@PurestFormofCancer was a new player. Mycenae spawned her at the central plaza, a hallmark fountain that was in every major safe zone. The fountain, which depicted nothing but an eye surrounded by a golden rim, was a tri-slabbed rock platform. Water flowed from the opposite side and created a minor moat, and she was basked in a comforting wave of elucidation and particles that felt like the blowing of dandelions. In Mycenae, everything smelled like flowers and shampoo. Once she stepped off, her invincibility would curve into a slow methodical zero, and the scents and touch would fade away.

  Her tutorial confused the hell out of her. For one, it just took place in her room; right as soon as she booted it up, the entire room became a rendering space and turned pitch black. She'd seen it in some anime that forums would talk about, the isekais and whatnot; usually they involved some kind of headset, though, right? The one she was thinking of had something called a Nervegear or whatever. Either way, she just passed it off as something that would never happen, which was probably her first mistake.

  Where was she? Her room, right.

  So her room was used as the loading point for this game. By this point, she was still processing the world spinning around her and her head getting a massive migraine, and when the game told her it was loading, it was the nail in the coffin for her. This was not a normal game. The game utilized her room as the playspace and did not let her leave, instead looping on itself. While this seemed scary at first, it was one of those things where she thought

  "How worse could it get?"

  The second was that the tutorial section was a bunch of nonsense. Walk around in a place with nothing, solve a puzzle, fight an enemy, spawn in Mycenae, and that was it! She barely got to learn anything about her class! What the hell was an EARTH good for? She had been panicking for the first ten minutes, then rationalizing in the second ten, and then she had died to the first enemy and that was REALLY scary.

  Hence why she was here.

  Walking around in Mycenae helped her gather her bearings more. Most new players around her were in the same boat, which made her feel more at ease; she had no clue if it was intentional, because the enemy she fought was ludicrously difficult, especially with the lackluster GUIDE she was given. Many new players, dressed in a basic shirt and pants, were exploring each other's bodies.

  "Hey, um, are you also new?"

  "Yeah..."

  Another player was frantically scraping at the fountain. "SOMEONE HELP! THERE'S NO LOG OUT BUTTON!"

  "You can't read, there IS a logout button, it's called GIVE UP."

  "Then fuck! I'm giving up, then!"

  Luckily, the tutorial gave one of the most basic skills to exist in this game.

  "Wait! Uh- I-Identify!"

  "What?!" Obviously, he didn't know this skill.

  Windows around her flashed and blared at her. She'd never played MMORPGs, so this was totally unknown to her and the UI was disgusting. She knew, however, something would be off just by the statement of GIVING UP. She ignored anything regarding stats, levels, inventory, she only needed to know...

  If windows would pop up for any player who had recently died or "logged out."

  this player has given up

  this player has given up

  this player has given up

  this player has given up

  this player has given up

  "We don't know what happens when you give up!" She explained to the player, who looked sweating out of his mind with steam practically dripping from his ears.

  "Log out, right! The game even says if we don't want to play, we just give up!"

  "Giving up is a different term altogether! She might be onto something..."

  Well, thanks to @PurestFormofCancer's input, everyone was arguing about what would happen if one gave up. The chattering became clamoring, and the sounds were overlapping against her psyche. For a moment, she was lost, overstimulated, and stuck staring into the water thinking about how nice it looked. She didn't have anything to provide as the players were going on and on about developer intentions and isekais and other things she didn't understand.

  And that was when a flashbang went off.

  BANG!

  Lights, disorienting noises, and the depictions of stars and weird sounds crushed her eardrums as people around her were equally blaring in muffled noises; screams, or something...

  Once the flashbang's effects lowered down, there was a new person in front of them.

  "Ahoy, buddies! New players, right? Sorry, we've been a bit occupied with a situation going on in Decirest, so I'm the only one on deck here."

  In front of @PurestFormofCancer was another girl, whose username popped up in a different color: @CrustyRust. She had a long cascade of purple hair, purple eyes, and a purple turtleneck. She looked like she spent her days in a girlish room doing makeup and styling her accessories with gems and rhinestones. She just oozed spacey innocence, and was far different from everyone else, whose usernames were left censored by asterisks, likely due to the default privacy settings.

