Darkness was the thing mostly comprised in this small room. Only having one screen illuminating the background with a person in front of it. The room was filled to the brim of random selections of merchandise and posters of anime characters, collecting dust as all the windows were sealed shut. The individual idly sat in their seat as the sounds of clicking from the computer emmited and the computer's motors hummed silently across the apartment building.
A large device rested next to them, with one wire that was directly hooked to the back of their neck. This device was a virtual reality headset of the highest level, offering the user a brief escape from the reality around them by showing them a new reality far more appealing.
In the year 2126, a Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game or DMMORPG called YGGDRASIL was released. It stands out among all other DMMORPG's due to its unusually high ability for the player to interact with the game. According to the developers' website, YGGDRASIL was a game of exploration, and so many things were mysteries left unknown for players to discover on their own or in groups.
It was a game where all you were told was the controls before being thrown into the deep end. In other words, the special thing about YGGDRASIL was the incredible amount of freedom given to players, compared to any other DMMO-RPGs out there.
Necessarily, YGGDRASIL needs an exclusive console to play, which records logs for a week. Though the game is a full virtual reality one, in accordance to physical laws, it does not provide a sense of taste and smell, and has a limited sense of touch.
Further, the most distinctive feature of YGGDRASIL is its flexible system to let player make choices freely. Players can select numerous races and jobs and various tools allowing for customization in the game.
If a player were to use creator tools that were sold separately, one can freely alter the appearances of weapons and armor, interior data, character visuals, and advanced settings of their in-game residences or home. Some may even further their customization by buying lottery tickets to acquire exclusive cosmetic items or cash-shop items. It seems that the customization system is really far-reaching and broad, even extending to basic programming.
As it can be guessed from the title, YGGDRASIL mainly refers to Norse mythology, and has nine separate worlds based on it, and they were estimated to be two to three times the size of Tokyo.
Due to this, this ambitious project served to be one of the most successful businesses in the world.
Of course that wasn't the only reason, the reality of the world around them was far from perfect, allowing for players to enjoy the escapism the game offered.
The person in the seat was one of those players. A salaryman working for one of the huge black companies that overwork their employees to death. Death to fatigue was common in today's society. Not many people had the time to go out, and nor do they want to. The outside was almost entirely covered by smog and unbreathable carbon in the atmosphere. Everyone stayed within the confines of their home, not making it hard to find other ways of entertainment online.
Overwork and horrible working conditions became a part of it. The outside world was a harsh place for those in the business world, specifically those at the bottom of it, entirely at the mercy of CEO's and people with power. Laws couldn't even make a dent in these shady businesses that plagued every continent.
The sounds of typing resounded in almost a rhythmic fasion as the person typed in their password on their old fashioned keyboard. The speakers from the monitors notified them. "Welcome, Hitomu Shion" and the screen accepted, bringing them to the home page of Yggdrasil. Shion started to read the notice on the board, and released a large sigh. "Another event? There goes my wallet." They laid in their chair with a palm on their forehead.
The Devs have been really active lately, pushing out events upon events ever since a few months ago. "If this keeps up, my job won't be able to support my addiction.." Of course work already strained him enough as it is. Having two jobs would inevitably kill them. Like with many others that he used to know online. "Damn it.. shitty Devs.. making us work more." Shion cursed under their breath. After pausing a bit, they finally gave in with a defeated sigh. "Ah.. can't be helped.. I'll try selling some of my leftover limited time items and cosmetics online."
They decided.
Putting on their headset, they activated the cord attached to a device implanted in their spinal cord. The device activated all at once, plunging them into the world of Yggdrasil.
Shion soon regained their senses as they were faced with the new world around them. Long grassy plains generated as the sky soon gained their respective color to the accordance of the time of day. Sound resounded all around them as the noise of simulated birds and creatures that came into existence. Trees and clouds were generated afterwards, revealing the world of Yggdrasil in it's full glory.
Opening their eyes, they stretched out their body, going with the standard protocol of making sure every bodily functions work as intended.
And of course.. next was testing the function of body parts that weren't there before. Something swayed from behind them, left to right, sweeping up the air as it unfurled.
It was a tail.
A very fluffy tail.
In fact there were nine of them.
All of these were connected to the spinal tail of the in-game avatar.
The wind blew across their face as the fur in Shion's hair twitched.
Soon those patches of fur perked upwards, revealing a set of animal ears as Shion excitedly inhaled the air.
Shion did a 360° spin to make sure everything was in order. Their clothes flew along the movement, revealing that her clothes were that of a shrine priest. Their eyes were green with envy as their skin was bright and delicate as snow.
Their hair was glowing with a pristine gold shade of color as their large fluffy tails flowed about. Shion exhaled a sigh of enjoyment as they finished doing so, letting the feeling of breathable air, flowing against their skin. Unfurling the fur of their ears and tails that no one could hope to have in reality. The exhilaration of it was unlike any other.
Sometimes during a game session, players forget that you they are in the virtual world. Yggdrasil was so naturalistic that it gave a sense of real life. However these impulses quickly vanished as Shion remembered their goal in-game.
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Yggdrasil hosted races of many different kinds during character customization. Among these races were the three categories that divided them: Humaniod Races, Demi-Human Races, and Heteromorphic races.
Humanoid races include human, elves, dwarves, etc, and is considered to be the most common out of all the races. Known to be weakest in basic status and the inability to have racial levels.
Instead, they're able to learn more classes which provides high status or powerful skills more easily, giving them high potential.
Demi-Human Races include orcs, ogres, lizardmen, etc, and is the second most popular race, as it includes beastmen, which Shion resided in. They usually had more basic status and racial levels to choose from. Because of this, demi-Human races are similar to the average between Human races and Heteromorphic races.
