"Man, my head hurts. I should really stop drinking. This isn't my room, did I leave for snacks and pass out?"

He had done a great number of things he regrets while drinking, but the ones that ended with waking up in an alley tended to top the list. His head throbbed with an impending hangover and his vision was blurred. No not blurred, blocked.

"What is this? Character creation screen? Did I buy a new VR game and pass out last night? I don't even know what game this is"

The screen showed eight different species options for him, and eight more in female form, grayed out and inaccessible.

"What, I can't even play as the cute characters? How will I beg starting funds? Fine, I'll play the start properly."

Scrolling to the end of the row, he found the random character generator.

[Spin for a chance to get an advanced class without waiting for level 100 to upgrade]

"What's with that notification? Some sort of new player tooltip? Who needs that? It's just a gatcha spin, right?"

[Random Character Creation Selected. Choice Is Irreversible]

"Wait, what? Back up. Cancel. Crap, am I going to have to play this as some random character until I can buy a new copy or a character expansion?"

Character locking had recently become the new thing in the VR games he loves. In order to prevent power gaming and and encourage class development, once you create your character it is the only one you have until you buy a new copy of the game, or a second character slot of equivalent value.

[Class Selection Complete. Welcome Puppet Master]

"Puppet Master? What is this? Oh, it's a summoner class. Gets Golems, can use [Hunter] and [Shaman] skill books. Skill books? Oh, non innate skills are gained from books found at vendors or dropped at low rate by targets. So what DO I get to start."

[Available Skills]

[Summon Lesser Golem] 

"Well, that's a bit brutal. One skill to start the game? I should get some breakfast though. Where is the menu? Exit. Logout. Why isn't that working? Maybe I can only log out after I finish character creation?"

[Please Choose Character Name]

"Name, I'm terrible at names, but I want something grand and Epic sounding."

PussySlayer6969

[Name unavailable]

"Damn. Alright, what's next? Oh Random Name Generator. Wait, I'm not falling for that again, you no second chances character creation system."

Looking at the tattered brown robes, tied at the waist with a rope, that the Puppet Master class was pictured in as starting equipment reminded him of a certain character from an old game.

"Cain"

[Name Accepted. Character Creation Completed]

"Can't believe that wasn't taken. Good luck to me. But now, breakfast. How do I log out?"

Cain searched for a long while, but found no menu that included an exit or log out function.

"I've got inventory, character screen, skill screen, class talents, oh there's a heads up display option. Very nice."

When he selected the display, there were a group of adjustments available, display timer, show user Nameplates, always show monster health, automatically show user details on inspection, plus two small bars appeared in the bottom of his vision, one red, one blue.

"No, don't like the bars, is there another option? Globes. Yeah the globes look better. Now to move them to the edges where they're not in the way. Perfect. I'd set up quick potions too, but this stingy game didn't even give me any."

While changing the display, he noticed a few loose coins on the ground, he searched the area but found nothing else. What a rude way to give starting money, but whatever. Coin is coin. That's when Cain looked up from his find, into the window of the shop beside him and finally noticed his character appearance.

"Looks like it made me 180cm or so tall, not bad. A bit spindly though. Hopefully I can modify that later somehow. But why is it my face and not the default? I never use my own face. Oh well, at least it didn't give me back my own weak body, seems like this class is fairly strong, at least physically."

Cain looked his character over more closely, seeing that his short black hair was neatly combed, despite his rough start, the eyes were his same gray, and the face was definitely his own, very plain one. The same slightly chubby cheeks, with a strong jaw that left him blending into the crowd anywhere he went, thanks to his parents mix of Asian and western heritage. Not enough to be openly called handsome by most, but rarely taken as ugly or nerdy at first glance.

But his character's skin was amazing, a flawless pale tone that any Pop idol would be jealous of, one that had never seen the vagaries of time, poor diet or the sun. At least the game was kind that way. 

The sun went down as Cain was pondering the character creation fiasco, so he decided to find a place to rest, settling upon the all night Cafe whose window, directly across the street from the spot he arrived, was giving off an inviting glow. Anywhere had to be better than this dirty alleyway between two dark brick buildings. 

"I've got 5 coppers. I hope they don't kick me out, restaurants are brutal in some games"

The Cafe, which very much reminded him of an American 50's retro diner, did in fact let him sleep in the corner, taking pity on him after he bought a cup of coffee and a sandwich for a copper. And so he woke up to a very lovely looking friendly face looking at him, waiting for a response to a question she must have asked. Maybe he slept here too long?

"You're a new transfer, right? Have you figured it out yet?" The friendly brunette prodded him.

"Transfer? Uh, yeah I guess. I just created my character. Figured what out?" 

To Cain's limited experience, she looks almost Slavic or Italian, a rarity where he came from, her skin a light olive tone, going well with her thick, wavy brunette hair and well manicured eyebrows over strikingly green eyes. If she designed that look from a base character template, Cain is truly impressed. Maybe she was always that good looking, in a friendly girl next door sort of way? It did give Cain his own face back after all. 

