He was standing inside the same fountain he had once used to crash the server.
Beyond it stretched Fersay.
Stone buildings filled the enormous capital, overlooked by the massive castle in the distance, while players crowded the streets alongside former NPCs who now walked, talked and worked like actual people.
Then Rafael noticed something else.
"Shit... everyone looks beautiful."
Character customization had been top-tier, and apparently everyone had taken full advantage of it.
"Big asses, big boobs, gorgeous faces..."
Then he remembered that a woman could have played a male character and a man could have played a female one.
Everyone had become whatever they created.
Rafael immediately reconsidered staring at random asses.
"Only trust NPCs. They were coded to stay one gender."
He raised his palm.
"Map."
Fersay appeared above his hand, including the discovered beginner districts.
Most players seemed to be staying inside the safe zone, but Rafael wasn’t interested in where everyone else was gathering.
He already knew where he wanted to go.
The Roaring Boar.
Unfortunately, it was outside the safe zone.
Rafael stopped at the boundary.
If PvP still worked like it had in the game, walking through there at Level One was incredibly fucking stupid.
Then again, he could teleport back to Tim.
"Fuck it."
He crossed.
The map immediately began revealing the surrounding streets, but Rafael closed it. He already knew the way.
The difference between the two areas was obvious. Players disappeared almost completely beyond the safe zone, leaving only former NPCs wandering the streets.
A few minutes later, Rafael reached an old wooden door beneath a faded sign.
The Roaring Boar
"Doesn’t roar so much anymore."
He walked straight in, and the pub was almost completely empty.
Back when Eldoria had been a game, the Roaring Boar had been infamous.
Players fought here constantly, and probably more people had been muted or banned inside this building than anywhere else on the server.
"Hello?" Rafael’s voice echoed through the pub, but not long after, the owner came out from the back.
It was literally the same NPC that cleaned the glasses while people blew up the whole place and killed each other.
"Hello, sir. What would you like?"
"A glass of beer with vodka in it, topped off with whiskey," as soon as Rafael said it, laughter came from the darkness across the pub.
"The Fuck Me Up drink!" a man shouted. "Finally, somebody who knows this place."
I knew somebody was sitting there. He thought while turning toward the man. "This place is dead. I’ve never seen it like this," he said.
"Of course it’s dead," The man said as he walked toward Rafel and sat down next to him. "Everybody’s scared to leave the safe zone. A week has passed, and everyone’s still traumatized by this shit."
Rafeal immediately knew he made the right decision to come here.
"What do you mean by traumatized?" He asked.
"Where the fuck have you been?" The man asked and tried to inspect Rafael’s name and stats, only to see nothing.
Then a smile appeared on his face. "Oh, I understand."
He leaned back in his chair.
"Picture six players, all above level one hundred, entering the first territory outside Fersay," he looked into Rafel eyes. "Every single one dies... to goblins."
Rafael stared at him, "What...?"
"Goblins wiped them out," the man repeated. "Isn’t that funny?"
"That’s impossible. Even a level one can kill goblins."
The man laughed. "That’s exactly what everyone thought, because everybody thinks that this is still the game we all played."
He gestured toward the amulets, rings and mismatched equipment covering his body. "I went there myself, to see it with my own eyes. And it was true... more over I fought the goblins myself."
"I don’t care if you’re a thief," Rafael said. "I care more about what you know. What do you mean by ’this isn’t a game anymore’?"
For a moment, the man stayed silent as he stared down at one of his missing fingers, then he looked back up.
"NPCs are conscious now. They can learn, adapt, and actually fight."
He tapped his finger against the counter.
"And so can monsters."
Rafael remained silent.
"There’s no keyboard anymore," the man continued. "You want to parry? Then fucking parry. You want to dodge? Move your body. You get tired. You need to know how to swing a sword, use your equipment, and control your spells."
He smiled.
"Those six walked out there thinking their levels and gear made them gods. And they fucking got massacred by goblins."
It was more than logical, especially since it was something Rafael had already thought about. There was no way fighting worked the same way it had in the game.
"So everyone got scared."
The man nodded.
"Pretty much, though it is not the whole truth..." He sighed. "People are scared of themselves too."
Rafael immediately frowned, confused by what that was supposed to mean.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
The man held up his hand. "I lost one finger during my fight with goblins, but I killed all ten of them by myself. You might wonder then if the whole story is a lie? No, it’s not."
He stared into Rafael’s eyes.
"Goblins are indeed conscious and they adapted, but they can be slain easily, and I saw their corpses around, which means that party actually wiped a good chunk of them out."
"You mean that something else killed them?"
The man sighed as he nodded.
"Like I said, there’s no keyboard anymore. No controller, no mouse, none of that shit. You have to control everything yourself now, including magic. It doesn’t matter if you’re Level 500 or Level 1,000. You’re fucked if you don’t know how to actually use your abilities."
He shook his head.
"Before, casting a spell was just a click. Now you have to control the magic yourself, and anything above Level Two is fucking suicide to cast."
Rafael’s eyes widened. "They... killed themselves by accident?"
