The mid-morning sun sat gently in the sky over a dense woodland, tall white birch trees interspersed with bright red maples as far as the eyes could see. The ground was hidden beneath a sea of tall green grass, undisturbed except for the smaller creatures that would scamper through it. Suddenly there was a harsh blue light from the base of a maple tree, the bark and ground closest to the light dissolving into fractals. After a moment the light disappeared as quickly as it came, in its place was a sleeping young man, as if he had always been there. Thin beams of light danced across his fair skin and a mess of silver hair in the breeze. A thin, plain grey shirt and matching pants were hanging from his lithe body. He opened his eyes, deep purple and perfectly alert despite his seemingly deep sleep, before calmly standing up and glancing at the woods around him.

"Alright, looks pretty normal so far" he muttered, "no real path to work with. Is there no tutorial?" After a moment he picked a direction and just started walking. "There better be something nearby, what kind of RPG just dumps you in the middle of nowhere."

~~~~~

New Eden Online; this was the game that had been in the spotlight for only 6 months now. There was little known about the game aside from a few key features, but it was the creator that stole the spotlight. Dr. Ronald Zheng, the creator of countless hardware and software innovations, and his crown jewel was the AetherGear, the world's first and only Full Dive Virtual Reality device.

Being the first Full Dive VR device made AetherGear famous, but its other features were what made it revolutionary. Wearing it would cause the user to enter an unconscious state, where the hardware would compensate for the brain's decrease in activity, and dreams were replaced by the operating system. Because of this, wearing the AetherGear was akin to sleeping; while there was a drop in efficiency, meaning a person would need 14 hours of AetherGear use to match 8 hours of real sleep, the fact that people could still be productive while doing it meant they felt like they had more time on their hands rather than less. Additionally, because the system's hardware allowed users to process information faster, they perceive time differently when using the AetherGear making 1 hour in reality equal 5 hours in the virtual world.

Suddenly people had over a hundred hours in a day, and whether they worked or relaxed, people made full use of that time. From its release in 2055, the entire world saw advancements in education, medicine, the economy, and just overall happiness and quality of life; by 2065 the world saw an unprecedented level of prosperity.

It was now the year 2070, and after years away from the public eye Dr. Zheng, now in his late eighties, was in the spotlight again with a video game release. No one was sure how much experience Dr. Zheng had with game design, but most people were willing to overlook this. He had been spending the last 7 years and nearly his entire multi-billion dollar fortune making this game in secret, and its public reveal only came a few months before its release. Between the mystery of the game itself, the big name behind it, and Dr. Zheng's description that it would be "a true paradise of gaming", people wanted to see the result. Whether the game is Dr. Zheng's next revolutionary creation or a flaming dumpster fire, it was bound to make an impact.

~~~~~

The young man had been walking for several minutes, there was still no indication of where he should be going as the trees simply seemed to go on forever. Eventually, he had found his first change in the landscape, a massive river at least 20 feet across. The water was crystal clear revealing a few fish and a river bed composed more from assorted rocks than the usual sand or mud. Kneeling to feel the water, the young man discovered it was cool and crisp with a decent current; after tasting the water it seemed to be quite clean.

'No people but instead I found clean drinking water,' he thought 'is this meant to be a survival game?'

The young man, Loran, had been fascinated by this game ever since he first heard about it, and his interest only increased as he heard about all of its different features. It was billed as an extremely customizable RPG MMO, with a fully destructible environment, and a game world supposedly larger than any other. There were questions about whether the latter two features were even possible with existing technology, but Loran was certain that if it was possible he wanted to be the first to see it.

He looked upstream, in the far distance there was a massive mountain capped with snow, but not much else in the immediate vicinity.

"Hey!"

Suddenly a voice called out from behind him. Turning to look at the source, Loran saw a figure running towards him. The approaching young man was tall and broad-shouldered, with tanned skin and short dirty blonde hair, wearing the same nondescript grey outfit as Loran.

