A bug in the game?

Hon Ma Vương allowed himself to awe at the beauty and realism of his environment like other players.

The wind blew softly, blades of tall grass dancing with grace, sliding between his fingers as he walked through them. His hair danced as well, his cloths - dark colored trousers and shirt, a contrast to his almost white skin - rubbd against his skin as it would in the real world.

If he wasn't informed beforehand, Hon Ma Vương would have thought he simply travelled to another part of the world.

Chronikles Content Production Company really have outdone themselves and other gaming companies this time.

After satisfying his eyes, Ma Vương turned his attention to other matters.

His current status.

From knowledge received from the game guide had thoroughly explained everything he had to know about the game including voice commands and the likes

"Status"

Beginning with it's black border, a blue screen appeared in his vision. Above it, a small winged human with strikingly similar appearance to him appeared.

The winged human was an assist. If this was a world of witchcraft, it'd be called a familiar. Assists come in different forms, gender and are literally useless at birth.

However, after leveling up, they were they're master's best asset.

"You must be my assit then" Hon Ma Vương said to the floating baby assist, holding out his palm so the thumb size being lands on it.

Hon Ma Vương's assist was a male, curled up in a ball and asleep. Ma Vương couldn't help but awe at the little guy, using his thumb to brush his hair.

Ma Vương thought for a moment. "I'll name you Qiáng" he said after a few seconds. "It means strength, so, grow up strong soon, okay?"

[Notification - 1]

[You have named your assist. Qiáng will gain consciousness in 30 minutes]

[Time remaining - 28mins : 51secs]

His attention turned to the blue screen before him. Moving the notification screen to the right of the main screen, Ma Vương focused on that.

The main screen was divided into five parts; the status, notifications center, chat box, trade mall and mission update.

At the top left corner was the time and maximize button and to the top left corner was the internet and battery life which showed how much longer a player has in the game before they are forcefully logged out.

Ma Vương clicked the maximize button. All main screen broke into five other screens, displaying their informations. Ma Vương focused on status.

=============

{Basic Information}

Name => Hon Ma Vương

Profession => Assassin

Subclass=> Unspecified

Level => 0     (0/500)

Title => Novice

Rank => None   (white - 0/1,000)

{Stats Information}

Initial Skill → Swift Steps (Lvl 1) {+2 Spread, +2 Agility}

Initial Strength →4

Initial Stealth → 25

Initial Perception → 15

Initial Defense → 7

Initial Speed → 10 {+2}

Initial Agility → 13 {+2}

Critical Strike Chance → 4/100%

Eversion/Dodge Chance → 23/100%

Mana → (10) 0.01/100%

Health → (30) 0.03/100%

Allocatable Stat Point => 0

{Skills Information}

None

{Inventory Content}

Resources =>

Weapons => Concealable Daggers

Pills =>

Items =>

Skill Books =>

{Pixie Information}

Name => Qiáng

Level => 0

Energy => 5

Skills =>

{Account}

Bronze (10) => Gold (0) => Silver (0) => Platinum (0)

{Property}

None

============

[Hello, Player Hon Ma Vương. You're one of the seven first players to log into The Asura, the realm of power. Your reward is ready]

M Vương's eyes widened up. Although he hadn't gotten to explore the system interface, a new reward was already in place for him.

One of this first seven players...

Wondering what the reward might be, Ma Vương accepted in. Before he could get anymore excited, a red interface appeared above the system interface, displaying a series of notifications on it.

[Error... Error.... Unable to assign reward.]

[Analysing the situation...Scanning... Bug found...Error Correction in process.]

[De-bugging.... 0%, 10%, 30%, 54%,....]

Ma Vương was stunned. An error? How could an error suddenly appear and so early in the game?

As he watched the debugging count-up continue, a nervous feeling sank into his stomach, worried if his account would be deleted when it reached 100%.

He had such high stats...

[Debugging completed...] The interface displayed [...Error has been corrected]

[Reward is now available..... assigning... assigned successfully]

[Now returning to game system interface. Have a pleasant gaming]

Confused, and grateful his account didn't get deleted, Ma Vương read through his status again to check for his reward.

Not expecting what he saw, his jaw almost hit the ground.

