Lamb stepped inside and appeared in a crowded, messy workstation. Machine parts littered every corner of the room. Armour parts, gun parts and what looked like engine parts were piled atop each other in large heaps. All the machine parts were clearly of alien design, but even piled up in trash heaps, Lamb could glean their use. He wandered around to see if there was anyone else in the room with him. The room was about the size of a classroom, Lamb had to carefully watch where he stepped in fear of knocking something over. It was then that Lamb remembered the game guide hasn’t started its shift yet.
He had some time to kill. So he spent some time wandering around the room, examining and fiddling around with various machine parts, cautious not the break anything. After a while, Lamb decided to just lay down, relax, and process.
He checked his phone and tried to message Epona. But of course there was no signal, the nearest satellite was literally in another parallel universe.
Soon he got bored and did what he always did when he couldn’t sit still. He practiced kicking.
An hour passed, his muscles were sore, and he had worked up a quite a sweat.
“Who the hell are you?” Came a surprisingly human sounding voice from behind him. Lamb had found a large heavy canister made of some strange metal, and he was using it like a kicking bag, it was very solid so Lamb wasn’t afraid of denting it, it rang with an un-Earthly tone with each kick. “Who said you could punch that?”
“I wasn’t punching it.” Lamb replied.
“Punch, verb, to hit somebody or thing, forcefully, with a fist, hand’s closed.” The voice replied, as it floated into Lamb’s field of vision. It was a metal cube, the size of his head. Like the cloroepii pods, the cube was able to float effortlessly in the air. With this cube thing, the cloroepii, and the glowing crystal balls, these aliens sure had a thing for flying.
“Not a fist.” Lamb noted, demonstrating a kick against an imaginary target.
“Shit. I always let your anatomy mixed up. To propel forcefully or hit with leg including foot: kick, verb.” The cube said.
“That’s right, my game guide sent me, you must be Epona’s game guide.”
“Right… the annoying British girl, she told she wanted to form a party.” The cube beeped and booped. “Ahh— seeing as you are from the Americas, you must be her friend Lamp, I’m Myrmex, nice to meet you annoying human.”
“It’s actually Lamb, nice to meet you. And my friend is from Denmark.”
“Your planet has to many countries, just pick one!” The cube lit up as it beeped and booped some more, scanning Lamb. “Wow! Holy crap, you really did choose an outside server! Didn’t your game guide warn you what a huge disadvantage it was?”
“I’m sure I’ll catch up. So, what do I do now.”
A holographic screen popped up in-front of Lamb. It had 2 large panels: a big red ‘no’, and a big green ‘yes’.
“Are you sure you wish to form a party with Epona, I met her, she was very annoying.” Myrmex asked.
“Well, I came all this way to Persia didn’t I?” Lamb pressed the big green button.
“You sure did.” The cube agreed, “Now, a quick run down:
“Alyzia is a game designed by Plato’s celestials to test your species. But
Alyzia is only a game in that if you die in Alyzia, you will not die in real life, and your real-life body will not be damaged in any way. In every other way, Alyzia is real. The world is real, all the people and creatures are real, all the objects and food are real.
“The Gods have created a brand new world in an alternate reality specially for Alyzia. Everything in this world is real, your body will be real, as you will literally be transported onto Alyzia. The only change is, you will be given magical powers, because a bunch of people just flailing their swords around would be pretty boring after a while.
“One more important thing, the Gods love entertainment, and prize it in high regard. Alyzia will be a great source of entertainment for the Gods, they will be watching, so when you are inside Alyzia fighting monsters and bad guys, be entertaining, do not be boring. If you entertain the Gods with awe and spectacle, they will reward you for it.” The game guide concluded. Lamb had so many questions, but he decided to hold off. He was eager to get started. Besides, they had a large group coming, he was sure they’d figure everything out once everyone was together.
“Got it,” Lamb replied, “So how do I begin?”
