I was awoken from this weird, really short dream by Cindy, “Kira! I am leaving for work! Don’t forget to lock the house up if you go anywhere! Also don’t forget you start school again tomorrow so don’t sleep all day!”

She was yelling at me from the front door causing me to have to yell back at her, “Okay, I won’t!”

I heard the door shut and I laid back down on my bed thinking about the weird dream. What was it all about? It was unlike any dream I had ever had, it was almost real. I continued to lay there thinking about the weird dream; before I knew it I had fallen asleep again.

***

Welcome back, Player!

I was greeted with a violet colored pop up window, just like the one I saw in my dream last night. Even though I saw a similar window, it didn’t do anything. I just dreamed about the window sitting there saying it was downloading and installing something. After it was done it welcomed me to something called Somnium Venatus, but I was woken up shortly following the message. I was just looking at the floating message for a few seconds before it changed to something else.

Player, would you like to choose your starting class?

Yes

No

I was starting to get really intrigued with this game like window. After a few seconds of thinking about it I selected yes. I was instantly greeted with a change of scenery. I was no longer floating in a pitch black room with nothing but the popup window. I was now floating in front of a bustling city filled with people moving around in the background and even a few cars driving around on the roads. After a few seconds of staring at the lifelike city in awe, I was shown another window. This time though, it was a massive window that had multiple choices on it.

1st Level:

Knight

Martial Artist

Thief

Archer

2nd Level:

Paladin

Monk

Shadow Lord

Gunslinger

1st Level:

Soldier

Mage

Demon Tamer

Ace of Spades

2nd Level:

Arms Master

Sorcerer

Demon Lord

Joker

There were around eight class choices, ranging from the ever so basic knight to something called a demon tamer. The window even showed me what the upgrade of each class was and what they could do. I saw the Demon Lord class and raised my eyebrow briefly at it before moving on. After checking all of the classes out I was debating between two classes. They were a Soldier and the Ace of Spades, who names these classes? The Soldier was interesting to me because it was a cross between a Martial Artist and the Archer. The Ace of Spades wasn’t as interesting as the Soldier, but it was the upgraded version of the class that caused me to hesitate on picking the Soldier. I clicked on the Joker class to see the description.

Class: Joker

2nd Level

The Joker is able to learn any skill from any class to its full capacity. The skills take twice the level needed to learn them compared to their respective classes. Ace of Spades Level 50 is required and any skills chosen from any class must be at max level.

It sounded like quite the downside, but if you thought about the fact that I could learn any skill no matter what class it was from it made the negative effect kind of worth it. The first level of the class wasn’t as negative as the second level though, but it was limited.

Class: Ace of Spades

1st Level

The Ace of Spades can learn up to three skills from any class. The level requirements do not change, but once three skills are chosen from a class you are no longer able to learn a skill from that class unless you forget another skill. Forgetting a skill causes the accumulated skill experience to be lost, so if you were to relearn the skill you would have to start over at skill level one.

Both of the descriptions together are basically saying that if I was to choose the Ace of Spades I could learn up to three of any skill from each class, while being able to forget one and replace it with another skill. The downside to the replacement is that the accumulated skill experience is lost. This is made even worse by the fact that in order to unlock Joker, I not only have to have Ace of Spades at level 50, but I have to have the three skills that I have picked from any class maxed out. So if I was to forget a skill and learn another it would take even longer to unlock the Joker. The decision was a little difficult to make, but I went with the Ace of Spades in the end.

Congratulations on picking your class, Player, no please choose a character name.

Another window popped up after I chose my class, this one was telling me to name my character. I thought about it for a minute and I chose the name Jōkā, which is just Japanese for the Joker. Right after I picked my character name, another window popped up.

Character name Jōkā successfully registered in the system…

Scanning player’s biological makeup…

Scanning complete…

Biological makeup does not meet class requirements…

Creating avatar to match class choice…

Avatar created successfully…

Modifying physical body to match avatar… Done…

Congratulations, Player, for being the chosen person from the planet earth to play…

Somnium Venatus!

Enjoy yourself!

After the last message played, the scene in front of me disappeared and I found myself in an abandoned looking building. I looked around to see that it surprisingly reminded me of one of Jim’s gun factories. I walked around for a minute looking at everything carefully. I came to the conclusion that it was almost exactly like his factory, but the name was different. Where his company was called Anderson Guns this company was called Smith’s Rifles. Looking at the amount of rust and dust on all of the machinery the factory looked like it had been abandoned for quite a while.

I pushed all of this to the back of my mind and checked myself out. I tried to find a status menu of some sort and after a few minutes of trying, plus speaking many different words out loud, I was able to open the status menu just by thinking about it. I was not expecting it to be that easy; otherwise I would have avoided the potential embarrassment of talking to myself out loud. I shook my head at the simplicity of the command before I looked at what it showed.

