Chapter 1: The World's Strongest Gamer
It was a simple Tuesday morning. The morning dew had yet to disappear and there was already a crowd of people on a street. Seemingly anticipating something. But of course they were. After all, today was...
The release of the new VR-helmet.
Reputed to be the up-and-coming total revolution of gaming technology, it was able to bring the user into a virtual-reality of unimaginable realism. Old ones were basically goggles with controllers, but these used brain-wave technology, and was able to, quote, "Assimilate the player into a world that would be no different from reality. No controllers, no pesky wires, nothing. The only controller you'll ever need are your own thoughts." As said by the developer of the helmet.
"It would truly be a world where the only limits, are your limitless imaginations." Promised the CEO of the company of the VR-helmet. And that wasn't all.
The best part was, it was practically a small world in a helmet, so any game, any possible game, could be played with the helmet. The programming was that good.
Obviously, that attracted people. A lot of people. Probably every gamer in existence was tempted. Any game? At any time? Condensed into one small helmet? If that wasn't tempting, you were either a monk at a temple, or you're lying.
The name of the helmet was Orbis.
Within the crowd that anxiously waited for the release of the new Orbis-helmet, there was a certain figure. He wore a blue hood and a cap underneath, just enough to cover his eyes, and not the rest of his face. It was covered enough to be inconspicuous and exposed enough to not be viewed as suspicious. He melded in with the crowd so perfectly you wouldn't even give him a second glance.
But underneath the hooded figure was a silent rumble, and if one looked close enough, you could see his body was quaking, bit by bit. It was as if there was something beneath his figure. And if one truly knew his identity...
One would know, it was the rumble of battle intent.
He was Rank 7, S-Class hero, 'The World's Strongest Man', King.
But one would be surprised to know that the strongest hero in existence, was actually blending inconspicuously within the crowd. What was he doing here? Was there a monster? A criminal?
Well, only he knew that... he was really excited for the helmet, too.
"Any game? No matter what? The imagination is the limit...? That would mean... Doki Doki Sisters in VR, I anxiously await it." King thought, as he cracked a small smile.
"Well, there's that, and also the new online VRMMORPG that's limited to the helmet alone... wonder what's the deal with that." King wondered.
Alongside the release of the Orbis helmet, the company had also developed a complimentary online VRMMORPG that would only ever be limited to the products of the Orbis line, meaning that only the Orbis helmet, or any other piece of technology created by the company would have the rights to access their game. Not to mention, it was also the very first VRMMORPG in existence, too.
"I'd think it's a bit of a stunt, but whatever. I mean, I just want the helmet, really. But saying that I'm not interested by the first VRMMORPG in existence would be a big fat lie." King mentally said to himself.
Almost a bit more, and the stores would open, selling the very first units of the Orbis VR-helmet. Needless to say, it was a tense 23 minutes.
Then, the silence broke. The doors of the retail store opened with a welcoming 'ding'.
All hell broke loose as the doors of the massive gaming retail stores were opened, as people rushed in, scrambling to get the new Orbis helmets. Despite that, it was a relatively silent chaos, as the greatest chaos was really just a massive influx of people. Being decent people, everyone rushed in, but without pushing, screaming, yelling, snatching, and all the other unpleasantness that would happen.
Though it seemed that the store already anticipated this;
Rows, and rows, and rows, and even MORE rows of Orbis helmets were all up on the shelves nearest to the store entrance, so it seems like everyone would get what they wanted. At least, it seemed so.
[30 minutes later...]
"Phew... I finally bought it. Man, the queues were long. And I'm lucky, too. This is the very last unit in the store." King thought, as he walked out of the gaming retail store.
As he sighed in relief and anticipation, King went back home immediately.
[1 hour later...]
King opened the door to his apartment, and set the groceries that he bought while he was coming back home onto the floor, before closing the door behind him. Looking to the tabletop to put his new Orbis helmet on to unpack, he quickly noticed that it was cluttered. King then looked around his room to find some space to put the helmet down... and found none. His apartment was a complete mess.
"Sigh... I guess it's been some time since I cleaned up, huh..." King sighed, looking at the mess around him. As a '29-year old antisocial otaku-loser', by his own words, King never bothered to clean up. But when the mess gets too cluttered, like now-
*CLANG*
King looked to the left to see that his singular, one and only, multi-use aluminium tea-pan fell over due to being stacked on an unstable pile of instant-ramen.
"Alright, Universe. I get it. I clean up the flat a bit." King raised both hands as he sighed in defeat. His apartment was a literal mess, and there was pretty much nowhere else to put his... anything. The only room in his apartment which was perfectly clean was his bedroom.
Hey, he was a '29-year old antisocial otaku-loser', but even he had standards. He kept his bedroom as tidy as possible. He was an otaku, yes. But being an otaku didn't mean he was to sleep on a bed filled with empty noodle cups and cans of soda. No more. He learnt his lesson when he woke up with the worst back pain in his entire 24 years of living. It was 5 years since then, but he was sure as hell not going through that again.
[1 hour and 10 minutes later...]
King looked upon what he had accomplished, and it was very good. And he checked his watch- 70 minutes.
Thus the apartment was clean and good and arranged in their vast array.
By the 70th minute King had finished the work he was doing, so on the 70th minute he rested from all his work. Then King praised the 70th minute, because on it he rested from cleaning his apartment.
"Alright, no need to make such a big fuss." King said to himself, as cleaning an apartment wasn't really anything much, in hindsight. Well, compared to what his fellow 'Heroes' do, anyway. They literally beat up monsters before breakfast.
"Still, for me, that was eight bitches and three-quarters." King said, rubbing his sore back. He wasn't as physically fit as the other S-Class heroes, after all. Hell, he was probably even weaker than your average joe.
"Alright, finally, now that the place is cleaned up, I can finally try out the new VR helmet! The... Orbis, I think it was called?" King said, before taking the box and opening it to reveal a futuristic-looking VR-helmet. The specs looked sleek, and it was pure white in its entirety.
After reading the instructions, King then opened up a small compartment and pulled out a small pyramid-looking thing which was also pure white in color, with the exception of a glowing-blue node on the top. King then placed it directly above his WiFi router, and following the instructions, clicked the small glowing node on the pyramid. What it was supposed to do was connect to the nearest WiFi source and use it to wirelessly connect the helmet to the internet. Another thing was; it didn't even need a password!
