Chapter 3: Starting Zone
Yuri was dazed by another reality in front of him, but his body feels weird. Like the body was not the same body he had in the real world. He turned his head to see his hands, but his hands were feminine and looked like a girl's hand, this certainly felt weird he thought in his mind, next, he grabbed his head, his hair was long and his head was small, and that was even weirder, he grabbed his chest and stopped. His heart was racing like a formula car.
"This...This...Is this the body of a woman..."
His voice filled with panic and cold sweat appeared on his back. No! maybe there's an avatar appearance changer somewhere in the menu he said in his mind, but first, he needs to find where the damn menu is. He looked everywhere around his eye, where usually the interface are located, but in there, on the right corner of his eyes, he only found his status bar which are hp and mp. He thought of different ideas, maybe the hand gesture would work, he said in his minds.
Thanks to her sister, he knew several gestures from his experience watching various anime and movies with her, starting with the hand seal style gesture, spooderman style gesture, and even the wuxia sword-finger style gesture, but still, there is no response from the system. As the last resort, he tried the sword fine art offline style gesture, where he swiped his finger downwards to open the menu.
Tring!
The sounds reverberated in his ears, and in front of his eyes the menu interface came out. His eyes glimmered in excitement. Although on the outside he was a stern and hard-working young man, he was a gamer at heart just before his parent's passed away. Every day he played the famous MMORPG from the past, World in Warbuilt, in there he made many friends from the noobs or even the trolls, he even go on raids with his guild and bragged about his DPS meter, sadly that was in the past, but, after experiencing this VRMMORPG his inner childhood was once more sparkled.
Please let there be an item mall! He begged in his minds. The menu was slick and had a minimalistic design to it, in there he found several lists of options, from top to bottom the lists are, avatar info, skills, inventory, reputation, guild, mailbox, system configuration, and log out. It was a standard menu for an MMORPG game, but the thing that he was looking for was nowhere to be found.
He racked his brains and decided to check out the system configuration first, hoping maybe he found a manual for the game there. His eyes gleamed, there is a manual added in there. The manual was fifty pages long, and he thought who in the world would have the time to read all of this instead of playing the game itself, maybe that is why the manual was snuck in there instead of the menu itself.
The manual included all the backstories for the game, even the detailed information for each of the playable races in there and there are thirty-two of them, no wonder the pages are so thick and long.
Yuri skipped all of that, knowing that it wouldn't be that useful anyway and searched for the pages that informed about avatar creations. Barely reached the last three pages finally he found the information he was looking for.
Emperor's Destiny avatar creations were intended to bring the full experience by scanning the user body so the user wouldn't feel weird like Yuri right now, it will also scan the user gender, so there will be no traps around its user base, if you're a female then you're a female, if you're a male then you're a male, and if you're a neutral then...Anyway, the system was nowhere near perfect, so they provided the avatar customizations through its vast selection of races.
After the user finalized the avatar customizations, the system then will transport the user to the vast plains near the starting town, this is called the starting zone, filled with low levels monsters for training purposes.
There are also special cases which, if the user didn't like their avatar customizations they can change it with the items called [Narcissus Blessing's], the item name itself is self-explanatory. This item was a rare commodity among the player's, only obtainable from certain raid bosses or special monsters, and would fetch a quite high price among Emperor's Destiny player.
[Narcissus's Blessings] Yuri muttered this item name in his mind. He just started playing this game and nowhere near as rich as he was like the real world. He shook his head, maybe this is his fate, although he felt weird, he can only accept the reality in front of him.
Even though he can buy the items from another person with real money, it's just against his gaming conscience, he was one of those elitist gamers that thought everything in the game should always be bought with the currencies in the game not the other way around like those whales for examples.
And also he was against companies that sell power through their item malls, like boosters and stuff, the only exception for this was cosmetics which he thought was fair. After done reading the manual he closed it and sent back to the menu, from there he decided to check out the avatar info.
