As the players finally transitioned from the atmospheric character select screen with the model of their character against panning camera around Thalam - a blinding white light would engulf their vision. And then, wind, peaceful, the scent of sea water and natural flora carried behind it. Most games even on the ARI didn’t really imitate senses other than hearing, vision, and to a degree touch. But this was literally a sharp and sensational experience, to those with dulled senses it could even been taken as better than the real thing!

The image of their environment would take shape. A beachside that stretched long down coast of wherever they had been spawned into in this place. But it wouldn’t be long till the answer to that question was answered, as text would seemingly introduce the location they stood within in a cinematic way - fading a cursive artfully written text right into their sights.



The players who were most active in the pre-launch chat would notice a small letter symbol near the top right of the screen just beneath their stamina bar. Selecting the button opened the mail menu which held a message that said [Thank You For Making Thalam Better!] and within it was a cloak item [Celebration Cape] which had no level requirement and could immediately be equipped. Everyone though, would see an exclamation mark at the very top center of their HUD that blinked a dull yellow glow. Selecting this exclamation mark would drop down a small dark gray menu that read atop [Quest Log] and within it would be their most immediate quest.



There would be no slimes in this general vicinity as the beach was patrolled by guards hourly to maintain its clean and beautiful appearance, it kept the town’s value high for player housing. But slimes were a very common enemy type in this sort of game, especially at low levels, so finding them wouldn’t be too hard - right? The beach itself was southeast of the town, and it stripped down nearly all the way to the next zone over that was claimed by the South. But it was barren, devoid of life other than the fish that would bravely swim to the shallows in curiosity of all the new players. Directly north of the players was the open fields of the zone, the screams of other players were heard nearby so that might be a good direction to check out. The town was in visible distance, though would probably be a walk of roughly ten to fifteen minutes game-time getting there. If they moved towards the open fields of the zone the targets of that quest text would come into view, all ranging rather close to their level. But all the while, there were hundreds if not thousands of players whom had received the exact same notification starting to combat the sticky amorphous creatures before them.

Starting Zone: Lothair - Lv 1 Mage

BGM

Lothair blinked as he went through the game's menus. Since it was a brand new game, it felt fresh and different, though he knew that after some time he would be able to navigate the menus like a pro after a bit of time. It seemed not too different compared to a lot of other menus from RPGs as he read and accepted this beginner quest to hunt for slimes and collect 5 cores. Closing the menu, he began to look around the amazing scenery. When was the last time that James had been to the beach? He couldn't really remember, but this was certainly a close second to the experience... hell the beach was more pristine than most beaches in real life. Or at least it seemed like that would be the case if there weren't thousands of players suddenly rushing to complete the beginner quest nearby. It was kinda chaotic here... and loud. Everyone was excited and wanted to get started on their journeys, but it was kinda hard to get his bearing in this chaos.

Regardless, Lothair proceeded to blink his way through the menu to equip his complementary cape and start making his way north past the hordes of players fighting slimes. He didn't want to start off with having to worry about kill stealing other players or getting kill stolen... or having to wait for more slimes to respawn or something cause they're being over hunted right now. Thus, he figured that walking further north towards the city, away from where people spawned in, was the best choice anyways. There would be less people, and more slimes available. Plus, he had to go to the city anyways to hand in the quest. The quicker he got things done, the better. Thus, Lothair began to make his way towards the city, looking for better hunting grounds to finish the quest away from the freshly spawned mass of players. He would stay his distance and target low level slimes with his magical missile once he found a decent place.

Vasilisa breathed in.

Vasilisa breathed out.

