JANE

Entering the large, busy plaza where people were choosing factions turned out to be a little intimidating. Also, seeing how many people had managed to scrounge up some kind of clothing, she felt a little too sexy in nothing but a little apron that didn’t cover her backside at all. 

Quill, this random guy who’d been kind enough to bring her here, must have noticed her hesitation. He whipped off the flag he was wearing and handed it to her, using his other hand to kind of cover himself. “Here. As nice as the view is, it’ll cover a lot more than the apron. So let’s switch.”

“But then you’re going to be the one with the exposed bum.”

“And I freely admit, it’s not as nice as yours, which I think people would prefer. But it’s fine. Really. Take the flag. Make a sarong or something out of it.”

Blushing for some silly reason, Jane pulled the apron off and felt embarrassed at her nudity in front of him, though it really wasn’t any different than wearing the apron. Maybe it had something to do with the way he quickly averted his eyes out of some gentlemanly ideal, despite the obvious reaction to her body behind his hand. She quickly grabbed the flag and wrapped her body up like she would a towel after a bath. She noticed a few disappointed looks in the crowd. Whatever. This did feel better. 

Quill tied the apron around his waist and let the top flop over to create a second layer. It covered his front, but that was all.

She looked him over. He was a little taller than her and had a pretty athletic body. Not bulky at all, but the kind guys get from playing sports regularly. He had short, dark hair. He wasn’t all that handsome, but he certainly wasn’t awful looking either. Maybe…kind of rugged? That could be due to the hair on his chest and the fact that he probably hadn’t shaved in a day or two. He was definitely older than her and had a mature air. Best of all, he wasn’t trying to grope her, so that was a plus in his favour. 

Together, they walked around the plaza, investigating the various classes. Quill was very polite. He chimed in with his thoughts here and there but didn’t try to push her in any direction. Nor did he talk down to her just because this was a video game and she was a girl. She liked that. Eventually, they reached the end of the class statues.

“What do you think?” he asked. “Orange or blue? Horde or Alliance?”

She stood facing the portals with one hand on her hip, biting her lip. This would be a big decision. She wished that she had more information. “Hmm. Thief-assassin is likely overpowered. It always is, which is dumb because they’re assassins. You’d think fighters would be the big DPS types. Whatever. Seems like an obvious choice anyway. Warlock might be cool, depending on how hot the incubus is,” she joked. 

Quill chuckled. 

She hummed and hawed. “I don’t know. The Horde classes are really cool but also very aggressive. If this were a PC game, I’d totally play alts for at least half of them. But as a main?” She shrugged. 

“Keep in mind that we’re trapped in here. Your class could be the difference between life and death.”

She gave him a flat stare. “Yeah, ‘cause I needed even more pressure.”

He laughed. “Sorry.”

She tapped her chin with a finger. “Um, I think I’m going to stay in Stormstadt. Mage is another obvious choice. Cleric would be super useful. They have a big role in raids, right? Though I’m not sure I could handle that kind of responsibility. I’d hate for the who team to wipe, and it be my fault.”

“We usually have multiple healers to avoid that.”

“True. The druid… Hmm. To be able to change into different forms. Wouldn’t that be so cool?” She turned to him, excited by the idea. 

“Very cool,” he agreed.

“What about you?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “I like the idea of playing a paladin, but the class is unfinished. Maybe warrior or mage? I guess it might depend on who I was partied with. You know if you — I mean, you don’t have to or anything, but if we, like, were in a party and you wanted to play a support class, I could take the tank class or something, oh my gosh it’s hot out here, isn’t it? Why am I so hot?” He cleared his throat and looked away from her. “We should go find out how we get our attributes, shouldn’t we? Or, oh, sorry. You’re still choosing factions.”

Jane smiled at his awkwardness. It was cute. She took a last look around, nervous and worried about making the wrong decision. “I think I’m going to stay here,” she finally decided. Yes, she was going to stay. Something about the blue faction felt more comfortable. The Horde   statues were so dangerous and brutal-looking. That didn’t feel like who she really was. Then again, did that matter? This wasn’t just a game anymore; they had to win to get out of here. She bit her lip, mulling it over, but continued to be pulled toward the Alliance side. 

“I guess you don’t have to decide right now. We don’t get classes until level 5. We could probably switch cities anytime between now and then.”

A wave of relief hit her. “Oh, good. Shall we ask around about attributes, then?”

He nodded and waved her forward. “Ladies first.”

“You’re just saying that so I don’t look at your bum,” she teased.

He cracked a smile. “Nonsense. I’m entirely motivated by my desire to be a gentleman.”