  "Ugh...! What the fuck, man! Why'd you flash us?"

  "Man, that hurt..."

  @CrustyRust beamed her usual smile. "Sorry, but we usually try to dissuade you all from giving up...'Cuz we don't know what happens! People who log out never come back."

  "Yeah, so??"

  "Including the ones who were intending to come back tomorrow.'"

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Though her eyes beamed smiles and her lips flashed happiness...No one could mirror it.

  "What...Do you mean?" @PurestFormofCancer was the one asking now.

  "Like I said! We don't know what happens. So...We just...Ask people not to log out until we figure something out. Like, who knows! Maybe you die for real, in real life!"

  "Holy shit, do not tell us that," A player said, his face scrunching in impatient horror. "What are we supposed to do, then? Just play forever?!"

  Violet scrunched her lips with the same animation of a cartoon character. "...Well, a lot of us are hoping it's not forever...So...Can you all afford some time to give this game a shot while we figure out what to do?"

  "Wait, wait, wait...So who are you?" @PurestFormofCancer asks.

  "Oh! CrustyRust! You can call me Violet!"

  Fitting.

  She continued, snapping her fingers and doing some jazz hands. "I'm a SPIRITMIND player! Aaaaand...I'm one of the co-writers for the 'GETTING STARTED' Guide! C'mon, follow me, I'll show you to main community hub. Or you can GIVE UP and see what happens! I won't stop you!"

  ...One or two players actually did GIVE UP, and their bodies dissipated in motes of light. It wasn't different from how people respawned...And for that, @PurestFormofCancer did not join them.

  The majority shared the same sentiment. Violet's voice had a persuasive quality to it, and stood out as something with more authority than they could have right now.

  The deep shade of this map was illuminated by @CrustyRust's...Ah, Violet's light source, a flashlight that looked like something out of a space age. Even the handle itself had neon lines going through the grooves.

  "So...Um. How long have you been playing?"

  "Hm...A year and a half?"

  "Wow...And...Um. How many- uh, players do...Do you see give up or something?"

  Violet tapped her chin rhythmically. "Oh, way more than I could count on my fingers. As of yesterday, it was 542. The day before, 458. Usually the weekends are lot heavier. We still argue on if we treat them like casualties."

  Silence again amongst the PLAYERs.

  "They're pretty high for a game like this...Is it because those were the weekends?"

  "Yeah! Weekdays, we only usually see it get to triple digits once or twice. On average of 2 - 3 times a week, higher on holidays."

  "What's SPIRITMIND? Is that like, the two combined?"

  "Yeah! I have elusively merged the two great powers and become A GOD! Ahaha!" She sprung her light to the sky, donning an incredibly theatric pose and a grin that would make the skies light up. "It's great, I recommend it!"

  "How'd you get that? My class selection just showed 7..."

  "Oh, you can ask to combine them. I hear that BASILISK will offer it if they think a mono class isn't the right fit but, y'know, everyone can just kinda' choose. And I wouldn't worry! You can play any class you want, you just can't switch mid-fight or while you're in a danger zone."

  @PurestFormofCancer raised her hand. "U-um, you can call me Suzuki."

  Violet gasped. "Japanese?"

  Violet turned to Suzuki with great vigor. Immediately, her voice switched to a much more polite pacing...As well as to the native tongue.

  ("How good is your Japanese?")

  ("Fluent...")

  ("Ah, very admirable. I can tell from the tones in your voice you are very skilled. It's a pleasure to meet you! Please treat me well!")

  Violet bowed. Suzuki returned it.

  "Continuing on!"

  Violet's outfit was much more disconnected than the flagrant showing of many PLAYERs. As expected, most of the PLAYERs who seemed to have played longer were ultimately dressed in much more flamboyant outfits; glowing armor pieces, heads practically on fire with comically large hats, people donning color palettes of so many different poor choices...Suzuki felt a sense of envy.

  Violet, however, was just sauntering around in her silly turtleneck sweater. Her tennis shoes looked about as cheap as Suzuki's shirt, and the pleated skirt didn't really look anything special. This supposed veteran wrote one of the GUIDEs?

  "So this is the tavern!"

