Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 136: Welcome to Lucet City

Okay, I'll be the first to admit it: I've never been a travel-loving kid.

Sure, I've always gotten excited whenever we travel to another city or country. But walking from one area to another has been really exhausting on my feet! Still, I'm not complaining too much since not only Wind is with me for the virtual trip, but Yuri is also with us, brightening it up with his offline stories before he moved to New York (and trying to keep our focus for any ambushes waiting for us while walking through the road.)

As for the trek itself, it took us about two days to get through the road while dealing with some aggressive monsters along the way. We expected this would happen thanks to some wiki searches and Arthur's suggestions and from that, we've managed to survive thanks to our teamwork and most of the supplies Wind and I crafted beforehand. Not only that, we don't exhaust ourselves during the trip as we camp out for the night and enjoy ourselves around the campfire with Yur1's items he bought to protect us from monsters attacking us during our sleep.

Then on the third day of our trek, we see a large city entering our view. Large towers and buildings peeking out from the bright white walls with some kind of transparent barrier enveloping the whole city. The more we get closer to the city, the more I see the gold details around the walls and the buildings behind. We walk closer and closer to the city until we reach the barrier itself. Luckily for us, we simply walk through it without any kind of conditions as a notification pops right in front of us.

[NOTICE]

[You have entered <Lucidus> territory.]

So this is it. The "Kingdom of Light" itself...

I never thought I'd see the kind of medieval fantasy city that I often read my novels in (virtual) person. But thanks to [ADVR] and <Isekai Online>, I've finally made my dream come true to experience the fantasy world beyond tabletop RPGs and novels. Plus, I can experience this with my brother and friend instead of visiting it alone! Another thing to love about this game is to have many people join in the fun!

However, by the time we reach the gates, I begin to regret thinking that line. What we find is a huge line of players waiting to enter the city and several NPC guards keeping them in line. By the looks on their faces, they seem like they're also excited to enter the city, too.

"Whoa... I heard the whole entrance was packed during the first day, but this is no different than the pictures on social media," Wind comments.

"It just got a lot of new players due to the expansion release and Black Friday sales last month," Yur1 explains. "So it's no surprise the entrance is packed even during the second day of release."

"At least it's not so crowded at the entrance today. I wonder what's holding them up."

Good question. I decide to approach the guards to ask them. But I stop to see several players talking to them before the guards turn to each other.

[But this is really bad... If what the adventurers said about [Wild Bears] and [Lizardmen] is true, then we might have a stampede coming to the city.]

[The monster drops they showed us seem like a real deal to me, too. This is too urgent for us to ignore it.]

[Should we report this to the [Adventurer's Guild]?]

Stampede? Seems like something bad just happened.

"Must be something to do with those bees from two days ago," Wind says. "You did say they looked like they ran off from the forest when we fought them, right, Yur1?"

"Yeah. I didn't expect it to be so serious, though," Yur1 answered.

"But we haven't encountered some bears and [Lizardmen] while we trekked through the field. Some of the NPCs we ran along the way didn't mention them, too."