The World Of Skill

1st login

“Haha, Dad can’t say anything now. Since I bought the virtual reality pods from the money I won myself with the gold medal and he promised to fulfill my wish, I can now play the game.”

In the corner of Ryu’s room, a new machine is placed. It was a virtual reality pod that is in the trend since a couple of years back. Capable of running the latest virtual reality game without any lag or delay between brain command and character movements with an error of 0,01% margin. Which is why Green World couldn’t get past the 99,99% synchronization rate. 

The harmless-looking metal pods that similar to the hibernation chamber is actually one of the top reason people goes onto debt when it was first released. Now, the old version can be acquired at a price of a high-end smartphone or the new one, still costing an arm or kidney for college students.

“Alright, there’s no point in waiting anymore. The game is already installed, no problem with the connection, and the life support system is all green. I guess I just have to hop in now.”

Pressing a button which makes the pod open up accompanied by hydraulic sounds, Ryu looked around a bit before stepped in and laid down inside the pod. There is no wrong way to use the pod as long as you placed your head on a small pillow which height can be adjusted inside.

“Ugh.”

Surprised by a sudden stinging sensation made by the pod making a connection to the neural system through the spinal cord by sending an electric signal, Ryu let out a groan.

“Alright, it said that I should wait for some time before I fall a..sleep…na..tu…ra…ly…”

Welcome to the Green World. 

Where the 【Gods】, 【 Angels】, and 【Demons】 have fallen. Bringing chaos to the Old Midgard. Thousands of years have passed since the great battle where the divine beings competing for supremacy. Countless great being is forgotten along with the passage of time. With no clear outcome of the long war, the blood of Divinities has colored the ground and seeped deep inside. Giving birth to fertile lands where new species of animals living in harmony and peace.

There is always two sides to everything. As the nature-loving animal abundant in the grassland, the deep sea is generating monsters. Surviving the deep-sea pressure, with strong survivability they come out from the water and invaded the land.

The peaceful land creature is facing an imminent crisis. Fight or forced to extinction. Driven by their instinct, the calm animal turned ferocious in order to survive. Once again war is raging in the Green World. 

Disturbed by the noise, from the ruin of civilization, humans emerged. Able to hide from the calamity, they come out even stronger than ever. Able to wield the magic of Gods, battle capabilities rivaling the Demons and blessings of Angels, the humans are preying on the animals and slaying the monsters sending the three sides in a deadlock when the animals and monsters stopped fighting with each other.

The winner of the old war is unknown and no clear ruler made the outcome of the present situation where animals, monsters, and humans are competing with each other. Civilization has fallen but magic has come to the rescue. Who will win in the end and bring forth the era of prosperity?

Ryu felt like he just went through the opening of a movie. The computer-generated effect feels so real and left him speechless. Just the opening alone rivaled famous movies that eat a lot of budgets. If what he saw earlier is really a glimpse of the game world, it isn’t a surprise that so many people got hooked to the game.

「You have finished watching the introduction of the game. Will you proceed with character selection or replay the scene?

Character Selection                     Replay                      」

“Character Selection!”

Ryu wondered how it just came to him naturally. The selection was made by thinking about it in his mind. It must be because of the connection the virtual reality pod made with his brain that made it possible to make the selection. After all the commands to move the character, later on, are made by executing the commands from the brain, not by pressing buttons or moving the mouse.

Ryu can now see a projected copy of his real self in front of him. Suspended in the air with all kinds of parameters and calibration bars. Starting from the age parameter which can make him look older or younger, there are a lot of things that can be adjusted. His gender however couldn’t be changed, it was because due to the history of male playing female character which traumatized a lot of players in the virtual reality game called 【First Terra】. 

“Firstly, I want to make my hair longer. It doesn’t make sense that the school forbid male student to have long hair. It doesn’t even affect our studying abilities. Next, I want to try to make my *cough*manhood*cough* longer… Darn, to think that I couldn’t adjust that one. I don’t think I want to change anything else.”