He watched his chest rise with each, marvelling at the differences. Even at maximum chest mass, the hulking hunk of a man could still see his toes, which was certainly more than what the maximum settings on the breast slider offered. More importantly though, the sheer girth of his arms and legs were hella impressive. He marvelled at their appearance, twisting his limbs to see the muscle fibers flex and contort, veins occasionally bulging. It was hard, bouncy even. If someone threw a dime at him, it could probably bounce right back and knock them out. He let out a low whistle, splaying his fingers out to inspect his rough, thick hands. It was one thing to sculpt this Greek God of a man in character creation, but quite another to experience it. Was it just his imagination, or was his core more stable than usual as well? The Northern Man went for splits, but stopped partway through, surprise on his expression as he realized that his glutes were much more inflexible than they were in real life. Fascinating! And to feel that weird bulge on his neck, the Adam's apple, was similarly disorientating. He cycled through vocal exercises next, feeling the depth of his vocal cords, the weight of his diaphragm, and was similarly pleased. There was, overall, a sensation of inflexibility and brutishness with his movements; it was harder to move slowly and deliberately, but much easier to make explosive movements.

Fun stuff, really. After taking proper stock of his new body, Vasilisa re-equipped his clothing, smiled at a couple of the disturbed/aroused/curious onlookers, and turned his attention, for the first time, on the world around him. And oh, how pristine it was! Outside of the mass of psychopathic slime-murderers clogging off part of the town, there was no doubt that Bellview was a charming location. Blue skies, blue ocean, and a sea of greenery, stretching out into the horizon. It stirred at Vasilisa's romanticism, and soon, he hefted his cudgel over his shoulder, really to storm off to...where? North, probably. Though the murderous 'new player' mob was a demerit, it also sorta felt like this was where Vasilisa belonged? He certainly didn't play enough vidya to know anything else, and if those fields were good enough for everyone else, they were good enough for him.

And hey, added bonus! There was no way he was going to get mobbed by slimes and die if there were hundreds of other players stomping the local population to bits!

"Woooooah, nice cinematic!" Rudi cried out while watching the camera panning around Thalam. "This is better than I expected..." He sucked in every detail of the shot, trying to analize why stuff was put in the place it is. "Well shit... this is a hell of a lot to look at." Still wondering about the first few things he saw, he spawned on the beach. The first few minutes he just stood there and looked at the ui and interfaces. So they ordered the menu like this, well it is intuitive. The icons are also very nicely made and show exactly what you need to know to understand the function of it... Quests, oh there is a first quest available, nice. Slay 5 Slimes shouldn't be that problematic right? Back to character I guess... Hearing the sound of battle from the north he decided to move in that direction.

Arriving at the slaughterhouse, that was the area where the new players fought the slimes, he got a headache. How the hell can I keep track on what's happening with that many people just doing what they want? He noticed that a few people decided to walk further north, and followed them until arriving at a spot with much less people. Perfect, now let's see the drops after killing a few of those slimes! "I'm not for nothing called 'Die Mauer'!" With that shout he selects the closed slime as a target.

As Chrys’s vision finally transitioned from the looping soundtrack and video clip of the intro, to some actual gameplay he sighed out audibly with relief. The change was brief and once he returned to the familiar territory that was Thalam, the wind, the smells, the taste of the air all wiped away his negative thoughts. He was home, atleast until a new game came out that did this better. Though the player population at the time was way higher than he counted on, so much so that kicked sand from beneath him out of anger. “Fucking savages.” He thought, an eyebrow raising as he came to a moment of curiosity and reached his hand up to touch the horns at his head. “That will take some getting used to.” This was states aloud, and he then turned his sights back to the mass of slime slayers.

The quest text explained it rather simply so no wonder these people were doing so. But was there something extra that they were missing? It didn’t specify a type of slime, and the only ones which were nearby were the blue ones which ranged from level 2-3. Perhaps there was some at a higher level that had a better drop chance? The idea concreted itself as a fact in Chrysanth’s mind, and so he followed the beach north as well, there were others taking this route but the player whom he talked to in the chat was nowhere to be seen yet. “My harem will have to wait it seems.” He huffed as some ground was mass closer to the town.

There was definitely less players here but also less slimes so it sort of balanced itself out. The darkin saw am I tagged level 3 blue slime just off the beach’s border and decided to target it and draw his bow. He knew about aimed shot and so he drew the bowstring and an arrow materialized within it. His vision briefly glanced to the bottom left to select the skill which caused the string to grow tighter as he held it, and then his stamina began to drain a little at a time. He would wait for the third tier, draining a good chunk of his stamina before releasing the arrow aimed at the Blue Slime.

