Day 1

“Welcome to the world of Magic Miracle. Please wait as we process the player’s identity and gamer ID number.”

Listening to the disembodied voice, I took a look at my surroundings. Instead of the blackness of the VR’s main menu, I was in a fairly well lit circular room. The bricks that made up the room were both dark and gloomy, but the light of the torches on the wall made everything seem, mysterious. If I were to guess, I would think the game was trying to mimic a castle dungeon.

“Identification complete. Thank you for waiting Five Rivers. Unfortunately we are experiencing a discrepancy with your registered age.”

“Huh, w-what do you mean?”

“The age registered in your VR equipment, and the age registered to the game installed, do not match. Due to regulations, we can only allow you to play the game as a minor.”

“What? So you’re saying my game is going to be censored? That’s bull****!” At the end of my sentence a loud bleep entered my ears. “Holy****, your bleeping out the **** words too!?”

“Please refrain from swearing.”

After being lectured by the AI, I let out a groan. Obviously my mother did something she wasn’t suppose to when she bought the game...then again. Maybe the reason my VR set was so cheap was because it originally belonged to a minor. That doesn’t make sense though, seeing as I was able to enter in my information during calibration without any issues.

“I just turned thirty years old yesterday, this is ridiculous. Just scan my face and you’ll see.”

The AI seemed to think about that after a moment, as if it were thinking, but really it actually did what I said.

“It appears that you are correct. The scan shows that there is no youthful features present in your facial structure. Unfortunately we still cannot lift the age limitations. We can however adjust your spawn location closer to those in your age range. This will allow you to interact with people near your actual age. The other limitations, unfortunately, cannot be lifted so soon.”

At first I thought the problem was fixed, but it looked like I was wrong. Hearing about these limitations worried me even more. Besides not being able to swear, what other problems would I face? “Um...what are these limitations? Is it going to ruin the game?”

“Please do not worry, the limitations of an age-restricted player do not affect gameplay, and even come with some benefits. I will gladly list what those changes are.”

The AI almost sounded convincing there for a minute, but I felt like it sounded a little too enthusiastic about these benefits.

“Age-Restricted players are limited to building an avatar in the same age range as real life. Though these characters will appear younger, all racial traits will remain the same as their adult counter parts. When the player becomes of age, in real life, they are then granted an opportunity to remake the image of their character. At this time, we are unable to adjust this limitation for you, and you will have to wait one year before the issue can be revisited.”

So..basically I’m going to look like a kid for the next year in game, before they could fix anything.

“In addition, you will be unable to enter age inappropriate areas. EX. Brothels, or Execution/Torture rooms are off limits. Any gore, or age sensitive images, will likewise be censored in game. The pain simulator will also be disabled. This mean you will likely be able to perform better in battles while being injured.”

That’s also reasonable...wait, but I’m an adult. “So no blood?!”

“Only at reasonable amounts.”

“****, I was looking forward to that the most.”

“Please don’t swear. Some benefits to playing as an Age-Restricted character are also provided.

For starters, Age-Restricted players will find they have three extra lock spaces in their inventory, as well as having all of their equipped items protected from dropping, should they fall during combat. This will save you from being bullied by older players who like to Player Kill.

You will also be granted the highest security vault the first time you purchase a vault through the bank’s storage system, securing your items from robberies. Though they wont be 100% secure, these items will still be insured automatically, should they be successfully stolen.”

That’s not too bad, though I kind of wonder what kind of game this is to allow bank robberies.

“Lastly an Age-Restricted player is forced to log out at set intervals, once every five hours. The increased experience gained in game, and the AR Quests provided by the Age-Restricted Promo will make up for any time loss during that time. I noticed you have yet to activate the AR Promo card. I advise that you do this as soon as possible, so that you can maximize your benefits from the game, even after logging out.”

“Wait what? I’m going to be forced to log out? No way!”

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I think the AR Promo will be a very beneficial tool to you in the future. I have already sent in a request so that your AR Quests will be updated for your situation.”

“Tasks? What tasks?” Suddenly I thought back to the card I set aside before logging in.

“The AR Promo will be explained upon activating your promo card.”

“Fine...is that all?”

“That is all.”

Not thrilled with what I herd, I honestly couldn’t complain. I didn’t really have my heart set on playing this game in the first place, having missed out on playing Auto-Annihilation is the only reason I was playing this now.

“Are you ready to create your character?”

“I am.”

“Great, please step in front of the mirror.” As if on cue, a full length mirror appeared in front of me. I guess I might as well make the best of this. Who would have guessed that choosing to play Magic Miracle would actually change my life.

