Ryan POV
I’m eating bread and cheese when she walks past our table in the guild tavern.
Daniel grabs my arm. "That’s Emily."
"Who’s Emily?" I ask.
"The player I told you about. The one who knows everything about VRMMOs."
I watch her move through the tavern. She doesn’t sit with anyone. Don’t order food. She heads straight to the quest board on the far wall and starts reading the parchments. She pulls three of them down. Study them. Pins one back up and keeps the other two.
She’s efficient. Every movement has purpose.
"Come on," Daniel says, standing up. "I’ll introduce you."
"Right now?" I ask.
"Better now than later. She’ll be taking a quest soon and then she’ll be gone for hours."
I follow Daniel across the tavern. Emily notices us approaching. She doesn’t seem surprised. She just waits for us to reach her, one hand resting casually on her sword hilt.
"Hey," Daniel says. "Got a second?"
"Depends," Emily replies. "What for?"
"This is Ryan. New player. I just logged in today. I wanted him to meet someone who actually knows what they’re doing."
Emily’s eyes shift to me. She does that same assessment I saw in the plaza. Looking at my equipment. My stance. My expression. Judging everything about me in seconds.
"New today," she says. It’s not a question.
"Yeah," I confirm.
"How long have you been in-game?"
"A few hours."
"And Daniel’s already dragging you to meet people." She turns back to Daniel. "Is he any good at games?"
"He’s... okay," Daniel says, which is basically admitting I’m not good.
Emily looks back at me. "You know how to fight?"
"I swung a sword at a wolf earlier."
"That’s not what I asked."
There’s no judgment in her voice. Just directness. She’s not being mean. She’s just asking the question literally.
"No," I admit. "I don’t know how to fight."
Emily nods. She seems satisfied with the honest answer. "What class?"
"Warrior."
"Why?"
I think about how to answer that. The real answer—that I panicked during character creation and picked the safe option—probably isn’t what she wants to hear.
"Seemed balanced," I say.
"Balanced means you’re okay at everything and good at nothing," Emily says. "But it’s fine for learning. The real question is whether you’re willing to actually learn."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Most new players come into VRMMOs thinking it’s just about having good equipment or being high level. They don’t realize that skill actually matters. The way you move. The way you time your attacks. The way you read your opponent. Most people don’t want to put in that work."
She’s right. I can feel her being right about that.
"I’m willing to learn," I say.
Emily’s expression doesn’t change, but something shifts in her eyes. A slight interest, maybe. Or recognition that I’m not just another clueless new player.
"Have you been to the training grounds yet?" she asks.
"Not yet."
"You should go. Practice against the training dummies for a while. Get a feel for how combat works. Don’t just swing randomly. Think about what you’re doing."
"Is that how you learned?" I ask.
"I learned by fighting real players. But you’re not ready for that yet. The training grounds are a good start."
Daniel jumps back into the conversation. "Emily’s one of the top players in Eternal Realm. She’s already A-rank in the Adventurer’s Guild. She’s been in for months since the beta."
"Daniel’s overselling me," Emily says, but she doesn’t deny it. "I’m good because I treat this like a game, not a second job. Most people do the opposite."
"How does treating it like a game make you better?" I ask.
Emily considers the question. It seems like she’s not used to explaining her philosophy.
"Games have rules," she finally says. "Understanding the rules is how you win. Most people just stumble around learning by trial and error. I learned the rules first. Then I practiced executing those rules. There’s a difference between playing a game and mastering a game." Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
"What are the rules of this game?" I ask.
Emily glances at the two quests in her hand. She’s about to leave. I can sense it.
"Damage, defense, speed, and positioning," she says quickly. "If you understand those four things, you understand combat in the Eternal Realm. Everything else is just details."
She starts to walk away.
"Wait," I called after her.
She stops. Turn back slightly.
"Can I ask you something?" I say.
"Make it quick."
"Why are you helping me? You don’t know me."
Emily studies me for a moment. There’s something in her expression—a flicker of something I can’t quite read.
"I’m not helping you," she says. "I’m explaining the obvious. What you do with it is your problem."
She walks toward the guild exit. Daniel watches her go with a slight smile.
"She likes you," he says.
"She doesn’t even know me," I reply.
"Exactly. Most new players she just ignores. The fact that she stopped to explain anything means something."
I’m not sure about that, but I don’t argue.
The next hour, I spent at the training grounds.
There are dozens of wooden dummies set up in a large open area behind the guild. Other players are practicing. Some are swinging weapons. Others are casting spells. A few are just standing around watching.
I pick an empty dummy and start practicing.
At first, I just swung my sword. Left to right. Right to left. Basic movements. The dummy doesn’t fight back. It just stands there, absorbing the hits. My sword connects. The impact registers. I can feel the force of the blow travel through my arms.
But Emily’s words keep echoing in my head. Damage, defense, speed, positioning.
I try to think about what that means while I’m fighting a stationary dummy. Damage is obvious—hit harder, do more damage. Speed is about attacking faster. But what about positioning? How do you position yourself against something that can’t move?
I start moving around the dummy. I practice attacking from different angles. I try approaching from the left, then switching to the right. I experiment with fast attacks and slow, powerful attacks.
