Chapter 10 The Day the Game Started
(*Note: once more, I’ll be using POVs for this chapter.)
A man stepped behind a podium. In front of him a huge crowd of reports and other interested people were talking excitedly. Behind him was the building that hosted Future V’s main office.
“Ahem, ahem.”
The noise died down.
“My name is Patrick Sylphion, I am the director in charge of all communications on behalf of Future V. I am very pleased to announce that the first ever virtual reality game, New World, will be having its official launch tomorrow at exactly 12:00.”
He paused to the enthusiastic applaud from the crowd.
“Now then, allow me to give some information on what to expect. First of all, a new user can only possess a single account for the game. Even if he tries to log on from another virtual reality pod, the pod will automatically link to his own account. So there is no point for a single person to purchase more than one pod.
Furthermore, as you are all probably aware, you can chose one of six races at the beginning. They are human, elf, dwarf, beastman, halfling and barbarian. You can also modify your appearance and even change your gender if you wish. The goal is to have fun! As for classes, they will be given in game. It is up to the player to find the one that suits him best.
Finally, the last bit of information I wish to share with you is about the one month “grounding” period. There has been numerous complaints when future players heard that they would have to spend a month inside their beginner city’s limits before being allowed outside. There is, however, a very good reason why this “grounding” period has been made. It is because virtual reality is a unique and very vivid experience. It takes some time for anyone new to it before they are fully used to it and that is especially true if your in-game body is very different from your real one. The one month period is there for the people to get used to it. And think about it. One month in game is about 6 days in reality. It’s not that long.
Now then are there any questions?”
As the spokesmen had expected, after the onslaught of information he had provided, multiple hands rose in the air. He pointed to one, belonged to a young and naïve looking reporter.
“I have heard that the beta testers are exempt from this “grounding” period. Does that mean they will have an advantage over regular players?”
Idiot, Patrick though, while others in the crowd started murmuring worriedly.
“Not having to go through the “grounding” period gives beta testers absolutely no advantages”, he replied. “Just like any other player, a beta tester will still need to spend time in the city to gain a class. Also, even if he has access to training grounds, beginners also have access to quests in the city that will help them quickly gain experience. Therefore, after the month has ended, there should be no significant difference between the two.”
“But the beta testers are still advantaged, right? I heard that they could even keep their characters if they want.”
“To answer your question, I will talk a bit more about the beta testers. Yes it is true that they can keep their characters. However, this character of theirs will suffer from several penalties: they will start back from level one, without a class. They will have to choose a new starting city, different then Astelam to start in. They will lose all items and any gold they have acquired outside of Astelam. In other words, it will be just like starting over, except that they will kept their skills and proficiencies.”
“So they will be advantaged!” The annoying reporter concluded.
He was really annoying. Yet Patrick couldn’t disclose the true reason yet, as per the director’s orders.
“It’s more like a small gift, just like the extra skill we gave the beta testers that choose to restart. Proficiencies are difficult to level up so there is no real advantage for the players.” With one notable exception. “Also, the beta testers aren’t the only ones to get a bonus, the first one hundred players will also get something, so there is no reason to complain.”
At that, the reporter finally seemed satisfied, or at least he shut up. So Patrick started his closing speech.
“In the end, the only real advantage beta testers have is 10 weeks in game more than real players. But New World is not such an easy game that those ten weeks matter. Indeed, I doubt that even an extra year in game would advantage a player that much.” Lol, if they only knew. “The beta testers did serve their role properly. They voiced every complaint they had and we took them into consideration to improve the game even more. For example, in addition to the system aided combat, we have implemented a fast-craft system, that allows a player to craft an item automatically and thus reduces significantly the amount of time it takes for crafting. As with system-aided combat, the results of using fast-craft are dependent on the level of the proficiency and the coinciding stats.
And with that, I have no more information to give and nothing to add save that I hope you have a wonderful time exploring our New World!”
With a burst of applauds, he walked down from the podium.
Grandis’ POV – My first day.
Once again, I am doing the character creation process.
I choose the same appearance, the same name, and the same race as I did before. Why? Obviously so people can recognize me from the commercials, of course!
Speaking of the commercials, they were slightly disappointing. They didn’t spend enough time showing me and instead showed random people doing random stuff.
