A gong rang out through the early morning, blanketing the sprawling metropolis with its sound. Anticipation and excitement filled the air in its wake as the populace began filling the streets. They knew what was coming; it happened like clockwork.
Lights appeared in the sky, like meteors falling to Earth. But these weren’t the right colors; they glowed blue and green in addition to the more expected reds and oranges. They streaked towards the ground with blinding speed, signaling a new beginning.
One of the streaks came down in an alleyway near the edge of town. There was nothing noteworthy to be found there; just a dumpster and a few bits of random trash. Tinged with a blue glow, the shining comet shot to the ground, crashing directly into the dumpster. While the impact shook the dumpster violently, it did nothing more than make the lid fall closed.
After a few seconds, the lid slammed back open as a man shot to his feet on the inside. He stumbled from side to side for a moment before doubling over and retching. There was, apparently, nothing in his stomach, but that didn’t stop it. As his insides tried to abandon him, his muscles tensed and he was absently aware of a crunching, squealing sound.
As his feet steadied, he realized that he’d nearly thrown up directly on his own feet. Only his empty stomach had saved him. He braced himself against the edge and leaped out, which was heralded by more crunching sounds and a crash as he landed heavily on the concrete.
The sudden movement made the world spin around him, and he stumbled against the building opposite the dumpster before sliding to the ground to let the moment pass. He looked back at the dumpster as his vision steadied, and his eyes went wide. The metal lip of the dumpster was deformed and twisted into a mangled wreck.
Slowly, the man looked at his own hands, and found them to be unfamiliar. His normally slender fingers had become thick and powerful, the kind of hands that he could believe crumpled metal like paper.
Dizziness forgotten, he hurled himself to his feet and hurried down the alley to the nearest window he could find. It was faint, but his reflection was there for him to check. Or, rather, a reflection. But it didn’t look like him.
No, on second thought, it did look like him in a way. It was as if his real face had been the poor rough draft for the rugged features now before him. Each feature had been refined and adjusted ever so slightly, and the overall effect was startling. On top of that, his hair had grown into an unruly dark mop and he was sporting a frankly glorious beard. It was almost insulting to look at; it’s not like he’d been ugly before, but his new face was making him doubt himself. The thought didn’t last, as his face was the least of the changes that he’d undergone.
He’d always been tall, but lanky and thin. He’d kept his height, but now he looked closer to an Olympic power lifter. Bulky muscles wrapped every inch of his body like thick steel cords, filling him with a strength unlike anything he’d ever felt before.
He could see every detail through blue and silvery-gray spandex that looked like it had been sprayed on. His torso was covered in armor made from dark metal slats that looked like a hardcore blacksmith’s apron. It must have been extremely heavy, but he didn’t even notice. Heavy boots, thick work gloves, and a set of welding goggles around his neck completed the ensemble.
He looked like a steampunk superhero.
The thought stuck firmly in his head and he turned to run towards the street. When he hit the sidewalk he turned to look at the building beside him. It was an old-school looking diner with a bright neon sign that declared it as “Mac’s Place.” But that wasn’t what drew the man’s attention. Beside the sign in the window was a poster that featured a superhero holding a soda bottle. It proudly declared, “All-New Caped Cola! The choice of Commander Heartfire!”
He had seen it before. Hundreds of times in fact. It was one of the most commonly reused assets in his favorite game, Epic Heroes Online. A superhero based MMORPG.
At that moment, he should have been confused, but he was too shocked to process anything else. He was there. In the streets of Paramount City, as an honest-to-god superhero. His hands were shaking as the panic finally fought its way to the surface. His whole body began to shake and his legs gave way; he fell to the ground. He wanted to refuse the things that he was seeing. His mind recoiled at the most fleeting thought of accepting the situation. It made his stomach turn over and threaten to start convulsing again.
His reprieve only came when a notification box popped up in the center of his vision. It broke his train of thought as the new development grabbed his attention and distracted him from the mental implosion that he was having. The box was flashing red at him, and held the message:
Alert! Burglary reported near you!
His gamer brain snapped to attention in an instant. He'd seen such notifications thousands of times. It was familiar, and he knew what to do. He just needed to stop his first crime and get his first experience. That's what you do with new characters, plain and simple.
He pulled himself to his feet, only to have something crash into him and send him sprawling. Someone yelled at him, but he wasn't listening due to the shock of falling again.