“You start with Character Creation, the most important part, that’s what I’m here for. And… that’s pretty much it, once we get that done, you’re off.”
“Ok, let’s do it. How does it work? Is there a list of ‘character presets’ for me to choose from?” Lamb replied excitedly.
“Slow down, relax your horses. This is literally one of the most important things you have to do in this game, a lot of thought and consideration needs to be put into it, so let me explain first:
“My role as a ‘character creation guide’ is to ensure that every player makes a powerful character, as there will be a lot of combat in Alyzia, and if your species wishes to successfully beat the game in five years, the players need to get very powerful.
“The enemies in Alyzia are all infused with magical energy. Humans in their regular form will be no match, as you suckers do not naturally possess any magical abilities. Thusly, it is my duty to provide new Alyzians— that’s you, with a ‘power set’ of your choice. You can have any magical weapon, or magical ability of your choosing, so long as I deem it not too overpowered. Here are some example power sets:”
The room lit up, as a large hologram displaying a wide variety of magical swords, large guns, more magical swords, fireballs, lightning bolts and icicles surrounded Lamb. Lamb was in awe of the variety of weapons and abilities on display. He was especially drawn to a large flaming sword with rings along the blade. Lamb loved kung fu movies, and he always loved seeing the big swords with rings on the blades. However, his one big gripe with swords was: swords were everywhere, they were used way too much in movies and video-games. Epona felt the same way, especially in regards to videogame swordies.
“Are these the weapons we can choose from?” Lamb asked.
“You can literally have any kind of weapon you want. These are just example weapons. Players are encouraged to think up and design their own weapons or abilities. It can be anything they want. I’m here to guide them to help make sure what they create are balanced, not to overpowered, or way to weak. However, if you can’t think of anything, you can choose from any of these ready made example weapons. You also don’t have to be human; you can be any kind of creature you want. Though I advise you not to stray too far from human, as you’ll still have to learn to control your new body. You won’t get full mastery of your limps if you decide to become a dragon or something, and it’ll take a while to get used to having a different body structure.”
“Wait, are you saying I can have any power I want? And I can be any kind of creature or demon I want?”
“Correct, but any power within reason. Once again, I’m here to make sure no one starts off too overpowered. We want lots of different players with unique playstyles and power sets, but we also want to try to keep all starting players balanced at the same time.” Myrmex explained. “So no time travel, instant kills, or stuff like that.”
“Obviously.” Lamb agreed. “I can’t say: I want to look at someone and then they instantly die.”
“Exactly, what’s the fun in that?” The game guide agreed.
A world of possibilities opened up to Lamb, if he was hearing this correctly, he could fight using pretty much anything he wants. “So just to make sure I’m getting this right, I could say for example: I want to be a seal with eight arms, and be able to shoot laser beams— and have a trident?”
“Yes, but it’d take you a lot of practice to get used to a seal’s body, and it’ll take a lot of practice to aim and shoot the laser beams. But with a lot of practice, you could make it a good build.” The guide said.
“Got it, so you’re pretty much like a character creation genie?”
“Pretty much.” The cube replied, “And they prefer the term jinn.”
“I can also be a three eyed giant, with a large spear, rides on a flying cloud and summon a pack of magic wolves?”
“Yes, so long as you’re not too big, as for riding on clouds or summoning magic wolves, you can only pick one of them. As either of those are already pretty powerful.”
“Got it, I was just testing to see how many powers I can equip.”
“Also, you—“
“Can I have a giant, large cup bra, filled with bowling balls, and I can swing them like nunchucks?” Lamb interrupted.
“Seems like a good build,” the cube confirmed. “Now, in addition… you can also pick between having just one really powerful ability or multiple abilities, but they will start off much weaker. For example, you can choose to just have a really powerful fire sword, or you can have a fire sword and ice powers, but your fire sword will be quite weak, and so will be your ice powers,” the guide explained.
“So… there’s an allotted amount of power, and you can either put them all in one thing, or divide them up.” Lamb speculated.
