Road to Reality

1. Trial Run

She opened her eyes and felt the cool breeze run through her hair, arms and legs, tempting her to close her eyes but she couldn't. Aurelia was a smart young lady with the mark of a true genius. She'd created a whole new world in her VR workplace. The long forgotten open fields with ample sunlight and fresh air with birds chirping was her greatest achievement. Being only 16, this was a great thing for a kid although some people have already achieved the same, yet they were all around 30 years, who, to her, were old people. Three months ago, Aurelia started this project as soon as her holidays started. With countless sleepless nights (only 56 nights, actually), and skipped meals (she ate a lot though), she completed the magical world only she could dwell in.

"This world is beautiful. Just the way I want but it's empty, somehow..."

Of course, the emptiness is obvious because the rest of her gang, Mark, Jennie and Rose weren't there.

Aurelia couldn't do anything because ever since the holidays started, her group of friends were all away and she didn't have their numbers. She was the oldest one in the group, being at least 3 years older but they were all VR addicts, due to her influence.
[Asian parents are strict. Cell phones are rarely allowed at an early age]

She kept her project aside and turned on the game they were all playing and luckily, all of them were online as if they knew she'd come online. They formed a squad quickly, and she was describing her new project to everyone in the waiting area. She didn't realise that her voice chat was on the "All" channel so everyone started crowding around her. All 96 opponents were now talking to her in enthusiasm.

"I won't kill you in the game if you let me join"

"We'll let you have the air drops"

"Yeah! Don't kill FLChan!"

After the match ended with a Chicken Dinner, all the players asked for her Discord username and from there, she got her first beta population of 100 including herself. Of course, she took the role of God, naturally. They all joined in on her server very quickly.

After a few editing on the game, it became a pure magic game where no formal weapons were allowed. Bare handed magic warfare was her plan as she always wanted magic creation and manipulation in her life.

"Let the trial run begin", she thought to herself.