Inside one of the chambers in the Nexus Tower, two incubation pods were unlocked simultaneously, their translucent hatches smoothly gliding open. As the misty interior cleared, Alfred found himself sitting up, his mind reeling with disbelief. His wide eyes scanned the unfamiliar surroundings, and he couldn’t help but gasp in awe.
“What the fuck! Is this real?! Holy shit!”
As someone’s shout echoed higher in the room, so was the amount of reality that he was absorbing. Until a moment ago, he still didn’t believe that a fully immersive VR game was real. But when he opened his eyes again after the helmet activated, he was already in this strange room. His body felt hot, as if he had just emerged from a sauna. The gentle breeze from an overhead air outlet caressed his shoulders, leaving a cool sensation on his sweaty skin — it was then that he realized that he was naked. But there was also a faintly unpleasant odor, making him scrunch his nose in slight discomfort.
“Is this really the game world?” Alfred muttered in disbelief. The fact that he was butt-naked was ignored by him.
Nevertheless, being a collected individual and a professional gamer, Alfred was able to calm himself and check the situation he was in. Sight, smell, touch, taste, sound. All five senses were here!
After that, he checked the place he was in. Hard stony floor beneath his feet and purplish-black walls with blue torches around him… He touched the rough floor and noticed that sensation was so vivid… Still, the interior made it look like they were inside a medieval tower.
Suddenly, the other brown-haired person who had come out of the pod beside him shouted at him, bombarding him with questions. “You! Who are you?! Are you an NPC? Is this an overly elaborate prank?!”
“What? No, I’m Al— ZeroXScyth…”
“Oh… It’s you, Zero!” Realization dawned upon him, and he introduced himself, “My username is PleaseBugMeNot.”
“Ah, I see… Wait! Weren’t you a man in your twenties? How come you look to be fifteen or sixteen years old?”
“Huh? Now that you mentioned it… You, too, look a decade too young to be a consultant in a multinational corporation!”
Both of them exchanged puzzled glances and pointed at each other, equally bewildered by their overall situation. Their moment of confusion was only interrupted by a shout coming from outside the chamber, snapping them out of their daze.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?!” It was the voice of a man, slightly young though.
“Who’s there? Another player?”
“I think so… Let’s check it out!” PleaseBugMeNot replied, eager to investigate the source of the noise.
“Wait!” Alfred intervened, taking PleaseBugMeNot’s arm and not letting him rush outside.
“Wh-What? I’m not into men! Unhand me!” PleaseBugMeNot protested, trying to free himself from Alfred’s grasp.
“Get lost! What I was about to say is, are you sure you want to go outside naked?”
“O-Oh, yeah…” PleaseBugMeNot blushed, realizing he was still in his virtual avatar’s default appearance. “Thanks for saving me from that embarrassment.”
“No problem.”
The intense reality they were in must have befuddled his friend’s mind, although two men being naked inside a room could indeed be a bit misleading in itself. So then, they frantically searched the room for something to cover their groins. To their relief, they discovered a huge wardrobe filled to the brim with clothes, and they hastily grabbed some garments to dress themselves.
“Wow, look, there’s gray robes here! Like the ones used in magic schools, aren’t they?” PleaseBugMeNot exclaimed, grabbing one of the robes from the wardrobe and draping them over himself.
Alfred followed suit and dressed himself in accordance with the available wardrobe items, agreeing, “Exactly. It’s the game’s setting, after all.” He then tried to adjust his glasses, only realizing that his virtual body didn’t wear any. How peculiar.
Now covered in clothes, the two of them pushed open the iron door and exited their chamber. Outside, they discovered that the place was even more magical than they previously thought… The interior was similar to magic towers owned by great mages in novels. And not far beside them were four other chambers like the one they had come to, and one of them had its door open.
“…I thought it was all a joke. Even now, I still can’t accept it.” PleaseBugMeNot sighed, still trying to process the surreal experience.
“I know, right? Is technology really this advanced now?”
