Reality Break Ch. 01

And the game begins.

-

"Hello and welcome newcomer to 'Rebellions'!"

An annoying mix of cheerfulness and monotone voice forced Glasie to open her eyes. She was standing up in a void of glittering blue, red, and green.

"My name is Aria, and I am computed moderator that will help you through the process of creating a character and delving into the game."

Aria huh?

"But first, let me warn you about the game. All of the sensations that people feel in life are effectively translated into this reality. Basically, our warning is that you will feel the pleasant along with the very unpleasant sensations that we feel in everyday life, AKA pain."

That doesn't sound good.

"You will feel the pain you experience in combat or various mishaps and the sensation will be transferred to your brain. Though please understand that this pain is not real, as your body in real life will not be receiving any actual wounds, only the sensations. Also, for psychological safety reasons, the pain that transferred to your mind will be no where near as extreme if one encountered the injuries in this game in real life."

Then I'll have to be extra careful.

"We wanted to emphasize planning and caution. As people, who play games where there is no severe penalty, often find themselves throwing caution to the wind and going into a practically suicidal state to accomplish their goals in the game."

I sure won't.

"Also, prolonged exposure to any VR game, may give unwanted symptoms to a player that causes them to see certain things in the game in real life. Otherwise known as 'Reality Break'. We encourage you to keep game sessions to less than seven hours. Though cannot force you to stop or keep going. 'Reality Break' should only occur in those who play the game almost 24/7."

I can do that, as I still have school and work to go to.

"Now that the warnings are done with, let me now help you through the character creation process!"

Right, there were three sets of races...

"There are three sets of races: the Humans, the Elves, and the beast races. The Human races include the Humans obviously, the Dwarves, the Half Elves, and the Tieflings."

Being a human seems rather boring, why play a game like this if you're going to be what you already are?

"The Elven races include the High Elves, the Dark Elves or Drow, the Undine, and the Orcs or Barbarian Elves."

Eh? Orcs are elves? Well, ok.

"And the beast races include the Wolfkin, the Catfolk, the Hawkmen, and the Changelings."

Oooooh, those sound fun... But I don't want fur or feathers. Eh, wait a second.

Glasie then spoke to the computed moderator, "Why can I only see myself as a female?"

The computed moderator answered the question effortlessly, "In order to keep serve populations and guild fluctuations and other such things to a minimum, we only allow one character to each player. They may delete the character at any time and start anew, though all their progress will be lost. Also, we only allow a player to be a character of their gender, so as to stop certain misunderstandings."

That seems sensible, but that's also stupid at the same time. Glasie made her opinion known, "I though we're supposed to create the character we want? Why can't I be male?"

Aria continued her emotionless voice, not once wavering in her words and said coldly, "Your request to play a character opposite of your gender is being processed to the game developers and moderators, please wait several seconds while you are given an answer."

Glasie was confused, was playing a male character that much of a problem? While initially she was just curious, wondering why was it that you could only a play a character that is your gender, though after mulling it over for several minutes, she was increasingly attracted to the idea of playing a whole different persona who even was a different gender. It was not like her entire game experience rested on being one gender, though she realized that how she interacted with other players, be they male or female, their reactions towards her would differ depending on her gender.

Aria soon came back to life as her answer was given, "Your request to play a male has been processed and accepted."

Glasie was surprised, though she was slightly happy at the response, "Really? So cool, I can kick some ass with my manly visage at night and be the beautiful and sexy female at night." Satired Glasie.

-

"Hey Lars, I thought I saw a window pop up there for a second."

"Huh? Well, I had my elbow on the board, so I guess I must of pressed something that made it go away. Probably nothing to worry about."

"Righto then, back to work."

-

"Now please chose a race, if you would like, I can show you what your character would look like as the various races." Said the monotone Aria.

Hmmm, just what race should Glasie pick? Just out of curiosity, Glasie asked, "Can you show me as those beast races? I'm curious what they look like. The wolf one first."

"Very well." Aria waved her hand and the area besides her shimmered and a body soon appeared. Apparently, it was a model of what Glasie would look like if she were a male Wolfkin.

It looked nothing like werewolves of the movies and TV shows she had seen, and thankfully so as that particular genre Glasie had gotten sick of quite a while ago. The Wolfkin was wearing basic clothing: a long sleeved shirt and jeans, though Glasie assumed that was not the only clothes she could wear. Its features included: Wide eyes that seemed like one could stare in forever and never reach the end of the chasm, a body of greyed fur that covered the model's entire body though it thinned down in certain areas like the chest and face, a shaggy tail which resembled an overgrown patch of weeds, and a thick snout which covered a row of vicious though docile teeth.

Glasie surveyed the rest of the beast races, perusing the various odd features. The Catfolk were just like the Wolfkin, though with cat features. The Hawkmen, which had majestic wings, and while they could not fly like birds, they could float and glide off of high places. And the changelings, which actually started out as humans, though they could grow certain features of various other animals, apparently this race congregated a bunch of other animals into one race.

