BXBX NOVEL Chapter 3 - Episode 3: First Game Experience.
Sev teleport me to The Orion. I\'m in the middle of a small village. I look around and see a lot of NPCs walking around and some of them are sitting in front of a small stall having a conversation with each other.
"Welcome to The Betelgeuse Online!"
I turn around and see the kid. His character\'s appearance is the same as in real life. I smile.
"Thank you. First of all, I\'m really really amazed by the A.I. you created. She doesn\'t feel like an NPC at all! We had a casual conversation as if she\'s a human being."
The kid is grinning happily.
"Thank you! It took me more than a decade to make her like that. I made her with love and passion. She would be a perfect wife for me if she\'s real."
I laugh quietly.
"You\'re rich and good looking. You could get any girl in real life if you want to."
He shakes his head.
"It won\'t happen. I\'m happy with this."
I shake my head and exhale deeply. He claps his hand excitedly.
"Oh! What did she say when you\'re adjusting your character?"
I scratch my head.
"She said that my sex appeal is at 79% and I didn\'t readjust my character."
He nods with understanding.
"I knew it! You\'re really handsome!"
I laugh and brush it off. I look around.
"So, are we in the tutorial map?"
He nods.
"Yes, soon there will be someone going to see you."
He looks at the house behind me. He\'s pointing at something or someone. I turn around and see a bearded old man.
"Welcome to the Sarkh Village, adventurer! Do you have a moment to hear what I\'m about to say?"
I look at the kid and he\'s nodding repeatedly. I look at the bearded guy.
"Sure, I\'m free at the moment."
He grabs my shoulder.
"Great! First, let me introduce myself. My name is Kalman. I\'m the chief of Sarkh Village."
I nod.
"My name is Trevor. Nice to meet you, Mister Kalman."
The kid nods.
"My name is Becker. Nice to meet you, Mister Kalman."
Ahh. So his name is Becker, maybe. Well, at least that\'s his in-game name. Kalman nods.
"Nice to meet you too, Mister Trevor, Mister Becker. Please come with me."
We both follow Kalman and we get inside the building. Where he came from. He sits on the chair next to the wall. We both sit in front of him. Kalman is looking at Becker.
"Are you guys at a party? If so, then it would be nice."
I look at Becker and he nods. Kalman nods with understanding.
"Perfect! Here, 20 Health Potion (F)."
I grab the Health Potion. I lift it and look at Becker.
"What is this (F)? The grade quality?"
He nods.
"Yes, that\'s correct."
Kalman says,
"Since you both accepted the Health Potion, here is the quest. Please subjugate 10 dire wolves at the southern part of Sarkh Village. The rewards are 25 bronze coin and 150 experience points."
A screen appears in front of us. The detailed information about dire wolves, the lore and the origin. It amazed me how details the information is. I look at Kalman.
"We will be back soon, Mister Kalman."
He stands up and bows.
"May the Betelgeuse bless you."
We both leave the building and walk to the southern part of the Sarkh Village. I look at Becker.
"So, I\'m wondering why you name the game Beetlejuice. Is that some kind of insect?"
Becker stops and staring at me weirdly.
"Insect?"
I\'m looking at him and shrug.
"Yeah, a beetle."
Becker snorts and holding his laughter, but he can\'t and then burst out laughing. He wipes his eyes.
"No. Not Beetlejuice, but B-e-t-e-l-g-e-u-s-e. It\'s the name of the star in Orion."
I\'m embarrassed and covering my face with my hand.
"I\'m so dumb..."
Becker chuckles.
"Do you know that Betelgeuse star is dying? When that time comes, Betelgeuse collapses and the outer layers explode as a supernova. Because of that, this world we are in the world that was created by the supernova from the dying star Betelgeuse. That\'s the reason why I\'m going to name this game Legacy of the Betelgeuse when it\'s officially released to the world."
I nod with understanding.
"You\'re a genius, you know that?"
He is grinning and rubbing his nose.
"We are about to enter the southern part of Sarkh Village. Please be prepared."
I\'m checking my body and Becker\'s body.