There was even a short clip of some guy running in the forest with a log and monsters chasing him, if you can believe it! How much random stuff does Future V feel compelled to put in. Seriously!
Oh well. At least, as I knew there would be, a lot of people talk about me on the forums related to New World.
I’m glad. It’s a great feeling when a lot of people know you’re the best.
In any case, because I’m recreating my character, I get to choose Astelam as my starting place again, which I do.
That way, I won’t be running all over the place like some idiotic newbie. I know where everything is and I can gain back my level really easily.
There is just a last thing to do before the game starts. As promised by Future V, I get to choose from a group of three random skills the one I want to start with.
I can choose from Leader’s Aura, Tracking Sense and Tailoring.
I pick Leader’s Aura, obviously, what else is more fitting for me?
It’s apparently a skill that boosts leadership and gives a small defense and attack buff to members of my party.
All my choices done, I am swallowed by light and teleported to the starting city.
Around me, there is a crowd of newbies just roaming around aimlessly. I ignore them for now, because first I want to go get my class back.
But before I can there are a few newbie players that come up to me saying: “Hey, you’re that Grandis, right? The one from the commercials?”
“Yep.” So people do recognize me, as they should.
“Wow, we’re fans of yours, would you please show us around the city?”
I’m not a fucking guide! Who do these people think they are? But no, I must stay calm. Who knows, they might be useful in the future. So, putting on my best smile, I answer:
“Unfortunately, I was just about to go get my class. But, if you have a specific place you want to go, maybe I can give you directions.”
So I give them directions and luckily, they go away. Before they leave, I register them as friends; you never know, they could be useful someday.
Then I go get my class back, before heading to the front gates where my party from the beta days are waiting for me. We had already talked before and I told them to delete their characters and make new ones so they could all start here with me.
They were useful last time, they proved their worth.
With these capable subordinates managing my guild, I will reach the top.
But first, we have to get gold, resources and levels.
It’s a good thing beta testers are exempt from having to stay in the beginner city for a month.
A month stuck in Astelam with nothing but a bunch of noobs, it would be unbearable.
I lead my party outside the walls and into the field of rabbits and foxes.
I am confident that I am already ahead of the others. I intend for it to stay that way.
Alin’s POV – Changing Myself.
A blinding light, and then I appear in an unknown city. Where am I? I don’t know. What am I? I also don’t know.
When I arrived at the character selection, I simply said to choose everything randomly, including my starting point, gender and special skill.
Everything about me is completely new, I am reborn a completely different person!
… I imagine that saying it enough will make me believe it.
Just then, a game message appears, informing me that I am the first player to select the city called Ferando, in the kingdom of Bellon as my starting place.
At the same time, a new window appears, congratulating me on being the first person to choose a Rabbit type beastman as my race.
Well, at least some of my questions are answered.
I even got some fame from the two facts.
Making a quick verification, I won’t say how, I determined that I am a male.
In conclusion, I am a male rabbit beastman starting in the city of Ferando in the kingdom of Bellon.
Not a bad start, I think.
To find out my name, I open my character window:
Status WindowName: KrytircLevel: 1 – 0.00%Class: NoneAlignment: NeutralTitle(s): NoneHealth: 100Stamina: 50Mana: 100Strength10Vitality10Agility10Dexterity10Intelligence10Wisdom10Charisma0Luck5Leadership0Fame100
Skills
Coin Toss: Beginner lvl 1 – 0.00%
Krytirc, what a weird name.
Hum, coin toss, is this the skill I got from being a beta tester?
I check it:
Coin Toss
You are a man that likes to leave things to chance. A gambler. As such, this skill is perfect for you. Once activated, this skill will grant you a small bonus or penalty, completely at random.
-The higher level this skill has, the greater the possible advantage or disadvantage.
-Chances to get something good depends on luck.
-Takes X mana (amount will vary at random).
So, a skill that depends on luck for a rabbit-like character. Seems suspiciously fitting. Well whatever. I made my character selection random exactly for this, so I could be someone different.
Curious, I decide to try my skill. I shout: “Coin Toss!”
A huge quarter materializes in front of me, before spinning around and shouting into the air. It comes back down and hits with a loud clang, before rolling a few times. When it stops, it starts levitating towards me and shows me the side it fell on: Tail.
