Returning to the upscale condo he was living in, 19-year-old Gregory Jeffrey Drake looked through the mail he had received. There were multiple checks, a bank statement, and the bills he had to pay. At his parents’ requests, Gregory had started business school, learning about the benefits of owning realty and how to use the stock market. Even though they forced the business school, they had given him a sizeable sum to get him started when he turned 18. They were wealthy, but forced him to make his own way with the money they had given him. Already, he had started making money on the money they gave him. These actions on their behalf had not stopped him from being his own person though.

Gregory, an avid gamer before his parents had made him fend for himself, continued his excessive gaming whenever the chance arose. To say he only enjoyed gaming would not be true, but it was one of his favorite extra-curricular activities. His high-rise condo’s entertainment room was filled with various games. There was a cabinet full of board and card games, a large entertainment stand with a 70” HD LED TV, there were also a variety of consoles, including an NES, the original and new remake, all of the PS line systems, the SEGA Genesis, and the XBOX consoles. Some other blatantly obvious things were the large table in the middle of the room, which had a D&D board built into it, not to mention the rotating top, and the computer in the corner of the room. The computer was a custom-built desktop, with a corsair graphite series 760T case, an Intel i7-6900K processor, dual GTX-1080SLI GPUs, an ASUS Rampage V Extreme motherboard, and a Corsair AX1500i power supply. This setup came complete with an ASUS MG28UQ monitor for intense gaming. Even the average person could tell gaming was not just a passion but a way of life for Greg.

In addition to this, Gregory also veered off from his parents’ wishes in regard to his schooling. They wanted him to just pursue a business education, while he preferred also going for a mathematics degree. Still, so long as he continued his business degree, they wouldn’t argue with it. His natural skill in mathematics was due to his skills at problem solving, and being able to quickly think through different scenarios effectively. His minors were in accounting and computer science. Gregory would be starting his sixth year in school, aiming for his Master’s degrees. He was currently in his summer break for school, and basically had all summer to relax and be away from most responsibilities for a time.

Gregory’s personal assets were several homes near schools in the Milwaukee and Madison areas of Wisconsin, and a vast stock portfolio. His annual income was already nearly a million, but required some daily time dealing with the stock market. In fact, he made a side-business of trading stocks for other people, with a 15% of net pay for his services. This was before the condo he owned, worth roughly 1.5 million, and situated in Milwaukee. The commute for him was long, but it was something he knew there would be with a Milwaukee home going to the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Gregory’s appearance was the topic of controversy at the middle and high school he attended. Being pure white, with midnight black streaks, his hair was always thought to have been dyed, or bleached, by the teachers. He styled his hair in a short spiky look, the thickness making it hard to see his scalp even though it was so short on the sides and back. His body was slim, but he had enough muscle for everyday activities. He had a decent tan, mostly from walks and biking in the area. Greg also had a well-proportioned body, though his head was slightly larger than the average person’s.

Gregory sat down calmly in the chair he had in front of the TV, imagining what life would be like as a game. There would be a combination of magic and technology as it stood currently, though he wondered which would be more powerful. Still though, he doubted the authenticity of that kind of world. It would be too fantastical, a place that every gamer and fantasy lover could only dream of. He had just gotten a new game, one based on a dungeons and dragons world, but with added skills, unknown but very high attribute/status caps, and a few other systems that Dungeons and Dragons lacked. After a few hours of playing this new game, a message in the game was sent to him, much like a notification, that gave him a yes/no question.

Do you want to take your game to the next level? (Unique Instance) YES NO

After answering yes, the game fizzed out and the system turned itself off. Gregory tried turning it back on, but the on indication on the controller kept blinking instead of turning the system on. He got up intent on finding out why the system wouldn't turn on, but had a fainting spell and fell to the ground. It seems that he was out for just a minute, and then he shot back awake. He moved rapidly toward the bathroom, checking himself in the mirror, but was shocked to see an identifier above his head. The identifier was a semi-transparent black color with white lettering, and it read “Gregory Jeffrey Drake - Level 1.” He looked in awe and shock at what he saw, and wondered if this was real or not. There was one thing though that got to him, everything seemed too normal for it to be a dream. Greg remembered having dreamt magical dreams before, and all of them were mystical, this was already too normal to be something like that.

He was about to turn to head to the door, when he saw a window that looked like the identifier window pop up in his field of vision.

Accept the Tutorial Quest? YES NO

Gregory hesitated, then thought to himself ‘Of course I should accept, there could be rewards, and if this is really real, it would probably help to have a grasp on what everything is. So, yes’ as he started to move, the YES light blinked, and the window vanished. ‘So, it is thought activated, not just touch activated, that could really save some time and curious looks when using it outside.’ Another window popped up shortly thereafter, notifying him of his first task.

Open the Status Window

‘Status Window?’ At that moment, the window appeared in his vision, a mostly opaque white color, with black lettering.

Name Gregory Jeffrey Drake Age 19 Level 1 Class N/A Unique Class Gamer Race Human Title N/A CON 13 STR 6 AGI 11 INT 20 WIS 70 PER 50 LUK MAX Passive Skills Life in a Game, Passive Luck Traits N/A Feats N/A

Once again, the notification window appeared in view, alerting him to the next step of the quest.

Open the Inventory

‘Inventory’, and just like that, the window once again appeared in view, slightly over the top and skewed down and to the right of the status window. It was also an almost completely opaque white, with black cells for the squares where items would likely be stored. ‘Status Window,’ and the status window left Greg’s field of view, centering the inventory. It was an empty 7x7 window, except that it said $100,000 in the bottom left corner. ‘Looks like the system gave me some money too, but I will probably need to spend it in cash format. Money normally doesn’t just magically show up, and unless it is stored offshore people will wonder where I got it from.’ Another two notification windows appeared, popping up to let him know something.

You have made a wise insight into the inventory menu, +2 WIS. Store an item to move on in the tutorial.

Gregory grabbed his toothbrush, and touched it to the inventory window, watching it basically swallow the item into the first open square at the topmost left spot. ‘Amazing, I wonder if I feel the weight of items in this inventory, or if it acts as a portable hole in that it really doesn’t have any weight.