Name: Jōkā

Race: Human

Class: Ace of Spades (Lvl. 1)

Strength: 10

Vitality: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Luck: 8

My stats were pretty average if you compare them to the starting stats from the video games of earth. My luck is at a pretty decent amount as well, so why has my life been so shitty up until now? I sighed before navigating through the menu to look at my character. I let out a breath that I didn’t know I had been holding.

The character looks almost exactly like me, the only difference is that my six foot four body has filled out quite a bit making me look a little intimidating to anyone smaller. My looks didn’t change much, though they really didn’t need to because I am decently handsome in real life. My body is just so frail looking that it causes my face to have a malnourished look to it. Think of an anime character that hadn’t eaten for a few days and was stuck in the desert. They usually have their cheeks sunk in and their hair is all disheveled.

The body I have now though is a solid six foot four with filled out tone muscles; I even have a six pack! My black hair is cut short and my face looks normal and full of a little luster. My character was only equipped with a white tank top, black cargo pants, and some black combat boots. I kind of looked like a soldier who was on leave or something. I closed the menu and looked for the exit of the factory. I saw the exit sign over a door in the far left corner of the building.

I walked out of the building and was greeted with the blinding light of the sun. Once I was able to see properly again I just stood there in awe. There were cars driving on the ground and even flying on roads made of light in the sky. There were all kinds of different people, from different cultures, walking around on the streets. There were even some races that I had only heard of in fantasy novels and video games. There was an elf walking arm in arm with a human and there was even a short stocky dwarf with a beard down to his belly. There was even a woman with dragon-like features walking down the street with a little cluster of children playing around in front of her.

She was yelling at them to calm down and pay attention to where they were going, but she was being kind and gentle while doing it. She had a smile on her face that was enchanting, yet it was still stern at the same time. I continued to look around at all of the fascinating things I was seeing until I was brought back to my senses by a voice. I looked to my right and saw a stout looking dwarf that had dark red hair and matching beard along with some dark red eyes to match. He looked like what you would expect from a dwarf, he probably stood at about four foot seven and had a stocky body that looked like it was used to manual labor.

He was talking to me while I was dazed at the magnificence of the city I was in, “You a new player laddy?”

I looked at the dwarf for a minute and then I blinked my eyes once before nodding.

He nodded his head, “That makes sense, normally only newbies get overawed by a small city like this one.”

I looked at him in a mild shock, this city is small? It easily has to be the size of New York City!

He laughed at my expression, “Don’t be so shocked laddy, this city is a small one compared to some of the larger ones. The larger cities can be as small as fifteen miles across to as large as fifty miles across. Granted there is some rural space in the cities that helps to increase their size. Which, overall, makes their size considerably larger than the numbers I just mentioned.”

Hearing him explain about the size of the cities I was shocked; if the actual city part was fifty miles across and that wasn’t including the rural areas, how large was the city exactly? It was pretty mind blowing to me when I compared it to earth.

He finished laughing at my expression before talking again, “My name is Gunther what is yours lad?”

He reached his hand out and I grabbed it before introducing myself, “My name is Jōkā, nice to meet you.”

He shook my hand before speaking again, “Got some manners in ya huh? That’s good; the last new player I met was some rich brat on his planet. He learned real quick that no matter how rich you are on your home planet, here in the rest of the universe it don’t mean shit.”

I had a twisted expression on my face at what he said and whether he noticed it or not I don’t know, but it quickly passed. I absolutely hate those rich brats who thought that because their daddy had some money they could do whatever they want and whoever they want.

Something bothered me though, "How did you know I was a player?"

He smiled, "The building you walked out of is a spawn point and only accessible by players, the normal residents of the planet don’t pay attention to the building, players on the other hand sometimes squat outside looking to recruit newbies such as yourself."

It seemed reasonable, but our talk was interrupted by a notification.

Outside stimulus detected…

Logging player out in ten seconds...

I quickly read the notification, “It looks like I’m being forcibly logged out. It says ‘Outside stimulus detected’”

He nodded, “Someone is probably trying to wake you up. It’s a safety mechanism to prevent people from panicking and calling the authorities and whatnot.”

We quickly added each other to our friends list, which is a really neat thing I want to explore later. After a quick goodbye, I was greeted with the real world again and a highly concerned Cindy leaning over me while shaking me.

***

“Kira, wake up! You are going to be late for school!”, she was shouting.

Hearing that I was going to be late I shot up and looked at the clock, it was seven fifteen and school started at seven thirty. I cursed to myself before I threw the covers off and went to get dressed. Somehow I slept all day yesterday and all night. It did take me quite a while to pick my class and stuff in my dream so it could have been that long in real life, but I don’t know the time difference between real life and the game in my dream.

When I took my shirt off to change into a clean one I was greeted with a gasp from behind me. I turned around to see Cindy sitting on the edge of my bed with a slight blush to her face, she was trying to avoid looking at me, but I could see her taking quick glances. I walked over to the mirror that hung on the wall and I was paralyzed in shock at what I saw.

