The world dissolved into an endless expanse of sterile white. Darkness was replaced by a light so absolute it had no source. Before Kage, the light coalesced, weaving itself into the form of a woman who defied gravity and both mortal and moral standards.
Silver hair flowed around her as if underwater, and her eyes shimmered like liquid starlight. Her form was wrapped in translucent silks that seemed to hold a map of the night sky within them. She leaned forward, a dazzling, impossibly perfect smile on her face, her very presence radiating warmth and boundless enthusiasm.
Pretty graphics don't increase DPS, Kage thought, already calculating how many seconds this cutscene would waste.
"Welcome, brave soul!" her voice chimed, echoing with a warmth that the sterile void seemed to reject. "I am Lora, the Weaver of Fates! Your journey in the magnificent world of Crown of Destiny begins now. Come, let us shape the vessel of your destiny!"
Tutorial NPC. Skip button... where's the skip button?
Menus bloomed in the air before Kage, shimmering panes of translucent blue light displaying an almost offensive number of options. This was the Character Creation Suite, a developer's proudest boast and a player's first time-sink trap.
He could have spent days here. The system offered sliders for everything from cheekbone height to fingertip length. There were palettes with sixteen million colors for eye pigmentation and separate controls for the sclera. There was a dynamic scarring system, a library of a thousand hairstyles with individual strand physics, and more than five hundred voice modulations.
It was beautiful, intricate, and utterly useless waste of precious game time.
Lora gestured to the menus with a flourish, her silk robes rippling with constellation patterns. "Behold! The Loom of Creation! Every hero's story begins with their face. Will you choose the jawline of a king? The piercing eyes of a hawk? The possibilities are as endless as the stars themselves!"
Every second here is money not being made. Mom's treatment won't pay for itself.
Kage's mind dismissed it all. He executed a pre-planned sequence.
Randomize.
Lora's smile tightened for a fraction of a second, her starlight eyes blinking in surprise. "Ah, a bold choice! Seeking inspiration from the cosmic ether! Let's see what the fates have woven for y—"
Randomize.
Her hair flow stuttered slightly. "Oh! Well, that's... certainly different! Perhaps we could just adjust the cheek structure to be a bit more—"
Randomize.
The constellation patterns in her robes began to flicker erratically. "Oh my. That's... that's quite a unique combination," Lora said, her voice straining to maintain its cheerful pitch. Her perfect smile developed a slight twitch. "Very... bold. But perhaps we could just tweak the nose a little? Give it a more... heroic arch? Something that screams 'protagonist'?"
Randomize.
"...Or not," she whispered, watching yet another bland, forgettable face materialize. The starlight in her eyes dimmed noticeably.
He toggled the randomization function a final time. A face flickered into existence before him. High cheekbones from one template, a broad nose from another, a jawline that belonged to a third. The result was... nothing. It was a face you would see in a crowd and instantly forget. Perfectly, beautifully unremarkable.
Lora stared at the bland face for a full five seconds, her mouth slightly open. "...Subtle," she finally managed, clapping her hands together with the enthusiasm of someone trying to convince themselves everything was fine. "A quiet confidence! I... I love it! It says, 'My deeds will speak for me, not my cheekbones!' Very... very wise!"
Good enough. Let the streamers design heroic avatars with glowing eyes and dramatic scars. They're painting targets on their own backs. Fame is a liability. A memorable face is a target. The best players are ghosts.
"Now then!" Lora continued, her forced cheer reaching painful levels, "Let us sculpt your heroic physique! This is where legends are truly born! Will you be a towering titan of muscle? A lithe and graceful warrior? The canvas awaits your artistic vision!"
He navigated to the physical proportion sliders, ignoring everything except the measurements that mattered. This was the only part worth his attention.
Lora watched with growing confusion as he bypassed muscle mass, skin tone, and body fat percentage entirely. "Such... focus! Are you perhaps looking for the aesthetic presets? I have some lovely—"
He honed in on two specific values: height and limb length. With meticulous precision, he adjusted the sliders until the avatar's virtual skeleton matched his own physical measurements exactly.
"Oh," Lora said, watching him work with scientific precision on what she clearly expected to be an artistic endeavor. "You're... calibrating bone ratios. How wonderfully... technical." Her smile was beginning to look painful. "Might I suggest adding just a touch more shoulder breadth? For that heroic silhouette?"
This isn't about aesthetics. It's about muscle memory. Years of kendo wired my brain for a specific reach, center of gravity, step-length. That old geezer always said the blade is an extension of the body. Same principle applies here.
