VRMMO - Breach
Chapter XII
Simon nodded and the others agreed to follow them. Alice was no free world player; she wasn't into it, but Desmond was pretty good, so he would definitely help with his skills. So they left the lobby and joined the free world.
{Open World}
*Click.*
Due to them being in the same party, they were transported into the free world together and to the same place. For Pyro, this was like a fresh breath of air coming back in a familiar mode. Here he is something of a formidable figure.
Alice shrugged, "I still don't understand what is so special about this mode that you are stuck here for hours."
There was no competition, there was no thrill, and there was no rush of adrenaline. To be honest, she always thought that was an idiotic mode. There was nothing interesting in it. No campaign... until this time, when there was an announcement by the developing team.
She never understood Pyro, but changed her mind when she found out how much money he was making from just selling those accounts. Outrageous! How can people pay so much for the account?! He makes more money than her by the age of 16!
But Pyro was smart. He was the one getting that money.
"Oh yeah, it is a good place to earn some money." Pyro smugly grinned at Alice. The pink-haired girl narrowed her eyes on him. This didn't face the boy. In contrast, he was sure that she was annoyed.
"It's pretty beautiful." Simon commented, and everyone looked at him. "I guess that's just my opinion, but the open world is especially beautiful."
The Free World of Breach was a part of where the term VRMMO came from. It was a massive world, where hundreds of thousands of players could be hosted and they could play at the same time. Travel every inch of this almost continent-sized virtual world. Visit different cities, fight other players, do missions, and enjoy everything to the fullest.
What could be more desired from a VRMMO game? Simon had no other answer.
Everyone nodded, "True…" That was something they could agree on. The developers put great emphasis on the visual design of this map.
Every building was different from the others. There were virtual sightseeing places, and they were as exciting as real ones. Those NPCs were all unique and better looking. A masterpiece of a game, to be honest. Since the release of Breach, almost all the major gaming companies have tried to copy it. But at the time, it wasn't even close.
"So, Simon. You haven't wasted any attribute points so far, have you?" Pyro asked.
Simon shook his head, "No, I have not."
Pyro could already see the operative's profile window, and he had level thirteen. For every level-up the avatar received three attribute points, meaning Simon had thirty-nine. Yeah, and he has only one mission passed so far...
The five hundred experience points are added to every level until you reach level ten. After that, it’s one thousand experience points. So basically, level one is five hundred experience points, and level two will be two thousand experience points. It continues until level ten.
With the bonus of ten thousand experience points and the experience points accumulated from the mission itself, Simon gained quite a few levels.
'That's lucky…' Pyro thought, "All right, I can't really decide for you what kind of character you want to play... but I recommend mainly investing in speed, stamina, and strength."
Simon nodded and opened his character window. It had changed since the last time he saw it,
{Username: Deadropper
Level: 13 - (3400 exp left to advance to Lvl 14)
Arcade Stage: #7 (Last)
Time Played: 4 Hours}
{Status Window - Attribute Points Available: 39
Strength : 0 [+] [-]
Speed : 0 [+] [-]
Endurance : 0 [+] [-]
Fortitude : 0 [+] [-]
Craftsmanship : 0 [+] [-]
Luck : 0 [+] [-]}
This was how the status window looked at this stage. Simon had some points available, and there also weren’t many things he couldn’t understand. He needed a general idea of what their uses were.
“The first three are pretty straightforward; they are exactly those main attributes you will need while playing this game. Strength is literally just strength. It allows you to carry more weight on you and so on…” Pyro’s explanation was simple, the strength attribute increased the physical strength of the avatar you played with.
“Speed is speed. You can reload faster and run faster, but it won’t fix someone’s ‘hands grown from ass’ if they aren’t accurate during the reload. Endurance is basically about stamina, how much you can run in a certain period of time. How many physically exhausting things can you pull off.”
Simon nodded, “I see, so what about the other three?” Those three were the weirdest; fortitude, craftsmanship, and luck.
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“Fortitude may be the only one useful out of these three. Seriously, I have never had a chance to enter a burning or frozen building so far. It can only help out with damage received from bullets, but it’s very little help. It’s basically how much you can handle certain kinds of damage. "
“So, resistance?” Simon asked, and it was confirmed by Pyro. Well, actually, to him this seemed very useful, but he wasn’t a veteran of the game, so he trusted the young one’s judgment.
“There is also the HP you get per level. Enemies with a higher level have more base damage. So, a level 1 enemy would do less damage with the same weapon as a level 10 enemy. Just... don't try to get shot by enemies who have a higher level than you. Also, the HP is always shown in percent, but you will get used to it later. It's the same as in every mode. The most important thing for survival is your equipment anyway.” Pyro explained.
“Craftsmanship and luck can be tied together, but yeah, they are separate attributes. Good craftsmanship can allow you to craft high-grade weapons, some mission items, and other stuff that you can sell.”
“The better your craftsmanship is, the better items you can craft. People usually pay real money to get valuable items. Crafters are rare in this free world. But, the good items are also dropped from the hard missions. Not in the same amount, but still it's enough.”
