A Beast's Dimension
"This might just be me?"
"The System will probably not work in here and if I forge Lesser Boots, they will probably just appear in the real world."
A headless body of a warrior runs in front of him, wandering like a lizard's detached tail.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt if I tried right?"
"System. Forge Lesser Boots amplified with E-Class Dexterity and E-Class Finesse"
[Forging Lesser Boots amplified with E-Class Dexterity and E-Class Finesse]
The Mana Particles appear in front of him like they normally would in the real world, and they spiraled into forming the Lesser Boots in front of him.
[Forging Complete]
[-2000 MP Cost]
"Whaaaaa-"
He was bamboozled.
"Nah! Surely, these would just be aesthetic. They probably don't have any actual impact on me in the game."
He wore the Lesser Boots and when he tried them out.
[Dexterity: F -> E]
[Finesse: F -> E]
After seeing the updates to his status, he moved around and started speeding around the place, the same way he would have in the real world.
He dashed past a pair of warriors battling with their low-level armor and swords.
"What was that?" one of the players said.
"I didn't see anything?" the other said. Then continued trying to behead each other.
Yuri kept dashing to the edge of spawn and towards the forest, where he thought he could find cover.
"This is the SHIT!!" Yuri said. "Wait! Let me check my in-game status panel."
*Click
——status panel——
——username: __FATboy__
——hp: 10/10——
——mp: 423,598——
——class: hunter——
——level: 1——
——strength: 1——
——intelligence: 9 (+8 unknown item buff)——
——speed: 10 (+8 unknown item buff, +1 hunter-class buff Lvl. 1) ——
——stamina: 1——
"So my Dexterity translated into speed in the game, and Finesse translated somehow to Intelligence? I guess Finesse is in that category. Or it's just the game bugging."
Yuri didn't care much anymore. But what he wanted to know was how the Magitek System was able to work in the VR game.
"My consciousness did get kind of connected to the server. But it's more like the system is flexible, but ultimately, it gives me what I'm asking for whether in physical form, or virtual form?"
Yuri's class is a hunter.
"Alright. What skills do hunters have?"
Yuri looks at the game panel in the upper right corner but there isn't any button for the skills panel.
"Hmmmmm…"
He thinks for a moment. He takes his bow sheathed on his back, held it up, aimed for a tree, then takes an arrow from a quiver.
——9/10 arrows in the quiver——
He loads it on his bow, and as he aims, game features start to appear.
Navigation arrows appeared and his movement started to become more stable as if the game is interfering or more specifically guiding him.
——level 2 precision shooting skills active——
He sees in the lower left corner of his vision, that his skills start to appear.
"So this is how it works, huh?"
"Aaaaaaaaaaahh!"
Yuri heard a scream from deeper inside the forest. He headed toward the sound.
"Hmmm. Seems like a good opportunity to test my gaming skills." He smiled.
Deeper inside the forest, a warrior girl is surrounded by five boys who looked like they were a party of friends trying to take advantage of a newbie.
"Go away!" the girl said.
Yuri was watching from the bushes.
"This is spawn. Don't you have any principles?" she adds.
"A game is a game, bitch!" the cleric boy said.
"Yup! That's why we are getting those starting gear of yours before we send you back home to mommy!" the warrior kid of them said.
The two others laughed.
"Well, I'm not going down without a fight!" she bravely said. "And I'm not going back home yet!"
She had chosen a hammer as her starting weapon, with warrior class.
They laughed again.
"What do you think you are? A girl-Thor? You should have chosen a bard or something and asked some men like us to party with you."
She swung her hammer and misdirected her attack on the warrior with a faint, and redirected the weight of her hammer towards the cleric from the distance.
The cleric was able to dodge due to a higher speed and intelligence attributes, having been playing the game with his friends since the launch of the game 4 days ago.
"You missed, spawn trooper!" he laughed, then countered with a jab using his staff.
——direct hit (-2 hp) ——
——hp:8/10——
She was stunned by the hit for 1 second, but that was enough time for the others to jump in and attack her too.
The fighter-class kid punched her on the left cheek and it sent her flying to the tree trunk.
——direct hit (-3 hp) ——
——hp:5/10 ——
Although, Yuri knew it was just a game. He just couldn't bear the idea of a girl being ganged up on by a bunch of virgin losers that couldn't even leave spawn the whole time they were playing since he saw that they had already some experience compared to actual first-timers.
"Take this!"
The hunter class of their party shot an arrow directly at her leg. She tried to dodge it but it still hit.
——direct hit (-3 hp) ——
——hp:2/10 ——
Yuri had enough. All of the boys lined up surrounding her and said, "You know what? We'll let you live if you join our party. You can change class and be our servant."
"PWAH!" she spat in their faces.
"Oh! Okay! Suit yourself."
The warrior boy raised his sword and aimed it at her.
*Pluck!
An arrow went from the back of his head straight out his forehead.
——headshot (instant kill) ——
——hp:0/30 ——
——game over ——
The cleric boy turned around while he was looking.
*PLUCK!
Blood comes out of his head, as an arrow swoops straight into his eye.
