02

Class

Day 1 Default 0

The timer hit 00:01 and the world started to swirl in front of her eyes.

The new scene unswirled and she found herself in the reception of a very well clean office decorated with a few picture and gaming memorabilia. A lady stood up from the desk and greeted her, letting her know that an Omnicorp inc. representative will be with her, as soon as she finishes signing a few more documents.

These were the financial aspect of keeping herself in full immersion for the rest of her life, or at least until she broke out and stepped through that final portal. Being in full immersion wasn’t cheap, there were lots of chemicals, food mush, and vitamins needed to drip into her blood stream, and lots of electricity, as well as manual laborers watching everything and refilling those bags of chemicals.

Mandatorily, she signed up for a couple of sponsors, not the minimum requirements, but enough. Her sponsors had been the largest soda brand in the country, ZCola, pasting on all of her potions and drinks the bright and shining logo. She chose another one, a reputable clothing brand that she had liked, Athena Clothing putting their logo on every piece of clothing she wore, which gave her discounts on any piece of clothing she might buy. She chose one more sponsor, a hardware store, DIY-Depot, now giving them the rights to automatically put their logo on her race car, motorbike, or boat, if she ever got one; also on her guns, swords, knives, and any other type of weapon and training equipment.

There was still one more document to sign. An optional one, but one which might give her all the fame she’d ever want, in and out of the game. These documents, when signed, gave her her very own channel where people could watch her playing live, and record battles, fights, conversations, or whatever in god’s name they wanted to watch of her. She signed those too, only knowing that the more viewers she had, the more money she earns. There was an additional line for that: money earned IRL, as with sponsors and channel popularity, would be given to her in the game, subtracting the cost of her immersed body upkeep.

“Those are all the documents you will be needing to sign. Please take a seat and an Omnicorp inc. representative will be with you momentarily.”

She took a seat and just a minute later another well dressed man, actually, identical to the man at the wooden table, came out and took her to his office.

“Welcome to Omnicorp inc. I will be orienting you to the beginning of your life in Default. Please, take a seat.”

She sat and wondered about that wording of, “the beginning of your life…”

“I see you have already signed the documents. Actually, you wouldn’t have been able to get here without them. The next documents are the agreement to, and quitclaim of, stats and abilities that best suit you, as evaluated by our very best Personality Evaluation team and AI. Think of it like a school card, you can always improve them, and they can get worse, if only by neglect and a lack of using your head.” He tapped his noggin, giving a really fake smile. “The basic stats don’t go down, unless you sit in your room and do nothing all day. The specialized stats are the ones you would best be working towards leveling up and increasing, as those are innate to you and most likely your forte. Skills that you have learned will be available to be used by you, and their rank will increase depending on that skill’s usage.”

He slid over a paper with her bio and stats.

Name: KillPrinsX

Player number: 00098655

Level: 1

Race: Human

Innate ability: Psychic

Profile

Height: 5’ 3”

Weight: 92lbs

Body Type: Slim

Hair Color: Flame Red (IRL: Medium Brown)

Eye Color: Vibrant Green (IRL: Dark Brown)

Stats

Health: 10

Stamina: 10

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Mana: 15

Attributes

(Scaled out of 20)

Strength: 5

Agility: 11

Dexterity: 14

Endurance: 7

Solidity: 3

Wisdom: 12

Intelligence: 16

Charisma: 8

Luck: 10

He let KillPrinsX read until she looked up. She didn’t seem to have any outright objections, the AI eval hit it on the mark and made her a Psychic; high Wisdom and Intelligence, low Solidity and Strength. He continued his speech like a man with a sales pitch, “I’m sure you’re wondering what all those mean.” He slid over a large card with the stats’s details, explaining what each one meant. “This will also be available to you in book form when in the game.”

She read through them anyways, checking for any slight variance to other games or urban knowledge. One had caught her eye: Solidity being how likely one would be to get hit by a bullet, and how one might look completely ethereal or another look as solid as a statue. The rest were basically the same as every other game, Strength: lifting power and muscle, Agility: speed, Wisdom: spell casting and mana regeneration, Intelligence: ability to make decisions, Wisdom: magic abilities and casting of spells.

“Next, I’ll show you what your Innate Ability might mean, Psychic. Not a lot of those around.” He slid another card across the table.

