Chapter 4: Character Selection

'Are you certain you want to Create New? Remember, you can only have a maximum of 3 character slots. With this new slot, you'll have one less,' the voice replied.

"Yes!" Akio declared confidently.

The same young girl, though not the one who made the announcement, emerged from behind the logo. She wore a smile, hands behind her back, and her dress was as lavish, if not better, than in the video.

"You look so… real."

"Real? What do you mean real?! Of course, I'm real, dummy!" She retorted, a mix of anger and playfulness in her voice.

"Umm, yeah, sorry; it's just that I, uh… I, uh."

"I'm just pulling your leg! Sooooo… you want to create a new character!!" She added, smiling.

"Yes."

She walked over to stand next to Akio, and together, they examined the logo. A large mirror appeared out of nowhere, reflecting Akio.

Hair: Short black,

Eye color: Brown,

Muscle mass: 0,

Face: Plain,

Facial hair: 0,

Reproductive organ size: Below average,

Attractiveness: 0,

Chest: 0,

Gender: Male,

Race: Human,

Height: Average

…

"What's this? Are these my base stats?"

"You can choose to keep your base-human stats, base human looks, or start fresh with a whole different look."

"…Hair 0, reproductive organ siz… WHAT?!"

Akio looked at the young girl, and his face turned red.

"This is supposed to be a game; what are these stats… some of these are, ahem… inaccurate."

"Our player base is strictly 18+, with some features turned off for anyone under age who is allowed to play with parents' consent. I can assure you these, hehe… these stats…" she said, trying not to laugh.

"Um… ahem… these stats are 100% accurate since it is scanned," she added, composing herself.

"You were definitely laughing at my stats just now; don't try to hide it!" Akio thought, expressing facial anger.

"Anyways, yeah, I'm going to change everything… down to the smallest details! Got it!"

"Hey, don't yell at me!!"

Ignoring the young girl, Akio pressed the "Start Fresh" button. His mirror reflection transformed into a white character. His facial features were blank, and his whole body was plain. He resembled a naked Slenderman.

"Select race:

——————

Elf:

Dark Elf:

Human:

Orc:

Ogre:

Dragonoid:

Demonoid:

Undead:

Lizardman:

Feline:

Beastman:

Dryad:

Half Angel:

…

"Too many to choose from," Akio thought.

Akio wasn't about to ruin his shot at being something cool. There was absolutely no way he would be a human, even though they had the most stable and neutral base stats. It's almost as if the devs made humans slightly better on purpose to compensate for their weak nature. Next to every race, there was long text to indicate info and base stats. If anyone playing this game realized how lengthy starting builds would be, they'd sigh and log out. But this game was different; if time wasn't of the essence, they basically had all day to decide.

"Would you like me to help you choose? I have information on every race and can give you a basic summary of each… Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"…Oh, you're still here?" Akio said, looking over his shoulder at the young girl with the freckled face looking up at him. She painted the picture of a sassy and annoying small girl, but Akio wasn't bothered in the slightest.

"Yes! If you don't need me anymore, just tell me to leave… you're probably one of those shut-in antisocial loners," she said, crossing her arms and closing her eyes.

Her comments were beginning to test Akio's patience.

"I can help you, and after, I can also give you a walk-through tutorial, but I won't change my attitude," she said while sticking her tongue out, still having her arms crossed.

Just as she finished speaking, a text box appeared above her head, 'just kidding… do you wish for her help or to dismiss her? Adjust settings: attitude: 9, sassiness: 8, jokes: 6, dark-humor: 9, respectfulness: 3, humbleness: 4, niceness: 5…'

"Let's change these—wait, on second thought, never mind. You're fine just how you are," Akio said with a smile.

The young girl blushed from embarrassment.

"You know those aren't settings; they're suggestions… yeah, matter of fact, I think I'll turn my respectfulness to 0, loser."

Akio turned his head once again, looking at the options in the 3D menu in front of him, trying his best not to be distracted by the red-headed annoying girl.

"Elf is slightly better than the dark elf; a human's starting MP doesn't compare to an elf… I'm trying to, maybe, go for an Magic build, so orc or ogre aren't the best options for me. Dragonoid or demonoid? I'll throw those in the maybe; let's see undead… too mainstream. Lizard man? Yeah, I don't think I like that look…"

With each passing selection, he viewed a randomly generated person within the category. In this case, the lizard man looked really ugly to Akio, so he deemed that one a complete 'no.'

