You were bored one day, and so you decided, "Screw it! I'm gonna get that game."

Your life was boring, your life was depressing, your life didn't have enough excitement... For whatever reason you decided to buy the game, it didn't matter. What mattered was that you wanted the game. You wanted that "Second Life".

And so you went to their website. The website was simple, it's content only a single preview picture with the text "Identity" on top. Only two buttons were at the bottom, and they were "Buy Now", which was pretty obvious as to what function it served, and "More Info", which displayed all information about the game, including the names of it's developers, the engine used, credits, and so on.

You clicked "Buy Now", filled out all the necessary information, and now you were good to go. The installer was sent to you in a flash, and the installation process was just under a couple of minutes. After installing, a message box appeared and it told you that it won't start without a certain something. The next line of the message box said for you to wait for a surprise at your doorstep. A few seconds later, your doorbell rang, and then you rushed over, excited to see what was in store for you. When you opened the door, a small white box was laid down before you with the word "Identity" on it. You wondered who delivered it because no else was in sight, but you shrugged it off and took it back to your room.

Rushing up the steps, box on both hands, you went inside your room, and then laid the box on your bed. You opened it hurriedly, and violently, and saw what was inside. To the left, a device, similar to a headset, was placed and to the right, an instruction manual. You proceeded to read the manual, over and over again, just to make sure you got it covered.

When you were finally sure of it, you put the device on your head, over your eyes, and began to calibrate it, getting information about about your body. When you felt it was safe to continue, you connected the device to your computer and proceeded to lie down on your bed, but not before removing all the remnants of the torn box from it. You let out a deep sigh and began to say the words "Identity Link", finishing it with your name.

After you said the words, your vision went white and your body felt numb for a moment. After a while, the name of the game, "Identity" started to fade in and the text "Move Forward to Start" followed, flashing repeatedly under the name.

And so you walked forward. Looking at your hands, you found them to be frost white. Your whole body was white. The game then prompted you to create your character, to remodel yourself with various options. You chose your hair, your eyes, your clothes and even your race/species, even giving you the ability to change genders. And then you chose your beginning class, weapons and all that stuff. You were nearly done. The only thing left was your username. You chose what you wanted to be called and then you were finished. Multiple rings then spawned from the ground, encircling your body as they shone a bright light. You were being teleported.

You then emerged at the Start City. Revelling at the sight of the city, you took your first steps and then you knew, this game was gonna be fun. Prepare for a new world and explore the world of Identity. Your adventure starts now.

Welcome to Identity.

Starting City - The Plaza
Reina under the username of 'Retarion' was spawned into the world. She opened her eyes to look at her physical body, and how different it looked to her real life appearance. Instead of blue hair she had silver/grey hair, her eyes were more grey than blue as well. Her top was a basic grey blouse which had stocks of ammo on it as well. She wore black shorts and high combat boots. She shook her head and tried to get memories from real life out of her head, she wanted to build a new life and start over again. Retarion took a look through her inventory to notice that she had some potions in there just in case she got some heavy damage from an enemy. After looking through the inventory she took a look at her profile, to see what she was currently using.
"Basic Gunner Clothes... Basic Dual Pistols..." Retarion said to herself then closing down both the inventory and profile.

Retarion then took a look to the other players, seeing them all talk and chat like there's no tomorrow. She wanted to be like them, but she just didn't really know how to without being awkward like her real life self. She then took a smell of the air, it smelled so fresh.

John Marks - Queue

Starting City || Plaza

The bright light quickly faded out into a fully colored world as the new user Queue entered the "new and exciting" world of Identity. It was truly wonderful how alive the game creators had made this virtual world. The air was fresh, the lighting was perfect, and somehow even the other player's avatars felt so alive. One by one, he noticed as everything from wizards to pirates to even trolls and skeletons roamed the streets, enjoying a world foreign to their own.

"Woah... so cool! Technology never ceases to amaze me." As with any new tool or toy, he felt obligated to test out the confines of his movement. He went with max agility, but it was ultimately up to the game how that was interpreted. And, after some flailing about, he found that he could jump and contort with ease and with a surprising amount of clarity with his avatar. He wasn't just a stack of hit-boxes simultaneously moving up and down, he was actually moving each of his limbs in the way in which he would in real life.

