“So this is how you do it…”

  Raelia commented to herself as she read over a flyer. It had been stored in the seat compartment of the full immersion VR machine. The VR machine had pre-installed the popular online game World Start Online.

  World Start Online or more simply known as WSO was a popular VRMMORPG game which had been released in recent days as it was only several days old. Even despite the fact that she had been living in the slums, the young girl Raelia had been aware of the game and wondered what it would be like to play about it after hearing all the interesting stories about its gameplay from others.

  It was a game universally appraised by members of society’s metropolitan class. Commented as being something more realistic and more fruitful than life itself. Well if one could believe but to say such a thing is such a major statement.

  But it was an experience with the means to back it up with its great graphics, immersive life-like AI and immersive tone which allowed WSO to stand out amongst the rest of the prestigious games. For it’s excellence which stood out to the world like none other, the universally acclaimed World Start Online which had only released by the middle of the year would be instantly declared the Game of The Year even before the closing of the year itself.

  It was something of a game of great note but this too had brought questions to the mind of the young girl. Why would someone want to throw away the VR machine of the World State Online? Was there something wrong with their game or their machine?

  What was a VR machine of World Start Online doing in the slums of a place like this? Was the game so difficult that those money-pinching aristocrats would give up on the game and throw it away? Could it just be that such people were so rich that they could do as they please and so they threw the game away as the money had gone to their head allowing them to rationalize something so irresponsible?

  She sighed. Either way she did not have the answers to all of the questions running in her head. And it was not like continuing to wonder about it or asking anyone about it would likely get her questions answered. Because if she did ask around, people would likely get suspicious of her and her question and would seek to repossess her game console.

  But more than anything else, a green glimmer sparked in Raelia’s eyes. She wanted to play. She really did. With a drooling mouth she carefully read over the instructions of the paper and weren't through with the necessary steps of turning on the VR machine and activating it.

  She let out a breath of excitement as she entered the VR machine. To experience the life and excitement of the rich was something that she wanted to do all her life but only now would she get the chance to do something like that… Pressign several of the buttons on the interior side of the machine, she would close the capsule door and begin the experience.

  After pressing on the button required to shut the doors, the doors would shut and fans would begin to blow causing a proper stream of ventilation to enter into the enclosed pod. Closing her eyes, her posture was redefined and readjusted from a sitting-like state to a slee-like position where that would work to better immerse her in the video game experience.

  Purple fumes emitted from the very top of the machine in order to ensure the peaceful unconscious state of the young girl who would begin to doze off into sleep. A gray claw reached down from the very top right next to the matter of purple fumes and would slowly descend onto the head of the young girBefore transforming itself into a gray helmet which allowed it to detect all of her brain signals.

  “World Start Activate!”

  The young girl’s consciousness faded into black…

  That was before it would soon flash back to life with the emergence of a spectrum of many bright beautiful colors which overlaid her vision. SOmething that would in turn be interrupted by the introductory corporate credit scene that the young girl already wanted to get over with despite the fact that it had been showing for only several moments.

  She glanced to the side and mentally pressed upon the skip button causing the unnecessary cutscenes to be skipped. She appeared in a white dome and right before her had been a young girl with black who walked up to her.

  “Welcome to this fantastical new world!”

  A young East Asian looking girl with black hair said as she bowed her head to the silver haired girl. Raelia’s mouth held open in confusion as she did not expect to see someone so soon. Her eyes flashed with confusion before reading the nametag above the girl’s head.

  “NPC? Is that your name?”

  The girl turned to Raelia with a soft chuckle before walking up to her. It was a silly question. At the same time, Raelia began to walk back in suspicion. Clearly confused at the fact that someone like this even existed. Throughout all her life she found it strange if someone would be nice to her.

  There were people who had a justification to be kind to her like Mr. Earle and her mother but this was different. It was especially strange to be so kind if they were strangers. To the young girl, the only reason for people to be kind is for some sort of benefit of their own.

