Everything that was happening around him was almost like a dream. A world of imagination. He leaned against the cold stone wall with his back. Raising both hands to his shoulders to warm himself he noticed a button was on his left and right shoulders. Pressing the left did not do anything but pressing the right a menu showed up with the following categories.
Instructions
Spells
Chat and inbox
Immediately he pressed the instructions button and a panel showed up.
General
The player's main purpose in the death game is to live and survive from the "Waves", other players and hazards. "Waves" are the challenges prepared by the gamemaster to test who is worthy enough to live.
Body
A player's body in the virtual world will be very similar to their original body before they were kidnapped. However, that is only at the start of the game. Due to the "moldable body" setting any player could train their body to become stronger. Even an old person will be able to have a stronger body if they were to work hard.
Spells
Most spells are used by typing codes on the wristboard located on your left arm. Some spells can be voice activated while others are "passive" spells that will aid you without any commands. The specific usage of said spell will be presented to you at the spell shops or your "spell" menu after you get the spell.
Gold/Paper
Gold and Paper are the currency of this world. Or to be more specific the players before the third great abduction had settled upon them as such. Gold is used for buying spells. Paper is used for every humanly need. Food, bed and houses.
The dimensional bag
The bag on your waist is called a dimensional bag. It can contain any number of items. And no one can take away your bag. It is tied to your body. Dip your hand in your bag and you will immediately know what is in it and how to draw it out. But be careful, other people can dip their hands into your bag.
Animas
These are AI monsters that exist in this world. Some are just neutral beings. But dozens of them are ruthless against humans.
The instructions ended there. It wasn't close enough to answer his questions and doubts at all. Only thing he knew was that he was inside a video game world. When he lived in Mongolia he did at times think about how life would be better if he was transported into a fantasy world away from all his problems but who could have imagined his wish would be granted in this form. But there was one other thing he noticed.
Wait, I didn't have any paper money, right? Does that mean I have to gain them as soon as possible?
Which could mean trouble since the only way to gain money was to work. And for Bold that word had a siren attached to it. It's been so long since he did something remotely similar to studying or working. He had the money to fill all his needs, why would he do something he never wanted to do? But digress, the thing this world calls "job" may not be as bad as Bold was expecting.
He strolled around the city examining every building he went past. After spending forty or so minutes wandering aimlessly he finally encountered a 2-flat inn. Bold slowly opened the wooden door and looked around. The place was dimly lit but the atmosphere was hardly moody as a bunch of bards sang and danced at the center of the hall. Bold cautiously entered the inn.
"How may I help you?"
A tall thin man with a moustache who was standing behind the counter. He keenly looked at Bold as he wiped the glasses clean.
"I..I'm hungry"
After that walk he realized food was more important than job.
"I see I see, yes. Please order what you like from the menu. Of course, you have to pay with paper first".
"I-I don't have any paper"
"How about some gold? If you are a new player then you surely must have some"
"Yes, I do. How much is chicken with salad?"
"250 gold"
"Hmm"
Bold became aware at that moment that he didn't know how much value 250 gold had.
"Umm, what's the currency value between paper and gold? It says here that the chicken salad can be ordered for 500 paper"
"Gold is two times more valuable than paper" said the thin man stoically.
"Five times. You lying bastard. Only 100 gold is enough" said a large man with spiky hair from behind them. He arrived next to Bold and patted him on his back.
"You a newbie here? Got gagged by those bastards recently?"
"Oh, ahh, umm. Yeah"
"Listen. Use ya starter gold for spells. It's dangerous to go around without purchasing any. Ya wouldn't want to get beat up by these tight skinned fuckers like him, do ya?"
Bold knitted his eyebrows towards the bartender.
"No"
"Then get the hell out of here. This place's food stinks as much as it costs".
"Hey, boss. This fella ain't got some decency. Want to let me show him?" said a dark skinned man as he approached them from the doorway".
The spiky haired man pushed Bold away and grinned towards his opponent.
"Get the hell away from here, boy. This is about to get rocky"
By the time Bold went out through the door rustling, rattling, yelling and panting were heard from inside the inn. He slapped his face to make himself more awake and headed towards the shopping area.
After passing a few spell and item shops he was attracted by neatly built houses that sold spells. Entering through the door he saw a man with grey hair with a roughly huge build standing behind the counter with a bored expression. But as soon as he saw Bold, a smile formed on his face.
"Hello, how may I help you? If you're looking for spells then ours is the best place around".
"Yeah. I am"
"Well, what's your element, mister?"
"Element? What's that?"
"Oh, you new here?"
Bold bit his lips and quietly nodded his head. After the incident that just happened now he wasn't very relaxed about revealing to others that he was new in this world.
"Ahh, your wristboard. Let me look at it".
He did as he was told and the man raised his eyebrows.
