logging out...
I put the headgear away and lie on my bed.
I can't help but grin at what happened so far in the game CoM. Probably first player with dual achievement, reaching level 0 in record time and being the weakest player of all...
this is what I call an exiting start.
Or you might say interesting. Normally I think of things as either boring or interesting and this game is definitely of the later category, no doubt about that.
Since you can only use that helmet for 20 hours a day at max I have to do things in this boring reality as well...
so what shall i do in these 4 hours granted to me by the almighty headgear?
sleeping? - interesting, but i can do that later in game...
taking a bathroom break? - boring, but no other choice...
next?
eating? - boring, but its something this body of mine needs so i guess i have to do it...
cooking? - boring, a wast of time, unnecessary
masturbating? - boring, a wast of time. Nothing more to it...
taking a shower? - boring and i already took one yesterday, no need to do something this tedious every day...
jogging? - interesting, I also live close to the park so yeah...
exiting the apartment I live in, which by the way is located on the 5th floor of a house and has barely enough furniture for a 19 year young healthy man like me to live in.
I walk towards the park in the late afternoon sun in my rather normal clothes, wearing a black shirt and black shorts, I guess I like black.
In real I am just your average high school graduate with grades that can't be boasted about, but I never really put any effort into studying, so it can't be helped.
I have average high of 1,75m with average European looks, brown hair, gray-blue eyes, maybe a little thin, but I never studied myself in the mirror so that is all I can tell you about me... well I usually prefer to do as little as possible, so my eyes are only about half-open and some classmates said that I look stoned because of that...
My parents decided to go on vacation for a rather long time. Last year they suddenly decided that they would go make a world tour and went of, well can't blame them, living in a city is boring as hell, but I didn't feel like accompanying them, since I think traveling isn't much better... ok, I admit it I am just too lazy.
So I decided to rent a small apartment that costs almost nothing and play games with the new headgear all day, which has been out for a month already, but since the time acceleration is 12x real its more like 10 month already... good times indeed.
But enough rambling... where was I? Oh, right I wanted to run a little bit to make sure I get enough exercise while being immersed most of the time in the game. Yet, I ended up walking all the way instead of running... why does this always happen to me!?
Yep, this isn't the first time I start thinking useless things and end up walking instead of running and the amount of exercise walking provides is incomparable lower than running... too bad I already arrived at my favorite spot.
Seeing the familiar hill in front of me I hesitate not even a moment and lie down under a big tree and make sure that the spot I pick is in the shadow and calm down.
Kinda weird how I can lie on the green grass after pretty much doing nothing for the past 10 days in the game. Even I am not quite sure how this is possible, but I don't dislike this kind of relaxed attitude.
The sky is entirely blue without a single cloud today. Nice warm weather and no wind whatsoever...
couldn't be worse if you ask me. I like rain much more than the sun, or at least a cloudy sky. Luckily it is already quite late, otherwise the temperature might also be too high for me to endure.
“yo Ike, sup”
Ike? I guess that's me...
“oi Michi, you are already the second person today that wakes me up from my sleep!”
“hahahaha, the amount of sleep you consume is so immense, no wonder that people would have to wake you up”
“consume? I ain't some kind of drug addict!”
“not? Hmm... I think I have to reevaluate your status then...”
“...”
“oh, right, anyway. How are you doing?”
he probably means ingame, he wouldn't ask me how I do in real...
“couldn't be better, I bet I am far ahead of you already! High elves really live up to there reputation”
“wa? Don't tell me you found a secret cheat code that that transforms helfs into OP beings”
“indeed I found the ultimate cheat code. The key... is to die!”
“...”
“eh? Don't believe me? Bwahahaha I shall beat your stupid human stats in no time, give me a few decades and we might become even in strength!”
“right... you are unusually talkative today, got owned already, right?”
I really can't hide anything from him...
“yeah sure, you got me. And you?”
“I am already leveling like crazy, only buying equipment is rather expensive and monsters drop almost nothing, but I already killed a few kobolts”
“well I didn't get to kill anything yet...”
and so we continue our conversation a little longer and he eventually takes off while I remain there for as long as possible before returning myself to get into the game again.
Oh, by the way, Michi and I are classmates and we graduated together, we normally meet here during the 4 hour break you have to take from the headgear every day and talk about random stuff.
It is a really great system, that you have to take a 4 hours break every day, so that your brain could regenerate a little and during that break the servers for CoM are also down, so after the break it's like there was never a break and you can be 24/7 in-game without using the headgear 24/7... if you get what I mean.