====
Name : Brother's Alt
Race : Human
Gender : Female
Alignments : Neutral
Professions : None
Reputation : 0
====
Level : 1
====
Health : 150
Mana : 100
Strength : 10
Stamina : 11
Vitality : 10
Agility : 10
Dexterity : 10
Wisdom : 10
Intellect : 10
Charisma : 10
Luck : 2
====
Resistance : None
====
Physical Attack : 3
Magical Attack : 0
====
Defense : 2
====
Guild : None
Territories : None
====
Yuri was dumbfounded, even his name is weird. He felt his energy seeped out from his body, this avatar was like an alts that have been abandoned and left to dust by its owner just to be removed at the next wipe. He took a deep breath and tried to accept his situation, I'm fine this is what Lillie gave to me so I need to use it. He chanted that words into his mind as if to brainwash his own brain.
Giving in to his bad luck, he decided to check out inventories next. His expectation once more shattered, it was empty and barrens like a wasteland, no, even wastelands have plants living on it. He was shocked, not even newbie potions were found in there.
"What game is this! They even didn't give out free potions for a newbie!" He yelled furiously.
He took a deep breath, trying not to be too carried away by the situations. He exited the inventories windows and back to the menu once more. He looked at his remaining options that haven't been opened, there was skills, guild, reputations, and mailbox. Yuri expectations now were at its lowest, so he didn't bother opening his skills windows. Guild and reputations didn't even catch his eyes now, because its empty for now anyway, and that leaves him with the mailbox options.
His index finger touched the options. If this game isn't even sending an automated messages saying thanks for playing this game, I'm gonna call the head of this company and give him a lecture for a lifetime, he muttered in his minds. This wasn't a lie, in fact, he can do it right away if he wanted to, and even if he did do that, the head of this game company can only lower his head while offering him some compensation and apology for the bad experience.
Tring
Yuri was shocked by the sight, one mail after another lined up in his mailbox. Approximately one thousand three hundred eighty-one unread mails are on his mailbox. The titles were unique one after another, but they have written in a certain pattern. They were written in according to its classifications like plates, leathers, clothes, and accessories. The mails also have the same sender by the name of Lillian, and he thought that this was Lillie in game name.
Almost all of it were mails that contained pieces of equipment. There were only four items that weren't attached with pieces of equipment. Yuri had his mouth gape with the sheer numbers of it, he skimmed all of it until he reached the last mail.
"Lillie...You played this game too much...*sigh*"
Although he was angry by the thought that his sister was playing this game religiously, it was also partially his fault for neglecting his duty as a brother. He just shook his head while looking at his clustered mailbox. Now...How do I navigate through all of this, he thought. He worked his brain and decided to check out the items that weren't pieces of equipment first.
The first mail he opened was the one with the title, [Gift #1 - Tournaments Prize]. In there, he found a simple letter that says, 'A gift for brother! Use this to make a kingdom' And attached to it was an item called [Heaven's Will].
"She already planned for that promise..."
He was baffled by the thought and finds his sister was remarkable. He accepted the attached items and decided not to view the item descriptions, instead, he opened another mail with the same title, [Gift #2 - Name Customizations]. Yuri's eyes gleamed, as expected his sister already predicted the outcome of this avatar's fate. In there he found the items called [Inks of Fate].
Yuri put his excitements on hold and decided to open another mail, [Gift #3 - Appearance Customizations]. Now he was in tears just by looking at the mail titles, he thanked Lillie from the bottom of his heart, and as expected in there he found the item he desperately wanted, [Narcissus's Blessings].
Finally, the last mail that didn't contains pieces of equipment. He already had his wish fulfilled so he was not too excited for this last one, but he opened it anyway. The mail had the same titles as the last three but with exclamations mark written on it. The title was, [Gift #4 - Important! Use this right away!].
Attached in the mail, he found an item called [Path of The Supreme]. He was puzzled but accepted it anyway. He was done with opening his mail for now and decided to check out the item he just got.
His inventory now was not as barren like before, four items were sitting there. He clicked the item called [Heaven's Will] first. Another window opened on top of his inventory, the window showed the enlarged version of the item and on the right side of it, the description was written. The item was like a piece of parchments paper, wrapped with red ribbons and sealed with some sort of royal seals.
[Heaven's Will] A gift bestowed by the creators for the mortals below. A writ used for owning a territory. - single use. (The given territories will be given at random. A teleport scroll will be given if the item is used. - Requirements: Level 10 and above.)
