Free 2 Play

After Daemon disappeared, Zamniel turned to Alexei with interest.

"I find it fascinating that you asked for Crystal Coins from the duel, rather than simply demanding that Daemon be 'your' minion for a while, like he demanded from you. I know that Crystal Coins are the game's premium currency, but to tell the truth, I really have no idea what they're best used for."

Alexei snorted. "Their main purpose is to drain your bank account. Try to avoid buying any if you can help it. You'll get some as the game progresses. Enough for the most important things, at least."

"Assuming," said Zamniel, "that they haven't changed Crystal Coin rates since you beta tested. Games do that sort of thing all the time, you know! My old roommate did his Master's thesis on the psychology of preorders and beta testing.

"They get you invested early on, then, once the game releases, you feel like you need to spend extra money just to be as good as you were in the beta. Not only are beta testers basically performing quality assurance testing for free, but they also serve as the publisher's first victims!"

Alexei was about to respond that the costs would definitely be the same… but, of course, he had no proof that he could give Zamniel, so he only shrugged.

At the very least, he was impressed by the Paladin's cynicism about game practices… and that he was still cheerfully going to try to have fun even though he knew that the game would try to drain his wallet.

"I suppose you're right," Alexei said at last. "Well, if things 'are' the same as they were in the beta, then you should stay away from Skill Gem and Stat Gem loot boxes. You get plenty of those as drops. The most 'actually' useful thing to buy is a companion, since that will allow you to buy and sell some things in dungeons without having to go back to town.

"You'll also want to buy the Journeyman Crafting Recipes and the Master Crafting Recipes for your profession—once you get far enough to need them—since the drop rates are so low. You can buy the 'Apprentice' Crafting Recipes for Essence, at least. Though you can get companions and recipes through normal play, using Crystal Coins on them skips a huge grind for things that are vital to basic play."

Zamniel nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, thank you very much, my friend!" He looked ashamed. "I feel terrible that I have nothing to repay you with for this insider advice. I'm afraid my salary as a professor doesn't exactly give me much of a budget for Crystal Coins. I went into this game fully intending to be a Free to Play sort of guy."

Alexei smiled. "Forget about it. You can help me through some dungeons in the future if you want to pay me back. Just remember that, although they give you a hundred ways to 'spend' money in the dungeons, there's no 'need' to, so long as you're smart about it."

Zamniel laughed. "What, 'me' help 'you?' More like the other way around! But I have a few friends on the faculty who are also playing. We're starting up a guild together, and you're more than welcome to join and make use of our resources."

Alexei paused at this.

He hadn't intended to join a guild early on. His early game plan in this new life revolved around solo play, since he knew that he couldn't rely on the competence of any other player to help him through content designed for group play. He'd known a guild would be very useful later in the game… but he hadn't expected to find someone with Zamniel's analytical abilities.

And it sounded as though the Paladin had other friends who were also weirdly interested in the ways MMOs worked. After all, how many normal people wrote academic essays about preordering games?

So perhaps getting in with Zamniel and his friends now would be a huge benefit in the long term.

"Thanks for the invitation," said Alexei. "I'll think it over, but I like the sound of it! Here, add me to your friends list. Feel free to ask me if you have questions about the game."

"Great!" said Zamniel happily. "And, well, if you're ever in North Texas, please let me know! We could meet up in real life."

Alexei's heart sank in a way that surprised him.

The feeling hadn't come because of wanting to meet up with this man he'd only just met—a rather 'odd' man, indeed.

Rather, the suggestion reminded Alexei of the truth that he could never see 'anybody' in the real world again, that he could 'never' experience anything or see any location which was not simulated in the game.

Alexei had known this would be his fate across the last year of his planning to go back in time. He could remember that much. And even in the moment when he killed his physical body being sent back to the past, Alexei had managed to go through with it.

But now all of that planning and deciding was behind him.