Kage confirmed his selections without a word.
Lora placed a hand over her heart, her expression shifting to one of profound, if strained, solemnity. "Your... your form is complete. Truly unique. Now! A name! A name to be whispered in fear by your enemies and shouted in praise by your allies! What epic title shall echo through the halls of legend?"
A simple text box appeared. Without hesitation, he typed four letters.
K. A. G. E.
"...Kage," Lora tested the name, her voice flat. She paused, clearly waiting for him to elaborate, explain the meaning, share the epic backstory behind his chosen identity.
He confirmed.
"Right. Kage it is. Short. Sharp." Her enthusiasm was now purely mechanical. "Like a... like a very efficient dagger."
I don't care for the name's meaning. I've used it a dozen times before. It's short, easy to type, doesn't show up on any 'cool gamer names' lists. Functional. A ghost's name.
"Now!" Lora's voice cracked slightly as she gestured to the final interface. "Pour your spirit into your vessel! Define your inner self! Will you be a pillar of Strength? A whisper of Agility? A wellspring of Intellect? Or perhaps..." she leaned forward hopefully, "a connoisseur of Artistry, for those with truly refined taste?"
The character model dissolved, replaced by a new interface. Glowing runes representing the starting classes hovered in the white void: Warrior, Mage, Ranger, Priest, Rogue, Artisan (which further broke down into specialized subclasses).
Kage's focus snapped to the first rune without even glancing at the others.
He selected [Warrior].
[Character Sheet: Kage]
Level: 1
Experience 0/100
Class: Warrior
Title: -
Fame: 0
Physical Damage: 10
HP: 110/110
MP: 110/110
Weight: 0/50
[Attributes] (10 Points to Allocate)
Strength (STR): 10
Agility (AGI): 10
Stamina (STA): 10
Intellect (INT): 10
Artistry (ART): 10
"A path of strength and steel!" Lora declared, some genuine relief creeping into her voice. "A classic choice! Noble! Honorable! The very essence of—"
The attribute allocation window appeared, and Kage immediately began draining as many points as possible from the stats that didn't matter.
"—heroic..." Lora's voice trailed off as she watched the numbers shift.
Strength and Agility. Nothing else matters. Strength equals damage. Agility equals speed. Everything else is a luxury I can't afford.
His spectral fingers flew across the interface, ruthlessly optimizing his build.
"Oh," Lora said faintly, watching Intellect plummet. "Oh my."
Intellect? Useless. Let the mages have it. A warrior with INT is a failed spellsword.
"Wait, you're not seriously going to—" she started, then watched in growing horror as Artistry joined Intellect at the absolute minimum.
Artistry? A joke stat for role-players who want to craft useless furniture. Zero combat application.
"But... but Artistry governs your ability to appreciate beauty! To create! To find meaning beyond mere—" Lora's protests grew increasingly desperate.
He ignored the warning prompts that flashed briefly and confirmed his allocation.
[Character Sheet: Kage]
Level: 1
Experience 0/100
Class: Warrior
Title: -
Fame: 0
Physical Damage: 20
HP: 110/110
MP: 60/60
Weight: 0/60
[Attributes]
Strength (STR): 20 (+10)
Agility (AGI): 20 (+10)
Stamina (STA): 10
Intellect (INT): 5 (-5)
Artistry (ART): 5 (-5)
He felt satisfied. The build was clean.
Stamina? A trap. More HP just means you can survive mistakes. The optimal play is not to make mistakes.
Glass cannon build. High risk, high reward.
He checked his starting skill window. As expected, it was nearly bare.
[Skills]
[Power Strike I] (Active): A basic, high-damage attack. 150% Base Damage Multiplier. Costs 10 MP.
Next, the beginner's weapon.
[Novice's Rusted Sword]
Quality: Common
Type: One-Handed Sword
Weight: 2
Physical Attack: +8
Attack Speed: +3%
Durability: 20 / 20
Requires Level: 1
Description:Less a weapon and more a sharpened piece of scrap metal. It's better than nothing... probably.
That was all he needed. He didn't need a dozen flashy skills. He needed one reliable damage-dealer and his own two hands.
Lora physically recoiled, her perfect composure finally cracking completely. "You... you've created an abomination," she whispered, staring at his stats in undisguised horror. "A warrior who cannot appreciate a sunset, compose a simple haiku, or even understand the artistic merit of a well-crafted blade! You've made yourself functionally aesthetic-blind!"
Perfect.
Clean build. High damage, high speed, no wasted points on feel-good fluff.