"Well, it's about time I found another person," Loran snarked, "I've been walking for almost ten minutes."

"Big deal, I've been here for, like, an hour," the blonde said, grinning, "Alexx."

"Mh.."

"...and your name is?"

"Oh, uh, Loran, sorry."

"Whatever," Alexx brushed off, "Still, what kind of game makes it this hard just to find another player?"

"Or any direction; do you have any idea what we're supposed to be doing?"

"Nope."

"Alright then." Loran took a brief look around. "Think you could help me gather some wood?"

"Why?"

"I think this might be a survival game," he said, picking up a few large sticks, "if it does we should set up a base before nightfall, and with the river, this is as good a place as any to start."

"Okay" suddenly, Alexx charged towards a nearby tree, "power strike!" with a yell he launched a sweeping kick at the base of the tree.

Loran was more than a little stunned by his new ally's outburst, and even more so by the sizable dent in the tree where Alexx had kicked it. It would take a few minutes, but it was clear that Alexx could kick down a tree or two.

"How many do you think we'll need?" he asked with a proud grin.

"Well... we'll need maybe two or three for an actual shelter," he watched Alexx continue kicking for a moment before realizing something. "Hey, that thing you're yelling, is that supposed to be one of the starting Skills?"

"Yeah, why?"

Of the information known about NEO, the Skill system was a hotly debated topic. Unlike most MMO's, New Eden Online didn't have a class system. Instead, players would learn various Skills to strengthen their avatars, and there was seemingly no limit to the number of Skills a player could learn. As the details of the system weren't known yet, many forums wondered how this would impact game balance and whether well-rounded builds or specialized ones would end up being more powerful.

"Well... I'm pretty sure the Skill was called Power Attack, right?"

"Oh, was it?" Alexx asked, which only confused Loran even more.

"Isn't it, you know, in your Skill list?"

"No, I took Mighty," he said calmly.

"Wh-then why are you yelling!?"

"Well I wanted it, but I used to have a friend that told me passive Skills are better than active ones, so I'll learn it later."

"Alright, so why are you yelling it now?" he specified, speaking slowly for emphasis.

"...I guess it just feels better?" With that Alexx shrugged and with one more kick the tree fell. Briefly nodding at a job well done, he started kicking down another tree, yelling Power Attack this time.

After staring at the young man for a moment, Loran rubbed the bridge of his nose before starting to strip what branches he could from the first tree. The two began chatting as they worked, though it was mostly Alexx doing most of the talking, and mostly about how excited he was since this was his first time playing an RPG. Loran only gave a few comments in response; not only was he just less interested in conversation, but he was also really struggling with the branches. The thinnest branches he could find were about an inch thick and each one took a lot of effort to break. After about twenty minutes Alexx was still looking energetic after kicking down three trees, while Loran was flushed red and covered in sweat.

Taking a break, he opened his menu.

[NAME]: Loran

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 0

[EXP]: 0/100

[STATUS]

{HP}: 40/40

{SP}: 40/40

[END]: 4

[STR]: 4

[AGI]: 6

[DEX]: 10

[PER]: 10

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 6

[SKILLS]

[STALWART] Lv. 1

(Passive) Reduce damage received from attacks by 1%.

He had his stats more or less to what they felt like in real life, before boosting his DEX and PER a bit. 'Surprisingly, the strength of the average video game junkie wasn't cutting it in a survival scenario,' he thought. Although this only left him more confused as to how Alexx was kicking down whole trees, 'how much STR would he even need for that?'

"Hey, before you chop down another tree, can you start striping branches from this one? I don't have the STR to do it."

"Okay," he briefly looked over one of the fallen trees before firmly grasping one of the branches, as thick as Loran's arm, and snapping it off with a firm shove. "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to see if any of these rocks are good for crafting tools. We won't be able to survive out here with just our bare hands."

