"Tsk."
Disappointment escaped his lips.
He washed his face and hair, and wiping it with the towel.
Looking at the mirror in front of him, he still couldn't believe what just happened.
On his hand are tattoos, like barb wires, coiling around his arm up to the shoulder.
Three bands of jagged ink coiled around his left arm; a fourth snaked up his right, biting into his chest like a slave's brand.
The sentence holds the truth in some sense.
Because when he woke up earlier, he woke up not as Zaon of the Earth, or someone else.
Going back thirty minutes ago.
Waking up, he did not see any familiar ceilings, nor any other familiar trope.
[WELCOME TO PROJECT: ZERØ]
Those bold letters were in front of him. The letters he always see when he starts the game.
The starting screen of the game.
This is the same whenever he enters the game pod. It is like playing in a console, and letting you choose the game you want to play.
Zaon entered in, and as he walked over, he saw familiar words.
>Create a New Character<
>Settings<
>Exit<
There were three options below it, and Zaon was surprised.
He took some time looking, and there were some things missing.
First, the bold letters were too glaring that he remembered how shitty the first time he entered the game.
It was too plain, and the only design was the slash on the "O" of the word Zerø.
He was in the first phases of the game, for the first change in the welcome screen will be in the tenth year anniversary.
Sighing, he went back to the game interface.
Memories flooded his brain: his days where he fought with his teammates, quarelled with them and moved forward.
Choking up on the emotions, he wiped the tear on his eye that fell down.
'I will get revenge.'
His anger flared up, but he knows he can't do anything right now unless he has the information on how he will move from now on.
"Exit."
[Sorry, you have no authority to do that.]
"What? Exit!"
[Sorry, you don't have authority to--]
"EXIT!"
[Sorry, you--]
It happened a few more times before he realized it.
He is now inside the game.
The game he played for almost two decades, is now being played right in front of him.
"You must be kidding, right?"
Then, he looked back to the opening screen, only to see that the Exit button is clear.
It means that it is not a problem in game, but something else.
Then, he saw the tattoo in his right hand, and it is glowing faintly.
He then ran towards the starting screen, and decided to touch the Exit button with his right hand, only to be shocked with so much power that it sent him back a few meters.
"What?"
[Sorry, you don't have authority to do that.]
Defeat.
That's what he is experiencing now, but instead of flaring up, he thought of ways to move forward.
In front of him now are three options, but two are available.
He knows what creating a new character entails.
It means he has to start from the beginning of his journey into the game. This means opportunities, but also risks and threats along the way.
But that's life, you have challenges the face, but also the means to face it.
Yet, that's not Zaon.
Even if there is something out there to be done, he needs to still prepare for it.
He needs to be 100% sure, or maybe 200%.
"Open settings."
The screen then shifted, and there came the settings.
There are many settings to the game, but those settings are still inaccessible in the starting point.
Only the General settings are open, where the all the settings he can change are.
These settings are Sounds, Graphics, Sensitivity, and the most important, which is the Affliction Settings.
The Sounds setting has the Language and Talking Speed, which is about what the player's most used language can be chosen, as well as the rate of how fast an NPC can talk to the player. This also has the Background Music and Effects Music can be turned on and off.
Next is the Graphics, which is locked at max. It can't be directly interfered with, unless there is a part in the game where it says that the graphics may change or not. Also, the Graphics setting is directly related to the power and type of the pod being used in playing.
The Sensitivity Option is the most important. Reaction Speed, Reaction Time, Execution Time and all are here. For now, Zaon can't change it as he has to experience the game before mixing it up.
The last one is Affliction. This is the Pain Receptor Blocker where the pain that is inflicted to the characters are also felt by the player.
This has to be adjusted accordingly for having too high of pain may incur some things to the player.
And that is Zaon's key.
In his past life, there is a setting in the game where if the pain passed a certain threshold, the player is forcefully logged out of the game, and their pods won't be operable for three hours.
That's why players set the bar low, but there is also a restriction so that the realism is still in place.
The setting is between 0.7 APH to 1.8 APH (Affliction Per Harm), which means that if you are in 0.7, you only feel 35% of the damage inflicted to the character.
So, Zaon put the setting on to the maximum.
[Warning: the Maximum APH has been selected. Are you sure you want to play in this setting?]
"Yes."
The settings went quiet for a few seconds before another prompt appeared.
[It seems like the setting you selected is
He also have to get a fierce pain so he can be forced to log out.
He smiled as he went back to the screen.
Feeling so good about himself, he went and chose the first option.