Alain's face went from an expression of existential horror after this interaction with Tiera, to a stern, serious expression as he read through the contents displayed on the tablet.
<^Create a Character^>
…
He immediately stopped reading and selected Barbarian. It wasn't even a choice in his mind.
<^Create a Character^>
Alain rubbed his chin, it seemed to have no information on if the traits gave you any perks or not. Normally he would blow past the actual role playing traits as he was always more interested in getting to the action. His goal was to at least try to pick traits that would best define his ideal Barbarian.
…
The list was extensive. Alain pondered for a solid 5 minutes on this screen, occasionally peeking over at Phil's tablet.
"No peeking, it's a surprise!" Phil lifted his leg up to act as a defilade, obstructing Alain's view of Phil's choices.
"The system doesn't show any information on the traits, do you think it's just for fun or like, maybe, it impacts the main quest?" Alain questioned. He glanced over at Tiera and she seemed to be legit staring at him. Eyes wide, he shifted his view quickly to the right and looked at Bard. Bard was looking at his tablet with his mouth agape. He looked over to the left and made eye contact with Alain.
"Just wait until you see what I'm going to be doing in this game." His eyebrows were raised as high as possible in a suggestive manner.
Alain was still too flustered from the unexpected eye contact from Tiera, so he didn't pay Bard much mind. He looked back over and she was writing on her notepad now. He decided he needed to ask about these traits so he got up and walked over to her desk.
"Uh hey, Tiera. The tablet's asking us to pick traits, does this impact gameplay?" Alain asked. Just as he finished his question, his tablet blooped at him.
<6 Traits selected>
<2 Weaknesses added>
"Ooo." Tiera sucked her teeth. "Yeah they can impact the experience pretty severely." She closed her notepad and folded her hands over it. "The good news is, our system defaults are normally more well thought out than what some of your friends are choosing!" She smiled at him.
Alain sighed and rubbed his brow with his thumb and index finger, "How do I go back and select my Traits?"
She giggled, "You can't! You're, as they say, locked in!" She gave an air quote at the last two words.
He felt his face getting red, this was a rookie mistake, he's never timed out on important choices in a game. This was because it was on a tablet and he's in real life. He's completely vulnerable to his own stupidity here. He didn't even think about this being a timed affair.
"How do I view the traits and weaknesses that were selected for me?" The resignation in his voice was palpable.
"Oh, yikes." She held her chin with her fingers and rested her other hand on her hips. "You see, we haven't really set up a way for you to view them on the tablet; you will have to wait until you're in Tiamat to see the selection."
Alain's neck decided to stop supporting his head so he ended up staring at the ceiling. It was also nice, it had wood ceiling tiles that were carved and had nice patterns as well. It looked like a star had burst out from the middle and had hundreds if not thousands of different sized specks shooting out from the center. He sighed.
"I'll make it work. Thank you for your time." He turned to walk away and she reached over and touched his shoulder to get his attention again.
"They don't want me impacting your gameplay too much, but honestly, you don't need to worry. The wonderful City of Aegis hovers above the land of Tiamat in its vigilant watch in service of the people's protection. This is where you will start. They pretty much give you all the bells and whistles for you to try out before you embark out on adventures!"
"How does that help with my traits?" Alain moaned.
"Well, the Divine in this world may seem cruel, but they always provide you with the required tools for success. No exceptions. Even with the worst of luck, a street urchin can rise to become a hero of the people! In the same vein, they could become a Demon Lord and oppress the masses behind the puppeteer's gaze."
"Would you suggest that the people being oppressed by a puppet master had the tools given to them as well?" He probed almost on instinct.
"Believe it or not, yes! It was provided, but it was also stolen from them. Sounds like a contradiction? Well it's not, someone still profited off of those opportunities. It's an unfortunate truth that some people do indeed, end up being treated as livestock. Perhaps one of your goals should be to fix the injustices that occur in this world?" She pointed up, "It's all about ambition. The worlds what you make it, right? The same can be said in Tiamat, we need ambitious gamers like you to go and set high goals for yourselves!"
"Goals you say?" Alain looked down at the tablet and wondered what kind of goals he would set in Sekaii Modern. Does this game really allow you to let your imagination go wild and set such a goal? Does the AI model the citizens behavior based on player choices? Not really unheard of, but what she's declaring is that a single player can aim to solve injustices? How much have they fleshed out that gameplay option?
