Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

8. Welcome to the Metaworld

Piercing screams, music from multiple loudspeakers, blinking lights, limelights, and holograms assaulted Flora's senses.

The welcome square was chaos! The difference between the monotonous environment of the character creation and the lively plaza couldn't be more pronounced. Flora needed dozens of seconds before she could distinguish the sources, or better the perpetrators, of all that noise.

She stood on a diamond-shaped plaza gaping at the spectacle. Vehicles sped around and over the site. Cars and motorcycles, a chariot towed by flaming flamingos, a rhino with a tent on top, and a tricycle with jet propulsion were racing each other. The trike seemed to be winning.

On the plaza, mimes, fire-breathers, and acrobats competed for the attention of the crowd. Vendors hawked their wares, and announcers attempted to outscream each other.

Flora's vision zeroed in on a hot-dog stall. She was still starving, which puzzled her. 'Should the hunger have gone away when switching to the avatar? Maybe it wasn't a switch but more a merge?'

Those thoughts went away when she reached the stand.

"Hello! I'm new, and I don't know if I have money, but I would love to have something to eat." Flora said, smiling at the vendor.

The sales lady was used to newbies and guided Flora to her inventory, which was empty except for a blow torch, a hair clip, and the fusion box. Only then she remembered she had this function in the CAD-System as well.

"That's unusual; normally everybody gets 100 VirDos as a welcoming gift. I'm sorry, dear, no money, no hot-dog."

'I guess my inventory didn't get changed. I have to ask Robby what else I haven't received.'

Flora sighed and walked to a bench to wait for Robby.

It took Flora a while to realize the furiously blinking circle in her lower vision was the notification icon and not caused by an external source.

In the CAD system, she had customized the notifications. Only those with the highest priority were immediately displayed, such as error messages. It seemed her old settings were still active. She hadn't noticed it at the time when the Admin threw blue windows at her, but they had been in the transparency setting she preferred. Who liked a blue wall in front of their face? If she remembered right, setting the transparency to 33% had been one of her first actions in the CAD System.

'Long time no see, button. What's up?'

First notifications for the achievements, which the Administrator had promised her, appeared: Supreme Magic, Frontrunner, Founding Mother of Psychokinesis, Founding Mother of Transformation.

But the icon was still blinking, so there had to be more.

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You gained an Achievement: Body Modification - Bones: Your skeleton was improved.

- + 1 OV to Physical Resistance

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You gained an Achievement: Magical Body Modification - Bones: Your skeleton was improved.

- + 1 OV to Magical Resistance

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You gained a Trait: Thorough digestion: The satiation meter will drop 50% slower.

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You gained an Achievement: Blood Cleaning: Your blood was cleaned.

- + 1 OV to affinity/resistance blood magic