Jules walked to his gaming pod. Like yesterday, he didn't care about others and just removed his clothes, jumping back into the gaming pod in his undies.
He pressed the big button on his side, and the plastic lid closed.
Inside the gaming pod, he said, "Logged in."
The familiar red laser light scanned his body, [Player Glitch detected, logging back to the Universal Online.]
The big Universal Online logo appeared before his face, and everything blacked out.
After some seconds, he opened his eyes, only to see a red message on his face.
[Transmission Interrupted!!! Player Glitch, do you want to restart the transmission?]
He pressed yes, and this time a small countdown of 10 seconds appeared on his screen.
[10..7..4..2..1..0]
Zap!
Everything blurred in front of his eyes, and he found himself floating on top of the vast black land, stretching to the horizon in all directions.
Above his head was the endless dark space filled with countless stars. The light from these stars was bright enough to let him see everything clearly around him.
It took him a moment to realize that he was inside the space village.
A smile formed on his face as he shouted aloud, "I am back!" and started laughing, "Haha…."
His laughter echoed in this endless, empty plain. It took him some minutes to focus back.
He checked himself, and sure enough, he was in the trash-grade white shirt and brown beginner clothes with no mask on his face.
'This is the new start,' thinking that he looked around and spotted the only black stone slab on the flat plain.
There was a dull hexahedron crystal rotating on top of this rock. He flew toward this crystal and reached out to grab it in his hand.
The moment his finger touched the crystal, it started shining in bright light.
Ding!
[Space village synchronization started....1% 2% 3%.....25%....98%.99%.100%. Synchronization finished.]
A series of notifications popped into his ears. He ignored them and focused on the crystal as it suddenly fused with the black stone slab and started changing its shape and color.
The slab transformed into the shape of a little boy with the stature of a 5-year-old.
After a few seconds of waiting, the little guy opened his big round slightly grey eyes and stared at him.
He had fair skin with brown freckles and dark red hair. The little guy was staring at him with a dull, plain smile. It looked forced, but then he saw those bright eyes beaming with curiosity and interest.
Excitement radiated from those eyes. Glitch stared back in interest, as he knew this boy was the assistant ruler assigned to him.
Assistant rulers were NPCs that handled the space village in the ruler's absence. Each assistant ruler had a unique personality.
The assistant rulers were like blank states that learned things based on how the ruler managed the space village. Each of them had advanced AI, which evolved based on the ruler's progress and decisions.
These Assistant rulers were the only entities in the game that were bound by rulers, and they could not betray rulers.
After staring at each other for a few seconds, the little boy bowed to him. "Happy to see you, master."
Glitch found it super interesting, as this was the first time he got such a mannered guy as his assistant. In his past life, most of the time, he either got some incompetent corny assistant or some old coons that showed him no respect.
In the matter of assistance, his luck was never great. But this time, even though he did not get a cute loli or some sexy lady, he had a great feeling about this little guy.
He smiled at the little guy and moved his fist for a fist bump.
The boy looked at him and then at his fist, tilting his head.
Glitch introduced himself. "I am Glitch, and show me your fist."
The boy, though confused, did as his master said, and showed his fist to his master.
Glitch gave a fist bump to the guy and asked, "So, what's your name?"
The little guy once again bowed to him. "Master, I am Lark."
Glitch found a kid calling him master a little uncomfortable, so he said, "Lark, stop calling me master."
Lark once again bowed down. "What do I call you?"
Glitch thought for a moment and said, "Boss will do, and also, you don't need to bow so much. It's better if both of us focus on the development of Space Village rather than wasting time on these formalities."
Lark was about to bow again, but then he froze and nodded, "Ok, boss."
Glitch nodded and looked around the empty black land. It was so flat that there was no rock or even pebble present in the space village.
This black land was the default empty ground he could transform to his liking.
At this time, Lark said in his low-pitched, excited voice, "Boss, are you ready to listen to the tutorial?"
Glitch shook his head. "Nah, just move to the next stuff." He already played so many times that he knew all the basic work by heart.
Lark became a little disappointed. As the assistant ruler, it was his job to help, but then he shook off this feeling.
Not wanting to be a dead weight, he hurriedly walked toward Glitch and handed a little grey marble in his hand.
The moment Glitch held the marble, a barrage of notifications popped in front of him.
Ding!
[Congratulations to Ruler Glitch; you successfully bind with your space village.]
[Shakhan Species detected… changing the name of Space village -> Shakhan village]
[Space village status!
Village level: 1.
Village capacity-> 0/∞.
Time difference: 1:10
Funds: 0
Essence: 0
]
[
Title: Ruler of Shakhans.
Effect: 1. As the ruler of the Shakhans, you will start with neutral relations with all the Shakhans species in the Universal world.
You can communicate with Shakhans.
]