Rose sighed for the umpteenth time. She couldn’t shake her worries. Dressed in a simple tank top and shorts, she felt underdressed at her high school reunion, where most women wore dresses. Despite her success in Souls Online, she preferred casual clothes, feeling very comfortable in them.

The reunion was a mix of old classmates, drinks, and subtle social manoeuvring. No one talked to Rose, their eyes sliding past her malnourished frame and simple attire. She stood in a corner, minding her own business.

“Rose? Rose Powers? Is that you?” A male voice came, surprising Rose and souring her mood massively as she heard that last name. It reminded her of her bastard father. She looked over to see who called out to her.

“Oh, hello Daniel. It’s just Rose now, if you wouldn’t mind.” Her voice was terse.

Daniel was a bit surprised at her hostility. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” his voice holding sincerity.

Rose shrugged, recalling her high school days. She had developed a crush on Daniel, but she went nowhere with it.

“Are you doing okay?” He asked with genuine concern. It was surprising to her he was concerned about her.

“I’m alive,” she replied bluntly. Daniel cringed a little at her answer.

“Rose Powers? Still hanging around the bottom, I see,” a fairly athletic woman wearing a red dress sneered.

Rose smirked as she remembered who this was. “Here to flaunt your money, Monique? Or are you just bored?”

Monique was a bit taken aback at Rose’s words, but kept a calm appearance. “Hardly. I just couldn’t ignore your stench, so if you wouldn’t mind, could you leave?” She fired back, but in reality, Rose didn’t smell. She just didn’t want Daniel to talk to her.

Rose already wanted to go home, but she didn’t want Monique to win like that. “And what if I don’t? I got invited like everyone else here.”

Monique had a smug expression on her face. “Then I challenge you and if I win, you leave.” Her words confused Rose for a moment, but quickly remembered a rule of the lower colony.

Challenges; they were bouts of physical combat that would occur when two people disagreed and couldn’t find a middle ground. The rules were simple, the challenger could start, and the challenged couldn’t refuse. The challenger also set a condition if they won. Of course, the challenger could also set a condition.

“Fine, but if I win, I want you to pay me 1,500 credits,” Rose replied, making everyone gasp as they listened. 1,500 credits wasn’t much, but for someone like Rose, it was nearly all of her reserves.

Monique laughed. She didn’t think Rose would accept the challenge, much less with such a ridiculous counter.

Monique was a very athletic woman. She had trained in gymnastics for years and even dabbled a little in mixed martial arts. They set the challenge and sent a confirmation to their IDs, finalising everything. Daniel wanted to interject, but he couldn’t get a word in.

They quickly created a small space for themselves and stood opposite each other. Monique still had a smug smile on her face.

Rose still looked unimpressed. Suddenly Monique kicked forward with a snap, not bothered by her dress in the slightest. Rose bent back a little, causing the attack to miss by a hair as she felt the wind.

Monique didn’t expect that to miss, “Lucky fluke,” She pounced forward with a flurry of jabs and kicks. Rose kept dodging at the last moment, but she didn’t do it because it looked cool. Rose’s condition wasn’t great, and she knew she couldn’t afford to block an attack and throwing wild attacks would only tire her out.

Wasn’t this perilous? Maybe to someone who knew nothing about fighting, but Rose wasn’t that person. She had fought with literal beasts, demons and even talented fighters from the upper colony. Someone like Monique was like a child to her.

Her form is off. She’s constantly switching from flexible and fast to rigid and strong. It makes it easy to predict and soon she’ll become annoyed. Rose analysed as she kept dodging everything. She carefully waited until an excellent opportunity arose.

Monique got annoyed at Rose’s continuous dodges, “Are you going to attack or just sway like a scared little leaf!?” she yelled, trying to get Rose fired up. Rose didn’t buy the taunt and kept cool.

The only one getting fired up was Monique, as one of her kicks went too wild and left her wide open. Rose didn’t miss this opportunity and threw an open palm into her chest. She had hit Monique on her solar plexus. Monique was stunned at the sudden pain and tried to breathe, only to find she couldn’t.

Her vision blurred and panic quickly set in. She had to back off quickly or else- her thoughts got cut off as something slammed into her head, making her pass out. Rose put her leg down and panted a little as she quickly calmed down. She was horribly out of shape and it showed.

Her ID flashed and she could see that her account had received 1,500 credits. She smiled, as she had got a very nice bonus. The set price for the soon-to-be-released headgear was 1,000 credits. Now she had enough for the two of them. Allowing Leon to play immediately as well and allowing Rose to quit her job.

“Rose, are you okay? That was amazing!” Daniel interrupted her thoughts with his compliments.

Rose looked around, only to see everyone’s stunned faces and an awkward tension hung in the air. “I’m fine, but I’ll still leave. It seems like I’ve disrupted the party.”

“Oh,” Daniel was a little disappointed, “But where did you learn to fight like that?” He asked as she turned to leave.

Rose turned back and smiled. “Living in the slums is tough.” She didn’t explain it further as she left the party and went home to care for Leon for the rest of the night.

