The sound of chirping birds filled my ears. I could smell the fragrance of newly bloomed flowers, and the scent of dew hung in the grass. A soft breeze blew through the air, and it lapped gently against the skin on my face. And yet this was all accompanied by darkness. Surely, that wasn’t right?

I opened my eyes.

They were met with a cacophony of color, flowers as far as the eye could see. Roses, lilies, chrysanthemums; if I could name it, I was sure that I could find it amongst the garden that surrounded me. I inhaled deeply, and spring itself seemed to fill my nostrils.

I exhaled.

The beginning of a new season. It was beautiful, and it was hard to believe that this was all in a game...

Words appeared in the center of my vision.

----------------------------------------

Welcome to ARIA Online!

Season of Revival, Moon 1, Day 15

Eira, Level 25 Mage

Current location: Garden of Remembrance. Fifth District, Roumen.

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Unlike before, when I had been in the character creation menu, I now had a body. The User Interface (UI), however, still looked very similar.

The welcome text was in the center of my vision. In the upper left hand corner were my vitals –  HP, MP, and Stamina bars. In the upper right, a small map. And in the lower right, a few quick commands.

I turned my head around to test the UI.

It followed my vision. I wasn’t used to things working like this, but I could see the wisdom behind it. Unlike Black Sun, where you simply sat at the bridge of a spaceship almost all the time, this game would obviously require quite a bit more moving around.

Satisfied for the moment (I could customize things later), I drew my attention away from the UI and began to more thoroughly take in my surroundings.

I was in a large, open garden arranged in a circle; I was on its edge, and had been facing one of the many patches of flowers resting on its ring. Save for a few smaller groupings of plants scattered throughout – most notably, a large tree in the very middle – the center of the garden was essentially a plaza, complete with benches and tables for people to rest at. I guessed that the center was as wide as three or four football fields were long.

There were at least a hundred other people present and, upon glancing some of them over, I felt I could safely assume that they were all Elves like me. Whether or not they were all Snow Elves, however, I could not tell.

About half of them were walking around, making conversation and exploring the garden, while the rest appeared to be exactly where they’d spawned, taking in this marvelous sight that had greeted them.

Well. Can’t just stand around forever.

Open Raidar Chat Services. Call Drift_King.

I waited a few seconds for the request to go through.

“Yo, Soren. You in?”

“Yeah. I spawned in a garden with a bunch of other Elves.”

“Sounds about right. For me, it was the city center. Pretty sure it’s where all the Humans are… turns out a fuckton of people are playing as Humans. Just like the devs wanted!”

“What do you mean?”

“From one of their press releases. When they announced the races. You saw how unbalanced they all were, right? Elves are pretty weak compared to Humans. Beast-bloods sit somewhere in between. That was all so they could keep the race distribution consistent with the lore or something. Stronger Humans, more people play Humans. Weaker Elves, fewer people play Elves.”

He grunted.

“Damn. This place is packed, I can’t stop bumping into people. Everyone’s trying to make it out of the city so they can go kill slimes and shit.”

“Ah… Well, I’ll come meet up with you soon. I want to get a bearing on this place first.”

“Yeah, sure man. Whatever you want. Do wish me luck though, this is going to be an adventure.”

Another grunt.

“Fuck!”

He ended the call.

I bit my lip. Thankfully, things were very peaceful here in the garden.

Or they were, until…

“Hey!”

I turned in the direction of the voice, and saw someone walking towards me. It was a girl. An Elf with black shoulder-length hair and the same pale complexion as me. She was dressed in a completely different way, however, sporting an ensemble centered around a dark blue dress.

“Wow, your character ended up really pretty!”

Her voice was warm and reminded me of honey. Though to that end, it was also very, very sweet. A bit too sweet, in fact.

Her words, meanwhile, caught me completely off guard.

“Oh, um… thank you.”

My eyes widened as I spoke.

That was what my voice sounded like? It was deeper than the typical woman’s voice, and it had a melancholy, but oddly melodic quality to it. It was hollow, yet fully rounded. Not quite raspy, but definitely… sultry.

“Like, really pretty. And woah, your voice!”

“I… Thanks. Your character is, uh, really pretty as well.”

It wasn’t a lie, though I knew her appearance couldn’t hold a candle to mine.

What a strange thing to think, actually. Even if it was true...

She giggled.

“Well thank you too.”

She held out a hand.

“I’m Isabella.”

“Oh yeah, I’m…”

I paused. Which name was I supposed to use?

“Is Isabella your real name? Your player name? Or your character name?”

She giggled again.

“It’s both my real name and player name.”

“Oh. You were lucky, snagging a popular name like yours.”