=============

{Basic Information}

Name => Hon Ma Vương

Profession => Assassin

Subclass=> Unspecified

Level ~ 3     (0/1,500)

Title => Novice

Rank ~ White   (Blue - 0/5,000)

{Stats Information}

Initial Skill → Swift Steps {+2 Spread, +2 Agility}

Initial Strength →4

Initial Stealth → 25

Initial Perception → 15

Initial Defense → 7

Initial Speed → 10 {+2}

Initial Agility → 13 {+2}

Critical Strike Chance → 4/100%

Eversion/Dodge Chance → 23/100%

Mana → (40) 0.04/100%

Health → (60) 0.06/100%

Allocatable Stat Point => 10

{Skills Information}

→Shadow Blending <White - L1>

{Inventory Content}

Resources =>

<1,000 logs of woods> <1,000 Stone Slabs> <1,000 Iron Orbs> <1,000 Gallons of Water> <1,000 Loaves of Bread>

Weapons =>

→ Concealable Daggers <White >

→ <10 - Basic Dagger ~ White>

Pills =>

<3 - Assist Recovery Pill ~ White>

<10 - MP Pills ~ White>

<10 - HP Pills ~ White>

Items =>

<Invisibility Cloak - white>

Skill Books =>

<10 - Floating Skies Footwork ~White>

<20 - Basic Healing Skill ~ Assist>

{Pixie Information}

Name => Qiáng

Level => 5 (0/1,800)

Energy => 25

Skills => Spiritual Sense

{Account}

Bronze (1,000) => Gold (500) => Silver (250) => Platinum (125)

{Property}

None

============

Hon Ma Vương didn't know how to react at that moment. Different emotions washed through him, each barely staying long enough to be replaced by another.

Was he happy? He suddenly got so much without lifting a finger.

Was he scared? Now his account really had a problem.

He looked cluelessly at the status screen, closed it and reopened it but was still meet with the same information.

The de-bugging process must have failed, he concluded, and had created more problems instead.

The main question in Ma Vương's head however was one who's answer he didn't have to pounder about.

Should he report this to the producers?

He laugh fell from his lips before he could contain it. Such a ridiculous question, did it even need to be thought about?

"Since the havens have decided to bless me, why should I turn away from it?"

*****

Hon Ma Vương gathered his emotions, painfully keeping them away from his face. If anyone thought he was acting strange, while it might not bring trouble immediately, he'll come to regret it later.

From his palm, his assist moved, wings flapped and flew between him and the blue screen. Qiáng looked at the screen.

"Yikes. If the producers find out about this..."

Ma Vương was startled out of his thoughts. His eyes widened, first shocked by Qiáng's ability to see the system interface then grabbed the small winged human and with out a thought, stuffed Qiáng into his jacket pocket.

Qiáng didn't even get a chance to react before he was stuffed into darkness.

Ma Vương tree an anxious look around. It appeared no one was sparing him any attention, either engrossed in the system interface or still in awe at their environs.

His previously hammering heart calmed. Had anyone seen that just now, he won't have a chance to explain before he was kicked out of the game and his account banned.

How would he explain a level five assist twenty minutes into the game?

To avoid further possible trouble, Ma Vương casually walked away from the crowd. Novice Village wasn't very large and was surrounded by forests but it didn't take long for him to. Find an empty space, away from the other players.

When he was sure no one was going to turn up unannounced, Ma Vương sat behind a large rock, facing the forest, his legs folded into a lotus position and let his assist out of his pocket.

Flying out of Ma Vương's reach, Qiáng glared at Ma Vương wiping it's face with his tiny shirt.

"I'm sorry" Ma Vương immediately apologized.

According to the game producers, the assist intelligence and consciousness grow as the level grow. At level five, am assist should have fully developed his sense of wrong and right and feeling of being wronged or appreciated. Before level five, it was to the players benefit to bud trust between his assist and himself.

Ma Vương however had completely skipped that stepped, getting a fully grown assist from the start.

This situation...Ma Vương couldn't have but feel anxious of his future relationship with his assist.

"Never do that again!" Qiáng said each world furiously and Ma Vương nodded in understanding.

The assist didn't say anything afterwards, just gave him apprehensive looks and kept his distance.

Seeing the possibly disaster solved, Ma Vương relaxed against the rock.

"How did this happen?" He asked eyeing the flying being.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? Did you bug the game or something?" Qiáng folded his hands against his chest and sat crossed legged in the air wings still flapping behind him.

Ma Vương raised an eyebrow. "You shouldn't know this is a game." He said thoughtfully. "You shouldn't be able to see the system interface either"

"I shouldn't be at level five either." Qiáng added

Ma Vương snorts humorously, a smile spreed across him face. "There really is a bug in the game."

If this bug affected him alone or the whole game was still a question. The existence of the bug itself was still a question.

Beyond that, there were other things to think about. The village he was currently in was nameless to him till he bought a village map. In Novice Town, there were a total of seven villages and information about them could only be accessed when one acquire a map.

At the moment, if the bug was unique to him, Ma Vương knew he was the richest player in the game. He had more than enough money to buy a map and a land, set up a small house till he could leave the Town.

As for his stats, training his speed and agility endlessly in the real world seemed to have paid off. Both stats were unusually high for a beginner.

His strength stats though...Ma Vương didn't want to think how terrifyingly high a professional fighter's strength stat would be.

"Okay." Ma Vương said more to himself than to his assist. "We'll complete the compulsory beginners mission first like everyone else then get a map."

"and you..." Ma Vương regarded his assist. "You stay out of sight."