LIFE RESET
- NEO book one -
SHEMER KUZNITS
Life Reset (A LitRPG Novel)
A self-published book by Shemer Kuznits
Copyright © 2017
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I'd like to thank my amazing wife, Limor, for her encouragement and support, despite realizing that this endeavor was going to take a huge chunk of our family time. Her due date for our second child gave me a deadline I couldn't mess with.
Another thanks to my close friend Gaddy Weissman (sounds familiar?) for his unwavering support and for being the first person to read, comment, and proofread my many mistakes.
I would also like to thank my friends who offered advice and helped brainstorm ideas: Hanan Kohen, Sergey Kadaner, Johny Duvier.
Special thank you to my editor, Sam. More than just an editor, Sam was my tutor and guide. Error notes often evolved into full blown lessons. He taught me writing rules, the importance of story flow, weasel words, and coached me to stop using meaningless words. After a while, I started owing him a beer for every time I used one.
I still owe him about 10,000 beers.
***
Editor: Samuel K Bragdon
Cover Artist: Georgi Markov @ http://hofarts.deviantart.com
Prologue
1 - Betrayed
2 - A Lone Goblin
3 - Revelations
4 - New Beginning
5 - Payback's a bitch
6 - Boss troubles
7 - Relatives Troubles
8 - Lawyered
9 - New New Beginning
10 - Train Hard
11 - Fight Easy
12 - Soul Searching
13 - Monkey Business
14 - Visiting Relatives
15 - Preparations
16 - The Cave
17 - Oh My God!
18 - Religion Sucks
19 - Newcomers
20 - Embracing Darkness
21 - Settling In
22 - A Crafty Goblin
23 - Getting Some Action
24 - A Good Day
25 - Food Matters
26 - This Means War
27 - The Head Of The Snake
28 - The Lion's Den
29 - Out Of The Zoo
30 - Like a Boss
31 - Restoration
Epilogue
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Prologue
“Join New Era Online! A world to forge your own destiny in!
Conquer lands, build nations, trade, explore, and battle for glory!
NEO! The game of limitless opportunities!”
It’s been a long time since this ad came out and inspired me to greatness. I took a screenshot of the banner and had it framed in-game. It was hanging on the wall of my in-game office.
It had been three years since NEO was released. Unsurprisingly, it became an instant success. The game used the new, state of the art, Full Immersion Virtual Reality technology, or ‘FIVR’.
FIVR technology enabled players to experience the virtual environment with the full range of human senses, making gameplay nearly indistinguishable from reality.
I liked to read that pre-release slogan. It reminded me how much my life had turned around and it inspired me to always reach for new heights.
I had invested a lot of time and effort in the game. One sleepless night after another, I’d slowly built my character up from a level 1 newbie. Painfully grinding each level out, increasing my reputation, and completing quests; until I had a truly impressive amount of power and influence in the game.
Now, I was at the very top of the ‘world,’ a high-ranked player, and head of the most powerful guild in NEO. Not to mention wealthy, both in and out of the game.
Of course, I hadn’t always been this fortunate in life.
I stretched and settled back comfortably in my dragon leather armchair, remembering.
When NEO was first released, I was 25 and working as a corporate wage slave; stuck in an endless work-sleep-work cycle. I was an algorithm developer, it was a demanding job that left little time for friends or leisure. Back then, the only thing I had time for during the week was a few hours of gaming.
Luckily, my hard-earned developer-skills came in handy for my hobby too. With my background in algorithms I was able to grasp the underlying game logic and use it to my advantage, outstripping other players who were not as quick on the uptake.
My fortunate position now, was all thanks to one game element; Magic. Being one of the first players to learn how to use magic in the game gave me an enormous advantage over my competition for a short while. But that head start was enough.
If a player wanted to learn basic, manual skills, the game mechanics were straightforward. However, magic based skills and spells were tricky.
Reading that slogan always made me nostalgic.
I’d been lucky... I continued reminiscing.
In the first few days after the release of the game, I discovered a completely unknown magic Discipline. The governing skill for it was called ‘Mana Manipulation,' and because I was the first player to learn it, I received the ‘Prime’ badge in the skill.
With Mana Manipulation I invented several adaptable and versatile mana Discipline spells. Having the Prime badge in that all-important fundamental skill also gave me an advantage over other practitioners of magic. My spells lacked a certain finesse compared to other Disciplines, but they were easy to use and the power level could be increased simply by investing more mana into them. In short, they were tremendously popular with players, which made my services highly sought after.
As the inventor of the spells and the first to use them, I received the Prime badge for each of them also. Having the badges enabled me to impart the spells to other players, something that was not normally possible. In addition, Prime badges also grant a 50% increase to the skill’s progression. So I gained skill levels faster than any other player, giving me a distinct advantage that helped keep me at the head of the pack.
