I had previously been laying down when the blue boxes started appearing. When ever I tried to sit up, the blue box disappeared. Looking around, I realized I was still in my apartment. What? How could that be? What I saw next freaked me out.

My hands turned gray and melted, reshaping themself into a rectangular outline. The floor turned grey as well, a tentacle arising from the vinoleum floors. The tentacle touched my leg, feeling like cold liqud. I felt it enter my leg before it flowed through my body and up into my hands.

The whole time this was going on, I was attempting to scream and run away. It didn't happen. I couldn't move, though I was able to let out a very manly scream. My body just wouldn't respond when I tried to move my limbs. The gray goo that used to be my hands started squirming before changing.

The rectangle was pushed upwards as the goo from the floor crept up to where my hands had previously been. The vague outline of my hands formed from the goo before solidifying. The rectangle also solidified. Then, the color and texture started to come back to the grey goo. In a matter of seconds, I had my hands back and there was a red book labeled Beginner's Manual in my hand.

Well. That was trippy. I didn't even know how to begin to describe what had just happened to me. I just stood there for a few seconds, trying to process everything. My body was apparently composed of nanites. Those nanites then formed a book while the ground, which was also nanites, then replaced my hand.

If that experience wasn't enough to send someone in shock, I don't know what is. My body just turned into a book. A freaking book! That should not, in any shape or form, be possible. Still, there was a part of my mind that was in awe of what I had just done.

There was a beep sound that brought me back down to Earth. The monster timer now said 49:58. Great. I still needed to read the manual. I went ahead and opened the book.

Beginner's Manual

Basic History

On April 1st, 2498, the AI Game Administration Directer (GAD) reformed the world. Using self-replicating nanites, he converted the entire world into machines. It took 3 months to create nanites that could devour the earths core, but it was done. Now, nearly unlimited amounts of energy have been harnessed thanks to Geo-Thermal and Solar power being converted through nanites.

On April 18th, 2499, digital copies of humans were implanted into nanite bodies that were exact replicas of their flesh bodies. They were awakened for the first time on this day.

Further historic events will be available as time goes on. Make your mark in history, players.

Basics of Status Points

In Nanite World, there are multiple different status types. Because your body is composed of nanites, you are incredibly flexible in your future development. By assigning status points, you cause approximately 2 million nanites in your body to specialize in order to help you do a certain process better. You must first have the necessary nanites to perform the upgrade. More about purchasing upgrades is included in Basics of Shards. The specific status points and what they do are listed below.

Another necessary thing to note is Energy Points or EP. This is the fuel that is used for your body and what powers the nanites that keep you alive. Certain abilities use up energy points in order to perform certain tasks. This includes creating objects or performing superhuman abilites.

Agility: This is the speed and reflexes of your body. By assigning status points to this stat, some of the nanites in your body will develop better connections, resulting in electric signals being passed even faster. You will remain just as clumsy as you were before. You will simply flinch faster. This does not mean that you will think faster, see Intelligence if you want that ability.

Charging: This is the ability to turn other energy sources around you into your own personal energy. By assigning status points to this stat, some of your nanites will become even more effecient at turning various energy into energy points. This is mainly solar power.

Dexterity: This is the fine motor control of your body. By assigning status points to this stat, some of your nanites will start to communicate on their own in order to help perform a task. Basically, autopilot for your body. You know you want it.

Intelligence: This is the speed of thought that you think in. By assigning status points to this stat, the nanites that form your brain will develop better connections, resulting in neurons, or their equivalent, being fired even faster. You think faster and maybe you'll see things you couldn't see before. In math, that is. IQ is not guaranteed to increase. This does not increase the speed of your body. See Agility if you want that.

Shield: This is the personal forcefield that is generated passively by all the nanites in your body. By assigning status points to this stat, the forcefield is strengthened. Be warned, this status point consumes energy constantly. By increasing this stat, the energy consumption also increases. Be sure to increase Charging as well, otherwise you'll run out of energy. This usually means collapsing out of sheer exhaustion, possible death.

Storage: This is the energy that is available to you. By assigning status points to this stat, some of your nanites will become essentially batteries in order to store more energy. Good luck figuring this one out.

Strength: This the sheer power of your body. By assigning status points to this stat, some of your nanites will develop better motors in order to contract with better force. Working out does not increase this stat. It simply makes you sore.

Basics of the HUD

Everyone has a Heads Up Display or HUD. It is a readout that contains the information that you need. In the top left corner of your vision is the nanite count. This has three crystals with the top being the smallest and the lowest being the biggest. These crystals represents Shards, Chunks, and Crystals. Read Basics of Shards for more information.

In the top right are two bars. The top one that is red is your shield charge. This charge is passively taken from your EP in order to stay charged. When you run out of shield, your nanites can no longer protect you from damage. The shield lets you shrug off hits that would normally cut you in half. Pay very close attention to it.

The blue bar is your Energy Points bar. This tells you how many EP you currently have left. You use EP to use abilities and be able to keep your form together. Runnng out of EP usually means death. Pay attention to it.

Basics of the UI

Every human now has a User Interface, or UI. Using the UI is crucial to living in Nanite World and is a necessary part of daily life. There are three main parts of the UI. There is Status, where you shown the current status points you have. Then there is Shop, where you can buy abilities, status points, weapons, tools, property, and other, various things. Finally, there is Inventory.