King couldn't wait any longer, and went to his bedroom. It was suggested that one played the game while lying down, as to prevent anything undesirable from happening. Of course, one could also be sitting down, but it was recommended that the user was lying down, as it would be the safest position.
Lying down on his bed, King put the helmet on, and just as he did, a screen appeared in front of him, with multiple selection boxes. There were some selection boxes, with only a few filled, the rest being empty. The selections included 'Room', 'Sandbox', and 'Arena'. But on the top, was a selection which was highlighted in gold, and the words, 'Orbis Online' were on it.
"Orbis online... I guess the founder of the company wanted to only use one name..." King said to himself, as he noted that the name of the helmet, the included VRMMORPG, and even the name of the company was the same. The Orbis VR helmet, 'Orbis Online', and 'Orbis Inc.' They really only kept a single name for all their products.
After spending 15 minutes on adjusting the 'Audio', 'Visuals', and 'Sensation' settings, King started up 'Orbis Online'.
Then, the screen switched to a countdown timer which counted down from 5. King got comfortable, as as soon as the countdown reached zero, he suddenly felt as if he was pulled somewhere quickly, and it felt similar to suddenly falling down.
...
...
...
[Welcome to Orbis online! Please customize your avatar!]
King saw those words greet him when he realized what just happened.
"Fuck, well that's new." King said to himself, looking around. He saw that he was in an endless white expanse, with only the words in front of him. As soon as he thought about his avatar, though, a person appeared in front of him. Naturally, it was a carbon-copy of King's body.
"Man, I look horrible." King smiled wryly, as only he knew... his body was pretty out-of-shape. He wasn't obese or anything, but his weakness came from somewhere. His apparent muscle atrophy. He practically did nothing other than waste away his time playing games all day for the past 4~5 years, and when he was given his title of 'S-Class hero by the Heroes Association, it degraded even further, with him not needing a part-time job to support himself and whatnot. S-Class hero pay was amazing. Even doing nothing as an S-Class hero was more profitable than the pay of an Executive of a company.
Checking his character body, King saw that he could manipulate it to his own wishes. Simply because, when he thought about 'man, I need to beef up a bit', King's avatar had changed to one with a rather okay build, with visible muscles, but nothing too much.
"I guess they weren't joking around when they said 'the only controller you'll ever need are your thoughts'." King said to himself.
[1 minute later...]
"Alright, that looks good." King said, as he looked at his avatar.
Well built, but not to the point muscles were bulging out, and... that was it. King wasn't picky, all he wanted was that his body didn't look like... well... him.
"I think I'll need to try and get this build in real life. Man I embarrass myself sometimes..." King sighed to himself, as he remembered how he looked in real life. Which his avatar swiftly transformed into.
Switching it back to his previously modified version, King named his character, which he simply named King.
Putting his actual name would be too embarrassing, therefore he chose his Hero Name. Well, some players might recognize him, but characters could be edited, so most players would probably assume that King just edited his face to look like himself, and not believe that he was the one playing the game.
...Hopefully.
After naming his character, King was greeted with a different menu.
"Choose your beginner's set..." King said, reading out the words in front of him, and as soon as he finished, a box appeared in front of him, containing some weapons and armor.
"Note; only 100 points worth of weapons and armor are allowed to be taken." King said, reading aloud the little note on the side.
Looking into the box, there were different kinds of weapons, with little numbers glowing on top of them.
Grabbing a dagger, King saw that the number on the box changed from 100 to 90.
"So the value of the dagger is 10 points..." King said, swinging the dagger around. It was realistic, so to speak. Why? The dagger was actually a bit heavier compared to a military combat knife. How did King know? Well, he once won a black combat knife in a gaming tournament when he was younger, and he never really used it, it mostly served as a cool thing to look at, for King.
That or, used to cut things open when he received massive packages. The stuff his fans sent him...
"So let's see... I can take out some armor and a weapon worth up to 100 points. Remaining unspent points are converted into in-game money. Cool." King said, taking out gear for experimenting. He soon realized that his body was currently the same as his avatar, rather well-built, but not to the point muscles were bulging out, like Tank Top Master, or Superalloy Darkshine.
[10 minutes later...]
"So the sword is 20 points, and this spear is 50 points... sheesh, talk about expensive." King said, commenting on how the spear was worth a lot of points. Suddenly, a glint caught his eye.
"Hmm?" King then sifted through the weapons, and fished out a weight, with a chain attached to it.
"No way. There's no way-" King said, before pulling out the rest of the weapon to reveal a chain that was stuck to the end of a sickle.
"Fuck, the physics engine has gotta be top-shit level. I mean, chain and sickle? Seriously?" King said, looking at the weapon. It had a rating of 35 points, so it was rather expensive, being more costly than a standard sword.
King, obviously impressed by the capabilities of the servers to handle such unreal-level of physics, looked through the remaining weapons to see if there was anything that interested him.
If not, he'd either pick a bow or just be a mage. If he was looking for high damage output, mage was the way. If he wanted to make sure he was never going to be touched by a mob, then he'd pick the bow. Despite his looks, he knew a bit of archery. Having a rich uncle with a hobby in archery apparently helped King out today. Well, if he wanted to choose the bow, anyway.
Sifting through the remainder of the weapons to find anything interesting, King found a weird spherical object. It looked like it was coated in copper, What attracted King's attention, however, was that it had a '100' on it! Meaning, King could either get a full set of armor and a good weapon... or he could get this thing.
Taking it out, King wanted to see what was so special about it.
"Huh, what makes this weapon so special? Or is it even a weapon?" King wondered aloud. "If that's all the weapons have to offer, I'd rather take a bow, to be honest."
And as soon as he said it, a blue glow was emitted from the sphere, and then the glow took the shape of a bow.
"Wait, what?"
King tried to pull back the bowstring, and when he did, another glow appeared as an arrow appeared on the bowstring.
"Wait wait wait wait." King said, trying to understand the thing. King then thought about a sword, and the bow swiftly changed into a sword. And King could apparently hold the glowing part.
"Alright, one final test." King said, grasping the sphere in his hands.
The sphere then turned into a shield.
"Okay. I think I got it. It turns into whatever I'm thinking of." King said, holding the sphere.
"I think I know why it's worth 100 points, now."
Even so...
IT WAS TOO OP! Any weapon? Any armor? Probably anything? King didn't think it was worth 100 points. It was basically every other weapon and armor in the box combined together!
"There has to be a limit somewhere... right?" King wondered.
