Today is a very important day for every student who reaches sixteen years. Today is the day when everyone from the world of Tarro embarks on their true journey which will decide their fate and future.
In Tarro, there are only two ways to live a blissful life. One is to be born with a silver spoon or to awaken a rare or powerful skill.
Tarro once used to be a normal world where humans stood at the top of the food chain but it came at the cost of disturbing the world balance to a large degree. This in turn angered the gods of Tarro, so they punished the humans of Tarro.
Ninety-five years ago, a celestial announcement was made from the sky. No one could see who it was but everyone could hear the announcement.
The announcement went like this, "Human denizens of Tarro, for too long we stood still hoping that you would learn from the mistakes that you made. Your greed is killing the world of Tarro, but you did nothing. So we decided to punish you, in turn hoping to save Tarro.
You will suffer by the same hands of beings that you deemed low. The animals and plants hereby mutate and gain power and intelligence far beyond you. They will attack you, kill you, and feed on you as you did on them.
Every ten years, your habitats would encounter large-scale beast hordes in addition to normal hordes which happen at random. On the eve of the fiftieth year, a special horde will be the one leading. This will occur again after another fifty years but with double effect.
If you survive these, we will consider your punishment completed and hope you learned the lesson.
You may be wondering how to survive such disasters. Don't fret since we considered only punishing you and hoping not to exterminate you, you'll be provided a way.
Hmm, after clear consideration, we placed ten dimensional stores across the world. Here you can buy what you call a virtual reality helmet. If you are wondering why I am talking about virtual reality helmets, it is the way you can save yourselves.
You are going to play a VRMMO game, uh, but not exactly a game. The place you'll be sent is real and it is where you can get skills and weapons for your survival. Everything else you have to learn yourself, and one more thing, items in the dimensional store could only be purchased by real currency like gold, silver, etc…."
Hearing the celestial announcement, everyone was stunned. Some thought it was a prank while some thought the end was here.
The governments had a different idea. The locations of the dimensional stores were directly embedded into the brains of everyone. So they investigated them first and were truly surprised when they learned it was true.
The true surprise came when small packs of mutant beasts started to attack towns and villages came into light. Now everyone knew it was true for sure.
Immediately the governments started deploying troops to hunt down these beasts but it was in vain. Sure the weapons killed few but it took more ammunition than it would normally take, multiplied by ten. This would cause a dent in the treasury of the government.
It was not the cost of weapons that terrified them but the lack of attack power. Many academics were sure that when powerful beasts started to show, they would pay the price of life and indeed they did.
First, they started to try to use the virtual game and see what happens. Of course, it was not easy to learn how it helps since they weren't given any manual. Many were depressed as they couldn't find a way to survive.
The attacks increased and the death toll increased too. The hope came after four years of suffering and losing half of the population. For the first time an awakened appeared. He could apply the skills he learned in the game, for real.
The governments checked to verify it and were astonished. It was indeed true but there were some lacking compared to the game. The person was not as strong as in the in-game. In fact, he was at basic level zero. He could only use the original skill he got when he entered the game. Everyone gets one skill referred to as Innate skill.
This problem was soon dispelled. The awakened can increase his power the same way he did in the game. When he reached the level at which he acquired the skill in the game, the skill manifested in real life after crossing that point.
After several awakened experimented they too got the same results but the only problem was this applied to skills earned through hunting or completing quests or by achievements. The skills that are brought manifest randomly and only when one reaches high levels in both the game and real life.
The weapons were the real problem as they couldn't be brought to this world but there was hope as the celestial announcement said that weapons can be transferred to this world. They just have to find the way and indeed they did.
Only weapons crafted by awakened in the game can be transferred to the real world, and this caused a huge demand for blacksmiths and enchanters but these skills are not common and one with both is rare. The ones, who awakened at least one of these skills, became celebrities and the most guarded people in the game and real life.
Yes, some people awakened not one but two skills when entered the game and they reached levels considered legendary.
Even with a way to bring them over, these skills are rare and moreover, most are lower-class skills. After years of looking for ways to overcome the scarcity, someone found a way. Legendary weapons and above can be brought over to the real world when they are level enough to wield them.
Those who held them were considered gods and this caused chaos. The greed showed up and people were PK'ed in the game to acquire them.
Though awakened won't die and would be spawned there was a death penalty. For forty-eight hours they can't spawn again and moreover, they would lose a level or more. For example, if a person of level 10 died whose XP bar is 99% filled, he would be directly demoted to level 9 with a 0% XP bar.
That means he has to gain the experience once again. This causes a huge difference between them and others and they may never get a chance of revenge as the awakened would already be far away by the time he gets spawned.
Since here no one could find who they are as they use game names that are not real names and their features would be different too.
Of course, the greedy ones can't escape with evil doings. The honor points decrease depending on the player they killed thereby reducing reputations with the factions.
There are many factions. The most prominent are Elves, Humans, Dwarfs, Orcs, Angels, Demons and undead.
Depending on the faction they belong there would be penalties to pay. If the awakened kill someone from the same faction there would be a huge penalty and it would be worse if the awakened is a title holder.
If the other party is from another race, they gain a reputation from their won faction but a negative reputation from the other party.
The honor points don't depend on faction. The penalty only depends on the honor points both parties have. Though the governments passed a rule to not PK others it went on.
The solution came early on when one of the awakened accidentally killed another who had a lot of dishonor points, he received a huge bonus. The total dishonor points converted to honor points and he was rewarded with them which raised his reputation to a different level and became untouchable in that faction.
Not only that it was later learned that the dishonored awakened lost half of his levels when he spawned and got a penalty, a 50% reduction in attack power which got him killed so many times. The penalty lasted for six months. No one knew what happened to him later as was never seen in the game again. Many thought that he died during the large-scale horde invasions that happened that year.
This is not the only story that lost lives due to being dishonorable but many gained from PK'ing and with greed in play nothing will win. Even now one has to watch for those greedy bastards who lie in wait to reap others hard hard-earned benefits.
The new ones would be indeed protected from them for a year but the only problem is they wouldn't be safe from other new awakened.
Now coming to the present let's take a look at our main character,
Wait...where is he?... Uh, there he is. That idiot is sleeping during such an important moment in life. Here I am wasting my time for him and he is sleeping without a care in the world. I would like to, no, anyone who sees this would indeed like to beat the crap out of him.
Slap!
"Aahh, who did that?"