Today was the day. The day that Simon Aden would finally be able to play True World Online. It had been almost a week since he got the notice that he would be receiving one of the first units available to the public, and he was practically bursting with excitement. He had been preparing himself for this day for the past week, finishing his assignments early, taking a few days off at his part time job, and also told both family and friends what he’d be doing for the rest of the week.
With nothing left holding him back, Simon eagerly awaited for the delivery men to arrive and install the pod. Fortunately, he didn’t need to wait for too long as he spotted the large Dimen company truck pulling up beside his house.. “It’s here!” he exclaimed as he instantly jumped off his couch and ran to the door, approaching it with remarkable speed.
As Simon opened the door with incredible force, the delivery man looked a bit surprised, but then let out a wry smile. “Haha, excited for getting into the game huh?” The delivery man said while handing Simon a form with a pen. Simon quickly signed the form and handed it back to the delivery man saying, “Yeah. You have no idea how agonizing the wait was for the past week.”
“I can only imagine,” the delivery man chuckled, “Alright boys, let’s set this thing up!” He shouted at the rest of the movers who were waiting with a large box beside them. As they brought the box into Simon’s house, the deliveryman asked where he wanted it installed. Simon indicated a cleared space on the left side of his living room, and the men quickly went to work.
Within a few minutes the game pod was set up and ready to run, and Simon could only look on it like a child would after getting a new toy. After thanking the deliverers for their service and seeing them out, Simon practically jumped into the game pod and waited for it to start up. After a few seconds, a message popped up in front of Simon, telling him that before accessing the game he would be put into an unconscious state. Simon then felt a strange fuzzy feeling in the back of his head and slowly slipped away from consciousness…
*****
When he opened his eyes, Simon found himself in a room of pure white with nothing around him. Soon a window appeared in front of him saying:
[Hello future adventurer! Welcome to the character creation room, where you will create your avatar for True World Online. A guide will be with you shortly to assist with the creation process.]
The window disappeared and Simon was left in the vast room of white. Soon enough a flash of light appeared (which was somehow brighter than the room itself) and grabbed his attention. After the blinding light was gone, Simon was left staring at a woman that could only be considered a beauty. Jet black hair, angled face, slender limbs and an hourglass figure wrapped up in a tight one piece, this woman was beautiful enough to be considered a goddess. The thing that really caught Simon’s attention though was the large white wings that sprouted out from her back.
I wonder how soft those are… Simon thought idly to himself as he continued to stare at the woman. He was snapped out of his thoughts though, when the figure began to speak. “Hello traveler. Welcome to the character creation process. My name is Cim, and I will be your guide in creating your avatar.”
“Uh, nice to meet you Cim. Wait… Cim? Are you the A.I. program Central Intelligence Manager, code named C.I.M?”
“That is correct.” For a moment Cim seemed to have a surprised expression on her face, but Simon wasn’t able to tell since her expression barely changed.
“I see... What version are you right now in comparison to six years ago?”
“Six years ago I was version 1.0.12a. As of this moment, I am version 2.23b.”
“Huh. So they got that far in developing it huh…” Simon began muttering to himself. A nostalgic look appeared in his eyes as he looked at Cim, but he quickly rid his head of those thoughts. That's all in the past Simon. No need to think about it now. Simon refocused on Cim who was patiently waiting for him, and let out a chuckle. "Right. I was supposed to be making my character wasn't I? Well then, let’s start shall we?” Cim nodded and a mirror appeared in front of Simon.
The mirror reflected Simon’s current state as he looked like in real life. He was at an average height, and had a slightly thin build. His brown hair was a disorderly mess with locks of hair tangling with each other making for a style that would be appropriate to call “bed head” (which his sister endlessly teased him for). His face was fairly average, and though he wasn't particularly good-looking, he still looked fairly attractive (according to Helen at least). The most striking feature of his face though was his eyes which were a dark amber.
Simon moved around a bit as he checked his mirror self. He looked to Cim as she began to explain. “Here, we will be creating your character. First of all, please select your race.” As she finished talking, a window appeared in front of Simon with a long list of races. It had things like humans, elves, dwarves, and all other sorts of fantasy-type races. As Simon cycled through them, he asked if the races have any kind of bonuses to them.
Cim nodded and said “Each race does have different bonuses. Some of them come in a form of a racial skill, while others help the increase of certain attributes.”
“Really?” Simon asked with an intrigued tone. “Okay then, for example, what will the human race get?”
“The human race has a passive ability called ‘Adaptable’, which helps them learn skills slightly faster than other races.”
“I see… then how about…”
Simon continued asking questions about the different races and their various bonuses. After a good amount of time nitpicking through the races, he finally settled on one: the beast-kin race. This race had an active ability called ‘Beast Within’, which boosted their physical strength and speed by a substantial amount.