"But still, only an idiot would choose something he wouldn't understand instead of something that really works, right?" King said to himself.
[Beginner's set has been chosen! Welcome to Orbis Online!]
King was that idiot.
"I mean, every single weapon and armor for 100 points? That's something I need to have. Also, it can probably only be one at a time, so it should be fine." King said to himself.
Despite that, it was still a pretty stupid idea. King realized he was beside a really large fountain, which was probably the spawn-point. The fountain was huge, massive, even, because it was at least 30 meters in diameter.
Looking around, he was probably the only player currently who wasn't wearing any armor. Even mages at least had a chain-mail underneath their robes. Only those researcher-mages didn't wear any protection other than their robes, combat mages always had a layer of protection beneath their robes. Other players had plate armor, shields, swords, etc. King was the only one who didn't have any armor or weapons.
Everyone else had weapons and armor. King had a copper sphere and a grey tunic and white pants, and a small leather pouch hanging on a brown leather belt. That was literally all he had.
As he got off from the spawn area, looking around in the city, King saw some people, but some had tags above them which displayed their name, and some which didn't have anything above their heads. Obviously, the one with their names hovering above them were other players, whereas the ones with them were NPCs. At least, King thought so.
And, it took realism to its extreme. There was no mini-map, no HUD, no nothing. There was only he, his HP, MP and ST bar, and his little copper sphere. Well, he still had a pocket inventory, though. After all, no one wanted to be limited to a small bag to carry everything. That, would be too much realism to the point it would be burdensome. People played games to relax, not to do chores. Unless one was grinding.
At the start of the game, everyone had inventories. If one wanted to store something in there, one simply needed to think about storing it in the inventory, and it would be stored. But, as usual, there was a limited space in there. Only 10 different items could be stored in the inventory, and a limit of 100 per stack of item which could be placed in the inventory.
But the higher-leveled one was, the more inventory-spaces one would unlock. Level 1 only had 10 spaces, level 10 had 20 spaces, 20 had 30, and so on. Level 90 would have 100 storage spaces, and once one reached level 100, one would have infinite inventory space. But every space occupied beyond the 100th space drained MP.
Basically, at level 1-99, one would have limited inventory space, but it would cost nothing to store anything in there. At level 100, there would be no limit to how much you could store inside there, but exceeding 100 occupied spaces would cause MP to be consumed. The more occupied spaces, the greater the MP drain.
King then thought about his stats, and a window appeared in front of him.
Name: King
Level: 1
Title: None
HP: 100/100
MP: 100/100
ST: 100/100
STR: 1
VIT: 1
INT: 1
DEX: 1
LCK: 1
Job Class: None
(Skills)
Active: None
Passive: None
EXP: 0/100
"So those are my stats..." King thought, as his stats window closed. Looking at the weird sphere in hand, King wanted to see its stats, and another window opened.
Item: [Materialization Sphere]
DMG: 1~100
Tier: F-Class weapon
Value: 100 gold
Description: A sphere which materializes MP into physical objects, can turn into anything the user wishes, as long as the user has enough MP. A strong mental image must be formed or else item won't materialize properly.
Items needed to upgrade to next tier: 0/1 E-Class Mana Crystal, 0/1 Enchanted Steel (1 kg), 0/10 Lesser Mana Potion
"Well, first thing to do would be grinding. Now where do I go..."
[20 minutes later...]
After asking some other players for directions, King was now in a plain flatland, killing slimes from afar using his [Materialization Sphere], which turned into a rifle. Apparently, it could turn into anything. King knew, because he jokingly wanted to turn it into a teddy bear, just to test if it really could turn into anything he thought of, and it actually did.
And as King had foreseen, it had one flaw, compared to the other beginner weapons. It drained MP.
As a sword, it drained 10 MP to transform into the sword, and another 5 MP for every hit on a mob. It drained 25 MP to turn into a bow, and materializing arrows cost 5 MP each.
When King materialized the hunting rifle he was using, he felt a splitting headache for a short while, before realizing that he had been drained of 90 MP. Obviously, the rifle was worth a lot of MP. After all, a gun and a bow was incomparable. Each bullet also cost 10 MP to materialize.
Also, MP was directly connected to one's INT stat, so obviously it stemmed from the head. Spending so much MP at once apparently gave people massive headaches, and spending all 100 MP at once even had a chance to knock a person out. Well, if they were still level 1, anyway. At higher levels, players would have higher stats, and at a high enough level, spending all your MP at once would probably not even hurt at all.
Still, at level 1, 10 MP per slime was obviously rather expensive, but hey, it was an instant kill.
Looking further through the scope of the rifle, apart from slimes, King could see other players, also killing slimes, but with other beginner weapons, such as a sword, a bow, a hammer, spear, etc.
"Looks like there's no one here that has the same weapon..." King said, noting that everyone used basic weapons. King could tell they were players by the tags above their head.
"Hm? That group doesn't have tags..." King said, noticing a group of people without tags above their heads.
"NPCs? I didn't think they could even hunt on their own. Kudos to the developers, really. That kind of AI is commendable." King said, secretly giving a thumbs up to the developers.
As King got up, he walked towards the slimes which he killed earlier to pick up the loot. In this game, you had to loot the mobs you killed on your own. Everything was manual, too. Including the harvesting of the {Mana Cores} from the slimes, which required you to literally dig through the dead slimy stuff to collect the cores.
Further ahead, the grassy flatland had less players and more mobs. The players were obviously higher leveled, as when King first entered the flatland, most players were at level 1 to 3, and these players were at level 5 and above. The highest leveled player King spotted was at level 8.
And over by that area, there were bigger slimes, and some wolves.
King was still level 3 from killing the slimes earlier, so he was a little under-leveled to be here. But hey; he had a hunting rifle. Everyone else used bows, spears, axes, and other medieval weapons.
Spotting a wolf pack, King took aim, and shot one of the wolves directly in the head.
Obviously, being rifle bullets which cost like 10 MP, the wolf died instantly.
Now that he was level 3, he could afford to materialize the hunting rifle again, and not get a splitting headache. The most was just a minor migraine for a short while. And if his MP was back to full, King could afford 30 whole bullets.
