Chapter 2 - Starting The Game

Chapter 2 – Starting The Game

Similar to Shawn, Clarisse was from a rich family too. Furthermore, Clarisse was a beautiful girl and one of the most beautiful in the college that Ethan attended. Whenever Clarisse appeared, she would attract a lot of attention.

If boys were to see her, they would fall in love immediately. If girls were to see her, they would be mesmerized by her.

Supposedly, other girls would get jealous and filled with envy if they saw boys got infatuated with Clarisse but none of them thought so because Clarisse was a bright girl. Not only that but her family was a powerful one too and no one dared to have those feelings towards her.

In less than a month since Clarisse attended the Diamond Dragon College, she became the idol for most people in the college. Everywhere she went, people would flock and look at her.

Normal people would feel uncomfortable but Clarisse was used to the attention. She was popular since middle school and always like that even until now.

However, she was surprised when she found out that one day, as usual, people were attracted to her but one guy did not even look at her. Later, she found out that the guy was the popular weird nerd. He was popular too but for a different reason.

Clarisse did not mind that much because she was not an attention seeker but what happened in front of her at this moment displeased her.

Clarisse showed good support asking if Ethan was fine but she was ignored. Ethan cared more about a device that she could buy 100 of them at a click of her finger. She was a bit angry but soon was frozen as Ethan looked devastated at the broken VR device.

Not only that, tears flowing down his face.

'What should I do? What should I do?' Clarisse panicked. She never encountered someone crying in front of her. In her life, everything was a flower. Everyone around her was happy.

"I-I will buy you a new one. This is the new VR device for Next World, right? I will get you a new one," Clarisse spoke. She knew she was in the wrong and immediately try to remedy the problem. Even so, there was no reaction from Ethan.

"A-are you okay?" Clarisse asked again but no reaction again. Clarisse panicked once more and she thought of anything she could do to solve the situation. Then, she realized something.

'Maybe this device is important to him and buying a new device is not the same as the current one! That's right! There are a lot of people like that. Since he is the weird nerd, he must be like that too!' Clarisse thought.

"I know someone who can fix the device for you," Clarisse spoke. Finally, Ethan looked at Clarisse. His eyes were teary. Seeing Ethan reacted to that, Clarisse was relieved. She guessed it right.

"You don't need to pay for anything. I will get your VR device fix. I know someone from the Diamond Dragon Tech, I will get him to fix it for you," Clarisse spoke.

"C-C-Can you fix that?" Ethan asked.

"Yes. Trust me!" Clarisse replied. "Ah, I will call that person and ask about this," Clarisse activated her bracelet. The bracelet was the communication device used by people in the world, Grentz. It can be used as a phone and also a computer.

"Sis, I will call you back," Clarisse spoke.

"Huh? What hap-" Clarisse ended the call. She immediately called the person she claimed could fix the device. She needed to do this right because Ethan was looking at her full of hope.

In a second, someone answered her call.

"Brother, I need your help," Clarisse spoke.

"What is it?"

"Urm… I bumped into someone and that person's VR device fell into the lake and is broken. Can you fix it?" Clarisse asked.

"…Troublemaker. Bring it here. I will fix it for you. Tell that person, it will be done tomorrow morning," the person on the other end of the phone replied and he ended the call before Clarisse got to thank him.

"Urg! At least let me thanked you," Clarisse grumbled. She looked at Ethan and spoke, "He said yes. Tomorrow morning at 10, I will give you back the device."

"…Thank you," Ethan got up and thanked Clarisse. He wiped his tears and gave the device to Clarisse.

"This device must be important to you, right? I am sorry if I am a bit insensitive earlier," Clarisse apologized. "I am sorry for bumping into you earlier too. That's right, are injured somewhere?"

"I-I-I am fine," Ethan stuttered. Clarisse was relieved.

"Then, tomorrow at 10, we will meet here again," Clarisse arranged their meeting and Ethan agreed. It was the weekend tomorrow and there was no class on Sunday.

"T-Then," Ethan bowed slightly and left Clarisse.

"O-oo," Clarisse nodded and looked at Ethan who walked with his usual walking trademark, looking at the ground with his back hunched a bit.

Clarisse left the area too. She needed to send the device for a fix or she would break the promise.

21st Spring, Month 1, the Year 2555, Sunday.

Next World officially went online and millions of players registered their accounts and started playing the game. The game went online at midnight and many people played it the whole night.

Next World was trending on social media because the game was a bit different compared to the usual fantasy RPG. The differences were welcomed by the players and Next World got a lot of praises.

Even so, as there were praises, there were complaints too. In Next World, one player could only have one account and it was permanent. So, whatever they did, they could not reverse it or reset their account. They needed to stick with it until they did not want to play the game again.

Many players made the wrong choice while playing Next Order and they could not reverse it. Quitting the game was not possible because they felt the potential of the game. So, many decided to stick with it.

Many players who had started playing the game posted a lot of do's and don't for people who had yet to start the game. So, there was a lot of information available about Next World online.

As many people were now busy playing Next World, Ethan was not able to do that. He had to wait for his VR device to get fixed first.

***

Clarisse walked to the meeting place. She had with her the fixed device and the device was put in a girly paper bag. Clarisse got closer to the meeting place but instead of Ethan, someone else was standing there.

"Shawn?" Clarisse seemed to know Shawn.

"Hmm? Clarisse? What are-" he wanted to ask Clarisse what she was doing there but saw the device inside the paper bag. "Ah~ are you the one who broke my friend's device?"

"Huh? The weird nerd is your friend?" Clarisse was surprised. Although Shawn was popular and everyone knew about his friendship with Ethan, Clarisse was equally popular and was not interested in Shawn's matter.