“Let’s see, Appraisal. Hide. Trade…” While walking through a bustling sea side market street, I listed off the Skills, Abilities, Talents and Traits I had to myself. To all others, I just looked like a random kid taking a walk through town. Being forced to play as an adolescence, I took advantage of the system and made the most generic, ‘Innocent looking’ avatar I could think off. Either nobody would notice me, or I could pretend to be an NPC to con a couple of players. It’s the main Reason I chose the name Orphan. Simple, Cool Sounding, and easy to mistake as the name of a generic NPC.

Name: Orphan

Race: Human/Halfling

Skills: Trade, Read, Write, Hide, Appraisal, Pick Pocket,

Abilities: Dodge, Jump, Speak Dwarvern Language, Dagger Mastery, Slight of Hand

Talents: Diplomatic, Sticky Fingers, Silver Tongue

Attributes: (Human Race: +1 all basic Attributes), (Halfling Race: +1 agility, +1 Speed, +1 Luck)

Pulling up my character screen, I couldn’t help but feel a little proud. I was already decked out with the skills and abilities for a perfect thief type character! The two races, Human and Halfling, made a perfect mix for your average criminal, but I still had to choose between a couple of racial abilities, and ended up leaving a few behind. It wasn’t anything important though, I already knew how to easily get a couple of them back, thanks to the few hours I spent in the forums before logging in. The Skill: Appraisal, came from spending a few character points in character creation. With only a handful of options, I decided to spend the rest of my points on one of the more expensive ‘Talents’ that complimented my racial skills. The Talent: Silver Tongue boosts any skills, or abilities, that use talking as the base. So languages, haggling, and even persuasion skills would get a boost. I didn’t have most of those skills now, but from what I understood it was easy to acquire them.

Skills, and Abilities, could be obtained in a number of different ways. They could be taught, or learned, from NPCs like trainers, and even learned from a book. Even more interesting is that these things could be learned by completing certain actions or tasks. Like achievements, you can be granted a skill for doing something unexpected. When I read about this new dynamic earlier, I felt a little excited. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of the free power boosts given to you for just being awesome? While skills were the easiest to find, Abilities were a little more rare. Skills were considered the core of the game, the basic functions a player could manage in and out of battle, but abilities were the modifiers that made you perform these skills at a higher level. If a person wielding a sword used the Skill Move: Slash, a person with the Ability: Sword Mastery could perform the skill faster, and deal more damage, allowing a player to be a percentage stronger than the person without it. The power differences didn’t stop their either.

Talents. Anyone with a little life experience would know the difference between someone with talent, vs someone without talent. Though a person without talent could out perform someone with talent, with a little hard work, it only counted if the person with talent didn’t even try. If a person with talent was also hard working, they would easily be on the fast track to success. This concept was brought into the game of Magic Miracle. If Abilities were the difficult to find Skill boosters, then Talents were gifts from god that boosted multiple actions in the game. This is probably why every character started out with Racial Talents. This is also why Silver Tongue was so expensive to acquire.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Continuing on my walk as I explored the town, I struggled to make it around the many people crowding the streets. Despite the game randomly distributing the millions of players in different parts of the world, there were still a number of people showing up in the same town as me. Although I was shorter than most kids, due to my half ling blood, I still looked like a normal kid. My appearance may have lost a couple more years in age, but the racial Talents, and Abilities were worth the sacrifice. Suddenly I bumped into the legs of a couple of guys wearing the same novice clothes as me. The sudden impact made me fall backwards… Ok, let’s be honest, I fell backwards on purpose.

“Ow!”

“Huh, oh hey. Watch out kid.”

Doing my best to tear up, I started rubbing my eyes vigorously while making hiccuping noises.

“Oh ****. I think he’s gonna cry.”

“Oh, he’s an NPC. Do you think our reputation in town will drop because of this?”

“I hope not, we just started ******* playing.”

Ignoring the bleeped out words, I continued my performance. “Ow….it really hurts...Mr. That was soo mean!”

A couple of nearby shop owners, and a few players, started to look over as I started to ‘cry’.

“****! Quick, Do something!”

Finally one of them bent down to see if I was ok. “Hey-Hey, I’m sorry kid. I didn’t mean to bump into you like that. Where’s your parents? I can take you too them if you like.”

What the hell? Was this guy an idiot? He just asked an orphan where his parents were at. Though this was suppose to be realistic, the game still allowed the display names of players and NPCs to be shown in a certain proximity. While players could hide their names, the NPCs couldn’t, so I strategically left my display name on. All anyone could see, was a little kid with the word ‘Orphan” above his head, and a man asking him where his parents were. Oh god, this is gonna be good.

