“So that’s the plan.” –said Sandro, with his trademark full smile. He was Ricardo’s friend since grade school, and even then his smile was like a movie star’s.
“I don’t know.” –said Ricardo. –“And it will cost me a thousand platinum hearts, worth a dollar each.”
“I feel your pain.” –said Sandro. –“When Clara asked me to play Virtual Connection with her, I thought: ‘great, a free game. I will save tons on date expenses’.”
“Boy, I didn’t know how mistaken I was.”
“Yeah, the game is a cash grab.” –said Clara, laughing. –“But, besides that, I think Sandro’s plan isn’t bad. It isn’t like we have any other idea.”
“I don’t think I can do it.” –said Ricardo, not convinced. –“I mean, I have never been known for my acting skills.”
“Don’t worry that much. Amelia will help you, won’t her?” –said Sandro, grinning.
“Uhh, I am not looking forward to it.”
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The virtual console was a virtual reality household system.
It consisted in a helmet that connected the brain directly to a computer, making possible to move a virtual body with the thought as if one was moving in reality.
It started in the first years of the 2020's as a way to experience building models.
As the technology advanced, it made possible to create games and simulators.
First, the machines were so big and expensive that they were only available to use in fairs and amusement parks.
But, in the last couple of years they finally were miniaturized enough to be available in normal houses. That started the virtual console game revolution.
Virtual Connection, launched for 2026's Christmas season, was a mix between a fantasy role playing game and a dating site.
It was free to play if one wanted to play a single human character who looked exactly like your real life self.
Minor customization cost ten platinum hearts. Medium customization, which also allowed picking the elf, vampire or cat-man race, cost a hundred platinum hearts.
Full customization, worth a thousand platinum hearts, allowed you to change anything and everything about your character.
Including sex.
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Sunday afternoon. Having talked to Amelia, the plan was already set to start.
Ricardo went to the Virtual Connection homepage and started to input his credit card number.
He double checked the amount of platinum hearts on his cart, a thousand. He unchecked the in-game credit card charge option.
Well, after I click here, there’s no return.
Then, all that was left was putting on the helmet and starting.
“Welcome to Virtual Connection International. Explore, fight and date in the fantasy land of true love!”
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“Finally got here.” –said Amelia, panting. –“I ran out of return scrolls, so I had to run.”
“Don’t worry.” –said Sandro, still smiling. –“He just got in here too.”
“Yeah, it seems he made a lot of effort.” –said Clara, with an appreciating look.
They were currently in a rented room in the inn of Torinelo Starter City.
Torinelo was popular among the Latino community, since it was the base for the biggest Spanish-speaking guild in Virtual Connection.
“Hello”. –said Ricardo, with a bashful voice.
“Oh my god!” –exclaimed Amelia, breaking into laughter. –“You are stunning!”
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Even though it was the first time they met in-game, they all recognized each other immediately.
Sandro didn’t spend a single penny in customizing his character.
Not that he needed to, his well-toned body, tanned skin, short brown hair and trademark smile were plenty enough.
In-game, he was named SanDiego81.
Clara just used a minor customization to get a couple centimeters taller, fix her nose and grow her breasts as much as she could with that.
With her curly light brown hair and green eyes, she was cute in her own right. Her character was Claire04.
Amelia was an elf. That alone was worth a hundred dollars, even though it didn’t make a change in game mechanics.
Her hair, brown in real life, was in a long blonde braid. Her eyes, brown too, were now blue.
And of course, she had the pointy elfish ears. Her chest seemed too big for a slender elf, but that was the one part she didn’t change.
“Hey, what’s your in-game name? Mine is Amy21.” –Amelia asked Ricardo.
Even though she had customized her character, Ricardo could easily distinguish Amelia’s voice, face and expressions.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“My in-game name is Milana77.”
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Ricardo wasn’t as athletic as Sandro in real life. He was of average height, short black hair and dark brown eyes.