She didn’t exactly trust him, not yet. But he was giving her a pretty good vibe so far. Certainly better than the last people she’d run into. Jerks. Might as well stick with him. For now. She could always go her own way later. Maybe solo play for a while until she levelled up and was forced to work with others. It would be safer, wouldn’t it? Avoid creepy guys and judgemental girls.

Although, she had to admit that it did feel good to be with someone else and not alone. She’d like to be able to trust someone.

They asked around and did some searching. It turned out that the place for choosing attributes was right outside the coliseum. Returning, they found long lines of people queued up. At the head of each queue was a plinth, and above it was a floating, 20-sided die about the size of a beach ball. She and the guy, Quill, lined up and slowly made their way forward. 

They watched as various players in front of them took turns rolling the floating die. Each time it landed, it gave a score between 1 and 20. This was then applied to each base attribute in turn. 

As they waited, they read about the attributes on a large sign hanging on the side of the stadium:

Strength (STR) 

• Melee damage. 
• Partially contributes to ranged damage (pull strength). 
• Movement speed. 
• STR is also used for general power, such as carrying and lifting.

Dexterity (DEX) 

• Attack speed, accuracy, and agility. 
• Also affects the quality potential of crafted items.

Health (HEA) 

• Affects the amount of HP 
• And the HP recovery rate

Intelligence (INT) 

• Affects the rate of XP acquired
• Amount of mana
• The number of spells which can be memorized 
• Offensive spell power. 

Quill pointed towards Intelligence. “See that? Affects the rate of XP acquired. That means if we have lousy INT, we’ll level up slower. That’s harsh.”

“Kind of realistic,” Jane added, “but yeah, not so great when we’re playing for our lives.” She pointed to the next item. “Similar for Wisdom. It’s not enough to be smart; you have to be understanding as well.”

“Just like in real life. If this was just a game, I’d like that. It would force people to spread stats out instead of dumping them all into one. And people would grow at different rates.”

Wisdom (WIS) 

• Affects the rate of skill progression 
• And the power of defensive and healing spells.

Stamina (STA) 

• Energy used for physical attacks, sprinting, and spell casting. 
• Max Stamina decreases during long encounters.

Charisma (CHA) 

• Affects quality of influence with NPCs 
• And the power of charm spells.

“Why does Charisma always sound like a terrible stat?” Jane wondered aloud.

Quill shrugged. “Charm spells would be cool, though. Could be very useful.”

She arched a brow at him. “Really? I guarantee they don’t work on any boss. Probably nothing high-level, either. Tons of monsters probably have resistance to it or it would be a broken skill. It’ll only be useful against low-level mobs. And then, what’s the point?”

He made a reluctant nod. “True.” Then he excitedly pointed at the sign. “Check out Stamina. Used for melee, sprinting, and spell casting. And the max decreases over time.” He turned to her. “I was just arguing with someone about this. They said the only thing that matters is how much damage we can do to win because you can’t outlast an enemy and tire them out. And that’s true in most games. We just relentlessly attack until one of us is dead. But with our stamina pool decreasing over time, we’ll actually have to pace ourselves over long battles.”

“That’s…insane.” She was staggered by the idea. “We can probably mitigate that with stamina potions to an extent. But still…that adds a whole new level of strategy to battle.” Her mind raced. “Everyone’s going to have to put points into Stamina.”

“Looks like just about every stat is useful.”

“Except Charisma.”

“Probably. Man, talk about strategy. Do you put more points into Strength so each hit is more powerful? Or use a higher Dexterity to attack more often?”

“Do you become someone who outputs a ton of damage in a really short time or put points into Stamina so you can hit harder but for longer?”

“Do you dump all your points into Intelligence so you can do more magic damage, and hope you can do it all while standing still? Or put  a few points into Strength and Stamina so you can run around while casting, throwing fireballs at anyone chasing you?”

She marvelled at the complexity and options but also grew increasingly anxious as she thought about them. “This would have made an awesome game. But when our lives depend on this, and no one’s ever played like this before, how are we supposed to decide what kind of person we want to be? We have no idea what the best way to play is.”

Quill made a rueful smile. “Just like in life.”

When it got to be their turn, Jane found herself too nervous to proceed. This was even more pressure than choosing a starting city had been. She saw the way those in front had left either in tears or thrilled, more of the former. She shook her head and suddenly dodged back behind Quill, using him as a shield. “I can’t. You go first.” She just wasn’t ready yet.

“Ahh, sure,” he joking blustered, likely for her benefit. “No prob. I’ll show you how it’s done.” He stepped up to the 20-sided die and then stopped, confused. He looked around. “Wait, there are no baseline stats? No option to average things out or anything?”

