1 A NEET has to be shameless!
中国語の絵文字
"Bret! Bret! Are you serious?" A women's loud voice sounded from within a house in one of the low income neighborhoods in Oakland.
"First you quit college spouting some nonsense and now all you do is play video games all day long! The least you can do is tidy up your room. Bret! Where the hell are you?"
As the poor woman continued lamenting, a skinny young man tip-toed and sneaked out of the house, jumping down from the bedroom window.
He hopped onto the rusty bike that was leaning on the fence. It didn't have any lock on it, not that it needed one as no one would probably ever steal it.
Checking back one more time to see if his mother was close enough to physically harm him, Bret Williams pushed down on the pedals and sped away on the rickety bicycle as fast as he could.
He only dared to slow down and take a breather three streets down his house. "Phew! That was close. Is it my imagination or is she getting scarier with each day?"
He sighed in relief and his charming albeit unkempt face had a big grin plastered on it as he continued riding his bike, now more leisurely.
A few more streets passed him by and soon he was in the posh Berkeley area and he stopped his rickety cycle in front of a big ass bungalow that had the perfect unobstructed view.
Giant gates opened and Bret casually rode his rusty cycle inside. "Hey, old man! Good morning! Is Jack inside?"
"Good afternoon, Mr. Bret." The security guard corrected him first without answering his question and gave him the usual half-eye roll. "The young master is inside."
Bret chuckled and cycled all the way to the entrance, pretending he hadn't seen the eye roll and then haphazardly let his rusty cycle lean against one of the pristinely clean pillars of the bungalow.
His slippers flip-flopped on the marble floor creating an unholy noise in the huge empty mansion and he whistled as he rushed up the stairs.
Pausing at the first floor of the building, he kicked the door of the first room to his right.
"What the hell, dude? Don't you dare start without me!"
"He He He. I would have if you had shown up a couple of minutes later. Overslept as usual I assume?" Jack chuckled. He tossed something that seemed like a fancy helmet to the intruder.
Bret grinned as he caught the heavy item and looked at the skinny youth in front of him. The two of them had that in common while they were a bit different in most other things.
Jack had a clean-shaven and sharp face, his golden blonde hair neatly combed back.
His appearance was in stark contrast to the man who had a scruffy beard and inky black hair that should have clearly been cut a few weeks ago.
"Woah!! Is this it?" He asked, while closely inspecting the helmet, which looked extremely high-tech, like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
"God damn. So hot! I need to check this bitch out!"
Jack nodded. "I am ready when you are."
He placed on his head another helmet similar to the one he had thrown over to Bret, who quickly tossed his tracksuit hoodie with probably a million tiny holes in it and comfortably settled on the bean bag chair opposite to the couch Jack was sitting on.
He as well then placed his helmet on his head.
The metallic helmet covered the entire head as if it was another layer wrapped around the skull.
"Should we close our eyes for better…" Bret was about to say something when a loud beep sounded and the next instant, he slumped back as if he had fainted or become unconscious.
Jack was also in a similar state, his body falling on the side onto the couch with a thud.
….
….
….
"What the hell?" Bret muttered dazedly as he found himself floating in nothingness or more accurately his conscious was floating in nothingness.
Everything was black around him and he couldn't touch or see or feel anything.
"Eh? This 100% immersion is a bit too much." He sighed and waited without having anything else to do. Every game had a loading time after all.
A few more seconds passed in silence when suddenly the darkness in front of him started fading and a sweet melodious voice rang in his mind.
[Please state your name]
"Hmmm? Name? What name should I give?" Bret mulled over it as if it was the most important decision in his life. "This is a cultivation game, I need to pick something super cool."
"Let me see… Heaven Breaker… Soaring Cloud… Piercing Heaven… Supreme Monarch… War God… Mad Monarch… All of these are amazing."
"Hmm… let's go with Mad Monarch. He He He. This should make people think twice before messing with me."
"Confirm the name Mad Monarch. Next should be customizing appearance right? Give me a six-pack with..."
Interrupting Bret midway, the fairy-like voice once again sounded.
[Daoist Mad Monarch, welcome to the land of Soul Cultivation]
Huh? Before he could understand what was going on, Bret suddenly found himself sitting on the ground. The darkness had completely cleared and he could now see.
He was somewhere in the middle of a market maybe?
"Hmmm?" Bret slowly looked up and down at himself and his lips twitched.
He was now able to see his full body, but unfortunately, his full body was the same scrawny body of his from the real world.
He touched his face and it only took him 2 seconds to realize that his mug was also the same one from the real world.
