While thinking about the intro and the game's stages, Nova arrived at the city's doors. It was a double door between the huge walls surrounding the city.
"Halt!" shouted one of the two guards waiting at the door. "Who are you?"
Thankfully, one of the speedrunners had already solved the fastest method to skip this interrogation.
"I am Nova. I came here on the orders of Ymira."
The guard frowned and measured Nova. But he stepped back and let Nova get inside the city without saying anything else, as if he were controlled.
This was like a cheat. The players didn't know who this "Ymira" person was. But their name was like a cheat code that would work in more than one place. However, it only worked when the player was a mage. There was other skips for other classes.
But he wasn't done with his first step yet. He entered the city and directly headed toward the center of it.
There stood the Academy of Elarith with its huge, tower-like structures and grand castle. It was the only reason Nova started each character at the age of fifteen. It was one of the biggest time skips in this game.
The time passed at the same speed as the real world in the game. That was why most of the best players started with their characters at the age of 19.
Of course, since the game started at the end of September, the characters wouldn't exactly be 19. They would be 3 months away from 20.
With various time skips, it was possible to shorten that time to one month. So, a new game's story would start one real month after the game was created for most players.
But Nova didn't like that at all. If he could, he would start as a baby and make the best character. But it would take too long.
So, instead, he would start at 15, the maximum age one could enter the academy. Then, he would join the academy, making four years pass in a second.
This way, he would start at the beginning of the age of 19 while also getting some benefits of starting at the age of fifteen, since the academy increased the players' stats and levels.
Of course, normally, he would need to stay 19 for one year in real life after the academy ended, waiting for the character to become 20.
But there were a lot of time skips he could use to shorten the one year into four months. So, Nova waited four months between each run.
That was also the reason he had multiple VR goggles, each with the game loaded and with the academy skip done. Since he lived on by earning money from his streams, he couldn't make the viewers wait.
So, any time he died, he would remove the goggles and wear the next ones. This way, he would only show the viewers one month of training in the game, which was also fun to watch.
Of course, some even watched him do other things since he was a good player and people wanted to learn from him. But most viewers would wait for the actual content.
And now, he was about to get registered for the academy, so that the time would start flowing after his character was 19.
He headed for the academy. There was an old man waiting in front of the iron doors of the campus. He seemed like a beggar, but he was actually a strong wizard.
"Old man, I want to join the academy," Nova said. The NPCs in this game were very developed. They could understand and respond to anything. If a player asked why he was hiding himself or hinted at his real identity, the man would instantly kill the player.
So, Nova acted like he didn't know who this man was. "Do you know where to register?"
The old man slowly raised his hand and pointed at the other side of the iron doors. When Nova looked back, there was a desk and a woman sitting behind it.
One second ago, before the old man pointed toward it, there was nothing there. Also, when Nova looked back again, the old man had also vanished.
This was, once again, familiar. Nova approached the woman. "Hello, I would like to join your esteemed academy." Another speedrun tactic that helped speed up the process.
"You will need to pay 10 gold coins and join the test. What is your age and your class?" the woman asked.
Nova opened his status window by thinking "status" inside. It was opened without an issue.
***
Name: Nova
Race: Human/???
Class: Mage
Level: 1
.
.
.
***
He looked at his race.
So, this character is half human.
There were other half-human or non-human characters, but it was the first time Nova saw question marks instead of the race name. Still, since it was an easter egg, he would probably learn about it in the future.
He also didn't check the rest of his stats. After he entered the academy and four years passed, everything would change anyway. He would level up and get stronger in the academy.
He answered the woman's questions and also paid the fee. Every player would start with a small inventory with 500 gold in it. Seemingly, 500 gold was much in this world. But the players didn't care much since the money wasn't ever an issue.
"Are you ready to join the test right now, or would you like to come later?"
This was the question he was waiting for. After answering that he was ready, four years would pass.
First, he thought about it. If there was something he wanted to look for or buy, he could say he wasn't ready and come back later for the test.
But he had been in this city many times, and there wasn't anything interesting at this point in time.
So, he answered the woman's question, "Yes, I am ready for the test."
Then, he looked up, waiting for the familiar prompt and the time flowing in the background.
But, even after ten seconds, what he was waiting for didn't come.