by soft, ground nutmeg hair. The tips of his bangs are of a deep green hue, as though he had dyed them with the leaves of the forest surrounding you.

“Hello?” 

You snap out of your daze and jerk back as he waves his hand in front of your eyes. “H-huh? Oh, I’m fine!”

“Are you sure? You seem a little out of it,” he asks, frowning with concern. He slides a canvas knapsack off of his shoulder and rummages through a pocket, keeping his eyes on you.

“Oh! Don’t worry! I was just shocked. I am fine, actually,” you sputter, sitting up immediately. You pat down your hair, feeling self-conscious, “I guess I should stop forgetting to restock on mana potions… that was a close one. Thank you so much. I definitely owe you one.”

He smiles in response. “I’m glad you’re not hurt.” He extends his hand in greeting and you return it with a handshake. “My name is V.”

“I’m [Y/N]. It’s nice to meet you, V.”

“Same here,” he grins, and offers his hand once more. You notice it contains a small piece of wrapped candy. “Here, you should have this. It might help you recover faster.”

You take it, smiling gratefully. As you unwrap it, you notice an item tag appear beside it. 

“ ‘Player-made’ ?” you read out loud. “You can make food in this game?”

He looks at you with a questioning look. “Yeah. Are you a new player?”

You blush, avoiding his gaze for a moment. “To be honest, I only started playing two days ago. The marketplace was so crowded that I’ve kind of been avoiding it.”

He made a small noise of understanding as you examined the unwrapped chocolate in your palm. You bring it up to your nose, inhaling its scent deeply. “Wow. This smells just like chocolate.”

“This game is crazy realistic, right?” he grins, watching you as you plop it into your mouth. Your eyes pop open as the warm chocolate coats your taste buds. You inhale dramatically as you savor the taste, unable to stop the dreamy expression on your face. “This is just... I think I’ve found a new way to enjoy food without actually gaining weight.”

He laughs at your reaction, crinkling his eyes with amusement. 

“That was delicious. Did you make that yourself?” you press, enjoying his wide grin.

“Ah, no. Jin-hyung made it. He’s an amazing cook,” he responds. You wonder just how amazing cooked food could be in this game. You would normally imagine it couldn’t be similar to the real deal, but now you had some doubts. 

“Oh!” Taehyung exclaims abruptly, lifting his finger to press the empty air in front of him. A blank hologram appears in the space, filled with what you assumed were notifications that are imperceptible to you. “Ah, my bad! My friends are waiting for me back at the village,” he says, lifting himself from the ground. He offers you his hand to help you stand as well. “Want to come with me? I bet you’ll find them fun!”

You smile shyly at his offer. You normally avoided such interactions in the real world, but this is a different place and a different you. “Sure, let’s go then. But,” you add, “if anyone asks, I was totally not about to become a meal before you met me.”

V laughs in agreement, and the pair of you begin to run through the forest. You can’t help but feel disappointed that he doesn’t have any teleportation scrolls with him. Granted, those items were slightly on the pricier end, but your savior had seemed very skilled. Luckily for you, endurance worked a lot differently in-game than in real life. Running wasn’t too difficult in the game when you considered that you are really just lying down on a bed back at your dorm. However, any kind of physical activity in-game would still deplete your stamina bar.

“By the way,” you speak, attempting to keep a steady voice despite your depleting stamina, “What level are you?”

“I’m just level 8. I’ve only started recently, too. I think it’s been less than a week since my friends and I started,” he replies, and you notice his voice was beginning to seem shaky as well. You smile, feeling a little better that he is not leagues away in skill level. “How about you?”

“I’m level 6. Leveling up has been taking forever without a buddy. My friend has hardly logged on since the first day we played,” you pout. You see the village begin to materialize ahead of you and the distribution of trees becomes sparser as you run. 

“You’re welcome to tag along with my friends and I if you’d like to. We can level up together,” he replies cheerfully, looking at you. You nod appreciatively as the both of you speed up your trip. Perhaps it would be beneficial to begin to socialize and network rather than to continue to keep to yourself.

Finally, you reach the outskirts of the village as it fully materializes. He slows down his run until he is merely walking and you mirror his actions. “Geez. Now I wish I hadn’t wasted my teleportation scroll on that short trip yesterday. I’m beat.” He yawns, turning around the corner of the cobblestone pathway and leading you down a quaint street. 

There are several other people walking up and down the street with their own business at hand, some of whom had an NPC icon above their heads. You briefly remember your first encounter with an NPC, when you hadn’t realized that you need to focus on the space above an object or person to see details about them.

V slows his pace as you both reach the porch of a modest tavern. Worn barrels sit beside the sturdy wooden door of the tavern and a few planks of rough wood lay haphazardly off to the side. A large sign above the door catches your attention, displaying “Edgewood Tavern”. He walks up the few steps of the porch and pulls open the door, holding it patiently as you walk into the tavern first. 

