The massive housing meant for hundreds upon hundreds of people to take tests simultaneously looked rather empty with sixty some examinees.

Each of them were waving their hands wantonly in the air. This is crutch to help dictating their wills. Their hands or fingers moved and their B.F.M. tool experienced a transformation.

Some people did not do this. A select few only moved their head and eyes about. These were people that vera adept at controlling the games interface.

Dart is one of those people. He stood there looking as regal as could be, like an old man watching the younger generation work.

If there were people that did not move, there were people that moved in a very animated fashion. One such person was Kom.

Kom never stopped moving his hands about. Sometimes he took small steps to make up how far he could reach, making it look like he was half dancing and half stretching.

There are four ways to control Perpetuity’s interface. Things like flipping from one menu to another, from one recipe to another and so on.

One is the most used at the moment, using holographic touchscreens. This one is the most relatable as it is something people already use in everyday life.

The least used option is the B.F.M. controls, people lack the finesse to use it. It's not taxing on the endurance, but it does cause lightheadedness and headaches.

The second most popular is using one’s mind to send out commands, this is similar to the first and most popular method, only excluding a middle man, the hand.

The fourth method is voice commands. This one is third most used and even when used it is only used in rare occasions.

Voice commands can be helpful when doing simple things. For example, when people are focusing on crafting, one step after another.

The many steps make it so they can’t be displayed on the same screen. So to reach the next section or page, people can use voice commands to do it.

Even then it is not too popular, and people accustomed to the method Dart uses, continue to use the same method as it is no trouble for them.

In the examination room you can see people wave their hands around, all kinds of bizarre B.F.M. tools manifesting various forms and the occasional shout to go to the next page.

Some use the voice activation to let others know that they are doing well. Saying things like ‘recipe fourteen.’

Each recipe has a name but they can be designated numerically as well. The problem is the numbers are not static. They are ranked according to various factors.

As with all things in Perpetuity, they can order things meticulously. The current default is ‘newest to oldest’ having no practical meaning in terms of value, only that they have been acquired recently.

Like others taking the test, Sorp is as well. He can be seen waving his hands occasionally. Not as animated as Kom but not far off either.

It might be odd, it might be considered unexpected, but all the guys are enjoying themselves. Creating something has provided them an outlet they never knew they wanted.

Being something like rats of society. While not destitute like some drug addled people, they can’t have been considered well off.

Perhaps in the later years they had more comfort through Sorp’s prestige and more importantly, influx of cash.

This does not change who they are, just short of being gangsters. They are criminals, vile humans beings at best. Undeserving of anyone's care.

Anyone who knew these things would find it strange to watch them so focused. Their interests are not faked and they are working hard to make something of themselves here.

Large portion of this is because how easy it is to absorb knowledge, something only Dart had firm interests in doing. But also because people didn’t treat them like trash.

Here in Perpetuity, they were dressed like everyone else, knowing the cost of the devices, they were even assumed to be at least somewhat wealthy.

It hasn’t been described in detail, but the guys have been interacting with people that have considerable social status.

They did not think about this, but people whose life revolve around wealth and social acceptance do considered it.

One of the biggest reason why they did so well when it came to women is that their attitude was rude and arrogant, but a different kind of arrogance.

They possessed wild confidence, something Sorp oozed out in plenty. Just like Sorp was affected by their personalities and the same environment, they were affected by Sorp’s demeanor.

To women and men of higher society, this a breath of fresh air. They didn’t associate it with the lower class, they didn’t understand it, but like most people, they liked the new experience.

All these things helped the guys adapt to Perpetuity and they felt a drive to succeed here. Not only for themselves but also to keep up with the guys and the other people they had gotten to know.

All this crafting opened a new venue. People not longer needed to wear exactly the same clothes. They could design their own and craft them.

It is possible to buy vanity clothing from the city, but no such store was in the Reinforcement camps.

They still didn’t have new clothing or anything from crafting for that matter. They had only experimented with virtual items that vanished after being used.

Perhaps later there would be people with a merchant like spirit, who would ferry materials and items to the camps and villages along the way.

There are quite a few natural resources that Perpetuity had relied on this past that provide some crafting materials, but these are exclusively owned by the government.

It has been mentioned before that people could go to such sites, sites with natural resources, and gather materials from there. This is considered stealing.

One or two people skulking around a mine, pretending to explore it for exploring reasons might be able to haul some ore out. As these sites are not monitored as closely.

The problem is quantity of people. If enough people begin to pilfer natural resources, it becomes obvious. In such cases, countermeasures will be enforced.

Just like pests can devastated large plantations, if there are only few of them, they can be ignored. However large infestations require considerable effort to combat.

When people begin accumulating crafting materials and begin crafting with them, they will feel the sting of failure.

In the test, people fail continuously, this is why the test takes two weeks. It is expected people fail over and over again. They only have to succeed each recipe once.

There are a total of ten recipes that are allocated to each beginner. These recipes are all similar but they hold different names.

For weapons, armours and trinkets, their appearance can be modified slightly from the original mold.

