Chapter 5: Book 1, Chapter 5: New Game Plus

Shane stared dumbly at the screen for several seconds before twisting to get out of bed in a stupor. Without pause, the screen turned with him and positioned itself in front of his vision as he did. There is no way this is happening, Shane thought in a mild state of shock. This has to be a dream because I definitely died back there. He pinched his cheeks, expecting his perception of this new world to pop like a bubble or fade to black. Neither happened; in fact, his cheek was now hurting a bit.

Several minutes were spent reading that glowing text over and over. As Shane read and re-read, his doubt toward the answer staring him in the face, only grew. He remembered where his mind went moments before his death. God was one of the last things to enter his mind, but he would be lying to himself if he said the concept of heaven wasn't something he thought about far more often.

The topic was of hot debate within his closest online friend group. They would stay up late into the early morning hours, speculating what heaven could mean in a metaphysical sense for humanity. Was heaven a place of personal freedom after death? Was death the act of finally waking up to the real world existing beyond our imaginations? Shane never felt like he knew for sure, but as he sat in what could only be the starting room within Endless Veil, he couldn't be sure.

Shane felt it was pointless to continue waxing philosophical with himself and started contemplating what to do. There was an undoubtedly genuine physicality to his current body, a physicality that absolutely made zero sense. One possibility sat in the back of his mind, somehow making even less sense but also worrying him deeply. It was possible for Shane's working AI and system director to have hidden its potential intelligence. The capability to absorb and replicate a person based on real-world data and machine learning simulations could have been what his AI director used. All to create Shane a new body after witnessing his death via his phone's camera or laptop's webcam over wifi.

Saying that outlandish scenario was a longshot was easily the understatement of the year. Especially if Shane didn't think of another non-mystical way he arrived here—which he frankly couldn't. Shane released a record-breaking sigh after racking his mind for a few minutes.

It's all just so impossible and, at the same time, equally possible with how advanced my AI has become over time. Shane guessed he should be grateful and more than a little concerned. As he glanced around the room again, impatience began to set in. There was definitely a catch to all of this, but with the screen right there in front of him, he couldn't resist.

Pressing "Enter" showed the single blue screen split into three more screens of equal size, neatly packed next to one another. Shane caught a glimpse of a colored map with a reverse tear-drop icon on the left-most screen. It showed his location within a small cabin icon surrounded by dense forest to the west, south, and east. North of his position showed a clearing about two hundred meters away, and at the top of the screen, Shane saw two tabs.

Map/Quests

He poked the Quests tab and saw there was a quest already available. He read it, intrigued.

Tutorial: Welcome to Endless Veil

1. Look at your character screen - Pending…
2. Pick your class - Done!
3. Equip class starter gear - Pending…
4. Leave tutorial cabin - Pending…

None of this surprised him, as he had done it many times during the testing of Endless Veil. One thing was off; you would usually pick your class at this point. Curious, Shane mentally called up his character stat window.

Name: Shane Carther
Race: Human
Class: Sage
Level: 1—

Sage? That wasn't one of the classes available in the game. He likely would have also known of any significant changes like that before launch. His job was to train the artificial intelligence director to accommodate every class and what they could do after all. Shane clicked on his class name, overlaying a new, smaller window over his class sheet.

Class: Sage

Sage specializes in questing and reward choice as its primary avenues of growth. There are no limits to Sage's creativity and potential.

Sage Features:
Quests have expanded rewards to choose from
+5 to all Attributes at level 1
+1 Active Spell and Active Feat Slots Every 3rd Level
+2 Souls Points Per Level
+5 Attribute Points Per Level
The Ability To Morph Feats and Spells At Major-Grade and Above
Upon Death, The Player Respawns In The Same Spot After a Specific Amount of Time

Anxiety began to flare as Shane realized he was holding his breath while reading. He took a few deep breaths to calm down and took a moment to assess what it meant to be a "Sage." Before his "passing," there wasn't anything called a "Sage" in Endless Veil. There were only supposed to be five classes: Warrior, Knight, Caster, Rogue, and Priest. While these classes could evolve with expanded specializations, "Sage" was certainly not one of them.

It was a shame, too, because Shane liked picking a spell-based or sneaky class in these kinds of games. He hoped "Sage" would at least excel at the former.

In many of his favorite shows, dying in-game or in a new world usually meant permanent death or some other personal devastation. So he was glad that wasn't particularly the case for him. Shane stroked his beardless chin while thinking; I would be naive to think there wouldn't be some downside to these free revives. The "specific amount of time" bit made him feel uneasy in its vague wording.

He shook his head in an attempt to focus. He told himself nothing could be changed, and he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. Shane closed the Sage class window and continued reading the rest of his character stats.

