Chapter 3 : Another one??

I'm Really a Cheater! Not a Pro Player!

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure

After logging back into the game, Arka found himself standing in the heart of Remnath, the main city of the Veteran Continent.

For a moment, he simply stood there.

The city didn't greet him with flashy effects or dramatic fanfare. Instead, it gives a feeling as the city had always been there long before he arrived. Towering stone buildings blended medieval architecture with subtle futuristic designs, their surfaces etched with glowing runes that pulsed faintly like a living heartbeat. Cobblestone streets stretched outward in every direction, worn smooth by countless unseen footsteps.

NPCs passed him by.

But, even calling them npc feels wrong, because they look alike a human. They walked with purpose, argued over prices at stalls, laughed, frowned, sighed. One brushed past his shoulder and muttered an apology without breaking stride.

Even the air felt different.

It was cool. Crisp. When Arka inhaled, his chest rose naturally, and for a brief second, his brain forgot this was a game.

He exhaled slowly.

"So this is it…" he thought. "Chrono Frontier… as it reborn."

A small, almost nervous smile tugged at his lips.

"All right. Time to start over," he murmured inwardly. "No one knows who I am here."

But, the feeling of excitement immediately meet with a problem.

The problem was the moment he tried to fight in VR.

In the old Chrono Frontier, combat was simple. Press a key. Click a mouse. Time a dodge. Numbers decided everything.

Here, none of that mattered.

His body was the controller.

When Arka left the city's outer gate and encountered his first low-level monster, a Dire Wolf. That difference became painfully clear. The creature didn't wait for him to "engage." It circled him while its yellow eyes tracking every shift of his move. Its movements were sharp, as it's natural predatory.

Arka raised his basic sword.

But still, it's Too slow.

The Dire Wolf lunged.

He tried to dodge the way he always had, by instinct alone. But his body lagged behind his intention. The wolf's claws grazed his left side, and a sharp, unfamiliar sensation shot through him.

Pain.

"Tch—!" He staggered back, instinctively clutching his side. "That actually hurts…"

The pain-dampening system reduced the sensation to thirty-five percent, but even that was nothing like just watching an HP bar drop on a screen. His nerves reacted before his logic could catch up.

The fight continued. It's feel so awkward, messy, inefficient.

Arka overextended his swings. Misjudged distances. Lost balance more than once. But slowly, he adapted. He learned to breathe. To move first, and think at the same time. When the Dire Wolf finally collapsed at his feet, he was sweating. Panting.

He stared at the fallen monster for a long second before letting out a dry laugh.

"…Yeah. I definitely can't rush this."

Back in the city, Arka made a decision.

Instead of pushing forward blindly, he logged out.

For the next two days, he studied.

Guides. Tutorials. Community discussions. Veteran players breaking down body mechanics, stamina control, VR combat flow. He watched videos one by one, trying to memorize how experienced players shifted their weight, how they read enemy movement. But it's all feel soo overwhelming complex for him.

As The stress is piling up. He decided to lay down and maybe read another article for refreshing his mind.

And then. He finally realize it. The world was learning the name of ArkZurei right now as he studying.

***

During those two days, the situation inside the game only grew more heated.

The name ArkZurei continued to dominate discussions.

Forums were flooded with speculation about who he really was, theories about how he had reached almost maximal level in the old Chrono Frontier, and even people attempts to dig into his real-world identity.

As if that weren't enough, several well-known game streamers began discussing ArkZurei on their channels. Debating whether he was truly a hidden legend or simply a god-like player who had always operated under the radar.

Reading all of this, Arka could only let out a bitter laugh.

"Seriously… how did it end up like this?" he muttered. "I just wanted to play casually, not become some kind of mythical being that everyone keeps chasing."

In the end, he returned to the internet café and logged back into the game.

This time, however, he didn't head straight out to hunt monsters.

Instead, he chose to wander through the city.

He let himself slow down, taking in the world's details. Enjoying the beauty of this world as his always want to. The textures of stone walls, the layered sounds of distant conversations, the subtle way light reflected off metal and glass. It helped, at least a little, to push the chaos surrounding ArkZurei to the back of his mind.

As he passed through the central plaza, fragments of conversation drifted into his ears.

"Hey, did you hear? They say ArkZurei also has the achievement The Ending Breaker!" "Yeah, it's insane! He even has a Mythic title—The Sky Above!" "There's no way he won't become a top player in CFTL too!"

A cold sweat ran down Arka's back.

"…Why do I have to hear that name everywhere?"

Uncomfortable, he slipped into a quieter side alley and eventually found a bar tucked away at the far end.

The place wasn't flashy or crowded.

A worn wooden sign hung above the entrance, bearing only a simple name:

"Raven's Roost."

The moment Arka stepped inside, the atmosphere shifted.

Dim yellow lights hung from the wooden ceiling, casting a warm glow that felt almost real. The scent of aged wood mixed with alcohol, accompanied by faint candle smoke drifting lazily through the air.

The bar was sparsely occupied.

Behind the counter stood a large, muscular man calmly wiping a glass. In one corner sat a sharp-eyed middle-aged woman, slowly sipping her wine. Nearby, a young man with a scar running along his cheek quietly cleaned his sword.

Arka took a seat in the corner, settling onto a worn wooden chair whose cushion pressed uncomfortably against his back. Then he ordered some drink.

