“D-Didn’t I just jump off the roof?" I asked myself. "So what’s this blue screen?” Still completely blind and not being able to see anything else.

Welcome Player

“Is this some weird type of afterlife or something?” I questioned, trying to feel for something with my hands but finding nothing.

Trying to figure out where I was for about a minute, I suddenly heard a familiar sound of heeled shoes walking towards me. A woman's soothing velvet voice then spoke softly, saying “Okay. Time to start.” her voice became enthusiastic “Welcome Player! You and 9,999 other fellow Players have been specifically chosen to take part in the Creator’s New World!” Out of nowhere the sound of thousands of fireworks started to explode all around, and high above me; it was accompaniment by loud celebratory music echoing throughout the entire space, and it all naturally caused me to crouch down in surprise and fear. “Huh? Are you scared of fireworks or something?” The woman questioned in confusion.

“Oh wait, you can’t see! My apologies, Player, I should've noticed something so obvious earlier. Allow me to fix that for you right away.” I decided to stay silent, still confused and surprised about the whole situation, but after a moment of silence I heard a strange unfamiliar sound. The sound began swirling all around my head, and I felt something warm touch both my closed eyes. “That should do it." said the woman, with the strange sound disappearing. "Sorry again for not noticing earlier, though why don’t you try opening your eyes now.” Still confused about what exactly was happening, I cautiously listened and opened my eyes, and for the first time in four years I could truly see everything again.

Crouched down in front of me, I was greeted by the sight of a perfect, fair-skinned, golden-eyed, and angelic beauty—a beauty that's more a work of art rather than something real. She had longish wavy raven black hair that went just past her shoulders, and that faded halfway into a silver dyed colour. On her throat was a perfect bold black tattoo of the roman numeral XIII, with no other visible tattoos on the rest of her body. She wore a short shoulderless black dress that complimented her collarbones well, with see-through long sleeves, and black heels to match. But the thing that stood out the most about her were the two large black raven-like wings that looked to be protruding from her lower back.

“This really must be the afterlife after all." I unconsciously said aloud. "And that must mean she’s an angel, because there’s no way anyone could be that beautiful.” Being absolutely captured by her beauty.

“Well thank you, but I assure you this is not the afterlife, and an angel isn't exactly what I'd call myself." I immediately covered my mouth after realizing I just said that out loud, but she just smiled and said "Here. Let me help you up.” As she extended her hand out and I unconsciously grabbed it to stand up. “So, how are they?" she asked, "They’re fixed, right?” pointing to my eyes.

It took me a few seconds to stop staring, as I then shook my head and saw my hands below me, and slowly realized what she said. “Oh my god! I can see... I can see...! I CAN SEE!” I shouted out in happiness, with tears beginning to fall from my face, while the woman simply smiled at my delight. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I don’t know what you did, or how this is possible, but thank you!” Feeling the happiest I’ve ever been in a long while.

She chuckled, “You’re welcome, but I really must start the introduction now or you might fall behind the other Players if your confused, and won't get the chance to get the best rewards.”

“Other Players? Rewards? What?” Finally taking in the surroundings and seeing that we were in a huge endless white space. “W-Where are we? Are you sure this isn't heaven?” I asked, looking for a way out but finding nothing.

The woman looked like she was looking at something, but there was nothing there, and then she said “We only have 5 minutes left in the introduction, so please save your questions until the end. I’ll have to shorten the introduction now.” Pausing for a moment before saying “Hello Player, my name is 13 and I will be your Guide until the End. As well as 99 of the other Players. You are part of the 10,000 Players chosen to experience this new world we call Novus, a world filled with fantasy for you to live, explore, and experience. However you will first be doing a Basic Tutorial on the System before you are sent off to the world of Novus to help you in your experience.” 13 looked to be finished speaking, but she added “And now I can take a few of your questions.”

Trying to process all the information she just told me, I said “You said 10,000 other Players, right?” 13 nodded her head yes. “And 100 of which you're guiding?” She nodded again, "Then where's the other 99 Players? Cause clearly they're not here." I gestured into empty white space.

