I Am Now Broke

[Hello Ki Shin, welcome to Universe]

A bright white screen appeared with a message. Ki Shin couldn't help but get excited. He would finally be entering the game he had always dreamt of. Now that he had earned the money needed to survive, he decided that he would focus on Universe. It was said that one can make good money off the game and that money played Universe full time. Although he wasn't a gamer, but if he could become a full time gamer, then would he have to continue working?

[We will now commence character creation! Please select the sex of your character!]

An option of either male or female appeared on the screen. Ki Shin decided to go with male since he would use the character long term. After selecting male, a list of different species appeared on the screen. There was the Human species, Demon species, and many more. He didn't want to become something that would be new since this was his first game. He wanted a body that he would comfortable with, so Ki Shin decided to go with the Human species.

[Please wait as your character is matched with your looks!]

The system began to reform the character made it look like Ki Shin, however, there was a major difference between the real-life Ki Shin and the in game one. In real life, Ki Shin had ashen grey hair and emerald eyes, however the game gave him sapphire eyes with crimson hair. It still had his face, but the new hair and eyes made him look different and somewhat… weird.

There was a contrast in the air that Ki Shin gave and his in-game character. In real life, ki Shin was somewhat silent and also a shy person, he gave off the air of innocence, however, the character the was design gave a completely different aura. The designed character gave a very sinister and confident type of feeling. There was no shyness or awkwardness in its face, rather it was brimming with the attitude of a leader.

[Please select the name for your character]

Something unique about Universe was that it wouldn't let someone decide their class during character creation, rather they would have to find classes in the game. If they wanted magic, they would have to slowly learn it. If they wanted to be a warrior or priest, they needed to train up to that rank. This allowed the users to fully understand how magic would work and how to truly fight.

Another important point was that each species had a certain title when they began. Humans would be called Sage, Demons would be called Executioners, and other species had their own titles. It was a very stereotypical system that basically gave Demons a negative title and gave Humans one of glory.

Ki Shin thought about a good name to use for his character. Since this was going to be his first game, he did not want to go on a route that was common for others. Everyone wanted to follow the path of righteousness and become the good guys of the game, however that was too boring for Ki Shin. He had seen videos of people play the good guy in Universe, all of them basically had the same storyline, however, there was one video that entertained him greatly. It was a video of someone playing the bad guy in one of the really old games. He did things that were unorthodox. He killed other players, raided bases and basically was hunted down day and night. However, Ki Shin noticed that the player never had a dull moment in the game. Ki Shin wanted the same experience, he did not want to get bored of the game. He wanted to leave a mark in the game, but not a common mark. He wanted something unique, he wanted to be the bad guy! Finally he decided on the name, Dzok. He remembered that this name meant Death, however he didn't know from where.

[You have chosen Dzok as your characters name. Please confirm if you wish to continue]

Ki Shin selected the confirm button. Suddenly, the screen blanked and Ki Shin found himself floating in what seemed like space. He saw planets explode and reform. Stars die and burst into flames. He also saw different race's combatting in space. It seemed like this was the story background. Ki Shin watched carefully at everything that was happening.

[Long ago, the different races in the Universe lived in constant warfare. Peace was only a dream during those times, however heroes rose from each race, finally bringing about peace. The heroes created a large planet where the various races are able to live together. That planet is what we now call, Fletunon!]

The intro to the game ended with that. Other games would talk about something evil causing havoc or the rise of an unknown army or something to get the players to reach a goal, however there was nothing like that. There was no evil power or major quest being introduced, which confused Ki Shin.

"What is the goal of this game then?" He couldn't figure out what the goal of the RPG was. Every RPG was supposed to have an end goal, but it didn't seem like this one did.

"Maybe the NPC's will have the end goal of the game if there even is one." Ki Shin decided that the end goal could be with an NPC, however, it was most likely for a later time. As his avatar traveled through the dark space, Ki Shin saw an extremely large planet in front of him. The planet didn't look anything like how the earth did, rather there was a large division. Green and ocean blue took over half the planet while the rest was what seemed like fire red and… purple.

