Shane stared dumbly for several seconds before twisting to get out of bed and away from the screen. Without pause, the screen instantly followed him and positioned itself in front of his vision as he did. A high-pitched cry escaped his throat in shock as he tripped over his feet and landed hard on the bed. His gaunt cheeks were red from embarrassment as he sat up again and looked at the screen.

Some time was spent reading that glowing text over and over. As Shane read and re-read, realization struck him like a lightning bolt from the sky above. He had died and was now somehow inside his own game. God was one of the last things to enter his mind during what he thought was death, but he would be lying to himself if he said the concept of heaven wasn't something he thought about far more often.

The topic was of hot debate within his closest friend groups. They would stay up late into the early morning hours, speculating what heaven could mean in a metaphysical sense for humanity. Was heaven a place of personal freedom after death? Was death the act of finally waking up to a much more real-world beyond our imaginations? Shane never felt like he knew for sure, but as he sat in what could only be the starting room within Endless Veil, he felt like the answer was indeed a little closer.

There was little point in waxing philosophical with himself any further. Still, as he felt the genuine heft of his physical being, there was a resolve to determine exactly how this situation came to be, metaphysical or otherwise. One possibility sat in the back of his mind, even more unlikely. He felt irrationally frightened by what the possibility meant for him and the world he once lived in. So much so that he put his hands together and prayed to whoever would listen.

"Please, anything but that," he whispered.

After a heavy sigh, he decided to reluctantly accept precarious situation and jumped out of bed in a single bound. Pressing "Enter" showed the single blue screen split into three more screens of equal size, neatly packed next to one another. He saw a colored map with a reverse tear-drop icon on the left-most screen that showed his location was a small cabin surrounded by forest. North of his position showed a clearing about two hundred meters away. At the top of the screen, Shane saw two tabs.

Map/Quests

He poked the Quests tab and saw there was a quest already available. He read it, intrigued.

Tutorial: Welcome to Endless Veil

Look at your character screen - Pending… Pick your class - Done! Equip class starter gear - Pending… Leave tutorial cabin - Pending…

None of this surprised him, as he had done it many times during the testing of Endless Veil. One thing was off; you would usually pick your class at this point. Curious, Shane mentally called up his character stat window.

Name: Shane Carther

Race: Human

Class: Sage

Level: 1—

Sage? That wasn’t one of the classes available in the game. He likely would have also known of any significant changes like that before launch. His task was to train the artificial intelligence director to accommodate every class and what they could do after all. Shane clicked on his class name, adding a new smaller window over his class sheet.

Class: Sage

Sage specializes in questing and reward choice as its primary avenues of growth. There are no limits to Sage’s creativity and potential.

Sage Features:

Quests have expanded rewards to choose from

+5 to all Attributes at level 1

+1 Active Spell and Active Feat Slots Every 3rd Level

+2 Souls Points Per Level

+5 Attribute Points Per Level

The Ability To Morph Feats and Spells At Major-Rank and Above

Upon Death, The Player Respawns In The Same Spot After a Specific Amount of Time

Anxiety began to flare as Shane realized he was holding his breath while reading. He took a few deep breaths to calm down and thought deeply for a moment. Before his “passing,” there wasn’t anything called a “Sage” in Endless Veil. There were only supposed to be five classes: Warrior, Knight, Caster, Rogue, and Priest. Shane usually liked to pick a spell-based or sneaky class in these kinds of games. He hoped "Sage" would at least excel at the former.

Not being able to die was a bit surprising but not entirely unexpected. In many of his favorite shows, dying in-game or in a new world usually meant permanent death or some other personal devastation. So he was glad that wasn't the particular case for him. Shane stroked his beardless chin while thinking; I would be naive to think there wouldn't be some downside to these free revives. The "specific amount of time" bit made him feel uneasy in its wording.

He shook his head in an attempt to focus. He told himself nothing could be changed, and he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. Shane closed the Sage class window and continued reading the rest of his character stats.

