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"This… It wasn't in the Beta."
"You could only choose Standard… But the options have greatly increased…"
"The standard option is decent, and I don't plan to tour around the place, while HardCore is…"
Dale thought for a long while and said:
"HardCore players will have close to 3 times more stats by the time they arrive at Level 100, if we consider Level 99, then they'll have 290 Stat points while normal players will have 99, if we consider 100, then they'll have 295 while normal players will have 100."
"This means a lot…"
'It's quite the significant increase in power...'
'But in my opinion, that may not be enough to make due for the massive cons… It's a trap…'
'While normal players can learn from their deaths, Harcore players can't.'
"These reworks and that message at the start… It must be saying that now things are truly like reality, this means I can bleed to death and get sick right? I can't interpret this any other way."
"While players would only get a debuff on their screen, here it's intense."
"If I bleed I would feel pain and even anemic… This could lead to severe problems, especially mid-battle."
"However, the same applies to monsters I engage in, if I cut a monster's neck, it may just die, but for the players, if they hit it only numbers will appear before a bit of its health is drained."
'That is how I understood it... Though I wonder how all of this applies for PvP?'
'This is the problem of being the first, I have to test everything on my own, players that start one to two days later will have the advantage of being able to choose something already tested.'
'It's not like it's uncommon for latecomers to catch up to those at the forefront, especially if they have some help.'
"Apart from this, the extra stats may look good but you'll lose the system's help, this is very important since people are… Bad at using weapons."
"They miss their arrows, swing their swords clumsily, trip on their own movements… It's normal, we are city people in the late 21st century, not medieval knights during the Crusades."
"It takes years to become proficient enough to fight with one… That is why the AI's help is necessary, else these games get boring."
"I knew about this feature of reducing the System's help since it existed in their previous games and even many others, and I always tried to play with a low help..."
"But I always had a little bit of the System interface on for that little correction..."
'That was one of the reasons why I trained so much in the past year… Since I prefer to play without the AI system… But not to this degree, I did not expect this at all.'
"However, it is true that I didn't train in Virtual reality with such help for the past year in order to raise my Status and Skills…"
'Ever since I learned I could raise my skills by practicing in VR, I started to experiment and I found out I grew faster without its help… For that reason, I turned it off.'
Dale had made his choice.
"I'm all in… I'll bet on the fact the green box is connected to this game and go for the choice with the most potential… It's risky but…"
"Since I would likely play without the AI's help, that doesn't matter, the rest… I can get used to it. Ha… I just don't need to die..."
'Time for a playthrough with Zero deaths!'
Dale selected HardCore!
[You have selected, HardCore, are you sure of your choice?]
"Yes."
[It's HARDCORE MODE, are you really SURE?]
"... Yes…"
[Last chance, read it properly!]
"YES, I FUCKING AM!!!"
[...]
"MY SPECIAL TIME IS RUNNING OUT! GET IT OVER WITH!"
[Character has been built] The AI voice smoothly, completely ignoring his outburst
[Would you like to proceed to the tutorial?]
"Hum? What about the Class?"
[Class selection shall be done after the Tutorial]
"I see…"
'Another thing that has diverged from the Beta...'
'I took most of my plans with the idea that I would have one... But it's not a problem regardless, though this means that I won't be able to seek out some of the Class Skills I was aware of during the Beta.'
'Albeit I still had some plans that considered this option, the... "What if I do it without selecting a Class" scenario...'
'I'll make something out of it.'
Still a bit angry, Dale just said yes.
/FWOOSH!/
And his body was sucked into the stars at high speed toward the horizon…
…
/Open!/
/Light!/
"Urg... Where..."
'Dale opened his eyes, only to be assaulted by the strong and warm sunlight...'
"Did it start?"
Dale slowly raised his head as he squinted his eyes.
He was currently wearing a pair of bland brown shorts with a few holes in them and a tattered white shirt, it was the standard basic gear all newbies received.
The *Ragged Cloth* set!
The boy's version was a bit bad seeing the way he looked, while the woman's version was actually quite neatly designed...
Though it might've been better this way.
He was currently inside a large hall made of stone with the only entrance being a large pair of closed metallic doors in the distance.
The place looked ancient due to the many vines and rubble all around, showing the decay of time.
Whatever this place was, it had been abandoned for ages.
[Time until Tutorial opens, 27 Minutes]
"..."
'27 minutes?... This means... It was counting from the moment I logged into the character creator? Good.'
"I knew it, it's just like in the Beta." He said as he scratched his chin
Turning around, he checked the time, 14:23.
'According to official posts, the game lobbies will open at 14:30, allowing the players to enter into the tutorial lobbies and fill them up.'
'And the game itself would start at 3 pm, or 15:00.'
'Each Lobby has a max player count of 1000, so once 30 minutes pass, all lobbies will open at the same time and the tutorial will start, but my case is different since the clock has already started due to my extra time.'
'I logged in at 14:20, so my Lobby would open at 14:50, giving me my 10-minute head start.'
"By the time other players enter, my time will be down to 20 minutes while theirs will be at 30… Or so it should be." He said with a small smile
Dale looked at the ceiling, it was over 8m tall, and the walls were almost fully smooth, it was impossible to climb unless people got on top of each other.
Most of the ceiling was covered by an arched ceiling, but a small part of it was broken, and that was from where the sunlight came from.
"I had this idea once, but it was thanks to Jelly's joke… I should send him a message later once the game starts."
/Crack!/
Dale cracked his neck and knuckles, he looked at the hole in the wall where sunlight was coming through and smiled.
He also brought forward his System interface, so far, nothing special from there...
