The following afternoon was also joyously a Friday so Marty and the others had the luxury of not needing to get up early the next day. At twenty to seven Marty’s doorbell rang and it would ring another three times over the next fifteen minutes as his friends arrived for what they hoped would be the best weekend of their life. None of them had been able to concentrate during class today due to the overwhelming excitement they felt. Emma was the last to arrive and despite being on time she still felt bad for being the last as they couldn’t get started without her. As requested they had all arrived at Marty’s with a character file and their choice of mods… or rather James and Greggory had. Emma and Clement hadn’t come with mods and just brought their characters.

Marty installed all the files without inspecting them so he wouldn’t know what his friends would look like, or what changes they had made. He had installed a few mods of his own to make life in the virtual world a bit easier and also accommodate for the things they didn’t have.

“The world has been reset, mods are installed and everything is ready to go,” he declared. It was all ready for the five of them to begin their grand adventure. “I’ve set us up with a few assets to give us an easier start and also assist us with game stuff in immersive ways,” Marty explained using a game marketer’s favourite word.

“Immersive?” James questioned. “Game stuff?”

“I’ll show you all once we get in. I’ve extended the timer as well so let’s get started.” Marty would rather show them his changes than have to explain them. The five of them gathered around his computer as he opened up the command program. Their eyes were hit with a blinding white flash as their real bodies disappeared and their minds entered the bodies of their new virtual counter-parts. The next thing they knew they were waking up not in a stable but a small cabin each with their own bed. The first to awake was Marty but this time he didn’t wake as a silver haired burly warrior but as a tall, dirty blonde haired elf with stunningly sharp flawless features. A player could choose to be any of the classic fantasy races so Marty had chosen to be a Tree Elf.

“This is what a true fantasy life should be like.” His excited voice woke Greggory who didn’t look all that different from before. He was still muscular, tall and pretty masculine and had gone overboard in the body hair department. He was sprouting a bushy red beard that matched his red hair and had a forest’s worth of chest hair for the full lumberjack look. If a tree saw him approaching with an axe it would topple over out of fear.

“Sweet, check out mah guns,” Greggory boasted flexing the arm muscles he had done nothing to earn. “So who’s who?”

“I’m Marty. Who are you?” Marty asked.

“Greggory, the mighty human berserker!” Greggory had selected berserker as his primary player class. He took a good look Marty’s character guessed he had gone for archer because that was what Tree Elves generally specialised in. He looked around at the others to see what races they had picked.

“Hey wait a minute…” He picked up on a certain detail that Marty had also just become aware off. He and Marty were the only two men in the cabin. Emma was obviously a woman, but she wasn’t the only one.

“Dammit guys,” Greggory complained kicking James bed. A pair of large feline ears twitched as the bed shook and a feline tail slid out from under the bedsheets and dangled over the side. The face of the sleeping figure was distinctly a young girls for not only had James chosen to be female, he had also chosen go completely overboard and give himself the most youthful petite body the system would allow. Just like Marty had chosen to be an elf, James had chosen a fantasy race as well. Known as Beast Men, the race were mostly humanoid but held the traits of particular animals. In this case James had feline ears, a tail, claw like finger nails and vertical pupils. A player’s race bestowed numerous benefits but also had a few drawbacks. James stretched his petite arms as he awoke to Greggory’s hostile gaze. James suddenly remembered where he was and thus what his body should now look like. He wasted no time inspecting his new feminine frame and feline features.

“Amazing!” He spoke with excitement. A lack of surprise meant he had definitely intended for this to happen. His voice was also distinctly feminine and higher pitched than a regular persons. A few strands of shoulder length pink hair brushed across his face and he his face lit up with glee.

“Why are you a girl?” Greggory hissed looking at the pink haired James.

“Because this is a fantasy so I’m going all out and being a super cute neko-gal.” Greggory gave up upon hearing that explanation. He wasn’t even sure what a ‘neko-gal’ was. Clement had also awoken. Like James he was now a woman but unlike James had gone for a far more mature build as he, like Marty, was an elf. His arms were long and slender, his features an image of pure mature beauty, his hair long, sleek and golden and his breasts massive. James was an ironing board compared to Clement. Clement had gone from being the shortest person in their group in real life to the second tallest standing only a few inches below the towering Greggory.

“Seriously guys?” Emma had also awoken. She had directed her comment towards everyone as she was the only one who had shown some restraint. Her hair was still dark although her skin was now a tanned colour opposed to being very pale before. She had added a full foot to her height, trimmed off the excess fat, gone up a cup size and had beautiful long curls to replace her usually straight hair. It was the body she wished she could have in real-life but real-life was a lot harsher than a game. There was more she had been tempted to do but she had shown restraint in choosing her characters appearance in fear of being ridiculed. As she saw the four other members of her party she knew those fears had been misplaced.

“What’s with this cabin?” Greggory questioned moving on from what they were to where they were. He looked around the wooden floored room with several windows letting in the bright sunlight from outside. There were five beds each with a storage locker by the foot of it. Like before they had all woken up wearing plain brown rags but now they all had something to wear over them as inside the storage lockers was a wide range of beginners equipment.