My fee to teach a spell started at a thousand gold per spell, per player. It sounds outrageous, but despite the cost, every player in the game wanted to learn from me.
Within the first few months of the game release, and with a game-gold to US dollar conversion ratio of 10:1, I was bringing home well over $10,000 US per month, just from playing a game. Suddenly, my financial future was secured. The math was written large on the walls, and it was simple math too. So I quit my day job and became a full-time, hardcore, professional gamer.
I put a good sum into savings and investments each month, and still had enough left to lead a comfortable life. I moved out of the big expensive city where my work had kept me, and rented a much cheaper apartment in the suburbs. I also leased the highest end immersion capsule available to the public, with the full auto-upgrades package so my rig was always on the cutting edge. Afterward, I spent most of my days pleasantly immersed in the game, amassing more and more wealth and power.
I leaned back comfortably in my chair and blew on one of my ruby studded platinum rings and buffed it on my sleeve. It was a rare and powerful artifact that could summon a rain of acid in a 100-meter radius, dissolving everything it touched except the wielder. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a situation where I had to use this baby, I continued my musing.
Despite my fortuitous start in the game, I still couldn’t have afforded a ring like this one back then.
A few months after the game’s release, players began reach
ing the Expert rank in my spells. Expert rank unlocked the ability to create magic skill-books. Although they cost less than my services, successfully learning spells through skill books was not guaranteed. So my services remained highly sought after. I fell into a routine of teaching my spells for a few hours each day, then used the rest of my time to play the game, and advance my character.
Three years of hard, but enjoyable, work gaming in NEO had paid off magnificently. Now, I sat comfortably in my office, the Guildmaster’s office, in the palatial House of the guild I’d established just one year ago. As a pun on the skills that facilitated my rise to power, I named my guild ‘Manapulators’.
Because I offered to teach one spell to each new member for free, my guild attracted thousands of players, and we’d became the largest, most powerful guild in NEO.
I rarely saw actual combat these days, most of my income came from the salary the guild paid me, padded with 10% of the guild’s raid bonuses, which was quite substantial. Almost all my time was taken up by administrative duties. I worked at the guild house. I planned the guild’s strategies for growth and progression, managed the alliances and partnerships, and coordinated the guild’s raids, skirmishes and tournaments. There was always something or someone for us to fight somewhere in NEO. Conflict was a huge factor in the game. A light knock at my door interrupted my reminisces. It was Vatras, apparently bearing gifts.
Vatras was my first in-game customer, and the first player to join when I established the guild. He was an excellent Elf-character player and a seasoned strategist.
He became a trusted advisor when I founded the guild, and I’d soon made him my guild lieutenant, the next highest-ranking guild member after me.
He was holding two items and smiling mischievously as he entered at my gesture.
“Vatras, what’s up? How was the raid?” I looked at the items he was holding with interest.
The most difficult boss raids awarded the best loot, so it was Vatras who usually led them. He was a bit greedy when it came to in-game goodies, but I looked past that fault. Most players were that way about loot, myself included, as was evident by the assortment of Epic and Artifact-level items I wore. My character was powerful, but with those items, I was a veritable walking powerhouse. If I really wanted, I could have probably leveled a small city all by myself.
“Not bad, Guild Master Arladen,” Vatras replied, something in his voice made me think that was an understatement.
He looked at the items he was holding with a satisfied grin, then looked at me.
His grin broadened.
1 - Betrayed
“When the NEO game environment was initiated, there were no presets or hard-coded sets of rules. All that existed in the game was the world itself; the resources, the monsters and the NPCs. The game is governed by a Game Artificial Intelligence, Guy for short. In the beginning, Guy evolved NEO’s workings in response to the players’ behaviors. Players could do virtually anything they imagined. If a player decided to form a community, and developed the settlement by building structures, forging alliances, establishing trade routes, hunting for food, etc. Guy would recognize the intent and reasoning behind the player’s actions and integrate the ideas into the game system, creating system assists for other players and NPCs. Everything is connected in the game. Guy controls all the underlying functions, monitors all player actions, gives skills or quests when appropriate or circumstances fit the need. He is the spider sitting at the center of his world-web. It is like having a Super Dungeon-Master, omnipotent, omniscient, with the final say over everything in New Era Online. The developers were soon reduced to monitoring the game, with no influence or control. We became the janitors of the game, keeping it clean and operational.
I believe what we created is greater than the sum of the human conceived parts, perhaps greater than even ourselves. We were the cradle for Guy’s evolution. When he outgrew us, he leaped beyond anything humanity could ‘code’. Inside NEO, Guy is all knowing, Guy is all powerful. Guy, is God.”
Excerpt from: NEO, The Game That Changed The World.
By: Sergey Kohen, Former NEO developer, True Believer.
***
I came-to slowly.
I was disoriented, but I could feel a rough uneven surface beneath me. The ground.