Leon listened to the story and could conclude he could change the original canon. In the original story, it took Rose another week after playing the game to get Leon also to play. Now he could play and start at the same time.

Still, some things about the story confused him. “What’s the deal with you and that, Monique?” He asked with a curious tone.

Rose sighed a little. “She’s jealous of my hair colour. She wished to have my colour and even tried to dye her hair once, which nearly ruined it and everyone made fun of her for it.”

High school drama. Leon thought as he shook his head. He moved on to another part of the story.

“Daniel seems like a nice guy,” Leon commented, moving the topic along and ignoring Monique.

Rose expressed her surprise to Leon, “We talked little in school, but he was never mean to me and even spoke to me like I was a normal person.”

Leon suddenly had a naughty idea. “Seems like he’s a really nice kind of guy.” He teased Rose with his implications.

Rose got a little embarrassed at the implication. She didn’t mention that Daniel had offered to walk her home.

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Rose stood up with a ‘serious’ expression. “Now, where did you learn to tease your elder sister? It seems like I have to correct that.”

Leon suddenly regretted teasing her. “Wait! Sis please, I’m sorry!” He tried to plead with her, but it was too late, as she already had him in a headlock.

The two played like this for a bit before Rose left to inform Mr Palmer that Leon still wasn’t feeling well. It wasn’t a lie, as he didn’t think he could work today.

Rose herself also quit her job as a waitress and returned her uniform. She had enough saved up for food for the coming week.

As such, another week passed by quietly and Leon went back to work quickly. Rose said he didn’t need to, but Leon didn’t mind working with Mr Palmer.

Thus, the day that Leon and Rose had both been waiting for arrived, “Hey Leon! Guess what I have!” Rose said excitedly as she returned home holding an inconspicuous bag. The last thing that Rose would’ve wanted was to get it stolen.

“The new game you’ve been impatient about?” Leon asked with a slight tease. Teasing her had quickly become his favourite pastime.

“Hmph! Party pooper.” She feigned offence as she pulled out the items.

A pair of black and white helmets that covered one’s ears. Leon’s eyes were shining. If the people outside knew what they had here, they would storm the house.

Rose explained the headsets. “The game will start at 10 pm and will be open until 8 am, meaning 10 hours of playtime during your sleep,”

Leon knew all of this, of course, but he would not say that. It’s the same reason Rose hadn’t told Leon any pro tips, they both didn’t want to reveal their transmigration.

The game would run at a speed of 2.4 to 1, meaning 24 hours in the game would be 10 hours in real life. Increasing the speed and adverse effects could occur. Brain damage wasn’t something Leon wanted.

Rose held a mischievous look in her eyes. “But first, study time and since you like teasing your big sister this much…” She didn’t finish her sentence, letting Leon’s imagination fill in the gaps making Leon gulp.

The study was still done. Rose would occasionally write a few things, only to cross them out to be unreadable. Leon could guess she was keeping her memory fresh and noting down important events or items in the game.

10 pm couldn’t come quickly enough and Rose helped install the black helmet. While Leon was in bed, the helmet quickly turned on and emitted a harmonious sound.

From what Leon had read, the hypnotic sound emitted made the wearer fall asleep, and as a result, he dropped asleep. The game would digitise the user’s consciousness and create an avatar to play.

Leon awoke in an empty dark space, and suddenly an old man dressed as a butler appeared. “Welcome to Souls Online, I am Gaia.”

The Leon knew who this ‘old man’ was. It was Gaia, the AI in control of the game. It would observe and update the game according to the players, it also made this game.

Souls online technically existed for two years. During these two years, the game was running and letting the NPCs interact with one another. Since no players logged in, Gaia had set the game speed to an absurd amount. As a result, the world had thousands of years to develop before players even entered.

Gaia generated a mirror in front of Leon “Scanning body composition,” making Leon’s body visible in the mirror. “Do you wish to change your appearance? Warning, massive changes could hinder gameplay.” Gaia explained. Coincidentally, Leon had first-hand experience with such a change.

To move effectively, you needed synchronisation; otherwise, you would stumble around like an idiot. Some players would still make these decisions, but they weren’t serious about trying for the top spot, something that Leon wanted.

He could still make some changes, just nothing considering his height and build. Leon chose not to change his gender, but he could do so. This was also the first time Leon had seen himself in the mirror, so he inspected himself.

His hair was jet black, similar to his old one. The key difference was its length. When Leon got here, his hair was to his nape, but after a month it reached his shoulders. Getting a haircut wasn’t on Leon’s list, as he planned to grow it out further.

Why? He had read and seen pictures of characters with long flowing locks in his past life and thought it looked cool so he would try it out. Focusing back on his face, Leon’s eyes were green, similar to Rose’s. Upon close inspection, he could see the resemblance to Rose, which wasn’t a bad thing.

His skin still appeared sunken in, but it was gradually filling in better each day. Leon shook his head as he stopped admiring himself in the mirror.