Character creation was good old drunken fun. Before going to sleep he ate some Frosted Flakes™. This led to the very drunk man to make a tiger beastman with the name T0ñythétïger. Originally going to be a nice and orange tiger he saw the option for white and he went for it. It has been a childhood dream to pet a tiger. Now he could just pet himself! Bob was incredibly drunk when he did this and this only fueled his desire to do the character creation perfectly. Every stripe was the way he wanted it. The whiskers had to be a certain length or they would piss him off later and he can't have that. The eyes took him the longest to perfect. And then at the very end of it all he maxed out the height settings. He thought he was zooming in.

Finally getting into the game he was surprised. Everything felt real. He liked are his hands and he could clench them and feel the pressure of them the squeeze. As he stumbled around in awe of how realistic it was he started to notice that even the sand would shift under his weight. The realism if the game mixed with good inebriated state led to a growing excitement to just run around. Soon this feeling over took him as he started to adventure around the beach.

When the quest popped up Bob stared at it for a less than acceptable amount of time. It finally clicked with him that oh I need to hit those things. But first I need to go to town. Bob starts to hopefully head to town, granted he is very bad at directions in general plus he is hammered. Who knows where he might end up.

Well the answer turned out to be the wrong way as he now sees a slime. He contemplates what he should do. It's a harmless creature only doing it's best to survive. Is it wrong to hurry this innocent creature? Would he be no different than a brute who kills for fun? These questions talked inside his head. But then finally enlightenment came as realised "Oh wait! I get money!" He then proceeds to try and hit the slime with his sword.

"Emma! Pleeeeease! You told me you'd watch it with me ages ago!"

"Sorry! I swear, I'm totally sick. I gotta go to sleep early. So I can get better, and we can watch loads and loads of stuff together. Besides, I don't wanna get you sick too."

"I never get sick, it's fine! Please!"

"Later, okay? I love you, but I gotta take care of myself too. You can do your homework."

"I don't wanna."

"Yeah, well you have to. I made you dinner, so go and eat it. I'm gonna sleep."

"...Night, Em."

A sweet smile laced with deceit. "See you later. I swear I'll watch it with you tomorrow."

It wasn't a lie. She was going to sleep. She was sick (a bit). It was just the nature of what she would do while she was asleep that mattered. That was - play the all new Thalam Online, which Emilia had been excited for for longer than she was comfortable to admit. Now it was out, and she could experience that beautiful world within her dreams.

---

Admittedly, a lot of time had been wasted. Many things - difficulty falling asleep out of excitement, the servers being down, all followed up by a good hour on the character creation screen. All of the detail in it was overwhelming. Half of that hour had honestly been her having a meltdown over the graphics of the game. Eventually, it was all over and everything faded into the beautiful view of the game. Emilia took in a sharp breath, as well as the scenery. Absolutely gorgeous. She just felt like she was there, so far away and yet still in the comfort of her home.

She'd never been to the beach before.

"Bellview," Emilia said breathily. "Bellview, oh, wow!"

She tried to move her arm, watching as it... well, did just that. She moved around more, erratically, thoroughly enjoying herself. For a few minutes, it was just her spinning around, laugh cutting through the air. She looked a bit insane, really. Once she had exhausted the entertainment out of that, Emilia finally decided to check out what she could do. Chat... some bars... quests... ah, mail! She opened it up, revealing her launch cape. There really were no words to describe it. There were numbers, though: 2/10. Plain, black, with the Thalam Online logo on the back. "Ah, I love it!"

With her new attire, she was finally ready to do some quests. To begin with, there was nothing big, just a generic slime killing quest. Emilia could do that. She reached for her sword, feeling its weight in her hands. She'd never be able to hurt anything with her noodle arms. But in this game, she could do just about anything. She'd even picked the fae class, because she really wanted to fly.

She began her mad dash towards where all of the other players were. Clearly, that was the place where her targets were situated to. Weapon in hand, Emilia beamed widely, ready to obliterate the first slime she saw, and then many more after that. She was going to have so much fun.

