Chapter 6: SovNet

*Ding*

Michael woke up to a soft ringing noise.

[You have 1 new Mission. Would you like to open it?]

Michael groggily looked out his window and noticed that it was still dark outside.

He looked forward and noticed that there was another small screen in front of him.

"Yes," Michael muttered. He was still half asleep since he was woken up abruptly.

[Mission: Become the first person to reach Level 10 in Niflheim.

Reward: 50 Origin Points and 1 Mystery Box Key.

Punishment for Failure: The Host will explode.

Time Limit: None.]

Michael read through the mission but had paused when he got to the punishment.

'What does it mean that I explode?'

[The Host will be the source point of an explosion.]

'Will other things be affected by the explosion?'

[Correct.]

'How big is the explosion?'

[Undetermined.]

Michael decided to stop asking into it after that.

Michael knew that he only had about 3 days in reality, because that's how long it took the first player to reach level 10.

After reading through the rest of the Mission, he got out of bed and got dressed. After a small breakfast, he walked outside and called an Uber

'I should think about getting a car soon, I seem to be doing a lot more traveling now.'

Today was the day that Niflheim would become public, and it would release at Noon. The stores sold out within an hour. Thankfully Michael didn't have to worry about not being able to get a copy since Samson woke him up before the sun rose.

Michael got into the Uber and told the driver to go to the SovNet Headquarters.

The SovNet Headquarters had sold the most copies of Niflheim, but even they had sold out within a few hours.

After about 20 minutes, the Uber rolled to a stop outside of a fenced out area and Michael got out.

This was as far as he could go since the areas near the SovNet Headquarters had been blocked off to avoid conflicts. Even the Police had shown up to keep order if things got messy.

Michael was able to walk through most of the queue, but still got stuck behind a long line of people.

A worker walked up to Michael and handed him a small paper with the number 247 on it.

From his previous experience buying Niflheim, he knew that there were 246 people in front of him.

Michael got inline and waited for a few hours and eventually more people started showing up and filling the line behind him. About 12 hours after Michael had arrived, the entire queue had been filled up. It was also at this time that the line started moving forward. SovNet had opened.

The line moved quickly and pretty soon Michael heard number 247 being called and grabbed his copy of Niflheim.

The box wasn't anything special. It had almost no designs on it since the makers of Niflheim believed that the game itself is the only incentive to buying it.

The box just explained how to use the goggles and the safety hazards and liabilities and such. It explained how the company wasn't reliable for any device malfunctions or injuries from the goggles.

Michael rode an Uber back to his house and went back into his room.

Instead of laying in his bed, putting the goggles on, and pressing play, he decided to think of a clear plan of what he was going to do beforehand. He got out a few pieces of paper and taped them all into a big square.

He drew the map of Niflheim as best as he could from memory, which was clearer than he thought it would be. He also decided on the class he would choose and what stats he would choose. This would determine how he played through the entire game.

In the end, he decided on a Magic route. He figured that since he was a swordsman in his last life, he should take a different route this time.

He got in bed and put the goggles on. After turning them on, everything faded to black for a little while before a white screen appeared before Michael. He seemed to be in a dark room.

The white screen before Michael looked exactly like the pop-ups from Samson, and Michael figured that Samson used the screens that Michael was most familiar with when creating this System.

On the screen, there was a timer counting down and right now it was at 10:42.

Only 10 minutes and 42 seconds before Niflheim was officially open to the public.

Michael used this time to go over his plan once again, just in case he had missed anything.

Eventually, Michael saw a giant 10 appear in front of him, and it started counting down.

Once it got to 1, the darkroom changed around Michael, and he was floating above a war.

Michael quickly skipped the cutscene since he had already seen it before. The cutscene only talked about the backstory of the world and wasn't important to Michael anymore.

He had already watched it countless times in his last life anyways, so he doubted there was anything new he could learn from the cutscene.

After skipping the cutscene, the space around Michael changed into a dark room once again.

"Welcome to Niflheim. Please select your Race."

In front of Michael, 5 podiums lit up, each with a different character on it.

They were labeled Orc, Elf, Human, Fairy, and Dwarf.

Michael instantly walked to the podium labeled Human since he had already decided beforehand.

The other 4 podiums lights had turned off and a pop-up appeared in front of Michael.

He customized his character, changing his hair and eye colors. Within Niflheim, players looked exactly like they did in real life, so they could make small changes to their appearance.

Michael decided to change his hair and eyes to a silver color.

After confirming his choices, the screen changed, asking him for his name.

Michael typed in Lucifer because he had always used it as a name for other games.

The screen changed once again into a stat allocation screen.

Michael had already decided what stats he would use and his final stats were,

[Name: Lucifer

Race: Human

Level: 1

Experience: 0/50

Strength: 7

Defense: 6

Speed: 8

Dexterity: 7

Intelligence: 8

Luck: 1

Available Stat Points: 0

Skills: None]

After confirming his choices, the space around him turned into a bright light, causing Michael to not see anything for a short time.

When Michael's vision returned, he noticed he was in the center of a rural village. People and shops were lining the streets, giving the town a joyful feeling.

He didn't pay any attention to this, however, instantly walking out of where he spawned, he made his way to a run down looking dojo. He knew that he could learn a new skill at this place.

Walking up to the man standing in the courtyard, Michael stated, "I would like to learn swordsmanship."

Looking down at Michael, the man chuckled. "You want to learn swordsmanship? Very well, I shall teach you," The man replied. He walked for a little while, before picking up a sword and handing it to Michael.

"Swing this sword 100 times and you will learn my swordsmanship."

[Mission: Swing the sword 100 times.

Reward: Skill - Slash

Punishment for Failure: None

Time Limit: None.]

[Would you like to accept this Mission?]

Michael pressed on Yes, and confirmed in his menu that the menu was accepted.

After doing so, he began to swing his sword.