“Exactly.”
“Is that what the skill points are for?”
“Pretty much. You have 100 skill points for character creation. Skill points are used for everything we just said. If you want to be a 7-foot-tall werewolf, that’s 10 skill points. Fireballs would be 20 skill points. On the high end, if you want to turn your entire body into a flame elemental, that’d be most of your skill points. Recently, I’ve had a lot of players that want to be furries, that’s 10 skill points and a pretty good build, do you want to be a fury?”
“I’ll think about it. For now I’ll stay human.” Lamb replied.
“That’s boring,” the cube guide replied, “You should be a fury.”
“Should I spend all my skill points on powers and weapons?”
“Nope, you can also spend skill points on physical abilities. Most players choose their magic and weapons first, then they spend the rest of their points on physical stuff like speed, strength.. faster, stronger, more endurance.. etcetera.”
Lamb nodded, thinking.
“And please try to come up with something creative. Most of the players I’ve had so far couldn’t think up anything and just ended up choosing from the premade example power-sets… i.e. the weapons and abilities that were specifically premade to be generic and boring. My last guy literally just chose the first sword he saw plus a fireball.”
“That does sound really boring,” Lamb agreed.
Lamb sat down, and thought very carefully about what powers he wanted. This would be his character for the rest of his time here. Bowling ball braziers seemed pretty tempting.
“Take your time, and carefully think about your character. You only get one character and you can’t change it once you decide.”
“So if I choose a sword for instance, I won’t be able to use other weapons inside?”
“If you choose a sword, you will be given a ‘M’ or ’S class’ mythical weapon, imbued with magical properties. You can still use other weapons you find inside, but there’s no guarantee they’ll have any special properties or be any good. And you can’t come back later and ask for something else instead; you only get one shot at character creation.”
Lamb sat down crosslegged and thought. He thought of what Epona might build, and what might pair well with that. He imagined Epona would choose a stealthy knife wielding rogue build…
Lamb thought about using tonfas or nunchaku, he’s 2 favourite weapons, he even contemplated breaking his no sword rule and picking a quick draw Iaido style katana.
Lamb thought hard on this. He loved fighting with weapons and practised with them often in class. But the more he thought on it, the more he realized that when it comes down to combat, he only had one true love… Across anime, kung fu movies, and video games… sure Lamb loved weapons, but there was one thing he always loved more.. way more…
“Do most players use weapons in Alyzia?”
“Yes, most players end up choosing an M-class sword or automatic firearm. Over 85% of players just end up choosing a M-class weapon from the examples I showed you.”
“Do any players choose not to use weapons?” Lamb asked.
“Sure, some players choose to just focus on magic instead. Elemental abilities are really popular. Most non-weapon players just end up choosing one of the example powers from earlier like a fireball, or ice powers. Only 5% of players end up actually coming up with an idea of their own… please be one of the 5%.” The cube replied. He’d given this whole spiel over a hundred times, yet still, they all ended up just going to the gallery and picking from one of the examples.
“What about punching and kicking, does that count as a power?” Lamb asked, miming punches in the air.
“There are armoured gloves and boots, those would count as a magical armour, which would count as a magical weapon, and cost skill points.” The cube explained, an idea started to finally take shape in Lamb’s mind.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“What about speed and strength? Are those magical powers?” Lamb asked.
“No.” The cube replied. “Speed and strength would be the physical abilities I mentioned earlier. Those operate on a hidden background mechanic, which we don’t usually cover in character creation. To keep it simple, you’re leftover skill points will be used to improve your physical abilities.”
“I’m not in any hurry, did you say there’s a hidden mechanic behind physical stats.”
“Yeah, lots.” The floating cube answered.
“Please tell me how it works.”
“Fine…” The game guide said sighing, this guy was more annoying than his British friend. “Lots of martial arts and video games use something called chi or ki, you familiar with that?” The cube asked.
“I do martial arts, so yes.”
