The days of the week passed by slowly for Simphiwe; he wanted to play his game but by some malicious trick the developers had held him back until a few hours before the beta officially began. He would bring up this overly emotional topic whenever he had the chance, and at his small home schooling center his participation in the beta of the new virtual reality game was already a hot topic. The days finally landed on Friday and Simphiwe couldn’t have been happier he practically ran into his room ignoring whatever his mother had to say and jumped into the V.R. pod.

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In a few seconds the same feeling he had felt every day since he got the pod when he checked the progress of his character arrived; Simphiwe suddenly feel asleep in the real world and woke up in the virtual one.

Character processing complete. Begin game yes/no.

Simphiwe: “YES!” he practically shouted.

A flash of light suddenly passed over him and then suddenly vanished. He was now left in complete and utter darkness. But now he could feel something; a body, he could feel his body now. His quickly tried to open his eyes but they felt heavy, his arms and legs also gave of the exact same feeling. Almost as if he had been sleeping for an entire week Simphiwe struggled to get up from whatever position he was in. When he finally started getting up the first thing he saw was a glass casing over him and a white room beyond it. As he tried to sit up the casing itself suddenly opened.

As Simphiwe looked around he saw a massive hall filled with all sorts of machines and equipment; some of them seemed like simple computers whilst others were obviously the super complicated type you when see in futuristic movies. The interior of the hall was designed to be open, spacious, clean and well organized, but with the papers and pens randomly lying around and the scientist like alien people casually talking amongst themselves the place gave of a warm and relaxing feeling. Like work was being done but you could go at your own pace. Then Simphiwe suddenly noticed the group of scientist like people around his own pod staring at him.

Simphiwe: “Aaaa… Hey”

Blue scientist guy: “Greetings, my name is Konrad; I’m glad your finally awake we’ve been working on your summoning for quite a while. We will need to run a number of tests and procedures but firstly I would like to welcome you to Delantian Mr.… The Hacker, am I pronouncing it right?”

Simphiwe: “Yeah, sure but where am I? Is this the development unit?”

Scientist Konrad: “Yes it is and we’ve been tasked with assisting in your development. This program was designed by the Humanoid intergalactic united planetary front (HIUPF) in order to streamline hero summoning and training. I hope you will get better acquainted with my team and I during the duration of your stay here.”

Simphiwe: “Huh? Hero? What do you mean by hero?”

Konrad the scientist: “Yes sorry, we will be debriefing you on everything you need to know shortly. But first is it ok for us to run a few tests to make sure that your new body is working well and that the connection to your original body is secure and functioning optimally.”

Simphiwe: “So you know about that to? Guess your my tutorial guys then. Ok let’s start then”

Scientist Konrad: “Thank you very much we’ll start with some basic tests then. Please just mentally picture a status screen. This is a basic function of magic that displays your current physical, mental and magical condition.”

The HackerVecanaSpecial citizen (Hero)Level1Health: 100/100Spirit energy: 0/100No sub values found.Skills:Measure

Simphiwe: “Wow it worked I can see my status here, and it just disappears when I think about it disappearing.”

Scientist Konrad: “Good everything seems in working order then. Mr. Hacker we’ll now need to measure some sub-values as you can see that bar is empty. These values will basically record the quantifiable performance values of your body and soul. We have some equipment here for all of that please step out of the pod and come this way.”

Simphiwe: “Ah sure, but what do some of these words even mean? What’s Spiritual energy? And does my HP really work like a game? Like will I die if it reaches zero?”

Scientist Konrad: “Your spiritual energy bar measures the amount of power your soul currently holds. Normally it would be divided into stamina and magic points but a few of our founders through their training discovered that these two are the same thing simply with different uses, now that isn’t to say since it’s currently empty you’ll be tired but more like no physical supplementations such as martial arts or simple movement argumentations will work right now. As for your Health status that’s not actually measuring health really its actually measuring the % bound your body has on your soul so if it goes to zero you will be very much dead. The value also never exceeds 100 but you’ll start understanding all of that with practice very soon Mr. Hacker.”

