World domination huh?

Disregarding it as just simple barter between friends, I let that issue fade from my mind as I got into the capsule.

[The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?]

When I connected to Royal Road, the first sound that reached my ears was a feminine voice.

I looked around. Nothing but white space.

For such an expensive game it sure looks like the developers were cutting corners… Although I held such thoughts I didn’t voice them. It’s not like I was the one who bought for this game after all.

“Yes”

[Select the name of your avatar]

Hmmm, since this is one of those voice chat games it would be a bit hard to use my normal game name. I guess I’ll shorten it then.

“Lin”

[Select your gender from male, female or neutral]

Ha! Neutral gender huh? Why do I suddenly get reminded of a certain trap from a light novel series?

I am not desperate enough to choose female so…

“Male”

[Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary ten]

“Human.”

On a side note, the reason I knew human race as available was because an overview on these basic ten races was provided with the game.

Humans were basically average at everything so that suited me just fine.

[You may alter your appearance]

“Can I see how I look?”

A perfect copy of my actual body appeared in front of me. I walked around, eyeing it from several different angles.

There was no doubt about it…

“This level of body replication should definitely be illegal! Moreover, this feels like an invasion of privacy.”

If someone with malicious intentions managed to grab hold of this data wouldn’t they be able to replicate the body images of every user of the game?

All the things they could do with that data like… making realistic hXXXXi–

I mean, like copying fingerprints and making face masks… yeah that sort of stuff.

Through, but would it still be called hXXXXi though? If it took the data to create models of based on real people wouldn’t lean more towards being pXXn?

[Cough… Traces of arousal detected… Would you like to file a complaint? Cough cough pervert cough…]

Hah?

Sorry I couldn’t quite hear that.

Lalalalalala! I heard nothing.

Fuck, I want to cry. Bloody mind reading NPC.

“The way I am.”

[Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road]

[Select the kingdom you want to start in. Based on user preference, searching for locations with the most brothels-]

“Go die!”

Shit, why am I arguing with an NPC?

[-Available human kingdoms are Haven, Kallamore-]

“Random.”

[Random kingdom does not exist… Just kidding, kingdom and city have been selected]

Hah~ This sure is becoming tiresome.

[Welcome to Royal Road~].

As my surroundings suddenly flashed, I couldn’t help but think…

I’ve only just finished character creation but… my first impression of this game was already starting to plummet…

***

When my surroundings settled down, I saw that I was in a town square… well circle of some sort. A bunch of different pathways were connected to this town circle.

Looking around, found myself in the midst of a medieval looking city, basically, the typical sort of setting that you find in fantasy games.

As for the realism of the game, well, it was just as expected. It was pretty much the same as real life. Well… that was the main selling point of the game so if you didn’t expect at least that much then… well let’s just leave it at that.

There were a few people on the circle was well doing various things as well. They were probably new players like me though looking at the numbers right now there weren’t that many of them.

Though if you think about this logically, this would make sense.

This game has only been online for a few hours and could only be obtained easily in Korea. Because the VR technology was so new, it didn’t get much publicity outside of Korea yet either.

Plus the cost of the game and the capsule weren’t cheap so the majority of people were probably waiting for player reviews to come out before trying it.

Then there’s the game itself to consider.

There were ten starting races. According to the outline, each race would have at least 2 kingdoms available and each of these kingdoms would have at least 3 starting cities.

So if 10 000 players started on the first day, in terms of probability, 1 000 would chose human. Then around 500 would be in whatever kingdom I was in and 170ish would be in whatever city I was in.

That’s not really that much when you think out it. It’s like what? The number of people in a single high school grade?

I started walking down a random pathway trying to get used to my virtual body. It felt perfectly fine but something also felt off about my movements, oh well, I’ll probably get used to it.

After some time, I managed to get a grasp on how the system commands worked. Basically, everything seemed to be voice activated.

Thus I continued walking, whenever the path split into branches I took a random path without paying much attention.

Conversely, the foot paths were made of grey paved stone. There were some old shops and stalls along the streets I walked along. Restaurants, weapons shops, clothes shops etc.