“Like I said before, I added a few things using mods to help us out. This cabin will be our base of operations for the time being and if we die we will respawn in our beds. I’ve also put basic gear in our lockers to replace the gear the quest givers in town would normally give. Oh on that topic we are next to the stables we woke up in before.” Marty pointed to the front window were they could see the stables across the road. This cabin had definitely not been here before so it confirmed that their mods were working.

“It’s a bit shit,” Greggory complained knocking a wooden support beam.

“We are just starting out our adventure. I’m not going to just give us a mansion filled with top-tier equipment. We have to still earn that.”

“Yeah but that’ll take time. Let’s vote.” Greggory’s suggestion to hold a vote instantly backfired as everyone else voted to start with nothing but the basics and earn the good stuff.

“Moving on let me explain some of the stuff in the lock… James what the hell are you doing?” Marty caught James stroking his crotch to confirm that his genitals were now female.

“I was just making sure my trousers fit.” James lied hoping they bought that excuse as he didn’t want them to know what he was really doing. They didn’t but Marty let it slide as he wanted to continue explaining things.

“Anyway…. As I was saying.” Marty opened his chest and pulled out a hard leather book with a black tome bearing silver writing. “This book comes from an immersion mod I installed. It replaces the games menus with this book which is more immersive. As you can see my character’s name is printed on the front.” Indeed the book was titled with the word ‘Reslkia’ as Marty wasn’t the name you’d expect a Tree Elf to have. The others all pulled their books from their lockets and saw the name they had given their own character was printed on each of their respective books. Greggory was the only exception since he’d kept his name as Greggory.

“This book is magical and will record your special skills or spells. It will show you your mana and how much mana each of your known skills will cost you.” This was all stuff that was normally placed on a toolbar along the edge of the screen but naturally none of them had that anymore.

“It’ll also hold a lot of other information like recipes and such. Basically all the information the game usually organises for you will be in this book.” That would definitely be useful. “And most importantly, if you turn to the back page you’ll find a log-out button. If you, and only you, touch it you’ll return to the real world.” Indeed on the back page was a square box that read log-out across it. The next special item Marty pulled out of the chest was a leather brown bag pack. It was pretty small but as he was about to demonstrate it too was magic. Like in a scene from Mary Poppins he lowered a wizard’s staff from the chest into the bag and it disappeared despite being bigger than the bag it was now inside.

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“It’s bigger on the inside and also will always weigh the same. This will replace the magical inventories that video game characters usually have. There is a limit to how much it will hold.” Marty had gone the extra mile to make this experience as true to the game as possible. The only thing left to talk about was the vast amount of equipment in the locker.

“And the rest of the stuff is just basic gear; you all have the same stuff because I had no idea what type of character any of you wanted to play as.” Players had the option of choosing a primary player class in this game such as Warrior or Mage. The player classes however only acted as a guideline and players were free to learn whatever skills or magic they wanted regardless of their chosen class. The first item they each lifted out of the chest was a big hint towards what their class was. Greggory lifted out a large battle axe symbolising the berserker, Emma a sword & shield symbolising paladin, Marty a bow symbolising archer, Clement a staff symbolising a mage and James, well James was busy reading through his book which bore the name Lily but he had chosen to be a healer as he knew nobody else would. He could definitely see a lot of use in the information provided within the book. He continued to read it as the others all started equipping their basic armour discovering they had nothing to replace the cheap clothing underneath.

“Good thing it’s summer right now, I’d hate to go outside in the cold like this.” Greggory had already decided he would just steal some better clothes from the first washing line he saw.

“Alright party, let’s move out!” Marty declared to the room filled with the odd-ball bunch of adventures. James suddenly became aware of what the others had been doing when they headed for the door and had to quickly grab what he could and chase after them before they left him behind.

In the small village of Cakl’dor a lone farmer standing in a bright patch of dirt spotted a group of complete oddballs walk into town. Two blonde haired elves, a huge figure with thick short red hair and matching full beard, a young pink haired cat-girl and a woman with noble beauty but a peasant’s cloths. He looked at the rags they wore underneath their cheap armour and hoped they weren’t beggars coming to dirty the town. As Marty had reset the game the farmer had no memory of his previous strange encounter with the burly quintuplets as it had never happened. The group of five walked past him and straight into the tavern not hearing the farmer breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh lord.” The innkeeper had a very different sigh when he spotted the five adventurer types that had just walked onto his stone floor. It was too early for anyone to be coming in for a drink so could only assume their intention was to seek out a quest. They made for the quest board nailed to the tavern wall and began to talk amongst themselves. The innkeeper knew what quests were available. Kill a troll, collect giant frog legs, find a lost cat and defeat the lord of Siren’s Tower of Death.

“Oi… what the hell is this?” Greggory pointed to the fourth quest which involved the Tower of Death. “Was this always offered in this inn?” He couldn’t even recall a structure in the game named Siren’s Tower of Death. Marty on the other hand did recognise the name.

