After that endless fall, his consciousness spilled into a body... not exactly his current body, although he felt it as his own, as if he had already experienced part of those sensations...
It's as if he had the body he had when he was 20 years old... not even better. It was like when he signed up for the gym for a year doing daily exercise... his maximum splendor before returning to his old and bad habits... yes, that was as if he had been returned to his best moment, neither his spine nor his cervical vertebrae bothered him, nor the pain from a wound in his hand that he had received a few weeks ago... nor the tooth he had lost at a dinner during his time at university... he felt at his best...
His mind was also clear, like in university, like before the nights of drinking, smoking, eating and bad habits. It's not that Ikky had taken many drugs in his life; rather, he was always a good boy who sometimes tried something like so many others. He was now fully empowered and it was a highly gratifying feeling
He opened his eyes. He was in a blue room, with no furniture, no doors, no ceiling, nothing, but he wasn't floating, he was firmly supported on the floor, after the infinite time in which he had only been a consciousness the sensation of his own weight was stimulating.
Ikky was looking at the blue room when a voice resonated in his head.
"Good morning, player. I am your system assistant in World of Athair, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me, if not let's start with physical customization."
These kinds of pressing approaches were the opposite of Ikky's tastes and needs, in order to know how to start he needed to ask questions, many questions, although the first was about that system assistant he could hear in his head.
"Can I call you Data? It'll be more convenient than if I call you assistant."
"Yes, if you want, you can call me Data. Thank you for the name, it's a nice touch on your part." Data's voice seemed genuinely grateful, it didn't sound like a typical emotionless robotic voice.
"I have a question. What can I customize?"
This was the real key moment, he couldn't touch his statistics or his body afterwards without access to a command console, so the decisions he made at that moment would mark his future in the game.
"You can customize any physical aspect, from your size, your build, your appearance, anything that doesn't make a total or global difference with your real self of more than 20%."
It wasn't much but it was a margin, he just had to play with the limits and do the math. A 20% margin meant that he could grow to be a little more than two meters tall or even weigh more than a hundred kilos and not fat, he could even regulate his muscles.
"Does my physical appearance affect my statistics?"
"Your weight, height, and musculature can affect your agility, strength, endurance, charisma stats... or rather, these aspects are what are translated into stats."
That was pretty realistic, at least it seemed like in this game they hadn't made another absurd cut and paste of the typical systems in role-playing games, for the moment they were working on it. In many games they forgot that it was absurd that a character like a hobbit could have the same statistical strength as a two-meter-tall barbarian, it was just a matter of adding stats over and over again to create an aberration, but it seemed that this wasn't an option here.
"Can I see my current stats?"
"To open the stats panel, say: Data, open the control panel."
"Data, open the control panel."
As in the games he was so used to, a stats panel appeared before him. It floated in the air or rather inside his own head but it was as if he could see it outside himself. Ikky even passed his hand in front of his eyes a couple of times to check the strange effect of seeing that panel.
CHARACTER: Ikky
Strength: 10 *sub-stats unlockable after stat +16
Dexterity: 7 *sub-stats unlockable after stat +16
Constitution: 12 *sub-stats unlockable after stat +16
Intelligence: 14 *sub-stats unlockable after stat +16
Wisdom: 14 *sub-stats unlockable after stat +16
Charisma: 9 *sub-stats unlockable after stat +16
Perception: 10 *sub-stats unlockable after stat +16
Luck: 10 *sub-stats unlockable after stat +16
Life: 11/11
Mana: Locked
Spirit: Locked
Ki: Locked
Skills: No skills registered
Level: 1; Exp: 0/1000
Titles: none
Equipment: none
Age: 21 Height: 1.78 cm Weight: 90 kilos Build: average
Hmm, he imagined the answer. He had a lot of experience with these things, and he also knew himself. Not even in his prime could he have passed for an athlete. He was amused by the intelligence stats. It wasn't a bad rating, at least compared to his agility. Not even in his prime could Ikky stop being a clumsy boy.
"Data, what is the normal value of the stats in a human, what is the maximum, and is it possible to increase them?"
"The stats for a human would be 10 for the average, ranging between 2 minimum and 18 maximum, at least if he doesn't evolve, although that is game content, it's not available in the tutorial."
This left him in pure mediocrity, although if he attended to many of the volunteers they wouldn't be in a much better situation than him. Only the richest and most famous gamers would devote themselves to their bodies, especially to look good on streams, although few would have any real formal training or healthy lifestyle habits.
People like Mariela who was a true Olympic athlete would be a rarity in that world.
"Can stats be increased during gameplay, and if so, how?"
"You can increase stats by absorbing essence or soul stones from defeated enemies, through magic, through items, through achievements, through titles, and through skills."
That was a lot of variables, but none that gave him any clues right now about what he had to do.
"Can I modify my wisdom, intelligence, luck, and the rest of the non-physical stats?"
"Non-physical skills can be modified but it is difficult and has special requirements during gameplay, otherwise it would put the avatar's synchronization at risk."
"What is avatar synchronization?"
"The system has rebuilt your body and mind to be in a way that you can get used to the process, if the values fall below certain levels let's say you would start having problems making your movements realistic or acting, in the end if that synchronization drops too much your mind would not be able to govern that body and a disconnection would be forced"
"Data, is there a maximum time that I can create the character?"
"There is no maximum time, the tutorial will only start when all the characters are created"
"Let's start with the physical customization"...
Now is when Ikky had to show his skills, he already had some clues, it was time to put them into practice.