NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: I’ve become a she?
I woke up feeling really groggy. Yesterday my sister Sofia sent me the latest AVR game 'Oridian Fantasy: Online', as a congratulation for my recovery. She played the game when it was in it's closed beta period. I got pretty excited when they announced it about 3 years ago now.
But before I could even play it, I got hospitalised. Long story short, I always had a sickly body since birth, but It suddenly got worse 2 years ago. Sofia got really worried when I collapsed back then.
"*Yawn*... I should open the box she sent me... Hm? My voice sounds very different now, did I catch a cold?"
As I went out of the bed, I noticed that my view got a tad shorter, and my clothes became larger too. As I looked down, I noticed that I was closer to the ground as well. Not only that, I had 2 small round mounds on my chest.
...Did I become a girl? Did... Did I get the gender change disease?
Gender change disease is something that appeared 1 year and a half ago, it was pretty chaotic back then I heard. Nowadays, you simply head over to the government building, and a new ID will be reissued. But, I also heard that those who got the disease usually had their relationships with their family, friends and even lovers broken apart. I even saw that on TV once, when Sofia was visiting me. A couple broke up, just because her boyfriend became a female.
...Will my family do the same? will I be pushed away?
Just thinking about that made me sad and afraid. As I felt some tears going down my cheeks, my phone started to buzz. I wiped away my tears and looked at my phone.
[09:55 They will open the servers in 5 minutes, meet me by the fountain. My name is Yuzuri.]
"A message from Sofia..."
I have always been a scaredy-cat, and I never liked fighting. Sofia even protected me when I got bullied in school. Everyone said I was pathetic as a man, because I'm weak-willed, and a coward. I wonder if Sofia also thought such about me...
I put my phone down besides the box that was on my desk, and started opening it. Once I got it opened, I saw there where only 2 earplugs, gloves, a piece of glass of some sort and a piece of paper. I picked up the paper and read it.
<Thank you for purchasing our product `Oridian Fantasy: Online`! Before you start playing the game, make sure to download our phone application first. You can find it by scanning the QR code below.>
"Phone app? I thought it was an AVR game?"
I got a little confused when it said to scan the QR code with my phone. But I complied and did it anyway, and once It was downloaded, I started it up.
<Welcome to OFO-App! Make sure you have equipped the gloves, earplugs and the visor, before proceeding!>
"Huh. So that thingy, was a visor."
I then equipped the everything, and pressed 'Continue' on the app. It then began proceeding to initialise the tutorial of how to setup everything for the first time. It did not take long until I had the visor synchronised with my phone app.
<Synchronisation: 100%>
<Before starting OFO, make sure to sit, or lay down comfortably.>
<Cancel> <Continue>
Is this where it truly starts? Since it's telling me to sit, or lay down. I think sitting down on my bed should do it, right?
As I sat down on my bed, I then began to start the application. In an instant, my vision became full of colours. It did not take long before everything turned dark. I looked around and noticed that I was standing straight instead of sitting down.
<Booting [Augmented Virtual Reality] 1.0.0, Please wait...>
<Booting: Success>
<Starting [Oridian Fantasy: Online], Please wait...>
<Starting: Success>
It took a while until it was fully done. Normal booting sequences on computers bored me out, but this one was pretty cool. Lots of colourful lights went everywhere while I heard the system announce what it was doing. What I read from the tutorial was that this was a one time setup, so I don't need to wait every time I boot the game.
<Insert Name>
"My character name? Then, let's go with 'Tauro'."
<Name: Accepted>
<Scanning body>
"Woah."
Some strange lines went trough my body from all weird angles before disappearing quickly after.
<Scan: Completed>
<Notice: Anomaly Found>
"A-Anomaly? Maybe it's because my gender change? That's the only anomaly I could ever think off..."
<Announcement: You cannot modify the body far from the default settings, such as gender and size.>
"Ghuh. So I'm stuck with my shorty settings... Hm? I can't change my hair colour either?"
My hair colour was set as silver, while the eyes was set to green emerald. Same as real life, I think? I saw myself from the phone screen, not the best mirror, but from what I could see, I had green emerald eyes. The hair I could easily see being silver looking in colour. The colour probably changed because of the gender disease thing, and it at least looks better than my dull black hair.
"Let's just click on 'Accept' and start the game then. It should have started by now, since the tutorial and first time setup took a few minutes already."
<Starting OFO.... Have fun Tauro>
As soon as everything turned into white, I thought I heard something. But before I had the time to even think about it, I was already standing in a town.