It disappears with a puff of smoke, and instead there is a loaf of bread, still steaming warm, on the ground.
I check my mana. The skill cost me 20.
I laugh. Maybe this skill could be useful?
In any case, I decide to explore this city from top to bottom.
****
A few hours have passed, I’m exhausted.
The city is huge. It would take much more than a single day to see everything. But I still managed to visit the noble district, the trader’s district, the residential district and now I am in the merchant’s district which is just a huge bazaar. There are Npcs everywhere, buying and selling merchandise.
Throughout the entire day, I’ve kept using my Coin Toss skill whenever the cool down ended. Thanks to that, I got a bunch of weird items, such as an herb or a mysterious blue stick that didn’t really seem to do anything, as well as a random buff to walking speed.
I also got an assortment of random consequences. For example, once I summoned a dog that kept biting my tail (a fluffy rabbit tail) while I was running from it. It only stopped slobbering all over my behind once all my mana was exhausted.
I got other bad effects, but the worst was the latest item I got. It was a loaf of bread identical to the first one I got this morning, only, when I took a bite, it had a horrid taste and all my stamina disappeared.
Which explains my I am lying on the ground here.
Anyway, I took out some bread from my inventory and ate it to replenish both my satiety and stamina. A few more minutes and I feel almost human, better enough to finally pay attention to my surroundings.
A few meters away from me there is a crowd of children with a few adults mixed in. Curious,
I make my way to them. I see a man, dressed in rags, sitting against the wall with three earthen cups upside down in front of him and a bowl with several copper coins beside him. Facing him, there is a child who is looking intently at the three cups. Suddenly, he takes the one in the middle in his hands and flips it over. There is a gray pebble under it. With a sight of disappointment, he puts it down.
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The man flips the two other cups upright. Under the one on the far right there is another gray rock, but under the one the left, there is a red one.
With a smile, the man replaces the cups over the pebbles. Then, he starts moving them around, slowly at first but then faster and faster until I lose sight of them.
After a flourish, he stops, and asks if there is anyone else who wishes to try his luck out.
A man advances, puts a coin in the bowl, then picks up the bowl on the right. Again a grey pebble!
This game lasts for the best part of an hour. On a few occasions, someone did win, and then the man would hand them three coppers from his bowl. But more often than not, the man won, thus his bowl of coins slowly filled.
Finally, after some time had passed, most people left, leaving just me with the strange man.
“What about you, Mister Rabbitman? Want to test your luck?” He asked me.
I shook my head.
“How do you do it?” I asked the man.
“How do I do what?”
“There must be a trick involved. It’s impossible for you to have won that often without one.”
“There is no trick.”
“But…”
He cut me off: “Listen Mister Rabbitman, and listen carefully. There. Is. No. Trick. Yes, I know, some take delight in scamming naïve customers, but not I. I, enjoy the gamble. I entrust everything in my luck, and hope it pulls me through. So, I repeat my question. Do you want to try?”
I am filled with confusion. For me, entrusting everything to chance is pure folly. Yet, for some reason, his approach appeals to me. It is just so different from the ordinary me, who usually never takes any chances. Relying on luck is pure folly. You could lose everything you have in the drop of a hat, go from nothing to grand fortunes and back again in a single day. There is no way this could be considered an acceptable occupation… except in a game.
Suddenly I am filled with newly found enthusiasm. This is a game. A game I play to escape from my boring ordinary self. Here, I can do reckless things all I want. I answer the man, who has sat there silently waiting for my response:
“Yes I’d like to try, but I have no money.”
“What do you have?”
“Just some bread, and a flask of water.”
“Well, bread usually goes for 2 copper here. So why don’t you bet a loaf of bread, and if you win, you can take 4 coins.”
So double the usual amount. Hum. I have one in three chances of getting it right. That’s too low, if seeing what happened early is any indicator, I have to make the odds as even as possible to have any chance at winning.
“I have a counter example. I will bet a loaf of bread, and if I win will only take two coins. In exchange, take away one of the cups.”
The man smiled. There was a light in his eyes that wasn’t there before, a light of excitement. In response, I felt my own heart accelerating.
“Even odd, eh”, the man murmured. “Sure, why not, I accept.”
