As Shige opens his eyes, he saw a world devoid of darkness. He wanders his head to look for a person but it seems he is the only person here, where ever he is that is. He tried and yelled hello but no answer came back to him. He thought of the first thing he forgot. 'Oh shoot, I forgot to read the instruction manual on this game. What am I suppose to do now. I guess I will just read the manual later when I get off this thing.' thought Shige in his head. Then he heard a female voice out of nowhere in the light.
"Welcome to Royal Road player." said by the voice. Shige looked around in his vicinity to know where the voice came from but no person was in sight. He looked everywhere but he could not understand where the voice came from. No other person can be seen except himself in the void of space
"Is this your first time playing Royal Road?"
"Yes ma'am. Actually, this is the very first time I ever played a video game ever."
"I see. So have you read the instruction manual before playing?"
"Sorry ma'am, I forgot to read it when I came here."
"That's ok. Before we create your character in Royal Road, I have to give you a few pointers first since you haven't read the manual yet."
"Thank you ma'am."
"Royal Road is a virtual reality game, you will be playing in your own avatar so the sensations you feel and taste are real. The time is also different inside than in the real world so do be wary about that."
"Yes ma'am."
"When I said you will be playing your own avatar, I meant you yourself will be doing the moves, cook your own food and hunt monsters and stuff. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Yes ma'am, I clearly understand."
"Also, you need to remember that your avatar needs to eat a certain amount of food. You can die from hunger if you didn't feed enough food to satisfy your hunger. There will be a warning message popping up saying that you need to eat."
"Thank you for the warning ma'am."
"Another note to remember for now is that you need to say a few keywords and a big pop up box would appear in your front view. The keywoards are 'Status Window', 'Item Window', 'Map Window', 'Skill Window' and 'Quest Window'. For now, those are the keywords you need to remember. I almost forgot, if you want to log out of the game, just say the keyword log out."
"Thank you very much ma'am. You've been a great help."
"It's my pleasure helping you. By the way, I'm not just any voice, I'm the artificial intelligence that looks at the life of all the players in Royal Road.
"I see. Since you're an artificial intelligence, you do not need any help from the gamers. I think they are called game masters."
"Yes. Since I am a heap of data, I can do analysis, find error bugs and stuff faster than humans can."
"I see, it makes sense if you think about it logically. So umm can we start making my account and avatar now?"
"My apologies player, I got side-tracked. Let us start making your account and avatar now. First off is the name and gender. What will your name be and will you be a male, female or neutral?"
"My name will be Vessalius and I choose a male gender." He named his avatar Vessalius and when he said male for his gender, a body of a male popped out in front of him.
"You can change your facial and body features player. You can make it ugly or handsome, thin or muscular."
"Please make my facial and body features the same as me." The face and body features of his chose avatar became like him.
"Now that that is out of the way, we now move on to the racial features. There are 29 races out of those 49 races that you can choose from."
When the gm said those words, a variety of bodies came out in front of him. Shige asked the gm why there are only 29 races when she said there are over 49 races. The gm replied that some of the races are still hidden and that it must be unlocked by players themselves in order for other players to use them. He looked at the available racial bodies and asked a couple of questions in regards to their specific stats and perks. In the end of his inquiry, he finally chose the human race as it has the most balanced stats and perks.
"Your avatar is finally finished player. Will you be changing some things? or are you finally done with it? Once you say finish, you can never change your avatar anymore including your name. Will you still require some time to finish or are you finally done?" asked the gm to Shige.
"Yes ma'am.I'm finished with my avatar." replied Shige.
"You have finished making your account player. Where do you want to start?"
"Umm, sorry I don't know any names of the continent in this game yet."
"Oh right, my apologies player, I forgot that this is your first time playing a video game. Then I will choose your starting point for now. You will be starting in the central continent, the Kingdom of Rosenheim. And I will give you a gift as a celebration for your first time playing a video game player. What kind of gift it is, I will let you be the one to imagine what it is player."
"But won't that be unfair to the other players ma'am?" He questioned the actions of the AI giving him a gift.
"It will not be a problem player. As the creator has left me in charge to run the game, it will not be unfair. If you will feel guilty about it, I will report it myself to the creator when we are done talking."