“Perfect, well how qi is supposed to work in martial arts stories— that’s how it works in Alyzia. Qi is your inner strength, you’re inner source of power, you can channel it and focus it to make yourself faster, stronger, and more durable. You can also focus on it to improve your mental perception and your senses.”
“Can I also use my qi to shoot giant beams like in Dragon Ball Z?” Lamb asked excitedly.
“Yes, you can shoot energy waves with your qi, but not as big or powerful like in anime and video games. It’s not as effective or efficient as magic, but it can be done. But unlike magic, in Alyzia, there are people you can ask or pay to give you pointers about magic— not qi though. Qi is a hidden background mechanic. There’s no one in Alyzia who knows how it works, so if you want to use it, you’ll have to figure it out on your own. But I don’t really see the point as once again, magic and weapons are so much easier and efficient to use.
“So you’re saying it’s a lot of hard work, but shooting energy blasts is possible… and it can be powerful too?
“Yes, but emphasis on the really hard to do part, and emphasis on ‘you’ll have to teach yourself from scratch’. Yes, maybe if you’re some kind of prodigy, and you do nothing but practice everyday, you might learn to shoot energy beams eventually.. but practicing with fireballs, or a lighting-blade would be just as powerful, and so much— so much easier.” The game guide said.
“Yes, but that’s boring. That’s 80% percent of all players.” Lamb replied.
“Closer to 90%.”
“I don’t want to be another 90%.” Lamb replied.
“It’s your character, you can do what you want. But as your character creation guide, I cannot stress enough how much more work using just energy blasts would be, and I must emphasize just how much more easier using something like fireballs would be.”
The more the guide tried to steer Lamb off this path, the more giddy Lamb got. He thought more about how ki can be used.
“Can qi also be used to enhance punches and kicks?”
“Yes, but it’s an inefficient way of doing it. If you want to punch and kick, you can just get some armoured gauntlets and boots, and then give them elemental powers like fire or lighting. It’ll cost 50 skill points, 80 if want full-body armour— good tank build. Plus you’d still have 20 points left to enhance your physical stats.”
Lamb thought on this for a minute, the idea of fighting in a black suite of armour, with spikes, and ‘flaming uppercuts’ sounded metal as hell.
But Lamb loved kung fu movies, they were his favourite movies ever since he was a little kid growing up in an orphanage and being moved between foster homes. No matter how hard life got for him as a kid, he could always escape into his kung fu movies for a few hours, those movies saved his life, and are what drove him to sign up for martial arts classes in the first place. The movies and classes also instilled in him a sense of chivalry, justice, respect, courtesy and honour.
His favourite movies were the Hong Kong classics: Iron Money (1994), The Tai Chi Master (1993), and SPL (2005), to name a few… and those guys didn’t fight in armour or do flaming kicks (except for Tony Jaa), and neither did Bruce Lee. They just used their bare hands and their internal qi energy, and so would Lamb.
“Has anyone ever decided to not get weapons or magic, and just pick qi?” Lamb asked.
“No. No one has ever done that. Why would they? It’s completely inefficient, and why use qi when magic is so much easier? Most players don’t even know what qi is, it’s a hidden mechanic used to help facilitate the magic system.” The cube replied.
“I’ll do it then.” Lamb decided.
“I’m not gonna repeat what I said earlier… as a game guide it’s my job to make sure no one starts off too overpowered, but there’s nothing preventing me if someone want’s to be underpowered. A character purposely not using any magic is something none of us even thought about, not even as a joke. So after everything I’ve said… are you sure about this?”
“I’ll do it, no magic, no weapons, just qi.”
The cube glowed and beeped, inputting commands. “Ok done. That made my job easy; I didn’t do anything.”
“Hmm… say.. since I’m choosing such an unintended, out-of-the-box build, think the Gods will award me some bonus magical powers for creativity?” Lamb asked looking up, winking.
