“Fitting in is a short-term strategy. Standing out pays off in the long-run”

- Seth Godin

I pounded my fist on the table to get my friends’ attention. “Okay guys, I’m thinking we try to establish ourselves as a powerhouse in the first few weeks. And in order to make sure we don’t have any people coming to screw over the goodie-two-shoes guild, I say we do the opposite.”

Greg frowned, “But if this is our new life, don’t you think we should just try and get by without pissing anyone off?”

“Do you think other players will take that stance? Frankly, I don’t. If this truly is going to be our new world, and it’s basically a sandbox, I’m not going to live the rest of eternity under the foot of some jerkwad just because he had more balls than me,” I scoffed, “what do you guys think?” Tom looked uncertain, but Gabriel jumped to my side immediately.

“I agree, I mean it’s not really that different from D&D when you think about it. We go in, establish ourselves as ruthless, and live out eternity in comfort and adventure! We always have fun when we do evil campaigns and characters in single player games!” he argued. I could see that our argument was winning over the others. Tom slowly nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t totally comfortable with the idea of not being the knight in shining armor. Aaron nodded, saying that if worse came to worse we could just create new characters, leaving a stash of good gear for our new, “justice-seeking” characters. We reached a unanimous decision to be evil, and I could feel my inner evil-laugh threatening to let itself out. After a few more drinks, we laughed and congratulated each other once again before leaving. In two days, we would reconvene at the microsoft store.

Two days later, we met up outside the local Microsoft building to find a limousine waiting for us. Laughing, we high-fived and climbed inside. There were several people sitting inside already, greeting us with nervous smiles. A girl with brunette hair and a small frame, a large Asian man, and a scrawny white man were all occupants of the limo. We piled in and the driver set off.

“So, you guys are part of Company of the Roaring Dragon?” Greg asked to break the silence. The brunette girl answered quietly, “No, I’m part of Thrill Chasers. We took down that Elder Demonic Dragon.”

The rest of us looked at her with a bit of awe.

“How did you take it down?” I asked, suspecting that I knew the answer.

“Well, we used that event item from a while ago, the control sphere, to take control of it. Then we used that warlock spell to instantly kill it,” she explained. I seethed inside.

“That’s what we did!” Tom exclaimed, “but how did you get it to work on such a high-level creature?!”

“We used a temporary polymorph on it to transform it into something we could take control of. Then we waited until it was about to wear off and used the control sphere on it. The polymorph wore off and we completed the warlock spell,” she elaborated shyly. It was clear that she wasn’t used to so much face-to-face interaction, so I turned to the others.

“And are you guys from that guild too?” I asked. The large asian man raised a massive palm. “No, I’m from the warrior guild ‘Fist of Peace.’ My name is Khang,” he replied. I was familiar with that guild, particularly because they had a policy against all offensive magic spells. Buffs and debuffs were fine, but no arcane attacks were allowed. Personally, I wasn’t a fan for obvious reasons.

“Oh, I’m familiar with that guild. And you are?” I said, directing my question to the scrawny guy. He looked nervously at the big asian dude before responding, “I’m Philip, and I’m from the guild ‘Mind over Matter.’”

His response immediately explained his nervousness. Some of the ‘Fist of Peace’ members could be pretty aggressive towards the casters, and it wasn’t a given that they wouldn’t translate that aggression towards real life. I smiled reassuringly at him.

“Oh, I was thinking about joining that guild! I’m a 150th level wizard character,” I explained, tossing Gabriel and Rich a pointed look.

“Oh, and I’m a level 150 warlock!” Gabriel added, and Rich explained that he too was a max-level Druidic Caster. Phillip visibly relaxed at hearing that casters outnumbered the imposing Khang. We chatted a bit amongst each other about various topics, namely the battles leading to our entry into Mythos Online. In all honesty, it was a little boring. The discussion of strategy was alright with me, but I could tell some of the others were getting bored, and it certainly didn’t help that we were playing a basic MMORPG instead of Mythos Online. After about 30 minutes, we arrived at our destination: a massive white skyscraper in the center of the city. There was a long line of reporters and photographers taking pictures of the limousine and its occupants as they pulled up. The Company of the Roaring Dragon smiled and waved to the cameras as they exited the sleek black vehicle.

It’s kind of funny how normally we’d be mocked for living in a small apartment and playing video games all day, and now we’re the targets of massive jealousy, I thought. We pushed through the glass doors and were greeted by a receptionist.

“Welcome to Microsoft HQ #13254! My name is Lacey and I’ll be your guide! Think of me as the Charon of Mythos Online, here to help you into your new life,” she said with a smile. I was suddenly nervous as the reality of what was happening sunk in; We were going to die. I steeled my resolve and thought about what I was leaving behind. I’d spoken with my parents, and they had tried to argue against me going. Obviously, they failed; I had a job writing self-help books for a few publishers, and that netted me about $100k a year, but it wasn’t fulfilling and I still lived in an apartment because I dumped all my disposable income into my hobbies! I’d paid off all my debt, so there was literally no reason to stay here. I was ready to enter Mythos Online, and I could tell that all of my friends had decided the same.

