Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – Welcome to Equilibrium

I slipped on my headset, sighing in relief as the soft leather gently covered my face. I worked many more long shifts to make time for this game, and my freedom finally arrived.

The comfortable whirr of the machinery buzzed awake. A cold breeze washed over my body, and I let the arguably dubious functions of the neurotransformative something waves take me to a different reality.

After all, the near instantaneous response of this system was a big part of its asking price…

The darkness of the loading screen was quickly replaced by a sterile, blank room.

“I guess the design budget didn’t care about a screen that most people would only see once huh.” I muttered to myself upon seeing the boring room.

“INCORRECT; CLARIFICATION NEEDED: ROOM IS PLAIN TO SET EXPECTATIONS.”

From above, an incredibly large, steel rat fell. 

CLANK!

Rather embarrassingly, I might add.

“PLAYER IS NEW. LOADING IN TUTORIAL LANGUAGE.”

The whiskers of the mechanical rodent rapidly vibrated, and the rest of its chubby and sleek body shivered.

“Welcome to our game, Equilibrium. Would you like to create a name, or would you like to use your legal name?”

“I would like to create a name. Please register ‘Magnum’.”

“ERROR; INFORM PLAYER THAT NAME IS TAKEN. Hello sir. Magnum is taken. Would you like any other custom name?”

“Uh.. Will you take ‘Magnum D.’? First name Magnum, last name D.”

“SUCCESS; MAGNUM D IS AVAILABLE. Magnum D, since you are a new player, you have the option of receiving the FULL TUTORIAL, or an ABRIDGED TUTORIAL. There is no SKIP TUTORIAL option due to the extremely low historical retention from new players. The FULL TUTORIAL will include a free cosmetic item if you complete the first section — the combat section. 

The FULL TUTORIAL will cover information up to a Training Level, while the ABRIDGED TUTORIAL will only include the most basic information. Which option would you like?”

“…If there’s a free cosmetic item, I’ve got to go with the full tutorial.”

“SUCCESS; FULL TUTORIAL SELECTED.

Magnum D, welcome to the world of Equilibrium. This is a VRMMORPG that values wit, strategy, and cunning over pure numbers. While your core gameplay will be affected by your gear, skill quality, and titles, even the weakest player can send you back to the respawn point.

Equilibrium’s combat system focuses on a limited move system, unlike most MMORPGS.  Most specifically, it means you can only ‘equip’ up to 5 skills. 

Skills in Equilibrium are defined by special calls to the system. These calls can enhance your natural abilities, or create fantastical scenarios that you could never see outside of the gaming world.

Battling in Equilibrium is naturally special due to this combat system. While we are an open world game, fights cannot be started with completely unfair circumstances.”

An amorphous shape suddenly shimmered into existence in front of me, and lurched forward to attack me.

TUTORIAL COMMON SLIME HAS INITIATED COMBAT!

DEFAULT SKILL SET HAS BEEN LOADED.

Before I could really process what was happening, the silhouette, which appeared to be a generic slime, froze in place.

“The tooltip that appeared is the notification that you and other players receive when they are targeted for an uninvited attack. There are special zones that allow players to freely attack other players, but generally, a consensual duel must be accepted by both parties. If you and another player decide to have a consensual duel, you will receive this prompt.”

THE GREAT RAT KING, MOUSEY HAS REQUESTED A DUEL.

The prompt disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

“Uhm, continuing on, Player Magnum D., your user interface will slightly change when you enter combat.” The metallic rat sounded uncomposed for just a moment.

Five icons flickered into the bottom right corner of my vision, along with a green bar in the top left corner. 

“These icons on bottom represent the skills that you have loaded in. They are the default skills that all players receive.”

Thump!

The holographic slime suddenly reanimated, lightly tackling me. The green bar in the top left shrunk a nearly imperceptible amount.

“As you might expect, the green bar in the top left is your health bar.” 

The first icon on the bottom, a sword, glowed a brighter green.

