Vocation

Ye Qing could somewhat feel it as the maid stripped him naked— leaving a pair of boxers on. Though embarrassed, he knew his lame body build had nothing to offer; skin on bone.

Furthermore, he was in too much pain to actually care about such trivialities. The maid didn't comment on his body as she kindly helped him into the capsule before pushing it into the designated gaming cabinet.

This little maid was almost as kind as his mother, but the latter's glaring flaw was the contradictions between the overly protective yet overly timid personality.

She always wanted to take that one step and stand up for herself and her two children. Alas, she suddenly lost her son before she had the chance to muster up that courage.

A pain not unlike a jagged spike twisting his guts suddenly assaulted him. He felt it in his heart, but he quickly overcame it. Being this close to facing death, he learned to grasp an opportunity when provided, and to value what you have before you've lost it.

His young mindset led him to believe that he hadn't lost anything, but the opposite, he had grasped an opportunity!

An opportunity to start over; a new identity and a new life.

No matter what the future holds for him with this woman, he would brave forward without looking back, even though he promised himself to look after his mother from the shadows. That's the least he could do to repay her love and kindness, no matter how little she afforded to provide.

[Please open your eyes for the Iris and Brainwaves Two-Factor Authorization scan, Sir.]

A voice managed to reach the depths of Ye Qing's mind, borderline mirroring his thoughts, urging him to subconsciously open his eyes.

A glaring flash of light and searing sensation assaulted his optic nerves, yet he didn't have the sufficient muscle control to scream in pain.

[Registration completed. Thank you, Sir. Enjoy the game.]

Following the mechanical notice, Ye Qing felt an absolute force tug at his consciousness and draw him into a blank world of absolute darkness. Even as his consciousness left his body, a viscous blue liquid began to fill up the immersive capsule, the slanted bedding allowing this substance to immerse Ye Qing's body completely, save for his head to facilitate breathing.

Ye Qing didn't know that the original owner of the gaming cabinet and the immersive capsule was a die-hard gamer.

This substance, although water diluted, was the best nutrient solution in the market. With each inhale and as the pores on Ye Qing's skin expand, the solution seeps into his body for a full cycle, only to be discharged with every exhale, accompanied by a pungent, dark substance.

The immersive capsule would immediately detect these harmful secretions and guide them into the pipelines connected to the sewer's network, allowing the fresh dose of solution to soak Ye Qing's body.

The convulsing had long since stopped, though his body would shudder periodically, not to mention the muffled noises of joints and bones dislocating, readjusting, and reconnecting from time to time.

However, Ye Qing's consciousness had long departed elsewhere, so he didn't feel a thing.

…

[Welcome to the network, Sir.]

In the boundless darkness came the mechanical sound, followed by light. In fact, the scenery was no different from before, with the exception that the blank space was now white and not black.

Ye Qing started with the most obvious, strategic, textbook question. "Where am I?"

[This space, like the in-game world, is a manifestation of my thoughts center, Sir.]

Ye Qing was overwhelmed as he asked, "You can think?"

[Thinking is the process of perceiving information, registering information, processing information, and eliminating the unnecessary factors while constructing an analytical response. In a sense, I can think, Sir. Thank you.]

"Ah— yeah, sure…" Ye Qing felt a little awkward, not knowing how to respond to that. Nonetheless, the network didn't anticipate an answer from him to begin with.

[We can start with your name, Sir.]

Right, a player's name! Almost forgot… Ye Qing sank into a moment of contemplation as he reviewed his life experience while choosing a suitable name. The more he thought about it, one name in particular— a word actually, surfaced in his mind.

A roller coaster of emotions assaulted his heart as he took a deep breath to calm his unsteady emotions, and with a voice choked on air, he announced.

"My name will be… Mortal."

[Name registration completed, Sir.]

As his emotions settled down, Ye Qing felt something was wrong, and he quickly realized what it was.

He asked, "Why aren't you calling me by my name?"

[Your name is for my children to address you with, Sir.]

"Your children? Do you mean… NPCs?"

[The Children of the Realm, Sir. Thank you.]

"Yeah, I know. We call them NPCs…"

[Children of the Realm. Thank you, Sir.]

"… Okay," for some reason, Ye Qing felt as though this network had gotten irritated, prompting him to wisely comply, changing the subject. "Can I connect to the forum while the game is optimizing my first gameplay experience?"

[Why, of course, Sir.]

Browsing the game forums while in-game through hololens technology allows players to surf the internet and connect with other players in-real-time.

The moment he opened the forum, a flood of posts filled the holographic screen. Ye Qing had to split the window into multiple screens just to keep up with the constant updates as the in-game time when compared to the in-real-time runs at 3:1 ratio.

"This is so confusing!" Ye Qing thought as he skipped the player made posts and visited the official lore structure of the realm.

The realm had experienced a lot of ups and downs, leading up to the present era.

The First Epoch that spanned the Era of Wisdom and the Era of Inception. The Second Epoch that spanned the Era of Conquest and Era of Anarchy. The Third Epoch that spanned the Era of Chaos and the Dark Era.

This brought the realm into the Fourth Epoch, starting with the Era of Law and Order.

Ancient Chronicles of the Realm mentioned the presence of a dominating power that quelled the unrest at the end of every era, and these powers joined together to form the Covenant of the Fourth Epoch.

How did it come to this?

Each era brought out a flood of worshippers, devoted to their cause. From the first Wise Men to the last Dark Envoys. The abundant power of faith coalesced into birthing Seven Titans in a chronological sequence from the first era.

Hyperion, the First of Seven Titans and the Titan of Wisdom, proposed the Covenant of the Fourth Epoch to his brethren after the birth of Themis, the Last of Seven Titans and the Titan of Law.

There wasn't much information about the other five, but the lore also specified that each titan lords over an independent continent, each continent spanning at least ten times the surface area of planet Earth.

The interrelationships of the 'gods' wasn't something Ye Qing could explorate on the forums. After checking his registry, Ye Qing noticed that his character was designated into the region under Themis, Goddess of Law.

The youngest of the seven and with the least number of devoted worshippers to her Church of Law. Thinking about it, Ye Qing wondered if the Main Network had designated him to this continent out of spite.

Ye Qing initially wanted to check his region and filter out the posts based on regional announcements, but what he discovered in his profile almost had him screaming in shock!

What's going on?!

Other than the liberty of choosing a name, the Main Network had practically optimized his character from head to toe— he couldn't modify his character chart at all!

< Name: Mortal >

< Level: 1 >

< Talent: Exorcism >

< Vocation: Talisman Apprentice >

If that was all, Ye Qing would cope with it. However, he couldn't even access the chart for his stats points distribution!

"Hey! Main Network— I'll call you Claudia for now… What happened to my character? Did you do this?!"

[I did no such thing, Sir. It was brought to my attention that you had toggled the Optimal Optimization Sequence, manually.]

Information related to the OOS immediately flooded Ye Qing's mind. As the information settled it, Ye Qing immediately thought about the little maid who set up the immersive capsule and launched the game. She must have toggled the OOS accidentally while staring up Clash of Titans.

The OOS takes advantage of the Iris and Brainwaves Two-Factor-Authorization scan in tandem with the passive sensor installed in the immersive capsule to grsp a clear image of someone's potential when compared to the database of vocations.

Seldom do people use this feature because gamers tend to believe that they know what's best for them. This is called having confidence in oneself, or the lack thereof in a computed judgment.

The situation is similar to encountering the "optional" and the "recommended" optimization when you're configuring graphics in-game or when you're optimizing the engine of your car in one of the Need For Speed games.

Almost no one trusts the so-called "Recommendation."