[2040]
Sirens wailed up and down the streets but not a single hint of pedestrian life can be seen. Tall skyscrapers obscure the stars creating a sky of glass and steel. Shin Leung was just another number among the masses in the system locked inside the box of a "luxury" apartment.
[2035]
"We're looking at an unprecedented impact to all communities at every level."
"Hemoxythra has spread far faster than anyone expected in the last two weeks. The World Safety Organization believes that it will soon be classified as a pandemic in a matter of two to three weeks."
"That's right Sophia. The WSO recommends everyone stay indoors and await orders from your local and national government."
"Stay tuned for more information at-"
The television was suddenly turned off. Shin quickly turned around and found his mother with a remote from the kitchen.
"Looks like we're going to be in some trouble aren't we?" Shin's mother said playfully.
"We have this month's rent covered but next month is going to be a struggle," replied Shin with his head resting on his hand.
"Today is my last day in the office. I'll be back quickly tonight before dinner. I just have to pick up the essentials from my cubicle before I can start working from home."
Shin and his mother, Julia, have been mostly living by themselves for the last four years. His father was often away on "business trips", too busy to be around with his family. Shin, in his first year of university, did not get to experience much of college life before having to move to remote learning online as a result of hemoxythra.
"Sure, no problem."
Julia, facing the door, waved back to Shin without looking and closed the door after her. Shin got up from the living room floor and paced back to his room. The dark ambiance in the room was only disrupted by the occasional flash of lights from outside his balcony window. The computer turned on and the room was lit up by the light from his monitor. Shin sat down in the office chair and let out a sigh before clicking on an icon on his desktop.
[Mythos Online]
[Start]
Upon clicking the start button, the fans on the PC started whirling and a device to the right of his desk began to glow with a soft white light. Shin leaned backward and strapped the device over his head.
[Calibrating...]
[Downloading Update...]
[Complete]
[Continue connecting to Mythos Online? Y/N]
[Y]
Little did he know, this was the beginning of the end for society as he knew it.
+++++++++++++
As the game started, Shin was met with a cloudy black background and the title of the game.
[Mythos Online]
Mythos Online is a fantasy VRMMORPG released just three days ago by world-acclaimed game developer Finale Studios. While Shin purchased the game on release day, he didn't get to play because he had major university projects to finish up at the end of the semester.
Following a sequence of lights and checks and a black screen, a vibrant sky of clouds opened up before his eyes. Shin turned his head to the side and found himself on a soft yet messy pile of leaves on a small hill. Around him, a large tree stood tall and a gravel road stretched toward a small town.
The sensation of touch was still foreign to him. Getting up, he brushed the remaining leaves clinging to him. In the process, Shin inspected his equipment and a prompt appeared to his side.
---------
[Rookie Overalls]
[Attributes]
Strength: 3 | Agility: 5 | Intelligence: 1
---------
The window disappeared as he stopped focusing on his clothes. It seems that the interface was quite responsive and natural. Shin stepped off to the side of the road and underneath the large tree and leaned against it. His first impression was that Mythos Online nailed the visuals. The game looked exactly the same as the promotional art.
The small town that the road led to consisted of no more than 20 buildings. The architecture was the standard medieval fantasy setting that everyone has seen time and time again in past games. Clay-colored shingles rested atop stone bricks and wooden panels. Some of the structures seemed more wealthy than others as they were made with more sturdy materials.
"The situation is the same here as in real life huh," Shin said subconsciously.
He remembered a gesture from the game's manual. He put his index finger and thumb together and clench the remaining fingers into a fist, and pivoted his arm downwards.
A large semi-transparent panel quickly opened on the left side of his vision.
---------
[Character Page]
[Nickname: [UNSET] | Level: 1 | Specialization: NONE | Profession: NONE]
[Attributes]
LOCKED
---------
Next to the name and attributes was a reflection of himself. Similarly to real life, Shin had messy medium-length red hair. His hair was somewhat longer than it was in real life as the game seemingly made some artistic choices of its own. The game also managed to reconstruct his face accurately. Shin’s kind-looking face would easily let him make friends but he was often too intimidated to start talking to people on his own.
As for the attributes, Shin had to figure out how to unlock his stats and specialization. In the past, he played several MMORPG games with his friends from high school. However, those were the standard PC games and not advanced virtual reality games. From his previous experience, he figured that he have to move to a "starter town" first before selecting a specialization and profession.
