Chapter 4: Class
It was a peculiar feeling. One that was difficult to put into words.
The moment Arthur uttered the word Zenith, something inside his head seemed to snap. His vision blurred and the familiar outline of his ceiling dissolved into a haze. And right before the darkness swallowed him, that same calm, resonant voice from the bracelet filled his ears:
"Welcome, Arthur. Prepare for transfer."
Light exploded across his eyes next, a light so bright it erased everything.
Arthur felt as if he had suddenly lost his balance and was somehow falling. As if the bed beneath him had already disappeared and given way to some endless, invisible void.
He couldn’t tell how long he had been falling for, either. Whether it had been a couple of minutes or over an hour, he had no idea.
But just as he was starting to get anxious, sensation returned to him all at once, and he found himself... standing on top of something.
...
The world around him was still a vast expanse of emptiness; There were no walls or ceiling, just an endless blankness stretching in every direction. But at least there was something solid beneath his feet now.
A small, metallic platform that spiraled out from its center like a spiderweb.
And before Arthur had enough time to take everything in, a single panel flickered into existence right in front of him, accompanied by a soft *ding*.
The mechanical voice returned along with it, echoing inside his brain like it was speaking directly into his mind:
"Player identification complete. Assigning initial parameters."
[Name: Arthur Shaw]
[Age: 19]
[Species: Human]
[Class: Mage]
[Title: None]
[Level: 1]
[HP: 50]
[Mana: 110]
[Strength: 3]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Wisdom: 4]
[Agility: 2]
[Vitality: 2]
[Elemental Affinity: None]
[Skills: None]
[Unassigned stat points: None]
Arthur stared at the glowing panel in front of him, probably a bit more surprised than he should have been. This was clearly a status window.
He hadn’t played that many MMORPGs in the past, but anyone who’d even touched a computer game in their lives would be able to recognize this thing.
A name at the top, followed by a row of attributes neatly stacked below it, and that tidy little box announcing your class. His eyes locked onto that line, too.
[Class: Mage]
He blinked once, then again.
"Wait! Why am I a mage?" He mumbled to himself before realization suddenly hit him. "I don’t even get to pick my own class?"
His voice echoed faintly in the empty space, but no answer came back.
For a moment, he just stood there, staring at the glowing golden letters and trying to see if there was something he’d missed. In every game he’d touched before, even those trash pay-to-win ones, you could always choose your own class. You should have this much agency, at least.
And Arthur had never once picked anything like a mage.
No, he always picked the berserker. Or whatever each game called it: warrior, barbarian, juggernaut. Didn’t matter. Something that swung a sword, an axe, or a hammer, and just pummeled things.
But... this?
Arthur let out a heavy breath, his eyes still glued to those letters.
But before he could think about it any further, the mechanical voice in his mind returned:
"Tutorial sequence initializing. Please remain still."
Arthur barely had time to register the words before the platform beneath his feet abruptly gave way.
The white expanse around him seemed to twist and turn, like a piece of paper collapsing in itself, and for the briefest moment... there was nothing.
But then, just as suddenly, the emptiness peeled away too, giving way to a cacophony of voices.
...
For a few seconds, Arthur felt almost disoriented. The sudden influx of light made his eyes sting, while the endless cries and screams around him made his head hurt.
Well, he was no longer alone, that was for sure.
His eyes slowly opened as he took in his new surroundings.
A vast plaza stretched out before him, paved in smooth gray stone that spanned in every direction, and bordered by towering buildings that eclipsed even his grandfather’s restaurant.
The place was so massive and so wide Arthur couldn’t even see where it ended.
And it was packed!
Thousands of people filled the space, crammed shoulder to shoulder. Some were looking around in bewilderment just like him, while others were shouting, and some were even huddled in circles.
Arthur turned around slowly, taking in the sea of bodies in his vicinity.
They were all human.
At the very least, he couldn’t see any of the four-armed creatures from the town hall or the bus stop.
He let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
He looked around a bit more, trying to see if he could recognize anyone, but surprisingly, these were all strangers. There weren’t any residents of Halewick among them, at least.
It made sense, he supposed. His town only had a few thousand people on a good day. Even if every single one of them had entered this game, they’d never fill a plaza this huge.
"So this is the tutorial?" someone beside him asked, his voice just loud enough to carry over into his ears.
"Tutorial? Who gives a shit?! Why am I a damn cleric? I didn’t even get to pick! Fuck!" A few meters away, another man was roaring in anger as he stomped the ground.
He wasn’t the only one, either. All around him, people seemed to be complaining about their classes, or they were still trying to make sense of what this place was. There were only a handful of them that seemed satisfied by the hand they were dealt.
