Project Anima : A Virtual Reality / Reincarnated Tale

Chapter 3.2: Chained Wolf

For some reason, Molsie never left him. She was always outside his cell, watching over him. Raiden told her to move on, but she wouldn't. He pondered if she would still be here, 7 years later, waiting for him to be freed. Raiden didn't know whether to be touched or depressed.

After clearing the Underground Sewers every morning, Raiden sat by his bed, reading the Adventurer's Guidebook by the scant light from the cell window or the wall torches. With nothing else to do, he filled himself with Defiant Sins Online knowledge. All about quests, monsters, areas, and dungeons.

Several sections ahead, he found the laws. He stared at it with disdain. After a while, he continued reading. As much as he hated these laws, there might be any loophole in this accursed virtual jurisprudence that might get him out of jail.

By the end of the chapter, a sinking feeling wrenched his gut. There was no way out of the jail. He has truly fallen into a bottomless pit of isolation and despair.

To hell with this.

Raiden gritted his teeth, and resumed reading.

Forgetting about his situation, he focused on the game's countless systems instead. Raiden flipped page after page, digesting all the vital info like a voracious wolf. He delved more into parties, stats, classes, skills, to equipment, skill trees, loot, status ailments, to environments, zones, exploration, the battle system, and more—down to the last detail and number.

Gradually, the strategies began to form in his mind. Some latent cognition rose within.

Now, if only I could put this all to use.

It took nearly 2 days for Raiden to finish the guide.

When he was done, he realized he could summon a "guide pixie", someone who can answer his questions that are not covered in the book.

"Invoke," he said. "Guide pixie!"

The support faerie shimmered into existence. Molsie watched it flit in the air in silent curiosity. Raiden cleared his throat, and relayed his specific questions, intending to fill the gap of information in the book.

Raiden was on his 3rd day of discussing in-depth mechanics with the guide pixie when something changed his fate.

That evening, he heard the marching of metal by his block. Molsie stood up.

There was a clink of keys. Raiden was surprised to see that his cell door was swung open by the warden. But he just finished his dungeon duty earlier. What was this now?

"Come out," the warden said. "You have been pardoned."

Raiden shot up, and the pixie vanished. A burst of hope welled in him. "Pardoned?"

Am I hearing right? I'm being set free from 7 years of hell?

Who else could've done such a thing? The only acquaintance he knew was the traitor Gideon, and judging by the man's greed, he was the last person to bail him out. It couldn't have been Molsie either, considering she wasn't a player. The rascal clan was also out of the question.

"You're free," the warden said, almost reluctant, and motioned him out.

Raiden never thought two words could bring such joy to him.

Beyond the warden, a blonde haman walked over.

"Nice to meet you!" the haman grinned. "Thank me later, the name's Slater."

Note1: Do you think you can survive/progress in a role-playing game without walkthroughs?

Note2: Have you ever been helped by a kind, random stranger in online games?

(Mine was when a good stranger aided me to complete the atrocious Dragonspine Cave Challenge in Genshin Impact. The challenge was ridiculously hard—basically you have to avoid falling stalactites from above, move through platforms of ice, not touch the water (or you will get frozen), move at the right spot (or you will get knocked back), defeat about 4 mobs of enemies, destroy the shields of mages and keep some mages from casting platforms. Oh, and you have to do all of this BEFORE a short timer runs out. Great, right?)