I Don't Need To Log Out

Chapter 1 Intro

Announcement: After the 100th chapter I came back to check how the story started and I realized that my style was bad. I am sorry about that. Since this was my first time writing something, I didn't know better back then and I wrote long sentences without breaks between them.

But don't worry, I have already started editing the first chapters. Till now, I have only turned long paragraphs into smaller segments in the first 15 chapters, but I will also change the sentences without changing the story.

So, if you have just started reading this novel, please know that I am editing it right now, so you can expect inconsistency in style between the first chapters and later chapters. But don't worry, after the 20th chapter, everything is consistent.

The chapters before the 20th one will also be good soon.

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I used to enjoy hanging out with my friends. Even though I had the worst family—my dad was a drunk and my mom left us for another man—at least I had my friends.

But that was a few years ago. It wasn't like we had a big fight or anything; we just drifted apart.

After my dad died from drinking too much, the only person left in my life was the girl I liked. But it turned out she didn't feel the same way.

She wasn't a bad person; she just told me that she liked someone else and saw me as a friend.

So I didn't even get the usual 'betrayed by his friends' or 'heartbroken by the girl he likes' tropes—it was just a quiet, uneventful life.

That's how I, Arlon, became a loner and started playing the game 'EVR.' If I could, I wouldn't have logged out for a second since the game capsule took care of all your biological needs.

However, to prevent people from becoming too immersed in the game, the developers—who we thought were behind it back then—limited playtime.

You could only play for 15 hours before being forced to log out when the day is starting.

I've been playing this MMORPG for the last 10 years, and I'm the best at it. But even I had to log out and return to this ugly reality.

Believe me, I tried everything to stay logged in. Even the in-game items didn't help.

The money my father left me wasn't enough to get by, so I spent most of my time watching sports games and betting on them while I wasn't logged in—and I even won big once.

But today was different. For the first time in I don't know how long, I had to leave the house to prove to the government that I wasn't dead.

Ironically, I'm dying now because some thieves decided to rob a bank and hit me with their car while fleeing.

The worst part is that the only thing I can think about while dying is my game character.

Over the past 10 years, we learned that 'EVR' wasn't just a game—it was another world under assault by a different race.

Simply put, EVR is the name of the force of nature that governs the universe, and its purpose is to maintain balance.

So, when the Keldar race decided to assault the Trion planet—both physically and with the help of Zeno, what we thought were just game capsules—EVR sent some capsules to Earth to enlist our help in defending the Trionians.

Since EVR isn't a person, this was done under the name of a gaming studio, and we all thought it was just a game.@@@@

Everyone was talking about the game on TV—and probably everywhere else—since it's based on groundbreaking technology.

Looking back, we should have realized something was strange; a leap in technology like this is almost impossible.

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As soon as the Zeno capsule was delivered, I logged in. There wasn't a separate character creation screen; you just appeared in a randomly chosen starting town and saw the class selection screen.

Luckily, I ended up in the same town as I did in the last timeline. While it wasn't the best in terms of mobs and hidden secrets, it was the one I knew best. And I can go to other towns whenever I want.

In the last timeline, I didn't even think about which skills I wanted—I just logged in and chose Warrior.

Coincidentally, it was the best choice I could've made. Throughout most of the game, only a few players were stronger than me, and that was only until I surpassed them.

There was just one player who got lucky and became a magic swordsman. If he hadn't been so bad at it, no one could have outdone him.

So this time, I'll be the one to become the magic swordsman so that talent doesn't go to waste. But that's further down the line; for now, I'll choose Warrior again.

Since the in-game appearance and name are the same as in real life, I didn't need to make many adjustments.

Our real-life body doesn't affect in-game stats, so even though I'm a normal 23-year-old guy with a slightly muscular build, I start at the same level as a 15-year-old in the game.

At least, that's what we thought. Even though our stats are identical, our physical appearance affects things like arm reach and height.

Shorter players are better suited to being assassins, and bulkier ones make better tanks. So for me, at 1.92 meters, a sword-wielding Warrior was the best fit.

After choosing my class, I stayed a while, looking around. I knew that once I completed character creation, I'd be logged out, so I wanted to linger here a bit longer.

Tomorrow feels so far away, and I have nothing to do outside. After some time, I decided it was finally time to complete the process.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the capsule to open—but no matter how long I waited, I didn't feel the change in the air. When I opened my eyes, I was still in the starting town.

"Is this a bug? Maybe I'll walk around a bit."

I saw NPCs going about their tasks. I even left the town to look around, only to find monsters were there too.

Not wanting to do anything risky before confirming the capsule wasn't faulty, I headed back to town.

I noticed players spawning in to choose their classes, only to log out right afterward. There's no way all of them clicked "exit" that quickly.

I checked the menu and saw the exit button. After hesitating for a moment, I clicked it and found myself back on Earth instantly.

So, I wasn't trapped in the game world after regressing. Naturally, I logged back in immediately and found myself back in the starting town, Istarra. That's when it hit me:

"I don't need to log out!"