The VR pods were a rather interesting piece of technology, most of them were given out for free to people with the skills to bring their country victory over the others, Ti had gotten his sleek black pod ten years ago when he’d signed up for the national team in MoonFlare. He hadn’t touched it really since the game had gone down five years ago and he hadn’t regretted the decision.

While the pods were amazing he had lost a lot of time and things he cared about being in the pod for so long. The pod itself slowed down your interpretation of time by a factor of four, so every hour was four in game, this allowed for a lot of practice and playtime in a short amount of time, but more than one person had gone insane because of it.

Ti looked around the room he used to house his pod, there was little else in the room save a tangle of thick cables on the floor, and several promo posters and other memorabilia from the MoonFlare days including a poster from the final tournament that had his and ‘IMayReap’s Mech prominently displayed in combat.

He crossed the room in several steps and tapped the button on the pod, the lights blinking to life, machinery whirring to life with a hiss as the pod door opened and allowed him to look inside for the first time, the inside was simple enough having a silvery memory gel that contoured to your body to prevent sores, and a headrest that held the Neural Interface for the game.

Climbing in was just like old times, he slipped into the comfy gell and the door hissed closed, leaving Ti in darkness. The visual darkness was interrupted by a simple text box that appeared.

[Scanning… Previous Profile data found, Parsing… Play data confirmed, Rank 1 Player All-Bounder Initializing Rank 1 Reward.]

He was confused at first but the next thing he knew he was staring up at the ceiling of a dark and dreary cave. Wasn’t there only supposed to be a character creator until tomorrow? This was of course the first thing he thought about but the second he thought about it he was met with another text box.

[Greetings!

Because of the difficulty of having a Monster Race

you will be given 1 out of game day of play before release!

Enjoy!]

“Status” The word was out of his mouth the second he read the text box, he hadn’t even gotten to create his character! His jaw dropped at the sight of his character sheet…

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

[https://puu.sh/BVjTU/a2e6190d2f.png]

How did he even have a 0 in all three of his physical stats?! Then he looked down at his body and saw that he was simply a floating spirit, sure he had a vaguely human appearance but he was definitely transparent and hazy. His eyes focused back onto the character sheet before his eyes, the little stars next to some things catching his attention.

[Incorporeal Body(Unique: Monster Race/Passive): Incorporeal Body is a skill unique to the Dullahan, Ghost, and Wraith races. You cannot have more than 0 in any Physical Ability Score, you take no damage from Physical sources but take bonus damage from magic and healing. You have no Health Pool, instead HP per level is added to your mana pool and all damage is done to Mana instead.]

“Interesting.” So he was an unstoppable physical tank but he couldn’t deal physical damage and he got destroyed by magic, also any magic he cast drained his health, he wondered idly what he had that offset this, because he just felt useless as a character already.

[Monster Race(Unique: Monster Race/Passive): You can use Items and equipment only usable by Monster’s, You can also learn any skill a Monster Race of your type could learn. (Warning: You will be attacked by NPC’s on sight unless disguised or invisible.)]

From what he had read in the little booklet that came with the game, Classes were locked until level 10, but to make up ffor that they got to choose several Armor/Weapon types during character creation. Every equippable item in the game had a skill attached to it, and if you used it enough through the item you kept it even after you stopped using that item. Skills could also be evolved from innovative use, or even created by doing something unique. Which led him to his next two passive skills, and the reason he might go on with this character.

[All-Rounder(Unique: All-Bounder/Passive): You can use Items and Equipment from Any race (You must still meet the requirements), You are considered to have all Equipment Proficiencies.]

[Armor Rider(Unique: Dullahan/Passive): As a Dullahan you can easily enter a suit of armor that you have proficiency for (Ignoring Physical Stat requirements). When Riding Armor of another race you will become that race visually, you no longer take damage to your Mana and instead have an HP pool dependant on the armor equipped, and Physical stats dependant on the armor equipped as well (Ex: Riding armor for the Titan Race would give you more strength, while a set of Inchling armor would give you far more dexterity.)]

While he was reading he’d floated up a little bit and began pacing in the air, this was some interesting information, and understanding it fully would no doubt give him an interesting playstyle, he could be sneaky by posing as a person from another race, tanky by wearing great armor, he could learn most if not all magic.

His mind made up he began to search the cave for an exit, nothing in the cave could bother him, as the large spiders dealt only physical damage and everything else seemed to ignore him, the skeletons and zombies simply shambling and rattling past his floating body.

The tunnels of the cave were a labyrinth, a collection of twisting passages that seemed to lead back to where he’d been previously. But after a couple of hours of meandering around Ti found the exit. Almost excited to see the world outside he rushed forward as fast as his floating body could take him and found himself standing in front of a large barren plain. To the left in the distance he could see what looked like a village, and to the right across a large river there looked to be a gothic manor of some sort surrounded by a forest of dark trees.

“Well… I may as well get this over with.” Was all he said as he, began floating towards what he hoped, was a vampire manor home...