[Use] [Take out] [Delete]
Yuri saw the description and nodded. He can't use the item yet because he was still at level one and the requirements are for level ten and above, and he can't click use anyway because the options were greyed out in the first place. Done with the first item, he clicked at the items one after another.
Three windows appeared the same as before but with different items displayed.
[Inks of Fate] A legendary inks that were used to write the fate of mortals by the goddess of fate, Fortuna. This item is used for changing the user in game name. - single use. (Requirements Level 1 and above.)
[Narcissus's Blessings] Blessing for the one that was infatuated by his own appearance. This item is used for changing the user appearance. - single use. (The system will scan the body of the user once more and all unsaved appearance will be overwritten with the default ones. - Requirements: Level 1 or Above.)
[Path of The Supreme] Journals of the supreme ruler of the past that have been conquered all of Fantasia. This item will give out a quest related to the item. - Single Use. (Requirements: Level 30 and Above.)
His eyes gleamed even more looking at the two items, [Inks of Fate] and [Narcissus's Blessing]. The first item was shaped like a glass inks container, with a glowing purple inks inside of it, while the second item was shaped like a highly decorated gothic mirror with gold as its primary color. Done admiring the two. He turned his sight into the third item.
His eyebrows were raised looking at the item description. Based from his experience, these kinds of items were highly tied to the lore of the game, and usually gave out a long chain of quests. He hated those kinds of quests to the bone, even when he was a gaming extraordinaire, he disdained that kinds of quest, all he wanted was a nice quest with one or two follow-ups that gave out nice experience and gold at the end.
This kinds of quest require him to travel a long distance and even explore the whole world, and that was one of the reasons that he disdain it at the first place, but, he got no choice right now, it was his sister wish and the title of the mail even states that this is important. He sighed and hung his head low, thankfully he didn't have to do that right now because of the level requirements.
Back to the two items. Yuri can't hold his excitements to use it, and so he moved his finger slowly while grinning from ear to ear. He clicked the use button for [Inks of Fate]
Are you sure wanted to use this item?
[Yes] - [No]
He smiled even wider now, and without hesitation, he clicked the yes button.
Suddenly he was transferred into another place. He felt nauseated by the sudden transfer, and muttered in his mind, can't they make a smoother transition.
Just a bit better he turned his head to looked around and found the place looked like space filled with stars, and he was standing above a big solar systems. He was amazed by the sight in front of him, just after he admired the place he heard a feminine voice rang inside his ears.
- Please state the new name of your avatar -
"Yuri"
- That name already been used please state another name -
His rusty gaming experience was now showing its face. He was shocked and finally realized that in an MMORPG a simple name would have been taken already by the older player. He racked his brain to choose a cool name for himself because once it's done there's no going back again.
"Yurian"
- Name available, are you sure want to use this name? -
"Yes"
Woosh
Yuri was transferred back to his original position. He didn't check his information right after, instead, he opened his inventory once more and use the [Narcissus's Blessings]
Once more he was transferred back to the place he was before. Once more he felt nauseated. That's it I'm filing complaints to the company, he thought. The same feminine voice rang inside his ears.
- Scanning the user body, please wait a second. -
--
--
- Completed, the avatar was now at its default state. Do you want to choose another gender other than your real self? -
"No"
- Please choose one of the thirty-two races -
A window appeared with all the available options. Yuri just skimmed through towards the bottom of the list. Then scrolled again to the top, he just think that the races were redundant and just a matter of preferences, in the end he choose the human races.
- You may customize your appearance. -
Now a mirror appeared in front of him. He saw his appearance in front of him, and to his shock it was the same appearance he had in the real world. He was satisfied with it and finalized his appearance.
- Are you satisfied with this appearance? -
"Yes"
Woosh
Transferred once more to his original place, Yuri tried moving his body and it felt just perfect, no longer he felt weird moving his own body. Satisfied, he opened the game menu once more and clicked the avatar info options.
Yuri looked at his information and a smile was plastered on his face. The status was the same, but the only difference was his name and gender. Finally done with that, he noticed that he was standing in this vast plains for almost two hours. He looked all around, no monsters were found at sight, only critters such as rabbits accompanied him. He also saw the town just north of him and decided to go there.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone