Introducing.....The Players!!! (Edited)

Chapter 3: Introducing.....The Players!!!

[Username: Esper]

Felix did a double take.

He did not recall having set up his username as this in the first place. Either the Tavern Staff had set up his username for him, or his previous self, with meta knowledge, had created this username to give himself a hint.

The former was unlikely, as it might be seen as showing favoritism to select Players before they were even able to prove their worth. However, as for the latter... it was more than likely.

Felix rolled his head. Off the top of his head, there were only three candidates that fit the Esper criteria in his mind.

The Espers from Mob Psycho, notably Mob. The Espers from One Punch Man, notably Tatsumaki. And the Espers from the Toaru Index Series, or A Certain Magical Index.

As of this moment, with his limited knowledge regarding the Hunter Power System, there weren't many ways he could think of to become similar to any of the Espers mentioned above. So for now, he made a mental note to keep it in mind before moving on.

[Chat Rooms Available:

General: 21 Users

MCU: 4 Users

Warrior: 5 Users

Wizard: 9 Users

Ninja: 8 Users

Hunter: 3 Users

Pirate: 6 Users

Jedi: 4 Users]

'Huh. From the numbers alone, it seemed like the Wizard, Ninja, and Pirate Classes were the most popular, or at least, as the starting/main class. On the other hand, the Hunter Chat Room seems to be basically dead.'

'Did most people, when they still had their metaknowledge, deem the Hunter Class as weak? Or maybe it's a problem with the Power System itself...' Felix thought. 'It's frustrating that I know so little about the world and powers of my Primary Class...'

As he looked through the Tavern window, he realized that there was a small prompt at the side.

It read: 'Note: Players may only be able to enter the Chat Rooms of the world they are currently in or the General Chat Room. The username is also changeable.'

Felix chose to enter the General Chat Room for now, as he could probably learn more from a larger mass of people.

[Esper has entered the Chat.]

[Saint: Oh sinner! Rejoice and Repent! For you are now in the almighty presence of The Great and Honorable Saint. Remember this great honor for it shall be the highlight of your life! Pass down this epic so that future generations may come to know of this momentous occasion!!!]

[Jin Mori: Stop it, you nutjob! You're gonna scare the newbie with your crazy talk! We've already had people leave because of you! Don't make me come there and shut you up!]

[Saint: Hmph! The peasant does not understand who he is talking to. But as I am so magnanimous, I shall let this slide. I will attribute your ignorance to your lack of brain cells.]

[Jin Mori: This f#@king *****!!!]

[Merchant: *Sigh*. I wish I could record this and sell it for money.]

[Streamer: Hey! That's my thing! Don't go stealing other people's things!]

[Artificer: Hey Esper. Just ignore these fools. They've just been bickering with each other because they've got nothing better to do.]

[I'm Him: Who said we were bickering? We're just trying to decide who is the best of them all! Which is obviously ME!!!]

Felix snickered. This merry band of fools seemed fun enough.

The only thing they were missing was himself. So, he decided to add oil to the flames.

[Esper: Really? Then at the very least, we can at least rule out 'I'm Him'. Like seriously, who decides to make their username like that? Overcompensating much?]

[I'm Him: You wanna go?!! If you want to throw hands, say the place and time! Let's go! You scared?!!]

[Jin Mori: Ooh, feisty. I like the new guy.]

[Artificer: Great. Another idiot. Though, at least you aren't mute like some of the others. Hey Esper, what's your world like?]

[Esper: Nothing much. Seems like the modern world with its tall buildings and stuff. What about yours?]

[Artificer: Well, it's the 1980s and I'm in Britain. The weather here is terrible.

The thing that makes it even worse, is that if this world goes on in a similar fashion as our previous life, the weather will only get worse from here.]

[Merchant: Really? What world are you in?]

[Artificer: I'm in the Wizard world. I also heard that the MCU is similar. I mean in the modern world aspect, though I'm not sure about the MCU's Britain.]

[3rd_Generation_Young_Master: Nah, no matter the world, Britain has sh*t weather.]

[Jin Mori: What the heck! At least you guys have working toilets!

I live in some kind of backwater village and I've been taking dumps into a hole in the ground! You know how much of a pain in the ass it is?!!]

[Saint: Bwahaha! A fitting situation for a lowly peasant such as yourself. Maybe I should send you some leaves to wipe your sorry bottom?]

[Jin Mori: That's it you f#@king clown! You're going down!]

[Saint: I'm flattered but I don't swing that way. Especially not to the likes of you.]

[Mori Jin: ARGH!!!]

[I'm Him: Hey Esper! I still haven't heard NOTHING from you. Where do you want to meet? You a chicken?!!]

[Esper: Sure. Let's meet on the Moon. No spacesuits. I'm already here]

[I'm Him: Bull*****]

From what Felix could tell, most of the Players present in the [General Chat] did not seem to know much about their respective worlds either. The most they knew was about their current location and the few oddities that appeared occasionally.

None seemed to have managed to figure out much about their Power Systems and even if they did, they didn't seem want to tell.

Even when Felix goaded [I'm Him] and fanned the flames between a few other Players, none seemed dumb enough to entirely reveal their cards. However, their mental maturity was a different matter entirely.

