Chapter 1

"Finally..." Wesley sighed with relief as his sky blue eyes glimmer with excitement.

"After waiting in this stupid line for over 6 hours, it's finally my turn!"

He stood at the entrance of a large skyscraper with a big "T-Shaped" sing. This building belonged to the world's number 1 gaming company which has revolutionized virtual reality multimedia online role playing games (MMORPG.)

Today, Tetrax is going to launch their newest project: Valhallah and Wesley was one of the players who received an invitation to participate in the beta test.

However, Wesley didn't expect to meet a huge line given it’s a beta test. After waiting for hours, it was finally his turn.

Wesley entered the building only to be met with a horrific site. "What?!" He exclaimed with dropping jaws. Inside the building's courtyard was another line.

"This is crazy," Wesley said. "At this rate, I'll be testing the game by moonlight."

Suddenly, there was a bright light and a loud noise. Wesley felt a sharp pain in his head and fell to his knees, feeling confused.

When the noise stopped, he opened his eyes and saw everything blurry. Panicking, he wondered if there had been an explosion nearby.

As his vision cleared, Wesley realized he was alone. The line and the company staff had disappeared. Confused, he listened for any signs of life and heard faint noises from inside the building.

Determined to find answers, he hurried inside, only to stumble over a black chest at the entrance.

"Who would leave this here?" Wesley grumbled, rubbing his sore head as he tried to move the chest, a robotic voice asked for his nickname.

Confused, Wesley complied, choosing the name "Tempest." The chest then showed him three sets of items, each representing a different class in a game.

"Is this some kind of game?"

Wesley wondered aloud as he tried to pick his class, only to find he couldn't touch the items. "Pick only one class," scolded the robotic voice.

Wesley reached out his right hand and grabbed the sword easily.

"Wow, this is really high-tech," he said, surprised by the level of human technological advancement. Choosing what he knew best, he picked the sword and armor from the chest.

As a VR RPG fan, he usually played as a warrior, so it made sense. Before he could fully understand his decision, the chest disappeared, and the armor appeared on his body, with the sword at his waist.

"You have picked the Fighter class. You get 1 free point for attributes and skills. You can use these points in your status window whenever you want."

"Status window…?" Wesley muttered, confused.

A blue hologram popped up, showing letters and numbers.

As Wesley looked at the different indicators, he saw a red bar that was two-thirds full at the top of his vision, and a nearly empty yellow bar below it. After studying the numbers, he figured out they showed his HP and stamina bars. In another corner, there was a radar-like display with some red dots moving towards the center.

Thinking about what all this meant, he heard some noises getting closer. When he saw more zombies coming, he compared the positions of the red dots on his radar with the new zombies. He realized the dots meant the undead, and more were coming from inside the building.

"I can't fight them all!" Wesley thought, deciding to run away. But before he could, his escape was stopped by the monocle making pinging sounds and showing a bright purple hue around an object on the ground—the round item dropped by the dead man. Words appeared above it.

"Second Soul Remnant (legendary consumable)"

"Legendary!" Wesley said, remembering Valhallah's grading system. If this world followed the game's rules, this item was top-tier.

Trying to put it in his bag, he got a message saying he couldn't.

"Object is unable to be stored."

Confused but not giving up, Wesley kept running toward the exit, holding the ball. Even though the street seemed empty, his radar showed red dots, with the closest one on his left—a zombie.

"These things are everywhere!" he muttered, before the monocle identified the creature.

"Zombie (Basic monster, Undead)

Level 1

HP: 150"

Thankful for the monocle's help, Wesley moved away, following his radar until he found a place without red dots. He went into a nearby bakery and locked the door, trying to collect his thoughts.

Taking out his cell phone, he tried to make a call, but it didn't work. The monocle explained why.

"Handphone (junk item)

Can sell to merchant for a small amount of coins"

"Junk?! Are you kidding me?" Wesley said, frustrated by the device's uselessness.

Looking back at the ball, he focused on its scanning process. The text showed its amazing properties.

"Second soul Remnant (legendary consumable)

Cannot be stored

Grant user with a second class

Grant user with innate ability: Immortal soul

Require 10 minutes activation time to use

Disappear upon use"

Thinking about what this meant, Wesley wondered about other players and what was really going on. Despite not knowing for sure, he decided to use the item to survive.

"Use," he told the ball.

"Okay. Activation starts. Soul linking."

Enduring the painful process, Wesley waited for the ten-minute activation to finish. As the light from the ball went into his body, he gritted his teeth, not able to move until it was done.

When it finally finished, Wesley took a moment to recover, amazed by the change. He then looked at the holographic chest that appeared in front of him.

"Time to get my reward," Wesley thought, thinking about what class to choose. When he tried to pick the Fighter class again, he couldn't.

"You can't choose the same class. Please choose a different one. Or you can wait until you have a better class. Do you want to wait?"

Wesley thought about waiting but decided not to, wanting strength right away to face whatever was coming.

"No," he said.

Now he had to choose between the Ranger or the Magician. The Ranger was fast, while the Magician was smart. Even though he knew both classes, he was used to being a strong fighter. After thinking about it, he picked up the short staff and cloth. The Ranger class could change into a ranged class later, while still being strong. Choosing the Magician class, with its magic powers, seemed like a better choice.

"You have chosen the magician class. You have a total of 2 free attribute and 2 free skill points, you can open your status window to allocate this point at any time."

Seeing he still had points left, Wesley felt better. With all the chaos, he hadn't checked his status window. He also felt lighter, maybe because of his second class choice.

"Status," he said, bringing up the holographic window in his mind.

The blue hologram showed his updated stats:

Tempest

Class: Fighter / magician

Level 1 / Level 1

Attributes:

- HP = 185/230

- Stamina = 110/110

- MP = 110/110

- Strength = 23

- Dexterity = 21

- Intelligence = 23

- Endurance = 23

- Reflex = 22

- Wisdom = 23

- Luck = 2

- Free attribute point = 2

- Free skill point = 1/1

Experience = 4/100 (fighter), 0/100 (magician). Setting 50:50