I focused on the translucent screen suspended in mid-air as it displayed the start to a suspenseful battle between two characters. One was a petite blond haired female who used her hair as a weapon, the other was a well-built man with long blond hair who wore a blindfold and controlled a shadow beast.

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My hands sprang into action right after the announcer finished the game’s iconic battle opening. My character, the blond man that used a shadow beast, was someone considered as a ‘puppet character’, so it was essentially controlling a two separate characters at the same time.  The character was rather complex and difficulty to play effectively but had the best offensive ability in the game as a trade-off.

Hence, from the get go, I went all out.

The battle was fast paced. The enemy was extremely mobile and knew full well what I could do if I were to corner her into the wall so she had avoided such a situation. Conversely, if she manages to build momentum and knock me down then I would likely lose the round and, since there was only one round, the whole match.

It took a few exchanges but I was finally able to bait one of the enemy’s attacks and punish it with a full combo and carry into the corner. Once the enemy had been knocked down, I kept on the pressure. Utilizing unblockable set-ups, consistent pressure, and some throws, I was able to take the opponent down.

<> 

The battle ended with my victory and I immediately received a rematch request from my opponent.

“Ahh… I really don’t feel up to it anymore…”

It was a bit hard to just deny the request. The fighting game we just played was already considered ancient. There were very few active players so finding a proper match up online was difficult.

I fully understood that but… I ended up denying the request.

 “That's enough arcade games for the day..."

I waved my hand to dismiss the game.

The screen changed its display to the home screen. Since I didn’t have a background set in there, nothing appeared, making the screen more of a mirror.

I stared at my own features. My looks were that of an average high-school student. Short black hair, average height, and with a slim body type. My friends and family described be as ‘decent enough’ in terms of appearance but rather ‘plain’.

I looked at the corner of the screen to check the time.

“Still only 1:00 pm huh…”

I slouched back at my seat and dismissed the screen itself. I spun around, looking around the dim and minimalistic room of mine.

I should really get some decorations to put in here. 

"I could play some visual novels but... I think i'll just go back to reality for now"

I placed my hands on my head. I could feel my hands touching something despite the fact that it wasn't something that could be seen.

I lifted it up and my surroundings seem to slowly dissolve all into the headgear that has appeared in my hands.

It was a pretty cool effect actually. I made sure to set it like that when I first got my , a headgear that allowed people enter into virtual reality.

“Now what should I do to pass the time?”

I spun on my swivel chair to look around my room. Unlike the dim and minimalistic design that it had a few moments ago, it now looked relatively normal. That was because the room I saw before was a product of the program.

I eyed my bed on my right side, contemplating whether I should just take a nap.

“Ahh it’s a weekend and I really would rather not waste the time sleeping around… maybe a book?”

Spinning around once again, I eyed my shelf. It contained quite a few books, light novels, and manga. They were mostly fantasy and sci-fi in terms of themes. I liked to reread them every now and then.

Right now though, the idea of reading any of them didn't seem all too attractive.

“Haah… the usual things I do, don’t seem to be keeping me occupied today. I’d call Katsuo and the others but…”

Shigeta Katsuo was my best friend and classmate. I usually hung out and played arcade games with him and other classmates from time to time though right now it was impossible to get a hold of any of them.

He’s been getting into that famed , A VRMMORPG developed by , for a while now and had told me in excruciating detail about the raid event they were going to participate in for today.

Even my family, also players of the same game, had talked about the upcoming [Raid event] during breakfast. It seems like they’ll be occupied with it until tomorrow so I’ll have to prepare lunch for myself.

All of them had asked me to play the game. I’ve refused them a few times, not because I had any particular dislike for VRMMOs, but mostly because I didn’t want to spend that much time on a single game.

Though I did have several games as well, mostly casual ones like browser games and a few console games from the last generation played via emulators that did need a significant time investment, they weren’t like VRMMOs that were complete time sinks.

