“My function this time around is to provide you details on what to expect in the main game and to select a starting area. The NPC's will refer to players as The Disciples Chosen by God or Chosen for short. Logging out in a safe zone causes your body to be teleported to the nearest Cathedral instead of remaining frozen in the world. When a NPC witnesses a player teleporting in this way they will consider the player to be partaking in a Trial of God. The player will not be present inside the cathedral until they log back in. Each city will have a cathedral. There are certain conditions that will prevent a player from teleporting in this way when logging out.”

“NPC's understand that the disciples of god are immortal in a sense that they will never permanently die. They can tell who is a disciple and who isn't at all times. Chosen are not considered something new to this world, they have always been around and are integrated into their history.”

“Players who kill innocent Civilians will receive infamy points. When a player acquires enough infamy points they will become a criminal on top of receiving bounties to capture or kill them. Similarly players who kill other players within safe zones will have the same consequences. Both NPC's and players can collect on bounties by either killing or capturing their targets. If a player is caught by guards doing unlawful actions they will attempt to capture them and decide proper punishment. There is a difference between getting caught performing the acts, and not.”

“Outside of safe zones players can engage in pvp as they wish. However, infamy points will still be gained by the aggressor if both parties do not agree to the fight. The system will be able to tell the difference. No loot or experience will be gained upon killing the other player. When a player dies they will be teleported to the cathedral contained within the city they were last present in. Similar to logging out the player's avatar will not be present in the Cathedral until they are online. The first pvp death a player receives each day based on real world time will not trigger the death penalty. The default death penalty for players will cause the user to not be able to log into the game for a full real life day”

Locke decided to test to see if he could ask questions “I heard that once you are a criminal your name will change from blue to red, is that true?”

The voice did not respond to the question same as before and continued to go through it's programmed dialogue.

“Any attempts to convince an NPC they are not a real person will be pointless. They will react as if you are talking or writing to them in another language.”

“You will be sent to one of three continents of your choosing. Each location has major differences to accommodate the different play-styles for each player. Once selected you will be teleported to a unique cathedral that is assigned for newcomers inside the three continents. Once chosen you will be provided 500 gold.”

1) The Thalisberg Confederation located on the Belarius Continent consists of guilds across multiple cities. These cities are not ruled by a single leader, or king; but by the guild master of each guild allied together. The primary guilds are as follows; Fighters guild, Thieves guild, Belarius Mage's Collage, Artisans guild, Guardians of the Round, Church of Dawn. There are smaller guilds as well, but they do not take part in the council of guilds. This country is neutral and are not currently taking part in the on-going war.

2) The Empire of Mist is a militaristic country that is located on the Genesis Continent, which has been recently nicknamed the continent of mist. The empire's ruler is determined by who is the strongest, this mindset flows down the general populace. If you are not strong you are not worth anything in the eyes of the people. This country is in constant war with the barbaric elves, but also has an alliance with the Kogrian Dynasty. The empire acts as a barrier between the elves and the other continents of this world.

3) The Korgian Dynasty is a Dwarven country focused on crafting located on the Zegand Continent. It is currently being ruled by a dwarf king through a monarchy. While the cities primary focus is artisan professions this does not mean only players interested in artisan skills should choose here. There are plenty of other alternative playstyles for those who chose this continent available to them. The Korgian Dynasty is allied with the empire and provides weapons, armor, and supplies to aid in the war effort rather than soldiers.

“Please choose”

Wait that is it? That is not enough information to make a proper decision. I can probably rule out the Korgian Dynasty but the other two both sound like good choices. Wait a minute......maybe I don't need to choose right now.

Locke decided to log out. If he wasn't going to get any additional information inside the game then he could just rely on other players. Stepping out of the capsule he jumped on his computer to browse through online information. It took quite a bit of digging but he had a much better understanding on the world itself.

The on-going war had many names but is currently labelled the Century War. The reason it was named this was obvious, the war had been going on for centuries. No players have shared any information on what could have started this war or when. This could be because no players have bothered to share it, or maybe the majority of the NPC's and history books don't even know. As for the intensity of the war there hasn't been any recent major battles or turning points, just minor border skirmishes.