Bizarrely, they discovered one naked youngster with a nicely shaped face, who appeared to be a player, desperately pecking the stone floor like a chicken not far from the white pool in the center of the structure. He was even tearing up all over while muttering “Oh my god! It’s all so real!” over and over like a maniac if they didn’t know better.
Indeed.
This world was completely immersive!
To Alfred, at least, this was like a dream come true!
“Who the heck are you? An NPC?” The player who was kissing the floor seemed to have come to his senses.
“NPC my ass! It’s me, PleaseBugMeNot!”
“And I’m ZeroXScyth.”
“What the fuck?! I’m MikeIsHandsome1000x! Just call me Mike… Uhm, why do you both look like teenagers? Hahahaha! This is hilarious!”
“Yeah, right, laugh the one who’s standing butt naked like the day he was born.”
“I guess the virtual world has its ways of making us look different from our real selves.”
“—Shoot! You’re right! Where did you guys find clothes?” Mike rapidly questioned.
Unwilling to see his online friend naked any longer, Alfred replied, “It’s from the same chamber where the pods are. Where’s yours?”
“There.” Mike pointed at the chamber that had its door open. “There’s someone else beside me there… Dunno who, though.”
They walked into the chamber, and inside, they found another naked player. But this guy wasn’t moving a muscle; he was just sitting there, deep in thought, with a mysterious look on his face. It was like he was trying to unlock the secrets of the universe, or maybe just pondering the mysteries of his nether regions. Whatever it was, it was quite a sight to behold.
“Uh, hey there,” one of them finally said, breaking the awkward silence. “You okay?”
The guy looked up. “Just contemplating life, man,” he replied with an unfathomable expression.
“Huh?”
“It’s just… are our genders set to male by default? Is there no way of creating your own character? I mean… like changing our gender…?”
“Damn! I thought he was trying to be philosophical, but he was just horny!”
“Are you sure you’re not PleaseBugMeNot since he’s the most degenerate and all among our group…”
“Hey now, don’t compare me to him! I’m a sophisticated player, not a degenerate! Besides, I’m Storm Bringer.”
“Aye, Storm! We’re best buddies, right? You know what I mean?”
“Go away. I was just asking. You must be PleaseBugMeNot, then… Guess that makes us four players, eh?”
“Don’t call me ‘that’ here. Since this is an RPG, call me by my BDO username — that was the name I registered on the official website.”
“Prominence, right? Anywho, where did you two get your fancy robes?” Storm asked, observing the neat gray robes worn by both Alfred and PleaseBugMeNot, now Prominence.
Alfred then told him about the wardrobe filled with clothes inside the chamber, and the two naked players dressed themselves up accordingly. Next, they came outside the chamber to inspect the place and to find other clues… Although, there was no other way out except for massive double doors that wouldn’t budge no matter what they did.
“I wonder, where’s the last player — SuperNovaX?”
As soon as the question left someone’s lips, a sudden yelp echoed from one of the remaining chambers. Startled, the group turned their attention to the source of the commotion. Without warning, a guy with black hair and a thin build, dressed just like them, came bursting out from behind the iron door.
“Eep! A ghost!” The guy was still yelling nonstop and only stopped when he saw the other players.
“What’s going on?” Alfred was the first to ask the question. “Are you SuperNova?”
“Th-There’s a ghost inside that room! Yeah, that’s right! Just woke up from there alone!” the newcomer replied.
“What’s that shining black mark on your wrist?” Mike pointed at SuperNova’s left wrist.
“This? That ghost appeared as soon as this thing shone! Don’t you guys have these too on your left wrists?”
Surprised that he had missed a hint, Alfred checked his left wrist and found the same mark. What’s this mark for? In any case, they must have been so amazed by the immersive world that they didn’t notice black bracelet-like marks on their left wrists before.
“Anyway, we should get the fuck outta here before that ghost catches us!”
