Matthew Atkinson & Natalie Russell
Fourth Layer of the Supernatural Realm
"Welcome to OASIS, Player."
"You have 5 hours before you are forcibly teleported to the Artifact-Hunt themed Battle Royale arena in Planet Doom – Sector 12."
"During this time, you need to create your avatar and complete your preparations by purchasing the necessary equipment for the Battle Royale."
"To purchase equipment, you need to use Attribute Coins, which are determined based on your Battle Power."
"Your Battle Power is being calculated..."
Then Matthew began to see calculations appearing on the panel in front of him.
[You currently have 1330 Constitution Attribute Points... An Innate Skill affecting Battle Power has been detected... Constitution is based on 3990... You have earned 3990 Attribute Coins.]
[You currently have 383 Mental Attribute Points... You have earned 383 Attribute Coins.]
[You currently have 1330 Strength Attribute Points... An Innate Skill affecting Battle Power has been detected... Strength is based on 3990... You have earned 3990 Attribute Coins.]
[You currently have 1330 Agility Attribute Points... You have earned 1330 Attribute Coins.]
[You currently have 340 expendable Attribute Points... You have earned 340 Attribute Coins.]
[Upgradable Skill detected... Master level Armament Haki... You have earned 420 Attribute Coins.]
"Calculation complete. You have earned a total of 10,453 Attribute Coins."
After the calculations on the panel were complete, Matthew heard the robotic female voice again, this time telling him the total number of Attribute Coins.
10,453... This number was probably unimaginable to any freshman.
But Matthew wasn't surprised. He knew how the calculation was done, having already performed it and created scenarios based on it over the past month.
What would have truly surprised him would have been a lower number.
But Matthew had also created scenarios where Innate Skills weren't taken into account, just in case. Though he no longer needed them.
"Your 5-hour timer has just started. 05:00:00... 04:59:59... 04:59:58..."
"I hope you're READY. Good luck, PLAYER. Try to be number ONE."
Then Matthew's panel changed, transforming into a character design panel with a "Create Your Avatar" heading at the top.
Overall, it resembled the character creation screens in many games, just a slightly more advanced version with a few more features.
Matthew didn't want to spend too much time on the avatar creation process, so he directly chose the imagination-based creation option.
He didn't even need to press anything to control the panel; his thoughts alone could activate many things on it.
Hand gestures were rarely used when operating the panels in OASIS.
Upon Matthew choosing the imagination-based creation option, the other design buttons on the panel disappeared, and the message "[Please Imagine Your Avatar]" appeared.
Matthew closed his eyes and began to imagine the character.
The character he chose was William Turner Jr. from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series.
Or, as his real name is, Orlando Bloom.
Matthew imagined him as he would be after becoming captain of the Flying Dutchman.
After imagining Will Turner's appearance, movements, facial expressions, and way of speaking for about ten seconds, even with his eyes closed, the message "[Avatar Creation Complete]" appeared in his field of vision, and he opened his eyes.
Now, in one of the avatar slots on the panel in front of him, Will Turner stood dressed in pirate attire.
Matthew could have created even more avatars if he wanted to, but he didn't feel the need.
Besides, if his plans went according to plan, he wouldn't even look like this character.
Matthew was about to choose to equip his avatar when he glanced over and saw Natalie manually creating her character.
"Nat, why are you bothering with manual creation? Wouldn't imagination-based creation take less time?" Matthew asked.
Natalie stopped working on her avatar and turned to Matthew, saying, "Professor Grant said that imagination-based avatar creation requires a lot of detailed thinking. Many people who use it have to spend more time than with manual creation."
"Really? It didn't seem that difficult to me," Matthew said, wondering if Professor Holland had mentioned it.
He had mentioned imagination-based avatar creation, but Matthew couldn't remember how difficult it was.
It was highly likely that even if the Professor had mentioned it, Matthew hadn't paid attention.
"Have you already created your avatar?" Natalie asked Matthew.
"Yeah," said Matthew, and chose to equip his avatar.
Then, his ghost-like body, which still looked like his own, transformed into his newly created avatar, but this time it was a physical body.
"How do I look?" Matthew said, his voice echoing William Turner's.
Natalie stared at Matthew's avatar in amazement for a moment before asking, "How did you manage to create such a detailed avatar in such a short time?"
"I just imagined it."
