Koji opened his eyes and noticed he was standing in the middle of a perfectly square room. It was an ancient room with wall made of stone brick and there was some vegetation growing in the cracks and corners. It was completely empty, except for the known Platypus standing in front of him again. A message suddenly popped up.
You have entered Level 0 – Boss Hunt Level Level Boss: Kobold Thug Time Limit: 6 hours
“Got the notification right?” Koji nodded in response.
“This game is composed of several Levels. Every one of them has an objective, which determines its category. When you clear the objective, one of those portals will appear and you can enter them to move on to the next Level. Please take a look at the notification to look at the most common Level categories.”
Boss Hunt: The goal is to kill a specific monster in the Level. It will usually be the most dangerous enemy on the Level. Item Retrieval: The goal is to acquire a specific object. The object then has to be delivered at the Altar for the Level to be cleared. Extermination: The goal is to kill every monster on the Level. Battle: There will be some form of competition with other players. The rules of said competition will be explained at the beginning of the Level and are variable. Vacation: No goal. You and your clan get some rest time.
“There might be some unique rooms that don’t fit these descriptions. When that happens I’ll be there to explain things to you, so don’t worry. Beginning at Level 1, you will be assigned to groups called Clans. These will be generated by our system and you get no say in the process. Every Clan fights through an instance of the same Level and the Time it takes to clear the Level is registered in a Leaderboard. In other words, with the exception of Battle Levels, every Level is a Time Attack competition, where the Clans with the best clear time are rewarded with items, skills and our currency called TP.”
“Additionally, after a Clan finishes a Level, they are transported to the Hub, a place where they can rest, trade and craft. The amount of time a Clan gets to stay in the Hub is directly proportional to the difference between their time in the previous Level and the Time of the last team to finish it. For example, if you Clan finishes a Level in 2 hours, and the last Clan finishes it in 10. Your Clan will get 8 hours in the Hub to do whatever you want. The Clan who finishes last, and all others with the same time, do not get any time in the Hub. You probably also noticed there is a Time Limit. If your Clan fails to complete the Level in the given Time Limit, you’ll all be disintegrated.”
“That’s very complicated… and interesting.” A barely noticeable smile formed in Koji’s face.
Being transported to a unknown place and forced to play a death game. Most people would go crazy at this situation. They would try to flee, they would try to pretend it was just a dream or flat out go in denial mode. But Koji had the exact opposite reaction. He was ecstatic. So what if this is a death game? He already had given up on his life anyway. He was being given an opportunity to do one last interesting thing in his life. And he decided he would enjoy every last bit of it.
“Ok partner! Now, I’ll begin explaining your Status Screen. Please open it again.”
Status Window Name:Koji KawamuraRace:Human TP:0 Attributes Strength:0.2Dexterity:0.3 Vitality:0.2Endurance:0.2 Perception:0.5Willpower:0.6 Mental Power:0.5
Skill List
Inventory Empty
“Ok. First, we have your name. I hope I don’t have to explain that. Next, race. Right now, all competitors are Human, since this a Human special Season of the show. That might change in the future, who knows?”
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“Then, attributes. Each of those numbers represents a generic capability of yours. They will change as those capabilities increase. For instance, Strength represents your physical might, your ability to lift and carry weight as well as anything else that requires muscular power, like jumping power and the explosiveness when dashing. As you progress in the game, you will probably have to use your muscles a lot and will get gradually stronger. These increments will be reflected on the attribute value. There are also cases where you get an “artificial” stat boost.”
“Now for the rest of the attributes: Dexterity is the the speed and control with which you move your body. Vitality is the amount of damage your body is able to sustain, including poison and resistance. It also determines your regeneration speed. Endurance is your ability to sustain constant exertion of physical effort, for example, how long you can run, swing a weapon etc. Perception is the capability of your senses. It determines awareness, visual accuracy, ability to smell etc. Mental Power is the capability of your mind to handle information quickly. The higher it is, the faster you can make sound decisions and understand things clearly. Willpower can be explained as a form of mental endurance. It affects how long you can stay at a focused state, your resistance to pain and emotional pressure, as well as the general resistance to mental effects. That being said, most actions performed are a combination of attributes. Shooting an arrow for example. The act of drawing the arrow requires some Strength. The act of finding the target and the right spot to shoot requires Perception. The act of actually pointing the bow to the right place requires Dexterity. The act of tracking multiple opponents, Mental Power. Doing all of that constantly for a prolonged period, requires Endurance and Willpower. You see, everything is one.”