A player next to me—an older guy with a Mage badge—laughs.
"You’re thinking too hard about this," he says.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Training dummies are useless for learning real combat. They don’t teach you anything because they don’t fight back. You should be in a dungeon, fighting real monsters."
"I don’t know enough yet," I say.
"That’s fine. You learn faster fighting real enemies than standing here hitting wood all day."
He’s probably right, but I keep practicing anyway. I’m not ready for real combat yet. I can feel the difference between this and the actual wolf fight.
The wolf moved. It had intent. It was trying to kill me. A wooden dummy is just an obstacle.
I’m still practicing when Emily returns.
She walks past the training grounds, heading toward the quest board. But she stops when she sees me. She watches for a moment—watches how I’m moving, how I’m attacking.
I feel self-conscious under her gaze but I don’t stop practicing.
After a moment, she approaches.
"You’re doing it wrong," she says.
"Okay," I reply, lowering my sword.
"You’re using too much power on each swing. You’re telegraphing your attacks by winding up before you strike. And you’re not thinking about what happens after the attack—where you’ll be positioned when the dummy counterattacks, except it won’t, so you’re developing bad habits."
"So what should I be doing?" I ask.
Emily looks at my sword. Then she looks at the dummy.
"Give me the sword," she says.
I handed it to her.
She moves to the dummy and demonstrates. Her attacks are completely different from mine. Shorter. Faster. More efficient.
She’s not swinging for power. She’s striking with precision. Each hit is exactly where she intends it to be.
After five strikes, she stops and hands the sword back.
"See the difference?" she asks.
"Yeah. You’re faster."
"No. I’m smarter. I’m not wasting energy trying to hit as hard as possible. I’m hitting exactly where I need to hit, no more, no less. Against a real opponent, they would be trying to hit you while you’re recovering from your swing. You’d be vulnerable. I’m never vulnerable because I’m always ready for the next move."
She’s right. I can see it now. Her attacks leave her in positions where she can immediately attack again or defend. Mine leave me overextended. Vulnerable. This chapter was copied from novelping . com without permission.
"Train until you can do that," Emily says. "Then come find me. We’ll do something more useful."
"When?" I ask.
"When you’re ready. You’ll know."
She leaves before I can ask what "ready" means.
But I keep practicing anyway.
I spend hours at the training dummy. My arms ache. My grip is sore. But I’m starting to understand what Emily was showing me. It’s not about being stronger. It’s about being efficient. It’s about understanding positioning and timing.
Eventually, I take a break and head to the tavern inside the guild.
Emily is there. Sitting alone. Eating food. Her two completed quests are stacked on the table beside her plate. She’s already finished them. Whatever they were, she got them done.
I approach her table.
"Can I sit?" I ask.
She looks up from her food. For a moment, I think she’s going to say no. Then she gestures to the empty chair across from her.
"You’re back already?" she asks.
"I needed a break."
"That means you were practicing." It sounds like approval.
"For a few hours," I say.
"Good. Most new players would have given up after twenty minutes." She takes a bite of her food. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah."
She signals the tavern keeper. He brings food without being asked, like Emily has a standing order.
We eat in silence for a while. It’s not awkward. Just quiet. Two people eating. Both of us are lost in our own thoughts.
Then Emily asks, "Do you understand why you’re here?"
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"In the Eternal Realm. Why did Daniel convince you to play?"
"He said it was different from other games. That the immersion was better."
"That’s what he said. But is that why you’re actually here?"
I think about that. I think about Daniel buying two headsets without asking. I thought about researching the game all night. I think about the persistent world. The mysteries. The Silent Cathedral with its unknown symbols.
"I wanted to see what I was missing," I say. "I wanted to understand something that everyone else is obsessed with."
Emily nods. "That’s a better answer."
"Can I ask you something?" I say.
"You just did. But ask again."
"Why are you playing? If you’re already so good, what’s the point? You’re just going to keep getting stronger. You’ve already won."
Emily sets down her fork. She looks out the tavern window at the city beyond.
"Because there’s something about this world that doesn’t fit," she says quietly. "The NPCs are too alive. The systems are too complex. The world is too detailed. I’ve played a lot of VRMMOs, and none of them felt like this. None of them felt like they were hiding something."
My pulse quickens. That’s exactly what I’ve been feeling. That sense that something is off. That the world is more than it appears.
"You feel it too," Emily says. It’s not a question.
"Yeah," I admit.
She looks at me directly. "Then you need to know something. This game is not what you think it is. There are mysteries here. Real mysteries. And if you want to uncover them, you need to be stronger than you are right now."
"How much stronger?" I ask.
"Strong enough to survive what you’re going to encounter."
She stands up, leaving her plate half-finished.
"The training dummies are good practice," she says. "But you’re going to need real combat experience. Real danger. Real stakes."
She walks toward the quest board.
I follow her.
She takes down another quest. This one is different from the others. The parchment is older. The description is longer. It’s marked with a red stamp that says
"Caution—Increased Difficulty."
She turns to me.
"If you’re really planning to play this game," she says, "are you ready to fight?"