——headshot (instant kill) ——
——hp:0/30 ——
——game over ——
They all gathered together to defend each other's perimeter, having their backs to each other.
"Where is it coming from?"
"Where is the enemy?"
A shadow is seen speeding around them.
They could hear the leaves of the trees bustling like someone was sweeping the floor every few seconds.
*PLUCK
Another arrow hit the fighter's right-hand fist, but he was able to block it.
The hunter shot back. But they could not follow Yuri's movement.
"It's a high-level player!"
Yuri's precision shooting was still in starter stats, so it could not penetrate once they could anticipate where the arrows were coming from.
"Where are you!" the fighter shouted. "Show yourself!"
He walked out of the trees and appeared in front of them.
Walking towards them, the hunter kid aims his bow at Yuri and shoots at him.
Yuri doesn't even try to dodge. His Finesse was E class. He only made slight movements, and no matter how much the hunter kid shot at him, he couldn't hit him.
"What the fuck are you!"
The fighter and the other warrior that had been silent the whole time ran to attack him, but he slid onto the ground, and looking up he shot them with the bow while he was moving.
An arrow hit the warrior's head.
——headshot (instant kill) ——
——hp:0/30 ——
——game over ——
The second arrow hit the fighter's head too.
——headshot (instant kill) ——
——hp:0/30 ——
——game over ——
The girl was shocked at what she was seeing.
"Fucking hacker!" the hunter kid shouted.
Yuri walked closer to the hunter kid, and punched him in the face…
—— direct hit -1 hp——
——hp:29/30 ——
And kneed him in the balls.
—— direct testicular hit -5 hp——
——hp:24/30 ——
"YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU HIT ME IN THE BALLS!"
The hunter kid's face was furiously in pain.
Yuri replied, "There wasn't much of them in the first place."
He aimed his bow at the boy at close range and the tip of his arrow was inside the kid's mouth.
*SWISH!
The arrow passed from his brain and splattered it around.
——headshot (instant kill) ——
——hp:0/30 ——
——game over ——
Yuri walked to the girl and asked, "Are you okay?"
——5/5 consecutive headshots——
——you have leveled up to 2——
"I asked, miss, are you alright?"
She stood up proudly and said, "Yes, I'm alright. I didn't need you helping me anyway. I was doing fine on my own."
"Didn't seem that way," Yuri cockily smiled.
"Well, thank you anyway."
The game had randomly spawned character avatars, but they generally followed the player's real gender and age.
"You seem a little too young to be playing this game," Yuri said.
"And what are you? Too old?"
Yuri gave up, as the girl was just being rude to him. He turned around and tried to leave.
"Why did you help me?" she asked while resting her hammer on her shoulder and putting hair behind her ear.
"Oh! Me? I just don't like it when the weak are being taken advantage of. It's more of like… sourcing from IRL traumatic events."
"Oh," she spoke softly. "I'm sorry I asked."
"It's okay. How about you? And why the warrior hammer? You do look like a girl-Thor though."
She smiled and liked the idea of it.
"Yeah… well, kind of the same reason for me too."
"Same?"
"Yeah… coz my big brother just passed away recently. He was sort of like a warrior too but in real life. And he liked hammers… He even passed away while holding one."
Yuri was kind of surprised by the personal information the girl was telling him. But he understood her because sometimes the only people we can talk to about these things are usually strangers online.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Yuri awkwardly pats her on the right side of her shoulder."
She suddenly started crying. And she ran towards him and hugged him while pouring her tears out.
"I kind of get the reason why girls shouldn't play MMORPGs," Yuri jokingly thought.
"By the way, my name is __Fatboy__. I'm already a father. You could say I'm a teenage Father. I'm a single teenage Father. But single like unmarried. But there is a girl… soo…"
She steps away and extends her hand, "My name is Reiji_<3."
"Wait. Are you a guy?" Yuri asked in confusion and shakes her hand.
——Reiji_<3 added to friends list——
"No… that's my brother's name."
"Oh… Cool."
"Can I join your party?" she asks him.
"Yeah, why not?"
——Reiji_<3 added to your party——
[Reiji_<3 is added to Yuri's party]
"Wait! What??"
While spawn had remained a bloody battlefield due to its insufficient size to hold the high amount of traffic of new players, everything started to go dark. A giant shadow covered the entire spawn.
Yuri looked up, and saw a huge dark red Dragon, with royal ornaments and huge scaly wings covering the sun. It blew a giant wave of fire over the vast open spaces of spawn and the forests surrounding it, but the fire didn't kill any of the players. Instead, they transported them evenly and at a great distance outside of spawn. And those who were in the same parties were transported together.
*SHWWSH
Yuri and the hammer girl were transported together outside of spawn on the side of a road.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Probably the devs… They finally got annoyed with the spawn killings. The game is probably going to update soon."
While Yuri was talking, a Magitek System update appeared in front of him.
[CONGRATULATIONS YURI! YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR QUEST: FIND ANOTHER MAGE!]
[YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 6! CYBEROCRACY CAPABILITIES UNLOCKED]
"What the f-!!!"