You open your eyes, and find that you are standing.

You were sitting before, on a comfy chair, or perhaps reclining on a sofa. For some, it may have been morning that they plugged into their FDD, ready to enjoy a full day’s worth of gaming. For others, it may be night time, to work away the stress of reality in a fantasy world. For you though, it was your first. Your biometrics have been scanned, your own body becoming your log-in credentials for the only account you’ll ever have. No new accounts, nor any chance at a redo. Cacophony Concord offered a second life, a new life, in a world many times more brilliant than reality, but only one, where your life never ended, but your reputation could never be undone either.

Trepidation filled your heart, but excitement too, and as your vision began to stabilize, what you saw before you was breath-taking. A galaxy, a foreign galaxy, loomed above you, nightscape filled with stars you could not identify, constellations of another mythos. Beneath you, the planet, bearing landmasses so similar to, yet different from, Earth’s, stood, the great ocean framing the two continents. Within the azure of the waves, you could see the shadows of truly gargantuan leviathans. Streaking through the clouds, you could see arcane blimps and grand citadels, serpentine dragon-gods and wind-riding giants. And upon the earth, you could see it. Back on Earth, every light was the light of civilization, but here, these lights shone with the brilliance of something more.

A radiant pillar, taking the form of a sword.

A blazing star, pulled from the heavens above.

A mushroom cloud, the shockwave like a ripple.

Sparks of someone else’s adventure, sparks that you too would soon generate.

“Quite a sight, no?”

Before you stands an owl with jet-black plumage and a flared-out crown, a set of pince-nez softening up their severe glare. Ten foot tall and five foot wide, they dominated this strange space so forcefully that it was difficult to understand how you didn’t see them immediately.

“Welcome to Cacophony Concord,” they spoke. Their tone was androgynous, with the sharp clarity of a professor, perhaps, or a conman. “I am the 4th Administrative Function, Minerva, in charge of welcoming new players and assisting them through the character creation process.”

A screen blips in front of you, showing both an egregious amount of sliders, as well as a fully realistic model of your real life, naked self. There appeared, insanely enough, to be no limitations on how far the sliders could go.

“You may alter your current form however you wish, or we may approximate a model for you based off an image you can upload here. Changes made can be experienced via the ‘Trial’ button, but as a precaution, note that grossly warping your physical form for the purposes of ‘living a meme dream’ may cause intense psychological discomfort afterwards.”

Though it was hard to discern, Minerva seemed bemused by the thought. A sadist owl, perhaps?

“User Experience options can be altered in-game, but note that once you have selected your appearance and allotted your starting attributes, those are permanently set in place, and can only be altered in…a realistic fashion.”

Another strange clicking of the beak.

“That is all. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, enjoy your character creation.”

With that, Minerva sat down, though whether there was anything to sit on when floating in space was another question.

Theresa Edward

---

She gulped, hyperventilating slightly as she switched on the contraption.

Finally.

Finally finally finally, she got one of these new fangled things. Theresa had openly been dismissive of them before, saying she didn't really need such a thing, saying books and comics will suffice for her, but that was really more pragmatism speaking for her. Her family, while not really poor, couldn't really afford expensive luxuries, and she didn't want to make them feel like they had to buy something like this. Theresa really really wanted one, she was envious of others who had it, and she felt left out whenever they talked about some game or other on tech she didn't have.

It took a bit of flailing, looking up guides, and searching through sites, but she finally set it up properly in her room, and turned the game on proper.

Wide eyed with wonder at all the new experience before her, she could barely contain herself when it finally gave her the sliders to play with. Obviously she would change 'that'. Pulling the slider up, she tested the setting out.

And was promptly set with overwhelming nausea. After an hour of break, almost retching and some tea, she finally managed to pull herself back into the game. After that horrifying experience, she refrained from touching the height slider, and started on her other sliders instead. At least she can get a better proportion here.



Gulping, she eyed the more mature settings, and her own appearance. No one would recognize it was her right? So this game even had options like that. Theresa wasn't about to refuse that; she was an adult now, and she can do... 'that' if she wanted to. But the pain option worried her. She wasn't the best at ignoring or tolerating pain, but pain was useful in tell you about injuries and afflictions after all.

"Fu fu fu. I was born to a painful existence, such a level of injury would not faze me!" She declared to no one, flourishing dramatically.

Something like that, perhaps? There were a lot of characters like that in her books after all, especially the Japanese ones. Theresa took a big breath and set the pain option to only 20%. Who knows, maybe it will also be an effective training motivation.

"Ah, Mr Minerva! There will be a lot of adventures in this right?" She asked, already raring to go. With a last push of the button she submitted and finished the character creation.

^[Mentions] @ERode

---

"Twll dy din di! Twll ti!" Alys widened her eyes and her jaw dropped wide open as the perspective change swept her up with a case of vertigo. Her knees began to shake, chills ran down her spine- and then the sudden realization that none of this was real brought them back to reality.

It wasn't but moments ago that she was sitting in her comfortable [Elite MadLabX] gaming chair before initializing the game and full-diving her consciousness into the device willingly. The interface was swift- the comfort was second to none- and this startup experience was nothing like Alys had ever seen before. Her heart began to race so much that she began to think that maybe this would be the moment that her high-sodium diet finally caught up to her, and even if it did she twisted that thought into some strange delusion about her consciousness being permanently stuck in this new world. And her feet hadn't even touched the ground yet.

But that didn't matter right now. In this moment, she was away from the world and its infinite problems- Alys traded them all away for the challenges that awaited her here in Cacophony Concord. Why not fully immerse herself?

“Quite a sight, no?” A midnight owl donning some fancy-shmancy glasses asked, his question caught the girl completely by surprise- his appearance probably should have given her some form of fright.

