…

“One account per copy.”

Hm.

Okay.

----------------------------------------

It’s fine, it was fine, everything was alright for Dantes. It was a fine day. Fine, fine, fine. It felt as though he had been fined for his sins. Descending into hell. Surely it couldn’t get any worse, surely.

He continued to agree to the EULA and TOS, then chose his own language, which did not make any sense. Why would the devs configure the language AFTER everything? What if the user did not speak the base language the digital copy came with? It felt as though the devs were actively malicious in their decisions…

Anyhow, he continued past and spotted various spelling errors. “Coose”, “Adn”, “Argee”. Some of these were extremely obvious. What were they feeding the devs or translators? They must’ve been working under the worst conditions possible, perhaps explaining their malice toward other humans. Well, now that they had been tainted, they should probably be kept in their cage. No use crying over spilt milk.

“Are you ready to enter the world of Everybody’s Tower!?”

Yes.

And with a colourful show of light, Dantes began to warp into a new reality — one which he had been anticipating for so long. While he had his worries, he still was sure this was going to be the game of the century. During the beta test, he had seen great things. Things never seen before that blew his mind. This was the wonder of gaming, this was its pinnacle. As the screen began to turn white, Dantes felt as though he was floating like a suspended feather in still water, and suddenly, he sank first into the water, causing a slight panic.

However, Dantes immediately awoke in the foreign world.

Safe Zone 1: City of Light, Cadra.

----------------------------------------

It was a bustling city, already full of players as expected. The game had come out many hours earlier, but Dantes overslept the day after binging guides for the game. Ironically, he was actually comparing his own guides to the others’, as he wished to become the top player of NA. To do so, he would first need to scope his main competition — whales and beta-testers.

Even in this classical medieval town, full of fruit stands, smitheries, bars and NPCs with exclamation marks above their heads, Dantes could smell the whale oil in the air. It stank of it. As expected, as he turned around, he could already see that many no-lifers were already at higher levels. Lvl 20. Lvl 26. Even Lvl 31. He had some catching up to do.

Obviously, as a pro gamer, Dantes immediately chose to skip the tutorials. The devs had the courtesy to provide him with the reward of the quest without completing it, which included 1500 gold and a lowest-tier staff. Dantes opened the Player Interface.

This was one of the great improvements in switching to VR. Now instead of flipping through inventory, equipment, skill trees, quests and such, all tabs were open simultaneously all around him. If he wanted to browse a different tab, instead of switching to another — usually accompanied by a slight delay — he could simply, turn around.

‘This is so fucking exciting!’ thought Dantes.

He soon realized that since he chose a female avatar, his voice was also filtered to sound feminine — and it sounded genuine at that. He did not know how to feel about it, and he felt a bit like a pervert. Dantes regretted not thinking about it more…

After equipping the tutorial staff in the equipment tab, stationed right in front of him, he turned right to his status tab to check out his stats.

DumbassBitch

Tutorial Staff

Lvl 1

HP +200

Healer

MP +100

HP: 1200

Healing Bonus 5%

MP: 600

“It’s dangerous to go alone! take this”

ATK: 155

MAG: 155

AGE: 0

Now, everything was as it should be, that was, except a strange stat called AGE…

“Hm? Are you wondering about the AGE stat?” a voice suddenly called out.

Dantes flinched and turned to face the voice, greeted by a small fairy.

“Welcome to Everybody’s Tower!” said the fairy, “I’m Agnes, your tutorial fairy!”

“...Are you real?”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Nope, just an AI! Toosoft is a big company, but not THAT big! It’s still a great company though,”

Dantes awkwardly passed the comment. What a strange bot.

“Anyways, what’s the AGE stat then?”

“The AGE stat stands for Alternative General Experience.” answered Agnes, the tutorial fairy, “It’s like Lvl, but expendable! Think of it like skill points, but used for a ton of stuff! Like leveling your weapon, and equipment and even casting spells or buying items!”

“Hm… Interesting. So is it the same as exp? I suppose it’s a bit like Cinemraft, where you use it up as you enchant.”

“You also lose all of it when you die!”

“That’s fine by me.”

“Then good luck! I’ll be there when you have any questions!” said Agnes, “Try not to die, bitch!”

Dantes quickly turned around to confirm what the fairy had just added to the end of her sentence, but alas, she had disappeared into thin air. There was definitely something up with this game — something sinister. The initialization process, the language selection, now the tutorial bots… Something was wrong.

However, Dantes believed that such bugs and poor designs would be ironed out in a few days. Many of these things almost seemed like a last-minute decision, made by a rogue employee. Though such a scenario was unlikely. Very, very unlikely.

