We explore Asper Online through Jun, a 30-year-old male, currently entering the game for the first time. As he clicks login, a character screen appears and he begins creating his first character.

Synchronizing in Progress. Analyzing...

Quickly, he is required to enter a name. He feels for a keyboard but there is no other equipment to use. He then looks at a text box where it seems that is he to type and begins thinking of the name he wishes to use.

Yggsalad.

He thinks to himself. The game verifies if the name is taken and displays a solid green checkmark over the name. With a transition it shows another screen where it shows him various classes in the game that he can play. He quickly hovers over each.

So this game has Warriors, Mages, Priest and Rogues.

Jun thinks to himself of classes he generally plays in other games and hover over the Warrior class.

The screen transitions once again, into a portal animation spiraling the player he just created into it. As the player travels there is a widespread map, with names of major cities and various landscapes. The game seems to be sending him to one without deciding. A sudden white flash emerges Jun in a bustling city, flourished with in a modern-fantasy floral, and cobblestone infrastructure. As he enters the world he notices many players walking around engaging the city's grounds and environment. Players are sitting at a table and having coffee at a nearby Tavern. A dog running while a small childlike player chasing it.

So what now? He thinks.

He looks around when he notices a yellow exclamation mark above a character's head in the distance. As he approaches the character, he notices that the NPC seems more lifelike than normal. Its gestures and mannerisms seem very realistic.

Wow, he thinks. This is pretty cool. The character seems to have a gold bird on his shoulder.

Jun continues to analyze the character when finally he reaches out for the bird, but the bird raises its wings chirping at Jun, just as his fingers near it.

"Hey, it's rude to stare! It's ruder to touch!" the character says scolding Jun.

Jun pulls his hand back in embarrassment. "Sorry!"

The character pats the bird on his shoulder, petting it to calm it. "There, there Karat."

After the bird had calmed, he looked at Jun.

"Yggsalad, Level 1. You must be new here. My Name is Aluxan, a Quest Guide." He pointed towards the yellow exclamation mark above his head. "Players who have these can give quests to you, to level and grow your character."

Jun looked at the yellow exclamation, and then back at the character. "Players? You mean?-"

The player held his hips and perched his chest forward. "That\s right! I am Aluxan, a real player as you have realized!" Aluxan pointed to a player in the distance. "He's real." He then pointed to another. "She's real." He then chose a group of players playing musical instruments together. "The whole lot of those players are real as well." In a final gesture, he raised his hands upwards towards the sky. "Asper Online is 100% Player Population. No bots!" As he returns to a calm nature, he looks at Jun, up and down. "As a new player, I think it's important to get acquainted with this city, its services and shops. Here."

Aluxan puts out his hand to Jun, who clasps his hand.

Quest Received - Tutorial.

Meet the Following Player

A Blacksmiths, Apothecary, Safekeep, Tailor. [think find]- 50XP

"There you go. Have a look around and come back once you've seen a bit of the city." Aluxan then turns and begins talking to another player.

Jun thinks to himself how will he discern a blacksmith from a tailor from a mage but shakes his head.

He quickly looks at the Quest an notices that each class and notices that each is underlined, like a hypertext. "Wait a second." He hovers over the names which opens a map of the city, showing points of the map. As he hovers over a different class the markers on the map change. He quickly glances over the Blacksmiths marker, and decides its the first he will meet.

Jun travels to the Blacksmith, greeting him with a wave gesture, and noticing that the quest completes. He repeats this with the other classes to which finally his quest notce changes.

Quest Complete! - Tutorial.

Meet back with Aluxan!

Awesome! Jun thinks. Jun quickly heads back to Aluxan but he is not where he was before. He licks the underlined name and sees that he is in another location. This time sitting in an area with a fountain. There are many other players talking and conversing. As Jun sees Aluxan there are players also getting quest, and leveling. He approaches Aluxan, raising his hand to get his attention.

"Oh, so you now know the city now Yggsalad?"