When he did manage to get to his feet, he looked around and immediately saw where the burglary had been taking place. There were at least a dozen capes furiously battering down a pair of overwhelmed would-be thieves. It wasn't an arrest or anything resembling reasonable force. In fact, the only sign that they were heroes was the faint blue glow that surrounded each one. It was how the game identified players to one another; blue for heroes, red for villains, and yellow for neutral.
After a moment, the criminals’ bodies glowed and they vanished, teleported away to jail. Two of the heroes whooped in excitement and bent down to collect whatever loot the criminals had dropped. The others groaned a little, but quickly dispersed in all directions.
There was a shout somewhere close by and the crowd surged again, following the sounds of some other crime being committed nearby. The man wanted to follow and gain some experience of his own, but stopped himself upon realizing something very important: he had no clue what his own powers were. He watched the mob move away and tried to activate whatever powers he might have, to no success.
He had no clue where to start. He began muttering to himself as he thought out loud, “What I really need is a look at my status screen.”
Immediately, a box appeared in the air in front of him. Apparently, the game interface now responded to voice commands.
Name: Lightforge
Alignment: Neutral
Level: 1
Powerset 1: Hard Light Construct
Powerset 2: Gadgeteer
Stats:
Health Points (HP): 500/500
Ability Points (AP): 255/255
Strength: 14
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 10
Aura: 17
Lightforge, as he was apparently called, studied the screen for a few moments. They weren’t powersets that he would have chosen, especially not together. But apparently he didn’t get a choice in the matter. Now that he’d seen the information, his vision changed.
At the top left corner of his vision were now two bars, one red and the other green, just like the game’s HP and AP bars. Opposite them on the right were a set of small icons representing the abilities available to him through his powersets.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
There was a lot to take in, but it should be enough to at least get started. Just to be safe, he reached out a finger and touched the names of his powersets to see what would happen. Just like he’d hoped, the full descriptions for each popped up.
Powerset: Hard Light Construct
* Gather the very light around you, giving it physical shape to create weapons, armor, and tools. The power and variety of constructs available to you will increase as you grow stronger.
Ability: Light Dagger
* Summon a simple dagger made of light.
* Can be used in close combat or thrown.
* The weapon’s power scales with Strength.
* The weapon’s durability scales with Aura
Ability: Light Shield
* Summon a simple buckler made of light
* Shield will absorb damage until broken
* Shield durability scales with Aura
Powerset: Gadgeteer
* Use your cleverness and intellect to construct, repair, and upgrade weapons and equipment. The variety of equipment that you can work on increases with level.
Ability: Inspect
* Allows you to view the details and abilities of items you can touch.
* Amount of information gained scales with Intelligence
* Amount of information gained is limited for items above your level
* Synergy Unlocked!
* Hard Light Construct allows for the creation of specialized inspection equipment
* +10% Inspection effectiveness
Ability: Repair
* Attempt to bring equipment back to its undamaged state
* Repair effectiveness scales with Intelligence
* Success rate reduced for items above your level
* 20% reduction per level
* Synergy Unlocked!
* Hard Light Construct allows for the creation of specialized tools
* +10% Repair effectiveness
Ability: Upgrade
* Attempt to increase the abilities of equipment
* Upgrade effectiveness scales with Intelligence
* Success rate reduced for items above your level
* 25% reduction per level
* Synergy Unlocked!
* Hard Light Construct allows for the creation of specialized tools
* +10% Upgrade effectiveness
Huh. He’d heard of synergies, but he didn’t know much about them. It was a system to reward players for choosing complementary powersets, but very few ever used it. Like with his current selections, it generally meant choosing powers that relied on different stats, requiring a more even stat distribution.
While that didn’t matter much at low levels, the differences added up by the time you reached the endgame. Most players chose to excel at one or two stats rather than be passable in all four. But since he didn't have a choice in the matter, it was good that he at least got something from the arrangement.
He dismissed the status screen and focused on the icons in the upper right of his vision. He started with the dagger, willing the icon to light up and activate the skill. After just a moment, it happened. His Green AP bar flashed and emptied a little. His hand glowed a dim blue, and then the light coalesced into the shape of a simple throwing knife that settled comfortably in the palm of his hand.
The weapon looked to be made from a translucent light blue metal, and still faintly glowed. He tossed it into the air a few times to test the weight; it was light for a dagger but not as much as he'd expected. He twisted it around in the air, practicing a few thrusts and slashes. All it really proved was that he had no idea how to use a knife in a fight.
