[Welcome to Clash Online. Please press your hand on the scanner ID to process further.]
The blue screen welcomed Cane as he entered the familiar space once more.
The digital landscape around him was the same as he recalled from months ago.
If anything, it looked even more vibrant than before.
"So this is the new and improved Clash Online? They really reworked the whole space after I pointed out all those flaws, huh? Good for them."
Clash Online was a game that Cane had played on and off during its beta cycle.
He was lucky enough to be selected as one of the testers for the game and had proceeded to find as many ways to break it as possible.
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As the first virtual MMORPG, Clash Online had been a goldmine of bugs for him, and Cane had exposed them all online.
That had jump-started his streaming business and gained him a lot of traction.
By the time the official beta ended, he had well over three million followers online, and life got busy.
More and more sponsorships for other games came in, and he also got busy with school and finals.
The pressure to get into a good university got too much.
Even when he told his parents that he wanted to quit school and go full-time streaming, they never agreed.
They always insisted that getting a degree and a 'real job' was much more important than playing games with an unstable income.
So Cane did the reasonable thing—he packed his stuff and printed a fake entrance letter to show his parents.
Unlike him, the older folks of the house did not know much about technology or today's world.
So when he showed them the letter, they believed him.
That was how he moved out at the age of nineteen and settled into a small one-bedroom apartment that cost him his whole paycheck.
He had been busy preparing for a collab when he saw an ad for Clash Online.
And slowly, he saw more and more of them.
The game had finally launched a year after beta, and within one month, had topped not only all charts but also gained mainstream traction.
Such a hot game should have been the first one he checked out.
But alas, there were contracts to fulfill, and Cane got too busy and forgot all about it.
Until one of his comments in the chat reminded him.
[HaremKingXXX: Hey, when are you going to check out Clash Online? You're the only streamer who is not on that game yet.]
The commenter started a whole chain reaction, and all those who recalled Cane's origins started to spam in the chat.
They refused to slow down until he gave them what they wanted.
"Fine-! I will play that game. I will make a new account and stream once I hit level 10. Deal?"
He asked the chat, and they all spammed crying emojis.
Not that he could do anything about it.
The game only allowed streaming after level 10 due to some… sensitive content in the beginning that was not child-friendly.
And as much as Cane did not give a fuck about R18 content, he did want his channel to be around to earn money.
"Clash Online, huh? It sure has been a while since I heard that name. I wonder how much the game changed?"
He asked no one as he ended the stream and ordered his gear.
It arrived within an hour, and he hooked it up.
Once he was ready, he entered the virtual space and was greeted by the customization screen.
It looked very similar to the one the game had during beta testing, and he went with the basic gear.
Next was the class selection, and Cane looked for the button.
But there was nowhere for him to select.
Instead, the system had a screen for him to put his hand on.
[Please confirm your ID.]
The system told Cane, and he placed his hand on the scanner.
He was not even scared to give out his personal information at this point because he knew that it was already out there… somewhere.
[Registration completed. Welcome back user: XXX. …Retrieving user data…]
Cane was surprised by this message.
He had not expected the game to remember him, much less from the beta.
As far as he had read, the game had no pre-registration or beta rewards.
So where was this coming from?
Just as he thought that, the system started to cause trouble and beeped.
He quickly looked at the screen to know what was happening.
[Warning: Player class is glitched... New player class being detected.]
[New player class unlocked: Absorber. Attribute: 100X Multiplier.]
[Warning: Player has a 'kill-on-sight' modifier added to the setting. This cannot be turned off.]
[Welcome back player, to the world of Clash Online. May your journey be a fruitful one.]
The system told Cane before it faded, and he was once again thrown into the world by force.
His body clashed with the ground, and the slight pain told him that this was too real.
"Where the fuck am I… no wait, before that, I should check my stats and class. I don't think what happened was supposed to happen."
Cane opened the system screen to take a look.
[New player class unlocked: NPC.]
[Secondary class: Absorber. Attribute: 100X Multiplier.]
[Special skills: Mana absorption.]
[Mana: 0/100.]
[No other criterion is unlocked for viewing. Please head to the beginner's town to get your first quest.]
The system was the same as before, and it was one he had criticized.
It told the player nothing of what needed to be done or what the game was about.
Still, it at least told the player where to go.
As a beta tester, Cane had the advantage of knowing where he needed to head next.
The beginner's village was not too far away from here, and the first chain quest would start there.
Cane felt a little excited about the game.
It felt new and thrilling, and the glitch was something he had never experienced or heard of before.