Heteromorphic Races include slimes, vampires, devils, etc. They own the most powerful basic status, which can be even more strengthened by increasing their racial levels, and having the biggest capacity for ability points as monsters, making them the most powerful out of the three races. However, they were penalized in other ways as the racial level comes at a cost where it limits the amount of job levels one can learn and it offers no penalty to players that PK them, granting them the title of the most unpopular race to choose from.
Shion considered these choices immensely back when they first started out the game. Yggdrasil only allowed players to have 1 avatar, making it an excruciating choice to choose by one's self. What they ended up with was a beastman that aligned with the demi-human roster, which is the reason why their avatar had a tails and ears in the first place.
For Shion was roleplaying as a Kitsune Queen. A mighty youkai that's well known throughout the culture of Japan. Demi-Humans were naturally ugly by trade, so Shion spent most of their time gambling for cosmetics to make themself look the part. This choice soon led to a series of events that made him absolutely obsessed with cosmetics and limited time items unavailable to others. In other words, Shion was a loot hoarder in every sense of the word, especially in limited time-events like these.
Speaking of which, Shion proceeded to pull up their navigation console to check their inventory to market in-game. The kitsune then marked some of their inventory to later sell them on-hand.
The kitsune then pulled up another console and started to cast a spell.
Runes and magic circles swirled around them as all kinds of geometric shapes formed and glowed in response. 『Summon High Tier Minions: Kitsune Pack』 Drawing from their massive MP pool, shion summoned a couple small figures, all of them appearing out of thin air, ready to be given instructions. These NPCs were all kitsunes like her, however they had only a few tails fewer than Shion's avatar. Tails typically represented the amount of power that a kitsune had, Shion being the strongest.
However the purpose for these NPCs weren't for power.
It was for extra inventory.
Every Player in Yggdrasil had a limited inventory space where they could place all their items in, however they could always be comprised by Players with special skills and abilities related to stealing valuable items. These NPCs also had separate inventory spaces, although smaller, their items were unable to be stolen from, especially when the summoner unsummons them. In the Kitsune Queen's eyes, they were nothing more than luggage for them. They were quite literally a kitsune "pack".
That didn't mean they were totally weak and defenseless though. As summoned NPCs, they were as powerful relative to the user. And in this case, it's user was a level 100, the highest level achievable. Shion then managed all their inventory to set up trade in the nearby guild in a non-PvP city. They gave the command for their kitsunes to follow, and the pack animals did, nodding and following behind them as told.
At the end of the day in-game, Shion managed to sell approximately enough's worth to supply him for the next event. As you would expect, limited time items were hard to acquire once the event ended, making it so that the people selling them held a huge advantage in price adjustments. Shion was one of those people, and they abused the hell out of it. The Kistune Queen was confident they had the biggest inventory space in the game, in terms of access of NPCs. Countless of years of farming and grinding for special items, and of course the draining their wallet due to limited-time gacha items.
Due to the game's expansiveness, it held an impossibly huge number of items in the game. Throughout the almost 10 years of Yggdrasil's lifetime, players only managed to map 30% of the game. It wasn't an exaggeration that this game was expansive. Information within the game was priceless because of it, as no one would freely give out information on the forums or wikis. Everybody was on their own in this world.
Of course there were some that payed gold for information in-game, and Shion knew that very well. Selling an endless stock of limited-time items, selling priceless bits of information, and collecting every cosmetic and cash-shop items for retail among free-to-plays. Shion learned countless ways to make profit off of others, with the determination to at least own 1 of every item in the game.
All Shion's skills and stats revolved around information gathering, defensive spells against thieves and PKers, experience grinding, and item farming, and NPC summons for space. And of course those cosmetics in their inventory weren't all for show... well it was, but most of all, Shion was a huge roleplayer within the Yggdrasil community as well as being an informant seller and exclusive items merchant. Choosing all kinds of skills and spells that fit within their character profile.
At their core, they were a spiritual-based magic caster with other skills involved.
Most of Shion's skillpoints were invested in average skills that perfectly fit within her character lore, despite it not being the most effective spells within the game's build meta. Other skillpoints were either invested in skills that helped grinding items and extra NPCs for inventory space, or simply completely "useless" skills that no one dared to bother with such as the cooking skill.
Food was generally used to gain temporary buffs and stats for an edge in battle. Fatigue didn't exist in the game so there was no need for such skill. There was also the fact that taste and smell didn't exist in the world, so there was virtually no benefit to wasting previous skillpoints on cooking, since Players only get to have 100 skillpoints total relative to their job level.
But Shion did it anyways.
Because fuck them.
Their character was completely envisioned all by themself, and they thought cooking was of the utmost importance to a waifu that could support others and themself.
Being self-reliant was one thing, but most of all Shion actually liked cooking in real life. However there weren't many times where they could cook for anyone else, considering they already moved from their parents and no one bothered to visit others in the outside world.
After multiple customers and traders logged out due to the closing night, Shion decided it was time to close up shop.
It has been a whole day in-game, but it was only a few hours outside of Yggdrasil due to the technology they had. It was about time to log out as well, as Shion had another day of tireless work to do in the morning. Endless paperwork and computer management as they continued to work as a businessman with an endless amount of assignments due the following day.
The Kitsune Queen looked upon the dark sky once more before bringing up their console to go to bed. But once the screen pulled up, they could see that the button to exit out the game seemed a bit off. It was static, erratic, emitting a buzzing noise as their finger drew closer to the button. Shion hesitated for a moment before pressing the button.
A sudden pain jolted through the queen's finger, as it erupted on all sides of them.
"AAAHHG!"
It hurt.
"Fuck!"
It hurt like hell.
"Shiit... ah.."
Their consciousness faded before they could notice what events followed afterwards, fading into a haze of darkness.