Chapter 008
First Level Up
Getting tangled up with The Greenies wasn't something Ethan took lightly.
Under normal circumstances he never would have allied himself with the mafia. Then again, that wouldn't make for an interesting livestream either.
He had more questions to ask, but Samuel Donovan made it clear he was done. The old man had entertained him long enough. As Ethan stood, they exchanged pleasantries.
"Whatever you say, Mr. Donovan," Ethan answered in a slightly sarcastic tone. "I guess I need to learn more about Stalvek and Sadler?"
Samuel grunted acknowledgment. "See that you do, kid. Can't have loose ends hanging around, you understand?"
The man's steely gaze cut into him with unmistakable menace. "Because if I catch a whiff of you trying to double-cross us and run to those Cortez gangsters... well, let's just say you'll be looking over your shoulder like an owl for the rest of your life."
Ethan swallowed hard and gave a terse nod. The threat was crystal clear. He would either get in line or get put down for good, just like The Owl.
"You don't gotta worry about me, sir."
Samuel made a noncommittal grunt, already turning his attention to the stack of files and papers strewn across his desk. With a wave of one old hand, the detective dismissed him.
He stepped out of Samuel's messy office and squinted against the harsh morning sun. It was already hot and muggy, and he wished for some air conditioning. He had no idea if that modern convenience had even been invented yet.
The expected notifications started popping up in the bottom left corner of his vision.
Achievement: First Mission Success - You finished your first mission.
He rolled his eyes, tired of the many useless notifications. He'd done a lot of other things in the game that didn't give him any messages, and he was surprised there wasn't some for having looked at bricks or for jaywalking.
They seemed to be rather pointless, and he was about to look through his settings for a way to disable them when he was interrupted by his first level up.
Mission Complete - Meet With Samuel Donovan.
+750 XP
You have 1,050 XP total
!! You have leveled up !!
Congratulations! You are now level 1
You need 1,150 more XP to reach level 2
Ethan's jaw dropped open, and he realized Stalvek Dyomin hadn't been joking. Completing his first mission had provided tons of experience, pushing him to the next level with an extra fifty points on top.
He felt oddly rejuvenated, and wondered if leveling up did a complete heal and wiping of any effects, as it did in some games. Since he wasn't injured or status-effected before, he couldn't be certain.
New Mission: Copper Topper
Learn more about Billy Sadler’s situation. Speak to Officer Packley at the local police station in Grimsborough Heights to learn more about Sadler’s involvement in the blood trade.
Current Progress: 0%
New Mission: The Bleeker Building
Learn more about the player known as Stalvek Dyomin, and their involvement with The Cortez Family. Lately they have been seen going into and out of The Bleeker Building. Spy on the place and report back.
Current Progress: 0%
Navigating to the mission screen, he saw the two new missions listed there. He wasn't interested in reading them yet, even if they’d just revealed plenty of new information just on their own.
Without even reading the missions, he now knew where to scout for The Cortez Family and the other player, Stalvek. He also knew Sadler was doing something in the blood trade. But if The Cortez Family didn’t have any rules against that, it appeared Sadler was being punished for having worked with Owney Johnson.
It didn’t matter much in the moment, he figured. He was sure there were more notifications waiting to pop up, and he wanted to get them all cleared out first.
As soon as he closed the screen, the next one appeared.
Unlocked Affiliations - You can now view all your organization affiliations, as well as your status with those entities.
+150 XP
You have 1,200 XP total
You need 1,000 more XP to reach level 2
He went to the new affiliations area and saw three entries in an otherwise empty screen. Over the course of his future, he was sure it would fill up, but for the time being he hadn't learned much.
The entries were for The Green Fists, The Cortez Family, and The Borrells. Each group had a section for their relationship status to one another.
The Green Fists and The Cortez Family each showed a red dot next to their entries. He took this to mean they were complete and total enemies. It was the lowest rating out of what appeared to be five.
