Author: Turjo
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It's been almost 3 years since that fateful day. It was lunchtime, and I was minding my own business. "Primordial Dystopia", a game where you have to level up constantly or you start losing your belongings.
I will just use up everything before I log out every time; it seems pretty straightforward.
Of course, there was a catch. Games like these always came with a catch. So I did what any sane person with unlimited time would do: Read through the whole ToS.
It took me a while, but I didn't find anything suspicious like the other games; it was all general stuff. But one line stood out as it was written in another font, "Your body is considered a belonging".
I thought it was a reference to something, and so I searched online. Nothing of relevance came up, so I thought it might be a game mechanic for future updates. And so, as I didn't find anything fishy, I started playing using my foolproof strategy.
The ingame clock resets every day at exactly midnight. You would get a notification ingame for all the items you lost at that time. I have been playing for almost 6 months now, and till now, I have never even lost one item to this mechanic.
Every night, I would stay awake to see the notification, "You lost something but not in the game :)" This was the general notification for players who didn't have anything in their inventory. Or so I thought.
But that night was different from the rest. I was tired from the whole day of work and was browsing the web, losing track of time.
Suddenly, the notification came, and I saw the icon of the game pop up in the corner. As I brought down the notification panel, something felt weird. It was not the usual notification. It said, "Sorry, but you have lost everything". What does this supposed to mean? I didn't have anything in the inventory as always. What am I supposed to lose? Curious, I opened the game from the notification.
The screen turned bright blue, there were some texts. Even though I am sure my brightness was tuned to the minimum, I couldn't look at the screen at all. Barely clenching my eyes, I clicked the power button to turn it off. But it didn't work. Then I felt a pull in my right hand, with which I was holding my phone. I don't remember anything after that.
I woke up and found myself covered in sand. I tried moving, but something felt off. There was a strange sensation I was feeling, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.
After I got up fully and jerked profusely to remove the sand stuck everywhere in my body, I noticed it. My hands felt light and looked pale. My whole body felt lighter. I saw my clothes had changed too but it was not unfamiliar to me. As it was, the basic clothes of every guy character in Primordial Dystopia were. The character I had created by changing every single default option given by the game, the eyes, the distance between them, the size of the nose, the eyebrow color, everything. And, I had turned into it?
I have read some webcomics before and I knew the basic premise of this genre. It didn't take me too long to realize that I was in level 53, The Black Desert. It was one of the hardest levels to get through; even the pros were reluctant to speedrun this level. And I was there with no items except the basic ones. Usually, I would go to an easier previous level and grind up until I got the least possible level equipment I needed to beat that level. But I was stuck in here for quite a while, thanks to the boss, a literal giant snake with healing abilities.
Most bosses have a weakness that one can exploit. For example, some have low health but high attack damage, so it is easier to beat them by inflicting status moves and then dodging everything that comes your way. For higher health bosses, the attack damage is generally low, so it is just button mashing till the boss dies and some dodges here and there.
But this giant snake, "Shen," had no visible weakness. It was a perfectly balanced boss.
And so, as I didn't have any equipment or money to buy equipment, or a way to go back to lower levels, I did what I had to do. Face the boss head-on, no matter what happens.
I started the journey to the desert temple, home of Shen. Along the path, I met a merchant. As I didn't have any money, I didn't even try seeing his items. Then something crossed my mind. I looked back and punched him in the gut. He was hurled up and started coughing. I didn't stop, I kept punching till he fell to the ground. Then I started punching his face. I didn't stop, it was more like I couldn't stop.
Some invisible power was pushing me, I felt. My hands were beet red, and I came back to my senses all of a sudden. I knew what I was doing, and still I threw up seeing what I just did.
I took all the items from the merchant. Even though most of it was some healing potions and some equipment from level 10 or less, it was still better than nothing.
In this desolate land full of nothing but sand and only this merchant standing between me and Shen, I thought I had come up with another strategy.
Every day I would sleep near the place where the merchant spawned. And I would beat him to death every day. For some reason, the game didn't take my belongings in the middle of the night. Maybe because I had already lost everything?
I was beginning to lose hope. But one day, the merchant gave one level higher items. In the 3 months it took to reach here. I found a new sense of purpose.
It's been almost 10 years since then. Killing the merchant doesn't even feel bad anymore. More like it's part of a routine. But today was the day. I would strike Shen today as I had managed to gear up, enough to beat the damn snake.