Prologue. Character Creation

"Rik, have you heard about the game that will be released this afternoon?" asked my friend Mikhael suddenly.

I know what this gamer means. He certainly can't wait for the game to be released simultaneously this afternoon in various countries. The first virtual mmorpg game with a near real-life level.

"I know, but you know it needs new hardware, right?" I replied.

Of course, with more sophisticated technology, it is necessary to upgrade the hardware used. The minimum version required to play the game is a 7th gen V-Gear and it's recommended to use an 8th gen V-Gear, while I only have a 5th gen V-Gear. Buying a new V-Gear will cost money so I guess I'll skip this game.

"I have no money because I bought too many games yesterday."

"It's your fault for never saving!"

He said things so true that I couldn't take them back.

"Yeah, yeah, I know I can't save, so you can play yourself there. You must have enough money to buy it, right?" I replied as I tried to go back to sleep.

"Ah, that's the problem." Michael said in a strange tone.

"Problem?" I said small.

"You know I took the beta test game, right?"

"Ah, yes. If I'm not mistaken, from early January to mid-February, right? It's good right, become 1 out of 100 people that are selected for the beta test." I said in a sarcastic tone.

"Yup. Now stop your satire and listen to me."

For some reason his tone turned more serious. Is there really a problem?

"I got a V-Gear gen 8 give away from the party who published VRMMO in Indonesia ... and coincidentally they also gave V-Gear gen 8 to the beta testers." explain Mikhael.

Heeh... So he got a give away and a prize like that huh... It seems that being a top gamer is indeed this era's work—wait, what?

"EH? That means you have two 8th gen V-Gears now?"

Michael nodded with a proud face, though I didn't think it was anything to be proud of—no, to my heart as a gamer, getting two consoles for free like that was something to be proud of and he must have felt so too.

"Uwaah... So you want to show off for getting two consoles for free?" I said with a thick mocking tone.

"Well, that's one of my goals."

So that's true!?

"Another goal is that I want to offer you one of my V-Gears."

"Eh?"

Wait, what did he just say? He wants to 'offer' me one of the V-Gears he has?

I touch his forehead reflexively to check his temperature, and he doesn't seem to have a fever.

"I think you should see a doctor."

"Why every time I want to be good, you always think I'm sick!?"

"I don't want to hear that from the guy who change my pants for a skirt in school festival."

"Ah, that... um, I'm sorry about that."

"So? How did you come up with that idea?"

"Of course, because I know you must be spending your money on other games."

Ugh... Can you stop that? I know I asked but still your words did damage to me!

"U-um. You're right on that part. Now I don't even have money for lunch."

"Are you that poor?"

"I don't have a choice. The electricity bill is inflated, and wages haven't come down."

"They're only coming down at the end of next month, what have you been eating until then?"

"Rice and soy sauce."

"You can die if its take too long."

"I've always survived every month with it. In fact, now I feel like it's not hell but heaven."

"Uwaah... You've fallen that far huh..."

"Rather than that, you really want to give me your V-Gear?" I asked again.

"Yeah. I want us to play together. After all, we haven't played together in the same game since GFO and IGO."

Heeh ... Gear Frontal Online and Impact of Gerrta Online. Two games that made us never play the same game again due to differences in preferences. It sounded good that he wanted to ask me to play with him again, but that made this even more suspicious.

"So, your main goal?"

"Hahaha... Found out?"

"Very much."

"Well... In this game we will be given the right to establish a Guild and conduct Guild War."

Guild Wars. It was a term often used in games for battle between guilds. However, in today's VRMMO just a few games that implement the system. Reason? It was because the system was too heavy that it often caused the V-Gear to overheat. Not infrequently there are players who are logged out automatically because the V-Gear used is too hot in the middle of the Guild War.

"The Gen 8 V-Gear has been made to keep from overheating during the Guild War, so we can do it with satisfaction now!"

"Eeeh... Wouldn't it be easier if you searched for someone who had already played too?"

"If there's a better player, why should I bet on another player? I'm sure you really want this anyway."

