[Congratulations! Your bonus gift is: Urdr’s Tear. Item description: A crystalized tear of the ancient god Urdr. This tear will activate once upon the owner’s wish after the owner has died, and allow them to take one more action before their death.]
I grin to myself, thinking about what a jackpot of a gift this is. We only get three lives in these games, getting the chance to take another action after death? That’s mutually assured destruction if anybody tries to come after me. This is brilliant!
[Load successful! Welcome to Midgard!]
The realm of darkness around me dissolves into blue code. A blinding light obstructs my vision, teleporting me into the server.
= = = = = =
I’m in a massive colosseum. A blue sky stretches above me, pristine sandstone forms the walls that enclose the arena of sand I stand in. Dozens of other players are here, various races and builds, but we have enough room that we’re each given dozens of meters of space to ourselves. I can tell they’re other players because of the usernames over each of their heads. I snicker, my eyes narrowing in and observing one player whose username is ‘Ballsdeep69’. Gamers never change. In the brief time it’s taken me to get a grasp on my environment, the dozens of players in the colosseum have grown to hundreds, each new player loading in with a sparkle of blue code. Sukine, Haruhi, and Haruno should all be loading in fairly soon too, I should let them know where to meet me.
I open my menu with a thought, and glance through it. It’s different from Romgard’s menu…I’m going to explore it. The 1st tab is ‘Player Profile’. When it’s selected, it shows me my stats, skills, titles, current condition, level, and stat points. Same as in character creation. Though, I don’t have any stat points…Could I have saved them for now? No, I had to spend them to complete character creation. The 2nd tab is ‘Inventory’. Why would they have an inventory tab and allow you to access your inventory through the pouch on my belt? They’re identical to each other. I select a gold coin from my inventory tab, and it materializes in front of me falling to the floor. I pick it back up and get a good look at it. It’s a plain gold coin, with the face of some person I don’t know on it and text across the top that reads “Hope”. I reach into my pouch with my other hand, and access a silver coin. This time, it shows up in my hand as I pull my hand from the pouch. A small difference, but when using your pouch an item shows up in your hands as opposed to being summoned forth. Maybe I can also use this to act like an NPC?
My username would give me away though. Thankfully the next tab, ‘options’, might help me there. In it I see lots of options, with almost all of them turned on. It looks like I can toggle on system notification, customize the inventory color, and achieve lots of small cosmetic changes about the game from here. Bingo. I toggle off the ‘display username’ option. The 4th tab is ‘friends list’. I open it and find it empty. Damn. I’m getting called out by a video game. Sukine and the others should be in here though, so I guess the friends list resets between this game and the other two. I’ll still be able to meet with them, we accounted for that possibility and have a code phrase we’ll tell each other to identify ourselves. “If the blue bird sings – that means the episode of Naruto is over.” I remember Haruno laughing uproariously when Sukine came up with that. The 5th tab is ‘logout’, which I have no intention to do, so I close the menu and check the surroundings again.
The hundreds of people have grown to thousands. It’s getting crowded…Right as I think about leaving, an announcement echoes around the colosseum, “Please wait for the game to launch. Midgard will begin once 100,000 players load in,” as it speaks, a giant tab opens up above us that reads ‘12,398/100,000’, and the number is rapidly rising. “You may log out if you want, but your place in cue will be lost.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Guess I have to wait another couple minutes for the map to open. The colosseum has gotten pretty packed…Wait, people have started spawning into the stands now too? To fit 100,000 of us, I guess that makes sense.
I feel a presence directly behind me, and my dexterity stat takes over. I immediately tilt my body to the left, a blade passing through where my ribs were just moments ago. Even with my reaction speed, it grazes me, leaving a streak of neon red overtop of my clothes where the attack hit. I turn with my momentum and stare at the attacker.
[-5 HP]
[145/150 HP]
Thanks, system, for obstructing my view. A female elf, username ‘Kiraki’. She’s smiling maliciously, “Wow, you dodged that? Quick, aren’t you?” I wordlessly draw my own blade, taking the opportunity while she talks to turn off system notifications for when I take damage. I can see my health bar when in combat anyways, but I can’t feel any pain in this game.
“What are you doing?” I coldly ask her. We only get three lives in these games, and given how different this one was so far, even that wasn’t a given.
“What? Don’t be so sensitive! I’m getting used to the combat system,” she grunts and slashes at me again. Our blades collide, sending sparks between us, “Besides, this is a colosseum! Aren’t they made for conflict?” She remarks while pressing her attack, pushing me back. She must have put her last point into strength.
“It’s a crime to PK,” I remind her, warding off her attacks as best I can. She’s getting out of breath. My point in constitution gave me higher stamina, she can’t win a war of attrition.
“Not. In. Midgard! Yet!” She exclaims, breathing heavily already. She’s putting her full force into each blow, trying her best to get past my guard. But Midgard is a perfect game for me. I did kendo for 12 years. She’s hopelessly outclassed. I have the time to afford a glance around. The colosseum is filled to the brim by this point, but even still everybody’s made a circle for the two of us. Doesn’t look like anybody plans on helping either.
“I guess you’re right,” I relent, turning my attention back to her fully. She heaves a sloppy blow downwards, the accuracy and speed of her earlier attacks gone completely. I angle my blade while stepping forward, deflecting her strike and closing any distance between us. “It’s not a crime yet,” I whisper, slicing her neck and sheathing my sword at the same moment.
[Player {Kiraki} defeated! +500 EXP!]
[Level up!]
[Skill ‘Swordsmanship’ unlocked!]
[Level up!]
[Skill ‘Evasive (Passive)’ unlocked!]
[Title: ‘Cain’ unlocked!]
She dissolves into blue code, which drifts upwards. I follow it with my eyes, and see that the count reached over 100,000. Midgard has started, and I just committed the first PK. But she was right. It wasn’t a crime yet, and she’ll just respawn…With a grudge against me. Maybe I should thank her. I leveled up twice, I’m starting the game with another advantage!
“Wow! Nice moves!”
“How did you do that?”
“We should friend each other, what’s your username?”
People all start talking at once, no longer afraid to approach me since the fight is over. None of them seem to hold it against me that I PK’d her. I guess they all saw her attacking me, and knew I did it in self-defence.
But just as suddenly as they had started talking, their voices fall silent. A silence spreads across the entire colosseum actually, and I receive the notification:
[Player voices have been silenced by {Administrator Ki} during announcement]