The Hall of Heroes was a huge, grand temple. It was built to make new players feel like they were starting a big adventure.
Tall marble statues of the main classes stood over the spawn area. Soft golden light shone on them.
On Sebastian's left stood the Guardian. It wore strong armor and held a shield as big as a door.
On his right was the Archmage. Its robe moved in a fake wind, and its staff sparked with fake lightning. Further away stood the Assassins, the Rangers, and the Clerics.
They looked amazing. But to Sebastian, who had already lived through hard times, they were useless!
He walked past the big statues without looking twice. He ignored the loud, exciting music that tried to make him pick a class.
In his last life, he had seen what happened to the popular classes. The Guardians, with all their armor, were smashed flat by the Void Titans. Those monsters didn't care about armor at all!
The Archmages needed a long time to cast spells and stand in special formations. Phase Spiders killed them before they could finish casting.
The main classes were strict. They had fixed skill paths.
If you were a Warrior, you could not learn high-level teleport magic. If you were a Mage, you could not use a big sword without a big penalty. The game was built to make players need each other.
Sebastian did not want to need anyone. People died. People changed. People turned on you!
He wanted to be strong enough to fight alone, like an army of one.
He walked to the back of the hall, where the golden light did not reach. There, in the shadows, stood an old, broken stand.
No statue stood on it. Just a torn, ragged cloak thrown over a wooden training dummy.
[Class Information]
↳ Name: The Drifter
↳ Base Stats: 10 Strength, 10 Agility, 10 Intelligence, 10 Vitality.
↳ Class Perks: None.
↳ Description: A person who is skilled at nothing and follows no rules. The Drifter can learn any skill and use any item, but gets no extra bonuses.
On the forums, people called the Drifter a joke. They said it was a bad class made for roleplayers or people who liked pain.
Without the extra damage that special classes got, a Drifter would fall behind fast, by around level 10. They could do a little of everything but were great at nothing.
But Sebastian was not going to be great at nothing. With his Nexus Glitch, he planned to be great at everything!
He reached out and touched the wooden dummy.
"I choose the Drifter," he said clearly.
[SYSTEM WARNING: The Drifter class is very weak. You will get no starting skills and no bonus stats. Are you sure you want to continue?]
"Confirm."
The torn cloak turned into gray light and wrapped around his character. His starting clothes changed into simple leather and cloth. There was no shiny armor or glowing weapon. Just the basics.
[CLASS SELECTED. STARTING TALENT DRAW.]
Since he had no class perks, the game gave him a random talent instead. A big glowing wheel appeared in front of him.
It was split into thousands of small pieces. Most were white, meaning Common. A few were green, meaning Uncommon. A tiny number were gold, meaning Legendary.
But there was one very small black piece that seemed to twist and shift.
That was Chaos tier.
Sebastian watched calmly as the wheel spun. Most players would beg for luck at this moment.
Sebastian just watched. His eyes followed the spinning colors. He had lived through the end of the world. A spinning wheel did not scare him.
The wheel slowed down. The pointer clicked past the pins. It skipped a gold piece and passed a dozen white ones. Slowly, almost by luck, it stopped right on the small black piece!
[CHAOS TALENT DRAWN: FORBIDDEN ALCHEMY]
A wave of dark energy ran through his character. He opened his menu to read about it.
[Talent Information]
↳ Name: Forbidden Alchemy (Passive)
↳ Grade: Chaos
↳ Description: Your body can handle anything. You no longer get sick from potions, and there is no wait time between drinking them. You can use any potion or item to instantly heal Health or Mana, with no limit.
In a normal game, this talent was good but not amazing. Potions cost money, and most players could not afford to drink many.
But for Sebastian, this was the last piece he needed!
It meant that as long as he had items in his inventory, his mana was basically endless. He could use skills so often that they would drain even a strong Archmage in seconds!
"Perfect. Ha." He laughed as he closed the menu. "Send me in."
[TELEPORTING TO NOVICE VILLAGE 109…]
The world changed, and Sebastian appeared in the middle of a busy stone square.
The noise hit him hard. Novice Village 109 was packed with thousands of players.
They ran around like confused chickens. They shouted for teammates, bothered the guards, and tested the game's physics by throwing apples at each other.
"Looking for a group for the Level 1 Slime Farm! Need a tank!" one armored player shouted.
"How do I open the menu? Guys, how do I open the menu?!" someone else yelled in a panic.
Sebastian stood still in the middle of all the excitement. To them, this was a fun new world. A break from the harsh reality of 2077.
But when Sebastian looked at their happy faces, he saw only future corpses.
When the Great Merge happened, ninety percent of these people would die screaming, because they were treating this like a game instead of a way to survive.
He did not waste time feeling sorry for them. He opened his bag. He had exactly 50 copper coins. The normal starting amount.
He moved through the crowd smoothly, like an experienced fighter. He turned his shoulders to slip through small gaps without slowing down.
He ignored the Village Chief, who was surrounded by a hundred players trying to get the slime starter quest. He ignored the Blacksmith trying to sell rusty swords.
He walked down a narrow, dirty alley to a run-down tent that smelled faintly of sulfur and cheap ink. This was the general magic shop. The owner was a grumpy NPC named Silas who sold to Mages.
Silas looked up from his notebook. He looked down at Sebastian's plain Drifter clothes. "You don't look like you can afford magic, boy."
"Show me your cheapest items," Sebastian said. His voice left no room for argument.
The shopkeeper blinked, surprised by how firm the level 1 player sounded. Silas grumbled and pulled out an old, dusty box from under the counter.
Sebastian looked through the cheap items. Minor Heal. Basic Strike. Mud Ball.
His eyes landed on a worn, badly made book. Basic Spark. It cost 45 copper.
It was the weakest attack spell in the game. It did only 5 to 10 fire damage. It took one second to cast and only worked at close range.
Mages only bought it because you needed it to learn Fireball at level 5.
Sebastian gave the shopkeeper 45 of his 50 copper coins. He did not try to bargain. He just took the book, put it in his bag, and walked away.
He now had only 5 copper coins left. He had no armor, no weapon, and a spell too weak to kill a rat in one hit.
He walked out of the village gates, leaving the noisy crowd behind.
-----
Outside Novice Village 109 were wide, peaceful green fields.
Hundreds of players were chasing slow slimes and horned rabbits with rusty swords and wooden clubs. The fields looked like a messy battle fought by little kids.
Sebastian walked right past them. He did not pull out a weapon, because he had none! He kept walking, staring at the trees far ahead.
He took out the worn Basic Spark skill book from his bag.
In The Ethereal Plane, you did not need to read skill books. You just had to crush them.
He closed his fist, and the book broke apart into red glowing dust that sank into his skin.
[Skill Learned]
↳ Basic Spark (Tier 0 Fire Magic)
↳ Level: 1 / 10
↳ Cost: 5 Mana
↳ Damage: 5 to 10
↳ Proficiency: 0 / 100
Sebastian checked his stats. He had 100 max mana. That meant he could cast the spell twenty times before needing to rest.
Normally, reaching level 2 of a skill took 100 successful casts. Most players spent hours grinding this one weak spell on slimes just to get a small 2 percent damage boost.
He reached the edge of the fields and stepped into the shadow of the Wailing Woods.
The mood changed right away. The bright, happy sunlight disappeared under tall, twisted pine trees.
The cheerful music faded into a creepy silence, broken only by snapping twigs and low growls.
This was a Level 5 area. The Village Chief had warned new players to stay away until they had a full team and good gear.
Sebastian was Level 1. He wore starter clothes and was completely alone!
He stopped in a small clearing. It was time to test the Nexus Glitch.