After finally turning the TV off, Jade stood up and asked his grandfather.
- “Hey, old man. You mind if i order the game online?”
- “Nah, go ahead. I’m sure it will be fun.”
The old man answered after noticing Jade’s excitement. He knew his grandson hadn’t felt that way since the time he told him he would bring people to spar with him. Hopefully this time the excitement will last longer, he thought.
Jade ran up the stairs to the second floor where his room was. It was a large room with a kingsize bed as he was pretty tall at 1.85m(6.07ft). There was a shelf with his old school books over his bed, on the right of his bed there was the VR Pod almost the same size in length, oval shaped with the top being transparent and the rest was a silvery blue color. On the left of his bed there was a desk with a computer on top.
That computer was mostly used for study purposes, altough rarely it would also be used to order something online. The things he ordered online would stay at the post office in the town close by, until he would go and pick them up.
After finishing his business, he turned off the computer and went down stairs again while thinking.
“A month, hun. Well, if i didn’t have an handicap it wouldn’t be as much fun, ahaha.”
- “Old man. Let’s spar!”
*****
A month later Jade’s grandfather, Lì Jaw-long, was taking a shower while checking his bruises.
“Damn that kid. Is he trying to kill me?” - He thought while giving a wide grin.
Jade had never once beaten him, which was to be expected, although Lì Jaw-long knew it was only a matter of time. The biggest advantage he had right now was experience, however his grandson also had a great advantage that was almost off-setting his own, Jade was tall.
It might not seem like much, but with a tall flexible build, comes large limbs. Jade’s arms outstretched were almost double the range of his grandfather.
With the excitement Jade was feeling towards this new game, he couldn’t stand still, and so he passed the time while sparring with Lì Jaw-long. His grandfather was no longer a young man so it was hard for him to keep up with all the sparring sessions, however Jade thought his grandfather invincible, so it didn’t even occur to him.
“Thank god the game should be here soon. Another month of this and i would have to break his leg just to save face, hahaha.”
After drying himself up, he wore a gray t-shirt, the same color as his well maintaned beard but not his hair as he didn’t have any, he also wore black training pants and black flip-flops.
He was going towards the kitchen to get a snack when he heard the phone ring.
- “Hello?”
- “Lì, it’s Henry from the post office. There’s a new package here for you.”
- “You just saved my life, Henry.”
- “Wha-? Is everything okay?”
- “Ahaha! Yeah, everything is fine. Do you mind if i send my dumb grandson to go and get it?”
- “Sure, there’s no problem, but i can send my son in the car to deliver it, if you want.”
- “Nah! The package is for Jade and he could use the exercise, the freaking kid can’t stand still, maybe it will tire him out, ahaha.”
- “Okay, i’ll be waiting then.”
Even though they lived 10km away from any form of civilization, they still had been there for many years. Since the closest place was a small town, Lì Jaw-long knew almost everyone there.
After his grandfather told him that the game was already at the post office, Jade couldn’t wait and ran towards the backyard where his bicycle was, taking of right after.
It took him less than an hour to come back and without a word, he ran to his room. Inside, he opened a small hatch from the VR Pod and inserted the disc. This wasn’t the actual game, it was more of a bunch of software that gave access to the game from his Pod.
While the software was installing, which took roughly an hour, Jade read the basics in the handbook that came with the game, there was not much that he didn’t know already, so it was mostly to just pass the time.
Finally, it was time. Jade stood up from his bed, and went in the VR Pod, the familiar green light that scanned his whole body from head to toe and stopping at his iris came again accompanied by a woman’s voice welcoming him back.
Welcome, Jade. You have access to 4 games. Choose the one you would like to play at this time.
-”The Colosseum”
The Colosseum” has been selected. Enjoy.
Everything turned black for a few moments until he was in a endless white room with five mirrors in front of him. All these mirrors were as tall as him and were surrounded by a red light. Again a woman’s voice spoke, a different voice from the one of his Pod.
Welcome to “The Colosseum”. Decide your User Name.
A semi-transparent keyboard popped up in front of Jade. After pressing the J-A-D-E and Enter keys, it disappeared again.
Your User Name has been saved. You can now start steps 1 through 5 of this character creation.
The first mirror surrounded by a red light switched to green and Jade stepped up to it. In the mirror there was now an image of himself nude, with arrows to the left and right.