“Alright who added that mod to the game?” He knew it was from a mod but he wasn’t the one who had added it.

“What about it?” James didn’t see the problem. “You said I could bring whatever mods I wanted. Besides the tower doesn’t do anything until you enter it.” The mod only added a sealed large tower in the middle of the nearby forest so shouldn’t have an impact on their game. It was utterly impossible to do right now however.

“Well I know where the cat is so I’ll take this one.” Greggory quickly snatched the piece of paper requesting assistance in finding the cat.

“Hey we’re a team,” Emma complained. “Let’s stick together alright?”

“Nah, you guys have fun. I’ll be back here soon.” He clearly wanted the reward all to himself and ran out the inn door to ensure he found the cat first.

“God he is selfish.” The others quickly decided to work together to take on the giant frogs. They knew where the frogs were so had no trouble getting to them. On the way Emma decided to ask about something that had been bothering her.

“Why am I the only one wearing decent armour?” She had made full use of the equipment Marty had put in her chest. It was heavy and hot but gave a lot of protection.

“Because I’m an archer, I don’t need much armour,” Marty explained. He had only taken some leather vambraces and a leather vest. The same went for Clement who was a mage while James couldn’t even wear half the equipment as it was too big for him. Emma rolled her eyes as they approached the edge of a large murky pond where frogs the size of large dogs were residing.

“Euck.” Emma was reluctant to go anywhere near the murky water much less the slimy beasts. Marty pulled out his bow and took aim. As it was his first time using a bow his arrow fell so short of the creature he was aiming for it didn’t even notice it was in danger.

“Freeze bolt!” Clement shouted with a voice that was louder than anyone had ever heard him speak. A bolt of icy magic formed on the tip of his staff then shot forward striking a frog and freezing it solid.

“Nice,” Marty congratulated. Unfortunately their task was to collect frog legs, not turn the frogs into popsicles. James was the next to take a shot at the amphibians. He pulled a long sword from his bag to attack the nearest frog but he immediately lost his balance and fell over.

“And that is what happens when you turn yourself into a five year old girl,” Emma mocked.

“Haha very funny. The minimum character age is 18 so I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, you’re an 18 year old whose body doesn’t have a drop of growth hormone. Maybe next time give yourself some muscle so you can actually pick up a weapon.” Emma had no sympathy for James poor choice in character creation. The frogs sensed the danger as Emma neared them and hopped into the deeper part of the pond where she was reluctant to follow.

“Um…” James tried wading into the murky waters but quickly realised if he went any further he might not be able to get back out again. Clement had an idea and stepped forward and pointed his wooden staff at the surface of the water.

“Lightning strike!” He yelled and a bolt of blue electricity struck the surface of the water. James sprang up as the spell went off narrowly avoiding being electrocuted. Scolding hot water sprayed everywhere as the spell boiled the water and Clement and James were both sprayed by it. Both were lightly scolded but it was minor injury. It was a gentle warning that actions in this world could have unforeseen consequences.

“Fast heal!” James healed both his and Clement’s minor burns with a healing spell but it left him nearly completely drained.

“Got one!” Marty triumphantly shouted as one of his arrows hit true striking a frog in the back. The injured amphibian immediately went into a panic and began hoping all over the place causing the arrow imbedded in its back to do even more damage. It died shortly after as a result and Marty punched the air at his first successful kill although he had to stand ten foot from the creature to actually hit it. Unfortunately the frog’s legs didn’t magically fall off like they did in the game. Its slimy corpse remained whole meaning that if Marty wanted the prized frog legs he would have to do a bit of butchering.

“Or I could do this!” He had a bright idea so opened up his magic book and found the spell he was looking for. It was spell designed to cook raw food rapidly using magic so he pulled the slimy body out of the water and unleashed it on the entire frog. The creature was cooked in an instant, turning from a green slimy colour to a cooked brown one. With the frog cooked he simply tore the legs off and threw them into the back of his bag. It took a lot more effort killing and collecting the frog’s leg than it normally did in a game but they saw the task through and returned to the inn victorious sometime after. The same couldn’t be said for Greggory who was still out looking for the cat, the animal had been where he expected it to be but it had fled from him the moment he tried to pick it up. While he was out searching for the lost animal the others were collecting their reward from the inn keeper. While splitting the reward four ways wasn’t the most profitable it had given them a good taste of what life in the fantasy world had to offer. They explored the area around the town a little more and not before long the timer Marty had set up expired. When they returned to Marty’s room they laughed at Greggory’s inability to complete the simple quest he had so boastfully accepted.

“But holy hell that world is so real. I’d pack up and live there if I could,” Greggory joked. “So what time tomorrow?” As they all had to enter the world together they agreed on what time they would all arrive and return to their fantasy world. They had the full day tomorrow so were all eagerly looking forward to it. They loved their new life but there was always the occasional reminder it was just a game and reality was very demanding.