There were some Players who threatened other Players who had the same classes to not reveal anything about their worlds. This was then promptly ignored by practically everyone.

While some Players did know that information was a precious thing, they were kids. With wonderful new worlds at their fingertips, it was hard not to brag about them.

Also, with the information that people wore their respective default uniforms for their Primary classes in the Tavern, with the exception of some classes, it meant that it was useless to hide which Players had which Class.

Warriors wore a kind of martial arts Gi, Wizards wore the standard long robes and pointed hats, Ninjas wore ninja clothes with face coverings (though most Players found them annoying), Hunters and Pirates both wore casual non-descript clothes, and Jedi wore robes.

[Jin Mori: So does anyone else's world have dinosaurs, bipedal talking animals, and older women who are strapped? I'm in the Warrior World btw.]

[Knowledge Seeker: We, Jedi, have got aliens and spaceships, though the spaceships seem crazy expensive. There are apparently Space Wizards as well.]

[Peace Keeper: Space Kidnappers, more like it. I've heard that they take you away from your families at a young age without giving you much of a choice. I've even had this old man stalking my house after I took some kind of medical check... Maybe he's one of them.]

[Speed is King: I'm not exactly sure about most things in the Ninja world, but we have an orphanage. Does that count as something?]

[Esper: Oh? Do Ninjas have good health care or something?]

[Avatar: Nah. Quite the opposite.

Apparently, there was some kind of war and a beast then attacked the village we live in.

Most of the casualties were adults, so they had no other option but to take care of the orphans. I've met quite a few other Players in the orphanage.]

[Death Bringer: Huhu. Different from you guys, some of us were born into the mighty Uchiha Clan. We are the top clan inside of the Hidden Leaf Village. We even have elders and experienced practitioners of the Ninja Arts who will teach us when we come of age. Must suck to suck.]

[Speed_is_King: Pshh. Say that again when you taste the dirt left by my after-image. You won't even see me coming before you are on the ground! Everyone knows that speed is the ultimate factor in a fight.]

[Jin Mori: What's the point of having all that speed when you barely do a tickle? A punch in the face puts anyone in place.]

This back-and-forth went on for quite a while. Felix kept reading until he decided that there was no more useful information he could scavenge in the [General Chat] for now.

What he had learned was enough information to digest for a day and so he moved the [General Chat] window to the corner of his vision. He would check out the [Hunter Chat Room] a bit later on.

Apparently, Players could keep the [Chat Rooms] and other windows open, even if they were not using it. The only downside was that the windows could potentially block their vision and hinder them, especially in battle.

However, this could be avoided or mitigated by shrinking down the respective windows using the Minimize button. The Tavern windows essentially were essentially the same as web windows, having the 3 icons of the minus sign, the overlapping squares, and the red X, on the top right. This led to Players being able to pseudo-customize how certain [Tavern Windows] appeared.

Felix refocused his thoughts back on his current situation and on what he knew.

First, he was in his room. It was a pretty big and formal room, not one you would usually give to a four-year-old child but one you would use as a guest room.

Even the furniture reflected that. The walls were entirely white, the floor was tiled, there was a giant closet set up against the wall, and there was a huge bookshelf filled with rows of books. The only thing that suggested that this was a kid's room was the simple toy chest and the kid-sized bed that had a few bed rails for safety. This weird furniture style made it look like an adult's room given to a child to live in, which was the case.

Felix's father, Alex Stoll, was a man who had high standards and high expectations for Felix. He would regularly come into his room to test Felix using a few playing cards, testing both his memory and image recognition.

When Felix correctly finished his tests, he would usually reward him with stuffed animals or different kinds of foods. This usually changed with the young boy's demands.

The bookshelf itself was another such test. The bookshelf's bottom row, which was the easiest to reach for Felix, had picture books lined throughout it.

The further you went up the bookshelf, the more the books would get thicker and more complex, eventually even surpassing university standard textbooks.

Nevertheless, with the exception of the picture books, as of now, Felix hadn't shown much interest in touching any of the other books, much to the disappointment of Alex Stoll. The man would regularly check to see if any of the books were out of place to see if Felix had made any progress.

Except for the few times that he had to travel for work, which meant that Felix had to stay home alone with a nanny, he would usually work from home and take care of Felix alone.

A few months prior to this, he had even gotten Felix out of the daycare system entirely, which was much earlier than most single parents would. This was because he had deemed that Felix had grown out of the "baby phase", informing the day-care staff that Felix would be 'more suited to be taken care of by his capable hands'.

Usually, this would stunt the child's emotional growth due to the clear lack of "parental love" that most parents would show to their children. But Alex Stoll wasn't looking for a child, he was looking for an heir. And this suited Felix just fine.

Felix had a goal in mind. To be the best version of himself that he could become. This meant that he wasn't planning on going through the whole "Goo-goo ga-ga" phase. No. He was going to go through a crash course on how to be successful in life.

This meant that any help he could get, he would take it, speeding up his progress at a reasonable but accelerated pace. Of course, he would also keep in mind to take breaks in between and be mindful of his mental progression. It would be silly if he ran himself out before he even reached the finish line.

"So first..." Felix turned to the imposing bookshelf, "Let's start reading." Felix declared this as he approached the mountain of books and knowledge, readying himself to a new world of possibilities.