Chapter 8 : Dancing with the Skeletons (1).
Dancing with the Skeletons (1)
Virtual reality was able to beco the forefront of the modern era because anything was possible inside a VR world. In the VR space, anyone could beco the Hulk, Iron Man, or even Marilyn Monroe. One could blaze through the streets on a race car faster than an airplane, or jump down a cliff without a parachute.
Anything was possible.
But that didn’t an one could be good at anything.
In fact, it was hard.
Although one could do anything one wanted in the VR world, but it was hard to do it well. Jumping off a cliff? One wouldn’t feel any pain, but most people weren’t able to do it. If they could, there wouldn’t be people crying and shaking in fear as they get trained at boot camps.
This was the biggest hurdle one had to overco when playing virtual reality gas, especially RPGs.
Virtual reality gas gave players the power to beat a bear to death with just their fists, but even so, it was only possible for two or three out of every ten. The other seven or eight failed.
There were two reasons.
First, they couldn’t utilize their powers. Given a car with an upper limit of 600 km per hour, most people wouldn’t be able to go over 200 km per hour. Not only were they scared, but they also lacked the driving talent and experience needed to freely move around curves without crashing.
The second was their distaste for killing living creatures. To them, the virtual creatures looked no different than real, living creatures.
The first problem was sothing the players had to solve for themselves, but it was up to the content creators to solve the second problem. VR gas creators found the need to design their gas so that players could more easily focus on the ga.
If blood exploded out whenever one swung his sword, or if one pierced a creature with a spear and could feel its dying heartbeats, or if the creature’s organs started spilling out through a cut on their belly, or if one crushed a monster’s head and its brain exploded everywhere, then the ga creator would be wearing handcuffs.
As a result, the beginning of VRMMORPG gas was childish to say the least. Monsters were shaped like jellies or polygons to make the ga seem less violent. So gas even had candies spill out of monsters’ bodies like piñatas.
But Warlord was different.
Warlord’s main content involved fighting monsters, and the ga creators believed polishing this aspect to the utmost was the path to success.
Thus, they made ga battles as realistic as possible.
By realistic, it ant cruel. Blood spurted, and that was it. No organs spilled out from cuts, no brains exploded out, but blood spurted out realistically. Players could always turn this option off, but the fact this option existed was ga-changing.
Furthermore, when monsters got injured, they wouldn’t just sit still but roar angrily. They moved to cover their injuries, and they charged at whoever gave them the injury.
This was why Warlord beca the ga to watch. Warlord’s battle was the cruelest and most breathtaking of any other ga.
Conversely, to those playing VR gas for the first ti, it was a challenge. There were many who couldn’t adjust to the ga even after paying the large sum of money to play it.
Warlord’s solution to this problem was simple.
They made a very thorough tutorial. The tutorial designer is said to have said the following.
“If you don’t want to play, then don’t. It’s not being sarcastic, but my sincere advice. There’s no reason to play this ga if it’s stressing. There are other gas to play besides Warlord. So don’t play if you don’t want to. Why spend money and force yourself to play a ga?”
There was a rumor that this employee gave a written apology... in any case, new players had to go through 280 minutes of tutorials in order to start playing Warlord.
This tutorial contained many battle situations, from killing monsters to being completely destroyed by them.
Most players who go through this tutorial co out with half of their souls drained.
The sa applied now.
Figur’s Castle!
The Beginner’s Inn, famous for its lon beer, is located in Figur’s Castle.
As this was where new players started out, it was filled with newbies who just finished their tutorial. These newbies were currently sitting dispirited at the inn’s tables, staring at the lon beers they received for completing the tutorial.
‘What the hell.’
‘Is this a ga or torture...?’
‘Should I just sell my V-Gear? I don’t think I can play this ga if it’s like that tutorial...’
Though they managed to pass, they had received a huge shock. They had heard about the infamous Warlord tutorial, but they didn’t think it would be that bad. Of course, their opinions had changed now that they’ve experienced it.
Most of the players were contemplating whether to continue playing Warlord or not.
At that mont, a player with a completely different deanor appeared.
“Whoo!”
A man walked down the stairs leading to the 1st floor, stretching his arms out as if he just got in a good exercise. He had a bright expression, as if he just got off a good sweat at the sauna.
‘My body’s finally moving again.’
The man was An Jaehyun, or rather, Hyrkan.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve had a good fight. A man’s really got to see so blood every once in a while.’
To him, the tutorial served to recover so of his battle sense. At the sa ti, Hyrkan was feeling elated.
‘It feels like I’ve finally returned ho.’
Is this how salmons felt when they ca back ho?
