I felt like I was underwater, or maybe I was flying. I could have been running or crawling too. Basically I had no idea what was happening to me. My senses were all over the place and my mind muddled. Is this what happens when someone dies? I wondered. It felt like a really long time, but it could have been just a moment too. All my senses were wrapped. It was like I could feel stuff, but I couldn’t. Like I was dreaming but I wasn’t. And then everything started getting brighter and brighter. My senses were slowly returning to me. I blinked. Or it seemed like I had blinked…

When I opened my eyes, I was a ball of gas? [“Character configuration: physical”] spoke a voice in my mind. If I had a mouth, my jaw would have dropped open. Then, like I was in a game, I saw a literal character creation window in front of my eyes(?). Some things were grayed out and some I could change. I focused on the first thing I could change, my age. I tried the lowest number possible, it was sixteen. Then I tried increasing the number, it went up to twenty five. I decided to stick with the age I was when I died. I chose eighteen. My height was five feet seven inches but I changed it to five feet eight inches. I rounded my weight off to seventy. These were the only physical features I could change. The limit was plus-minus three inches and plus-minus eight kilos. [“Character configuration: statistics”] spoke the voice in my mind, again. The window in front of me changed to a stat menu, again like in a game.

My stats were all at ten and I had seven additional points. There were five stats: strength (str), stamina (sta), agility (agi), intelligence (int) and luck. I don’t know why but my instincts made me think that luck was important. So I gave one point to all my stats and gave luck two extra points. The number thirteen was always lucky for me so I was satisfied. The menu then changed to a status menu:

There was another stat, I guess it’s not something I can adjust… Res, probably resistance. And level and experience are both zero. [“Tutorial start? Y/N”] the same mechanical voice rang out in my mind. Tutorials are important so I thought ‘Yes’ but before I could say it, I fell… And when I touched the ground I was already in my body. I looked around. I was in a room. [“Would you like general information? Y/N”]

As soon as I thought ‘yes’ the voice spoke…

[“Rule One: Complete missions to live. Rule Two: Complete quests for rewards. Rule Three: Faster completion time gives greater rewards. Rule Four: Higher contribution gives higher rewards. Rule Five: Barter system is active. Level too low for further details. Repeat? Y/N”]

As soon as I thought ‘yes’ the voice spoke again…

[“Rule One: Complete missions to live. Rule Two: Complete quests for rewards. Rule Three: Faster completion time gives greater rewards. Rule Four: Higher contribution gives higher rewards. Rule Five: Barter system is active. Level too low for further details. Repeat? Y/N”]

As I committed the words to memory, I thought ‘no’ this time. [“Default difficulty selected. Rules of the game are as follows: Choose a weapon of choice and choose three of the five games to train your desired stat.

Game One: Raise str: Kill goblin (1).

Game Two: Raise sta: Survive against goblins (2).

Game Three: Raise agi: Dodge goblin attacks (3).

Game Four: Raise int: Outwit goblins (4).

Game Five: Raise luck: Defeat goblins (1-4). Repeat? Y/N”]

I went into contemplation. While killing a goblin looks easier, I may not be able to kill one out of the psychological barrier of killing. Surviving against goblins looks better but the other stats are the stats I’d rather want. Dodge goblins attack looks doable, but there are three of them. Outwit goblin, what does that even mean? As for defeating a goblin, I may get lucky and face only one goblin or I may get unlucky and face four. I decided to raise agility first and see what three goblins are capable of first.

[“Choose weapon: double handed sword, sword and shield, spear and shield, long handled mace, dual swords”]

I wanted to choose a shield, but this game is based on dodging so I can’t choose something so heavy that it’ll slow me down. I thought about a spear, but it comes with a shield. Dual swords would be nice, but I’m not that great with my left hand and it means double the weight. That left me with a long handled mace.

[“Weapon chosen: Long handled mace. View? Y/N”]

Yes. View.

Literally what was written, a mace with a long pole attached to it came to my hand, it resembled a spear but had a ball at the end of one side that was spiked. It literally looked like a mace-spear. I swung it a little and it felt good. Before I could ponder on its rank, the voice in my head spoke again.

[“Tutorial Game Three: Dodge three goblins attack for ten minutes.  Starting in ten seconds.”]

I held the mace with both hands, the left hand on the handle and the right in the center of the mace. Then took a deep breath and tensed up to get ready to move in any direction.

[“Three. Two. One.”]

As soon as the sound of ‘one’ faded away, three goblins appeared in front of me, about 100 meters away. They looked to be reaching my chest, green, each holding stones and a pile of stones as big as cricket balls surrounded them. I immediately took a few steps back. But we were in a circular room that was around 200 meters in diameter with the goblins in the center. Ten minutes. I can do this. They started throwing stones, one at a time each. I was able to see their trajectories so I dodged all three. Seeing the stones miss me, they started throwing faster. Two at a time. Six of them were aiming at me. That’s when I realized this would be tough. I would be tired out in two minutes let alone ten. I needed a different strategy. Barely managing to dodge all six, I ran sideways to my right. Zigzagging my way, I used my mace to hit a few stones back at them, I managed to hit a few back but couldn’t aim well. Not giving up, I continued running and using my mace as a bat. Finally! One of the stones hit the goblin in the middle and he squealed. Noticing my chance, I let go of my mace and picked up two stones as fast as I could and aimed it at the other two goblins. As soon as I let the stones go I picked up two more employing the same strategy. I was bigger and stronger than the goblins, so my throws had a higher power. Injuring the goblins I quickly lifted my mace and ran towards them while they were in shock and  brought my mace down on their hands. And left their range once again. I still had around five minutes left. Then I remembered a rule saying the faster I complete a mission the better it is. So I decided to kill the handicapped goblins. One minute later…

[“Tutorial Game Three: Dodge three goblins attack for ten minutes: Complete. Time taken 00:05:13. Hidden quest: Kill all goblins: Complete. Evaluation: A+. Choose the next game.

Game One: Raise str: Kill goblin (1).

Game Two: Raise sta: Survive against goblins (2).

Game Four: Raise int: Outwit goblins (4).

Game Five: Raise luck: Defeat goblins (1-4). Repeat? Y/N”]