With every level up, one's stats would raise by 1, and HP, MP and ST would raise by 100. King's current stats were:
Name: King
Level: 3
Title: None
HP: 300/300
MP: 220/300
ST: 300/300
STR: 3
VIT: 3
INT: 3
DEX: 3
LCK: 3
Job Class: None
(Skills)
Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement]
Passive: [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier I: {404/5000}) ]
EXP: 260/300
King had gotten the first skill when he first used the rifle. When activated, what it did was remove the sway of holding any ranged weapon for a long time, and all around just increased its accuracy. By killing more and more mobs from a distance, and silently, King obtained the second skill when he was on the verge of leveling up to level 3. When activated, it made King's movements almost completely silent, at the cost of ST. The third was just a passive skill which increased the damage dealt with any ranged weapon. For Tier I, King had a 10% increase in ranged weapon damage.
As the wolf he shot at earlier died, the others in its back were startled, before they ran off.
"Looks like even the mobs have good AI. I guess I'll need to shoot at the wolves which stray off. That or the bigger slimes." King said to himself.
Taking aim, King continued his shameless tactic of shooting mobs from the distance of about 90 meters. Any further and the bullet would drop, causing it to miss. But hell, even 50 meters was more than enough.
[5 minutes later...]
"Nice, finally level 10." King said, just leveling up from killing another wolf. Just as he reached level 10, his skill-set had changed into like that of an actual sniper's.
Name: King
Level: 10
Title: None
HP: 1000/1000
MP: 920/1000
ST: 1000/1000
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 10
DEX: 10
LCK: 10
Job Class: None
(Skills)
Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement]
Passive: [Predator's Cunning I], [Hunter's Grace I] [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier I: {1464/5000}) ]
EXP: 910/1000
The active skills hadn't changed, but King had gotten two new passive skills.
[Predator's Cunning] increased King's damage output towards a mob when hasn't notice King. In the beginning, it would have an increase of a measly 1.5x attack damage, but if King dealt a full 100 damage, he would deal 150 damage in total from the sneak-attack bonus! And that was just the beginning! From what King read through it's descriptions, it had a total of ten whole tiers! King was currently only on the first tier, imagine if he was on the tenth tier!
The second passive skill, [Hunter's Grace], affected King's movement speed. It increased King's movement speed by a whole 10%, and the final tenth tier would double King's movement speed! Well, the prerequisite was King could not take damage, otherwise the affect would be annulled, and King would have to wait a full 30 seconds for the countdown timer to reset, and the passive effect would activate again.
Unlike [Ranged Weapon Mastery], the other two passive skills were improved based on different parameters set in-game, whereas [Ranged Weapon Mastery] would increase by dealing damage with ranged weapons.
An example on how the damage increase would be affected would be if King dealt 100 damage, the effect would immediately add on a 10% damage increase to the projectile. Adding on sneak-attack, if King dealt 100 damage, the sneak attack multiplier would be 150. But with the effect, the 10% increase would turn the 150 damage straight to 165 damage!
"But still, if I can upgrade the [Materialization Sphere] to the next tier, I wonder what the damage range would be." King wondered aloud.
But no less than 2 seconds later, King forgot about his previous train of thought as he continued mindlessly killing the poor mobs brutally for their delicious EXP.
[25 minutes later...]
"Hm? That's a new mob..." King noted, as he saw through the scope of his hunting rifle, and saw not a slime, not a wolf, but a tiger.
Aside from that, the other mobs didn't have markers above their heads, as they were simple mobs. At most, one would only be able to see their health-bar when damaging them. But this tiger on the other hand, had a tag above it, and the health bar was already showing. The figure wasn't too shabby, either.
Slimes were incredibly weak, and the starting ones usually only had a measly 25 HP. Wolves would usually have 60 HP, but obviously they'd deal more damage, with fangs and all. After that were the bigger slimes, which if compared to their ultra-weak level 1 counterparts which were the size of a football, these slimes would be the size of an exercise ball, a bit bigger than the wolves. They'd have a total of 150 HP.
This tiger, however, had a tag above it, which said {Elite Beast}, and a small white skull beside it. And as King knew from the short little tutorial notes he read while selecting his weapons in the white void, it meant the creature was several levels higher than him. And one skull represented a difference of 5 levels. Two skulls meant a difference of 10 levels, and so on, until it turned from a skull, into a glowing red skull. A glowing red skull meant the difference of 50 levels, and a red skull basically meant 'run for the hills'. Because let's face it, a difference of 50 levels was like that of an ant and a blue whale. Well, figuratively speaking, of course.
This tiger had two white skulls, meaning that it was at least 10 levels higher than King. As King was currently level 15 from farming a lot, it meant the tiger was at least level 25. And it's red health bar was out for display for everyone to see. And it was quite a bit.
The tiger's health bar had a nice little '5000' on it, proudly displaying its massive health-pool. Even if King were to use maximum 100-damage bullets, he'd need a total of 50 bullets. And he'd need all 50 shots to land. Maybe if he landed it square on the head, it'd give a massive 5x damage boost, but even then he'd need a total of 10 bullets. And the span of 10 bullets was enough for the tiger to chase in the direction of the bullets, discover King, and rip his innards out.
"Still, an Elite Beast... that's exactly what I need to upgrade my [Materialization Sphere]..." King said to himself.
Mobs were ranked this way:
{Feral Beast}
{Elite Beast}
{Disastrous Beast}
{Cataclysmic Beast}
{Black Beast}
{Apocalyptic Beast}
{Supreme Beast}
F-Class beast, also known as {Feral Beasts}, were mobs which were hard for normal people to take down, but were okay for average adventurers to defeat. If compared to real-world threats, {Feral Beasts} would be considered Wolf-level threats. Elite beasts were like wild animals that actually pose a threat, like tigers, bears, etc. Which is why the tiger in front of King- well, in King's scope, anyway, was considered an {Elite Beast}.
{Disastrous Beasts} were like Demon-level threats, and King had yet to see one, actually. Then again, he was still level 15, so that much was obvious. {Cataclysmic Beasts} were according to the information given from the game, 'Powerful monstrosities that could lay waste to large kingdoms, and even an Empire may fall if one was encountered.' So if that was converted into information, it was basically something like a more powerful Dragon-level threat.
{Black Beasts} weren't actually black, as per the namesake, but were a class of mobs which were 'An example of an abomination of creation, capable of utterly annihilating all Empires, and many Countries would have to work together to be able to defeat the beast'. In fact, according to the game's lore, the first {Black Beast} was an actual Black Beast, on how it was black in color. It was also a Dragon. They were basically quasi-God level threats.