Standing in the mirror wasn’t the usual frail looking high schooler that usually stood there. In his place was a well-toned six foot four semi-stud. The exact look of my game avatar was exactly how I look now. What the fuck is going on? I remembered something that I saw in the messages when it was creating my avatar. It said something about modifying my physical body to match my avatar. Is this what it was talking about? How is this possible? Wasn’t the game just a dream?

So many questions were running through my head, but Cindy woke me from my stupor, “Kira you need to get ready for school. I don’t know how your body turned out like it did, but I wouldn’t complain about it if I was you. You look extremely handsome now.”

She said the last part with a shy look on her face before she walked out the door. She was kind of right. I was going to be late, but I want to know what is going on. I will investigate the matter later, now it is time to go to the hell hole called school.

I arrived at the school gates five minutes before the first bell rang. I found the student advisor and got the list of my classes for the first semester of my sophomore year. I walked down the hallway receiving weird looks from my classmates. There were lots of whispers, most of them wondering who I was and when I had moved here. There were those still recognized me and were shocked at how I had filled out over the summer break. I smiled a little thinking how shocked they would be if they knew the truth.

I found my first class of the day, it was one of my least favorite subjects and was made worse by being the first class of the day, math. I walked into the classroom right when the bell rang. I was greeted with stares of confusion from my classmates and I even got a look of lust from my ex-crush.

I started to get pissed, but I calmed myself down. The teacher cleared his throat causing me to look at him before he spoke, “Welcome to my class student, I am Mr. Cox and you are?”

He was looking at his list of students and becoming confused at the list because he knew most of the kids on this list and he doesn’t remember any of them looking like me.

I smiled at his expression before speaking, “Sorry for almost being late, but I’m Kira Anderson.”

When the words left my mouth it was like a bomb dropped in the class. Almost all of the students were looking at me with their mouths hanging open. Even my ex-crush's faces briefly twisted into a look of disgust before it was replaced with a look of lust. Just hearing my name brought up a feeling of disgust towards me, but I guess that she likes my new look now because the disgust was quickly replaced with the lust again.

I shook my head and laughed inside at the situation. The teacher stared at me a little dumbfounded before he told me to find a seat. I went and found a seat in the far back corner away from the door. There were some students that were late starting to come into class and after they were reprimanded by the teacher, they too found their seats. I was left with an empty chair next to me like usual. I just shrugged it off and pulled out the math book that was placed on the rack beneath my chair. The teacher hadn’t started teaching yet drawing some murmurs from the students.

We quickly found out why he wasn’t teaching when the principal walked into the classroom. Miss Simpleton was quite the babe for being in her early thirties. She definitely had the MILF vibe going for her; she wore a casual navy blue business skirt and matching heels. What really garnered the stares from the students though was the massive amount of cleavage that was spilling out of her top. Her breasts literally looked like they should belong to a girl you would only see in some animes. She had shoulder length red hair and brown eyes, along with nice thick lips that had some lipstick on that made them match her hair color. If it wasn’t for her stern attitude she would be a very attractive woman. She gave out a glare to all of the students and then when her glare landed on me she had this look of surprise on her face for a split second, but it was gone almost as soon as it arrived.

She cleared her voice loudly before she spoke, “Class we have a student who just moved here from California.” Her voice was actually very soothing despite her attitude; she looked over towards the door and motioned for someone to walk into the classroom.

We all looked towards the classroom door wondering what kind of student was going to walk through the door. What we were greeted with was absolute shock; the person who walked through the door was an absolute beauty. She probably stood at about five foot eight and had an hourglass body like Cindy. Her hair was jet black and went down to her mid-back, the front of her hair was covering her left eye, only leaving the right violet colored eye free for viewing. She had a smile on her face that was enchanting enough to bring everybody’s view up from her massive chest. Her chest was almost as gigantic as Miss Simpleton’s, she had to be at least an E cup from my estimation. Her butt was perked up as well making her skirt rise in the back.

She had a gentle and soothing voice when she spoke, “Hello everyone, my name is Jōkā Anderson, and I look forward to learning with you. Please take care of me.” She bowed as she said the last part. I was kind of going a little pale because of her name. The reason why you ask? Well Jōkā is obviously Joker in Japanese like I mentioned, but why is her last name Anderson? Is she some bastard child my dad had?

Thinking of this I was starting to freak out a little bit, but I was able to calm down thinking it was just a coincidence and I was just letting my imagination run wild. I took a couple of deep breaths to help relax myself, but I didn’t notice that she was done introducing herself to the class and was walking towards the only seat left, which happened to be right next to me. She sat down in the seat and then looked towards me; she noticed my irregular breathing as I was still in the process of calming down, but the next words out of her mouth caused me to nearly have a heart attack and the rest of the class to yell out in shock.

She looked at me with concern visible on her face and said, “Are you okay dear? Is something wrong?”