Infinite Seas

Infinite Seas is the new VRMMORPG game in the market. It boasted 100% realistic graphics and proved it after the release.

It was developed jointly by a few top tech companies and governments of superpower countries together.

On the day of its worldwide release, more than 1 billion joined the game. With a population of more than 25 billion, 1 billion was a huge number.

Everyone who played was astonished by the degree of reality in the game. Many even thought that they transmigrated into the game world.

As was understood from its name, the game was based on a sea adventure. But that didn't mean there was not enough landmass.

The official website boasted that the total area of the game world was many times larger than the surface area of their planet.

Most thought it to be an exaggeration, but still believed that the map was very big.

Most of the area was covered in sea, with countless islands sprinkled here and there. Even if they were called islands, many of such islands had an area greater than the largest country. So, those with not much interest in seas could still enjoy gaming in the lands that had plenty to offer.

Its biggest feature was the time ratio. The time ratio from the real world to the game world was 1:2. That means, one day in the real world was two days in the game world. Just this feature took the world by storm.

The game offered complete freedom to the player. They were free to do anything they wanted.

If there were compliments then there were complaints too. Almost everyone complained that the game was too difficult to level up. Experience points were too hard to earn.

The fastest rankers from previous famous games were too ashamed to show their faces in public after publically boasting to reach level 1 within a day. In two days, even the craziest of the hardcore rankers barely increased their exp bar beyond the 15% mark.

Fortunately, there was another way to level up. Because of the immense freedom it offered, players could practice the skills and level up that way.

Another complaint many had was about talent. When joining the game for the first time, there would be a chance to gain talent, according to the official game news it was random.

Talents also had levels, so those who got talent randomly got low or high-level ones.

Getting a talent would be helpful with the game. So, those with no talent or with low-level talents were the ones who complained the most.

Especially after it was known few extremely lucky ones got dual talents.

After getting too many complaints, a company official came forward and said that the feature was added to make the game interesting and was completely random, who will get talent and the quality of talent was random. The feature would not be removed.

Some threatened to boycott the game, but no one listened to them. Even with the disadvantages the game was too good to quit.

Other than the adventuring theme common in most games, the game provided the players the opportunity to be lords.

Just like those who were lucky to get the talents, some were lucky to get the opportunity to become lords in the beginning.

Though not many complained about that as it was already known previously that players could become lords as long as they found some specific items.

The game had four main power systems. Body, aura, mind, and soul. The players were free to choose one or more paths.

The path of the body was the path of martial arts, it had the most information. Next was the path of aura. This path was for becoming a knight, paladin, assassin, ranger, etc. They were collectively called Aurors.

Not much information was given about the mind path, just that it was the path of wizards. There was zero information about the mysterious soul path. The players were advised to explore on their own.

Body refining was considered the base of paths. It was advised to first practice body refining before starting the other of the three paths.

Any of the paths could not be practiced without corresponding exercises. For example, for the body path, martial arts needed to be practiced to improve the body path.

As body refining was easiest to start, the first level could be achieved even with constant exercising albeit much slower than martial skills. Though later levels needed corresponding martial arts skills.

The experience points earned by the players were not directly added to the level but had to be manually added by players. When practicing skills, the experience was directly added to the path.

All the players were equally given first-level martial arts, though the type was different and the choice was given to players to choose between the few starters based on their interest, like sword, bow, and movement martial arts.

Unfortunately, that also limited players to level 1, if they needed to level beyond that, they had to find corresponding martial arts of higher level.

This could have caused another round of complaints, this time from the majority of players, if not for the discovery of a few players.

Some players who practiced martial arts in real life wanted to use it in the game world and they succeeded. The matter didn't stop there, their martial arts were recognized by the game system and were given levels based on the quality of martial arts. They could use those martial arts to level to the corresponding level freely without facing the headache of looking for appropriate martial arts.

It started a craze of martial arts in the world. Everyone either wanted to learn some to use in the game world or were trying to recruit those martial artists.

There were even rumors that in those martial arts families with hundreds of years of inheritance, their martial arts were at a minimum graded high level by the system, some even reaching the top level.

'This will make it much easier for the rich players to make others join their guild. They could hire a martial artist for a high salary and then entice other players to join their guild in return for learning the martial arts.'

'But why did the martial arts system feel much the same as in my dream world? Angela also used a level 1 martial art given to her by the orphanage owner. Later she found better ones from different bandits to reach higher levels. With the latest level 4 one she found in the pirates' treasure whom she killed a year ago.'

