The Beggar Prince of Crimson

'Guide finished, I think ill keep it in my rare cards and posters binder.'

I had already made a space open for the Laupod in the corner of my room. I had even cleaned my room after ages. The delivery people wouldn't judge him this way. The only thing left to do was to wait for the delivery!

And like that two gruesomely long days went by, Zabe's every waking thought was about Laurel. Early in the morning when the delivery people knocked on his door, an hour later of installing and it was there siting pristinely Infront of him! The Laupod Sun edition, he had picked the Sun edition because the razer edition seemed quite useless, to him at least. He didn't want to be friends with an Ai, he'd use the Sun Ai for its resources and knowledge. 

After admiring his new toy, he opened the glass dome door covering the seat inside. 'its quite comfy actually, hopefully it doesn't destroy my posture.' he thought. Zabe put on the neck brace device meant to inject him in the game and waited. He didn't quite know what to do, he hadn't read the Manuel because he was so excited!

A short minute later and he herd the genderless voice of the Ai.

"You have skipped the introduction, welcome to-"

'Huh? What are you talking about!? why did skip the introduction? It didn't even finish its sentence...' Zabe thought.

"Hello? Ai? Start LAUREL!" Zabe said worriedly. The previously black screen had little lines of biometrics and what seem to be code being run on the top right side of his view. He didn't have time to dwell on it before a grey transparent screen with black borders and white lettering appeared.

"Create your character." The white lettering blinking, just waiting for him to "press" it.

"Alright! Now we're talking! I wanted to talk to SunAi tho... Oh well, I can do that later! Character creation!" Zabe said.

With just the thought of pressing it, his body appeared in the dark void. It looked just like his real body. But he wasn't seeing out of his eyes, he had a 3rd point of view of his body. A transparent screen appeared in the top left of his view with sliders to change things like race, height, gender and all sorts of adjustments. 

Inspecting for a bit I found a slider at the bottom called randomize mild and randomize extreme. I opted for the mild version, extreme changes to one body might send the mind for a loop of nausea. 

My body started change its aspects a quick rate and multiple times too, the nose would change constantly with no sign of stopping. Until a light chime ringed and the randomization stopped. His hair had changed for black to a light brown, his skin had gained a tan, his face lost some of its roundness and became angular. His blue eye had turned purple. My previous height of 5'8 had become a meager 5'4. While I could make myself taller, it didn't fit the class I had in mind.

His race was stuck on humans as stated in the guide and he could'nd choose a class.

Satisfied with his appearance he finished. His view turned black. A transparent window appeared in front of him.

"Enter Laurel?"

'This is it!'

A few seconds later his body appeared in the central plane of Laurel in the middle of a town.

I opened my eyes to face the large watchtower in front me, it was hard to miss as it was the only tall thing above the houses. I looked at my hands and squeezed them. 'This was real! I pinched my cheek. Pain! Alright ill stop that its not pleasant' Zabe thought. I had some old looking rags on, something a medieval prisoner would wear. No items, they didn't feel like giving us a bone it seems. 

I looked around to see people doing similar things, some jumped around, others threw punches. The town square was full of people up to 500, I assumed players, most of them were probably from my region. They had grouped up people in same regions to be in the same starting town. Their was supposedly a chunk full of these towns, but not all of them were meant to stay. Surrounding us was the different houses\shops, they were made of a shabby round stones. The tower and the manor in the distance were the only things made of bricks. The sky was clear with the sun directly above. Since the town didn't have walls you could also see the forest to the south-east, the trees were big and gave off a magical energy. 'This feels pretty great, its like I just took a bath and my body's full of energy! No wonder their jumping around' Zabe couldn't help but let out a chuckle with a smile on his face.

While everyone was talking, a chime rang and a system window opened.

-Global announcement-

Welcome players to the world of Laurel! I've given you a moment to adjust but the time has come to start your first quest! Find a job class, you can get a job class by doing right about anything. Sitting at one of the shops and tryin to sell a rock can net you a job. The first job class is the easiest to get, gaining another after it will require specific actions. So pick carefully! 

Ill be cheering for you! Good luck Razer and Sun!

Once finished, Zabe looked around to find that many of the players had done what the announcement had suggested. Some were being pushed out of the way. Like a rabid frenzied, some ran past him to do the same. 

'The system said right a about anything right? So would stealing give a thief type class? Would punching someone give them a brawler type class?' I thought.

But I wasn't the only one to think that. In the corner of my eyes I saw a large bearded man punch another player next to him. Quick and effective! The hit could be heard clearly by those around him. It was easy for them to understand what had happened. The scrawny man that was hit stumbled on the ground. Upon opening his eyes, he saw that the bearded man was now standing over him with a large grin.

