Riley sighed in relief from hearing the nurse’s good news. He thanked her profusely and stood up to follow the nurse as she led him to his mother’s roo.m 

 

His mom was resting peacefully on the hospital bed, IV drips and bandages galore. Her skin had returned to a normal complexion, as opposed to the pale, white skin she had had just a few hours back. 

 

In a daze, Riley sat on a chair next to her bed, and leaned back as he stared into the ceiling. 

 

He covered his eyes with his right arm as he leaned his head back on the seat rest. He thought to himself, 'I endangered her because I thought I was hot shit with all these new powers. I thought I was invincible. Undefeatable. And she got hurt because of my irresponsibility. When will I ever grow up and take care of her?'

 

Riley was conflicted. He was both sad and angry. Sad because his reckless actions endangered the life of his sole family member, and angry because of the rampant crime happening in his neighborhood that exacerbated the situation to this tipping point.

 

If Riley had to guess, the thugs would not stop at failure. He only had movies and games to fuel his knowledge, but it seemed like a reasonable assumption that there would be more attempts on his life after this. In fact, they would probably bring even more bodies the next time around.

 

Remembering the namesake of his new class, whose purpose was to prevent crimes out of the police’s power or knowledge, Riley pulled out his class system for the first time. Upon entering, Riley was greeted with a cut-scene in the menu box. 

 

"For as long as criminal activities have been rampant, heroes from every locale have aimed to master the art of battle and stealth to suppress such criminal organisations. Vigilantes combine strength and stealth to wreak havoc within the ranks of these criminal organisations by unraveling each of their activities, and starve the monstrous beast from within. Vigilantes are mostly solo-players, hence the need to be all-rounders in their field, yet having many diverse play-styles."

 

"Class 'Vigilante' Main Quests Unlocked"

 

"Class 'Vigilante' Side Quests Unlocked"

 

"Class 'Vigilante' Time-limited Quests Unlocked"

 

"Class 'Vigilante' Equipments Unlocked"

 

"Class 'Vigilante' Skills Unlocked"

 

After the series of popups, Riley clicked on the first menu to redirect himself to his class quests.

 

The quest menu showed a few types of quests: main, side, and time-limited quests. Just like in games, there were different categorisations of quests. 

 

Main quests are missions that move the storyline or plot of the game. Usually in RPG games, there are many different plotlines that the player can explore, but the main storyline is the centre of what the game is built upon, and tends to reward the player with unique equipment or skills.

 

Side quests are similar to main quests, but on a smaller scale. Usually these side quests provide unique rewards from certain factions or characters. Think of it like this; though main quests provide more experience points and good equipment as rewards, and would further the main storyline, side quests would move forward a side story, and provide unique equipment to the faction it benefits. A main quest is akin to Cinderella meeting the prince in the ball; side quests would be Cinderella doing chores.

 

Finally, there are time-limited quests. Time-limited quests are rarer than the aforementioned quests. Time-limited quests, as the namesake suggests, are time-sensitive. Unlike other quests that allow players to fail and repeat it again, time-sensitive quests have dire consequences; if you fail to complete it by the allotted time, it’s gone for good. Usually time-sensitive quests appear all of a sudden, giving the player no time to prepare, unlike main and side quests.

 

Currently, he has one main quest called, “Neighborhood Cleanup”. Ignoring it for the moment, Riley opened the next window, “Skills”. In the class skill section, Riley could see two new spells, one with the icon of a radar, and the other a masquerade mask. Riley clicked on the first one, called <Minimap>. 

 

“<Minimap>  Toggle Skill: Upon casting, a small minimap will popup within the view of the user. The minimap outlines the user’s surroundings similar to a map in grid view. Through this minimap, the User will be able to pinpoint quest locations or quest targets.”

 

‘Wow, a real life minimap skill? I should test it out now!’

 

“Minimap.”

 

A round window popped up in front of him. The window showed a satellite view of the city, but unlike Google Maps, it was in grid view and monochrome blue. The minimap depicted him in the middle as a blinking red dot, and spanned a 3-block radius. At the edge of the maps, there were several icons: an orange question mark, a yellow exclamation mark, and a blue exclamation mark. 

 

From his previous gaming experiences, especially in World of Legends, Riley knew exactly what those indicators meant. The orange question mark indicated a main quest, the yellow exclamation mark marked side quests, and the blue exclamation mark showed time-limited quests. From his minimap, he could see that each of these quests were quite some distance away, as they peaked at the border of the minimap window.

 

Closing his minimap, Riley looked at the next class skill, which was an active called <Incognito>. 

 

“<Incognito>  Toggle Skill: Upon casting, the user immediately equips his **Disguise Equipment**. No cost. No duration limit.”

