The obsidian floor of his skill sphere reflected the stars, stunning through the tin atmosphere. Mirrored before him, the multiple arms of the simulated galaxy crisscrossed each other. Ethereal winds flew on the tiny planet, trailing cosmic dust and pixels.

Great art style. Realistic graphic enhanced by saturated colors. Thousand of games later, the sight still blew him away. The purity of concept, the sheer artistry of it. Pixels were the winning touch. Intricate, their edges fuzzy. Obsolete by decades, they kept the players grounded, marked a clear line between the virtual and the real.

Name | Enoch

He selected his habitual nickname. Players used weirder ones in the past. They’d faded away as the engine became more realistic. It ruined the immersion to run into Lootgrabber69.

Biometric logins had solved the duplicates problems. In his lifetime, he’d seen the concept of login and password die. All for the best according to grandpa.

Enoch took one step forward. The ambient dust coalesced in his doppelganger. Appearance selection. He had unlocked all skins a long time ago, except the competitive one tied to tournament and ladder ranks. Lots of crazy option, he liked a simple look.

Features similar to his own, improved to make him more handsome. Gray eyes with lines of golds. No beard, he might add one once he reached his thirties. Brown hair with flowing curls. Just the right length to shift around yet never get into his eyes, a big no no for combats and acrobatics.

He confirmed the Sun Chiseled texture for his skin, his one compromise on elite cosmetics. Subtle enough for his taste. Only 1.7% of the player base had unlocked it. You had to run one thousand two hundred miles in a ranked game and finish in the top ten.

A flowing tunic, burnt yellow with brown highlights. Shorts tied under the knee. Flexible shoes. Concealment worked with realistic physics, best to avoid bright colors.

Three leather belts strapped at different angles, satchels in odd spots and one small backpack, low on his back. The whole thing optimized, maximal carrying capacity for minimal encumberment. No inventory interface in this game. His stuff had to physically fit in his carrying gears.

He confirmed his usual dimensions, 75% Height and 50% Thickness. The first slider went from better Dodge to better Resist. 75% gave him +1 Resist and -1 Dodge. The second slider went from bonus Health to bonus Stamina. No modifier for 50%. Minimal impact overall. Most players chose based on their aesthetic preference, including him.

He gave his reflection a wink. Loved the look, hadn’t changed it in months.

“You look like a nerd,” popped in his chat feed. Great.

Enoch took another step forward. Light extended from his feet, carving neon yellow lines in the dark obsidian. Same color as his interface. He had picked the color long ago. Had never changed it.

Eight grooves lead to eight sigils. The basic stats. Strength, Agility, Endurance, Perception, Intellect, Willpower, Charisma and Luck.

The Skill Sphere. An elegant concept. A personal moon, lost in deep space, where players accessed their own randomized skill labyrinth. A game within a game. His favorite parts.

Players spent six points at the beginning. They’d get three more per level. The paths always started with the same eight choices. After that, the illuminated grooves branched out at random to new modifiers, attributes, skills, spells and class.

Exploring the paths was part of the fun. The sphere dark, only the next available choices showed in faint light. There were a few openers. Enoch, like in most thing, went against the grain. He had his own way.

He stepped on the Luck node. The weakest Attribute. Minors buffs to in-game calculations and one advantage, better decisions in the Skill Sphere. The two second delay hit, and the chat caught on.

“Not again with your Luck 1 build”

“Who does that?”

Standard minmaxers ignored the Attribute. Too unreliable. They missed the point. A small investment early for a big payoff later.

Luck 1 | Attribute

10% chance to discover hidden paths.

Reroll 2% |Loot 10% | Sphere vision 2

The second available nodes popped on all available paths. Nothing hidden for now.

As a solo player, he needed a hybrid class. The basic ones were too specialized. Specific requirements and available class varied from one game to another. To find one, you had to waste nodes or invest in Luck.

He knew which combination of Attributes had the best chance of leading to a Mobility class. The usual combination was Endurance and Perception. He came back to the center and spent two points for +1 Endurance followed by a second +1 Endurance.

Endurance 2 | Attribute | Rarity 1

Health +20 | Stamina +20 | Resist 2

His muscles hardened as he activated the nodes. No class appeared. Only three points left. He might get screwed.

Holding his breath, Enoch went up one node in Perception. His cornea grew, became more flexible. A second lenses materialized inside his eyeball. His ears twitched, now fully mobile. He blinked. Inhaled deeply. Sharper smells, he could taste the air now, hints of glass on his obsidian moon.

Still no class. Too late now, even if his next choice revealed a class, he’d be out of points to select it. Hard start.

“He could have his class but no, had to have some useless Luck.”

“The announcer is right, he’s screwing himself.”

“Luck is such a waste, can’t believe this noob made it to the final.”

They had a point. Luck should have waited. It hadn’t influenced his choice, hadn’t revealed anything special. Its effect was better at higher levels. The problem was that he never went back to Luck when he skipped it at the beginning. Had won a lot with it, uncovering hidden paths and snowballing ahead of the competition.

Too late for regrets now, chat be damned. Enoch picked up Perception again. Bingo. A line carved itself in between the paths. The Scout class. One of his favorites. Mobility and Perception with a hint of Martial.

He chose a third +1 Perception with his last pick. His senses morphed further. The Scout sigil taunted him, one node away. See you next level.

Perception 3 | Attribute | Rarity 1

Multiplier x4 | Dodge 2 |Mana +30

Character | Enoch

Level | 1

Class | None

Attributes | Endurance 2 | Perception 3 | Luck 1

Resist 3 | Dodge 1 | Reroll 2% |Loot 10% | Sphere vision 2

Health 120 | Stamina 120 | Mana 130

Skills | None

Aura | Justice 11

Factions | None

Aura followed players from one game to the other. It influenced the first impression of NPCs. Molded their opinion. Based on in-game actions, it was an effort to keep a coherent world, to stray away from a game where no one honored agreements, stole everything or mass murdered a whole city.

The lore tied the system to players’ soul. Four competing values. Justice, Greed, Heroism, Tyranny.

It didn’t influence relations with other players. The whole point of the game was a free for all with tenuous alliance, backstabs and epic fights.

Character creation done. Enoch confirmed his choices with a thought and disappeared in a blur of yellow pixels.