Six years I labored through this game. How could I not. The release of VR gaming to the common market was not so serious at first, but once they implemented full dive, few could resist the thrills of the imaginary in such clarity. This may be the finest VRMMO, it must be, I would have been addicted to another game otherwise.
Did I invest my effort wrongly? I made enough money to get by, so that isn’t quite right. Was it just my poor choice of allies? Perhaps I could have soloed the hydra, but once the phoenix came to take our hunt, I needed them. Especially after the Divine Demon Dragon descended to pluck the phoenix from us. Truly, the mantis stalks the cicada unaware of the oriole behind. It must have been the decision to fight by the young world tree, perhaps we should have lured it away. No, there are several of those, there is no reason high mystical beasts should have been here. I suppose it was just my usual misfortune.
My allies betraying me on the other hand, I don’t know if I can blame them or if I should blame myself for not expecting this. They are in much worse financial situations than me, it was probably a knee-jerk response in order to get the most they can since we had previously planned to split the loot according to contribution. Oh well, I have all their stuff now.
…I don’t think my werewolf body can outpace the hydra venom anymore. With my cultivation it wouldn’t be a problem, but the dragon’s flames are still feeding off my ki within me. If I expel all my ki to put them out, I’ll lose control to the venom and be unable to take in more ki to resist the venom. If I don’t expel the flames, I’ll slowly die to the venom anyways. I can keep eating and drinking from the remains around me, but it is just slowing down my eventual death.
Perhaps I can level a new character faster than this one. It sucks to lose my main, but if I did it once, I can do it again. Maybe 1 year instead of 4?
You never really get over how realistic full dive is, mixing the beasts together brings out such a nice flavor. The astringent hydra venom gland mixed with the deep umami of the dragon's heart blood and the spiciness of the phoenix's ash all roasted in its heart flame. I should have made a cooking character, it's not that hard to make money in this game to make rent…No, that will just make me hungrier in real life. I can’t afford to eat so much.
Well, time to log and start anew, I guess. Mentally reaching to log out, Aden Wiles is interrupted with a deep, throbbing, burning yet chilling, and spreading pain and disorientation in his head. Aden is experiencing a brain stroke, something he knew was a reported risk with his very new yet suspiciously cheap full dive pod. With such a low percentage of occurrence, he decided to play it off as unlikely to happen to him.
Just as he is about to faint, an old kei truck careens through his wall taking him from one side of the room to pin him at the other. The cost of living in a small, old house, on the outside of a turn finally taking its toll despite the low chance.
What…what am I looking at…I…I can’t…
As if the gods were racing to take his soul, through the rumbling storm outside to the truck exposed through the crumbled wall, lightning strikes as if the heavens were at stake, instantly finishing poor Aden.
Eternity, at least to him, passed and Aden saw infinity, an endless stretch of white light. All he could do though, was see. He smelt nothing, tasted nothing, felt nothing, and thought nothing. Aden was at a most neutral peace.
Then, four beings appeared as if they were always there, and thought returned. The space warped and twisted as if denying itself, new color and schemes bled spontaneously across from sporadic dots, corrupting the space until it settled on a disturbing, undulating gray.
The leftest being stood tall yet hunched, strong and imposing. A masculine figure to put mountains to shame. His flaming red hair buffeting and snapping in the air. His eyes alight with fire, peering through his soul. His body told the story of anger.
The left being hovered silently. A series of shapes made of letters and numbers folding in on itself endlessly. If there was a color Aden did not know, this being now illuminated them all.
The right being stood shorter yet firm. Cloaked in a misty darkness eating at the vast space with a purple afterglow. Though the face could not be seen, the eyes were somehow darker than the surrounding shadows.
The rightest being stood of fair height and stern. An old man with long white hair adorned with white silk robes.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“He’s mine, I saw him first, he had my fate first!” shouted the leftest.
“Negative, thirty-five thousand two hundred and forty-six playtime hours logged. Dedicated player is fated for this program”, said the left.
“All are fated for me in the end, none of you can deny me”, stated the right.
