Daniel felt a little bothered by the thought that he was already dead. He also felt a little disconnected from it. Hadn’t he been in this game like world this whole time, dying and fighting? Is this all there is to the afterlife? FIghting and dying only to do it all over again the next day?

He didn’t even doubt that he was dead as the message had reminded him of the exact moment it happened. He had watched in a state of fugue as his vitals started to crash. He knew that emergency responders were still too far away to stop it from happening. No, his problem wasn’t accepting death, it was accepting the world he was in right now. He looked around to see all of those people around him, the fields that had been churned to mud under their boots in this ongoing conflict, and the orcs on the other side of the valley.

This was death? He just couldn’t wrap his head around it. Focusing back on his notifications, he dismissed that one and looked at the next one.

Assessing starting attributes for human subject Daniel Cook. Human starting range 1 to 10.

* Strength Assessment: above average, setting initial attribute to 7.

* Body Assessment: above average, setting initial attribute to 7.

* Agility Assessment: lower high rank, setting initial attribute to 8.

* Mind Assessment: middle high rank, setting initial attribute to 9.

If these attributes were based on his physical body back on earth he had something to be proud of there. He had worked a reclamation job scrapping derelict buildings during the summers and worked out during the school year. Along with that, their school club had been involved with virtual reality fighting games and they had exercised and worked to make sure their own physical bodies could approximate their character’s moves.

As for his mind, he was an honors student in the university’s computer engineering department. He had even been accepted on a full ride scholarship due to papers he had written in high school about complex issues around emergent artificial intelligences. While he would never call himself a genius, he had accepted long ago that many people considered him intelligent.

After a moment of reflecting on these assigned attributes, Daniel dismissed that box and looked at the next.

Trait Awarded: Heroic

* +2 to all Attributes.

* High Resistance to Fear and effects that would otherwise cause the user to act against their will.

* Low Resistance to other harmful status effects.

* Increased chance to positively influence the attitudes of those around the user when the user’s motivations are in line with theirs.

* When attempting a heroic deed, greatly increases the effect of the action if action is successful.

Daniel looked at the box in front of him and puzzled through it. This trait did not seem bad. He didn’t know how good two attribute points were but from the improvement he had felt from when he had leveled up, the plus one to two stats was significant for him so far. So far he had felt stronger in this world than back in his own, but previously he had assumed that had been some balancing effort to give him some survivability against the orcs. He thought about it for a moment, ‘Doesn’t this mean that my intelligence and agility are currently higher than the human starting range? Does that mean there are people around me with superhuman attributes?’

The resistances seemed decent. He had wondered at how quickly he had come to grips with the whole dying thing, but perhaps the resistances even helped to calm his mind at this point. He figured that he would have to look into how effective those resistances were later.

The ability to influence others seemed nice, but he had never been a leader and had no idea when he ever would be one. Tian Dong seemed to be doing well enough for their team.

Looking at the final ability attached to it, he was reminded of the pop up from a few days ago when he had seen those words before. At that time he had saved Natalia at a risk to his own life. His attack at that time had been way more successful than he had thought, but it still resulted in his own death.

He thought about it for a moment. If he was more thoughtful and deliberate, he would be unlikely to trigger the conditions of the trait, but if he was reckless like he had been then, even the use of the trait would lead to unsatisfactory ends. He hoped there was a good middle ground so that he could make better use of this trait.

After giving the trait one last look he dismissed this box to look at the next.

Daniel Cook, Level 0 Human, Recently Deceased, Assigning randomly to Terran Human starting regions. Starting Region selected, Daniel Cook has been added to Terran Human Starting Group 1956: Qin Revanchists

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Daniel glanced at this pop up for a moment before dismissing it. There were some useful things he could gather from this. First, the fact that the pop up had to define his grouping as Terran Human implied that there were other humans than the ones from his planet. Second, the fact that there were at least nineteen hundred and fifty six groups like this one implied that there were over a hundred million terran humans in starting regions similar to the one he was in. Third, the name Qin Revanchists, implied that this faction was tied to the Qin dynasty in China over two thousand years before he was born.