“Nope,” someone said from the next line over. 

He frowned. “We don’t get to choose how many points to put into each attribute?”

The guy shrugged, apparently already resigned. “Nope. It’s all roll of the dice for each attribute.”

Quill looked dumbfounded. “Really? It’s a hundred percent RNG?” He looked around, his eyes a bit wild. “This is even more important than our class. Attributes will decide everything we can do, and everything we can become. To make it completely random is just nuts!”

Jane felt herself go cold. She covered her mouth with her hands. Their stats were totally RNG? What a horrible gamble! She was going to roll horribly. She knew it. Oh, this was gonna suck.

Someone commented from the crowd. “Just like the genetic lottery of life, buddy. You don’t get to pick your potential when you’re born. Gotta make do with nature’s roll of the dice.”

That might be a touch too much realism for Jane’s taste. Though she had a sick feeling of understanding for the system that she couldn’t argue with. In a game, as frustrating as it would be to have horrible starting stats, maybe it would teach players a life lesson about how to handle such things instead of giving up and being resentful that we weren’t born as lucky as others. 

Quill hesitatingly reached up to give the die a spin. It rolled around in the air in multiple directions, fast at first, then slowing, until it came to a rest with one side of the die facing them. The first attribute would the Strength.

It was a 1. 

Jane immediately looked at Quill. 

He stood frozen. The muscles on his jaw flexed. “Fuck,” he muttered. Then, with a shaky hand, he reached out and gave the die another spin.

Jane felt her heart go out to him. The worst roll he could have had. So much for being any kind of fighter or melee damage dealer. 

The die landed: DEX 3.

Oh no. Jane nearly gasped before stopping herself. Ranged fighting was out, too.

Quill hung his head for a second, regrouping, then rolled again.

HEA 7

Jane winced. Ok, not as bad as it could have been, but he wouldn’t be tanking anything.

INT 2

This time Jane couldn’t stop herself. She gasped.

Quill slammed his fist onto the plinth. “Dammit!” The second-worst roll he could have gotten. He’d have almost no magical ability. And since intelligence affected your rate of experience, he’d barely level up, no matter what he did. What awful, awful luck.

She reached out with a hand to comfort him but pulled it back, seeing how he trembled he was so upset. 

Quill didn’t give up; he spun again. 

WIS 17

Reacting without thought, Jane grabbed him from behind by the shoulders, her enthusiasm returning, if a bit desperate. “That’s fantastic!” Noticing herself, she quickly let go of him.

Quill reluctantly nodded and seemed to relax a bit. He gave her an awkward smile. “Guess I can be a cleric or something, maybe.” 

“Yeah!” She tried to be positive. 

“Who can’t memorize any spells because I’m a moron with an intelligence of 2.” 

Oh. Right.

He reached up and rolled again. 

STA 14

“That’s good, too!” Jane insisted. 

Quill nodded but didn’t say anything. He gave one last spin. 

CHA 11

He took a deep breath. “Guess I’ll at least get along ok with NPCs,” he joked. He seemed to force a smile and waved her forward. “Your turn.”

Jane looked up at the die, and the very last thing in the whole world that she wanted to do was roll it. Not after what she’d just seen him go through. It had left him with next to no class options and entirely crippled his ability to make any progress. They’d been in the game only a couple of hours and already his chances of surviving the game seemed nil. And she just knew that the same was going to happen to her. She reached up and rolled the die. 

STR 6

Heart pounding, she nodded. Ok, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. 

DEX 11

Better! That was good enough to at least be a ranger, even if it wasn’t a very good one. 

HEA 19

“Ah!” she screamed with joy and clapped her hands. She wouldn’t be dying easily.

Quill laughed next to her. He nudged her with his shoulder. “Nice. That’s awesome.”

For a moment, she marvelled that he could be so gracious after his own rolls, but then the die was in front of her again, and she felt the pressure mount. Intelligence. The XP stat. This was it, make it or break it time. A low roll left her for dead, too. If she could just roll this one attribute ok…

INT 18

She screamed and threw her arms around Quill without even thinking, jumping up and down with excitement. Tears of relief burst forth. 

Quill laughed softly and hugged her back. “Congrats. Good for you.”

There was a mix of reactions in the crowd around them, some clapping and smiling in honest good will, others sour-faced and throwing her dark looks of jealousy.

She pulled herself off him and stood back, embarrassed because she barely knew him, and they were both basically naked she was crying, and she’d gotten such a high number, especially compared to him, and this was crazy. She reached up and hurriedly rolled again. 

WIS 18

“Again!” she gasped. She was going to kick ass with these stats!

