Beyond Altarier

Vald woke up to a strange scene, one he didn recognise. He was supposed to be home, laying on the bed and getting ready to jump into his full-dive virtual reality headset to play his favourite game: Altarier. A game that offered players complete control over a virtual body, able to simulate every sense of a human via the full-dive technology created by IGA, the company behind the game. It was a world-changing technology that defined an era, the age of virtual reality where most of the worlds commerce and interaction happened not in the real world, but in the virtual one.

Altarier was the first to adopt FDVR gaming, making it a hot take among the masses. Not only did it offer another world for the people to explore, but it also had things our world didn have – magic, though that wasn why it was so successful.

The real reason Altarier took off, and to an extent, FDVR, was that Altarier had no
eal storyline. Everything was happening in real-time, be it the decisions the players or the NPCs made, both could start a story and live through it as one. This was what truly made the game such a huge success, with its peak popularity of well over 150 million concurrent players. It was the first of its kind to truly offer a world that was seemingly interconnected to our own, its event and ours codependent.

Vald, however, was not in for the realism that the technology had to offer, but instead one aspect of the game that didn feel quite real, yet it made him feel all-powerful. Indeed, it was magic. That was what truly intrigued him.

From the very beginning of early alpha to the late stage of the game some 19 years later. The feeling it gave him was just so different, so surreal, so…mystical. He sometimes questioned how the developers even knew how to code this feeling into their software, because it wasn something that one could experience in the real world.

Well, there was a lot of speculation around the creation of FDVR and the game, about how the devs were actually aliens playing with us…or that it was one really smart guy in the R&D section who tested the technology on himself and figured that magic felt like this. I for one, choose to believe in the latter.

Vald nodded, reminiscing about his early days as a young teenager who had just discovered the game and orrowed some money from his parents to get the equipment for Altarier – yes, borrowed.

Returning to reality, he still couldn make out where he was. His room was definitely not open to the outside world, the sky in his city was never this clear, and he definitely did not sleep on the grass.

”Was I, reincarnated? ”

”My voice… its not the same! ”, Vald was certainly surprised. The voice he had now was much deeper and more guttural than his normal voice, a thunder that roared every time he spoke, a bass that rumbled through his chest.

Vald then flexed his muscles, and he could tell that there were a lot more than his skinny weak body which lacked exercise (not that he regretted not exercising). Looking down through the many holes in his shirt, he could see toned muscles that were neither bulky nor lean, it was in the perfect gap between the two that gave him a slim look while packing a lot of power.

”A much better body than my own, it seems ”, he chuckled before sitting upright. The movement was fluid and his muscles were extremely responsive. He didn need to use his hands to help push himself upright anymore as his abs alone were more than enough.

The sight that greeted him was a vast grassy plain that extended over the horizon, and a blazing sun that hung a decent amount above the ground. The clouds were white and puffy, and the wind was filled with a fresh scent of petrichor. Vald took in a deep breath, the clean air filling his lungs to the maximum capacity as he felt more invigorated than ever before.

”Ahhhh! I missed the clean air. Its been forever since the air treatment plants were online! ”, he exclaimed, his voice travelling over the vast space as they carried with it all of his phantom sense of exhaustion. Vald then looked down at his body to see that he had a set of clothing on (thankfully), but they were tattered and soaked in the deep red stain of blood.

”…a surprise. It really seems like I was… reincarnated ”, he said. It wasn the blood or the scent that surprised him, since it was a common trope for the many novels he read online and that made him oddly calm about the entire situation. What really scratched his itch for knowledge was rather the question of how he died.

”I know the quality of the food I ate was questionable, and I certainly did not try hard enough to live healthily…but the last medical check said that I didn have anything wrong with my body ”

”Did I die due to cardiac arrest? Did I fall off the bed? No that shouldn be possible, the FDVR headset cuts off all motor functions when Im connected…unless it malfunctioned and fried my brain ”, all of them were possibilities, but they weren very likely to happen.

”Whatever. If I died, then I died. What can I do about that? ”, he grimly chuckled. Vald wasn attached to his life, at least not as much as other people he once knew. He didn care whether he died today or tomorrow, it was fulfilling as long as he got to what he wanted, whether it be to prove someone wrong or to prove himself right. That was all he wanted his life to be, simple and straightforward, just as he lived it.

[Status]

A small piece of glowing text floated on the top left of his vision. He didn notice it before since even being the stoic god he is, dying and reincarnating was quite the experience for the average person.

”Status?! Wait, have I been sucked into the game? ”, he questioned, though it was hard to conceal the excitement and fascination he had in his voice. Vald tried to move his hand to click on the widget, but it just went right through the piece of floating text. Next, he tried to turn his head to look at it, but its position was firmly fixed at the edge of his vision, so that was a no-go.

It seems like it isn a touch widget, lets try voice next.

