《Champions of Asteria》 Prologue: The Game Begins. ¡°The year is 2029, cars still haven¡¯t left the ground and solid holograms remain strictly fictional. There are groups of crack-heads who claim they have cracked the human genome and are capable of granting people super powers through science, and there are people still recovering from the chaos of the coronavirus and the three years of crap that followed. But one rather miniscule change happened, something that actually concerns our story. A relatively new but fairly well respected video game company, Pantheon Entertainment, partnered with multiple tech companies and independent researchers to produce a VR headset that allowed a person to literally enter the game. While the headset they produced was not a ¡°full-dive¡± into the virtual world, being unable to replicate smell and taste as well as not putting the actual body in a state of sleep, it did allow the player to control the game avatar with only their mind and feel the game world as if it were real. They went through numerous tests with the headset, even contacting the government and getting their headsets safety features verified by an official, as well as making new laws around this technology and its use before it gets announced to the public. Meanwhile, Pantheon Entertainment began work on their magnum opus, a VR video game world made for the new headset and programmed to be as realistic as a fantasy world could be. The development team working tirelessly to bring their vision into reality, produced a world unlike any other in a video game before them. Two years after the laws on dive-tech VR headsets were finalized, Pantheon Entertainment announced the open beta of their new game, ¡°Champions of Asteria¡±, a VR mmo utilizing the newest dive-tech VR headsets and providing a realistic and ever-changing world. The gaming community exploded, the lucky few who got into the open beta were provided no NDA pertaining to the contents of the game, and were in fact, encouraged to spread their opinions, and supply tips and tricks to the coming wave of pre-order and first release players. Forums ignited as news of the game mechanics was spread, the hype for the game only increased. It offered many freedoms to the players and while it was horribly unbalanced, that same unbalanced-ness gave the game a charm that wove it¡¯s way through many potential players. Soon it would be the talk of the gaming industry, and if you never heard about Champions of Asteria you were a boomer living under a rock. Even non-gamers had heard about it despite not wanting to play it. As the hype grew and grew, Pantheon Entertainment started buying large amounts of server equipment and several warehouse locations around the world, renovating them to be server sites for the game. I love how Pantheon stated that the reason they were buying so many servers and locations was because they ¡°didn¡¯t want the servers to crash on day one so they bought triple the projected amount needed for the games operation.¡±. The amount of people waiting to play their game was frankly astounding, and I could see why the CEO was sweating profusely when the number was read to him. A hundred and fifty-two million was not a small number. Release day was almost as bad as black friday, people were trampled as others rushed to be the first to get a copy of Champions of Asteria. Stores sold out in a matter of hours around the world and illegal copies were downloaded by the hundreds in the hours that followed. As players entered the game one after another, it¡¯s popularity spread far and wide. While Champions of Asteria made headlines, it never did reach the same level of interest as politics or religion. Now of course our story starts nearly a year after the game''s release, February 17th 2030, as I get a copy of Champions of Asteria to play in my off time from school. I already have some plans in the works and am looking forward to grinding my way up to the top of this unbalanced game.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°That should do it.¡± said the girl, as she put down her pencil and closed the journal. ¡°It¡¯s getting late, and I need to be well rested before I begin.¡± The girl turned off the desk lamp and crawled into bed, dozing off faster than a TV shutting down. Within moments the girl was in dreamland, silently awaiting the coming morning when she could finally get her hands on the most hyped game of the decade. | This next section contains major spoilers for the story but I felt like it belonged here and not at, like, chapter 237 or whenever these foreshadowed events come to pass. | February 16th 2029. A group of people sat around a table in an office meeting room. These people were wearing business suits and each had a laptop in front of them. The room was dark except for the screen on which a slide from a projector was showing. The curtains were heavy and obscured the interior of the room from anyone watching the windows from outside. One of the people was becoming increasingly more agitated. ¡°And you¡¯re sure this¡¯ll work? You¡¯re sure we will have our champions before Drogan recovers?¡±(Person 1) ¡°Yes.¡± Said an increasingly more annoyed woman, ¡°For the thousandth time Topor, Yes!¡±(Person 2) ¡°I just want to be sure. We are putting a lot of resources on this bet and I want it to pay off.¡±(Topor) ¡°Come on, we all know the real reason why you¡¯re being impatient.¡± Said a man with a permanent spark of mischief in his eyes, ¡°Asteria is in your dominion and having Drogan trapped there has you worried about the damage he¡¯ll cause if he recovers enough to escape.¡±(Person 3) ¡°Can you blame me?!¡± Topor shouts, rising from his chair as he does so. ¡°All that energy, over a hundred uninhabited universes worth, And it¡¯ll only keep him contained for a couple centuries! He may be injured now but he recovers faster than us! When he gets out we won¡¯t be able to stop him again! Yes he was sealed in my dominion, but that just means that I am aware of every second that goes by with him getting stronger!¡±(Topor) At this point a man with dark skin, white hair, and an air of authority that surpasses everyone else in the room holds up his hand and the room quiets down for him to speak. ¡°I am aware of your concerns, Topor, but that is the exact reason why we are going through with this plan. We have no other options.¡±(obvious CEO) Topor sits back down with a still doubtful expression, ¡°I¡¯m still going to worry, every second of every day for the next two-hundred years I will worry about whether or not we made the best choice.¡±(Topor) ¡°There may come a time after Drogan is slain that we look back and realize how many better options we had, but this is the choice we made and it is already too late to change our minds now. Now if we want this plan to have the absolute best chance of succeeding everything needs to be in order. Feras, how is the simulation environment? Is it ready for public release?¡±(CEO) The woman who spoke to Topor stands up and motions to the screen. ¡°Yes, the simulation environment is more than ready for release. Geographical accuracy to the actual Asteria is estimated to be about 97.3%. Obviously Topor has facilities on Asteria that I cannot legally access so I have not included them in the simulation environment.¡±(Feras) ¡°What about Drogon¡¯s seal, has that area been replicated?¡±(CEO) ¡°I just added that location two days ago. It is supposed to be endgame content so I made sure news of it didn¡¯t leak to the champion candidates.¡±(Feras) ¡°Understood. Praken, how is the system addon coming along?¡±(CEO) Feras sat back down with a brief nod and the mischievous man stood up. ¡°Alright boss, The soul tempering mechanics were the most difficult. The system was never designed to do that in the first place and souls are such fragile little things. It really made the process harder on us, you know, but we got there in the end and everything is now ready for release day!¡±(Praken) ¡°Excellent. Are there any problems someone wants to bring up?