Chapter 4 - Weird Good Karma

[3rd Person POV]

It would have been 1 month, out of YGGDRASIL, since players Hikari and Touch_Me started exploring the game. They seemed to be people who didn't interact as much with other players, at least for now.

In addition to having trained little, they decided to have more fun there and not massive battles, at least the player Hikari decided to do that and was honest with that choice. Because, on the other hand, after only some days, Touch_Me wanted to show himself as a complete brave knight in that virtual world, so he decided to keep farming XP by killing some hostile mobs when he could.

At the present time, before jumping into the game as usual, Keiko Kobayashi, the person behind Player Hikari, was writing stuff on the website he created to review YGGDRASIL. The site's name was simply "YGGtreeDRASIL" and it had a simple and straightforward home page, with things already separated into different categories, such as "Chronological Reports", "PvP and PvE Information", "Interviews" and "Biography of a Player". Clearly other categories would appear in it, but these were already made because they are the basis of every website about MMOs.

Since his father works at a key company, the young man would try to use that to his advantage to do interviews with developers, about basic things that weren't so connected to the VR-MMORPG world, as if he tried to take all information, it would take the fun out of a interview. But for now he hadn't contacted them about the matter, he was waiting at least for Early Access to end, which would happen in the middle of June of that same year, and that means, he still has another month for that.

Another thing that was important to talk about "YGGtreeDRASIL", or just YtD for short, was that the boy so far hadn't written on the website saying who he is in real life, he always referred to himself using his IGN. That way everyone would know who he was as a Player and not as the son of a famous businessman, and so other players who were readers would recognize him in the game if they find him.

In the "Biography of a Player" category, he didn't write character information, just the things he did that were of some importance, like the first PvE fight he had against the monsters known as [Fallen Fairy]. He decided not to talk about the title and achievement he obtained, and the much more detailed information about this fight was in the proper PvE category, where he also had his report on how the game teaches things in very interactive ways.

"—and therefore, deciding to be more efficient and diverse. Many might say that it's better to focus on one job class and have a team, but being the handyman is nothing to be ashamed of." Keiko said as he finished writing another one of his common posts and hit the submit button.

"And that's it!" The boy stretched his arms a little, sitting on the chair, which was soon turned over and he stood up.

He looked at his room for a while and then leave to go to another room. During that month, he had bought some new equipment and that other room was where he kept those things. Half of the place was filled with tech stuff, like a more powerful computer and his neural-link equipment, which was now sitting there opposite his bedroom.

The other half of the place had training equipment like punching bags, some weights, and the floor was covered with something soft, like a mat. There was also a small shelf with some sticks and items that simulated melee weapons, all for training outside the virtual world, after all, even if it was better to train inside YGGDRASIL, it was also good to keep in shape in the real world. When he asked to buy things like that, the family was very surprised, but they still delivered him, after seeing that one way to have an advantage in the game, was to maintain a balance of mind and body.

He started to train a little with the punching bag, wearing only long pants, that was very loose in the leg area, in addition to fingerless gloves. Throwing several strong punches, always training, not the force he hit, but the movement he made. With every single muscle movement, he was trying to make calculated movements more natural, to be much more effective in the game.

{8 Hours Later}

[Player Hikari. You have entered Midgard, the Human Realm.]

[Notice: Here Humans and Demi-Humans are in home. If PvP occurs against Heteromorphic Races players, you will suffer a passive buff.]

"Argh.. I hate this game detail, but there's nothing to be done, after all... Humans and Demi-Humans suffer debuffs in other realms." Hikari thought, after entering that realm.

He walked a little along the road that connected the Spawn to the main city. Arriving there, he came across some human NPCs walking around, with some having sort of exclamations, grey and scratched, above their heads, possibly because he, as a player, started YGGDRASIL's lore in Alfheimr. Also, he saw a few Players, most seemed to be focused on one of the downtown taverns in the main city of that realm, so he went there.

[Player Hikari. You have entered Dragon's Spine, welcome! Click on the establishment icon or physically pick up the menu for information on what is served here.]

[Player Hikari. Because you are of legal age, you have access to the adult menu, aka alcoholic beverages.]

The system popped up these message windows in front of Hikari as he walked into that bar. That location was very reminiscent of a cliché of Middle Ages and Norse taverns, all tables had at least one player sitting on them, meanwhile he saw a human woman approaching, when she got close enough, he noticed that it also was a player.