Damn it! He's completely right! I can't deny it anymore! Alright, I'll be honest! I want that V-Gear!

"W-well, then I'll accept your offer."

"Okay. I'll ask Hana to send it to your place, okay?"

After saying that Michael took out his cell phone and called his sister, Hana to send his V-Gear to my place. Hana has been a frequent visitor to my place, so she knows how to deliver it.

"Yosh. Now just waiting—"

"HEY you two! How long are you guys going to rest!? Get back to work!!!"

"O-okay!!!"

Suddenly we were surprised by the call of our department supervisor to work. Immediately we returned to our place to do our work, although we still feel impatient with the game that we will be playing starting this afternoon.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••

Days passed, evening had come and work hours had ended.

Coming home from work, I immediately went straight to my house to find a box already in front of the door. Without thinking, I immediately took the cardboard-wrapped delivery box into the house and locked the door.

I immediately turned on the PC I built myself, with a frequency of 16 GHz with 12 cores. This was a middle-class PC in 2042. Well, I want to build a new PC with a frequency of 24 GHz but my money... never mind!! With this new V-Gear, I can still play it without worrying about lag because it has its own help.

I immediately accessed the V-Team to buy the new game. They've been selling it since an hour ago so there's no server lag due to time struggles to buy. After buying it, I need to wait for two hours to be able to play it. I heard Japan, Singapore and America didn't have to wait a second, but this is Indonesia. It's took a lot longer to download them.

While waiting, I logged into the game's official website to register an account.

Registration is relatively easy compared to other games because you only need to enter your email and then fill in your username and password. Since character creation will be done in the game, I can relax now.

Drrrt drrrrrt

And just as I was thinking that, a message came in from Michael.

𝘼𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩? 𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧, 𝙢𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙘𝙝. 𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙥 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨.

The message told me where we met. I replied ok then went to the kitchen to make some food. Because tomorrow is Saturday, I can play as much as I want, so I will fill my stomach so I can play all night long!

I finished eating as the game finished downloading. I immediately set it into the V-Gear for me to play right away. Don't forget, I also set the V-Gear because it's a new V-Gear so it must be adjusted to my body shape, height, and weight.

After making adjustments, I immediately put on the v-gear in the form of a full face helmet. I made sure all the engines were running and then lay down on the bed.

"Alright, let's start. My first adventure in this game. WORLD DUNGEON ONLINE, Start!"

After running the game with voice commands, the scene that used to be like looking at the walls of a house through a helmet turns into a science-fiction memorable scene.

"Yosh... How do I create the character?" I muttered.

While thinking that, a transparent window appeared in front of me.

[𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧]

[ 𝐎𝐊 ] [ 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐋 ]

Of course, I pressed the OK button.

[𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄]

I filled in the fields below with the name I usually use, DragWizard. Even though it sounds like chunnibyou, I've used this name for all of my game characters. Easy to memorize, not too cringy, and suitable for various game genres.

[𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄]

Another window appears, providing a large selection of races. I can see humans are set as default, but there are several other races like Elves, Ogres, there are even Skeleton races! This game is terrible. Didn't they say the realistic level was almost the same as the real world? People who see a walking skull will definitely be scared when playing in this game.

Well, I'll choose the Elf race for now.

[ 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐙𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 ]

Next is character customization huh… A window showing my appearance now appears. My appearance was more or less the same as my appearance in the real world, but with more pointed ears. Well, I chose the elf anyway...

I see this section is divided into 2 head and body. The head sub-section is divided into eyes and hair while the body sub-section is divided into many parts that reflect the body. They really give the freedom to control character's physique huh?

I just changed my hair to blonde and my eyes to blue like Caucasians. The others I didn't touch because I didn't feel the need.

[𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒]

Here comes the important part! Class!

In this game players are classified into 7 main classes: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Caster, Assassin, Shielder, and Destroyer. It's important to choose the class you want to use because you're almost impossible to change after this.

That's why I have to thought about this carefully.

Michael said he wants to form parties and guilds with me, so which class is the most suitable for me to use? Whenever I play with Michael, he always uses a character with a short-ranged weapon, so maybe he will use a Saber? Then maybe I should focus on ranged attacks... Caster is the best option huh.