¡±(CEO) Several heads shook in denial at this question and Praken sat back down, leaning back with a relaxed and pleased expression on his face. ¡°Alright, we continue as planned. Everyone, you¡¯re free to go.¡±(CEO) As everyone began shuffling out of the room, the authoritative person turned off the projector and opened the curtains. Looking out at the city below him, he sank into contemplation. Having not wanted his subordinates to see that he was just as nervous as they were. If he wasn¡¯t calm and in charge, they wouldn¡¯t be as calm as they are now, and he knew that. Putting a brave face, he turned and left the room, leaving the heavy atmosphere behind. Chapter 1: A rather random person buys a rather new game. *Beep Beep Beep* A phone alarm blared with what seemed like enough volume to wake an entire neighborhood. ¡°Uuugghhh.¡±(MC) A hand reached out to turn off the alarm as the owner of the hand slowly woke up and stretched, before getting out of bed. As I got up to get ready for the day I walked through my room, ignoring the many decorations as I had seen them millions of times before. The cyan blue painted walls gave off a feeling of calm serenity. The bookshelf was filled with stories from every genre imaginable, from encyclopedias and random fact books to manga and comic books, a few mystery novels sat off to one side and an entire shelf was dedicated to horror stories by Edgar Allen Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. Three computers occupied the desk, one was absolutely ancient and was held together with duct tape and a dream, the monitor it was linked to had a web page open to a web novel about an eldritch horror living as a human in the modern world. The second was an old model and was running a singleplayer game of minecraft, the player character was afk farming mobs into an absolutely massive sorting system. The third and final computer was only a generation behind the latest stuff and was the only computer without a program running, there was a new VR headset linked to it through an extension cable capable of reaching the bed, but the headset was on the desk next to the monitor. The shelf above the desk had several trophies and medals on it, one read: Beach Junior Athletics 2022 Rockets Rowan Baelz The trophy featured a person kicking a soccer ball. It was gold plated and had a marble base. The top of the dresser had a few family photos and a couple piles of video game CD cases. One was labeled ¡°Super Mario 64¡± and another was labeled ¡°Halo: Reach¡±. One of the photos featured a younger looking version of me standing next to an older looking boy while a man and woman stood behind them. I was holding a fishing pole and my older brother was holding a foldable tent. My father had a hunting rifle and my mother was holding a cooler. I remembered how the camera fell off of the rock right after it took this picture every time I looked at it. With a yawn I made my way to the restroom to get ready for the day. After freshening myself up and getting dressed, I made myself a quick breakfast and left for school. My brother was staying in a college dormitory and my parents both worked late shifts recently. My father was a technician for a factory an hour''s drive away from the house and my mother worked the night shift as a security guard for a pizzeria. I sighed as I walked to my highschool, a journey which only took 5 minutes. I hope it gets here today, I can¡¯t wait to play Champions of Asteria. I finally managed to save up enough allowance to get it ordered but the wait has been torture! As I entered the school building I heard a familiar voice call out to me, ¡°Yo! Roe! You¡¯re right on time today as well huh.¡±(???) I turned around and saw a boy roughly seven inches taller than me with slick black hair and brown eyes. His freckled face framed by thick-rimmed circular glasses and a baggy outfit that made him look bigger than he really was. As I opened my mouth to speak the bell rang once, an alert that we were, in fact, just on time. ¡°Hey Benjamin! And I¡¯m not sure what you mean, this is the same time I always get here.¡±(Rowan) ¡°Yeah, you always get to school right on time. Anyway, I¡¯ll see in the club room after school. Later Roe!¡±(Benjamin) As Benjamin turned and jogged off to his class, I took a breath and began walking to my class. It only took a couple of minutes to reach my classroom and as I closed the door behind me the bell rang once more, signifying the start of classes for the day. The teacher, a man who looks like Dash¡¯s teacher from The Incredibles with a name tag that says ¡°Mr. Shellburg¡± on his shirt, took one look at me and then promptly looked back at whatever he was drawing on the blackboard before saying,This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°You¡¯re right on time Miss Baelz, please take your seat and we can begin.¡±(Shellburg) I went to my desk and sat down. Smiling, I picked up the sheet of paper that was on her desk and looked at the big red ¡°A¡± in the top right corner. These were the results of Mr. Shellburg¡¯s surprise quiz yesterday. Mr. Shellburg was a diligent teacher and often used his surprise quizzes to see if his students were actually studying. The quizzes could happen at any time and have any number of questions about any number of subjects, the popular crowd hated them for that very reason. The other reason why so many students hated the surprise quizzes is that, Mr. Shellburg will read out the score of each and every student who took the quiz and mark anyone who didn¡¯t as having failed. I see the three stooges are seething right now. They¡¯ve tried to leverage their influence and wealth to get rid of the teacher a few times but their efforts never bore fruit, and he avoided any scandals spectacularly. ¡°Alright, All of you had a quiz yesterday so I¡¯m going to announce the results. Adam, You scored 88% correct and got a B+. Bartholomew, You scored 85% correct and got a B...¡±(Shellburg) I Toned out the teacher for a while and only paid attention again when my name got called. ¡°Rowan, you scored 96% correct and got an A¡­¡±(Shellburg) Not bad, I usually score higher though. The rest of the lesson was fairly normal, and my classes after that were normal as well. Learn some new math formulae, the next event to be recorded in the history textbooks, stuff we need to know for the tests and exams coming up later, and some brief social interaction with other students who take the same classes as me. All in all, normal. Once the school day was technically over, the various clubs, sports teams and other student organizations had their meetings and their practice and whatever else they had during this time. I am a member of the ¡°General Science and Engineering Club¡± and made sure to attend for the mandatory amount of time. Upon entering the clubroom I immediately saw Benjamin and Gustav pouring their hearts into their new toys. Small robots that stood up to their knees and about as wide as a tissue box. The robots were confined to a corner of the room and were fighting each other, one was designed to look like some kind of Godzilla-Trex thing and the other looked like an Optimus Prime rip-off. Calvin sat in the opposite corner reading a book about bioluminescence and the various creatures that have it. On the table next to him was an insect carrier filled with fireflies. In the middle of the room sat Anna, hunched over the computer, working on another part of her big project, an artificial intelligence. It was questionable if the antique computer she was working with could even run an Artificial Intelligence but, I wasn¡¯t about to trample on her dreams. That and if she actually managed to make it work it would be absolutely awesome. ¡°Hey Roe! You got a sec?¡±(Benjamin) Ben called out to me from his robot fight corner. I went over to him and Gustav. ¡°I¡¯m only here for the mandatory 10 minutes so, not really no.¡±(Rowan) I said so, Ben looked a little downcast at the news but that was instantly replaced with curiosity as he asked another question. ¡°What¡¯s going on that you would leave early? What happened?