"Hello! Would you like a place to sit?" She said, being dressed in simple but very attractive clothes, making her have space to see her big "accents".

"Either this is a man who wants simps... or a girl with self-esteem issues." Hikari thought, before answering her. "Oh! Sure, I would like. And by the way, I'd like a butterbeer too."

"Of Course! Follow me." Said the woman as she took him to a circular table for 6 people, on it there was just an elf and a fox-type demihuman.

"Excuse me, this man would like to have a table, but we're out of empty tables, and this is the one with the most space. Is that okay?" She asked and both other players didn't seem to mind, so Hikari sat there with them, while the woman followed his order from before to take his drink.

"So, you're new around here? I haven't seen you anywhere around before." the girl with demi-human character asked curiously.

"Oh! Sorry not to say anything.. Well.. My name is Hikari, and you haven't seen me around here because I started Lore quests in Alfheimr. So I'm more there than in other realms." He replied simply.

"Alfheimr? Isn't that the realm of light elves, fairies, and such? Why would you start the lore there?" the elf asked, wondering.

"Well, people start wherever they want... Why the question?" Hikari asked looking at them.

"Oh..What?..I thought we were forced to start in Midgard." The human-fox spoke and then looked at her friend. "Hear that? You could have started where your race resides, silly!"

"I realized that!... Argh! I thought we were forced to start here too. It would have been so much more poetic for me to have gone to Alfheimr!" The elf spoke in a dramatic and irritated way, while Hikari received the butterbeer.

"Woah! You paid too much, didn't you? That beer is only 5 gold coins!" The attendant exclaimed aloud, making the elf stop babbling and look at her and Hikari, in fact several players around did too after she had spoken so loudly.

"Don't worry, stick with it. Players who work in places like this usually like Roleplay more than the adventure itself, but it's still nice to have extra money to buy miscelious things." Hikari replied to the girl who was walking away happily.

"What did you do?" the fox girl asks.

"I only gave her 50 gold coins." He said as he started to drink his beer. "Wow! That's a really good one!"

"Wow.. Like.. Paying ten times the value of an beer... is that serious, man?" The elf said confused as he seemed to eat some snacks there on the table.

"I don't see a problem with that... Uh... What are your names?" Hikari asked as he took another sip.

"My name is Sun, I'm a Fighter Fox. And this one is Pakker, he's an Elf Archer. And what would you be?" The fox said curiously.

"Well, folks at the beginning of the game don't like to choose different job classes.. I'm a Rogue, Wizard and Craftsman." he replied simply and Sun stared in awe.

"Really? What level are you by any chance?" Pakker asked and soon Hikari opened a small information window.

————————————————————

Player: Hikari

Total Level: 10

Racial Level:

Human ————— Lv.Max

Jobs Level:

Rogue ————— Lv.4

Wizard ————— Lv.4

Craftsman ————— Lv.2

————————————————————

"Hmm..." The elf stared straight at the human in front of him. "How long have you been playing?"

"I started playing in April. I haven't been farming XP as much, but I'm training my own irl physique more to improve my performance here." When Hikari said that, several players started laughing at him.

"Hm...? Is there a problem?" he asked confused.

"Hahahaha! No big deal, is that... Training irl to get good at a game like this? Really?" Sun said, still laughing.

"Because the neural-link interacts with the YGGDRASIL system, such training makes the mind more adaptable to making movements with your character." With that answer, everyone fell silent again and looked at him strangely.

"Are you saying that... You don't use the neural helper?" a player at the next table asked, his character appeared to be a dwarf who could be mistaken for a human child.

Neural Helper, better known as Neural-Addaptor-Simulator, or just N.A.S. for short, was a pseudo system that existed in several other media that used virtual reality as a basis. It allows the user to choose an action and the user's character would make the pre-programmed movements at all times.

There were games where this system was mandatory, some prohibited the use of it, and others it was a mix. YGGDRASIL, until now in Early Access, was considered a game where players could choose to leave it enabled or not. There are people who say that it takes the naturalness out of the game, but there are times when it's very useful to have something like this to do very specific things, such as weapon arts.

"Yep. I dont use this by choice." Hikari said, smiling.

"But what about your job class as a craftsman?" Sun asked.

"That's an excellent question. Craftsman is a Job Class that allows the player to build things, I mean, you could try to build something without it, but with this Job Class, things are easier, besides not needing so much effort I would love to build things as naturally as possible myself, but I'm here to play and have fun, not to get hired as a bricklayer." Hikari gave a light laugh and then made the system window in front of him disappear.