Arthur ignored the growing ruckus and just thought back to his own status window. Right now, it didn’t feel like he was in some sort of game. Everything around him felt a bit too realistic, the voices around him, the people who bumped into him as they tried to pass by, and even the smell of sweat mixed with cheap cologne and body spray. It wasn’t that different from the situation in the town hall earlier.
Surprisingly, just thinking about it made his status window appear again, everything the same as before.
He looked around, searching for the ’logout’ option, but for some reason, there didn’t seem to be one. He even tried saying the word ’Zenith’ again, or just thinking about it a bit more intensely, but that didn’t seem to have any effect either.
For a moment, panic tried to settle into his heart before his logical reasoning took over. There was definitely a way to log out somewhere, he just hadn’t found it yet. After all, if there wasn’t one, how were those creatures supposed to receive their ’tribute’ in a month’s time?
That thought made him calm down a little bit before his gaze fell to the bracelet on his arm. He didn’t know if this thing was just ornamental or if it was supposed to have any other function aside from just staying around his wrist, but from the looks of it, it wasn’t going to take him back anytime soon.
Everyone around Arthur seemed to be trying similar things, including slamming their bracelets to the ground, but to no avail. None of them could find a way out, no matter what they tried.
But just as the chaos in the plaza began to reach its peak, a sudden hush rippled outward from one side of the square.
It was as if a single collective breath had been sucked from everyone’s throats on that side.
Arthur was among the first to notice the change in atmosphere and quickly turned to look at the source of the commotion.
On the rooftop of one of the huge buildings bordering the plaza, a figure had appeared at some point without a sound.
Even from a distance, Arthur could tell that thing was tall. Taller than any man or woman, and wrapped in a flowing black cloak as it looked down on them.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then the cloak shifted, and four muscular green arms folded across the creature’s chest.
A shiver went down Arthur’s spine in that instant. He didn’t need to see the face to recognize it. Those arms alone were enough.
He could almost feel the moment when thousands of people around him all understood the same thing he had. Some of them stumbled back, others flinched, but no one dared to scream.
The creature stood perfectly still, slightly cocking its head as if surveying the humans beneath it.
Then, it spoke, its low, guttural voice booming across the plaza,
"Inferior creatures. Listen well, for I will not lower myself to repetition. You have been gathered because even lesser things serve a use. Gather elemental stones, and you will be permitted to live. Fail, and you shall perish. Your circumstances are simple."
The creature lifted one of its massive hands and gestured around it as it continued,
"Across every region in the tutorial are elemental mines. Each city holds them under the city lord’s authority. You’ve been brought here to harvest stones directly from those mines."
Murmurs stirred through the crowd, but no one raised their voice as the creature went on,
"If you wish to remain alive, you will present yourselves to the nearest city guard and register. You will be assigned to a mine and be permitted to labor for your survival."
It paused for a moment and looked around, then added,
"Do not fear. The mines are well-guarded. Even fragile creatures such as yourselves can toil there without worrying about losing your lives. As long as you work hard enough, you should be able to meet the quota our tribe has set. I trust most of you will find this arrangement... adequate."
The creature tilted its head the other way, as if regarding the humans beneath it with vague curiosity and continued,
"If you prefer to wander these lands instead, hunt monsters, steal from each other, scrape and beg... that is also acceptable. The Gwong war tribe does not care how you acquire your elemental stones. We care only that you deliver them."
The creature paused, letting the weight of its declaration sink in. Although its face was still covered, Arthur could swear he saw the bastard thing smiling as it uttered that last sentence.
"Ah, right." The alien added, as if it had suddenly remembered an unimportant detail, "Should you wish to return to your pitiful planet, all you have to do is envision the location you last occupied before entering Zenith. You will be returned to your shells. That will be all."
Silence fell.
Then, almost immediately, people around Arthur began closing their eyes one after the other. Moments later, Arthur could see their figures disintegrating into motes of white light and disappearing completely.
For a moment, the alien said nothing. It simply watched, with its four arms folded in front of its chest, as thousands of people vanished one by one. Then, it shook its head and just as silently as it appeared, it, too, vanished into thin air.
The lull in the plaza lingered for a few seconds longer before exploding into a cacophony of all sorts of voices.
But Arthur didn’t move.
He didn’t try to ’log out’, either. His thoughts just spun, taking in everything the alien had just said.
Elemental mines. City lords. And the quota they had to pay.
He could tell, instinctively, that mining probably wasn’t as simple as it sounded. If it were, those things wouldn’t have needed to threaten and enslave humans, would they? And even if an able-bodied man could pick up a pickaxe and haul stones in this game...
"My grandfather can’t do that. His body won’t be able to take it."
For a moment, Arthur considered whether it’d be possible for him to mine enough stones for two people. However, he quickly shook his head before the idea even formed.
No, there was no need to be hasty.
"First things first," he thought, "I need information."
