“Haa..ha..! Wait for me!”

My body..doesn’t move like I thought it would!

Was I always this slow?!

The girls were chasing after the monster on light feet. And they cut through them like it was nothing!

Was it youth? Was that it!?

In the first place, how were your actual physical abilities related to the game?

Were my reflexes so bad now that I was incapable of controlling my body well?

If I wasn’t wrong, there were some VR games that were supposed to be able to measure your physical fitness through neurotransmission, and players whose results were bad might experience slower movement or shortness of breath in the game..

I wasn’t sure what system this game used, but it apparently wasn’t pleased with the way I was controlling my character.

Well, I haven’t exercised in quite a long time..

Luckily, the company I used to work at was very old fashioned, and I had to walk to work every day.

Had I worked from home, I might have found walking alone to be quite hard.

No, that was an exaggeration. My apologies to all those who work from home.

“Mister Kyuji. The enemy is going towards you!”

“Hah..ha.. They’re leaving it to me!”

Well, it was very kind of that monster to come this way.

But as it was a rabbit monster, it was quite fast.

It had horrible front teeth and looked terrifying, which meant I would feel no guilt when killing it.

“Haayaaa!”

I swung my one-handed sword.

It missed its target and cut through the air instead.

Then the rabbit’s teeth sunk into my neck.

“Aaaggghhhh!!!”

Th-the pain!

Well, I’m sure it didn’t hurt nearly as much as a real bite!

But pain is pain!

I don’t care how much realism people want in this day and age. This was going too far!

“Fireball!”

A fireball then slammed into my neck.

But this one..didn’t hurt!

Apparently, there was no friendly fire in this game.

So someone in my party had saved me.

“Th-thanks..”

“Mister Kyuji, did you forget to turn off the sensation of pain in the settings? It will hurt quite a bit if you leave it on default.”

“Pa-pain settings? I didn’t know..”

I immediately opened the window and went to settings.

Currently, the pain gauge was at seven.

Who the hell would want to raise it above that..

Maybe I should ask.

“These pain settings. Are there any merits to keeping it high?”

“Hmm. I heard some veteran players say that it raises your other senses too. And that allows them to move with more precision. But I don’t know much about that. Still, they say that all the best players have it on the highest. That’s why event rankers are always screaming.”

“I-I see..”

How barbaric..

To think that the latest technology was being used to make humanity revert to a state of barbarism..

No, perhaps I was just being judgmental.

I’m sure this game had its good points too.

“Well, fighting and screaming at the same time might make you feel like you’re in some kind of battle manga world. I suppose I can see the appeal. Not that I’m going to do it.”

“Hehe. That’s true. The best players really are fantastic and cool. But yes, I wouldn’t do it either.”