She nodded. When I didn’t say or do anything further, she tilted her head and gave me a questioning look. Her hand was still outstretched.

“I’m… Isabella.”

“Oh, sorry!”

I shook her hand.

“I’m Akagi. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“And me, you!”

She scooted in closer. I raised an eyebrow at this, but she ignored it.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“So, Akagi huh? That name. Are you Japanese? Or are you just one of those people who really likes anime? An Otaku?”

I certainly liked anime, but I didn’t like it so much that you could accurately call me an Otaku.

“Er… Half of both. As in I’m half Japanese and I like anime, but not that much.”

“You’re half Japanese? That’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

She reached out her left hand and grabbed my right. Before I could react, she was pulling me behind her towards a tall, white gate on one side of the garden.

“Well Akagi, the kinda awkward half-Japanese person who likes anime, but not that much.”

She turned her head back to face me and beamed.

“Let’s go explore, shall we?”

I didn’t know her. She didn’t know me. This was all incredibly overbearing, and I didn’t know how best to respond.

“Actually, I’m supposed to meet up with someone. An old friend that I’m starting the game with.”

“Do you know where she’s going?”

“She? No, it’s a guy.”

“Oh.”

She stopped, and I almost ran into her.

“Boyfriend?”

“No! No, absolutely not. But hey, on that note. I think you should kn –”

“Well then there’s no problem!”

We began moving again, and I continued struggling to keep up with her brisk pace. Now that I was walking and my legs were moving, I realized how strange it felt, being in a body of the opposite gender. Something was missing, that was for sure...

“So, where’s he going?”

“He didn’t say anything specific, just that he’s leaving the city to go and kill slimes.”

“Hmm…”

She stayed silent for a few moments, thinking about what I had just said.

“Well, that’s not where we should be going right now.”

“Why not? We need to start levelling up somewhere.”

“Yes, Akagi. But we’re level 25.”

“...Ahhhhh.”

In many MMOs, slimes were the weakest monsters available, and new players would flock out to kill them in droves. While we were both new players, our levels were high enough that slimes likely wouldn’t give us any EXP at all.

“So you’re a Snow Elf too?”

“Yep.”

“You know, I wonder what it is that distinguishes us from the other Elven races. I thought it might be hair at first. But looking at you and me, how my hair is blonde and yours is jet black, that’s clearly not the case.”

“It’s the skin. I created my character as soon as it was available… which was like, a month ago? Anyways, I browsed character sharing threads on the forums a lot after that, so I got a good sense of how all the races look. Snow Elves are super pale. Wood elves are kinda dark. And then Sea Elves have this weird blueish skin.”

“I see. So then everyone here is a Snow Elf?”

I swiveled my head around to look at the other players in the garden. If what Isabella said was true, then these were all definitely Snow Elves.

As I surveyed them, I noticed also that a majority were now moving towards the center of the garden. Indeed, I could make out that a small crowd had gathered around the base of the tree. More and more people were noticing this, and were calling out to each to begin moving in that direction.

From what people were shouting, it sounded like the entrance to a levelling area was there in the center.

“Hey Akagi, wanna go check that out?”

“Yeah, sure. Just let me confirm what’s going on, first.”

My eyes fell on a player standing a short distance away from us. He had his back to the tree, and appeared to be looking for someone.

I slipped my hand out of Isabella’s and walked over to him.

“Hey, excuse me.”

He jumped and tried to turn around faster than he could handle. He nearly tripped over his own foot, and yelped. He was able to catch himself before he actually fell, however, though he stepped forward a few feet as he did so, and only narrowly avoided colliding with me. When he straightened himself out, his face was just a few inches from mine.

His features shriveled in embarassment and he quickly backpedaled away.

“I’m… I – I’m sorry!”

I was almost as taken aback as he was.

“It’s okay! It’s okay. I’m sorry for scaring you.”

It looked like my words had stabbed him right in the gut, because he clenched his teeth and took a sharp intake of breath.

It must have been my voice.

In an attempt to diffuse the awkward situation, and perhaps without really thinking things through, I emulated the way Isabella had introduced herself.

I reached out my hand.

“It’s… nice to meet you. My name is Akagi.”

Rather than responding to my attempt at a handshake, he clasped his arms firmly to his sides. In a way, he looked like a living straitjacket.

“I’m uh, Cy – Cyberwolf. But it’s – it’s spelled with a 3 instead of an ‘e.’ It’s… I know it’s dumb! Haha…”

It seemed that my sudden appearance had caused him to seriously doubt his choice in names.

In my head, I put a palm to my face.

“Oh, not at all. It’s nice and unique.”

I chuckled nervously. Unfortunately, the chuckle came out sounding more like a giggle, and Cyberwolf’s face turned cherry red in response. The sudden flush was especially jarring given the paleness of his skin.