You can choose your Race.
After flipping through to see which races were available and laughing at himself as a Dwarf with a huge beard that went all the way to, and actually covered, his penis, he finally came back to the Human race and selected it.
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You have chosen your Race. Would you like to make modifications to your appearance?
-”No” - “There was a snake-kind of species. That’s good. I’ll be able to use the “Snakes on a plane” line.”
The second mirror then turned green aswell, and Jade moved in front of it. There was a list of most of the stats available in-game.
You can now select up to 3 primary stats and up to 2 secondary stats as the focus of your playstyle.
It said up to three primary stats because you could choose only one if you wanted, and that stat would be a lot easier to gain than if you selected two or three. The secondary stats would be harder to get but they are still needed, for instance most people choose Vitality as a secondary stat.
Jade already knew what he wanted so he didn’t waste much time here. He touched the mirror to select Agility and Strength as primary stats, with Stamina and Vitality as secondary stats.
It wasn’t all that different a choice than other people, as most melee classes would focus on those stats. He thought about putting Stamina as a primary stat aswell, but he wanted to primarily focus on offense.
The third mirror surroundings also turned green.
Stats selected. You can now choose your Basic Armor.
In this mirror there was again an image of Jade with arrows on each side of him, except now he was clothed with linen brown pants and a linen white shirt. As he flipped through the available armor, it was clear that it was only the most basic possible.
Full sleeved shirts, pants, shorts, sleeveless shirts, robes and even skirts. There were a lot of combinations possible but it was mostly for convenience sake, that gear at most would give a bit of Defense.
He selected a pair of black dyed pants and a t-shirt that was dyed green, the color of his eyes. Finally, he also chose his shoes, the most important part, as it was the only basic equipment part that allowed leather. They were basic trainer’s shoes also dyed black.
“Can’t wait to make my own gear. That looks like i’m going to the gym... How is a t-shirt considered basic armor anyway?”
After he confirmed his choice, the fourth mirror surroundings turned green.
You can now select your Basic Weapon.
In this fourth mirror, there was again an image of Jade, fully dressed with a sword in his hand. The arrows to the sides of him changed the weapon. There were many weapons available, even though they looked pretty cheap. Spears, shields, bows, staffs, small swords, big swords, there was a huge selection.
Luckily enough for Jade, after going through about fifty different weapons, he finally found what he was looking for. It was a pair of leather gloves that only went until the middle of his fingers, so he could freely use his fingers and palms aswell. On the knuckles part of the gloves there were three small copper spikes.
After he pressed a button to dye the gloves black, he accepted the weapon.
Basic Weapon Selected. Taking into account your Race, Stats, Basic Armor and Basic Weapon choices, we have selected all the Basic Classes available for you to choose.
The fifth and last mirror was now glowing green aswell as Jade moved to it. In this mirror there was a small list of five classes. It usually is a lot more, for instance, if he had chosen a dagger for a weapon, there would be a lot of different warrior and rogue classes there.
However he chose the gloves, so his choices were a bit more limited. The classes were Fighter, Monk, Brawler, Ninja and Barbarian.
Every class had a brief summary of what they were all about. He really wanted to choose Ninja for the “cool factor”, however even though both Ninja and Barbarian were classes that could be weaponless, they thrived with weapons in hand.
Monk was a good option, and even more if he remembered his grandfather had been one, but this is a game and it wasn’t the same thing. Monk’s had a little less offensive power so that they could use a bit of self-healing which didn’t interest him.
The choice came down to either Fighter or Brawler. Brawler had a bit more offensive power in general, if it hit anything it would do nice damage. However a Fighter was more skilled, if it hit the right places it would do more damage than the Brawler.
Since it was just a Basic Class and he could later change it, Jade didn’t have much to think about and quickly chose the Fighter class.
Character Creation complete. Would you like to play the tutorial?
- “No.” - Jade had seen a video of the tutorial, it offered nothing new.
You will soon start in a random Beginner City. Enjoy.
After a minute waiting, the white room started to become brighter and brighter until Jade had to close his eyes. Suddenly he heard voices all around him and felt the wind blow. Slowly he opened his eyes and looked around, there were a lot of people walking around with cheap weapons and crappy armor, much like him.
Suddenly he gave a small smirk.
- “I see dead people...”