"Fuck all, you're an interesting 'un." Alys accent was truly here in all of its flowery glory, the grown woman glanced the creature over with the utmost fascination.

The large spectacle of an avian creature calmly maintained his composure in response to the woman's comment. The creature leaned in for a moment- its plumage rustling as the monstrous head grew closer to Alys to take a closer look. The bright eyes of the owl widened, Alys widened her own as well- it was as if two beings of pure curiosity had just crossed paths. But the guide character would soon break the silence as its voice boomed in the void they stood in once again. “Welcome to Cacophony Concord, I am the 4th Administrative Function, Minerva, in charge of welcoming new players and assisting them through the character creation process.”

A screen manifested out of thin air right in front of Alys, equipped with countless sliders and customization options galore- all of which stood next to a stark naked model of her fully scanned self. Alys let out an incomprehensible noise, something like a grunt or perhaps a screech- the sound came from the back of her throat and it seemed to escape without her knowing. Her face loomed closer to the screen as she carefully examined every single detail. It's safe to say that this was an overwhelming amount of options to Alys, but that state of being overwhelmed was fully and happily welcomes.

“You may alter your current form however you wish, or we may approximate a model for you based off an image you can upload here. Changes made can be experienced via the ‘Trial’ button, but as a precaution, note that grossly warping your physical form for the purposes of ‘living a meme dream’ may cause intense psychological discomfort afterwards.”

The woman's eyes briefly peeled from the customization screen multiple times. The first was at the mention of uploading an image, the second was when the trial button was mentioned, and the last was when the meme dream comment was made. An unladylike chuckle escaped her lungs as her glance returned to the menu, shaking her head at the enjoyable personality this [Administrator] had. Alys slowly guided her hand to the image uploader- and thanked all god she had recently paid an artist she found on Instragram to draw a few renditions of her MMO character. [CalaceFull.jpeg] was selected and quickly the sliders began to adjust themselves to formfit her naked body into the pasty, lavender-haired midget that now appeared.

“User Experience options can be altered in-game, but note that once you have selected your appearance and allotted your starting attributes, those are permanently set in place, and can only be altered in…a realistic fashion.” This bit of information greatly peaked the curiosity of Alys. There was also these gameplay related options like pain realism, the style of the action combat, nudity- this game was really hardcore. She bit her lip and felt the slightest bit of pressure. Her arm extended with a hand open to select her options, realism was important for everything, maybe not the graphics- she nonchalantly selected the anime option and moved on to the important stuff. Gore was selected to be turned [on], Pain was set to [100%], Clothing Damage was set to be [on], Nudity Censor was turned [off], Combat Action & Spell Incantations were both set to be [on].

Character Creation [+]

Race: Human
Gender: Female
Height: 139 cm
Weight: 38 kg
Voice Pitching: -30
Decorations: Two simple black earrings, one in each ear.

Appearance [+]

There was no shortage of whimsically designed characters spawned from the cerebral cortex of lonely, bored, players who sought the sweet release from their normal monotonous lives here in Cacophony Concord. Towering well-endowed elf girls in skimpy armor, edgy thieves duel wielding swords in black coats, it wasn't a new idea to create one's ideal silhouette to project upon but Cacophony Concord sure did have quite a selection of options. Alys was no different than the rest with that power when she birthed the newest iteration of her coveted character, Calace. The player's avatar stood at the converted height of approximately four feet and five inches. Her skin was deathly pale as if she had never allowed herself to meet the sun, the irises within her big bright baubles hued an unnatural purple shade that seemed to stare longingly at every creature that dared enter her vision. Her hair seemed to have once been purple or maybe a shade of pink- but had long dulled and muted to a white with very trace amounts of lavender weaved in between each lock of hair. Her hair also seemed to be both messy in some aspects, while being neat in others? It was brushed and maintained with no split ends- but all the while the length of her bangs and along her back was uneven as if it hadn't been cut in a long-long time. But the most distinguishing thing about her hair would be the four long braids, two along the sides of her head and the other pair hanging behind them.

_____________________________________________

Attributes [+]

HP – 20
MP – 20
SP – 5
STR – 5
AGI –10
END – 5
DEX – 5
LUC – 10

Classes: None

User Experience [+]

Perception: Chuuni.
Gore: On
Pain Setting: 100%
Clothing Damage: On
Nudity Censor: Off
Profanity Censor: Off
Combat Action: Manual
Spell Incantations: Manual

“That is all. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, enjoy your character creation.” Minerva's concluding words were almost dismissive.

Alys widened her eyes and canted her head left and right as she looked at the administrative bird of dark and edginess. She felt that they were kindred spirits- even if he was some programmed NPC, or if he wasn't. Both of her fingers snapped together before aiming finger guns at the enormous owl and winked a single eye, playfully. "Can ya' alter ma' speech so m'not sounding absolutely bollocks? I'd like Calace ta' sound prim and proper if ya' could." Alys brazenly stared straight at the admin owl, gesturing at the character in a number of ways- some bumps into the air with her elbow, more finger guns, all before placing her hands on her hips awaiting the all-mighty-being's response.

Originally, Magdalene was never going to play a full dive MMO. No, her early experiences with the genre sent her back to the respite of traditional keyboard MMOs. Getting stuck in walls for no reason, nonsensical balancing, overly limited worlds, and virtual-reality shattering bugs made the genre too much of a pain to get into. It was for this reason that Mags didn't poopsock Cacaphony when it came out. When her static began to drop out in favour of this new game, she continued her end-game raids with anyone who didn't quit. Soon after, the MMO shuttered its gates citing "massive loss of playerbase". Really, Mags didn't want to give up her main game, but that was its fate. Its market share was devoured by the hot new MMO on the block.

