2 Chapter 2: Game start!
The week went by quickly, the company that was owned by the gods swiftly and efficiently delivered the game pods to Noah's and Matt's house, the game was already installed on them so there was no need for Noah to buy two separate copies of the game.
Noah looked at the large, red, and silver-colored game pod, he had to make the most of this opportunity, he needed to get ahead of his competition in order to get all the rewards.
He had actually lied to Matt about knowing good grinding places, while he had actually been part of the beta the actual game used a completely different map than the beta, quests, npcs, basically everything in the beta was completely changed, the only advantage beta players had was that they knew how the game system worked and would have an easier time leveling up in the early stages, but Noah had actual knowledge of quests, items and many secrets that would put him miles ahead of everyone else.
Noah opened the door of the game pod and laid down in the comfortable bed that was inside the pod, after Noah sat down he closed the doors and a large blue screen appeared in front of him.
[Do you wish to start the game?]
He read the text and clicked on the yes button.
Noah immediately blacked out and appeared in a dark space.
[Linking the game pod to the users body...]
[Linking complete.]
[Time until launch: 10 seconds]
In ten seconds his second chance would start, his opportunity to correct everything and to save everyone, with determined eyes Noah waited patiently.
3.
2.
1.
[Game launching!]
Noah immediately clicked on the start button and the previously dark space disappeared as a list of options and text appeared in front of him.
[Welcome to Monster: Online! Your chance to become the greatest being to ever exist.]
[Please select a name.]
"Noah" Noah said swiftly.
[Name accepted!]
A short welcoming text played out in front of him, then an option to customize his character appeared in front of him.
You could alter your original appearance by 10% which while interesting didn't change anything for Noah, the only thing he did was change his hair color to white and his eyes to a dark purple, he left everything else as is, since basically everyone would spend their time customizing their character he would gain a few minutes of extra time with this.
Now would come the most important of it all.
Monster part selection, all new players were given a single monster part that they could integrate with, the reason why he needed the most expensive game pod was exactly this, the better game pods would provide better chances, at the beginning of the game, this was probably one of the most important things.
In front of Noah appeared three different monster body parts.
A pair of eyes, a vial of blood, and a scale.
[Eyes of the monkey
Rank: D
Description: The eyes of the monkey grant you eyesight beyond what normal humans are capable of, it allows you to remember more information and can help you learn fighting styles more easily, also grants you the instincts of a monkey.]
[Blood of a lizard
Rank: D
Description: By replacing your own blood with the blood of a lizard you can get better mana conductivity and you will heal faster, you also become more cold-blooded.]
[Scales of a serpent
Rank: D
Description: Your skin gets replaced by the scales of a serpent, you gain higher defensive qualities and you deal more damage with your fists, your defense against the elements and magic will also be increased.]
Noah was shocked by the three choices, in his original timeline he had only bought the 1 thousand dollar game pod and had only gotten F rank choices, but he was also kind of shocked at the parts he had received, each was good in its own way but to him the choice was obvious.
The scales of a serpent would be the most useful one early on as it would grant an insane amount of defense, the blood of a lizard would be great to have just in general but the eyes of a monkey were a true treasure, just the fact that it gave you the instincts of a monkey made it more worth it than the other two choices, the fact that it influenced fighting style learning rate and improved memory capabilities made it an even better choice.
Noah quickly pressed on the eyes of a monkey and selected it as his starting monster part, he was surprised that he had gained such a good starting point, the ranks of monster parts, equipment, and just everything, in general, went from F to S and in the later stages of the game SS, SSS, X, and EX but that would still be years away even if he became the number one player early on.
As Noah confirmed his choice a small burning sensation appeared in his eyes before it immediately disappeared, his previously completely purple eyes were now a golden color on the inside with purple lining the outside, it looked very sick, in Noah's opinion.
He clicked on the finalize button and a cutscene-like memory started playing in front of him.
There was no option to skip this so he had to watch it once again, even though he already knew the entirety of the story.
The gods descended in the past and took over the world which caused an almost immeasurable amount of monsters to invade the world, the various races that lived in the world were dissatisfied with the gods and through the use of ancient magic decided to banish the gods, but because of this the monsters that appeared in the world became rampant and the population of the world got pushed to the brink of complete destruction, but one day a hero appeared who showed them how to harness the strength of the monsters and how they could use the monsters to make themselves stronger, many years have passed now as the monsters were pushed back and the population rapidly expanded, but the monsters have started becoming stronger and signs of gods influencing the world have started appearing, the players were summoned to the world to help push back the monsters and seal back the gods.
At least this was what everyone believed, in reality, it was much more complicated than this, but that would be a story for a different time.
For now, it was time for Noah to do what he was best at, play the game.