And finally, were {Apocalyptic Beasts} and {Supreme Beasts}. {Apocalyptic Beasts} were basically unheard of, but were given the classification for mobs which would be able to destroy the entire world, hence the name of 'Apocalyptic'. Finally, were {Supreme Beasts}, which were named so, because according to in-game legend, not lore, LEGEND, that the first 72 God-Masters had worked together to kill a {Supreme Beast}, and the last surviving God-Master managed to kill the {Supreme Beast}, and shaped the galaxy they were in with its remains.
Getting back on track, each mob's class was ranked accordingly, from an F-Class beast, all the way to an S-Class beast. King's current weapon was an F-Class weapon, and what he needs now, is E-Class materials to upgrade his weapon. And the tiger in his scope was just one such E-Class beast. Different mobs had different drops, but what was confirmed was, every mob had to have a {Mana Crystal} in their bodies. Even wolves and slimes.
Lore-wise, humans could use magic after the first Sage discovered how, and since then, humans could always use magic. Mobs on the other hand congeal their mana into a small crystal in their bodies, and would usually be found deposited near their heart. Humans also had their version of a {Mana Crystal}, but it was called {Congealed Wisdom}, and was found right in the middle of the cerebrum, not as a crystal, but as a smooth, jelly-like sphere.
"I'd only need an {Enchanted Steel} ingot and ten {Lesser Mana Potions}, and I'd be able to upgrade my weapon into an E-Class weapon." King said to himself. But even as he wanted the {Mana Crystal} in the tiger's body so badly, he couldn't do anything. Even if he did shoot it in the head. His maximum damage was 100, adding on 50 from the sneak-attack multiplier, and multiplying that by 5 times, King would do a maximum of 750 damage. Adding 10% from his [Ranged Weapon Mastery], King would deal, at the most, 825 damage. And that was only the first shot. The sneak-attack multiplier would disappear after the first shot, unless the tiger somehow hadn't noticed the attack, and King was sure as hell he wasn't landing all of his shots on the head of a moving tiger.
"But what if..." King suddenly had an idea. If he couldn't deal it all at once, he'd deal the damage over a period of time. And seeing as his bullets were all full-metal-jacket rounds now, what if he switched it to hollow-tip rounds, and let the tiger bleed to death?
"I guess we're going with that." King finally decided. He would materialize an automatic battle-rifle, and load it with hollow-point bullets to let the tiger die of bleeding, while he got to safety.
De-materializing his hunting rifle, King materialized an automatic sniper rifle, a SCAR which apparently cost him half his MP at 750 MP, which gave King a small headache. Waiting a while for his MP to regenerate, while keeping an eye on his target, after getting enough, King materialized a full clip of hollow-points, which apparently cost him 400 MP to materialize. Then again one bullet was usually 10 MP. 400 MP for 20 bullets meant one was just 20 MP. Double that of a standard full-metal jacket round, King wasn't complaining. They gave a bleed effect, after all.
Activating his [Take Aim] skill, King got ready, and-
-BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM-
Emptying almost half the entire clip into the tiger's body, landing as many head-shots as he could, the tiger fell down abruptly, not expecting such an attack. More than three-fifths of its health bar had disappeared in less than 3 seconds, and King could still see its health bar deteriorating bit by bit due to the bleed effect.
The wolves beside it, not expecting an attack, first ran further from the tiger, before realizing that it was wounded. As wolves, naturally, they packed together, and attempted to kill the tiger.
Still, a wounded tiger was still a tiger, and it managed to kill at least 3 wolves before the other wolves ran away in fear.
Left with only a fifth of its HP and falling, the tiger slumped down to rest, and King knew it was time to finish the deed. Aiming precise shots at exactly all four of its limbs, the tiger roared out once more, not expecting another attack in the midst of recuperating.
With all four limbs crippled, and less than even 500 HP left, King deduced it was safe enough to appear. Even if some more wolves show up, he could always just materialize a bayonet on the tip of his gun and kill the other wolves. Not to mention, he was level 15. Wolves were level 3 or less. Some special ones, or higher leveled ones like earlier were level 10, but they still had less than 500 HP. King was confident in dealing with them.
As the tiger noticed King approaching it, it knew that King was the one to wound it, but it could do nothing. As the tiger was on its last drips of HP, it looked at King with a face which made it seem like it was pleading. But King didn't notice it, as he waited for the tiger to bleed to death. Who knows, maybe the tiger might be able to kill him immediately with a bite to his neck? Sure, he already shot all four of its limbs, but it was good to be cautious.
Finally, the tiger bled to death, and as soon as it did-
[Congratulations, you have obtained the perk, [Sadist]! See perk details for more information.]
"Sadist? Where'd that come from?" King asked, puzzled. Did he do anything sadistic? If anything, he was just being cautious.
Shaking it off his head, King quickly came back to his senses as he quickly looted the body of the tiger for everything it was worth. The skin, the fangs, the skull, the bones- hell, he basically took everything apart from the flesh and organs. And of course, the {Mana Crystal} was the most important. Tiger skin was probably just a cosmetic item, but that was probably still worth something. And King needed some money. After all, he didn't have any armor, which was why he sniped the animals from afar in the first place. Going against any mob without armor was a surefire way to kill yourself. Unless one was high-leveled enough, anyway.
After he was done, he quickly went back to the starting city, as to avoid any more {Elite Beasts} from appearing. He was confident in taking one down from afar, and only one, but if it was a group, or they ambushed him, King was pretty much dead. Unless he had a [Teleport Stone]. But those were high-level items that cost almost 10 times more than a regular [Teleport Scroll]. Then again, [Teleport Scrolls] could be interrupted and it took a full 5 seconds to activate.
But even a single scroll was worth... what, 200 gold? And [Teleport Stones]... 2000 gold.
Getting back to the city, King then opened up his stats to see what was so special about his new perk.
Name: King
Level: 20
Title: None
HP: 2000/2000
MP: 2000/2000
ST: 2000/2000
STR: 20
VIT: 20
INT: 20
DEX: 20
LCK: 20
Job Class: None
(Skills)
Active: [Take Aim], [Silent Movement]
Passive: [Predator's Cunning II], [Hunter's Grace II] [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier II: {6864/10000}) ]
(Perks)
Active: None
Passive: [Sadist I]
EXP: 1960/4000
King stared blankly at his stats. He leveled up more than 5 times by killing an {Elite Beast}? King did nothing but pull the trigger a few times, and boom, 5 level-ups. Not to mention, weren't level-ups usually in the span of 100 EXP? Why did it suddenly double from an assumed 2000 to 4000?