"Please," she tried one last time, her voice small and desperate, "just one point in Artistry? Just one?"
He was already moving to the next screen, choosing his starting zone as [Whispering Woods].
Lora stood in stunned silence for a moment, then took a deep, shuddering breath. When she spoke again, her voice had all the warmth of a corporate customer service recording.
"Your... path is set. Your form is... technically functional. Your name is... memorable in its brevity." The orchestral music around her sounded tired. "May your legend be written in... very simple words. Your story begins now."
Finally. He spared a glance at Lora.
They really went all-in on AI, Kage noted internally. A simulated emotional breakdown followed by a detached, professional recovery. Fully dynamic and human-like. State-of-the-art AI. A waste of processing cycles, but impressive nonetheless.
For a fractional second, Kage felt a simulated vertigo, the sensation of falling through reality. Then, light, sound, and a thousand other sensations crashed into him at once.
Behind him, in the white void, Lora slumped slightly, her perfect posture finally giving way.
[Your Artistry stat is too low to appreciate hidden details in the world.]
[Some quests and their clues may be locked for you.]
[Artistic and poetic descriptions will be rendered in a simplified, functional format.]
What?
He frowned.
This… could be problematic. I need to find a baseline.
He spawned in a forest clearing. Sunlight, impossibly gold and dappled, filtered through the canopy of ancient, moss-covered trees. The air smelled of damp earth, pine needles, and a faint, sweet scent of unseen flowers. The world was beautiful. A breathtaking work of digital art.
Kage didn't notice.
His senses were immediately assaulted by something else entirely: chaos.
He was in the middle of a swarm in the starting town of this zone - [Oakhaven]. Hundreds, no, thousands of new players were materializing all around him in flashes of blue light. And still, the vast majority were in character creation.
The air erupted into a cacophony of human noise.
"Whoa! Look at the graphics!"
"FOR THE HORDE! Or… whatever the faction is here!"
"Party invite, anyone? LFG for slimes!"
"MOM GET OFF THE PHONE I'M GAMING!"
"My starting spell… HIGHLIGHTS RHYMES???"
The starting zone, the Whispering Woods, was a beautiful, chaotic mess. A level 1 mage set himself on fire trying to cast a spell. Players were running in circles, testing out the movement, and swinging their flimsy [Novice's Rusted Swords] at the air.
The official low-level mobs, designated punching bags for new arrivals, were tiny, gelatinous things called Pygmy Slimes. They squelched pathetically as swarms of players descended on them, shouting skill names as if it made a difference.
"Power Strike!"
"Rapid Arrows!"
Kage didn't move.
For a full ten seconds, he remained perfectly still, a single point of absolute stillness in a sea of frantic motion. He wasn't in awe. He wasn't overwhelmed.
He was processing.
His eyes scanned his UI, the semi-transparent elements that overlaid his vision. HP and MP bars. Mini-map: displaying local topography and an unhelpful sea of blue dots representing other players. Chat window: a scrolling waterfall of joyful, pointless gibberish. He registered the latency. Stable. Acceptable.
Next, his awareness expanded to the environment. He noted the density of the player swarm. Mob spawn points for the Pygmy Slimes were already being camped. The competition for these low-XP mobs was fierce and inefficient. A waste of time.
He listened, filtering the cacophony. The shouts, the clumsy impact sounds, the triumphant jingles of mobs dying. It was all noise. He was searching for a signal, a pattern. He found none. Just amateur enthusiasm.
His scan was complete. Baseline established.
The crowd was moving east, towards the first quest-giving NPC, whose location was marked by a glowing exclamation point on the mini-map. They were following the game's designated path, the breadcrumb trail the developers had laid out for the masses.
Kage turned west.
Against the current. Against the intended path. One grey man moving with purpose while thousands ran in circles.
His objective was clear, his destination logged from weeks of research.
He began to move. His path was a straight, efficient line through the chaos. He weaved through the throngs of jumping, shouting players with the unconscious grace of a fish swimming through a turbulent current. He didn't bump into anyone. He wasted no energy on extraneous movements.
A player randomly swung his sword in a wild arc, nearly clipping him.
"Watch it, noob!"
Kage adjusted his path by a few centimeters without breaking stride, his eyes already focused on the treeline ahead.
Through the town gates. Past the NPCs shouting about destinies and chosen ones. Into the unmarked forest where the tutorial said not to go.
Behind him, Oakhaven roared with the sound of ten thousand heroes being born.
The herd was chasing the game.
Kage was on his way to break it.