“...THEY’RE DEAD! WAAAAaaaAAAA!!” Not gonna lie, trying to act like you’re crying hysterically is a little hard. Despite my sub par performance, I still got the reaction I wanted from the crowd.

“What did that guy just say? How heartless.”

“Can’t he see that NPC says Orphan? How cold.”

“Wow, I almost feel sorry for the guy, he stepped right in it.”

Seeing the disaster unfolding in front of him, the man’s friend quickly gave a suggestion. “Why don’t you try giving him some food, or money? Maybe that will be enough to calm him down. He’s poor after all, isn’t he? Poor people love hand outs.”

“..but, I ate the only bread I had, remember? I was testing out the taste functions. And...we only start with a few coppers.” To keep the guy from thinking about it for too long, I went back to acting hurt, while blabbering on about some story of how my parents died.

“Th-they died in a-a bandit raid, Mr. *Hic* They m-murdered...Ow...my leg really hurts…they murdered them in *Sniff* fro-front of me! *Hic* I’m all alone now.” I wasn’t sure if the sniffling was a little too much, but sure enough it worked out.

“I-I’m sorry kid, ok? Look, I got a few coins here, maybe you could use it to get some food, or...?”

Steeling a glance at the five coppers in his hand, I pretended to calm down a little. “R-Really, Mr.?” Seeing the gloom on the man’s face, I knew I had him where I wanted him. “Thank you, *Sniff* there’s a soup stall nearby that I r-really wanted to try. I h-herd it is r-really delicious, but *Hic* it costs ten coppers to buy one. I’m really hungry.”

Suddenly the guy’s face went a little white. Each player usually starts out with 50 copper coins to start themselves off with. A starting weapon costs about 40, while a health potion costs 8, so losing 10 coppers isn’t something to scuff at. “Um..are you sure tha-”

“..Oww my leg hurts…”

“Absolutely kid, here, take this. Lunch is on me!”

Quickly taking the coins offered, I smiled of at the guy. “Thank you mister! You’re so generous!” Waving goodbye to the two suckers, I quickly ran off.

“… I feel like I just got conned.”

“You definitely got conned.”

To be honest. That wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last time I pulled that trick. Being new myself, it was easy to pick out the starting players in the town I spawned in. So while I got my bearings, I took the time to pull a few more scams. What I learned is that one: people are gullible, and two: I spawned in a town called New Port. The coast side fishing village was one of a few towns responsible for providing fish to the larger cities located inland. The kingdom these cities and villages were a part of was a human kingdom called Hammon. Located between the ocean, a giant forest, and a mountain range, Hammon formed a huge valley. It was perfect for raising various types of livestock. If I had to guess, I’d say we were mostly cut off from the rest of the world, making everything rather peaceful.

Not long after pulling a few scams, I moved on to greener pastures. As much fun as it is to scam a few coppers, I knew the real money came from progressing in the game.

“But sir, this dagger is clearly rusted, showing that it was not intended to be sold to the public. I mean, I found it at the bottom of a barrel. If I go out using such a weapon, at the price you are asking for, and the weapon breaks, because of it’s poor quality, I could get hurt. I fear your reputation would then be tarnished.” Staring at a large bearded man in a run down weapons shop, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for what I was doing.

Notice: Congratulations! You learned the Ability: Coerce. You’re words are sharp, but your mind is sharper. +1 inteligence.

Thrilled by the sudden notification, I didn’t forget to continue my stare down of the man in front of me.

“Oh, alright. I can lower the price to eight coppers, but that is as far as I will go.” After a moment of thinking the old blacksmith reluctantly agreed to part with the old weapon.

Notice: You have obtained a Rusty Dagger.

Notice: You have learned the Skill: Bargain. Every adventurer must be able to manage there money effectively. Otherwise you end up a vagabond.+1 Intelligence.

Having learned both a skill AND an ability, I couldn’t feel more proud. Though these were two of the easy abilities to learn, and they weren’t very useful against other players, they were still useful when talking to NPCs. The Bargain skill could be obtained just by doing that, bargaining. After the transaction completed during your first successful bargaining attempt, you automatically gained the skill. The same for coerce. These kinds of things were the first few hints the Beta testers introduced into the forums, so it really wasn’t that hard to figure out. Although, I don’t think I could of gotten Coerce without the Silver Tongue talent, because it’s really difficult to bully NPCs at low levels. At least the amount of points I wasted on it were already showing benefits. Just as I was about to leave the store, counting the remaining 87 coppers I had, the Blacksmith called out to me.