"And, when the Devs finish the store creation system, I want to be ready." He said taking a long swig of the rest of the butterbeer in front of him.

He could be in a tavern, and the waitress who served him was a player. But that environment was made by the Developers, they were still creating a way for Job Classes, involving creations, to be able to have a financial life within the game. Of course, without having too many exploits.

"I didn't even know about this one, how is this going to work?" Sun asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Really? This information is in the 'major beta developments' category on the official website. Just log in using your account that is linked with your Early Access data." Hikari explained calmly, before finally actually answering. "It will be a system that allows people to use purchased land to create stores and/or establishments. There they will be able to sell items they create or resell things at a considerable price. In addition, this establishment will appear on the game's common map if its creator wants it."

"Wow... You look like a complete nerd" Sun was deadpan when she said that.

"But... This is for anyone who has Early Access to see." Hikari replied, but apparently the fox girl didn't seem to mind any of that.

"Sorry, Hikari. She's just like that, always getting interested in something and after a second giving up." Pakker spoke and received a punch in the face, sending the elf flying to the other side of the tavern.

Everyone looked with wide eyes at the demihuman, Sun, who had just made that attack, her hands were reddened, symbolizing that she had fortified her fists. "OI OI!!!! I'M NOT LIKE THAT!!" She exclaimed, her manner of speaking sounding like a yakuza.

"D-dear... You literally got sick of being a fox after 2 minutes, but you decided to keep being one because you were too impatient to create another account." Pakker said and then Sun jumped on him and started scratching him with long claws on his face, a classic attack for demihumans of the fox or cat type.

[Alert! PvP has started]

"Hey! No fighting here at the Tavern! If you guys keep this up for more than 1 minute the damage in this place will be paid for my own money!" Said the woman working there.

"Yeah... If you want to fight, do it out of here, all the people are just wanting to drink and have fun." Said the Dwarf from before, approaching to try to break up the fight, but before he touched the fox, she punched him, flinging him across the tavern, the same way she did to the elf.

"I SAID, NO FIGHTING HERE!" the waitress exclaimed more, but apparently she didn't have the heart to step into it.

"Heh?!? Or what will happen if I dont stop, cutie!?" Said the fox, still like a gangster.

"That's what will happen." She heard a dense voice coming from beside her, and before she could turn her face away completely, she received a full blow to the jaw.

[Wizard First Lesson: Fire]

Said player Hikari, using the basic knowledge magic of the Wizard class. Normally this spell would just make a flame appear in his hand, with this one not being throwable, but because he was throwing a punch, with his fists closed, while activating that spell, the punch itself turned from the fire attribute, using Mag.Atk instead of Phy.Atk.

The fox, Sun, was thrown out of the Dragon's Spine tavern, as Hikari aimed at the door while punching her. Everyone was wide-eyed seeing that and soon the human left the tavern, all the other players decided to follow or look out the window to see how the situation would turn out.

In front of the establishment, she started to get up, with a look of extreme anger, watching Hikari leaving to see how his consequences were, while Pakker appeared right behind. The girl's eyes showed absurd hatred.

"Dude, why did you do that?!?!" Pakker exclaimed.

"Because I noticed your HP was low, idiot. Your character was already turning paler than usual... That and... The woman there asked for the fight to stop inside, so I'm just doing what I think it's right." Hikari replied, looking the elf in the eye, and then looked ahead, seeing the fox foaming at the mouth.

"I didn't know that demihuman foxes have the rage emoticon so realistic." The dwarf commented, standing well behind them all, watching everything using the tavern's door to not be exposed.

"They do not have." Hikari and Pakker answered at the same time, the elf speaking fearfully while Hikari spoke as if he was just answering in a direct and dry way.

"How.... Do... You.. Dare.. ATTACK MEEEEEE!?!?!!" Sun yelled, running towards the human while activating a Base Job Class Fighter classic skill.

[Player Sun_of_Afternoon, activated [One Vs World]]

[One Vs World] was a skill that allowed the user to increase all stats by 50%, but for that it was mandatory that the user had no help from other players during combat, otherwise the skill would be deactivated at the exact moment. At advanced levels, this skill can be considered very appealing, so at the moment, the Devs are seeing if they allow a skill like this to pass to the public game, or if there will be some patch that nerfs it... or the most easier option, delete this skill and switching it with other of the same type.