Ready to get things started, he walked forward in high hopes of this new experience that was set before him. That is, until a new player also spawned in, although rather small. Queue tripped over this sudden addition to the world, barely able to catch himself. He looked at his obstruction only to be greeted with one word. neko.

Sarah Matou - neko

Starting City || Plaza

Eh?, she thought. What was this? Not even one second had past and there was already this weird guy bent all out of shape staring at her. Quickly Sarah decided to leave the weird guy alone and made her way past everyone. Everyone, who just so happened to be giants relative to her. She couldn't believe it! She was told to pick a species, so she just picked what she loved best: cat. She never really believed that she would become something so cute! She was ecstatic, so much so her tail began to sway to and fro behind her. Yes, she actually had a cute and adorable tail that was really real!

Quickly her happiness began to fade. Now what? I'mma cat... I can't exactly talk to people now, can I? Thinking to herself, she remembered the warning sign at the end of the character creation saying that it was impossible to make another character once she moved on. She exerted a small sigh, which came out as some sorta softly spoken cat noise, and began to lie in wait. Her mother wasn't expected home for a few hours, and even then there wasn't anything to do but sleep. She decided it probably wouldn't be a bad idea if she familiarized herself with the menu controls and set up.

They were surprisingly thorough with her cat character as she had no inventory, nor space for equip-able clothes or weaponry, nor any of this world's currency; assuming there was one and that a player would have a value of at least 0 "gold". She was without a doubt, a cat. And therefore technically nekkid...

"Woah!"

Jacob had thought as he looked himself over and he was giddy on the inside excited to begin the game and he looked around seeing other players getting used to there new forms as well.

He spread his wings and it felt so real the game felt so immersive and he felt like he actually was in the game.

He knew he was what nerds called a "Pseudodragon" and he was simply amused with his new form he let out a hissing laugh and smoke clouds billowed from his nostrils he looked at his rump and he found a tail with a ginger at the end which surprised him he sat there for the next little while admiring himself basking in pride.

Once he was done with these odd actions he looked around and studied other people as they milled about the plaza often he wanted to speak to them but he was a little scared.

Arnold laid in bed, and connected to 'Identity', the interesting little headset wrapped around his cranium. He connected with no issues, and began creating his character. He looked over his options... aplenty of them. Human, squid, ant, cat, robot, bee-person, alien... Robot sounds alright. Combat robot sounds better! He went through the amazing variety of possibilities and decided on his 'look', a big badass mecha that looked like it could slap around superman or something. That's a good thing, right? He looked over the starting classes and weapons options... 'Warlord Mechanoid', and read about it. That seemed right for him. "Featuring skills and abilities focused on staying in the fight with minimal support, and killing off other weakened players. Great for PVP".

He picked his starting weapons, a gun good for everything, and a gun against other robots, plus the most brutal thing ever! It looked so amazing in the list, a work of decadent art. A rotary saw... made out of six smaller chainsaws! ON FIRE! Fuck, that was unimaginably metal. He confirmed this is what he wanted, and pressed "Spawn", and was teleported to the starting area. He looked around the beginning plaza, seeing plenty of other players just doing their own things. That was pretty neat, he was one of the biggest and most brutal looking ones around so that helped.

He looked for a road to a PvP or PvE area, finding one with a sign that said 'Road to great forest of Nohare'. These sorta games, forests are usually combat areas... right? He hasn't played an MMO forever. What the hell should he be doing anyway? What sorta goal... It's probably possible to build your own shit, right? He'll figure out how to. Arnold wants a castle! No, an entire Kingdom to his name! Yeah! How would he get the money though? Being a professional bandit sounds okay. I mean, his class and weapons seem to be suited for that...

In any case, Arnold would go to the road and begin walking his huge, metal feet towards this 'Great Forest of Nohare', paying no heed to his fellow players, aside of if he'd win in that fight. He forgot to even introduce himself. Rude..

Viral - Scott
Starting City || Plaza

Scott hummed to himself silently as he tried out his new form. Punching, kicking, walking, even more complex motions like cracking his knuckles (which, being a robot, made a cool decompressing sound) or flipping the bird. He was a bit surprised at the range of motion the game supplied. He heard from his mom that a decade ago, all you could do in VR was see through your character's eyes. Now you could walk in their shoes, really be them. It was pretty cool.

