Chapter 20 - Tutorial: Unlocked

Riley woke up naturally as the sun started to shine brightly into his window. Normally he would be groggy after being awakened by the sun — he'd normally close his blinds and sleep through the day before being awakened by his mom — but he felt completely refreshed, and, without a moment's delay, Riley pulled up his skills menu and proceeded to check out his upgrades. The updated description stated:

" Level 3. Toggle Skill: Upon casting, the user immediately equips his Disguise Equipment. No cost. No duration limit."

"Prerequisite: To activate , the user has to be completely unseen by people."

"Disguise Equipment: Upon unlocking the 'Vigilante' class, the user is given access to a set of unlockable equipment specifically made to aid in completing Vigilante quests. To unlock the gear, complete the main story quests. In addition to this, the player is able to upgrade their Vigilante Disguise Equipments through 'Class points', which can be obtained via completion of class-specific time-limited and side quests."

"Unlocked equipment: Mask, Cloak, Legging, Gloves, and Boots. Full set bonus unlocked."

Upon reading this new description, Riley fistbumped the air and cast , equipping his equipment to check out its new abilities.

After his equipment pixelated into existence, Riley stared into the mirror to check it out. Other than the mask, Riley thought that he looked great. The hoodie and sweatpants looked stylish, but his new additions helped him stand out even more. The gloves were a nice fit, and unlike typical gloves, they were fingerless, with leather lining in certain areas. The entirety of the glove was made out of black cotton, with the leather providing a different texture and color of matte black.

As for his other new piece of equipment, the boots, it looked like a typical pair of sneakers, except it lacked any kind of branding on the side. Similar to the rest of his gear, the sneakers were black in color, were shaped perfectly for him, and had extra padding at the bottom which allowed him to run and jump without hurting his feet.

Pulling out the "Status" menu, Riley inspected his new equipment. First, Riley clicked on the "Gloves" section.

"Vigilante's Gloves"

"Class-specific equipment. Binded to Riley Petesgeralt"

"Gauntlet. Level ⅕"

"+2 Luck"

"UNIQUE Active - Thieves' Gloves: Using the ability provides the user different benefits depending on usage and situation. Thieves' Gloves can be used to or . Mana cost: 50 mana. Cooldown: 3 minutes"

" "

"Pre-requisites: Identify the target while squatting to cast. Increased chance of success if target is distracted."

"Description: Upon casting this spell on a target, the user is able to stealthily palm or steal an object from another person. This spell only works on objects that are stored in pockets or located within close proximity of the target. Works best on items that can be concealed in a fist."

"Prior to casting, the user will receive a window indicating the chance of success. If the user agrees to it, the task will be done automatically."

""

"Pre-requisites: Identify a locked object while squatting."

"Description: Upon casting this spell in close proximity to a locked door or safe, the user will summon the appropriate tools necessary to unlock the door or safe."

Prior to casting, the user will receive a window indicating the time it will take. If the user agrees to it, the task will be done automatically. Once the picking process starts, to cancel, the user will suffer from a 2 second cancellation inaction debuff, rendering them vulnerable."

"Unlocked at Level 2: UNIQUE Passive - Thieves Gloves Upgraded: The user can now with a higher chance, or faster."

'Wow, that's crazy! But what does automatically mean? Does the lock just magically unlock itself?'

Riley walked to his bathroom and locked the door from the inside before closing the door from the outside, thus locking himself out. He then squatted and proceeded to cast while looking at the lock. Out of nowhere, a pick and an L-shaped wedge appeared in his hands, and a window popped up.

"Picking time: 20 seconds"

"Accept/Decline"

Without much thought, Riley accepted it, and the window disappeared. Suddenly, his body felt different, as if he was a puppet being controlled by someone else. Knowledge and information filled his head as he placed the wedge in the lower part of the key hole, then inserted the pick into the lock.

While in this state, Riley felt like he knew exactly what he was supposed to do; he applied pressure with the wrench at an angle to ensure that there was tension, and he wiggled the pick forwards and backwards, testing each pin one by one. With every successfully picked pin, there was a satisfying "click", and the wedge would move downwards ever so slightly. Upon "clicking" the last pin, the wedge pushed its way through, successfully unlocking the door.

A window popped up notifying Riley that the task was completed successfully, while both wedge and pick pixelated out of existence.

'Wow, that felt… different! It was just like lock picking in open-world RPGs!'

Thoroughly impressed by this, Riley was excited to try out the other skill from , but he didn't want to actually commit a crime. Instead, Riley thought long and hard before he came up with an idea.

He walked to his closet, and placed his wallet into his jacket pocket. Once again squatting, Riley cast while looking at the jacket pocket. Similar to the previous experiment, a window popped up.

" has failed. Reason: Object size is too large."

Remembering the description of the skill, Riley smacked his forehead as he stood up, retrieved the wallet, and instead, pulled out a few dollar notes and stashed them in the pocket.

