Even the rain pelting down on the pavement couldn’t get me down as I rushed home today, the day the game that I had been waiting for all year finally came out. The game was called Soul Core Online and was a new VRMMORPG that had caused a bit of a stir when it had been announced at the start of this year.

Unlike normal RPG’s where your character levelled up and you obtained new skills based on your class, in this game there were no classes and while your character could of course level up, the only skills that your character could learn by itself were crafting and gathering skills. Instead, you could fuse a piece of equipment with what was known as a Soul Core which would allow you to use the skills the Soul Core contained.

The developer, Gransoft Entertainment had been tight-lipped about how the rest of the game worked but today was finally the release day after nearly 3 years of development. The game had been downloading while I had been at work, so I was very much looking forward to getting back to my apartment.

Finally reaching the door to my apartment I held out my right arm, the doors lock scanning my Cyber-module before letting me in.

Cyber-modules or CM’s were an all-purpose device that had replaced all forms of hand-held technology in the past decade allowing people to access their bank accounts, call or text people and connect to any of your other personal computers at terminals throughout the city. They looked like a wide metal band that attached to the owner’s wrist and could only be removed on request, they also had excellent security making them extremely difficult to either lose or access illegally.

“Welcome home Tyler,” the emotionless voice of the apartment’s AI greeted me as I walked in.

“Hey Sally, can you activate my Rig please?” I asked tossing my bag on the couch as I walked towards my room.

The large grey box in my room started beeping and buzzing as Sally activated it, before it hissed at me as the sealed lid slowly slid back to reveal the gel-padded interior. The VR Rig I had was a slightly older model than the ones available in shops today, but I had kept it updated with the latest hardware as much as possible. So other than looking blockier than the sleek new ones, the only real differences were that it used more power and generated a lot more heat. The inside of the Rig uncomfortably hot in extended sessions, which was why I was currently stripping down to my underwear.

Sliding into the soft interior of the Rig like I had a thousand times before the lid closing over me as the main part of the system, known as the ‘crown’ attached itself to my head. This was the main interface for the machine. It sent the body into a sleep-like state while you were using the Rig allowing you to move around in VR without having to worry about injuring yourself in real life, you could get systems which were basically the crown but they weren’t as good as a proper Rig which could also keep track of various bodily functions.

“Requesting voice activation from user,” the monotone voice of my rig echoed in my ears.

“User Tyler Howard,” I replied before closing my eyes and bracing myself for the slight feeling of vertigo that always occurred when you entered VR.

The world spun, as bright lights flared, and I found myself in my waiting room, a replica of my own bedroom, with posters in the walls that represented the various games that I enjoyed and books on the bookshelves representing my files. I had never been that good at most of these games there had been a couple that I had been scouted by a few mid-tier guilds in, but I had refused all of them, I was too much of a solo player to be held down by the rules that came with being a part of a guild.

My current avatar was the same as my body in real life, average height, short dark hair, and green eyes set in a face that looked like it had seen too few meals in recent months, the black hoody hanging from my shoulders telling the same story.

It had been a rough few months, the shop where I worked part-time had been struggling which in turn meant that they had to decrease everyone’s hours meaning that most I had been subsisting off cup noodles and care packages from my parents ever since. Luckily, I had already paid for the game when this happened, or I wouldn’t have been able to justify the expense. Besides, I had plans to sell the items that I made in the trading house which dealt both in game currency and real-life money, I didn’t know how successful I would be, but I was hopeful it could at least slow my slide into bankruptcy.

Sighing to myself I wandered over to the newest poster that adorned the wall of my virtual bedroom, grinning at the sight of the man in his intricately patterned suit of shining armor a massive Warhammer clasped over his head the words ‘Craft your own legend today’ written at the bottom, I had a thing for the idea of crafting my own set of personalized artefact gear and that slogan suggested to me that was exactly what I would be able to do, but there was only one way to find out.

Raising my hand, I tapped on the game poster, causing it to grow large enough for me to walk through, which of course was exactly what I did.

“Welcome to Soul Core Online Tyler!”

“Huh!?” I shouted as a blur tackled me to the ground, when I had recovered from the impromptu attack upon my person I looked up at my attacker and was greeted by the grinning face of a teenage girl.

“Oh!” she cried, the bridge of her nose turning red with embarrassment, as she leapt off my chest.

“Jeez, what was that for,” I grumbled before realizing that wasn’t the issue here. “No, wait, forget that, who are you and what are you doing here?”

