It took them a couple of minutes to examine the dark opening, straining their eyes and ears to look for anything that might surprise them on their way down. The ladder wasn’t very long and the light from Red’s lamp reached all the way to the bottom, where it ended in what looked like another stone floor.

  Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but Ben thought the others were eyeing him expectantly as he carefully investigated the vertical tunnel. He felt his heart swell with pride, realizing that they were learning to count on his talents. He remembered Red’s words, “the ever-surprising noob”, and smiled to himself as he straightened. “Looks safe,” he informed the others - but his smile wavered when he looked at Shiraz. The redhead had replaced the cloth around her neck twice already and the bleeding stopped, but the damage and pain were taking their toll.

  “How many?” Ben asked her, dreading the answer.

  “Four more points and I’m dead,” she said with a weak, sad smile.

  And if that happened, Ben might never see Shiraz again. This much at least he knew about the game: if you died in VD, there was a good chance that you’d lose your character forever. You might rejoin the game with another character, but there was a waiting period between characters that changed from DM to DM; by the time Raxlon allowed Shiraz’s player to return to his world, who knew if she’d even remember him.

  Her words urged the companions to action and they started to climb down the ladder - Red leading, Ben next, then Shiraz and lastly Milenna.

  The moment Ben put both his feet on the floor of the room below, something amazing happened. First, came a beautiful and unexpected prompt:

  Ben barely managed to grin when suddenly the world around him disappeared. The room, the ladder, his companions - all were gone, and Ben was once again floating in midair, surrounded by a soft white light. He opened his mouth in wonder - and kept it open when a huge golden prompt filled his vision, accompanied by the sound of a clear trumpet call.

  At last! Thought Ben in elation. His eyes scanned the rest of the prompt, which came in smaller letters but made him no less happy:

  But Ben didn’t have time to even think about it, as another message appeared, this one in the system’s sparkling purple.

  There was another trumpet call, slightly different in tune, and then the prompt continued. The words were rolling in front of him like the opening scene of Star Wars.

  As the last word of the message faded from view, another short prompt appeared:

  Ben was so thrilled about his level up that he couldn’t find it in him to get angry at the deadline he just received. There were some major decisions to make! First, though, he had to look at his character sheet so that he knew, once and for all, what kind of skills and abilities he currently had. Fortunately, it seemed that this white bubble of the minor universe he was floating in was the very heart of his interface, for when he looked up he saw two virtual icons in midair. The first read “Character Info”, and the other - “Class Choice”.

  Ben mentally clicked on the info button, and was rewarded with his long-awaited character sheet:

  Stolen story; please report.

  Ben read everything twice, and then again. He was still excited about the whole prospect of level up, but as he examined his stats, his previous suspicion about the connection to his RL grew and took hold. And as it did, his smile slowly turned sour. In Real life, he was a skinny young human male, who relied mostly on his wits and agility. Here, it appeared not much has changed, and it suddenly irritated him. If he had had the chance, he would have entered this world as a different man - one with more muscles, to begin with, and certainly more constitution. Wasn’t that the whole point of role-playing? To have the chance to play a different character from your everyday self?

  Then he remembered the circumstances that led him here, and he berated himself for his anger. He wasn’t like the other players here, so he guessed he should be thankful for what he got. In fact, when he thought about it, it was quite amazing that the system’s connection to his brain was so strong that it knew how to allocate his ability points according to the person he really was.

  Making peace with himself and the system regarding that issue, his ire moved on to the second article on his WTF list: his “title”. “Really, Raxlon?” he called out, looking up and knowing somehow that his sarcastic DM was looking down at him and laughing his ass off. Ben didn’t know what a hidden title meant, but the fact that he had “The Naked Noob” sprawled at the top of his character sheet was infuriating. What if there were other players who had the power to see hidden titles? Ben would have to get another title, and soon. That is, if titles could even be replaced.

