Tutorial – The Decay Begins
The
current year is 2100 and the next step in virtual reality is here with the VR
game Rule Humanity Online. No it isn’t a slave simulator or anything like that.
It’s a hack and slash RPG where players of different skills and play styles
fight to rule over the online world they play in called In Mote Homines
Fluctantur or The Floating Mountain of Humanity (FMH). The player or players
that make it past all fifteen challenging levels get to rule over these castles
where they can do things like change the difficulty of the game, spawn rates of
the enemies, and drop rates of items. Now there are limitations such as you
can’t make the game too difficult or easy and this applies to drops, spawn
rates etc. There are also multiple castles and the higher your castle is on the
mountain, the more influence you have on the game like changing the level
layouts, switching enemies types, and level gimmicks all of which are balanced
but there’s enough change that it forces you to play the level differently. The
player(s) at the top are also given a stat and money bonus however if another
player(s) overtakes them, they will get half of the previous player’s money and
bonuses.
This
game started out as a crowd funded project, but was then funded by many
international governments after they saw how big the project is and the historical
significance it brings as it creates a virtual world that you could live in and
move around unlike prior VR games that were just games where you could only
stand in place. The alpha of this game was admittedly pretty shitty since you
could only use swords and physical weaponry, but you have to start somewhere I
guess. So after that, they put in magic, bows, crossbows, and other kinds of
special weaponry and classes that you can use in trade of your normal class.
Now the game is going to be fully released with extra features not put in the
beta versions and about nine hundred and more people are estimated to play it
at launch since the tech required to play it is so expensive, though others are
expected to join after launch week. You would think more people would be more
excited to play as the first one to get to the very top castle gets ten million
USD. That’s right ten million dollars! That’s enough to set someone for more
than a lifetime!
My
name is Kaylen and I’m going to be the first one to beat the game you can bet
on that! I’m an eighteen-year old senior high school graduate who’s been
playing all kinds of games since I was a kid ranging from shooters, RPGs,
sports, and yes even hentai games. You aren’t a truly experienced gamer unless
you try those out. I’m pretty good at all of them and despite winning tons of
money at gaming tournaments, my family doesn’t believe I can make a living this
way, I’ll show them! I’m living comfortably by myself anyways on the money I’ve
made…in an apartment, but that’s beside the point! I’ll be living in an actual
house with a wife and all in a few short days. I’m going to dedicate my life to
this game to reach the top, with breaks of course so I don’t kill myself, but
full devotion none the less.
I
relax sitting up in my bed, put on my VR headset, turn it on, and say, “Begin!”
to enter the game.
Everything
around me turns white then a few seconds later the game prompts me to enter my
name. I enter Cazzuto Salvatori then the game shows me an intro cutscene explaining
the story of the game. Humanity started out on this mountain and couldn’t
really get along with each other so God lifted the mountain to the sky and will
keep it here until humanity learns to get along with itself. I’m then prompted
to choose my primary class. I choose sword and shield, aggressive type, then
the Town of Ferrum or the town that specializes in swords and up close and
personal classes. You see in this game there are five different towns you can
choose as your starting area; Ferrum, Magus for magicians and sorcery, Furcifer
for bows, crossbows, and thief/stealth classes, Pugno for martial arts, and
finally Clypeus for defensive and support classes. If you chose mage then chose
to spawn in the sword city, then you’ll have skills pertaining to both classes,
but you won’t have as many mage or sword skills as someone who chose the same
class for their city. You can still change and fix your character to your
liking later in the game, but choosing a particular city can give you a head
start in making that mixed build that you want. It feels like there’s so many
options for different playstyles and yet it’s also limited so the devs can
balance everything. Sure you can become a mage with martial arts (element
bender) that can shoot fire or whatever magic you please out of your hands and
feet (probably should make that character later) if you want, but you can’t
master everything. From the way it looks, it would probably take years to build
a class that can master every single skill and ability from every class. I’m
not doubting someone will try, I’m just ruling out that character build in my
head.