Ryu’s look can be called average but his body isn’t that bad due to his routine of practicing archery which consists of running and some weight lifting to stabilize his posture and stamina when pulling the bowstrings. Aside from the size of his private part which he tried to enlarge and lengthen which fail earlier, he is content about his own appearance.

「The system has detected that this is the first time you entered the game. Do you want to proceed with the tutorial?

Yes                           No                             

If you choose yes, you will be moved to the training ground. If you choose no, you will be transported directly to a random city inside the Old Midgard」

After pondering for a bit, Ryu decided to proceed to the training ground. Those who choose no usually have friends already waiting for them inside the game and going to teach them all they needed to know or even help them level up. For Ryu, his only friend is Ginji and there is no guarantee that Ginji will help him. He knew for sure that Ginji is busy chasing-skirt everywhere.

“Yes, send me to the training ground.”

Right after he makes his choice, a blinding light surrounded his body and when he can see again, he is now free-falling from the sky. Strangely enough, even when he is panicking or making weird movements, something is controlling his body and making it fly across the sky. Soon enough, he calmed down and look around.

Accompanied by background music that is pumping his adrenaline, he got some view of the Old Midgard. The first continent where low leveled player gathers in the Old Midgard, 【Kentro】. Mainly flatland and forest which makes it easily traveled and explored. Ryu can see that there are other continents as he flew across the sky. The North continent mainly covered by snow and ice, a mountain range in the west, and a vast ocean in the east. There are so many places to explore and wonders to see. Only the south is dark and giving off a dangerous vibe saying death to all trespasser. These however only a small part of the Green World.

After flying for a while, he finally arrived at a small island on the sea. Strangely enough, he couldn’t make an approximate of his current location on the Old Midgard. Before giving time to assess his own condition, he heard a pleasant female voice on his head.

「You have arrived at the training ground. The tutorial has been started. Please use the command 『Inventory』 to open your bag and see your belonging. 」

Without further wait, Ryu followed the command.

“Inventory!”

A transparent screen appeared in front of him, with a style of an old RPG game, he can see his inventory which only has ‘Plain Bread x 3’.

To recreate reality, there is a stat called 【satiety】 inside the game. The player can fill the gauge by eating consumable food. If the gauge falls to zero, the player will go into hunger mode which will lower all stats and a chance to make a skill failed to be executed. If it goes for a prolonged time, there is a chance for a player to die. Dying in the game have a harsh penalty of 10%-character experience and 10% skill proficiency. It won’t seem much at the lower level but as the player reaches a higher level, this becomes a nightmare. Not to mention skill proficiency which is harder to raise in this skilled focused game.

At his bottom right point of view, Ryu can see his character satiety bar along with his 【Health Point】 and 【Mana Point】. When his health reaches 0, his character will die and mana is consumed when a skill is used.

The top left of his vision, Ryu can see 『equipment』, 『stats』, 『skill』, 『social』, 『quest』, and 『option』 other than inventory.

Along with the tutorial, Ryu is familiarizing himself with the game interface and how to move around. As it was the first time Ryu plays a virtual reality game, he is amazed at how it is so easy to move his body. It was the same as reality, or even easier.

The tutorial isn’t focusing on stats, skill, and social that much because it is only the beginning of the game. On the other hand, it is more on how to move, interact with the surroundings, and more importantly interacting with Non-Player Character or NPC.

The first NPC that he met in the training ground is so real that he mistook it as another player. The NPC was a sexy girl sitting on the beach with a worried look on her face.  Her brilliant red hair highlighted by the setting sun is a sight to behold.

“Hi there, girl, what are you doing here? Do you want to come with Onii-chan? Don’t worry Onii-chan here is not a suspicious person and will give you some candy to lick on later.”