We walked into a large room with several dozen human-sized pods lined along the walls. Lacey guided us each to one pod, showed us how to open it, and directed us to climb inside. Inside each pod was a small screen. It flared to life and asked me to digitally sign my name, agree to the terms and conditions of use, and excuse Microsoft from liability. I quickly checked everything and hit submit before I could back out.

The world went black.

I awoke in a lush green meadow to find a handsome man standing over me. I could see the sleeping forms of several other humans nearby. The man smiled, a warm smile that brimmed with compassion and confidence.

“Hello there, young immortal. Welcome to the Place Without Doors. I am Telles, and I will be your mentor. Would you please will your status sheet to show up?” He greeted me. I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I concentrated on the idea of a status sheet and a window popped up in front of me:

Status Sheet (Nathan/Nathan)

Stats:

Constitution: 11

Dexterity: 11

Wisdom: 12

Intelligence: 12

Charisma: 11

Strength: 10

Qualities:

Determined

Creative

Abilities:

Dark Resilience: Your innermost thoughts have revealed a desire for evil, and some greater power has granted you resistance to the horrific sights and sounds of this world.

Skills (level)

Reading (6) Writing (3) Poetry (2) Inspirational Leader (4)

I immediately noticed that my stats were a tad higher than the (usually) base stats of 10, but what was more interesting was the ability I’d been granted: Dark Resilience. Maybe my desire for power was what gave me that? This fact brought up a large array of questions: Could other players read my mind? Could the computer see my memories? Could the computer alter my memories? Could other players alter my memories? All of these had very frightening answers, as I was mostly sure that I knew the answers all are yes.

I waved away the status screen and asked Telles about my stats.

“Well, I’m aware that you have considerable experience in literary analysis and creation, as well as extensive knowledge of strategy and leadership. Because of this, I would assume a higher power gave you these bonuses to stats and skills, as it gives all Immortals bonuses based on their previous lives.”

While this answer answered several questions, it raised infinitely more. What kinds of bonuses would other players get? Could a martial arts master receive a significant bonus to fighting skills? What kinds of stat bonuses or abilities would people receive? Were there overpowered abilities that someone might get? What kind of reporting system would there be if nobody could leave the game? If the whole thing was autonomous, then how could there be any patches? Could potential data corruption dissuade the developers from patching the hardware? If they did patch it for some reason and need to stop the game, would we notice? Would we die? I was beginning to rethink my decision to enter an untested game, but once again I steeled myself. There’s no going back now.

“So we can level up here, and it will carry over to the real game?”

“If by game, you mean the world of Mythos, then no. This is merely a chance for you to learn what kinds of things can be done, and what to expect. Your status page will pretty much revert to what it looks like right now, with one exception. Any skills you learn here will translate to Mythos, but they will be reset to level 1. In addition, it is important to note that while someone may have a high skill level in unarmed fighting, they will still lose to someone who is a true expert in the combat applications of the body,” Telles replied.

Shit, so those Fist of Peace jerks are sitting high and mighty, but other casters like me are up shit creek without a paddle, I thought. But then I realized the error in my logic, Even if some of those douchebags are good at martial arts in the real life, most have only ever seen those moves on a computer screen or VR headset!

I still had one last question. “How do we unlock classes and spells?”

“You will not be able to select a class. Upon reaching level 10, you will be granted a class by a greater power. Most people will have unique classes and skills. A higher power will design skills that are balanced and unique to your combat style. However, there are also a variety of spells and techniques that anyone can learn. Your class will be assigned a hidden spellcasting score. Various spells will have a minimum required score in order for you to learn them. A monk cannot learn a tier-9 spell. Likewise, a master wizard cannot learn a tier-9 fighting ability. However, someone with a paladin-like class will be able to learn both tier-5 fighting abilities and tier-5 spells. Most classes will have ascension quests. Your actions and words may spark the beginning of a quest that unlocks your ultimate power. The same way a wizard may become a lich in order to enhance his Constitution and spellcasting ability. Usually, these kinds of class ascensions are the only way to unlock god-tier spells. A god-tier spell is any spell ranked tier 7 or above. Most NICs cannot get above 6th tier, but this is not a guarantee. An NIC with the appropriate master might reach heights you cannot even imagine!” Telles’ long-winded explanation finally concluded. It brought up many interesting thoughts, especially the wording of that last bit: An NIC with the appropriate master might reach heights you cannot even imagine! I noticed that Telles had not said that master had to be a player. I assumed that NIC meant non-immortal creature.

“Are you ready to join the others?” Telles asked, jarring me out of my reverie.

“Yes,” I said, confused as to what he meant. Up until now, I had assumed that everyone else had just delayed their entry into the world. Telles snapped his fingers and the others began to awaken. They froze for a moment and Telles directed his attention to me once again.

“Oh, I almost forgot to ask. What would you like your name to be?”

I thought about it for a moment. It was something I’d always thought about: what to name a villain I created? I hesitated a moment, but decided on using the one I’d prepared.

“My name is Zero.”