When he thought about it, a small popup legend appeared next to the red dot and showed: red, orange, yellow, white, and then green. They represented: enemies, disliked, neutral, friends, and family, respectively
His status with The Green Fists was white, which he now understood to mean they were friends. Even though he'd joined them, it made sense he wasn't completely in the club yet with a green status. That would come with time, if he decided to stick around.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The Cortez Family showed he was orange, or disliked. He'd done nothing to make them his true enemy just yet, but he had agreed to join The Green Fists so they didn't kill him. That alone must have made him disliked by the competition.
Unable to pull up a full description of the gangs, he moved on, knowing there were more notifications waiting to be read.
He closed out the screen, and sure enough they popped up.
Achievement: Picked A Side - You joined an organization for the first time. Show your loyalty to the group, and you might be able to rise through the ranks!
Achievement: Consumed Food - You ate something in the game for the first time!
Achievement: Negotiator - You used a talent for the first time. Negotiator. Using the skill allowed you to achieve better results during a conversation than you would have otherwise.
Thinking back on it, he hadn’t even known he had any talents, or that he’d used one. He could only conclude that it must have been when he asked Samuel to answer some questions in exchange for joining.
It had only resulted in a few questions at best, so it didn’t seem like a good deal. But, he figured, the game was pushing him towards joining one of the gangs anyway. At least The Green Fists had some hard rule about vampires. It was one he actually agreed with.
Unlocked Talents - You can now view all your talents.
+150 XP
You have 1,350 XP total
You need 850 more XP to reach level 2
He wasted no time in opening this one. Another message in red with an asterisk greeted him when he did.
With each new level, you may choose to increase a single talent you already have by one point, or you may choose a single new talent from three randomly generated options.
That was easy enough to understand.
It obviously meant he could become an expert in a few things, or he could end up being decent at a lot of different things. He'd already decided he wouldn't try and spread himself too thin, and instead wanted to focus on maxing out some type of specialty style.
Planning out talent points seemed to be vital for a strong character, and he saw no obvious button for redistribution if he made a mistake somewhere along the way.
The fine print faded away and showed a screen with two talents already learned.
Handy: [ 2 ]
Negotiator: [ 2 ]
Handy - You are familiar with general mechanical, electrical, carpentry, and plumbing design and repair. Does not include the maintenance or operation of vehicles.
He knew he could sufficiently build or provide the maintenance to basic machinery despite never having done so in the real world.
Having two points as a handyman seemed appropriate, though it still didn’t explain why he had trouble finding the right words to describe the walls and foundation when talking to Raymond.
Negotiator - You have an affinity for navigating conversations and persuading, negotiating, and making deals. The higher your score, the more likely you are to get what you want.
It was rather interesting to him that he hadn’t felt that way with Raymond, but to be fair he was still learning how the game worked. Maybe Raymond had a higher score in Negotiator than he did, and Samuel didn’t.
He shrugged the thought away and moved on. Beneath those talents were his three randomly generated new options.
Another asterisk informed him he had twenty-four hours to make a choice, or he would forfeit the earned talent point.
He didn’t need or want to wait. Even as the fine print faded away, he looked over the new ones, ready to choose.
Resilience
Your ability to keep going despite adversity. Mental stimulation to persevere against extreme adversity gets stronger with each point increase.
Awareness
Provides a mini-map showing your surroundings. Starts at 100 feet and doubles with each point increase.
Ambidextrous
The ability to use two items or weapons at the same time. The skill improves with each point increase.
Of the three options, Ethan immediately thought of Awareness and having the mini-map. Being able to see his surroundings was exactly what he had wanted from the very beginning.
That didn’t mean it was the best choice.
He hesitated, thinking about the other two options. He wondered how many talents were in the system, and what the odds were he would see one of them again soon if he didn't select it now.
The choice was much harder than he expected it to be, despite Awareness being exactly what he wanted. After a couple of minutes he’d managed to narrow himself down to Ambidextrous or Awareness.
Being resilient was an excellent attribute, but he wasn't so sure he would need it at these lower levels.
If he died right away, so be it, he wouldn't have wasted points in a talent most likely designed to help a player survive extreme torment. Resilience felt like a skill only necessary at higher levels, though he could be wrong. Only time would tell.
