A New World
“Initial startup completed…
Facial recognition scan completed…
Oculus link established…
New user detected…
Please create new character…"
The following words flashed in front of Ryota’s eyes, it felt almost like a dream. In a trance like state, he started to fill up his personal information, amazed at how his mere thoughts were automatically translated into words on the screen in front of him.
“Please design your character”
After the words appeared before him, he found himself staring at his own reflection on a mirror. On the sides of the mirror, there were many options that allowed him to change how his face looked, from minor details such as adjusting the width of his nose, to giving himself a completely different face shape.
Realizing that he had no time to waste, he chose to use the random character generator. A feminine looking boy with long jet black hair stared right back at him in the mirror.
“Ugh i look like one of those stereotypical traps in anime” he complained to himself. But not willing to spend any more time on character design, he confirmed the design of the character.
“Please name your character”
The idea to use his real name occurred to him for a moment, but the mere thought of his ex-schoolmates finding him quickly made him shove the idea away. When he first started online gaming, the name he often gave his characters was “Shame”. He wasn’t certain if the reason he came up with the name was due to how ashamed of himself he was at that point in time or If it was due to how many puns he could come up with it.
And so he chose to name himself Shame.
“Please select your job”
4 options were presented to him, Warrior, Mage, Archer and Rouge, the 4 stereotypical main classes in any RPG game. Placing faith in his past experience with kendo, he quickly chose the Warrior class.
After confirming his choices, a bright light once more filled his surroundings.
And at that moment, Shame was born.
*************
“Holy…”
To say that Shame was amazed was an understatement, he felt like he was really inside the game. The cooling sensation of wind blowing against his face, the realistic graphics, the feeling of warmth when he placed his hands against his face, all of it served to give him the impression of how realistic and detailed the game was.
Looking around he noticed several other players, doing the almost exact same thing as he did, while there are some who immediately began to run off in the direction of town.
He explored the menu icon, and went to check his character details.
Name: Shame
Job: Warrior
Level: 1
HP: 140
MP: 100
Strength: 15
Intelligence: 12
Agility: 12
Luck: 12
1 skill point unallocated.
Noting the higher health and strength stats, he mused that warriors must be the tank class in the game.
After reading through the list of available skills, he allocated his skill point to battle recovery, which was a skill that allowed him to recover a small portion of his health every few seconds while in combat.
Confirming his skill allocation, he decided to head towards town.
Westshire was the town where all players first start in the game. The town was bustling with life, with hundreds of players and NPCs alike running around the village. Players can be found trying to complete quests, while NPCs can be found trying to sell their goods to players. It was a scene almost akin to a busy town in real life. Once again, Shame could only continue to be impressed at the realism and amount of detail put into the game.
He looked around for quests when he saw a small building at the corner of a street, his gamer senses tingling which indicated the potential quests to be gained by going there.
The building turned out to be a small church, it was old and had clearly seen better days. At the entrance of the old church was an old man, who in almost serene manner was sweeping the floor.
“E-err hi, do you err” he stammered, realizing his lacking communication ability, understandable considering that the only human interactions he made in the past few months were with various delivery mans from different fast food restaurants.
“It’s alright, he’s only an NPC and nobody can recognize me now” Shame told himself as he tried to gather courage to speak to the old man.
“Hi, do you need help?” he asked the old man.
The old man stopped his actions momentarily, a warm smile appearing on his face, appreciative of Shame’s offer to help.
“Yes, I would really appreciate it if you could help me sweep the floor”
“Sure I would love to help you!” Shame replied enthusiastically.
Grabbing the broom, Shame began to sweep the floor around the church, and after cleaning the church for around 15 minutes, he proceeded to return the broom to the old man.
“Thank you for your help and may the goddess bless you” the old man said in an appreciative tone.
As Shame walked away from the temple he realized that he had just wasted his precious time, his EXP bar had moved less than 0.1% of the EXP needed to level up. On top of that he was not given money or even any potions like in any of the stereotypical beginner quests.
“Oh did you get tricked into sweeping the floor too?” a confident voice asked from behind him.
Turning around, Shame found himself face to face against the most handsome looking man he has ever seen. Admiring how good looking the man looked, Shame could only find himself wondering how long the man spent designing the character.
But externally, Shame could only nod away shyly.
Laughing, the man suggested that he go to the hunting fields at the end of town to farm exp instead, as it’s far more rewarding.
Thanking the man for his advice, Shame proceeded to head to the hunting fields.
***********
If there was ever a scene that would anger animal lovers it was this one.
On the vast hunting field, there was hundreds of players hunting boars or wolfs at a rate that would bring a new definition to the phrase over hunting.
He quickly equipped the basic sword and shield that was provided to those who picked the warrior class.
After spending 5 minutes wandering around past his overly zealous peers, he found a wild boar grazing peacefully a few meters away from him. Gathering all his courage, Shame charged forward against the boar, sword in hand.
The sword cut into the flesh of the boar, stumbling at the realism of cutting flesh, Shame lost momentum, and soon found himself thrown a few meters away from the boar. The red bar at the corner of his eye decreasing by 20%, indicating that he had lost 20% of his health.
The boar squealed in fury and began preparing to charge towards him. Shame’s instincts from years spent with kendo began to kick in, unequipping the shield, he placed both hands firmly on the short sword.
As the boar charged forward at him, he quickly side stepped the boar, and slashed several times at the back of the boar, reducing the boar’s health into the critical area. The boar struggled to recover from the blow, almost seeming pitiful to Shame.