He decided he should probably also see what he could do that didn't include silently cursing people. The first order of business was his inventory. He didn't have much. The standard chassis model, a slightly busted hand mounted blade, and a shield. Most of the stuff was really cool, and had futuristic names like "Beam Katana." He also had a few skills. "Heaven Piercing Laser" sounded like the most badass one, in his opinion. There were also protective skills like "Semi-circle of Defense" and "Repair" for protecting friends.

Eventually he stopped looking at himself, and began looking at others. There were a ton of people doing very similar things, including another robot. He waved at his robo-friend, but the hunk of metal simply ignored him, walking off into a forested area. Probably the starting tutorial zone with some low level baddies. He visibly frowned, and rubbed his arm, both in-game and out. "Damnit. I totally let that guy walk off." He mumbled. He was going to make at least one friend to leave for the starting zone with! The only issue was, who?

SawCutter got a little notification, "Robo_Warrior_Viral greeted you!". Who in the what now? He turned his upper-half one-eighty, and saw another robot. Heh, someone else actually chose that option, with all these damn dragons and cats 'n shit running around. Robot master race! He decided he'd wave back and wait on this guy, and tried to look around if he could send a party invite or something. He finally found the option to make a clan, but decided he'd just do a party for now. He sent an invite and began tapping his foot to wait on his fellow brobot.

Jerome finally decided logged into Identity.exe after a long debate with himself. This could be a good way to waist time on weekends and cured his boredom of coming home to nothing to do. Best of all to starts a new life. Jerome's life wasn't total shit its just it wasn't as great as he expected. People still treated him oddly even when he tried his best to fit in. Escaping to the virtual world was something Jerome should of done long ago.

Inside the game Jerome went through the regular start up process of character creation. Although there were a couple of things a bit different from your average game. How he felt like the game was reality for a few minutes is what tripped him. After getting use to the game play Jerome finished up his character and spawned in the Starting city. He looked down examing what was visible with his virtual eyes. He didn't feel much of a difference....well until he stepped forward jolting a couple a feet.

He feel to the ground after a few seconds of spontaneous gliding. Jeb layers on the ground and stayed that way wondering what was causing him to have such trouble walking. While he thought of reasons he seen something move out the corner of his eye. It looked like a Crow's wing. Jeb did choose the Crow as a species but he didn't think he'd get wings. Now that he paid more attention to it his back did feel a bit weird like his bones were more outward. Jeb stood slowly focus in hard on not trying to flap his wings.

After awhile of doing chaotic barrel rolls Jeb proudly stood to his feet taking his first steps like a proud baby chick would. "I DID IT!!!" He uncontrollably shouted flinging his arms into the air. Jeb quickly calmed himself. The last thing he wanted to do was to draw attention his way. Well at least jot this early into the game. Jeb sat by a fountain and double checked all everything that he might need to keep a tab on later. The odd thing was he didn't have a weaponry slot. It's probably because he was a priest class and you don't see them using weapons so he just ignored it and continued his check.

Viral - Scott
Starting City || Plaza

While Scott (erm, Viral?) was looking around for someone who looked like they needed protecting, he suddenly got a notification. "SawCutter greeted you!" He whipped his head around, bemused as to who the SawCutter was, before realizing it was the other robot. That little wave he did counted as a sort of "whisper" command. That seemed like it would get annoying, even if it was kinda cool it knew who exactly he was waving at. He'd be sure to turn it off later.

But right now, he had more important things to do. SawCutter sent him a party invite! He squealed in excitement (Not in-game, of course, he was Viral the badass robo-warrior!), before dicking around in the menus for a few seconds and finally managing to accept his invite. With that, he walked over to SC and introduced himself. "Hello. I assume you want my help adventuring?" He said. While his cool new friend presumably began responding, he started to dig through settings.

