That all too familiar blazing bright light enveloped me again. Scorching heat, then surreal cold made every fibre of my being feel like it was being melted and frozen, all at once. Piece by piece of me shrank and shrivelled into nothingness, before imploding explosively.

It hurt like hell of course. Almost as much as reading so many conjoined-adjectives randomly thrown together to scream “THIS IS DRAMATIC”, I guess.

So, I screamed. Then, for good measure, I screamed some more as the world around me disappeared and reappeared in a deafening swoossshhhh.

“Don’t be so dramatic! It can’t be that bad,” a familiar voice gently admonished, music to my ears.

My eyes stung a little as I opened them the first time, for the umpteenth time.

“Master?” I whispered.

“Lancelot. You’re supposed to call me Lancelot here, Mordred! Anyway, the sense-synchronisation to Avalon’s virtual environment should only be causing you mild discomfort. So, stop making a scene,” she frowned and gently flicked my forehead.

The surge of emotions that I felt seeing Lancelot alive flooded my eyes, then gushed out in the form of another scream, “MASTER!”

Tearing, I rushed forward to hug her, running directly into a rather solid, steel gauntlet held out like a metallic stop sign. The impact made me stagger and I landed unceremoniously on my ass.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I fell onto my back and stared at the Avalon sky. The loop had begun once again and I was alive. More importantly, so was Lancelot.

Again, it was a complete reset to our very first day playing in Avalon. I've lost track of how many times I've returned to this exact moment, in this shitty VR world, to the point I struggled to recall ever being anywhere else.

“Geez, Mordred, stop being such a douche! People are staring at us, you idiot!”

“You’re an eight-foot giant metal suit that speaks, Lancelot. People are going to stare either way,” I slurred groggily.

I wasn't kidding either. From head to toe, she was covered in an ivory-white knight armour that practically glowed. The only design on the armour was three simple rose-red stripes emblazoned across the shoulder guards. A visor covered Lancelot's face completely, giving her voice a thick, husky echo whenever she spoke. She really was a towering, imposing figure that was truly gawk-worthy.

“I trained you better than to be a smart-mouthed, wise ass. Besides, getting the Beta Avatar Mod starter pack was totally worth it. Check it out! With my customised Knight suit of awesomeness, no one will ever know the truth about me!” she quipped while doing a rather unknightly pirouette.

The sad irony in her words choked me and I desperately wanted to tell her everything. But I had walked down that path before, in another reset. Telling her the truth had only made Lancelot think my brain had short-circuited – resulting in a total shutdown and her leaving me. She didn’t want anything to do with me at all – let alone my protection. In the end, I had to kill myself.

“That the manly armour hides womanly l’amour? Or that you’re a Full Metal Alchemist fan girl?” I replied.

“Ha...Ha..Ha. Aren’t you just hilarious? It’s a Virtual world. Last thing I want is a bunch of pervs stalking me or chauvinist pigs looking down on me because I’m a woman. I can be anyone I want to! Anyway, get your ass in gear, it’s time to go through the class selection process!”

____________

She anxiously and excitedly half dragged me to the Class NPC named [BOSS]. Why? Because I was still stunned from my forehead’s close encounter with her steel gauntlet. Plus, the whole reincarnation journey and return from the river of dead always made me slightly sea-sick and dizzy.

Oh, why was the NPC named Boss, you meant? Getting to that, and to him as well. Brace yourselves, not even multiple reincarnations allowed me to escape what’s about to come. God, I hate this fucking NPC.

In a time and place where anyone who could afford armed themselves to the teeth, [BOSS] insisted on wearing nothing but a simple man-cloth. And by man-cloth, I exaggerate the size of the cloth, which was not very manly in stature; merely, very barely covering [BOSS]’s man-bits.

[BOSS] was designed to look devastatingly imposing and intimidating. He stood close to 7 feet tall with biceps that could feed a small village, abs that crush a 6-pack when flexed and a huge mouth I've spent lifetimes wishing I could staple gun shut. His hair had streaks of angry red highlighting straw-blonde locks that fell all the way to his waist.

His voice thundered across the field, “Hail and salutations, brave warriors of Avalon! Are you ready to embark on your epic adventure of steel and magic? To conquer and claim the finest weapons, armours and treasures that this world offers? To have your name resound across the realms by earning a seat at the sacred Round Table? Tell me, Big Boys, ARE YOU READY? Give me a HELL YEAH!”

“HELL YEAH!” came the obligatory shout from the warriors all around.

“I’m [BOSS]. Around here, I’m everyone’s BOSS because I give everyone their jobs!” the NPC roared with laughter at his own joke. Even his conceited hair seemed to come to life and pat his back in praise.

Pin drop silence ensued but unperturbed, [BOSS] continued talking like a true boss, explaining how the Job Selection system worked.

“Listen up Big Boys, Avalon’s job selection, isn’t a selection at all! Got you there, didn’t I! It’s actually the first ever VR gaming experience to utilise your physical attributes and emotional state to assign you a class that best fits your personality and abilities.”

“When you’re done being impressed, and I know you are, pull yourselves together and step into the Scanning Halos in front of you. Your fate and class allocations await you.”

____________

In my previous lives, my class had always been the same; The Knight. Apart from my dashing good looks and Adonis-like body, I had only one design for this life, and all my earlier lives too, I guess. My desire to protect and save Lancelot. So, the class allocation made sense, I guess. Plus, I'm super gallant, chivalrous and all that other boring knight bullshit.

All around me, glowing circles appeared in front of Players. Excited chatter hummed across the field as players stepped into the circles and the class allocations started.

“What? [COURT JESTER]? What kind of sick joke is this?” someone screamed with dissatisfaction.

I shrugged off the unnecessary (but still funny?) slapstick cameo and stepped into the Scanning Halo. I felt my body and mind tingle gently as a probing warmth filled me. Yes, I said it like that on purpose.

[CLASS UNLOCKED - KNIGHT]

[HIDDEN CLASS UNLOCKED - HIDDEN BLADE]

I gasped in surprise and shock. I've unlocked a hidden class? In all my lives, no one ever knew that this was even possible or that hidden classes existed. Except for you guys, the one who bothered to read the prologue that is.