Well, it was finally time to check out what all of the hotness was about, right?

Under the recommendations of the gaming forums she trawled, flamed, and shitposted on, she bought a brandspanking new FDD. It took a while for it to ship to rural Manitoba. The promise of a new world was worth it, according to everyone who played the game. She booted it up and was immediately thrust across the galaxy. Full-dive had come a long way, so it seemed.

With the massive tutorial owl giving her the what for, Mags listened intently. She wasn't some sort of cutscene skipper, those degenerates. Her own self appeared in front of her. Yeeps, she squelched. Being confronted by a nude version of herself was gross. With the sliders and settings being placed on a screen in front of her, she almost instantly turned personal nudity off. She didn't want others to see her nude and that sort of thing. Others were fine, though. She was down to gawk at some hot bods, as almost every player would do.

She designed her character as it appeared in the numerous MMOs that preceded it. Big winged eyeliner, hair in twin buns, and the body of a tank. Though, some concessions were made. So she could control her body, she set her height to her IRL height. She altered the aesthetic of the character to line up slightly better with the East-Asian inspired starting nation. Her voice pitch was the same as it was in real life. Though, that was because her voice wasn't poor. She liked her own voice, it tempered from years of raiding shot calls. Plus, hearing another voice from her mouth would be pretty jarring.

The other settings were pretty lock step. Seeing in anime-vision was something she wanted to try. She was a bit of a weeb, after all. Gore was on, since she was pretty familiar with much of what the dredges of the web had. The pain slider was lowered to a reasonable level. She wasn't a masochist, after all. A little bit of pain helped with feedback. 0% would be like a dream, unable to really put cause and effect together. She did want to put a little manual into her life. She knew how to fight from her dad, more or less. She knew how to move her body, though a lazy way of life made it a touch difficult. If her virtual body was fit and healthy, then she could probably do all of the funky stuff she could barely do in real life. The rest of the sliders and options were dealt without too much difficulty. She could change them later, after all.



She really didn't have any question for the administrator, so she accepted how her character looked. With her newfound form, she instantly went out to testing her body out. With the energy of a child on Christmas, she began to shadow box to figure out how this new body moved. She did squats like her life depended on it. Really, all there was to do was wait until she was sent to Horogi.

Stanislaw Kaminski

Well, well. His shit finally came in. At seven in the goddamn morning, mind you. Stanislaw yawned as he lugged his package into his apartment, cracking it open once he'd reached his office and plopped down into his nice, plush executive office chair. None of that DX Racer gamer chair crap for him, no thank you. About twenty minutes of setup later, his VR device was ready to go. Finally, he'd get to indulge himself in some hardcore, no-life gaming again after three years of school and retirement from the tournament circuit. He'd done his research on the game, but to his utter delight, it turned out that the amount of personal customization assigned to you by the game system rendered cookie-cutter guides and meta builds useless. After years of playing MMOs growing up before he'd gotten sucked into the void of esports, something like this was so rare to effectively be the white whale of an MMO fan.

With setup complete, Stanislaw placed his Fulldive headset on, preparing to be immersed. After a brief speech from the tutorial giver, he dove straight into customizing his avatar. He set about designing a character that fit his desired build: a real sinister-looking, dark-haired motherfucker. Perfect for the necromancer look. As a disgusting minmaxer, he didn't screw with height and weight too much, assuming that it'd be somewhat of a jarring change to get used to in terms of character control. Still, he couldn't say that the "meme dream" as the owl put it wasn't tempting, if only to get some cheap laughs.

And now came the interesting part. Stats and settings. Stanislaw had researched this part beforehand, already coming up with a stat layout that he hoped was adequate for the spec he planned to run. All of the mature options were left on and uncensored, but pain was slid down to 15%. Just enough to alert him to being attacked, but not enough to really distract him. If there was one thing the forums he'd browsed about the game agreed on, it was that there was no point to leaving pain settings at fully realistic and that only the insanely masochistic would do so. What an unironically nice little touch by the developers. Leave crazy settings in, just in case there was that one fringe case that wanted to take it. He liked that.

Combat actions and incantations were left on full manual. Screw looking good, he could figure that out on his own. What was more important was how to be as optimal as he could. Stanislaw may have been retired from pro gaming, but a competitive streak a mile long still ran in him.

Once character creation was complete, Stanislaw looked back up at Minerva, opening his mouth to converse in his native Polish, despite the fact that he was fluent enough in English to get by.

"Yo, Minerva. I know this game's got an auto-translate function, but is there any way to for me to keep a Slavic accent when my speech does get translated? I wanna sound like a bad stereotype."

^{___________________}

"Wow..."

The not-Earth glimmering below had Amelia completely entranced. She spent what felt like a long time gazing down at the planet, tempted to reach out to it every time it looked like something might break it's atmosphere. It was beautiful, and seemed so... alive. Much different than seeing a picture of a planet or watching a video. It really was like Amelia was there, floating in this foreign space, looking down at a living world and seeing it with her own eyes. That's what these VR games are supposed to be like, right? This one looks so pretty though... the blonde thought to herself as she stood among the stars, I'm glad I shelled out for that full dive machine.

"Quite a sight, no?"

The sudden voice startled Amelia, her head snapping up to find it's speaker. The bird was huge, it's dark feathers nearly blending in with the void of space. Amelia smiled at it.

"Yes!" she replied, though it already began launching into a programmed spiel. An NPC, of course - or rather, something more simple? A base program or something. The newcomer nodded along with the owl's words right up until a screen appeared from no where, and on it - Amelia blushed a furious scarlet.

"Huh?! That's - !"