"That's right, every good story needs a plot. If you're not in control of your own plot, then who is? This is why it's important to set goals!" She said as she poked at the chopstick sticking out of her hair bun. "Also, you're going to time out again right about…"
"Bloop" Said the tablet.
"Now." She chirped happily with a smile.
As Alain was staring at the tablet the screen changed.
"WHAT?!" Alain was laughing. "I guess we are playing on Hard fellas." he looked around at his friends as if he accidentally did what he really wanted to do.
Bard looked up, "Really bro? On our first run?"
"It was fate!" Alain shrugged.
"Oh, no, just you, it's a challenge mode for your character." she giggled. "The bright side is that it comes with extra rewards!"
"At least it doesn't affect us." Bard fist bumped Fred.
Alain continued chuckling then wiped his face, "That's good, I'll be happy to show you devs how well your engine holds up against a real sweat! What's the downside of challenge mode?"
"It's determined by the Divine upon your entrance into Tiamat. You should know, they love competitors. Challengers have received favorable treatment throughout history." She looked at him seriously for a moment, "Even if your path is hard, don't give up. This is exactly what we've been looking for, we need you."
Alain knew at that moment that he was going to have a great time. Bard and Fred seemed to be done with the character creation and were waiting behind him to speak with Tiera. "Thanks for your help, I'm going to go customize my character before it defaults me again." he scurried off to the now open loveseat on the right.
A few moments later, Alain was holding the tablet up as if he was looking into a mirror. His character was perfect! Time to add the finishing touch. He scrolled down to the muscle slider.
"Time to crank this mother f*cker all the way up!" He proceeded to do exactly that.
His character looked like a meatball with a pretty face.
"Okay maybe not all the way." He dialed it back a little until his character looked like a finely chiseled Greek statue but just a little more bulk. He looked like he was fight day ready, peak physical condition.
Alain looked up and his friends were already gone. He walked over to the desk and put the tablet down.
"I've completed the registration, it didn't ask for a character name though." He pushed the tablet toward her.
"Correct, we stopped allowing players to choose their names before entering the world." She got up and gestured for him to follow.
"Stopped allowing? Why's that?" Alain asked, but she simply opened the door that she approached and signaled for him to enter without her.
"Good luck, I'm really rooting for you!" She cheered him on and pushed him forward gently.
Alain stumbled into the room. He turned around to speak with Tiera, but the door was already closed. "Cruel." He complained.
"Good evening Mr. Original Kingslayer." Said a familiar voice.
Alain looked around, but he was alone in a white room, there was a speaker high on the wall with a camera above it. Alain looked at the camera and waved, "Hey there, super excited to be here!" He smiled.
"Good, good! We are more excited than you know to have you here as well! You and your team were hand picked by our team of scouters. We've followed your gaming journey for a long time Mr. Dradge" as the voice spoke more, Alain recognized it was the man on the loudspeaker who opened the gate earlier.
"Haha," Alain rubbed the back of his neck, "that's actually kinda creepy." He chucked anxiously, "If you knew about me then why did you let me rant on about my titles?"
The voice replied back with way more energy than he was expecting "Because that's EXACTLY what we need!" A stumble could be heard over the speaker, "We need someone like you to get in there and show how exciting it can be to overcome the hardest that life has to offer!"
"Oh wait, I get it." Alain put his finger up in the air and his face brightened back into a big grin, "I'm like your PR guy! You want me to help spread hype for the game!" He was totally on board. "Dude I've had secret influencer energy my whole life, I'm your guy! I'll make build guides! I'll display the crafting! I can even show people that social system you've been working on!" Alain's mind was racing with ideas.
"Hahaha, my dear Alain, you're simply perfect!" The voice sounded like he shared every bit of excitement which just ramped Alain up even more.
"HELL YEAH! LET'S F*CKING GO!" He shouted with a fist in the air.
"AHH RIGHT NOW?!" The voice replied back with a scream.
"DO IT!" Alain flexed out of sheer hype.
—
Then, everything changed.
"OKAYY-Y!" The voice shouted but the "y" sounded like an audio file being stretched and elongated. The speaker and camera faded into whiteness and soon all Alain could see was pure white. He reached out his arms and looked at his fingers.
That's when the pain started.
Alain felt as if every single atom of his body was being removed one by one. He felt his muscles separating from his bones. His flesh slowly being removed as if he were disrobing.
He wanted to scream but his body wouldn't react, his whole world right now was simply pain.
'Oh f*ck' Alain thought.