The Inventory is a record of all objects that you own. As it should be well known, everything in the world is completely composed of nanites. Anything you wish to store in your inventory dissolves into the ground as individual nanites. When you wish to withdraw the item from your inventory, it will form using any nanites in the surrounding area. While there are nanites in the air, it will take five times as long to form any object in the air as opposed to when in contact with the ground or a building.

You may access any of these UI tools by saying the name of the UI tool along with the word open. Such as saying, 'Open Inventory' or 'Inventory Open.'

Basics of Abilities

Abilities are subroutines that can be programmed into the nanites that compose your body. Abilites use EP to activate and have a cool down. This cool down is so that you do not short-circuit the nanites with an overload of energy. It is a safety mechanism that cannot be over-riden.

You may access a list of abilities by saying "Open Ability List."

Examples of abilities include: Flying in the air, extreme jumps, briefly increased strength or speed, creating swords/guns, summoning creatures. They might also include utilizing your energy to create fire, blasts of lightning, plasma bolts, or other such energy. All of these can be purchased in the shop.

Basics of Shards

The amount of generalized nanites you own is represented by your Nanite Count, present in the top left corner of your view. This gives you a list of shards, chunks, and crystals that you currently own. Generalized nanites are nanites that you have not assigned to a specific role, such as for an ability or as a status point.

A shard is 1 thousand individual nanites. A chunk is 1 million individual nanites. A crystal is 1 billion nanites. As you were previously told, assigning status points involves giving 2 million nanites a specific role in your body. This means you must have at least 2 chunks in order to assign status points.

Nanites are also a currency. They can be used to buy things in the store, such as abilities or weapons. In the future, they will most likely be used to buy things from fellow humans. Be careful what you spend your nanites on. They are a valuable commodity.

You may gather nanites by performing quests. A quest is a task given to you by GAD or by a fellow human. In both cases, you will be given a certain amount of nanites based upon the difficulty of the task or by the contracts amount. You may also gather nanites by killing things. You will gain an amount of nanites depending upon the amount of nanites that the creature had. If you repeatedly kill the same type of monster, you will gain less and less nanites until eventually you will not gain any. GAD doesn't like repitition.

Basics of Respawning

As you have been repeatedly told, you are now composed of nanites. You are an electronic copy of your former self. This implies immortality. Indeed, you may live for up to a thousand years before the neural scans start to lose integrity. This does not protect you from being killed before that though.

Upon your death, you will be given a choice to respawn or to die permanently. If you chose to die permanently, the one who killed you will recieve all of your nanite count and all your status points. If you choose to respawn, you will lose 10% of your nanite count, minimum 2 chunks. If you do not have enough in your nanite count, you will start to lose status points randomly. When all your status points reach a value of 1, your nanite body will lose integrity. The next time you are killed, it is permanent.

When you respawn, you will appear in the last place you slept. If that was the location you were killed or that was a location where you were attacked, you will be taken to the last sleeping area where you were safe. Alternatively, you may choose to respawn in the nearest market or town.

During a monster wave, none of the above rules apply. You will respawn in the same spot you were killed in a monster wave, regardless of any other spawn point that previously existed. Normal spawn points will be restored once the monster wave has been repelled.

Basics of Monsters

Nanite World is a game, created out of reality by GAD. Monsters are creatures created by GAD in order for humans to fight and grow stronger. Monsters are given a level which corresponds with the total status points the monster has. 7-10 status points are level 1. 11-20 are level 2, 21-30 are level 3 and so on and so on. Humans also have this level system, though it is not considered reliable since it does not take into account the nanite count that can drastically increase the level in a matter of seconds.

The behavior of monsters are classified by the way they are formed.

Monster Zones only spawn monsters within the level of that zone. Sometimes a more powerful monster, usually only a level or two stronger, will appear as a boss monster. Monsters spawned in monster zones stay inside their zone. They do not leave it, even at the threat of death. They are considered to be areas that can be used to gain nanite shards in relative safety.

Monster waves are monsters that spawn as large groups. They charge together and attack any humans nearby as a horde. Incredibly dangerous against small amounts of humans, they are best met with an equally large force. The first ever monster wave will not be as dangerous, but it would be best to take precautions.

Random monsters are monsters that randomly appear. They will actively hunt and attack any human nearby. They do not appear inside towns, cities, villages, or camps. Everywhere else though, they will suddenly appear. They are usually fairly strong monsters, but they are still only a single monster.

Wow. Just, wow. That was a lot of information to process. Talk about information overload, I had a headache just thinking about it.

I re-read it a few times before finally getting it. So I could upgrade myself using nanites, which also doubled as currency. There were random monster mobs that wanted to eat my face, including a horde of them that was going to descend upon the city soon. Joy. Then there was the ability to buy practically anything from the shop, including what was basically superpowers, and the ability to convert anything I owned into nanites which I could then retrieve later on. That, and I was basically immortal unless I was killed enough times. Sounded pretty good.

I checked the monster counter. 24:39. Okay. That might be enough time to check out the shop, review my status points, and possibly have a panic attack. Yep, just enough time.