Just then, an ethereal presence came out of the chamber. Its form was small and appeared translucent, almost as if made of pure light and shadow. The figure seemed to hover above the ground as it moved with an eerie fluidity. On second glance, it had the shape of a fairy but lacked the vivid colors of a normal living being, though not to the point of being a ghostly apparition.
“How rude. I’m not a ghost!” Its sassy voice wasn’t in English but in a strange language that Alfred was able to understand, strangely enough. It appeared that this was the case for the rest of the players.
“Th-That’s the ghost!” SuperNova trembled, pointing at the pale fairy.
“What ghost? You watched too many horror movies…” Alfred tried to adjust his nonexistent glasses and said, “I think it’s a hologram figure of a fairy.”
“Our first NPC?!”
“Wow, it looks so real!”
“You called a fairy this pretty a ghost?!”
“Finally, someone that can be talked to. My name is Lizbeth, and I am a gorgeous fairy!” The fairy introduced herself with a mischievous smile. “What you see now isn’t my true form but a simplified projection of my figure.”
“Miss Fairy, what is this black mark on our wrists?” Alfred showed his left wrist where the mark was.
“That’s called a ‘Shadowlink Mark,’ and it’s used to show your status. To use it, all you have to do is will a thought at it and it will activate,” the hologram fairy explained, her voice gentle yet mysterious.
The other players, except SuperNova, who had figured this out first, were curious about the marks and couldn’t wait to summon their status screens. Alfred himself followed suit, trying to replicate the process. As he concentrated, a mesmerizing blue hologram screen materialized right before his eyes.
ZeroXScyth
Power Rank: None
Elemental Affinity: ???
Status: Healthy
Strength: (5)
Agility: (5)
Vitality: (5)
Magical Power: (0)
Inverted Mana (total): (0)
Before he was able to ask anything else, the fairy clapped her hands and brought the players out of their astonishment. “Alright! The headmaster has been waiting for your arrival, new acolytes, so I will save the details for later. Now, do follow me to meet him.”
SpoilerThe reactions of the players here are not less dramatic than this:
https://youtu.be/90LykDfLi5U
[collapse]
Inside one of the chambers in the Nexus Tower, two incubation pods were unlocked simultaneously, their translucent hatches smoothly gliding open. As the misty interior cleared, Alfred found himself sitting up, his mind reeling with disbelief. His wide eyes scanned the unfamiliar surroundings, and he couldn’t help but gasp in awe.
“What the fuck! Is this real?! Holy shit!”
As someone’s shout echoed higher in the room, so was the amount of reality that he was absorbing. Until a moment ago, he still didn’t believe that a fully immersive VR game was real. But when he opened his eyes again after the helmet activated, he was already in this strange room. His body felt hot, as if he had just emerged from a sauna. The gentle breeze from an overhead air outlet caressed his shoulders, leaving a cool sensation on his sweaty skin — it was then that he realized that he was naked. But there was also a faintly unpleasant odor, making him scrunch his nose in slight discomfort.
“Is this really the game world?” Alfred muttered in disbelief. The fact that he was butt-naked was ignored by him.
Nevertheless, being a collected individual and a professional gamer, Alfred was able to calm himself and check the situation he was in. Sight, smell, touch, taste, sound. All five senses were here!
After that, he checked the place he was in. Hard stony floor beneath his feet and purplish-black walls with blue torches around him… He touched the rough floor and noticed that sensation was so vivid… Still, the interior made it look like they were inside a medieval tower.
Suddenly, the other brown-haired person who had come out of the pod beside him shouted at him, bombarding him with questions. “You! Who are you?! Are you an NPC? Is this an overly elaborate prank?!”
“What? No, I’m Al— ZeroXScyth…”
“Oh… It’s you, Zero!” Realization dawned upon him, and he introduced himself, “My username is PleaseBugMeNot.”
“Ah, I see… Wait! Weren’t you a man in your twenties? How come you look to be fifteen or sixteen years old?”
“Huh? Now that you mentioned it… You, too, look a decade too young to be a consultant in a multinational corporation!”