A player within the Korgian Dynasty received access to an archive and shared information that the war on the Genesis Continent used to be different. There were three large factions/races on the continent at war with each other. The three races were the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves. That is until the mist came, nobody knew where it came from but the monsters became even more powerful and aggressive. The monsters attacked all three factions alike without any regards for their safety. The Elves however were able to take advantage of the situation and wipe out the Dwarves main fortresses simultaneously.

Without the defensive line it was inevitable that the Dwarven cities were overrun by monsters. With no hope or options the dwarves were forced to flee towards the Empire in hopes of shelter. The humans took in the refugees and held off the monster hordes. Due to the actions of the Empire the Korgian Dynasty offered and alliance to the Empire and took in the refuge dwarves. This alliance has held back to the Elves for centuries and prevented them from expanding their territory.

What stuck Locke as odd was the fact that Elves were portrayed as warlike barbarians and are considered a plague to all races. They do not seek diplomacy or peace, only war. This was quite an interesting take on elves compared to normal. He was curious if they were actually like that or if the history books just stated as such.

As for choosing a starting location Locke decided on the Thalisberg Confederation. From what he read the players that chose the Empire have been having a rough time. Most of the available quests involved assisting in the war effort. Also prices of goods and services were expensive unless the players had a high reputation with the faction. The only way to get this reputation is to prove your strength though battle. The easiest methods people found were the colosseum, the problem was the majority of the fights involved extremely strong NPC's resulting in the players being beaten out fast. There were penalties for killing the opponents, but sometimes the NPC's accidentally killed players which made it a huge gamble to take part in.

The Korgian Dynasty didn't have this problem but the majority of their available quests were for the artisan classes to gain reputation. Crafting weapons and armor to assist with the war effort was the common route for players. Language wasn't a problem as the system had what they called the common language which is what all players spoke. Any language the player spoke would be automatically translated to common. The opposite was true as well, any words that are spoken in common by an NPC or player alike would be translated to a language they understand. The dwarves did have their own language which they could speak, but they can also speak common. Players by default will not understand the dwarven language.

Now for the reason Locke chose the confederation. Being part of a neutral kingdom was a big plus, getting sucked into a war this early seemed more trouble than it was worth. He also wasn't as interested in artisan professions as he was in magic. There was most likely a way to learn magic in the other cities, but the only confirmation he had so far was the Bolarius Mage's College. Also it seemed like this option was the more common choice between the playerbase. Normally in these types of games it was more fun to join the more player populated area's, provided crowding wasn't an issue. However, this reason seemed like less of a factor this time around with how lifelike the NPC's were.

Either way his choice was set in stone. Locke decided to check his messages while he was out and noticed there was one from his mother. Looks like she is going to be able to stop by in a couple days. Locke did some calculations and noted the time to make sure he is able to plan around it. There were also messages from his dungeon party. It looked like Jason and Rae were continuing their training in the intitial tutorial while Shelia and Thomas were waiting out the death penalty. From the sounds of things Shelia and Thomas will join them soon in their training before they tackle the tutorial again. Locke sent a message to all of them stating he was able to complete the tutorial alone and what he went through with the hobgoblins. He mentioned the optional quests but not the world firsts. I wouldn't sit right with him not warn them about the dangers of the larger forts in the area.

After he was done with his messages he decided to take a three hour nap. Not sleeping inside of the game felt bad because of time dilatation but the brain needed to rest. Several hours later Locke logged back into the game. Thankfully his avatar remained in the same spot he left the game at. There was a slight bit of worry that logging out in the spot he did would cause some weird bug or unforeseen outcome, but thankfully that wasn't the case. It was a risk to log out, but making a choice with so little information was something he didn't enjoy doing. Locke chose the Thalisberg Confederation and hit enter.

"Your choice is the Thalisberg confenderation, 500 gold has been deposited into your inventory."

A blinding light surrounded him as he was being transported to his new location.