“I shouldn’t have taken on the challenge…”

“At least you know what happens!”

“Why did I loose so quickly?”

“Because you just arrived! Look… Full scan.”

Gandock showed up in front of me a blue screen with my main characteristics:

Jules

1 day

Human

Origin: Offenburg

No class

No job

No group

No title

Level 1

No reputation

Health points:40/160

Mana points:110/110

Technique points: 110/110

Run speed: 7,7km/h

Damages: +5,1

Attacks per minute: 20

Defence: 1+0,1%

Resistance: 1+0,1%

Accuracy: +1%

Dodge: +1%

Critical rate: 1%

Critical damages: +151%

Physical penetration: 1+0,1%

Magical penetration: 1+0,1%

Health regeneration: 0.1 HP-MP-TP/s

Drain: 0.1%HP – 0.1%MP – 0.1%TP (Off)

Luck: 1

Carry Ability: 32 kg

Then, he showed up another screen with my characteristic points:

Vitality: 60

Strenght: 51

Health: 10

Intelligence: 10

Technique: 10

Speed: 10

Defence: 10

Wisdom: 10

“As you only have 60 vitality points and 10 defence points, it gives you 160 health points and you remove 1 damage per attack. Our undine friends are between level 10 and 20, they have around 200 vitality points and 30 defence points, which makes easily 300 health points and you remove 3 damages per attack. You go way faster below the 50% level, the orange zone.”

So that was it, the orange light I saw after a few punches!

***

Ryuseimar seemed a little bit stronger, with larger shoulders.

Well, Nuteroa is as strong, he gives good punches too.

“I hve note understood everything, but it’s whenever you want. I choose Ryuseimar!”

“Ok, but don’t comme crying after that! Tihihi!”

Before I could say anything, Nuteroa was already punching violently this poor Watrila, but I had a way more urgent problem that I had to deal with before.

“I hope you’re ready, because you’re gonna suffer!”

Hopefully the pain level is reduced compared to the real world, because the first punch directly in the nose and the second one on my belly had stunned me, and I already wanted to vomit.

My vision became fully orange in a few other seconds.

“Stop!!!”

Gandock rushed toward me, as Ryuseimar’s punch blocked a few cms from my face, blocked by a light surface appearing from nowhere.

“He has lost, you can stop!”

“But, I’ve just begun. Watrila can take on for at least… 30 more seconds…”

“Jules is living his first fight! It’s as if you punched a straw dummy!”

Once again, they’re talking about me as if I wasn’t here…

It’s a lot of humiliations in a short span of time…

I don’t know if I will be able to endure it in this game at this rate…

“Hey, what about telling I won? Tihihi…”

Watrila seemed delighted to see me writhing in pain.

Girls… can be so cruel… sometime...

***

“Of course, if you want to become my squire, you have to work a lot more. For now, you’re just as a baby…”

“If I were in the real world, I would have carried on for much longer…”

“Yes, but in Alter Life, Maths mecanics are absolute. 7 damage points minus 1 defence points, it’s 6 damages. In 30 attacks, you exceed the 160 health points you have and you are ready to go to the closest shrine in our case, the one of Offenburg, in the small church next to the courtyard where you trained, before.”

“How do I become stronger?”

I know how to become stronger: killing monsters, having good weapons, training…

“You have to follow my lead. A good knight must endure a lot of hits wearing heavy armours, so you need an excellent vitality. So, swimming. And you have to fight in close range battles, so you need strenght. So, straw dummy training right now. You can finish the day swimming, I want a solid squire, not a week reed that breaks in a single hit…”

Hurt in my pride, I sighed before answering:

“OK, I’ll swim… Watrila, can we swim together again?”

“You didn’t give me proper excuses, mister “other people don’t seem that muscled”…”

“Jules, ask her for forgiveness.”

“I… am sorry Watrila…”

“Tihihi, it’s OK! Let’s go swimming!”

And once again, Ryuseimar and Nuteroa helped me swimming with the beautiful Watrila, while Gandock swam on his own side.

***

Time goes by diferently in Alter Life.

If an earth day is of 24 hours, here, they are of only 8 hours.

It allows those who play a long sessino to see a full in Alter Life.

Years go way faster too: 4 months of 20 days.

This way, seasons pass quickly, but it has also another advantage: plant, animal, monster and even human growth are inmeasurably faster!

Take a human family: 60 days of 8 hours per pregnancy, instead of 270 days of 24 hours, it’s 13 times and a half more birth!

Youngsters become adults at 15 years, which is done in 640 hours, so less than 30 days in the real world.

Said in a different way, it’s possible to see generation succeeding.

On the other side, life expectancy is maintained as in the real world, so as someone can in theory live about 80 real years, someone can live more than 300 years in Alter Life!

It’s a little bit disturbing at the beginning, but it’s so cool!

In no time, I finished my first day in-game, and my 4 hour session went to an end as sun was setting on the horizon.

“It’s spring, days are as long as nights, we shall take a break. How did you find your first day?

“Awesome! A little bit disturbing, some bad events happened, but Alter Life is so cool!”

“Let’s meet again in 3 days, then. To leave Alter Life, you just have to say: disconnection”

“Disconnection!”

The world faded away around me.

***

I was back in the capsule.

It opened by itself, the mask going away from my face alone, my glove coming off, my boots opening in half in the length side.

I was back in 2nd level underground, in Alt F4 building.

I took back my card and saw that I had phone messages.

Aunty Priscy was telling me that I had to wait for her in the waiting room, in the fifth level.

As I took the elevator, I sent a few messages to John, who was looking forward to get my first impressions.

He was going to lunch, so he was out of his capsule.

He is a human magician, quite low level, not much more than 10.

It’s quite easy to gain levels at the beginning of the game, with the NPC quests you get, talking to the NPCs in the village.

We decided that we would play together after lunch with each a new character, an undead one: Zombi for me, occult adept for him.

Aunty Priscy joined with me and led me to the 21st floor, in her office, after having taken a coffee.

“I will be direct: Gandock knight is a mysterious character that doesn’t work as any other. I think the R&D service is facing a huge bug, but I don’t have access to all of the information. Your mission consists in reporting me anything you learn about him, but discreetly. Else, I would get problems, and you can say adios to your account!

“I oredered sushis, you want some?”

A mysterious character? Bug? In what story did I get involved in again, poor little me?”