"You may alter your current form however - "

"You can't just put up a naked picture of me - "

"a model for you based off an image you can upload - "

"And how did you even get it anyway?!"

"can be experienced via the ‘Trial’ button, but as a precaution - "

"I was wearing clothes when I started the game! I still am!!"

"intense psychological discomfort afterwards."

"I definitely didn't give my permission for this!!" The owl and Amelia talked over each other as the girl hastily moved through the menus with a purpose, until finally toward the end she found a nudity setting. She instantly set it to personal, and breathed out a sigh of relief when the image of her in her birthday suit currently on display changed to at least blur out her more personal bits. She fell backwards and floated there as if lounging. That model was pretty damn detailed too, even down to her moles! She gave the bird a suspicious look, but it didn't seem offended - it merely raised a feathered brow at her.

"...eh, wait, what was that last part you said?"

...after persuading Minerva to repeat his entire speech, Amelia dove into her character creation. At first she fiddled around with her own body. She made herself buff, gave herself all kinds of piercings, scars and tattoos - even pitched her own voice down. The avatar on the screen came out looking like some kind of hardcore 80's biker movie reject. Oh well. Back to the drawing board! She hit the "revert to default" option and the censored model of her actual body returned. About an hour of work, thrown to the wind. She glanced at Minerva, but the avian didn't seem impatient or anything.

Okay... what next... Amelia's eyes slid over the various options. They landed on the gender slider - which wasn't a slider, exactly, but more like a button that ticked between a couple of genders. She switched the avatar's gender to male, and it's sex changed along with it. She was now looking at, perhaps, an alternate universe "Amelia." This is kind of uncanny... thank God my AU junk is still blurred.

She changed the model's hair color and length. It's jawline was already a bit stronger than her own, it's nose a bit sharper. Now that the avatar wasn't exactly like a male Amelia, she found it... somewhat cute. Opening up every possible slider in the character creator, she fiddled with everything she could fiddle with. She measured it's height in comparison to hers, fine tuned it's eye color to be the perfect shade, stuck two cute little bangs on either side of it's face... even slapped a tattoo on it for shits and giggles. Finally, after three more hours, just when Minerva was starting to look a bit exasperated, the girl stepped back from her creation and smiled.

"Aw, he's perfect!"



"...Oh, right, a name huh? Honestly I'm kind of bad with names... Um..." She tapped a finger to her chin a few times before settling on something simple. Ames. A nickname from her childhood she hadn't heard in a while, and honestly kind of missed. As for everything else, she mumbled aloud as she went through the last few options after settling on the appearance.

"Stats... I don't really know. I'll just start off balanced, that's fine, probably. Oh, wait... this...? Okay. Perception... don't really wanna see gore... pain setting...?" Amelia blinked in surprise. Sean wasn't kidding, this game was in-depth. Briefly she thought back to the most painful thing that had ever happened to her, a broken leg due to a bad fall after a botched toss. She considered turning the pain setting off entirely, but she could think of some reasons not to. The rest were easy choices. She clicked accept.

"Okay~ I think I'm ready now, Minerva! Time to get this show on the road."

---

"Wow..." Raymond said for the nth time as he stood there with Minerva. Gawking at the foreign sky above him with a child-like wonder in his eyes. He was unsure how long he had stood there in character creation with the AI administrator, but even before he had started the game, his expectations had well gone above and beyond his expectations. Francis wasn't kidding when he said this game was nothing like any game ever before. "This is gonna be loads of fun. I'm sure of it." he said to nobody in particular.


"Yes, I googled the instructions...no, there are no lights that indicate if the helmet is on or not...ugh, fine. I'll see if the wires are connected well." A tall man spoke onto the smartphone he held between his ear and shoulder while tinkering with the strange-looking helmet device. It had been closing time and for the diner and the package his brother insisted on him getting had been delivered sometime in the morning while the morning rush of customers was at full swing. Now after the last customer had left the premises and Ray had helped his parents and grandparents perform the closing routine, he was off to the second floor. Straight to his room so that he could unbox the Full Dive Device and the game card containing his copy of Cacophony Concord he bought along with it.

After wiggling some loose wires into place and clamping them secure to the FDD and plugging its power cord into the socket once again, the helmet came to life. "There we go. Now we can get down to business. Yeah, I'm sure. It'll be fun trying to find you in-game. Like a treasure hunt but with people...Yeah yeah. Take care little bro. And for God's sake, take a bath more often. There's practically a second skin of filth on you last time you visited, buddy." Ray laughed as his little brother tried to defend himself. They soon dropped the call and Ray was sitting on his bed before he loaded the FDD with the game card before placing the helmet on.

He was immediately sent to the main hub of the FDD console where, after making his profile and customizing the main hub to his liking, he began running the game.


"Oh sorry. Right making a character." Ray finally snapped back to virtual reality and began making his character avatar for the game. He wasn't sure what to do when it prompted him if he wanted to upload a picture or not, so he opted not to. Instead, the game gave him a character with a strikingly similar look to what he looked like in real life. "Woah. That's amazing. It's like looking at a mirror...but I'm naked in the reflection. Uhh...user name is Raime Braun. Race is Human. Height is 189 cm. Weight is 90kg. Voice pitching is zero. No decorations. Just give me some starting clothes for appearance." With that the window containing his naked avatar, switched out to an ability screen where he could allocate 80 points to whatever he so pleases him. "Uhh, just put ten points in everything. I'll decide on a build later."
It then moved away before another window opened itself. "User experience, huh? I don't know much about that but, keep it as realistic as possible."
And the window disappeared as soon as the system placed the configuration to the desire of the player. "If thats done and over with, I suppose I'm ready to play the game."

Weeks upon weeks of waiting would finally pay off for the dirty college kid holed up in his dorm.