"Ahh, wind type, aye? The small symbol next to the buttons is the signifier of your element. There are 9 of them. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark, Nature, Lightning and Spirit".
"I-I see"
"Now, there are dozens of choices you can make. Please look at the scrolls that I have. The spells effects are written clear and cut in here. You need not worry about any deception".
Bold scrolled through the scrolls, his eyes rolled through the rolls of papers. It took him a while. About half an hour. But the man was patient with him. Afterall, these spells did cost a heck ton of a lot of gold. The lowest spell had the price of 900 gold. While the most expensive one cost 2500. The choice was hard. Bold scratched his head and sighed.
"Hey, mister…umm"
"Jonathon Keems" said the shopkeeper.
"Mister Jonathan. Where am I?"
"This place is the town called Mallimou".
"Okay, but more importantly why is this going on? What is this death game?"
"Oh, yes. If you're new that question is probably bothering you to death. I've been here for the last ten years. I remember being transported to this world just like it was yesterday. I screamed and cursed as hard as I could when that figure told me I was thrown into this death game".
"Wait, did you say ten years ago?"
"Yup. But trust me. I am luckier than some. Some unfortunate ones, the originals were all put into this program here in December 2030. A lot of people. 300 million people if I remember correctly. They were the first ones to spawn into this world. There were towns, cities and resources already made for them so that they could survive. Otherwise, there could have been a serious uproar.
Nah, my bad. There were uproars and chaos amongst them regardless. Fighting over who gets how much territory and how much they want to make their sect great again by conquering other sects. They split up into kingdoms and fought. Millions died from it. Until finally they decided not to be stupid and had a meeting to decide which dictators or politicians if you were to say it generously, would rule the land. And they split up the towns and cities".
"So, that means I can't just travel around carelessly, right? If there are borders"
"Nah, it's fine. Tons of new players are spawning here recently so they can't be rude enough to not anyone trespass. Anyways, this virtual world apparently started functioning since 2030 and it's been going on for 30 years. This is nuts".
"Yeah, nuts. And… it explains a lot too" said Bold while contemplating.
Indeed, ever since he was born the news of dozens of people disappearing from certain areas were huge. There were in history books and on some news. No one could figure out what was the cause. There was fear amongst parents and children about these cases. And alas to think that he would be one of the captives.
"Ehh, for someone who has been living here for 10 years, life is not that bad. Only the news about the waves is frightening" said Jonathon with a weary face.
"Yeah. But, there weren't any waves in the past?"
"No. There weren't any at all. There were animas, of course. But they were mostly found in forests and caves. They weren't such a big threat. To be frank, people were the people's enemies in the past. And the death game creators are being suspiciously cryptic about these waves. I'm personally expecting the worst. They probably got sick and tired of feeding us and are planning to butcher millions with these waves".
Jonathon looked dimly at his desk. But soon he shook his head and smiled kindly at Bold.
"But if everyone tries their best to work together, think everything will be fine"
Bold winked and beamed at the scrolls. And it wasn't long before he made his choices. A spell known as shagai shoot was bought with 1400 gold and horse summoning for 1300 gold.
"Alright. Time for my work then" said Jonathon as he pulled out texts that were written on wooden platforms from the corner of the room and placed them on the table.
"What's your name?"
"Bold"
"Full name, please. It must be the name that's on your menu box"
"Bold Hongor"
"Mmhm. Mongolian, huh? I see why you picked these two spells" he said with a grin.
But he did not waste any more time in chit chats. After opening and putting the two scrolls face up his eyes narrowed and he started chanting a mantra of sorts. Soon vapor started to rise from the scrolls and silver light emerged from its texts. From the mantra the man was chanting Bold heard his name being mentioned. And at that instant, the vapor immediately flew towards him and wrapped him in its embrace. His whole body shined with silver and when it went out Jonathon stopped his chanting.
"Check your menu. The spell option. It's already on there".
Doing what he was told he saw the two spells had already been enchanted to him. It's instruction on how to activate it was written there as well.
"Just so you know. It might take a while to actually perform the spell. You have to train the moves over and over again to get a hold of the delicacy of the command necessary to activate it"
"Oh, really? Why didn't you tell me before?"
"It's not like you can't run around without a spell. Just get out there and get the knack of it! Everyone has done it and they became powerful. And so can you, if you stop your complaining"
The man's sudden roughness shook Bold's entire body. Seeing that he might have been a little too harsh the man's eyes softened.
"Well, you'll probably do just fine without my scolding. And congrats cause those spells are gonna protect you until the day you die".
"Till I die? I can't get them off?"
"Not without an enchanter like me. And you have to agree to the unchanting agreement. Only then it can be taken off from you. Otherwise, no. Your enemies can't steal it from you. But once you die the spells will be dispersed around the entire virtual world".
"Hmm, okay. Thanks mister"
Bold left the shop and pranced around the town to see where he could train with these spells. He wandered into the park located at the rear of the town.