***

"All right…" he thought as a glass of orange juice was placed in front of him. "I just need to relax for a bit. Ignore ArkZurei. Enjoy the game."

He breath slowly and enjoy some minute of peaceful in this place.

Unfortunately, The peace didn't last long.

BANG!

The door slammed open violently, crashing against the wall.

A man in torn clothing stumbled inside, breathing heavily. He looked like a soldier fresh from battle. His arm wounded, whild blood staining his clothes.

"They're here!" he shouted in panic. "They found me!"

The atmosphere in the bar shifted instantly.

NPCs who had seemed ordinary moments ago began moving with unsettling coordination.

Arka raised an eyebrow.

"…Wait. Is this an event?"

Seconds later, three more NPCs rushed in after the man. They wore black cloaks marked with silver emblems, their expressions cold and merciless.

Before they could act, a man seated calmly near the door stood up.

He had long gray hair, a faint beard along his jaw, and eyes sharp as a hawk's. His eyes filled with experience and an intimidating calm. He wear a long black coat with leather guards on his arms and shoulders.

Yet the pressure he exuded was unmistakable.

In the next instant, the fight began.

The gray-haired NPC moved so fast Arka could barely follow him.

With one smooth motion, he drew a short sword from beneath his coat. In a single flash, the first two pursuers collapsed.

The last tried to strike back.

The man stepped aside effortlessly and drove his blade into the NPC's throat.

Less the 5 second pass, but The bar fell into an unnatural silence.

The bodies of the intruders lay sprawled near the entrance, blood slowly seeping into the wooden floor. No one moved to clean it. No one spoke.

The gray-haired man wiped his blade clean with a single practiced motion before sliding it back beneath his coat. Only then did he lift his gaze.

It landed on Arka.

Arka felt it immediately. As the weight of attention that had nothing to do with him on the first place, now chilling his spine.

"…This NPC is looking at me."

The man approached at an unhurried pace, his boots echoing softly against the floorboards. While walking he said.

"How did you know?" the man asked.

Arka blinked once with Confusion.

"…Know what?"

The man stopped a few steps away from him, studying Arka's face as if everything depends on it.

"That this place would no longer remain hidden," he said. "That today would not pass quietly."

Arka's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What the hell is he talking about…?"

Before he could form a reply, a familiar chill ran down his spine.

A translucent screen unfolded before his eyes.

⋟────────────────────╮

[ Hidden Scenario Discovered ]

You have encountered one of the exiled leaders of The Tribe.

Survival is not guaranteed.

╰───────────────────⋞╯

Arka nearly lost control of his breathing.

"—Are you kidding me?!"

He kept his face still through sheer force of will.

Inside his head, he was screaming.

"I just wanted a drink! I didn't even do anything! Why is every legendary disaster magically happened to me?!"

The NPCs, of course, saw nothing.

What they did see was a lone man sitting calmly in the corner, unfazed by bloodshed, meeting their leader's gaze without flinching.

Three of them shifted positions subtly, hands drifting closer to their cloaks in preparation to react.

Arka noticed.

"…Yeah. This is bad."

Even so, his posture remained relaxed. One arm rested casually against the table, with his fingers loose. His gaze was steady. From the outside, it looked like everything was deliberate. Measured.

As though he were weighing something unseen.

"All right," Arka said at last, his tone even. "Let's slow this down."

The words were simple, but the way he act is making people grew suspicion even more. And because of that, room grew stiller.

The gray-haired man did not respond right away. His eyes narrowed slightly in a deep thought.

Arka met his stare without blinking.

Then, deliberately, Arka gestured toward the chair across from him.

"Sit."

It wasn't a request.

That, more than anything else, caused a shift even more.

A stranger had just issued a command to their leader, more even, it feels like naturally.

Several seconds passed.

Finally, the gray-haired man lifted a hand. The others eased, though tension still coiled beneath the surface.

He pulled out the chair and sat.

Up close, the weight of his presence was even heavier.

"So," the man said quietly. "You came here knowing this place would soon be exposed."

Arka swallowed his frustration. In his hearth, he answer.

"I know nothing," he replied. "And I don't even want to know who you are."

But outside, His expression never changed.

The man studied him carefully, as if trying to catch a crack in that calm surface.

"You entered this bar moments before my scout returned," he continued. "Before the pursuers arrived. Too precise to be coincidence."

"…Oh, come on," Arka groaned internally. "That's just bad timing! Cosmic-level bad timing!"

In older games, this would have been a simple flag.

Its like either choose, Accept quest? Decline quest?

But, This was VR. There was no decline button on the screen. Everything need to be said directly.

"We have hidden in this city for months," the man went on. "If you noticed the cracks before they widened… thare's no mistake that the people comes for us soon will follow."

"So tell me," he said. "How did you know that Raven's Roost was our refuge?"

Arka raised one hand. His motion still calm, like everything was controlled.

"Enough."

The word landed heavily.

Every pair of eyes snapped toward him.

In that moment, Arka did not look like a confused newcomer dragged into trouble.

He looked like someone deciding whether a group was worth his time.

"I am not here for the reasons you imagine, and don't even compare me to people you talking about, I'm not even close to them" he said coldly.

"How not? I'm just a beginner. So they don't that think I'm a pro scouting expert or something like that," He said more in his heart.

The gray-haired man held his gaze.

"Then why are you here?"

Arka pointed toward the bar.