Both of them exchanged puzzled glances and pointed at each other, equally bewildered by their overall situation. Their moment of confusion was only interrupted by a shout coming from outside the chamber, snapping them out of their daze.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?!” It was the voice of a man, slightly young though.
“Who’s there? Another player?”
“I think so… Let’s check it out!” PleaseBugMeNot replied, eager to investigate the source of the noise.
“Wait!” Alfred intervened, taking PleaseBugMeNot’s arm and not letting him rush outside.
“Wh-What? I’m not into men! Unhand me!” PleaseBugMeNot protested, trying to free himself from Alfred’s grasp.
“Get lost! What I was about to say is, are you sure you want to go outside naked?”
“O-Oh, yeah…” PleaseBugMeNot blushed, realizing he was still in his virtual avatar’s default appearance. “Thanks for saving me from that embarrassment.”
“No problem.”
The intense reality they were in must have befuddled his friend’s mind, although two men being naked inside a room could indeed be a bit misleading in itself. So then, they frantically searched the room for something to cover their groins. To their relief, they discovered a huge wardrobe filled to the brim with clothes, and they hastily grabbed some garments to dress themselves.
“Wow, look, there’s gray robes here! Like the ones used in magic schools, aren’t they?” PleaseBugMeNot exclaimed, grabbing one of the robes from the wardrobe and draping them over himself.
Alfred followed suit and dressed himself in accordance with the available wardrobe items, agreeing, “Exactly. It’s the game’s setting, after all.” He then tried to adjust his glasses, only realizing that his virtual body didn’t wear any. How peculiar.
Now covered in clothes, the two of them pushed open the iron door and exited their chamber. Outside, they discovered that the place was even more magical than they previously thought… The interior was similar to magic towers owned by great mages in novels. And not far beside them were four other chambers like the one they had come to, and one of them had its door open.
“…I thought it was all a joke. Even now, I still can’t accept it.” PleaseBugMeNot sighed, still trying to process the surreal experience.
“I know, right? Is technology really this advanced now?”
Bizarrely, they discovered one naked youngster with a nicely shaped face, who appeared to be a player, desperately pecking the stone floor like a chicken not far from the white pool in the center of the structure. He was even tearing up all over while muttering “Oh my god! It’s all so real!” over and over like a maniac if they didn’t know better.
Indeed.
This world was completely immersive!
To Alfred, at least, this was like a dream come true!
“Who the heck are you? An NPC?” The player who was kissing the floor seemed to have come to his senses.
“NPC my ass! It’s me, PleaseBugMeNot!”
“And I’m ZeroXScyth.”
“What the fuck?! I’m MikeIsHandsome1000x! Just call me Mike… Uhm, why do you both look like teenagers? Hahahaha! This is hilarious!”
“Yeah, right, laugh the one who’s standing butt naked like the day he was born.”
“I guess the virtual world has its ways of making us look different from our real selves.”
“—Shoot! You’re right! Where did you guys find clothes?” Mike rapidly questioned.
Unwilling to see his online friend naked any longer, Alfred replied, “It’s from the same chamber where the pods are. Where’s yours?”
“There.” Mike pointed at the chamber that had its door open. “There’s someone else beside me there… Dunno who, though.”
They walked into the chamber, and inside, they found another naked player. But this guy wasn’t moving a muscle; he was just sitting there, deep in thought, with a mysterious look on his face. It was like he was trying to unlock the secrets of the universe, or maybe just pondering the mysteries of his nether regions. Whatever it was, it was quite a sight to behold.
“Uh, hey there,” one of them finally said, breaking the awkward silence. “You okay?”
The guy looked up. “Just contemplating life, man,” he replied with an unfathomable expression.
“Huh?”
“It’s just… are our genders set to male by default? Is there no way of creating your own character? I mean… like changing our gender…?”
“Damn! I thought he was trying to be philosophical, but he was just horny!”
“Are you sure you’re not PleaseBugMeNot since he’s the most degenerate and all among our group…”
“Hey now, don’t compare me to him! I’m a sophisticated player, not a degenerate! Besides, I’m Storm Bringer.”