Then Glasie requested to see the human races, though she ignored the human race itself. She first saw how she looked as a male dwarf. Expecting to see an exceptionally short and bearded stout man, she found herself surprised at what she saw. The dwarves were about forty centimeters shorter than the average male human. And while they did have a respectable set of facial hair, Glasie saw that it wasn't as overgrown as they were in the movies. All in all, the dwarves looked like a rather physically fit version of a shorter human. Moving on the Half Elves, Glasie saw that compared to humans, they were thinner and more lithe, though apparently less so that the actual elves. And once she saw the Tieflings, which she had never heard of before, she found herself quite surprised, though in a good way. Seeing a human with demonic attributes was somewhat surprising, though she liked what she saw. Short horns, a wriggling tail, and colored skin was the main features of a Tiefling, though they also had menacing eyes and were about ten centimeters taller than the height of an average human.

Still, Glasie had yet to see the elves. Moving on to the elves, Glasie first saw the High Elves, and instantly fell in love. It was as if a normal human male underwent a complete overhaul, keeping their best features while adding on to that. The new model had a sort of beautiful feminine grace coupled with a male's virility. Her character had longer than average set of red hair, along with flawless skin that was without a hint of tan but also without it being too pale, the elf model also was visibly taller than a normal human, about twenty to thirty centimeters taller. Still, if Glasie had to find fault, it was that the male elf model was without too many rugged and manly features, though she completely ignored that. If she had seen this model somewhere outside of this game, she would have instantly fell in love and try her best to go out with him. Glasie wanted nothing more than to choose this model as her character, completely ignoring the other elven races, and that she did.

"Yes! I definitely want to be a male High Elf!" Exclaimed Glasie to Aria.

As if the nonhuman entity suddenly gained emotions, Aria smiled and said flawlessly, "Alright then. Now this is exactly what you would look like if you were a male and a High Elf."

I'm such a beautiful man...

"Now we proceed to the classes. In 'Rebellions', there are five base classes, the warrior, the rogue, the ranger, the mage, and the priest. Note that these are base classes and they will and should not define how you play the game. At any point you wish, you can switch from being a warrior to a mage. There are also numerous class archetypes subdivided in between the classes, such as a cross warrior and rogue Duelist class, or a cross priest warrior Paladin class, or even an ranger Sniper class. There are no restrictions as to what style you wish to play. Though take note that depending on which base class you choose will determine the level of some of your stats and the basic gear you start off with, so in the long run, what base class you choose will not be that important. Just choose what you wish to try out at first and if you are not satisfied, you may pick up any type of play style you wish."

Hmmm, this is a toughie.

"Warriors are mainly the slow melee types, though they are not restricted to that and can be exceptionally fast and nimble on their feet. Rogues are generally a stealth type class, though they can be loud and as visible as they wish. Rangers are generally a ranged type class, though they can pick up melee weapons if they so wish. Mages are divided into fire, water, earth, and air mages, though they are not restricted to one type of magic. Priests are divided into light and dark magic, and like the mages, they are not restricted to one magic and can even utilize weapons like mages."

Why not just be a basic class? Glasie had an idea of what she wanted to do. She knew she wanted to do some sort of melee fighting, and she knew she did not want to be slow or stealthy. Still, considering Aria's words, Glasie figured she could immediately change how she wanted to fight from the get-go.

With a decision in mind, Glasie made her choice, "I would like to start off as a rogue class... Though I definitely won't be stealthy."

"Very well, you will begin as a High Elf rogue. There are now only two steps left, choosing your base stats and your name."

Base stats?

"Their are numerous stats which depict a character's style over the course of playing this game. The warrior stats are strength and endurance, which affect your melee ability and stamina. The rogue stats are agility and endurance, which affect your stamina and how nimble you are. The archer stats are perception and agility, which affect your senses and how nimble you are. The mage stats are perception and focus, which affect your overall power in magic and your sense towards magic and other things. The priest stats are focus and strength, which affect your ability to cast various spells and your power regarding spells. The final stat, which does not fall into any one category, is luck, which I'm sure you can guess what it does. Like with the classes, please not that what you choose here will and should not force you to play one way in the long run, though it will give you a decent boost in the early levels depending on where you put your stats. Also, the only stat that will not change over time is luck, though it can be affected by equipping various lucky objects.

Right when she was told, Glasie immediately understood and knew what she wanted to do. It was as if the soul of a veteran game player had infected her body. Glasie's logic was that if a certain stat could not be increased from this point on, in this case it would be luck, why not put all of the given points into luck?

Glasie was given ten points to put in any stat she wished and she made that choice to put them all in luck.

Aria showed no concern as to where Glasie put them in, only reacting when she was finished and repetitiously continued her monotone voice, "Now for the final step, please choose a name for your character. We request that the players keep their name simple and do not add various numbers, symbols, or foreign characters of any type. Please make your name easy to read and say aloud so that players will not have any difficulty saying your name out loud. Also, unlike most MMOs, there may be more than one player with the same name, mainly because there are other ways to tell people apart than by just name."