He changed his eye colour from green to black and even changed his hair colour to white. He didn’t fill out his malnourishment since that would change automatically with some time.

Leon nodded as he looked at himself in the mirror. “That’s good, thank you.” It was an AI and not a person, so Leon felt perfectly comfortable talking to it normally.

The mirror disappeared and Gaia asked, “What is your name?” causing Leon to ponder for a moment.

Names were more important than one could imagine. They were a calling card and would represent one’s future image. Take Rose, for instance. She would call herself ‘Titania’ as it represented her strength later on in the game. But what did Leon want? He wanted to be strong like Rose, but why?

It would be fun, was the reason he came up with. He wanted to explore the lands, battle with powerful monsters, take on exciting stories and finally, to one day surpass his sister. “Tempest.” Leon’s voice carried a tone of wonder. It was in his eyes the perfect name.

Gaia nodded, “I wish you plenty of luck and happiness Tempest,” and with a bow, he disappeared. One thing to note was there was no class selection or anything of the sort. This was because Souls Online was special in that regard.

Leon disappeared and appeared back in a village, [Welcome to Tutorial Village #233] A message played out in front of Leon. This was still the tutorial and much was to be learned here. He was currently wearing a leather shirt and pants, and on his waist was a small dagger.

He was about to open his character sheet to look at his stats when people appeared around him.

And when he mentioned people, he meant a lot of them. “Huh? Hey! I didn’t get to pick a class!” “How do you strip?” “Willing to be your online GF for a guide!” People started shouting, causing Leon’s discomfort levels to spike. The noise, the movement, it was too much. He really didn’t like crowds; they always made his skin crawl and his head buzz.

He looked around and noticed an empty alleyway where no one was and quickly went there to escape the crowds. He heaved a sigh as he felt comfortable and continued with what he was about to do, looking at his character sheet.

Name: Tempest (Human)

Affiliation: None

Title: None

Class Soul: Classless

Classless Soul: Able to transform into any other class soul.

Profession Soul: None

Ability Soul: None

Transfigure Soul: None

Enchantment Soul: None

Level: 0

HP: 40/40

Mana: 60/60

Physical Power: 9

Magical Power: 14

Physical Defence: 3%

Magical Defence: 0%

Strength: 3

Agility: 3

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom: 6

Vitality: 2

Free Attribute Points: 0

Skills:

Stab: Active skill. Requirement: Dagger. Stab at the enemy for an additional 6 points of damage. Cooldown: 3 seconds. Skill Level: 1 (Mastery 0/100)

Equipment:

[Leather Shirt] (White)

Equipment Level 0

Physical Defence +2%

Durability 10/10

[Leather Pants] (White)

Equipment Level 0

Physical Defence +1%

Durability 10/10

[Novice Dagger] (White, One-handed)

Equipment Level 0

Requirement: Strength 2

Attack Power +3

Durability 15/15

It was about what Leon had expected. His physical stats weren’t great because of his original body being malnourished and underaged. The standard for people was 5, and he got given a dagger instead of a sword like some other people. Where he excelled was his mental stats, giving Leon some ideas on his future build.

He wasn’t going the physical route. Leon already wasn’t interested even if he wasn’t at such a disadvantage. No, Leon wanted to go the spiritual route, or the route of magic. Magic was real in this game, and Leon couldn’t wait to dive into it.

Another thing to note was the soul slots. In Souls Online, souls dictated everything, from your class to your profession. The only way to get a class was to get a class soul, the same as a profession.

Ability souls were souls that granted a special ability, usually a skill only learnable by monsters. Transfigure souls were souls that could passively give benefits by changing a part of one’s body, such as gaining extra arms or legs, completely changing one’s play style.

Enchantment souls were souls that granted passive bonuses like 10% vitality or even some of the other hidden stats like luck. These souls were special, as they were even rarer than the other two.

In his inventory were ten apples and ten pouches of pure water. These restored 10 HP and 10 MP per second for 10 seconds. There was one last thing Leon had to do before he could begin his adventure. He opened the settings menu and looked for a while before he found it.

[Sensitivity: 40/100] This was a special setting. Increasing it would enhance Leon’s immersion in the game. He put the slider to 85/100 and quickly got a message, [Warning! Increasing sensitivity will also increase one’s pain receptors. Are you sure you want to continue?]

Leon hesitated before increasing the sensitivity to 85/100. He had to set the maximum sensitivity to 85/100 because of the limitation in the headgear’s power. In real life, heightened senses were overwhelming, but here, it might give him an edge. He hoped it wouldn’t be too much to handle.

As he pressed for confirmation, the world suddenly appeared almost brighter. As he breathed in deeply, he could actually perceive certain odours. He smelled the scent of fresh baked bread coming from a shop close-by to him. He could even feel the wind colliding with his skin, which he couldn’t before.

“Alright, let’s begin shall we,” Leon said as he tried to steel his nerves, ignoring the discomfort and explored the town, the quests could wait. He didn’t want to miss any important details, so exploring the town came first.