"Feline, beastman, dryad, Half Angel, and so on… the rest are uninteresting to me, perhaps maybe a half Angel."

"Okay, that leaves me with Elf, Dragonoid, Demonoid, and Half Angel."

He carefully studied each one, being sure to weigh every pro and con. He couldn't decide in the end because every option was a solid choice.

"Maybe I should shoot for which looks coolest… let's see, out of all of these…"

He struggled to also pick the coolest-looking one, but finally, he settled for the Dragonoid race.

The Dragonoid race came with a racial bonus set of wings. The Dragonoid race had a subcategory of races, like red hair signifying a descendant of the flame dragons, blue hair being from the water dragons, light blue hair indicating the frost dragons, blonde hair from the lightning dragons, black for void dragons, and white for light dragons. The options were all valid in their own right, and when deciding which to go with, you would have to weigh which monsters are weak to what type of magic (if you knew). If you chose a flame dragon descendant, then your strengths would be more oriented in fire magic and fire attacks, and it was only natural that your weaknesses would possibly be frost and water magical attacks. If you were to pick an elf, however, your MP and magic learning prowess would be higher, so you could customize your strengths and not have such a weakness. However, Akio liked the idea of having wings, higher strength stats, and magical attributes.

Akio closed his eyes and couldn't wrap his finger around the fact that each one was cool.

'Did you know?: there are currently 72 million players online! From across the world! Each player had the option to start in an area with people in their time zones! I recommend you do! So, you can log in with friends!'

"That outside voice again, now she's saying random tips and facts?" Akio thought.

Akio's thought process was halted by the sudden sounds of tapping. It sounded familiar to him. The tapping noise was the young girl waiting, tapping her shoe on the floor to hurry Akio.

"You know why my patience is so thin? I'm split into literally 72 million pieces!!!! And only a few million have made it through this process!!!! HURRY!!"

Akio began to laugh and smile, he turned back to look at the options list and confidently chose the light white dragon's descendant. He adjusted the face, making himself far more attractive than he really is and also choosing blue eyes to complement his white hair. He looked in the mirror and liked the look, but it still needed some tinkering.

He flipped between female and male and got shy looking at himself as a female.

"I look hot—yeah, there's no way, even if a troll wanted to he couldn't be the opposite sex. The option to continue doesn't show so I'm guessing you aren't allowed."

He messed with the muscle mass option, being careful not to make himself a tank that can only run slow.

"Facial hair? Let's keep that at zero. Reproductive organ size… let's just…" he looked over his shoulder and blocked the young girl's view of the option. He looked up and spoke as if speaking into the ears of everyone who might be judging him.

"Listen, all of you would do the same if you were in my shoes…don't judge!" He thought before adjusting the option to his liking.

"Let's see this here, this at that, mhm, mhm, yes, maybe not, okay continue," he said after assuring that everything was good and then pressing the continue button.

"Class?" He said, surprised.

'Did you know?: the world of Three Realms Online is approximately the size of the Asian continent? Therefore, millions and millions of players will have plenty of room to explore!! Not to mention kingdom building!'

"Did she just say the Asian continent… didn't Dad compare it to Japan… and kingdom building! What the hell, just how big is the game?!" Akio thought, in shock.

He shifted his focus to the class option and read that classes aren't final, so there is flexibility.

"Obviously, though if you wanted to be a paladin knight you probably don't want your primary class to be a chef or… dancer?!" He thought.

The vast options available were unimaginable; there was truly a vast amount of freedom.

"I think the primary class should be destruction magic, and the secondary class should be swordsman. Yeah, keeping it simple even though I would've loved to summon undead as a necromancer."

He clicked on 'generate preview,' and it changed the background of the mirror to a being up in the sky. It also dressed Akio's character with clothing and some light armor.

"Oh yeah, there's no way that I'd ever look this good IRL. Not only that but this all feels too realistic," he said while rubbing his index finger and thumb together.

Every sensation in the game was unimaginably realistic. As a matter of fact, it felt too natural and real that Akio didn't pay it any mind until now. His feet could feel the texture of the floor, and with every breath he took, his chest moved like it would in real life. He was starting to feel like this was no longer just a game but rather an actual real world. The only new sensation he felt was moving the wings on his back.