Five, Four, Three, Two, One
Ding!
Damon opened his eyes and the darkness around him dissipated, replaced with a bright and sunny world. He was standing in front of a solemn monolithe.
A beautiful angel flew towards him and flashed a cute smile. She had a halo floating gently above her head, and soft, feathery wings that shimmered in the light like spun silver. Her golden hair danced with the breeze, and her eyes sparkled with kindness and innocence.
"Welcome to Earth Online!" she chirped, voice light and musical. "By the grace of the Skyfather and the blessings of the Seven Realms, you have been chosen to walk the path of destiny!"
Damon blinked against the sudden brightness. His senses were still adjusting.
"I am your guiding angel, Moonshine. I will be introducing you to the world and show you all the-"
The introduction was an hour long one and Damon had no plans of wasting his time on something like this. "Skip." He interrupted the angel.
She did not seem offended in the least and instead extended a hand to him. "Would you like to begin the tutorial?"
Damon would have preferred to skip this one as well but he knew a little secret about this tutorial and had no plans on missing out on that title this time around.
Damon took her hand. "Ya. Let's begin."
The moment their hands touched, the scenery shimmered. The bright fields and gentle breeze melted away, replaced by the tutorial zone, a small cave.
The cave was cozy and there was moss everywhere. A second after he arrived, the first rabbit spawned. Then two more popped up. They were round, fluffy things with big glossy eyes and twitching noses. White, brown, a few black-spotted ones. Their ears flopped as they hopped around cutely.
They were completely harmless. They didn't drop loot. Didn't grant experience. Barely nibbled for one point of damage. They existed solely for one reason: to let new players learn the basics of movement and timing without fear of death. Most people spent five minutes here, tops, before moving on to the "real" part of the game.
But not Damon. He reached down, grabbed a medium-sized rock and then, without hesitation, he slammed the rock down onto the first rabbit.
Thud. The rock came down hard, and the rabbit didn't even have time to squeak. Its body crumpled beneath the blow, soft fur torn apart, bones shattered. Blood pooled under it, seeping into the cracks of the cave floor.
Damon stared down at the mess for a second. The game prided itself on realism and that included the way a rabbit's skull caved in under a rock. He was already used to things like this. This was not his first time after all.
He quickly moved on to the next one and soon the corpses started piling up. But he was only in the dozens and he needed hundreds. He sucked in a big breath and got to work. He kept his movements simple and his actions small. A couple of hours quickly passed and his stamina was close to bottoming out. Finally, the notification chimed in.
[Ding! You have completed the tutorial]
[Ding! Title Unlocked: Rabbit killer - I hate cute little bunnies]
Damon's figure disappeared from the small cave and appeared in the middle of the newbie small town. He was wearing a simple linen cloth shirt and pants.
He was back in the Gryphon town, a small town on the outskirts of the Nieta Falls city. This was his starting town in his last life and he had arrived at the same place this time as well.
Damon let out a breath of relief. The starting point was usually random and he did not want a big portion of his plan to get messed up because of this randomness. But it turns out even randomness cannot escape fate. He spawned in the same place as before.
All around him, players continued to materialize out of thin air. Gasps and shocked shrieks could be heard everywhere as the crowd experienced the realistic aspect of the game.
"Wow, I cannot believe this. How is this real man? Where was this technology all my life?"
"Oh my god. I can walk. Run. Jump."
"Hey, hey. Do you think we can do that inside the game? Should be realistic right? Fuck it. Where are the brothels at? Today is the day this big daddy is finally going to lose his virginity!"
"You perverted piece of shit! By the way, where are the brothers? Asking for a friend..."
"What the fuck? What is this fat-ass character profile? Shit! I cannot change my image?"
"Yes, bitch. If you are ugly in the real world, your ass will be ugly here too."
"Wait, we can't even change the gender? What sort of a stupid game makes catfishing impossible?"
The entire atmosphere was extremely lively and people were still trying to make sense of the game and enjoying the simple experience of living in a different world. A couple of women turned towards Damon to look at him.
"What the fuck? Rabbit killer? Did he kill a lot of those rabbits?"
"What a freak?! Who would kill those little things?"
"Ah, fuck. If I knew there was a title associated with it, I would have spent more time in the damned tutorial!"
Some gave him a stink eye and some looked jealous but Damon did not care. He walked away, quietly pulling up his status screen and tampering with it. The first thing he did was turn off his title display. He then adjusted the rest of his character profile.
Actually, there wasn't much to adjust. The in-game character was pretty much a copy of the real-life physical body. One's in-game name was also locked to the government-registered name. The only thing anyone could change was their nickname. Everything else was fixed.
Damon flinched a little as he typed in his nickname. Unfortunately, he had to pick a nickname that he absolutely hated. The same cringe nickname he had in his previous life because that was important and could potentially determine the rest of his path going forward.