Cacophony Concord

Placing the headset upon his scalp and over his eyes Jok would come to find the inspirational cutscene with breathtaking environment tours and giant boss mob previews. If all of the reviews were correct, this would be the greatest game that graced this generation. The disheveled hair atop his head stuck to his brow as his body temperature climbed and his weak heart pumped hot blood straight into his head. Screw Uni, he was going to play this game until he fell unconscious from the lack of food and sleep.

Soon he'd find himself standing upon the floor of some pocket dimension in the company of a giant black owl. It introduced itself as an administrator for the game created for the purpose of guiding the player through the beginning experience, and then began firing out a number of statements and questions that would indeed guide him toward the character creation process.

The character creation window was lunacy. Sliders that were both complicated to use, but also so diverse that you could literally make yourself look however you wanted. Jok took a long time perfecting his virtual self, adjusting his facial structure, changing his hair color to white, turning himself into a very stereotypical pretty boy. When it got into the gameplay customization Jok's eyebrows raised nearly to the top of his forehead. There were some that made total sense and others that just, why? He reluctantly made his selections before finally reaching the naming option, which was always some variation of the same he used in every game he played.

"Are there any tips and tricks you could offer, Mr. Owl?"

"Do as you please, just be aware of consequence."

"Ah, so player agency is a thing."

"Spread your status points, the difficult content in the early game will call for versatility."

"Too late for that."

"Farming basic enemies is more efficient for experience. While bosses are preferred for loot."

"That's very useful. Thank you, Mr. Owl"

With his questions answered he finalized the creation of Krizantemë and pressed the button completing this step of the initial player experience.

---

As soon as Lew began his first trek into this strange, new world, he was absolutely astounded at what was before him. Truly the marketing for Cacophony Concord did not lie! In particular, the vast display of the various monsters of this world brought a great sense of interest to Lew. The thought of potentially being up close and personal with them filled Lew with a sense of optimism and excitement that he hadn't felt since he was a child. Of course, these detailed models also would mean that any monster girls Lew would run into would be just as magnificent, if not moreso. These thoughts filled Lew with a different, more adult form of optimism and excitement.

Soon, the cinematic began to die down to a collage of flashing lights and explosions before a proper introduction was made by a very over-sized owl. Lew couldn't help but scrutinize this creature in detail, his interest in this game's fauna increasing. Aside from his own degenerate interests, Lew always had a genuine interest in animals, both real and fantastical. The joy of observing their behavior and studying their different traits, understanding what makes them different from humans... Such things brought a sense of joy and fulfillment to Lew.

Sadly, Lew's admiration of this game's art was quickly interrupted with his own naked form. Taking a moment to study each meticulous slider, Lew decided the easiest thing to do was to just make himself look more idealized. The first thing Lew worked on was his height, ramping it up to a full six feet so he isn't stuck at the humiliating halfway mark to manhood in-game. Next up was to make himself look more worldly and wise, definitely older than how he actually is. The end product was... not fantastic, but satisfying enough and arguably better than what he looked like in real life.

Next was the attributes. Average was always safe, but Lew felt that specializing in some way would help him go through the early game more easily in order to reach his true goal. In the end, he settled with a build that would rely on simply being hard to kill to some degree. The idea of manipulating the forces of magic was not of any true concern or interest for Lew, and magical defense would be easily made up with either equipment or perhaps something he'd develop later down the line. As for dealing damage, Lew figured it would be much better to learn the game's mechanics and intricacies by outlasting his opponents, especially early on. In that regard, it was a godsend that Endurance ended up being both the skill for durability and recovery. Weapon skills didn't matter too much as he aimed to something simple but reliable at first, like a spear.

As for the user experience? Well, it's just what one would suspect if they knew Lew on a personal level.

Sword of Light. Meteorite. A disastrous impact. These were the words that came to his mind when he watched those scenes unfold, he watched mesmerized until what looks like a mutant-sized avian stared at him and spoke. He caught his breath…
…
…
…

“Yes, it was. …many thanks, Minerva.” Nivlek said instinctually, waited for a moment, then scrunched his brows at himself: Did he just reciprocate an A.I.? I it might have been his years of isolation that drove him to respond that way. He turned his head virtually and looked around… – not that it matters, no one was here to hear it anyway, to his relief. He could indulge in this rare courtesy of conversation with a robot.

Presented with a far more interactive options menu, he put aside the highly disturbing expressions of the virtual owl for a moment. It was an A.I., it could have been designed this way to unnerve new players anyway…

Username?

Nivlek thought for a long while before he tapped a calloused finger on the holographic screen before him R E D L I G H T N I N G. It was his Chinese name’s meaning, inverted. He scrolled through all of the options curiously, testing each and every one of them and tuning them to suit his goals for even playing this, before long…

“Minerva? I’m done …I think.”
In hindsight, he felt like dirty for leaving nudity, vulgarities and clothing damage on. But he did not want to be blinded by these censors, what if something secret was tattooed on the breasticles of some voluptuous monster? Or a code embedded in a slew of foul language? The truth was always better.

“But I’ve got three questions that require your advice.” Nivlek looked at the owl expectantly and gestures to the options panel after brushing his fringe aside out of habit.

“There’s a pain setting here that goes to 100%. If someone experiences extreme pain, their bodily system goes into neurogenic shock and shuts down many functions – including breathing, if severe enough. We’ll be simulating combat in this game, right?” He was clearly well versed in the subject of Biology. “Is there anything to prevent this from happening to us in real life? Any safeguards? Has there been casualties from this before?”

He seemed worried as he spoke, naturally, just the memory of waking up midst surgery because the anaesthesia did not work properly that time was enough to send psychic lashes through his nerves, enough to cause him to physically claw at his chest in an attempt to hold his heart in at times. But to experience all that in a game?