After
I finally finish customizing my character to look like myself and loading into
the game, I see the town of Ferrum and all of its medieval glory. Though the
town looks somewhat gloomy, the lively people in it, and the shinning sun
brightens it up. Man I saw gameplay of this and didn’t think everything would
look and feel this real. Without further ado, I go to the training area to test
out how to play the game along with other people then go to the quest board,
which is packed. After managing to get enough quests, I go out into the field
out the city.
Someone puts their
hand on my shoulder and says, “Hey, do you mind helping me with my quests?”
The man has
crimson red hair, a short beard, brown eyes, and an average body size. He has a
big buster sword on his back so he might be compensating for a tiny dick. He’s
pretty much your average twenty-year old if I leave out that last detail. He
appears to be going for a swordsman who can enchant his weapons.
“I’ve been
following you to see what to do…. Sorry if I seem creepy.”
Ok…
I respond to the
awkward man by saying, “Naw man it’s cool. I can be creepy to others to. It’s
probably why people like us can’t get girlfriends.”
We both laugh at
our struggle in the friendzone.
“So
what’s your name? Mine’s Kason543.”
“Cazzuto
Salvatori, just call me Cazzuto. Is Kason your real name irl?”
“Yeah.
I thought someone would pick up on that. Is Cazzuto your real name?”
“Nope,
but since we’re being so formal, it’s Kaylen.”
“Alright.
I’ll still call you by your gamer name.”
“Cool.
So do you want to do the quests now? I’d really hate to fall behind everyone
especially with that reward waiting at the top.”
“Oh
shit I totally forgot about that! Let’s hurry up!”
Once
we do our quests, grind some enemies, find some secret equipment and items, we
go back to town to turn in our quests.
“That
was a fun start to the game wouldn’t you say?” I ask Kason.
“Yeah,
but I still gotta practice my sword skills.”
“It’s
like I told you. You just do the correct movements the game shows you then the
system will do the rest.”
“Alright,
but I still need practice.”
“How’s
this for practice? We’ll be the first to beat the first boss.”
“What?
People are still getting used to the game like us so what makes you think we
can beat the boss? Were you a beta tester or something?”
“Nah
I just watched videos of the alphas and betas. It doesn’t matter if I was in
the beta or not since the devs changed a lot in the game.”
“You
guys are going for the first boss?” a girl says.
A
girl with dual axes and heavy armor approaches us. Boy she’s cute.
“That’s
his idea.”
“It
is. You want to come with us cutie?”
“Sure,
but don’t call me cutie. I like being called sexy instead.”
“Ok
cutie, do you want to join us?”
Despite
her somewhat looking baby face, her voice is pretty mature. I’d say she’s
around my age and she’s got attitude. I like her already.
“Sure. I’d like to
see my name on the Wall of Firsts.”
“What’s that?”
Kerano asks.
I tell him, “It’s
a wall that shows the players who did things first like first players to beat
the boss, first players to find a secret, and first players to beat the game.”
“Ah alright.”
“So now do you
feel confident in beating the boss?”
“Uhhh I guess so.”
“Let’s go then
before other people get the same idea,” says the girl.
As we go to the
boss room, we kill enemies along the way to get some extra XP to level up a
bit.
“You’re
pretty good with those axes,” I say to her, “You like being aggressive in
games?”
“I
like being aggressive everywhere.”
She
winks at me.
“I’d
like to fight you to test how good you really are later.”
“And
I’ll kick your scrawny ass. Hahahaha!”
“Oooooh hahahaha!”
We finish off the
enemies at I stop us at the boss gate.
“So what’s your
name cutie?”
“Temere La Cagna.
What’s yours? BangedYourMom69?”
“That
was actually my name in a different game, but not this time. It’s Cazzuto
Salvatori and I see you did the same thing I did with your name.”
“It’s
fun putting a language you learned from your family to good use, isn’t it?”
“It
is.”
So
she took Italian from her family too? This girl is way too similar to me to be
true. She even knew that I used a second language of my family. Is that just a
thing that’s commonly known from where she’s from? I’m sure it’s just a
coincidence.
“My
name is Kerano543 by the way. Do you want to tell us your real name irl too?
Cazzuto and I already exchange ours.”
“Maybe
if we win after the fight. I’ll even add that fight you want with me afterwards
as well.”
“Let’s
get this shit started then.”