“Nice try pal,” Myrmex chuckled, “The Gods may laugh at you, but they won’t pity reward you. And the Gods only award greatness, they don’t hand out freebies. Besides, all you did is not choose anything, that doesn’t count as being creative. ”
“That’s what I figured..” Lamb signed, can’t blame a lad for trying. “I’m sticking with my choice.” Lamb replied.
“Of course you would. Fine.” Myrmex signed, giving up. “Do you want to have some extra arms and legs? You can be like me.”
“I’ll stick too just my two.” Lamb replied, imagining what it’d be like to have six arms. ‘Wait a minute..’ Lamb pondered to himself, as he looked again at the cube. “Did you say you have lots of legs.”
“Lots of them,” the floating cube said.
“But you’re a cube,” Lamb replied, stepping closer to take a better examination of the cube. “Can you grow more legs, like a robot?”
“No, I am different then New Tidus drones.”
Lamb peered closer at the cube getting really close to it, the cube was the size of a child’s head, it was made of a smooth metal with many cracks and groves built in. The cube had maze like patterns across its body. As Lamb peered closer, he suddenly noticed some tiny metal ants crawling out between the groves of the cube. What looked like a shifting of metal patterns from afar, turned out to be streams of ants.
Lamb loved insects and bugs. As he observed more closely, he realized they weren’t ants at all, they were alien by design, but shared similar characteristics to Earth ants.
“Can I…?” Lamb asked as he brought his finger closer to the cube.
“Certainly” The cube replied.
Lamb rested his finger on the cube, careful to avoid any of the ants scurrying about. One of the ant-like creatures approached Lamb’s finger and climbed onto it, not a fear in the world. Carefully, Lamb brought his finger to his face for a detailed inspection. The ant thing had a shiny metal coat and eight legs. They were also quite large by ant standards. Lamb gently brushed the ant with his finger, feeling glossy metallic texture, then carefully put the ant thing back on the cube.
“Thank you for the gentle pat, it felt quite pleasant.” Myrmex replied.
“Wait, that was you? I thought you were a computer, and the ants just lived inside—on you.”
“Nope, I am the ants. I am all the ants. Our species is called the Myr-genus-collective, ‘the genus’ for short. We admit, in appearance we share some similarities to your earth ‘termites’.” Myrmex explained. Lamb thought back to the Factory Drone.
“Are you guys a hive mind too?” Lamb asked?
“Yup, you are very observant human.” The genus ants replied, “yes, in simplified terms, we are what your people call a ‘hive-mind’. Half of the species in Plato are some kind of hive mind.”
“Do you guys create art or movies?” Lamb asked.
“Unfortunately, most hive-minds do not create or appreciate the arts. We genus however, are one of the few hive-minds who do, especially the shows you guys make on earth. The concept of long form, collective broadcasting, and serialized entertainment is popular across the galaxy, but few TV shows are as good as the one’s made on Earth. To that, I tip my hat to your planet.”
“Thank you,” Lamb bowed on behalf of humanity. Perhaps TV and movies was the explanation for how the genus’ spoke such great English. ‘Wait, were they even speaking English, or was everything just being translated through magic?’ Lamb realized he could literally sit here for days asking Myrmex questions, maybe he could do that later, for now there was a job to do. “Is that it for character creation?”
“Not yet, what about your vessel, do you want to keep your body the way it is?”
“Yes.” Lamb replied.
“Do you want to change your appearance in anyway? Taller? More muscular? Those would only cost about around 6 skill points. Light armour would be 10.”
“I’ll keep my appearance and save those points.” Lamb decided.
“What do you want to wear?”
“Does regular clothes cost anything?”
“Nope, none armour clothing are just cosmetics, so they are free.”
“Sweet, you know the robes they wear in kung fu movies, can I wear that?”
“Certainly.” Myrmex replied.
An array of colourful robes in different cuts appeared before him. Lamb choose a set of silk, gold patterned Song dynasty robes and grey pants. The cube flashed a bright light, and the clothes magically materialize on Lamb’s body, replacing the clothes he was wearing and auto-fitted themselves to his dimensions.