“Secondly: The AGI stat boasts it’s ability to skew a player’s perception of time and even allow them to move at an accelerated rate to match this new perspective. Essentially, Time Dilation. How much of a degree of this are we speaking here?"

If this game truly could do that, imagine how many therapists could benefit from it? Consultations in seconds, biographies in minutes. The possibilities.

“And Thirdly: Will I ever be able to contact you again once I’m out of here? I will have …a lot of questions about this place and I don’t think I’ll ever find a better guide than you, Administrative Function.”

Katherine Choi | Maria

---

With the aid of her father and older brothers, Cacophony Concord was ready for Katherine, but was she ready for it? It was nice having the support of those she was close to since Katherine wasn't that certain on what to expect from the world of virtual reality. The world she was promised seemed too good to be true; it shouldn't have be that easy. She was afraid that she'd get disappointed, like usual. She was at a low point in life, and she worried that she might get ever lower. Given the frustrations that Katherine had piled up over the years, it wasn't strange that she remained skeptical.

Laying flat in her bed, Katherine knew that she had nothing to lose. She hoped, that she had nothing to lose. After letting out a deep sigh, she thanked her family, donned the full dive device helmet, and took the plunge into the virtual world.

---

Katherine was at a loss for words. The spectacle that she was witnessing excited her expectations; you could even say that it was too much. She didn't know how too feel; her heart was racing and she wanted to scream out loud, but she didn't. It wasn't frustration she was feeling, it was something more akin to being overjoyed, but not quite. Bewildered with what how the game had started, Katherine knew from there on that Cacophony Concord was going to be worth it.

A pleasant surprise was the appearance of Minerva, who made things even more whimsical, causing Katherine to burst out in tears, but laughing at the same time. She was truly overwhelmed with emotions, but it was a good thing. Listening to the fantastical owl's tutorial, Katherine was ready to start playing. It was time to remake herself into someone she'd actually want to be.

She wanted to be a few inches taller, and loathing her skeletal-like frame, Katherine wanted a bit of muscle. Although deciding to remain female, she wanted to sound intimidating, or at least wanted a voice that had presence. Katherine cared little for jewelry, piercing, or accessories; the only thing she wanted on her body were marks that she could wear like badges, as if she'd been in a fight or two. She had the perfect image in mind, and the perfect name to go with it.

"Maria." Katherine slowly said out loud as she typed her new name for this new world.

As for how Katherine wanted to perceive the world, she wanted it to be as magical as the stories she watched, read, and played about. Physically, she had nothing to offer, but she heard that the game could make up for that.


More than satisfied at the image she had conjured up - she was ecstatic - Katherine turned towards and approached Minerva. She actually didn't have a question for the black-feathered owl; she just wanted to show her gratitude. With her arms extended, she wrapped them around Minerva before giving it a massive, and extremely tight hug. "I can't thank you enough for this! Thank you, Minerva!"

It probably wasn't appropriate or right to thank the NPC that was in front of her, but Katherine didn't really care. She was obviously no longer thinking and was just purely expressing herself. She had to let it all out as Katherine before she could become Maria.

With character creation completed and user experience selected, Minerva presents you with one final option, perhaps the only option that had no input in. You all decided upon Horogi, after all, whether you were outvoted or were ambivalent. Though it’d be pretty funny if you picked another nation and then sent your friends on a wild goose chase to search for you, that’d get old fast enough, and you’d be the one who was screwed.

After all, Cacophony Concord’s death penalty was a nasty one, and its infamously lethal difficulty had social media influencers all over the globe calling it ‘the Animal Crossing of VRMMOs’.

So Horogi it was.

Minerva bowed their head one more time.

“Through trial and tribulation, may you find what it is you seek.”

._investigate
._duplicate
._activate

You open your eyes, and find that you are standing.

---

The City-State of Nyu-Taro was as lively as always.

Though ostensibly meant to be a neutral ground for new players to acclimate to their situation safely, its position as a neutral ground also meant that buddies who aligned with different clans could, within the walls of the city, chat and party and start shit with each other, all without earning any demerits with their own clans. Nation-wide rankings could also be seen here, and Nyu-Taro’s fighting pits were almost always open, both for associations, businesses, and aristocratic families to settle their disputes through ‘non-lethal’ mortal combat, as well as for those who simply wanted to show off their strength for some cash. The Rinkan Annihilation Tournament had just recently concluded, and the feverish excitement that it had stoked up was still present. Many people, NPCs and PCs alike, were still basking in the afterglow of the gloriously badass finals.

Paper lanterns, adorned with the fighters’ faces, were strung up and laced between tiled roofs. Business-minded merchants were hawking wares of embarrassing, but novel quality, while the members of the Ryoku-Jo clan took it upon themselves to parade through Nyu-Taro’s wide streets. It was a fighter aligned with them, the Flamebringer Princess, who won first place in that bloody affair, and the hoisting of their banners, the beating of their drums, ensured that no one else forgot that either. Through it all, adventurers of all shapes and sizes pushed through the teeming crowds, in search of monsters to slay and quests to take. Some would rush for the Goldspun Fields to strike down on the universally prolific mob monster in Cacophony Concord: goblins. Others would go farther, perhaps exploring the length of the Pearl Bloom River in search of kappas and other water-bound creatures. There was the Thunder Split Grove too, of course; for those confident and competent, they could test their skill against the oni tribes lingering within that lightning-struck forest.

For those who have respawned, however, and for those who have just appeared for the first time, what they would first see would be one of Horogi’s many Keystones. The size of a three-story building, the Keystone was a boulder wrapped in braided rope and plastered with pulsating talismans, both a tool for resetting one’s level and swapping one’s available classes, as well as point in which they could establish their respawn location.