“Is that not what I had done so long ago? Now I stand immortal, equal to you gods. This child has great aptitude, he belongs among my worlds”, spoke the rightest.
“No”. A disembodied voice boomed from all around. All four turned back and looked up. A new being, as if mother gaia embodied an olympian goddess, floated in the space above. Pure white space pushing out from her body, cleansing the surrounding space shortly from her. Her lips parted, and her melodious sound followed from the surrounding world. “This young soul is innocent, your greed for his fate has brought nothing but strife through his life. He deserves choice.”
The four gods whipped back to him. “I’ll give you power to take from others, to rise above those that wrong you!” Shouted the leftest.
“Offer. Grant. Player body. User interface. Game world”, said the left.
“I can bestow you with power over death itself. Come to my world beyond”, stated the right.
“You have great potential. If you become my disciple, I will provide you with a body most suited for cultivating my art, the celestial lightning body, and provide direct guidance as my direct disciple. You would inherit my legacy and earn the right to lead the sect I left in the mortal worlds”, spoke the rightest.
“Speak what you desire, and I will do my best for you” Sung the world.
The four looked back to the goddess and then once more to Aden.
“I…anything at all? Truly anything?”
“For whatever is within my power, know that I am not too much greater than any of the four before you and far less so in the ways they seek to reward you with”
This all happened so quickly, but once I could think, it’s like I was at the bottom of the sea all my life and now the weight is gone. Was my body just a restraint?
I need to get the best deal I can, if this goddess is not like an evil genie, then I just have to figure out what I want and convey it as best I can. If it is, then I just hope I can end it all, I don’t have the patience for deception anymore.
I want strength. Strength without speed or durability, though, is like a paper-mache mountain. I guess I don’t want to be a tree, although that sounds kinda nice and peaceful for once. Do I want to be big? Maybe somewhat, I want to compete with others though. I suppose what I had enjoyed in life are challenges that adapt to me, like other people. Wow, I adjusted to being dead really fast! Makes sense, we have plenty of stories to prep our minds in modern times. Four arms would be nice! Oh, and wings! Maybe a six limbed dragon? Can’t quite practice martial arts like that though. Maybe some sort of four-armed dragon human, she did say anything. Could combine that with some sort of tree thing and then chill out when I want by rooting back into the ground? If a dragon sleeps through thousands of years, and tree life is so chill plus and I could hibernate…Could I sleep through the rise and fall of civilizations if I wanted like looking for a new game? That doesn’t seem like too much to ask for compared to power over death.
What If I compressed the wish down like data to use less space? Starting as a dragon seems like more to ask for compared to starting as a dragon egg…Should I cram everything into my birth? Does that kind of thing work that way? Yes. Holy fuck! Is that you goddess!? Indeed.
Well, that makes things easier. I want to become a four-armed tree dragon human but start as an egg. No wait, being able to change and adapt is part of what makes learning to beat a challenge fun. Is that like a shapeshifter or doppelganger then? Well, I grabbed dragon, so I could use a mimic. Oh, slime mimic hybrid? Or a golem! I enjoyed being a werewolf in game, but that could be two-dimensional compared to this. No, even more of a difference! I should find a way to evolve like in games, I guess they use an egg or chrysalis thing to pupate?
Alright, the egg of a four-armed draconic tree humanoid mimic golem. If it takes longer to hatch, does it take less power and I can ask for more? What about if I’m born out of a tree so it was feeding me for thousands of years? Or maybe an egg within a tree? Yes. Oh, right, you can do that. Does placement increase cost? What if you hook up my egg inside a world tree? No difference.
Well, you know what I want. You can see in my mind. You offered me a choice, but if I spend all my time in this void perfecting my choice, I’ll never get anywhere. I choose you, and I hope you come up with something I like.
“Very well” As the goddess reached towards Aden, the four gods realized he chose her. They would not have their toy denied, though. The four scrambled in their own ways to reach him with their tendrils of influence first, the goddess hastening her pace. The five reached Aden at once. All became nothing.