¡±(Benjamin) ¡°I am getting my copy of Champions of Asteria today. So I¡¯m leaving early to play it longer.¡±(Rowan) Ben¡¯s and Gustav¡¯s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at that statement. I noticed that Calvin also started paying more attention over here, but Anna remained glued to her project. ¡°Wow! I was gonna see if you had any input that could help us fine-tune the mechs, see if we could make the battle last longer by reducing their attack power or something, but if you''re about to start playing CoA then I can¡¯t really keep ya.¡±(Benjamin) ¡°Yeah, you¡¯ve been waiting to play that game for a while now. Far be it from me to keep someone from doing something they had to wait that long to do. That wouldn¡¯t be very gentlemanly of me.¡±(Gustav) Ben and Gustav looked at eachother and kept whatever they wanted help with to themselves. I would probably help them out with it next monday but I was not waiting any longer than necessary. Ben turned back to me before speaking up. ¡°Hey you remember my username right? FarmingEngineer323? Send me a friend invite when you finish the character creation. I¡¯ll accept and send you a gift pack when I log in.¡±(Benjamin) ¡°Yeah, if I¡¯d ever played it I¡¯d do the same thing.¡±(Gustav) Ben and I both looked at Gustav with a little bit of confusion. ¡°Didn¡¯t you already play the game though?¡±(Benjamin) ¡°Yeah, on my brother¡¯s copy. I don¡¯t actually own the game myself or an account. He let me play for a couple days while he was at camp.¡±(Gustav) ¡°oh.¡±(Benjamin) With that cleared up Ben turned back to me. ¡°Yeah you go play the game. Have some fun. With how everyone treats you like an assistant and consultant for everything we do here, you deserve some breaks now and then.¡±(Benjamin) I rolled my eyes at that. ¡°That¡¯s my fault not yours. I¡¯ll help out with whatever you¡¯re doing on monday¡±(Rowan) It wasn¡¯t their fault that I spread my knowledge out over every subject. Looking over at ¡°My¡± corner, I could see the multiple half-read books on physics, biology, chemistry, quantum mechanics, engineering, and psychology. They had multiple bookmarks sticking out of them at various places, marked for facts that I found particularly interesting. I was a jack-of-all trades master of none type of scientist, as a result I could be relied on by everyone to help out with their own separate projects. While it was true that I didn¡¯t get like this on purpose, after all I just liked learning interesting things at my own pace, nothing wrong with that, It also wasn¡¯t something I was unhappy with. That said I also was free to choose when I didn¡¯t want to do stuff. It just so happened that I didn¡¯t do that often. After the ten minutes were up I went straight back home. I didn¡¯t even stop at the vending machine on my way. When I got home there was a small box on the porch hidden from view of the street. It had my name on it and was from Pantheon Entertainment. It¡¯s here! I grabbed it and carried it to my room. I had done today¡¯s homework yesterday just so that I could spend all of my free time today playing Champions of Asteria. I opened my door and flipped on the light¡­ Chapter 2: You can create a custom race? Alright! As the light turned on and my room was illuminated I went over to my bed and opened the box. Sitting at the bottom, underneath a cookie-thin layer of styrofoam was an unopened game CD case with the cover art for Champions of Asteria on it. It showed a classic looking image of typical fantasy races, elves, dwarves, were-people and demons facing off with very non-typical fantasy races on both sides. There was a cloaked figure with his back turned that was faded and transparent behind everyone and above the title. Each character featured on the box had a username floating above their head, the names used were created by closed beta players. Supposedly the characters featured were also the same. It only took a moment for me to pull the case out of the transparent, plastic sealed wrap and open it to remove the CD. Placed the CD in my best computer¡¯s optical drive and let the machine read the disk. When the notification popped up asking what to do with the program on the disk, I clicked ¡°Run¡± and then grabbed my VR headset and laid down on my bed. ¡°Headset on.¡±(Rowan) After a few seconds I felt as If my body went numb. I laid there tingling as I waited for the game to load. How long does it take to load a VR game, though it IS VR so¡­ that might be why. A few seconds later and I saw the game logo fly across the sea of black that was my vision. The tingling stopped and I was treated to the game¡¯s first-time start-up trailer that acted as a sort-of mandatory tutorial to teach you how to play the game. ¡°Welcome Champion, to Asteria!¡±(System ad) ¡°Explore a vast, open-world map made with voxel support to imitate terrain damage and restoration with our prided physic-engine¡±(System ad) ¡°Experience a world several times larger than our own, procedurally generated before the games official release¡±(System ad) ¡°Enjoy the game with friends using our friend system, send messages and gifts to each other without needing to be right next to one another¡±(System ad) ¡°The game can be progressed by crafters and warriors equally. Using our profession system crafters can achieve similar growths to warriors and magicians without needing to engage in combat.¡±(System ad) ¡°Come enjoy Asteria Champions. Have fun in a new world.¡±(System ad)
| I am not good at writing advertisements apparently. |
After That brief advertisement the actual tutorial started up. Finally. ¡°Champions of Asteria uses state of the art VR technology to simulate the sense of touch with the body. By interrupting the neural connection between the user¡¯s brain and the everything below their neck, we can replace those signals with our own and ensure that the user can operate their avatar as if it were their own body.¡±(System) ¡°This system of controls naturally concerns some people, and many of those concerns are very valid.¡±(System) Yeah being told your ability to move your arms is being ¡°interrupted¡± would be very concerning. ¡°However the Headset doesn¡¯t interrupt the signals in the user¡¯s head. The user may use voice commands such as ¡°Headset on.¡± or ¡°System logout.¡± or even ¡°Headset off.¡± to control the state of the headset and by extension the state of the neuron controller.¡±(System) That wouldn¡¯t always work though. ¡°Additionally, the headset leaves no lasting impact on a user¡¯s ability to move their body should the headset be removed while still powered on. Having an additional human to remove the headset for you is another way to leave the game without being able to control your body.¡±(System)Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. What if you didn¡¯t have any friends or family that could remove the headset for you? ¡°You could also, maybe use the headset environment¡¯s shut-down button. It is located behind the user when they first start the headset before selecting a game.¡±(System) Uh huh. ¡°In the event that all else fails, the headset will automatically shut down if the computer or other connected device is unplugged from the wall outlet or otherwise switches to battery power. Additionally, the user may set a timer on their computer or other connected device that will automatically shut down the headset, by default this timer is set to 8 hours.¡±(System) I¡¯m going to have to change that timer, 4-5 hours on weekdays and 9-10 on weekends. ¡°Now on to game mechanics.¡±(System) The scene shifted, showing a person doing yoga exercises. ¡°Champions of Asteria uses the human mind as a game controller, this means the user¡¯s avatar may be controlled as if it were the user¡¯s real body. Additionally, the game may send sensory feedback to the user that doesn¡¯t impact or injure the user¡¯s real body. This allows the user to feel the game environment more clearly.¡±(System) ¡°This of course means that controlling the user¡¯s in-game avatar is as easy as thinking about wanting to move or do specific things.