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Thank You, 'Michael Covington', 'Joshua Potter', and 'Dunkmasterjohn', for Becoming A Member On My Pa'treon. The Emperor Protect.
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Sitting on the carriage, it looked like a cutscene, but Barton found that when he moved the mouse, the lens would also change. He tried pressing other buttons. For the time being, he couldn't do anything else except change his perspective.
[ You awaken to the sound of wagon wheels clattering over a rocky path.
"Hey, you. You're finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."
You look around. Three other prisoners sit with you in the back of the horse-drawn cart: Ralof of Riverwood, a Stormcloak soldier; a gagged man in fine clothes; and a talkative thief.
"Damn you, Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along. The Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn't been looking for you, I could've stolen that horse and been halfway to Hammerfell."
"You shouldn't be here. It's the Stormcloaks the Empire wants."
The thief goes on, complaining. The man in fine clothes remains silent, he is gagged and bound, wearing the blue tunic of a noble.
"Watch your tongue! You're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King."
"Ulfric? The Jarl of Windhelm? You're the leader of the rebellion. But if they captured you... Oh gods, where are they taking us?"
"I don't know where we're going, but Sovngarde awaits."
"This isn't happening! This can't be happening!"
The cart rolls through the countryside. Eventually, you arrive at the gates of Helgen, a small Imperial-controlled town.
"Look at him. General Tullius, the Military Governor. And it looks like the Thalmor are with him. Damn elves. I bet they had something to do with this."
The wagons roll through the village, children watching as the prisoners are carted in. The thief grows more panicked by the second.
The carriage continues to drive, and the NPCs' conversation in the cart helps Barton understand the plot a little. ]
"According to my years of gaming experience, the Imperial Army is a hostile force. All I need to do is wait for the plot to unfold and then try to escape with the Stormcloak prisoners." Looking at the screen in the game, Barton whispered to himself.
With both hands away from the mouse and keyboard, he temporarily didn't need to operate anything, this was a real-time game cutscene. Leaning back in his chair, Barton appreciated the game's visuals and whispered softly.
[ "Why are we stopping?"
"What do you think? End of the line."
The cart stops. One by one, the prisoners are called forward for execution by the Imperial soldiers. When they reach you...
"Who are you?" ]
Along with the name on the execution list, the protagonist's name is outside the list. With the soldier's inquiry, the screen switches to the character creation interface. Looking at the system in front of him, Barton suddenly froze. WTF! This system is so complicated!
The stunned Barton looked dumbfounded at the interface. Body, head, face, eyes, eyebrows, mouth, hair, several categories. Each option has various sub-options. For example, in the body options, it was not the standard game sliders, just a way to select height or similar.
You can decide your skin color, body shape, and height. Options for the head and face include painting, decorations, and modifications to the nose, ears, eyes, mouth, and jaw. There are also ten different races, how should he choose?
Suddenly, Barton felt overwhelmed by the choices. The more important point was that he wasn't talented at customizing characters like this! But then he noticed a feature called "preset," which indicated there were two profiles to choose from. Clicking on one and looking at the profile picture next to it, Barton was shocked.
"Damn! Isn't this Leon?" Although he had bought Resident Evil Resistance and hadn't dared to continue after two hours, he was no stranger to the characters. The avatar in front of him resembled Leon.
"There's also Ada! Damn!" He quickly selected the second preset and looked at Ada's model that appeared. All his attention was instantly focused. What else can this game do?
Next, Barton explored other races and found that only the Nords looked most natural to him; the rest felt a bit strange.
Compared to the characters from his memory of the game, John made some adjustments in this ethnicity selection. For example, races like Tiger or Orc were not given monstrous heads but were somewhat anthropomorphized. After all, if they looked too ugly, only a tiny fraction, perhaps one in a hundred, would choose them.
It didn't matter if the character was ugly; what mattered was that ugliness could give the character personality and traits. Without characteristics, no one would choose them.
Without much hesitation, Barton selected Ada's model. He realized that this face customization system might be useful for creating characters in other games or anime. But he didn't really understand it and found it too cumbersome. So he decided to use a preset, save the data or models, and move on.
Confirming his choice, he entered his name: Barton. This was one of the few things most players could do, creating their own characters, though it felt somewhat secondary.
After creating the character, Barton put down the mouse and keyboard with both hands, continuing to watch the plot unfold. But what happened next shocked him.
"Damn, they cut off your head!" Barton's eyes widened. When he saw a Stormcloak soldier stepping forward for execution, he was beheaded by the executioner with an axe. The head froze in the frame.
Watching this scene, his memories suddenly recalled the horror of Resident Evil, police officers being decapitated, zombies' heads being blown off. But the game's scene inside the city didn't trigger many memories; during Resident Evil, those moments had shocked him.
With a dragon chant, a massive black dragon flew from the distant sky and landed on the sentry tower. The dragon roared, and suddenly the wind and clouds changed color. The once blue, sunny day was instantly cloaked in dark clouds. Lightning and fireballs rained from the sky, resembling the end of the world.
"Damn! This dragon, what's happening? Is it here to save me!?" Seeing the task prompts and instructions on the screen, Barton was instantly excited. Such a grand scene at the start? Cool!
Ignoring the other NPCs and mission prompts, he held the mouse to control the protagonist and looked up at the black dragon in the sky. Lightning and fireballs rained down as Alduin, on the sentry tower, flew into the sky, while Imperial soldiers and mages in Helgen attacked him with arrows and spells.
"Awesome! I wonder if this game will let me become a Dragon Knight later. But in the trailer, isn't the dragon supposed to be opposite to the hero? How could this dragon come to save me?" Barton stared at the strange sky.
Is this a plot hole? Just as this thought crossed his mind, he saw the dragon land again on the burning tower, roaring fiercely from its mouth.
??? Seeing the screen turn gray and show "Game Over," Barton paused, pressing the keyboard. Sorry, I think too much!