Project Hero: The Champions

On a hot summer day, an ordinary-looking young man was dressed in street clothes, carrying a leather briefcase under his arms, and was covered in sweat after walking for so long. Finding a small restaurant and seeing that it had air conditioning, he decides to go in, sitting at an empty table, a waitress arrives and asks for the order.

"Hello sir, what would you like to order?"

"I'd like a bottle of cold water, I'm waiting for some people."

"Ok."

The waitress turned and walked towards a counter where there was a bartender. In her mind was the following thought.

(I see you're all wet with sweat, waiting for some friends. You're just enjoying the coolness inside.)

That was just in her mind, she didn't have the courage to speak, because it could be true too.

The young man was sitting while drinking water and looking at his cell phone, he seemed to be waiting for a call.

"Trim… Trim…"

Looking at the screen and seeing that it was the call he was waiting for, the young man answers.

"Hello, I am currently at the restaurant you recommended, come quickly, I am very hungry."

"Okay, we are close to this street, we will arrive in a few minutes"

The other side finished speaking and hung up.

...

A few minutes later, a group of three young people enter the restaurant and head towards the young man's table. Each of them had a distinct appearance, one was a bit fat, 1.70 tall, with a somewhat threatening expression; the other was white-skinned, 1.80 tall, tall, and wore glasses; and the last one had medium tanned skin, 1.65 tall and also wore glasses. 

They each sat in an empty chair around the table.

"Long time no see, Lin Yun."

"I say the same to you three, how are you?"

"The same as always, with a lot of work."

"Don't say that, I have a lot of work lately. My boss doesn't want to do his job and keeps asking his employees to do it."

"You can't have as much work as me, I'm literally being exploited by the company."

The three who arrived are immersed in the conversation about the job, and they even forget about Lin Yun.

"Lin Yun, what about you? Did you get a job? It's been a while since you finished university, but you haven't been able to get a job in the field you graduated in."

"Not yet, I went to a few interviews today, but I'm not very confident about it."

"It's okay, that's life, you know I got rejected several times before I was able to find a decent job without it being random."

"I know that. At the moment, I'm still working as an attendant at a fast food restaurant."

While the group was immersed in conversation, the same waitress who served Lin Yun the glass of water earlier appeared again.

"Hello gentlemen, what would you like to order?"

"Can you bring each of the dishes of the day?"

"Yes, wait a moment"

"I'm taking advantage of this moment of distraction. Have you heard about the game, Project Hero: The Champion? The game became very famous around the world, especially in Asia, where there are a lot of people and there are no jobs for everyone."

"Yes, I heard about that. They say it's a new virtual reality game that simulates an alternative fantasy world, but the game is so real that it feels like another world."

"It's really incredible. My boss plays this game, but he prefers to just fish around instead of leveling up. The graphics are so real that I thought it was footage of him at sea."

"Newspapers around the world are advertising it as if it were the new wonders of the world. The engineers who created this game are the greatest geniuses"

"The company that created this game is no amateur either, it was founded by several great geniuses of modern games who retired, but decided to return to action for one last game of their lives. The result wouldn't be bad, but no one could imagine it would be this incredible game."

"But do you know what's most incredible? People will be able to make money playing the game, as game money can be exchanged for real money."

"That's right, I was thinking about playing, but it would be kind of boring to play alone, especially in an MMO, where you always need a team to do things. And you? What do you think?"

"I have no time to play, my job is taking up most of my time."

"The game can be played while sleeping, there are no side effects on the player"

"If that's the case, I can get a little money to buy the gear or even pay in installments so I don't have any problems with the budget."

"Lin Yun, since your job isn't paying a good salary, it might be possible for you to get lucky and make some money playing the game."

"I can do the same as Wei Hong, pay in installments to buy the game helmet so it doesn't get difficult in the coming months."

"Very good. Maybe it really is a great investment and it's even possible to make a lot of money."

"This only happens to the luckiest or richest with money to invest in the game. Furthermore, we are late, the game launched almost a year ago, and the strongest are already very far away and unreachable"

"Our goal is not to catch up with them, but to play at our own pace to get some wealth."