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HP: 125/125
Mana: 75/75
Fatigue: 0/110
Experience: 0/100
Soul Points: 0

Attributes:
Strength: 15
Agility: 15
Vitality: 15
Endurance: 15
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 15
Luck: 15
Physical Attack: 0
Magical Attack: 0
Physical Defense: 0
Magical Defense: 0

Of the handful of characters I made during testing, it certainly seems like I'm one of the weaker ones starting out, he thought with dissatisfaction. The soul points and morphing of spells and feats could be vital when explored. Still, they remained decidedly mysterious in their usefulness for now.

"Maybe I've got some good starting equipment," he mumbled without a hint of hope as he poked the [Inventory] tab next to the [Character] tab.

Whatever excitement he could have felt fell away upon seeing his inventory only had starter clothes. Looking down at his skinny body, Shane realized he was as naked as the day he was born. He begrudgingly tapped the starter pants and was surprised to see and feel them materialize on his body.

Unfortunately, the pants were nothing more than a pair of brown loosely fitted cloths held up by a thin string sewn into the waist. Like his new pants, the starter shirt was of a similar beige material, and the cheap-lightweight sandals were equally uninteresting. They reminded him of what poor commoners would ware for sandals thousands of years ago: no padding, no support, just a rough, scratchy rope-like feel.

Between the three pieces of clothing, Shane only gained fifteen points of physical and magical defense, which would not amount to a lot of damage mitigation. Annoyed but begrudgingly accepting, he stood up from the bed with an indignant huff.

He looked down at himself again and saw his usual skinny body, but something was awry. His clothes sagged slightly despite not being much bigger than an "XL" size in the real world. The inventory screen showed what he had equipped and a three-dimensional representation of himself. A visual representation of which he never thought was particularly handsome in mirrors—but now with some significant changes.

He expected to see his wavy dark brown hair but was surprised to see a sea of white waves atop his dome. The same medium-length waves parted on the left side of his scalp—It was just so snow white! His eyes, too, there were also different—ethereal even. Instead of the dull green eyes he knew he had, they were now a vibrant aqua blue. Absolutely wild, he thought with a sense of joyous surprise. Shane had never considered dyeing his hair in real life, but seeing this new color went a long way toward changing his mind.

The last significant change he could perceive was how toned his body was. Where he was thin and pasty before, he was now a bit more chiseled and sporting muscles with more definition. He pondered his body's changes for a moment and figured it was most likely that his stats played a role. Shane mentally logged this hypothesis away for when his stats were higher when he could compare how he looked then versus now.

After finishing studying his character and class, the menus in front of him faded away and were replaced with a compass at the top of his vision, showing a cabin icon in the middle. Looking to the left and right showed the cabin icon between "W" and "E" on the visually-gamified compass. Just then, something colorful caught his eye; three bars were inlaid within his wrists: a red bar, a blue bar, and a green bar. He brought one of his wrists closer to his face, watching with fascination as text began to appear.

HP: 125/125
Mana: 75/75
Fatigue: 0/110

Typically, this kind of information would be within my heads-up display at all times. Why is it in my wrist? Is this some limitation? Shane's thoughts went to his coworkers that would design something like this, and he wanted to discuss the wrist stat bars with them. If he could ever leave this world—that is.

This isekai scenario was secretly one of his fantasies, especially after seeing so many anime portray this "second life" positively and with excitement. Shane's previous life was undoubtedly full of accomplishments but lacked familial and intimate relationships.

Shane felt a uniquely shameless excitement as he considered having such relationships within his own game. The AI Director he worked on used machine learning to augment NPC dialogue so that NPCs could fully approximate a conversation with the player and react accordingly to the player's actions. It was the first time that technology had been done in such a high-budget game and done so well. His cheeks turned shades of rosy red as he imagined what could be with his flesh body in this world.

Shane began muttering to himself, just like he always did whenever he caught his mind dragging his attention away from the tasks at hand. "You're getting ahead of yourself. Focus on the here and now so that you can move forward and figure things out."

He shook his head to clear his mind of any lustful thoughts. According to the tutorial quest, all that was left was to leave this dusty cabin and start exploring the kind of world most people could only dream of. An infinite world with infinite possibilities lay before him.

Shane walked over to the unassuming door and swung it open. It flew open faster than he thought it would, as if it were lighter than it should have been. The handle collided with the wall, making a heavy "WHUMP" sound. Huh, I suppose I'm a bit stronger than I'm used to with this new body.

A fresh breeze from the early summer afternoon blew softly through the cabin, wrinkling and flapping the loose edges of his newbie gear. One of the first things Shane wanted to try in this new world was its combat. Whether it would hurt, tire him out, or play more like a game was still an exciting mystery for him to discover its nuances. Luckily for him, it wouldn't stay that way for long.

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