Max left the archery range with a spring in his step and a dumb grin plastered across his face – he got the hat! The ranchman NPC gave him a jet-black cattleman hat, complete with stylish curved edges and a small red band under the crown. Not only that; it even came with stat boost! – ‘Charm +1’. Max had no idea what that was supposed to do, but he certainly felt more charming while wearing that hat, so the effect was definitely working.
‘Actually, let’s see what my stats look like!’
STATUS
Name: Gun
Class: Deadshot
Level: 0
EXP: 0%
Health: 200/200
Mana: 200/200
Abnormal State: None
Condition: Healthy
ATTRIBUTES
Vitality: 20
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 20
Charm: 0 (+1)
Luck: 0
DETAILS
Subclasses: None
Titles: None
Active Skills: None
Passive Skills: None
Level-based RPGs (Role-Playing Games) would always have a special system to digitally represent the player’s abilities with numerical digits. Max had spent an excessive amount of time looking for ways to even minorly increase these amounts in Hero of Liberation.
This time, however, the game was not one that was designed to be beaten, since the format was an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game rather than a single player campaign. As such, Max wasn’t prepared to try as hard this time around; he would just mess around and have some fun.
Unfortunately, Max only felt annoyance rather than fun when he looked at his information screen.
‘Charm is so low?!’
He had a single paltry point in charm, a far cry from the values of his other stats. If it weren’t for his cool hat, the value would be zero.
‘Unforgivable!’
In fact, the players inside the game were forced to create an avatar with the same body structure as they had in real life, because the game used the player’s existing sensory receptors to be able to see, touch, taste and smell things. Even Virtek’s technology wasn’t advanced enough to allow people to feel or control body tissue they didn’t have. At best, they could give a few minor vanity options for facial structure and change the outward appearance of a player to look stronger than they actually were.
In Max’s case, he mostly missed out on customising his avatar because he got locked out of those options after registering his username. Fortunately, Max worked out most mornings in real life before leaving for work, so he already had a muscular and well-toned body, capable of appearing on the front cover of a gym magazine without looking suspicious.
Even with this, his charm without the new hat would be zero. This was unacceptable to Max.
Before he could look up how to increase his charm, a melodic tune started playing in the air.
[ Notice: Player ‘Cyclone_Rone’ has accepted your friendship request ]
[ Notice: Player ‘Cyclone_Rone’ is calling. Accept? Y/N ]
Max accepted and was immediately welcomed to the sound of yelling.
“Maxie-boyyyy!!!” How did you go, did you pass the test?”
“Ahh!! Don’t talk! Don’t talk!” Max searched for the audio settings like his life depended on it and turned his call volume down.
“Hm? Why, did you fail?”
“No, I passed, I passed. Your voice was just more loud and annoying than usual for some reason.”
“Rude. Well I passed my test too, so do you wanna meet up to do a dungeon nearby?”
“Sure. Do you know where one is, though?”
“Yeah, there’s a starter dungeon nearby. Well, I say nearby, but it has an entrance at literally every starter town in the game, so it’s basically just omnipresent.”
“Gotcha. How do I get there?”
“I’ll add you to my party and set a waypoint on your map for you to travel towards.”
“Okay. By the way, if you send me to a random swamp or something, I’ll unfriend you.”
Rone cursed silently on the other end of the call.
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...
...
Max arrived at the dungeon entrance and stared at the man across from him. The man had refined facial features and neatly styled purple hair, vastly different than the version of the man that Max was familiar with.
“...Why do you look strange.”
“Good sir, have you ever encountered the term ‘looksmaxxing’, perchance?”
“You’re trying to cosplay as a nobleman, aren’t you?”
“Perchance. Anyways you’re no better, you suddenly became a red-haired cowboy today?”
Max smiled remembering his glamorous new hat and grabbed the brim by reflex. “I sure did, partner.”
“Stop.”
“So how do we get in? Do we just walk up to it?” Max looked around and saw there were already a few dozen players nearby. “Are there people inside, too?”
“Yes to the first question, no to the second. The dungeons teleport you to a separate, isolated server so that everyone can challenge them at the same time without hindering each other. There is one problem with this dungeon though, which I didn’t realise before. Just a very slight problem.”
“Which is?”
“It’s actually a 1-person dungeon, so we can’t go in together.”
“Phew.” Max made a show of sighing exaggeratedly and wiping away his non-existent sweat.
Rone narrowed his eyes. “Hoho, I think I just came up with the perfect idea.”
“Go on.”
“We both enter the dungeon at the same time, and whoever clears it first wins.”
“Interesting, but that won’t be any fun, will it?”
“Huh? Why not?”
“I’ve played Dive games for four years, whereas you only just started today. Have you even fought anything yet?”
“Er, well no... Alright, I see your logic.”
“Right? It’s like a grown adult competing with a toddler in a triathlon.”
“Okay I wouldn’t go that far.”
“How about this, if I can’t beat your time by more than half, you win.”
“...So you mean, If I take less than twice as long as you, I’ll win?”
“Yes.”
“You’re quite confident, aren’t you?”
“Anyone would be confident against a toddler, though?”
“Could you drop that analogy already?”
“Nah, don’t wanna.”
...
...
While the two grown men bickered like toddlers in front of the dungeon entrance, another pair of players looked on from nearby.
“Yo, George. How do I get a hat like that?”
“Sorry? Where?”
“Over there, the two idiots near the entrance.”
