Humble Beginnings

(Initiating Biometric Authentification)

(Biometric Authentification Successful!)

Cyrus woke up to the reciting of a strange robotic voice.

As he looked around, he noticed that he was in a cuboid-like blindingly white environment.

This wasn't the first time he tried virtual reality.

The technology was used to hold bureaucratic meetings when doing so in real life was impossible or hard.

However, until last week and the duration of the game's development, no one had dared to implement the technology into the video game industry.

'The brightness makes me sick, let's get this over with quickly,' Cyrus rubbed his eyes and perceived a floating line of black text.

(Please spell your username.)

(Username: ...)

Cyrus was honestly indecisive.

-A few dozen seconds later-

Ultimately, he went with a simple and banal choice.

(Username: Paragon Cyrus)

(Confirm?)

(Yes) (No)

Cyrus swiftly pressed on (Yes), and a new panel popped up in his vision.

(Please choose your starting weapon.)

(You can change it later)

Under these two lines of text, an interactive interface appeared.

It was a clean and holographic-looking list, with different weapons and their descriptions.

'They have surprisingly diverse choices,' Cyrus hummed to himself.

There were more traditional weapons like swords, bows, spears, sabers, blunt hammers, etc...

However, scrolling down further, Cyrus perceived unusual choices like iron knuckles, gauntlets, rapiers, and...

"A magnifying glass?" Cyrus muttered out loud in puzzlement.

It was really a wood-frame magnifying glass.

Cyrus kept on scrolling down, but eventually, he went back to the selection that attracted his confusion since the beginning.

As he double-pressed on the icon for the magnifying glass, an interface with a description of the tool emerged.

(Magnifying glass: A tool that allows for a vision of the minuscule, while also discerning hints of history, unknown language, and antiques.)

The first part was obvious, but the second one was much more vague and interesting.

'Discerning hints in history, language, and antiques? It must be a tool that aids in exploration then.'

Cyrus felt somewhat excited at this discovery.

One of the mottos of the game was the unrestricted and vast world, and a tool that allowed for exploration was bound to be of great help in this factor.

'I hope it hasn't been chosen by too many people...' Cyrus really wished to take it, even though he knew he would be at a disadvantage when it came to combat.

Nonetheless, the starting weapons weren't too great anyways, and through exploration, he could probably find better ones.

Eventually, Cyrus closed his eyes and pressed on the interactive interface to conclude his choice.

(Please choose your starting state.)

The robotic voice that they used was indistinguishable from a normal human's, but due to its monotony, it sat stably in the uncanny valley.

Cyrus set aside this remark and looked at the new panel that appeared.

This time, it was a map.

'For a map, this isn't too generous...' Cyrus rolled his eyes.

There was clearly a large landmass on the map, and blue oceans surrounded it.

However, only the southern tip of the content was visible, and the rest was covered by a thick fog.

'Kingdom of Labricia...No...Dukedom of Valvia...No...Republic of Savoy!' Cyrus found his uncle's recommendation.

The Republic of Savoy was the southernmost nation of the continent, and the text said that its capital was 'Cape Immergroen'.

Cyrus quickly made his selection, and a numbing feeling penetrated his very bones again.

When he regained his senses, he found himself floating in a pool of water inside of a dim place.

Strangely, when he stood up, he wasn't wet at all.

Although he took notice of these small details, Cyrus soon walked towards the only light source in this dim room.

As it turned out, this was an exit, and when Cyrus saw the surroundings, his eyes widened and almost bulged out.

In front of him was an endless plain of grass and flowers.

Earlier, he was actually inside of a hollowed-out tree, and as he placed his hand on the thick bark, he felt the creases and texture of the wood very clearly.

As someone who lived all of his life in an urban environment, dancing fields of grass were not the scenery he was used to.

'It's gorgeous...' Cyrus passively felt all of his earlier reluctance to play the game disappear.

The smell of nature wasn't the most pleasant, but to his nostrils, it was certainly better than the sterile, hospital-like stink of Valgrade.

Suddenly, he felt a tug at his legs.

Then, the tug turned into a vivid burning sensation, and he looked down to see what was causing this.

(-1 HP)

(-1 HP)

A green ball of slime surrounded his feet and calves, and it seemed to be causing the burns.

Cyrus brusquely pushed the slime away and threw it at a patch of tall grass in the distance.

(Slime - Level 2)

Then, he heard the sound of a liquid slowly approaching him.

The slime didn't give up and slid towards him at the pace of a snail.

Cyrus neared the slime and tried to attack him.

*BAM*

His hand simply bounced off of the slime, like there was a thick, hard membrane protecting it.

'How did it surround my legs then?' Cyrus rubbed his chin.

Then, an idea came up to him.

Instead of hitting the slime, he gently placed his hands on the slime.

This time, his hand sunk in instead of bouncing away.

The slime was like Oobleck: when he hit it too hard, it became solid, and when he gently exerted force on it, his hands sunk in.

(-1 HP)

However, the burning sensation came back, and he swiftly backed his hand off.

(You killed Slime - Level 2, Acquiring 42 EXP)

'What?' Cyrus was confused.

"Aaaah..." He finally understood.

When he aggressively removed his hand, the membrane became hard once again, but since he exerted force from the inside this time, he tore off the protective membrane entirely, killing the creature.

This method cost him Health Points, but it was very effective.

'Speaking of Health Points...' Cyrus swished his finger up in the air.

This gesture commonly brought up the user interface in all virtual reality.

It was the same for the video game, Paragon Online.

(Paragon Cyrus - Level 1 Unranked Unclassed)

Experience: 42/100

Health Points: 97/100

Endurance: 99/100

Mana: 100/100

(Statistics)

Attack: 10

Dexterity: 10

Agility: 10

Wisdom: 10

Defense: 10

Vitality: 10

His information was rather underwhelming, but this was normal as he had just started the game.

When he was carefully reading the interface, he felt the very same burning sensation come back.

'Should I commit slime genocide?' Cyrus chuckled.

(You killed Slime - Level 2, Acquiring 46 EXP)

The bodies of the slime simply disappeared into nothingness once they died, and there was no interesting or useful loot.

Cyrus decided to put his method into practice, and walked through the peaceful plain, searching for more slimes to commit not-so-peaceful things to.

(You killed Slime - Level 1, Acquiring 23 EXP)

An unusual dingle accompanied this mundane notice.

(LEVEL UP!)

He had leveled up, and through his analysis of the interface, he gained 5 Statistic Points to freely spend.

"Attack, Dexterity, and Agility are safe choices."

Ultimately, he allocated 2 Points into Attack, 2 Points into Dexterity, and 1 Point into Agility.

Then, as he reached Level 2, a new icon appeared on the edge of his vision.

It had the shape of a signboard, and the text below it read "Forum".

Cyrus curiously opened the Forum, and the single top post was a surprising one.

(An entire village decimated by a player!?)

Below the thread, an image was attached.

It seemed to be a simple, small village, but there were traces of blood everywhere.

Many people continued the thread, and as Cyrus read the replies, a frown slowly emerged on his face.