Newcomer

"A newcomer? Well, that is certainly nice." The first one to speak was a person that seemed to be completely made out of metal. He looked at Metro, pondering something. Metro simply downed the coffee down in one go while looking at the rest of them.

"Hello... Zombie. How did you get that nickname on your tutorial? Stayed up all night to complete your quest?" A man in a spacesuit raised his hand up, and Metro shook his hand with a firm grip.

"Ooh. That's some pretty good strength, you're a strength based Player?" Wait, strength? Metro looked at his hand. His hand was now covered in a glove, and he could feel the sensations around him.

"I have a body! I have a body!" Metro's whole body shook as tears started flowing from the corner of his eyes. This was not anyone's body, but solely his own!

"Are you... alright? Any mental damage from the tutorial?" The astronaut looked worried under his tinted glass.

"Don't worry about him, have you forgotten that your whole body is automatically healed by the system. The abnormalities would have been removed too. Also, my "Overlook" Artifact is also showing that nothing is wrong with him." A beggar with azure eyes drank from his metal mug as he observed Metro's eyes.

"Pig, what can you see about him?" "Yeah, we want to know too!" The customers in the cafe started cheering for the beggar as his azure eyes turned cloudy. His face slowly turned into a frown, when his eyes also returned to normal.

"There's... nothing special about him. He's so mediocre among all of us. Just that passive all rounded buff and a low demon bloodline. Maybe it's just that he got an insanely high powered skill that could blow apart the heavens in the Buddha world and destroy Systex Corporation with just one blow."

"Huh. I wonder what Artifact chose him. Must be one of the weaker ones that were getting desperate." The astronaut suddenly turned away from Metro, ruthlessly cutting off contact with him. The rest of the crowd did the same, except for a few people that wormed their way through the mob and approached Metro.

"If you have a low devil bloodline, you might want to join our Abyssal Unknown alliance. We can analyse your bloodline and enhance it accordingly." The first of them was a blue dragon headed woman. She breathed out an icy mist, which turned into a logo that imprinted itself on Metro's mind.

The logo had the sign of a tree with roots that were attached to human heads. It was quite a unique logo, but it made Metro have a feeling of déjà vu. "Have I seen this before?"

The next recruiter broke Metro's line of thought. He was an over enthusiastic vampire with shiny white fangs. "We accept all types of Players! You just need to contribute some effort in exchange for resources. In short, you have a lot of freedoms here! Join us if you need help!" Pulling a brimstone business card out, he placed it into Metro's palms, before hurriedly leaving.

"Versatile Merit Alliance, find us at Black Sage Street, second building at the left of the start of the street." Those were the words on the business card. After skimming through it, Metro looked towards the last and final recruiter. It was the man that had appeared to be made out of metal.

"Our Body Tempering alliance aim for a well rounded foundation. Take this card. If you want to join us, all you have to do is to use your soul imprint." The metal skinned man turned to leave after giving Metro a blank card, but Metro stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Uhhh... what's a soul imprint?" Metro had a puzzled expression on his face. In his heart he was vehemently cursing Aria. She spoke a bunch of rubbish filler that did not even provide him with more information about this Hub World filled with Players!

"Tsk. How stuck up your guardian is to withhold such important information from you? Since I have some downtime before the next mission and have no need to return to my main world yet, I will guide you through this place for free if you join our alliance now."

"It's just like the rumours. The Body Tempering Alliance are an odd bunch, even though their founder is at the 5 star level already. That shiny baldy there, Sorash, is actually a 3 and a half star Player." Hearing the gossip, Metro subtly nodded to himself. They seemed to be kind of a powerhouse here.

"Ok, but what distinguishes your alliance from the rest?" Metro honestly had no idea what the alliances' focus were. All the Players has their own motives for approaching him, seeing their behaviour once he was exposed to be a "weakling". Hearing Metro's questions, Sorash started laughing rambunctiously.

"Our ideal, is to stave off the use of items. In these scenarios, items can only carry you so far, not to mention that you lose out on value as well. If your body has every passive skill and is a fortress, items are useless in the face of an absolute paradigm of perfection!" There was an almost fanatic expression in Sorash's eyes by the end of the speech, but Metro did not mind.

He had a feeling that this was the perfect alliance for him. When he had came back from the scenario, he was sure that he still had some of the golden flowers in his backpack, but they did not come back to him.

However, the skills that he had gained would naturally pass onto the body he was possessing. The body of Robert, the cult leader, had increased in quality through the Trained Body skill. Naturally, Metro looked well upon such skills.

"Look, there he goes on his spiel about items being worthless... Did that guy just shake his hand?" Metro had grasped the man's hand and shook it vehemently. Even though it felt like hard steel, the hand of Sorash was fiery to the touch.

"I have decided that you guys are the alliance for me!" Metro straightened his back and said his words confidently to Sorash's face. "Good choice, very good choice! Now, just imagine how your Artifact looks like, and hold that thought in your mind." Sorash started guiding Metro almost immediately.

Metro closed his eyes to help him concentrate better. As the Death Clock formed in his mindscape, it started to form a completely new shape. The original watch melted into a puddle, before moulding itself into a skull. As Metro continued to focus on it, the skull formed a clock inside its mouth.

The skull suddenly erupted with bouts of black fire pouring from every hole in it, and Metro was forcibly ejected from his mind. He opened it, and felt a boiling sensation in his left hand. There, the skull clock had imprinted itself, marking it as his soul imprint.

"Only you can see your own soul imprint. Once it's done, just focus and pull that feeling of the soul imprint into this card." Once Metro was done with the setting up of the soul imprint, controlling it was as easy as breathing. The boiling sensation was easily manipulated by his mind, not to mention that he could see it as a ball of dark flames. It flew towards the card and integrated with it directly.

Metro's body became as light as a feather when the black flame joined the card. He could not feel his new body anymore, just like the time that he was in the void. Since he was already used to this, he waited for a quick moment, before he resettled in his body again.

This time, his right wrist had its own logo now, which was the shape of someone in a meditative position, but stars covered various parts of the body. Metro immediately assumed that it was the logo of the Body Tempering Alliance.

"Welcome to the Body Tempering Alliance. Oh yeah, you might want to keep that Versatile Merit Alliance card. It's more of a mercenary board than anything. So that now you have joined our alliance, it's time to reach you about the various details of this Hub World. Move out of your way, will you people stop disturbing us?" Sorash's eyes started shining, and the rest of the Players scurried off to the side to continue their discussion at the corners of the well lit cafe.

"That was the Haute cafe, run by the Player Karxeth. He's a 4 star Player, so you should try not to cause trouble in the cafe." Sorash introduced the cafe's origins to Metro as they walked out. Already, Metro's attention was piqued by a long line of booths that were arranged neatly on the street, which were paved with crimson red bricks.

"What are these booths?" All of these looked like telephone booths that people used in Metro's previous life. He had no idea why there was a need for so many booths at the same time.

"Those are transporter booths. Just input our destination, the Underbelly, and then a tube will suck you there in no time. It will be quite nauseating for a newcomer like you though, since you haven't developed enough strength to deal completely with the pressure in those tubes. Go into that booth over there and press the Underbelly option. I will be there shortly after."