Jake looked up from the floor as his door cracked open, finishing up his morning exercise routine as Andy grinned at him.
“Great to see you up and awake, man!” he said, “You as excited to play GNW as I am?”
“Not really,” Jake shrugged, “This is just when I usually got up while at the Bio-Dome.”
“Seriously?” Andy asked, before stepping back out of the doorway to allow Jake to pass, “Anyway, you should probably get clean and eat, the Character Creator will be up in about twenty minutes.”
“The what?” Jake asked as he grabbed the food tray from the Fabricator, flinching slightly at the artificial bacon and eggs on it, “I would have been fine with oatmeal.”
“No way, dude,” Andy chuckled as he grabbed his own tray, “You’re going to need your energy today, not to mention that the artificial oatmeal is almost as nasty as nutrient paste.”
“I see,” Jake just nodded as he ate the strangely salty faux meat and eggs, shaking his head as he felt his stomach protest the artificial meal slightly, “So this character creator thing? What is it?”
“What it says on the tin,” Andy shrugged, “It lets you do a bunch of stuff like alter how you look in game, change your Heritage, all sorts of stuff. Not that either of us are going to be doing that.”
“Right,” Jake nodded, remembering the conversation they’d had the previous day during Jake’s “Lesson”.
From what Andy had told him, different Heritages were far more likely to spawn in different places with others of the same Heritage. This meant that if the two of them wanted to play together, they would both need to select the same Heritage. As Jake knew very little about any of this, they’d decided to go with Andy’s preferred Heritage, even though others may be more beneficial to his desired build.
“Like I said, no hate to other Heritages, but I like to play what I know, and that’s pure Human,” Andy chuckled as he finished his breakfast, ushering the still slightly sweaty Jake into the bathroom as soon as he’d finished eating, “Anyway, get clean, you’ll regret it otherwise.”
“Alright,” Jake sighed as he entered the room, waving his hand over the screen as a simple chemical rinse sprayed over him, removing all the sweat and smell from his body, before a blast of heated air dried him off, allowing him to quickly leave after putting on fresh clothes, “So, what happens if we still get separated?”
“We’ll keep in contact with the Message System and play the game until we can meet,” Andy shrugged, “Not much else we can do.”
“Oh, okay,” Jake nodded, “I’m going to go practice with the training games a bit more.”
“I wouldn’t,” Andy said as Jake turned away, “Our new rigs are pretty good, letting us play for twelve hours a day, but that’s total. It’ll be a waste to spend twenty minutes playing a practice game and lose a few hours in the actual game.”
“Really?” Jake sighed, “Fine, so what do we do for the next twenty minutes?”
“Simple,” Andy grinned as he grabbed a couple of controllers from the shelf beneath the large holo-screen, “We play a game!”
------
Jake slipped the helmet on, lying down before touching the side, quickly slipping into the induced unconsciousness, and appearing in Andy’s Hub. The two simply nodded to each other as each selected the icon for the game from the menus in front of them, vanishing from the space in a flash of light. In an instant, Jake found himself standing on a wide circular platform, an image of himself floating in the air in front of him as a screen appeared.
Hello and welcome to the Grande New World character creator!
Do you need assistance?
Y/N?
“No,” Jake said, having already been coached through the process by Andy.
Please choose a name for your character.
“Jake,” he said clearly.
The Username [Jake] is not compatible with Grande New World.
Please choose a different Username or allow the System to assign you one.
Allow System to randomly assign a last name?
Y/N?
“Yes?” Jake said as the screen vanished, replaced by yet another.
Your Name is:
[Jake Grey]
Is this okay?
Y/N?
“Yes?” Jake shrugged. The name sounded fine, and it probably wouldn’t be hard for Andy to identify him all the same.
Do you wish to alter your appearance and Heritage?
Y/N?
“No,” Jake said, the screen blinking away, replaced by a new one.
Base Character Creation Complete.
15 Fate Points awarded.
Mid-Tier Pre-order Bonus added:
Increased Level Experience Gain.
Increased Skill Experience Gain.
Processing…
Identity confirmed.
Special-Tier Bonus added:
A bonus 15 Fate Points awarded.
You have 30 Fate Points remaining.
Jake stared at the screens in confusion. He had no idea what ‘Fate Points’ were, Andy having never explained that part of the game to him in his long and detailed “education” the day before. While he recognised the bonuses from the mid-tier package he had bought, he didn’t know why he’d been given a special-tier bonus as well, nor why it needed to confirm his identity to do so. As if reacting to his confusion, a new screen appeared in front of him.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Fate Points are a special form of currency within Grande New World.
They can be used to purchase powerful Skills, items, and Titles, giving the player an edge over their foes.
Fate Points may be spent in the Fate Store or Game World.
Fate Points are incredibly difficult to acquire, players only receiving them for reaching certain milestones or obtaining certain achievements.
Spend your Fate Points wisely, as they may lead you to Glorious Victory, or Humiliating Defeat.
“Okay,” Jake said to himself, “That explains some things. But how do I get to this Fate Store?”
The next screen flashed up in front of him, letting out a small fanfare as it appeared, the words “Fate Store” emblazoned across the top of the screen in fancy lettering. Jake just shook his head, looking through the various options that were available. The shop consisted of three tabs, labelled “Items”, “Skills”, and “Titles”, with a list of the available items for sale beneath them. Jake scrolled through the Items tab for a while before he spotted something to his liking, selecting it.
[Survivalist’s Pack]
A pack containing the necessities for surviving in the wild.
