Chapter 2: Chapter Two: Unprecedented Error
[Maintenance has finished, starting system reboot...]
Jihan groaned as a bright light awoke him, the glare making it impossible to see.
After his vision was restored, his jaw immediately dropped. The seemingly infinite forests, a great many stars shining even in the brightest hour, and a refreshing breeze that made him feel at home.
He had returned to the very beginning of Synchronize, just before the tutorial.
Jihan's mind was filled with many questions, but his first response was to pause the game and see if he could log out.
[You are unable to log out at this time.]
Jihan sighed, slouching down against a tree as he thought about this situation.
"Huh!?"
In the top left of the pause window, the date of 'today' was clearly written in fine print.
"August 1st, 2032!?" His brow furrowed, unable to follow this strange phenomenon.
A drop of sweat ran down his forehead as he refreshed the date.
[The date is August 1st, 2032. The first day that 'Synchronize' will be available to the public.]
"...What?"
Surely not?
Had he really gone back in time? Was such a thing not impossible?
There was a chance he was merely in the afterlife, and that none of this was real.
[Welcome to 'Synchronize', Player _]
[Character creation has been finalized, please choose a name and class.]
Jihan thought about his circumstances, before a grim smile appeared on his face.
"I can't log out, and I've returned ten years into the past... Is this not my very own golden goose?"
He stood up, finalizing his character's name and class.
[Player 'Ghost' has been registered! You are Synchronize's 1st player! You will receive launch rewards, as well as a special reward for being our game's first player!]
"So there was such a thing after all." Jihan smirked, remembering the words that Taek Jinsoo had said in an interview once.
"A close friend of mine that introduced me to Synchronize had been the one to get the 'First player reward'. He said it was an incredible item, one that could let even an idiot become a great player should they continue to play."
Jihan was skeptical of such an item, but seeing it here in his hands dispelled any doubt he had.
[First player reward: Transcendent Weapon Ticket:
Choose any one weapon that exists within the game for yourself. It's durability will be infinite, and it will be bound to your inventory no matter what.]
Such a reward was unheard of in Synchronize, a cheat like item that could change the rankings forever if used by one of the pros in his past.
"But now it's mine!" Jihan could not contain his excitement, immediately opening the ticket's selection menu.
Thousands of weapons appeared on screen, a helpful sidebar with weapon type, rarity, and skill tabs that made searching for a particular weapon much easier.
As a thief, Jihan's innital reaction was to get either Medusa's Fang or Viper's Embrace, the two daggers wielded the number 1 thief player and number 3 top player 'Behind_you'. But the Durability note brought an interesting weapon to mind.
[Shattered Blade (S):
Damage: 7
Passive: Every successful attack will inflict one to ten thousand curses, ranging from blindness to instant death.
Skill: None
Durability: 0.5/0.5
The handle of an eloquently crafted rapier that has been stained with unfathomable amounts of blood. Though it's blade is destroyed, even scratching one with such a horribly cursed blade would be enough to kill them, though even holding such an ancient object may make it crumble to dust.
Wasn't it a bit too good? Such an item with infinite Durability would be disgustingly overpowered, and could even be seen as cheating.
Jihan clicked [confirm] without even a second thought, the shattered rapier appearing in his hand at once.
He did not know how or why he had returned to the past, or why he was trapped within Synchronize, but Jihan was not stupid.
If he had really returned to the past, he would abuse every single perk and item he could get his hands on. Morals and fairness never did anything for him in the past, and this life would he no different.
"I will not be below anyone, no matter how dirty and cheat-like methods I have to use."
The rapier seemed almost sentient, and Jihan could swear that it seemed to be embracing his hand with frozen fingers as he walked towards the beginning of the tutorial.
As he entered the first dungeon in the game, a strange glow flickered from the man's right eye.
[Beginning the tutorial.]
...
Ah, how long it had been since he had seen the inside of such a nostalgic place. A dungeon layout so simple it seemed almost linear, and monsters so weak that a toddler could kill them with ease.
Such thoughts were not even close to ones of a real newbie, and were the thoughts of a seasoned veteran that had challenged S grade bosses hundreds upon hundreds of times.
As Jihan walked down the corridor, he effortlessly slaughtered the skeletons that crawled out of their graves, alongside the spiders and other low class monsters that got in his way.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have...]
[You...]
The speed at which this 'newbie' was clearing the tutorial dungeon was frighteningly fast, and Jihan was not even utilizing the rapier's passive skill.
Skeletons and other undead monsters could not be cursed, and so Jihan just opted to rush them down, targeting weak points and assuredly mowing down the many waves of undead.
The tutorial of Synchronize was said to be incredibly difficult, but a very effective way of teaching players about the game's combat system.
Spiders that forced players to dodge poisonous attacks, skeletons that required fast reactions and even harder attacks, and traps that required awareness and agility to avoid.
Yet this blender of death was ignoring everything in his path, clearing the path to the boss in what would be the unofficial world record even in the past.
Instead of entering the boss room like a sane person, the player 'Ghost' actually blew up the ceiling of the boss room using a skeleton mage and some easily found black powder, crushing the poor Skeleton knight below in an instant.
[Player 'Ghost' has killed the tutorial boss 'Skeleton Knight' in record time, your achievement will be recorded in the Records of Time, and you will receive an additional reward.]
[You are the first player to clear the tutorial, you will receive an additional reward.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You...]
An onslaught of pop ups nearly blinded Jihan, countless rewards and level up notifications spamming his inbox.
Yet it only grew the smile on Jihan's face, racking up countless stat points and items as he exited the tutorial.
[Player ID: 'Ghost'
Level: 17
Health: 230/230
Stamina: 76/120
Mana: 100/100
Skills: Backstab, Critical hit, Smokebomb
Weapon: Shattered Blade (S)
Stats-
Vitality: 10
Strength: 5
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 5
Magic: 5
Distributable points: 27
Jihan's face lit up like a kid in a candy shop, immediately putting dumping all of his stats in one stat.
Of course, he had a reason to level up only one stat. And that was because the thief class relied on speed and dexterity more than every other skill combined.
[Agility increased to 42.]
[Stamina 120 -> 350.]
A strange phenomenon occurred when he clicked accept, making him feel much faster and lighter.
Increasing Agility made one's avatar faster in game, but the brain can only understand things up to a certain speed, which meant that most players could not take advantage of such a trait.
But Jihan felt as if 'Ghost' was an extension of his body, and more that his avatar was his body itself.
His mind followed his actions perfectly, even at nearly twice the speed as before. Jihan's eyes tracked things far more precisely than before even when he had 120 Agility in the past.
It was something described by those who trained in the air force, that once you experienced g force so many times you adapted to it.
It was as if his conscious itself was changing with the stat increase, and not the avatar he was controlling.
But Jihan had already accepted the many possibilities of his real body, and while curious, did not feel the need to think deeply about this change now.
And so he exited the tutorial dungeon, the familiar breeze and shining sky greeting him once more.
The beginner town of Runedel was before him, incredibly large and lively. It was where new players gathered and learned, as well as the main hub area of the game.
Jihan felt a strange feeling as he walked down the mountain towards the town, basking in the rays of sun that he could feel so vividly.
A smile crept onto his face as he looked as his hand, squeezing it. Every action, every touch, every single breath that took, it was beyond that of a game.
Glancing up once more at the sky, Jihan couldn't help but laugh.
"This is my body now, huh? I'll be in your care then... 'Synchronize'."
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