Anyway, back at my home that is really small I get back to my bed and lie down while equipping the helmet.
Back in CoM I find myself where I left, dead at the surface of the river, waiting to re-spawn.
But I don't have anything to do right now, so I decide to check the forums for anything interesting.
[STICKY]Interview with Head designer/chief Aizen
oh wow, this is the first time I see him say anything, he normally refuses to give interviews no matter what, but now he actually appears in one?
Clicking on the video there is a middle aged man …
Host:“today's guest is a taicho aizen, he has been unicorn's chief as well as head designer for 10 years now and never once gave any statements himself, but today he was so generous as to initiate a interview himself. Why is it that you never before answered any questions regarding the future of unicorn yourself?”
Aizen:“oh, I was a little nervous that I would have to answer difficult questions right from the beginning, but this is truly easy. I simply had no time for trivial things like interviews in the past, because there were more important things to do. Namely developing the new headgear as well as Chronicles of Mana. If I had given interviews in the past the release might have been delayed by a day of two. Tell me, would you be able to shoulder such a huge responsibility?”
Host:“as expected of the most mysterious man on earth, his train of thought can't be compared to a normal human like me. Anyway on to the next question, the price you are selling the new headgear at is extremely low, it is hard to believe that you will make any significant profit with a price at a mere 200$ for a headgear and the game costs only 50$ as well with no monthly fee, some people even say you are doing charity work?”
Aizen:“hahahaha... you are right the profit will be extremely low and we will only barley be able to write black numbers, since 200$ can only cover the development and production cost so there won't be any profit left, and the 50$ for CoM cover the development costs as well. The main source of income will be the auction house, where every transaction will have a 1% fee, laughable when compared to taxes, but we expect enough players to use this function to easily sustain our maintenance costs.
However money isn't really a problem and I was never interested in trivial things, so being rich would do nothing more than bore me, so even though we could sell these products at a far higher price, there is no need.
These politics have caused a lot of people to believe that we are doing charity work here at unicorn, rumors go as far as saying that the chief is a selfless person, a saint, a hero... hahahaha, to bad I never had time to listen to more of these rumors and only a few reached my ears by chance.
Selfless? A hero? I haven't laughed that good in a long time.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Let me tell you one thing, humans are selfish creatures, from the first day they are born they only think about what's best for themselves and trample over other people ambitions and dreams.
Did you lot watch the trailer? In the trailer there is the talk about a dream, a dream that created the world, if not for that dream there would be no CoM. My dream was it to create a world with lots of people in which there are endless adventures and challenges one has to overcome, ever since I was a little kid that did nothing else but read web-novels did I have this dream and now 30 years later that dream has finally become reality.
What I did was only for myself and fulfilling that dream of mine, I did that to enjoy myself, so how could I call myself selfless? Using nearly every human on earth for my selfish desire to create my dreamworld, roughly 150.000.000 soon to be players in CoM, all for the sake of my selfish desire. I am not the most selfless, but the most selfish man in human history. For that I want to thank you, thank you for participating in this old man's dream and making it possible. 'bow'
that being said you can start praying that you may never cross path with my blade. 'grin'”
Host:”hahaha, I knew my brain wouldn't be able to keep up with your reasoning. What was the saying? One for all, all for one? Anyway, I thank you for taking your time to answer my questions and with this I wish everyone good luck with there leveling”
he... ha... hahaha. This guy is good, heheehee. Selfish, selfless? Indeed he is the most selfish man on earth, yet everyone sees him as the most selfless man. Two opposite things that are harmoniously combined into one in the same person. Truly a dragon amongst man.
While he uses every human that plays the game, witch is about 99%, he uses them for his dream, for he wishes to live in a world with no boundaries, where everything is possible, a world where over 100 million players struggle to be the best, a world full of competition, confrontations, challenges, a world where you can truly be free.
'cough' that sounded really cheese...
seeing that guy's personality, this place really might be the place I too have longed for, for a long time.
At any rate I have to re-spawn now, no time for useless thought. Let's pray that I have made it far enough that I can re-spawn at the village and not back at Makoto where I first spawned.
While thinking that I can feel the connection to my body disappearing and see how it slowly disintegrates into dust and vanishes before my blurry vision.
