A little girl lay on the hospital bed. Several tubes and wires connected her to the multitude of machines. A man with black hair and silver eyes came inside, followed by a doctor in a white lab coat. Seeing the girl, the black-haired man took a few halting steps to her side before falling to his knees. Waves of grief engulfed him as he took her small, bandaged hand into his.
Tears streaked down his face, and he bowed his head, sobs racking his body. "My daughter... my precious princess..." He choked out, his shoulders hunched over.
"I promise... I promise you..."
Ten years later...
I'm blind. I don't think I even remember what the world looks like anymore. Every time my father comes home, I feel his face so I don't forget what he looks like. Despite this, my memory of his appearance only get hazier by the day.
Today my dad came home early. He sounded exhausted. It's because his company has been really busy, after all, they're releasing the first VRMMORPG in existence. They were the ones who created virtual reality pods and were now releasing Black Storm- the dream of any gamer come true. The beta test would be starting next week, and I couldn't wait. My father is the chief programmer of Black Storm, and I'm overjoyed that I can finally play the game he's put his very all into.
After "the accident", my dad has thrown himself into his work. WE have everything we could need and more, but it's still not enough for him. I'm afraid he'll die of overwork one of these days. I also feel horrible about how hard it is for me to help; I can't see, I can't talk, and I'm stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.
Father showed me my own personal capsule. He said that I would be able to do anything I wanted when I'm in Black Storm; I would have my very own cheat character. I'm a little worried about that though. He said he had pulled some strings, but it didn't matter since he would do anything for his "beloved princess". He was joking around when he said it, but I don't doubt a word he had spoken.
Today the beta test started. Dad was away so I had to get my personal maid, Inha, to help me into the pod. At first it was black, but slowly I started to see. I was standing in a pure white room. I was standing. Tears fell from my eyes as I took a hesitating step forward. I could walk. Today is the best day of my life.
"Welcome. An iris scan has detected that you are Ren Yoon-nim. Please confirm." The system announced in a pretty female voice.
I opened my mouth and tested my voice. "Aaah... aahh..." I said softly. My voice was melodious and tinkled like wind chimes. I think I started to cry again. "Yes." I said, confirming my identity.
"Would you like to create a new character?" The AI asked me, and I replied with a "yes".
"There are currently 12 playable races. You are able to choose from all 58," 'she' (I will refer to the system as she) said.
A plethora of avatars appeared before me. Some looked like me, while others were less... human. I took my time to look at all of them in detail. I don't know how much time passed, but I was in no rush. I finally made my decision and pointed to one of the avatars.
"That is a subspecies of the beast clan, the Varg. Please confirm your decision." She said, her voice echoing pleasantly. I nodded. "Please proceed to customize your appearance." The voice continued, and all the other avatars disappeared, leaving only the 'Varg' in front of me.
I looked at this other me. It had the same childish appearance as myself, sharing my silver eyes and white hair. The only real difference was the pure white wold ears and tail. I wondered how I should go about customizing my character. I was already happy enough as is to see myself, but I decided I should take advantage of the character customization and have some fun with it.
That being said, I proceeded to make various changes to my avatar. I didn't even have to say anything (despite how much I do like my voice), and just had to concentrate hard enough in order to manipulate the system.
The end result was quite satisfying, if I say so myself. The avatar had the appearance of a tiny five to eight year old, roughly what I had looked like before "the accident". My large eyes had black scleroses and gold irises with slit pupils. The hair was short and feather-like, and I switched out the white for a black color palate; my hair was jet black, matching my wolf ears and tail.
Saving the appearance, I was brought further in depth in the character creation. This part was only available for me. First up I changed my level, build, and attributes. I went for a level 150, which was high but still reasonable, with an agility build. I decided to go with ice and lightning attributes, with some dark magic stuff as well~. Although I felt guilty for starting out so OP at the beginning (which was such a bad idea), I told myself that I would level regularly after the actual release. Until then, I would try a lot of different stuff during beta.
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Next up was my class. I had access to hidden classes and I glanced at whatever caught my eye. There were some really unique and interesting artisan classes that I liked. Cool classes were mixed in with the support type as well. I was interested, but I really wanted something slightly more combat oriented. After all, I've spent more than half my life in a wheelchair- that gave me more than enough incentive. In the end, I chose the hidden class of Shadow Blade. It was essentially an advanced version of the assassin class, with some neat magic skills mixed in. Even though I felt a bit of regret for turning back to the darkness, it was where I felt the most comfortable in the end.
Next up was an overview of skills. I won't go too in depth, cause that would bore you to tears, but I will tell you some of the interesting ones. Most of them were assassin class type skills, with some useful dark and lightning spells. Of course, there were also some unique Shadow Blade skills. One of these was a skill called Black Fog. It was a skill in where the user could transform into a black fog at will. It cost 20 mana per second, and physical attacks did no damage (unless there was a severe skill difference). One could also control their movement at will and use magic while in fog form.
Another skill unique to the class is Shadow Manipulation. Like the name, the user can manipulate shadows and use them in various ways. One use is similar to that of a voodoo doll. Users can also materialize shadows and use them as weapons or shields. Additionally, it also makes use of a type of a void magic and can teleport players from shadow to shadow. A convenient skill to say the least.
All in all, the class was generally very satisfying. Next up were weapons and armor. I continued to go with the whole "black" color palate idea and ended up with a shadowcloak (which is an indestructible cloak made from shadows), black leather shorts, a black tube top, and black knee-high boots. I looked very evil punk gothic-y (is that even a thing, I don't know). I also equipped twin daggers, a sword, and a bow+arrows (and other miscellaneous weapons and traps).
The weapons were all black, the blades of the sword and daggers seeming to absorb the shadows. They were part of a Black Dragon set and they dealt devastating damage and cursed those who had their blood drawn by the blades to lose health over time.
Next up was my name. I could tell that I was nearing the end of the character creation process. I pondered for a short while before choosing something short and sweet: Night. I liked it.
Finally, all I needed to do was choose my starting location. A large map of the entire world of Black Storm appeared before me. I decided to choose some place secluded, where I could train my skills and get used to them. After all, even though I had already gotten and advanced my skills, there was no point if I went adventuring while being aided in combat by the system.
I chose the Valley of Song, which was a forest nestled at the foot of the greater Winter Sky Mountain Range. The Winter Sky Mountains divided the central continent in half, and had considerably high level monsters. Players wouldn't be coming there anytime soon. A bright light engulfed my vision, and I teleported in.
I logged off at that moment. Although the capsule slowed down time in game at a 1:4 ratio, I had spent a long amount of time inside and decided to go rest while waiting for my father to come back home. 'A world where anything is possible... huh...' I thought to myself, a faint smile on my lips.
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AN: Sorry for all that boring detail and how I made Ren start out so OP in the beta. It gets better later on (prolly). She's only like this in the beta and will be starting from level one once Black Storm makes an official release. She also kinda multi tasks as both a player and NPC type character (that's not spoiling it... is it?), so forgive me for making her so awesome up front (lol).
This is also my first story post so please treat me well *bow* please give me criticisms and whatnot so that I can improve QAQ