“Aye, Storm! We’re best buddies, right? You know what I mean?”
“Go away. I was just asking. You must be PleaseBugMeNot, then… Guess that makes us four players, eh?”
“Don’t call me ‘that’ here. Since this is an RPG, call me by my BDO username — that was the name I registered on the official website.”
“Prominence, right? Anywho, where did you two get your fancy robes?” Storm asked, observing the neat gray robes worn by both Alfred and PleaseBugMeNot, now Prominence.
Alfred then told him about the wardrobe filled with clothes inside the chamber, and the two naked players dressed themselves up accordingly. Next, they came outside the chamber to inspect the place and to find other clues… Although, there was no other way out except for massive double doors that wouldn’t budge no matter what they did.
“I wonder, where’s the last player — SuperNovaX?”
As soon as the question left someone’s lips, a sudden yelp echoed from one of the remaining chambers. Startled, the group turned their attention to the source of the commotion. Without warning, a guy with black hair and a thin build, dressed just like them, came bursting out from behind the iron door.
“Eep! A ghost!” The guy was still yelling nonstop and only stopped when he saw the other players.
“What’s going on?” Alfred was the first to ask the question. “Are you SuperNova?”
“Th-There’s a ghost inside that room! Yeah, that’s right! Just woke up from there alone!” the newcomer replied.
“What’s that shining black mark on your wrist?” Mike pointed at SuperNova’s left wrist.
“This? That ghost appeared as soon as this thing shone! Don’t you guys have these too on your left wrists?”
Surprised that he had missed a hint, Alfred checked his left wrist and found the same mark. What’s this mark for? In any case, they must have been so amazed by the immersive world that they didn’t notice black bracelet-like marks on their left wrists before.
“Anyway, we should get the fuck outta here before that ghost catches us!”
Just then, an ethereal presence came out of the chamber. Its form was small and appeared translucent, almost as if made of pure light and shadow. The figure seemed to hover above the ground as it moved with an eerie fluidity. On second glance, it had the shape of a fairy but lacked the vivid colors of a normal living being, though not to the point of being a ghostly apparition.
“How rude. I’m not a ghost!” Its sassy voice wasn’t in English but in a strange language that Alfred was able to understand, strangely enough. It appeared that this was the case for the rest of the players.
“Th-That’s the ghost!” SuperNova trembled, pointing at the pale fairy.
“What ghost? You watched too many horror movies…” Alfred tried to adjust his nonexistent glasses and said, “I think it’s a hologram figure of a fairy.”
“Our first NPC?!”
“Wow, it looks so real!”
“You called a fairy this pretty a ghost?!”
“Finally, someone that can be talked to. My name is Lizbeth, and I am a gorgeous fairy!” The fairy introduced herself with a mischievous smile. “What you see now isn’t my true form but a simplified projection of my figure.”
“Miss Fairy, what is this black mark on our wrists?” Alfred showed his left wrist where the mark was.
“That’s called a ‘Shadowlink Mark,’ and it’s used to show your status. To use it, all you have to do is will a thought at it and it will activate,” the hologram fairy explained, her voice gentle yet mysterious.
The other players, except SuperNova, who had figured this out first, were curious about the marks and couldn’t wait to summon their status screens. Alfred himself followed suit, trying to replicate the process. As he concentrated, a mesmerizing blue hologram screen materialized right before his eyes.
ZeroXScyth
Power Rank: None
Elemental Affinity: ???
Status: Healthy
Strength: (5)
Agility: (5)
Vitality: (5)
Magical Power: (0)
Inverted Mana (total): (0)
Before he was able to ask anything else, the fairy clapped her hands and brought the players out of their astonishment. “Alright! The headmaster has been waiting for your arrival, new acolytes, so I will save the details for later. Now, do follow me to meet him.”
SpoilerThe reactions of the players here are not less dramatic than this:
https://youtu.be/90LykDfLi5U
[collapse]