The sound of raucous laughter and the plucked notes of a string instrument fill your ears as your eyes roam throughout the establishment. You take in the sight of the warm earth tones of the tavern constructed almost entirely of lumber. Several weathered oak tables are spread across the tavern, many occupied by players and even NPCs. Behind the bar counter surrounded by worn stools stands a muscular human NPC, wiping a goblet clean with a tattered rag – an unhygienic practice that makes you cringe for a moment. Behind the counter, you notice a large deer mount on the wall. The deer’s head is bent slightly, its still, black eyes focused on you. Though it looks slightly creepy, you appreciate the attention to detail. “This place certainly looks bigger inside than it does outside,” you whisper to V, who nods in agreement and scans the tavern, looking around for his buddies.

A few notes from the string instrument seize your attention with a familiar tune. You raise your eyebrow, wondering if you were just imagining the similarities. 

“What do you mean? When you nod your head yes, but you wanna say no. What do you mean?” a melodic, tenor voice fills the tavern, accompanied by the sound of ad libs and runs. 

You snort with laughter at the classical rendition of modern pop music disrupting the medieval atmosphere of the tavern. V lets out a hearty laugh and pulls you by your arm towards the source of the noise - three handsome males. Your laughter dies in your throat as you look upon their faces with widened eyes.

 ‘Gosh, does this boy only have handsome friends?’ you think to yourself, feeling slightly bashful now that you are in the presence of his friends.

The both of you watch as two guys, one with a lean body and scruffy black hair and a shorter one with scarlet orange hair and a muscular build dance playfully together. A sinewy, mahogany-haired male has his eyes shut, holding a rolled up scroll up to his mouth as he sings with great skill. Beside him, a male with blonde hair strums a lute, his full pink lips upturned with a charming smile as he watches the others dance.

A flute joins in, filling in the place of the familiar high-pitched synth of the original track. You hear someone nearby begin to beat-box in the background. You look around for the new sources of noise and spot two males seated to your right, looking on with amusement at the dancers while they participate in the performance. Your eyes are drawn toward the mint blue hair of the flutist, as well as the silvery-blue hair of the beat-boxer. Beside you, V rushes forward, adding his own soulful baritone to the music. 

You grin widely at the joyful scene before you. You never imagined you would ever be able to witness something so lively in a virtual world, and now that you were, you suddenly begin to feel greedy. Realizing that there had been something missing from your adventures so far due to Eunhye’s inability to play frequently, you feel yourself wanting to immerse yourself into this world with this exuberant bunch. 

As you are lost in thought, you notice that the boys are finishing the song. 

“Ya! V!” screams the black-haired male. “Why did you keep us waiting so long? We almost died from having to listen to that NPC play the same song over and over again!” 

The focus shifts towards a male NPC bound to a chair by his waist with his wrists tied to the armrests. A lute was lying on his lap. You notice the blank expression on his face while his hands and legs continuously wriggle around. You cover your face in disbelief and amusement, hardly able to stifle the giggles. 

“Wow, J-Hope-hyung,” V’s face erupts with laughter. “Did you do this? Doesn’t this count as assault against an NPC? I’m not paying your bounty when you get carted off by the guards. Not again.”

“Actually, it was all Jin-hyung,” J-Hope sniggers. 

The lute player scoffs playfully in response. “Don’t drag me into your childishness.”

“Actually, it was me,” the mahogany-haired singer pipes in, looking smug. “And no, I didn’t get any warnings, so it’s all good.”

“Kookie... you would,” V nods, looking convinced. 

“So where were you? Suga-hyung and Jimin were getting impatient. They almost left when that NPC bard wouldn’t shut up,” the silver-haired beat-boxer asked, walking up to the group alongside the mint-haired flutist.

You step forward before V can answer, coughing awkwardly as their gazes rest on you. “V saved my hide from being mauled by a bear while I was in Sapwood Forest. He shot an arrow right into its skull. It was pretty impressive.”

V looks at you with a boxy smile, “Guys, this is [Y/N]. She and I bonded over Jin’s amazing chocolate.”

You look at the lute player, grinning warmly. “It was amazing. I never thought in my life that I’d be able to eat something so delicious and not even have to worry about weight gain.”

The group laughs in agreement at your joke. “That’s actually a huge part of what we like so much about this game. All-you-can-eat, without all of the unpleasant side-effects,” winks the silvery-blue haired male. 

The guys stepped forward, introducing themselves one by one. You learned that Suga is the mint-haired flutist and that Jimin is the scarlet orange-haired dancer. 

Finally, the silvery-blue haired male steps forward to introduce himself.

“My name is RM. And the seven of us make up the newly formed Bangtan guild. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”