"Ha… Alright. Never mind. My real body might be lacking but my face is still not too bad. I can make do with this." Grinning shamelessly, Bret stood up and dusted his back.
He looked around at the crowd and most of the people around him were dressed similar to him in a simple linen shirt and khaki pants.
"This should be the player crowd. Let me check my stats first."
"Status screen?"
A blue translucent screen immediately flashed in front of him.
______________
Name: Mad Monarch
Cultivation: NA
Bloodline: Ordinary
Physique: Ordinary
Spirit: Ordinary
Legacy: None
Talent: None
______________
Qi: 0
Physical Strength: 20
Mental Strength: 30
Soul Strength: 20
Physical Defense: 20
Mental Defense: 0
Soul Defense: 0
______________
"Hmm… There seems to be a lot of nonavailable and ordinary stats??" He cocked his eyebrow in puzzlement but then shook it off. "Game is just now starting. This is probably some common beginner stats."
"I guess I will now go look for some NPCs and start questing?" He leisurely took in the medieval scenery around him and started wandering about.
Soul Cultivation was a brand new cultivation game that had only been recently introduced but the hype created for it was nothing short of startling.
And today was the first day of the game's official opening. It has in fact been only one hour since the players were able to enter the game.
So there wasn't any sort of online guides or rulebooks up yet.
Though this could be overwhelming, this was also good because the early players always had a better experience discovering everything for themselves, rather than reading about things from someone else's adventures.
Moreover, this game is the first one rumored to have in-game currency and real-life currency exchange options.
This alone was enough to tempt a big chunk of the world population and on the first day of the game itself, every starting area became heavily crowded.
This was why Bret wanted to first look for some quests before checking out other details. There was also a blinking tutorial button that he ignored for now.
Otherwise, by the time he glossed over everything, there would only be lengthy queues near the main NPCs.
Every game's beginning was chaotic and this was not his first rodeo, so Bret went along with his instincts.
He saw a blacksmith's shop nearby and approached it. The shopkeeper was an old man and he was leisurely sipping something.
"Greetings, fellow daoist. How are you doing this fine morning?" Since he was not busy, Bret quickly approached him to spark up a conversation.
Hmmm… The old man's gaze flickered towards Bret for an instant and then returned back to stare at the wall in front of him as if he hadn't seen or heard anyone.
This is weird. Bret rubbed his chin but did not give up just yet. "Brother, is the shop perhaps in some sort of trouble? Do you need 10 stacks of iron ore or copper ore?"
"Heh." The old man finally responded. His lips curled into a sneer and he gazed at Bret with an undisguised look of disgust.
"Someone like you is volunteering to help me huh? Get lost brat. I am not in the mood to entertain idiots today. I might just end up killing you."
"What the hell? Why is this NPC dunce so rude?" Bret was about to retort something back when a frighteningly scary aura seeped out of the old man.
His lips started trembling and his body started shaking. An inexplicable fear struck his heart and he subconsciously started stepping back out of the shop.
But just as his leg crossed that threshold, the oppressing aura completely disappeared. He felt as if he was released from some sort of prison and he could once again breathe and move freely.
"What the fuck just happened?" Bret was utterly dumbfounded. He looked at himself and his entire body was drenched in sweat, his linen cloth uncomfortably sticking to his body.
Anyone else would have been scared out of their wits from such a frightening encounter, wondering if they had inadvertently offended some sort of big shot, but Bret on the other hand had a big grin plastered on his face.
"Damn! Did I just discover some sort of super secret hidden NPC??" He chuckled inwardly in excitement.
"Alright. Alright. I should act as nothing happened and keep this in wraps. I will visit this shop again when I am stronger and snatch this hidden quest for myself. Ha Ha Ha Ha!!"
With his hands crossed behind his back, and his head held high, Bret quickly walked over to the next shop. Obviously, there weren't going to be several powerful experts hiding as shop vendors in the same newbie market street.
So he casually walked over to this one and asked. "Greetings daoist, how are you doing this fine morning?"
10 seconds later…
Bang! Bret fell back onto the street, landing on his scrawny behind. "What the fuck? Are all NPCs in this game programmed to be assholes?"
He sighed and shook his head before getting up and coincidentally another group of players walked into the same store.
"Hey," Bret called them, thinking that he would warn the players about the weird NPCs but he was still disgruntled from his personal misery.
So he changed his mind and silently waved his hand at them without saying anything. He decided that it would be far more entertaining to see the others also being thrown out on their asses.
Plastering a smug smile on his face, he leaned over one of the pillars at the entrance and watched the scene silently.
