Chapter 37: Hello yellow bird

Safo Nur got his neural‐assimilator device that could connect to the brain and spinal cord to add augmented reality images as an extra layer on top of regular vision. Although while asleep it will function as a prior source of vision.

He dived into the Virtual Dimension world, in particular, the ancestor of all VD games and VD industry - The Cube.

It was an odd feeling. He didn't lose his consciousness, he was awake and fully aware of his surroundings. The soft couch, a little humid and smelly air in the room, distant noise, and his own body, his perception worked flawlessly.

And at the same time, he was in a completely different place. Half of his consciousness, more accurately his attention had been dragged to somewhere else. He had been transferred to a distant and distinct place. The experience was similar to being half asleep when one could hear and sense the real world but still tied up with the lucid dream and could go back to sleep to continue watching the scenario.

Same as in dreams, VD provided a full presence experience. Taking control, as well as sending signals to every sensory organ.

The first sensation after entering the world was flying amongst the blue sky covered with puffy clouds. Hyper-realistic perception sent a cool sweat running through his back. He understood that he was in the room, on the sofa but his brain still gave him an altered reality. The brain thought that it was experiencing weightlessness, and was currently floating in the sky. It was a fun, odd, and very exciting discovery overall.

He was high in the sky, before him, the sun was at its dawn reflecting an orange hue below the clouds. Menu options appeared in front of the Safo Nur.

[Game]

[Map]

[Pictures]

[Options]

[Rules]

[Quit]

'How do I choose?' As soon as he thought about entering the game, it worked. It is, like Jo'ra said, a brain wave, thought, oriented interface.

Kutch, the giant green lion, instructed him before logging in, to check the location and exit the game. It was a necessary practice so Kutch and Jo'ra could navigate Safo to choose the right creature to hunt. His whereabouts were an important intel, due to the purpose of the training.

Kutch, the same as Jo'ra, was an expert in this game so he could give some tips about local monsters that he could hunt without using any weapons or armor.

Safo Nur’s purpose in playing the game was to train his close combat abilities. The game was beyond realistic in terms of data that it gave to the body through the brain. One could feel pain from the damage taken from enemies, exhaustion from the fights, not to mention that the basic 5 senses worked perfectly if not better in the game.

For those who sought more, there was an option to increase the perception by up to 100%. Players claim that the food and physical contact was much more enjoyable than in a regular world. So it was perfect for Safo Nur to practice any martial arts and gain combat experience. Even some close to death or death experience was guaranteed to be in the program.

The Cube was a weird game, in the character customization department at least. There was none! New players received their outlook from the system, randomly.

For some people it was a fun feature, for others it was the opposite. Some players could delete their characters many times before they stopped, satisfying their taste.

Safo Nur appeared, the first thing he saw was a wooden settlement. He saw one big, church-like building surrounded by many small houses and shops.

Currently, Safo Nur was spawned on the plaza with hundreds of other players. As if in the hive, adventurers were running back and forth, in and out, all around him. His head started spinning from the constant motion of people, all sorts of people and not people too.

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Monkeys, walking logs, insects, steampunk-style humanoids, and just living bizarre biomass creatures. It was guessed that the game had a database of sapient races from both known and unknown parts of the universe. It randomly gave their appearances to newly registered players.

It was the first Cube out of nine, so as expected everyone tried to finish their quests to ascend further.

Safo however was at ease, he couldn’t be bothered by completing quests or other cubes. His job for the upcoming 3 days was an endless fistfight with monsters. He could continue playing with great interest if he would pass the tournament.

A short bell rang in Safo's head, the greeting message popped up insight, stating that Safo was in "Cilla Village''. It also informed Safo to move towards the Chief, who was located at the biggest structure in the village, to receive his beginner pack gift as well as his first quest.

Safo ignored the task, all he needed was the area name, so Kutch could direct him to the monsters that were most suitable for his assignment.

Just when he was about to choose [Quit] a familiar yet different voice came from behind. It was a lightweight tone with some chirping accent that was alien to Safo's ears.

Softly, but a trembling voice came saying: "Safo, is that you?"

He turned around and saw a pretty-looking bird-girl. Safo Nur was sure that he had never seen this girl before. Her feathers were a bright yellow with a gold hue playing on them while the sun lights descended on its surface. Her beak was blue, the same color as her huge eyes. There were no pigments or iris in her eyes, just two blue sapphires.

Bird-girl had a very complicated expression, confusion was the dominant, however. From her actions, one could tell that she was puzzled by everything. She was constantly checking out her wings and talons. Seeing Safo Nur, made things more complicated apparently because she was looking around and back at him again and again.

Then suddenly tears came out from her beautiful eyes along with the sobbing words. Even though Safo couldn’t grasp the meaning of her words he could see that the bird-girl wasn’t upset. She didn’t look like one.

"It is you Safo...Safo I'm so happy to see you... I'm so happy that we met..." Bird-girl sobbed so much that it was too problematic to understand what she was saying. Then she ran to Safo and hugged him with her wings.

Safo Nur was also confused by that time, he stood there motionless feeling how his chest felt wet from the tears of the bird-girl and how the two soft humps squished against him. It was nice so he returned the hug. It was the first time Safo Nur hugged a bird, feathers tickling his skin and nose. It was warm though.

"Ehm… Excuse me for asking, but who are you again?" Safo Nur was a little embarrassed that he had to ask these questions but he had no idea who the bird-girl was.

Trying to stop her cry, the yellow bird replied: "I'm Luna, somehow I entered this game along with you and I can breathe, walk, talk and feel everything again."

"Luna? Why do you look like a bird? I thought you had red skin and I can’t recall wings from your spiritual form."

"I don't know, I had a hard time recognizing you too. You don't look like that in real life."

Safo remembered about the random look feature and took a moment to check it out himself.

...

"WHY am I a broccoli?"

He was a dark green broccoli-like plant with a flourish head branching out in all directions. He still had arms and legs though, they came out from a light green, thick stalk.

‘Are you kidding me? I saw lots of cool characters. Centaurs, giant cyclops, I could’ve been fine even with a midget look, but a weird cauliflower-like tree? It is not funny! This game is telling me that somewhere in the universe there is a whole race of intelligent broccolis?’

Nonetheless, Safo wasn’t too much affected by his look, he was sure that after the tournament he could delete his current account and create a new one. He was sure that he could beg for Luna’s agreement. He was about to be a king of the psiora race, after all, he should keep his royal appearance everywhere.

"I think you look cute." Said Luna, chuckling, trying to cheer up Safo Nur.

Safo rushed to log out and tell everybody the news and inform Kutch and Jo’ra about his location.

People in the room were celebrating near to tears, except Achraf he cried a lot. He got so excited that took from Jo’ra one of his sets and dived into the game too. Despite warnings that he most likely will spawn in a different location, he was determined to seek his daughter inside the game. He knew her whereabouts, he just had to travel there.

Tears ran on his face even though old goggles, the first edition of the VD set. Achraf was happy that his daughter had an opportunity to have a life outside of a soul room. Where she could utilize her sensory organs, it was the closest thing to real life so far. The fact that she was forced to enter and exit the game with Safo Nur didn’t upset anyone.

Safo Nur received his target from his game mentors, monsters that lived in the mud next to the Cilla Village. The weakest, level 1 monsters. Players usually didn’t spend much time there, due to the low level of the monsters. But that was true if they were equipped in a gear.

With a normal sword, a player could kill a single monster in three successful hits, while with bare hands it could take a lot more.