He put one cup away, then put the red stone under one cup, and the grey stone under the other. He started switching them around. But I wasn’t looking at his hands. I wasn’t able to follow them with my eyes anyways. Instead, I was looking at his eyes, and he was staring right back, unblinking.
The cups went still with a thud. He raised his hands, challenging me to pick a cup.
My heart was racing. I had done games of chance before, but never have I felt this exhilarating tension. Slowly, I put my hand on the left cup and lifted up.
Underneath it, the red stone seemed to be shining. With a woop of delight, I scooped up my winnings. Looking back at him, I saw he was also smiling.
“What is your name, Rabbitman?”
“Krytirc.”
“Krytirc, huh. Well Krytirc, I like your style. What do you say to the idea of becoming a professional gambler?”
“A gambler?”
“We are free men and women, who go wherever fortune may take us. We gamble with all we have, even our very souls, to reap the greatest rewards. Entrusting us to the hands of lady chance, we accept everything she throws at us, good and bad. So, what do you say?”
A message popped in front of me:
Class Change!
A mysterious gambler has offered for you to join their ranks. Do you wish to change your class to gambler?
My heart was still going so fast I was afraid it would burst. In real life, considering this choice would have been madness, insanity. Here, however, for the me of right now, there was only one possible answer.
Softly, I called the name of my one skill: “Coin Toss.”
In front of me appeared a gigantic coin, already spinning. Looking back at the still smiling man, I say: “Heads is yes, tails is no.”
His smile grows even bigger, the light in his eyes shines even brighter.
I throw the coin up high.
(*Note: I didn’t actually plan on making another chapter with this character, but after the responses of the readers, I decided to give him a POV here about his first day. Unfortunately, there probably won’t be any new chapter about him for some time, although I might mention him from time to time.)
Nurse Joy’s POV – Budding Romance?
My name is Alex Joy. I am a nurse, in charge of the care for patients that are here for long stays. It’s a hard job, but I like it.
Several weeks ago, I was put in charge of a new patient: a certain Yukiro Tearan. When I heard the circumstances surrounding his stay, my heart went out to him.
Poor kid, made a prisoner of his own body. I shiver at the though.
I heard that just like me, Yukiro was very active. It made me even sorrier for him, that couldn’t even move anymore.
As a result, I may have spoilt him a bit more, but he couldn’t even fell it.
Honestly, when I heard that a man from Future V. had come to offer Yukiro a chance to move again, if only in a virtual reality, I think I could have kissed him.
Twice a day, every day, I come to Yukiro’s room to take care of his needs. After emptying his waste bag and refilling his IVs, I always take a few precious minutes to stare at the screen over his pod. It shows him as he is playing in New World. Seeing him being so happily active in there lifts my heart.
Staying in his room with him every day like this has rapidly become one of my favorite activities.
Another thing I must do every time I visit him is give him a sponge bath and a massage, to slow down muscle degeneration.
Well, even though I say that, for some strange reason, it doesn’t seem to be the case for him.
Instead, for some reason, it almost feels like he is getting more muscular.
No. It must be my imagination.
In any case, I have recently purchased one of those VR pods.
I think that once I go to New World, I’ll try to find Yukiro. Just to see if he’s happy.
Maybe we could form a party, do a few quests together, hunt monsters and explore. Or we could even talk about girls, and other topics only reserved to conversations between us men.
It would be fun, I think.
(*Note: Yes, the title is kind of a joke, and yes Alex Joy is a male. I just wanted to mess around with anyone with fantasies with hot nurses falling for our protagonist. Not that I don’t intend to add in romance, it will just be a little later in the story.)
Yukiro’s POV – Back to the Real World, And Then off Again!
I come back to a complete black void. Again.
I hate it, I really hate it.
But I endure, and a few minutes later I am back in the antechamber. There, I see a blinking message:
Yukiro, when you see this, respond back and wait for us to contact you.
Simple enough. I do so and settle myself to wait.
A few hours later, a new message appears:
Say: turn on camera mode.
Ok. “Turn on Camera Mode.”
Suddenly, a big shining square appears before me. Then the light is replaced by a familiar scene: my hospital room. Standing in front of the camera, Mr. Durnal waves at me.
“Hello, my dear boy, how is it going?”