Simphiwe: “Alright, but this is getting boring let’s get to the fun stuff.”

Scientist Konrad: “Yes, of course sir.”

Simphiwe was then tested on his basic physical condition and mental ability. He began by weightlifting while the [measure] skill was on before Conrad asked him to check his stats again. He did and found an immediate change.

The HackerVecanaSpecial citizen (Hero)Level1Health: 100/100Spirit energy: 0/100Sub values:Arm strength[n]: 27 kgSkills:Measure

Simphiwe: “Oh!! OH! I see how this works, ok that’s pretty cool, but why doesn’t it show that I lifted a 30 kg though!? Why only 27!? I’ve been robbed!”

Scientist Konrad: “Hahaha relax Mr. Hacker, the skill usually takes an average and not the maximum value. Think of it like this; if you wrote tests your whole life and always got 60’s then suddenly got 100 for one math test. Does that mean you are suddenly 100% good in math? No, that would be silly, so we take the average and record it. Do not worry about sub stats though they are usually just measured values for your own interest. It also allows you to prove your abilities without having to show anyone your skill meaning if you are really strong or fast your sub stats will speak for you.”

Simphiwe: “Ok! OK! Next test next test let’s do magic now!”

Scientist Konrad: “Haha Very enthusiastic I see that’s good, ok well we usually have an order to these things but that’s fine let’s start the spiritual exercises.”

Konrad then gave Simphiwe a mana generator skill to learn. All he had to do was place his hand in a weird machine and a message saying he had learnt it and that it had synchronized with his soul appeared. After about 30 minutes of feeling for his energy Simphiwe could finally draw mana into himself. And that’s when the fun started.

Scientist Konrad: “Good now that you have the energy within you we need to-“

Simphiwe/Hacker: “Fight!”

Scientist Konrad: “W,what…huh Sir you still need to know your energy type and prac-“

Hacker/Simphiwe: “No, Konrad come on this is a boring way to teach. This is magic teach it more magically stop sciencing everything!”

Scientist Konrad: “Then what should we do?”

Hacker/Simphiwe: “Shoot fireballs! Give me a fireball spell!”

Scientist Konrad: “N, no, you see those are outdated we have new categories of spells calle-“

Hacker/Simphiwe: “Don’t you wanna blow things up?”

Scientist Konrad: “ Well… but we need to follow the process… I’m not sure if ‘blowing things up’ is constructive”

Hacker/Simphiwe: “Dude don’t worry about your bosses, if they complain I’ll cover for you. I’m the Hero here right?

Trust me this is way cooler than tests. Ok now let’s just get some targets out here then-“

Very soon half the area was rearranged; and after learning the spell from the machine Simphiwe took his stance in front of the target like a baseball pitch would.

Simphiwe: “1!2! Clear!!!”

*BOOM*

He hurled a huge fireball towards the set targets decimating them all before bending over in exhaustion. He then demanded a martial arts ability to make him faster and wall run. He then sped out the halls and into the huge field he had noticed from the windows earlier. After 10 seconds of running he had covered half a football fields worth of ground before collapsing. After resting once again he asked for another martial art skill for swimming and breathing under water. He then spent a whole five minutes in the water before randomly shooting a fireball and steaming the section of pool he was in; he emerged from the pool covered in steam whilst declaring he didn’t need a towel.

-He completely empties his energy in such short spans of time, sometimes instantly without any signs of spiritual backlash or burnout? He then recovers all that energy in just over 30 minutes with only the low level mana generation skill… plus he can learn multiple skills, both magical and martial arts orientated, in succession with over 80% compatibility… why was I given a monster to raise!? Or more like how am I supposed to raise this, this… THING! That’s right he doesn’t qualify as a person anymore. I’m sending a report to the higher ups immediately this is clearly above my pay grade! – Scientist Konrad thought as he kept a calm smiling face as he ordered his people to go carry the hero back to bed for the 8th time.