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Tutorial / Maze of Choices
Gods, demigods, spirits, ghosts, angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, cyborgs, zombies, dragons and elves of all kinds. What do creatures like that have in common? They are all mythical creatures. Our would-be hero killed such creatures by dozens... In games.
Now he finds himself in the world where everything feels real, but at the same time seems like a game. Even death just brings him back to the first day. Escaping this endless loop of massacre would seem like a matter of time, but with mind-readers and seers thrown in, things won't be so simple. Even a permanent death is not out of the question.
Let us follow him as he is trying to navigate this deadly maze of choices!
Chapter 1. Intro / Prologue.
Level: 0
Profession: Gamer
Relevant Skills: None
Objective: Conquer the world
— Ken, Sef, stop wandering around. Spawns have already flooded everything.
— What do you want us to do? We don't have any MP left.
— Try at least something! If you can't come up with anything, hit them with your sticks. They have only a mage and a necro left. Although the necro is empty, that mage will wipe the floor with us if I stop distracting him.
— Wasn't Lin supposed to handle him?
— Open your eyes! Lin is long gone, so Ken, you are our only hope.
— I knew there was something wrong. Never again will I listen to your advice on character builds!
— Less talking, more walking!
— ... Finished. Are you going to stay for mental support?
— Ha, ha. Very funny.
I took paralyzed Sef with me and started running away as fast as I could. Ken on the other hand finished casting his spell. His figure blurred and in two seconds he killed all the zombie spawns. After that his attack reached the necromancer who summoned them. Unfortunately mage also succeeded in hitting him with his paralysis spell. Mage was smirking, anticipating his upcoming victory, but at this moment our last trump has activated. First Ken's skin started rapidly getting red. After that his clothes lit up in flames and then his whole body turned into big torch. Mage from opposing team erected a barrier around him, but that did not save him. All fire was absorbed by Ken's body and he exploded. Unfortunately, I couldn't get away far enough, so explosion reached me and I had to shield myself with paralyzed Sef. After a moment the smoke cleared, and...
— Winners are team Recklus!
VICTORY! We did it! We actually did it! I threw my VR helmet to the bed and started dancing around the room like a madman. I still can't believe we did it. Luckily that fact remained unchanged. Whether I believed it or not, we won! After running a few rounds around the room I told myself to stop. I need to calm myself. Any minute I should get the call about the prize money.
— Did they call?
It was Ken's voice coming from the speakers.
— Not yet. — I responded. — I think they are checking whether we used any cheats. After such an ending, can't really blame them.
— But what we really did...
I quickly interrupted him.
— NO! We did not use cheats. I've told you lots of times already. They just didn't balance this properly. Everybody was too focused on the new skills humans got, so they missed the interaction of 'soul flame' with 'essence channel' and 'concentration' that mages have. Because Barbarians have nothing to offer for mages, their new skill 'soul flame' was considered subpar by everybody. What they missed is that by channelling gained strength into intelligence the resulting power of spells would be significantly higher than any of the top mage builds have. I expect this kind of warrior-mage hybrid to be quite popular if they don't nerf it.
— In that case how do you know about it.
— Well, I have some acquaintances who are hardcore players.
— Okay, okay. It's not a bug, but a feature. I get it. But why did we have to use it? We have a good team and according to our analysis, we could win even without relying on tricks like that. You promised to explain everything after the game. So now is as good time as any.
At this point my teammates also cooled their heads and returned to their PCs. At least that was what their status was showing.
— Yes, we would like to hear it as well. — Lin joined the conversation.
— I hoped to avoid this topic, as I didn't have any proof, but it seems there is no other way.
I paused to collect my thoughts. After a few seconds I began explaining:
— Do you guys remember last year scandal about team Riven using cheats?
— Yeah, but hasn't it been sorted out? — Replied Ken. — I think they proved that no cheats had been used, so it had been skill and luck.
— That's right; as a part of preparing for finals I researched them and found out that such 'lucky' occurrences had happened more than once. Since it was just a hunch and I had no definite proof, I couldn't do anything about it.
— What does this have to do with us using this gimmicky strategy that is on border of foul play instead of tried-and-true strategy that we used to get to the finals? — Asked Sef.
— Let me clarify one thing. There isn't anything illegal in using mage-warrior hybrid. It was perfectly valid strategy and we weren't the only teams in the tournament using that.
— Though none of them were self-destructing. — Rebutted Lin.
— The reason for that was game mechanic called 'mana overload'. Originally it was done to cap strength of caster classes, but with later patches their strength was decreased quite a bit and thus mechanic became obsolete and got forgotten.
— I still wonder where you are getting your info from. — Replied Ken.
— I repeat my previous answer: I have some interesting acquaintances.
— Have you ever considered getting a life? You know outside games? — Lin inquired jokingly.
— Who needs reality? It's just a shitty sandbox game where you get arbitrary penalties whenever you do something or even if you don't! It doesn't have any goal and in the end everybody still loses! There is no manual and the only tutorial you get doesn't actually teach you anything! The only thing I can say about reality is whoever designed it had no idea what he was doing!
Lin backed away, as she heard my tirade.
— Okay, okay. Dude, chill down. — Said Ken. — We're all your friendly neighborhood nerds and know how you feel. But could you at least tune down the excitement. You are freaking us out.
This brought me back to earth. For me the phrase 'get a life' is like a red flag to a bull. So I kind of flew off the handle.
— I guess I did go overboard, huh? Sorry.
— Yes you did. Though, to be fair, I've known you long enough not to bring this up. I'm sorry as well. — Replied Lin.
— Stop being so grim guys. — Interjected Ken. — We did win, so we should be celebrating.
— That is true, but I still want to hear the end of the story. — Responded Lin.
