I understood that stat allocation was important: I could face any number of threats upon entering the main game, and this was my chance to build myself up for the battle ahead. But it was not the only new screen to appear in my status menu. The ominous tab had also been joined by two further options: ‘weapon selection’ and ‘miscellaneous items.’

Shit, I have to do all this in my ten-minute limit?

To make matters worse, the timer hadn’t even been reset from my avatar selection, giving me barely three minutes to make my decisions. I gave Mai a questioning glance.

“Your avatar comes with a preset skill-set, but this your chance to customize it a bit,” she explained. “You can max out your strengths, or you can choose to compensate for your weaknesses. Or you can do a bit of both if you prefer. It’s totally up to you.”

“Which is best?” I asked.

“Sorry, Jacob,” the elf replied, shaking her head. “I’m not allowed to help you that much. This is about you choosing what sort of man you want to be in your new life.”

“As opposed to choosing what kind of dwarf or demon, eh?”

“You know what I mean,” she replied, playfully sticking out her tongue.

I smiled. If we were parting ways soon, I was going to miss this elf-shaped bundle of code. Oh well, on to business. First, I quickly read the contents of the screen.

Unallocated base points: 10

Please choose the skills you would like to allocate points to. Please note, some categories are capped due to your current level (1). If you attempt to add more points than your current limit, this will be rejected.

Okay, that all seems straightforward enough. The message was followed by a list of all the available skills I could allocate my points to, and my current limits as a level 1 swordsman.

PHYSICAL STATS -

Strength: 1 (Cap 4)

Agility: 1 (Cap 5)

Speed: 1 (Cap 4)

Stamina: 1 (Cap 4)

Resilience: 0 (Cap 3)

Accuracy: 1 (Cap 4)

Defence: 1 (Cap 5)

Armed combat: 1 (Cap 5)

Unarmed combat: 0 (Cap 3)

Carrying capacity: 1 (Cap 2)

INTANGIBLE STATS -

Magical attack: 0 (Cap 1)

Perception: 0 (Cap 3)

Charisma: 0 (Cap 2)

Disguise: 0 (Cap 1)

Luck: 0 (Cap 1)

Healing: 0 (Cap 0)

Mana generation: 0 (Cap 3)

Leadership: 0 (Cap 1)

Homemaking: 0 (Cap 2)

There were nineteen options in total, and that worried me. In my former career (you know, the one that got me into this damn mess in the first place), I wasn’t really one for strategy. I preferred to have someone point me at the problem that needed solving, and to punch it until it was solved. Brute force had gotten me in here. As I stared at the list of physical stats I wondered: could brute force get me out of here, as well? Assessing the figures each skill was currently capped at, it became even more obvious that my avatar was configured to prioritize combat-based skills. But did that mean the attributes with lower potential should simply be ignored? Where they less important, or more so, given that they were harder for me to level up in my current form?

-[ Warning, time limit approaching. Unused base stats cannot be carried from the avatar selection into Atone Online. ]-

…announced a stern, electronic voice.

“Use them or lose them, boss” added the elf, humanizing the message as she peeked over my shoulder.

Shit, my time was running out, and I hadn’t even begun to arm myself, yet. Asking the elf to explain mana generation would probably be a poor use of my available time, if it led to my entering the game before I got the chance to purchase a weapon. And yeah, I realized that distributing my base points was probably just as important. But what the hell use was a swordsman without a sword? I needed to get this over with.

So, like a diner who’d suddenly realized that the waiter was approaching and that he hadn’t even begun to study the menu yet, I panicked. I focused on my stat screen and hurriedly allocated two base points into strength, and another two into resilience, deciding that whatever lay ahead of me, I’d better make sure that I was a tough enough bastard to face it. I then proceeded to evenly split the remaining six points between stamina, speed, and armed combat, figuring those properties were probably the best match for my swordsman skill. Satisfied that I’d made the best choices I could under such unrealistic time constraints, I hurriedly moved onto the tab marked ‘weapon selection.’

-[ One-minute remaining. ]-

…announced the impatient voice in my head. I had a feeling I was going to grow to hate that thing.

To my horror, the weapon selection screen offered slim pickings. Granted, it was just a basic equipment screen for my new avatar, and not a fully-fledged shop, but still. I’d been hoping for a lot more.

The weapons on offer were a small unimpressive dagger priced at twenty-five gold, a basic sword at ninety, and an allegedly ‘premium’ sword at one hundred and twenty gold. Premium seemed to roughly translate into ‘big enough to give me a hernia,’ but I’d put a few extra base points into strength, so surely they wouldn’t offer me a weapon I wasn’t strong enough to use, right? That said, these were the same bastards who incinerated my ‘meat media’ and almost sacrificed Mai just to gauge my response. Who knew what they were really capable of.

I didn’t have time to read each items individual properties, so I could only go on the basic principle that ‘more expensive’ meant ‘better.’ I hastily selected the premium sword, then immediately purchased the dagger also, figuring it couldn’t hurt to have a backup weapon, just in case.

Next, I moved onto the ‘miscellaneous items’ screen, where the remaining five gold was hastily split between a parcel of healing herbs and an ankle strap for my new dagger. I would have preferred a sheath for the sword: removing the huge weapon from my inventory every time it was needed would be a lot slower, if the sheath’s tempting description was to be believed. But frustratingly, that would have left me short on funds for the dagger. And if it was a toss-up between an accessory and a backup weapon, the backup weapon had to be the better choice, I reasoned.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by another status message…

-[ The customization window has closed. ]-

Fuck, I got there just in time…

“Hooooowever,” began Mai, “one vital element remains that just can’t be bypassed. Please choose a sexy username for your sexy avatar.”