”Status ”, he started, but there was no change to the blue piece of text. So he continued;

”Profile ”

”Stats ”

”System ”

”Panel ”

”Open status ”

”Attributes ”

”Skills ”

…

No response, none at all.

”Well, it was worth a shot. None of the standard calls gave any response…so well leave that for now ”, he shrugged. If this were Altarier, then even if he got the status panel open, there wouldn be a map. The attributes he could view would not help his situation either, nor would the skill panel help.

Assuming that this is a new character then I wouldn have any skills, he thought.

”Thought? ”

Status

__________

[Vald (Human)]

HP: 100/100

MP: 50/50

SP: 100/100

Level: 1

Experience: 0

Class: –

[Attributes]

STR 10 DEX 10 END 10 INT 10 FOC 10

[Skills]

[Status]

Weakened (149s)

__________

”Oh yeah, now we
e talking ”, he chuckled. Just as hed expected, he was without any experience or levels, or skills. Barebones nothing at all, like a brand-new character… at least he was human. The weakened status was normal for any character that was newly created as if to simulate being rebirthed, only lasting for 600 seconds of which he only had 120 seconds left. His stats were also a bog standard 10 for every attribute, which is a blessing in disguise as it allowed him to build off it as he liked as he was level 1.

”Hmm, should I try to build for a pugilist this time…or a dimensional mage? They
e pretty strong after that patch because of that one skill…but they
e so dependent on FOC that I might as well be an ascetic ”, his face contorted in thought as there were too many classes and subclasses within the game. Vald was a hybrid mage during his time in Altarier, a combination of every trait that the game had to offer but a master of none. Not only that, he was one of the most experienced players in the game – with close to 70,000 hours in the game, he knew practically all there was to know about the hybrid mage class and was in the top 10 for a few months during his peak.

”I can think of that later ”, shrugging it off, he had a more pressing concern at the moment. ”Now, this might be the only time I wish I had a map… ”, there was no indication of where to go anywhere near him, which was unusual for a new player spawn point. ”Damn, this might be the only time I wished the devs did add a map function… ”, he shook his head as he began to walk in one direction, choosing randomly as every direction looked the same to him.

…

It had been three hours since hed started walking, and while nothing much changed as the grass still stretched for as long as the eye could see, Vald had gained a new skill!

”Alright. The mechanic for gaining passive skills is the same, thats good ”, he heaved a sigh. Finally confirming that whatever world he was in, the status panel was running on the same rules as the game he loved, which meant that he at least had some advantages when it comes to gaining power and staying alive.

Vald opened the status panel and selected the new skill hed gained:

[LV1 Stamina Increase]

Increases the stamina limit by 10%

”Yes, the first skill most people get when they join Altarier ”. It was common for a person to log into the game for the first time and be spawned somewhere far away from anything, which led to them having to walk. Many hated the introduction to the game since there wasn anything to guide them, and people just spent the first 5-10 hours of the game wandering. Surprisingly though, this skill was the most common skill across the entire game, with over 97% of players gaining the skill from aimlessly wandering for over 3 hours.

”But, this plain is awfully vast. How long do I have to walk to even reach another region? I haven seen anything along the way here… ”. There was not a creature in sight during his 3-hour-long journey, which was concerning since his stomach had started to growl some time ago.

”At least the ground is flat… ”, he sighed before continuing on his journey.

…

Vald saw a little red marker on the top right of the status panel as he was walking. At this point, it had been over 10 hours since hed started and there were still no signs of life around him, the sole exception being that neverending green grass that felt soft to the touch.

Status

__________

[Vald (Human)]

HP: 100/100

MP: 50/50

SP: 23/112

Level: 1

Experience: 3

Class: –

[Attributes]

STR 10 DEX 10 END 10 INT 10 FOC 10

[Skills]

LV3 Stamina Increase

[Status]

__________

”Oh. Level 3 huh, Ive been walking for way too long then… ”, finding a good excuse to rest, he decided to just lay on the grass while watching the sunlight turn redder and redder. Vald had been walking without any food or water for the last 10 or so hours, which made him very exhausted. The only saving grace was the [Increased Stamina] skill that kept levelling up. His stamina value increased by 10% for the first level, and a subsequent 1% for every other level gained, which meant that he gained some energy every 3 hours as the skill levelled up. However, that wasn exactly enough to counter the amount of stamina he drained just by walking. Vald wasn used to a body this muscular or tall, and he found it hard to control the amount of energy he spent walking.

”Why is my spawn point so bad? Why is it so far from anything at all? Why are there no mobs?! ”, he groaned while rolling on the ground, his shirt and hair picking up pieces of grass as they made him look even more feral.

Spawns are supposed to be roughly 30 kilometres from the nearest NPC settlement! They
e supposed to have some form of guidance for the player to navigate to the beginner town and at least have some creatures to introduce game mechanics! Wheres my new player treatment?!