“Hey kid, if you're tight on cash, and need a way to make money, you should visit the Adventure’s guild. I herd they are recruiting new members, and are offering free classes and training. If your skills are as sharp as your tongue, then you’ll fit right in.” Not even waiting for my reply, he went back to work pounding away at his anvil.

“Huh, that was subtle. I mean, I’m not low on cash, but… free sounds good.” Ignoring the fact that a kid holding a knife just walked by them, a couple more players entered the shop and called out to the blacksmith.

New Port’s Adventure’s Guild was located just opposite the docks on the east side of town. Not too far away from the boardwalk, it was positioned on top of a wooden platform, built into a seaside cliff. To reach it’s front entrance, you had to climb four sets of rickety stairs that creaked under your weight. With each step you took, you risked having the whole structure collapse. Regardless of how dangerous climbing the flight of stairs was, two lines of traffic, one going up and the other down, was present. Reminiscent of the lines at an amusement park, these people, all wearing the same novice clothing, were forced to share space on these steps. With so many players climbing these stairs at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel sweat build up on the back of my neck. It felt like death was hanging just around the corner.

Sticking close to the right side, myself, and a few others, let a line of people pass before continuing up hill.

“Do you think this is really worth it?”

“I don’t know. Honestly I just hope we don’t die before we get there.”

Listening to a couple people conversing in front of me, I spared a glance over the side of the railing. It didn’t look like it from the bottom, but we were actually pretty high up.

“I herd that the classes aren’t mandatory, and some of them are a waste of time. They don’t teach you any skills, which means they’re really just a tutorial. At least the weapons classes give you a novice weapon to start with.”

“That will save me on money.”

“Yeah, but they’re weaker than the ones that you buy at the store.”

“Then what’s the point of risking our lives trying to go there?” A third guy chimed up behind me, including himself into the conversation.

“The quest board. They’re still an Adventure’s guild. After taking a couple classes, you get access to the real thing.”

That made sense. I guess it wouldn’t be as fun if there weren’t any quests involved. Speaking of, I wonder what kind of quests that AR Promo will give me. Distracted by the conversation, and my wondering thoughts, I miss stepped, causing me to trip on the stairs. Falling forward, I reflexively reached out to grab hold of something, which happened to be the pant leg of the guy in front of me. Having obstructed him from taking his next step, the larger man also tripped, colliding into a player that was passing by on her way down the stairs. Having been run into by someone twice her size, the beautiful dark haired woman was pushed back against the railing.

“Eeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Not having enough time to save herself, or for someone else to save her, the girl toppled up, and over, the side of the railing bordering the stairs. What fallowed was a blood curdling scream as she plummeted four stories down the side of the cliff. Leave behind an eerie, and more deathly, feeling hanging in the air, the girl vanished.

“THUMP!”

A loud thud, and a few screams, came up from below. Scrambling to the edge of the stairs, me, and a few other witnesses, peered over the side to see what had happened to the girl who fell.

“Oh god, what have I done?!”

“MY GOD! That’s horrible!”

“****! This game is graffic! I thought this game was suppose to be less bloody than A-A, but this?”

“Do you think she felt it?”

“I think I’m gonna be sick!”

Hearing the various chatter around me, caused me to feel increasingly depressed, because the moment I looked down at the scene of the death, I was greeted with a very anti climatic image. Right where I assumed the body was suppose to be, was a mosaic of dark boxes surrounded by a group of players displaying various types of reactions. Some of these players even had these same mosaics covering parts of their clothing. It seems that AI hadn’t lied. This was censorship. I really wouldn’t be allowed to see the blood and gore that I wanted.

Disheartened, I backed away from the edge of the stairs before continuing up. Passing the guy who’d pushed the girl off the cliff, who had long forgotten I’d been the one who tripped him, I noticed his player name had appeared above his head, displayed in a deep read. That’s right, when a player kills another player, unprovoked, they are flagged for thirty minutes. During this time, other players, and NPCs can all attack the player without penalty or fear of being flagged themselves. If a player dies with a red name, they drop even more equipment than a player who has a green name. It seems that this rule applies even if the death wasn’t intentional. Suddenly I panicked. If he had a red name from just bumping into the girl, would I have one for causing the guy to trip in the first place? Quickly looking up at my tag, I was greeted with a bright green ‘Orphan’. “Few, That was close.”

Continuing forward, I passed a few guards that were running down the stair, right toward where I had just been. More yelling could be herd on the stairs a few seconds later. Ignoring the panic, and chaos behind me, I finally made it to the top of the stairs. “Does this count as my first in game adventure?”