SawCutter responded, his natural voice being augmented by his big badass robot body, turning into a rough, electronically aggressive one. "Well, I don't really need your help, but yeah. Might as well team-up to fuck shit up on the way there. I think you're a paladin or whatever, I chose the one with the 'Scanned for Death' thing, since that sounded cool as shit. 'scan the target, if scan completed target takes massive damage for a period of time.' sounds really damn useful, doesn't it? Anyway, so what are you aiming for? I mean, I decided fuck it, I'll go for PvP, sorta wanna just rob people who have too much money anyway. Eventually get enough money to make my own little country. That'd be awesome. Maybe get that much by bounty-hunting too. That's a thing, I think."

He checked public chat logs to see what everyone else was doing, seeing people just talk about selling crap and buying other crap. Thankfully, no one really cared about his and his newfound friends' little conversation. "Follow me, let's get over there. So what starting skills did you pick?", he decided to get going and ask a question. See if they're compatible.

Viral - Scott
Starting City || Plaza

As Scott continued to listen to SC, still rooting through the settings, he began to doubt that his friend needed help. Or was really a friend, actually. His voice, or more likely voice modifier, didn't betray his looks or intentions. He seemed to want to be a PKing dickbag. Or, at least, that's what Scott got out of him. As he followed the Warlord on his way to the forest, Scott decided to speak up about his doubts. "You mentioned bounty hunting? I believe that would be a better solution than becoming... criminals." He suggested. His voice modifier add a robotic effect to his voice, but it's main function was to hide Scott's gender. The voice was quite androgynous, and especially hidden under the added layer of roboticism.

"Heaven Piercing Laser..." Viral said switching conversational gears without his partner's consent. "It's a big fire beam." That was the skill that SC would like to hear best, he believed. SC's skill sounded decent enough as well, though a bit useless in single combat. "I also have a light healing spell, and a area of effect defensive buff." Scott explained. He wondered why his partner only mentioned one of his skills, but didn't mention it.

"Huh, sounds useful.", SawCutter replied. They could be partners, definitely. "That AOE defense buff could further augment my little 'Ferrum Solidus' thing. Y'see, basically it's supposed to make me nearly invulnerable for a few seconds, and if I have like, 5% of my life or whatever when the buff is finished, I regain all of my lost health. Sounded hilarious, so why not?" He continued, gauging his possible partners' reaction. "On the other 'hand' I also got a rocket-punch that's supposed to bind the target down with rope and shit and drag em back to me so I can.. I dunno, punch em out or something."

His little comment got him thinking. Pfft.. just a game... and only against people who can do without. "What, y'don't like taking money from others? C'mon, it really is a game. I'd only do it against people who deserve it anyway. What do you think I am? Unjustified cruelty ain't my style." He continued, "If you really don't wanna be doing that, let's just wreck some mobs up or something. That's fine with me too. So, where y'from anyway? Sorry if that's not proper 'netiquette' or whatever, I haven't played an MMO in ages so I forgot what you do! Heh."

He checked eachothers' stats and class info. They would make a decent team, but they'd need someone who could spew out the DPS if they wanted to get anything major done. His only great weapon was his chainsaw thing, and that was obviously pretty short ranged. Another question; "Wanna see if we can get a rogue or thief or whatever they're called nowadays? I think we're both sorta stonewalls, we need a glass cannon to balance that out. That Queue over yonder with the rifle seems okay.". He'd point to that fellow newly spawned 'Queue' individual and sent a notification.

"Well anyway, I say we level up once or twice then start PVP, if we're gonna. Make sure we know at least a little of what we're doing. You said you wanna do bounty hunting?"

John Marks - Queue

Starting City || Plaza

As soon as the cat left, or rather neko, Queue quickly straightened himself up and continued to look around this marvelous world. Suddenly a small icon appeared in his HUD, indicating a new notification. Queue quicklly scrolled through the menus until he found that a guy named SawCutter had sent him a party invite. Eh, why not? Only a few moments into the game, and I already got a group going, it looks like. Queue accepted and began to look around for his new comrade. Then, there by the forest entrance he spotted the two giant robots. Ha, nice! I never thought about being a robot, that could've been kinda cool! Queue quickly ran over to the two fellows, who seemed to be having a nice conversation by the looks of it. "Whats up guys? How's ya'll doin?" John couldn't really believe he let his accent show, but he felt he had indeed met a couple of intriguing characters, and his excitement just got the better of him.