Well, at least his passive skills received a massive boost. All of them already improved a tier, and even the [Ranged Weapon Mastery] improved a tier! Well, he already did more than 5000 damage, with an entire 5000 damage coming from killing an {Elite Beast} all by himself. Other than that, [Predator's Cunning] and [Hunter's Grace] received a tier upgrade, too!
Now, as long as King wasn't detected by any mobs, he would move 20% faster and would deal a 3x damage multiplier! Now, if King dealt 100 damage, it would deal 300 from the sneak bonus, an addition 20% from the [Ranged Weapon Mastery], dealing 360 damage, and if he landed a head shot, it would land a massive 1,800 damage! King would only need three shots to kill the tiger from earlier!
"Still, what does [Sadist] do..." King wondered before a window appeared before him, explaining about the perk.
[Sadist I]
Description: You killed someone- or something brutally, by dealing more than half of its HP in less than three seconds, and left it to bleed to death, all the while leaving it unable to fight back! You are now a Sadist whom strikes fear into your enemies, and you get more pleasure the more pain you cause to something before it dies!
Effect: Gain the ability to see a mob's pain and fear. Gain +20% EXP by brutally killing mobs and striking fear into their hearts. A minimum of 20 pain and fear must be dealt in order for extra 20% EXP effect to appear. The more pain you cause it, the more EXP you receive when it finally expires. You gain a chance for a Sadist's Strike, which deals 1000% more damage, or 10x more damage. The lower their HP, and the more fearful they are of you, the greater the chance for a Sadist's Strike to activate. If a mob has less than 1% HP left, a Sadist's Strike will immediately be activated. If a Boss mob has less than 0.1% HP left, a Sadist's Strike will also immediately be activated. Sadist's Strike also deals 10 times more pain than an actual strike, increasing your EXP gain from killing the mob.
Requirements to upgrade perk:
Deal 0/50,000 points of pain,
Deal 0/500 points of pain onto a single mob,
Deal 0/100 Sadist's Strike,
Kill 0/10 mobs with 100 points of fear for you,
Kill 0/1 Boss mob with a Sadist's Strike while the Boss mob is running away from you fearfully.
"Oh, so I got it from killing the tiger that way..." King finally understood how he got the perk. So he got it through pure luck. Still, if his stats were visible to others, he'd rather this stat not be visible. But unless he allowed them to see his stats, there was no way other players could see his stats.
However, he really did feel no mercy to mobs, whether the pain or fear he caused them. They were just AI, after all.
Still, 20% extra EXP from killing enemies with at least 20 pain or fear? That was good! Now King didn't need to constantly aim for head shots. The more 'pain' he caused, the more EXP he'd get! Basically, aim for either the head, or the joints. Those always caused pain. King knew. The last time he twisted his ankle, it hurt like a bitch. Now imagine a bullet there. That was bound to cause a lot of pain points.
"Well, time to sell these for money." King said to himself, referring to the loot he received.
[5 minutes later...]
"20 gold coins."
"No. 10 gold coins."
"You kidding? 10 gold coins for 20 wolf pelts? You think I was born yesterday or something? Market price is at least 1 gold coin per wolf pelt."
"That's market price. I need to make a profit, here."
"Double the profit? Sorry, not selling."
"Fine, fine, 15 gold coins."
"17. Take it or leave it."
"Earning 3 gold coins from selling 20 whole wolf-pelts? Good day, sir."
"Good day to you, too."
"Alright, alright, you're twisting my arm. 17 gold coins."
"That's better."
King finally haggled the price down with the NPC. It was only right before he tried to sell some did he realize the bargaining with the NPCs for good prices and all that was pretty much completely manual. King wouldn't be surprised if he found out that some NPCs were actually people being paid to control the character, with how good their AI is. But he was sure they were actually completely AI. After all, the creator said that only players whom have access to the helmets can enter the servers and play as players. There are no game-masters, no moderators, nothing. Everything was one giant AI.
King would be impressed, if he didn't know about Metal Knight. Everything he had was either remote-controlled by him personally, or completely just AI at work. And on how human they were, it was comparable to the NPC he interacted with earlier.
"Still, one used it for hero activities, while the other is just used on a game character." King noted mentally.
After a while, King managed to sell everything, except for the {Mana Crystals} and the loot from the tiger. King read that {Mana Crystals} could be made into [Mana Potions], and King wanted to do so.
Apparently, according to the in-game data... aside from the game's 'common sense', which was basically the name of the tutorial notes given to every player, anything else, from smithing, alchemy, beast-taming, etc, were all gleaned from within the game's characters. As King wanted to make a {Mana Potion}, he needed to visit an apothecary.
Twisting and turning, navigating through the bustling city, full of players and NPCs alike, King finally found a shop. It looked like a rather large business, and was probably a franchise.
*cling*
"Welcome to The Potion! We have potions for anything! From snake-antivenom to healing potions, we have everything! Can we get you something?" An enthusiastic attendant greeted. What was different from the other NPCs was that this attendant had bunny-ears. One of the playable races for players as well, a demi-human. A staple in novels and video-games alike.
"I'd like to trade some {Mana Crystals}, and possibly turn them into [Mana Potions]. If possible, I'd like to learn how to do so, as well." King answered bluntly.
"Oh, a budding alchemist? Or a mage? Well, we don't refuse anyone! And we certainly don't stop anyone from viewing our work! Unless it's one of our specialty potions, teehee!" The attendant cheerfully replied.
Following the attendant through the back-door, King was greeted with a waft of medicinal smells, and going further in, it was nauseatingly powerful.
"Would you like a mask?" The attendant offered, already wearing one herself.
"No thanks, I'm fine." It was powerful, but King could handle it.
As they reached the back, the attendant called out, "Mr Fleming, a customer wishes to turn some {Mana Crystals} into [Mana Potions]! He'd also like to watch!"
An aged voice called back, "Alright. Come here, and be careful not to knock anything over."
Opening a wooden door, it was revealed the room was full of vials and materials, and an incredibly strong smell of herbs assaulted King's nose.
"Holy shit, it's almost as bad as the time I went through the perfume department." King thought.
"Well then, where are the {Mana Crystals}?" The old man, known as Mr Fleming asked.
"Here." King said, handing him all his F-Class {Mana Crystals} which he got from constantly killing wolves, slimes, bigger wolves, and bigger slimes. The only E-Class {Mana Crystal} he had was one he got from the tiger, and he was keeping that to upgrade his Materialization Sphere.
