Welcome to EDEN (1) - 2

"Welcome to the wonderful world of EDEN!"

I watched as these letters slowly broke apart and flew away, revealing the sky above me and the clouds below me, the sun shining from behind me.

Without delay, my own body experienced the feeling of flight for the first time as it chased after the letters, swooping down through the clouds before I was met with the image of a vast world.

I took all of the details in as EDEN had never looked more beautiful. Right now, it was pure, untouched by humankind, a new world that would soon become my oyster.

My view of the world was once again blurred as I was flown back into the clouds, and then my autopilot was turned off, and I was left floating in a strange gray space.

[Please enter your player name.]

Immediately after I finished reading these words, a keyboard appeared right in front of me.

Now, I had to make an important decision.

After all, this player name would be my name for the rest of my life, as the world would switch to player names as it would now be possible for each person to have a unique name.

In my last life, I had chosen the name, "Phoenix", and this name actually fit me this time as well as I had been reborn after all.

But I didn't want to be called this for the rest of my life, it was unnatural.

So, I decided to just use my actual name, but in a slightly creative way.

My full name was Winter Ashof.

Rearranging it, I could make it, "Ash of Winter".

Typing this into the prompt, the AI immediately approved and a different prompt appeared whilst the previous one disappeared.

[Please select a continent.]

Reading this, I then watched as 6 different cards appeared around me, each with an image of a different continent on them and a description of the continent.

Not even looking at the other continents, I chose the continent I had already chosen as the most suitable one for my start, after all, it was the continent furthest away from the main story of the game.

"Starfell."

Touching the giant card with that name on it, I watched as the other cards disappeared before this one twirled around a few times and disappeared as well, shattering into millions of glittering lights that eventually all faded away.

Finally, what I knew was the last system prompt appeared before me.

[Please choose a job.]

Without even needing to think, I chose the "Mage" class.

You see, although it might have been more beneficial for me to choose a fighting class like swordsman or brawler, which was what I had chosen in my past life, making it so that I could grow stronger faster, I felt like if I combined these skills with a completely new form of attack, magic, I could become even more powerful.

And I already knew where a bunch of legendary classes were, so I really didn't need to worry about the rate at which I would level up, after all, getting a legendary class meant that I would level up slowly no matter what I tried to do.

Well anyways, after touching the "Mage" card, I was then transported back into the clouds, before being shot down towards the planet at high speeds.

Before I could crash into the stone pathways of a town that had grown bigger and bigger in my eyes, I stopped suddenly and was placed down on my feet, landing softly in the town square

Standing there, I closed my eyes and absorbed the feeling of being in another world, the sun on my skin, the wind running through me hair, and the sounds of the other beta testers coming down from the sky. It was a wholesome experience that I could never forget as it was the beginning of my downfall in my last life, but now, it was the beginning of my quest to change my future, my destiny.

"Welcome to the beginning town of the Starfell Continent, Kepler."

Hearing the female robotic voice of the AI, I snapped out of the daze that I was in.

But then, along with all the other beta testers that had landed in Kepler, our surroundings suddenly changed and we found ourselves in a field with hundreds of scarecrows in it.

[Quest: Hit a dummy 1,000 times

Reward: 5 Bread, 5 copper

Penalty for Failure: -10 favorability with NPC's]

Seeing this system prompt, I just swiped it away and started running to the edge of the training grounds where the exit was.

Looking up at the giant man guarding the exit, I asked,

"Are you the training instructor?"

"Yes, what do you need?"

"That player over there needs help."

Hearing this, he just sighed, shook his head, and then started walking over to the group of terrified players.

'He's such a dummy.' I thought whilst shaking my head slightly.

Making sure that the training instructor wasn't looking, I casually walked out of the training grounds.

[Warning! The player, "Ash of Winter", is now seen under an unfavorable light by most NPC's.]

[Congratulations! You are the first to have a negative favorability! You have earned the title, "Rule Breaker". From now on, the more rules you break, the greater your aura.]

Seeing that I had gotten what I wanted, I swiped the system notification away, and headed into the forest, going towards the town.

Now, you might be wondering, why didn't I just complete the task?

Well, it was all due to the fact that I just didn't have enough time, spending 5 hours just hacking away at a scarecrow would put a large hole in my plans.

I mean, sure, there was the legendary cliche of there being a special quest that you could get from hitting the dummy 100,000 times, but why would I try and get it if I had chosen the "Mage" class?

Anyways, to sum it up, I had better things to do and I couldn't even be a single second late to even one of my appointments, lest I mess the whole schedule up.

So, picking up the pace, I started running towards the town.

But, out of nowhere, something white and flurry jumped into my vision and headed straight towards my head.

Materializing my sword into my hand from my inventory, I easily one-shotted it and it fell to the ground.

[+5 exp!]

'Well, I guess I should also spend some time leveling up if these dumb rabbits keep flocking to me like moths to a flame.'

I grinned wildly.