If he chose Ambidextrous, he might be better prepared for large problems the game needed him to fix. Then again, he had no idea if using two tools at once was even required at lower levels.
He didn't work on big machinery in a factory, and he also didn’t plan on being a handyman for the long haul. At some point he figured he would eventually be a leader in some gang, if not the boss, or he would become a vampire slaying god. Either one sounded like fun.
Back in the real world, he’d never considered himself a manager or leader type, preferring to just do his work and go home. Leaders always got blamed for everything, and he wasn’t interested in that kind of reputation.
In a video game world though? For some reason it felt different, and the idea of having talents that helped him manage other players and NPCs felt more appropriate.
He’d already decided to play more boldly than he typically did. Without knowing what type of fighting or fixing he would be doing down the line, the most logical option seemed to be obvious.
He chose Awareness as his first new talent.
Achievement: You Are Talented - You selected your first new talent. Congratulations.
He rolled his eyes, deciding he would definitely look for a way to mute or disable the achievements as soon as all the notifications were finished.
New Talent: Awareness - You now have a mini-map on your overlay that can be toggled on or off. You are aware of most players, NPCs, locations, and items within 100 feet of your location.
+150 XP
You have 1,500 XP total
You need 700 more XP to reach level 2
He still stood outside Samuel Donovan's agency going through his updates, when the last one faded away.
It was hot and muggy, and he felt just as terrible as the city looked.
After no other notifications arrived, he set about finally changing that. It was easy to disable them, taking only a few seconds.
Next, he found the slider for experience notifications. It was currently set to display all gains. He considered adjusting that bar as well, but decided against it for the time being.
He had the impression from the pre-sets that experience gain was designed on a curve rather than a linear graph. With any luck, he would start feeling stronger and more confident as he earned huge sums of experience from different tasks.
It was too soon for him to know for certain, but he did see a basic formula. Getting to level one had required one thousand experience, and getting to level two required a total of just two thousand two hundred.
If each new level required one point two times the previous level, plus one thousand, the curve wouldn't get too bad. By level fifteen or twenty he wouldn't be worried about all these little one hundred point gains. At that time it might make sense to turn them off.
As he scrolled through the other settings, he made a few minor adjustments, but left most of them untouched. The game developers had likely put a lot of thought into the default configurations, and they’d been pretty good except for the achievements.
Satisfied with the customizations, he closed the screens and took a moment to get his bearings.
The new transparent mini-map was difficult for him to see at first. It hovered in the top left corner of his view, and gave every meaning to the word mini.
He didn't see anything valuable displayed there except for some light-grey dots. By focusing on the map, he could zoom in or out his Awareness to see anything within one-hundred feet of his location.
It showed him the street he stood on and a few surrounding businesses.
NPC names were visible when he did this, and a half-dozen became readable on the mini-map as he studied it.
The non-player characters were going about their routines as normal, doing things inside the buildings and walking along the sidewalks near him.
Honestly, he felt a little let down by the map, thinking that it really didn't reveal much of anything new. He had been expecting to get a full map showing him much more.
But his expectations had been too great.
No one in their right mind should have expected to instantly know their way around a big city. The size of the mini-map also doubled with each talent point spent. After just three more points he would be able to see an entire city block.
The curve after that would get crazy, as a player with nine points in Awareness could see almost five miles.
As he zoomed in closer, a new blue dot appeared on the map, moving rapidly in his direction. The dot stopped right where he stood, and he blinked his eyes away from the map, realizing a player was nearby.
An Asian woman about his own age, mid-20’s, stood in front of him on the street.
She had dark hair that fell in gentle waves around her face. Her eyes were brown and seemed to sparkle with intense energy.
He read the blue words above her head, not exactly sure how to pronounce her last name, so he kept it to himself.
Mia Haoyu.
In the real world he’d had a few Asian friends, and based on his time hanging out with them, he assumed the last name sounded something like 'ho-you' when spoken, but he didn't want to get it wrong out of respect.
She said, "excuse me, what are you doing just standing around Samuel Donovan's looking stupid for?"
Before he could answer, her eyes narrowed in on Ethan with suspicion. “Wait a minute… You’re an Associate in The Green Fists?”