After I'd completely calmed myself down I continued:
— Okay. So I was planning to use this 'mana overload'-tech only as our last ace. In case they hadn't cheated there wouldn't have been any need to use it, so we would've been fine. On the other hand if they had used some undetectable cheat, we would've at least had some way to deal with it.
At this point Sef interrupted me:
— So you underestimated our opponent. And when we couldn't beat them, you ordered Ken to trigger 'mana overload'.
— No. Everything went according to my expectations. Just not exactly the way I assumed it would.
— Now you are contradicting yourself. You said you would use 'mana overload' only in case they cheated.
— Oh, but they did cheat.
Everybody had stunned expressions. The only reply I heard was:
— Where?
— Although this is again unprovable. Recall the last part where the mage paralyzed Ken. He only channeled strength to intelligence, but his evasion was still buffed. Mage wasn't supposed to hit him.
— Now that you mention it...
At this point everybody started discussing 'those cheating bastards'. In the meantime I started checking my mail, since there was still no call from the corporation regarding prize money. News feeds, random congratulations, some notifications... Oh here are some interesting advertising offers, but they are from yesterday. Even advancing to the finals of the world champs has quite a few benefits besides the prize money. Thanks to these, it seems I won't have to worry about real world problems in any foreseeable future.
What is this? Seems like some kind of invitation. Let's see:
Greetings, Champion.
Congratulations on your latest achievement. As the strongest hero of your world we invite you to compete with the champions from other worlds for the title of the strongest hero in all the worlds. The winner will be granted with his hearts desire. Do you have what it takes to become the strongest?
Prove your strength, obtain your dream.
I'm confused. What is this? Spam? But it shouldn't have gotten through the spam filters. I have quite good ones, so random letters shouldn't get through. Is this some kind of beta test invite? It's impressive alright. I mean what's with this setting? It's such a cliché. Normally I wouldn't even give this type of game a second glance. The message itself is also kinda short. Aren't these types of messages supposed to be more refined and elaborate? But, what caught my attention was the fact that this message came too soon. I thought advertisement offers and beta invites would come a bit later. Plus there is no real information about the game or the developer. Only the email address of the sender. What are they expecting with this type of invitation? Well, I don't need to bother myself with earning money in any foreseeable future, so there isn't any problem with trying this out if it seems fun. I will reply with preliminary agreement and ask for more details.
Who came up with the phrase "good morning"? He is delusional. There can be good dreams and bad dreams, but even in bad dreams the worst thing that might happen is that you wake up. Reality can hardly be described as good — it only alternates between bearable and horrible. Morning is a time when humans get thrown away from a marvellous world of dreams into a shitty place called reality, from where there is no way out. Thus I honestly don't understand people who describe morning as 'good'. Conversely I like evenings and nights, since they are quiet and there aren't many things that would bother you.
Anyway, waking up this morning was as horrible as it used to be. There was a small exception today. The feelings I got from lying on this bed were unusual. When my consciousness was slowly waking up from slumber I noticed another thing. Light shining on my closed eyes was not something I was used to. That did not make me eager to wake up.
You might often hear phrases along the lines of "do not fear changes" or "change is for the good". Those are lies. Whenever something changes you have to adapt to the new circumstances. Occasionally you might get some benefit out of these "changes", but oftentimes you get nothing or you are left with less than what you had before. So basically it just means more trouble for you. There are always people who aren't content with the way things are. These people aren't content with "good", and chase for the "best". Just idiots and dreamers who don't see the happiness they already possess. It is true that most successful people are those who chase for this mythical "best". You could call those people "winners" in this absurd game called life. But you are never told that there is only a handful of those people. Majority of dreamers who chase for the "best" lose what they have in the process and end up with nothing. In other words they become losers. So why are we being told that we should aim for the "best"? That's easy. Nobody listens to losers. Only winners' words are heard. Thus absurd and hypocritical opinions of 'winners' are regarded as the dogma, even if they would cause misery to majority of the people who follow them.
Originally I wanted to explain why I disliked change, but it seems I got a bit off topic, huh? The point is that without opening my eyes I understood that this place wasn't my home. It felt somehow familiar, but it was not my own bed. This, in turn, means that when I open my eyes, troublesome things that will require to be handled will definitely appear. I really want to postpone this joyful moment. I will just pretend to be asleep. Unfortunately, as it turned out, I did not have a say in the matter.
Right above my ear I heard emotionless female voice:
— Morning has come, Master.
You see? I was right. Waking up IS troublesome. This one phrase gave a rise to so many questions, that I had a trouble keeping track of all of them. I really don't want to open my eyes, since I am sure it will raise many more questions. Pity I don't really have a choice. I don't think that voice will let me stay blissfully ignorant. So I open my eyes.
I hate being right. This is not my room. It is noticeably bigger. Approximately five meters wide, and seven meters long. The interior is uninspiring. Only white walls and the metallic bed, I am lying on. This minimalistic interior makes me think that I am in some kind barracks. The second thing I noticed is there are no windows or lamps. It feels like the ceiling itself is emitting light. On a second thought, this room feels more like a cell in a prison or a madhouse. I said 'second thing' because first thing was the bearer of the voice I had heard earlier. Right in front of my head there is a tiny creature hovering in the air. It is around twelve centimetres tall and probably has wings. The idea of wings was an educated guess based on the slight buzzing sound I heard and a flickering I saw behind her. Although I am not an expert on non-human anatomy, the shape of the body and those fine doll-like features are definitely female. She has short black hair, blue eyes and is dressed in violet Chinese one-piece dress. Before me was a creature that most people I know would call a faerie or a pixie. By the way, what's the difference between the two? Not like it matters though.
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