"Nice support!" Lynir cried out, selecting Lothair and Vasilisa, inviting both quickly into the party. "The slime is much more tanky than I expected!" Lynir was surprised to not have taken any damage after taking the hit from the slime. Obviously their attack power is not that great, as they didn't penetrate the armor of a level one warrior. "Guys watch out for the duck, it has some kind of plan for us, I am sure of that... It watched me the last few years! Maybe an ambush... But not on my watch!" Lynir seems to indicate that on his right side, just behind a small bush, a duck was lurking in the shadows. However even if they were to search for it nobody would find the duck, as it was not there!

Without further waiting Lynir raised his shield to hit the slime, but it dodges the shield bash quickly. Not letting the miss discourage himself, he hits the slime twice with his sword dealing enormous five points of damage. *This thing must be a tank slime! Maybe it has armor...* The thought that he just had bad luck with his attacks didn't come to his mind. "Maybe magic damage is better against this thing?!".

@Kinith@Heyitsjiwon
"Or maybe you're just fighting something thrice your level?" Vasilisa leaned in, stroking the stubble on his chin. Honestly, for all its creepy viscosity, the blue slime was rather cute. It reminded him of those emoji blobs, just an unintrusive oval of cuteness, bouncing around and all. Didn't look like they'd hurt all that much, really. But alas, violent murder was one of the reasons he had wanted to try out Thalam to begin with, and with a wide, swinging gait, the Cleric strode right up towards the poor thing they were ganging up on. Hefting his cudgel onto his shoulder, he struck first like a golfer, a dipping blow that slammed right in the middle of the creature. There was surprisingly little feedback; it felt like hitting, well, a ball of slime. Almost disappointing, really. The momentum of the swing carried the club back up, before Vasilisa brought it down again, this time with just a vertical chop. The impact the cudgel made against the ground though, now that was satisfying. It brought shivers up his wrists, and a weird smile cut into Vasilisa's ruggedly handsome features.

In society, he always had to hold back, to consider actions, to not punch a hoe when he wanted to punch a hoe. There were small methods to alleviate that boiling rage, sure, from stomping away or slamming a door shut...but no, physical violence definitely felt better.

Who cared about Smite at this point? Vasilisa was going to fuck this little blue shit up! Like a sixteen year old girl with too much emotional baggage and daddy issues to address in a healthy manner, he raised and swung the cudgel down a third time, blue slime splattering as 15 damage total was dealt to the little creature. Then, he had a thought.

"Huh, so will we be killing 15 of these things altogether then?"

Starting Zone: Lothair - Lv 1 Mage

Lothair casted magic missile from a distance and watched as the slime's HP was slightly chipped away. "Jeez, this thing is pretty beefy." He said out loud as he accepted the party request. Lothair was confused by Lynir's comment. "Wha... ducks? There's ducks in the game?" as he looked around the area with nothing that looked like one in sight. Was this guy just roleplaying or something? Lothair wasn't too sure what was going on, but he quickly returned his focus to the slime that they were fighting and began to cast his next barrage of magic missile.

16 this time around. The party had almost chipped away a third of the slime's health so far... this grind really would be a grind at this rate. He figured that they would have to rest between each fight. "I don't think it's particularly weak to magic either! It just has a lot of HP for some reason!"Lothair yelled back.

Mentions: @Versa

Although not apparent, Critakill was amazed on how realistic the virtual around her was. From sea breeze and sandy shores to her smooth brown skin and thick yet fluffy tail.

While the notification of the slime slaying quest ran down her heads up display, Critakill continued reorienting herself to Thalam's interface. From your own stats to your target's, the crosshair and aiming mechanics, the skill tabs, and the chat box, there were definitely a handful that one needed to get used to. It was time consuming, but it was better addressed now than later.

A bit too engrossed by the interface, Critakill realized too late that aside from a few stragglers, most had made their way further inland to hunt for slimes. A few minutes behind, Critakill soon followed, trying her best to catch up.

......

Surveying the field and the ongoing skirmishes, Critakill noticed that the slimes were tougher than she had expected; one or two strikes were probably far from being enough to take them out. "Can't solo them." She said in a monotone voice while her arms drooped from her sides.