“The first skill provided to you is the SLASH skill. Please envision the trajectory of your swing and either think or say out loud ‘SLASH’, and the game will assist you. Please defeat the slime with this skill.” 

I opened my hand, and a wooden stick glimmered into it. 

You are reading story Equilibrium at novel35.com

Okay… Slash!

Even though it was just a rat AI, I couldn’t bring myself to shout such an awkward word out loud.

I swung the stick, and I felt myself surge with a confident energy. A green glow emanated from my arm, hand, and stick.

“SQUEE!!!”

The slime splattered into an anguished and pixelated squeal, as the stick made an incredibly satisfying impact with its side.

“The colorful glow signifies the usage of a skill. The System will guide you through an optimal and natural usage, but it can not and will not force you. Your opponents will always be able to see this glow, even if you attempt to hide it.”

The rat pulled out a gigantic metal safe from behind it, somehow, and a bright golden outline of a spear shone through it. 

“The rest of your free skills are: Stab, Bolt, Roll, and Block. You may test these spells after the FULL TUTORIAL is complete.

This marks the end of the basic combat section for the FULL TUTORIAL. Please let me know when you are ready to continue.”

“Sorry, how much longer is this tutorial?”

The whiskers shivered violently.

“About ten more minutes in Earth time.”

…I should have chosen the abridged tutorial.

~~~

NEW LOCATION FOUND! New Training Forest: Beginnings HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR MAP.

By the time I was teleported out of the starting room, my head was swimming with information that I was afraid that I would forget within minutes. I looked at the free cosmetic item from the tutorial.

It was a wooden keychain of the rat. 

Tutorial Keychain: Mousey the Rat - [Cosmetic Accessory] Reward for completing the tutorial in the Forest Zone! Mousey hates being called a mouse, so make sure you call him a rat. Why is he called Mousey? Don’t ask too many questions. 

I went ahead and hooked the keychain onto a belt loop. There were no bonus stats or effects, but it felt like a status symbol.

After that grueling information dump, I hoped it was a status symbol. 

In any case, I better make sure I start on the right foot. I think Felix should be online by now.

I summoned the menu and checked the friends tab. It looked like my contacts had properly synced from my phone — as promised by the rat.

Bzz. Bzz. Click!

“Oi, Isaac! You said you’d be on like ten minutes ago. What happened??”

“Bro, I told you that I would go through the tutorial, bite my ass. Did you even listen to the rat?”

“You got a rat? Dude, I got the ugliest frog talking to me for my tutorial. Exited that garbage as quickly as I could.”

“…No wonder you’ve been waiting for so long. Did you at least pay attention to the combat system?”

“I mean, sure. I scream out ‘BLACK FIRE LASER CANNONNNNN’ and I get to blast out some epic beams right?”

“I don’t think we have that skill yet. What the hell are you on about.”

“Well, Paul told me that if we get good enough at the game, we can make our own skills. You better bet all your marbles on me making my EPIC BLACK FIRE LASER CANNON a reality.”

“The last time I bet all of my marbles on you, I lost them all.”

“Okay, in fairness, how was I supposed to know that the other dude could eat thirty jelly donuts in ten seconds. I swear that’s not humanly possible. ANYWAYS. Hope you’re ready to race. First person to win a ranked PvP tournament gets free dinner for a month.”

“You better not have gotten more advice from Paul. I know we’re a few days late to release, but I know that you know that he knows way too much about everything.”

“Duh. He only told me about the custom skill thing because he assumed that you and I would want more in-game motivation.”

“Fair enough.” 

Me and Felix bickered for a bit longer, until he got sick of hearing my voice and hung up the call on me. I finally got to look around exactly where I was left after the tutorial zone. As if the system could hear my thoughts, a map appeared in front of my eyes.

Oh, it’s the New Training Forest. I guess I get to explore the basic combat here for a bit.

I exited the grassy clearing and entered the forest, vaguely pointing myself in the direction of Training Forest Village – which I assumed was the new player town for this zone. Felix had mentioned to me that he had started in a more swampish area, which I assumed was why he got a frog as his tutorial animal.

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