Ethan almost stumbled away from the crowded festival street, his mind still in disbelief. For the time being, he needed space to think and process his situation.
Luckily for him, he was standing just next to a narrow alley between two timber-framed buildings. He made his way there and rested his back on one of the buildings.
"Okay," he muttered to himself, running a hand through his hair… long hair actually, quite the new addition. Despite having not gotten a proper haircut in years, his hair still hadn't grown past his neck in the real world, so touching real hair that grew past his shoulders and even had a rich silkiness to it, felt both amazing and disheartening, after all, the game never had such a feature of feeling hair texture.
"Okay, think… what's happening?"
He looked around once more confirming yet again, that he was indeed in Salt Fish Town. "No doubt, it is…" He muttered to himself.
Of course it was! He had heard them say it already, and even read it on the banner. This was indeed the same beginner town where he had started in on his first ever account when the game launched!
The place itself wasn't the best of locations for beginners, and it was designed to be forgettable and to have the standard starting zone feel, just the right kind of place that would motivate anyone to move out of.
A quick look around would reveal it to the eyes of anyone. There were old structures, weathered, with wood grain he could trace with his fingers and plaster that crumbled slightly under his touch, or at least, what looked like plaster. The town wasn't poor, exactly, but it clearly wasn't wealthy either. The infrastructure had that worn, been-here-for-centuries look. Roads transitioned from cobblestone in the town square to hard-packed dirt on the side streets, and those dirt roads turned to muddy messes wherever the drainage was poor. A staple sight for Salt Fish Town, just as he knew it.
'I appreciated the attention to detail back then, but now…' He couldn't help but notice the dirtiness of it all.
He decided to go around a bit, first to cool his mind, then to experience the place afresh. 'Did I really die in my sleep and got isekai'd without knowing it? I heard something about hypertension killing young adults these days… I don't exactly identify with that group… do I?'
As he walked around, the experience was a mix of a spectacle and torture. The atmosphere was one thing, but the poor quality of his footwear was another thing. He could literally feel the moisture and the unpleasant feeling of mud seeping between his toes—he was carried away and stepped on the wrong spot.
To say it felt irritating was an understatement, especially for an old man who wouldn't be able to defend himself if asked when last he touched grass—well, he wasn't an old man per-se. Anyway, it was hardly time to care about such little things. He did shake his foot to get rid of whatever went inside, but yeah, that wasn't very productive.
The mud was the least of his problems, though. Being a mere game before, he never noticed these details, the smells… God, the smells.
He could smell what seemed to be bread, probably a bakery somewhere nearby, roasted meat from the festival stalls, horse manure from the street, smoke from chimneys, body odor from passersby who didn't have access to modern deodorant or regular baths even… even the slightly stagnant smell of standing water in a nearby trough, though, that was probably not chief amongst the concoction of odours.
Even he who after a few days of not taking his bath thought he was the dirtiest on earth, had to erect an altar and offer up worship for this new experience.
It was overwhelming. VR had never been like this. Even with a neural link headset, Lost World Online had been visual and auditory with some haptic feedback. One neither smelled things, nor felt textures this vividly. One didn't sense the weight of humidity in the air or the way dust particles caught the afternoon light.
This wasn't virtual reality.
This was just… reality.
Ethan looked down at himself and almost laughed at the absurdity of it. His starter gear was exactly as pitiful as he remembered: loose-fitting trousers that had probably been brown once but had faded to an ambiguous gray-tan, a shirt that was more of a tunic, rough and scratchy against his skin, and those awful sandals. At his hip hung his Novice Sword in a simple leather sheath—the most basic weapon the game offered as far as swords go.
He looked like a beggar more-or-less. The only thing distinguishing him from the actual beggars he'd passed was that his clothes, while old and worn, didn't have holes or patches, and that he had a weapon.
