Chapter 002

Last isn’t a bad thing… right?

A few days before Ren would be allowed to login to the Flow servers an official opening event was broadcast on the internet and TV, four of the five winners are present of course as the guest stars of the opening. Ren let out a sigh as he watched “I should be up there to…” But he had to follow the doctor’s orders.

Standing at the top of a flight of stairs that led up into what looked to be a grand tower was the four winners along with the SID Tec CEO and his assistant, the reporter seemed more interested in the winners currently however.

“For privacy reasons I won’t ask you by your real names but won’t you tell us your character name and what you’ve learned so far about the one of a kind class you picked?”

The first one to step forward was a young looking man perhaps in his early twenties, his character looked like your typical ‘Hero’ shining black hair and deep sea blue eyes, the avatar had obviously been edited a lot at creation “Hello everyone, my character name is Tristan and my class is Heroic Prince.” He let out an award winning smile and winked at some of the girls at the front row audience causing cheers and squeals of delight to come from them.

Ren rolled his eyes “Come on, how much of a playboy are you? And Heroic Prince? Urk even if I was there to make the first pick I don’t think I could pick something with that name.”

The reporter on the screen grinned slightly at the cry from the crowed, waiting for it to die down a little before asking his next question “Heroic Prince, sounds like a class with a lot of bonuses.”

Tristan grinned at that “Yeah, while I’ve only had a few days to play with it so far it seems the class as high affinity for a combination of swords and magic, and as you might guess from the name I get special treatment from nobles and royalty, my first day playing I was invited by the king to attend a banquet in honour of my arrival.”

Under the live stream on his computer Ren could see the live chat being filled with a variety of comments from envious watchers, some comments wished him luck while others… not so much.

“Interesting, we shall look forward to seeing videos of your exploits on the Flow BBS, and so next we have?” The reporter looks to the girl next in the line who steps forward.

Like Tristan the girl looked completely altered to look like she was winner of the miss universe pageant “Hi everyone! I’m Selene and my class is the Mistress of Dance.” With that she drew out a long thin bladed sword called a rapier, often used in fencing and suddenly performed a dance at the top of the stairs, twirling, bending and swaying as the blade fought an invisible opponent, each step she took seemed to let off sparks from her feet and with a final heavy stomp as she finished a set of fireworks set off up from behind her. Causing the crowed to applause loudly “My class is something like a sword dancer, my dances have different effects as I fight.” She bowed and blew kisses to the crowed.

Ren watched her with an almost shocked expression “No… way… am.. I … dancing…” He sighed with relief that such a class wasn’t left for him.

“That was amazing.” The reporter clapped along with the crowed before moving onto the third person who stepped forward without needed to be prompted.

“Hello everyone.” This girl also had been ‘touched up’ to look like a stunning beauty though her attitude seemed more humble then the first two as she bowed to the crowed, her hood falling off to reveal her long blond hair and elfin ears causing wolf whistles to fly from the crowed causing her to blush “u..umm.. “ she tried to speak but the wolf calls continued and some men in the crowed called out some rather vulgar remarks, almost instantly you could see the vein pop out on the girls forehead “SHUT IT YOU PERVERTS!” She blinked then and quickly reverted to her shy nature “u..umm.. I’m Lara and my class is Sage of Ages. I don’t know much about it yet but I think I can use all kinds of magic and even combine some that normal mages cant.” She bowed again and shuffled back into her spot with a blush.

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Ren was stunned as much as the crowed was “Split personality?... or just a psycho…” He shrugged to himself . “The class sounds neat though but mages tend to always have a lot of weaknesses, but the classes special traits might make up for that to a degree.

The reporter shook his head as he regained his composure “Well… that’s interesting Lara.. thank you for sharing.. err.. next we have?”

The last winner stepped forward it was obvious enough that his class was of a darker nature given the black leather armour he wore and hood that covered his face completely “I have no intention of sharing information about myself or my class…” With that he stepped back into the line.

The reported just stood there for a moment before the last winners words registered in his mind “Err… right.. that’s fair enough.. so!” Quickly recovering his composure he stepped back to Tristan “Tristan, as I understand it the first place winner Ren Haddon was unable to make it to the class selection due to medical reasons and likewise is unable to attend the opening today, as the person that should have gotten the first pick of the classes do you think he’ll be happy with the class that’s remaining out of the five one of a kind classes?”

Ren leaned forward and listened intently now. Tristan let out a chuckle “Oh I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know he’s getting a class that’s more useless then even a base warrior class.” He sniggers and the other three likewise gave there own chuckles.

This left the reporter perplexed “Is that so? Can you tell us the name of the class that was left?” At that point though the CEO that had been standing in the back ground the whole time with a scowl on his face at the conduct of the four winners stepped forward.

“That information is confidential unless the winner Ren Haddon himself wishes it to be known, but I can assure Ren that being last isn’t a bad thing.” He smiled to the camera.

“I see, well then that concludes our interviews of the opening ceremony for Flow, we look forward to seeing everyone’s adventures on the BBS so be sure to post your grand adventures there weather big or small!”

Ren closed the live feed and then idly scrolled through the chat, he could have kept watching as some of the world was revealed but he didn’t want to spoil the surprise, he’d be there in a few days himself after all. As he scrolled through the chat he found that most of the winners seemed to receive bad comments, half no doubt from the simple fact that they had a class that no one else would ever get to play and the other was from their bad attitudes and most seemed to assume that the missing first place winner would be much the same “What do they know…” He sighed “It’ll probably be best to just remain unknown kinda like that black hooded guy…. But I wonder what my class is? Tristan seemed to think it was a rather crappy class…” The words from the CEO though that seemed to try and reassure him that is wasn’t did little to comfort him as he slipped back into bed. “Being last isn’t a bad thing… right….”

Later that day….

Edward sat at his desk shuffling papers as his assistant entered the room “Sir you wished to see me?”

“Ah yes, after that opening ceremony it seems that we may have made a mistake in picking those brats, we should have done a more in depth investigation.” He sighed and rubbed his forehead “A playboy, a show off, a girl with anger management issues and a boy that is completely antisocial. Not only that but they had the nerve to call that class useless.” He growled “Ren Haddon should be ready to play in a few days time, when he logs in I want you there to assess him, if he seems good enough then I’ll revert that class back to its original design.” He smirks “That’ll show those other punks.. in time.” He looks down at a paper on his desk, tapping it idly “Ren my boy, if what’s written on your application is right unlike those other phonies then you’re going to have the time of your life with this last ‘useless’ class… if you persevere with it”