 

“Prerequisite: To activate <Incognito>, the user has to be completely unseen by people.”

 

“**Disguise Equipment**: Upon unlocking the ‘Vigilante’ class, the user is given access to a set of unlockable equipment specifically made to aid in completing Vigilante quests. To unlock the gear, complete the main story quests. In addition to this, the player is able to upgrade their Vigilante Disguise Equipments through ‘Class points’, which can be obtained via completion of class-specific time-limited and side quests.”

 

“Unlocked equipment: Mask”

 

‘Class specific equipment? Upgradable gear? That’s so cool!’

 

Riley stood up from his chair and entered the ensuite washroom in the hospital ward. Locking the door, Riley faced the mirror as he muttered the words, “Incognito”. 

 

As he said the words, a black Zoro-esque mask pixelated into existence on his face. The mask was simple; covering a significant portion of his upper face, specifically his eyes, stretching from ear to ear, and his upper nose. 

 

Though it didn't really cover much of his face, Riley remembered he had had this exact argument with his friends. They were discussing how stupid civilians and journalists in superhero comic book worlds must be, not being able to identify superheroes who wear nothing but an eye mask even though it’s really obvious.

 

However, upon further research, they realised that they were underestimating how much the eyes and nose make up a person’s face, and by simply concealing these features, you would be able to remain largely anonymous. The only reason why it was so obvious to them was because, to put it simply, the identities were made obvious to them!

 

Pulling up his inventory window, Riley inspected his new equipment; the mask. 

 

“Vigilante Mask”

“Class-specific equipment. Binded to Riley Petesgeralt”

“Helmet. Level ⅕”

 

“+2 Dexterity”

 

“UNIQUE Passive - Disguise: While equipped, the user’s identity is fully concealed, unless the wearer explicitly reveals his identity.” 

 

“Unlocked at Level 2 (1 Class Point): UNIQUE Passive - Night vision: While equipped, the user is able to see 50% better in the dark.” 

 

Riley closed the description and looked at himself through the mirror. This was the perfect skill for him to possess. He endangered his mum due to his brashful actions against the thugs, but with this, he would be able to help the police with their shortcomings, and rid his neighborhood of crime. 

 

Riley summoned his bag after remembering his quest rewards. Looking at his inventory, he saw several of the things he previously stashed, and noticed a new item in one of the grids, which looked like a silver coin. Before clicking on this new foreign object, Riley took a seat on the toilet and pulled out the bagel Mr. Rodriguez had given him, and unwrapped it. It was still warm, and smelled as fresh as ever. As he bit into the bagel, Riley clicked on the new alien object and <Analyze>’d it. 

 

“Vigilante Class Points: Used to upgrade class-specific skills and equipment. Can be obtained via completion of class-specific time-limited and side quests. Current total: 1. Click here to see upgradable equipment and skills.”

 

Riley folded his arms and fell into thought. 

 

‘Okay, so this is a lot to take in. Now, I can get quests to be just like Spiderman; fighting crimes in this city. I even have my own mask and minimap to find missions. Plus now, there's equipment and skills I can upgrade from fighting crimes. Am I like a superhero now? Do I need a superhero name? How about GameBoy™?’

 

Deactivating <Incognito> he crumpled the bagel’s wrapper and threw it into the bin before walking back out and giving his mother a kiss on the forehead before deciding to head home. He wanted to grab some of his mom’s necessities such as toiletries and a new set of clothes. He also really needed a shower. 

 

As he was walking home, he had a thought.

 

'Oh, before I forget.'

 

Riley pulled up his “Options” menu and turned off notifications during battle. After the last fight with the thugs, Riley realised that the notifications could distract him, and in such tense moments, his focus was crucial.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Patch 11.0
- Regular weekly update

 

Name: Riley Petesgeralt

Age: 16

Job: The Roleplayer

Class: Vigilante

Level: 8

HP: 250

MP: 220

EXP: 9/200

 

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 23

Vitality: 25

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 22

Charisma: 26 

Luck: 20

 

Skills:

Roleplayer’s Mind

Virtual Body

Analyze (Level 5)

Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4)

Physical Endurance (Level 1)

The Cinderella Effect (Level 1)

Dodge Step (Level 2) 

Counter Flip (Level 1)

Leg Sweep (Level 2) 

Power Punch (Level 2) 

Extreme Agility (Level 2) 

Sense Danger (Level 2)

Trash Talk (Level 1)

Power Swing (Level 3)

Quick Draw (Level 1)

Minimap (Level 1)

Incognito (Level 1)

 

Equipments:

Vigilante Mask (Level 1/5)