“Very good, Mr. Durnal. And how about you?”
“Good, good, but please, call me Andrew, I insist.”
“Very well, Mr. Andrew. Tell me, what is this?”
“This is a new function we just installed on your pod. It allows you to see your interlocutor and speak with him as if you were standing face to face.”
That’s convenient.
“Now tell me, Yukiro, how was your stay in New World?”
“It was fun for the most part, Mr. Andrew, even if it became a little lonely at the end.”
“Hah! I can imagine.” He replied, snorting.
“What is so funny?” I asked.
“Do you know, my dear boy, just how lucky, or unlucky, you have to be to manage what you did. You had to have logged in at the exact moment where we severed the connections to New World to be able to get in and get trapped in its standby state.”
“About that, Mr. Andrew, can you tell me, where did the Npcs go?”
“The Npcs? They are complex programs so they were taken out to speed up the process.”
Okay, that was an unhelpful answer, but whatever.
“How long was I trapped inside?”
“For two months and 22 days. And you got out literally minutes before the official launch of New World. Which reminds me, there are a few things we have to discuss concerning it.”
“What things?”
“First, please view the video I just inputted in your pod. It’s the video of our spokesman talking about the game.”
I did so. And when I came to the part about assisted combat and crafting, I could only go: what?
“Mr. Andrew, what is this about assisted combat?”
“Ah right, it’s when you let the correct your aim and strength according to your stats. It also makes you utilize skills by just calling them out loud. The system will then take over and make you act accordingly.”
“That was the first time I heard of this, thought.”
“Yes, well, that’s because I forgot to mention it (*Note: more like I hadn’t thought of it at the time.). But, as I knew you wanted your experience to be as realistic as possible, I turned it off for you. If you want, at any time you can turn it back on through the menu.”
“That’s fine, I’m happy with the way things are.”
Actually, there is just one thought in my mind, when it comes to this assisted gameplay or whatever. That THIS IS A TRAP.
If there is anything I have learned while playing up to now, it is that proficiencies don’t determine how good you are. How good you are determines your proficiency. How can not actually doing the actions make you improve. It can’t. That means that you won’t get any better by letting the system do the work for you.
In any case, I should just ask.
“Mr. Andrew, how do proficiencies work?”
“Well, that’s a broad question. Can you be a bit more specific?”
“Then, what determines how fast a proficiency levels up?”
“Ah, now that is an interesting question. Let me answer it with another question: two people start playing the game at the same time. They both pick up a sword, and start swinging it. But one of them is a trained swordsman, and the other one a complete noob at sword fighting. What do you think will happen?”
“The swordsman’s proficiency will raise faster.”
“Why?”
“Eh… Because he knows how to swing the sword correctly?”
“Exactly! Because his real level of skill is better than beginner, he should be able to climb very quickly to the intermediate stage. Just like someone who is really strong, or really smart in real life, will see his corresponding stats rise quickly through his actions. But just for a time. New World isn’t a game kind enough to make it easy on anybody. Even a master swordsman in real life will have trouble piercing through the upper levels of the advanced rank in new world.”
If that’s the case, what you do in real life prior to the game has a big impact on your performance. That’s good to know I guess.
But now, Mr. Andrew’s explanation brings another question to my mind. With the way he was speaking, he was confirming my guess that proficiency and stats were just measures of a person’s ability. But if that were the case, what was the point of taking away someone’s stats and proficiencies when they died?
Someone that trained his proficiencies the hard way would see them go back to where they were extremely fast.
But. For someone who went for that system assist thing, wouldn’t it be a devastating blow? At first these people would have the advantage, as the others would struggle with using their skills and fighting. And at first, death would be of little consequence. But then, later on, when it became harder for these people to level up, when their proficiencies came up so very slowly because they are having help from the system, won’t every death be devastating?
It would take them longer and longer to recuperate what they have lost, until their development comes to a standstill.
It’s almost as if the entire system is made for them to fail.
As I was pondering on why Future V. wanted to sabotage most of the players of its game, Mr. Andrew left and my family came.
I was ecstatic, I really missed them. My little sister told me they’d join me in-game in a year. That also made me happy.
Then, when they also left, I turned back to the gate connecting to New World.
It’s time for a new adventure.
Chapter 11