Chapter 2

  A Storm Is Brewing

  Unlike regular players, Rain had the privilege to create his character even before the game goes online. As soon as he began the character creation process, he was immediately filled with fury. He quickly logged out and made a call. The cell-phone was bought by Rose, and the contacts listed were only hers and some emergency numbers like the police and the fire station. It will also be deducted on his paycheck. That was fine by him, except that the phone was not the regular cheap one but a multi-feature expensive one and was colored pink. It also included a monthly subscription for calls and e-mail.

  She’s a leech. That was how he thought of her after seeing the phone on his desk yesterday morning along with a note. He wanted to smash the phone on the floor, but realizing that it would only increase his expenses, he decided otherwise. He thought that he would never use the thing.

  “Hello, hello!” Rose answered with a cheerful tone.

  “’Hello!’ my ass! What’s up with this thing?!?” he shouted through the phone.

  “The phone? Isn’t it cute?” she replied with a cutesy voice not befitting her age. She was already twenty-eight years old. Rain figured that out through her online profile he found in the internet. He was seven years younger than her.

  “No it’s not! And that’s not what I’m talking about! What the heck is up with this character creation thing? It’s only for females!”

  “Oh, that! Since it’s a feature of the game to be able to chose a gender other than your own, we took the liberty of making you chose the opposite one,” she answered with an easy-going tone.

  “Damn you!”

  “I’ll deduct your paycheck each time you yell at me.”

  “Guh… authority abuse…” he growled.

  “Haha! Nothing you can do about that. Anyways, just go along and have fun.” She ended the call.

  In the past three days, Rain had not seen Rose in the house, only those mysterious notes she left behind. He remembered opening the freezer to find almost every food inside attached with a note on how to cook it or which recipe was preferable for that food. He also once tried leaving the house only to find some weird person wearing a mask and glasses following him. He later found out that it was a person hired by Rose to tail him if he leaves the house to make sure he doesn't run away.

  Furious after the call, Rain started stomping his foot and yelling. Outside, the person who was hired to tail him could hear the racket he was making. The person then called Rose to tell her of what happened, and her voice through the phone was indicating that she was laughing at Rain’s predicament.

  After releasing all his anger, he logged back in and continued with the character creation. As he said, there was no option to change his gender to male. Only a female character could be created.

  He tampered with the physical attributes. There were so many possible changes that could be made and after spending quite some time, he got annoyed and just kept on pressing the button. All sorts of appearances came out. There was one that looked a bit like Rose. He thought of using that, but seeing her face made him boil in anger, and so he discarded that idea.

  In the end, he chose a tall figure with a cute face, but a slightly fat body. The hair was long and sky blue in color. Near the tip, it changed to a light sunset orange. The eyes were deep-set and platinum in color.

  After approving the appearance, next was the race.

  The races available in the game were Human, Dwarven, Elfin, Werebeast, Sprite, Draken, Celes, and Gheist. Each of the race start in a different location and had different unique racial properties. There was no way to tell what those properties were and how they would affect the game. If he tried to ask Rose, he knew that she wouldn't tell him. He tried searching the internet, but the information was not yet available.

  He tried choosing Werebeast, and more options appeared for selecting which beast the character will be based upon. There were a lot of choices, and luckily there was a option. He pressed and the first random beast he got was a goat. The appearance of his character changed slightly. Now, there were huge goat horns on her head, and her eyes had rectangular pupils.

  A pudgy goat lady, he thought. With a shrug, he accepted it and the next information needed was the name. He spent a few minutes on this one. He had typed the name Rain on the field, but he didn't dare press the button.

  After a few more minutes spent on thinking, he changed it to Storm.

  Worse than just a rain.

  He pressed and the screen showed a confirmation of his successful character creation. After that, he was then brought back out to the login screen. This time, it wasn't just a plain black screen with the login fields. In the background was a majestic animated view of a tower floating above a sea of clouds. Above the login fields was the game logo . There was also a countdown timer in place of the button. He had spent a lot of time in the character creation, he had not noticed that it was only half an hour away before the game goes live.

  What he didn't know was that Rose was watching a live streaming of his character creation process in the company office and was having a good laugh at the character he created, especially when he named it Storm.

  Did he know that in some ancient myths, goats were the representative animals of storm gods? Shaking her head, she thought that it must just be a coincidence.

  After waiting anxiously, the button finally appeared. With his login name and password all ready on the login fields, he pressed . He felt his body lose all their senses, then suddenly a burst of pleasure and slight pain filled his nerves. Opening his eyes, a bright scenery appeared before him.

  He was now standing on top of a floating stone tile. All around him were the blue sky and the sea of clouds, similar to that in the login screen, except that the tower was nowhere in sight. Looking down, he could see the body he created. Behind him, the strange colored hair danced with the wind.

  This feels awkward. His ample breasts and slightly fat body was something his original body didn't have. I should get used to this body. The game allowed only a single character per subscribed account. He can’t change this character unless he buys a new account.

  In front of him a prompt window appeared.

  Obviously, he pressed . The window was replaced by a new one.

  Rain, or technically Storm, walked forward. Just like the window said, a stone tile suddenly appeared beneath his foot every time he takes a step. He then tried kneeling down, and a tile also appeared under his knee. It was as if there was an invisible floor under him and it would become visible whenever a part of his body makes contact with it.

  “Rose is a jackass!” he shouted out loud. The voice that came out from his mouth was sweet. It slightly put him off.

  There were three colored bars on the top left corner of his view.

  Rain tried to memorize all that as it was very important information for him. He spent many minutes staring at the window before he continued with the tutorial.

  He did as told and raised his left hand. Then he said weakly with the unfamiliar voice, “Open Menu.” A radial menu with four options appeared in front of his hand. He then raised his hand to touch the top option.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  A window appeared containing his character information.

  The information was quite overwhelming. Rain didn’t know what to do at first, then decided to check the items that were equipped.

  Rain tried unequipping them just to see what happens, but he received an error window instead.

  Rain didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He was just curious to what will happen. It seemed like Rose had foreseen this and inserted that comment in the error window. Rain wondered if that same message will appear to any other player who tries to do the same act.

  Then, a new prompt window appeared.

  This was a hard decision for Rain. He had no idea of how the game will proceed from now on, and he also had not yet decided on how he will build his character up.

  I know how to brawl, so should I raise my Physical Damage and Defense? That was the first thing that he thought of, but the presence of magic was a mind-boggling feature for him. After spending about ten minutes of indecision, he finally made a final choice.

  Since I have no idea what it is about and since this is a chance to learn it, then I’ll try going through the magic route. He then added 3 points in AGI, 4 points in INT, and 1 point each for STR, VIT, and SPI.

  His new stats are now:

  Once again, Rain raised his left hand and said, “Open Menu.” He then moved his hand on the radial menu to the left. A new window popped up.

  The window was composed of a grid of squares, twenty by twenty-five. On the topmost left grid square was a small black smooth stone. It had a multi-color glowing inscription on it.

  After closing the Inventory Window, a new prompt message appeared.

  Rain selected .

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  A/N: I was watching that thai movie about a group of friends fighting some other groups, and in the end, their leader got stabbed by an icepick right after new year celebration. I was crying while watching that and figuring out how to fix these damned tables.