Unlimited

Chapter 4

Elion was floating in nothingness.

There was no formable thought.

No perception.

No space.

No time.

Suddenly a small light appeared, cutting the endless embrace of the void. Within its glow a moving image materialized - it was him leaving a big house at night. He was about to move away in his wheelchair when his foster mother entered the doorframe. Another picture was waxing and showed him eating lunch with the other orphans. The next one depictured a little girl which spasmed on the ground of the orphanhood's kitchen. More and more images emerged like flickering lights in an old warehouse. The relentless stream of images hammered at his mind, each frame an echo of forgotten impressions - strangers whose faces seemed oddly familiar, discussions veiled in mystery. The onslaught was like an unyielding storm, threatening to drown him in a sea of memories. His sanity teetered on the edge, but then, gradually, he descended from this chaotic fever dream, like a minuscule droplet separating from a colossal iceberg.

However, it felt more sticky and vivid.

Am I dead?

Elion's mind was free from the chains of the void.

My eyes! He exclaimed as he realized he could not open them. More specifically he would have exclaimed but he had no mouth either. He could not see and there was also no sound, but he felt the presence of a living being behind him. Its movements caused his skin to vibrate which led to a rough representation in Elion's head. It was a ball thirty times his size that creeped away from him.

What happened to me? Elion thought as he tried in vain to move his limbs. The ground under him changed as he moved forward but there were no legs that listened to him. Suddenly he realized it. The massive thing was a slime and he seemed to be his offspring that was thrown into the virtual world. He was a shapeless wabbling blob without bones and muscles, and he needed to deform his malleable body to move.

So how do I open my inventory without my arms? As he had this thought the menu opened before his inner eye.

He wanted to log out to avoid renewed pain but a soft voice in his head stopped him.

At least he could open his inventory. Inside it he found three items, the first one being a sad doll which stated:

Poor Doll: You get more xp the less items you own (Resources do not count). Origin: Bonus for players without ai-support.

How generous from MindSoft to give a small advantage to players without an ai, even if it does not do much after the start. Contrary to this another thought formed:

Why generous, the AI can give you a clear advantage and the name of this item is a mockery against the poor! Not pursuing this inner conflict Elion examined the other items.

There were the bracelet with the Unlimited logo and a mystic mount, both bonuses of the founder's edition of the game. The blazing red flame adorned by the two stars at the bottom was smithed with a finesse he had never witnessed before. What might this be good for, is it valuable or maybe a trigger for a special quest?, he pondered.

Then Elion noticed a new section for his character statistics and skills and inspected it further.

Name: Elion

Level : 0

Race: Slime

Class: /

Attributes: Constitution 0, Dexterity 0, Intelligence 0, Strength 0, Wisdom 0