Rocky Start 2
[Option buffed with success! Heavenly Bloodline Unlocked! Choose one of the below!
Ancient Dragon Bloodline ()
- A bloodline descending from an Ancient Dragon Lord, a strong and powerful physical body, as well as talent to many supernatural arts and innate usage of cultivation and Ki to some degree]
Since it comments about ki and cultivation, it comes from a lineage with ties to immortality, thus an eastern dragon. This is a good option already, to have a stronger body, a powerful talent for supernatural arts, ki, and cultivation, opens the paths to the Immortal Class…
[Heavenly Demon Bloodline ()
- A descendant of a Heavenly Demon, powerful martial arts at your grasp, mystical powers beyond mana and cultivation, and forgotten arts only accessible to the Heavenly Demons]
Another powerful option, while less of a generalist than the Ancient Dragon Bloodline, it brings unique stuff to the table, like the powers of a Heavenly Demon and martial arts specialization. Its main draw is the forgotten arts… but Heavenly Demons have their own set of enemies and enmities, which will be attached to you by proxy because of the descendency of one.
[Shura Bloodline ()
- The bloodline of a powerful demon of destruction, chaos, and mayhem. You have a natural attraction to cause bloodshed, pandemonium, and death. Your body is thicker than steel and harder than any diamond, and your fighting prowess with few to no peers]
A power bloodline, but a worse Heavenly Demon. While it can give a great boost to fighting capacities, it only does that, a stronger body, something the Ancient Dragon Bloodline gives, or the capacity to fight good, which is covered by Heavenly Demon.
[Abyss Bloodline ()
IÄ IÄ IÄ IÄ IÄ]
The troll option is a bloodline of an eldritch creature, not a strong one given its small description. If it had something of Hastur, or Iä Shub Niggurath, the strongest bloodline in the game from a gameplay standpoint, it would be a different matter.
But the description, if it can be called that, is too vague, it is almost like opening a mystery box, it can be bad, or good, uncertain because it is only an Abyss Bloodline without any strings attached to it.
It is the worst of the four options. He makes his decision.
[Ancient Dragon Bloodline (X)]
Without delay, he chooses the strongest line there, at least for this start. While there could be theoretically better ones, those are the only ones he could buy with the currency he had gathered in the game.
A divine bloodline like Shiva's, or even an Outer God one like Hastur's could be stronger, but it would need to be selected at random for options that strong, and more currency than he had to unlock them, even before MS and SF started to go down.
Ancient Dragon Bloodline has no specifications about what type of dragon, only that it is an eastern one, but because it is ancient it can't be bad. Heavenly Demon? Exceedingly powerful but has too many drawbacks attached to it after a certain point in the game.
Shura is too offensive and uncontrollable, Abyss is not worth it, without the certainty of it being an Outer God bloodline, is not worth it. He bit his lip with strength, drawing blood. What is happening? It is like one of those stories of transportation to another world.
Shaking his head, he proceeds to the next section.
[MS: 0
SF: 0]
Now, it comes his name.
[Name: Hwang Sin]
The next section. Pops up, with a timer alert:
[You have only 3:45 minutes to finish your character!]
What a bother, just to make him worry about it. The next, and most important section lies ahead.
When you play FERALR, you first start with your character creation, the first hero unit. It goes like this, you can buy boosts to it if you unlocked the Memento Gifts, and have enough currency for your options. The first hero also can have his class selected, unlocking unique ways to play the game and beat it.
This is the defining moment of how things will go. If this turns out to be reality, then he needs to choose it wisely! A class can get him through the tutorial…
[Available Classes:
Tinkerer: Allows the creation of Arcane tech and equipment!
- A class focused on technology and advancement, boosting the settlement's overall technology level and equipment.
Mage: A class focused on using magics, bringing the power of the mana and the usage of it to better your life and burn your enemies!
- A class focused on mystical development and powers, using the occult and sorcery/wizardry…
…]
He scrolls them down, without the points to buy special classes, then it leaves just one option. While the base options are flashy or good, they have gimmicks that only come in hand later.
Tinkerer? You need industries and people to start making stuff, and you are at a loss of resources at the tutorial.
Mage? You can't use magic in the tutorial, which is one of the hardest starts of the entire game. Yet because of a rare bloodline, a class is unlocked, a very good one at that. For the start, at least.
[Immortal: The class of the cultivation, those who wander the path of breakthroughs and old eastern magic.
- A class that focuses on achieving the perfect usage of ki, and elevating people into cultivators]
He chose the Immortal class. In the start, it is your world, Earth, being destroyed by a demon lord's army, you need to rescue people as you gather on a strange crystal that appeared out of nowhere.
You need to gather resources in a land getting attacked and ravaged by monsters and rescue at least 100 survivors. Once you manage to rescue 100 survivors before the tutorial ends, you get transported by it to the main world of the game.
The problem is surviving the tutorial and rescuing that amount of people with a weak class. Immortal gives better stats at the start and is reasonably strong.