"Interesting. Seems like the races still have some sort of division." He was able to guess that from looking the state of the planet. If there was perfect harmony, then the bright colors would mix with the dull colors getting rid of any distinct borders.

[Avatar Dzok, you will be arriving on the human plane in 5...4...3…]

The countdown began and a bright light encompassed Ki Shin. Right as the light blinded his eyes, sounds of clinking and clanking began to appear.

"Hey, do you have an extra sword I can borrow?'

"Anyone have potions? I am willing to negotiate."

The noises of people speaking began to appear. Ki Shin's heart began to wildly beat. He was finally here. He would be able to play the game of his dreams.

His azure eyes blinked before he regained his light. He turned his head violently as his crimson hair moved with him. He looked around and found Humans and humanoid Animals. People were holding swords, books and even potions. It was like a dream come true.

[Welcome, player Dzok. We are happy to see you joining us in Universe. Please select confirm if you would like to go through a tutorial. If you wish to begin playing and learning through playing, then please select abandon!]

The system voice appeared once again. It was woman's voice that sounded similar to the online translators. It was both monotone and choppy, however it did its job. Ki Shin selected the abandon button and proceeded with the game. He looked down to his feet and hesitantly took a step forward. With one of his foot in the air, dangling, Ki Shin looked like a joke.

"What's that player doing? Is he new or something? Shouldn't he have done the tutorial if that was the case?"

"I don't know, but let's just ignore him. He will eventually figure out how the game mechanics work. It's almost no different from real life."

People discussed left and right, however, Ki Shin decided to ignore them. Of course he knew that the tutorial would be helpful to him, however, he did not want to waste time learning. He would just figure out how the game worked as he played.

Ki Shin finally placed his first foot down, with one of his eyes closed. When he touched the ground, a blush appeared on his face as his smile touched his ears. Ki Shin then lifted the other foot and went through the same process, seeing no problem he began to do some squats. The other players couldn't help but laugh with mockery.

"Look at that fool! Is this his first virtual game? What a noob!"

"Yea, he is totally going to get PK'ed. Who wouldn't want to kill such a new character?"

Scorn was being thrown towards Ki Shin, however, he shut his ears to them. After doing his mini-movement test, his smile brightened.

"Movement is very similar to real life, which is good. Let's see, I remember reading about an inventory. It was supposedly extremely large." Ki Shin began to ponder about the different things he read about. The inventory was a place for players to store their items and food. It was very convenient and didn't increase the weight of the player.

Ki Shin nodded before screaming into the sky. "INVENTORY!" everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Ki Shin again. He, however, felt gloomy. That didn't work, maybe if I say open? "Inventory, open!" Nothing happened. He sat on the ground with a thump. His eyebrows wrinkled, as his eyes began to think of how to open his inventory.

"Umm, excuse me." Just as he began thinking about how to figure out what he was doing wrong, he heard a voice. "Would you happen to be a new player?" Ki Shin opened his eyes and looked at the girl that was speaking.

Long golden hair that was braided rested on her back. Her beautiful emerald eyes resembled the green of the leaves from an evergreen tree. She had pale skin which made her look like a celestial goddess. These game characters are crazy! That was all that Ki Shin could think of now.

"Umm, yea, I'm new." He truthfully answered. He didn't know much about the game and hoped that the girl could help him out a little.

"If you're new, why didn't you go through the tutorial? It would have helped you with the basics." The girl bluntly asked. She didn't talk behind his back like the rest of the players, however, she basically spoke out what everyone else was thinking.

"Hehe, well I just wanted to get into the game. I didn't want to waste time on the tutorial." Ki Shin smiled awkwardly as he explained his dumb reason for abandoning the tutorial.

"Well, since you are new, I can explain some small details to you. However, it will cost you ten spirit fragments. Is that a deal?" The girl smiled innocently, which gave Ki Shin no reason not to accept.