Besides, I wasn’t a ‘hardcore gamer’. I was more of a ‘casual’ than anything else.

Though I was considered a decent player with a tendency to use the highly difficult to master puppet characters, I would like to point out that I wasn’t some kind of pro. The only reason why I was able to play so well with such characters was because I put in a lot of time to learn them since I found them rather interesting.

I wasn’t even any good with every other character. Puppet characters are literally the only ones I can actually use in a match.  

I wasn't some kind of hardcore gaming enthusiast nor was I a talented or skilled arcade fighting game master. I was just really patient when it came to doing things that I liked or found interesting.

It was a habit of mine I guess. Said habit actually carried over to a lot of things… like mastering only one song in a rhythm game and not being able to do the others. My friends and family considered it rather strange sometimes.

Well… If I were to put it simply...I guess I liked investing time and effort on one thing I’ve taken a liking to even if it wasn’t entirely useful or effective from another person’s perspective.

“So… now what?”

I didn’t really have anything better to do at the moment. I’ve already done my chores as well as the assigned homework for next week.

I looked at my . It was the latest model, one that was given to me on my last birthday by my older brother Niwa Keshi who happened to be working for the company developing the tech.

To clarify, my whole family was rather enamored with gaming. Our parents were born into a generation were competitive gaming had become considered as an actual sport and were competitors themselves. Hence, we were raised with appreciation of games and the like.

“Well… I already do have a copy of that game . So I wouldn’t really have to go through the tiring process of downloading it…”

My friends and siblings were pretty adamant that I try out and play with them so they’ve already given me a copy of the game.

Though I wasn't really willing to go along with such efficient hardcore gamers. One of the other reasons I turned them down when I was asked to play the game with them was because accepting would mean I needed to keep up with their monstrous pace.

I've had to that one time before and I can confidently say that I am definitely not cut out for that kind of stuff. 

“Okay well, I wouldn’t really lose anything for trying. Besides, everyone’s busy with that raid event so it’s unlikely that I’ll bump into anyone I know”

I picked up my again and wore on my head. I relaxed on my chair and began operating the computer it was connected to. 

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

When I turned the gear on, my surroundings shattered and dissolved into the air. The next second, a green light illuminated the room, revealing my rather minimalistic . 

A floating screen appeared in front of me and I navigated through my files. I easily found the ’s launcher and initiated it.

To my surprise, it was up to date.

“Suisen or Renge must've gone into my room to update it or something. Really now, did they want me to play the game that badly?”

[No account associated with your . Create one?]

Seeing as I didn’t have an actual account, I had to go through the process of making one first.

I chose ‘yes’ and proceeded to fill in the necessary forms. I only needed to put in some basic information and soon received my Account ID.

[Uploading Biometrics. This may take a few minutes]

Since the introduction of Virtual Reality and its gradual implementation in various fields, something called a had become a requirement. It was a record of physical characteristics of a person and was updated yearly, usually on your birthday. It was usually used to prevent fraud as well as a means for doctors to monitor your health.

[Upload Complete. Please verify it and sign in]

I went into the home screen and launched my mail app. Thankfully, the verification process was simple so I was able to sign in without issue.

[Bonus Content detected. Game Assets Loaded. Load Bonus Content?]

Bonus content? I think I remember Nii-san saying something about it but I don’t really remember what it contained. 

Might as well.

I chose ‘yes’ and proceeded.

After a full minute of waiting my surroundings once again shattered. This time the light particles spun around like a tornado around the room. I closed my eyes as a bright light covered the whole room.

************************

When the light abated, I found that the room had transformed into a large shrine. White marble covered the ground with large pillars pointing towards the open skies.

I was slightly taken aback by the sight. I drew close to one of the pillars and could actually notice the amount of attention the developers had paid to the details.

<>

A mechanical voice suddenly spoke as a floating panel with the very same instruction appeared in front of me. I looked towards the middle and saw a golden altar placed on top of a small elevated stage.