'Maybe a coincidence. But is it? Maybe I am just paranoid. No need to think too much.'

After his family left for work, Drake had been looking at the game's information from the official website and forum.

The technician came with game capsules at noon and was installing them in the respective family members' rooms.

"Sir, I have installed all the capsules in the respective rooms." The technician informed Drake.

"Thanks, Carl." Drake thanked him. Then he got a basic rundown on how to use the machine from Carl.

The game capsule could allow for uninterrupted gaming as long as nutrient fluids were changed on time. They had enough safeguards to eject the person out of the game in case of an accident. So, no one would die of hunger if they failed to change the nutrient fluid.

After Carl left after giving Drake all the demonstrations, Drake excitedly came to his bedroom.

The initial setup for all the capsules was already completed with the installation, so Drake didn't need to add nutrient fluid this time.

He opened it, took a deep breath, stepped inside, laid down and closed the lid, and closed his eyes.

[New player detected]

[Scanning player…Scan completed]

[Welcome Drake Smith to the Infinite Seas]

He opened his eyes and found himself floating above the water. As far as his eyes could go, all he saw was water.

He looked downwards, inside the water. He could see silhouettes of some fish swimming. Suddenly a very silhouette came and ate many fishes with a gulp. It didn't look like any water dweller he knew.

'Interesting, is that a sea monster.' Drake commented in his brain.

Then his gaze went to the screen in front of him with the words written on it.

Another quirk of the game was that players could only use their real names in the game. And also they had to use their real bodies in the game, which means no instant eight packs in the game.

The character creation only consisted of giving talent (if the player was lucky) and the initial martial arts skill.

[Determining talent…]

'Let's see if I am lucky enough to get a talent, or if I have used up all my luck in reincarnation.'

According to the official documentation, talents were divided into mortal, extraordinary, and transcendent ranks. There was a possibility of more than one talent level existing beyond that rank.

Each talent rank was further divided into common, uncommon, rare, epic, holy, legend, and myth grades.

Only very few were found to have extraordinary rank talent. Many might have hidden their talents, but it still proved how hard it was to get talent and get good talent.

[Found talent: Identification, Supreme rank]

'The f*ck?'

Talent: Identification

Rank: Supreme

Grade: None

Abilities:

Observation: Get the information of a target (living / non-living). Not restricted by the target's level.

Navigation:

The map within a radius of one meter of the user will be recorded to the highest detail. The radius will increase with the host's strength.

The recorded map can be viewed anytime by the user.

Maps can also be recorded using locally available maps. Map details depend on the quality of the map used.

Points of interest concerning the host, which can be configured later, will be marked on the map recorded. Details of points of interest depend on the map details recorded.

Clairvoyance: The shortest and most efficient route to a host-chosen target will be drawn on the map if the target is present on the map recorded. Efficiency depends on the quality of the map recorded.

'Ok, I knew there may be talent ranks beyond the Transcendent rank, but this Supreme rank doesn't look only one or two ranks above it.', thought Drake looking at the talent description.

[Highest rank talent possible]

'Is that my observation ability? Sweet.'

'That proves that my talent is much beyond the publically known transcendent talent.'

'Is it my golden finger, that usually reincarnated individuals get? But what's the use of getting it in a game, should I use it to become the best gamer.'

Drake thought, a little depressed. He got a golden finger but was of not much use to him.

'But so what, Infinite Seas was praised everywhere as a second life. Even if I can't use my ability to enjoy my 'second' life, I can still enjoy my 'third' life with it.'

After being depressed for a few seconds, he got over it. He got a second chance, and would not waste it feeling depressed.

'Now let's check my talent properly.'

He already witnessed his Observation ability of the Identification talent in action. Normally such abilities were restricted in use. They can't be used to get information on targets beyond a certain level difference. But being a Supreme rank talent, that limitation didn't exist here.

Drake liked the second ability the best. Recording maps would be very helpful in adventures. Especially the points of interest part.

'If I am not wrong, I can use it to look for hidden treasures as long as it is in my vicinity or I have a detailed enough map to record.'

Lastly, the third ability, Drake thought it was just a glorified GPS. But still very much useful.

He was happy with his abilities, they were practical and helpful in his future adventures.

[Determining talent…]

'What? Do I have another talent?'

[Determining talent…]

[Determining talent…]

[Determining talent…]

'What's happening? Is there a glitch in the system?'

[Determining talent…]

[Determining talent…]

[Determining talent…]

[Found talent: Dungeon Master, Beyond Supreme]

'The f*ck?'