Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

5. Engineering a Body - Ligaments, Muscles, and Tendons

Of course, System refused to give Flora a couch and blanket.

She looked around for things to use for comfort but found only bones and her jumping avatars.

'I could snuggle with my avatars, but the ground is still too hard. Maybe I can use their clothing?'

The stubborn System refused to create T-shirts on the ground, but he didn't vanish them when the avatars undressed. By carrying out a striptease marathon Flora and the avatars created a pile of cloth.

Flora judged it sufficiently cozy but felt she missed a chance if she wouldn't utilize the avatars. 'When do you get the opportunity to command your own clone army?'

So she fashioned a hammock out of the T-shirts and ordered her avatars to swing it gently. Also, she gave one avatar a shirt with a print with palm fronds to fan her.

Satisfied, she lay down to rest.

The ringing of a phone woke her up.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! Where is my phone?" Flora fumbled for her mobile until she realized she was in the virtual world. She was proud she noticed it so quickly and even managed not to fall off the hammock.

"System, accept the call."

"I'm in the game. Where are you, Ma?"

"I'm creating my avatar, love. It'll take a few more hours, maybe days?"

"You are in there for five hours! Wait, with time dilation, 10 hours! WTF are you doing?"

"I changed the bones and took a nap."

"That makes a lot of sense. NOT!" Robby sighted.

"Sarcasm in this shape is not sarcasm, but a concession that you know the truth rationally but choose to deny it due to emotional reasons." Flora had explained this to him many times. Maybe that was the reason he still used it. "Sweety, I will call you when I'm ready. Meanwhile, work on harmonizing your rationality and your emotions. Love you!"

"Yes, Ma. I understand that you are scared. The virtual world is nice, though. Take your time. Bye."

Flora chuckled. 'That little rascal thinks I need so long because I'm scared.' She took a moment to go over her motives and feelings concerning the virtual world. Her smile widened as she watched her avatars, fanning her, doing jumping jacks, and swinging the hammock.

'The real world is arguably a world based on mathematics. This world is unarguably one. Even the parts I don't understand yet, like this attribute stuff, are quantified. I'm an engineer: I harness mathematics to prevail. I got this!'

Motivated, she checked the avatars for injuries. They were still fine.

"System, show me the best ligaments, please include the bones they are attached." She scanned the model perfunctory.

"System, color every ligament purple. Replace it with its natural color after I modified the corresponding ligament on my avatar." The main challenge was not to get confused by 900 small strings and miss some out.

After she prepared her avatar and got the rating for her current ligaments (E), she requested System to aggregate a second model with the best options for the foot.

Referencing the template, she modified the ligaments of her avatar's foot. Basically, she applied the same strategy as with the skeleton. She reinforced them, exchanged material, and fortified the connection with the bones.

Flora slowly worked her way up the body and fell in a smooth rhythm of modifying, creating save files, testing, and checking the new jumping avatars.