Innerworld, Floor 1.
Devon’s eyes fluttered slowly open—it felt like it was his first time using these eyes.
He felt... energetic, like he could run laps around the entire world and not get tired.
"...Weapons! Selling weapons!"
"...Everything that the player might need, we got them. So come down on Big John’s Item Emporium!"
It was rowdy in the street. Store owners were advertising at the doorway of their stores. Passerby’s, hundreds of them, walked down the street.
Devon was standing right in the middle of the square—at the spawn point—it was the busiest area in the entire village.
And with each passing second, more and more players appeared from the spawn point and immediately headed elsewhere.
Players of all ethnicities and nations flocked to the area, creating a vibrant and diverse atmosphere.
"...Yeah, let’s head to the Adventurer’s Guild!"
"...I’ll follow you!"
In that moment, Devon heard two players talk in front of them—they appeared to be friends—but they seemed to be from different countries.
One of them seemed from the Middle East—possibly Great Egypt—and his friend was definitely from the Indian Federation because of his olive skin and dark hair.
Yet.
They were both speaking fluent English.
’Innerworld uses a World Translator that translates everything to your native language. With that, it doesn’t matter where one is from; you can still play with them.
’I hear everything as English because I am from New America, but if I speak, they would hear me speak a completely different language.’
Devon thought.
He had only seen that in streams and videos that he had watched, but experiencing it firsthand was a surreal experience.
’Nobody else appeared here.’
Devon thought as he looked around the square—he thought that there must be other spawn points—otherwise, it would be even more crowded than before.
He left the spawn point and found a quiet alley to gather his thoughts, and then he sat down on a barrel he found there.
"Right... How did they do it again... System Interface?"
Devon said it aloud, and at that moment, a holographic screen appeared before his eyes like a digital overlay.
***
[=SYSTEM INTERFACE=]
[Name: Devon Levi]
[Class: None]
[Sub-Class: None]
[Coins: 0]
[Level: 1]
[XP: 0/10]
[Health: 100%]
[SP: 0]
[Stamina: 0]
[Strength: 0]
[Durability: 0]
[Agility: 0]
[Vitality: 0]
***
’Okay. It is just like I remember it, but it’s very current now. I am zero at everything. I know that I can open different attributes depending on the class I choose.’
Devon rubbed his chin.
’The classes are separated into Main Classes and Sub-Classes. It’d be wise to find the Main Class first, and then choose a Sub-Class that would complement it the best.’
He then tapped on the inventory.
***
[=INVENTORY=]
[Wooden Sword - Rank: Trash]
[Wooden Shield - Rank: Trash]
***
’Trash rank is as low as it can get. Everyone starts with a wooden sword and shield. It will do barely any damage, but it is better than nothing.
’Health shows that I am at 100%. It does work in a percentage system. The more points you put in the Vitality attribute, the harder it is to lose any health.’
Devon closed the system interface and inventory—then he pressed on another tab that opened up a holographic map.
[=HIGHBERRY VILLAGE=]
It was only showing the starting location on the map. It didn’t show the outside area. He would need to go there first for the map to update.
’Adventurer’s Guild...’
Devon moved his finger across the holographic until he found what he was looking for and tapped it with his finger.
’There you go.’
He stood up, but then from the reflection of a window, he was able to see what he was wearing—a poor-looking brown tunic, white pants, and a pair of worn-out boots.
He looked like an ordinary village boy from the middle of nowhere!
’Far cry from others in the street.’
Devon thought as he looked at the players walking down the street—even though they were all newbies, some of them were already wearing armor.
First Floor was only for new players—once you leave the first floor, you cannot return. It was designated so that some bored professional players couldn’t just come here and kill whoever they wanted.
’I should find others.’
Devon left the alley and, with the help of the map, headed straight for the Adventurer’s Guild that was located at the further end of the village.
While walking, he was also looking around to see whether he could find anybody from the Draft, but there were so many people.
And he didn’t remember everybody’s faces.
Then.
Devon also saw some NPCs talking and walking in the streets—acting and talking like actual humans—it was hard to tell them apart from players.
’Huh?’
Then, he saw some players actually flirting with some attractive NPCs—village girls—who were smiling politely but looked like they weren’t enjoying the conversation as much as the players were.
’Very realistic indeed.’
Devon chuckled, and at last, he arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild, and it was the biggest building in the village.
It had a big statue of a lion at the roof of the building. It was the size of the actual roof. Roaring with its massive mouth open.
"Devon!"
He heard a familiar voice and then saw Kate waving her arm excitedly, and she was also with everybody—Ned, Aaron, and Jackson looked over.
They were all wearing the same newbie getup as Devon was.
"It has been a while since I’ve been at the Newbie Floor. Nothing has changed really. It’s always funny to see new players trying new things like they were born just yesterday."
Jackson said.
"It is... quite a surreal thing to experience."
Devon said and then looked at his arm and gave it a quick pinch—there was a small sensation—just a tiny bit.
"You experience one percent of the actual pain."
Aaron said, as he believed that it would be hard to feel any actual pain just by pinching, because it didn’t really hurt much.
’One percent. Doesn’t sound much, but once you get stabbed or burned with fire, it can still hurt quite a bit.’
Devon thought.