He knew that complaining wouldn help, but if there was a
eport-an-issue function then he would already be cramming the devs inboxes full of reports!

”Ugh. So hungry… ”, he moaned whilst rubbing his empty stomach. Vald normally had a small appetite, but that was likely because he didn spend any energy during the day except for occasionally going out to get energy packs. His stature was pale and skinny – like a ghost – because he was always sleeping on the bed and playing Altarier, or doing some odd jobs here and there in the virtual world for extra money. Regardless, that was the past, and now he had to worry about this body that seemed to demand a boatload more nutrients.

Vald looked up to the sky dimming by the second, the suns red fading away to reveal a starry night sky that shimmered with various colours, forming a sea of twinkling jewels that was more beautiful than any art hed ever seen. The cold air brushed past his tattered clothes as he took a deep breath and heaved a sigh. His face was unreadable, as stoic as usual as he took in the sight of the night sky in full.

”Transmigration or reincarnation… ”, he sighed, closing his eyes to enjoy the breeze of the fresh air hed been lacking since childhood. ”I could be in the game, still connected to the FDVR gear. I could have died, and been reincarnated into the game world. I could be imagining all this in a coma, a lucid dream. Maybe I got transmigrated, which raises even more questions… ”, Vald listed the possibilities while counting with his hands. ”Take it the other way, I could have been in a coma here, and Earth isn real. FDVR could be a figment of my imagination…but that is more than a stretch for a person who did not live on modern Earth. Or, there is no reality at all, and I am information on an aliens computer ”, chuckling at the last remark, Vald prepared to get some sleep for the night and alleviate his hunger.

[Quest] [Quest] [1y3d21h58m04s]

”Huh? ”, his eyes opened in surprise, though they didn need to be as he could still see that three more floating widgets had appeared right beside the [Status] in a flash of light.

Is this…finally the goddamn system telling me what to do after spawning? That took long enough! Why did I have to walk for a day before this popped up? Server lag or what?!

He still opened the first widget despite feeling sour about the whole thing.

__________

[Quest]

Find a town.

Rewards:

100XP

__________

Valds eyes went wide as he came across the reward section of the quest. ”100 experience?? What is this dogshit reward?! ”, he truly did not know whether to laugh or cry! It was as if someone had forgotten to add two zeroes to the end of that reward text! For comparison, most players get their first quest when spawning (his was over a day late) and their reward for LEARNING the controls of the game – basically using their body – was 1000xp!!

”I can even increase any of my attributes! What the hell is this? Why does every other MC get some sort of cheat while Im left with whatever this is?! ”, tears were on the verge of falling as it was only now that he wanted to go back! If his experience gain was this abysmal, then forget becoming powerful, he couldn even level his skills beyond tier 3 or 4! He would truly become the background character without any talents!

”No no no…calm down. This is just the beginning, there mustve been a bug or something…lets look at the other quest and that weird timer ”, he sighed.

__________

[Quest]

Survive for 10 days (1/10)

Rewards:

1500XP

__________

His eyes twitched.

”Okay, fine, its not a bug. Two zeroes missing. Move on to the timer ”, the words came out as grinding noises through his clenched teeth.

__________

[1y3d21h55m36s]

Time until the second iteration.

__________

There was no other piece of information on the widget that displayed time.

”Huh ”, Vald wondered what it meant. While the game did have a timer, it was usually for user-set timers or game update notifications, where the devs notified the players that servers will be down for however many hours or days they required to get it up and running. Hed never seen the word iteration used in a timer function, nor had he ever seen a timer set for this long.

”1 year until the second iteration…is this my cheat? No way…haha, please no ”, he rubbed his hands together and prayed wholeheartedly to whoever, or whatever caused him to be here. One year in Altarier was barely enough for the average player to level 20-30 times, now Vald was no average gamer, of course. He was confident in levelling 90-100 times in one in-game year, but that was with the normal experience rate! Not this bullshit 100 times less! Hed be lucky to even get one level, and that was abysmal progress for one year!

”Haaaaaa…no good, no good. To be that weak even when given a year, how embarrassing ”, he tsked and flipped to lie on his side, letting the soft grass tickle one side of his cheeks.

”If its a challenge, then I accept that challenge ”, he whispered as a fiery blaze ignited in his eyes once more, the excitement and passion he felt when facing an impossible task while playing Altarier resurfacing after years of being repressed into the deepest parts of his mind! The will to prove to whoever challenged him that he could go above and beyond, an ego that was larger than the sky!

”100 times less XP? Hah! Prosperous! To think that this can stop the great Valdori! ”, he laughed as a newfound motivation embedded itself into his soul, the sheer amount of pride he carried as one of the best in Altarier forming into a trait that unbeknownst to him, would come to define who he truly was!