Quill bowed. “I see you’re going to be party leader, no question whatsoever,” he teased.

She blushed and reached up to roll again. She couldn’t believe how good her luck was. She was going to level up quickly, and she could be a great mage or healer. She had options. She had potential.

STA 2

That slammed her back to reality. She breathed deeply. Ok, so her energy was super low. She wasn’t going to be able to fight for very long or cast a lot of spells. But she could make do, right? She could. One giant fireball to end every fight. Or a meteor storm.

CHA 5

“Ugh. I guess you’re the one who’s going to be doing all the talking during quests,” she joked.

Quill chuckled. “Hey, somebody’s gotta do it.”

They slid out of line so that others could roll. 

Jane felt giddy and silly. Her body vibrated from the adrenalin rush. She couldn’t believe she’d lucked out that much. It had been the complete opposite of Quill’s experience. With a tinge of guilt, whe looked up at him.

He was putting on a brave face, but she could see the strain around his eyes. He must be hurting. 

She felt the urge to reach out and take his hand but held back. 

A loud groan came from the line next to the one they’d been in, and they looked over. 

STR 1

In front of the die was a young, short, very slim teenage girl with raven black hair. She looked really disappointed. Barely able to reach high enough, she rolled again. 

DEX 1

Jane bit her lip. Oh no. It was even worse than Quill’s rolls had been. Hopefully, things would pick up now, though. 

HEA 1

The crowd groaned again, this time with some laughter, hopefully in disbelief. 

Quill shook his head. “Fuck, that’s unfair. I can’t believe those devs did this to us.”

Jane nodded in sympathy.

INT 1

This time the crowd’s reaction was deathly silence. What a horrible roll. 

The girl looked devastated. With a shaky arm, she rolled again. 

WIS 1

Jane spun away, unable to watch. “This is so wrong!” she exclaimed. 

“Poor girl,” Quill said.

Tears streaming down her face, the girl rolled.

STA 1

“Un-fucking-believable!” someone cried out in the crowd in anger. “This shouldn’t even be allowed!

Jane heartily agreed. So much RNG was just cruel and unfair. 

The girl sobbed, her whole body convulsing. The guy behind her had to take her hand and guide it up for her last roll.

CHA 20

The highest roll for the most useless stat. Everything else had rolled as badly as it possibly could. 

The girl turned and blindly stumbled and pushed her way through the crowd, away from where Jane and Quill stood.

Jane stepped forward. “We should help her!”

Together, she and Quill threaded through the crowd and looked all over. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the teen. 

Jane’s heart ached. She leaned against the stone wall of a shop. “She’s screwed. She’s so screwed.”

“Worse than me.” Quill’s head still rotated, surveying the crowd. 

Jane felt a sting in her eyes and fought it. She looked out over the crowd, seeing hundreds of other people going through the same extreme highs and lows of gambling, some cheering and others kicking and punching the plinths in helpless fury. “The whole game is going to be like this, isn’t it? Finding ways to hurt us. They’ll never let us out. They won’t. We’re all going to die in here.”

Quill’s eyes found hers. He stepped forward, and he took her shoulders in hand, not hesitating like she had. He looked into her eyes. “Hey. You rolled really well. You can pick just about any class. You’re going to rock this game. You’re going to live.”

She looked back into his eyes. They were dark blue, and at this distance, she could see flecks of gold in them. “But what about you?”

He huffed and released her, then tried to grin, though it was strained. “I’ll do what I can with what I have. I’ll make the best of it. Same as in any other life, right?”

She pushed off the wall and stood straight. “Right. Sorry. I guess I just felt overwhelmed all of a sudden. I just…” she trailed off. She chastised herself. She needed to be stronger than this. 

“Forget about it. It’s going to happen to all of us at some point. But that’s what friends are for, right?” He smiled wider, then faltered. “Sorry. I’m being presumptuous.”

She emphatically shook her head. “No. Friends. I like that.” She did. After seeing what that poor girl had just gone through and imagining the uphill battle she’d now face? And even the uncertainty over some of her own stats? Jane really didn’t want to go through the game alone anymore. 

He smiled. 

She smiled back. Maybe there was hope after all. She swiped her hand in the air and brought up the game menu, then selected Quill and clicked [Invite to Party]. 

The invite window appeared in front of him. He raised his brows and hesitated. “You sure? I mean, you saw my stats. There will be plenty of people with better that you could team up with. I don’t want to hold you back.”

“But how many of them have a cute bum?” she joked.

“Seriously—“

“Are you going to hit yes, or what?”

He chuckled silently and ran his hand through his brown hair, looking nervous. Then he pressed [Yes].