[Tutorial initiating…]

[Interface actualizing...]

[Parameters met…]

[Mission created.]

[Mission: Use the system to create a complete, functional virtual reality world suitable for all ages to experience.]

James’ mind froze after reading the message. VR, his past life’s dream. A way for him to shed his crippled body and be whole once again. He’d waited and prayed almost every week for something like this to advance enough to become anywhere close to how it was depicted in various media.

James clenched a fist and gritted his teeth. After years of disappointment, finally, he’d be able to create his dream. He might not need it the same way he had before he’d died, but he’d be damned if he didn’t put his heart and soul into this.

The Gods were right when they said that the system would determine the best way to motivate him. After being teased by the likes of Sword Art Online, Ready Player One, and Supremacy Games for years, James had waited for so long that it had almost become an obsession by the time he’d died.

Looking at the system options and reading over the basic instructions, he knew exactly what world to create as his first. A franchise that had gone farther and was beloved by more people than any other in history.

Unconsciously, James’ mind slipped into overdrive and sent out hundreds, then thousands, of commands a second. His will fused with the system as he concentrated on bringing his vision into being.

“Let’s begin,” he said. With a clap, the surroundings dimmed and a vast wireframe model spread out from his body, the system overlaying his thoughts into reality within an empty void. A large planet was then shaped between his hands and he spared it a glance, before throwing it forward where it expanded and joined the frame.

With the snap of his finger, a spark formed which he threw past the planet and it grew into a massive, blazing star. With the flip of his hand, he dropped a small pebble which came to rotate around the world as its moon.

Spreading his arms, the entire scene zoomed in on a peninsula and he pinched the ground, creating mountains which rose all down the middle. He then spun the world until it landed on a small island chain where he did the same, except this time he rubbed the peaks between his fingers, heating them up and giving birth to numerous volcanos.

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Continents, oceans, buildings, plants, all sprouted from his thoughts as James’ mind worked in perfect sync with the system. Every time something didn’t work or his subconscious mind perceived anything as unrealistic, the system would adjust and correct it automatically.

Time passed by with him completely unaware as he sculpted the world into being with his hands and heart. It was truly the perfect system for someone with an immense imagination such as himself.

It wasn’t until he placed one of the last structures that he was jolted from his trance by a sudden system message.

[Mission complete.]

[Processing reward…]

[Reward: AI and VI creation tools.]

James blinked owlishly as he read the message, his mind slowly spinning back down to normal speeds. After processing the notification, he glanced down at the beautiful world spinning gently between his fingers and smiled.

“System, title this project,” he muttered under his breath and exhaled, “Pokémon.”

He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose with a satisfied sigh before opening them once again, this time to infinite stars on the horizon.

He chuckled a bit as he leaned back against the stone pile and went over the past few days(?), months(?), years(?), spent within his mind. He didn’t know how long he’d obsessed over every tiny detail. In what was essentially a super advanced version of Minecraft, it was easy for some form of OCD to emerge, especially when one was so passionate about the project.

“Huh…odd,” James mumbled. He’d thought about taking a short nap but found that he wasn’t tired in the slightest. Even his mental fatigue was recovering rapidly, to the point where it’d be a nonissue in just a few more minutes.

‘Must be one of the perks of having a system,’ he shrugged it off and relaxed for a moment before bringing up the new information on AI’s and VI’s.

Reading through it, James was pleased with how simple the process was. For the AI’s, they all came with basic programs by the system, with him just needing to plug in a few parameters on personalities and the like based off their characters in his memory.

He would then place them in the world, ramp up the time dilation, and have them go through the story. When it was finished, the system would mark where they veered off course, James would make some adjustments, restart the simulation, and repeat until everything came out satisfactory. After running it through a few hundred times, it was near indistinguishable from a real world.

For the VI’s, it was even easier. The system had enough knowledge from Earth to provide stable programs for all the baser animals and other non-sentient entities. James just had to copy/paste and the system ensured that the environment was sustainable.

The VI’s had another purpose however, one that would save James from any moral dilemma that would undoubtedly arise due to subjecting any sentient beings to the whims of ‘players’. He could copy the base coding of any AI, remove what makes them self aware, and paste it into a blank VI, giving the illusion of a truly real person with players being none the wiser.

This was what took up most of the time in simulating the world and growing the AI’s. Though he felt that the one he designed as Mew truly enjoyed the process.

As for what he planned to do with all the AI’s once he was satisfied with how the world ran? Well, James had greater ambitions for his VR and this world was just the beginning.

But for that he needed someone to assist him, an AI not connected to any one world, but them all. An overseer of sorts, and luckily, he had just the one in mind.