Thinking about these points Daniel dismissed that text box as well. After looking for a while he found that the majority of the following text boxes were ones he had already seen. Among those, there were three others that he had not seen. He guessed that he had been dead when they had appeared.

Combat Skill Learned: Basic Spear Technique (Beginner), +1 to Agility.

The first one seemed to be from the night after Tian Dong had showed him how to use the spear more effectively. Daniel was pleased to see that there was an attribute boost that went with it. The next one came a few days later.

Combat Skill Improved: Basic Spear Technique (Novice), +1 to Strength.

Daniel recognized that this occurred after his comprehension of the technique had improved. He had been able to improve his stance and control his center of balance better, which led to far stronger attacks. The next box was much more interesting though.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the Challenger I Trait.

Trait Awarded: Challenger I

* +1 to all Attributes

* Awarded for killing an opponent five levels higher than you. 1/10

Daniel looked at these two boxes and thought. It seemed defeating more powerful opponents was very rewarding. He had clearly received this benefit after dying and thinking back it had probably happened in one of the fights where he had stabbed an enemy but he had died before it could. That had happened more often than he would have liked to admit though so he was uncertain as to which occasion that was.

Putting that out of his mind, Daniel dismissed these boxes as well. He then focused on the icon in the bottom right again and brought up his status.

Daniel Cook, Level 1 (102/200) Human

* Condition: Healthy

* Traits: Heroic, Challenger I (1/10)

* Attributes: Strength 12, Body 10, Agility 13, Mind 12

* Skills: Basic Spear Technique (Novice)

The screen showed some useful information, but to Daniel it did little to clear up the problems he was facing. Looking over to where Tian Dong was sitting, Daniel decided to ask a few questions. “Team leader, I just finished looking at my notifications and my status and while I get that I am dead, it doesn’t really clear anything else up does it?”

Tian Dong shook his head, “No it doesn’t. Here’s the part where I need to give you the rundown of the information. The place we are in now is a starting area. This is a relatively safe place with low stakes where people can grow stronger. Every day new humans join on our side and new orcs join on their side and we fight it out until night.

“The worst that will happen to you is that you will die and lose a level or two. But we are low enough level that that doesn’t matter much. A level zero will lose nothing but a night of sleep and anyone else will only lose one tenth of their total levels when they die, but since everyone here is capped at level twenty five the most they will lose is three levels. As you fight you will improve your skills and accrue titles that will make you stronger. Perhaps you will get a chance to learn stronger classes by making a good impression on the leadership. In the end, it is all about growing stronger here.”

Daniel thought about it for a while, “You say that, but really, what’s the end goal here? If this is the starter region, there has to be more advanced region.”

Tian Dong nodded his head, “That is true. There is an end game. Both camps have a gate to the next region. Once you go through the appropriate gate, you advance to the next region. Life there is more like real life. People do a variety of jobs, from farmers to craftsmen to merchants. The goal there is still to struggle to survive though, so the kingdoms are constantly at war and there are always beasts that need to be slain.

“Even then, it is still quite peaceful there compared to here, but there is much more at stake there. The worst thing that happens here if you die is that you respawn the next day with a lower level, but there, you might lose your belongings, your friends and family might be enslaved, or your town burnt to the ground. You see? The stakes are much higher. That is why you will see people who have already advanced to the next region returning to this one. They feel they were not strong enough there and are trying to strengthen themselves to return with a vengeance.

“One day, the generals will decide that we are strong enough and we will attack the orc camp so that they can push through the gates. Those of us that make it with them will enter the next region with them. Those that do not will merely respawn in this camp the next day with much fewer allies than before.”

Daniel thought about it for a while before speaking, “Team leader, how long have you been here? Have you ever been to the next region?”

Tian Dong just shook his head, “I have only been here for about a year now. We have not made a push to the gate yet, but we have stopped the orcs three times in their attempts. Those were harsh fights but we still won. I really don’t know what the leadership are waiting for. Most of their core personnel are already as strong as they can get in this place.

“Either way, all you need to do is get stronger. Eventually we will get a chance to break through and see the world on the other side.”