Chapter 1 – Characters and Death
Kazama inserted the VR disk of the three weeks old game New Worlds Online into the Inertia Virtual Reality Device he owned and began to hook the controllers to himself.
“Wow’” he thought to himself, “I finally got ahold of this game! I’ve been waiting half the year for the damn thing!”
The game New Worlds Online, or “NWO” for short, was a new game that allowed its players to live their entire lives inside it for however long they wished. Instead of having to go to school or work a boring job, you could participate with other players and clear dungeons, battle mythical monsters and even become heroes! Or so the game advertising said at least. He finished hooking the final cord to his controller and turned the system off and slowly blacked out. When he came too, he was floating in a giant open space, but he was unable to see his body or anything else for that matter. Suddenly a giant message appeared in front of him.
* Welcome to New Worlds Online! Please hold on a few seconds as we prepare your in-game body to match your real life self.
It didn’t take long and soon a new message popped up in front of Kazama again.
* Your in-game body is complete! Before we can show you your new body, you first must choose your starting character class!
A secondary massage popped up below the larger one.
* Congratulations! You are one of the lucky few to have unlocked the “Hunter” class”
Kazama seemed a little surprised and spoke up to the game system.
“What is the Hunter class and its specific’s? “
* The Hunter class is a special class that combines the aspects of a swordsman and assassin together. Typically, a Hunter has high stats in Attack, Special Attack and Stealth, but has lower stats in in Defense and Special Defense.
“So in effect, a hunter is more geared to all out attacks with a few special ones, but is complete shit when it comes to defense? Sounds risky, but it looks rare, so I might as well take it.”
A new message popped up after he choose his class, this time stating his new class, level and everything else.
* You have chosen the Hunter class. Your beginning level is 1. You have one special beginning attack, Fury Daggers. You will gain more user based attacks as you grow in level. You can also create new ones yourself if you like.
“How many levels are there for a player character?”
* New Worlds Online is designed to be limitless in every area and function of the game. The amount of levels to be gained is also currently limitless.
“Interesting concept.” Thought Kazama to himself. After a few more basic messages, the game system finally alerted him that he was ready to see his new in-game body.
* You are now ready to receive your player characters body. Be warned, you will have all the sensations and feeling a body would have in the real world. Anything that is true for a body IRL holds true for VR.
Kazama was tired of hearing the warning and just wanted to see how he turned out in the game.
“Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. If I was to get horribly sick in the real world, the same would happen to me here. Just show me my new body already!”
Within moments of speaking, Kazama began to feel strange tingling’s as his body was given to him.
* You have now received your new body. You will find that it looks the same as it does IRL.
A body length mirror slid up in front of him so that he could admire his new body. But Kazama didn’t see himself…..he some girl! That’s right, standing in the mirror was a pure naked girl, looking at Kazama astonished. He….she thought the girl was someone else or that she was seeing things. Then it dawned on Kazama…..he was now a she! Something must have gone wrong with the game system, so she shouted at it.
“What’s this!? This isn’t my real life body! I’m a guy, not some girl!”
The games system popped up a system error message at her.
* ERROR – SYSTEM DOES NOT SEE A PROBLEM HERE. YOU ARE FEMAL – JUST AS YOU ARE IRL.
“NO PROBLEM!? FEMALE IN REAL LIFE!? THAT’S ALL WRONG!”
Kazama put a hand over her newly given breasts…something she was only used to seeing on other girl, and mostly always covered up. She sort of blushed at the feeling of them.
“This feels good though…and they look great on me.” She thought to herself, blushing more now at the sight of her delicate looking body in the mirror. The game system completely ignored her outburst and popped a new message this time.
* You are almost ready to enter the game worlds. You just need to pick out a set of basic level clothes.
The system manifested an entire rack of clothes, all of them different in style as well as stats.
“Women’s clothing” she muttered to herself as she walked to them, “Just I need. But maybe I can…”
Kazama put her head up and shouted to the game system.
“I want to log out right now! That ought to help straighten this whole mess out!”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Another error message popped up and this time was even more confusing.
* ERROR ON REQUEST – LOGGING OUT IS CURRENTLY UNAVALIBLE IN NEW WORLDS ONLINE.
Kazma sighed in a very….feminine way. She went back to looking at the clothes and choose one. An equip message asked her to equip basic underwear first. She pressed the okay button and the underwear manifested on her body. She looked at the mirror and said something she never thought she would ever say….as a man at least.
“God, these are comfortable as hell! Why haven’t any of my exes told me about this!? What kind of threads do they use to make these?”
She was about to go on more about the feels, but covered her mouth with her hands.
“What…did I just say?”