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“Sorry Pumbaa, it’s you or me, really it’s a shame, and perhaps in a different world we could have been friends” Shame said apologetically as he prepared to deal the finishing blow.
But before he could kill the boar, an arrow hit the boar’s head, killing it. His EXP went up by a small percentage, but he did not receive any of the loot from killing the boar. Angry about his kill being stolen, he turned angrily in the direction in which the arrow was loosed.
His eyes narrowed in anger as he recognized the archer as the handsome man from before. The man however could only jokingly reply “Every man for himself” before he returned to hunting.
He knew that the wild boar was probably the equivalent of a slime or goblin in any other MMORPG game, but something about having his first kill be denied in front of his eyes ticked him off. Frustrated at his lack of success, Shame decided to return to town.
***********
There were plenty of quests offered in town, quests to kill rats, quests to help deliver messages, but for some reason, Shame found himself walking back towards the temple.
The smile on the old man’s face when he thanked him for helping to sweep the floor made him feel appreciated, a feeling that he craved for but never found in his years of solitude.
“Hi do you need any more help?”
“Ah, you were the boy that helped me sweep the floor earlier right? If it’s not too troublesome could you help me clear the weeds from the church’s garden?”
“No worries, I’d love to help”
He wasn't sure if he helped the old man because he liked the old man or if it was due to his secret hope that helping the old man would lead to a new chain of quests, but he did so anyway. And so for the next 6 hours, Shame found himself doing all forms of odd chores for the old man, ranging from repairing broken doors to more sweeping. During the time he spent helping the old man, there were a few other players that walked by snickering that he was wasting time. The few who did try to help sweep the floor also gave up after seeing the dismal rewards given.
Although the EXP earned from each quest was insignificant, it had eventually added up to around 80% of the total EXP needed to level up.
“Thank you so much for helping me, it’s not much, but I would like to thank you for helping me today by inviting you to eat dinner with me” the old man offered.
Realizing how hungry he was, he immediately thanked the old man and accepted the offer.
One of the things that made Guardian Online popular, was the ROOT system introduced into the game. The ROOT system was the governing body of the game, which oversaw the management of the game, creating new quests from time to time or new maps based on the progress of players. This made it possible for each player to have their own unique experience playing the game, which to the many content hungry gamers, was almost too good to be true.
It also gave NPCs a higher level of freedom in terms of how much characters can express themselves, giving them a more human touch.
The old man served Shame some stew, which to Shame’s continued amazement was able to replicate the texture and sensation of eating stew, the stew even tasted delicious.
“I should have asked earlier young man, but what’s your name” the old man asked.
“My name is Ry-, I mean Shame” Shame replied, relieved that he was able to stop himself from giving his real name.
“That’s a nice name” the old man said, much to Shame’s surprise. It made sense that NPCs were unable to understand the meaning behind names, he thought, especially since there was bound to be weird names that were either offensive or a string of random alphabets.
“What’s your name” Shame asked politely.
“My name is Watari and I’m a humble priest that serves the goddess Allusha at this temple” Upon this introduction, the description above the Old man’s head changed into Watari.
“I’m sorry if this seems ignorant, but can you tell me more about Allusha?”
“Ho, listen well young one, Allusha is the goddess of love and protection, she seeks to protect…”
Watari continued to ramble on for a while about Allusha, and how she served to protect mankind. And how in his youth,
Watari was a paladin that served the Order of Allusha to wipe out darkness from the land and protect the weak.
Shame could only nod his head in acknowledgement, but before he could stop himself he found himself letting out a loud yawn. Shame ashamed of himself immediately apologized, but Watari took no offense. Instead Watari asked if
Shame was tired and offered to allow him to rest in one of the rooms in the church.
Shame soon realized that although he had eaten in game, he did nothing to satisfy his hunger in the real world, and so he begrudgingly accepted the offer, and then proceeded to log out.
It was a 9pm by the time he logged out, he had spent almost 5 hours playing the game, which is 10 hours in the game. (1 hour in the real world = 2 hours in the game).
While the food he ate in the game was able to deceive his mind into thinking his ate for a while, it did nothing to sate his appetite once he returned back to reality.
Instinctively he started to boil hot water to cook cup noodles. But before he could decide on which flavor of cup noodle he should pick, he remembered that he now has a rather generous allowance from the company.
Tears began to well up inside his eyes as he realized that he finally had the money to eat food that was not cup noodles or food from convenience stores. Food that even surpassed the level of fast food. PROPERLY COOKED FOOD !!
Excited, Ryota quickly exited his apartment to finally get a taste of “real food”.
Character statistics
Name: Shame
Job: Warrior
Level: 1
HP: 140
MP: 100
Strength: 15
Intelligence: 12
Agility: 12
Luck: 12
Equipment
Iron shortsword 6-8 damage
Skills
Battle recovery Lvl 1
Author’s Notes
Thank you once again for continuing to read this story, it really means a lot to me. I’m aware that the story may seem a little slow at the present, but I assure you that the story will begin to pick up pace by the 3rd chapter. I do hope that you don’t mind the occasional pun with his name, I already reduced the initial number of puns by a lot, but please do tell me if it irritates you and I’ll take it out.
Pumbaa is the boar from the lion king.
When a player first starts playing the game, he/she receives a starting weapon based on the job they have chosen.
While hunting monsters, EXP is shared amongst all players who damaged the monster, but the loot goes to the person he dealt the finishing blow.