Huh? Whats this strange feeling, before I always died inside that strange violet mist, but now that I am outside there should happen something right? But I just hover there in mid-air directly above the river not moving at all. Without a body and without a clue what to do...
they say that in extraordinary situations humans are capable of performing extraordinary things. And I would say this is quite the situation I found myself in, so let's try something that no human would ever think of.
Move! When I was still a human of flesh and blood I would have never thought that there would come the day I would willingly decide to perform movement, the act of bringing your body from point A to B. A truly outstanding thing that only a selected few have ever though of and fewer made possible.
Today I try to step into the short chain of humans that could only be called legendary and attempt to take my first step, metaphorically speaking of course, since I have lost my legs just a few minutes ago.
Willing myself to move forward against all odds and instincts a human is born with I use my willpower to overcome this great challenge.
Channeling all my thought to move towards the village, the location I desire to be at, the destination I set for myself for this first journey of mine.
Like a newborn taking the first step I feel my body shifting from its original location forward as if drawn by a fine string.
That is when I had an idea, you may call it a stroke of genius if you want to, I wouldn't even blame you for worshiping the great me for this master plan I decided upon this very instance. An idea that may shake the heaven and split apart the earth. A method never heard before, descendent into my brain this very moment.
Shocked by the enlightenment I just received I stopped moving forward and stood still, directly above the surface of the river, hovering in mid-air. Not moving and not daring to breath at all... wait I can't breath.
Anyway, I concentrate on the spot and try to feel my surrounding, myself, the breathing of the world around me.
Entering a meditative state while doing nothing is really easy, when you have no senses that disrupt your thinking then even a novice like me can empty his brain and stop all thoughts.
Ok, screw this, this won't work like this... so on to the second phase of my plan.
Even though I don't really know what is going on I will just take a risk and guess.
I am directly between Makoto and the village I wanted to go to, so the logical conclusion is that these violet mist things where you re-spawn are exactly the same distance away from me and so I just remain in between.
I already discovered that I can move around, although slow, I can. If I follow a path between these mist things where I will be never close to any single one, then I might be able to move forward without having to walk around, bwahahahhahaha.
Having found a new idea to exploit I can't remain calm at all and full of excitement I move along where I believe the path to be.
Too slow... this is really too damn slow, at first I thought the speed would rise significantly with more training, but after an hour I still move not one bit faster than a snail!
I made it about 10m, well I guess the snail radi isn't all that slow, but walking is definitely faster...
well, I don't have anything else to do, so I decide to continue this anyways, but with much less vigor and my expectations are pretty much nonexistent now.
Another 5 hours later I get much better at this and my speed has increased to 1 m/s. If I get any faster I might not be able to slow down ever again and continue my adventure though the whole universe...
just kidding, but I made it about 10km, not an insignificant distance if you ask me and before me I see a hill, neither small nor big, about 50m high and it's blocking my path. Well, I am not so sure about the blocking part, since I am some sort of ghost-type thing right now, so I might just slip thought the earth for all I know.
Thus without knowing whether or not this is a good idea I continue forward without hesitation and enter the hill...
I might see a dungeon for all I know, hohohoho, gimme adventure!
A/N:
“what are you doing there?”
“oh its you sensei, I noticed that your fiction doesn't have many average views, so I am helping you!”
“oh, that's nice of you, but how could you possible help me, I will only write better with praise and cookies”
“i am rating every singe fiction that is better rated with 0.5!”
“...”
“that way others don't want to read them and all will come to your fiction, you don't have to thanks me~”
“ehm, that won't to, you can't just rate someone low without even reading the first few chapters, just because you want someone elses story to be higher ranked”
“but, that I mean...”
“let me make this clear, if every single person would rate stories that aren't his favorite with 0.5 and hate them in the comments or reviews, then all that will do is that every author will lose interest in writing or at least posting on this site and then no one will be left here. The greatest thing in the internet are communities, and we the novel-otaku community can't just hate each other! By doing so we would self-destruct and do you want that?”
“no... I only wanted that sensei's fiction is more popular”
“then the best way would be to earnestly read and review other fictions and don't just 5/5 everything, then tell other people about this awesome site and the community will blossom. Even a novice writer like myself will eventually receive more views that way, as long as people like it of course”
“ok, sensei I am glad you are my sensei, that way I won't stay stupid all my life”
“hmm... that's only natural, the older generation has to show the junior generation the way of the world, by carefully explaining things to them and not just randomly hating naive infants that know no better, because there parents told them that they are special snowflakes and have to be dicks to everyone else.”
“oh, what means dick?”
“...”
next chap is finally some action, fufufufu