"Well, that's quite the amount." Mr Fleming said in surprise. Even the bunny-eared attendant was shocked. A few hundred {Mana Crystals} was quite the sight. Although they were only F-Class, it was still quite good. If it was an E-Class {Mana Crystal}, however, he'd be able to make 100 [Lesser Mana Potions] with just one crystal. But for F-Class {Mana Crystals}, it'd take ten crystals for one [Lesser Mana Potion].
Alright. Making [Mana Potions] are really easy. Even an amateur, or even a beginner could make one. First off, you grind them down as finely as you can. The fineness of sand is enough, but the finer the {Mana Crystal} powder, the faster the potion is made." Mr Fleming explained, taking out a mortar and pestle, as he ground ten of the {Mana Crystals} King handed him.
"Then, you have to soak it in water." The ground {Mana Crystals}, which were the about the fineness of sand, was then put into a small bowl of water.
"Lastly, you just have to infuse it with your own Mana." Mr Fleming said, before a blue glow appeared on his hands, and soon the bowl was covered in a blue sheen as well.
After 30 seconds, the water with the ground {Mana Crystals} had become more bluish in color, and when the potion was poured into a small potion bottle, the ground {Mana Crystals} were nowhere to be found.
"And that's that. Every [Mana Potion] is made the same way, even the legendary [Greater Mana Potions]. The cost of a [Lesser Mana Potion] is usually 20 gold coins, but seeing as you provided me with the materials, the cost of refining it is pretty much free. Well, I guess I'll just charge you two gold coins for the lesson and the potion bottle." Mr Fleming answered.
Handing him two gold coins, King thanked him before leaving the store, taking the {Mana Crystals} with him.
"Hmm, I suppose he just came here to learn how to make a [Mana Potion]. After all, he had hundreds of [Mana Crystals] and yet he didn't ask me to refine them for him." Mr Fleming noted.
"Ah, well. I suppose he wants to sell them on his own, or something." Mr Fleming assumed.
Of course, this was AI at work, so King really couldn't care less. Well, the responses which were rather human-like would impress him, but anything the AI would say was pretty much un-cared for.
[10 minutes later...]
After managing to buy some {Enchanted Steel}, heart bleeding at the same time due to it costing an entire 500 gold for a single kilogram, King then went out of the city and back into the grassy flatland so he could find a spot for him to refine potions. Well, he could just be at once place and refine them normally, but King didn't want to attract attention. After all, the way he was going to grind them was...
"Fuck, that's a headache." King said, grabbing his head in pain.
He materialized one of those high-tech super-crushers which could grind stones into literally powder. Ultra-fine powder, too. And the MP cost... 1500. Twice the price of the SCAR he materialized.
Putting all of his {Mana Crystals} into the crusher, a whole 220 of them, King prepared exactly 2.2 liters of water before leaving. King also learnt that one [Mana Potion], no matter the grade, was always at 100 ml per potion.
As the fine {Mana Crystal} powder was slowly poured into the water, King infused it with his MP, planning to refine a whole batch at once.
After around 5 minutes, King ran out of MP, but it was about the same time he finished making the potions, as the water with {Mana Crystal} powder transformed into that familiar shade of blue King recognized.
Taking out exactly 22 potion bottles, King managed to scrape out every last bit of the potion. Well, mostly because his crusher was made of his own Mana, so he just manipulated it to scrape the entirety of the potions into the bottles.
"Alright. I have everything. Now how do I upgrade this..."
King then realized he forgot to ask someone on how to upgrade the weapon.
"Fuck."
[5 minutes later...]
King went back to the city, and looked for the building which looked as similar as possible to a Mages Guild or something. Anything magical-related could always be found there.
After searching for a bit, King found a building with a massive sign which said 'Mages Guild'.
Walking in, it looked like an everyday guild, but mostly everyone inside was a mage, so there were no brutish adventurers, no drunkards, no cliche stuff like that. Everyone inside was either a civilized mage, or someone whom wanted to post a request for the Mages Guild to solve.
"Oh, welcome to the Mages Guild. Can we help with anything?" A bespectacled young man wearing magi robes asked.
"Yes. I'd like to know how can you upgrade a [Materialization Sphere]." King went straight to the point.
"A [Materialization Sphere]? Oh, you must be a researcher on ancient ruins! A [Materialization Sphere] is a famous ancient-civilization item, that can manifest Mana into whatever the caster desires! Only 20 have ever been found!" The bespectacled young man said smilingly. He seemed to like this kind of topic.
"You seem to be interested in this?" King asked. He did not expect the [Materialization Sphere] he got was so rare. Only 20 ever found? That meant he was either extremely lucky, or only according to in-game lore is a [Materialization Sphere] rare, whereas in game-play it would actually be highly common. After all, he found it after he was digging through the weapon box for some time.
"Oh, yes! I'd hope to be able to see one in my lifetime!" The bespectacled man said, his face full of yearning. "Although 20 such [Materialization Sphere] have been discovered, they're only accessed by the highest-level Court Magi under the Imperial Emperor!"
"Hmm. So do they know about different types of [Materialization Sphere]?" King asked.
"Oh, yes! They discovered how to improve the grade of one by total accident, as well!" The bespectacled man explained. "Once, a Court Magi was trying to research more on how a [Materialization Sphere] worked, but then he accidentally spilled a potion on it, and then, the sphere absorbed the potion! Intrigued, the Court Magi immediately ordered a servant to fetch some potions for him! It turns out, that a [Materialization Sphere] not only had the ability to materialize anything out of Mana, it could absorb potions and use as a source of Mana without draining the caster's MP! So then-"
"Alright, stop, stop, stop." King interrupted. He had the feeling if he didn't interrupt, he would probably go on for a long time. "I just want to know how to upgrade the [Materialization Sphere]. I already know about it being able to absorb [Mana Potions] to use as fuel." King said. He wasn't lying, either.
Just earlier, before entering the Mages guild, King decided to pour a [Lesser Mana Potion] onto the [Materialization Sphere], and it absorbed every single bit of it. Not leaving a drop. He read through the 'common sense' tab and read that there were 'magical weapons' which could use Mana to increase their damage or create an effect. One could also pour a [Mana Potion] on it so that the weapon would use the Mana contained in the potion instead of the caster's own Mana. King tested it on the [Materialization Sphere] to see if it had the same effect, and it did.