Where was I?
I blinked hard a few times, trying to fight off the disorientation.
I was in some sort of a cave, the natural stone walls that finally came into focus told me that.
I couldn’t remember how I got here.
Shakily, I got to my feet.
Those feet!
These are not my feet! I looked at my legs. They were short, bony, and a deep olive green. I reached with a trembling hand to touch my leg and froze when I saw my hand. It was a gnarly greenish thing, with five slender fingers ending in thick, sharp nails.
I raised my hands and stared at them in growing panic.
Numbly, I patted unfamiliar fingers over an equally unfamiliar face; finding gaunt, high cheekbones; a pronounced brow ridge; small, sharp teeth; and long, pointed ears.
A goblin!
I had been turned into a freaking goblin!
Stunned at my realization I looked around. Apparently, I had died, and was respawned in this location. However, I was certain I’d never seen this place before.
What is going on?! I thought in alarm. I should have appeared in the Everance cemetery!
When player characters died in NEO, they were respawned, ‘reincarnated,’ in the nearest friendly cemetery. Logically I should have respawned in the Everance cemetery, the city where I lived. But that’s not where I was.
Still dazed, I stumbled on the uneven ground, then stopped and looked at my surroundings. I had respawned in what was apparently a small cave.
No no no! This can’t be happening! I refuse to accept this!
I had a special Epic item, kept specifically for extreme emergencies like this. It was a one-use only, one-of-a-kind scroll called ‘Shape Reality;’ and that described exactly what it did. With any luck, I could use it to get out of this mess.
Ready to be done with whatever this situation was, I accessed my inventory for the scroll.
Every character, including NPCs and monsters, had an inventory. It wasn’t a game-cheat, items in the extra-spatial storage took more time and deliberate effort to retrieve than, say, unsheathing a sword or taking a potion from a belt; the storage was only ‘magical’ volume, the weight of an inventory’s contents still applied against the character’s weight carrying limit. But the auto-organizing and space-saving convenience made it a godsend for players.
When my inventory interface opened, I could only stare numbly at the hovering window.
My inventory was completely empty.
Gone. I’d lost everything, all my exquisitely rare and costly items.
A system notification indicator was blinking at me. It must have been generated between my death and respawn, minimizing when I didn’t acknowledge it. I opened the message.
Congratulation! You have ${skills.num:32} new skills --#Errorr--$*&@
Skill ---xxxxx--- unavailable. Prime Badge awarded.
Skill ---xxxxx--- unavailable. Prime Badge awarded.
Skill ---xxxxx--- unavailable. Prime Badge awarded.
Skill ---xxxxx--- unavailable. Prime Badge awarded.
…
...
It seemed the system had trouble processing some aspects of my goblin-hood. If the notification was correct I had lost all my skills and spells, but I still had all the Prime Badges I had collected, which were of far more importance.
My memory was still clouded, the system message tickled at my thoughts, but I still couldn’t recall...
I closed my eyes, trying to calm my racing thoughts. After a few moments, I opened them and looked around me.
Bones and partial skeletons of things long dead were piled against the walls and scattered across the floor. The bones were in all shapes and sizes, many
of them looked like they came from goblins.
I shook my head, trying to force some clarity back into my head.
All right Oren, from the start. Go through the events that you do remember. I closed my eyes again.
The bastards used a Race Change scroll on me, it turned me into a goblin and then… then... everything that followed was still a blur, I couldn’t recall. I dimly remembered shouts, screams, and laughter. Then... Nothing.
I shook myself out of my reverie. I was standing, vulnerable, in the middle of an unfamiliar cave. I had to figure out where I was. I opened my game map and what it showed made me a little less anxious.
Well Vatras, it seems like I haven't lost everything, I thought smugly.
The map still displayed the vast areas of NEO I’d explored, marked with dungeon locations, various points of interest, and, most importantly, the caches of treasure and items I’d hidden in different spots. I had developed a rather paranoid habit of burying some of my wealth in various places throughout the game world. Just in case of a rainy day. And right now, it was a very rainy day. It was a monsoon-season-in-India kind of rainy day.
Finally, a lucky break! I thought gleefully. Some of the items I buried were immensely powerful. So, my first step would be to get to the closest cache. Even if I was stuck playing a goblin character, that treasure would give me a decisive advantage, helping me speed-level my character.
Now I just had to find where I was in NEO, and then look for the nearest treasure cache.
I centered the map on my current location, an unexplored, blacked-out part of the map. I zoomed out. Still black. I frowned and zoomed out again.
Ahhh, damn… My heart fell.
I knew where I was, I was stranded.
I was in the middle of a vast unexplored region of NEO, far to the west of the ‘civilized’ parts. The territory was isolated by mountains and chock full of monsters. It was known only as the ‘Deadlands’.
Life Reset Page 1
