《Virtual Life of a Harem Boy Fighter》 1 - Fortuna Corps New Game, Lu Rens Fortune Technology at this point was close to the pinnacle. The real moneymakers were not just in the service industry, but now in the gaming industry. As virtual reality became more ubiquitous in today¡¯s society, virtual reality games were no exception. It had been under development for decades, but now it was finally here to stay. Virtual reality MMORPGs were commonplace, but only a few of them had ever actually succeeded on a global scale. One of the most popular ones on the market, , had been running for about six years at this point. I, Lu Ren, am one of the game¡¯s top players. However, the company behind the game, Fortuna Corporation, had mysteriously decided to stop service for Arcana Gate and begin service for a new version of the game, as they felt that Arcana Gate had run its course for too long, and that it was time to put into practice their new learnings and insights gained from running the game. The news to shut down Arcana Gate despite its worldwide success was a mind-baffling decision. Many of the top rankers in the game, myself included, were faced with a dilemma. As the game made a crapton of money, naturally it provided facilities for players to earn money too. The RMT was legalized, allowing players to gain employment by farming in-game currency to trade for real money (hence ¡®RMT¡¯, which stood for ¡°Real Money Trading¡±), by using Arcana Gate¡¯s own RMT system. It operated surprisingly similar to microtransactions of the past, but allowed players to start up their own studios and markets. This meant that all business transactions in the game allowed players to profit from it in real life. The massive player base of the game, counting to upwards of millions of people, meant that companies in other industries could cooperate with Fortuna Corporation to have in-game collaborations and tie-ups for advertising. It was really an underhanded, yet pleasurable way to do things. However, all good things had to come to an end. Though I was shocked about the announcement at first, after looking at the information for the new game, I was even more shocked ¨C it seemed that Fortuna Corporation¡¯s new game, , was supposed to be an overhauled version of Arcana Gate, a big improvement over the original. This ended up generating an unreal amount of hype. Somehow though, we didn¡¯t hear about a beta test, which disappointed me a bit because I found out it was going to be released ¨C tomorrow! What the Christ! When did such a big game come out only to be released the next day! Fortunately, it seemed that Fortuna Corporation were really formidable, as they allowed players of Arcana Gate to gain bonuses in Eternal Arcanum depending on their old character. However, they needed to personally visit a branch of the Fortuna Corporation to have their Arcana Tool Helmet patched to play Eternal Arcanum. I was alright with that. The next day¡­ Fortunately, I lived in a district that was conveniently located near a branch of Fortuna Corporation. Actually, since technology had advanced so much, the world had managed to save itself from environmental disaster. Eco-sensitive terraforming became possible, and better places and environments were made not just for humans but for animals, too. Knowing this is relevant because I lived in a place that once occupied the space of sea between Mainland China and Hong Kong. This place was called Haoyuan district. It was like another bridge between the two places. Kind of like how you could take a train from Hong Kong and get to Shenzhen. Anyway, I was getting in line holding my helmet, when I felt a hand creep up my backside. I turned my face and glared at the guy standing behind me. ¡°Hey, back off.¡± I frowned. The guy heard my voice and immediately backed away, embarrassed. There¡¯s one thing you need to know ¨C I¡¯ve been given the double-edged sword of looking too feminine while being a guy¡­ So I have to really make an effort to speak with a deeper voice, otherwise people will get the wrong idea. Though in Arcana Gate, I could get around this by creating a totally masculine character, I wasn¡¯t sure how good the tech in Eternal Arcanum was. After about one hour, I stood by a counter and placed my helmet on it. The attendant seated opposite me gently turned it and plugged a USB cable into it. Man, these things are still in use after so long¡­ They¡¯re really what you could call mystical contraptions. After my helmet began making some beeping noises, the attendant nodded and turned her head up to me. She looked plain and forgettable, but had a nice smile. ¡°Miss, your helmet has been patched. As you are in the top 0.1% of all previous players of Arcana Gate, you will receive some special bonuses¡­¡± she said. I didn¡¯t bother correcting the attendant, but nodded. ¡°You¡¯ll receive them during the game¡¯s launching, which happens approximately six hours from now.