“Mental World Online?” I said as I checked out the reviews inside my head.

It’s a AR-WORPG, or Augmented Reality World Online Role Playing Game. I sighed as I lied back in the forest under a tree and held the board in front of my face. If someone was looking at me they would just see me staring at a piece of plastic. From my perspective, I was looking at the reviews for a game.

My dad used to have to carry a little device with him, he complained to me. It took awhile for me to get used to it as well, especially when I was fooling around with real computers with actual electronics on the inside when I was younger. That must have been really hard to make, isn’t it easier if you just add a chip or two to the brain to let it help you see the information usually on a computer screen inside your head?

“Positiver, Negativer, Neutraler, Peacer, Chaoser… sounds complex,” I sighed. It was a sunny day and I was under the shade of a tree  Just because I’m outside, doesn’t mean I can’t play games alone okay? Even if it ends up being with other people anyways!

“Augmented Reality and World Online hybrid. Seems like you can play in a fictional world the players create or the real world with a few RPG addons. I’ll guess I’ll try it.”

I downloaded it as I stared up at the cloudy sky. It’s a bit lonely out here in the countryside, but that’s only in the real world. Someone needs to farm all the food after all. I looked at my dad’s cow farm in the distance. In the past, you used to need a huge facility for that and grazing land. Now it’s baby to butcher in the same factory, thanks to medical advances in keeping the cows healthier and growing better when they don’t have a lot of room to move. It makes me sick though, even though I got used to the smell a long time ago that doesn’t mean I can’t run away for a little.

“Ah, it’s done. Let’s see, augmented reality? No, there’s no one around here after all. Dad’s too busy to play it with me. Huh, World Online then. Better set a timer.”

I set a timer in my head for an hour. It was in my head, but I saw it on the board in front of me. Just in case I get too into the game world, I don’t want dad to get mad at me again for falling asleep while playing a game in the woods again.

Entering World Online…

There was a vast space around me now, black with five shining lights in front of me. Must be the classes. I didn’t like positiver, it said something about having a magical girl sub-class. Along with that, therapist, coach, cheerleader, isn’t that for girls? I’m not comfortable with that! I read it a lot online, boys playing as girls in games but isn’t that really weird? Maybe I’m the weird one for growing up on a cow farm.

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Neutraler? I checked the description. World building, but they get to fight if they want to as well but aren’t as combat focused. I do enough crafting in the real world.

Peacer is obviously for kids or old people who just want to mess around in a virtual world. What’s the point of the RPG then huh? Aren’t you just ignoring the battle part entirely? Shouldn’t you just play another game! I was cursing at kids in my mind. Some people treat games like chat rooms don’t they.

Chaoser or Negativer huh, It’s got to be one of those then. Negativer seems kind of annoying though. I’m not confident in my negative thoughts at all. This game runs off collecting your thoughts and using them in battle and crafting. Looking back at my life, it’s only games and fixing farm equipment isn’t it? I don’t feel special at all. I sighed in the black void.

I picked the game up because it seemed interesting, but isn’t this going to be too difficult for me? I feel like there’s a certain maturity level or awareness of your feelings to be able to play this right.

I picked Chaoser. After all, all they can do is fight. I’m not sure how I’ll stack up against other players but at least I can give it a shot.

As I walked into the Chaoser light I felt my body flush away. I’m in the game world properly now it looks like. I had to pick a few customization options too but I just skipped past most of them and went with my real world appearance. Lots of people I read about online seem to like it though, playing as burly tiny men or girls.

It was a craggy cliff, lots of lava and red skies and smoke. Is that ash? I can’t tell. It’s like someone wanted a whole area just populated with volcanos. Well, I did want a fight. This is definitely a fighting sort of area.

There was a sword by my foot. Wooden, japanese style. Shame about anime, most of it is banned. I wanted to watch older series but there was only magical girl stuff. They said it would destroy the world or something, really?

I wielded it and swung it around a bit, feeling the weight. It wasn’t my first World Online game, so I’ve used a few weapons like this before. Never in reality though, that’s scary.

After I took off on a walk casually through the hell scape I saw a monster climb out of the lava. Shiny metal in human form, smoke coming off it as it gave me a mean look.

Aren’t you underestimating me? I grinned. Combat was always my favorite part of games. Feeling the weight of the weapon, fearing when you got hit, estimating your opponent's strength and winning an unlikely victory.

“Hooh!,” I charged with a cry like a samurai.

Japan’s culture will live on through me!

I felt the sword make a dull cling to the metal guy.

“Huh? No damage! I’ll go again then!”

I swung again. Then metal guy punched me in the gut and sent me flying into lava.

“Aagh! It burns!”

I was a little hurt. Good thing I had the sensitivity set to low, I wasn’t a fan of too much realism in my games. My clothes were in flames all over, so I stopped, dropped, and rolled it out.

No damage at all, isn’t this too minimalist, game developers? There wasn’t any help popups at all! I thought about the game description.

Wait, the “power of your emotions”? Oh, no wonder.

“Tsubame Gaeshi!”, I yelled out as I charged into melee with the metal guy.

I’ll show you the power of my minor amount of japanese history education.

The metal guy got cut in half in an instant and felt a notification pop up. There was loot and a congratulations message for figuring out the combat system. Guess that means I did it right? I wasn’t sure, as I continued into the lava wastes fighting metal guys who crawled out of the lava pools.

Entering Reality…

I felt the timer kick in and it booted me out of the game. Better get back home, dad’ll be mad if I’m late.