Was this some sort of shopping district?

Thus, I walked and eventually, I became hopelessly lost.

No idea where I am and no idea how to get back to my spawn point.

But… Must keep optimism up… if not…

Oh well, if I keep walking eventually I’ll run into someone…

Yes, that’s right… stay... optimistic…

At this rate, I’ll probably get one of those clichéd unrealistic developments where I run into some master and undergo some outrageous trial that others have tried but failed.

Then despite being only a level 1 player living in a peace time era with no live combat experience, I will somehow complete this trial.

Afterwards, I will undergo hell training of some sort, pick up some random-as quest along the way and then feel good about myself as I own all the small fry fodders in my way.

Yes! Onwards! It’s time to follow the path of the Mary Sue!

Yeah right…

If I have to describe myself, I would be one of those average guys that you would forget when you walked pass. No matter how hard I try, there’s always some else above me.

Not that I really minded…

But with my luck I get the nagging suspicion that I’ll end up going along the path of a character forced to fight outrageous opponents all the time while being trolled by fate…

No… must remain… optimistic…

Any second now some battle master is going to magically appear on this street and call me out.

Yes, let me enjoy my delusions.

Eventually, I come across a building the words “Information Guild” written on a wooden sign with bright yellow letters.

The place looked relatively well kept and inviting so I walked in. There were some clerks sitting behind a row of desks in the initial room of the building with some very business-like attitudes. There was a board of the side of the wall with a bunch of posters pinned on it. Although it wouldn’t be quite right to call it plain, the information guild wasn’t that much of an extravagant place.

All in all, the place gave off something akin to a bank or an office.

I had a short conversation with one of the clerks to learn more about my location and some of the other stuff I needed to know about the game.

Although I learnt quite a bit from the clerk, it was one of those everyday conversations that a normal human would not try to memorise word for word so I will summarise.

First of all, the A.I. controlling the npcs were really complex. Because of that, it’s easier to treat them as normal people.

Secondly, players, also known as foreigners or freedmen, were special existences sent by some holy seer with a name I don’t remember. By the decree of an oracle all the religious orders simultaneously received, players were to be treated as entities capable of moving between national borders without violating laws etc etc

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Basically, that was the lore the npcs came up with about us. Basically, the only real thing of note was that players weren’t allowed to leave their starting city in the first four weeks.

The next bit was about classes. The primary starting classes and its variants could be obtained by going to their respective guilds. Hidden classes could be acquired through various actions as well.

Magic could only be learnt by having a magic based class or by having an intelligence stat of over 300. Given Royal Road’s flexibility about class, I was personally after a direct combat class that had close combat and magic abilities so this bit of information interested me..

To be a magical and physical fighter… Unreasonable, but I can dream can’t I?

Last of all, a certain member of the information guild was conducting an experiment about freedmen and if I was interested I should go and call out for a man named Kaze in a certain part of the city. The reward for this experiment was a certain piece of knowledge which my help me later on.

As for that last piece of information, that sounded suspiciously like a flag for the “master -> hell training -> instant badass” development so of course I asked for more information about it. The clerk gave me a map marked with the place I was supposed to go to find Kaze.

Apparently the map was free. I always welcome freebies…

I navigated my way through the city to the marked location.  

It seemed to be one of those back alley types of places. You know, the sort of place where the back doors of buildings are aligned. There were a bunch of trash cans as well… wait this place has trash cans? That’s surprisingly modern.

There was no one else in sight…

Why did I feel like I’m going to get mugged in this place?

One of the doors opened suddenly in front of me.

I flinched.

An elderly woman came out carrying some boxes. She opened one of the trashcans and dumped the boxes inside.

I let out a sigh of relief. False alarm. Not that I really had anything to steal though… probably just the map I got for free.

Wait, should I really be letting my guard down now? You never know when old ladies get dangerous-

The old lady noticed me and kindly asked:

“Do you want something?”

It would be rude not to reply so I told her truthfully.

“Ah yes, would you happen to know someone named Kaze around here?”

The old lady slowly nodded and asked.