-You have met the condition to acquire the Warrior-Oriented Job class "Brawler". Would you like to accept?-

"Yes" The bearded player simply said. A red energy spiraled around him, lighting up his surroundings. If the sight of him punching another player had not gotten the attention of everyone. This had.

Suddenly the man on the ground also lit up in red energy, he had gained something as well. 

"Lets test this skill aye? What do you say?" The bearded man said loudly in amusement while looking at the man on the ground. 

Before the man on the ground could say anything, the bearded man threw a full body punch aimed at his head. But the scrawny man put his hands in an X just in time, blocking the hit to a certain extent. The ground below him gave him support prevent ting him from being flung back like he would have been if he was standing.

Something odd happened to the scrawny man after being hit. His arms, what looked to be swelling began bulging with unnatural muscles. His arms were quite scrawny but now they looked lean on his short arms. 

The scrawny look at his arms with confusion, much like everyone else, bearded man included. But not wasting a second, pulled his body upward on his rear he swung his left arm at the only thing he could reach. The bearded man's right leg.

The swing was slow and looked heavy. But the bearded man didn't move out the way, opting to stand there and see what would happen.

His fist landed. The bearded man walked back a bit, he hadn't taken much damage. In his evaluation the hit had about a quarter of the power of the one he had threw.

"What d'you do just now?" The bearded man said while walking back to the now sitting scrawny man.

"I have to thank you. I gained the class "Masochist". Every hit I get, makes my next attack stronger. Now tell me yours, you owe me that..." The scrawny man's hoarse voice said slowly. 

"I don't owe you nothin, but I guess I could tell you..." but before finishing, the bearded man bolt toward the scrawny man who had just finished standing up.

The bearded man clenched his fist, went past the scrawny man and landed it squarely in the face of an onlooker who didn't get the time to block not less realize she was being targeted. The punch sent her flying in a nearby house, crashing in a wall and flopping on the ground. No one had predicted that, nor did they know why the bearded man would do such a thing.

'Did he have a fetish for hitting random people? Why'd he ignore his opponent?'

"My class is brawler, I get a boost for defeating an enemy." Just as the bearded man said that, steam started coming off his body indicating that his skill was in effect. The bearded man took a moment to observe the steam before menacingly walking towards the scrawny man once more. 

'This is insane! Barely any time has passed and some epic fight has already broken out! Someone better upload this to Jamtube!' Zabe thought, this was the kind of thrilling fight you watch in big stadiums, but he was seeing a front row sight of it. It was the first time seeing a fight like this up-close, he never had the the time or interest in these. 

The bearded man had arrived Infront of the scrawny man.

"Didn't I tell you? The harder I get hit the harder I hit back!" The scrawny man yelled with a smile on his face. 

"Unfortunately for you. No matter how powerful your fists become, they wont surpass mine. They'll only get as strong as I hit you and by that time, you'll be dead." The bearded man said in a serious tone while looking directly in his eyes.

The eye contact lasted only a second before the smile on the scrawny man slumped down, the realization had hit him. The bearded man could be bluffing but what he said was logical. His class hadn't mentioned that the damage would accumulate, nor did it give a ratio. Receiving a strong hit didn't mean he would then hit back with a strong one too. For all he new it could be a damage bonus to his normal strength or a percentage bonus of strength based on the hit received. As he thought about it, a sense of dread waned down on him. He was screwed!

The bearded man's hits were already strong, given by his class. But he had also defeated an enemy in one punch and now he had gained a boost from it. To say he was going to get killed would be overly obvious. He had been plain stupid to say and think he could win. No mentioning the barded man seemed to know how to fight and didn't have a any qualms or worries about it. If he did, it didn't show in the least. The fact the bearded man didn't end him when he could spoke volumes, he didn't see him as a real threat, he was just some test subjects. 

'He hit me out of nowhere, it should have been obvious that he was under control from the start, you think that kind of guy gets defeated easily?! Maybe its because I haven't adapted to the fact that this isn't some normal game... Freaks like this exist here!' The Scrawny man thought, while looking down on the ground. His previously high and confident attitude was no gone, resigning to the man Infront of him. 

"You may be idiotic, but I don't blame you for that. You were entertaining actually!" The beard man said as his serious expression was replaced with smile.

"Tell you what, If you can survive one hit. Ill let you live!" The bearded man said bringing one finger up while pulling his other arm back.

'I doubt he plans on letting me go. He just... He just wants to look merciful Infront of the crowd...' The scrawny man look up to face what was about to befall him. Upon seeing the crowd preparing for the blow, he could see it. Some looked hopeful, some looked nervous but he knew that they wanted him to prevail, against the aggressor. A Glint appeared in his eyes. His Eyebrows furrowed in anger and determination. He wouldn't die a coward or a quitter. Before the bearded man's fist reached him. He pulled his arm back. And met the bearded man's fist with his. Fist to Fist.