Jun nods his head hesitantly, believing not so much in what he said.

"Well, here you go," Aluxan says, and places his hand over Jun, who feels a rush of energy run through is body. It wasn't a cold feeling nor warm, but the sensation tickled slightly, but overall felt good.

Level Up!

As Jun clenches his first to celebrate, another Yellow exclamation mark appears over his head. "Here's another quest."

Jun reaches for Aluxan once again, gaining a different type of Quest.

Kill Quest - Defeat 5 Wolves in Parteka Forest

"Thanks! Aluxan." he yells, opening his map and heads to the east side of the city towards the Parteka Forest entrance. As he travels through the city he notices a large group of tents. “Hey there!” a voice says. “Over here!” Jun turns and sees a burly man yearning for him to come to him. He thinks of his Kill Quest, but decides to heads the mans call. The man turns to the Bazaar.

"This here is the Bazaar. It is a place for players to sell their items! These Tents you see are Player Shops. Go Ahead! Try it our!" The man gestures for Jun to interact with the tent. As he reaches for it with his hands, a menu pops up with contents inside a grid.

This must be a player shop. He thinks. In the first set of squares, are gems, equipment and boots. As he looks a item catches his eyes. It is a sparkling item.

He hovers over it noticing hat it cost 23 million gold.

He clicks buy. The game rejects him, saying that he does not have enough gold to purchase.

The Burly Man, shakes his head. "You have much to gain before you can buy a Teledric Stone." but Jun doesn;t falter. As he turns towards Parteka Forest, he lokks back to the Burly Man. "I'll be back for that one day!" He then enters the portal. As Jun phases through, he feels his body become completely lightened, and distorted. His screen fades to white, as he emerges into a resounding forest.

Parteka Forest fades into the screen, panning from side to side. Level 1-10 Zone.

Jun notices the area to be fairly forested, with several paths. There are flowers here and there. Some which seem to be interactable, and others that seems to be in game foliage. He hovers over the wolf's name in the Quest Outline, but notices an arrow manifested to where he is supposed to go. As he travels towards the path the arrow is navigating he notices numbers on his screen begin to screend.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

30m...25m....15m.

It was then that he noticed a large paved zone where at its in center which seemed to be a gigantic monster. He noticed many players gathered in the center, under it fighting it.

Should I go see whats going? No I should focus on this quest. I can maybe do that another time. He thinks. "Curiosity killed the cat, right?"

He continues to follow the arrow when he finally sees the wolves his is to defeat.

How do you fight. He thinks. As he looks at his hands he notices the Quest Change.

Equip a Weapon.

Open you inventory by clicking your bag on your hip.

Hover over your weapon and [think] equip. He overs over the bad on his hip and it opens a transparent grid. In one of the grid is a sword. As he hovers over the sword, it glows, and he sees its stats and name. Basic sword.

[Think - Equip Sword]

As he is attempting to figure out how to equip the weapon, one of the wolves sees him, and begins to run towards him.

"Think Equip Sword!" he says.

The wolves darts closer with every second.

"Think Equip Sword!" He says more rushly.

The wolf then jumps at him, with all of its paws facing him, with its jaws wide open to bite him.

Equip Sword, he says in his mind as he raises his hand to guard himself from the wolves bit.

The sword in his inventory appears in his hands. Jun felt the weight of the monster brace against the sword and pushed back. He quickly notices that he is stronger than he is in real life as this feat he wouldn't be able to accomplish in real life. The reality of the game would settle in as he began to fight the wolf. He evaded the wolf attacks one by one until finally he found an opening. He swung his sword slashing the wolf.

10 damage. A filled white bar appeared above its name, decreasing the white bar ever so slightly.

"That's a tenth of its health!" He said. "Ten more of these. Okay here goes!"

Jun continues to fight the wolf until finally it is defeated. He then notices several other wolves in the distance and continues his trail completing the quest.