Shin began walking down the road towards the town. Along the way were the same green plains that he saw on the hilltop. There weren’t many trees in the area but the cool breeze coming from a nearby lake blew into his hair as if to guide him towards the town.
As the town was getting closer and closer, he decided to open the character panel again and set his username. Shin was not really the type of person to use a dark and foreboding or a fake name so he would normally use his real name.
---------
[Shin]
[Are you sure you want your name to be: Shin? Y/N]
[Y]
---------
Despite its initial impression, the town was bustling with energy and festivities as players and NPCs moved about. The distinction between the two was pretty obvious as NPCs communicated differently. As Shin walked towards the center of the town, he passed by several merchant shops with players and NPCs mingling and exchanging currency for goods. In the middle of the town plaza was the largest building. The sign above the entrance was written in what seemed like a strange language, but it quickly and automatically translated to English.
[Levendale Guild Hall]
As he put his hands on the wooden door, Shin was unexpectedly tapped on the shoulder.
"First-timer in Mythos? Hey! Welcome newbie."
A warm and inviting voice. He turned to his right and found a man just slightly taller than him. His crimson red hair was only barely held back by a headband. The man donned a massive greatsword on his back, iron-clad shoulder guards, a leather tunic, and brown pants. A quick glance up led Shin’s eyes to his nickname.
[Hale]
"Yeah, it's my first time in Mythos. Seems about the same as every other fantasy game so far." Shin replied.
"Keep a lookout, you might be surprised! Anyway, it seems like you already know where to go if you're already at the guild hall. Since you seem somewhat experienced, I'll be by the town fountain, if you're interested in joining my party." Hale said as he playfully patted Shin’s shoulder.
"Seems like a good way to get started," Shin answered, looking back to Hale as he waved while walking away. Looking forward to going on an adventure, Shin turned the knob and opened the door to the Levendale Guild Hall.
The Levendale Guild Hall hit Shin in the face with its atmosphere the moment he stepped in. The usual pub and restaurant that all nerds expect from a fantasy setting took up the right half of the guild hall. The seats were full of adventurers and NPCs alike sharing drinks and throwing profanities.
"T-that ogre horn was mine you shi-shithead!" a belligerently drunk barbarian exclaimed.
"No it's mine." a bandit-looking NPC calmly replied.
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The exchange from the drunk barbarian grew more violent as they argued.
Shin was surprised to find the NPC's dialogue to be so stiff. This caused him to second-guess the game developer’s promises.
Shin casually waved at the bar-goers that met his gaze. Unsurprisingly, they look unamused and somewhat annoyed at his gesture. Immediately regretting his first impression, Shin continued along.
He paced down the hall following the long ornate rug to a front desk. At the end of it was a front desk manned by a blonde elven receptionist. Her elven ears were made her stick out. Shin glanced up right above her head and found a name tag.
Shin was excited as this was the first time he would communicate with an NPC. Their names were formatted differently to players as they were surrounded by angled brackets as opposed to square brackets.
"Welcome to the Levendale Guild Hall! I see this is your first time here! Are you here to check your affinity or join a guild?"
"Yeah, uhh, I'll check my affinity I guess."
"Make your way to my right and you'll see an obsidian-opal stone. Just place your hand on that and close your eyes and you should see a vision with your affinity!" Noel said while pointing at the stone.
Following Noel's instructions, Shin walked over to the stone and placed his hand upon it, and gazed into the stone. Before he closed his eyes and received his affinity, Shin thought about the Mythos affinity and specialization system.
Shin was first recommended Mythos Online by Qu. Qu and Shin became friends coincidentally as they both shared a love for MMORPG games. Qu was far more excited about Mythos Online than Shin was. Originally, Shin was going to meet Qu in-game on the launch day but he was far busier than he expected so he pushed it off until today.
“He’s probably far ahead of me at this point.” Shin thought to himself.
A few days ago, Qu told Shin that he was excited to find out what Shin’s affinity would be. Finale developers took a gamble with Mythos Online's specialization system.
According to the developers, Mythos Online did not allow players to set their character appearance or their specialization. Players are assigned an affinity for a specialization based on a random seed generated from a scan of the player's vitals when using the Zero VR device. There were a large number of specializations outside of the common ones. There were six basic specializations and several hidden specializations that are unlocked by allocating stat points and assigning skill points. The six basic specializations were Warrior, Bandit, Artificer, Ranger, Fighter, and Savant.