Since he was busy with his studies at the University and his part time job teaching in an Academy, he was pale skinned all year long.
For Milana, after he checked female sex, he saw himself and nearly fainted. It looked like he was in drag.
So first, he started growing his hair. As it started growing, it curled, so he straighted it out. He rounded his face and reduced his nose.
After smoothing his skin, his paleness contrasting with his dark hair didn’t look bad.
Having done that, he began putting curves on his/her body. Now, it finally started looking like a she.
He tried with big breasts, but medium ones looked better for him. Then, he started fine tuning his legs and arms.
All in all, it was more than an hour tinkering with his character’s body, but it needed to be done. Ricardo wasn’t going to spend another thousand dollars to do it again.
Milana should be the ultimate beauty of Virtual Connection.
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“We should start by explaining Milana the basics of Virtual Connection.” –said Sandro, taking out a virtual whiteboard.
“Could we log out and meet at your house?” –asked Milana. –“This is giving me the creeps.”
“No, no, no. You should get accustomed to your new body.” –replied Sandro, smiling.
Milana looked at Clara and Amelia in turn, her puppy eyes were a thing to behold.
“Don’t look at me like that.” –said Clara, evading her eyes.
“Let´s get started, San Diego!” –exclaimed Amelia, clearly enjoying the situation.
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“As a role playing game, Virtual Connection is really simple. You only have three stats, Power, Vitality and Agility.”
“Power affects your Physical and Magical attack, though no one knows what the conversion ratio is exactly.”
“Vitality affects your Health, Mana and Stamina, while Agility affects your Speed, Dexterity and Evade chance.”
“All stats go up by one when you get a level. If you die, unless in a duel, a tournament or a date, you lose one level and the stats corresponding to that level.”
“The skills come into skill modules that you can equip one at a time. You can only use the skills that are in the skill module you are currently equipping.”
“The current game has a level cap of 50, divided in two tiers. Tier 0 goes from level 1 to 20, and is like a pregame of sorts. You can only use basic two-skill modules.”
“If you go into dates, do quests and such, you should finish it in about fifty hours. By the way, you can only date unmarried characters of the opposite sex.”
“After that, you take a class advancement quest and get into Tier 1…”
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“All that sounds fine, but I don’t think I should waste time leveling, since that’s not why I am in this game.” –said Milana, still surprised at the sound of her own voice.
“Well, you know, Johnny33 has been playing since the start of the Virtual Connection international server.” –said Sandro.
“And he must have been dating almost every day, so he should be at the level cap.”
Dating with my sister, that ***
“Yup, Johnny and Mina were at the level cap.”–said Amelia.
“The game menu won’t even show people in a different Tier when looking to pick up a blind date.” –continued Sandro.
“As you get closer in level, the compatibility increases, so your name will start climbing in the search results.”
“And how do you know that?” –asked Clara, with a scary face.
“I asked my Virtual Connection information source.” –answered Sandro, nervously.
“By the way, what level are all of you at?” –asked Milana, suddenly worried about the amount of time the plan would take.
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SanDiego and Claire were at level 41. Even though they didn’t play too much, they dated in-game a lot.
Besides, they got married just after completing their level 20 class quests. The marriage experience bonus made them level steadily.
Amy was still at level 35, even though she started playing at the same time as Minerva.
“Why are you at such a low level?” –asked Clara, surprised.
“Well, I started the game to play with Minerva.” –answered Amelia. –“Then we met Johnny, and started leveling together.”
“Soon they hit it off, so I felt like a third wheel.” –continued Amelia, with a sad voice. –“I tried to keep playing by myself, but I got bored quickly.”
“Anyway, you don’t need to get to the level cap to try asking Johnny out.” –said Sandro.
“Yeah, if you input the right preferences on the dating profile, you should appear on Johnny’s first page even with ten levels of difference.” –said Amelia. – “I’ll tell you what to add later.”
“But first, you should get out and gain a few levels.” –added Sandro.
“You wouldn’t want a disappointing first date.”