Sarah Matou - neko

Starting City || Plaza

Well, It probably isn't really all that bad. I mean, I do have fur.... neko's thoughts sorta just drifted on until she eventually distracted herself with watching the people spawn in. A couple of the female players actually looked cute, but then she wondered how many of the females were actually females. This thought entertained her for quite some time.

Viral - Scott
Starting City || Plaza

Scott listened with a slightly bemused look on his face as SC described his skills in a bit of a round about way. Although he sounded a bit badass, his manner of speech was very casual. He frowned as his robotic partner tried and cajoling him into robbing people. Though it was a game, still, it was just generally a good idea not to be mean to people. Besides, his class was literally called "Paladin!" If he wasn't a law abiding citizen, than what was even the point of being one? Luckily, his partner gave him the option of just messing around with PvE, and he would've responded if SC hadn't continued his ramble about location.

SC quickly checked something in a menu, and suggested they get a rouge. He pointed out Queue, some lady with a gun. Viral agreed that she would be a good fit for the both of them, probably. He wasn't sure if the gunner class was actually like a glass cannon or whatever. He knew that in certain RPGs gunners could be front line players with decen enough health, though that was quite rare. "I'm from Canada." Viral replied, as Queue drew closer. "And, yes, I like the idea of gaining a level or two." Though, Scott didn't mention how he really wasn't feeling like PvP at all right now. He'd cross the bridge when he came to it.

Queue made her way over to the both of them. Or maybe Scott should say he, since the voice that came out was very distinctly male. American male, judging by the accent. He sized whoever they were up. It seemed to be a male player with a female avatar who simply neglected the voice modifier option. Scott pondered how likely it was that the dude standing in front of them was a cross dresser or transexual before quickly pushing the thought out of his mind and introducing himself. "I'm Viral. I'm fine." He said, extending a hand for the ungendered person to shake.

"We were just talking about forming a party and doing shit. I dunno about you guys, but I can't wait until I get a level or two so I can go face-first into the PVP and steal peoples' stuff, but you guys ain't gotta be my cohorts in that I suppose. We're talking about just leveling up by farming starter mobs or something in this 'Great Forest of Nohare'. ...And uhh... this is probably weird, but are you a dude or a girl? I'm getting a little confused. Let's clear that shit up.". SawCutter sure loves to ramble. "Oh, I'm from 'Murica, but yeah I'm on a sort of.. vacation in Canada myself right now, Hehah."

"Should we steer for some other area or does Nohare still sound good to you fellows? Judging from the name and what the common rabble around here are saying it's filled with like, big ass wolves and shit, and some guys are talking about some beast in a river who raises your luck stat or something. Sounds pretty neat, I say we book it and talk tactics on the way there."

John Marks - Queue

Starting City || Plaza

Queue took Viral's hand and looked him in it's robo-eye(?), he assumed that's what the green light was, as he shook it while SawCutter rambled on, eventually reaching the bit about his gender. "Oh, sorry! Do I really look like a girl? My bad... I wasn't suppose to, but I can't say I look far off in real life. Except maybe I'm dirty blonde rather than black haired. I mean, my account does say male if you take a look." John accidentally cut into the part about being on vacation a bit, but allowed him to continue on and finish his thoughts.

He quickly went through his inventory just to see what all he did have on him, but apparently his only starting weapon was a knife, and a couple of unmarked pills. "Well, I mean, I'm just about down for anything. Whatever ya'll two got goin. Although, I don't know exactly how much help I'd be, or at least compared to you two. Ya'll seem quite well endowed, just by going by looks."

Starting City || Plaza

And thus, Carmen logs in to yet another new game. She could be playing that new stealth game that just came out, or she could be playing that fighting game again that she plays competitively. But this game--this game--Carmen couldn't be more hyped for it, let alone hooked. In fact, it's actually been a long time since she's been so hyped for a game. Well, a different word other than 'hyped' could probably be used considering Carmen hasn't really shown that much of hyper-activeness. Hyped might have been one way to put it, but...addicted is most likely more of the right word. Come on, even though it claims to be it seems like a goddamn fantasy. But is that just all it is? A fantasy, or something more?