"*sigh*...Girls.." Hikari jumped to dodge her attack, gripping tightly to the sign above the tavern's entrance door and finally jumping high up behind the demihuman.

Hikari used the skill [Stealth Slash], which allowed a rogue to quickly grab any dagger-like weapon they had equipped and make a quick attack against the enemy. So far the only requirement for this skill to be used in YGGDRASIL, was the user to be behind the target.

[Player Sun_of_Afternoon received critical damage]

[[One Vs World] caused critical damage to be cutted in half]

"Damn it." he muttered while watching his enemy quickly turn around, trying to use her claws against him.

To escape the claws, he used one of the skills he gained upon reaching Rogue Lv.3, [Rogue's 101: Thief's Dash]. Making his body use all its Agility points to throw itself backwards, with no previous impulse for such a movement.

"AAAAH! DIE!!" Sun exclaimed and continued to attack madly with her claws, from the way she moved, it was obvious that she was an N.A.S. player.

With that in mind, Hikari had a great plan. He simply used [Rogue's 101: Thief's Dash] again, only this time in a direction that normally no one would imagine would be used....

He darted upward, staying just meters in the middle of the air. From the speed of that movement, it took a few seconds for the fox to understand where her enemy ended up, but unfortunately, it was too late.

The boy landed on top of Sun, in a way that would normally only be seen in fighting rings. He sat on her shoulders and pressed his thighs against her head with all his Phy.Atk status. By using N.A.S. she didn't have such a quick way of reacting to such a random move like that, but he wasn't finished yet, because soon he put both hands on her head, more specifically, with two fingers stuck in each ear of the fox, and then he spoke very high another skill.

[Wizard First Lesson: Thunder]

The fox's body seemed to take a shock, with her whole body shaking as if she had an epileptic attack. And after he got off her, she fell with her back to the ground.

[Player Sun_of_Afternoon received fatal method damage]

[Player Sun_of_Afternoon was killed]

[Player Hikari gained Experience Points]

[Player Hikari lvl10 → lvl12]

[Player Hikari received 2 levels to spread between job/racial levels]

[Due to settings, Player Hikari recieved +18 points to spread between stats]

"...EH?!?!?" everyone exclaimed, even Hikari.

"Oh my god how did you kill her like that!?!" Pakker exclaimed, running over to Sun's dead body, which soon disappeared and it looked like she wasn't going to respawn, at least for now.

"I-I.... I just wanted to make her paralyzed, I didn't think it would kill her!" Hikari spoke, amazed at how effective that attack was.

"Well... Even though she is Level 15.. She never puts HP stats. So it was obvious that she would be a glass like that...either way.. With her skill... I'm surprised that her Mag.Def still was weak." Pakker commented, seeing that Sun had dropped a bandana that she normally wore, he soon took the item. "I'll return this to her when she goes online."

"Okay. I didn't mean to take anything from her anyway." Hikari just spoke facts.

"Anyway, relax Hikari. We hear you used a super basic skill... So it's not your fault you PKed." The waitress from earlier spoke up, as she approached the situation. "Besides, she started this fight out of nowhere."

"Yep!"

"You're right."

"She who started attacking that elf, you only protected him."

All the players there started talking, looking like they were judging Hikari's action as correct. Meanwhile, Pakker appeared to be sweating heavily with fear, with several droplet emojis popping up over his head.

"Eh... I'm the one to blame for that.. I called her impatient and stuff. Unfortunately, she's really stressed out.. Luckily I know how to calm her down. Buying a lot of chocolate." Pakker made another comment, which made most of them laugh.

"So you guys live together?" Hikari asked.

"Actually, she and I live in the same building... And she's kind of my girlfriend." the elf spoke scratching the back of his head.

"Oh my, a girlfriend?"

"My God, I don't know if I feel sorry for you or envy you."

"Wow... Play MMO with your girlfriend....?"

The other players continued to comment on the situation and the elf soon received a necessary question. "If she's too abusive to you, run. Really, just run."

"Relax, Hikari... She's only like this when she's super stressed..." Pakker commented, with more droplet emojis appearing on top of him.

"Are you su—"

"Oops! I have to go, see you later!" The elf did not let him complete the sentence and soon logged out of the game.

". . . This one is really screwed." Hikari, the waitress and the dwarf. Both three spoke in unison, causing endless laughter from the other players.

Meanwhile, the boy simply opened his character sheet to start reallocating the points he got.

