Isaac slowly opened his eyes, his vision gradually coming into focus.
Surrounding him was a dense forest filled with towering trees and unfamiliar underbrush. Sunlight filtered through the needle-like leaves in scattered patches. A gentle breeze swept by, brushing against Isaac's skin and tickling slightly. The air carried the fresh scent of earth and greenery.
If Isaac wasn't fully aware, he'd have thought he wasn't in Celestia: The Eternal Realms, but had somehow been transported to another world for real.
[Welcome to Celestia: The Eternal Realms – First Realm: Mortal Domain!]
The system notification rang out:
[This game offers high freedom and unexpected surprises. Have fun!]
"What the hell?! With this level of immersion, there's no way this game isn't going viral!"
Isaac recalled the game's marketing campaign:
[Built on mature AI and neural link technology, all you need is one helmet to experience 100% realism in a thrilling otherworldly adventure!]
Even someone like Isaac, who wasn't that into gaming, had to admit—this was insane!
The idea of a fully immersive adventure in another world made his blood pump with excitement. "Hell yeah!"
But just then, he happened to glance down at his own "hand"… and froze.
His hand was now a paw? Only three thick claws extended from a stubby palm…
He looked over the rest of his body—coarse, dark-brown fur covered him. His legs were short and bent outward in an awkward, bow-legged stance.
According to the official info, unless players had some specific need for adjustments—like age or disability—the in-game character model would be identical to their real-life appearance.
Isaac had even been admiring how realistic the character model looked during creation. So how the hell did he end up like this when he loaded in?
"What the hell? Open personal panel!" Isaac forced down his panic and called up his interface.
Thankfully, the system still worked, and a semi-transparent window appeared before him:
[Character Bound: Isaac]
[Race: Feeble Hyenaman]
[Quality (Unranked): Feeble Prefix – Base stats reduced by 20%]
[Level: 1 (EXP: 0/200)]
[Physical Attributes – STR: 4 | AGI: 4 | CON: 4]
[Attack Power: Physical 6–9]
[Defense: Physical 2]
[HP: 80]
[Talent: "Inferior Hyena Bloodline" (Unranked): Normal attacks have a 1% chance to crit for 2x damage.]
[Talent Evolution Shards: 0/10 (Tier 0)]
[Quality Evolution Points: 0/10 (Star 0)]
[Monster Reputation: 0]
"Damn it! What kind of stress relief is this? I actually turned into a random mob!"
Isaac looked like he'd seen a ghost. "And these stats are garbage! Twenty percent base stat debuff? I can only equip one item? Unranked quality?! And my so-called talent is a 'low-tier' bloodline with just a 1% crit chance? What a joke!"
"Customer service, get out here! I just bought a second-hand helmet, did I really deserve this kind of treatment?!"
"Give me back my handsome face, my long legs, my shredded abs!" A squat, bow-legged Hyenaman—barely five feet tall—howled in despair to the heavens, tears streaming down his furry cheeks.
Guess the system wasn't lying about "unexpected surprises." This one was just a bit too surprising.
"Ew, what an ugly Hyenaman!" A sweet female voice cut through his misery.
Isaac turned toward the voice. It came from a pretty girl, probably around eighteen or nineteen. She and her four teammates were all staring at him.
There were around a dozen Hyenamen in the area, all of them listed as "Feeble," but Isaac had to admit… he was hands-down the ugliest of the bunch.
This game was unplayable. Just, unplayable.
Worse still, he couldn't log out—because combat had just started.
"—Xylia—, these mobs just spawned. If we don't act fast, someone else will grab them. Let's take out the ugliest one first!"
"Yeah, the ugly ones probably don't crit as easily!"
Isaac's brain short-circuited. What kind of logic is that?! Ugly mobs don't crit?!
Screw that! These chicks were asking for it. He didn't care how cute they looked—he was going to crush them!
The game had just launched, so none of the players had gear yet. "—Xylia—" rushed forward and punched Isaac.
A damage number popped up: -3.
"—PinkLady—" followed with an uppercut.
Isaac took another -3 damage.
Isaac didn't hold back. He swung his crude club at —Xylia—, dealing -5.
Hell no. Crit rate had nothing to do with how ugly he looked. He only had a 1% crit chance anyway—what was he supposed to do with that?
"Whoa, that hit pretty hard!" —Xylia— flinched.
"Don't worry," someone replied. "Hyenamen can spawn with weapons. That beat-up club he's holding? Could sell for two, maybe even three hundred dollars on the outside—if you can even find one."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Tons of guilds, pro players, and esports teams are flooding into Celestia: The Eternal Realms. A 3–6 damage weapon can help them snag early mobs easily."
Another girl with short hair chimed in, "Forget it. Everyone says you'd have to kill over a hundred of these guys to get one drop."
"Doesn't matter. Let's just kill this one first."
Isaac kept a deadpan face the whole time, listening to them analyze his crit rate like he wasn't even there.
So what, he was supposed to die and gift them loot? This monster life was brutal!
His HP was down to 40. The girls all still had 100. Even with slightly higher damage, he wasn't going to survive being dogpiled by five players.
No way was Isaac going to let these girls kill him after insulting him like that. He glanced around—and got an idea.
He started to backpedal while attacking.
"Why is that Hyenaman retreating?"
"Don't worry. It's almost dead."
"Crap, it just aggroed another one!"
Isaac smirked to himself. Oh, so you like ganging up on the weak? Sorry to disappoint—I'm a mob now. And these scrawny Hyenamen around me? They're my brothers.
"Coda, hold that one off. Let's finish this ugly one first!"
Isaac's HP was at 30. He turned and ran—not randomly, but with a plan. He led —Xylia— and her crew straight into five other Hyenamen.
The tables turned instantly. Now it was several Hyenamen versus five players. Isaac ducked to the back, letting his mob brethren do the dirty work.
Feeble or not, Hyenamen were stronger than a level 1 player. Six-on-five? It was a massacre.
"Crap, we can't win this!"
"Damn it! That Hyenaman pulled all the mobs over here!"
"I can't even chug a potion fast enough!" —Xylia— gasped—and then fell under a Hyenaman's club. The last thing she saw was the ugliest one of them all.
Isaac jumped back into the fray, of course. He had to personally finish these bratty girls off!
One by one—club to the face!
Not long after, Isaac stood over five corpses, grinning like a villain. "Now you know... I'm the hottest one around here!"
Too bad none of them could hear his taunt.
[Player —Xylia— (Level 1) killed. Gained 10 XP Orbs. Monster Reputation +1. (Reputation Shop unlocked)]
[Player —DarkLady— (Level 1) killed. Gained 10 XP Orbs. Monster Reputation +1.]
[Player —PinkLady— (Level 1) killed. Gained 10 XP Orbs. Monster Reputation +1.]
…
XP Orbs were basically just experience points, but Celestia: The Eternal Realms had decided to give them a cooler name.
"Wait, what? Killing players gives XP? And reputation too?"
"What the hell is a Reputation Shop? I've never heard of players getting something like that!"
Isaac was about to log out and report this mess to the game company, Aegis… but that barrage of system prompts made him hesitate.