Real world, Tsuno Meddox
After talking with Kai and her mother, Tsuno went back to her room and opened the chat to talk to her online friends. She chose Legendria for the aesthetic, but when she asked her friends, she discovered most of them weren't in Legendria. The two that were had already teamed up with other people almost a month ago, so she'd just slow them down.
"Damn it! Why's no one else in Legendria? It's the best choice. It's close to both Caldina and Altar, but you don't need to be rich like in Caldina, and Altar is just lame in comparison." Tsuno continued to seethe in her room before trying to call Kai on the chat to play a game together. When he didn't answer, she walked to his room, but the door was locked. When she tried to knock on it anyway, her mom shouted at her to leave Kai alone and said he'd probably play with her later.
Still dejected, Tsuno went over to play on her computer. She had a school project to do, but there was still a week before the deadline, so she had time. She spent the rest of the day playing. When dinner came, Kai made some omelettes, and they talked about their day. Kai talked about his plans for tomorrow. He said he couldn't play with Tsuno yet, but he knew some people that might be helpful to noobs like her.
Their mom interjected and convinced Kai to play at least an hour with Tsuno the next day to help her get her grip and to do the same with her as well. Kai looked annoyed but agreed, though he told their mom that he might have to cut the hour short. Once that was settled, Kai said he was off to finish last-minute planning and ran to his room before their mom could object.
Come the next day, Tsuno was ecstatic to start playing. When Kai walked into the living room, she was immediately dejected as he held a single large black box with the words "Infinite Dendrogram" on it. However, their mom had told Kai to buy two copies since she wanted to play too. Tsuno wasn't too distressed and tried to take the box immediately from Kai's hands, but he stopped her long enough for their mom to hear the commotion.
"You never played games before, and you always get bored when I try to explain D&D or fantasy movies to you. You barely stay awake whenever we watch a movie. This game is expensive; it costs $150 each. I paid for my copy on my own," Kai immediately explained.
"I would've given you the money if you had told me. Anyway, you said you'd buy me a copy too. It's not fine for you to go back on your word, even if you did get Tsuno her headset. So, for today, I will use your headset for an hour."
"But if I can't log in when Tsuno logs in, I won't be able to help her find my friends. I need to make sure it works with them still. Could Tsuno wait the hour while you go first on the new headset?"
Tsuno spoke up, "I can wait the hour. It's fine, as long as it's fine with Kai's friends."
"Thank you, sweetie. Fine, but I'll make my final judgment on the game by then. If I see anything wrong, you won't play. Understood?"
"OK, but in that case, please turn on the children safety filter, since Tsuno would play with it on by default and won't be able to turn it off anyway."
Kai opened the box and helped their mom get it fitted correctly before connecting it to the supplied charger by her bed and turning on the headset. Once it was done, he sprinted back to his room and closed the door. "I'll be doing a raid today, so don't bother me after I set you up with my friends," he shouted from his room.
Tsuno went to her room and chose to pass the time getting ready to play. She started reading starter guides, all of which stressed the importance of taking into account what your "embryo" could do, whatever that was. After looking up the term—and dismissing any NPC marriage guides—she found that embryos were special personalized starter items or abilities. The technology used to create them was protected by a patent of the Infinite Dendrogram company, but they were a major selling point of the game. Thanks to the synced progression mechanic built into embryos, they grew in power and abilities as you leveled up, with some generalized thresholds of EXP for when they evolved all the way to the 6th rank.
Some players had already reached the 6th form, but it was known very early on thanks to a group of GM PCs that could be found around the world. The most well-known was Tom Cat, the Altar Battle Arena champion. His embryo was unique even among the most powerful embryos, allowing him to duplicate himself eight times. He seemingly could do so without limit on recreating them. Many of the arena duelists had called out against the clear unfairness of what the company was silently letting be confirmed as a challenge to the players. For now, he remained undefeated.
With the importance of how embryos could turn an entire playthrough on its head and the limit on character slots, a save was kept based on a brain scan of the player. The only known way to reset your playthrough was by leaving the game for an entire half-year and letting the save be deleted from the server automatically.