"I'll tell you in a moment. How did you do? The transfers always show up in the same spot, different times of day, so the locals like to throw coins at them until they wake up."

"5 whole coppers. But figured what out?"

"5 copper? Most leave that much on the ground. Tough crowd last night. What you're meant to figure out, is that we can't leave. Some speculate that this is a game, but most believe that we've been transferred to a world and given a system. Only transfers and a few of the people born in this world seem to get the interface. The locals say transfers have been arriving here since before their grandparents time though, which wouldn't make sense for a game, right? What game is popular that long? Unless it's part of the storyline."

Cain began to panic at this news, he had indeed realized he couldn't leave, but was waiting to figure out how to submit a ticket to the Game Masters to fix it.

"I thought my character was bugged. I was going to submit a ticket this morning when I found out how."

The brunette gets a good laugh at his expense, looking over his character as Cain looks over hers in a very different way. She's average height for a European woman, around 165cm, and clearly athletically built under those plain cleric robes, but extra thick in all the right spots, with a gentle face that Cain can't see as anything but kind and wholesome.

The slightly curly brunette hair is tucked behind her ears, falling only to her shoulders just adds to the sexy best friend vibe Cain gets from her. Oh how he'd love to be friends with a girl like this in real life. Not wanting to disappoint her might be enough all by itself to keep his train wreck of a life on track.

"I don't recognize those starting robes, but I've only been here two weeks. My name is Misha, I'm a cleric, currently at level 11. If I'd known how hardcore this was going to be I would have rolled something else."

"Hardcore, How so?" Cain asks, curious as to what exactly he got himself into during a night of heavy drinking.

"There is no respawn in the lower levels, if you die, you're gone. If anyone returns on a fresh account they never mention it here. In fact, nobody seems to know anything here, like we're deliberately denied information about anything above our level range." Misha shrugs.

"Plus, it's brutal leveling as a Healer, I have no attack skills, books for clerics are almost impossible to buy and the drop rate is virtually zero in these really low level areas. So I needed a group to do anything, but the base character regeneration covers the damage in the first dungeon for most warriors, so they don't need a Healer until after level 10. What takes them a few days takes me forever, then later they're begging for high level healers."

She finally stops to take a breath and Cain thinks of how bad it is starting out as a Healer even in games where you can power level.

"Hey, what's the last thing you remember before being here? Do you remember the name of the game?"

Misha shakes her head. "Games like this don't even exist where I'm from. This is like a whole virtual world with perfect graphics. The last thing I was doing was walking home from university. So if it's a game, I was definitely brought to it and didn't just log in myself."

"I haven't introduced myself have I? Cain, Puppet Master level 1." Cain mumbles, his mind trying to grasp what's really going on, but he keeps getting distracted, both by the cleric in front of him and all the strangely dressed people, or are they NPCs, around him.

"Puppet Master? Oh, that's got to be an advanced class! You must have used the random generator, right? It's like a one percent chance to get one of the advanced classes, almost everyone gets warrior or Mage if they used it." The cleric, Misha, says excitedly, her happy expression totally derailing Cain's train of thought again.

He briefly wonders if he's still drunk, but he didn't have enough money to get that drunk, he's certain of it. 

"So the world is drowning in DPS classes then?" Cain laughs, but Misha frowns.

"High level healers are worshipped like heroes according to the news we get here in this village, assuming you can trust secondhand gossip. But I know for sure they treat low level ones like trash. There are so many warriors and mages that people here almost forget the other classes exist until they need one."

Cain shudders at the thought. A world filled with nothing but dps warriors and mages was a recurring nightmare of his. No mechanics skills, no healing, nothing but straight damage output mindsets.

"There's a fair number of tanks though. Warriors or Berserkers can do the job if they get a shield skill, though they're not as good as the few who random rolled Paladin to start with, they make up almost all of the random rolls who got an advanced class. Other than the Paladins, Clerics are the only real healers until level 50, when Shamans can learn a healing totem."

A quick double check of his character screen shows Cain can use Shaman skills, so eventually he will get a healing totem too.

Hopefully.

"Is the healing totem any good?" he asks.

"It's not bad for the group, but it's not enough to keep a tank alive unless they're really over geared, or the sort who self heals on hit. If you're going to heal with just a Shaman, they usually need to find a healing type spell book."

Just then a group of three humans, a Warrior sort with two mages, enters, standing in the doorway and Misha stands up to go.

"Nice to meet you Cain. Have breakfast on me, the best way to get some coin is the newbie dungeon at the end of the street, turn left out the door. That's my party there, so it's time for me to go." She flips a silver coin on the table as she leaves.

Being stuck in a game nobody leaves doesn't sound half bad to Cain. He was a high school dropout with a drinking problem, living off government disability payments due to his poor health, so it's not like he had much to lose except a few faithful friends he didn't talk to enough.