"Where is our weapon? I just realized that we don\'t have any."
Becker chuckles.
"Use Open Inventory command. All types of weapon are in your inventory. You can choose a weapon that you like. Players are not bound to one types of weapon. Players are free to use all the weapons. But, it\'s better to stick to 2 or 3 weapons since you need to increase your weapon mastery. I have tested and calculated that you can only master 2 to 3 weapons if you played for 50 years in-game time nonstop."
I open the inventory and there are dozens of types of weapon. From Eastern to Western weapons are all here in my inventory. I read through all the weapon\'s description. Finally, I grab the short sword and a bearded axe. The reason why is.
[Short sword: Each swing reduce 2 stamina. If equipped on offhand, reduce 5 stamina. Using both hands, reduce 1 stamina.]
[Bearded Axe: Each swing reduce 4 stamina. If equipped on offhand, reduce 10 stamina.
Special trait: Gripping the top handle of the axe and used as a fist reduce 2 stamina. If equipped on offhand, reduce 5 stamina. Reduce the damage output by 25%.]
I calculate the damage output and compare it if I\'m using a dual short sword. The short sword base attack is 30. Bearded axe base attack is 45. If I put both of them on my offhand, of course, the axe has better damage, but it cost twice more stamina than a short sword. Two swings of short sword deal 60 damage and cost 10 stamina. That is the same as a single swing if I\'m using the axe. But, if I use the bearded axe\'s special trait. It cost the same amount of stamina as a short sword but deal 3.75 damage more than the short sword. At first, I thought about using a dual bearded axe since it deals more damage, but I\'m not stupid enough to fight wolves without a sword to make a distance from them.
I equipped both of them. Becker is smiling at me.
"How was it? It\'s fun to experiment with the weapon setups, right? Maybe in the future, I will add a simple calculation preview when they equipped the weapons they chose, so they don\'t have to calculate it themselves."
I shake my head and scoff.
"You\'re really a genius. It\'s so complex and yet so fun."
Becker is grinning.
"Thank you!"
We just passed the southern gate. A dark forest is in front of us not that far from the gate. We walk into the forest and we hear wolves howling. There are three wolves few meters from us that are busy eating the dead dear. Becker grabs a chained sickle. He smiles,
"Watch me."
He swings the sickle and throws it at one of the wolves. It hit the wolf\'s body and Becker pulls the sickle. The wolf\'s gut is torn and wide open. Becker wraps the chain on his arm. Then he starts to spin around and the wolves are scared to get close to him. With the momentum from spinning the chained sickle, he whips down the sickle towards one of the wolf\'s head and it pierces through its skull and dies instantly. His sickle is stuck on the wolf\'s head and he\'s trying so hard to pulls it out. The last wolf leaps towards him, Becker opens his inventory and pulls out a sword from his inventory and stabs the wolf\'s throat. He wipes his sweat and exhales deeply.
"That was dangerous. Looks like my strength is not high enough to pulls the sickle out."
A jingling bell sound is coming from his head. A screen pops out and it\'s saying that Becker just leveled up. He excitedly opens his status screen and adds the extra point to strength. Then he pulls out the sickle from the wolf\'s head. I can see his stamina bar is already at the half.
"Wow, you used a lot of stamina just from that?"
He is grinning.
"Yeah, chained sickle has a special trait to deal double damage but cost triple amount of the stamina."
Right, I read about it earlier. High-risk high-reward kind of weapon I guess. He sighs and sits down.
"Can we rest for a bit? I need to recharge my stamina."
I sit beside him and nod.
"Oh, you said to master 2 or 3 weapons, we need to spend 50 years in-game time. So how long is that in real-time?"
Becker is playing with the grass.
"Well, 1 day in-game is equal to 1 hour in real-time. So basically two years."
I nod with understanding.
"That\'s not that bad. So it takes at least 8 months to master one weapon."
He nods with an agreement.
"Yep, that\'s correct."
He looks at his status and stands up.
"Let\'s go, my stamina is fully charged."
I nod and stand up.
We continue to walk to find wolves.