Although he wishes to get Experience for the quest, He thinks to check back on that item from the Bazaar, to see if it has sold. As he travel back to the city, he heads to the Bazaar, looking for the Burly Man's shop. He quickly interacts with it,

The item was gone. 23 million gold just like that.

It spurs an interest in him, but he keeps the thought in the back of his head. I should focus on levelling up for now he says to himself. As he turns to head towards Aluxan a player runs into him. Jun is startled but comes to. The other player continues to run, speeding through the city. Five players come running after him. “Did you see him?” they ask Jun. Jun points in the direction and they following his direction. Jun is about to proceed when he hears a voice, coming from below him.

“Well since you didn't give me away” says a voice.

Jun panics when finally he looks behind him. He looks up and down but sees no one.

"Um." the voice calls.

He looks down towards his shadow, and then kneels, placing his ears to it.

"Hey!" the voice yells, sending Jun back.

The voice seems to be coming from my shadow. “Hey there!” the voice says, with a hand, and body perching out of the shadow. “Thanks for letting me use your shadow.” When the body full emerged, Jun noticed the shape of the character. It was not a man but a woman. He quickly inspects the character.

Madder-6, a Level 15 Shadow Rogue. Her name is Blinking in a red to black font. “Hey, why is your name like that?”

"Let's just say, I'm a very very bad girl." She says shaking her finger.

Madder-6 opens a menu up to Jun.

Wanted List. On the list is several names and notices her name on it with a number of gold assigned to it.

1 million gold

“Not bad for a low-level outlaw am I right?” she announces to Jun. As Jun is new to the game, he is not interested in the politics, and is simply enamored by the fight he just had with the wolf and shrugs as he is still learning the game. “How about this,” the rogue says, She notices that Jun is level 2, and offers Jun an offer. “I will help you level, but you allow me to stay in your shadow to hide from bounty hunters.” Jun thinks for a second and declines her offer. “The rogue then smiles and says, “Who says this was an option.” The rogue jumps back into Jun’s shadow.

"Wait what. Get out!" he cries. In an attempt to reach for her, he reaches to his shadow as if searching a puddle, but his hands quickly hits the ground. "Fine. Just don't cause too any issues please.

Find Aluxan. An arrows appears over his head directing him Aluxan.

As he follows the arrow he meets Aluxan once again. As Jun reaches for Aluxan, he turns, and giving him Experience fot the quest but also assigning him a new quest.

Kill Quest -World Boss Baldoth

I'm only level 2, Jun thinks to himself. "This must be a mistake! How am I supposed to kill a World Boss?" he asks Aluxan. Aluxan turns to face the forest pointing. In the distance, the clashing of elements could be seen bombarding an area. "If you are too late you may miss the action!" He says slightly." Jun remembers the patch with the large monster. He notices from afar the battle ongoing

“And you’ve made an interesting friend. Just make sure the Moon doesn't raise too high of a wave.”

How did he know. Jun ponders. Jun leaves Aluxan and heads towards Parteka Forest.

“Wait. What quest did he give you?” The voice from the shadow asks.

"Kill Baldoth..."

“Baldoth at level 2? Those Golden Cross guys are not easy on newbies.” She says.

Jun looked confused learning that Aluxan has some affiliation with a "Golden Cross", but is none the wiser what it truly means.

Madder explains. “Baldoth is the level 10 boss mob' for Parteka Forest. It was the one that he saw many players waiting for. And a mob is something we players say instead of monster...”

“Why would he do that?” Jun asks.

Madder explains. “That sneaky Aluxan…” It seemed Madder-6 knew more than she let off. “A silly reason but for now let's head to Baldoth.

When they get to the zone the fight is still going, but they notice everyone is knocked out except a single player. “As long as there is one player, the battle hasn’t ended” Madder-6” explains. Jun inspects the character. It is a level 8 warrior. She is wearing base plate armour, wielding a sword and shield. The character's name is Julia. “Not bad Madder says.”

Jun looks at the monster's health and notices it has 100hp left.

“Hey, what are you doing? Get me in there!” The shadows yells.

