9. Best Start, part 2

  Sam was the next scheduled arrival, and I put on a genuine grin. We had been interrupted during the party, and after Paula, she was the new player I was looking forward to guiding the most. It took just a few minutes for our times to sync up as she was logged in for the first time, and then with a flash of green she appeared.

  “Welcome to Wildedeer, oh traveler from another Realm. You’ve arrived in something of a special event. You see, I’m waiting here to greet my sister, who’s decided to visit my world for the first time today, and that has me feeling very generous,” I explained, a genuine smile on my face. “Unfortunately, my previous visitor didn’t seem very appreciative.”

  “Luke?” she asked. “Is that you?”

  “[Luke Benton], and your service,” I agreed.

  “Wow! You look, like, old and grumpy and stuff,” she exclaimed. “I thought you’d look like you did the other day.”

  “[Equip Raidgear34],” I said, and my appearance changed from the rough royal guard captain to that of one of my usual outfits, which had the same face that I’d been wearing at the party. “It’s pretty normal and easy to change your face for roleplay purposes in this game. Right now I’m playing a [Greeter]. NPC’s do it when there’s not a player willing to cover for them, but it’s an important job so not everyone is allowed.”

  “Wow. So the twenty minutes I spent customizing my appearance means nothing?” she inquired.

  “Not exactly. You would have had to spent that time doing Something while they scanned your brain to get you ready for your first login, and it was either that or sudoku or some other kind of mental exercise. Customizing your appearance is actually a very good way to adapt to your digital avatar, which is why it’s encouraged that you take the full allotted time for it. But after you reach a certain point in progression, you’ll be able to change it at will. [Equip RoyalGuardCaptain3].”

  My appearance changed back to the gruff middle-aged man I’d been moments before. “Anyway, I don’t want everyone to know who I am right now. Paula said that you and she will be the only ones who know the truth, so I’ve been planning things accordingly. It doesn’t matter what you call me in game, I’ll hear Luke whether you call me Luke or Simon or whatever else you set as my handle, but the others will all hear Simon. Except Paula, of course.”

  “Oh. Um, okay. I think I’m going to call you “Simon” [Luke] so that I don’t mix it up and call you Luke at school by mistake.”

  “That’s fine. To me, I heard ‘Luke’ both times, but I’m pretty sure I know what you meant,” I informed her. “Anyway, you can do the same thing if you open your settings and go to ‘screen names.’ It will allow you to control what your name is displayed as to strangers, your friends, and the NPC’s. It will also control what you actually hear. So a stranger might call you ‘black-arrow43’, but you’d hear your actual name. Does that make sense?”

  “Yeah, but looking at that menu, it will take me a while to figure things out,” she admitted.

  “It’s a big game, and it’s complicated. Without time dilation, nobody would have time to play it,” I said, chuckling. “Anyway, here’s the coin. Everyone is getting ten times normal because of the ‘event,’ including some lucky strangers. Have you thought about what role you want to play in game? You play soccer with Paula, right? We could build on that.”

  “Actually, I was thinking I’d like to focus on my archery,” she informed me.

  “Oh? That’s great! Archers are awesome in this game, and it will help you in the real world too! You’ll want to go to the Training Hall that I just marked on your map. Then we’ll be meeting your friends at the GreenMeadows, which I’ve also mapped. I have to map the marketplace, but wait until after everyone has gathered up before you go there, okay?”

  “That sounds like a plan,” she agreed. “I’ll get moving. You’re stuck here until everyone else shows up, right?”

  “Until Paula arrives, yeah,” I explained. “After that, an NPC will come and replace me.”

  “Well, at least they’ll have someone who knows what they’re doing to guide them. I’m really looking forward to this, your Uncle is the best for getting us these discounts. I love Nepotism.”

  “Fancy word, there, smarty-pants,” I teased. She stuck her tongue out at me and jogged off.

  The next player wasn’t part of the group, which I quickly determined when he asked about joining the guard. I gave him the information that he was looking for and his increased allotment of coin, which he thanked me for profusely, earning him the maximum amount of [Reputation] for the encounter. I don’t think he realized that I wasn’t an NPC, but he had clearly researched how to get a good start in Wildedeer, so I spent a few extra moments giving him some pointers, including the fact that several new players were meeting up in GreenMeadows in a few hours and that he was welcome to join them.

  The fourth player on my list was “Raistlin143.” He was, unsurprisingly, interested in magic. I was just surprised he knew that reference.

  “Yeah, I want to shoot lightning and fireballs and stuff,” he explained when I asked him what sort of magic, exactly. I sighed.

  “Well, that’s certainly possible,” I agreed. “However, pure mages are … well, they’re somewhat at a disadvantage a lot of the time. Their magic is very powerful, don’t get me wrong. But if you’re standing around to chant a cantrip or an incantation, then you’re vulnerable. In the late game, everything is about mobility. The same is true for PVP.”

  “That’s bullshit,” he argued. “I’ve seen hundreds of videos of mages in this game kicking serious ass. I want to do that too.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Most of those videos are staged,” I explained, “It’s not that it’s not real, it’s that there’s complicated and expensive prep-work to make that kind of magic practical. But I’m not telling you not to go down this route, I’m just trying to warn you that an immobile mage isn’t very strong in the meta-game. If you’re dedicated to becoming a powerful mage, you need to work on your footwork and mobility at the same time as you gather powerful artifacts and level up your magical abilities. The strongest mages are those who combine [Mana] abilities with [Skills] and [Artifacts] and [Equipment]. A famous [ShadowFlame Assassin] [Luke Benton], for example, is known for the way he combines magical abilities into a rogue-like fighting style. He’s one of the most well-known and prolific mage PKers in the game because of it.”