¡±(System) The image changed, showing a dabbing person before shifting to show a warrior wielding a large sword. ¡°Using weapons, both melee and ranged, is as easy as it is in real life, and having real-world skill with a weapon translates into the game and vice-versa.¡±(System) So basically, if you already know how to swing a sword you¡¯ll have an early-game advantage over everyone else because you have skill, and also learning how to use a sword in-game makes you good at using it in real-life huh? The scene changed and now showed a magician casting a spell. ¡°Asteria¡¯s magic system can be used by any user, so long as they have the requisite knowledge to make use of it. There are multiple racial traits, acquired traits, and skills that facilitate use of magic in the world of Asteria.¡±(System) So basically, as long as you have the skills for it you can use magic, but it¡¯s meaningless if you don¡¯t actually know how magic is used in the game world. The scene changed again, this time showing a few diagrams meant as a visual aid for the following descriptions. ¡°When you level up your base attributes increase and you gain a number of attribute points to spend as you wish or save for later. Base attributes are determined by your race and improving them improves your physical capabilities within the game. Traits are passive abilities that do not increase their effect and can be acquired either as part of the avatar¡¯s race or by spending attribute points. Skills are representations of player skill within the game and increase based on player proficiency with that skill.¡±(System) So that¡¯s why being skilled at something in real life translates into the game, the more skilled you are the faster your proficiency in said skill rises until you catch up to where you are IRL. An ingenious system I must say. ¡°Titles are cosmetic changes to the stats menu that provide a small bonus effect. You get titles by collecting achievements. Titles that provide similar bonuses do not stack. Instead, titles with better bonuses are given priority and have their bonuses used.¡±(System) Basically, if you have a title that gives you a +1 damage against goblins and another title that gives you a +3 damage against goblins, you do not get a +4 damage boost against goblins. Instead, only the +3 damage against goblins gets used. Easy enough to understand. The scene faded to black and I found myself standing on a large grid that felt like solid ground. ¡°We will now begin the character creation process. During the process, basic instructions on how to create your player avatar will be given. If you have further questions during the character creation process, please direct them at [System] and I will try to answer your questions as clearly as I can.¡±(System) A human figure appeared in front of me, it had my face and was my height but wasn¡¯t very accurate besides that. Other figures stood on either side of the first, the one on the left looked like an elf version of the first figure and the one on the right looked like a half-dragon. They kind of faded out at the far sides. On the right hand side of the far right figure there were two large boxes, the top one read ¡°Random Race¡± and the one on the bottom read ¡°Create Custom Race¡±. Wait what?! Chapter 3: Creating an endgame monstrosity. ¡°Create Custom Race¡± The words on the bottom box called to me, the idea of making my character truly my own was igniting a fire in me. Full creative freedom. I felt like I was given the ability to dictate the exact dimension of a sculpture, and my sculpting material was an entire mountain. ¡°There are several developer races for you to choose from, the full list is on your left.¡±(System) I glanced briefly to my left and saw a tall box with race names in a top-down list format, the name in the middle of the box was highlighted and read ¡°Human¡±. I turned my attention back to the ¡°Create Custom Race¡± box. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to use a developer race you can select the [Random Race] button and you have the chance to get a player created race. If you don¡¯t like the thought of randomizing your chances then simply scroll across the races in front of you until you find one you like. Alternatively you may create your own custom race that will be added to the list for future players to select.¡±(System) I pressed the ¡°Create Custom Race¡± box. Everything vanished except the figure directly in front of me, several windows popped up with various pieces of information. I took a look at the window in front of me, the largest one.
Name: Height: Age: Gender: Race: HP: 100/100 MP: 100/100 SP: 100/100 Level: 1 Xp to next level: 100
STR: 100 DEX: 100 CON: 100 INT: 100 WIS: 100 Attribute Points: 800 Achievements: 0 Titles: 0
Racial Traits:
Traits:
Skills:
I stared at the screen for a moment, the gears in my head trying to plan out a successful race when the system spoke up. ¡°If you need more attribute points to spend on racial traits or attributes, you may reduce your attributes to get more attribute points.¡±(System) I put the main character page on hold for now and looked at the list of racial traits. Each trait had an associated point cost to put it on your race, but something about the prices and the available points seemed¡­ off. ¡°System, why are all the traits so... cheap?¡±(Rowan) ¡°Query answer, the majority of developer races possess base attributes greater than 100. Players are likely to spend 400 of the available attribute points getting the base attributes to be the same as a developer [Human].¡±(System) What? [Human]¡¯s have stats over 100? What? Well at least that explains the absurd number of points compared to prices. They expected you to spend most of those putting you on par with everyone else. I looked closer at the list of traits observing everything as closely as I could. It wasn¡¯t long until a few traits caught my eye. [Immortality: Regeneration] cost: 350 AP [Immortality: Eternal Youth] cost: 350 AP [Immortality: Reincarnation] cost: 350 AP They¡¯re offering immortality as a racial trait? What do these traits do? I pressed the button to expand on the traits and explain their purpose. [Immortality: Regeneration] Regenerate 1% of the player¡¯s maximum HP every second. Severed limbs and other body parts will also regenerate. This effect stacks with other regeneration traits. This trait cannot be copied, stolen, or disabled. [Immortality: Eternal Youth] Grants immunity to disease and ageing spells and effects. Grants immunity to poison and petrification. This trait cannot be copied, stolen, or disabled.Stolen novel; please report. [Immortality: Reincarnation] Removes the death penalty from the player. This trait cannot be copied, stolen, or disabled. These were really good, especially that last one. In Champions of Asteria players are allowed to die 5 times before their character is considered ¡°Dead¡±. Each time a player dies their death penalty increases in brutality until they can no longer play that character. Removing that penalty entirely, means you can essentially become a suicide fighter. You don¡¯t have to fear the death penalty. Altogether they cost 1,050 points. I was going to have to lose some points from my attributes for this. Then I saw another trait that caught my eye, and the gears in my head broke as an idea formed. An idea so great, so incredible, so maniacally evil that my mind was set from that point on. This is what I am going to do! Is what I thought at that moment. [True Shapeshifting] cost: 250 AP; Allows the player absolute control over their own body. Allows the player to shapeshift into anything they can think of. Does not allow shapeshifting into non-organic materials but does allow the mimicking of said materials. Allows the player to manipulate their attributes somewhat, the player can take up to 10% of the attribute points from an attribute and distribute them to any other attribute. This trait cannot be stolen or disabled. I put my plan into motion, getting the requisite attribute points from my attributes and purchasing the traits. I even got another trait that looked helpful and then dumped all my leftover attribute points on my HP.
