Scarlet

The very first thing I do the moment I wake up the next morning is jump out of bed and rush over to the pod doc I had set up in my room, all while activating my magi-tech armor and using the clean skill. Not even bothering to change out of my sleeping clothes before I jump into the pod doc.

Because it’s finally the start of the beta testing period for the game!

“You really are excited for this,” Tar comments, sounding rather amused.

Of course I am! It’s the very first MMORPG in a magical reality! First game in a magical reality at all even!

I explained at one point what an RPG was to Tar, and I still can’t help but feel amused by his reaction.

“I still stick to it,” Tar says, sounding smug. “These RPGs of yours are mere mockeries of the System created by Titania!”

But the RPGs were around long before the System arrived on Earth.

“We ignore that,” Tar sagely says as I find myself being drawn into the magical reality where I end up floating in the air with the voice of some lady entering my ear, “Hello, beta tester, and welcome to Hunter XI!” She then goes on and on about some basic details for the game, how it’s the first of its kind, and then talking about my character creation.

One annoying thing about this magical reality stuff though is that you can’t play as anyone other than your own appearance. Or general appearance at least. You can change up some features, but your body has to fit your reality.

After the lady finishes her introduction, I immediately get to creating my character, which is just my typical character in these games. A vampire if I can. One that tends to use a more berserk fighting style and class.

“Not sure what a vampire is outside of Tartarus, but the berserk fighting style fits you to a T,” Tar comments, making me briefly wonder why he’s still here.

It ends up taking me quite a while to finish my character, and when I do, the lady returns and starts talking again. Then I’m sent to the outskirts of some city from old world medieval times. The typical fantasy city in RPGs.

And around me I actually find several other people appearing or just standing around as well. People I can tell aren’t NPCs since they’re wearing the same starter equipment as I am, which is really just a set of basic armor with grey chainmail and an undershirt, with silver metal armor over the vital areas.

For a moment, I hesitate, only to remember that I changed my features to make me unrecognizable in-game. Specifically, I changed my hair to be purely black, I gave myself human ears instead of my wolf ears – which doesn’t seem to have changed my hearing at all, something I find rather interesting as I’m still hearing just like I did with my wolf ears – and I changed my face to be just a little older and rougher looking with a slight mask to make it harder to link my character to me. A nice feature added by the game for those who don’t want to be recognized.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Overall, it shouldn’t be possible to link me to my character.

I look up again to find someone spawning right in front of me, making me blink in surprise. And they’re no different, as they don’t appear to have been expecting to spawn right in front of someone either.

We both step back for a moment to examine the other.

The player is a guy with bright, unrealistically crimson hair, which leads me to believe that he either changed it to that with his character creation, or he is a Guardian outside of the game. And his eyes are just as red, with his hair going down to about his shoulder in length, but also layered in a way that makes it look clean with his hair not falling in his face at all.

His face on the other hand doesn’t really match his hair or eyes, which leads me to believe that he only changed his face and is a Guardian outside of the game. Because his face looks oddly boring compared to the rest, and very off. And if someone were to go to the trouble of changing their eye and hair color to make them look fancy, they wouldn’t leave their face boring like that.

Although, he could’ve also just picked a race that has him looking like that. I know the vampire race I chose – which in this game doesn’t seem to have a weakness to the sun besides being weaker in terms of magic cast while in sunlight – has crimson eyes. Both similar and yet still different from my own eyes in reality.

My eyes suddenly widen as I realize I used the usual username I always use in games. CrimsonWolf.

I hope that can’t be linked to Scarlet Wolf… normally I don’t have to worry about others figuring it out since they don’t have my actual appearance. But now…

“I doubt anyone would care, especially in this beta test,” Tar suddenly says, surprising me for a moment before he explains his reasoning, “you said that this beta test was for rich people, right? So shouldn’t a lot of the people here be Guardians already?”

Oh. I guess he has a point.

Anyways, the guy whose username I can see is Blaze finishes examining me and looks me in the eyes as he says, “Hello.”

“Hi,” I respond with a light nod.

A moment of awkward silence passes before I try to walk away with a short, “Well, I’m going to-”

“Wait,” he cuts me off, making me pause in my step to turn around and glance at him with a raised brow. “I was going to find a teammate right away for the opening event mission, so you’ll do if you’d like to work with me.”

I continue looking at him with a raised brow, only for a notification from the video game’s system – not the real System – to appear in my face, making me blink in surprise.

Event Mission Acquired!

Mission Objective: Complete the beginner missions within twenty four hours of the opening of the beta testing period and then submit a report about how you felt it went!

Mission Rewards: Class II Beta Armor Set and one Class II Skill Roll.

Completion Progress: N/A

My eyes narrow, but the guy, Blaze, cuts my thoughts off as he says, “The event mission has a hidden mechanic to it in that it gives bonus rewards for the first three groups of people who are able to finish it, along with a bonus on how quickly it can be completed. So if you want to get those bonus rewards, it would be beneficial to work with someone.”

I glance at him for a moment before considering the idea.

Normally I always go solo in games, but… if what he said is really true, then maybe I should work with him just this once.

Besides. He looks capable in how he’s holding himself.

“Okay,” I finally answer, and he nods his head before we both begin walking towards the city.

This’ll be interesting.