"A name? I honestly don't know." Glasie was at a roadblock. Being one to have never played a videogame before, she never paid much thought in naming fictional characters. Her first though went to various elven names from various fiction stories and movies, though she didn't particularly care for any of those. Then Glasie decided to name her character with a word that describes a part of her identity. Her first though went to her ferrets, though she didn't want to name her male elf ferret, sock, or kitty, as they were too nonsensical. Then as if the points she put in luck immediately went into effect, a certain word popped in her head and resonated with her entire being. It was a simple word; one that many people used in everyday life though hardly paid much attention to it as a name. And this word as a name felt quite ingenious to Glasie. It used part of her name and was the name of the various objects in her apartments that she loved, namely her glassware. Her name would be "Glass". Thinking about it some more, Glasie noticed that the normal clear and pristine color of glass windows was comparable to the complexion of her character's skin, pristinely beautiful. Glass, just like her elf's skin, could be blemished and covered in dirt and dust, but it could always be cleaned to the pure condition it once was.

"I want to name my character... Glass." It was a simple word, yet it was now a name of a character's identity. As of now, in this game, Glass enters the world and to his life.

Aria then took a cheery tone, "Alright then! Your 'Rebellions' character will be a male High Elf rogue named Glass with all of his points put into luck. Congratulations on completing the character creation process and please enjoy the world of 'Rebellions'.

The large expanse Glasie had been standing in for some time, designing her character, suddenly shimmered into various lights, and as if a blanket was slowly being pulled over a person's eyes, the world suddenly was revealed to Glass. The first thing Glass noticed was that he was no longer female, instead, he was now in possession in a male body of that High Elf that he so adored. The red hair Glass owned outside of this world and now in this world flowed like strands of fresh silk, and as soft as silk as well.

Glass was also wearing a set of leather padding that covered vital areas of Glass' body, though certain spots were left uncovered so as to increase mobility. Glass also had a short sword fastened to his belt with a simple iron dagger fastened next to his sword. He felt around his body to discover he no longer had breasts. He almost felt compelled to fondle a certain other area located at the groin, though he resisted that urge. He lightly touched his elongated ears, which seemed unusually receptive to noises. His facial features seemed more defined, and all in all, he seemed infinitely more masculine than he did outside of this game.

"Holy hell... This is amazing. This really is a completely different world, VR is so amazing!" Glass lit up like a bonfire and bounced around giddy with excitement.

Glass then admired the environment he was placed in. In this particular area, there was a small hamlet situated behind him that was apparently located on top of a high cliff. Facing the hamlet was a foreboding forest filled with various species of pine trees, some of which seemed even taller than a redwood or thicker than a sequoia. Some of the branches of the trees arched down and touched the ground, as if inviting someone to climb on and travel along the tree's branches. The needles of the trees held every hue of green imaginable, with the trunk and bark taking on a thick chestnut color. Scraggly clouds were placed in seemingly random positions in the sky, though it was a relatively clear day. A bright yellow sun was located some ways near the horizon, signaling that dusk was approaching. The hamlet in question took on an appearance similar to a classic though slightly rich medieval town. Various townspeople went about their tasks, none of which seemed human to Glass. Perhaps they were also computed characters like Aria?

Glass seemed to remember reading something in the game manual about the computer characters, also known as NPCs, and the players themselves being so alike, that one couldn't even tell them apart unless they looked very closely. Still, there was certain ways people could tell if a person was an NPC or not, though Glass didn't pay attention to them.

Glass took a single step forward. His male body seemed just as natural to him as his female body outside of this game. Even so, it took some getting used to when controlling this body, which annoyed Glass.

Still, that was part of the fun when exploring a completely new world generated from the imaginative minds of people. Glass knew that he could never hope to create something as expansive and creative as this.

Out of the corner of his eye, Glass saw a person running. This person resembled one of the human races, apparently a Half Elf, he was running along one of the large tree branches until he reached a low spot, which he jumped off and dashed off in the same direction.

That was without a doubt another player. After observing the Half Elf that just raced through Glass' eyes, he instantly became more aware of the other players in the area. Several groups of them were animatedly talking next to buildings in the town. Some were walking or running in various directions. One was even eating some food on a rooftop of one of the hamlet's buildings. Yet two players caught Glass' eyes.

Two players, one that looked like a Tiefling and the other, which had to be a Human, were currently engage in a duel. Several players crowded around the duel, spectating and making diverse range of comments. While Glass couldn't hear the quieter words, he could assuredly hear the more outspoken players who were shouting out words of encouragement or insults. Glass soon lost interest in the duel when it ended, as it only took several strokes of the Tiefling's sword to end the Human player's existence.

Glass remembered in the manual that when a player died, they would resurrect at the nearest town and would receive a penalty that would eliminate all or a portion of the player's progress towards their next level. It apparently wasn't a serious penalty, though enough to stop players from being too reckless.

Yet Glass soon noticed several stares directed towards him, though he had no idea why.

In this day and age, the line between males and females when it came to gaming was largely diminished, though there was still a noticeable male aura of dominance in games, when it came to VR games, that dominance had completely vanished. And thus in the various players in the area, there was roughly an equal amount of male and female characters.

Glass wasn't sure why people were staring at a new player like him. It was as if a prominent celebrity suddenly found himself surrounded by fans or paparazzi.