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Umm ok ma'am. If you say so." Shige finally finished his account and avatar in 2 hours. When he concluded the things needed, he was bathed in light. He got into a state of panic because he doesn't know what's going on. He screamed and raised his arms to protect his eyes to the light.
"The next time you open your eyes, you will be in the central continent's Kingdom of Rosenheim. I wish you good luck player."
With that all said, Shige or rather his player name called Vessalius was transported to the central continent's Kingdom of Rosenheim. For him, he thought of like he was gone for years when it was only just in an instant. His pose was like it was when he was in the void earlier. Since this was his first time playing a video game ever, he doesn't know what his mindset supposed to be. He saw a lot of players and non playable character or in short NPCs. Looking at him in every direction. He heard some players whispering about him.
"Look brother, what is that user doing? Is he dancing?"
"This must be his first time playing a virtual reality game."
A lot of whispers for him made himself feel embarassed but what made him more embarrassed is that one whisper where you think a scene in a manga or anime can only happen and cannot happen in actual reality though this is a virtual reality game.
"Mama, that person is so funny. He's doing some weird poses." cried a kid to her mother but she only hushed her saying to stop pointing at the person and after a few seconds of talking with her daughter, they finally went on their merry way. Of course, they were NPCs and not users.
With his face red to it's maximum peak due to embarrassment, he run out of the crowd to escape his unknown predicament. A couple of minutes running around, he finally stops and pants hard breathing in airs in between. He surveyed his surroundings to find out he was in the vicinity of a big fountain. He saw a lot of people walking in their merry way. Merchants doing some advertising and selling their wares to other players. NPCs were also selling their wares to players. Smoke coming out of a blacksmith. A church bell chimed loudly somewhere and guards were observing and patrolling the streets to guard the safety of the capital. He was surprised with his new environment. Everywhere he looked, there are people walking, talking, working and doing their own stuff. 'So the setting of this game is based on some kind in the time of the medieval ages like the Camelot setting I read a few years ago' he thought. He almost forgot his most important objective and that is to read books in this virtual game. That was his sole reason why he played this game. Due to his knowledge from reading a lot of books, Some of the stories he read is that every city and capital has a library which can hold a lot of books but he also knows that the library can also be different depending the technology of the city. Towns may have a library but it is very small or none at all. His carelessness to forget his most important objective. He could only sigh at it for forgetting when he was asked by the AI during his account and avatar creation. He could only move on to his stupidity and decided to sit on the circle that was surrounding the fountain. He realized that his throat was parched and he himself was thirsty. He also realized he's not wearing any bags. Then he remembered the AI's words saying to remember certain keywords. The needed keyword was 'Item Window'.
"Item Window." cried Vessalius and a pop up like message came out in his front view.
He finally saw his inventory. There were 2 items containing 10 pcs. of bread and a bottle of canteen and an object of interest. The object was a weapon with a question mark in it. He doesn't know why it has a question mark.
'Maybe this is the gift the AI has bestowed upon me. But why of all things the gift is a weapon. Couldn't it be a book or something but no a weapon of all things.' he thought and cursed the AI but there was no helping it. Still, it was a gift so he thanked the AI though he just cursed her earlier.
Before he was gonna make his move to explore the city, he heard a call somewhere near him. A warning message appeared saying there is an external interference. He heard the sound of a door being knocked twice. He heard his mother Jennifer to get downstairs because it was time for dinner.
'Was it already night time in the real world?' he thought. So just like the 'Item Window', he said the keyword he needed. He said the keyword log out and just like that, he was back in the real world. He massaged his eyes in order for him to see a bit in the darkness in his room and flipped the switch to turn on the lights. He saw his clock in the desk and was pointing in the numbers 6 and 12 respectively. 'So I was gone for a good 11 hours. Did I just wasted my time in all of that creating just my avatar and account?' he thought again.
He went outside his room and went straight to the dining hall. He almost forgot again in the back of his mind that he was supposed to read the instruction manual which he promised himself to read when he first started the game. He went back to his room and searched the instruction manual for a good 10 minutes but he couldn't find anything that could resemble an instruction manual so he just left his room again and went straight to the dining room. Little did he know that the manual he was looking for was just a small booklet and that it was sitting near his clock in his desk with the initials RR on it.