"Ugh!"
With a hand holding his aching head, the young man woke up, startled. But as some warm light hit him in the face, he instinctively put his hands over his eyes to protect them.
"What... oh... yeah, I died..."
He then started looking around with some confusion in his eyes.
"Huh? Where am I? Is this the afterlife?"
Something felt familiar. But what was it, he just seemed unable to remember.
"Wait..."
Taking note of the old wardrobe, and the messy bed he was laying on top of, he had finaly realized. This is his room. Or at least it used to be.
"Am I dreaming?"
He wondered aloud with an incredulous voice. Before trying to verify his guesses.
*PLAF!*
*PLAF!*
*PLAF!*
As he started to feel pain on his cheeks from his test, he started laughing aloud.
"PFAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Well, that is, until someone knocked on the door, and out came the voice of an angry old lady.
"STOP MAKING SO MUCH NOISE, YOU USELESS BRAT!"
And that managed to shock him awake from his spike of madness.
"S-sorry Mrs. Karen..."
He said meekly, as if jolted wide awake from his fit of madness.
"What day is it? No, scratch that, what year is it?!"
I looked around and soon found my old smartphone, on top of a small wooden table beside the bed.
"May 19, 2028?"
He said in disbelief at the sheer coincidence. This was the day the game first appeared. As if remembering something, he suddenly swore, put on his shoes and bolted towards the door. His poor ass had no VR headset, that was necessary to play that stupid game.
He ran through the city streets like there was no tomorrow, and soon got himself a cheap used VR equipment, before running back with even more enthusiasm. After arriving at his small room in the pension, he took off all his clothes and took a really quick shower to wash off all the sweat and stink built up from running like a damn psychopath.
After putting his underwear and trunks on, he picked the VR equipment up and put it on, then laying in his bed with his scrawny torso naked.
He soon entered into the virtual store app, and started waiting for something to happen. If nothing happened he would only think it's great! He could just keep on living a normal life, acting like everything he lived was just a nightmare. On the off chance it was true? He would at least make sure he would never be as helpless as he had been in his final moments. So he waited, for over 2 hours. Honestly he was starting to feel really bored, but he just held it in, as he could not afford to lose this chance. And he was not disapointed. Suddenly the VR's screen started glitching, and a strange game trailer started playing.
Not waiting for the trailer to finish, he quickly pressed on the skip button near the bottom right of the screen, then quickly clicked on a strange icon that had suddenly appeared on his apps.
Myth Online. This was the game that had changed the world. Literally.
Now, the reason he was so desperate to enter the game was simple. There was a prize.
The first player to ever enter the game would receive a prize. The Power Up Token. A one-time item that increases the tier of any item by 1 permanently.
That was an exclusive item to the first player to ever enter the game. And so.
¹
[Congratulations on being the first player of Myth Online! You have received a 'Power Up Token' for your efforts!]
[Choose your nickname!]
* * * * *
I quickly typed a nickname, and the very next second I was in a different place.
I looked down and saw a small round white jade stone with a golden circle inscribed in it, along with a blunt and cracked iron sword, the beginner's weapon.
"So I really got it... the power up token. I wonder where should I use it... to think this amazing item was wasted my last life."
Making use of a 5 slot virtual inventory everybody had, I put the trashy sword and the token away.
I then headed towards the city's square, to take a look at the quest board. It took a while, but I eventually found my way towards it. The city was just too big, so it couldn't be helped.
I soon had the wooden board within my sight. It was massive, with hundreds of different papers, each representing a mission. The board would refresh daily, and every time, the missions would become slightly harder, corresponding to the overall strength of the players. Naturally, there would always be a certain number of easy quests, that just about anyone could do, otherwise all beginners would simply starve to death at a later time.
Every mission, once completed, can reward you with CP (Contribution Points), that could be exchanged for very important items, items, XP (Experience) that are just like experience points from other games, and even skill scrolls.
And so I started searching for missions I could complete as I was now.
[Hunt Goblins]
[Hunt Goblin Shaman]
Both relatively difficult tasks for newcomers, but I could push my way through with my experience. One needed you to kill 5 goblins, and the other to kill a single goblin shaman, they could be completed at once, as a shaman was never alone. And so I left towards the city gates. Finding some newbies that had just started along the way.
Both tasks were also repeatable, so I only need to find a goblin hunting ground. My main objective is gathering 10.000 CP, so I can exchange for a Village Building Order, whose price is discounted by 90% in the very first week of the game. The goblin task rewards me with 10 CP, and the goblin shaman one, 50 CP. Yeah, this will be tough. But it should be somewhat doable, if I really try hard enough.
I take a look on a simple region map that was besides the large city gates, and soon make a mental note on where I should go, and how to come back. Here we go, to the Stinky Swamp!
After leaving the city, I take a look at the farms around, that produce grains year round to feed the people, before taking off on the dirt road where I walked for around an hour. The scenery around slowly changed into one of wilderness. Finally reaching a large and plain, sparcely forested area, to the left side of the road, where it took a turn to go around the area. There was a sign to the side that read "Caution! Goblin Infested Area!".
Taking a deep breath on the foul swamp air, I only had one thing in my mind. This is the place. Guess it's time to grind some goblins!