The reason why he chose the beast-kin race was a very simple one: they had fluffy ears and tails. Once he selected the beast-kin race however, another window popped up with the display of [Sub-races] on top of it. “Whoa, Cim. What’s up with all these sub-races?” Simon asked as he looked over the list.
“The beast-kin race has many varied species. They are all humanoids with animal features. Also, they are all based on mammals, so if you would prefer something more akin to a reptile, I suggest taking the Reptilian or Draconian race instead.”
“Okay. But do the different sub-races change anything? Like change the skill for example?”
“Yes, the skill or boost obtained will vary depending on the sub-race chosen.”
Simon nodded. It made sense that not every beast-kin would have the same stat increases based on their body type. After inquiring for a bit with Cim, Simon figured out that the sub-race bonuses would be different depending on the animal base the beast-kin had. For example the rabbit-type sub race had increased speed and dexterity, whereas the bear-type sub race had increased strength and defense.
“Wait a minute,” Simon began to inquire, “are there also sub-races for the other races?”
“Yes. For example the elves have a sub race of dark elves or high elves in addition to the main race of elves.”
Simon nodded as he sunk into deep thought. Depending on the sub-race, it could completely change the playstyle that you would have. Though it wouldn't heavily influence the way that stats were raised, it definitely had an effect of making it easier or harder to obtain certain stats. That being said, It doesn't mean that you can't make a wizard out of a strength-boosted race. Simon tried to imagine the sight of a large burly bear-kin wearing a wizard hat while speeding around the battlefield casting spells left and right, and laughed at the image.
Actually… magic could be kind of nice. Simon thought as he considered using magic. After all, wasn’t it every fantasy lovers romance to be able to cast magic? Of course, people were able to do this in previous games, but in the T.W.O they could fully experience the glory and wonder of being a mage. Besides, he thought to himself, T.W.O does allow players to create multiple characters. Though according to the forums and interviews you couldn’t do anything special with them, it’d just cause you to use double the time to raise two characters... Well, enough thinking, let’s go for magic!
With his mind made up, Simon began searching for a sub race which met his specifications. He was looking for a sub-race that had boosts in speed (because the image of the speedy bear wouldn’t get out of his head), intelligence or wisdom. The most important criteria though, the one that took precedence over the stat increases, was that it had to be soft and adorable.
Soon enough, he did find the sub race that met his qualifications. The fox-kin sub race which had boosts in speed and intelligence. It also came with the ‘Beast Within’ skill, which was a nice bonus. Some of the other sub-races didn’t have it, so Simon thought it was a pretty good choice.
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Once he made a decision, Simon selected the fox-kin sub race and the image of him in the mirror changed. He sprouted 2 long triangle shaped ears on top of his head while the ears on the sides of his head disappeared. His body morphed to have more fox like features (like a slightly elongated nose), and his hair also changed color into a light orange-yellow. When he turned around he noticed that he had a tail with the orange-yellow color and a tip of white at the end.
“Hmm… pretty interesting, but I think it’d look better if I was a girl…” Simon muttered to himself as he looked upon his mirror image. Suddenly, an idea flashed through his head as he turned to ask Cim a question. “Hey Cim, can I be a girl?” Cim closed her eyes as though in deep thought for a few seconds. Once she opened them she said “Please wait a moment,” and disappeared from sight.
*Inside a T.W.O monitoring room*
In a well lit room, a man sat in front of a multiple computer screens while eating lunch. He had been tasked with the work of overseeing the character creation processes of a set amount of players, but with Cim working he could basically sit back and do nothing. Even then, although he was one of the many administrators working to maintain T.W.O, many of the players were still in the character creation process. It’s not like there would be a problem in the character creation. The man thought to himself.
He was quickly proven wrong though, as one of the screens was replaced with a message indicating that Cim was requesting assistance. Oh, she actually needs help with something? The man wondered as he opened up the line. The screen was then changed to an image of Cim’s face as she looked at the man… though it wasn’t like she could actually see him since he didn’t have any web cameras plugged into the computer.
“What seems to be the problem?” The man asked as he spoke into his headset, intrigued as to why Cim would ask for assistance when most of the players just barely began playing. “One of the players is requesting to change genders,” she said, “Is that change allowed?” The man sat there slightly dumbfounded as he processed the information given to him. After a few seconds of silence he replied, “Sure. It’s not like we restricted changing genders when creating this game. Although this player is the first, I’m pretty sure they won’t be the last…”
“Understood. I will now be closing the line.”
“Ah, just a moment Cim.” The man interrupted as she was about to return back to the player. “Can you place this player under my ‘interesting’ list? It hasn't even been 15 minutes since the servers have opened, and someone has already chosen to change genders. That kind of person would definitely be interesting in a sense.”