I chose Caster and continued.

[𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐔𝐁-𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒]

Subclass. Unlike classes, subclasses can be changed in the game and there are even quests that unlock special subclasses. The subclasses given at the beginning of the game are only regular subclasses and only up to 20. I heard the total subclass in this game is up to 300, so there are 2100 class-subclass combinations.

"If Michael uses Saber, then all it takes is a Caster who can deal magic damage and support right?" I mumble a little.

I glanced at one of the classes that I thought was suitable.

Magus.

Caster plus Magus, you could say it would liven up my name as a Wizard... But I'm a bit reluctant to choose that. It felt like I was following the templates in the old games.

Almost in every game I play, I always choose a sorcerer or something. The Sorcerer could indeed fire magic from a distance and a lot of things, but it got boring after a while.

I scrolled through the list until I found a class that caught my attention.

"Summoners..."

Summoner. It's a class where we can summon monsters to fight with us right? This class is rarely used in other games because its stats are relatively small and even almost useless in battle.

However, ...

"If this class is rarely used, then that means this class is rare, right?"

Hearing the word rare is my biggest weakness. After realizing that there might be fewer summoner subclasses, I thoughtlessly chose that class.

[𝐘𝐨𝐮, 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐖𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐫𝐝, 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬]

[𝐎𝐊] [𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐥]

I pressed okay.

[ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐘 𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃 ]

Midgard... Huh. Does this game use Norse mythology as its main reference?

After that, my body glowed for a while as my vision turned completely white. As the light dimmed, I found myself in a city holding a stick that came out of nowhere.

The city I was in looked completely real but also seemed like a fantasy. It doesn't look like a city from the Middle Ages like in fantasy games in general. In fact, the buildings are very similar to the buildings in Indonesia.

I looked around me and found something very surprising. Ads that say that this game is really similar to the real world are true. It really doesn't look like the 3D technology commonly used in VRMMO games. It's on a level above that!

As I was busy looking around, I noticed a black box at the bottom of my vision that kept moving. It must be this game console to open menus and others. Without hesitation I opened the menu and a row of options appeared.

[𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐒]

[ 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋 ]

[ 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐆 ]

[ 𝐌𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐈𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 ]

[𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐘]

[ 𝐌𝐀𝐏 ]

[ 𝐎𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ]

I immediately pressed the Player Status button.

———————————————————————

Name : DragWizard

Race : Elf

Class : Caster

Subclass : Summoner

HP : 100%

MP : 100%

SP : 100%

STR : 1

VIT : 1

INT : 3

MTL : 1

AGI : 2

DEX : 2

Gold : 100

———————————————————————

Uwaah... What a new player status. Well, technically everyone here is a new player. Even the beta tester account will be reset back to the beginning except for their gold, said Michael before.

Now I press the Player Skills button

———————————————————————

Skill Points: 1

Personal Skills:

• Contract (Rank A) LV.1

Class Skills:

• Magic Power (Rank A) LV.1

[Learn Skills]

———————————————————————

I heard that when you start playing, the skills you will get are one from class and one from subclass. The rest you can get from learning skills through skill points or through quests. On the forum there are also those who say skills can be obtained through actions, boss drops, and achievements but they say it's much more difficult than other methods.

Well for now let's save the Skill Point first. They said there were over a hundred thousand skills in the beta test and there must be a lot more now. If I get a good skill but don't have the skill points to raise the level, I will get stuck.

Ranks. It's an official system used to determine the strength of skills, items, equipment and others. Rank is arranged from the lowest E alphabet to the highest A. However, there was an EX-category for ranks that couldn't be measured by normal ranks.

"Umm ... Inventory Bag?"

I tried pressing the inventory bag menu, but it couldn't be opened. Is it because of a bug? Well, not that I need it right away. I'll ask Michael the next time we meet, and if it's a bug then we can report it.

I didn't need to open Multiplayer or Party, so I immediately pressed Map to find out where the Church that Michael was referring to.

"Okay."

After confirming the place in question, I immediately ran there.