Chapter 1 Part II

    The Beginning of the Endless

    "The system has randomly assigned the name Möbius to you. Are you satisfied with this name?"

    The angel girl still maintained her adorable expression. She tilted her head slightly while touching her lip with the pen as she spoke to him.

    "I'm satisfied, thank you. Let's keep it."

    The man, now named Möbius, thanked the angel who smiled sweetly in response to his gratitude.

    "Next, we'll adjust your external appearance, Mr. Möbius."

    The beautiful angel snapped her fingers, and a large mirror appeared in front of Möbius instantly. It was his first time seeing what he looked like. The image he saw made him stroke his own face with interest.

    His hair was a messy dark brown, with deep brown eyes, a small nose, and a relatively sharp facial structure. His skin was tanned from the sun, his body neither fat nor thin, and he was of average height. The angel who helped Möbius create his character thought that overall, his appearance was quite standard, albeit a bit plain-faced, but she said nothing.

    "No changes, let's keep it this way."

    Möbius said as he continued to look at himself in the mirror, not wanting to forget the image in front of him. He kept his appearance the same, in case he met someone who knew him, which might help him remember who he really was.

    "Next is the status of your character, which we will calculate based on your actual physical condition, Mr. Möbius. Please wait a moment."

    The beautiful angel pressed a button on a small panel in her hand. Möbius saw the light reflecting on her face change continuously but soon it stopped. The angel looked at the panel with wide eyes and then moved the panel close to her face, nearly touching her nose. After a while, she turned to Möbius with a puzzled expression.

    "Please bear with me, Mr. Möbius, just a moment."

    "Next, we need to discuss his status in the game."

    The doctor in the special care room began again. This was another factor that made winning the war even more challenging for his patient.

    "Because the game's system calculates status values such as life power, strength, and endurance based on the player's physical body. But for my patient here, as his brain and body are disconnected, it causes the system to possibly calculate all these values as very low."

    "I don't really understand all this. But will it significantly affect his ability to fight in the war?"

    The young man's mother looked at the man in white with confusion. So much had happened today that she couldn't imagine anything worse.

    "Um... it does have an impact, but don't worry. Justice is very fair—the lower his status, the more compensation he'll receive..."

    While the doctor was speaking, suddenly a young girl ran into the room very quickly, her loud voice showing she was extremely startled.

    "How is he, Mom?!!!"

    "My dear..."

    The mother of the young man looked at the newcomer with joy. If anyone could help her son, it would be this small girl. And the presence of this small girl made the doctor forget what he was about to say. Then he received a notification from the staff that the device to connect this young man to the simulated world was ready. He excused himself to leave the patient's room to prepare help the young man seize the opportunity to continue living.

    After the angel had interacted with some device for over 10 minutes, she put it away and then frowned slightly before snapping her fingers, causing a large translucent window to appear. On this window, there was some text, and at the top of the window, it read 'Status Window.'

    "Mr. Möbius, the system has calculated and reviewed your status."

    The angel frowned slightly at the unusual readings of the status of the man in front of her. But after confirmation from the system's staff that these were indeed his correct stats, she felt confident enough to show it to him.

    Window: Status

    Name

    Möbius

    Level, Occupation

    1, Novice Adventurer

    Life Power, Magic Power

    100/100,20/20

    Strength (Fire)

    Speed (Wind)

    Endurance (Earth)

    Intelligence (Water)

    Accuracy (Lightning)

    ??? (???)

    10

    10

    10

    10

    10

    100

    Elemental Affinity

    None

    "Whoa, a full 10 across the board, that means I'm quite good, right?"

    Möbius looked at his own status with pride, fully embracing the stats he was given.

    "And there's even a 100 in there, that's not bad at all."

    However, the angel's gaze at Möbius was filled with pity, and she gave him additional information.

    "The 10s are just the baseline for this game, set for those who don't inherently have those values. Having just the minimum means you can't utilize elemental powers either, which is why your Elemental Affinity is 'None.' In the game Real Dream Online, even the warrior profession requires a certain level of fire power to change professions. Not to mention other professions, almost every profession uses it. Even female players who have never exercised and are sickly have a total status nearly twice as high as yours."