I open the doors.
We go through the boss fog and see the first boss of the game. It’s a giant
hollow giant with holes in its face and body. The lore that I read for this
boss says that he used to be a human that tried to become big enough to safely
fall to the bottom to reach the planet and pull the mountain down to put
humanity back on it as well. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for him as there
are limits to human strength and him surpassing them turned him into a monster
and lead to him being imprisoned here. The area around him is a huge cave with
parts that we can run up to, to plunge attack him, but it’s only one spot so we
have to work together on this one.
“Maybe we can
bring it down by cutting at one of its legs?” Cagna asks.
“That’s a good
idea, but I was thinking we could plug attack it from those ledges over there,”
I say, “What do you think Kerano?”
As Kerano finishes
enchanting his weapon, he says to me, “Temere and I can bring its down by its
legs while you go to the top and ready for the attack.”
“Good idea man.”
We enact Kerano’s
plan and I watch Cagna and Kerano attack the giant while avoiding its attack
with well-timed dodges and even countering the attacks with their own. I’m
starting to think that I got the boring part of the plan. The giant goes down
by the time I get to the top and I immediately jump down and plug my sword into
its spine, finishing off the boss’s HP. The body disappears, we get XP and money
rewards, and displays in big golden words ‘VICTORY’.
“That was great!”
Kerano says.
“See? Told you we
could do it,” I say.
“With my help of
course,” Cagna says.
“It’s true
Cazzuto. I don’t think we would’ve won without her.”
“I admit it, but
we’ll see how good you really are when you 1 v 1 me.”
“Yeah we’ll – Oh I
almost forgot!”
She poses at a
light in the cave. What is she…Oh that’s right! I do a little funny pose in
front of the light.
“What the hell are
you guys-”
Kerano looks in
time for the picture which is taken after every first moment. Something we
probably should’ve told him about so I guess now’s a good time.
“No it’s not!” he
yells at me, “Everyone’s going to see me with that dumbass expression on my
face and it’s always going to be there!”
“And that makes it
a special photo!” I say to try lessen his embarrassment.
“Ugghhhhhh. Fine.”
We make it back to
town and set up our dual. For players to fight each other, they must both agree
to the fight otherwise players cannot harm one another. During the fight, an
invisible barrier forms around the players so no one can run from the fight.
The barrier also keeps the players not too far away from each other. There are
also some PVP locations in the world for bigger groups so any number of players
can fight each other at one time. Cagna and I decide to have our battle in town
to be show offs and for the loser’s humiliation. The countdown for the fight
begins and a crowd gathers around us.
“Don’t cry when I
knock you on your ass,” she says.
“Same to you cutie.”
The countdown
reaches zero and she charges at me. How predictable. I counter her attack with
my shield and parry her resulting in two major slashes to her health bringing
it down to near half. I manage to take some damage myself because of her
piercing skill that comes with her being an aggressive class of warrior. She
then almost instantly goes back on the attack with a dual heavy hit with both
of her axes that pushes me back a fair distance. Our health is now pretty much
the same.
“You were right
about you always being aggressive…I like it,” I say.
“Ha!”
She comes at me
again and I use my shield skill which makes it like a brick wall to lower or
even leveled attacks, lessens piercing damage, and makes her attack bounce off
it. I move with a straight stab. She tries to use the mid-air back step, but I
manage to hit her which leaves her with only about one more hit left to her HP.
“Damn!” she says.
Cagna recovers and
comes at me again and keeps hitting my shield with a series of fast and hard
hitting slashes until the skill reaches the maximum amount of damage it can
take. She then backs up and charges at me for one last hard hitting attack that
may end the duel. I back up and press a small button on my shield.
“Watch this
Kerano,” I say to him.
The shield’s
spiral turns and stops Cagna’s assault as it makes her dizzy. Kerano and I
found this shield in a secret area in the fields. It can make an enemy or a
player dizzy for a few seconds and it has good parrying abilities. I might as
well finish her off now that I have the chance, so I go for a lunge attack
skill. I pull my arm back and lunge forward. The game propels me forward and my
sword goes through her chest and impales her to the ground. ‘VICTORY to CAZZUTO
SALVATORI’ is displayed above us and the crowd cheers for my victory. I give
Cagna a helping hand up and she accepts it.