————————————————————

Nickname: Th3Unkn0wnF0r35T

Began Playing: April 4th, 0000

IGN: Hikari

Job: The Magic Rogue

Residence: Álfheimr

Alignment: True Neutral ————— Karma: -25

Total Level: 10 → 12

Racial Level:

Human ————— Lv.Max

Jobs Level:

Rogue ————— Lv.4 → Lv.5

Wizard ————— Lv.4 → Lv.5

Craftsman ————— Lv.2

Ability Chart:

Hp: 18→20 | Mp: 15→19

Phy.Atk: 17→19 | Phy.Def: 11→12

Agility: 17→20

Mag.Atk: 15→18 | Mag.Def: 13→13

Resist: 9→10 | Special: 17→19

Total Stats: 132→150

(Base: 45; Early Access' Little Benefit: +6; P/Level-Up: +9)

————————————————————

"I still can't believe that killing her gave me +5 karma points... Besides giving me 2 levels." Hikari commented this to himself, but the others overheard.

"Wait, did you earn positive karma when you PKed???" the waitress asked, confused.

"It must have been because she started the fight inside a public place that there shouldn't have been fights." The dwarf answered her and now all the players there were aware of it.

"We will have to report this, actually this establishment was supposed to have the anti-pvp command. There must have been a bug." The waitress made a valid comment, why would a tavern in the starting city of a realm have PvP on...? Clearly it was some bug or error in the terrain programming.

"Hm... I'll take the opportunity to talk about it with them when I interview them." Hikari again ended up speaking his thoughts.

"Excuse me, what?" the dwarf asked.

"Oh! No big deal. It's just that I started a review website for this game, and was planning on maybe asking the Devs for an interview when Early Access ends."

"Amazing! What's the name of the website?" One of the players there asked.

"YGGtreeDrasil" Hikari just replied while putting away his daggers, and coincidentally, a notification popped up in front of him.

[You have received a new message in the group "JUSTICE FOR ALL!"]

"Anyway, I have to go... A friend of mine is calling me." When he said that, the other players remembered that they hadn't tried to add Hikari as a friend yet, but it was too late, he had disappeared to enter the chat room.

"*Sigh* Now whoever wants a drink will have to wait. Apparently one of the things that bumped into that fox when she was thrown was the butterbeer tap." The waitress warned as she walked back inside Dragon's Spine.

"Damn it!"

"How boring... I would have asked for 6 more mugs of butterbeer!"

"Hm... Is there any way I can pay more to speed up the Auto-Repair?"

The players were muttering as they returned to the tavern.

{Somewhere, outside the 9 realms}

Touch_Me: "Ah! Here you are, my fellow Justice!!! How are you today?"

Hikari: "I'm fine. I just had a slight problem today."

Touch_Me: "oooh! Tell me!"

Hikari: "I was walking around Midgard and a player started hitting another, I tried to help by paralyzing her, but my single attack already killed her. Apparently she had not increased her HP even though she was Level 15."

Touch_Me: "OOOH MY GODNESS!!!!! You PKed?!?!... Hm.. But from the situation you're saying, it was really bad luck for her."

Hikari: "Most hilarious of this is that I even gained positive Karma points."

Touch_Me:"That's great! It shows how much on the side of Justice you are!!.. And it's also great that you won this, after all you're having negative Karma points because of the [Fallen Fairy]s you've been killing. "

Hikari:"You're lucky, so far every PvE you've had has turned out to be positive for karma. What's your secret?"

Touch_Me: "Justice, my friend... Justice!"

Hikari: "Haha.. I know. And how are the people there? I heard you didn't go to the company yesterday and today."

Touch_Me: "Oh, they're all fine here. I just didn't go today, as I had been called to return to my old job as a police officer... I'll have to talk to your father about that."

Hikari: "Oh! Do they want you back?! Congratulations! What area are you going to enter this time? I heard that before you were a camera watchman for the main neighborhood."

Touch_Me: "I was called to the paperwork area, being the chief's assistant."

Hikari: "Understood. Good luck and congratulations again! But.. So you called me just to talk about this?"

Touch_Me: "I just have some free time now, so I decided to take a walk around Niflheim. Want to come with me?"

Hikari: "... You have the item that allows me to walk in that realm, right?... Like, there is literally a giant iceberg."

Touch_Me: "Of course, luckily this type of item is very cheap in that realm, so I have some emergency spare sets!"

Hikari: "Perfect, I'm coming!"

[Conversation in the group "JUSTICE FOR ALL!" was temporarily ended]