¡± I thanked the attendant and left. The time was currently exactly noon, so according to the attendant, the game would launch later today at¡­ six in the evening? Eh. Decent time for me, I guess. I made all my money playing Arcana Gate by getting rich off player versus player gambling and treasure hunting. So¡­ Technically, I was unemployed. I didn¡¯t really need a job then, but now¡­ I was thinking. Eternal Arcanum was going to be a new experience for everyone, not just me! I comforted myself but telling myself that I wouldn¡¯t be the only one in this situation, so it was best to play the game for a while and see if the bonuses I would receive would give me an edge in the moneymaking market. Fortuna Corporation didn¡¯t consist of idiots to get to where they were, they must have some faculties in mind.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. At six in the evening, I hurriedly put on my Arcana Tool Helmet and laid down on the bed, closing my eyes. The helmet had a visor that obscured my eyes, and was scanning them through my eyelids. Eventually, I could hear the voice of a soft female. Clearly, it was an artificial intelligence. I probably wasn¡¯t the only one hearing this voice, but at this point, I didn¡¯t care. Unlike the original game, Eternal Arcanum didn¡¯t have an opening cutscene for players to watch. It seemed that the game immediately threw us to a kind of character creation interface. Originally, in Arcana Gate, players would be asked questions that would determine their character¡¯s race, class, and the like. But in Eternal Arcanum, this interface had all the options available at once, overwhelming players with choices. Now this was interesting! So many choices! However, I soon looked at the avatar of my character and noticed that the character¡¯s body type and appearance was a carbon copy of mine. If it weren¡¯t for the piece of cloth covering the avatar¡¯s¡­ sensitive parts, I would have thought it was a girl. This was too realistic! Damnit, I knew it! I should have seen this coming! The list of races was actually a fairly typical and clich¨¦d list¡­ You had your humans, your elves, your beastfolk, and they had dark elves, too. These were the core races from Arcana Gate, but this time due to popular demand they also included some highly sought after races like dwarves. While I thought these races were pretty cool, I decided I would play things a bit differently this time around. When I first played Arcana Gate, I was a human. But this time, since it¡¯s a new game, maybe I can try something different this time. I selected the ¡®dark elf¡¯ option and the skin on my avatar darkened. He began to look like he came from a particular type of naughty media. Inwardly sighing, I looked through the rest of the options. The starting class list was virtually unchanged from the original ¨C they were the stereotypical MMORPG classes of the warrior, the thief, the archer, the magician and the priest. Back in the previous installment, Arcana Gate, I played primarily ranged characters such as the archer and magician, so this time I wanted to practice my hand at playing a melee character. I immediately chose the warrior class and my once near-naked avatar changed his appearance, wearing some pretty gnarly armor. However, I couldn¡¯t help but smirk when I discovered the avatar¡¯s armor was for girls. Actually, I spotted a locked character property ¨C it was body type, and it was simply labeled: ¡°Female AX.¡± I frowned, but didn¡¯t think too much of it this time ¨C it was just a game after all. Everything else was free game, though. I quickly adjusted the properties to shorten the hair of my character, changing the hair color to jet-black, and changing the color of my character¡¯s eyes to a more normal hazel ¨C it was originally red. I didn¡¯t like that, so I normalized it a bit. I then looked at some pieces of information on the lower left hand corner of the interface. Your Previous Rank in : #37 Percentile: 0.1% Eligible for Reward of Rating: Mysterious Mysterious? What did that mean? I didn¡¯t know what that meant, but after ignoring it, I looked at a new dropdown menu that was beneath the option for selecting your starting class. It simply said, ¡°Profession.¡± I shuffled through the professions and discovered that you could actually start with a single production profession from the previous game. This was actually huge. Without any hesitation I selected ¡°Alchemist¡± and hit ¡°Confirm.¡± The game¡¯s interface prompted me to really confirm if I wanted to begin with this loadout. I voiced out my acknowledgement and confirmation. Suddenly, my vision turned into a blur as the interface swirled into a vortex of darkness¡­ The game was apparently loading itself. Soon, all I could see were stars in a nebulous void. I heard a voice ¨C what is your name? ¡°Edelweiss.