Sighing and returning back to his stance, Riley once again cast

"Chance of stealing successfully: 100%"

"Accept/Decline"

Accepting the window, Riley once again entered a trance-like state where he moved smoothly and his senses were enhanced. Looking around to check for witnesses, Riley then felt his hands slowly enter the pocket, elegantly palming the money before swiftly hiding his arms back into his own hoodie's front pockets, standing up and walking away.

"Task completed successfully."

Riley smiled to himself. Though it seemed stupid that the system forced him to look around even though he was alone in his own room, nevertheless, it was a great demonstration of his power; it kept him aware of his surroundings to ensure that he'd be able to steal without being caught.

Riley then inspected the next piece of equipment, the shoes.

"Vigilante's Shoes"

"Class-specific equipment. Binded to Riley Petesgeralt"

"Shoes. Level ⅕"

"+2 Dexterity"

"UNIQUE Passive - Shadow Walk: While unnoticed, the user is able to walk stealthily without making any sound."

"Unlocked at Level 2: Shadow Walk: While unnoticed, the user is able to run stealthily without making any sound. The user is now able to balance well on narrow platforms."

'Nice. This plays along well with all the stealth equipment I have.'

Closing the description, Riley noticed that his 'Status' page was different. Under his avatar was a star with a small number "5" at the bottom left.

'I wonder what that could be. A set bonus maybe?'

Set bonuses in games are passive effects that players receive as a bonus only when they equip multiple pieces of equipment belonging to the same specific set. For example, in World of Legends, if you equip a full set of Dragon Scale armor, which consists of a dragon scale helmet, gauntlets, breastplate, leggings, and boots, the player will receive a special buff; their attacks will start applying a "Burnt" debuff, where enemies will receive constant burn damage over time.

Clicking on the Star, Riley saw the new skill he gained from this set bonus; .

"Mana cost: 20."

"Cooldown: 10 minutes."

"Duration: 1 minute.

"Pre-requisites: Full set of Vigilante armor is required to activate this skill."

"Description: Upon casting this spell, the user forms a barrier that spans a 5-meter radius. With this barrier in place, phone and radio signals will be 'jammed' and prevented from leaving the barrier, and any sound made or caused will be prevented from exiting the barrier. While the barrier is active, the user gains a +10 buff in their Luck and Dexterity. The barrier is only visible to the user."

'Wow, that's seriously op! But this is actually good; completing my stealth missions now will be so much easier. Especially now since I can just swing my bat around without worrying about the sound my bat makes or people raising the alarm.'

'Actually, let's test it out.'

Riley walked to his backyard and cast . Instantly, he saw a sphere encapsulating the area around him, spanning a 5-meter radius. The sudden appearance of the grey aura surprised and scared him; his neighbors were usually out in their backyard on Sundays, meaning that they too would see this strange phenomenon.

Riley tip-toed to his backyard's fence and peered over. His neighbors were at the edge of the sphere, just barely outside. However, they were conversing and having fun, as if nothing had happened. Riley rubbed his chin before coming to a realization.

'I'm such an idiot. The skill description clearly stated that nobody could see the barrier but me.'

With the zone up, Riley pulled out his smartphone and checked the signal. It showed that he was out of coverage. He tried calling his mom, and sure enough, the automated voice informed him that he was out of the service area.

Smiling to himself, Riley opened his music player app and blasted a random song. It was heavy metal, and under normal circumstances would've brought noise complaints from the neighbors. However, this time, no one seemed to notice. He peered over his fence and saw his neighbors still chatting. He screamed profanities at them, but they still continued with their conversation without a care in the world. The ability worked exactly like the description said it would, and that meant that stealth missions would be a total breeze from now on.

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Patch 19.0

- Regular weekly update

Name: Riley Petesgeralt

Age: 16

Job: The Roleplayer

Class: Vigilante

Level: 13

HP: 250

MP: 220

EXP: 295/297

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 23

Vitality: 25

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 22

Charisma: 26

Luck: 20

Skills:

Roleplayer's Mind

Virtual Body

Analyze (Level 5)

Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4)

Physical Endurance (Level 3)

The Cinderella Effect (Level 1)

Dodge Step (Level 2)

Counter Flip (Level 1)

Leg Sweep (Level 2)

Power Punch (Level 2)

Extreme Agility (Level 2)

Sense Danger (Level 2)

Trash Talk (Level 1)

Power Swing (Level 4)

Quick Draw (Level 1)

Minimap (Level 1)

Incognito (Level 3)

Equipment:

Vigilante's Mask (Level 3/5)

Vigilante's Cloak (Level 1/5)

Vigilante's Pants (Level 1/5)

Vigilante's Gloves (Level 1/5)

Vigilante's Shoes (Level 1/5)

Full set bonus unlocked: Shadow World