“These are the basic human attributes. There are several more attributes but, for humans, their starting value is 0, so they will only show up if it goes above the minimum value of 0.1. By the way, a value of 1 represents the biological limit of the human race, while 0.5 is the average of the human population on Earth. Note that there are no character levels in this game. The common way to increase attributes is to train. There are other methods, but those you will have to discover by yourself.”
Koji raised his hand, like a student watching a lecture. “Can I ask something, Bill?”
“No, you can’t. If I don’t say something, it means you have to discover by yourself. So please just listen and follow my instructions.”
“Geez, that’s just rude. And here I was thinking you were a nice polite platypus…”
“I just follow the rules, Koji. Now, moving on. Skills are your special abilities. They are acquired by finding a Skill Shard and activating it. That will imprint a Skill Sigil on your being which will allow you to use said ability. There are Active skills, which are used by visualizing the Skill Sigil on your mind. These abilities usually have Cooldown Times after used. Don’t worry too much though, if you pick up an Active skill, the knowledge of how to use it will be automatically imprinted on your brain. You will also feel whenever the skill is on/off Cooldown. There are also Passive skills. They are picked up the same way, but they don’t need activation. They will either be On all the time, or whenever a specific situation occurs.”
“Skills have 5 categories: Offensive, which are used to inflict some form of damage. Defensive, used to prevent damage. Support, used to buff, debuff or heal. Craft, which are used to create equipment and Utility, which are comprised of skills that don’t fit the other categories.”
“Now about your Inventory. As you find Equipment in the game, you will eventually find things that you don’t want to use immediately. You can store those in a dimensional pocket called Inventory. Just pick up the item and think about the Inventory and it will be relocated there. Then to retrieve it, think about the item in your hand or somewhere else inside you immediate range and it will appear.”
As he finished the explanation on inventories, he snapped his fingers. Suddenly, a wooden chest appeared out of thin air, right in front of Koji. The chest looked new and clean and it had a palm imprint instead of a lock.
“This is a Prize Chest. Every enemy you defeat has a small chance of dropping one of these. They contain items, skills and other valuable things. This is a Common chest. There are also Rare, Epic, Legendary and Divine chests, which contain more and better things. This here is your starting Chest, it was generated based on your life on Earth. Please open it up and we will begin. Just put your hand on the palm imprint.”
Koji did as instructed and the chest top opened up, and surprisingly, the bottom elevated, displaying the items inside like a shelf. There were 3 items. A crystal thing, a pocket knife and a necklace with a rabbit foot in it, that looked exactly like the one Koji carried around as a good luck charm when he was a kid. Koji picked up the pocket knife.
Pocket Knife A small knife that can be carried around inconspicuously.Weapon (Knife) 1-Hand SlotNo Options
“This knife saved me a few times before. It’s a good knife.”
“That may be… but it’s quite a bad weapon for this place. You’ll soon realize why.”
Koji shuddered at that last remark. The way Bill said it made it seem like a curse. He proceeded to pick up the necklace.
Rabbit Foot Necklace A rabbit foot brings good luck to those who wear it.Accessory (Necklace) Neck SlotImproves Chest drop chance(+5%) after defeating enemies
“Well, that is actually quite a good item right Bill?”
“I guess. If you manage to kill a monster at all that is…” He said rolling his eyes up. Bill clearly had little faith that the human in front of him had much going on for him.
The last was the shard. Koji had already guessed it was probably one of those Skill Shards Bill had mentioned before. He picked it up and a message popped.
Gambler’s Pride Active Skill (Utility) CD: 1 hour Bet any equipment to activate the Equipment Lottery. The equipment sacrificed is destroyed. Chance Table improves with level.
Would you like to learn this skill?
YesNo
Koji visualized himself pressing Yes, and he suddenly gained the intuition on how to use his new Skill. Meanwhile, Bill had an astonished look on his face, at least what seemed like astonishment, considering he looks like a platypus. Koji wasn’t even paying attention to the Guide. That was because he had gotten the most perfect skill possible for him. He was now a walking slot machine.
According to the intuition he had, the skill worked like this. It targeted an equipment in possession of the user. This equipment as destroyed and a metaphorical dice would be rolled. The user then either got nothing or an equipment of lesser, equal or superior value to the one he had sacrificed. Koji wanted to check the odds. He focused on the word Chance Table.
Chance Table Nothing:50%Japtem15% Lesser Equip:15%Equal Equip:10% Better Equip:9%JACKPOT:1%
Clearly, on this human slot machine, the house had a very large edge. But still, Koji was thrilled. If he could just pick up a bunch of low value items and keep using it, he had a chance to get some high value equipment.
“I just have to be careful not to use the essential things as bet.” Though for a Gambler like Koji, that was easier said than done.