    The angel, who has been doing this job for a long time, had welcomed countless people into Real Dream Online, but she had never seen such pitiful stats before, and what's worse, these stats wouldn't increase as he leveled up.

    Möbius, with an ordinary face and exceptionally poor stats, could hardly believe what he heard and immediately protested,

    "The system might have made a mistake; it's like I don't even have a body."

    The young man hoped the angel would check again.

    "At first, I couldn't believe it either, but after checking with the system thoroughly, there were no errors. Um... From my experience, a case like this shouldn't even be possible."

    The angel replied with a forced smile, adjusting to a more cheerful expression before continuing,

    "Don't give up on our game yet. We still have abilities that the system randomly grants from... what you do have."

    The angel tried her best to smile as she hoped the randomly generated abilities would be good enough to motivate him to continue playing the game. She contacted the system to calculate abilities from what Möbius possessed. The board in her hand lit up again, and this time, the system took a long time to calculate Möbius's abilities.

    The reason it took so long is because Möbius had very little to work with. Normally, randomly generated abilities would be life-supporting skills like hunting, potion brewing, or blacksmithing, which would make the game easier for players. But according to the fairness of the system, the worse a player's status, the better the compensatory abilities they get.

    As for Möbius, whose status was almost near 0, the system had to think hard about what ability to grant him. But finally, the system calculated an appropriate ability.

    "The system has finished calculating, Mr. Möbius, you have received the ability 'Hands of Möbius.'"

    The angel said, thinking that this player only had a name and so he got a rather bizarre ability, as she had never heard of such an ability before.

    Suddenly, a slight warmth appeared on both of Möbius's palms. When he looked at his left palm, he saw twelve black arrows swirling into the center of his hand. On his right hand, twelve white arrows spread out from the center, each symbol about 1 × 1 inch in size. Then Möbius heard a voice inside his head,

    ‘Möbius, the player, has obtained the ability: Hands of Möbius.’

    "Next, let's go over the basic commands."

    The angel, feeling relieved that the hardest part was now behind them, began to introduce the next part of the game immediately.

    "A moment ago, you just gained a new ability. To view the status window, simply say 'Ability Window.' Give it a try."

    The angel encouraged Möbius to follow her instructions, eager to see what ability he had received from the system.

    "Okay, Ability Window."

    Möbius was slightly startled as the stunningly beautiful angel leaned in close to him. The closer he looked, the more he realized how cute this angel really was. He quickly did as she asked without hesitation.

    Another window that looked like a translucent status window appeared, but it was different in that the top of the window was labeled "Ability Window." The ability that Möbius received was:

    Ability Window

    No.

    Name

    Ability

    1

    Hands of Möbius

    ?????????????????

    "Um... what is this? It doesn't say what the ability I received can do,"

    Möbius looked at the ability window, which hardly told him anything other than the name of the ability. The angel girl just blinked as if she was about to cry, because she too did not know what this ability could do, but at least she knew one thing.

    "Wow… Mr. Möbius, you're lucky to get an ability that is marked with a question mark,"

    The angel turned to smile at Möbius, trying to encourage the young man who looked at the two windows hovering in the air with a look of despair.

    "Lucky... really?"

    Möbius turned to ask the angel, who still had a fixed smile.

    "Ah… Yes, because anything in this game marked with a question mark means it has not been discovered yet. This indicates that you, Mr. Möbius, have received a truly unique ability,"

    The angel rolled her eyes and nodded vigorously. What she told him was true but not the whole truth, because such question marks could take 7-8 years to reveal, and some abilities revealed turned out to be an utterly useless ability. But she didn't let Möbius question further as the beautiful angel, whose eyes darted around strangely, quickly explained about the windows.