Contains:
10 slot bag
Water skin
Rations (3)
Survivalist’s Knife
50 ft. of Rope
Fire starting kit
Camping Tent
Fire Pit
Basic Spit
Cooking set
Survival Guide
Cost: 5 Fate Points
Purchase?
Y/N?
“Yes,” Jake hummed as he tapped the button, the screen blinking for a moment before processing his purchase.
[Survivalist’s Pack] purchased.
You have 25 Fate Points remaining.
Jake just scrolled through the rest of the list, finding several more packs that would suit his needs for weapons and armour. He was about to buy one of those packs when his eyes were drawn to the other tabs on the store, the ones for Skills and Titles. Shrugging, he opened the first one, scrolling down the list of Skills, each seeming more and more specific, and getting more expensive the further down he went. Shaking his head, he switched to the final tab, looking through the various Titles he could buy.
Andy had explained Titles to Jake the previous day. Apparently, they were special bonuses that a player could earn by performing certain special actions or feats, which the large man had called achievements. Andy had said that many people hunted for these achievements to make themselves as powerful as possible, though Jake didn’t really understand why it mattered so much. He just continued scrolling through the increasingly expensive Titles until he saw one that actually made some sense to him.
[Title: Owner of {Land} (Conditional)]
Become the owner of a plot of land.
Total area of land will be determined by Land Value.
Land Value can be up to value of 1000 gold.
Special conditions must be met to finalise ownership.
Cost: 25 Fate Points
Purchase?
Y/N?
He could own land. Land that he could feasibly use for anything he wanted to. If this game was as realistic as Andy had claimed it would be, did that mean that Jake could create a nature reserve on his land? Capture or tame animals to roam the property? The thought sent a shiver of excitement up Jake’s spine.
“Yes,” he said without hesitation, the window flashing again as it processed his request, before two new screens appeared, one showing a large map.
Select the area you wish to claim ownership of.
Total area is affected by value of the land.
Jake nodded as the smaller screen vanished, allowing him access to the map. He dragged his fingers over the screen, moving about and zooming in and out to find a place to claim. He quickly noticed that the size of the property he could claim changed depending on where he selected, with the areas nearer to large cities being smaller than the spots further away. Zooming out as far as the map would let him, Jake could only marvel at the size of the world.
“That is big,” he muttered, pressing the centre button, the map zooming back into a small town, Jake reading the name, “Dusk Keep. Is it centred on this town because that’s where I’ll start?”
Dragging his finger across the map, Jake quickly set about actually looking for a suitable location to buy. Finally, he found a large dark green expanse in the middle of a golden plains, a large lake in the southern part of the forest, and a small circular clearing in the centre. There was even a small outpost village to the south of the forest itself, and it looked to only be about a week’s travel from Dusk Keep as well. Selecting the patch of woods, Jake was slightly surprised to see that the entire thing was highlighted, even a small portion of land outside the woods being selected.
Would you like to purchase [The Dark Woods]?
Y/N?
“Dark Woods?” Jake muttered, “Sounds ominous.”
Zooming out a bit, Jake found that the area actually lay outside the borders of the nearest kingdom, the dotted line indicating the border stopping at a thin range of mountains that cut off the land. Strangely, the area the woods were in was labelled as being part of “The Wilds”, which Jake just ignored, not knowing what that meant.
Zooming back in on the patch of green, Jake hesitated. Should he really buy the forest? What if he couldn’t fulfil the conditions for ownership? Would he just lose his Title and the land and have wasted his Fate Points? Glancing at the map again, he wondered if he should just buy property closer to Dusk Keep, inside the kingdom, but a nagging feeling in the back of his mind stopped him. Shaking his head, Jake just acted.
“Yes,” he said, his voice reverberating around the large empty space as the screen vanished, quickly replaced by another.
Congratulations, you now hold the Title [Owner of the Dark Woods (Conditional)].
You will need to spend a minimum of SEVEN (7) in game days occupying the Dark Woods to complete your claim.
You have a maximum of ONE (1) week of real time to complete this task, otherwise the claim will be lost.
You have 0 Fate Points remaining.
Exiting Fate Store.
The window vanished almost as soon as Jake finished reading it, leaving him feeling a sense of worry as he realised that he had been right about the conditions. Hopefully Andy would be able to help him get to his land and claim it before anything bad happened, but Jake couldn’t help the feeling of excitement and anticipation rising in his chest. Looking around, Jake blinked as he saw the non-descript wooden door now standing in the middle of the platform he was on, the logo for Grande New World carved into it. Stepping forward, he placed a hand nervously on the handle, blinking as a screen appeared in front of him.
Entering Game World in 5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
Jake smiled as the countdown reached zero, watching as the door shuddered slightly, strange green lines creeping in around the edges as it opened by itself, pulling him forward. A new screen appeared in front of him moments before he vanished through the portal.
Spawning in Game World…
Custom Spawn Point detected.
Spawn set to [The Dark Woods].
------
Andy blinked as the world faded in around him. Looking around he took in the sight of dozens of other players around him, more and more appearing each second in small flashes of light. Grinning to himself, he opened his inventory, quickly equipping the short sword from his [Fighter’s Pack] and the shield from his [Defender’s Pack].
Initially this wouldn’t have been a great investment for the man, as the Fate Store had mentioned that he would need Fate Points to buy Skills, but Andy had an extra advantage. As a journalist, he had been given an extra five Fate Points to spend in the shop, allowing him to buy the two packs and still have enough points to fill out his first ten Skills. Of course, Andy also suspected that you could get Skills without Fate Points, but he was in something of a hurry, so he would use his advantage liberally.
Nodding his head, he quickly opened the external System Menu, sending a quick message through his Hub before striding forwards, ready to start his adventure.