  “Yeah, I mean, I’ve seen his PVP videos,” Raistlin admitted reluctantly. “But that kid is crazy. He’d be killing them even if he didn’t use magic.”

  “Which is kind of my point,” I explained. “Mobility is the most important thing in this game for anyone, and that includes mages. If you’re certain you want to go down this route, I just wanted to make you aware that you wouldn’t be able to just sit in back and cast [Lightning Bolt] on a boss all day like in some of the videos you might have seen.”

  “You’re a player, aren’t you?” he asked suddenly. “Simon?”

  “Yeah, you caught me,” I admitted, grinning sheepishly. “You didn’t tell Paula about the [Greeter] function, did you?”

  “I only just put it together. I knew that experienced players could be [Greeters], but Paula said her cousin would be meeting up with us after we finished the tutorial, so it wasn’t until you started theorycrafting with me that I figured it out.”

  “Well, the main reason I’ve sort of been trying to discourage you from being a pure caster is because I want you to spend some time on the obstacle course while you have access to them,” I explained. “If I were to direct you to the [Library], they would teach you about the various paths that you could explore to becoming a mage. You can also just buy [Spellbooks] or [Class Cards] to cover all of the paths that they would set you on. Although you can pay for access to the obstacle course later on if you want, you’ll probably be doing it from home with a Dive Helmet instead of the full immersion gear. You can pay for more time to help them map your motor cortex if you want, but I’d recommend using as much time during the tutorial for that purpose as you can. You can always learn magic later, that’s the easy part.”

  “Huh,” he said. “I’ve never heard that explained before. Thanks. I would like to spend some time on the obstacle course, I think.”

  I sent him off after marking the relevant locations on his personal map. It wasn’t that the helmet couldn’t learn, but the faster he adapted to controlling his digital avatar in the beginning, the better he’d be at it in the long run. That was well established, but often ignored by those who went the magic route.

  Two players arrived at the same time for the next time-sync, and I was found out in moments this time.

  “You are player,” the one on the left accused. “Translation no good. You speak english, not NPC.”

  “Ah, crap, you caught me,” I admitted, grinning sheepishly.

  “Correct. Use game teach English. But NPC’s know good translation. You not good translation.”

  “Yeah. I apologize, but I’m not certain I can fulfill my duties to you as a Greeter. Take this [Enchanted Silver Dagger] as recompense, and an NPC will be along in a moment to be your guide,” I informed him, quickly selecting the option on the [Greeter’s Menu] that there was a language issue between me and the latest player. Jorge was there in seconds to take control of that player’s introduction, while I was left with the other one.

  “You’re Simon, aren’t you,” the new player accused. “Why are you pretending to be an NPC?”

  “I’m not pretending anything,” I countered. “Any player with enough experience can volunteer to greet new players for a while. It’s not an obligation or anything, but I figured it would be a good way to meet my cousin’s little friends as they logged in for the first time. Anybody who’s done a bit of research would know about the [Greeter] function. Sam and your mage friend figured it out already as well.”

  “Oh,” he said, sounding less accusatory. “I’m not sure why I got defensive just now.”

  “Maybe because you’re worried I’ll go all ‘break my cousin’s heart and I’ll break your teeth’ on you? You are Kevin, aren’t you?”

  “How did you figure that out?” he asked.

  “BrickWall88 sounds like a lineman trying to be clever. Raistlin doesn’t sound like a football player. Sam and I know each other. Paula’s other friend signing on today is a girl, and the other player who’s joining from another facility wouldn’t have known about me or any of the rest of you,” I explained.

  “Oh, yeah. I guess it’s kind of obvious, if she’s told you anything about us, isn’t it?”

  “Duh. Anyway, don’t worry about it too much. I mean, if you guys end up getting married, that’s fine. If you break up, that’s fine too. Just don’t be an asshole to her and we won’t have any problems, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay. We really are just friends though. More her ideas than mine, but I’d rather be friends with her now and hope for more later than push things,” he explained. “And I thought maybe if I got her cool cousin that she can’t shut up about on my side, that might help my chances a little.”

  “She actually talks about me?” I asked.

  “She and Sam both won’t shut up about how you have everything planned to give us an awesome leg up or something,” he explained. “Said that you’ve done, like, thousands of videos on how to get the ‘best starts’ out of this game.”

  “More like I’ve done about twenty that have gotten millions of views,” I explained. “But yeah, I’ve put some thought in to taking care of you guys the right way. So, have you figured out what you want to do in the game yet? You watched any videos or anything?”

  “I was kind of figuring that I’d ask you, once we met,” he admitted. “I’m pretty good at football, I figured you’d know a way to use that to my advantage.”

  “Linebacker, right? On defense?”

  “Sometimes I fill in as a tight end, but yeah, most of the time I was a linebacker. Junior high stuff only though, probably going to be third or fourth string once we get to high school, if I’m lucky.”

  I grinned. “Ever hold a spear?”

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