Tsuno spent the rest of the hour frantically reading guides on embryo formation, but it took a solid 30 minutes to even find any guides that discussed the subject. Most guides she found instead talked about directing existing embryo evolutions. The guides talked about making a mental image of what you wanted in your mind. For example, if you wanted to get a Castle embryo, you should get a crafting job and work in it the entire time before your embryo hatched. If you wanted a Chariot type, you should try to travel as much as you can before it hatches. For Arms, it was pretty simple—just getting in dangerous fights made it likely.
It did note, however, that the Arms hatching method was a good way to get the rare "Maiden With" type, which usually required doing something very hard while explicitly trying to help an NPC. Type Territory embryos were usually given to support or backline playstyles, while the Gardener type was as of yet unclear beyond seeming to appear for players with a party-centric playstyle even more than Territory types. The weirdest starter type found so far was the Body type, with only one reference for it even existing. All that was known about it was that the player with it was an extreme roleplayer, never breaking character, and that the embryo itself replaced the entire avatar of the player.
A loud timer rang from Kai's room, and Tsuno got up and went to her mom's room. "Mom! The hour is over. Can I come in?" Tsuno's mom yawned loudly from her room before opening the door.
"Yes, just a sec," she said as she turned around and gave Tsuno the helmet. "It was nice. I felt so energetic. I climbed over the giant tree in the city. The view was amazing, and the breeze was so nice," Tsuno's mom said in a sleepy, dreamy tone.
"Did you fall asleep?" Tsuno asked.
"Yeah, I fell asleep. I don't feel rested, though," her mom replied.
"Oh yeah, I should've told you not to ignore the warnings the game gives you. Even when you sleep in the game, you're technically awake while connected, so you don't really get the benefits of sleeping. I heard some people were trying to do something about that," Kai answered from behind Tsuno.
"Can you explain it more simply?" their mom requested.
"Eating or drinking in the game doesn't actually mean you eat or drink, right? It's the same for sleeping or going to the bathroom," Kai explained.
"I don't completely understand it, but I guess it makes sense," their mom responded.
"That's why I have to stress that you shouldn't play the game for too long because the time dilation might give you jet lag, like a plane. People aren't totally sure about it. The publishers stated that so far they couldn't find a confirmed case of the matter except in extreme cases of game addiction, which is hard to conclude. Just don't go on 24-hour binges or anything like that, alright? At least if you have to, do it in extreme moderation."
Kai went back to his room, telling Tsuno to meet him at the city gates.
Logging in, Tsuno appeared in her avatar, Hokō Nun. The changes she made to her image were much more drastic than Kai's. While Kai mostly made himself look average instead of a little short and slightly overweight, Tsuno shaped her avatar to be an adult version of herself. Her hair was long and clear, and her real-life figure, which was unflattering, was now an elegant hourglass. She mostly kept her face unchanged, just a little skinnier, which gave Kai a troubled look when he found her. She had to find him first and call to him, as he was walking alone even though he had logged in a few minutes before her.
"Where are your friends? Aren't we supposed to meet now?" Tsuno asked incessantly.
"Well, I guess I should actually explain since it's more complicated. Well, not really complicated, just a lie. I'm busy today and don't really know anyone who can tutor you on the basics. I'm flailing in the dark almost as much as you. But here's the deal... When I entered the game, some centaur guy tried to be nice to me and delegated his friend to help me grind in some forest clearing. Apparently, he went on a mission to kidnap an NPC while we were at it. I freed the NPC when we met back up, and he chose to kill me on the spot. I want revenge on this guy."
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Kai paused for a moment. "Would you mind helping me with that? I know where he is right now, so just try to join his party and see how it goes. You don't have to commit that much." Kai was rambling, getting short of breath by the time he finished talking.
Tsuno considered the idea. It could be fun, like a project with Kai but in a game. It'd be like when I helped him run the D&D club last year. And I'll still get a tutorial from someone who could beat him in a second, so they should have a clue what they are doing, considering how quickly Kai usually makes something broken when he's interested in a game.
"OK, fine. It sounds like it could be fun. But wait, how do you know where this guy is right now? Did you stalk him or something?" Tsuno asked, while Kai recoiled from the accusation.