Name: Height: Age: Gender: Race: Primordial Human HP: 40/40 MP: 10/10 SP: 10/10 Level: 1 Xp to next level: 100
STR: 10 DEX: 10 CON: 10 INT: 10 WIS: 10 Attribute Points: 0 Achievements: 0 Titles: 0
Racial Traits: [Immortality: Regeneration] [Immortality: Eternal Youth] [Immortality: Reincarnation] [True Shapeshifting] [Gluttony] GP: 0
Traits:
Skills:
[Gluttony] cost: 150 AP; Allows the player to eat anything and store it as Gluttony Points. GP can be exchanged for AP at a 100:1 ratio. This trait cannot be stolen or disabled. This last trait, [Gluttony], looked very useful to me. I don¡¯t know how much GP anything is worth, but the fact that I can get attribute points for basically free was enough to get me hooked. With everything finished here I started working on my racial appearance. I didn¡¯t change much from the base human so my appearance didn¡¯t really change at all. I pressed ¡°Done¡± and saw my new race, ¡°Primordial Human¡± get put on the list. I also noticed a rating that I didn¡¯t pay attention to before. ¡°System, what is this¡­ playability rating?¡±(Rowan) ¡°Query answer, the playability rating shows how easy or difficult it is to play that race. This rating is determined by the race¡¯s build. Low base attributes and difficult to master racial traits result in low race playability. High base attributes and easy to master racial traits result in high race playability.¡±(System) ¡°So it¡¯s basically a difficulty meter.¡±(Rowan) ¡°Yes¡±(System) I looked at the playability rating for my new race, 1/10 lowest rating. So how hard is leveling up going to be? Probably very hard. I moved on to my character¡¯s individual appearance. I gave my character shoulder length hair and made it brown, unlike my black. I made my eyes red and made my character just a touch taller than me. With [True Shapeshifting] I could always just shrink myself later. I then proceeded to fill out my character information. When I was done, my character page looked like this:
Name: Roe Height: 1.4m Age: 18 Gender: Female Race: Primordial Human HP: 40/40 MP: 10/10 SP: 10/10 Level: 1 Xp to next level: 100
STR: 10 DEX: 10 CON: 10 INT: 10 WIS: 10 Attribute Points: 0 Achievements: 0 Titles: 0
Racial Traits: [Immortality: Regeneration] [Immortality: Eternal Youth] [Immortality: Reincarnation] [True Shapeshifting] [Gluttony] GP: 0
Traits:
Skills:
I selected the ¡°Villager attire B¡± as my starting equipment and saw the simple shirt and shorts appear on my character. Instead of socks I had bandages wrapped around my legs and feet, and I had simple leather boots that didn¡¯t look all that durable. Now I was ready to play the game. I pressed the last ¡°done¡± button. ¡°Congratulations on successfully creating your character. Please choose a starting town and enjoy the game.¡±(System) Chapter 4: Choosing a beginner town. realizing how weak I really am. ¡°Please choose a starting town and enjoy the game.¡±(System) I saw four options appear before me. Small images of the town with some descriptive text to the right of the image. A map appeared in front of me and the town choices linked to spots on said map. I had a feeling this would have some significance, but I just really wanted to play the game at this point and began reading the text for each option. [¡°Halifax¡± a small country village in the kingdom of Gewar. This village has existed since it¡¯s founding and has recently become a hub of sorts for mercenaries and explorers who seek the fame and glory from slaying the increasing number of nearby beasts, or the treasures hidden in old ruins deep within the nearby forests.] [¡°Solem¡± a large town in the kingdom of Ujyush. This town is one of Ujyush¡¯s primary trade centers. A lot of craftsmen journey to Solem to make their names known, and others seek to scope out promising young people to tutor them and help them grow in their craft. The town also sees many mercenaries being brought along as guards or guides for craftsmen and merchants who visit. This gives the town many helping hands to assist in defence against the occasional beast wave.] [¡°Celor¡± Capital city of the Celorian Empire. This city is massive, and it¡¯s slums are filled with gangs, assassin groups, and other unsavory characters. The imperial guards can¡¯t keep an eye on everything, so they hire mercenaries and even civilians to assist in keeping law and order. The Imperial Archives are filled with books on lore, but are also filled with books on magic and its use. Magicians will find a very easy time learning magic here. Just be wary of your competition.] [¡°Towan¡± a small city in the nation of Ruberia. The name is derived from the word ¡°Town¡± as the city''s original name before it became a small city and was still an uncreatively named town. Towan sees people from all walks of life pass through due to its proximity to just about every point of interest. Beasts, ores, trade routes, old ruins, and scenic views, Towan has easy access to it all. Now if only the city wasn¡¯t locked between a hostile nation, the corrupted lands, and the dead man¡¯s forest it would be the ideal city to just live your life in.] The first option seems like it¡¯s meant to appeal to hunters as a forest area with plenty of beasts to fight and some ruins to explore, but what worries me is the bit about beasts increasing in number. Like sooner or later there will be hundreds or even thousands of them. The second option appeals to crafters and merchant players. Not what I¡¯m going for honestly, and I don¡¯t want to deal with these ¡°Beast Waves¡±. The third option seems like a place where warriors and magicians go. But my build isn¡¯t that good at dealing with assassins or mages. Still a good option though, since I can test myself against the thugs gangs in the slums and not worry about getting into too much trouble. The fourth option seems like the best of them all, but the thing about ¡°corrupted lands¡± has me slightly concerned. So long as I avoid it until I gain the levels I need to survive it, I¡¯ll be fine. And the easy access to resources will be a great boon for my early game. I didn¡¯t need to think too hard about my choice. I made my selection. ¡°Congratulations on picking ¡°Towan¡±. Remember to have fun and not be toxic to others!¡±(System) I felt a tingling sensation for a moment and then the world exploded with color and I felt motion sick for the first time in my life. I closed my eyes and after a second or two I heard the sounds of human activity nearby. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a lively town center in front of me. The hustle and bustle of daily life while people walked from place to place or stood around waiting for their friends. I needed an open space in which to test my traits, but I had no clue where those were. I decided to look around for someone who might know something first. People with the best armor and weapons or merchants who seem more familiar with everyone would be my best bet. It didn¡¯t take long for me to find a better alternative. A city guardsman or some other kind of official-looking fellow, like the city¡¯s equivalent of a cop. As I approached him he turned to look at me. ¡°Can I help you ma¡¯am?¡±(Guard) ¡°Yes, I''m looking for an open field. There¡¯s a thing I want to test but I need space and privacy.¡±(Roe) He had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment before pointing to the right and responding. ¡°If you head that way there¡¯s a fairly open field just outside the city but, you really shouldn¡¯t be leaving towns this close to the corrupted lands without a weapon of some kind. Or an escort.¡±(Guard) ¡°Thanks but I¡¯ve got a few surprises for anything that tries to get me.¡±(Roe) ¡°Alrighty then, you have a great day and stay safe!¡±(Guard) ¡°You too!¡±(Roe) As I walked off in the direction he pointed out, he turned and went on his way as well. I arrived at the gate and saw the aforementioned field just beyond. A sea of swaying green grass filled my view as I left the gates, the guards not even batting an eye at me, too concerned with the people coming in than to care about those who were going out. The grass continued for as far as the eye could see, only the tops of trees sticking out from behind showed that there was even an end to this ocean of green.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I walked deeper into that sea. Choosing to walk away from the carefully constructed dirt path and instead, headed deeper into that sea of grass. When I was well away from both the city and the road, I stopped and began figuring out how this worked. I attempted to shapeshift my hair to be longer and colored a bright, crimson red. I felt a tingle run throughout my head and felt the hair fall down my back. Bringing a few strands up to my face I saw that my hair was now crimson red, actually a little more red than I intended. I tried turning my hair back to normal and felt another tingle in my head as the strands of hair dulled brown and pulled back from my hand. With this I¡¯ve mostly figured out how to shapeshift. I need to try more things but first, [Gluttony]. The trait description said that I can eat anything. So naturally, I thought of a way to exploit that. I picked a blade of grass from the ground and lightly brushed it off before putting it in my mouth. I tasted nothing. I felt nothing. I smelled nothing. The blade of grass was chewed on and swallowed but I never even noticed. Come to think of it, the headset doesn¡¯t interrupt signals from inside the head does it. Of course that means it can¡¯t replicate taste, or the sensation of eating. This actually made it easier to use [Gluttony] in the future. I could eat all of the most disgusting things in the world and get basically free attribute points without having to taste any of it.
