"Waah, I'm excited~!" A young boy shouted excitedly in the morning while walked out of his room. He stretched his entire body and was rubbing his eyes, a usual morning routine for him.
He saw a glimpse of his brother sat on a couch, 'surfed' through a tablet phone leisurely.
"Of course you are, even I can't wait for the night."
"Oh, you are up! Yeah, I have decided my mind, though. About what races and the first class I'll pick. How about you? Wanna be a Human, like your previous character?"
The young boy took a seat beside his brother and picked up a remote to turned on a 50 inch TV in front of them.
"The only available race in the previous game was Human, Vi. We have no opportunity to picked another race. You also watch the trailer, aren't you? You aren't that kind of freak who regards trailer as a spoiler, right?"
"What th- how can you compare your cool Lil'bro as those 'idealistic cults'."
"Of course not." The older brother chuckled lightly, "I might be playing as a dwarf. Its passive skill looks like a good asset for a 'Civilian Player'. "
"Ah! C'mon. Why are you planning to play as a 'non-adventurer?' " Viro asked him with a slightly upset expression.
"This new occupation classes open up a lot of possibilities to explore. And I found those occupation classes more interesting than all of the new adventurer classes."
"But, I also want to play in the frontline with you! I won't be a burden, you know. You can be a vanguard that blocking all the damage, and I will be a ranged class that freely hits them.." Viro said as he acted to pulled an arrow from its bow. "..I have told you that I have a dream to make a legendary party or legendary guild, and having you, a previous top leaderboard Player, will making it a lot easier."
"Don't you worry, when I said that I want to be a casual player is that I will be the one that backing you up from a resource standpoint. I might become a legendary blacksmith that provides top-notch equipment for your party, right?"
Viro had a pout on his face while Arie continued with his talk.
"And also, don't you worry about being split up with me. Here read this, based on the trailer analytics, there might be a big chance that non-combat players will accompany the adventurer as a supplier, or some sort." He showed the Tablet Phone with some pictures and words to his little brother. "Which means that they might want us to focus on being an only adventurer or an only occupation class."
After he read it briefly, Viro asked him again. "But aren't the other said that in the character creation area, we choose our first 'Class' directly?"
"Our first race, yes. But, I am not sure about the first 'Class' since the trailer showed us how we have a test to pick our first path, not how we will choose another test for the first class. I am not sure if we would do it in the character creation. But, it also plausible since the first path has no class branch. Hmm..." He answered and began to wonder about his own answer.
But only after a few seconds, his Lil' brother interrupted his thought. "Then, how about your in-game name?"
Woke up from his thought caught him a little surprised by the change of the topic.
"Hm?"
"I am going to use 'Insignificant'. You better not use it or slightly alter it."
"You know the rule that we can't use another alphabet outside of our name, right? My choice would have a limit anyway. Of course, I can't use that name. And you also won't."
As he heard the information, Viro embarrassed slightly. But Arie continued to talk.
"I'll use 'Arceede' or something. That is my non-popular alternate name. And will you choose human?"
Viro wondered something in his thought and muttered,
"I can use 'Roivicc' then." And also answered his brother's question right after. "Yeah~ it's hard to ignore exp and drop rate from its racial skill."
Viro shrugged and pressed the remote to change the channel.
For a few minutes, they were talking while not actually watched a woman promoted some furniture on the TV.
The channel Viro picked now was a dedicated channel for the game that launched tonight. It was giving some reviews and previews about the previous and this next 'game'.
It had the purpose to built the hype toward the game. The screen began with some highlights of the previous game called 'Ranker Quest : (Earth)'.
While they watched the clip on TV, Viro looked somehow uneasy, played with his finger, tried to steal some glance from his brother next to him, Like he wanted to asked something but not so sure about how to did it.
Arie bothered by how he acted and started another conversation.
"What is it? Go on."
"Hmm... I actually haven't gotten much information about the game. I haven't even watched much of the trailer yet. You know, I just came back from that 'isolation' place. We don't have much free time there. And so the information I got was only from when I am on the way home." He said while giving a sad look.
"But did you really go to the police dormitory and martial arts training ground? That's a really unusual place for a high school sophomore to go, right?"
Leaned his back on the sofa, Viro answered with a darkened expression,
"I don't think it will be so isolated, sigh~" After a short pause, he continued. "..actually, I picked it just for the game tho."