¡± I said without any hesitation. An ever familiar dinging noise suddenly rung out ¨C of course, how could anyone mistake this for something else? It was the system notification. Player ¡®Edelweiss,¡¯ congratulations for being ranked in the top 50 players of Arcana Gate. You are eligible for a ¡®Mysterious¡¯ reward. Please wait 10 seconds to receive the reward¡­ I balked. Mysterious reward? And it¡¯s random? Oh dear lord. Please don¡¯t let it be useless. I¡¯m playing a warrior class, so it should be something that benefits warriors¡­ Please¡­ After ten agonizingly long seconds, the system notification rung out again. Congratulations, Player ¡®Edelweiss,¡¯ you have received ¡®Mysterious¡¯ Artifact ¨C [Shroud of Magdalene]. Please review its properties now. Mysterious artifact? That sounds really nice. Let¡¯s check the properties ¨C [Shroud of Magdalene] Mysterious Artifact ¡°All I wanted to do was show you my eternal devotion.¡± - Permanently places itself on the owner¡¯s ¡®Back¡¯ slot. - Cuts all experience gain by 50% per monster kill. - Triples the amount of bonus stats points received on each level up. - Mitigates 50% of all damage dealt to the owner if the attacker is Male or a Monster - Provides appropriate stats bonuses based on owner¡¯s current level - May alter the owner''s appearance Uh¡­ So is this thing imbalanced, or what? I couldn¡¯t quite tell. Since it was forcibly put on me, and I can¡¯t remove it, I¡¯m now forced to level half as slowly as everybody else. That fucking sucks! But on the other hand, each level up I get is worth three times somebody else¡¯s level up. Furthermore, only girls will be able to deal full damage to me! Hahaha, what the hell is this!? This is actually broken beyond all belief! Unfortunately, my joy turned to horror as I entered the beginning area. Though the beginning area was a simple village, it was overcrowded and it only took me a moment to realize that the Shroud of Magdalene had already taken effect on me. I looked down at myself and realized that cosmetically, I looked like a harem girl - semi-transparent clothing and all. In my haste, I hadn''t read the final descriptor for this piece of equipment. "May alter the owner''s appearance..." Gulp. Looking like a harem girl in the middle of a widely populated area full of young guys and girls? And I was awarrior? It wasn''t even seconds before everybody started staring at me, as I noticed everybody else was wearing the same kind of ''beginner''s'' clothing worn in Arcana Gate. Man. I¡¯m so fucked. So, so fucked. 2 - Good Luck and Bad Luck Of course, Fortuna Corporation wasn¡¯t composed of idiots. I knew they expertly extended and reused their original code and data to improve the game experience for everybody. As a result, communication felt very much true to life. Unfortunately for me, I was now the subject of everybody¡¯s comments. Furthermore, I was unable to hide my user details right away, so even after quickly setting my username to private, I already heard a lot of people who recognized my name. It was also well-known by now that characters in Eternal Arcanum were very much fashioned to appear like your actual appearance with some minor modifications and customizations permitted. This meant a lot of people now knew what I looked like in real life. Ignoring my dark elf skin tone, this was something that really embarrassed me. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that the manly Edelweiss from Arcana Gate was so cute.¡± ¡°So it really turns out that she was concealing her appearance the whole time.¡± ¡°It¡¯s well known that he¡¯s a dude, man¡­¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter to me. I¡¯d still hit that. I mean, look at him! He has a cute outfit while all of us are stuck with the beginner gear.¡± I definitely would not answer to any of this; even if I wanted to get rid of this overpowered mantle, it was bound to my back slot anyway so I was forced to keep it on me forever. It would not drop even if I died in PvP. On the other hand, if they knew that this piece of gear immediately made me level half as slowly as everybody else here, they¡¯d probably have some different ideas. Ignoring the peanut gallery for a while, I took the chance to check out my statistics. It appears they didn¡¯t deviate from their golden standard ¨C all characters started out pretty much the same. There were six main statistics, STRength, AGIlity, INTelligence, DEXterity, LUCk and VITality, which affected various sub-statistics in various ways. The stat system was actually really simplistic, and was shamelessly taken from a much older, but incredibly popular game that managed to run for literally over 2 decades before being dumped for VR tech. Regardless, that game was a treasure trove of knowledge to make the virtual reality MMO gaming experience more fun and open for discussion and theorycrafting. All characters made in Arcana Gate started with 1 point in each of these stats, and it appeared like Eternal Arcanum wasn¡¯t an exception to this rule. In fact, I realized that statistics progression was pretty much exactly the same as the old game, which made me quite convinced now if I wasn¡¯t before that Eternal Arcanum was designed to be pretty much ¡°Arcana Gate 2.0¡±. However, where I would expect to have 10 points to distribute to my stats, I discovered I had 30 instead! This was, obviously, due to my [Shroud of Magdalene] which gave me three times the usual stat points on level up. This was actually huge. The leveling deficit in this