Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 7: Initio

As I felt the bright light fading behind my eyelids, I slowly opened my eyes as I recover my vision. I knew that we already finished creating our characters, so I feel that we might find ourselves out of that virtual black room. However, what I didn't expect was not the sight of a rustic old medieval-style city, but the number of people around us. From [Elves], [Beastfolks], and [Feles] alongside the human players to the number of shops that were somehow set up by some other people, I was standing there with my mouth agape in awe.

I know this game was very popular and trending, but I never expect there are so many players comparing to what Zac has predicted. In fact, I became worried at the thought of passing through these people with Kazuki. Speaking of which, where is he? He was with me back in that virtual room, so he wouldn't be that far.

"Wow! This. Is. AMAZING!!!" Just hearing his voice was enough to answer my question. I turned around to find the source until I found him zipping back and forth to any shops he could find. "So these are NPC shops, huh? Wow! I can't believe how real they look!"

Now that he mentioned it, just looking at the people behind the said shops looked no different than the players. As part of our 'jobs' to interact with the AI, he explained to us before we logged in about NPCs and the AI he was working on. Apparently, the NPCs or non-player characters in this game are equipped with the latest program that allows simulating the growth and development of the AI's personality and independence inside a virtual world in a realistic manner. In fact, our objective for this deal was to observe the NPC's behavior during our gaming session. But for now, we should try to learn how to play the game until we can do anything else.

I quickly head to my brother and grab his collar to drag him away from one of the NPCs. "Kazuki, could you stop staring at the NPCs and focus on our task at hand?" Besides, programs or not, it's rude to stare at them. It just reminds me of that time you stared at one of his book authors during a book signing. "Besides, I'm not really into the game's story and gameplay and you're only who read tutorials, gameplay videos, and stuff." Yeah, that's one downside to the lack of interest in video games, especially to the VRMMO genre. Considering how long he was up to date with Isekai for a while, it might be best if I let him teach me despite our ages.

"Okay, first off, don't call me that in here. We're playing with our characters right now, so it would be better if you call me 'Kazu' while I call you 'Wind'. Besides, you did say we should protect our identities in social media and stuff." Oh, yeah. Even if this is different from social media like Facebook or Twitter, it is still connected to the internet and we have to be careful when giving out our information. So it was a good call for him for that suggestion. "Also, I am happy to be your personal tutorial! Think of it as a way for me to say 'thank you' for everything you've done to my studies for a while now. Though I have to warn you, I may make mistakes along the way. Plus that this is the first day of the game, so we can't expect anyone who is an expert on them. Sure, there are beta testers, but I don't know much about them."

I did say ' read tutorials, gameplay videos, and stuff', not the whole guidebook. Though, at least playing by 'trial-and-error' should be a good way to discover everything. Plus, if I learn everything from the anime, it's that beta testers seem to be very careful about giving out information or being labeled as 'know-it-alls'. So asking one should be our last resort in case anything should happen. "That's okay. As long you knew the game at the back of your mind, I think we should be okay, Kazuk- I mean, Kazu."

With that, Kazu and I head to the nearest bench as he started to explain regarding where we are right now. He then explained that this world is called <Volo>, a high fantasy world set in its namesake where several fantasy races lived among the human species while defending the cities and the discovered magic and technology powered by them from dragons and evil monsters. A fitting premise for a fantasy/Isekai genre game like this.