"Yeah, I can't complain about it. I know what kind of person you are.." Arie shrugged.
"..Okay then, I will assume you never watch any of the trailers. Let's review all the current pieces of information while having lunch."
Arie said while lifted up a car-key from his lap.
"Lunch?" Viro asked while took a glance at a digital clock behind him.
"Yeah. You were sleeping like a log."
While scratching his head, Viro went out with a slightly embarrassed face. Arie followed after he turned off the TV. Then, he pressed a car key and unlocked its door.
The atmosphere around the city filled with a lot of the 'game' they talked about, almost anywhere. Almost all digital screens showed the same game title with a countdown underneath it. "Ranker Quest: -Path-. The second title of the Ranker Quest series will be launch in: ..."
Viro read a digital screen from the passenger seat and became more excited.
"Wow, I would really be able to play the game from the beginning of the launch."
Arie chuckled lightly, "but at least you already feel the taste of the game. You have played '(Earth)' in its last month. They said that the ambiance would be the same if you pick a human and will be quite different if you choose a dwarf as you will be shorter. Or has a full body of fur if you create a beast-kin."
"Yeah, I read that. That's also one of the reasons I wanna pick a human."
After a few minutes, they were already in a small empty restaurant. There was only a chef there.
A man with a bandana around his head, he wore an apron and sleeveless top, showed how bulky his arm. His height was slightly higher than Arie, who was about 170 cm. And also looked a bit older, maybe around his thirties.
Arie gestured two fingers to the chef, indicated that he ordered two portions of foods, and the chef accepted it with a nod and began to prepared the food.
Arie and Viro started a talk about the game, but right at that moment, Someone with quite a similar figure to Arie came from a staff door and interrupted them.
He was arguably thinner than everyone here and somehow looked smart. Maybe because of his glasses.
"Hey 'Insignifikant', you will join the 'frontline', aren't you? there is already our friend here who will play as an ordinary player." He asked while pointing his finger to the chef.
With a sigh, Arie said, "I started to swayed now. My Lil'bro also asked me the same thing. Oh, by the way, here is my Lil' bro, his name is Viro."
Viro, who had been confused all this time, surprised and bowed hastily to introduced himself.
"My name's Viro."
"Vi, this one here is Berdian. It's his real name. And the chef here is Harden, also his real name."
Viro politely shook his hand with each of them.
"Berdian was an 'Archer' in the previous game. His ID was 'LetmeBe'. One of the top 200 'PvE' players. The chef was a 'Greatsword-Knight'. named 'Sturdstug'. Rank 10 'PvP' player."
After Arie ended the introduction, Viro jumped out in surprise with his eyes wide open.
"They are top players!? What th-, they are 'celebrities'!"
"Why did you so surprised to meet us? Your brother right there is even more 'celebrity' than us." The man named Berdian, a young-looking man slightly older than Viro, with glasses and curly hair. He said that while he was taking a seat beside Viro. He emphasized the word 'celebrity'.
"A 'trying-to-be-a-low-key-celebrity' " Harden 'the chef' added. He had a deep voice.
With how the focus shifted to him, Arie tried to change the topic by clapped his hand.
"Okay! Enough with the chat. Let's begin the meeting."
"Meeting?" Viro asked.
"We will review the information gathered and will briefly plan the guild we'll make." Berdian answer.
"You'll make a guild!?" Viro lost his cool once again and jumped from his seat.
Harden and Berdian looked at each other and chuckled lightly.
"Let's talk about the guild plan later. Viro here has only a little information about 'Path' and also 'Ranker's Quest' in general. And so, let's talk from scratch. Keep the guild information as the last part. We will discuss the character creation section and finish with guild information. Let's begin by watching all the trailers.." Arie said.
"And to make sure, I am not an ignorant nor a spoiler-free cult member." Viro, with a lifted hand up in the air, said as he cooled down.
"Hahaha, you are a pretty interesting kid." Berdian laughs cheerfully.
"And I'm not a kid either."
"Hahaha, nice one.. nice one."
While the ice-breaking went smooth, Harden prepared a TV on the wall. With a remote, he began to scroll through a list of downloaded collections. The title was 'Path trailers'. He nodded to Arie and gave the 'remote' to him.
"Okay, let's watch the trailers."