"Connecting to User's ID Bracelet"

Connecting to Last Hope server"

"Welcome User "God of Losers". Last Hope has been released. Please select your beginning village."

I chose a random village and left it at that.

"Confirmed. Proceeding to Village #245687"

The next thing I knew I was in a crowd of people. It was so crowded I couldn't see anything.

People were jostling each other, flirting, fighting, it was a mess.

People had already started to level up by fighting the beginner monsters. Some were fighting for quests from NPCs.

But that didn't matter to me. Because here I was in my element.

All VR games required people to control their characters through their brains. So whatever you imagined yourself doing, properly, your avatar in the game would do it , theoretically. But unlike other games Last Hope was more immersive which meant the degree of freedom afforded to players was a lot more than others. So that theoretical scenario was practical in here.

And that's just how I liked it.

Even though I was below average in reality in terms of physical stuff, in here my brain and imagination were the only deciding factors.

So unlike others who were hogging the beginning level 1-5 monsters or looking for quests from the NPCs, I ran past the hordes of people.

Past the mechanical goblins, rabbits and wolves.

Last Hope offered a lot of freedom. We didn't have classes like other games. Instead based on the actions of the users the system would provide us with a class after level 10. There were tons of classes, hidden classes, and unique classes. Then there were the ultra rare unique hidden classes.

So right now I had nothing. I was unarmed with a basic beginners cloth with 0 defense or fashion.

But imagination is the key to Last Hope. You just need to imagine your character doing awesome unarmed combat moves. I guess that's a talent of my mine as I couldn't understand why others couldn't do this simple deduction and even if some knew about this they still couldn't do it in practice.

In Last Hope there were three modes of controlling your character. One was the general one that most players used "Assisted". The system helped the users tremendously in this mode. The second was for those who were confident in their real world skills "True Expert". And the last was the one which was least popular but also one that was perfectly suited for me.

 "Soul Eye".

It didn't depend on your real life physical skills nor did the system assist you. In it at times you would feel like the body is yours but at the same time feel it was someone else's. It was a really queasy and weird feeling. But what really mattered in this method was how high your "soul" skills were meaning mental energy, fortitude, imagination, creativity, and willpower. It was incredibly hard for some people but for some people it felt like it was built for them.

As soon as I had entered the game I had switched to Soul Eye. Now I just had to wait for monsters to come.

Soon I saw a few mechanical wolves roaming around surrounded by their pack mates. As soon as one of them noticed me, the level 10 monster lunged at me. I calmly stared at the approaching monster with its claws ready to rip me apart and as soon as it was about to slash me, I sidestepped and held the tail and hind leg of the airborne wolf and slammed it towards the ground.

-200

A damage sign appeared above the wolf's head. Even though imagination and creativity was the key I couldn't do anything about my character's attributes.

The level 10 wolves had about 20000 HP so my attack dealt just 1% of damage but it was not bad for a level 1.

Just as the slammed wolf was about to get up and attack again I lifted it and slammed it again and again like a certain green giant did with a certain "god" in a very popular movie.

-200

-200

...

-200

A flurry of messages filled the wolf's head as it had lost about 2000 HP. Meanwhile, the rest of the wolves about 5-6 in number were growling menacingly and slowly prowling towards me. I wasn't going to last long if all of them started attacking me at the same time.

So I hurled the wolf at its packmates and the resulting clash gave me enough time to run.

These wolves were pissed off and they weren't going to stop pursuing me a.k.a. the guy who was responsible for pissing off said wolves. 

I ran like crazy and saw the entire pack following me. The only reason the level 10 wolves hadn't ripped me to pieces yet because I was taking a wavy route and doing parkour to reach places where it would be harder for 4 legged beasts to climb. Long Live Soul Eye.

Now I wasn't about to spend my first money making operation running from wolves so I sought to separate the pack. Or try something stupid.

So I tried something stupid.

I was currently standing on a wobbly platform and could see the wolves rushing at me, intent on ripping me apart. As soon as they came near enough, I jumped off the platform, cool as a cucumber, did a front flip, followed by a twist flip and then landed feet first on the back of a wolf.

As soon as my feet touched the wolf, I jumped up, pushing my feet against the wolf's back and landed in the midst of the pack, after doing a cool as hell back flip.

The key to using Soul Eye properly was imagination. And my imagination knew no bounds. As soon as I landed in the midst of the pack, they lunged at me, their current arch-nemesis. I sidestepped and took the appropriate dodging measures which resulted in the wolves basically harming each other.

Lost in their bloodlust, they didn't even care about how I was perfectly fine but their packmates were doing the mechanical equivalent of bleeding. The slashes and lunges continued and I confidently dodged them all.

It was hard, but it wasn't impossible. By the time their bloodlust had worn off, most of them were on death's door, and the rest were slowed down by their injuries. I dispatched the ones with 1% health remaining, ignoring the notifications, and then killed the rest of them with a hit and run strategy. Fortunately, there was no boss or I would've been in trouble.

After finishing up taking the loot and equipment, I checked the notifications to find out I had reached Level 10 !!!

This was impossible, Level 10 is the level required to go to the city. And I had leveled up in an unprecedented speed. This was no longer amazing, it was enough to put the big shots on my tail. I felt like I was walking around with a giant target on my back.

Extinguishing my worries, I decided to check the logs, ignoring the kill notifications.

"Congratulations, you have made a First  Achievement by killing monsters 10 levels above you before anyone else. Awarded 1000 exp and the Title "Invincible"."

"Congratulations, you have made a legendary achievement by killing Level 10 monsters while being Level 1. Awarded 2500 exp and the Title "Legend"."

"Congratulations, for using your brains rather than your brawn, you are awarded the skill "Instigate"."

"Congratulations, you have been awarded the skill "Acrobatics" for your flashy movements."

"Congratulations,  you have leveled up to Level 10. You are now eligible to leave the beginner village. To proceed to the city, please go to the village elder."

I was feeling tired now so I hurriedly distributed the 55 stat points ( after every 5 levels 10 attribute points and after a single level 5 points are awarded). 20 into strength, 15 into agility and 20 into vitality.

The magic attribute would be unlocked after you get a magic based class or an item that requires magic energy. 

After putting all the equipment on the system auction, anonymously of course, I hurriedly logged out without checking my character sheet and fell asleep as soon as I touched the bed.

Unaware of all the commotion I had caused in Last Hope, I slept soundly for the first time in years.