Another message asked for to now equip her outfit and again she pressed the okay button. Her outfit materialized slowly, feet up. When it had finished, she was clad in a rather not bad looking outfit, and the stats on it were just as good. The outfit had modest durability unlike others in the selection. The outfit started with matching boots that went just above ankle level, a very short pair of shorts and a tight shirt with sleeves that stooped short of her wrists. The entire outfit was topped with a pair of black gloves matching the rest of the outfit. A basic looking was around her waist and she had a decent cloak on that had equally decent stats for protection and durability. A new message alerted Kazama that she had been given a pair of short blades and one long katana. Then the final message from the game system came.
* You are now ready to enjoy your new life in New Worlds Online. We all hope you enjoy the game. Starting player drop in 3…..2….1….
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Just as she had been standing alone, Kazama was suddenly in the middle of a city square with a small group of other player. All the other players looked at her in awe and she could see why. The rest of the players were all guys, just as she really was.
“Lucky bastards,“ She thought to herself, “They all got their real life bodies, but not me!”
The other players kept looking at her in awe, as if they had never seen such a sight. A few mumbled out.
“God….she’s hot…”
Kazama was not currently in the mood to hear such compliments and shouted out at the other players, terrifying them.
“WHAT!? NEVER SEEN A CHICK BEFORE!? GET OUT OF MY SIGHT BEFORE I SEND YOU TO THE NEXT LIFE!!”
The terrified players ran away as they quickly could, but only one remained. Kazama was a little embarrassed by her sudden outburst at the sight of a real girl. The girl walked up to Kazama and extended her hand.
“Hi! My names Nabiki! What’s yours?”
“U-u-um….my names Kazama…” She replied, like she would have whenever a female would talk to her when she was a guy. Nabiki payed no notice to her nervousness.
“Kazama? Well it’s nice to meet you! Say, have you checked out the map yet?”
“Well…no, I haven’t gotten arou—“
“Here, lemme show you!”
Nabiki was really energized. She moved her hand and opened up her players menu and scrolled through it until she reached a tab labeled “Maps”. When she placed her finger to press the button, a large map appeared before the two girls showcasing a big city. In the top right corner a few words were written. They read “Shara – World 1, Stage 1”. Nabiki pointed at a spot on the map.
“This is where we are, the square of beginnings. This Shara is supposed to be a rather large city with multiple stages attached to it. Half of the city is divided into sections of safe zones and non-safe zones!”
“What happens in the non-safe zones?” asked Kazama, who was a little intrigued as she glanced at the map. Nabiki was only too happy to explain.
“That’s where anything can happen! You can engage in quests, battle enemies and explore deeper into the city! You can even grind levels like me!”
“Hmmm, guess that’s where I need to go first then,” Started Kazama as she began to walk away, “Thanks for all the help.”
Nabiki shouted out to her as she was walking away.
“You can’t just go out their alone! It’s too dangerous. You could die and never come back….”
Kazama stopped in her tracks and glanced back at Nabiki.
“What do you mean die? Wouldn’t that just make me respawn?”
“Well…” Began Nabiki, who was sort of glancing around herself a bit, “In a normal game yes, you would just keep coming back. But this is not a normal game anymore. There’s a rumor that if you die….you die forever.”
“Die forever? That should be impossible! This game was advertised as safe for all players.”
Nabiki looked at Kazama, a little upset.
“It’s not the game creators fault. The rumor says that the game was taken over by a group of hackers and is now at their mercy. So many have died already…..”
She began to cry a little, but made sure to hold it in a little. Kazama was a little taken aback by hearing this. The idea for a game to fully match life and death was done once a long time ago, but it was in a very different manner. And that’s when the whole logging out problem finally seemed to make sense to her.
“So you mean to tell me the reason why I can’t log out is because of this situation?”
“Yes, they stripped the game world of any safety measures. If you even try to hack back and re-install them…you will just die. You also will die if you go to zero HP.”
“So then how do we get out of this?”
Nabiki fidgeted a bit with her hands, then got the nerve to hold still.
“They said the only way was to try and find a way to beat the game. But that’s impossible since—“
“Since the game was to be limitless in every aspect possible, “Interrupted Kazama, “Well, I’m not going to let that stop me from trying to get out of this game. Dying is the least of my issues, trust me.”
With that, Kazama once again began to walk away from Nabiki, prepared to take the game on. She had only taken a few steps when an incoming message alerted her.
* Player 154236 – Nabiki, Would like to form an adventure party with you. Accept?
Kazama briefly thought about declining the request for the party pairing, but ended up accepting it.
“Fine, come along then! You might be able to help me level higher.”
Nabiki ran alongside Kazama and raised her hand to her head for a salute.
“I will make sure to give you the best information I can to help out!”
Kazama smiled in a very girlish way, then added, “We will help each other to get better and survive this game of terror.”
The two of them headed in the direction of the western side of the city, the breeze of virtual air in their hair and the faint sound of BG music slowly fading into the distance. Kazama smiled to herself and thought one thing to herself.
“I will do anything to get myself to be who I am. I won’t let a game for death make me afraid from realizing that goal. And before I finally get out of here, I will make sure to teach these hackers a lesson or two. I will regain my manhood, no matter what!”
End Chapter 1