"From what I saw, there was a huge explosion that wiped out the whole party. I guess one of them tried to use some high-level magic, but they couldn’t control it, and poof. They all died."
It should have been a warning for Rafael. More than that, it probably should have made him feel something.
But his mind was focused on something else entirely.
They died in an explosion... but he has their items.
Rafael looked at the man again, noticing the amulets, rings, and other equipment he was carrying.
So items can be looted from corpses... or maybe they just drop after death.
He turned toward the owner of the pub.
I can’t exploit NPCs anymore, but maybe the loot bug works.
Back when Eldoria was still a game, even something as simple as buying a beer used the basic trade function.
You put your money into the owner’s trade box, he put the beer into his side, and once both sides accepted, the trade went through.
"The looting of—
"Are you Bloodmarked?" The man interrupted Rafael. "You’re hiding your name, level, stats and title." His eyes moved toward Rafael’s sword on his side. "And that sword is from the Great War."
"What if I am?" Rafael asked back.
" We’re sitting in the fucking Roaring Boar," the man said with a chuckle before continuing. "But they made rules and laws. More importantly, they made a law specifically for those who fought on the wrong side of the Great War."
He nodded toward Rafael’s sword.
"And you’re literally walking around advertising that you fought for the South."
That moment Rafel froze as he realized what the man was telling.
I walked through the entire fucking city with this thing on my side... He thought as he slowly looked down. Tim... you motherfucker.
But Rafael remained calm, not showing a single hint of emotion. If anything, the man’s next question gave him a reason to become even more relaxed... and even a little excited.
"So, what’s your goal now that this shit is real?" the man asked.
Rafael smiled. "I want to dick down some elves."
The man immediately burst out laughing.
"Oh! I like you even more!" He kept laughing as he pointed toward the door. "Brothel’s on the next street."
His eyes dropped toward Rafael’s sword.
"But don’t walk in there with that thing unless you want to get sliced up real fucking quick."
"Yeah, thanks," Rafael said as he made his way out of the pub, completely forgetting that the owner had been standing there listening to their entire conversation.
"That sword was intentionally made dull. He fought in the Great War with a blade that could barely cut," the owner said, glancing at the man. "I know what kind of people carried weapons like that."
"Executioners," the man replied.
For a moment, he completely forgot that he was talking to someone who used to be an NPC.
More than anything, he was surprised. Almost shocked.
"Wait... you remember the Great War?"
The owner looked confused by the question.
"Of course I do. But this place..." He gestured around the pub. "It’s for everyone,"
The man slowly leaned back in his chair as he heard the owner confirm that he remembered the Great War.
That was an anomaly.
"How the fuck does the timeline even work...? Where are we in it?"
He whispered the question to himself as he thought about Eldoria’s history, though he didn’t dwell on it for long.
"Well, who cares... we’re fucked anyway."
Meanwhile, Rafael stood across the street from a three-story building, staring up at the sign above the entrance.
"A dream came true," he whispered as he crossed the street and pushed open the door.
The inside looked exactly like in the game.
Red curtains, candles, couches along the walls, alcohol everywhere, and elves wearing outfits that showed almost everything.
Some sat with customers while others wandered between tables, looking for anyone who had just walked in.
Rafael barely made it three steps before an elven woman approached him, grabbed his arm, and pressed herself against him.
"You’re new."
She looked him up and down.
"Looking for a bit of..." She grabbed Rafael’s sausage. "Fun...?"
The thirst trap got him immediately.
Her clothes barely covered anything, and being this close to an actual elf, with her face, her body and even her scent getting into his head.
"Oh yeah... a lot of fun."
The answer came so quickly that she laughed, still squeezing him down there as she leaned closer to Rafael’s ear.
"One gold," she whispered.
"One... gold...?"
Rafael’s smile disappeared.
This bitch said one gold....?
"I’m premium, baby." She pressed herself closer and kissed Rafael’s neck. "Or am I not worth one gold?"
"I think I’m good." Rafael gently pushed her away.
He had no idea how the currency system worked now that Eldoria was real, but he knew one thing.
Back when it was still a game, gold was the premium currency, something Players usually had to buy with real money.
Which meant that, at least in Rafael’s mind, having fun with elves now required fucking microtransactions.
No way... prostitution is pay-to-win... He was totally destroyed as he turned toward the exit.
He had barely taken a step when sharp nails dug into his shoulder and pulled him back.
"Actually..." the elf whispered with a smile. "For you, it’s free."
Rafael immediately lit up. "Really?"
But he noticed it. Something about her had changed.
She was still smiling, but now she was staring at him strangely, her eyes fixed on him as if she had noticed something she hadn’t before.
Then Rafael noticed the others.
More elves were coming toward him.
One after another, they stopped what they were doing and looked his way, several of them smiling just as strangely.
What the fuck is wrong with elves? One of them stabbed me, and now they all want to fuck me... yeah, I was stabbed... in the Elven Lands... by elves.
He looked into the eyes of the elf right in front of him.
"Oh..."