  In business strangers were the best example. These businessmen have all the incentive to go out of their way to be nice and accommodating in order to lull one into a false sense of trust and connection, something that would better help them make the exploitative sale of their products.

  “Is there something wrong? Is it my appearance perhaps? I can change the way that I look to better accommodate your tastes.”

  For example, sharing half of your bread with someone with butter in order to create a better meal for one another was a good example. But when you were not looking, the butter bastard would take your bread away and go running in the sunset to never be seen again.

  A true story which happened to our reluctant Raelia…

  “Uh hi…”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Raelia meekly spoke before getting her touched by the black-haired girl. She petted the young girl as if she was a cat causing her to softly and unconsciously pur.

  “You are pretty cute but don’t be shy! After all, both of us are girls! And besides, I want to be friends with you!”

  “You really want to be friends with someone like that?”

  The silver-haired girl asked with a gray flare of uncertainty in her eyes. Unsure of whether or not she could trust the black haired girl that appeared before her. What if this had been a test of her character? Or what if it had been some sort of scam where one seeks friendship from you to “permanently borrow” your things before running off with it. True story which happened to Raelia.

  Whatever this scenario was about, it would be for the best if Raelia was left on guard and did not allow herself to be too complacent with the events around her.

  “What are you? Why are you so nice to me?”

  Raelia asked and the girl walked up to her innocently with her hands right behind her back.

  “I’m your AI existence and my name is Myu and I want to become friends with you because you are my owner.”

  “I own you?”

  “That’s correct after all you took me to your place after my previous owner threw me out. So thanks for not leaving me in the dumps.”

  “Wait if I am hearing things properly, you are an AI?”

  Raelia instantly began to sweat as she considered the costs of sentient AI. Despite the fact that they were a lot cheaper than they normally are, for someone like her who lives in the slums, a small amount of money for the average citizen would mean something like the world to her.

  “That’s correct!”

  “Wait, hold on. There’s something I really need to know?”

  “What is it?”

  “Are you expensive? Because well… I am broke.”

  “Don’t worry about it, master.”

  The AI placed her hand right on Raelia’s worried hand and began to stroke her skin softly causing her to be less defensive and more accepting.

  “I’m not expensive at all and besides this pod that you have is so ahead of time in technology that it doesn’t need electricity because it is charged through natural elements in the air.”

  “Natural elements in the air? Do you mean solar energy? Or is this something else?”

  “Solar energy is just so last century! This is the future so our technology is better and we know how to harness the energy of the atom perfectly and we can use that to dispose of waste and use it to power our machines and industry!”

  Raelia meekly opened up her mouth as she thought about the words of the AI girl and they seemed convincing. Something that would allow her to place her faith in her even if it would be just for a moment.

  -

  Moonlight Cafe

  “So you finally turned up here. I was waiting a while for you.”

  I sighed as I took a sip of my ice coffee and stared up towards my late and irresponsible right hand man. I took a deep breath as he walked up to my chair and ordered something from the touch screen ordering menu of the cafe.

  ‘He’s always been like this. Late to formal events like this.’

  “Don’t look at me like that. I did what you told me to do and I came on time!”

  He said with a cheerful voice playing off his anger as something that should be laughed at. Something which failed as I wasn’t interested in his plays.

  “I’ll get to the point before you waste my time anymore but do you have the strategy to beat that boss?”

  “Yeah. I contacted all of the necessary mercenary groups and stuff and we are going to get some newbie players to play the part of porters for us.”

  “Well that’s good. With some of those newbies, we could bypass the game’s bullshit requirements of 20 players ranging from level 1-15.”

  “Yeah. But what type of players should we get? And what should we do to get them on our side.?”

  “Is there really a need to be picky? Just give these new players something that looks good and shiny but isn’t really worth all that much. And just say that the Team Party feature is going to allow us to share EXP with those worms. Though that won’t be the case since players can only level up outside of the dungeon unless they have cleared the tutorial boss.”