  As their various shoes and boots clattered the cobblestones, they would enter a building. As the buildings were all technically top-side down, this lower floor was largely a reception area. On the outside, it was just a wooden hovel, but just one knock against the wall and Suzuki thought it would snap her hand off. It was probably more solid than any brick house she'd ever lived in.

  On the inside, it was a homey interior with a lightly colored beige filling every wall and ceiling. The floor, a dark mahogany, was decorated with a line of seats and cushions from wall to wall like church pews. The front counter reminded her of a tri-fold, with three individuals manning their own glass station in a U shape. Violet waltzed into the area, spreading her hands around with that same grin like she was inviting the entire party to a hug.

  "Tavern! This is the most boring part! You get checked in with the NPCs and they talk to you about all the fun stuff. This game is all about freedom! You all chose your class based on BASILISK's suggestion, but the game also lets you pick whatever you want! My class was not recommended to me, fun fact~!"

  Suzuki stared at the NPCs. They were all somewhat thin-bodied females, each with endearing hair styles and a neutrally-attractive face. Suzuki stared at some of them, only to jump as one of them politely waved.

  "Oh, yeah, that happens a lot. The NPCs are actually- well- They're the residents here! Please treat 'em like you would any other person. Don't be shy!"

  Some of the PLAYERs, guys and a few girls alike, go up to the counter. Some of the guys clearly were red in the face, and Suzuki assumed it came from the attractive faces.

  "This game revolves on three important concepts: time, building, and energy! Time is just time, but building requires an all-purpose resource called Buildstuffs! We call it BS for short. Then for anything you do, you need energy! Game calls it Energystuffs, abbreviated ES, but you can just call it energy."

  Violet whipped her fingers about and tapped her cheek repeatedly. "You're always free to change things around. This game is all about teaching you how to start, how to play, and how to continue!"

  One player raised his innocent hand. "How does experience work. I wanna level up."

  "It's an arbitrary number attached to you by killing an arbitrary amount of monsters based on your current level that's arbitrarily measured against the level of the monster you're fighting, next."

  Then another player. "How do you get better at the game?"

  "You learn, next."

  "Is there a lot of loot?"

  "Yes, next-a-roo."

  Suzuki raised her hand. "How come when a player gives up, there's no stat window that opens up for them?"

  "Oh, an actual good question. We think it's because once a player gives up, they log out and their account is automatically deleted. We've had some instances where we actually managed to find people's identification, but the game won't acknowledge their existence." Violet twirled her feet around, her brightly purple eyes glimmering with some bittersweet contemplation. "It's been weird front to back. I think, personally, that when the game logs them out, it obscures their identity to protect from potential inventory theft. It basically means you can't force someone to give up to solicit items from them, and it also means someone coooould leverage giving up to stop people who greed for their items."

  Another person next to her raised a hand. She had an odd Robin Hood-esque cloak on her. "Do our classes rely solely on our minds and bodies, or do stats play a role in amplifying their effects?"

  "Ooh, I love trick questions! Stats DO play a role, but only in conditionals! Basically, you are rewarded with higher stats as the system measures your stats by the average performance at which you perform abilities! This is why neither INT nor CON exist as stats, per se. Intelligence is defined solely by you, which then is measured against your last recorded stats across an average. Same with your "constitution," the harsher your body goes through while retaining a sustained lifestyle, the more it affects the general placement of your stats!"

  ...Some players were lost by this.

  "So...So if I'm recorded as F on DEF, but I start working out really hard, then it might go to a D?" Suzuki asked.

  "Ehhhh, technically! Again, it's conditional; sometimes, the stats play a role. If your initial stat was an F, it would be raised if you had an item that specifically raised your stat, but if you continuously worked out instead of using the item, your progression to higher tiers would be overall shorter then if you used the item and try to work out after, but that doesn't mean you can't use the item and the working out to raise your tier. Not to mention, you can be given a trial or some kind of quest that would lead to the rise of your stats increasing. Your STATS screen can be treated, for the majority of your play session, as just a measurement of your abilities!"

  "...In comparison to what?"

  Some players nodded their heads, pointing at Suzuki in agreement. Violet simply giggled and put a finger to her lips.

  "In comparison to Basilisk. D'ya think the PLAYERs were the strongest guys around?"