The teleportation didn't even last 10 seconds. Leiu looked around and saw a veritable sea of people.
He couldn't even properly move; they were shouting and yelling here and there, some asking for help despite the fact that the game just started. "Searching for a party for the beginning quest!"
"Looking for an 'experienced' player!"
"Looking for a beta tester! We'll pay real-life money, please contact us!"
Leiu inwardly mocked them, the game just opened yet they were seeking experienced players, it was just plain idiotic. There were gaming organizations that have experts in them, but it wasn’t certain that they'd excel at Hell Gate.
Leiu tried his best to squeeze in between the crowd of people and go find some quests.
Naturally, most of the people knew that quests have a ‘!’ symbol on top of the NPC. It was the norm in most games, but not in Hell Gate. LobiSoft had an entirely different approach. Any NPCs could give you a quest, so, while it was tedious and annoying, players had to find ‘quest-givers’ by talking and trying different other methods
As for the beginner's village, he couldn't even get a view of it due to the staggering amount of players everywhere.
Thoughts of logging off and returning later at night occurred to him but he soon shrugged that idea off as he had to work tomorrow at 10:00 AM.
In anticipation of Hell Gate, Leiu quit two of his three part-time jobs, leaving only the highest-paid one. If he kept them all, he would literally have no time to play a game, much less an MMORPG, which, usually, demanded a lot of time from its players.
...
It took Leiu roughly 15 minutes to arrive next to an NPC 100 meters away from his starting location. It seemed hard to believe but, unfortunately, it was the truth. The swarm of people began to lessen a bit as most of them directly went outside to level, unlike Leiu, who wanted to gather as many quests as he could before departing.
He had a habit of taking all the available quests, then go and clear them at the same time. Then, he would return and receive the rewards, he had always done this in the past and it proved to be a very effective method.
Actually, only newbies or idiots would directly head outside, professional gamers weren't that reckless. First of all, one had to buy equipment. Leiu noticed that he didn't have any weapon equipped, so there must be a way to get a weapon.
Going barehanded would only lead to his death, he wasn't even sure which class to pick yet, though it was a bit fortunate that classes were unlocked at LVL 10. So, it was early to think about that, however, that doesn't mean he was going to ignore classes till the last second. Some of the information he stumbled upon stated that classes were not chosen by players, but by the system.
For example, if you picked a shield and a one-handed weapon and you played with that until LVL10, then you would likely be offered the Fighter Class. Of course, there were variables which could change the class or even allow you to obtain rare and unique classes–such as paladins, berserkers and so on–but it was not easy to get one of those.
Another example was taking a staff or a wand, although you couldn't have any skills if you attacked with that, you would either get a healer class or a mage class later on.
Leiu didn't completely believe this, but he had a hunch that this was true. Moreover, since he began playing MMORPG games, he always chose a DPS class. Not any DPS class, but one that would be good at tanking and soloing yet at the same time could deal bursts of damage.
Leiu opened his status window and carefully inspected it. Apparently, each person would have unique beginning stats, though the difference was meager and most players were, more or less, equal in overall prowess.
Level: 1 CLASS: None TITLE(S): NONE -- STATS -- STRENGTH : 9 HEALTH: 10 INTELLIGENCE: 9 MANA: 12 WISDOM: 6 STAMINA: 13 AGILITY: 8 -- DEXTERITY: 7 -- VITALITY: 8 --
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Leiu arrived in front of the NPC who looked like an old man. He held a wooden stick in his right hand and his back was a bit hunchback. When Leiu was a couple of meters away from the old man, the elderly turned his attention to him.
Leiu named himself 'Nameless', which was unoriginal and banal. Then again, Leiu always had an abysmal naming record.
"Ah! What an energetic young man, may I ask what you need from this old man?"
"Yes, hi. Do you have anything I could help you with?"
Unlike what Leiu thought, the NPCs looked very realistic and didn't talk like robots, they spoke and behaved like normal people. He didn't have the occasion to see a lot of them yet, only a dozen or so, but every single one of them acted differently.
"Hahaha, I see that the new adventurers are very kind and enthusiastic. Indeed there is something that I need some help with. If you don't mind, could you get rid of the Bees causing trouble right outside of the village? Several children were hurt because of them."
Hearing that, a blue window popped up in front of Leiu, showing him the quest.
Quest : Get rid of the bees outside of the village, 0/5 Savage Bees
Difficulty : F
Would you like to accept the quest? Y/N
Difficulty : F
Would you like to accept the quest? Y/N
'Yes'
Just as he accepted the quest, the old man smiled at him and spoke yet again.
"Oh my! Thank you, thank you! I expect great things from a young adventurer like you. If you get rid of the Bees, then I'll give you good rewards, don't worry!"
Leiu didn't say anything else, he just headed directly toward the next NPC to get the remaining quests. Although the number of people had lessened, moving around was still annoying and took a lot of time. Still, Leiu managed to get all the available quests after one hour of intense struggle.
Quests :
Get rid of the Savage Bees 0/5
Help the blacksmith get Savage Rabit fur : 0/6 Savage rabit fur
Gather Sun Snowberries for 'Jessica' : 0/4 Sun Slowberries
Completely destroy the home of the Savage bees : 0/1
There were 4 quests in total and they didn't seem really hard. The last one had an 'E' difficulty though.
As he headed outside of the village, Leiu’s thought about the so-called ‘Pain Intensity’ integrated into the headset, and by extension, Hell Gate.
LobiSoft guaranteed that both types of headsets, Synch Headsets and Gold Synch Headsets, had a painthreshold. The former had a 2% pain threshold while the latter was 0%.
'It's fine as long as I don't get hit’
He never really fought in real life, but he had a hunch that he would not screw up too much and would be able to cope with the game quite easily.
Of course, before leaving, Leiu bought a weapon with the little money given to all new players. While checking his inventory, he noticed that it was totally empty, yet at the left corner, there was a spot which indicated the amount of money he had.
Every beginner was given 50 copper and a Health Potion. It wasn’t much, but it felt better than being bombarded with rewards left and right the second you start a game.
Minor Healing Potion: Recovers +5 Health
One-handed bronze sword : +1 Strength
He wasn't sure which class to pick but it would definitely not be a healer or mage class. Although they were very good, especially the mage classes who were always known to be the highest damage dealers in every game, he never really liked the playstyle of either of those. He personally liked melee classes, because they had a much better tanking efficiency and also because their damage was not that low compared to mages classes.
Leiu bought the most basic weapon available: a one-handed Sword.
There were also spears, axes, and maces, but he knew he couldn't handle those, so he picked the sword. Admittedly, however, he didn’t know how to use a sword either but he felt it would be the easiest to get decent at.
..
Finally, it was time to check the outside and experience real fighting. It would be a lie to say he wasn't excited.
Fortunately, it didn't take him a lot of time to squeeze out of the crowd and get out. The outside was much much broader than the village. Without the presence of a lot of players, moving became much easier, the problem now was finding monsters to kill. Everywhere he looked, there were people killing savage deers, rabbits and so on...
Without joining a party, he wouldn't be able to find a peaceful place to hunt. But for Leiu, it was impossible to get in a party with strangers. Hell Gate wasn’t like normal MMORPGs, where everything was through a screen. Right now, cunning people would show up and use their tricks to scam newbies and idiots.
With that thought in mind, he headed deeper into the beginner's forest, hoping to find Bees and Rabbits so he could finish the quests.