“I’m your personal AI assistant, I was included with your copy of the game and am programmed with all the help functions for the game. I can be used like a normal AI assistant, like the one that you have in your apartment as well, but it’s not what I’m designed for,” the girl, no the AI’s avatar which just happened to take the form of a girl with a wavy mane of honey-colored hair and a lightly freckled face…

…And I was staring at her as she continued to talk at me.

“-And that’s why I’m here.”

“Um, I don’t actually know how to tell you this in any other way so I’m just going to say it: I like, zoned out there for a bit,” I confessed, reflexively flinching away from the vitriol that I was sure was going to spew from her mouth, not that I could blame her, I didn’t like people staring at me either.

“Oh, yeah I know,” she giggled, “that’s why what I said was a bunch of nonsense instead of anything important.”

“…Huh?”

“Come on Tyler, I’m an AI, you’re in virtual reality, like I’m not going to notice that you’re not paying attention.”

An excellent point, suddenly I felt embarrassed for thinking she would react the way a human girl probably would have.

“So, let me get this straight,” I said trying to wrap my head around what was happening.

“What you’re saying is that Gransoft Entertainment include an obviously very advanced AI with every copy of the game?”

“I’m connected to the game servers right now, if those go down, I’m not much different to the AI that runs your apartment,” she explained. “I’d have slightly more personality but other than that I’d be just as limited as she is. I wouldn’t be able to join you like this for example.”

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“Hmm… alright, I guess that makes sense.”

She smiled brightly at me and I was struck again by how human she appeared to be, right now she didn’t seem any different from a girl I could run into on the street, it was starting to make me a little nervous in fact.

Her smile turned gentle as she noticed how uncomfortable I was getting, “It’s alright Tyler, you’re my owner I wouldn’t do anything to upset you,” she said consolingly.

I grimaced it seemed like my persecution complex had struck again. This was why I spent most of my time playing games, in a game I could be someone different form who I was in the real world, more confident, able to take on monsters that I wouldn’t last a second against in real life. Hell, in real life I couldn’t even ask a girl out on a date.

“Sorry.”

She shook her head sadly as I apologized to her on reflex, if she was a real girl she would probably have walked away by now, but she wasn’t a real girl she was an AI. My AI.

“You have nothing to apologize for, if anyone should be apologizing it’s me, I have access to look at any files pertaining to my owner, I should have realized that you would be uncomfortable around me in this form. I can change to another if you wish?”

I grimaced, of course she had access to information about me, she was my AI, the government had allowed all AI’s to access their owners information years ago. It had caused an uproar at the time, something about the companies that made them invading people’s privacy. But the law had eventually passed when these companies showed that the benefits of an AI that picked up on things like signs of depression or illness could save lives and after the government had made sure that they couldn’t in fact spy on people they had allowed the law to pass.

I considered her offer for a while, though it would make me feel more comfortable if she changed to a male form for some reason I was hesitating. Looking at her I figured out why, she had chosen this form for herself, even if she was an AI that meant something to me.

“No, it’s fine,” I decided.

Her eyes lit up, “Thank you!” she squealed throwing herself at me, I reacted as quickly as possible to the enthusiastic assault and managed to catch her before she crashed into my chest.

‘Wha-!” I shouted as we fell to the floor with a crash.

Suddenly thankful that I had the pain settings in my personal space down I glared up at her.

“Heh heh, sorry I did it again,” she laughed getting off me.

I shook my head in exasperation, I really hoped this wouldn’t become a common occurrence, even if I couldn’t feel pain here it was still irritating to get knocked to the ground every few minutes.

“What’s your name?” I asked to change the subject.

“I don’t have one yet, the company that made me and the other AI’s decided that letting our new owners decide our name for us would make them happier, especially if we end up playing the game with them.”

“You can do that?”

She cocked her head at me, “Yes, but…”

“But what?”

“It’s a pretty expensive option.”

I sighed, of course it was. With my shitty job I was barely able to afford to buy the game, I had spent the last few weeks living off instant noodles and bad coffee so there was no way I could afford to spend anything else for a while.

Anyway, returning to the subject of her name I looked at her thoughtfully, specifically I looked at her eyes, which were the same emerald color as my own, I nodded coming to a decision.

“How does Katy sound?”

She froze of an instant staring at me, “Are you sure?”

I’m an idiot, of course an AI that had been studying me for months or possibly even years would know the meaning behind that name. Katy had been the name I had begged my parents to name my little sister. Unfortunately, my mother had been in a car accident while she was pregnant and not even the advanced healthcare available today was able to save my unborn sister. I had been in high school at the time and when I found out I had fallen into depression eventually dropping out of school and becoming a shut-in. I was only now beginning to get back up on my feet, I had a job, it didn’t pay as well as I would like but it was still a job and an apartment to call my own. So why the hell had I chosen that name?