You have eaten 1 [Blade of Grass]. You earned 0.01 Gluttony Points.
¡­ So little¡­ There goes all of my plans. If one blade of grass is only worth 0.01 GP then I would need to eat 10,000 blades of grass to get 1 attribute point. That¡¯s a lot of grass! I¡¯ll have to check how much GP I¡¯ll get from actual food items but, It seems that grass is not a viable option for exploitation. Maybe leaves will be slightly better but I doubt they¡¯d be more viable than fruits or meat. Actually, do different items even give different values? I picked up a fallen leaf that had blown here from the treeline and ate it.
You have eaten 1 [Fallen Leaf]. You earned 0.02 Gluttony Points.
So I was right, different items give different values. When I was about to try something else I heard a rustle in the grass behind me. ¡°Who¡¯s th-¡±(Roe) *Whump
You have been struck and lost 25 HP
What the-? As I clutched my stomach and reeled in pain I heard a whooshing sound flying around me. I tried to catch sight of it but it moved faster than my head could turn. Little more than a faint brown blur in my peripheral vision. I moved to protect myself when I felt something land on my back, followed by a stinging pain in the back of my neck.
You have been struck and lost 16 HP
You have been slain by [Murder Bunny, level 1]
Death Penalty Ignored due to [Immortality: Reincarnation]
The world went black for a few moments before a familiar explosion of color and I was back where I started, in the town center. ¡°System, log out.¡±(Roe) ¡°Logging out.¡±(System) The world faded to black and I stood on a familiar grid pattern. ¡°Headset, turn off.¡±(Rowan) Everything went black and my body felt numb for a second, before I felt the familiar comfort of my bed on my back. I raised my arms and took off my headset, laying on my nightstand and glancing at the clock. 10:27 PM my parents will be home soon. I got up and slowly made my way to my computer setup. I went to the Champions of Asteria wiki and searched for ¡°Murder Bunny¡±. ¡­ The Murder Bunny is widely considered to be the weakest mob in the game. It¡¯s often called ¡°Newbie Fodder¡± and is used as a tutorial mob to help new players get used to PvE combat. The wiki even has it¡¯s stat block.
Name: N/A Height: 0.4m Age: 1 Gender: N/A Race: Murder Bunny HP: 60/60 MP: 10/10 SP: 180/180 Level: 1
STR: 60 DEX: 180 CON: 30 INT: 15 WIS: 15 Attribute Points: 0 Achievements: 0
Racial Traits: [Strong Legs]
Traits:
Skills: [Leaping 3] [Bite 1] [Kicking 6]
This is the weakest mob of the game¡­ I think there¡¯s a new contender for that title. Chapter 5: Laying traps for careless prey. I gained a few titles. ¡°Welcome back to Asteria, Roe.¡±(System) I logged back in the next day. Being Saturday, I was free to spend as much time in-game as I wanted. I had a plan to help me gain a few levels and thus raise my attributes. This plan, however, required intelligent prey. The kind of prey that was intelligent enough to be insulted and tricked. I was going to hunt some gang members. Almost every urban area in Asteria larger than a village had at least one gang inhabiting it¡¯s alleys and back roads. I was going to exploit that to get some somewhat intelligent creatures to trick and fool into falling for a simple trap. As the world came into focus I immediately began heading for the alleys. Seeing the town change from clean, well-maintained roads that looked as if they were built yesterday, and buildings that looked aged yet well cared for, to paths with cracked and broken streets, sometimes made of dirt instead of stone. And buildings that looked old and decrepit with just a hint of life behind the walls of those closest to the main streets was, surreal. I wandered the paths for several minutes, passing by various landmarks that told of a great history here. Even a place that looked like it was the original village that this city grew from. I took out the bag of coins that came with my starting equipment, and began twirling it around, humming as I walked. It took a few more minutes before I came across my first victims. They were a group about three men strong with the leader being slightly cleaner than the others, he even had a sword sheathed on his waist. The biggest guy looked like a gorilla all things considered, his eyes almost comically small and hidden behind a flap of skin that could be considered his eyebrow. The last guy was short yet carried himself with a grace the other two didn¡¯t, he had at least three knives sheathed on his belt and his steps were far more silent than they should¡¯ve been. The leader guy noticed me first, his eyes drawn to the money bag I was still swinging around. He whispered something to his buddies and they looked at me and grinned. The big guy moved to block my way forward and the little guy vanished from sight, likely cutting off my escape. The leader walked up to me. And I pretended to just notice him, I stopped humming and clutched my money bag close to my chest. ¡°What do we have here, a girl who doesn¡¯t seem all that concerned about what she might run into here in the dark alleys. Who knows, she might just run into a couple thieves who would want to steal the money she¡¯s so carelessly swinging around.¡±(Victim #1) I kept my silence. ¡°She doesn¡¯t seem to have any weapons. She can¡¯t really hide anything actually dangerous in those rags. Herman! How much MP does she have?¡±(Victim #1) ¡°Practically none boss. Heck she couldn¡¯t even cast a spell if she wanted to.¡±(Victim #3) The second voice spoke up behind me, it must¡¯ve been the little guy. So he can sense someone''s MP huh? That¡¯ll make the surprise so much better. ¡°What? No item¡¯s, no MP. It¡¯s like she¡¯s begging to be robbed. Heck we should just put her outta her misery or somethin¡¯.¡±(Victim #1) ¡°Heh ha ha ha!¡±(Roe) I started giggling. ¡°Huh? What¡¯s so funny?¡±(Victim #1) ¡°Well you see,¡± I pointed my right hand at him, ¡°you¡¯re an idiot.¡±(Roe) ¡°What did you say?!¡±(Victim #1) He grabbed my outstretched arm and brought his face closer, clearly trying to be intimidating. I smiled at him as my arm turned into several tentacles that wrapped around his arm and kept me anchored to him. He had a funny look on his face as he failed to understand the sensations his arm was sending him. He Barely registered that my arm had turned into tentacles before the rest of my arm transformed into a massive gaping maw. He didn¡¯t even scream as his body was drawn in and eaten. My arm was now a massive purple-skinned blob with teeth-like protrusions along the ¡°Mouth¡± and several additional eyes. The other two were frozen in shock, confusion, and fear. Not understanding what just happened. I felt the guy I had just eaten begin squirming, but my insides grew sharp fangs and began biting him over and over.