Pyro also mentioned that due to some players' increasing their craftsmanship levels, they got special classes offered to them. Those were very rare cases.
“But if you don’t want some non-combat concentrated class, then just forget about the last two attributes; they are not worth it. Maybe later, when the developers can think of something, just not now.”
Yes, Simon already had a certain way of playing the games from his childhood. This time he wasn’t going to change his ways. The operative was planning to remain that one guy who inflicted the most damage on his enemies.
“Luck should be pretty self-explaining. It won’t affect your gaming performance, but it will help with getting good drops from NPCs or finding some mission items from them. It works well with craftsmanship but is pretty much useless when you don't want to play that way. So yeah, put those points in the attributes I told you. A little bit more into the strength stat maybe... " Pyro explained.
“Alright.” Said Simon. He should really thank Pyro for all his explanations later. That boy has a lot of patience.
Simon looked back at the status window and began to do some machinations with it. He didn’t waste much time on it. He just clicked on the “plus” buttons a few times and then confirmed the changes to save the progress.
That was how the status window looked after he was done,
{Status Window - Attribute Points Available: 0
Strength : 19 [+] [-]
Speed : 10 [+] [-]
Endurance : 9 [+] [-]
Fortitude : 1 [+] [-]
Craftsmanship : 0 [+] [-]
Luck : 0 [+] [-]}
Simon lifted his head and looked at his group, “I’m done.” He didn’t particularly feel anything in him change; even the weight he carried previously remained the same. But, Simon could definitely carry a few more kilograms.
“Yeah, depending on your attributes, you will also get a special class. So, do put more into strength and endurance. I believe Commando is the best class for you. It offers additional ammo skills, and your accuracy will skyrocket even more!”
Although that was for the future, Pyro still suggested Simon aim for the Commando class. They’ll find out later that, after all, Simon is technically a commando in real life. A little bit different, though.
The other two became a little impatient out of boredom as the two were talking about the game mechanics.
One of them decided to ask, “So, what are we going to do now?” Desmond knew what Pyro would say, and he got it right. The dude, of course, wanted to do some missions, raise Simon to a certain level, and then go on hard missions.
Pyro smiled, seeing this expression on his classmate. He was reading his mind. He nodded, as if telling him, ‘Exactly.’ There was no need to say anything more. They were already at a party together. The only thing left was to actually go on the missions. Alice reluctantly followed, while the boys went there with great interest.
"And do we have to start from easy missions? Can't we go for tougher?"
Pyro shook his head in denial, "Nope. Simon still needs to level up and also unlock those tougher missions. Speaking of unlocking, I think Alice also has to do that." Pyro looked at the female, who nodded.
"Yes, I don't have them unlocked."
Desmond deadpanned at her. How come she got to this level then? Was she playing only the easiest missions? Or just killing people on the streets? The last one is what a psycho would be doing…
"How did you get to this level then?"
"You know those boxes that contain some kind of drop, and after unlocking them you get weapons and accessories?"
Desmond nodded. The game itself tried to make money for its creators. He usually thought this was a useless thing, but people paid for those boxes for exclusive skins. The current Alice's skin was also, most likely, an exclusive skin from those boxes.
"They also give you experience. It was enough to reach this level."
Pyro was dumbfounded, "How many boxes did you open? They only give like seven hundred or so! Did you seriously spend all your monthly income on that?!" To reach this level, Alice should've spent all her salary on the loot-boxes.
"Kid, how do you even know how much my salary is even…" Alice didn't like this comment. Pyro talked like he knew something, when he actually didn't. But then she noticed that look on Simon's face. 'Oh my god! Does he think that I'm some kind of nerd now?!'
"I didn't spend a penny alright! It was my friend who tried to get something from my account."
“Ah, I see. If only I had such friends...I guess being a woman has its pluses.” Pyro commented.
Desmond intervened, “Cut the crap now, why don’t we go and do some missions? Don’t we all want to try that hard quest?”
“Oh for sure, I need to finish that quest and find some tricks while I have time.”
Desmond and Alice groaned at Pyro’s words. Instantly, he was thinking about finding bu-... clever use of game mechanics and farming. Simon just smiled, this was reminding him of his childhood, the days he was thinking about trying to trick the system.
“Man, look at that smile. I don’t know if he’s scheming something or actually feeling happy.” Desmond whispered in Alice’s and Pyro’s ears while looking at Simon with narrowed eyes.
"I just remembered the time when I was playing some games when I was a student," Simon said with a chuckle. Everyone felt at ease. “But that game soon turned into a cash-grab, so I quit it.”
“Bruh, I thought you’d say something motivational at least.”
Simon shook his head, “Not quite, but until we have some opportunities in the game, let’s just use them. I haven’t tried these kinds of games, so new experiences are always welcome." He wasn't lying. In the end, it was just a job for him. And after he is done with his job, he will probably never play this game again. But still, he was kind of excited about the game and decided to enjoy it.
Alice approved, “Let’s just go and play.”
With everyone in agreement, the group of four dashed into the depths of this digital world, on their way to explore everything they could. They were trying to learn as much as possible about the new mission.
Their first mission as a squad,
starts now.