He focused on the next skill icon, for the shield. Once again his AP bar flashed and drained, but this time it was a much bigger drop. He could feel the energy leech away from some source inside himself. Light gathered around his left arm and slowly formed into a buckler firmly attached to him. It was barely any heavier than the dagger, but he could feel just how much tougher it was.
There wasn't any point in trying his Gadgeteer skills; he didn't have any equipment to use them on. Instead he took a deep breath and set out towards the sound of chaos all around him.
He'd been ignoring it, but there had been a steady flow of "crime in progress" notifications popping up. It seemed that this section of the city was on the edge of anarchy. While that was obviously bad, it also suited his needs for the moment. After all, he was apparently an RPG character now, which meant that he had a single goal for now: get stronger.
He couldn't help the smile that formed on his lips. As insane as this was, it was hard to deny that it was also pretty awesome. He was a superhero about to chase down criminals and bring them to justice. What could be cooler than that?
There were alerts all around him, but the mob of heroes that he'd seen earlier seemed to be ignoring most of them. Well, maybe 'ignoring' wasn't quite the right word. Instead it seemed like they were moving as a group, overwhelming one crime at a time. On top of being wildly inefficient, it was also a great way to encourage friendly fire.
Instead he turned away from the mob and quickly jogged down another street in search of someone to help. It didn't take long; he'd gone less than a block when someone shouted for help from an alleyway. Lightforge smirked and turned on his heels to face the sound.
Just inside the alley a man was flat against the wall, trying to squirm away from the figure in front of them. Said figure was short and slight, and even that much was tough to tell thanks to the cloak that covered them from head to toe. They weren't holding a weapon, they were just glaring up at their victim.
More concerning to Lightforge was the lack of glow around the person. Normally that would mean that they were a non-player character, but NPC thugs were usually more generic than this. Toughs with guns or crowbars, not menacing shadows hidden under cloaks. Superpowered criminals didn't show up for the first few levels.
He discarded the thoughts. There were plenty of fascinating questions to ponder later, but only one thing mattered right now. There was a person in danger and he was the only hero nearby.
He brandished his dagger and charged into the alley. Within a few steps, the cloaked figure turned slightly to face him, and Lightforge could see the glowing purple eyes staring out at him from within the hood. The glow pulsed brightly, and ghostly images flew out of the eyes to assault him.
So. Illusions. No wonder they weren't bothering with weapons.
Lightforge put his head down and sprinted forward, shield arm held in front of him. He only slowed when he felt himself crash into something. With a grunt of effort, he hurled his target away from him and into the opposite wall of the alley. He felt a thrill run through him. For about one second.
That was how long it took for the illusion to break and reveal the truth. The cloaked figure had slipped away to one side and used an illusion to swap their form with their victim. Lightforge's eyes went wide as the helpless NPC fell into a crumpled heap on the ground.
The cloaked figure whistled and danced a few steps away down the alleyway. They mockingly struck a fighting pose and giggled. Lightforge growled and took a step forward, dagger held in a deathgrip. All he got for his trouble was another giggle in his direction.
The fight was ready to begin again when they were interrupted. Harsh yips and shouts echoed up and down the alleyway. Figures appeared on the fire escapes and a group was heading towards them from the end of the alley. Each and every one of them glowed with the red aura of villains.
The cloaked figure took them in and muttered, "Oh crap, took too long."
Lightforge roughly helped the victim behind him to their feet and shoved them towards the alley entrance. "Go," he said, "Get out of here. I'll keep them back."
"Nice sentiment," the cloaked villain said, "but they're not here for him. They want the fresh meat that was dumb enough to be out alone."
Lightforge turned towards the figure, only to see a wisp of dark mist as they vanished. He swallowed hard and resummoned his weapons. He wasn't about to trust a villain, especially one with some way to hide their alignment.
All the same, he started to back away from the advancing villains. He could hear the footsteps as the NPC ran for cover. Quite frankly, he was getting ready to do the same. He wasn’t a fan of these odds.
The NPC’s footfalls faded into the distance, and Lightforge turned on his heels and sprinted for the alley entrance. The villains behind him shouted in excitement, but there was no sign that they were pursuing him.
The shadow fell across him and he looked up just in time to see an enormous figure fall down on top of him. He slammed to the ground face first and the breath was forced from his chest. He couldn’t see the blows, but they felt like sledgehammers crashing into him over and over. All he could see was the flashing red HP bar that emptied in seconds.
The HP bar hit zero and the world went black.
You have been killed by Hammerfist.
Respawning in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…