"His name is Ethan. He has a name and it is rude to him to say that when Ethan is not weird at all," Shawn was displeased with Clarisse's remark.

"…I don't know his name. Well, I am sorry," Clarisse immediately apologized. Although they knew each other, they were not close at all. They only knew each other because they were part of the same circle.

"Why are you here?" Clarisse asked. She was supposed to meet Ethan but Shawn was the one who came instead.

"A professor needs his help, so, I come in his place. Have you fix the device?" Shawn spoke.

"Yes, my brother fixed it for me. You can check to see if it is okay," Clarisse spoke and she gave the device to Shawn.

Shawn took out the device from the paper bag and turned on the power. When he clicked on the power button, a small blue light blinked once. He nodded because the device was fine for now.

"If there is a problem later, make sure you tell me. My brother said that there will be no problem with the device but I still worry about it. Your friend seems to treasure this device a lot. He even cried yesterday," Clarisse spoke and she remembered what happened yesterday.

Shawn stuttered a bit when he heard that Ethan cried. His face turned solemn. 'Is his situation worse than I thought?' Shawn thought.

He got up and looked at Clarisse, "I will call you if there is a problem with the device."

"Okay. Also, please tell him I apologize again for my mistake," Clarisse added.

"Sure," Shawn left Clarisse alone.

Clarisse pouted, "Why is he so cold? Is it because I said weird nerd earlier?" Clarisse left the area too.

***

"Hohoho, thank you, Ethan. You help me a lot," an old man who looked to be in his 70s spoke to Ethan while laughing lightly.

"I-It is fine, professor," Ethan replied but he did not look at the professor but at the floor. Looking straight at the professor was a bit hard for Ethan. Even looking at Shawn's face was uncomfortable to him.

"…" the professor stared at Ethan with a light smile. He could see that Ethan was nervous. "Young man, thank you again," the professor got up and patted Ethan's shoulder. As the professor's palm touched Ethan, he twitched.

"…" the professor was silent but he soon said, "Be more confident. You don't need to be that afraid of me. I am not going to eat you, Hohoho," the professor laughed.

Ethan was embarrassed but he bowed and apologized for his action. "Then, you can go. I will give you a bonus mark for helping me today."

"T-t-thank you, professor," Ethan did not dare to look at the professor and left the office hastily.

"Hmm…" The professor looked at Ethan's departing figure.

Ethan got back to his dorm room and Shawn was waiting outside. "Have you been here long?" Ethan asked.

"I just got here," Shawn smiled. Ethan scanned his bracelet at the scanner and the door was unlocked. The duo got in and the so-called dorm room was actually a small room with a kitchen, bathroom, and toilet. The living room and the bedroom were connected. It was a room and not a house.

Even so, this kind of living arrangement was only possible for First Rate College like the Diamond Dragon College. Just as the name suggested, the college belonged to the Diamond Dragon Company.

Diamond Dragon College was one of the top 5 colleges in the world. In the Blitzen Country, it was the no 1 college. To get admitted into the college was hard and Ethan was barely able to get in.

Ethan himself was surprised that he passed and not only that but he got a scholarship too. Although it was not the best scholarship, he still got it and was thankful to the school.

Shawn sat on the bed and passed the device to Ethan.

"Try it. I check it earlier and it looks fine but maybe it is okay when we switch it on but not okay when using it," Shawn spoke.

"I will try it," Ethan pulled the device out of the paper bag and tried to turn it on.

"I play the game last night and it is different than most games. I mean, most of the thing is the same as normal RPG but your character's setting is the most interesting part," Shawn spoke.

"I read it in a forum and I actually cannot wait to try it," Ethan sounded excited and he pressed on the power button. The blue light appeared but it did not blink but instead stayed like that for almost ten seconds.

"???" Ethan was confused and Shawn saw what happened too. They had tried to turn it on yesterday and it was not supposed to be like that. Shawn had his device and knew that the blue light was supposed to flicker once and disappeared.

However, this blue light lingered for almost ten seconds before it disappeared. Ethan clicked the power button again to turn it off and a red light flickered once. He turned it on but this time, the blue light flickered once and disappeared.

"…I guess the same thing may happen once in a while?" Shawn spoke.

"Maybe. This VR device broke once but I hope it will stay okay for a long time," Ethan replied. He had no hope that the device would be okay forever but he hoped it would give him enough time to get enough money.

"Well then, I am going back to my room. I want to continue playing too. Let's meet up in the game," Shawn left Ethan's room.

Ethan did not start playing Next World immediately, he cleaned his room for a bit, and then, he logged into the game. Ethan wore the VR device and lied on his bed. He turned on the device and the blue light flickered and lingered for ten seconds before it disappeared.

Ethan, on the other hand, experienced a change in his surrounding, immediately after he turned on the device. Then, he floated in a dark and empty space.

A floating screen appeared in front of him with a sentence and a voice spoke in his head.

[Welcome, Player Ethan. In Next World, all players are not allowed to edit their appearances. What you look like in real life is what you will look like in the game. The only thing you will be able to edit is your stats]

[In Next World, each player will have seven stats. Two of them are the Health and Energy stats and as for the other five stats, the player will need to choose by themselves what they want for their stats]

Ethan nodded as he was aware of this. It was a hot topic online. The combination of stats chosen by the players would determine their playstyle in the game. If they wanted to become a swordsman, they needed to choose five stats that would give them the edge as a swordsman. Same with other professions.

[Now, before you can choose your stats, let's edit the appearance of your character] the AI spoke and another Ethan appeared in front of him. Not only that but a menu for character's setting that was usually available in all other RPG games appeared too.

"????????" Ethan was confused as to what was happening.