What a disaster.

For lack of a better way to put it, I clearly did not understand how to “girl.” This was an entirely different world from what I was used to, and I had no idea how women were able to deal with situations like this on what I assumed was a regular basis.

As I opened my mouth to say something else (and in hindsight, inevitably make things worse), Isabella came to the rescue.

She nudged me aside with her shoulder and shot me a stern look.

“You’re a bombshell, Akagi. You can’t just go around dropping bombs on unsuspecting guys like that.”

She whispered this to me, but kept it loud enough for Cyberwolf to hear. I got the sense that this was intentional.

She turned to Cyberwolf.

“Sorry. Ignore her. If you don’t mind, we just wanted to ask you about the tree and why everyone’s going to it.”

Now that he was speaking to Isabella, and not me, he visibly relaxed; his shoulders loosened and his chest rose and fell.

“No – no need to apologize. It’s just that...”

He glanced at me.

“Yeah…”

Isabella nodded sagely, indicating that she understood his pain.

“But... but I can answer your question.”

“Please.”

“The tree... I think as soon as everyone started spawning in, people noticed that some Elves in armor were standing around it. I guess we all thought they were players at first, but then someone talked to them and found out they were NPCs. They’re guards watching over the entrance to Roumen’s catacombs. There’s a door to it inside the tree.”

“So there’s like, a levelling area under the ground?”

“Yes. I’m pretty sure I was one of the first to go inside, and I heard a bunch of creepy-sounding things moving around in the dark down there. I didn’t stay very long, but the guards said that the catacombs are filled with monsters. All level 25 and above.”

“Huh. That works out quite nicely. The perfect place for us Snow Elves.”

Cyberwolf nodded.

“I think it’d be good to go soon. I don’t know how many Snow Elves are here in Roumen, but it could get pac –”

“Hey! Cyber!”

A few meters away from us were a trio of male players, and the tallest (and buffest) of them was waving to try and get Cyberwolf’s attention.

“Hey guys!”

Cyberwolf returned the wave before turning back towards Isabella.

“Those are my friends. I came out to get them so we could go level together.”

“Then we won’t hold you any longer. Thanks for the help, Cyber. I’m Isabella, by the way.”

“Ah, you’re welcome.”

At this, he began to step away, but he ended up hesitating and looked back over his shoulder.

“I… hope to see you around, Isabella. Good luck.”

His eyes fell on me again. Blushing, he continued on his way.

I sighed.

Before I could say anything, Isabella started laughing. Unlike the giggles from earlier, this was a laugh that came from the heart, and it was incredibly contagious; I found myself quickly joining in.

When we were finished, she rested her hand on my back and gently patted it.

“In over your head, huh?”

“Yeah. Definitely.”

She didn’t have the same thing in mind as I did, but the statement held true in either case.

Perhaps now was the time to clear things up.

“Isabella. I’m actually a dude.”

She smiled.

“Good one.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“Stop. You know how a joke isn’t as funny if you have to explain it? This is kinda like that. Don’t keep a joke going past the punchline.”

"Really! I'm pretty sure there's a small chance a player can end up playing as the opposite gender." 

"Akagi, I know. But that chance isn't just small, it's tiny. You know how I said I browsed the forums a lot? There've only been two known cases so far of people getting genderbent. Two! And how many characters have been made so far? A few hundred thousand?" 

"Tiny, but not impossible..."

"What's more likely? You got super lucky, or the kind-of-awkward girl I just met is trying really hard to deliver an already-dead joke?"

I was about to protest, a little indignant at her casual insult, but I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. If what she said was accurate, the chances were indeed incredibly low. And short of exchanging real world info, there was little I could do to prove I was a guy. I didn't know why she was so averse to the idea, but she would likely continue to write me off if I continued to try and justify my claim.

Perhaps I could try to prove it later? Somehow? I supposed it really wasn't that important of a detail... I knew D.K., for one, had been fine with everyone in Black Sun thinking he was a girl. For the first year, at least, before he became a mini-celebrity...

I sniffed.

“The latter.”

Isabella winked, though I could tell by her slightly furrowed brow that my words had made her at least a little unsure.

"Right?"

We stood there in silence for a few moments, Isabella mulling over what, I did not know, and me, contemplating my new existence as a girl.

“Well then, Akagi.”

She grabbed my hand again, breaking me out of my thoughts. Without so much as another word, she began to walk again at that hurried pace of hers. Except this time, we were headed towards the tree.

Her walk turned into a skip, and the next words to come out of her mouth were delivered like the lyrics to a marching song.

“To the catacombs we go! Let’s kill us some monsters!”