It was there, in the very center of Nyu-Taro, on a bright and festive day, that nine new players manifested…

…and immediately encountered some problems.

---

Ray couldn't emphasize how much he was enjoying his experience. The console and his copy of Cacophony Concord may have cost him a month's worth of his salary in the diner, but it was well worth it, and he was only finished character creation and just spawned in the world! Not only was he able to see an entirely new world in ultra HD without any lag or glitches, but he was also able to meet a seemingly sentient AI admin. The starting location was also gorgeous beyond belief. With equally drop-dead gorgeous oriental motif to the architecture and NPCs(?) wandering about.

Speaking of dropping dead.

Ray, or in this case Raime, heard a thud coming from beside him. Glancing to his side he could see that four of the players that spawned with him, were experiencing difficulties of varying degrees. Some looked like they had difficulty even standing, another writhed in pain, and the worst off was one who had collapsed on the ground and barely breathing. "Oh fucking shit! Someone call for a healer or something!" Raime exclaimed in panic before rushing over to the one on the floor and having difficulty breathing. "Hi, my name's Raime and I'm sorry I'm gonna have to do this!" Raime said apologetically before applying the first aid knowledge. He first made sure that there was any external damage to the person's throat or obstructions for that matter, then examine if he was still able to breathe or not.

If he was still breathing and without any obstructions in his throat, he would remove any tight-fitting clothes on him and observe if it alleviates the issue.
If he was not breathing and without any obstructions in his throat, he would immediately begin performing CPR until issue is resolved.
If he was still breathing and with obstruction in his throat, he would perform the Heimlich maneuver and observe if it resolves the issue.
If he was not breathing and with an obstruction in his throat, he would perform the Heimlich maneuver and then immediately begin performing CPR and observe if it resolves the issue.

Raime will perform any combination of the processes above until the issue is resolved.

---

---

---

As soon as he was spawned in, Lugh quickly began to adjust to his new virtual body, not paying too much attention to the events around him. At first, they were merely simple movements such as flexing and wiggling his fingers and toes, then evolved to small exercises such as jumping jacks and stretches. While calibrating himself with his new body's movements, Lugh also wanted to observe how much his stats had a bearing on his physical capabilities within the game.

It was then that Lugh noticed everyone else's newly spawned characters, some of whom seemed to be having difficulties moving around, or even standing. Perhaps they also did some jumping jacks, but had less points in END? Lugh shrugged it off, remembering then that it was around the time his friends would also be online. At this point of the game, Lugh would have preferred to go through all the tutorials on his lonesome before meeting up with his companions, but seeing that they'd all likely be around, he instead cleared his throat and prepared to bellow out the "secret phrase" he had told them on the 'Cord that he'll shout so they could easily identify and add his avatar.

"Snakes have no arms and that bothers me!"

Taking a brief moment to admire how deep and mature his voice was, Lugh nodded in satisfaction before making his way to the Keystone. Perhaps this was all it took to select his beginning class and maybe even retrieve some starting gear?

Spawning his avatar into the starting zone he had selected was quite literally like being born again. The sun was blinding, his body felt like it was too heavy to move, and his lungs felt like they were being used for the first time. Maybe he should have listened to the owl about stats, those 0 selections are probably going to be the end of him, it was taking effect right now after all.

As Kriz laid there in the grass with his throat feeing dry and hoarse, he couldn’t even produce words or signals to the others around him. Just slight gasps, deep breaths, trying to remain calm through the rather traumatizing experience. I’m going to talk about this on reddit. Frustration began to sink in, especially when a fellow player came to help him and began to give him very serious medical attention. Kriz’s glossy eyes took a long look at the rescuer, but submitted to his actions, he just wanted to play the game. So if this would speed up that up he would take what he could get.

As his chest began to be compressed and the person transitioned from one maneuver to another, he could slowly feel the adjustment to breathing taking place. Whether that was this man’s hard work, a failsafe to assist new players with poor stat selection, or something else entirely, Kriz did not care in the slightest. He turned to the player with the clean cut hair and stubbly beard to graciously nod his head. His body remained planted firmly to the grass, no plans on moving anything as of yet but speech now seemed possible.

“Thank you. I actually thought I was going to die before I could even play the game. That would’ve sucked.”

He laughed, winded chuckles only escaping his lungs a couple of times before his baby lungs felt exhausted once again. Anger began to set in the back of his mind. If he didn’t have the energy to speak, how was he going to stand up and walk around and enjoy the game? The gracious expression was gone, replaced with a deadpan expression, and as he pressed himself into a sitting position it would be clear as day to those around him that this act alone was quite a challenge. His arms shook, his breathing was weak, palms might have been been sweaty, mom’s spaghetti. Kriz was nervous that he had ruined his own experience, but maybe it could be fixed?

“Anybody read about stat resets?”

The look on his face as he now sat up was a concerning one. The sight of a player who had nearly already given up, a mixture of many negative emotions along with the brief positive exposure that was experienced beforehand. It was psychological whiplash, on day one hour 00:00.

---

Raime let out a breath as the player stabilized and regained his normal breathing. "Jesus Christ that was scary." Even if it was in-game, the scene played out so realistically that Raymond completely forgot that this wasn't real life and jumped to help as if there was an actual emergency that unfolded before him. "Yeah, no problem. Just instincts kicking in, you know?" Raime said as he got off his knees and stood up properly. He could feel his heart thundering in his chest, the thin sheen of sweat he felt at his brow, and the fading adrenaline rush that ran through his veins; all the accuracy of the sensations his avatar felt was scarily real.