“Oh, I see. My apologies young master, but I do not believe there was any such apparel at the marketplace, so it is likely a mission reward. Would you like me to approach and ask them?”
“No need, just have our contacts tell us the necessary-”
“NO! You can’t wear it!” Making a loud disturbance, the man with the cattleman hat took off his hat and held it above him, as the slightly shorter purple-haired man attempted to jump and grab it. “This is a unique, one-of-a-kind mission reward, I’ll have you know! It even increases my charm stat; as if I’d let someone else touch it!”
“...” George suddenly had a bad premonition.
“...George.”
“Y-yes, young master Tristan?
“Get me the hat.”
...
...
“Phew, that crazy bastard. Didn’t expect that, did he?”
Rone had unfortunately fallen victim to the hidden effect of the cattleman hat, which was an AoE (Area of Effect) compulsion spell. Anyone who saw his cool hat would instantly become enamoured with it and want it for themselves. This being the case, Max couldn’t really blame him for his actions.
Luckily, they happened to be right next to a dungeon entrance, so Max simply backstepped into the dungeon entrance to be teleported away and escaped.
“Hehehe wait- I should be hurrying right now, shouldn’t I?”
Realising he agreed to a speed competition, Max broke into a run and equipped the bow he’d been given after passing the archer test. Outside the dungeon, there had been a large wall mural with paintings of a certain small, ugly creatures. As such, Max knew exactly what sort of enemy to expect here.
Pew. An arrow shot through a goblin’s head. The goblin was facing the other way and died instantly, not knowing what killed it.
Pew. Pew. Another two arrows tore through some goblins who were sitting at a lit campfire. One of the goblins was pushed back by the force of the arrow and fell into the campfire. Max applauded his own charitability for offering free cremation services.
Pew.
Pew. Pew.
Pew.
Max shot while running as he tore through the dungeon. Let alone put up a fight, most of the goblins weren’t even able to see him before they had their heads invaded by arrows.
Entering an intersection, Max didn’t know which way to go, so he just proceeded straight. As he ran, a goblin leapt off of a boulder towards him and was met with an arrow through the cranium.
“Eh? Isn’t this pretty easy? Is it because it’s the first dungeon?”
For Max, it felt trivially straightforward to defeat the enemies. This was in stark contrast to his experience from Hero of Liberation, where fighting was difficult from the get-go. It felt like there wasn’t even any danger here; there weren’t any traps, either.
“They must be making it easy for beginner players this time.”
Since they wanted the game to be popular and attract as many new players as possible, it made sense to go easy at the beginning so people wouldn’t be turned away.
“But... It’s so boring.”
Max didn’t enjoy this type of gameplay. For normal players, a massacre like this would make someone feel at least a small sense of superiority and dominance, but to Max, this was like congratulating yourself for defeating a snail, or some other insect; it did not provide even a minute sense of fulfilment. He would much prefer a tough challenge instead.
‘I wonder why they made the archer test so hard, when the combat is so easy?’
Pew.
“Woah, haha.”
One of the arrows went straight through a goblin’s brain and into another’s, scoring Max a bizarre double-kill.
Eventually, after shooting a hundred or so goblins, Max arrived at a large open room with a tall ceiling. His gamer instincts called out to him. ‘Boss room!’
Dungeon bosses were almost always put in large, spacious rooms, so the player would have enough ground to manoeuvre and dodge attacks when necessary. It was practically an unwritten rule in game design at this point.
Looking across the room, a taller, more muscular goblin was standing there confidently, wielding a metal sword. It sneered at Max as some saliva dripped from its face. Max had quite good eyesight so he could see the saliva hit the floor from where he was standing. It was a bit gross, but he’d seen much worse when watching Rone.
That made him remember: According to Rone’s long-winded lecture last night, dungeon bosses were the guardians of dungeons; strong monsters, who would try to prevent a special crystal called the ‘dungeon core’ from being destroyed by the players.
Wanting to probe how fast the boss was, Max let off two shots at its head. If it used its weapon to block rather than dodge, Max would be able to use this to force the boss on the defensive, keeping it from attacking. On the other hand, if-
“Eh?”
The two shots found comfortable homes on either side of the boss’s forehead as the large goblin slowly staggered backward, before crumpling over and falling to the ground, devoid of life.
[ Level Up! ]
“...”
After a few seconds, the boss’s body disintegrated into red particles and left nothing behind except a small jewel, which emitted a faint lustre on the stone floor.
Slightly angry at having gotten worked up for nothing, and not caring about the value of the jewel, Max fired a shot at it, causing it to split into small fragments, which skidded along the floor with a brief, high-pitched noise, reminiscent of shattered glass.
[ Congratulations! You have cleared the dungeon ]
“What?”
[ You have set a speed record for this dungeon. Would you like this achievement to be made public? Y/N ]
“...”
Max felt a profound sense of dissatisfaction. He also pressed ‘no’ to making the achievement public. Who would care about Max’s personal high-score in a mere starter dungeon? People would only laugh at his narcissism. Why would they even have an option for beating your speed record when you hadn’t beaten the dungeon previously? What a dumb system!
Max grumbled for a little longer... before realising he was actually being a bit petty. Why get upset over such a small and insignificant matter? Just ignore it and move on.
Regaining his clarity, he set off to collect all of his arrows and find some dungeon loot.
[ You have cleared this dungeon. You will be evicted in 10s ]
“...”
Max changed his mind and decided to continue sulking.