He was no longer considering a 'future' sacrifice, but thinking about an irreversible choice that he'd already made, one that could never be undone.

To his surprise, Alexei realized that he'd not been as mentally prepared for this new reality as he'd believed he was.

'Alexei?' he thought to himself. 'I need to stop thinking of myself by that name. He's dead, and it's probably for the best, since my life has been nothing but misery until this point. I'm Ignatius the Monk now. That's all. And my life will be better from now on.'

Having made this decision, Ignatius smiled sadly and shook his head at Zamniel's offer to meet up in real life. "I doubt I'll ever be in the area," he said. "But thank you for the invitation."

The two added each other to their friends lists, and Ignatius truly began his new life completely within Path of the Immortal.

Shortly after, a notification popped up for all players.

GAME: Thank you for your patience! Our servers are fully functional across the globe, and Path of the Immortal is officially live!

A loud cheer rose from all around. Finally, after all this waiting, they'd get to actually play the game!

"Excellent!" said Zamniel. "Here, how about we start a party right now, Ignatius? Take a few minutes to show me the ropes, and we can get a head start on this game together!"

Ignatius shook his head. "Sorry, but I'm going to tackle Story Mode right away—and I suggest you do, too. The rewards are much more generous than from most other activities, at least for your first time through the story on a new character. The main downside is that you're stuck in solo mode."

The Paladin seemed disappointed. "Alright. Thanks for the advice!" He gave one last grin, which was exactly the kind of wispy-bearded and awkward expression Ignatius expected from an American professor of obscure history, then disappeared from the waiting room.

All around Ignatius, other players were disappearing from the tavern-themed instance to start actually playing the game. Some would be jumping right into Story Mode, but there would certainly be others eager to immediately rush into dungeons or even the open PvP zones of the Edgelands.

For his part, Ignatius had told Zamniel the truth. He 'was' going to step right into Story Mode, even though he found the narrative incredibly boring and had experienced it over and over in the past as he rebirthed his character for new leagues.

However, Ignatius was 'not' playing simply for the easy rewards.

For casual and new players, Story Mode might be the most efficient way to gain early levels and gear, but Ignatius would actually have more luck in the early floors of the Eternal Tower due to his intricate knowledge of the game's systems.

In fact, jumping right into the Eternal Tower had been Ignatius's early game strategy during his year of planning this mission in the real world with that scientist.

However, he hadn't expected that he'd be able to win 1,000 Crystal Coins before the game even started. That made things different. 'Before I go to the Eternal Tower," he thought, 'I'll grab one particular thing from Story Mode…'

An advantage, of course, that no player was supposed to have!

At this early stage of the game, Path of the Immortal was riddled with bugs. The AI which constantly adjusted the game did its best to fix these, but the vast nature of the simulated world was too great for most bugs to be caught.

Players could submit bug reports, and these would increase the chances of them being fixed, but otherwise, it took hundreds of users experiencing a glitch to catch the AI's attention.

Even if a single player experienced something truly bizarre which seemed like an obvious red flag to a human—a thousand T-Rexes spawning where there should only be a single creature, for example—the AI simply didn't perceive the ongoing simulation in the same way as a real human.

In fact, most of the major patches in Path of the Immortal's lifespan before God rose to power in the real world were meant to improve the AI so it could better detect these anomalies!

But in the game's launch state, there were countless opportunities for Ignatius to exploit the system. 'So long as I can remember them!' he thought with a wry smile. 'It's not as though I can look them up on the community wiki right now…'

The first few opportunities, at least, were ones Ignatius knew quite well.

He opened his game menu, selected "Story Mode," and slid up the difficulty slider. "Easy… Normal… Hard… Nightmare… Hell. There we go."

Like all the players around him, Ignatius also disappeared. A moment later, he respawned into a version of the Story Mode so difficult that a single basic monster could kill him in an instant.

Despite this, Ignatius smiled.

His domination of Path of the Immortal had finally begun.