HP: 125/125

Mana: 75/75

Fatigue: 0/110

Experience: 0/100

Soul Points: 0

Attributes:

Strength: 15

Agility: 15

Vitality: 15

Endurance: 15

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 15

Luck: 15

Physical Attack: 0

Magical Attack: 0

Physical Defense: 0

Magical Defense: 0

Of the handful of characters he made while testing Endless Veil, HE certainly seemed to be one of the weaker ones, he thought with dissatisfaction. The soul points and morphing of spells and feats could be vital when explored, but for now, they remained decidedly mysterious in their usefulness.

“Maybe I’ve got some good starting equipment,” he mumbled dispassionately as he poked the “Inventory” tab next to the “Character” tab.

Whatever excitement he could have felt fell away upon seeing his inventory only had starter clothes. Looking down at his skinny body, Shane realized he was as naked as the day he was born. He begrudgingly tapped the starter pants and was surprised to see and feel the pants materialize on his body.

Unfortunately, the pants were nothing more than a pair of brown loosely fitted cloth held up by a thin string sown into the waist. The starter shirt was made of similar material, and the cheap-lightweight loafers were equally uninteresting. Between the three pieces of clothing, Shane only gained fifteen points of physical and magical defense, which would not amount to a lot of damage mitigation. Annoyed but accepting, he stood up from the bed with an indignant huff.

He looked down at himself and saw his usual skinny body, but something was off. His clothes sagged slightly despite not being much bigger than a “large” in the human world. The inventory screen showed what he had equipped and a three-dimensional representation of himself. One that captured everything about him in three dimensions. A lot of which he was still learning to love—with some significant changes.

He expected to see his wavy dark brown hair but was surprised to see a sea of white waves atop his dome. The same medium-length waves parted on the left side of his scalp—It was just so snow white! His eyes, too, there were also different—ethereal even. Instead of the dull green eyes he knew he had, they were now a vibrant aqua blue. "Wild," he thought verbally, his voice almost distant in studying his changed features.

The last significant change he could perceive was how toned his body was. Where he was thin and pasty before, he was now more toned and sporting a bit more muscle. He pondered his body's changes for a moment and figured it was most likely that his stats played a role. He mentally logged this hypothesis away for when his stats were higher when he could compare how he looked then versus now.

As Shane looked over, the menus in front of him faded away. Replaced with a compass at the top of his vision and showing a cabin icon in the middle. Looking to the left and right showed the cabin icon between “W” and “E.” Something colorful caught his eye just then; three bars were inlaid within his wrists: a red bar, a blue bar, and a green bar. He brought one of his wrists closer to his face, watching with fascination as text began to appear.

HP: 125/125

Mana: 75/75

Fatigue: 0/110

“Interesting! the game always had a heads-up display on the screen at all times. If I ever get out of this, I have to give my kudos to the designer who thought this one up!” Truthfully he didn't think as he said this, as he wasn’t sure he wanted to leave.

This kind of scenario was secretly one of his fantasies. Especially after seeing so many anime portray this scenario positively and with excitement. His previous life was full of accomplishments but did lack in both family and intimate relationships—especially the latter.

Shane felt a unique shame as he pondered whether it would be possible to have such relationships in Endless Veil. The AI Director he worked on used machine learning to augment NPC dialogue so that NPCs could approximate a conversation with the player and react accordingly to actions. To his knowledge, it was the first time something like that had been done in such a high-budget game. His cheeks turned shades of rosy red as he imagined what could be done with his flesh body in this world.

Irritated at his lack of focus, he began muttering. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. Focus on the here and now so that you can move forward and figure things out.”

He shook his head to clear his mind of lustful thoughts. According to the tutorial quest, all that was left was to leave this dusty cabin and start exploring the most exciting thing he had ever been a part of. An infinite world with infinite possibilities lay before him.

Shane walked over to the unassuming door and swung it open. It flew open faster than he thought it would, as if it were lighter than it should have been. The handle collided with the wall, making a heavy “WHUMP” sound. Shane tensed, feeling irrationally uncomfortable from the thought that somehow other people nearby heard him make too much noise. A few seconds passed before he reminded himself that no one was around and that living in Endless Veil was his chance at reinventing the person he had gotten used to living as.