Chapter 3: Rush
System: Choose a name for your character.
Alexander had been thinking about his in-game for a long time. He wanted one that would inspire fear and respect. Since the game had just launched, all names were available.
"Apophis," he said.
System: Name available.
System: Do you want to customize your character, or transfer your appearance into the game?
"Transfer appearance."
System: Welcome to the Galaxy of Horus!
Apophis's vision gradually cleared, and he saw the starting area as thousands of players appeared at the same time.
Without wasting a single moment, he opened his character menu.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ CHARACTER
║ ╰╼[Name] : Apophis
║ ╰╼[LvL ] : 1
║ ╰╼[Tier ] :F [Weakling]
║ ╰╼[Class] : None *Unlock lvl 5*
║ ╰╼[Biology] Male Primary Human (Tier 0) Next Tier : lvl 5
║ ╰╼[Galactic Coins] 100 GC
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ SOUL
║ ╰╼Energy: 1
║ ╰╼[Alignment] 0 [Neutral]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼STATS
║ ╰╼[Strength] 100 STR
║ ╰╼[Intelligence] 100 INT
║ ╰╼[Agility] 100 AGI
║ ╰╼[Dexterity] 100 DEX
║ ╰╼[Luck] 1 LUK
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼BOOK SKILLS
║ ╰╼[N/A]
╟─╼TALENT TREE SKILLS
║ ╰╼[N/A]
╟─╼PASSIVE SKILLS
║ ╰╼[N/A]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼EQUIPMENT
║ ╰╼[Civilian Clothing (Common)]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼SUMMARY
You are a basic life form—completely unexceptional, like the hundreds of billions of your kind across the universe.
╚═══════════════╛
Apophis closed the character menu and switched to the political menu.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼POLICY
╟─╼[Stellar Year] 7099
╟─╼[Galactic Sector] Distant Suburb
║ ╰╼Novice Difficulty
╟─╼[Stellar Faction] United Federation of Planets
╟─╼[Planet] Era
║ ╰╼[Biome] Gaia
╟─╼[Continent] Teressa
╟─╼[Country] Republic of Tyo
╟─╼[City] Marra
╚═══════════════╛
"Hell no!" he scoffed.
Unfortunately, there was nothing egalitarian about the way players spawned in Horus. New players would always arrive on the planet named Era, but they could spawn in any number of towns and cities.
A small handful of these were very useful to start in, because they provided useful quests and monsters which were easy to grind.
Marra was certainly not one of these ideal starting towns! In fact, the closest zone which was actually worth questing in was two days of walking away, according to Apophis's memories.
Horus simply didn't care about creating equal opportunity for all players, so Apophis would need to create his own advantage.
And unlike all the other players spawning around him, Apophis knew exactly how to overcome this setback.
As Apophis stood in thought, everyone around him was bursting with excitement about this new game and babbling all at once on the town chat. Some players were undressing, some were attacking NPCs, and others were rushing towards any available quests.
All this chaos was worsened by the constant appearance of new players.
Moreover, due to what Apophis alone knew was a malfunction with Cortana, the NPCs in the game world had a level of intelligence and a capability for emotions comparable to real human beings.
The natives of this country, the Tyottings, were clearly terrified by this phenomenon surrounding them.
NPCs quickly fled in any direction they could, causing even more panic as players chased them down to receive quests. This same event was happening all over the planet, and the NPCs would later name it "The Advent of the Eternals."
Apophis didn't concern himself with all this.
Each player started with a small amount of money, and he could use it to buy a cab ride to the quest location he wanted. This would cut down his travel time from two days to only a few hours.
So rather than buying his first gun, like most players, Apophis instead rushed to the first cab he saw.
Of course, Apophis was only able to do this because of a peculiar cultural quirk of the rural Tyottings.
They had once been a rigid military people, but many years of uninterrupted peace had allowed peculiar, pacifistic philosophies to rise among the Tyottings.
Though it seemed baffling to anyone who wasn't a part of the culture, the Tyottings simply couldn't fathom that all the Eternals might be murderous sociopaths simply because some of the Eternals were attacking their friends and neighbors without cause.
After generation upon generation of unnatural peace, the Tyottings had simply lost a part of their vital survival instinct.
And so even though other Eternals were murdering NPCs close by, Apophis had no trouble hiring a cab.
"Say no more, Boss!" said the cab driver, looking in terror at the chaos on the streets. "I'm more than happy to take you as far away from here as possible if you've got the coin!"
So Apophis paid, settled back, and enjoyed the ride.
Along the way, he examined his status menus again, looking at the list of nearby NPCs who gave regular quests. None of them were worth doing compared to unique quests, and he saw nothing that sparked his memories of useful unique quests from his first life.
Oh well, he thought. I guess I'll just settle for that one Scorpion found. Hopefully I can make it there before he does in this life...
***
About two and a half hours later, the cab arrived at its destination in the middle of the forest. The road was in poor repair, since they were a good distance from any town or city, but it was still traversable.
Apophis got out, paid 87 Galactic Coins to the driver, and strode into the depths of the forest.
"I really hope that nothing ambushes me out here," Apophis said to himself. He had neither a gun nor any Skills, so he could do nothing but run if a wild monster attacked him. With this in mind, he crept as stealthily as possible towards a certain point on his area map...
Yes, he had finally arrived at the overgrown forest's center. The archeological ruins he was seeking were now visible over the trees in the distance. Within these ruins, Apophis would find his first quest.
Of course, the plan he was forming in his head would be difficult to perform alone. He might need to wait until Scorpion's group arrived before he could act...
But then Apophis heard gunshots in the distance, and he sighed in relief.
Scorpion had already arrived, and the gunshots were loud enough that he hadn't gotten into the ruins yet. At the moment, he and his group were still just grinding monsters for EXP.
The leveling process was extremely difficult even at LVL 1. In fact, it took almost a day of grinding the monsters around most starting zones to reach LVL 2! So it was no surprise that some players had grouped together to fight more dangerous monsters deeper in the forest, ones that would grant much more EXP.
Apophis immediately hid so he could better observe these players before they noticed him.
Open PvP was both common and profitable in this game. Every time a player died in PvP, they lost a level. At the same time, the attacking player got a random piece of the victim's equipment, as well as all their money.
After about ten seconds of observing the five players who were attacking several small wolves, he decided to risk sneaking by to scout the ruins.