"Status," he said aloud, then felt foolish, but partially and still expectantly, the translucent blue menu appeared before his eyes anyway, responding to either his voice or his intent—he wasn't sure which.
He selected 'Status' and pulled up his character sheet:
…
[Status]
Character: Yamamoto Odinson
Race: Human
Title: None
Class: Swordsman
Level: 0
HP: 25/25
MP: 10/10
Strength: 5
Agility: 3
Endurance: 2
Intelligence: 1
Vitality: 1
Free Stat Points: 4
[Weapon Mastery]
One-Handed Sword Mastery: Apprentice Rank – 5%
Two-Handed Sword Mastery: Apprentice Rank – 5%
Free Mastery Points: 0
…
"Of course."
Ethan stared at the numbers, feeling a complex mix of familiarity and strangeness. It was all exactly as it should be for a brand-new character, but the one digit numbers really struck him. He was really once again Level 0—you hit level 1 after your first few kills, starting stats distributed with a slight bias toward Strength, as was standard for the Swordsman class and other attack centric classes, and four free stat points to allocate as he wished. Everything really was normal.
There was the weapon masteries, which were at Apprentice Rank at 5%, which was the baseline—it meant he had basic competency with swords but nothing special. In his old account, he'd pushed both masteries to the peak. The difference in damage output and technique availability between mastery ranks was astronomical, as one would expect.
He was essentially starting from nothing. Only this time, it wasn't just another smurf or burner account.
The stats themselves were straightforward with little intricacies.
Strength increased physical attack power, Agility boosted attack speed and movement speed, Endurance raised maximum HP and stamina, Intelligence increased maximum MP and magical attack power, Vitality improved HP and MP recovery rates.
For a pure swordsman build, the meta was to prioritize strength and agility, with enough endurance, everyone except maybe mages, needed endurance. Intelligence and Vitality were usually dump stats, intelligence being last.
But that was for the game… If this was probably real life, and respawns probably didn't exist here...
Ethan dismissed the thought for now and opened his Skills menu.
…
[Skills]
[Sword Slash]
Dish out a powerful slash. +2% attack power, +2% attack speed.
Type: Active
Level: 1 (Proficiency: 0/100)
Requirement: Sword
MP Cost: 10
Cooldown: 10 seconds
…
Just one skill of course, the most basic sword skill too. Nothing out of the ordinary, though.
Next, he checked his equipment details:
[Old Trousers] (Common)
Durability: 10/10
[Old Shirt] (Common)
Durability: 10/10
[Old Sandals] (Common)
Durability: 10/10
[Novice Sword] (Common)
Durability: 18/18
All Common grade—the lowest tier of equipment. The hierarchy went Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic. His old account had been decked out in full Legendary gear with two Mythic accessories and three Mythic sets. Being a softcore F2P player, he did end up spending a few on the game… yeah, he spent a lot, for someone without sponsorships or a money factory business or lineage. He did also spend months farming some of his equipment.
Now he was wearing literal garbage.
Ethan opened his Inventory and found exactly what he expected: two Low-Grade HP Potions, two Low-Grade MP Potions, and five gold coins.
He stared at those gold coins for a moment.
Five gold. In the game, that had been pocket change, gold was the base currency, and gems was higher. New players were meant to be poor, to struggle, to appreciate every coin they earned.
But Thinking about it now… 'If this is a real world… would the currency work the same way?' He tried to remember the exchange rates from the game… There was none! It was just gold coins, and that was it! Gems only had value in purchasing power with the devs and gacha!
'There's no way gold would be used as the least currency in a real world, right? Unless they are breathing and shitting gold here.'
If he followed fantasy shenanigans, it should be something like 100 copper coins to 1 silver coin, and 100 silver coins to 1 gold coin. So five gold would actually be 500 silver, or 50,000 copper.
Was that a lot in modern day economy? He had no idea, but he had good reason to believe so… After all, gold is the standard for monetary value.
"Doesn't that make me rich?"