“Did you hear about it from the information guild? Would you like me to call him for you?”

“Yes please.”

I saw the old lady take a deep breath then-

“KAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THERE’S SOMEONE HERE FOR YOU!!!!!!!”

She yelled! Right on where she was on the street. She did it!

My ears… This old lady’s voice is so loud!!

“He will be here in a few moments.”

Then, the old lady, having dumped her trash, walked back to her house and closed the door.

That was it?

Cha! cha! cha! cha!  

I heard a strange sound coming from above. I looked up in time to see a man on the edge of one of the building roofs.

I stared in shock at this man’s appearance. I don’t think there would be a player who wouldn’t be if they saw him.

A round red helmet covered half his face. He wore a skin tight red suit with some light armour– No, screw the description!

It was a power ranger.

A power ranger appeared in front of me in-game.

A bloody power ranger of all things!

“As you have called, I, the defender of justice, hero of the people and vanisher of monsters have come. Let it be known, the great Kaze-sama has arrived!”

As he proclaimed this, the man started to make some strange poses, ending by making the peace sign with the sun shining behind him.

Kaze, dressed as Ranger Red, made some more strange poses before doing a series of acrobatic flips and landed lightly in front of me.

An inexplicable display of martial prowess but it didn’t end there.

On the ground he starting doing some more flips and cartwheels and ended up landing neatly inside an open trash can and falling in a tumbled mess.

“Cough… I am Kaze what do you seek of me?”  

He ignored it!

Acting as if nothing had happened, Kaze untangled himself from the trashcan and stood abruptly before me.

“I’m not the one who called up… It was that old lady”

Must get away now… all thoughts of getting a master or whatever that experiment reward was were lost. I only had one heartfelt desire in me right now.

Don’t let me be surrounded by weirdos in this world as well!

“Lies! Don’t underestimate a hero’s hearing! I heard you talking to that old lady before. You want to participate in the experiment right?”

“Why didn’t you show yourself before she yelled!!!”

Ignoring my protest with a forceful tone that was impossible to refuse, Kaze asked the question.

“Are you sure? Just so you know, once you have decided to do this, I won’t allow to you stop half way.”

Ding!

Kaze’s Experiment

Kaze is conducting an experiment for the information guild to learn more about the Freedmen prophesised to appear all over the continent of Versailles. If you complete his experiment he will tell you a piece of knowledge which may or may not aid you greatly. The experiment involves doing a series of tasks over a certain period of time.

Rank: F

Restrictions:

Approached Kaze about the task

Rewards:

A piece of secret knowledge

Cannot refuse this quest

Why the fuck did you ask if I can’t refuse it anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were so many things I wanted to say but in the face of Kaze I could only nod silently.

You have accepted the quest.

Kaze smiled as I decided to participate in his experiment. It was a normal smile but for some reason I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

“Okay then here is your first task.”

He gave me a crumpled strip of folded paper with writing on it. A wide grin visible under his helmet.

“Remember you cannot refuse this now.”

My spider senses are tingling… they’re telling me to get the fuck out of here…

I unfolded the paper and found a few coppers inside it.

I read the paper.

Experimental Task 1 (Operation come out of the closet)

Go to a doll shop and by the cutest and fluffiest teddy bear you can find.

Then go to the town circle with it riding on your head.

When you reach the town circle, place the teddy bear on the ground and start walking around it while singing the following lyrics:

Princess, princess!

Princess! I love, love, love you!

Princess, princess! Sparkle!

As long as I have you and all my friends I am invincible

Princess, princess!

Princess! I love, love, love you!

Princess, princess! Sparkle!

Even with a spell to make you bigger,

You’re still princess!

Princess, I love you! fight!

Time limit: None

The fuck!?

Why?

Why the fuck? Why the actual fuck?

First power rangers and now this?

No, calm down…

Calm down…

I… must… stay… OPTIMISTIC!!!!

----------------------

Word count: ~3000 words

Lyrics are translated from a song from Yowamushi Pedal (don’t ask what I had to do to get them). No copyright infringement etc intended…

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