sense was actually massive ¨C many people would consider me to be absurdly weak, but because I had three times the amount of bonus points to distribute compared to a person of my own level, I would actually be invincible in my own level bracket! Unfortunately, this had the disadvantage of making me slower in hitting key level brackets for skill prerequisites and gear¡­ However, I did recall a certain kind of new skill system being introduced that allowed people to learn [Personal Skills] that were unique only to the person who learned or created them. I was pretty interested in this mechanic, but there wasn¡¯t much official documentation on it, so I would only have to pray that I could bump into something good. I was also disappointed to learn that [Shroud of Magdalene] did not offer any bonus stats at my current level, but I was only level 1, so it would be too greedy of me to expect otherwise. After keying in my statistics, I smiled in approval. Major Stats (Gear bonuses listed separately) STR: 10 +0 AGI: 1 +0 VIT: 1 +0 DEX: 7 +0 INT: 1 +0 LUK: 1 +0 I had used up all 30 points rather perfectly. At the beginning of these kinds of games, damage and accuracy was incredibly important. Though you could mitigate low accuracy with player skill, sometimes you rammed into an enemy¡¯s ability to dodge perfectly and it was only countered with raw accuracy stat. This was naturally determined by dexterity. Therefore, as a physical attacker, it was pretty obvious to prioritize accuracy over attack speed. I charged through the crowd, or so I imagined, as I discovered people were making way for me. Did I really look that pretty? I suddenly felt like I was eye candy. I didn¡¯t really know how to react to that, as in the past, I had made my character look deliberately masculine and more handsome than feminine. Suddenly, I felt a rough hand grab my wrist. Inwardly sighing and realizing I couldn¡¯t escape this kind of treatment, I stopped moving and turned to face the person who grabbed me ¨C he seemed to be a healer kind of magician... A Human cleric, I guess. But he seemed pretty creepy, so I didn¡¯t want to associate with this guy. ¡°Would you like to team up with us? We just picked up a ques¡ª¡° ¡°No thanks.¡± I frowned and bowed apologetically, swallowing my pride and continuing my way. Fortuna Corporation had a cruel philosophy when it came to quests and the scenario. Normally these low level quests would be like a tutorial to get the player accustomed to the game. But I already could tell at a glance that Eternal Arcanum was just Arcana Gate with highly improved technology and new features. This meant triggering secret quests and tasks probably happened in the same way too. Since I definitely wouldn¡¯t be the only veterans playing this game, I had to quickly cement my foothold. If my new appearance ended up working for me in this way, even better.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Kacha ¨C The only disadvantage of skipping the tutorial quests right away is that you didn¡¯t get any of the better equipment. Everyone started with the basic dagger as a weapon; it was rather pitiful. It only provided a +6 bonus to your damage, which would normally be low for most people, but I had already pumped my strength to the magic number of 10. Normally, your base damage was just equal to your strength, but at every multiple of 10, you gained an extra 4 damage for a total of 5 at each multiple of 10. Therefore most people at my level wouldn¡¯t even be able to do more than 10 damage at level 1, even with a weapon, but not the case for me. Against an enemy with no defense, my damage ceiling already approached 20. This was unprecedented! Now, you were still limited by attack speed by somewhat, but this was a VRMMO ¨C you weren¡¯t limited by the game anymore. You could attack as fast as your body permitted you to, but the bounding factor was attack speed, which exerted artificial pressure on your arms when you approached the limit of attack! In fact, controlling when you felt this pressure was a high-level technique back on Arcana Gate was called ¡°Attack Speed Capping,¡± which was named after the concept of trying to cap your ASPD by acting personally instead of letting the system do it for you. As a fighter, I was now using my arms to do the fighting. This meant I could mow through the enemies pretty comfortably. Ignoring the overpopulated beginner areas, I decided to make my way to a forest clearing that was filled with monsters that looked like walking hollowed tree trunks. They were actually non-aggressive but weren¡¯t exactly pushovers when struck. I made my move, immediately rushing over to one of the tree trunk monsters and slashing my dagger out in a clear forward arc. Unfortunately, I swung my arm too much and ended up catching two creatures next to it with my swing. Though they were just baby wolves, they seemed much fiercer than the tree monster. Not intending to let myself get made into mincemeat by these mobs, I tried to dart about to avoid the wolves, and instead let the tree trunk creature hit me instead ¨C with the broken