[Please select yes if you wish to proceed with the trade with player Thalia]

Ki Shin quickly selected 'yes', suddenly another message appeared, however this time it was red. (Author note: Smh, you so dumb Ki Shin)

[You have traded 10 Spirit Fragments. Account now has 0 Spirit Fragments!]

Ki Shin gaped when the message appeared. Did he just give away all of his money? There was no way such an innocent looking girl would troll him like that.

"Oh, my! Was that all of your Spirit Fragments? Then you should have kept them. Hehe!" The girl that at first looked like a celestial being now resembled a snake woman.

"You lying thief!" Although Ki Shin decided to become the bad guy in the game, he first needed to become stronger. The first step in becoming stronger required him to have loads of money, however, the girl in front of him just took all of his beginner money.

"Lier? Thief? You are falsely accusing me of something that just isn't true. I didn't lie since I will be explaining some rules to you, and I did not steal from you. You accepted the trade so you can only blame yourself." Thalia's eyes scrunched as her smile became wicked.

"Let me just give you a hint so I can get through with this deal. The way one opens their inventory is not by yelling it out, rather you click your name on the top right and a bunch of tabs will appear. You will see your inventory there. Now then, thanks for the money, hahaha!" Thalia walked away happily, however, Ki Shin felt extremely angry.

He calmed himself down and followed what Thalia told him, he might as well accept the truth and just follow her instructions. He looked to the top right of his view and found his name. Not only that, but there was a bar for health listed as well.

{Dzok (Ki Shin): Level 1 - Human Sage}

{100/100 HP}

He found the info and felt like lightning struck directly at him. How could he not notice something so obvious? It was literally right in front of him. Ki Shin couldn't help but smack his head violently, trying to beat the stupidity right out of him.

"Why am I so dumb? She took my money, and for what? Something that I could have found if I just looked around a little? I should just drown in a pool." Ki Shin couldn't help but curse at himself. Although he was pissed at Thalia, he couldn't blame her. He was the dumb one that fell into her trap. He let out a deep sigh before tapping onto his name, just as Thalia said.

When he tapped with his slender fingers, a list of tabs appeared.

{Player Information}

{Inventory}

{Money}

{Skills}

{Map}

{???}

Ki Shin looked at the information present and quickly found the inventory. He also found a bunch of other tabs that would be extremely helpful for his journey. There was also a tab that was filled with question marks, which made him quite curious. Ki Shin tried to tap on the tab but when he did a message appeared.

[??? is unavailable for player Dzok. Please try again later]

The monotone woman's voice resounded in his head once again. She also gave no hint to Ki Shin as for when he would be able to access the tab.

"Such a strict system. They can't even drop a hint. Those stupid gaming companies." ki Shin couldn't help but grumble. He was alright with discovering what the question marks represented, however, it wouldn't do the game any harm to give him a hint.

Since he couldn't go to the mysterious tab, Ki Shin went with his original plan and tapped inventory. What appeared in front of him was a large brown square. There were hundreds of empty slots which made Ki Shin regret looking. He sighed deeply before closing the inventory. He felt that the whole game was trying to make him suffer great pain.

Ki Shin got up off the ground and began to roam around the area. The many players avoided him because of his clownish actions earlier, which caused Ki Shin to look only on the ground.

"Hey, kid! Are you new? Do you want to buy a sword off of me? It will help you hunt!" Just as Ki Shin was sinking into depression, he heard the voice of a man. He turned his head slowly and looked at the man depressingly. Tears were falling down his cheek.

"What's wrong, dude?" The man asked with concern. He was a large person with spiky chocolate hair. His eyes were red like volcanic lava, and his bronze body emitted an aura of a labor worker.

"I am broke!" Ki Shin couldn't help but whisper out with a choking voice.

"Well, my bad! Anyone else wants to buy a sword?" The man walked away with his hands raised. Ki Shin couldn't help but curse the man's quick attitude change,

"So this is the life of a broke player?"