Chapter 9 - Starting A New Character

Thursday went by in a blink of an eye. The three trainees were once again bombarded with information and were required to remember it by tommorow as they would be undergoing a mock practice as a Personal Assistant.

Today, the group did not see the General once at all, as he had meetings the whole day. The only one that had caught a glimpse of him was Sato. He had stayed back in the resting area to revise over the notes for a little while longer. The other two trainees had left to eat dinner together. As Sato was leaving the office building, Gray had just got out of his car.

The boss wore his no. 3 uniform that had no creases. His hair was neatly combed sideways, face emotionless. He looked like a prince from a faraway land, distant with others, yet possessed a unique aura that attracted other's attention. Sato held his breathe as he immediately bowed to him. Gray nodded lightly before walking past him and into the building.

The exhausted Sato reached back home at 8pm. He was instantly revigorated as he stepped into his one room flat. Excited to finally try on his GamingPro Device, he first took a quick shower before putting on the head device and lying down on his bed. The machine was connected to the electrical source by his bed, and it powered on within 5 seconds.

"Welcome to GamingPro. Are you a first time player of Ray Of Light?" The device sounded out.

"No." Sato replied plainly.

"Ok. Please wait a moment as we scan your face using facial biometric authentication. Please keep your eyes open during this process." The device spoke once again as it started to scan his face. "Device recognised user as Sato Takahashi. You have an existing account, would you like to enter the game using this character?"

"No."

"Are sure about your decision? When the account is deleted, you will have no chance of recovering the account."

"Yes I am sure."

"Deleting the character... Please wait a moment." 10 seconds passed before the device prompted Sato again. "Would you like to create a new character now?"

"Yes."

"Please pick a class job. There are four choices: Warrior, Mage, Ranger and Assassin."

"I choose Assassin." In the first account, Sato was forced to choose Warrior to play as a tank (one who takes damage) for the club. He did not like that particular playstyle as he felt that he lacked some form of freedom in the game. Thus, this time he decided to pick the most mobile class in the game and that was Assassin.

"Would you like to use 'facial morph' or use your normal face?" In Ray Of Light, the players can only choose between using their real faces or have slight adjustments to their looks. In addition, their body size could not be changed and so a person with a fat body will be fat in game. This was to prevent catfishing from occuring and keeping the game as real as possible.

"I choose 'facial morph'." With that, the facial features of Sato's became slightly sharper and his eyes bigger. Rather than becoming uglier, it enhanced Sato's looks and made him idol-like.

"Now, please give yourself a nickname."

"Dawnlore. "

"Please confirm that 'Dawnlore' is the name you wanted."

"Confirm."

"You will now spawn in Beginner Village 3007. I wish you all the best in your upcoming adventure!" With that, a blinding light shone and when Sato opened his eyes, his entire view had transformed entirely.

He had spawned in the same typical village that everyone starts off in. A small town that only had one-floor houses. They were all made out of wood and everything was designed with a 'robin hood' theme in mind.

Sato looked at the clothing he was wearing. It was the typical beginner leather vest and pants. The shoe he wore had scratches all over the surface. As he started moving around, he began to grow accustomed to his current speed. Back when he played warrior, he had already reached lv58, but now he was back to lv1.

Sato looked at his stats (statistics) and had placed his 5 free stat points all into agility. Back then, his stats had mostly went into health and it made him feel like a sloth whereever he moved. He didn't want to experience that again.

Next, he decided to send a friend request to Ming's account, 'LonelyGhost '. He had already told Ming about his new device, at which he was happy for him. Ming had the version 1 of the GamingPro device. He had saved up money from his part time job for 3 months before having enough to buy it.

"'LonelyGhost ' has accepted your friend request." The system notification sounded out.

"Hey Ming. I just started my account over and so I'll be in the beginner village for a bit. I'll call you when I have reached lv10." The in-game voice rang out. Only at lv10 could you leave the beginner village and enter the real map.

"Alright. Take your time. Yesterday's raid was a complete failure and Tyron is requesting for us to gather to try again today. I will tell you how it goes when I'm finished."

"Alright, have fun!" Sato proceeded to start his adventure again. The game has been out for almost 2 years already and people are still discovering hidden traits about this game. The deep learning technology created by GamingPro runs independently from it's father company. The creators themselves do not know about many of the easter eggs in the game, making it exciting for the users to discover new terrains by themselves.

Sato had once delve into the typical quest pathway, but this time round, he decided otherwise. He ran through the Evergreen forest, swift and quick, avoiding the wild beasts skillfully. Even in real life, he was quick on his feet and knew how to move through tight or tall places.

He only stopped when he reached a large old oak tree. The tree had it's branches snapped off, a long large sword stroke cutting in between the tree trunk. It looked as if the tree had been split into two by an angry swordsman and it was on it's last breath.

Sato walked a little forward and placed his hand on the tree trunk.

"May the great ancient oak tree rest in peace." He spoke solemnly.

A bright light shone and enveloped the assassin. When the light dissappeared, so did Sato. He had been transported into a different realm, an empty void that resembled the galaxy. He floated in the midst of the stars, waiting for something to happen.

Yes! I had managed to trigger the quest again. Sato was overjoyed. Back then, he had stumbled upon this quest accidentally as he was grinding his level up to be with his club members.

He had to complete the mission of protecting the villagers from a raid conducted by bandits. In the midst of the mission, he stumbled across a beautiful maiden that turned out to be the Elven princess, Rayla. She gave him a clue on how to find the Great Sage, to which he had capitalised out of curiosity. However, in the end, he had declined the offer given by the Great Sage due to time constraints, but he would not make the same mistake again.

As expected, a blurry figure started materialising infront of Sato. He had bark-like skin with an aged face. His bent back and withered body was supported by a walking stick. He was the Great Elven Sage.

"Young man. You are the one who had stumbled upon me the previous time. What brings you back again?" The old sage spoke sonorously.

"Great Old Sage, how could you tell I was the same person from last time? " Sato was shocked by the old man's discovery.

"You people from the otherworld had their souls transported into my world. Your physical body may be different, but your soul will forever be the same."

"Oh that makes sense now." It probably meant that once Sato had discovered this unique quest, no other people were allowed to trigger it as certain Non Player Character (NPC) could tell the difference between other players. Or else after so long, how was it possible that no one else had discovered this quest.

"Now, let me ask you the same question as before. Are you willing to take on the mission of saving our dying race from extinction, young assassin?"