Apart from the fact his Health and Mana bars were gone...
"So Uh... Here... Yeah."
"First… Start recording… Yes, I want my identity secret… Good."
"And change my hairstyle and color as well since people aren't retarded… Good."
'Everything's done, no one should be able to recognize me now.'
His muscles tightened and he started to run!
/Fwoosh!/
Dale jumped with power unlike that of a Human, while in the air he used one of his feet to kick the wall and push himself higher…
/FWOOSH!/
"Huff!"
'HAHAHA!'
/Shine.../
As the wind blew on his rundown shirt, he smiled as he looked at the sun shining over the city as his body flew in the air...
This was the freedom of VR that could not be replicated anywhere!
[Disclaimer]
[An interesting discovery. You found a secret route!]
[The Tutorial has yet to start, all of its mechanics are deactivated until the designated time]
[Time until Tutorial initiation, -36 Minutes, 35 seconds]
[As a reward, all stats +5 during the remainder of the tutorial]
[You were the first to step foot into the Tutorial area! Would you like to leave your name in the Hall of Fame?]
"Yes, but use my proxy name." He said as he pressed in the air
'But stats huh, I didn't try it yet…'
"Open Status."
'Ohh boy, it's been a while... Though it's not as interesting as before, considering I can do it in real life too...'
{Opening}
[Player: DareDevil (Dale Houston) Attainments: None
Level:0 (0%)
Class: None
Character Status:
Strength: 50(55); Constitution: 50(55); Dexterity: 50(55); Mental Power: 25(30); Reflexes: 25(30); Mana: 0(5)
Skills:
Slot 1-> Spear Technique 1.5-Star (Neutral)
Slot 2-> Close quarters Combat 0.5-Star (Neutral)
Slot 3-> Stable Emotions 0.5-Star (Passive)
Slot 4-> Spatial Awareness 0-Star (Passive)
Slot 5-> Fighting Spirit 0-Star (Active)
Current Effects:
+5 All Stats
Inventory(+)
]
Dale was surprised, but not that much.
'It's as I thought… Possibility number 1... My body would affect the in-game stats... Though I did not expect a 1 to 1 ratio.'
"Not only that, some of my Skills were transferred and adapted to the classification system of this game… It doesn't matter much anyway since I don't have the AI's help."
'Though I feel a bit offended, My Level 7 Spear Skill got transformed to a mere 1.5 Star Skill?... Was it really that bad by this game's standards?'
'I thought I was pretty good at it...'
'Perhaps that was why my scores were always so damn low...'
"... Now that I think about it, I have 10 Skills, and that is the same quantity of slots you have access to in this game…"
'But not all of my Skills were transferred... Well, it's not that bad either way, everything that I care about is here.'
'Although some things changed, such as the HardCore mode, I can still proceed with the plan, since I never planned to die from the beginning.'
'There is one thing to test, but that will have to wait until I log out…'
"I'll have to change the plan a bit, especially due to the stat boost and the fact the tutorials mechanics are disabled… I can't believe it's truly what I am thinking, but there is the possibility it is."
'I'll have to edit this out from the recording later... This will likely not be the last time I'll say that.'
Dale looked around the place, he was currently inside a broken stone tower similar to a skyscraper.
This was the place where the tutorial took place. From the hall down there, people could choose to either compete for the rewards on the highest floor or proceed down to continue with the tutorial.
"But since the mechanics are disabled, I can simply jump everything and get the rewards… Or at least that is what I understood from this…"
'Only one way to find out!'
Dale turned to the side and started running, he looked for a staircase and went directly to the 9th floor where the first big treasure chest was located.
"It's really there… And as I thought… There is no gatekeeper."
In a large room similar to a church, a brown chest could be seen on top of the pedestal.
/THUD!/
Dale walked carefully and picked a stone before he threw it on the chest to see if any traps would be released.
"I have one life, so I'll treat my character as my own body…"
Dale approached the chest and opened it carefully.
[DING]
[You've passed the first Trial flawlessly without taking a single hit!]
[Rewards are maximized]
[You've acquired, Lost Wanderer Cloak]
[You've acquired the Broken inscribed dagger]
[120% Experience points]
[You have Leveled Up!]
[All Stats +2]
"Well well well! That was easy… But I can't guarantee other mechanisms will be disabled… So…"
'Time to speedrun the Tutorial!... Cautiously.'
Dale started to run.
There are 21 floors in the Tower, however, there are only 3 challenges that reward the players upon completion:
The ones on the 9th, 15th, and 21st floors.
Not only that, there are a few treasure chests scattered around the tower, both hidden and in plain sight.
There was no need to get all of them as most of their rewards were either too basic for him, or easily replaceable elsewhere.
So instead of losing his precious time gathering early-game resources, Dale just grabbed what he could and needed as he continued to run faster and faster, climbing the tower with great momentum.
After all, some of the chests were literally on his way, so wasting one second here and there to gather them wouldn't be a problem, this wasn't an extremely precise speedrun where every millisecond mattered.
Nonetheless, such materials would end up overflowing one day, as such, there was no need to question his decision and just rush through them as his inventory space as a HardCore player was limited.
And after Dale confirmed for sure that all of the traps on the Tower had been disarmed, he continued to get faster and faster as the memories of his Beta playing time resurfaced in his mind…
No, that is wrong, the traps weren't even rendered yet… That would be a better word.
Because the Beta had yet to start, even with his advanced time, the world was still getting prepared...
This was the true hidden reward of having burled the system!
"Hup... Here I am."
And like that, he finally arrived on the last floor… But he wasn't alone this time.
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Notes