I knew the answer, I had always wanted a little sister and this my way of trying to come to terms with what had happened.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

She looked at me silently for a while, as she tried to understand what I was thinking. I marveled again at how advanced she was, even now she was trying to understand the what I was feeling, most AI’s only had limited emotions, they were after-all just advanced computer programs, but she was by far the most advanced AI I had ever encountered.

“Alright, if you’re sure,” she said finally.

I nodded in reply and another bright smile appeared on her face. I sighed in relief; I don’t know what I would’ve done if she hadn’t accepted the name.

She clapped her hands together, “Right then, I’m sure you want to get started on your new game!”

I grinned back at her excitedly as a glowing door appeared on the wall behind her.

“The most I can do right now without you paying the extra charges is walk you through character creation and the tutorial, don’t worry though you can still contact me in-game if you have any questions, I just can’t join you.”

“Alright, that’s good to know,” I said as we walked through the glowing doorway and into a white room. I looked around unimpressed with the change in scenery causing Katy to laugh.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “This is just the character creation area, the developers decided that this area should be simple, so you weren’t distracted by anything else, you can only make the one character so having a face you can live with is important!”

I shook my head at her joke. A lot of people made their avatars look ridiculous in these games, personally I preferred looking not too different from my real body but that didn’t stop people walking around with mechanical arms, eyepatches, any other of a variety of strange accessories or overdeveloped bodies.

“Don’t worry I have no intentions of looking like a character out of some old video game or anime,” I replied. “Or at least not much.”

Hey, just because I like to look normal doesn’t mean I’m going to walk around with my real face, I’m not stupid.

Katy nodded and waved her hand causing a mirror to appear in front of me.

“You can change your species as well if you want but it’ll mostly be a cosmetic change, you might get increased reputation with certain factions but that’s it.”

I nodded and started going through my options, there were a few interesting races, but if there wasn’t much difference between them, I would probably just stay human.

Eventually I had created the avatar I would use for this game. I had chosen to remain human, there were a couple of interesting options but as expected there wasn’t enough of a difference to make it worthwhile in the end. My avatar basically looked like a slightly older version of myself, I had added a couple of scars to my face as well as some height and muscle. Just enough to look like I knew my way around a fight, which I did. Well, I did in games at least.

Katy hummed happily as I accepted the final look of my avatar and I looked at her in irritation before everything blurred as the changes I had made occurred.

“Wow, that’s weird,” I said. No matter how many times I changed my height in games it was always disorienting, no matter what any game maker did any changes that someone made to their body in game caused a few moments like this as our brains tried to compensate.

Katy shrugged at me it wasn’t like she had a physical body of her own so any changes she made to her own avatar didn’t affect her in the same way it would a human, so there really wasn’t anything she could say on the subject.

A small screen appeared in front of me requesting that I input a name for my avatar. After a couple of moments I turned to Katy.

“How do names work in Soul Core Online; does it make a difference whether it’s a normal name or something random?”

“Well personally I wouldn’t call myself anything I couldn’t live with being called a lot and the NPC’s will react if you’re name is too weird,” Katy replied with a giggle.

My face started twitching as I wondered how many people had saddled themselves with something weird like they did in most games before turning back to the screen.

“Oh, by the way, you can have the same name as someone, but if two people who have the same name are nearby or know the same person a personalized string of numbers will appear after the name,” she continued causing me to throw yet another irritated glance her way, she was doing this on purpose.

Before she could interrupt me again, I quickly typed my new name and pressed the confirm button.

“My name is Zeke,” I said with satisfaction, turning back towards my bratty AI who poked her tongue out at me for ruining her fun.

“Zeke4123890 actually,” she said.

“Can we get a move on already?” I asked wearily. My patience was starting to wear thin; I had been looking forward to playing this game for a long time and I just wanted to get started.

“Sorry,” Katy whispered as the grin faded from her face. “This is actually the first time I’ve spoken to someone other than one of the techs who were testing me to make sure I was working properly.”

Well now I just felt bad, this was probably the most fun she had had since she was made, and I was acting like she was causing me more problems than she was helping me.

“No, I’m sorry, I just wanted to move on to the tutorial.”

Her smile came back as I apologized to her for my insensitivity, it was smaller than before, but I was happy to see it return.

“Alright then,” she said turning towards one of the walls and reaching out towards it causing a familiar door of light to appear. “Let’s move on.”

I grinned and stepped through the door, lights flashing around me as the game sent me to the next area.