“So, what do you think of this knight?”

“Gandock? He’s kinda weird. He has a lot of scars all over his body!”

“You met him, and the first day, you go the bath together?”

“We didn’t go to the bath! We went swimming in the lake!”

“Great! So… then?”

“Well, he’s nice. He mocks me a lot, but he seems to be a good guy.”

“A good guy? He is inside numerous problems in the games. I want you to follow him, and to report me anything you think might interest me.”

“Problems? What kind of problems?”

“You’ll see. So, what did you do together?”

I report her back everything, from the moment he found me up to the evening, the dummy part, the encountering with the undines and the challenge, even the scan of my character.

“I want the full access to all of your videos in-game. It can help me to get a better understanding on who he is. You said there was a scan?”

“Yes, very detailed.”

“Let’s see…”

On the wall appeared the first things I saw after I came in the capsule.

On the 4 hours of videos, Aunty Priscy came from one to another, up to when we saw the scan.

“It ‘s a full scan. Not easy to get for a beginner. How did you get it?”

“It’s Gandock who made it, not me.”

“NPC can’t scan.”

And it was only the beginning of our problems!

***

Gandock must be a NPC, because he gave me a quest, but at the same time, he can’t be because of the scan.

Everything is alright…

“This Gandock makes me crazy! A NPC shouldn’t have access to this possibility!”

“Are you sure he is a NPC? He seems to know quite well the real world!”

“No, he doesn’t know a thing on the world as he is right now, only remnants of the past. And he is connected 24/7, he uses the métempsukhôsis. Well, NPC can use the métempsuchôsis, but he doesn’t act as the others. It makes me feel unease…”

“He seems to know you. Lady Priscy here, Pripri there from Watrila… you met him?”

Yes, several times, but my scope is too limited. I have to keep some distance if I don’t want to have problems with my colleagues. Truth is…”

“Yes?”

“Nothing, you’ll see later. But yes, I know him quite well…”

I’ve never seen Aunty Priscy in this state…

Looking far away, fixing a point somewhere far away…

A memory, maybe, heavy…

What is the link between those two?

“Well, sushi have arrived. Tell me what you want to do this afternoon, it will change my mind, and I might give you a few pieces of advice!”

Opening the door, she took a box that was there, with the lunch inside, that we shared while talking about undeads.

She gave me a lot of little tricks, that might help me also when I will meet Gandock.

After all, Aunty Priscy knows where she goes: the better I play, the closer I will be to Gandock, the more I will learn from him.

Smarty my aunty!

***

“Do you want to take back a character already existing, or do you want to create another one?”

I’m back in the room I saw on my first connexion, the blue one.

Peter the butler is here, and on the left, my human avatar can be seen, the one I used this morning.

“I want to create another one, but first, I’d like to add Jean Bondepays on my friend list. We’d like to begin a game on the same place.”

A notification appeared in front of me:

Sending a friend request from Cesar Leroidescoqs to Jean Bondepays. Do you confirm?

“Yes, I confirm.”

Request sent.

Request accepted.

Do you want to share the connexion? You will be together in the same connexion room.

“Share the connexion.”

John appeared in front of me, as if he was real, in the flesh!

“Ah, Jules, it’s so cool you’re here! We will have so much fun!”

“Janjan, I’m so happy to see you! Ready to haunt Alter Life?”

“Sure I am! Peter, I want to become an occult adept, is it possible?”

“Of course. You will join the undead. Your friend must also choose an undead if you want to share the same spawning place. Do you know which character you want to become?”

A few monsters appeared in front of me.

First, a skeleton, next a zombie, a ghost, and a very skinny character, with a black robe freyed and holey…

“I want a zombie.”

“Hey, Jules, it’s better to play the tutorial if you don’t want to get lost later on.”

“Well, OK… Peter, we’d like to do the tutorial.”

“Very well!”

And the room dissipated.

***

Instead of the previous décor, we were right now in a fortified castle room, with staircase in front of us.

“Well, I will be your guest for this tutorial.