You have gained the skill [Bite 1].
Proficiency threshold reached, the skill [Bite 1] has increased to [Bite 2]
Proficiency threshold reached, the skill [Bite 2] has increased to [Bite 3]
As biting him became easier and easier. I felt within my stomach, a sensation I hadn¡¯t felt since the family reunion two years ago. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What gave Rowan the urge to barf was not the fact that she was eating a human-like creature. This man really was just a game NPC and it was trivially easy to dehumanize him until performing immoral acts on him was only mildly disgusting. Nor was it the fact that her arm had transformed into an eldritch abomination and lovecraftian horror. This was her plan all along and she¡¯s seen artwork for lovecraft fiction before, she could handle this. Neither was it the fact that she just killed something. This was, after all, just a game. A game where respawning was a thing. The value of life in a video game was very different to the value of life in the real world. No, what threatened to make Rowan regurgitate her breakfast and the last remains of last night''s dinner, was the sensations. Body altering traits, skills, and spells all felt extremely unpleasant. The feeling of your body being remodeled like clay or putty was distressing. The game did have several features in place to mitigate the sensations, and several racial traits that changed the players form didn¡¯t make any drastic changes and thus reduced the burden on the mind even further. But the shapeshifting traits were never designed to accommodate lovecraftion biology. Rowan¡¯s transformation overloaded the systems accommodation functions and hit her with the full brunt of the alien sensations of having her body changed and altered.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Ordinary players changing to shapes that were similar to their own still caused serious discomfort even with the system assistance. Rowan¡¯s transformation fundamentally altered her body and overwhelmed the system''s assistance functions. She felt every unnatural, vomit-inducing, alien sensation from her arm. She felt the guy inside her, a human-shaped entity, struggling with his last breath and being eaten alive. She felt everything. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I desperately held back the churning in my stomach that threatened to climb up my throat and kept up my attack. I felt him inside me. I felt my curved inner fangs pierce his skin and rip his flesh. I felt his entrails get pulled out of his body by my own, feeling like those ultra-long sausage chains. I felt his guts and organs spill from the open wound in his chest. I felt his head crack and crush under the repeated bites and nibbles.
You have slain [{100 Thieves Lieutenant} Wendel, level 17] you have gained 765 xp.
You have leveled up! Your level increased to 5, all attributes strengthened, you gained 40 attribute points
I felt stronger, faster, and my body felt more precise. During this I also felt how far behind my real body my game avatar was physically. I would look at my stats later. I also felt even more nauseous as the feeling of leveling up, the feeling of eating someone''s crushed brain matter, and the alien sensations of my body clashed with each other. I used my arm mouth to ¡°eat¡± the corpse, eliciting another round of vomit-inducing nausea as said corpse was moved through my body, compressed by my [Gluttony] as it moved into my stomach.
You have eaten 1 [Human Corpse, level 17]. You earned 27 Gluttony Points.
You have eaten 1 [Shiny Shortsword]. You earned 13 Gluttony Points.
You have eaten 1 [Studded Leather Chestplate]. You earned 6 Gluttony Points.
You have eaten 1 [Set of Clothes]. You earned 0.79 Gluttony Points.
You have Earned the {Human Gourmet} Achievement and got the {Monster} Title.
The other two finally recovered. The big guy in front of me squealed and backed away. I was about to step forward when I felt a dull pain in the back of my head, and the world went dark.
You have been struck and lost 84 HP
You have been slain by [{100 Thieves member} Herman, level 10]
Death Penalty Ignored due to [Immortality: Reincarnation]
Color returned to the world and I found myself standing in the spawn location. A quick look confirmed that my arm was a normal human arm again. ¡°System, log out. Headset, turn off.¡±(Roe) I nearly threw my headset off my face as I sprung from the bed and bolted to the restroom. I positioned myself over the toilet and relaxed. Bile and Stomach acid gushed forth from my mouth mixed with semi-digested chunks of food which looked to me like bits of flesh and bone. This sight triggered a feedback loop of endless barfing and barfing until my stomach quite literally had nothing else to throw up. The nausea was subsiding and it was getting easier to breathe, so I went downstairs to get a glass of water with which to wash down whatever didn¡¯t leave my throat. All while distracting myself from what just happened. I then went back to my room and logged back into the game, reappearing in the plaza. I figured I should check my attribute menu, see what gains I got from this excursion.