"Let's talk more about this after eating, it's not good to let food get cold"

The waitress started bringing the dishes until the table was filled.

The meal was long and joyful, and the group continued talking and eating.

Thus, time passed without them noticing.

Fortunately, it was the weekend and there were no problems with work.

After the meal, the four went to an authorized store to buy an official gear from the game Project Hero: The Champion, a helmet.

Returning to his small old house, Lin Yun took a shower to wash off the sweat from the whole day. 

It was very relaxing.

Lin Yun looked at the helmet on the bed, but instead of lying down and turning on the gear, he preferred to look for information about the game, Project Hero: The Champion, to understand at least the basics of how the game works.

Using his old computer, Lin Yun browsed the official page, forums, and other sites where there were basic tutorials and explanatory videos.

In just one night, the amount of information learned was enough to make the young man start playing, but he also knew that there were more hidden things that no player would reveal to another.

"That was very tiring…" Yawning, the young man looked out the window and saw that it was already getting light, the sun appeared over the horizon.

"I stayed up all night reading the manuals and tutorials, after I wake up I will have to continue reading more about the races before starting my adventure" Lin Yun suppresses the anxiety in his heart, he just slept soundly on the old bed after so much time reading.

Fortunately, it was still Sunday and there was time to continue studying the game before playing.

After waking up, he does the same until the end of the night.

In the meantime, his friends send messages in the WeChat group to find out each other's status within the game. The other three had already started and were leveling, but because they chose different races, each one started the game at different points in the world.

Lin Yun was the only one who hadn't started yet because he was researching the game.

His friends just asked him to hurry up because everyone can play together once they reach at least level 250 and travel across continents.

Before sleep…

On his first try, Lin Yun will play while sleeping.

"I think I'm ready to start. Let's see if it was worth it or if the game is different from the tutorials I saw and read." His heart beat harder and faster when he thought he could finally join the game.

The helmet completely covered the head, not letting the player see anything other than a small amount of darkness.

"Turn On" Lin Yun spoke anxiously.

ding… ding… 

Two soft bell sounds rang before several lights were turned on.

A screen with a loading bar appeared in front of the young man.

"Loading…"

After loading the information, a color screen appears, along with a voice.

"Welcome to the Project" A melodious yet mechanical female voice echoed in his mind.

"Choose a name."

"Another One" Lin Yun had a special reason for making such a choice.

"Name accepted." If the system had refused, it would have warned him because it does not accept the same names or any offensive names.

"Choose the race" A wide variety of breeds appear before him in a list containing the models.

Human, elf, dark elf, dwarves, demons, beastmen, celestials, elementals, undead, lizardmen and among other myriad races. More races are still discovered when players complete their quests.

"Blood race" This choice was made after researching the pros and cons of each of the races discovered in addition to the eight initial breeds.

"Choose the character's appearance"

A character was materialized before Lin Yun, the physique was no different from a human with semi-transparent skin, and the reddish body is due to the blood that can be seen through the semi-transparent skin.

The appearance was modified to be characteristic of the blood race, each race had some characteristics that allowed any other player to identify them just by looking, without the need to ask. And it was not possible to change these characteristics.

"I would like to maintain my current appearance"

The figure was modified according to Lin Yun's appearance, it was not much different from him with much redder skin because of the blood that is more visible through the semi-transparent skin.

"Is the character good? Or does it need changes?" The voice asked.

"It is good." Lin Yun had no problem with the created character, it was similar to him, only the skin was too pale.

"Character created successfully"

"Choose your city"

A new screen containing three options appeared, each one is a starting city within the blood race realm.

The first image is of a black rock fortress called Blood Iron Fortress, the second is a peaceful village within a dark forest called Ashton Village, and the third image is of a city carved into the middle of a gray mountain called Gray Stain City.

"I choose Ashton Village"

"Are you sure about this choice? Once chosen, it cannot be changed" The system asked again just to confirm.

"Yes"

"Character created successfully. You will be sent to your city, Ashton Village."

"Loading…"

The screen turned off so that a loading bar appeared.

Within moments, a new world appeared before Lin Yun's eyes.