Chapter 2 – Priest Supreme

Ｒｅａ​ｄ​ ｏ​ｎ​ ＫａｔＲｅａｄｉｎｇＣａｆ​ｅ

When I first stepped into this overly realistic world, everyone firmly believed it was just a game. They thought it was a highly advanced virtual reality game that had reached a level indistinguishable from reality.

I was no different. Experiencing this new world through the body of a small girl, I interacted with friendly NPCs, gathered information, and completed beginner tutorial quests to understand the basic game systems.

The problem came afterward.

How many ordinary people from modern society could properly wield cold weapons like swords and spears? Especially when given a body entirely different from their own?

At first, there was a user who bravely charged at monsters outside the village with an iron sword. Inspired by his courage, other users drew their weapons, but they quickly retreated at the sight that followed.

Human skin tore, revealing bones beneath. Crimson blood gushed out, staining the ground, and the metallic smell of blood filled the air.

The screams came a bit later. As if truly in agony, the user being chewed apart by a giant wolf continued to scream.

It was a shocking scene. No one dared to step forward, confronted by the raw, unmasked sight of exposed innards.

Everyone likely thought, “It’s just a game, so it’s fine.”

As the user’s screams faded, I tried to open the game menu to log out. I muttered to myself that this game was too hardcore for me.

“Huh…?”

A small voice escaped the little girl’s lips. The system window before me had no “Quit Game” or “Log Out” button.

My tiny fingers flailed in the air, lost.

And so, a week passed.

The seventh morning in the starting village.

I woke up in the abandoned church on the hill behind the village.

[Homeless Penalty]

[All stats reduced by 5%]

[Duration: 1 hour]

No cutting-edge medical device could provide such detailed information about one’s condition.

The game system, hated by some users, offered many conveniences like this.

A one-hour debuff was manageable. Some users caught colds and had to endure a heavy, sluggish state for an entire day.

“Ugh…!”

I tossed aside the ragged cloth covering me and sat up. Stretching my stiff body, I extended my arms and legs, bouncing lightly on the spot.

Even after a week of living in this small girl’s body, the awkwardness hadn’t faded.

But this was an improvement. On the first day, I kept tripping over nothing because my stride was so different from my real one.

“Phew…”

After stretching, I headed down to the village early. If I didn’t, I’d miss the daily errand quests that reset in the morning.

The half-collapsed church had no proper exit. I squeezed through a small gap in the rubble to get outside.

“Hehe.”

If I had been even slightly taller, I wouldn’t have fit. Choosing the smallest body size during character creation had been a brilliant decision.

I skipped down the hill toward the village, light on my feet. The breeze carried me along, and I soon arrived at the guild bulletin board where quests were posted.

I smiled as I looked up at the board. I’d arrived just as the errand quests were resetting.

[Elder Bell’s Errand]

Gather 10 wild berries near the village.

Reward: 10G

Elder Bell’s Errand was a perfect quest for beginners, with a reasonable difficulty and excellent rewards. I jumped up to grab the quest notice.

~Hop, hop~

After a few jumps, my tiny fingers brushed the notice, and a faint light enveloped me.

-Got it

The quest was accepted.

I began circling the village outskirts to gather the berries.

The outskirts were also where users who had given up on progressing gathered. They clung to the edges of the village, where the guards wouldn’t chase them away, wasting their days in meaningless idleness.

Their lifeless faces staring at the sky made them look like dolls.

Did they know? That they seemed more fake than the NPCs bustling inside the village.

I passed by the crouching users and quickly gathered the berries.

The errand quest was simple and soon completed. After receiving the promised reward and experience from the village elder.

I checked my inventory and smiled with satisfaction:

–Current Gold: 120G

I couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to significantly change my current situation.

Of course, I could have earned 120 gold faster by hunting monsters outside the village. But how could this small girl’s body possibly fight monsters?

Surviving a battle with even the weakest monster, a deer, had been nothing short of a miracle. Who knew a deer’s kick could be so powerful?

Some speculated that dying might return us to the real world. But no one could confirm it, as those who died never came back.

It was only natural that those afraid of death chose to stay put. Clinging to the village outskirts, surviving on the daily bread ration, at least they wouldn’t die.

Now, with a heavier inventory, I headed to the general store.

“Welcome!”

The moment I entered; the shopkeeper greeted me with a level of sophistication that made it hard to believe he was just an NPC.

He answered questions, made recommendations, and even seemed to think for himself. How could anyone see him as just a program?

The longer I lived here, the more I saw NPCs as equals.

“Hello.”

“Long time no see, Supreme. Here for more potions?”

The shopkeeper, Raijin, smiled and shook a potion bottle. The red liquid inside sloshed like blood.

“No, I’m here for something else today.”

“Oh?”

I pulled out a heavy coin pouch from my inventory and handed it to him.

“I want to buy a beginner’s Spellbook.”

If I had left the starting village for a larger city, I could have changed my class without spending gold. But the journey was too perilous for this small, soft girl.

“An excellent choice, Supreme. I always thought a physical class wouldn’t suit you.”

I agreed. This frail body couldn’t even properly swing the basic iron sword given to all users.

After purchasing the Spellbook, I returned to my hideout in the abandoned church. I planned to stay there until I became a mage.

Using a rotting wooden chair as a desk, I sat on the floor and opened the thick Spellbook with trembling excitement.

[Magic is the power to summon phenomena that would never occur naturally in this world. As such, there are no fixed rules. To begin learning magic, one requires high intelligence…]

I tilted my head as I read. Most of the content was beyond my understanding, and the game system I expected to appear didn’t show up.

Shouldn’t something happen when using an item like this?

After finishing the book once, nothing changed. Supreme was still a beginner.

“Phew…”

I started reading it again. Of course, rereading didn’t help me understand it any better.

“Ugh!”

Even after the second read, nothing changed. I was still just a little girl.

Thump, thump— The small girl’s body expressed frustration by stomping her feet. Grinding my teeth, I threw the Spellbook across the room.

—Whoosh—!

But what strength did this small body have? The book merely bounced off the head of a crumbling angel statue and fell to the floor.

At that moment.

—Crack—

The angel’s head split open, and a glowing orb rolled out.

“Gasp…!”

[Medium orb Infused with Divine Power]

A common medium used in crafting items imbued with divine power.

Can be obtained by paying gold at a temple.

※Unlocks the ‘Apprentice Priest’ class upon use.

The glowing orb seemed to beckon me.

I clicked my tongue and approached it.

Vrslop_translator