To experienced gamers, one of these was obviously different from the rest. Savant was the only base specialization that didn't follow the standard archetypes found in other fantasy games.
When Finale was questioned by the press about the Savant specialization, they didn't say anything concrete about it.
"We want the world of Mythos Online to be as natural as possible. Just like in real life, each person has their own strengths and abilities. We want to give that kind of uniqueness to each individual player. Savant is something special that we believe will excite everyone. Players will have to find out for themselves what that means when the game releases."
The lead game developer Suzuha Miyamura’s words echoed in the brains of excited players.
Hoping for the best, Shin closed his eyes and after a brief delay, a sigil appeared within the darkness.
[Savant]
When he opened his eyes again the entire room was glaring at him. Looking above his head, Shin saw what seemed to be a world announcement.
[THE FIRST SAVANT HAS BEEN CHOSEN]
"What the hell is this luck!?" Shin screamed internally.
He regained his composure and looked around him once more to find that players and NPCs alike were still staring right at him. Shin has never been this lucky. Usually, everything has gone wrong in his life, from making friends to his own family life. The only time that he had any luck was winning a raffle during a livestream for an entirely different game.
Shin scurried his way out of the hall past the audience that he created and made his way to a somewhat secluded corner in the town center. While walking there, Shin caught passing glimpses of players gossiping about his newfound specialization.
In this moment of comparative peace, Shin opened his character page with the gesture he had been practicing.
---------
[Character Page]
[Nickname: [Shin] | Level: 1 | Specialization: Savant | Profession: NONE]
[Attributes]
Strength: 8 | Agility: 8 | Intelligence: 8
---------
It wasn't just his imagination. Shin’s base attributes went up due to his specialization. However, a new panel opened up to the right of the character page with his stat points and skill tree. Similarly to other games he played in the past, Shin could assign points to each stat to increase it. Strangely, there was a lock preventing him from assigning attributes such as his strength, agility, and intelligence.
[Savant players are unable to assign stat points]
"Interesting design choice" he mutter under his breath so as to not draw any unwanted attention.
Next, he opened the skill tree. As the character panel collapsed, the skill tree panel opened to take up the entirety of his sight. There were various nodes that were interconnected with prerequisites and branching options. The sheer number of skills would overwhelm even the most experienced MMORPG player. Shin briefly scanned through skill names to find his three starting options.
---------
[Perception] - Increase the awareness of nearby surroundings.
[Proficiency] - Increases your proficiency at wielding most weapons and tools.
[Enhance] - Focus your mana to apply a strengthening effect to an object of your choosing within a short radius.
---------
Skill trees varied for each specialization. This led Shin to assume that his skill tree was going to be incredibly unique given the rarity of his specialization. However, the inability to manually assign attributes would be troublesome. Even though savants by their dictionary definition are known to be geniuses and good at everything, Shin’s first impression was that it was the "jack of all trades, master of none" archetype.
His specialization gave him a single skill point so he decided to put it in [Basic Proficiency] for the time being. Shin let out a deep sigh at the thought of the daunting complexity of the skill tree. Nevertheless, he closed the panel and walked back into the main plaza to look for Hale.
+++++++++++++
"Hey there!" Hale pauses as he greets Shin. His follow his eyes up toward Shin’s name above his head "Shin, right?"
"Yeah, hey. I was thinking I'll take you up on your offer to join your party."
"Sure sure!" Hale ardently replied while sending Shin an invite. The ragtag group of two adventurers behind him began to stare Shin down with interest.
[You received a party invitation from [Hale], do you wish to join this party? Y/N]
[You have joined [Hale's] party]
"Great great. Hey man, we're around level 5 so we could take you over to the goblin area so you could skip the slimes. Sounds pretty great, huh?" Hale said excitedly.
Shin nodded in agreement. After some brief preparations, the party left Levendale through the opposite side from where Shin originally entered the town. Large gates of stone and metal greeted them at the exit of the town. Two NPC guards stood at their posts and signaled for the gate to open. As the gates opened, the feeling of adventure enveloped everyone.
+++++++++++++
"Haah!"
"[Fireball]!"
Large swarm groups of goblins fell before Shin but he was not able to assist the group much.