A convenient mirror appear before him. He examined himself, taking various poses. His new scrubs felt light and comfortable. He snapped a few kicks to feel them out, to his delight, the pants were very easy to kick in, no hindrance to movement whatsoever.
“The last step is allocating your remaining skill points to improving physical attributes. You started off with 100 skill points, and you haven’t spent a thing, so look through these:”
A large display appeared with the following stats:
Strength -
Speed -
Endurance -
Cognition -
Environmental Resistance (Dessert) -
“Your skill points do not carry over, so there’s no point in saving them, if you don’t spend any they’ll be wasted.” Myrmex explained.
“How does physical improvements work?” Lamb asked.
“Your physical abilities work off qi, the hidden game mechanic. So if you put 10 skill points in Strength, the dormant qi in your body will be infused with strength energy, and you’ll become a little stronger. The more points you put in, the stronger you’ll be. If you do strength training on your own, you’ll still slowly get stronger over time, but putting points in now will give you an early boost, so you won’t have to start from zero.” The guide replied, Lamb nodded, then looked at the last stat, which appeared to be a bonus stat.
“What about Environmental Resistance?” he asked.
“That’s a stat specific to your server. The Persian empire is extremely hot and windy, it get’s way hotter there then it does on Earth, so if you don’t have any Environmental Resistance, you’ll die of heat exhaustion during a heat wave. 5 points will make the heat painful but not lethal, 10 points will make the extreme heat feel like a hot summer day.”
Lamb thought about it, he didn’t like being out in the sun in general, so he wanted to at least make the heat tolerable for himself, but he also didn’t want to spend too many points on it.
“How will I know what my stats are? Will I be able to see it increase like in a video game?”
“No you will not, you will gradually feel yourself becoming stronger, but you won’t see any stat-screens like a video game. It’ll be more like in real life; if you go running everyday, after a month, you’ll notice you can run farther and faster then before. Like Stallone in Rocky.”
“Or Daniel-san in Karate Kid,” Lamb chimed in, nodding in understanding. “I’ll put 7 skill points in Environmental Resistance.”
A giant ‘+7 skill points’ appeared next to ‘Environmental Resistance’. At the upper right of the display, a number displaying Lamb’s remaining skill points ticked down from 100 skill points to 93 skill points.
“The sun’s not gonna feel good.”
“Yeah it’s gonna suck… I’ll have to endure it,” Lamented Lamb. “Can I only put my points in the stats listed?”
“Nope, so long as it’s applicable, it can be anything you want.”
“Can I put stats into kicking?” He asked.
Myrmex audibly sighed… loudly… “Of course you would, sigh… lemme check.” The cube started glowing, as various corners and segments began flashing. “Fine… yeah, you can.. it counts as combination martial leg skill, it’ll also improve your speed and strength as well.”
“Nice, I’ll put 50 points into kicking.”
“Motherfucker.” Myrmex signed. An additional bonus stat appeared below, between Cognition and Environmental Resistance, pushing Environmental Resistance down one. It read:
Kicking - +50 skill points
“Even though you don’t see any numbers, the skill points you put into kicking also improved your strength and speed, the endurance of your legs and feet also greatly improved. As well as your hips, and whatever other muscles you use to kick.” The guide said.
“Sweet.”
“Anything else?”
“Next, I’ll put 10 in strength, and 10 in speed.”
‘+10 skill points’ got added next to both Strength and Speed. Lamb wondered whether or not to put points into Endurance or Cognition. “If someone attacks me with a sword, can I use ki to defend against it?”
“It’s really inefficient, using magic or armour would be a lot easier. But yes, with enough training and effort, it is possible to focus for chi into you hands to temporarily harden them to block swords and other weapons. But once again, no one’s gonna teach; your gonna have to figure it out yourself.”
