"How am I going to get myself out of this mess..." These words were spoken by a young boy, no older than 10. Luca, the lad in question, was currently chained to a cold stone wall beneath a small guardhouse manned by a dozen guardsmen, framed for something he didn't do by a noble child he'd never seen, let alone met. Being a homeless orphan, he'd been coated in so much grime that whatever his original hair color or skin tone had been was now a blackish-brown akin to the mud in bogs and mires. Only his bright blue eyes stood out amidst the grime, swiveling around the cell as he contemplated methods to escape.
The guardhouse stood watch over the southern side of a small town of little more than 500 people, a town without walls due to its size and locale. Situated on a massive expansive of plains perfect for farming and raising animals, far from any potential danger, Greenwood Village, now Greenwood Town, was founded nearly 200 years prior by the mayoral Bradley family. It lay on the border of a minor kingdom, the Valarion Kingdom, and was the first sign of civilization one would see for more than a days journey in any direction. The nearest major city was three days journey from the small town, and only one other town was between them, which was little more than the expanded families that served the area's lord, who only came into power within the last three decades.
Taking a few steps back, the noble child, who, in reality, was just a member of the Bradley family that held no noble title but was considered nobility among the townsfolk, Cedric was the second young master and a well-known troublemaker. Most of the time, his general antics consisted of pranks and the occasional breaking of things, or bullying the local children, but this particular incident was far from being as mundane. Luca had been framed for attempting to murder the eldest child of the Bradley family, Adrian.
Having been overshadowed by his eldest brother, second young master Cedric decided to try and poison him with a toxin that would block his airways, causing him to asphyxiate. Fortunately for Adrian, he only ingested half of the poison. Despite the medieval levels of technology and medical knowledge, the presence of magic in the world presided in exchange. Thanks to this, the eldest young master was saved thanks to the former mayor, Darius Bradley, a Level 3 Mage.
Cedric's plan to escape punishment was to find the nearest person and splash the rest of the poison onto them. Luca was the unfortunate bystander who became the unlucky target of the second young master. As the previous mayor was in a rage, he didn't think to actually investigate anything, and used his Level 3 magic to trace the poison. As such, Luca was convicted immediately, thus giving Cedric his ill-gotten escape.
Luca never had the fortune to know his parents, nor learn anything about them. In fact, he knew nothing at all, only that he has no memories prior to his tenth birthday, coincidentally the same day he was convicted. However, he wasn't completely amnesiac. In truth, he knew more than almost anyone in the village.
This enormous world, Andor, was the setting of a pioneer VRMMORPG, that, while it wasn't the first game by a huge margin, was the first to bear the status of an open-world game, and was based on the balance between the factions of Light and Darkness. With the God of Light and his respective allied minor deities at the helm, the Light faction consisted of the Humans, High Elves, Wood Elves, Dwarves and Beastmen, while its counterpart, the God of Darkness and his own allies, had the Blood Elves, Dark Elves, the Undead, Orcs, and the Fallen within its folds. The most powerful, and therefore leading, figure of each faction deity-wise was consistently the two major gods, no matter how many minor gods joined. Very few beings, divine or mortal, remained neutral to the two, but of those that did, the one considered the strongest was the mysterious Sea Race, along with their uniquely paired patron deities, the Sea God and Sea Goddess. From the Popes of each respective faction, from the very beginning of their church's establishment, spread a universal message to all beings that lived on land: never offend the Sea Race, unless you plan to end the lives of every land-dweller in the world.
The first memory Luca had of this world was finding himself suspended in midair, far above the clouds, in his new 10-year-old body. After an excruciatingly long moment of terror, his 20-year-old mind adjusted and brought him calmness after realizing that at least he wasn't falling. When he had managed to slow his heartbeat back down to a more normal pace, a strange ball of light, like a tiny star, appeared before him, and a strange voice that was vaguely male came from it, but in a strange way. It was heard in both the ear and the mind, like someone was simultaneously using telepathy and spoken word for the same thing.
"Young man, it will with the free power I can spare that I plead for you to save this world from its disastrous future. I can only entrust this monumental task to you, as no other has a chance as high as yours to succeed."
Confused, Luca asked in his new, unfamiliar voice, "But, why me? I could barely be considered a new player in the game, I only know what I saw online and in the game's archives... Hell, I didn't even manage to reach Level 3! There has got to be someone, anyone, better than me." He recognized the voice as that of the God of Light. When a Light-side player died for the first time, the voice of the God of Light would appear and explain the resurrection system only once before they returned to the living. Luca was very familiar with this voice, as he died quite frequently in his very short time playing.
"Of all the candidates over the five years of the game you know, all 350 million-some, you were the only one that undertook what could only be considered a suicide mission to save Andor at the pitiful status of a Level 1 Mage. By willingly choosing to take what was in all forms and purposes a nuclear bomb and surrendering to the demons while bearing information of critical importance, you became a martyr that forced open an enormous gap in the defenses of the Demon Emperor's citadel that gave the allied forces of Light and Darkness the opportunity to charge in and, by the hands of the greatest heroes, strike down the Demon Emperor and save Andor from its fate." The God of Light was silent for a moment before once again speaking, "There wasn't anyone else willing to take the duty, as the bomb was considered a permanent death and one would have to start all over or, as in your unlucky case, never be able to play the game again. The dedication to your chosen path, your solid and stable heart, and how much trust others had in you despite you being the weakest of everyone in the allied forces, is what gives you the highest chance to do the impossible. Thus, I chose you."