“Wow. If you could
feel pain, that would’ve really hurt,” says Kerano.
“You can feel pain
in the game,” I say to him.
“You can? So I
guess it wasn’t my imagination when I took small amounts of damage.”
“You can adjust
the levels of pain in the menu. Just think about which option to want and a
slider will appear to adjust how much pain you want to feel ranging from real
to nothing.”
“I’ve got mine
close to real,” says Cagna, “I’m not a bitch.”
“Contrary to your
name. Speaking about that, you told us you’d tell us your real name irl,” I
say.
“It’s Angel.”
“Angel huh? My
name is Kerano,” says Kerano.
“Mine’s Kaylen.”
“You got a cute
name you know?” says Kerano.
“I don’t do pretty.
So did you adjust your pain levels?” Angel says.
“I think it’s
good.”
“Let’s test it out
then.”
Angel sets up a
one hit duel with Kerano and she kicks him in the nuts. Unfortunately, Kerano
set his pain levels to what Angel said so he’s in bad pain right now. After he
gets up, we go to look at the Wall of Firsts to see our names, sell extra
equipment we found, buy better ones, and go to the town square to relax.
“That was a fun
few hours of the game,” I say.
“It was more than
I expected,” says Angel.
“Same here,”
Kerano says as he goes through the menus to get used to using the thought
controlled and the hands on one.
“This is
definitely going to be one of the best games of all time. Welp, I’m going to
take a break for now. It’s time for dinner. I’ll be back in a few.”
The two say bye to
me, but then something strange happens…the logout feature isn’t working. I try
to manual version and it still doesn’t work.
“What’s wrong?
Don’t know how to use a menu?” asks Angel.
“No I do. See if
you can logout, I can’t.”
Both of them try
to logout and can’t manage to.
“What the hell is
going on?” Angel asks.
“I don’t know. I swear
this button was lit up a few minutes ago,” says Kerano.
Everyone around us
try to log out as well and can’t which starts a panic in the city. I can even
hear screams of panic and fear coming from the other nearby town. The sky turns
a dark purple and red color before several figures in cloaks come down to each
town.
One that hovers
above our town says, “Do not panic as this is now your reality.”
What the fuck is
that supposed to mean? Are we really trapped here?
“If you want to
escape and know the real why you are trapped here, you must reach the top of
the mountain otherwise your body will die of thirst in three to five days a
little bit longer if you have loved ones nearby.”
Well I’m fucked.
“The people on the
outside are told that the first people here are going to speed run the game to
reach the humongous prize at the top and because of that hundreds and even
thousands of people will be here shortly to give you support. However, beating
this game won’t be easy as you only have three lives. Lose them and you will be
put into a permanent coma unless someone frees you from the top.”
At least we won’t
die, but then again, a permanent coma sounds worse than death. Escape one
prison just to be put into another you can’t escape from.
“Be sure to use
each other and extras hidden throughout the land to survive. Do be sure to
inform new players about the situation. Ut felix sit in te”
The figures
disappear and the sky goes back to the what it was before, but the sunset as
been replaced with the night sky.
“May luck be with
you?” Kerano says.
“You know what
that meant?” I ask.
“Yes, it’s Latin.”
Angel runs away to
the fields.
“Angel, wait!” I
say as I grab her arm.
“Let me go! I’ve
got to finish this before I die!”
She must be living by herself like me.
“I know, but we
should go with you. It would be easier with a group don’t you think? Even the
figures said it.”
“…Ok.”
“Besides what
idiot goes into a game like this alone? Besides you.”
“Kaylen!” Kerano
yells at my attempt to lighten the mood, “Don’t say th-”
“No Kerano, I
understand what Kaylen was trying to do however mean it was.”
“I apologize
anyways since I don’t know how to lighten the mood in any other different way.”
Angel laughs a
bit.
“I guess you’re
the idiot then if you know so little.”
“Hey I don’t claim
to be a genius. We should probably get going.”
They both agree
and we head off to a race against the clock in this fantasy world turned
horror. Man, someone should hire me to write headlines!
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