“In hindsight, this was convenient as I didn’t even have a weapon aside from my bare fists. It feels wrong to be carried like this though.” Shin thought to himself.
Before he encountered the goblin village, Hale introduced Shin to Geoff and Omen, the other two party members.
Geoff was a man of large stature, similar to Hale, who also wielded a massive greatsword. Omen on the other hand was an Artificer. He carried a codex of sorts on the side of his belt that he used to conjure magical spells.
When Shin inspected his allies' weaponry, he found that the stat requirements of these weapons were at most 5 per attribute. Weapons in Mythos Online were mostly locked behind certain specializations. The only exception is Savant. The problem with this, however, was the minor detail right beneath the details of the weapon itself.
---------
[Rookie Artificer's Codex]
[Specialization: Artificer, Savant]
[Attributes]
Agility: 1 | Intelligence: 3
Magic Attack: 10
[Required Attribute
Intelligence: 5
(?) - Attributes of this weapon are reduced by 50% when equipped by a Savant
---------
This level of freedom came at a cost as developers had decreased the power of a weapon when a Savant equips it.
After toppling over a tent full of goblins, Hale, Geoff, and Omen all leveled up to 6 while Shin reached level 3. Shin assigned the two skill points he gained into [Perception] and [Enhance] to experiment with them. [Perception] and [Basic Proficiency] were both passive skills so they were automatically activated as soon as he learned them. On the other hand, [Enhance] was an active skill, so Shin had to manually use it.
Active skills differed based on what type of skill they are. To cast a magic active skill, the user would have to envision themselves using the skill while chanting the skill’s name. In contrast, action skills such as special slashes and manuevers could be freely by simply envisioning the skill.
While Shin was digging through the details of his skills, he received a notification from the Zero VR device on the top right corner of his vision. He initially thought that his mother had returned from the office. Shin thanked Hale, Geoff, and Omen for their help before logging off.
+++++++++++++
Shin took the headset off and was immediately greeted by a notification message on his PC.
"I don't think I'll be able to make it home tonight. Just eat whatever leftovers we have left in the fridge. Love you."
Shin was stunned as he sent a message back.
"What happened? I can take care of myself but let me know what happened."
Another notification chime sounded off.
"Well, it seems that the government doesn't want to risk anyone leaving the office because of Hemoxythra so we were asked to shelter in place. I tried asking them plenty of times but they won't tell us anything."
Taken back, Shin was unable to come up with any immediate reply. About a minute later, Shin started typing again.
"The damned CJP government always pulls this type of shit. Let me know when you hear anything back ok? I'll have dinner first."
Shin made his way out of his room and into the living room. The atmosphere was ominous and empty without his mother or friends there to accompany him. The last time he interacted with any of his school friends in person was before the breakout of the disease. The central couch in the living room where everyone would try and cram into to watch shows has been devoid of anyone aside from Shin for some time now. Anxious about the messages sent by his mother, he turned on the TV and stood beside the couch.
"-hat's right, we're hearing from the World Safety Organization that the has now escalated Hemoxythra to a pandemic, and governments across the globe have begun to take extreme quarantine measures to prevent its spread. Not much is known about the syndromes of the infected but initial reports claim that the infected experience rapid deterioration through fatigue, and potentially death as fast as one week."
"Fuck!" Shin thought to himself as he hit the corner of the couch.
"So much for being lucky today." Shin continued as he clenched his fist.
Powerless, Shin moved to the kitchen and took out the leftover spaghetti from the fridge, heated it up, and ate alone with the TV on.
"Experts claim the CJP government, which was already economically struggling, may begin to collapse as political power continues to move towards consolidated mega-corporation Pentrafil."
Pentrafil was an organization established in 2024. It was originally an American-based biochemical and pharmaceutical company. Their profits eventually led to massive expansions into other industries with record-high buyouts of companies. Everyone in the world knew the name Pentrafil by now. As their monopoly over all things grew, the economy of every country they do business in multiplied as well. However, as expected, the wealth was unfairly distributed.
As time passed, Pentrafil only gained more influence as it had a stranglehold on every industry on the planet. All of this power culminated in Pentrafil acquiring the largest game developer in the world, Finale Game Studios, which went on to develop Mythos Online.
"At least all of this wealth went into at least one good thing." Shin thought as he ate.