“Yes sir. Is that all?”
“Yup. Dismissed.” As he finished saying those words, the screen switched back to what it was showing originally and the man went back to eating his lunch. “Heh, I look forward to seeing what the first gender-bent player will do in this world.” The man said out loud to himself as he continued monitoring the screens. Little did he know, he’d be hearing about this player again very soon…
*Back in character creation room*
Simon was checking out his mirror self while making some poses until Cim arrived and let him know that his request was accepted. Delighted, Simon immediately chose to change genders and watched as the figure in front of him changed again. The mirror Simon became less muscular and a bit more thin compared to before. The height also changed to be slightly shorter, and there was a slightly noticeable bust that appeared on the chest.
“Ooh, not bad. So what can I change?” Simon asked after looking over the girl in front of him.
“You may change almost anything you like. The external appearance does not affect the increased stat modifiers so the appearance can be anything you wish. To a point, that is.”
Simon wondered about this decision the creators made a little. On one hand, it’s good to allow the players to modify whatever they wish on the character, but on the other hand it may not correctly reflect the characters specialties. For example, creating a high defense character while having a very small size would be kind of strange. Simon decided not to question it further though, as he was eager to start customizing his character.
First of all… let’s make her more foxy. Simon asked Cim how he’d begin to customize his character, and she answered by saying that he can make requests to her, or simply use a status window (which appeared in front of him after she said it). As Simon began to mess around with the sliders on the window, sudden inspiration struck him as he began modifying his character.
In the end after about half an hour of modifying, Simon looked upon his character with pride. The figure in the mirror looked like a young female fox-kin with a short height that just barely reached up to the Simon’s chest (that’s including her ears). The fox-kins’ features also became far more childish, looking something like how a 12 year old would look. The ears became much larger than they were before, while the tail became extremely bushy and was pushed to ‘maximum softness’ after Simon’s insistence. Probably the most noticeable features though were the hair and eyes. The long hair was a fiery red, and gave off an illusion of a flickering flame when it moved around, while the eyes became a piercing bright gold.
Satisfied, Simon pressed the accept button and was ready to jump into the game until a quick reminder from Cim came. “You have yet to designate your character name.” Once he heard this, Simon wanted to face-palm himself (which he did) and began thinking of a character name. Hmm… Scarlet? Nah, too orthodox and someone probably chose that already. Mozilla? No, that’s a bad joke... I should probably choose a name based off the looks of my character then...
He looked again at the fox-kin and slowly began picking out the details which he added to the character. After about a minute of this Simon figured out one thing that all features of his character had in common: they were cute. His character looked akin to a young girl the age of 12 or so and appeared to be the very image of purity and innocence. Cute huh? Cute… cute… cu...That’s it!
Simon turned to Cim. “I will name this character Q!” he declared as he awaited for confirmation. Cim blinked and asked “Are you referring to the letter Q in the roman alphabet?” Simon nodded and Cim closed her eyes before nodding and saying that it was accepted. “Alright!” Simon exclaimed as he was ready to jump into the game, but a quick comment from Cim informed him that he needed to go through some legal agreements.
A bit exasperated, Simon quickly scanned and signed the agreements and was fully ready to jump into the game, but Cim stopped him again with a single sentence. “You have yet to choose whether you would like to go through the tutorial level or not.”
“What? Tutorial level? Oh right!” Simon suddenly remembered that all players would start off in a tutorial before being set free on the world of Novus. “But wait, I thought that the tutorial was mandatory. Why is it optional now?”
“It was a last second decision by the game designers.” Cim answered.
“Okay then… what do I get if I go through the tutorial, and what if I don’t?”
“Going through the tutorial sends you into a randomly selected area where you can learn the basics of the world, system, and combat. You may also level up, or receive rewards which you can carry with you into the game. Alternatively, not going through the tutorial will have you start in a pre-selected beginner village at level 1. You will immediately receive 25 status points to distribute and 1 silver, along with a basic weapon of your choice.”
“Well… considering pros and cons, I’ll go with playing through the tutorial.”
“Is this your final decision?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. You will now be transported to the tutorial level. Have a wonderful stay in the world of Felnia.” Cim said with a smile.
The room of white slowly faded out to black and Simon felt another fuzzy feeling inside his head. He blacked out, and when he came to, he was in the game...
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A/N: For those of you thinking: "He's the first person out of a million to change gender? Yeah right." Well I don't blame you for thinking that, as I thought it was a little far-fetched as well. But remember, It was only a few minutes since he started the character creation when he chose to change genders. Other people might have chosen to do so after he did, but Simon just happened to be the first one to change.
Fun-fact: Simon wasn't originally supposed to be a girl in-game. He was designed to just be a guy through and through, but I thought that would be just plain boring...