Chapter 4 – What're These Options?
Mia's vision turned black after he chose the starting place of his character. When he regained his sight again, Mia found himself floating in the outer space.
The bright light from stars and galaxies revealed themselves to him. The surrounding was as beautiful as Mia had seen in the Medias. However, it was not the time to be enjoying the sightseeing.
There was a naked body of a person in front of him, and a large panel with hundreds of options in it.
The panel on top of it showed clear words, "Character Customization".
Any gamer could understand this without much difficulty, including Mia. Because all Mia had to do was to complete the creation of his characters by adjusting the character's outer appearance that he would use in the game.
But there were problems.
First, there was no option for choosing a gender.
Mia did not have a problem with this as the latest bill from the Galactic Government stated that players had to pick their own gender.
This bill was passed as there were too many scams where players created good looking female characters or boy-band like male characters, which they used to seduce victims into making contact with each other in the real world. Once they met up, the fraudster would rob or blackmailed the victims for money.
To prevent this, all character in the virtual world had to be created by using the real gender of the players. The old meme which once said "MMORPG = Many men online role-playing as girls." was outdated by the new laws.
Second, which was a serious issue, the character in front of Mia was a replicate of himself … as a female.
Mia stared at the character in front of him in a daze. It looked exactly like him, but a few parts of the body was different.
'Where is my pee-pee?'
'Why is my chest … so round?'
'My nipples are not that perky! You perverted game!'
Mia screamed inside his mind while his face was as red as tomatoes. He lost count of how many times he gulped while he was looking at the character.
'Why has my character model turned into a girl?'
'This is so wrong on many levels. I have to file a complaint on the game company.'
'But … but I should try it a bit. It doesn't hurt, right?'
The puberty instinct and his curiosity kicked in. Mia glanced left and right as if he was checking that there was no one looking at him. He reached out his hands to feel the character's body.
'So soft … NOT! WHAT AM I DOING!?'
Mia squatted down while he hugged his head in shame, yet his eyes were still glued at the body.
Ten minutes after he gazed at it until he was content, he glanced at the option-panel to adjust his character.
'I plan to create a handsome guy … but.'
He peered at the emotionless face of his character in front of him.
'It … might not seem so bad to be beautiful. And also …'
The eyes of Mia locked onto the chest area of the character model.
'I like them big!'
Without hesitation, his right index finger stabbed at the option "Chest Size". Then he swiped the slide bar to the end of the right side.
'OH SHIT! TOO BIG! THAT'S AN ALIEN COW SIZE! BACK! GO BACK!'
'Okay, let them be moderate. No, they can be a bit bigger. Maybe a little bit smaller … Perfect!'
'Oh, what's this motion intensity do … OMFG, THEY SHOOK!'
Mia played around with the option for another 10 minutes.
*Pant*
*Pant*
Mia swiped away his drool while he still gazed at the model with admiration.
'Too shaky is no good. I feel like they are going to sag at this rate. Let's make it firm!'
'The same goes with the other parts. Make them all firm and tight.'
'Oh shit! Not too muscular! Go back!'
Another 15 minutes passed.
'My height is kind of short. Make it a bit taller.'
'What's this "Bush" option? Eww gross! Nope! I don't want hair on there!'
Another 10 minutes passed.
'There's so many face option. Let's try it one by one.'
Another 20 minutes passed.
'Finally finished! Wait, there is a dressing room option?'
Another 10 minutes passed.
*Pant*
*Pant*
Mia swiped away his drool again. He had finished creating his character, rather, he had finished creating his ideal girlfriend.
'She's mine. Mine alone.'
'Wait a sec. Am I a narcissist?'
'Nope! I'm admiring the girl in front of me. I am definitely not falling in love with myself!'
Mia pressed the finished button on the menu, after which he felt his vision and his body change. His vision was sucked into the model body in front of him. Then his body sense merged with the game character.
Mia was originally 160cm tall, but this body was adjusted into 175cm tall, and the body mass was also different.
He felt awkward when he attempted to move around the body. Most importantly, the body parts on his chest blocked his view.
'I … think I made a mistake. I shouldn't have made them this big.'
Mia made them into D-cup size with the firmest option. He grabbed and squeezed them to test them out. They were as firm as his own butt cheeks. It did not feel good as he had expected.
'Meh. What a disappointment.'
'Forget it. Time to enter the game.'
'But what time is it now?'
Mia looked at the system clock. It was already over an hour since he first logged into this game.
'HOLY CRAP! I spent an hour editing my character!?'
Shocked by the times he invested in the game by editing his character model, he pressed the confirm option again to send his character into the game world.
…
…
Mia appeared again inside a long bus, sitting on one of the empty seats. His vision blurred after his body manifested into the game world.
Many things were different from the real world he lived in. The gravity in the game was heavier, and the oxygen seemed to be thinner as he had a hard time trying to breathe. He tried to lift his arms and moved his legs a bit, which he found out that it was harder to move than before.
The environment was also harsh. Despite being on a bus with air conditioners, he could smell dust and dirt from the outside of the bus.
The scenery was desolate and rural as there was not a single building in sight even though it was the Capital of a country.
Mia turned around to look inside the bus. Other players continued to be spawned in the same vehicle after Mia appeared. They were as confused as Mia when he first appeared as well.
Seeing that there were other students who arrived later than himself, Mia sighed in relief. He was not the only one who spent over an hour tampering his character.
Every other player looked dazzling. Mia felt like he was sitting inside an idol bus because everyone had either a beautiful face or a sharp handsome face.
It took another 10 minutes until the bus empty seats were filled. Afterward, a flat-screen TV opened itself and started playing strange songs and anthems.
"Welcome players, to the Mafdet Federation. I'd like to thank all of you for choosing our Federation as your starting country. Since all of you have chosen a combat occupation as a starting class, we will assist you by leading all of you to the Federation Boot Camp."
"At the boot camp, you will be trained by our professional soldiers. We guaranteed you that after a month of training, you will become one of the elite soldiers that you can take on any mutants and zombies."
"For now, I will tell you the history of our people …"
The guy in the TV continued to narrate the history of his country. Mia had also studied about it over a hundred times literally when he was still under the tutorage of his father's colleagues. He did not need to pay much attention to the TV anymore.
"The boot camp of ancient people is weird. Why do they have to train so hard when you can just go through a simple genetic modification?"
The players behind Mia complained out loud.
"Their technology hasn't reached that stage, man! It was still the beginning of the Mecha Era. Gene Era comes 800 years later."
"Hmm. I wonder if we can import our knowledge and technologies into the game."
"No. Haven't you read the manual? The technology trees have to be unlocked by the country government. Even if we can create something from our era over here, the game will terminate it if the technology hasn't been unlocked."
"Wow, what a shitty game. I probably won't transfer my soul here."
"Yeah, me too. I prefer a fantasy setting. This is not my taste at all."
Players in the bus started having a conversation with each other, which Mia did not participate. He was daydreaming about the mech units that he wanted to pilot in the future.