“Nice.” Lamb looked up and pointed at the sky, “You just watch! You want entertainment? Watch me fight using just kung fu! Watch me fight them all!”
Sure taijiquan was technically the only kung fu Lamb was currently actively practising, and most of his kicks were taekwondo-based, but Lamb was trying to upsell himself to the Gods and he was hoping at least a few of them liked kung fu movies and fighting games. “Watch me use kung fu, and only kung fu!”
“You don’t have to yell dude. The Gods are definitely up there laughing at your stupid ass, and I’m sure they’ll have a good time watching you get cooked.”
Lamb had 23 points remaining. “What does cognition do?”
“It generally improves your brain power, thinking speed and senses.”
That might be neat. It reminded Lamb of how time seems to slow down whenever he competes in a sparring match, as if his brain was going into overdrive, and it feels like both him and his opponent were fighting in slow motion.
“Is it too late to change my hair colour?”
“Go ahead.”
Lamb thought about how he always wanted to dye his hair as a kid.
“Does it cost any points.”
“Nope.”
A display of colour swatches appeared before Lamb. Lamb picked gold.
“Done.” Myrmex replied.
Lamb’s hair changed to a bright gold, he turned around examining his new locks in the mirror.
“Could I get my hair a shade darker?” After some adjustments, Lamb was happy with his new golden anime hair.
“You still have 23 points, what do you want to spend them on?”
“Can I put them into improving my qi?”
“*Loud Sigh*… Yup,” the guide replied as Lamp’s points ticked down to zero. “Your qi already got an improvement too from the points you put into kicking.”
“Sweet.. you know what, I don’t want all of it in qi. I’ll put 10 in qi, and the rest in kicking.” Lamb clarified.
“Goddammit.”
Lamb’s final stats read as follows:
Skill points remaining - 0/100
Strength - +10 skillpoints
Speed - +10 skillpoints
Endurance - blank
Cognition - blank
Qi - +10 skillpoints
Kicking - +63 skill points
Environmental Resistance (Dessert) - +7 skill points
“You’re all set my dude! Shit, there’s just one thing we forgot to do in the beginning. You have to choose a name. It has to be a unique name and can’t be changed.
Lamb pondered for a few minutes, thinking about this favourite characters and naming motifs, he thought of his favourite characters from Gun Metal Bandit, inspired by Bandits of the Marsh (Water Margin). He thought about his favourite animals as potential names.
“Can I give myself a title as well?”
“Only if it’s not dumb”
“Under my name, I’ll have the title ‘The Magnificent Kicker’.”
“I said only if it’s NOT dumb. Now do you have name yet?”
Lamb debated between a cool, serious name like The Golden Apeiron or Shining Meteor… there was also the option of just picking a dumb, stupid name.
***
Finally… Lamb’s body glowed as he vanished from the character creation room. Atop the hovering cube, a large ant was shaking his head, audibly sighing with his mandibles as Lamb left.
***
At a crowded street market selling goods and treasures of every variety, people milled about the streets. Players could be seen carrying large swords, guns, and curved spears. Gusts of wind and sand blew in the background.
Next to the crowded market was a gated pavilion of large tents. Each tent was decorated in fine silks, furs and jewelry. A glow emanated from one of the tents.
Alyiza welcomes it’s 12,045th challenger:
Alzian #12,045
Residency: The Persian Empire
Age: 23
Race: Human, unmodified
Weapons: None
Magical Abilities: None
Title: The Magnificent Kicker
Name: Bandit Chicken
***
Back on Earth, Madra found her way to a bored looking factory droid in an empty corner of the shrine. It was odd how a machine could give off the very human characteristic of boredom.
Madra looked dazzling, with a toned physique built from years of modern interruptive dance. She stood over 6 feet tall and sported a ripped leather jacket, and heavy boots.
“How may I help you large human?” The drone asked.
“The guy who was here earlier, tell me about him.” Madra replied, squatting down next to the curious drone.
chapter end