property of the [Shroud of Magdalene] allowing me to block 50% of incoming damage from 2/3rds of everything in the game, I could be considered a heaven-defying existence. I realized that though these monsters were much stronger than those the regular beginners fought, I was still stuck at level one. The leveling capacity being cut short by the [Shroud of Magdalene] was truly annoying, but given all the benefits it provided on the other hand, I could only consider it to be fair. Soon, I decided to test myself by mobbing a group of these tree monsters with my wide-arc slash. Repeatedly doing this, I soon heard a system notification sound out. [Crescent Moon Slash] Personal Skill has been created by you. Share? You may also share achievements anonymously. What? A personal skill? Isn¡¯t this way too convenient? I looked at the time and realized that I had been mobbing monsters in this manner for about four hours. When I looked at my level, I only grew two levels, making me level 3. However, my disappointment turned to astonishment and joy when I realized that the way to create personal skills was not too dissimilar to a previous game that shut down due to the developers going bankrupt. As long as you repeatedly did something that could be considered ingenious and out of the game¡¯s scope, the game would turn it into a personal skill for you. It also gave me the opportunity to share it. I immediately decided to share this achievement anonymously. I then decided to inspect the properties of the skill which the system had gifted to me on a silver platter. Crescent Moon Slash [Level 1] Slashing Skill ¨C Cost 2 SP Swing your blade in a wide forward arc, creating the impression of a crescent moon. Deals damage to everything the arc and moon touches. Higher level of this skill increases the damage and the wideness of the arc. DMG +120% On next level: DMG increased to +130%, arc increased by 5m I had already gained an area of effect skill before reaching level 5 and getting the capability to learn skill books. This was really a blessing from the heavens. I really hope my bullshit luck doesn¡¯t bite me in the ass, but having to play the whole game looking like this could probably be considered to be my bad luck also. As I was busy standing there like an idiot I heard someone call out towards me. ¡°What¡¯s a cutie like you doing in this level 5 area? You¡¯re only level 3.¡± I snorted and folded my arms together. ¡°I was here since I was level 1.¡± ¡°Hahahahaha. Don¡¯t joke around with me. Leave this nicely populated area to us, the professionals. Don¡¯t think about messing around just because you have nice cosmetics.¡± Just who did this brat think he was? ¡°I need to level here. The lower leveled spots are too slow. It took me four hours to get to level 3.¡± I frowned. ¡°Sirs, I¡¯m just a harmless person.¡± ¡°Since you¡¯re so harmless, you should know your limits and scram.¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t want to get into a fight so early.¡± I sighed inwardly and recalled Fortuna Corporation did not impose much limits on on-field player killing, or as it is commonly called around here, PKing. Technically you could even PK on the beginner fields, but nobody did that unless they were deliberately bullying someone. Now that I thought about it¡­ ¡°If you¡¯re really leveling here, you must have a nice treasure that helps you battle the monsters here.¡± ¡°I do, but even if I wanted to, it¡¯s permanently attached to my back. I couldn¡¯t take it off, even if you killed me.¡± ¡°If I weren¡¯t talking to you right now, I would have thought you were a cute girl. I could have had a lot of fun with you.¡± The man speaking from a distance was approaching me. I now got a closer look at him ¨C he was a thief, wearing a leather cloak and holding a much fancier dagger in his hands than mine. He was tailed by a boring cleric and an archer that had a clear look of pity on his face. He probably thought I would be massacred by him. Logically speaking, this is true ¨C they outleveled me by three, being all level 6. ¡°Sadly, you¡¯re just some girly boytoy. I have a friend who is into guys like you. Hehe. But enough joking around. Do you honestly fucking think I believe you? I¡¯ll kill you and take the treasure for myself!¡± Sigh. Facing a PvP experience like this¡­ Suddenly, I regret hiding my username. If I didn¡¯t hide it, they would probably freak out and run away. But well¡­ I have the Shroud of Magdalene. And the entire time this guy named ¡°Lone Ranger¡± was insulting me, I had taken the time to boost my stats ¨C where normal players had 20 points after reaching level 3 from level 1, I had a whopping 60. I boosted my strength to 20, my dexterity to 15, and my agility to 5. My damage with the dagger now reached almost 40. Though these players were higher level than me, with my combat experience and my Shroud of Magdalene cutting their damages to half¡­ Haha. They should only blame the fact that they are guys. If any one of them was a girl, I would actually be screwed over. But these scrubs? Hahaha. Looks like you guys kicked a metal plate!