As they enter the foot of the beast, they notice Baldoth is powering up an attack towards Julia when suddenly Jun jumps in front of her. His level 2 title hovers in front of the player Julia who in turn yells righteously, “For your safety, stand back!”.

Jun equips his sword and holds it with two hands. Baldoth goes to swipe Jun and Julia but Julia jumps in front of Jun, launching them to the side. Julia begins to fizzle and Jun looks at his hp. It reads a flashing 1 hp.

He then sees Baldoth glow, and he notices that a battle has begun for him.

Baldoth towers over Jun tens of meters and begins charging a ball of fire energy. Baldoth shoots it and Jun covers his eyes. Suddenly he feels a weight lifted from him as if he'd been carrying an elephant. In the blink of an eye, a figure emerges. It is blurry to Jun but he notices the figure has a question mark over his level. The figure is emitting dark energy and blasting Baldoth with this energy. When the blast is over the whole upper portion of Baldoth is gone and fizzling into thin air. Jun was none the wiser when suddenly he woke up in a city spawn. ‘What happened?”

“You almost died.” A voice said to him. “But you're lucky I got your back, back there!”

Jun then remembered Baldoth and Julia. “Hey Yggsalad, did you defeat Baldoth?”

“No!” Jun said hesitantly. “I’m a level 2 there is no way I could do that.”

“That’s not what the world announcement is saying.” Julia was pointing to a message in the sky.

Yggsalad defeated Baldoth with a blinking red ???

“What!” Jun yelled.

When he checked the menu he noticed that he was no longer level 2, he was level 10, with a pending class change. “Um, what did you do!” he yelled at his shadow.

“I simply made sure my Sun didn't fizzle out at the last moment.” she whispered

This confused Jun but he shook his head and looked at his stat points. Julia seeing the interaction between him and shadow was even more confused.

“So what do you plan to level? Because you are a warrior, probably STR right?” Madder whispers to Jun.

Open Stats. The command opened up his character menu which displays his equipment, statistics, and could lead to his inventory and skills.

Jun checked his stats':

Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence. “Boring” As he hovers over the screen he sees that there are other skills available to level.

Vocational skills. Smithing. Tailoring. Fishing...

In the moment one piques his interest.

Mercantile.

Jun places his points into Mercantile.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Madder yells at Jun.

“Now then,” Jun says while walking towards the Bazaar. “How much is it?”

Jun opens a player shop and sees his discount. “Him still not enough.”

Jun currently receives a 1% discount. “For 10 points in Mercantile that's not bad…Which means.”

“You wouldn’t be crazy enough to?” Madder asks.

“I am going to level Mercantile.” He smirked. “And get a 100% discount!”

“You're telling me I save you so you can progress Mercantile!" She was not pleased with his decision.

Jun embarrassingly nods.

“Well, what class are you going to be then?” Madder asks. “That's just a vocation…”

Just then, Madder realizes something.

She envisions power-levelling this Yggsalad and him having infinite discounts at shops and blacksmiths to get the best armour and weapons. Then a vision of her behind him, coercing him buy things for her. “Heh heh,” Madder says menacingly. “Friends?”

As quickly as the friend request emerged, he declined.

“I still don't trust a crook in my shadow!” Jun retorts. He understood though he didn't have a choice.

When looking at the class change menu he noticed there was a new class due to the new points he had put into Mercantile.

“Tradesman” Jun clicked on the class and his appearance briefly changed. He sees the list of features of the class.

Tradesmen can see players' shops on his mini-map and their names more visibly. They also gain several skills. “Open Shop. Caravan. Trade Chat.”

Tradesman Master.

As the name was underlined he knew that if he clicked it it would direct him to someone who could guide him to become a Tradesman. He clicked it, which opened his map to a new city.

Elleon.

He looked back at his shadow. “Hey Madder, I think I know how to become the richest player in Asper.”

“How?”

Jun looks back towards the Bazaar. “If I told you, you wouldn't believe me.”

“To Elleon we go!”