  The other lines in his sheet were pretty easy to understand, though he did wonder what “path” meant and how he’d be able to get one. He also figured that he must have some unknown traits - otherwise, the system wouldn’t list those he had as “known”.

  He knew he should allocate his class points, but first, he needed to choose a class.

  Ben rubbed his hands in anticipation and clicked on the “Class Choice” button to examine his options again. All three of them looked interesting, but what really caught his eye was the special class powers he could get with each choice. These powers looked amazing! The word that leaped into his mind was “superpowers”, for that was what they were: the powers to be invisible, to be silent, or to look at the world from above. And these were only starting powers; Imagine how much stronger he would get when he leveled more!

  So, what to choose? He didn’t have much time before Raxlon would whisk him back to the quest, and he didn’t want to return before he made his choice.

  The most amazing power by far was that of the assassin. Vanish. Go invisible. It was every child’s dream, and Ben wasn’t any different. However Ben wasn’t sure he was ready to accept such an evil class right from the start. Sure, assassins weren’t necessarily evil by definition, but did he really wish to make killing his most important goal in the game? He sighed sadly and decided that he would have to pass on that one.

  So, a rogue or a scout? Considering what some of his RL pastimes were, the rogue would be the obvious choice. He almost clicked on it, but something, some sort of intuition, caused him to stop. Didn’t he just get upset that his character in the game too much resembled his RL persona? Unlike before, now that he was actually getting a choice, would he really choose to advance along the same path?

  Ben made his choice. He clicked “Scout”.

  Immediately, the color of the bubble he was floating in - his interface, as he decided to name it - changed to the clear blue of a morning sky. There was the distant screech of a hawk, and a new prompt appeared:

  A champion for the unwary. A hero for the impatient. Ben wondered about that choice of words, and couldn’t decide if he liked it or not - or even if the prompt was meant to be sarcastic or not. Oh well. He would have to play and see what goes.

  Before switching to his character sheet again, Ben had one more decision to make: which weapon would be his favorite? It wasn’t a small decision - the two extra points would mean a lot in such a low character level, and the 20% advancement to the progress with this weapon was also not a trifling matter.

  Daggers were the obvious choice. Ben loved the feeling of the small blade in his hand, much more than that of the sword he had picked up. But once again, he stopped before making a rushed decision. The class description mentioned that it was advisable to leave the melee to the fighters, which Ben took as a not so subtle hint to become proficient in a ranged weapon. And since he had only one such weapon to choose from… he chose the crossbow, hoping he didn’t make a major mistake.

  Then, he looked at his character sheet again and realized he had yet another choice to make - where should he allocate his 4 points? He could choose either ability points or skill points, and each choice would have significant consequences.

  “ALMOST FINISHED, SWEETHEART?”

  Ben was so engrossed in the process of level up that Raxlon’s godly voice made him jump - if one could jump while floating in a bluish bubble of text. He silently cursed and forced on a fake smile. “Yes, oh mighty Dungeon Master. Almost there!” He could be cynical too if he wanted. “How much time do I have?”

  In response, Raxlon started a steady countdown: “60, 59, 58…”

  Ben gritted his teeth and quickly made his choices: 1 point went to constitution with the thought of raising it above average level and gaining a few hit points. 1 went to dexterity to improve his crossbow skill. And 2 went to perception, as it seemed it was his primary and most important skill - and he really wanted to know what would happen when he crossed the third threshold for that skill. When he finished, he took a quick look at his new and improved character sheet:

  Ben still didn’t know much about the game, but to him, it seemed that he had pretty decent stats for a level two noob. He took a deep, satisfied breath and opened his mouth to tell Raxlon that he was ready - but then the bubble exploded outwards and the next moment he found himself lying sprawled on his back on the cold stone floor of the dungeon, looking up at the bemused expressions of his three companions.

  “A sucker for weird entrances, aren’t you,” said Red.

  Ben could only sigh.

  HERE.