As this ia virtual world, there are some things that can only be done once people reach certain ‘expertise’ in a crafting profession.

Increased ‘expertise’ which is just a numerical number representing how many successful and challenging items the crafter has made.

This number does not represent their capabilities within the profession. It does however, prove some degree of competence.

A user with three hundred points in a profession has to have successfully crafting three hundred items that Perpetuity labeled ‘challenging’.

This point system is used to allow some modifications to a craft, a percentage increase in damage, increased potion duration or other various effects.

It also allows for vanity modifications to weapons and armours, meaning a more unique item, visually. And incrementally better attributes on the item.

The people participating in the test cannot receive these points. They will only be rewarded once they use ‘real’ materials to craft with.

This sort of point accumulation that seems almost pointless is rampant throughout Perpetuity. They are there just to allow users keep track of various types of progress.

Once people graduate from generic B.F.M. weapons they’ll accumulate proficiency in using each weapon type and also in using each individual weapon.

Armors, trinkets and other things will also have this sort of point accumulation. Everything related to B.F.M. tools has meaningful benefits. Some things are just for vanity.

Many abilities will begin to appear. These abilities can be considered to belong to specific archetypes and later go into specializations.

For example, close range abilities and long range abilities. Single target abilities, area abilities and split target abilities.

These are generic labels and may not serve much use other than informing people of their nature.

There are still no apparent class types in Perpetuity. None that has been discovered at least. Right now they are non existent.

It is only once people begin moving out of the Pebble in the river that these sorts of higher tier abilities and classes begin to appear.

This has to do with B.F.M. as they need certain minimum requirements to actually use these abilities.

Perpetuity could have allowed people to choose a class whenever they wanted, and they could have given them abilities that do not require any proficiency in the Brute Force Method.

They did not do this, one reason is that their research indicated that people would not be happy having to train their B.F.M. just to use spells and attacks in a ‘game.’

Instead people are much more willing to work for abilities if they haven’t been able to use a easier to user substitute.

Similar thing can be seen everywhere. A person used to being driven around everywhere won’t be satisfied having to cycle or walk instead.

A person grown up in poverty and never taste the quality of life of high society less likely to despise cycling or taking public transportation.

The people who are about to complete the Second wave reinforcement test are one of twelve groups closest to being able to use these advanced B.F.M. abilities.

In a sense, the odd crafting tools and the methods to craft are a variation on these abilities, they just do not combat abilities.

In the future, a person combat ability can be deduced from their crafting proficiency. There are other metrics as well, but crafting proficiency is a type of proof.

There are threshold to this as well. Every ability has a roof to their destructive or defensive capabilities.

If Sorp and Dart have the same ability, and Dart is far more proficiency in the Brute Force Method, but they both reach the limits of the ability, Dart won’t deal more damage.

It’s in these types of situations that one would think about the fact that this is a virtual world. You can find parallels in real life, namely guns.

No matter the strength of two people, their bullet has the same damage capabilities. This is assuming they both hit the same target and in the same location.

Quickly, once one realizes this, it is easy to see how combat senses come into play. A person's timing is crucial, their aim and understanding their opponent.

In short, people will be given some equivalent of a gun, this weapon has the same theoretical damage potential for everyone. The weapon being a B.F.M. ability.

If things are simple, two opponents just throw themselves at each other without regard to tactics, assuming they both attack and defend adequately, the one with better items should win.

This not a single item, but an accumulation of every time these two individuals have. But things are not this simple, and they shouldn’t ever be.

Defence can be seen in five aspects. One is blocking, this is putting their attack power against each other, and the one deals damage based on the difference.

The difference is then mitigated by the defensive power. Assuming the attack power is similar, the damage should become negligible.

Another aspect of defence is simple, evading. Not being hit means no damage will be take, this is simple and easy to understand.

Deflecting can be considered a type of blocking, but it is categorized as a defensive feature of its own in perpetuity. This is a high level skill in comparison to blocking.

Deflecting is steering the opponents strike awry with either a weapon, armour or by shifting the body, making it glance by.

It is hard to deflect a strike than to straight out block one, but deflecting does not mitigate game damage in the same way as blocking.

If a person attack power is similar to the opponents, if done with the weapon, it can also be considered an offensive move.

This means that if the opponents strike is deflected with a weapon or an ability, the opponent takes more damage than if they just blocked the strike.

Deflecting with the armour is only wise if it is impossible to block or deflect with a weapon or when their attack power difference is too high.

The last two defensive aspects are defending with the armour itself. One part is the total cumulative defensive power and the other is the individual B.F.M. armour.

This being a virtual world, the fighting through B.F.M. is different than real life. A person wearing full armour does not need to cover every surface to apply to every surface of the body.

A circle around the head or a dress with revealing features are considered to cover every inch of a person. At least while a person has the B.F.M. endurance to maintain it.

This means that the damage taken from a clean it is dependant on the person's total defensive power, the exact defensive equipment hit and whether a B.F.M. ability is used to mitigate it.