“First of all, please know that moving is as in the real world. Both zombies and occult adepts walk normally.

“To continue, please proceed using the staircase for the next floor.”

“It’s useless, this tutorial. Are you sure we have to do it? I already read many things on the internet…”

“You’ll see, it’s an easy quest to do to earn a little bit of experience. With this, we can go faster later on!

“OK, OK...”

***

On the next floor, there was simply a bi mirror on the wall, and staircase in front of us, but closed with a prison gate.

“To know your character’s information, you can use the scan spell. It’s shared with all the classes, and costs differently depending on your spell level and what you analyse. Place yourself in front of a mirror to get the information with scan. Simply say scan looking at yourself.”

In front of the mirror, I saw Jean’s reflexion, a skinny mage wearing an old robe with a cap, ruined, and a zombie with pants in pieces, and a dirty torned shirt.

So, I look like this...

« Scan ! »

Jules

Zombie, level 1

Health point : 150/150

Mana point : 100/110

Technique point : 120/120

Damage : +3

Defence : 2+0,2 %

Resistance : 1+0,1 %

Accuracy : +1 %

Escape : +1 %

Critique rate : 1 %

Dark energy : 1/1

Pressing on the blue screen, a new window appeared next to it:

Vitality : 50

Strength : 30

Health : 30

Intelligence : 10

Technique : 10

Speed : 10

Defence : 20

Wisdom : 10

Quite limited. What can be the scan level of Gandock…

When Jean used his scan, the prison gate disappeared.

“Zombie is a close-combat unit, good for taking many hits.

“Occult adept is a long-range unit, it can invoke other creatures to protect itself and use spells on distance to attack.”

“Undead have no luck stat, but they can get dark energy that increase all of your characteristics from this value. Under some circumstances, you can increase them much and get really powerful.”

« Scan ! »

Jean

Occult adept

Health point : 120/120

Mana point : 130/140

“It’s all I can see when I use scan on you?”

“Of course, you have the minimum level. It’s only HP and MP you can see. Take a look on screen with my competence points:”

Vitality : 20

Strength : 10

Health : 20

Intelligence : 40

Technique : 20

Speed : 10

Defence : 10

Wisdom : 40

“Let’s go upstairs.”

***

“Good. To continue the tutorial, kill the dummy.

A notification appeared:

Tutorial quest: Kill the dummy

Use any mean to finish him.

Reward: +25XP

“Zombies can scratch, bite, or punch.

“Occult adept can use the following spells: Shards of ice or vortex by pointing the target with your index and naming the spell.

“To find available spells, just say menu, then select spells. You will find your spell list.”

“Ready to attack?”

“Wait… scan!”

Hopefully we can share scan information...

Straw dummy

Health point : 10/10

If it’s to learn this…

“Attack!”

The poor dummy I faced succumbed in a few hits.

He fell apart at the least contact!

The one John faced got hole from ice shard, and vortex smashed it to the ground.

I saw a “+25XP” in green over my dummy when I finished it.

Then, a notification appeared:

Quest finished: you defeated the dummy.

+25XP

Then, another:

Congratulation on having finished your first quest!

+50XP

And again:

Level up!

VIT+4 ; STR+2 ; HEA+1 ; INT +1 ; TEC+1 ; SPE+1 ; DEF+2 ; WIS+1

“Your competence points are automatically assigned.

“Through your game actions, you can increase up to a certain point your competence points.

“Right now, you can train to earn various points in any competence. A star will show when you reach the maximum at a level. For example, vitality for a level 2 zombie can easily increase to 87, and then by various mean, you can increase it again to a maximum of 175. To continue, you need to level up.

“Changing class can also increase the maximum level of your competences. Having a métempsuchôsis having already reached a higher level can also increase it up to the same level.

“To continue, please take the teleporter, just here, and go see the quest responsible at Zymivnyk village, next to Kosheva river.

A blue vortex appeared in the room.

“Shall we go?”

“Let’s go!”

Ah! My first real big adventure begins!