"The other 99 Players are simultaneously doing they're own Tutorials of course, it was decided that teaching the chosen Players separately was the best idea." She answered, adding "And don't worry about me going away, us Guides have split ourselves into 100 to be able to guide you all at the same time."

“Weird, but okay." Accepting her explanation for now, "Then how about the way you keep on referring to us as Players, does that mean we’re playing a game? And if so, are we competing against each other?” I questioned.

“Players is just the term that was chosen by the Guides, it could have easily been Participants, Avatars, or even PCs. And to answer your question about if you’re playing a game...well I guess you could see it that way, but make no mistake, the world you’ll be experiencing is very much real. As for competing against the other Players, I guess that’s up to you and how you want to ‘play’.” She air quoted, adding “Any other questions?”

Thinking of questions for a bit, I had to make sure, and asked “You won’t tell me why 10,000 people got chosen to be here, right? Or what the end game for all of this is?”

“Actually us Guides have been given full permission to tell you Players why you were brought here, it is with the hope to incite and entice all of you to put your best efforts in participating, but I cannot tell you the details about ‘end game’.” She air quoted again. “So do you want to know?”

I shook my head vigorously, “Of course I do.” Listening intently.

13 smirked and her face became hauntingly wicked, “You insignificant Players were brought here because we Guides were bored to death and needed some smart ants to entertain us.”

“What?” I exclaimed.

She continued, “You all died at the exact same time either desperately clinging to the meaningless last moments of the world and people you truly loved so much, or fully accepting your deaths in a horribly corrupt world that had nothing left to offer someone as useless as you. These reasons alone made you all perfect for our entertainment.”

Taken back by her change in attitude but slightly understanding, I said “So people who’d be excited for a new start, and people who’d be driven to find a way back, is that about right?”

“More or less.” 13 shrugged, her expression returning back to normal "Though who knows how you Players will react and feel about your new world..."

“But that can’t all be it, right? You don’t actually think all the Players will put their best efforts into participating in whatever you want them to do just because they have a new start to life or hate that you brought them here, do you? Anyone with half a brain would know that what you told me just now was way too intentional to be true." Believing that there was something more.

She chuckled, “You're quite bright, I think you're gonna be my favourite in our group.” giving me a charming wink. “As for the further motivation you’re looking for, well you’ll have to wait until the end of the Tutorial and beyond for that, and speaking of which it looks like it's already time to start.” 13 clapped her hands together and a light blue light emitted from them, shooting up to the white empty sky above us. I then watched the light blue light turn into letters and numbers.

Tutorial Time Limit: 7 hours

It then began counting down.

Tutorial Time Limit: 6 Hours, 59 Minutes, 58 Seconds

“Woah, wait a second, we have a time limit?” I asked, worryingly looking up at the time counting down.

“You do, and I suggest you get started or you’ll miss the bonus rewards for the first 1,000 Players to finish, and most importantly the bonus reward for fully completing the Tutorial.”

Feeling pressured by the time going down again, I said “Okay, okay, what do I do then? I don’t see anything.” Looking around the empty white nothingness.

“You’ll first need to start by opening your Menu and clicking on Get Started. Think or say Open Menu.” 13 explained.

Listening, I said “Open Menu.” And a similar light blue screen to the first one I saw appeared, and in the middle of the screen was the boxed words Get Started.

[Get Started]

Using my hand I clicked it and five other boxed words appeared in its place.

[Character] [Skills] [Inventory] [Quests] [Social]

All the words were greyed out except for Character, and 13 said “Now click the Character Menu.” Doing as she said, Character went to the top of the screen while the others disappeared, and a new screen appeared over the Character Menu.

[Choose your Race]

Clicking the box, suddenly 3 different sized people came out of nowhere and stood in front of me, they each had a screen labeling them, and of course I recognized them without the labels. The one on the left was a Dwarf, the middle a Human, and the right an Elf. “What the hell, we get to pick a Race? She said you could see it as a game, but this is definitely the start of one.” I thought to myself, instantly knowing my choice already. Choosing Elf in every game I played if I had the chance because they are renowned in fantasy for their dexterity, gracefulness, and unparalleled archery skills, reminding me of my own skills.