  “The tutorial boss… It’s been a while since I’ve thought of that guy. That guy is pretty annoying to fight against. I doubt that any new players would have beaten that bastard.”

  “I admit that boss was challenging even for me but it isn’t something to be fretting over. If there ever is some miracle talent who managed to slay that boss, then recruit them into the party.”

  “If I am remembering things correctly, boss, you won’t be with us during the course of the raid and why is that?”

  “It’s just private business things with my family. It’s nothing all that interesting and besides, my father would beat you if you tried to propose to me or something like that.”

  I chuckled slightly at the thought of my father beating this annoying brat.

  “Well. I don’t want to get beaten by your father or you so I am not going to ask about your family affairs but are you really sure that the tutorial doesn’t have a secret boss or something? I heard rumors from the developers that there is a secret boss.”

  “It might just be lies created by the company and spreader on online forums in order to boost the popularity of the game. It’s the industry standard and with a game with at least 60 million players, if there really was a secret boss, shouldn’t there be definitive proof of its existence?”

  “You do have a point…”

  —

  “Umm… It would be rude to say this but your character does look weird…”

  The AI girl said with a strange look on her face as she reached out for my character’s cat-like ears. With a look of curiosity and at the same time, a subtle blush realizing how soft it had been.

  I stared at her while I remained in my original body while she ceaselessly harassed my new body. It was like watching a child play with a toy. Or to better describe it, a young girl playing with a porcelain doll.

  “I’m not saying that it’s bad or anything. If anything, I enjoy the way that your character is looking but the way that it looks is going to cause a lot of people to look at you strangely. Or better yet, they would look at you with looks of interest and joy.”

  The girl had a smug smirk on her face as she continued coming towards my character's ears and would begin to pet her head. I wasn’t really interested in discipling her for her odd actions considering the fact that I was beginning to consider her a friend. But even still, her obsession with my character’s ears was a little too much.

  “She’s cute but what is she supposed to be? I can’t tell if she’s supposed to be an elf or a cat…”

  The AI girl commented and I looked back to my character who had both cat ears on her hair and long slick elven ears. It was a design that would naturally confuse anyone that would see it but after a certain point, it was a design that had its own charms.

  The character had beautiful long flowing green hair and a braid to her upper left section of her bangs which gave her an elegant look. Just like me she had a thin smile that wasn’t too obvious but it was still there.

  “She’s both.”

  “Huh? You made her into both an elf and a cat!?”

  “Yeah. That’s what I did. I am surprised that the game would even allow me to customize my character to look like this but it’s alright considering the fact that she looks so good.”

  “Well I am not going to question it because you are right in saying that she does look good but why did you decide to give her both elven and cat ears. It would be a weakness for you if someone screamed loud in order to overwhelm you.”

  “That’s true, I guess but I am not someone who gives up just because someone is screaming at me! If anything I would just scream back at them in order for them to shut up!”

  “But asides from that, the other benefit to my character is the fact that she is so cute and while my enemies are distracted by her cuteness, I will beat them senseless and take everything that they have before running off!'“

  ‘I don’t think this poor girl has ever played a VR game before… She’s not even in the game registration system nor is she a documented citizen… After all she was someone from those slums but even still, I want to stand by her and see what she will be capable of doing with the support of someone like me. But considering the fact that she had such an idiotic look on her face, there’s no doubt in my mind that I would have to tutor this young girl a lot so that she won’t do anything stupid like becoming a Player Killer.’

  The AI girl stared at me while deep in thought and contemplation and I stared back at her causing an awkward moment which would last for a long while. It would come to an end as I opened my mouth.

  “So how do I play the game now that I created my character?”

  “Look at the corner right. There’s a button that says “play” but before that I suggest you press the button above that which says “tutorial”. It’s best if you take the tutorial in order so that you know what to do in this game.”

  I nodded before doing as she said and I pressed on the tutorial as the world of my vision was wholly consumed in black.

  End of the chapter.

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