Pantheon Online

[Please choose a name.]

'Hm,' Colt knew that this point would come eventually. He had spent a lot of time thinking about it while waiting for the Beta test. Colt's old name, when he was part of Camelot, was Excalibur. He wanted his new name to reflect that, as well as the injustice he felt from being banished from his team. He smiled as he entered his new name, 'Exile'.

[Your name has been set to 'Exile'. Is this correct?]

"Yes," He replied, as he began to notice bursts of golden light as the other players finished their registration. As soon as he said this, he felt a warm feeling coursing throughout his body. Soon, his vision was filled with a golden light. "Let's see what you've got!"

When the light dissipated, his vision was filled with a massive white blanket. A cold wind blew against his face, making him shiver. He would have liked to have claimed the shiver was from excitement, but it really was just because he was cold. 'Damn! Look at all this snow!'

Snow was a rare sight in the real world these days. Most people would live their entire lives without ever seeing or experiencing the real thing. 'Wait! I'm actually cold? In a game?' Having just realised the significance of this fact, Colt's eyes bulged as he tried to figure out how it was possible.

So far, no game had achieved this level of immersion. The gaming industry, as a whole, had only managed to replicate realistic sights and sounds. Player's would feel a tiny bit of pain whenever they got hit, but it was just at a level to let them know that had happened. While his mind was already thrown into disarray over this, a crisp, fresh smell of pines and winter entered his nostrils. Stimulating his thoughts to find something else to be surprised about.

'Have they actually managed to replicate all five senses? If they have, then that's amazing! No wonder they don't want word to leak before the public release.' Colt looked around to get his bearings. 'There should be a starting village around here somewhere…'

He looked dead ahead, only to see a forest full of pine trees. To his left, there was a sharp cliff that dropped down further than he could see. On his right, there was a rocky, snow-covered wasteland. With a deep sigh, he turned around. It could only be behind them.

'ARE you kidding me!' Colt was utterly dumbfounded. As it so happened, there was absolutely nothing but more wasteland behind him. 'What the fuck am I meant to do, huh?!'

Colt felt the warning signs of an incoming headache. Clearly, he had not had enough coffee to be dealing with this today. It took him a few minutes to gather his thoughts, then he felt a stinging pain as he slapped his face with the palm of his hand. 'God damn! That actually hurt!' It was clear that it would take some time for him to get used to this new level of immersion.

What surprised him even more, was that he could somehow sense that his own strike had actually done some damage to him. 'Oh, right! I can just check if there's a map in the system.' Colt had been so caught up in the new experience that he had completed forgotten that this was a game. He could not believe that he had made such a rookie mistake, but that was just how exciting this new experience was for him.

'Status,' Colt said within the confines of his own mind. This was the standard command for every VRMMORPG when players wanted to check their in-game stats, skills, equipment and quests. He prepared himself to be overloaded with a bunch of overly complicated details, 'Hmm? What's this?'

[Name: Exile]

[Race: Wandering Deity (Human)]

[Title: None]

[Tier: 0]

[Level: 1]

[HP: 10/10]

[DP: 0/0]

[Strength: 1]

[Endurance: 1]

[Speed: 1]

[Authority: 1]

Colt was surprised to find that his stats were not overly convoluted as he had expected. However, after getting over the initial shock. He noticed the elephant in the room. 'What the fuck is this! Why is my race set to be a deity? Doesn't that mean I'm a god?'

This was certainly not what he had been expecting. Usually, in these types of games, players would take the role of adventurers or something along the same lines. 'This is madness!'

Colt thought that he had to have misread the information, but no matter how much he stared at it, the words never changed. 'Ok, say the developers are actually mad enough to allow players to be gods. Then what's the aim of the game? 'Colt's eyes narrowed on his information screen. 'It can't be a simulation or casual game. They wouldn't make any money from that.'

He strained his mind as he tried to figure out the motive behind it. He thought it must be safe to assume that every player would be a God. The real question was, what would Gods compete in? Well, that must be obvious. Clearly, it would be believers and influence, but then. Where would these 'resources' come from? The pool of NPC's, maybe? That would make sense.

However, the fact that he had a health bar and somewhat regular stats hinted that they should be able to fight with each other or some kind of mobs. 'So is DP something to do with believers? I've never seen that as a stat before. It doesn't seem like it will be as simple as that. Authority. I wonder what that relates to? Magic maybe? Since there is no Intelligence or Wisdom stat?'

Colt was struggling to make heads or tails of what he was looking at. One thing he knew for sure, he would have to discover as much knowledge about this as soon as possible. He had a feeling that understanding these stats would make all the difference to his survival in this game. More so than stats in other games.' Tch, can't believe they're actually leaving us to figure this shit out ourselves. Some kind of in-game guide would have been nice…'

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