"But creating an avatar based on imagination requires a lot of detail... what exactly did you base this avatar on?" she asked.
"Oh... There is another story I've been working on. This avatar is one of the main characters in the story." He said.
"Well... maybe it's because you're familiar with the character that you were able to imagine so quickly," Natalie said, then looked at her own avatar creation panel and observed the not-so-pleasant avatar she was working on.
Then, turning to Matthew, her cheeks flushed, she asked, "Could you design an avatar for me, too? I don't want to waste too much time on my avatar."
This had nothing to do with her lack of confidence in her avatar-creating skills. She just wanted to save time.
"Sure," Matthew said. "Is there a particular appearance you'd like?"
"It's entirely up to you. Maybe a different character from your story?" Natalie said.
"Okay," said Matthew, selecting a new avatar slot from the panel and choosing to create one based on imagination.
And, as before, after closing his eyes, he began to imagine the character Natalie had chosen for her avatar.
Well... if he had chosen William Turner Jr. for himself, he would of course choose Elizabeth Turner (née Swann) for Natalie.
The character portrayed by Keira Knightley.
Based on her Pirate Queen appearance, Matthew imagined her movements, facial expressions, and memories of her speech, and after about 10 seconds, he completed the avatar creation.
When Matthew opened his eyes, he could now see the Elizabeth Turner avatar in the avatar slot.
Matthew quickly selected the avatar with two fingers and directed it towards Natalie's panel.
Then he quickly deleted the Elizabeth Turner avatar from his slot.
The thought of accidentally equipping this avatar sent shivers down his spine.
It was best not to take any risks and delete the avatar after sending it to Natalie.
Meanwhile, Natalie looked at her panel in astonishment as a new avatar appeared on it.
Did designing such a detailed avatar only take ten seconds?
Then she saw in the avatar's info section that the character's original name was Elizabeth Turner (née Swann), and something occurred to her.
"Matthew, what's your avatar's name?"
"Name? William Turner. Why do you ask?"
"My avatar's info section says her name is Elizabeth Turner (née Swann) - Pirate Queen. These two characters..."
"Oh... Is there an info section in the avatar? I hadn't noticed. And these two characters get married later in the story," Matthew said with a mischievous smile.
Natalie's face immediately flushed. To change the subject, she asked as she equipped her avatar, "So, are you going to use William Turner as your avatar nickname?"
"Nope. I'm thinking of using Pirate King. Why don't you use Pirate Queen? I think that would be a good combination."
"...Okay," Natalie said, her face flushing even more, but the smile on her face indicated she liked it.
The two quickly entered their avatar nicknames, and then the panel in front of them changed again, moving to a new tab with the "Store" heading at the top.
This tab displayed the amount of Attribute Coins they had earned, as well as all the equipment mentioned in the document that the Professors had previously shared with them.
"Natalie, first get yourself three Extra Life Coins. They can only be purchased by the players themselves."
"Three? That's 300 attribute coins. Is it logical to spend that much on extra lives? Wouldn't it be better to get one or two? We already have one anyway."
"Security comes first. Get all three. I have enough Attribute Coins. By the way, how many attribute coins do you have?"
"1,436 Attribute Coins. Spending a fifth of them on Extra Life Coins might put us in a difficult situation... Are you sure you have enough Coins, Matthew?"
Without lifting his head from the panel, still examining the items, Matthew said, "I have a total of 10,453 Attribute Coins. You don't need to worry. You can buy the Extra Life Coins with peace of mind. If we could buy more than three per player, I would have bought those too."
But when Natalie didn't respond for a while, he turned and looked at her, only to find her staring at him with her mouth agape, surprised and frozen.
"What is it?" he said.
"10,453? Are you sure you didn't overstate a digit?" she asked.
"I have two innate skills that multiply my base attributes. Don't be so surprised. Now, please buy those extra coins. I don't intend to risk your safety. In the meantime, I have an item I want to try. Depending on whether it works or not, we can make plans for Battle Royale." He said.
"… Okay," Natalie said, and as she was buying Extra Life Coins, Matthew found the item he was looking for.
Without a moment's hesitation, Matthew spent 3,000 Attribute Coins to buy the item, and then a card appeared in his hand with a new small information panel opening in front of him.
[Hero Template Card – Legend]
…
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.120: Superman Hero Template Card
Ch.121: Shopping Spree and a Crazy Item
Ch.122: Get Ready!