Another large floating panel appeared on the golden altar as I approached. After touching the panel, writing began to appear as if they were being engraved into the panel with light.

Needless to say, I felt like it was really amazing. I should see if there was a program that could apply that effect on my virtual room later.

When the writing finished, a short welcome for a new player was stated. Afterwards, the usually ignored ‘End User License Agreement’ appeared.

Like many others, I didn’t really like reading the thing, but unfortunately my elder brother would definitely lecture me in the future if he found out I didn’t do so. That brother of mine always was rather insistent in these kind of things.

Hitting the ‘I agree with the Terms and Condition’ button, the panel then proceeded to display an overview of what the game is and what was expected of its players.

“Well I’m just doing this to pass the time. It’s not like I’ll be a regular player so I guess its fine to just skip these parts…”

There were a few details from the overview, particularly ‘The Community is centered on Roleplaying’ and ‘Players may be required to Roleplay when necessary’, that were out of place for usual MMOs. MMOs, despite the setting never really actively encouraged its player base to actually roleplay.

[Please Input the necessary details]

There was actually quite a bit more content to read. Mostly lore and history, similar to a prologue for the game. It seemed there were videos as well though I skipped through most of them and proceeded to the character creation process.

“This is one detailed character sheet…”

Other than the usual information, it seemed like you also need to put in the character’s personal history, intended personality, alignment on the good to evil, and even blood type. There were other stuff to fill in aside from such things.

I… don’t think I should bother. Besides, I could probably just remake the character if needed. Also, it doesn’t really say I’m required to fill up everything so I’ll just go with the bare minimum.

The only thing I really need to put in was a name. Yes, that’s all anyone’s required to fill in to proceed.

I paused for a bit and considered what to put in. The equivalent of my name ‘Tsutsuji’ was the flower ‘Azlaea’. Taking that into account, I ended up putting as my name for the game, as a reference to the genus of the flower itself.

After putting in the name and leaving everything else empty, I proceeded.

“Huh… an editor for the appearance?”

I couldn’t help but voice out my surprise. From what I knew, VRMMOs didn’t allow for alteration of physical appearance since it presented a concern for security…. But after actually checking, I noticed that the edits were mostly minor, enough to make someone hard to recognize but not enough to entirely change your physical characteristics.

I didn’t really want to change much so I only changed my eye color from brown to yellow just because I liked those kinds of eyes. My skin tone was left unchanged and my base clothing design was left as is, a plain long sleeved black shirt and black jeans.

That combo for basic clothing for a fantasy like VRMMO that focuses on roleplaying seemed rather off though…

“Okay… the only thing left should be class selection”

Though considering the amount of work that was needed for the other section, I imagine this one to be similar.

For a game I wasn’t even planning on actually playing, I’m rather miffed that I need to spend so much time preparing to even play it.

 “Chaos… Order and… Neutral?”

When the class selection screen came up, the only thing I saw was three insignias that contained those words. These things were usually used to determine in-game alignment but in , it looked like it served to determine your class instead. It seemed like the knowledge I had of RPGs did not apply to this game at all.

Ahhhh…. This is really troublesome.

When I hovered my hand over one of the insignias, the info about them was revealed as expected. However seeing the length of the content…

“Ah damn it, I’ll just choose something at random!”

I chose the middle one, ‘Chaos’, to just get the character creation process over and start playing the game. If any of my friends and family were to see me now, I would undoubtedly get scolded for not taking the process seriously.

[Warning: Class selection is permanent. Once applied, changing classes will result in the deletion of all progress. Proceed?]

A warning was shown to me. I wondered why it was restricted for a bit but I just hit [Yes] without putting much thought into it.

The next moment a magic circle lit up from directly below me. Light covered my whole body and I started to disappear starting from the foot up.

I made sure to close my eyes during the whole process. It was a ‘teleportation’ animation and it was rather nauseating for someone like me who wasn’t really used to the sensation.

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