Beginner’s City

Ethan gazed at the floating system window suspended before his face, his face oscillating between shock and increasing excitement. 'Here, let me just.' he blinked a couple of times, then leaned forward, reading the elegant golden-black lines shimmering in front of him.

Taking a deep breath to stabilize, he concentrated on the [Status] panel. The interface wavered as if it were tuning into his mind, then settled into a sharp display:

[STATUS PANEL]

[Name: Ethan Graves]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Overlord (SSS-Class)]

[Level: 1]

[Health: 100/100]

[Mana: 80/80]

[Strength: D]

[Agility: D]

[Endurance: C-]

[Intellect: C+]

[Charisma: B]

[Luck: B-]

[Dominion Points: 0]

[Potential Rating: SSS]

[Harem Slots: 0/10]

He gazed in mute amazement.

"Wow… it really does feel like a game. Unbelievable. This has got to be a dream," he breathed. A smile crept across his face.

His stats were crap. Pure bottom-of-the-barrel. A level 5 goblin could sneeze all over him and kill him off to a respawn screen—except, there was no such screen here.

And yet, when he rolled his shoulders and clasped his hands over his head, his body did not feel frail. His limbs were more slender, muscles harder, posture ramrod-straight. He felt taller, healthier—as if he'd been poured into the frame of a pro athlete.

Still, all that was dwarfed by one statistic on the screen.

Potential Rating: SSS

One line. One title. Made his current stats useless. He could be weak right now—but with SSS potential, there was no limit to how powerful he could get.

He wasn't some other player. And he wasn't the game's gaudy "hero" either.

He was something different.

He was an Overlord.

A buzz roared in his chest like a hurricane.

"What the fuck, man. Overlord? This wasn't even in the original game plot!"

He pulled his eyes from the status screen and looked over the edge of the platform. Far below lay an otherworldly landscape—scattered rock spires, lifeless trees reaching for the sky, and in the distance, freestanding stone blocks floating like bumper-car dodges.

Suddenly it hit him.

"Wait… how the hell do I descend from here? I'm, like, eight kilometers up."

As if the world had been waiting for that question, the stone platform lurched and began plummeting.

"AAAAAAAAAA—WHY IS THIS SO DAMN FAST?!"

Wind roared past him, tearing at his hair and clothes. His stomach flipped as the platform shot downward like a missile from the stratosphere.

Just when he was sure he'd be splattered into digital paste, the platform slammed to a halt a few meters above the ground.

Ethan lurched ahead, gulping, chest pounding. His legs trembled with adrenaline.

"Holy shit… I'm alive," he croaked.

And then the ground beneath his feet dissolved to dust.

"Wha—OW! That's so impolite!" he cried, falling into the earth. He crawled up, dusting his clothes. "Whoever created this intro sequence, I swear I'm taking your job!"

Grumbling still there, he opened the [Map] tab with a flicker. A little blinking marker throbbed insistently:

[Destination: Ember's Hollow – Beginner Town]

"Fine… step one: get to town, learn how the system works, live, and most importantly. level the hell up."

He crossed the desolate landscape. Each step crunching on jagged rocks. The faint, misty mana hung about him like static tickling his skin. The whole world vibrated with a creepy tension, as if unseen eyes peered from the darkness.

And yet with each step, something within him grew calm.

This was real.

The game that had been his solace from a life of no hope… was now his life.

And he wasn't even some guy behind a screen anymore. He was in the game.

Later, wooden palisades crested on the horizon. Ember's Hollow—a frontier town with high, rough walls and defenses that yelled perpetual danger.

By the time gates towered over him, Ethan's determination had hardened into something hard and pointed. Tougher than he'd ever been in his whole life.

This was no fantasy anymore. There were no save games. No reset commands. No logout screen.

This was it. Nothing but the grind—and the ascent to the top.

The gates groaned open as he came close.

Inside, chaos reigned.

Vendors yelled over each other, selling cheap beginning equipment and skewers of roasted monster flesh. A group of three mages raged at each other by a fountain, fingers crackling over thrumming mana crystals. A blacksmith pounded molten steel into form, each blow booming like thunder.

Noise, color, life—overwhelming, and Ethan adored it.

His eyes blazing fiercely, he pushed through the crowd to a sprawling dark oak and stonewalled two-story building. The Adventurer's Guild towered before him, its broad doors thrown open wide to greet rookies and grizzled veterans alike.

The crowd surged about the entrance. He forced his way in and stepped inside.

The hallway was a sensory deluge of metal, sweat, parchment, and yelling. Quest boards lined the walls, covered in missions ranging from herb gathering to monster killing.

A queue of novice adventurers wound towards a forbidding red-haired receptionist at the main desk. Voices rose and ebbed, laughter and quarrels intermixing in the smoky atmosphere.

Ethan lingered for a beat, absorbing it all.

Here, he was nobody. A clueless newbie with no reputation and no money to his name.

But that wouldn't last long.

He was the Overlord. And he'd dominate this world.

He stiffened and strode towards the counter—

Then came to an abrupt halt. He stared at someone in the crowd. His jaw fell open.

".Holy shit."