Seeing as some were ganging up, Critakill decided that it was wise to do the same. The question for now though was who she was going to party up with.

.....

[Critakill]: Party?

While sending her message along with a party invite, Critakill pulled out her bow before drawing back it's draw string. An arrow materialized as she took aim, waiting for the right time to let loose her Aimed Shot. From the moment aggro was established to the monster's successfully landing it's attack on the Darkin Ranger, Critakill was keeping watch. The instant the Slime rebounded from its tackle was Critakill's strike took flight.

@Yankee@RC3@aviaire@Cu Chulainn

Chrysanth took the slimes blow straight to the face. The sticky malleable texture forming around his nose and cheek, but the force was enough to cause his ears to ring and sent him falling backwards towards the beach and landing on his rear off balance. His stamina was definitely taking a toll after that attack and another Aimed Shot would leave him immobile, so the perhaps just a few auto attacks if he were lucky a critical hit would wrap the fight up sooner than later. But then an angel would whisper upon his ears, the girl from the Launch Chat had added him and begun to send him messages.

He was actually in the middle of writing a message back when the party invite notification popped up right before his eyes interrupting his thoughts. The character name was Critikill it wasn’t quite familiar but he would take any help he could get at the moment. Accepting the invite, he quickly pushed himself back to his feed and ready another auto attack aimed squarely upon the blue slimes face, in the corner of his vision he saw the fellow ranged about to cast Aimed Shot at the slime. Which would if they were lucky bring it down to about half health maybe? Immediately he shouted out as a warning of good faith to the fellow player. “Don’t let your whole stamina pool get drained!” He himself would then fire three arrows, leaving his stamina at a underwhelming stamina.

Before his arrows even made their way to his enemy, Chrysanth quickly selected the reply feature with the recipient being Mimika. Quickly entering text before the slime would come and give him the slamdown again, spelling out in his message. “Have other memeber. 5 man?”

It's been a year since she started playing video games after a stressful day in the Council Room. Though usually the games she plays were RPGs of the sort with a keyboard and mouse, sometimes with the use of a controller if it were fast-paced combat. It really beat the frustration out of her and she was a fast learner when it comes to fighting any of the Soulslike bosses.

When news of VRMMO came into the mainstream she didn't quite have the allowance for it at first and started working a part-time job to try her hand at it. Another problem was which game to purchase, fortunately for her it was rectified quickly when some flyers and internet ads annoying pop up on her research videos as much as it peeved her she eventually bought it.

Creating a character after her own face (like the other games involving character creation) Asuka finally dives into her first VRMMO greeted with the wonderful life-like virtual world of



It was certainly breathtaking, while her body was out there, the body she created was in here. It was totally different than playing games in the computer and the graphics were a hundred times better than the games everything feels so real! Everything looks so real! Everythi-HOLY FUCK. EVERYTHING IS COMING UP AT ONCE AND EACH PART OF THE HUD WAS PINGING.

A little overwhelming but thankfully the game messages guided her into doing what's what. All that's left is to accept a quest from a weirdly named NPC... not the first time she encountered a unique name.

"You have been tasked with slaying 5 Slimes and returning their slime jellies to Tu Tauri Al. Upon completion, players will be awarded: 25 Experience and 35 copper." She muttered and turned her attention North since that's where all the newspawns go. Confident in her abilities, she think it would be easier to kill steal and finish the quest quickly than try to do all the effort herself. After all she did play a rogue and attacking something head-on is a mistake.

Critakill's party request was successful, the notification that popped up on the corner of her screen said so. Her attack though, wasn't something she was proud off.

"You'd think a full charged attack would do more damage." She thought to herself whilst preparing for her next move.

"Don’t let your whole stamina pool get drained!" said the Darkin Ranger.

"Uh, gotcha." Critakill replied.

Although imparted with some words of concern regarding her stamina pool, Critakill continued to assist in the "assault" on the lowly slime. Another arrow had materialized and another Aimed Shot was being charged up.

"Let's give this one more try." She whispered as she took aim.