“I like my own name, thanks,” I replied.

“Awww, c’mon, boss. A new name is strongly recommended. Names carry reputations, so choosing a new name will allow for a fresh start.”

And make it harder for family members to track down a prisoner and launch an appeal, right?

“Can’t you just, I dunno, just call me Jake?”

“Username allocated.” She replied with a grin. You are now known as Jake10438. Is this acceptable?”

“Fuck… there are a lot of bad Jakes in the world, evidently,” I sighed. “Look, my nickname IRL was ‘Shade.’ Will that do?”

“I like it,” she giggled. “Username acceptable. ‘Jacob Mathers’ has been replaced with the username ‘Shade.’”

And another piece of my identity just falls away…

The elf began to speed up, some pre-programmed spiel taking over like a voiceover reading the terms and conditions at the end of a loan commercial…

“Your estate has been liquidized and transferred to an atonement account, the contents of which will be waiting for you upon redemption. You have thirty years in-game to achieve redemption before Atonement Incorporated take ownership of said estate to pay for your avatars continued maintenance, under article 12 of the unclaimed digital assets scheme. All data pertaining to ‘Jacob Mathers’ will now be destroyed on the outside world. Phew, that was a mouthful.”

“What the hell?” I gasped. It’s not enough that your company destroyed my body, they’re destroying my identity now, too?”

“Your old identity had become corrupted, silly,” interjected the elf. “Corrupted code must be purged by removing-”

“Alright, I get it,” I cut in. I couldn’t blame her for not understanding. My world was just an alternative format to her. Her owners on the other hand…

“Are you okay, Shade?” she asked, walking over and casually stroking my face. And then it dawned on me.

“Fuck! My face. It’s all I have left, isn’t it? I’m surprised they left me with that much.”

-[ Your face will be your final anchor to your old life. A reminder of the sins you now wish to escape. This too shall be shed, upon redemption. ]-

I turned. That damned ghoul Norahc had returned, no doubt to ferry me to the final stage of my journey.

“Too expensive to clone my old features into a new body, eh?” I asked the ghoul. It ignored me.

I returned to gaze to my elven helper. But there was no answer to be had there either, just an awkward shrug.

“So, what now?” I asked her.

“Check your quest log,” she replied, giving me a sympathetic look.

UPDATED QUEST – Redeem yourself.

Having accepted your judgement, you now have a set goal to achieve: reputation +30.

Goal: Achieve 50 rep points.

Type of quest – Ongoing.

Reward: Earn a new physical body.

Rep effect – Redemption.

-[ Prepare for redemption, Shade. Your journey of atonement awaits. ]-

“Good luck,” added Mai, kissing my cheek. “You were my first inductee. I hope they’re all as sweet as you…”

Before I could answer, the elf flickered out of existence. Next, the hut began to fall away, and the torrent of code began anew. I stood there mesmerized, as machine code began to beat down on my freshly minted body, baptizing me, like a less than subtle metaphor for my new beginning. Hell, I was probably reading too much into it. I had no idea what any of this meant. For all I knew, the digital gods were pissing on me from above.

Speaking of which, it was starting to feel an awful lot like I was being flushed. The flow of information was lashing against me, pushing me back toward the sea of code. It was glowing behind me, waiting to drag me to my digital damnation. More and more code lashed against me, but I was tired of being pushed around. I stood my ground, willing my synthetic flesh to hold fast.

Big mistake. One by one, armored guards began to materialize around me, blinking into existence as if riding on a wave of electricity. These were not the tech-wearing heavies who dragged my physical body into my judgement pod, then held me down while my consciousness was ripped from my meat media, leaving my body a ruined mess. No, these guards were clad in much more primitive metals, and they carried blades, not tasers. Their design was still oddly modern, though. Each was dressed like the bastard lovechild of a medieval knight and modern-day riot police, with shields that could easily protect their whole bodies, if required to. And under the helmets, those familiar goblinoid features. These creatures belonged to Siriso. The circle of steel began to close in.

“Whoa,” I protested, “hold it guys, I just-”

I felt an aggressive shove to my back, jolting me toward the ocean. Old instincts kicked in, as I swung on my heel and thrust my fist deep into the face of the closest guard. I’d used as much force as my new body could muster, and it looked like those new strength points were really paying off. The guard’s pointy nose broke under the impact of my avatars fist with a satisfying crunch, sending the goblin reeling backwards.

-[ You have shattered the guard’s nose for 15 damage. ]-

Well, that was satisfying. The NPC guards stared at me in wide-eyed shock. Was I the first prisoner who’d ever attempted to resist his fate, I wondered? If I was, they weren’t having any of it. Shock quickly subsided, giving way to rage. And in a heartbeat, the mass of bodies was swarming me. I tried my best to fight back, but I was easily overwhelmed. My arms were quickly pinned to my sides, holding me in place. I made to protest, but before I could speak again, the butt of a sword struck hard against the back of my head, loosening my grasp on my new reality. I was losing conscious as they tossed my lifeless body into the sea.

And with that, my life began anew.