After Earth Online: The Iron Warlock

It Begins With Shop(lift)ping

Leo appeared in a flash of light on a sidewalk of a rather busy city, the weather was a bit cold, carrying with it w chill that seemed to permeate all the way to his bones. Everyone around him had thick clothes on as they all struggled to keep the cold at bay. He looked up at the sky with a flourish noticing flakes of snow slowly drift to the ground as the very world around him seemed to ignore his very existence. this… was completely unexpected, he at least expected some sort of tutorial or something of the like, but he was here in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no direction.

[A random backstory has been generated for you]

[Leo Freewind was born from a forbidden romance between a Techronman delegate and a human maid. Unfortunately, his birth was nothing more than a stain on his father’s reputation as the delegate already had mates and children of his own. The matter was even made worse when it was discovered that his maid mother was a witch, going against everything the Techronman race believes; as magic is considered a taboo for them.

Largely inheriting a significant portion of his mother’s magical abilities, Leo Freewind has been thrown out of his father’s household one cold winter night, with nothing to his name, and to a world that would be unforgiven in its assault of the young Hybrid, what will he do now?]

He had this urge to roll his eyes over what he just saw, but he couldn’t help but feel how deeply ingrained and immersive this game was. Unlike other games there was no starting point, he wasn’t exactly sure how other players fared, but from what he could see, everyone had to make do with what they have, and also try to find their own way.

In a way with such a terrible start, it was pointing him directly to a life of crime, because that should be the only way he would be able to survive on the streets after being kicked out. But he wasn’t worried, if there was one thing he knew how to do, it would be surviving on the street. But before that he had to take a little look at his status page.

SECRET IDENTITY: Leo Freewind// HERO/VILLAIN NAME: n/a

RACE: Human/Techronman Hybrid// ALIGNMENT: Undetermined

ABILITY: Magical(Warlock)// GRADE: F-// FAME/INFAMY: (0/0)

PASSIVES: [Adaptive lvl 0] [Technopath lvl 0] [Arcane Sight lvl 0]

ACTIVES: [Analyze lvl 0] [Shock lvl 0] [Black Bolt lvl 0]

MONEY: 100 credits// HIDEOUT/LAIR: n/a

Leo blinked his eyes, and shuddered a bit from the cold as he started moving down the street pondering on what’s going on, for one there was hardly any information about the game before its release, and now the status sheet did not seem to have any answers either. This game was basically a taste and see kind of experience. There were no levels, no HP bar, no MP bar, or a stamina bar. It was almost as if he was here with his own normal body trying to figure things out with a chance at getting stronger.

He had no idea how to increase his grade, or how the basic mechanics of the game worked, hell he even had no idea where he was. He looked up and around him, noticing the hundreds of different races walking about, the hover cars, bikes and boards. The high-rise buildings in the distance that lit up the night sky with their glow, and the rows of buildings on both sides of the streets that served as stores for a plethora of things.

Leo blanched as he looked around, did they actually want him to rob one of the stores or something, he might be desperate and frantic, but he wasn’t here to play the game without any sort of plans. He needed information, but before that he needed clothes. It was bloody freezing and all he had on was a white t-shirt with grey trousers and a brown boot. It was ugly and simple, and only did the basic job of making sure he wasn’t naked.

He took a few steps down the street, ignoring the café’s and the restaurants as his stomach took the opportunity to warn him of his hunger. He frowned again, it seems the system of the game was really putting the backstory into effect and using it to determine his current situation. He basically had an idea of what was going on, pushed into a hard situation, it would be up to him to either surpass his difficulties and come out stronger and pure of heart, forged by the flames of adversity. Or he gives in to the darkness and fall to the dark side.

It was the crucifix of a great hero or an extremely tragic villain. It was funny if he had to be honest, cliche in a manner of speaking, yet he found himself relating to it quite a bit. His situation in life was just too damn similar.

His feet came to a stop at the side of a thrift store, he walked in looking at rows of goods and clothes arranged within it. Leo couldn’t tell what this store was for, there were clothes, tools, junk food and even records and small electronics. It was weird if he had to be honest.

~zzzz!

Leo shifted his head to the left, there was a digital watch there that for all intents and purposes seemed dead as it was clustered with a pile of other watches in a bowl. But he just felt… or rather heard the watch tell time. It was weird, but it was probably his Technopath ability giving him access to the watch. He went over to the counter where a blue skinned obese man was leaning over, clicking the buttons of a remote as an old school plasma TV cycled through different channels. Leo swiftly picked up the watch and immediately struck a conversation with store clerk, making sure to keep the watch within his fist.

“Hi how much do you sell your clothes?”

“1 credit.” The clerk answered with a bored voice.

“What about the tools and appliances?” he asked again

“1 credit for everything in the store, buy goods worth of 10 credits and get another free, enjoy your shopping.” Leo blanched with annoyance at the whole thing, it was obvious this guy really doesn’t want to be here, or even if he did, he really didn’t care about customer interaction.

[Analyze]

[Mogrin Morgo]

Honestly he expected more information to show up, but that was it. He shook his head and moved through the aisles, checking for clothes and maybe something good to spend the system allocated hundred credits on. He picked a pair of thick black trousers. They seemed like jeans. But were more like the cargo pants worn by the army. He got a long sleeved shirt to wear over his current t-s**t, a pair of black boots with steel buckles and thigh length leather jacket with a hood. Along with some woolen gloves and a face-mask that looked like it would be at home on the face of a doctor, except this was black.

He easily slipped the stolen watch into the pocket of the jacket and then went to the counter with a smile that was a little too large for his face. He paid for everything he had bought, watching as his 100 credits became 95 credits. Then he walked out of the store, the watch in his pocket seemingly burning a hole through it.

[You have carried out a criminal act (Shoplifting), you have gained one infamy point.]

[Gain enough fame or Infamy to activate system generated quests. The kind of quests you receive would be dependent on your amount of fame or infamy. More infamy would generate villain aligned quest, and fame would generate heroic aligned quest. There are no anti-hero quests, but heroic acts can be carried out in villainous quests, and villainous acts can be carried out in heroic quests.]

[Quest: The night is young and you’re almost out of cash, steal from someone to ensure your survival. // Reward: 20 credits + amount/loot stolen. +2 infamy.]

And just like that he got his first quest, he shook his head as he placed the digital watch on his wrist, somehow finding the buzz from it very soothing and familiar. He smiled as he walked away from the bustling streets towards the darker areas of town, he had already stolen from Mogrin, but it seems what you do before the quest doesn’t count, he had to look for another prey. Or so he thought until he went past an alley and saw…