The two quickly got to work. Alexx was making quick work of the fallen trees, and it wasn't long before he had finished stripping them of branches and began kicking down a fourth.

Loran's stone searching wasn't going as smoothly. There didn't seem to be any kind of crafting system, so everything will have to be made by hand. Despite finding several rocks of a decent size, he couldn't find a way to make them into tools. He was familiar with the concept of chipping flint, but he had no idea what flint actually looked like.

He scrutinized every rock he found, but even still trial and error was the only way, he was literally reduced to banging rocks together trying to find one that chipped properly. The process was unbearably slow, and occasionally banging his fingers certainly wasn't helping. 'Why can't this game just have a crafting menu or something? And why the hell doesn't it have a pain reducer?!' To maximize player enjoyment of the game, most action games would either have ways to modify the amount of pain the player felt, if not allow them to turn it off entirely. It was generally considered a necessity for any kind of action or fighting game, the only exception were games that were trying to have some kind of deeper message or commentary. 'This better not be some kind of artsy nonsense like that, I never understood those games.'

After about an hour, Alexx had kicked down his fifth tree and Loran was running out of patience. He still had some unallocated Ability Points that he was hoping to save for an emergency, and it was starting to look like he would have to dump them into STR just to help with setup.

*DING*

But just as he was about to do so there was a small tone and a pale blue dot appeared at the edge of his vision like an alert. Focusing on the dot brought up a panel similar to the status screen. Lines of text began appearing.

[ACTIVITY {Intense Analysis} PERFORMED]

[RELEVANT VALUE(S) {PER: 10} SUFFICIENT]

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO GENERATE A NEW SKILL?]

[YES] / [NO]

"...generate a new Skill?"

"Something wrong?" Alexx asked, seeing his friend turn stone still.

"Give me a minute." He affirmed the Skill creation in his head.

[PIONEER SYSTEM ACTIVATED]

[...]

[A NEW SKILL HAS BEEN GENERATED]

[ _ _ _ ] Lv. 1

(Active: Cost 5 SP) Allows the user to learn basic information about a target.

[IT WILL COST {1} ABILITY POINT TO LEARN THIS SKILL]

[LEARN AND NAME SKILL?]

[YES] / [NO]

After choosing to learn the Skill he thought about a good name for it, 'Let's go with... Analyze.'

[ACKNOWLEDGED]

[...]

A strange sensation came over him, making his hair stand on end. The feeling was instinctual, not quite a sense of danger, but every fiber of his being felt that it was unnatural. It could only be described as if something vast and incomprehensible was pressuring him, not very much, but in such a way that he could tell that there was far more than what he was currently sensing. The intense feeling faded as a new message appeared.

[SKILL {ANALYSE} HAS BEEN LEARNED]

Although he was curious about that strange feeling, Loran focused on the task at hand. He brought up his menu.

[NAME]: Loran

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 0

[EXP]: 0/100

[STATUS]

{HP}: 40/40

{SP}: 40/40

[END]: 4

[STR]: 4

[AGI]: 6

[DEX]: 10

[PER]: 10

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 5

[SKILLS]

[ANALYSE] Lv. 1

(Active: Cost 5 SP) Allows the user to learn basic information about a target.

[STALWART] Lv. 1

(Passive) Reduce damage received from attacks by 1%.

After seeing that the Skill was in his menu he quickly closed the screen and began concentrating on the two rocks in his hands. 'Analyse' he thought, a small blue panel appeared above each rock each with the same text.

[NAME]: Common Stone

[DESCRIPTION]

A sedimentary rock. No outstanding traits or immediate uses.

He began checking the other rocks he had found, and after two more tries, he found it.

[NAME]: Flint

[DESCRIPTION]

A rock commonly used in tool making.

"Yes!"

"So you found the rock?" Alexx asked, thinking his friend was a little too enthusiastic about finding a rock.

"Better," as he spoke he started trying to shape the flint, "I just got a new Skill."