"Ah, sorry. You're a researcher too, so you'd probably know about Sir Abrupto Fortuna discovering it!" The bespectacled young mage said sheepishly.
"Abrupto Fortuna... abrupt fortune... The developers are humorous, that's for sure." King thought sarcastically.
"Anyway, he found the way to upgrade it through sheer luck, too! Right after he discovered that a [Materialization Sphere] could store Mana, the [Materialization Sphere] started vibrating, and he discovered the {Enchanted Steel} on his quill was vibrating too! Cleaning the ink off of his quill, he placed them close together, and then the {Enchanted Steel} seemed to have liquefied, as it stuck itself onto the surface of the [Materialization Sphere]! Then-"
"Alright, enough." King interrupted the guy again. "So basically add potion, add material, and add sphere. That's all there is to it." King directly simplified it.
"Well... yes." The young mage nodded.
"Alright, thanks." King said, leaving the building immediately. He was afraid the boy might continue talking about the [Materialization Sphere] if he let him. So King immediately escaped. He still had leveling up to do, dammit.
So, as usual, King went back to the grassy flatland.
[10 minutes later...]
"Ah, shit. I forgot to ask where the {E-Class Mana Crystal} came into play..." King said, as he held up a crystal in his hands.
"Well, no need to cry over spilled milk. The guy that discovered it discovered it through sheer dumb luck, so it shouldn't be all that complicated." King was optimistic. It can't surely be all that hard...
Taking out a wooden bowl he bought before leaving the city again, he put the [Materialization Sphere] in the bowl, before pouring ten whole [Lesser Mana Potions] in. After he did, the [Materialization Sphere] started to vibrate, and ingot of {Enchanted Steel} beside him started to vibrate, too. King then took the ingot of {Enchanted Steel} and placed it onto the sphere, which quickly liquefied without needing to heat up, as it coated the [Materialization Sphere].
As soon as all the {Enchanted Steel} melded themselves onto the sphere, the {E-Class Mana Crystal} in King's hands began to vibrate as well, so King instinctively put the crystal into the molten sphere of {Enchanted Steel}, and soon, the sphere shrunk down to its original size as the final parts of the refinement were carried out automatically by the sphere itself.
King watched the sphere with bated breath, waiting for the process to finish. He didn't ask about the time it took for the sphere to finish upgrading, so he didn't know what to expect.
After a full minute, the still-liquid parts of the {Enchanted Steel} started to settle, as the previous patterns on the sphere appeared again, and the sphere stopped moving, going silent.
King carefully and slowly picked up the sphere, as if afraid the wind would blow it from his hands, and when he checked it's stats... elation filled his being.
Item: [Upgraded Materialization Sphere]
DMG: 1~10,000
Tier: E-Class weapon
Value: 10,000 gold
Description: A sphere which materializes MP into physical objects, can turn MP into anything the user wishes, as long as the user has enough MP. A sufficiently strong mental image must be formed or else item won't materialize perfectly with intended effects.
Items needed to upgrade to next tier: 0/1 D-Class Mana Crystal, 0/1 Mage's Gold (1 kg), 0/10 Mediocre Mana Potion
The damage value had shot from a maximum of 100 to 10,000, and from the effects, it seems like he didn't need such a strong mental image to form an item this time.
King thought about his SCAR that he used earlier, and it appeared faster and instead of being fully azure-blue like the other weapons he materialized, it started to have some color of its own, with the scope being black in color, the body of the gun being tan colored, and black-rimmed recoil-compensating stock. Well, it was his mental image, anyway. Usually they were grey in color. But after playing CS:GO for way too long, his idea of a SCAR was pretty much stuck onto the CS:GO one.
What made him happiest, however, was the increase in its damage range. If he dealt a maximum of 10,000 damage, he would have a 3x damage multiplication value from sneak attacks, and if he landed a head-shot, multiply it by 5, he would deal 150,000 damage, and adding 20% from his [Ranged Weapon Mastery (Tier II)], he would deal, at most, at once, 180,000 damage. More than enough to completely one-shot the tiger from earlier.
"Still, why is the damage value drastically different?" King wondered. Then, it clicked. The F-Class sphere had a maximum damage value of 100, when the starting slimes only had 25, and the wolves had 60. Even the strongest F-Class beast he encountered had 500 HP, and a shot to the head with a sneak attack was enough to one-shot it. It was just the property of the [Upgraded Materialization Sphere] itself. However, killing the next D-Class beast would be, to say the least... difficult.
Checking the damage value of the SCAR itself, it had a total of 1000 base damage, far from it's maximum possible 10,000 damage rating. Still, even without the sneak-attack value, five shots were enough to kill the tiger from earlier. Well, it was realistic, King admitted. Bullets or not, unless it was a head-shot, a tiger doesn't die from like, one bullet. Unless it was a rocket launcher or something.
Actually, it only needed a strong-enough mental image... right?
And a rocket launcher appeared.
"No, no, no, no. I didn't mean that." King said, de-materializing the rocket launcher.
"Still, I've been playing for about an hour and a half. And I say it's quite good." King said, commenting on the game. "Interesting an amazing game and all... but my one purpose for buying the helmet..."
At that moment, King had remembered what he truly bought the helmet for. He had sated his curiosity about the first VRMMORPG in existence, and now, onto the main thing he wanted to do.
"Doki-Doki Sisters in VR... it will be legendary." King said, brimming with excitement.
King logged out of the game, bringing him back to the screen which was displayed on the inside of his Orbis helmet. Taking off his helmet, King stretched his body because he was in the same position for an entire 1 and a half hours.
Soon, however, King noticed an anomaly.
"Wait, I'm logged out, right? Why's my HP, MP and ST bar all doing here?"
Preview Of Next Chapter...
"Hold on, the developers never said anything about side-effects. Maybe this is just an aftereffect?" King wondered aloud. It was strange, really. In real-life, he would only have all 5 sensations, and in the game, the only extra would be the HP, MP and ST bars. Yet, when he awoke from the game, the HP, MP and ST bar were still there.
It was really just three bars which were always on the bottom of his field of view, so it was discomforting.
"If this could go away faster..." King thought, annoyed at the side effects. The second he thought that, the three bars of red, blue and green disappeared.
"Huh, that was fast. Still, annoying side effect." King said. "What next, my inventory appears?" King joked.
And when he said that, his inventory appeared on the right side of his field of view.
End Of Preview.