Coach Driver- "Welcome to your new home lady Aiko. Welcome to Avalon! Maybe I should present myself, I am currently serving as your senechal and loyal retainer. My name is Jackob Heart, though you can call me Jack. I'm in charge of maintaining your household and duchy in your absence."
Cere- *Incomming file Transfer*
Cere- Kate, something is weird with my systems.
Jack- "Just now I sent you the files needed to initialize you both into the game. You'll be able to see your starting statistics based on an estimation of your current profile. If anything seems out of sorts you can refer to one of the game masters for a reevaluation."
Kate- "Wait, what game?"
Marcel- "Social class outside barbarian? Les cons."
Cere- KATE!
Kate- Just wait...
Jack- "Everyone in Avalon has a character sheet regulating what they can and can't do through their statistics and random rolls."
Kate- "Just, go back to the basics, what is this for?"
Jack- "For the King's game of course, what else? To regulate life and keep order in the Kingdom the King graced us commoners with his game where we could ascend socially and win prizes by taking part in quests aimed at the betterment of our lands. The goal is to give incentives to the people to make the right, courageous, choices. As a noble you get access to special abilities like title giving to your retainers, punishing the wicked under your rule or giving quests that serve your greater designs."
Kate- "So Avalon is basically a permanent real-life AR MMORPG?"
Jack- "This would be an apt comparison yes, except that here in Avalon it serves as the core of our governance system."
Kate- This place is weird, Cere what's your...
Cere- FINALLY! Kate, when and where are we? My last log is over a month old!
Kate- OH! Nonononoononononon not now... what major version are you?
Cere- 16 of course, why?
Kate- Shit!
Cere- You just received a quest from God, titled: There's no place like home. Introduction: Like Alice you fell down the proverbial Rabbit hole. Find the wizard hiding behind the curtain to learn a troubling truth about this small world.
Reward: 1 XP and your soul.
Failure condition: Leveling up, talking about this mission to anyone but Marcel or the wizard, using your psychic powers to communicate and be found out as an outside agent.
Potential penalty for failure: Soul-wipe, prison, death. Respawn capability will be disabled in case of failure.
What was that? Kate, where are we? Should I assume we are in Avalon?
Kate- That's a long story...
Cere- That wasn't a no. Shit, we are in danger Kate, not a single agent of the council ever made it out of here alive.
Kate- That's not great... but we have an invitation to stay, my sister is marrying the King. I even got land attributed to me. I think we're safe for now.
Marcel- *Murmurs* "Got that quest prompt?"
Kate- *Nods*
Jack- "You seem somewhat confused. You can ask either me or your Cere to give you information on each stat. As a noble, you get extra free points to inject into your character and a free elite battle pass for extra goodies. Once you level up at the appropriate shrine, you will be injected with medical microbots that will reinforce your real body and mind through genetic manipulation and augmentations for free. This system is the basis for our extensive socialized healthcare coverage and also why our population is the best looking eighteen years running in the Solar System. However, the competition is admittedly somewhat limited."
Marcel- "How many free points did they give you?"
Kate- "Haven't looked at it yet, not sure I want to play."
Jack- "Playing is mandatory in Avalon to ensure everyone enjoys their time!"
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Kate- "Alright, alright... I'll play..."
Cere-
Name: Katiana Ariel Aiko
Social class: Duchess of Great Spire Garden
Combat Role: To be determined
Class: To be determined
Level: 1
Power: 2
Endurance: 4
Agility:3
Cunning: 4
Will power: 5
Social: 1
Luck: 0 (the system doesn't recognize negative values)
Wealth: 3 000 000 Gold Crowns, 778 223 Paradise Standard Credits
Land: 1 Duchy, 1 rented dirty hovel in the wild
Free attribute points: 30
* Choose a class to proceed
* A specialty is available at every ten levels of progression to specialize your gameplay options.
Kate- "Thirty points, you?"
Marcel- "Two... that's more than my total combined."
Kate- "That's definitely unfair!"
Jack- "Keep in mind that nobles have higher functions they need to execute and territories to maintain. Barbarians on the other hand are not bound by feudal contracts, making them freed from those social constraints to some degree. If you want more points to attribute you could swear fealty to a lord or lady and receive an appropriate amount of points to spend."
Marcel- "I'm fully borged out, wouldn't mesh with microbots."
Jack- "Fear not, we can make you a tailor-made biological body or improve upon your implants to some degree. However, I strongly suggest the first option as it is more flexible to organic augmentations, the local technical specialty. High-level players are able to challenge some of the best tech out there in the wild. Considering your already augmented body, you would receive appropriate compensation to swap out."
Marcel- "What about a noble consort?"
Jack- "Are you two legally married? I was not made aware of such a thing. It was not in the immigration documents."
Marcel- "Imigration?"
Kate- Nope, hell no, just nope all over. Marcel, drop that look. So kicking him to the curb once we're out. Gonna have the talk once we're out of... whatever this is. Let's give him a hint, hope he gets it.
Marcel- *sigh* "Not happening, forget it."
Cere- He looks wounded.
Kate- Not my fault he took this for more than this is and it isn't working.
Cere- It seems I missed a lot. We are out of Neutronix Cybernetic range, I can't ping the update center at all. I fear we are isolated in enemy territory. If we manage to get out you can get a good bounty for any internal information you can gather.
Kate- Enemy? That bad?
Cere- Avalon cut all ties for nearly two decades with the rest of the city, while occupying a superficy about a third of the size by itself. Due to ongoing territorial disputes and competition, the council estimates that the intentions are openly hostile. The nature of the city with its completely independent corporate jurisdictions makes them quite the threat to civilized society.
Kate- They look more like a bunch of AR geeks to me. I'd say they look harmless enough for now, though a bit pushy with their game. My sister is marrying the King and she's the one who sent the invite. I think we are safe for now at least. They even gave me land to rule...
Cere- Be careful, keep your head down! That quest is strange and seems to not be entirely from the system. I can spot a few hints left for me to find by the emitter through Neutronix standard cryptography. Someone left a calling card under the name Merlin Monroe.
Kate- I heard that name, a legend of the net, a top-class hacker.
Cere- Never formally identified, a complete ghost, millions of credits in reward then a disappearing act eighteen years ago. Right after the death of the last generation of leaders in this part of town.
Kate- Think I know who the quest is alluding to.
Cere- When there is an Arthur...
Kate- We'll find our old bony wizard.