"No, this guy is just a game streamer. I asked a friend to help me coordinate when he comes to town today so you can meet him and his party. I do think you should do something to hide your face if you don't want to be recognized in his videos."
"You know this is barely better than stalking, right? I still want in on the plan, though."
"It'd only be bad if I was harassing him. This is just roleplaying. I don't see any problem with planning revenge against someone who killed you before," Kai argued weakly before turning to explain where Tsuno would find the target, KaizoStomp. He suggested Tsuno try to lie that she is a fan of his and then tried to walk the suggestion back, but Tsuno was already planning her exciting introduction. All Kai could do was cover his eyes and shake his head.
Kai reluctantly shared some information about the player he was hunting, KaizoStomp, including his appearance and his current work on his channel. Apparently, KaizoStomp was acting as a debt collector for various fey circles. Honestly, Tsuno felt like it would be poetic justice if she and Kai succeeded in taking him down. This guy was supposedly a veteran of the game and a skilled fighter, but all he did right now was track down debtors for some faeries. Sometimes there would be a fight, but usually, he just galloped to his bounty and kidnapped them like some raider.
Tsuno found Kaizo's party waiting outside of the giant tavern, just as Kai had said. She started to walk towards them, stopping about 20 meters away to take a moment to breathe and focus on how she should approach them. Tsuno was an alright actor for her age, but for a 13-year-old, the bar wasn't very high. Her most convincing act was her bubbly, overexcited self, which was perfect for the role of an emotional fan. She exclaimed at Kaizo's party, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe it! It's really you, Chiron's Stampede. The Chiron's Stampede!"
Suddenly, Tsuno's vision shifted. She could now see herself upside down and barely caught herself, closing her eyes to stop the dizziness.
"Oh, sorry about that. I thought you were looking to settle some score. I just heard you shout our name. You can open your eyes now, it's fine, I stopped the skill," a raspy but kind voice called out.
When Tsuno opened her eyes, she saw the black-and-white-clad person she had seen from afar had taken a step towards her. He was clearly the one who had spoken. The other two party members present were an elvish-looking girl in a long, fancy dress with long faerie wings extending from her shoulder blades almost touching the ground, and a monotone white girl who bore a striking resemblance to the first but didn't have wings or elvish ears. The description "white" was no exaggeration; she looked like an extremely detailed pencil drawing with barely any shading. After trying to look at her for a few moments, Tsuno was sure that even in the light, it was like she didn't have proper shading.
Tsuno kept observing without talking, keeping her astonished and confused look. It required very little acting, as she was genuinely excited to see the living drawing-like girl and confused about what had happened to her vision.
The pixie princess girl broke the ice, "You're a fan of Kaizo? We're waiting on him just now. You can wait with us to get your autograph if you want. You won't be able to get in; the tavern exclusively serves large non-humans."
Tsuno quickly replied, "Yes, I'm a fan of his, but I like all of you guys! Can I get an autograph from you too?"
The black-clad man chuckled at her statement, while both girls stood up a little straighter. Tsuno started to rifle through her small starter inventory, realizing that beyond the starting money and a knife, she didn't have anything with her. "Eh, I don't have anything on me. Do you have something you can write on for me?"
The black-clad man replied in a smooth, cheerful, but still deep voice, "Oh, I think I actually have something perfect for this." He took out a piece of parchment from his small, unseen satchel. Tsuno looked at it and realized it was a bounty notice with a big picture of a deep navy creature with four green and purple eyes and spider fangs over his upper lip. Its ears were dark gray and sharp, like the pixie girl she was standing next to.
"This is the last bounty we caught. He actually put up a fight. Some sort of illusionist that made some of the illusions solid. I actually had fun because my embryo, Cassandra, let me see through the illusions," the man explained before being interrupted by the pixie girl.
"You had fun? This idiot made a whole pit trap with some sort of liquid shadow at the bottom. Kaizo and Changeling almost died in that pit."
"Well, yeah, but you have to agree it was fun to push him into his own pit right after," he retorted.
