After that infinite fall, my consciousness spilled into a body... not exactly my actual body, although it felt like mine... It's as if I had the body I had when I was 20 years old... no better yet. It was like when I was I joined the gym for a year doing daily exercise... my maximum splendor... if that was like they had returned me to my best moment, the cervical spine didn't bother me, nor did that pain from a hand injury... nor the tooth. That I lost by eating that torrezno... my best moment...
My mind was also clear, like in college, like before the nights of drinking, smoking, eating and unhealthy habits. It's not that I have taken a lot of drugs in my life; rather, I was always a good boy who sometimes tried something. I was fullness of faculties now...
I opened my eyes. I was in a blue room, without furniture, without doors, without a roof, without anything... A voice sounded in my head...
"Good morning, player. I am your system assistant in World of Athair, if you have any questions, let's start with the physical customization."
"Can I call you Data?"
"Yes, if you like, you can call me Data. Thank you for the name"
"I have a question. What can I customize?"
"You can personalize any physical issue, from your size, your complexion, your appearance, anything that does not imply a total or global difference with your real self of no more than 20%"
"Does my physical appearance affect my statistics?"
"Your weight, size, and muscles can affect your statistics of agility, strength, resistance, charisma... or rather, these aspects translated into statistics"
"Can I see my current stats?"
"To open the statistics panel, say: data, open the control panel"
"Data, open the control panel"
As in the games I was so accustomed to, a stats panel appeared before me.
CHARACTER: Lion
Strength: 10 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Dexterity: 7 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Constitution: 12 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Intelligence: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Wisdom: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Charisma: 9 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Perception: 10 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Luck: 10 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Life:11/11
Mana: locked
Spirit: locked
Ki: blocked
Skills: No skills recorded
Level: 1; Exp: 0/1000
Titles: none
Equipment: none
Age: 21 Height: 1.78 cm Weight: 90 kilos Build: average
"Data, what is the normal value of the statistic in a human, what is the maximum, and if it is possible to increase them?"
"The statistics for a human would be 10 for the average, ranging between 2 minimum and 18 maximum"
"Can stats be increased during gameplay, and if so, how?"
"You will be able to increase statistics by absorbing the essence of defeated enemies, through magic, through items, through achievements, through titles and through skills"
"Can I modify my wisdom, intelligence, luck and the rest of the non-physical statistics?"
"Non-physical abilities cannot be modified except during gameplay, because it would jeopardize the avatar's synchronization."
"Data, is there a maximum time for me to create the character?"
"There is no maximum time; the tutorial will only begin when all the characters have been created"
"Let's start physical customization"...
And so the first thing I did with my character was to add long black hair.
I was a cheater and an exploiter. I had a lot of things to think about... Although the first stupid thing that came to my mind was because the system considered me to have less charisma than average, I could understand why it considered me clumsy, because I was, but ugly, not very charismatic?...
Even if what I'm telling you that it isn't that kind of story, I didn't hesitate to change something down there, haha. Who wouldn't?
After the initial frustration of being called uglier than average, I began the process of customizing the character, basing everything on my own body, even if it was at its best, any modification would harm my synchronization rate, perform several tests, increase or decrease by 10 % height would not harm me by a simple 10%, but by changing the body so much the synchronization rate changed in a ratio of 2 to 1, that is, 20%, although it was not linear, the smaller the change in height, the lower the cost, However, increasing from 1.78 to 1.85 only influenced on by 5%...
With a height of 1.78, I was not tall, although I was not short either, and as I had read a long time ago, a larger body would only give my enemies an easier target...
However, I tried to make a partial modification, lengthening just my arms, not that I had a T-rex complex, but as a boxing coach told me to discourage me many years ago, my arms were about 5 centimeters shorter than the average for another person of my size, this was a disadvantage in reach, which would lead to hand-to-hand combat and having to be a fighter who endured beatings...
Bufff.... in a game, this was not a good thing, so I proportionally lengthened my arms by 10 centimeters...
The synchronization went down to 4%, I went down to 7 centimeters, and the synchronization stayed at 1%. When I put only 5 centimeters, surprisingly, the synchronization not only did not go down but increased by 0.5%, and what is better, my skill went from a sad 7 to an 8...
So if I corrected my defects, not only would it not decrease the synchronization rate, but it could even increase it. This was the best that could happen to me. I was a cheater, an expert in looking for loopholes in numbers and in things. Now, yes, The game began; it was no longer following the typical desire to be bigger or stronger but to create the perfect body for the mind...
Physical defects are really what make us naturally more clumsy and unbalanced. A quick process led me to an analysis of my entire body, and I began to make a list of defects...
Small feet for my height (a 41 foot was a small foot for a man)
long torso compared to my legs (with 1 meter of legs, my torso was proportionally longer than it should be), plus it altered my center of gravity
Small, chubby hands
eyes small and a little close to each other
oval jaw
neck a little long
nose, a little aquiline
shoulders a little narrow...
Hollow feet...
I began to correct everything like a little sculptor; I modified everything; I went from 41 to 43 feet, from a 1-meter leg to 1 meter 5 cm, and I compacted my torso... I modified everything I put on my list... I quickly opened the window of stats:
Strength: 12 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Dexterity: 13 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Constitution: 13 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Intelligence: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Wisdom: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Charisma: 10 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Perception: 11 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Luck: 11 *substats unlockable after stat +16
SYNCHRONIZATION RATE: 98%
The result was much better than expected; my body felt like a glove, much better. Not only was there not that feeling of clumsiness, but it seemed like I had discovered new sensations...
I continued to do tests and increased my height to 1.85 meters. By increasing in size while maintaining the same proportionality, the synchronization rate only dropped to 94%, 1% less than before... I made certain adjustments to my leg size. Feet and other issues, always pursuing the goal of a certain golden ratio, and everything that a freak like me had seen in fighting sports... I increased my muscles a little, since if I increased more than 10%, the same synchronization would occur. It was plummeting...
However, if the body could be modified by parts, why not the muscles?
I increased the muscles of my legs and feet by 20%, as well as those of my hips and trunk, but not those of my arms, which only increased by 5%. With certain adjustments, this was the most optimal result that I could achieve.
CHARACTER: Lion
Strength: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Dexterity: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Constitution: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Intelligence: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Wisdom: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Charisma: 12 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Perception: 14 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Luck: 12 *substats unlockable after stat +16
Life:12/12
Mana: locked
Spirit: locked
Ki: blocked
Skills: No skills recorded
Level: 1; Exp: 0/1000
Titles: none
Equipment: none
Age: 21 Height: 1.85 cm Weight: 98 kilos Build: average
Sync rate 97%
What would that additional 2% mean? I didn't know... but no one had told me about this, so what would the rest of the 2000 players have done, how many would have tuned so finely? It was impossible to know whether or not I had obtained an advantage; only the game would tell.
"Data, I'm done; what's next?"