2. Welcome Player to the Town of Beginnings
Matteo had just pressed the yes button and was blinded by the light that shot out from his PC screen. Next, he felt his body become electrified. He wondered if he was suffering from a power shortage but remained still—not because he wanted to, but because his body could not move.
He could hear a loud noise, like something was being scanned, and then the light faded, and he could feel his body again. A soft pat came as his boots touched down on the hard stone floor.
"Wait a minute, boots?" he said in shock as he now found himself in a massive courtyard with an ancient type setting. Matteo was not one to care about history, but he recognized the European-style architecture from the games he played.
He could feel the wind blowing on him and smell the fresh air. It was strange because he never knew air could smell so clean.
Matteo noticed that he was not alone—there were twenty-two others around him. Soon, a glass screen materialized before him, one every gamer knew too well. It was the welcome screen.
[Welcome Player to the Town of Beginnings]
Matteo stood there for a few more seconds in utter silence. "Town of Beginnings? That's the first floor of Neon Solaris, right? Am I in the game?"
He looked around to find a few of the twenty-two still trying to wrap their heads around their situation, but for hardcore gamers or the veterans, it wasn't that hard to accept.
There were two reasons for this: first, gamers always fantasized about waking up in a game world. And second, real gamers knew how important the beginning of a game was.
Looking at half of the people there, Matteo could tell they were hardcore gamers who had already started accepting their situation.
Matteo observed his clothes—he was wearing a brown tunic, shabby trousers, and dark boots that contrasted with his look. He still looked the same as he did in the physical sense. Looking around, he couldn't see Leo anywhere. The only reason he could think of was that the game's overwhelming popularity had caused login crashes on various sites, making it difficult for players to enter. Or so he suspected.
"No, don't lose your head with such nonsense. You're not a detective. You're a gamer. You're Noble Zero," he told himself as he started making his way down the street.
He had two high-priority tasks: first, to get the highest loot, and second, to decide his class. Only the beta players would know about this advantage. Some people started moving while more players were appearing in the game. It was easy to tell a beta gamer from a newbie just by their actions.
Beta testers or veterans moves with intention and not hesitation.
Matteo crossed through the pathways of old buildings and made his way down a dark alley. He wanted to complete the secret mission on the first floor before anyone one else. Originally, it had taken him and two other beta players a few days to find it, but it was a very special mission.
Matteo believed that if they were in the game currently, his chances of acquiring it were zero. "Please still be there."
As he darted forward, almost tumbling over a broken crate, he reached his goal. At the end of the road was an old woman, looking more like a wrinkled bundle of flesh on bones rather than a real person.
Matteo was taken aback by the realism. "Wow, the graphics are really realistic." He wanted to question what was going on and how he was in the game, but he pushed that thought aside and succumbed to his gaming intuition.
He stopped before the woman and said, "I wish to know my fortune."
She stretched out her wrinkled hand for payment. Matteo had no gold coins, so he tried the sneakiest trick in the book. Next to the woman was a small brown bowl with a handful of gold coins.
"Since it's a secret mission, nothing was said against using her own coin against her. Also, nothing was said for it," Matteo reasoned. It wasn't like he could get punished within the first few minutes of joining Neon Solaris.
He paid her with her own coin, to which she responded, "You sly bastard, you should be ashamed."
The more she spoke, the more real she felt, and the more real she looked. Instead of resembling a graphic model, she looked like an actual person.
Many players would be drawn to the "know your fortune in the game" scam, but the real point of this was a trade.
"I wish to trade my fortune for an item," Matteo said with a wide grin. Something about living in a game didn't sound bad—it felt like living a dream infact. His goal was to find as many items as he could, perhaps clear a few levels before logging out.
The old woman looked at him, her empty white eyes gleaming. She grinned and said, "Done. Now pick any box before you."
As she spoke, three golden boxes wrapped like presents appeared before him.
Without hesitation, Matteo picked them all by tapping on each individually. Just like before, the criteria for this secret mission were never specified. He knew the item he was looking for had to be here.
The old woman frowned and said, "You really are a sly bastard."
"Not as sly as you, you old hag," Matteo retorted as the boxes opened.
She said to pick any, she never said pick one or two or even three. It was simple logic really.
The first one revealed a small gold key.
[ITEM: BANK KEY]
[GRADE: A]
[INFO: ACCESS TO THE WORLD SAVINGS BANK AT FLOOR ONE]
[RESTRICTION: NONE]
"Not bad, not bad," Matteo said with a smile.
The second box opened to show a milky-colored crystal.
[ITEM: CLASS FUSION STONE]
[GRADE: A]
[INFO: FUSE TWO CLASSES TOGETHER]
[RESTRICTION: TO THE FIRST FLOOR]
"Yes!" Matteo beamed. "This is exactly what I wanted."
When first playing Neon Solaris, Matteo had struggled to choose a class, but realizing the stone's usefulness too late had wasted a good opportunity.
The third box opened to reveal something even more fascinating.
[ITEM: FLOOR 1 MAP]
[GRADE: A]
[INFO: A MAP OF THE FIRST FLOOR]
[RESTRICTIONS: NONE]
Now things were looking even better for him.
"Hey, you! What are you doing here? Are you Noble Zero?" a voice called from behind him.