Name: Roe Height: 1.4m Age: 18 Gender: Female Race: Primordial Human HP: 84/84 MP: 54/54 SP: 54/54 Level: 5 XP: 831 Xp to next level: 219
STR: 54 DEX: 54 CON: 54 INT: 54 WIS: 54 Attribute Points: 40 Achievements: 4 Titles: 4
Racial Traits: [Immortality: Regeneration] [Immortality: Eternal Youth] [Immortality: Reincarnation] [True Shapeshifting] [Gluttony] GP: 46.82
Traits:
Skills:
Titles: {Progenitor} {Hardcore Gamer} {True Immortal} {Monster}
I didn¡¯t remember getting a notification for the first three titles, what are they? {Progenitor} Earned with the ¡°First of Your Kind¡± achievement. For being the first of your race, you gain an extra attribute point in all stats upon level up. {Hardcore Gamer} Earned with the ¡°Most Hardcore¡± achievement. For playing as a race with the lowest playability rating, you gain a 10% XP boost. {True Immortal} Earned with the ¡°True Immortal¡± achievement. For having all three Immortality traits as racial traits, You gain the ability to live without eating, breathing, or sleeping. Though you may still indulge in these things. {Monster} Earned with the ¡°Human Gourmet¡± achievement. You¡¯ve become a monster that has sampled human flesh. You deal an additional 3% damage against humans and humanoid creatures. What the heck? What is with that {Monster} title. Ain¡¯t it really good in the right circumstances? Regardless, I fulfilled my goal. Now I should be capable of hunting those Murder Bunnies. ¡°System, log out.¡±(Roe) I turned off the headset and got out of bed. I needed to get lunch and do my exercises for the day. While I was leaving my room, I was thinking back on that battle when I recalled the feeling that made me want to puke. ¡°Uuughh.¡±(Rowan) My stomach started churning and I had to quickly put those thoughts out of my mind. I no longer had an appetite. Chapter 6: In the real world, I have responsibilities. Sunday came and went. I didn¡¯t log in once. I spent my free time reading random links on wikipedia, constructing a supermassive Iron farm in Minecraft, and doing next week¡¯s homework. Basically everything I can to forget about the nauseous feeling from the day before. Monday came before I knew it and now I am walking from the school entrance to class while the bell tolls behind me. I passed through the halls of tan painted walls and teal blue lockers sparing only a glance at the boards covered with ten-year-old announcements that were never taken down. Another day of classes, another day of Mr. Shellburg being an awesome teacher. And then lunch happens. ¡°Hey! Roe! Over here!¡±(Benjamin) Ben called out to me from a table by the window. Gustav and Anna were with him, so I decided to head on over. Taking my tray that had a burger with fries and a brownie with me I went over and sat down. Taking a look, Ben had a strange looking dish on his plate. Ben made his lunch himself instead of getting it from the cafeteria. I looked at the unnatural amalgamation of what used to be normal fruits, vegetables, and breads but was now chemical soup and chuckled. Despite its appearance, it was edible, healthy even. Ben looked up at my chuckling, pretending to be offended. ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t diss the stew. I¡¯ll have you know it was made with all-natural non-GMO ingredients and makes my body healthier every time I eat it.¡±(Benjamin) ¡°Are you sure about that?¡±(Gustav) Gustav said as he looked doubtfully at Ben¡¯s dish. ¡°It looks like toxic waste.¡±(Gustav) ¡°Mnhm.¡±(Anna) I looked at Gustav¡¯s plate. Macaroni-n-Cheese with a side of apple slices. So normal-looking compared to Ben¡¯s. I glanced up at Gustav for a moment. Red hair with brown eyes and white labcoat that he never takes off, combined with his ¡°Resting Schemer Face¡± and almost constant chuckling when not sufficiently distracted, gave him an aura of a mad scientist thinking up a new invention or plot. Right now his face was more... ¡°That Gruel looks disgusting and I am unsure whether the fact that it isn¡¯t poisonous is reassuring or alarming.¡± After that last comment Ben shrugged and said, ¡°I don¡¯t really have a comeback about that one. I just kinda followed the recipe and this is how it turned out.¡± (Benjamin) He took another bite/swig of the stew/bio-waste and swallowed before continuing. ¡°Besides, it only looks like toxic waste, it isn¡¯t actually anywhere close chemically. Roe can back me up on that. Right Roe?¡±(Benjamin) I gave him a, Why? Look before officially joining the conversation. ¡°While the simple act of cooking and preparing vegetables, fruits, and meats for consumption cannot produce chemical or toxic waste, cooked food can be composted. So while it isn¡¯t bad for your health yet, if Ben doesn¡¯t eat it all before the end of the day or just leaves it out in the sun somewhere, It could become so.¡±(Rowan) ¡°Thanks Roe!¡±(Benjamin) I looked at Ben again and he quickly changed the topic before I could start an entire lecture on the subject.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°So Roe, how¡¯re you likin¡¯ Champions of Asteria?¡±(Benjamin) ¡°Very well actually. I did relatively well on my first day.¡±(Rowan) ¡°Why didn¡¯t you send me a friend invite?¡±(Benjamin) Oh, I forgot. ¡°Wait! You have Champions of Asteria now Roe!?!?¡±(Anna) Anna straightened out in surprise and nearly stood up. Her grilled-cheese sandwich falling from her hands to her plate with an audible thump. Her hazel eyes blinking with excitement, her long, wavy brown hair swaying as if suddenly disturbed. Her t-shirt with the phrase ¡°L337 Gamer Girl 4 Life!¡± with three classic game heart points below it, one of which was missing one half, stuck out from the rest of her attire but suited her personality to a T. ¡°I also play that game! You should send me a friend invite as well!¡±(Anna) ¡°I don¡¯t think either of us know your username Ann.¡±(Benjamin) ¡°My username is L337H@ck0rG1rl_1773.¡±(Anna) She spoke each individual letter so quickly I barely had time to process it. ¡°Slower please!¡±(Benjamin) ¡°No. I¡¯ll write it down and hand it to you during club time.¡±(Anna) ¡°Jeesh. I didn¡¯t know a human could speak that many different syllables that quickly.¡±(Benjamin) ¡°Me neither.¡±(Gustav) At this point the bell to signal the end of lunch rang and so we left for the rest of our classes. Some of us, still chewing on the remains of our food from earlier. Classes went by normally, only deviating during English when one of the other students got a stomach ache and went to the infirmary. I arrived at the clubroom and immediately moved to Ben and Gustav¡¯s corner. They had taken apart the two dueling robots and were looking to see if they could reduce the force of the punches. ¡°So, I know what you want to do, I am asking what are you doing?¡±(Rowan) ¡°Taking it apart and manually lowering the output capabilities of the pistons and rigging a system to divert power away from the motors to further dampen the force of impact?¡±(Ben) ¡°Doing something incredibly over-complicated when you are providing a much simpler solution?¡±(Gustav) ¡°At least Gus gets it.¡±(Rowan) ¡°So what was your solution?¡±(Ben) ¡°Just give them boxing gloves. Or some other cushiony material wrapped around their fists. That would work better than dampening their pistons and motors manually. And so much easier too.¡±(Rowan) Ben looked at the model robots, then looked back at me with an expression like a child who was just told to clean their room. ¡°But then they wouldn¡¯t look the part-¡±(Benjamin) Ben Started but I cut him off. ¡°I never said they had to look like lumps of stuff on their hands did I?¡±(Rowan) A look of realization dons Gustav¡¯s face and he turns to Ben to explain. ¡°Lets just take some pillow cotton and styrofoam and fashion it into robot hands and Kaiju claws. Then we paint them over and viola, both problems solved.¡±(Gustav) The look of realization now dons Ben¡¯s face as he understands what it is he must do. I turn and move over to my corner, picking up a book on how computers work as I sit down on my chair. Anna comes over and hands me a slip of paper. It has her username written on it. Anna gave me a quick wink before going back to her project. The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully. I got home and took out the trash for the garbage truck to pick up tomorrow, and then I went and showered before making dinner. After finishing dinner, I went into my room and laid down on my bed. The faceplate of the vr headset sliding down onto my face, I said. ¡°Headset, on!¡±(Rowan)