Carmen--er, ahem--Ricki finally spawns into the world of Identity. Her almost glaring orange eyes peered around her surroundings, the plaza that is. Wait, woah, what? What up with the glare? Tone it down a bit. Ricki eased the look on her face, making her look a little more approachable. Well, honestly, she was approachable even with whatever look Ricki had on her face. Ricki looked down at her hands, which were apparel-covered, and squeezed them into fists before loosening them while feeling the physical tension as she does so. She slowly paced around in a half circle, looking around at the plaza some more and at the variety of players. When she comes to a stop she takes a slow deep breath, taking in the new sense realistic atmosphere. It's as if the real world was a dream. After her long inhale, she didn't exhale. She couldn't help but let out a grinning smirk. The kind of smirk that lets people know they're excited, but also the kind of smirk that people might be scared of depending on how they take it.

Ricki took a brief look at her inventory. Survival knife. Nice. Revolver. Nice. Dual swords. Double nice--literally. Ricki took a couple seconds to memorize her skills, stats, and anything else necessary. When she got enough space in the plaza for herself, Ricki tested out some other movements other than walking or anything simple. She lets out a strong punch in the air, then after a short pause she lets out a couple kicks with a badass kind of flip to it. Now Ricki would try out the swords, she's dying to at least, but she wants to save that for the actual action. Question being, where might that action be? Surely there must be something like quests to complete or just some baddies to slay in general. ...But first, a little more slow adventuring around the plaza. No ADHD here. Move along now.

"Wow, well endowed? Lewd.", SawCutter joked. "I probably went overboard on the big and intimidating sliders, but whatever. I hope I can get a 'Non-Damaged Megasaw' or whatever the shit this thing is.", He'd say while going to grab his Megasaw, the starter version being heavily damaged. "Or I could repair it. That'd be cool too.". He looked at the various new players still spawning in for the first time. Lovely amount of variety, and some orange eyed 'girl'. Pfft, probably not even really a lady.

"Shiet, must be one hell of a busy day. Their servers are probably crying right now.", He'd say. He'd notify this 'Ricki' (pfft) by pointing and sent a message. "you probably aren't even a real girl! fite me trolololol.", then another, "Nah not really, take this party invite, let's be noobs together."

Viral - Scott
Starting City || Plaza

Scott almost sighed in relief as SC relieved him from the social obligation of being his partner in crime. Maybe SC wasn't all bad, Just a bit misguided. He also asked the all important question of if Queue was a dude. Queue responded with a resounding 'Yes. Also I am this attractive in real life too.' though, his response did accidentally cut into one of SC's patented rambles. Apparently SC was visiting. Scott wasn't exactly sure how good that was.

SC confirmed that the two of them wanted to go to Nohare and then Queue said one of the best things ever. If Scott was more brave, he might have just asked Queue to repeat himself, but he was neither creepy or fearless enough to ask. Besides, Queue could've been any age. He didn't wanna come onto a 60 year old and end up coming onto a 60 year old. Scott then wondered why his thought process ended in a zinger.

SC commented on the awfully worded fiasco that was, ruining any sense of eroticism that Scott had actually already ruined for himself when he brought a 60 year old into the mix. Midway through his rambles SC mentioned a broken chainsaw or something. Although he was beginning to tune him out a bit, the mention of something broken sparked his interest. "May I see that chainsaw? One of my skills is repairing things." Scott asked. Although it was probably stuck broken because it was a game object, there was a possibility he could help fix it.

"You're a genius, Viral! Here, take a shot at it.", He said while handing the giant piece of machinery over. It really was huge; the massiveness of SawCutter even had some minimal trouble lugging it around. Of course, even a person could drag it around with both hands; yet then it would've just been useless as an actual weapon. Viral did seem like a smart guy, or gal, whatever. Couldn't really tell from the voice...

'Realistically', all it really needed was a tune up; just replace the small heating coils wrapped around the base of each sub-saw and re-align all of the teeth of the same. Apparently it needed 'Adept Mechanic skills' to fully repair; but Viral could repair it to 50% effectiveness, boosting its' attack output somewhat. It's heating coils even began to work, beginning to make the saws glow a slight, dull red. "Hohohohho! Damn, that's rad! Gimme, please?".

"Fuck, now all I need are like... rocket boosters and I'll be the coolest thing ever!"