I can truthfully say that I am not welcomed in this team: other than Tinkerbell, no one wanted me to stay on in the team. It was only KDrama’s veto that has earned me the right to stay on. To be fair, I think both sides are reasonable arguments – the stakes are pretty high in this game and taking on a newbie mid season isn’t exactly a good decision. However, I appreciate KDrama’s long term vision: if I regain my memories, the team regains its previous mojo and propels forward….Unfortunately, that will never happen unless I find Juan Lee.

Which brings me to now – Audicious-Lee’s first class in Valor:

“Have you read about Valor on the internet?” Tinkerbell asked as she began ruffling through a heap of papers in front of her. I had to describe her, I would say that she’s bubbling with energy. She’s hyperactive and has a flippant personality. Her in-game character is a (maybe) 10 years old European girl, short red hair, and red eyes. It suits her.

“Only the basics…to be honest, there wasn’t much online to begin with.” I responded. “I know that the game has been running for 4 years and has since then reset 22 times, some 6000 players play the game…”

“Only surface level facts about the game….” Tinkerbell chimed in with her back facing toward me.

“It’s not like the internet is flushed with information…” I defended myself.

“True true…strange…I am sure I kept it somewhere here.” She soon pulled out a card which had an image of a book on the front and a summoning circle at the back (that’s the in-game terminology for what I referred to as the magic circle). “Aha! Here it is!” She exclaimed excitedly. “Summon - Introductory Guide.”

The white color bordered card in her hand was immediately replaced with a book. As she struck a victory pose with her fingers, I begin applauding – anything to pander to her ego: the last thing I want is to lose my only team supporter and get kicked off the team.

“What I did right now is called summoning. I know it doesn’t look like much compared to other games but trust me, it’s powerful. Imagine if I suddenly summoned a dragon into this room?” Her tone went from fun and games at the start of the sentence to dead pan serious at the end of it.

“That would be scary, indeed.” I admitted. “Can you summon a dragon?”

“No, I don’t have that card…yet.” Tinkerbell replied with a twinkle in her eye.

“Is this RPG meets card game?” It sounds similar to a card game: collect amazing cards, duel opponents or something, collect more awesome cards and so on…

“Exactly.” She nodded as she returned to her normal cutesy tone. “You should read this book. It was given to all of us when we started this game.” She handed me a thin book with a brown leather cover.”

As she hands me the book, she jumps on the couch and sits right next to me. I flip open the book and begin from the first page…why is she sitting right next to me! I fidget away from her but she scoots right over as though she lacks basic concepts of personal space.

“Ummm, anything I can help you with?” I politely ask her while reaching the end of the couch.

“Whatcya doing?” She asked as she moved her face closer to mine.

Maybe a bit too close for my comfort. “Reading the beginners guide…”

“Why! You can just ask me anything….” Tinkerbell complained.

Oh my god! She is so annoying…she just told me to read this guide. See what I meant when I said she had a flippant personality?

Let’s just roll with it. I sighed before asking, “Umm…so how do we win?”

“Win?”

“Win the prize money? Beat the game? Be the best player…etc. etc. You know. What’s the point of playing?”

“Oh…” Tinkerbell’s shoulder’s slumped for some reason as she moved away from me. “That’s boring stuff. You can read about that in the guide. How about summoning? Don’t you want to summon?”

That’s boring stuff? Why? Why?

“…Sure?” Is there any right answer to her? In the end, I am not her playmate but her toy.

“Excellent!” Tinkerbell clapped her hands as she jumped up and down excitedly. She pulled out a deck of cards from god knows where and placed them in my hand. “Quick, summon something.”

I stare at the deck of cards. The cards are the size of a regular playing card but they don’t seem to be made of paper. They felt more like metallic paper. I don’t think I could bend these cards or tear them with normal force. Hmmm…I think the best way to describe them would be fancy pokemon cards?

“How do I summon?” At least teach me something, goddamnit. You are the most useless teacher.

“Just say Summon, followed by the card title.” Tinkerbell explained.

I quickly read through the cards and realized they varied. Some were creatures such as animals, humans, and spirits, while some were objects, and the remaining were action cards. “Which one?”

“Hmmm…” Tinkerbell was staring at the cards and then she chose one with a silver gloss border. It read Common Fire Sprite; used 10SP to summon, had 50HP, and could summon up to 4 fireballs which would do 25 damage. This seemed to be the basic information on all the cards – SP, HP, and ability. There were more details but they tended to vary by card.

“Do the different border colors mean anything?”

Tinkerbell nodded her head vigorously. “Hai! There are different tiers based on their rarity. A fire sprite can be considered a common card and is denoted with a silver border. The most common cards are known as trash and have a rusty iron colored border. That’s followed by bronze and then silver. The highest tiered cards are Mithril…they are supposed to be soft white ….but I don’t think anyone has ever crafted those. Since we are just practicing it should be alright to use your lowest level card – silver.”

Alright, ‘Common Fire Sprite’ it is. “Summon Common Fire Sprite.” At first it would appear nothing happened. However, if you paid attention, you would notice silver characters of the in-game language flickering on the card. After maybe two seconds of my summon, the card in my hand burst into sparkly dust and was replaced with a hologram of 3 magic circles, hovering in mid air. As I watched in anticipation, a small flaming orb slowly appeared through the magic circle.

“…”

It did nothing. I turn towards Tinkerbell who stared at the fire sprite in excitement. Am I missing something?

“That’s it?” I asked, slightly confused. “I hate to say it…but this is rather disappointing.”

I think my words crushed Tinkerbell’s soul because she practically froze in place after hearing them.

“You don’t find this amazing?” She asked with a soft voice.

“Umm…no…it’s just a game…and that fire sprite isn’t….” And that’s when it happened. My words stopped right there. I wouldn’t be able to put it into words but I could “FEEL” the fire sprite annoyed with me for summoning it for no reason.

The reason why this is a big deal is because ‘feeling emotions’ imposed by a game is a pioneering new technological front. I believe even Royal Road can only make you feel basic emotions such as ‘pain’ or ‘confusion’. But these are considered basic emotions. The nuances behind feeling more subtle emotions such as ‘annoyance’ are far more complex than ‘pain’. What’s more I am feeling what the NPC is feeling – I have never read anywhere anything about NPC’s feeling anything! I mean they are complex semi-intelligent programs…but to feel something? To be able to share that feeling? I am sure even the most sophisticated programs would not be able to accomplish this…

As I stared at the ball of fire with incredulity, I felt it tell me to dispel it.

I don’t know how I knew what to say – maybe it was intention? Or feelings the sprite communicated to me but I knew what I had to say to dispel the summoned sprite.

“Dispel Common Fire Sprite.” I whispered.

The fire sprite instantly disappeared. I stood motionless, unable to utter a single word.

Tinkerbell excitedly stared at me as though she expected this reaction. “Don’t you find this amazing??” She asked again with a smugness in her voice.