A Psychic is one of the less common of Innate Abilities to find in Default. One might find them at the coffee shop gleaning information out of anyone who walks through the door. Psychics have higher success rates in haggling and bargaining or just plain convincing others. They might not be the strongest or toughest of a team member, but having one on your team will increase your chances of winning, if only in the fact that the minds of the enemies will not be safe. Whether it’s in knowing the enemy’s plans using mind reading capabilities; spotting a sniper from across the field (by knowing the future); hallucinative mind games; or even, at higher levels, complete seduction, overwhelm or brain death. A Psychic’s abilities are nearly limitless when played right, if you know who to play.

On the back was a skill tree:

Basic:

Analyze (tier 1)

Deep analyze (tier 2)

Predict (tier 3)

Programmer (tier 5)

Fortifying (self only):

Focus (tier 1)

Mind of steel (tier 2)

Slow time (tier 3)

Behind the scenes (tier 4)

Psychic Warrior (tier 5)

Disabling:

Confuse (tier 1)

Paralyze (tier 2)

Betray (tier 3)

Suicide (tier 4)

Kamikaze (tier 5)

Attack:

Drain (tier 1)

Health Drain (tier 2)

Mana Drain (tier 2)

Stamina Drain (tier 2)

Knock back (tier 3)

Demon Fingers (tier 4)

Instant Kill (tier 5)

Evasive:

Evade (tier )

Psychic Dash (tier 2)

Illusion (tier 3)

Blind Spot (tier 4)

Invisible (tier 5)

Shielding:

Mana Shield (tier 1)

Special:

Nap Time

Due to your Psychic Innate Ability, you can learn and use Mana based skills one tier above the usual scale on skills excluding those on the Psychic skill chart.

Her face lit up as she was already starting to see some good combos in the future, way in the future.

“A nice read isn’t it,” the Omnicorp inc. representative said. “A catalog of all the player’s innate abilities will be available to you in book form, at your house. But I will share another piece of information.” He slid over another few cards. “These will show you Common abilities, along with other possible Innate Abilities. Note that not everyone may have a specialized Innate Ability, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be tough, specializing in one of the common abilities might be just enough to overpower any special character.”

Common Skills:

(For players of the Common Class or not included in their Innate Ability’s class)

Charms (weak to common)

Spells (weak to common)

Potions (elementary to common)

Enchanting (elementary to common)

Shooting (basic guns)

Fighting (basic attacks)

Swords (common swords)

Animals (pet training)

Driving (basic cars)

Piloting (basic planes)

Scribing (books and historian)

Communications (radio master)

Building (carpentry and bricklaying)

Technician (repairs on basic vehicles)

Florist (grow plants well)

Snake choking

Wood chopping

Fishing

Mining

Cooking

Specialized Innate Abilities:

Body builder (muscled tank)

Sprinter (specialized athlete)

Olympian (rounded athlete)

Knight (basic to heavy swords, basic to heavy armor)

Assassin (skilled killer)

Marksman (basic to specialized guns)

Keen eyes (notices minute detail in everything)

Race car driver (basic to high-speed vehicles)

Wizard (common to high-level magic spells and charms)

Psychic (mind reading and manipulation)

Engineer (repairing common to specialized items, vehicles and aircraft)

Architect (building common houses to skyscrapers)

Astronaut (common to specialized flying vehicles)

Animal trainer (allying basic animals to beasts)

Botanist (grow and magically enhance plants)

She finished glancing through.

The Omnicorp inc. rep was at the end of his pitch now, “So those are what you have to look out for. Common abilities anyone can learn. Innate Abilities are specialized. Quite a few characters have them, but only one. You may want to watch out for them, or build your team with them. Choose wisely. And remember, your life out there,” he pointed a thumb back, indicating out in real life, “depends on whether or not you make it out of here,” he pointed down this time. “It doesn’t get easier.”

She looked up at him with a face said she couldn’t take it anymore, when will you shut up and let me go out and play?

He seemed null to her faces, “That’s about everything. The last thing I will tell you is this: If you want to get out, you’ve got to be the best, the only portal back to your real life is under this building and guarded by high level bosses. On your map it is indicated with a golden star.”

She nodded slowly as she stood, realizing that there’s no turning back now. He let her stand up, but stopped her from leaving.

He slid over one more item. A big green button, with a bold white GO!

“Press this to teleport to your house. Good luck, and fight smart.”

She pushed it and the office swirled infront of her eyes.