Now came the most difficult part of the entire game. He had anticipated this moment from the very beginning, as he knew not only from the beta but from his entire career as an MMORPG enjoyer. This was the one hurdle he often failed to overcome, even in most games he played. It was often the one thing keeping him from 100%ing the game, but it was also what drove him to become better than anyone else:

Finding a party.

Of course, he could technically complete these beginner quests alone, but he knew the advantages of joining a temporary party. Not only was it multiple times faster — especially because he was a healer now — but it also provided bonus rewards to incentivize cooperation. It could also lead to more connections, which would help create or join a guild as well as trading.

Now his number one priority was to find a DPS main, perhaps an assassin or necromancer or caster. Even a paladin would be great. Dantes began walking around town in hopes of searching for the perfect candidate to approach.

----------------------------------------

The sky began to turn orange-crimson as the crows began to return to their nest. Dantes was now sitting at a bar, staring at a man with red hair at the opposing wall.

Dantes stared nervously as the beer in front of him almost began to unload from inactivity, automatically being erased. The red haired man was the perfect candidate: similar level as him, an assassin, and one missing only a healer in his party as one. However, there was only one problem:

He was surrounded by women. He must’ve been popular in real life as well, considering how everyone referred to his real name: Reijin.

Reijin. It sounded similar to Raijin or Raiden, a powerful name. So cool… His avatar was attractive as well, but who wasn’t? This wasn’t the type of game where players would choose the ugliest creations of god just for laughs — this was real-life 2.

As Dantes was distracted by the patterns of the table — it had a great texture design — Rejin slowly walked up to him. Finally confronting the player after being stalked the whole day.

“Hey,” said Reijin as he put his hand on Dantes’s shoulder.

“Wah!” screamed Dantes, jolting and falling from his seat.

‘Wow, fall damage’ immediately thought Dantes. It sure was a realistic game.

Reijin offered his hand, and Dantes casually accepted. However, he soon felt Reijin’s party members staring daggers into his face. He soon realized what this must’ve looked like to everyone else, his avatar being that of a girl and all.

“R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-reiji-jin! H-h-h-h-how a-a-a-a-are uh”

He was not helping his case at all.

“...Uh, wow I guess we were pretty loud about my name huh? But I’d like everyone to just refer to me as Renegade, my display name. Your name is…”

Dantes quickly moved his hand to cover his username to no avail. He was met with laughter from Renegade, followed awkwardly by his followers. However, it was not a mocking laugh, but rather a kind, comradery laugh.

“I’ve been there,” said Renegade, “Here, let me show you something.”

Renegade walked in close to Dates and opened his Player Interface.

“I learned that when you’re in very close proximity to another person, you can share their view of the UI. Now follow my steps.”

Dantes felt that Renegade was uncomfortably close, but still felt great. The best feeling as a newbie was always when a higher-level player demonstrated the ropes. While Renegade was not much higher level than him, it seemed that he was much more versed in the social areas. Dantes did not even know signatures were in this game!

“And that’s how you change your display name,” said Renegade, “I definitely shared your experience in another game — Alvion Eden, you might’ve played it.”

“A-ah! AE! I’ve played it, level 572!”

“Wow! You’re a lot higher level than me,” said Renegade, “Wanna hear what my username was?”

Renegade leaned it closer, close enough that Dantes could smell his unique scents. He was not gay. I mean, is not gay.

“Newbie420”

Renegade burst into laughter while Dantes watched in deadpan.

“That’s… it?”

“Don’t you get it? It’s the weed number!”

“Ah. Yeah, that's funny…”

Ah, he was a normie. No, Dantes did not wish to associate with 5chan users. He was a… pure soul. Yeah.

“Anyways, you’re a healer, right?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Then wanna join my party? We have everyone except a healer! What a coincidence!”

“Uh…”

Dantes looked to the other party members. All of them were (presumably) girls, and they all seemed to immediately have taken a dislike to him. It was understandable, Dantes just had that effect after all — even in real life. It would’ve been great if it was just Renegade and him but… it would be difficult to work with a party where only 1 other person actually wanted him on the team.

“I’ll think about it…”

“Here’s a friend invite!” said Renegade, “send me a message when you’re done deciding, alright? See you around!”

A notification ring. Accept. At least Dantes accomplished something — expanding his connection. He was sure that as long as Renegade didn’t quit the game, he would become a decent player, probably carried by other people. Since this wasn’t his first time, perhaps he would slowly become a true gamer.

Dantes too left the bar. It was now night outside. He would take a walk to clear his mind and enjoy the scenery, then make the decision.