    "Now, Mr. Möbius, you will initially have only two windows, but as you enter the world of Real Dream, more will appear. These windows are invisible to others unless you send them yourself. If you have many windows, I recommend saying, just say 'All windows appear,' and if not needed, don't call them during a fight as they can obstruct your view. If you want them to disappear, just throw them away. Try it out. "

    The angel spoke rapidly to overwhelm Mobius with her instructions so he wouldn't ask further about the question mark.

    "Um... okay,"

    Möbius, overwhelmed by the angel's fast-paced speech, threw the windows to the side in a daze, and the two windows vanished automatically as soon as they were thrown.

    "Next is the bag,"

    The angel handed a bag made from hemp fabric that looked somewhat like a bag that the temple boy often carried, but this one was gray, into Möbius’s hand.

    "In the game Real Dream Online, there are no set inventory slots, but rather they are sized by their capacity. Higher-level bags can compress items to fit. A player can carry as many bags as they can handle. Some professions have load-bearing equipment, and there are also bags that players craft themselves,"

    After explaining, the angel handed five bottles of a red potion, each about the size of a soda can, to the young man.

    "These are power-boosting potions, a gift from the system. And don't worry about security, other players cannot open your bag. If you can't find your bag, just call for it and the system will make it float to you,"

    The angel smiled at Möbius's clumsy attempts to fit the power-boosting potions in and out of the bag, amused by how it looked when compressed.

    "Given that your status, Mr. Möbius, is much below standard, the system has granted assistance. The first monster you attack on your own will become a companion that makes your adventures easier. Your companion can evolve as you level up, and you can acquire more companions depending on the conditions of each monster type,"

    The angel smiled at Möbius. She really liked this system of aiding players with lower-than-average status, although typically, it was provided to players with disabilities who wanted to play this game. This was the first time she had given such a companion to someone who wasn't visibly disabled like Möbius, but given his status, he would need 2-3 companions just to survive in this rather brutal game.

    "The final point is that your spawning location will be in the Newbie Valley. It's a quiet village nestled in a valley with only common-level monsters for you to practice on initially. So don't worry about not being able to adjust. Also, time in the game runs 12 times faster than real time. Lastly, I hope you enjoy playing Real Dream Online a lot."

    The angel smiled and waved goodbye to Möbius. However, in her mind, she was just wondering how he would survive in this world and accidentally omitted telling him something important.

    "Um... thank you."

    Möbius thanked the angel, who turned and smiled back at him, her wings behind her back fluttering slightly as it was rare for someone to thank her—most people were eager to just jump into the game.

    "Your first login will randomly spawn you within Newbie Valley, and don't worry because our game system is designed to be as fair as possible. You, Mr. Möbius, are bound to encounter something good..."

    Before she could finish, Möbius disintegrated into particles, a sign that he had been successfully teleported to his random spawn location. The angel smiled one last time before slumping to the floor exhausted from having to explain everything so quickly to her latest client.

    "...Will he survive, I wonder, Mr. Möbius?"

    Whoosh...

    Möbius was sent to a very safe place. Looking around, there was nothing that could harm him—since the white clouds floating around certainly couldn't bite. The real danger seemed to be below him, as the strong wind hitting his face and the gradually approaching ground signaled that he was falling from a great height.

    "Sigh... So this is the system's fairness."

    Möbius sighed at what the system had set up for him in terms of status, abilities, and now an exhilarating spawning point. As he was about to hit the ground, something rushed out from the bushes by the roadside, unaware of someone falling from above.

    His head collided forcefully with it, causing a loud noise that startled a large flock of birds into flight, fleeing for their lives from nearby trees where the incident occurred.

    -95 (Remaining 5/100)

    "Ack..."

    500 (Critical hit from an unsuspected attack)

    ‘Congratulations, Mr. Möbius, you have acquired the level 30 rare special monster type Nine-Tailed Fox “Gumiho” as a companion, according to the player assistance system.’

    ‘Mr. Möbius, you have received the Companion Window.’

    Möbius listened to the announcement as he lay on the back of the golden nine-tailed fox that had also collapsed. He easily guessed that the red numbers that had burst from him a moment ago were indicators of the damage incurred. Although he survived the fall, he would surely not survive the fangs of this fox.