Around an hour had passed since Valyr realized he had reincarnated into the game that dictated their death, turning into one of the numerous NPCs that existed in-game. Currently, he was talking to the person driving the carriage he was previously lying down on, gradually becoming closer with him.
"We've already talked about so much, but I still haven't gotten your name yet," the man said, lightly chuckling as he wrapped his arm around Valyr's shoulder.
"It's Valyr," Valyr said in response with a light smile. "How about you, sir? What's your name?"
"No need to call me sir. I don't think a person like me deserves to be called that," the man replied, waving his hands soon after. "Anyways, you can call me Tryndall. Glad to be having someone accompany me throughout this boring journey."
"Likewise." Valyr nodded. "Speaking of which, there's something that has been bothering me for a while."
"As long as it's not a problem regarding money, then this guy here is willing to listen," Tryndall joked in response. "I'm all ears. What's up?"
"I'm just somewhat curious as to how I got on your carriage. For some reason, I've somewhat forgotten the specifics," Valyr said. "I am incredibly grateful for having you take me on your carriage, but don't you think it's a bit weird for a person to be on a carriage all of a sudden?"
"Well, if you put it that way, then sure. It kind of is." Tryndall shrugged his shoulders. "However, I've seen my fair share of young people hitching a ride on random carriages in hopes of exploring the world beyond their village walls. The likelihood of them coming back to their homes bawling their eyes out is higher than you'd expect, actually."
"In your case, you hopped on my carriage a couple of nights ago after giving me a bit of money to let you hop on. In fact, I was kind of worried since you were dead asleep throughout the journey so far. For a while, I thought I'd also be hauling along a corpse to where I was heading," he added.
Listening to Tryndall's narration, Valyr could not help but ponder over it for a bit, wondering if his character was a unique case. In the end, he did not find anything that stood out in his memories regarding his current name. The only thing that really stood out was the surname he had been given.
"Zeihardt…" he muttered, only to place the thought at the back of his head for now as he talked a bit more with Tryndall regarding a few things. Eventually, after some time, he offered to Tryndall that he would drive the carriage while the latter could take a rest, to which the latter unsurprisingly agreed to.
After notifying Valyr regarding a few things about where they were heading, Tryndall headed to the back of the carriage while Valyr was left at the front, looking at the sight in front of him with a hint of expectation.
"I still find it surprising that I've been directly reincarnated into Greater Beyond as an NPC," Valyr could not help but mutter.
Being the game that led to the demise of him and many others, Greater Beyond was a worldwide hit in his past life, being the only True Immersion VRMMORPG to ever have every person in the world playing the game, even though that was only achieved in the game's later versions. However, because of this fact, the company behind it decided to control the lives of actual people through the game, turning them into mindless beings that only existed for the game.
Eventually, a faction opposing this had been established, with Valyr being part of this faction. Of course, with how he had been given a second shot at making things right, it went without saying that their faction had lost, realizing what was happening just a little bit too late. With that, Valyr was determined to make sure that their faction this time around would actually have a chance at winning the final battle, with him making preparations before it even reached that point.
"From what Tryndall told me, our carriage will be heading to Astarto Village," he murmured sometime later. "When we get there, I'll probably stay there and start grinding levels and skills while also increasing my influence."
Thinking about the things he would do once he got to the village, he could not help but think about something else. "Now that I think about it, I'm quite lucky to be reborn in the world of Veldanyr. Then again, being reborn on Azgares wouldn't be much of a problem either."
Although Greater Beyond was a game that allowed players to travel to multiple universes at the later versions, at the beginning versions, players were only limited to certain planets, which were called the starter planets. Depending on the race one chose, they would spawn in a certain planet. For those who chose to be humans, there were only two planets to choose from: Azgares, a planet where magic ruled supreme, and Veldanyr, a planet similar to the multiple medieval fantasy worlds people had seen and read.
As for the village he and Tryndall were heading to, it was actually a starter village in the world of Veldanyr. In other words, a place where players gradually acclimated to the world of Greater Beyond and gradually branched off from there.
"System, show me my stat screen." After idly looking at the landscape before him for a few minutes, Valyr softly commanded, prompting a small screen to appear in front of him, containing various numbers and texts that would normally confuse a person.
Ding!
[Valyr Zeihardt]
Class: Civilian (Rank 0)
Species: Human
Level: 1
Power Level: 9 (C)
HP: 10/10
MP: 10/10
Stats: 1 VIT, 1 STR, 1 AGI, 1 DEX, 1 INT, 1 WIS, 1 PER, 1 LUK (1 unassigned point)
Remarks: Nothing stands out. Incredibly normal.
As he looked at his status screen, Valyr could not help but focus his attention on the line of text located near the very bottom of the screen.
[Version 0.1b of Greater Beyond starts in 60 days!]
"Version 0.1b… wait a minute, isn't that the closed beta version?" Rummaging through his memories, he eventually recalled that there existed a version before the first public version was released, a version only available to a select lucky few that were chosen. Though, because of the hype it generated by the people who were able to play it, all stock of the game in various stores were sold out once the public version was released. At that time, Valyr was one of the unfortunate few to be forced to buy it from scalpers.
"Considering how the company was the first to introduce cutting-edge time dilation technology, these 60 days only apply to us NPCs, probably," he muttered, closing the screen as he committed the information from his status screen to memory before performing a few calculations in his mind. "If the time ratio is still seven days to one, then that means a couple dozen players will be able to access this game in about a week or so from now."
Pondering over it for a bit more, a light smile eventually appeared on his face as he decided to change a few of the things he had planned to do once he got to the village.
"Well then. I wonder if I can complete the first few plans I've made before the 60 days are up?"
"Hehe. I guess only time will tell."