Hyrkan felt like he finally put on so clothes that fit him. As a result, he was feeling extrely delighted as he humd and tapped his feet to the beat.
The other players, who had been debating whether to continue the ga or not, stared at Hyrkan as if it was the most absurd thing they had ever seen.
‘Who the hell is he?’
‘Is he crazy?’
‘He’s humming? He’s clearly a newbie with those clothes, so how can he be humming?’
They would not normally pay attention to others, but they had just co out of five hours of long torturous battles. To them, Hyrkan simply looked... mad.
On the other hand, Hyrkan paid no mind to them. He didn’t even put them in his thought.
He simply didn’t care.
At that mont, the Beginner’s Inn’s NPC owner spoke to Hyrkan.
“Good work. It’s nothing big, but here’s so beer for your troubles. Drink it.”
[You completed the tutorial magnificently. You received a 1000cc lon Beer as your reward.]
As a woman’s pleasing voice flowed into his ear, the NPC gave Hyrkan a glass of beer. It was better described as a jug, which Hyrkan chose to chug down his throat.
“Kya!”
‘Haven’t had this in a while!’
As the beer flowed down his throat, its lon scent and special sweetness cleared Hyrkan’s throat while making his mouth fresh.
‘Co to think of it, the last ti I drank a lon beer was... it was before I fought with those Stormhunter fuckers, so it’s been years, huh?’
The lon beer was a delicacy one could only taste in the VR world. It was made in partnership with the number one VR gourt content creator, Beautiful Taste. Warlord’s gourt content was as popular as its battle content, since never before seen flavor could be created in VR worlds.
“Kaa!”
After chugging down the 1000cc beer, Hyrkan stepped out of the Beginner’s Inn without a hint of hesitation, and bright sunlight greeted him.
‘I’m back!’
The Hero Slaughterer Hyrkan, has co back to Warlord.
★★★
[Hyrkan]
-Level 1
-Class: Beginner
-Title Count: 1
-Stats: Strength (3) / Stamina (3) / Intelligence (3) / Magic (3)
Hyrkan stared at the note-sized hologram above his watch.
Staring at his status window, he felt conflicted.
These four weren’t the only stats. If one researched deeper, one would find many more detailed stats. There were over ten different kinds of attribute resistances, physical and magical defenses, bonus movent speeds, and much more... It goes without saying that Warlord players, especially rankers, enjoyed having lots of numbers. If they got their numbers high enough, they felt happy just looking at them.
Of course, Hyrkan was no different.
But looking at the abysmal numbers in front of his eyes, his stomach felt empty.
‘I have a lot of grinding to do...’
His first task was to fill up his status window with numbers.
However, he had sothing to do before then.
‘Alright, ti to go get my class.’
It was obtaining his class.
It wasn’t hard.
Warlord was a hard ga with a complicated battle system. If the battle preparation was hard as well, then no one would play the ga.
Because of this, battle preparation was exceedingly easy compared to the actual battle.
Class selection was a pri example.
Most gas had a complicated class selection process. They required players to reach a certain level, run long pre-requisite quests, or make you travel far away.
But in Warlord, there was a Class Tower about 10 minutes away from the Beginner’s Inn. Swordsman, priest, and magician were the three classes over 90% of Warlord players chose. They didn’t care too much as their play style varied significantly depending on how they developed their skill tree.
The necromancer Hyrkan wanted was a magician.
‘Beco a magician and choose dark magic as my first magic.’
When players chose the magician class, they were given a choice.
Black magic or white magic.
If one chose black magic, he beca a black magician. If a black magician went down the necromancer skill tree, he would be called a necromancer.
At the sa ti, level 1 players could learn a magic or a skill after selecting their class. In other words, one could use magic starting from level 1.
The ga didn’t irritate players by making them do annoying quests before going into battle. The ga creators knew players would go crazy by themselves once they got into fights.
‘What should I choose?’
There were many options to choose from after choosing black magic.
Most chose an attack type magic. Players chose the magician class for that purpose and level 1 attack type magic was still useful later in the ga.
The problem was that players had to raise low-level skill’s rank to prepare for high-level skills later on in the ga. It was annoying to grind low-level skill ranks when one beca higher level, as it was annoying and ti-consuming. The best way to raise a skill’s rank was repeatedly using the skill against monsters near the player’s level.
Advancing in both skill rank and player level.
It was the best thod of raising skill ranks.
‘Summon Skeleton.’
The most basic of the necromancer skill tree was the Summon Skeleton skill.
If one’s Summon Skeleton skill rank was low, he wouldn’t be able to learn higher-tier skills.
The answer was obvious.
‘I wonder how well these skeletons can satisfy .’
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