"You and Kaizo had fun. I was busy healing him and helping Changeling recover," she replied.
The man continued to argue lightheartedly with the girl while he signed the bounty and passed it to her to sign as well. She looked happy to sign, and with a great display of coordination, she signed the bounty at the same time as the drawn girl. The man's autograph was pretty simple, while her autograph was amazing to look at. She made a simple "CW" with the drawn girl, giving it a stunning 3D effect. Tsuno thanked them and put the bounty away to wait for Kaizo.
It didn't take long for Kaizo to come out, just five minutes later. With his mechanical lower half replacing his normal legs, he looked like a majestic centaur. His upper half was shirtless and muscular, with proportions so wide on the shoulders compared to his waist that Tsuno was pretty sure he had also touched up his avatar.
KaizoStomp, the player who killed Kai on his first day, was a huge man, thanks to his embryo and avatar. He had an intense air about him as he called to his teammates, "Listen up! GasStar is still on his clean-up duty. I seriously thought he'd finish with it already, but it seems to be getting worse. He's adamant that he can finish it on his own, though, so we're going forward with our usual plans anyway. At least we're finally back in the black now, right?"
Kaizo let out a hearty laugh, but his three friends weren't very excited about what Tsuno thought were good news. Kaizo went on, not noticing her yet, taking out three bounty posts from a fancy leather satchel at his side. "These are our targets for to—" the black-clad man interrupted Kaizo, "Eh, Kaizo, we have a fan with us. She asked for an autograph. We can also give her a small tour before we go. The danger is low today, right?"
Kaizo kept his serious face as he gave them a so-so gesture. Then the man continued, "Great, so she can probably join us. She seems nice and also..." The man jumped to whisper something to Kaizo, who smiled a little at that.
"Alright, I think it's fine then, as long as you want, of course, miss..."
Tsuno wasn't actually very impressed with the player once he started to talk. He sounded bossy, and even when he asked her if she wanted to join them today, his tone made it clear he considered it a great favor from him. _Well, he thinks I'm a fan of his, so I guess it makes quite a lot of sense actually, but it still feels rude._ She kept her face excited and quickly took out the bounty the man gave her, "Tsuno sir can i have your autograph?" she finally answered his prompt
KaizoStomp took the bounty and looked at it, noticing the two existing autographs, raising an eyebrow at his other three party members, but they didn't react as much as Tsuno could notice. Kaizo quickly took out a stylized stamp and imprinted it onto the bounty. "I'm sure this will do," he said, handing it to Tsuno. The imprint was a very well-made, vibrant red "KST" made up of what looked like an arrow, horseshoe, some vine, and a hammer or maybe an axe. _Wow, that is one very fancy signature. I kinda want one now._ Tsuno stuffed the bounty into her bag before excitedly shouting, "I would love to join you! I don't have a job yet, though. Sir, what would you suggest I take?"
Kaizo took a moment to think, rubbing his well-groomed beard. "At least for today, you can take Enchanter. Nothing you can immediately take now would help that much on the mission, except that Enchanter is great for buffing, so you'd help us."
After that, Kaizo took Tsuno around the town, stopping by the guild so she could take the Enchanter job. They also went into a few shops where Kaizo said he was friends with the owners to get some equipment. Tsuno only had her starting money, so she couldn't buy the entire set Kaizo suggested. Instead, she bought an Enchanter's staff, which allowed her to set the staff to boost one of the buffs she cast for an extra 10% of the stat increase the buff gave.
After that, they set out on a winding walk towards a nearby town. Along the way, Tsuno had a chance to grind a few levels so she wouldn't be a total sitting duck. The job went easily with Kaizo, buffed by Tsuno and the two other girls in the party. He simply ran straight through the wall of the building where the debtors they were looking for were hiding after the black-clad man confirmed somehow that they were inside. Kaizo immediately went back outside with three men—two held in his arms and one bound with vines to his trunk.
Once back in town, they handed their targets to their patron and took the group to a small meal. Everyone except the drawn girl received an equal payment of 4,000 lir, which was enough to cover the staff Tsuno had bought. She was pretty happy about it; the others, though, seemed not so much.