"Wha-oof," Alexx let go of the branch he was trying to break off in his surprise, and it smacked him across the face. "How?"

"It mentioned something called a Pioneer System, I think this is how players are supposed to gain Skills," this also seemed to be the source of the strange feeling that came over him, he didn't feel a need to mention it though.

"So what, we can just make Skills?" he said with a feeling of disbelief coming over him, "that seems really broken."

"Maybe not," Loran said, putting down the flint as he began to think, "it mentioned my PER stat so I can probably only get Skills based on what I can physically do. Also, it cost me an Ability Point, so learning more Skills means having lower stats."

"Hm... I guess that could be pretty bad," Alexx's brow furrowed, wondering if Skills were more important than stats; although he quickly dropped this line of thinking. "So what did you get?" Curiosity came over him, eyes wide like a kid in a candy store.

"It's nothing crazy, just an analysis Skill," he held up the flint, "it's how I was able to find this."

"Well I guess that's cool," he became slightly disappointed by how simple the Skill was. Suddenly an idea came to him, he jumped to his feet. "Hey, try it on me!" he said, holding his arms out wide.

Loran was a little surprised at his ally's enthusiasm, but it seemed like as good an idea as any. "Alright," after checking to see if he had enough SP left to use it, Loran activated Analyse, causing Alexx's status menu to be displayed in front of him.

[NAME]: Alexx

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 0

[EXP]: 160/100 [LEVEL UP]

[STATUS]

{HP}: 27.1/30

{SP}: 30/30

[END]: 3

[STR]: 28(+1.4)

[AGI]: 3

[DEX]: 3

[PER]: 3

[SKILLS]

[MIGHTY] Lv. 1

(Passive) Increase STR by 5%.

"Did... did you dump all of your Ability Points into STR?" During avatar creation, the stat value was automatically set to 3. Alexx had made no attempt at distributing his Points.

"Yup," Alexx responded with an innocent grin.

Loran had been expecting something like this after watching the young man casually kick down trees, but seeing the string of 3's in every other stat really showed him how... determined Alexx was towards his playstyle.

"Well, for now, stop kicking down trees, your END is so low that your own kicks are hurting yourself." Loran's own lowest stat was a 4 in END. With Alexx's unbalanced stats he had superhuman strength but physical durability weaker than the average person. "Actually can you even see and move properly with so little DEX and PER?"

Alexx moved his arm around a bit, then began squinting at something in the distance. "I guess I feel pretty stiff, and everything is sort of blurry, but it's not that bad. I'll manage" he said with a grin.

Loran was about to comment on Alexx's quick acceptance of his situation but decided not to; the guy was clearly more straightforward and blunt than Loran was used to and he would just have to deal with it. It did make him wonder though...

'How much pain tolerance does this guy have?'

Despite the game's pain sensitivity being one-to-one with reality, Alexx wasn't showing any discomfort despite having lost a small chunk of his HP. "Alright, if you say so. You have enough EXP to level up, so see if you can put some points into END, last thing we need is you dying from punching someone too hard."

"Hm, alright." Alexx brought up his status screen and pressed the Level Up icon. Reaching Lv.1, Alexx gained 5 Ability Points and his EXP gauge reset to read 60/200. He quickly put all 5 Points into END raising it to 8, his HP and SP were also raised as well. He went back to work, stripping his fifth tree. a quick test showed that he was still taking damage, but it had decreased slightly, and as long as he kept leveling up that would stop eventually.

By this time Loran had just about managed to chip the flint into a crude knife shape, and after wrapping the handle with a strip of cloth he tore from his shirt a new notification appeared.

[ITEM (Stone Knife) HAS BEEN CRAFTED]

[30 EXP AWARDED]

[PLAYER IS THE FIRST TO CRAFT THIS ITEM]

[600 EXP AWARDED]

[NAME]: Stone Knife

[DESCRIPTION]

A simple knife made from Flint.

With the sun climbing higher into the sky, the two were off to a rapid start.