When I selected Elf, the other Races disappeared but 2 more Elves appeared from the first. The left was labeled High Elf, having golden blonde hair, ocean blue eyes, and pale fair skin. The middle was labeled as Wood Elf, with fair lightly tanned skin, and had chocolate brown hair and deep forest green eyes. And the right being labeled as Dark Elf, with light grey skin, white silvery hair, and captivating purple eyes. Each Elf stood well over 6ft tall, the shortest being the Dark Elf who was probably 6’4”, and the tallest being the High Elf at 6’8”. I decided on going with my trusty go to Wood Elf and selected it, making a description appear.

Glossing it over, it just explained the basics stuff about Wood Elves and what they were good at, something I was already familiar with from other fantasies and games, but it oddly omitted anything about Elves in the world which usually is part of the description like this. “They must not want us to know about the world, and maybe want us to learn about it on our own.” I thought, also finding out that the Elves in this world only had a lifespan of about 500 years, which is shorter than most fantasies. When I reached the bottom of the description, I saw that there were Passives that came along with my choice, but unfortunately it didn’t allow me to know what they did.

Elven Racial Passive: Elven Physiology

Wood Elf Passive: Keen-Sighted

Confirm Choice:

[Yes] or [No]

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the High and Dark Elf ones, and saw that they had the same Elf Racial Passive but had different second Passives.

High Elf Passive: Mana Adept Dark Elf Passive: Dark Vision

Having an some sort of idea of what each Passive did, I ultimately confirmed my choice of Wood Elf; but after a moment, a sudden indescribable pain surged throughout my whole body, and I screamed out in pain yelling “Aaahhh!”

Changing Race from Human to Wood Elf.

The pain brought me down to the ground, naturally bringing me into the fetal position, with my body beginning to convulse and spasm all over. It like felt my body was being unnaturally and forcibly altered, as I could hear my bones all over breaking and shifting, and feeling my organs moving inside—with every few seconds a war, green light was surrounding and recovering my body.

After about 3 minutes of screaming and enduring the excruiating pain, a new message popped up.

Race Change has now been completed, you are now a Wood Elf.

The pain all dissipated, and I looked at my hands and saw that they were slightly different now. “13 right?” Finally using her name.

“That’s correct.” She answered.

“Couldn’t you have given me a little warning about what was going to happen?” I asked her, slowly picking myself off the ground.

“If I told you what was going to happen, would it have hurt any less?” She said, giving me such a beautiful smile. “Anyway here’s a mirror, I think you’ll like the results, you’ve got quite lucky getting such a nice appearance.” As she then conjured up a full body mirror from thin air.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I was completely unrecognizable, basically a stranger, just someone else wearing my t-shirt and sweats that I wore for physiotherapy. In the mirror was a sandy beige skinned Elf who had sharp facial features, with light green eyes and slightly wavy black hair. The hair mostly tucked behind his pointy ears, leaving two long strands hanging slightly past each cheek bone, with the length of hair reaching almost to his a slightly protruded Adam's apple. Admiring the change I thought to myself “Not that I was bad looking before, but Elves are just so unfairly good looking for no reason.” Also thinking, “And I’m so much taller now.” Guessing that I was around 6’6”.

Not seeing what to do next, I asked her “So what do I do now, 13?”

“Next you choose a name, and then we’ll begin the next part of the Tutorial” She replied.

I took a moment to collect my thoughts, “This feels like some weird type of dream I’m having.” Pinching myself to confirm it’s not. “Literally just a few minutes ago, I accepted death with nothing left to live for, but now things have changed.” Staring at my new self in the mirror again. “My eyesight’s back to normal, my body is healthy and improved," looking to 13, "and whatever these ‘Guides’ have planned for us ‘Players’, it can’t be worse than my life before, and I should embrace this opportunity to its fullest.” Making up my mind.

Clenching both my fists, I said out loud “I really only lost two things in the previous world, and I'll use my name as a constant reminder of the things I value the most.” Announcing, “My new name will be Eyes Thalion.”