The next section. Traits.
[Traits: These are the characteristics of your person, what molded you and your personality. Traits are not as powerful as abilities but provide handy utility most times]
What a flat-out lie. 'Traits are the most important thing in this game. There is one you can only obtain at character creation!' The biggest lie of all. Since this may turn into reality, it is better to catch this trait, and other one.
[You can choose up to two traits. Use it well. You have only 2:10 minutes for character creation]
'Two… this is bad.' Back then, if you had three traits, meant that your starting members would be lower than normal. In the tutorial after the first mission, the one where you get to the crystal, you gain three members with random traits, stats, and abilities to your settlement, but if you got two, the shortest end of the stick… you gain two traits instead. The starting members always have two traits and one ability, or one trait and two abilities. Besides their stats and extra working hand.
This is not ideal. He quickly taps on the best traits.
[First Trait: Unfettered: You are a person strong of heart and mind, capable of going through most challenges unhindered and unbothered.
Second Trait: Defiant: You possess a great will]
'Defiant is a good second trait. With Unfettered out of the way, I'm on a good path already.'
Unfettered, the single most important trait for the starting HU, and unobtainable in any other form besides the character creation. A mechanic for units in FERALR, more so for HU is that they can get traumatized and have a sanity meter, if they get too many traumas or little sanity, they will gain negative traits and mental debuffs, some of them unremovable.
Although the trauma and sanity systems were never explained fully, even the pro players like him had problems fully grasping its intricacies at times, but there is a decision they all agreed on: Unfettered is the single most important trait in the game.
If the starting HU has it, it will not gain traumas nor decrease in sanity, while it can still be affected by mental debuffs, it won't have lasting mental scars nor problems down the line because of them.
This is exactly why it is only obtainable at the character creation and nowhere else. Defiant is like Unfettered, but worse and only bolstering willpower, slight resistance to mental debuffs, physical ones, and the ability to push a HU past their limits for a limited period.
Not as powerful or important as Unfettered, but usable all the same.
[Character Creation Finished. Entity Hwang Sin created. You will be transported to the appropriate place now for your start. Good Luck with your survival, Hwang Sin]
The flaming orb falls, swallowing him in red light.
(...)
Hwang Sin opened his eyes. Instead of the street before his apartment complex, he is in a bathroom. A public bathroom, not the one in his apartment. Eyes that are not his own… no, something is wrong.
On the reflection of a mirror, a young man with his face soaked in water stares back at him. Deep blue eyes, a slightly angular face, and long and silky black straight hair. Pinky thin lips and a complexion without even a single facial hair on it.
Curling his lips, the reflection also curls theirs. This is himself, his new self. "Did they just transport me to the body of someone else? Or made one?" As expected, the reflection matches the lip-synch of every word.
A strange event happens, and he is transmigrated to the body of a character he made. Isn't this all too convenient? Sin gets away from the mirror, to check his clothes. A black uniform of a university of some kind.
Checking his pockets, a wallet is there. Inside of it, come cards, and IDs as well as a passport. All are written in Korean. Surprisingly, he can read it as well as he would read Japanese or English.
Maybe it is a doing of whatever transported his soul there. Given his age, maybe this person, Hwang Sin, already served in the military? It is part of their law, after all… "I'm him, I should talk as if we were different people…?"
What a complicated matter. Yet if what happened was real, and he is himself and not this Hwang Sin having a strange trip, then the apocalypse, the start of FERALR will come soon. Yet the game never had this phase, you could make a shabby backstory to your character, or let the computer make one.
But it wouldn't ultimately matter in the end. It was just a cool or not fluff you could make and then be thrust into action and survival. "Hey Sin, since when do you talk to yourself? I knew you were aloof, but not crazy."
A scornful voice calls from behind him. Using the mirror to see who it is, a languid young man, in his twenties or younger, he presumes, calls with an arrogant smile. He doesn't know who he is.
Better to not seek the problem before he knows what is happening. With a head shake, Sin exits the bathroom. The last thing reflected in the mirror was the guy's bothered expression. 'Ain't he too old to go seeking problems or bullying people?'
People should find new, and better, past times instead of clinging to hold, archaic and douche practices like those. Checking the pockets again, there are no signs of a cell phone. 'If it is good or bad I don't know. If he had one, would I know the password?'
He raises his wrist, pushing the sleeve up to reveal a digital wrist clock. Seventh of August, three days ago if he went by the time he was abducted and sent to… this body. He was sent to the past, although not a distant one…
He exits in a corridor, with a good sight of a species of garden in the middle of the building. Other three corridors going around it, if one counts this one, run a square around the "garden", some relatively tall trees, with at least ten feet in size are there, alongside small bushes and a clear vision to the skies.
A clock, no, a counter is up in the skies, showing the exact time until the start of FERALR. A small smirk appears on Sin's face. This will be without a shred of doubt, interesting.
[ARMAGEDDON COUNTDOWN: 72:23:57:46]