If someone can see Ryu’s expression right now, they will definitely call the police. With a wide creepy smile and rubbing his hand together while ogling the girl’s body.

“What are you doing? That is not the right way to greet someone. Firstly, you should introduce yourself and secondly ask why I put up such an expression on my face. That way I will tell you what is wrong and you can get yourself a quest. Please try again.”

Hearing the answer from the girl NPC, Ryu was stunned for a while. He is unable to process the whole situation.

“Erm, so you’re an NPC, not a player?”

“Right.”

“I mean, there is no way for me to differentiate you from a normal player. Isn’t an NPC should have their name on top of their head or something to make it easier for me to distinguish?”

“There is no such thing. Isn’t it great? One of the developer ideals is for players to treat everyone nicely. NPC or players, all is treated equally and you should treat them nicely. It would be too late to regret later on when you offend a noble NPC and get into the jail because of you mistook them as a player, or get killed by a high-level player when you mistook them as a weak villager NPC. Of course, you could tell the difference between NPC or player when you talk to them. Just like how you talk to me. But don’t expect other NPC to tell you whether they are an NPC or not. I am only doing this because this is the training ground. The NPC here is special. We can’t be killed.”

While digesting the information, Ryu realized something.

“So, there is a player out there killing NPC?”

“This world is full of bizarre things don’t you agree? p********a trying to act like a good older brother tricking young girls. Player killing another player or even killing NPC. The worst thing about that is any NPC that is getting killed out there won’t be respawned like players. If they die, their data vanished for real. Not that many NPC killer out there thinks much about it. It even becomes their source of enjoyment.”

“*Cough* definitely there is a lot of weird people out there. A *cough*pedo*cough* I am definitely one of the few good guys out there.”

Realizing that the conversation is heading towards a dangerous direction and the mood becomes gloomy despite the girl NPC's voice tone, Ryu is amending for his mistake.

“Ahem. My name is Ryu. I am apologizing for my earlier mistake. May I have the honor of knowing your name?”

“Stop with the annoying pleasantries. My name is Abby.”

“Ah, why do you look troubled Abby? Is there anything that I can help?”

“It’s just so many dumb people are skipping the training grounds nowadays and when finally someone come, it turned out to be a great pervert.”

“*cough cough* Really I didn’t mean any harm earlier.”

“Yeah right. Trying doing that in any town and you will be put into jail if you’re lucky and hanged if not.”

“*cough cough* can we stop talking about that? I know what I did earlier was wrong since I thought that this is only a game world and I can do anything I want. I regret it okay.”

“Fine. I am not interested in making any judgment on you anyway. That’s the task of the guard in town. My task is to guide you through the training ground. Now, go and find me 3 shellfish.”

「Abby is asking you to find 3 shellfish. Would you like to accept? 」

“Alright, I’ll find 3 shellfish for you.”

Ryu accepted the quest and before he walks away, he realized that something is wrong.

“Hey Abby, what kind of shellfish should I found?”

“Dunno.”

“Eh? Are you kidding me? You want me to find 3 shellfish but you don’t even tell me what kind of shellfish you want. What if I bring 3 shellfish but you rejected it all?”

“Heh, finally someone with a brain. Most of those who accepted my quest lately need around 5 days to find the shellfish. I guess it will take you less amount of time. Find me 3 shellfish that is colored blue with yellow dots. Tch, it took quite some time before I get some new toys to play with and when they come, they want to leave me quickly. Really I miss the old days where they are all idiots and blindly looking for shellfish.”

Ryu hurriedly moves away from Abby while pretending not to hear her words. It also makes Ryu realized, the level of Artificial Intelligence is advanced enough to make him wonder if Abby is just another NPC or a player-controlled character.

“I’m really an NPC.”

“Eh, did you just read my mind?”

Looking back at Abby who gives a mysterious smile, Ryu decided to quickly finish the quest, enter the town, and asked Ginji to help him even if he has to beg in the real world.