Planetary Defense Forces. Recruit Training Manual

I understood that as soon as I confirmed that I had reviewed the initial characteristics and was ready, I would be immediately transported into the game. I was fully aware of the reprimand I would get from my superiors if I failed the test and missed the opportunity to get stronger. On the other hand, I was hardly a little kid starting a game for the first time, not understanding how to move or orient myself. I was a sufficiently experienced gamer who had seen a myriad of different game realities. Surely, I had the ability and experience to handle this?!

So, focusing internally and wishing myself luck, I confirmed that I was ready for the trials.

Chapter 5

The image changed instantly. The projection vanished, and in its place, a spherical opening appeared in the wall, shimmering with a dark blue force field, periodically streaked with discharges—like lightning or something else. And one by one, the character's stats, health, and mana bars appeared as colored strips. As each bar appeared before my eyes, a notification popped up as a text tooltip, so there were no ambiguities or questions left about the new features.

I turned my head, but the semi-transparent strips, as if glued on, remained constantly in the upper right part of my field of vision. They didn't obstruct the view or irritate me at all; all the bars were at their maximum possible length. So, I nodded in satisfaction.

Scanning – that's my character class ability. As the skill level increases, the scanning radius and detection probability will increase, the types of returns will expand, and the skill's cooldown will decrease. Lines of information immediately ran before my eyes, and a small, gray icon appeared, very similar to a diamond.

Wow! I fell into a kind of stupor, especially since I couldn't test the new ability in practice—the icon remained inactive.

Meanwhile, the introduction to the character's game capabilities continued. An experience progress bar appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"Using skills and performing game actions fill the progress bar. When the bar is completely filled, the character's level increases. Character death resets the progress bar," lines of information ran before my eyes again.

"Warning!!! Character death with an empty progress bar results in the loss of one level, all unallocated skill points, and part of the character's existing skills and items. A second death will result in the loss of two levels and a significant loss of skills."