4 Swordfighting

Adventurers are one thing and NPCs are another. There were NPCs who were programmed to be adventurers but they were always fixed to a certain area due to their families and friends, while players could roam around the world.

To NPCs, the world is real. But how come our chicken-bringing Bob would try wandering around?

"I better go tell mom. I've never been to the city before though."

Yes. Bob wanted to tell his mother what happened. The only problem is that she isn't in the village but in the next city named Donut City. It was a city named after food, not because the author isn't creative but because the architectural designs resemble the houses from Bagel Village.

Even though Bagel Village and Donut city both have houses that resemble a huge circle with a hole in the middle, Bagel Village was a bland and colorless village. In juxtaposition, Donut city had a wide variety of colorful houses.

"But I'm an adventurer now. Or a player?"

Still confused about the terms but he knew that there was a connection between the two words.

"Hmm. What do adventurers do again?"

He said this out loud. Anyone near him heard him and they were amazed. Everyone around here knew Bob the NPC after all. And due to his uncannily familiar look, someone approached him.

"Nice cosplay, my dude." A player spoke to Bob. He was wearing clothing similar to almost every other adventurer within the village.

"What?" Bob was met with another unfamiliar word.

"I'm telling you, you got the costume, hairstyle, and even the attitude. Are you a roleplayer?"

"Excuse me? What is a roleplayer?"

"Oh. My apologies, I understand. Have a good day, Bob." The player obviously thought that Bob was a serious roleplayer.

"Oh. Thank you! You too, friend!"

Bob turned away from the strange man. He was creeped out that someone suddenly talked about his garb and general way of conduct. So without any hesitation, Bob moved away and went to do his business in the village outskirts.

"Wow. He even has the dialogue taken down. Maybe he's even Bob's voice actor?"

The player said to himself. It was a memorable encounter for him to see a roleplayer and to pick a tutorial NPC was weird enough. To Bob, however, it was an encounter that he chose to put at the back of his mind.

"Hmm. I wonder what he meant by the word cosplay."

Bob's head was not filled with anything, so even the last thing on his mind became a priority after a few steps of walking. He was too simple to think of any proper preparation and that will cause him a lot of trouble later.

"Oh? I'm already outside the village?"

He walked outside the gate before he even realized. And that was a cause for confusion to Bob.

"What? I've always thought that the village was larger than this?"

It was because he is not a player.

In games, cities only used a minimal amount of space. Say, for example, Whiterun. Whiterun, the supposedly biggest hold in all of Skairem only held around twenty-odd houses and the castle was only three stories. (AN: Check out TES V if you are unfamiliar with the example.)

Games had limitations so it was only natural for everything to be scaled down. However, the NPCs were programmed to believe that a certain place was a proper size.

In Immersion Online, beginner villages were very small. That is because there is no need for a beginner village to be large. Why on god's green earth would people want to stay within a beginner village longer than necessary?

To Bob, however.

"Meh."

He could not be bothered to think about it. He has seen enough weird stuff within the last 48 hours. Seeing one more peculiarity was no longer an issue to him. Not that he doesn't care but because he doesn't know what to do should he know about it.

"Alright. That's a horned rabbit."

He was officially outside the safe zone of the village. What he saw before him was a rabbit with a horn. It was very grotesque as the horn was not on its head but on its groin. The rabbit was keeping to itself, munching on grass.

"Hmm." (AN: Potion drinking intensifies.)

Bob stood still as he thought of a strategy to deal with the rabbit. He took his time to think but -

"I don't have a weapon."

"Cluck"

He only thought of it at this moment in time. He could turn around and procure something to arm himself with but he decided not to. It would be a waste of time to go back now, or so he thought.

"It shouldn't be that hard."

Bob charged towards the rabbit. And surprisingly, he wasn't stupid enough to scream a battle cry like most anime protagonist. Screaming would only alert the enemy after all.

But still, Bob was not an assassin nor was he trained in being stealthy. In other words, Bob failed his surprise attack.

Fun fact. Should you find yourself in a fantasy world where everything is designed to kill you, do not underestimate anything in the world.

The rabbit noticed Bob's rush and moved away. It was alarmed because of the sudden attack but it was calm. It looked at Bob and inspected him.

"Nurnurnur"

It said as its ears shook straight up. The noise it made was of a mocking tone, with its mouth curling upwards. It was obviously mocking Bob.

'Lol. Lvl 1'

The rabbit was level 2. So it was obvious who that thought belonged to.

Bob saw the ridicule that was plastered on the rabbit's face. Bob could not stand the mockery and charges towards the rabbit once again. This time, he was not out of vision.

"I got you!"

He was simplistic. He has no idea of what combat really is. Therefore, the rabbit simply jumped to the side as Bob went past it. Now, Bob was very out of position. The rabbit was behind him and he still has to kill his momentum to turn around.

And with that, the rabbit attacked Bob. From behind. With its horn, which was on its groin.

"Ouch. That's gotta hurt." An onlooker said to himself.

Bob was not hurt physically. He was attacked on the bottom but the pain was aching in his heart. He thought that he just lost something which he will never ever regain.

And with that, Bob was pushed to the ground and the rabbit continued thrusting its hips to attack him. The chicken stapped to his back just watched Bob was taken advantage of.

A few moments later and after a man's pride shattered, the rabbit got tired and walked away before it was forced to take responsibility. It was a come and go!

Bob was left on the ground, crying as he lost his v-card to a rabbit.

"Bakaka omae." The onlooker from earlier said to Bob.

Bob instantly forgot about his dignity and looked towards the stranger.

"I don't know what you just said. But yes."

"Cluck"

He somehow knew what the person meant. It was full of mockery and disdain for his folly. But everyone has to fail somewhere at some point right? Bob just failed taking down one of the weakest enemies in the game, that's all.

"Oops. I'm sorry. I forgot to turn the translations on. Anyways, are you still level 1? And what's with the chicken?"

"Yes. And this is my chicken."

"I see. Well, it is a common mistake to instantly fight the mobs in this game, be careful next time. Also, where did you get to buy a chicken?"

"Thank you. I didn't buy this chicken." Bob said his thanks towards the person's warning. He thought for a while but -

"Actually, I don't remember how I got this chicken. Weird."

The person was baffled at Bob's answer. Looking at Bob's state, he couldn't have logged in for more than an hour. Had he been playing for more than that, he would at least be level 3 and 8 at most if he was staying within Bagel village.

"Ignore that. My name's Chikinsupu and I am from Japan. Nice to meet you."

Chikinsupu introduced himself to Bob. He held out his hand to offer a handshake.

"Hello, Chikinsupu. I am Bob and this is my chicken. I live in Bagel village."

Bob accepted and shook Chikinsupu's hand. He finally had a chance to have a decent conversation after the weird stuff that happened the past few days.

"Bagel Village? You mean this village?"

"Ah. Not anymore. I'm going to my mom's house."

"You're weird Bob. I like it." Chikinsupu did not take Bob's words seriously. After all, a person who jokingly lost to a weak rabbit would also like to make fun in conversations, right? Wrong.

"Hey, Bob. How about I help you learn the ropes?"

"Really?"

And so our protagonist meets his first acquaintance in the game aside from the other NPCs. What he doesn't know was that Chikinsupu was romaji for Chicken Soup, which Chikinsupu was very fond of. (AN: Romaji is like pinyin but for Japanese, somewhat.)