The player he helped then asked a question if it was possible to reset skill points. "I'm not sure, to be honest. I mean there are some games where that's more a late-game mechanic and some that give it to you right off the bat." Raime then saw the crestfallen look on the player's face. Then he thought about a possible solution to his predicament. "How about you team up with me? The game might have an exp share system that we can use and when you level up, you can just allocate points to stats you need. If not, then I'll just let you deal the finishing blow so you can level up faster." Raime then offers him a hand up. "Sound good?"

---

---

Ari Reina Caladis(Theresa)

---

She was just about exploding from the sheer excitement of it all, her squeal of joy barely suppressed into a high pitched "eeeeeeeee" as she transitioned finally, into the game proper.

"WHOOO~!"

Even simply moving was weird and fun. She threw a few experimental punches, a mimicry of what she knew of boxing, reveling in the whooshes it made. Ari barely even noticed the collapsed person(?) or anyone around her for that matter. Not until someone bellowed a vaguely familiar sentence.

"Snakes have no arms and that bothers me!"

"AAAA! Is that you Lou!?" Almost bounding towards the avatar, she stepped in front of him. "Its me! Theresa! Look look!"

She spun around, showing off her tail and ears.

aмeℓιa

^{___________________}
Amelia couldn't say that Horogi was her first choice, but it's the starting area the rest of her group had decided on. She hadn't known many of them for very long, it seemed their little corners of the internet overlapped and the group came together kind of haphazardly. Still, between trading game recommendations and memes - my God they sent so many memes - it was nice to have some sort of party from the get go. Between one blink and the next, Amelia (under her less than creative alias of Ames) found herself in a beautifully vibrant city.

"Oh wow," she laughed, gazing around at the lanterns, streamers, all of the people gathered in the area, and the huge decorated stone in the center of it all. Moments ago Amelia had settled her graphics display to fantastic, and even while the city had certain glow to it, a certain charm that could only be found in that disconnect between fantasy and reality, it still looked so life-like. Needless to say, the girl was excited.

"This is so awesome!" Amelia thrust her fists into the air in delight, chattering to herself as she spun in a circle to take in as much of the view in the busy area as she could. "Is it festival time or something? Everything looks soooo good! And! And... aaaaand where's my avatar?"

She blinked and looked around at all the fantastic player and NPC models, then opened up the game settings again. After a few moments of silence the menu closed and the red headed avatar she was currently in the guise of facepalmed hard. "Oooooh my God I'm an idiot," she mumbled, noticing her deeper voice for the first time. She'd been so caught up in making her character and getting used to the city that she'd forgotten it was a VR game, as in Virtual Reality, as in first person. "Fuck."

Oh well, nothing could be done about it now. Minerva said everything was final pretty much, barring "realistic" methods to change one's appearance. She'd have to find a mirror ASAP. Well, maybe finding a mirror was step two. Step one should be finding the rest of the group...

"Snakes have no arms and that bothers me!"

...good timing! That was the code phrase, right? Or something like that. She turned to spot where the voice had come from, seeing a few new accounts and - someone on the ground?!

Amelia rushed over to the ailing player, passing Ari and Lugh by with a quick "Hi Lew Hi Theresa you look really cute" and stood a bit animatedly by Raime and Kriz, eyes looking back and forth between the two.

"Are you okay? Do you still need a healer? Not that I am one but - " she paused, getting a good look at these two and their usernames. They seemed kind of familiar... " - um. This'll be embarrassing if I'm wrong but aren't you guys part of [-our discord-]...?"

^[Mentions] @Versa@GreenGoat@Yankee

---

"Wait a minute, I am overbearingly tired." Calace squeaked out, her voice chirping into a whisper as speaking itself was quite exhausting.

She took a deep breath, her bright purple baubles in each socket investigating the figures around her- absorbing their features and mannerisms as well. Some of them had traits that were familiar, others didn't trigger any flags, but that "phrase" was said and it instantly cleared all reservations. Calace took a few steps towards the group that already began intermingling among each other- particularly the gal with animal traits and the red-haired studmuffin. But it was very quickly apparent that even simple steps through the short grass, even with her small lighter features, was such a draining venture that she began to breathe heavily similarly to the white-haired boy on the floor.

"This is- not enjoyable. Would one of you mind carrying me? Preferably whichever of you placed the most points in Endurance." Her face was flushed from that long-ass sentence, she needed to figure out how to raise her stats like- yesterday.

Calace had a very desperate look on her face, a flattened frown with eyes that clearly spelled out "h e l p m e" as well as trembling arms and legs. It was a pitiful sight- laughably so, and were they not acquaintances they'd probably ridicule her. It should have been obvious to them, she basically made the same idealized character in every MMO she played.

"It's [Calace], by the way." She winced at her own introduction, and feigned a cheery gesture with a peace sign over her right eye. Smooth.

---

Weather or not Kriz took his hand to help him up, he would turn to face the player who had run up to them asking if they were still in any danger. "Ah, thanks for the concern but I think the worst has passed." Raime reassured the concerned player that things would be alright from now onwards...maybe. "Now that you mention it. Maybe. Does the user names: Raiman and Frankiestien ring a bell?" Raime told Ames his and his brother's usernames for the majority of the social media platforms they use. Though, unlikely as it may be, perhaps they had managed to create their characters and spawn in at the same time.

"Oh yeah. The passphrase thingy. Uhh...' Snakes don't have limbs and that's bad' ? Or something along the lines of it." Raime said with little confidence as he had worked the whole day and kinda jumbled up his memory of last night when they discussed the passphrase. It was around that time that Calace made herself known to the others present. "I dunno who has the highest stats for Endurance, but all my stats are at 10 if that helps." He says while offering the small girl a literal shoulder to lean on.

---

---