The title'Encadia Realm X' shone through the entire view as the game started to form itself around Ryota, as if he's being thrown into a simulator.
In Ryota's eyes, everything is just popping out in colors, he is surprised and amazed at how visually appealing the game can be at the beginning.
He thought to himself. "This is the game Sayaka was talking about… talk about hyper-realism."
The game finishes forming around him and Ryota immediately feels surreal looking at his environment right now. He looks down and sees that he is standing right now on a platform made out of water- flowing upward directly from where he is currently standing, expanding and flowing downward as if a waterfall... only it comes back up, as Ryota thinks
Ryota scans around and sees that he may be the only sentient being right now- no humans, just him, the waterfall platform and a beautiful open sky with clouds breezing through.
Suddenly, a floating box appears- Ryota takes it as a floating text box.
"Welcome mystic traveller to Encadia Realm X. You, who have travelled far and wide will now embark on a journey to a new realm never been discovered before." Ryota reads over the narrative in the text box. "You and many others are to discover this new land… ah, this is so much to read- skip."
He looks over to see a small sword symbol glowing, he assumes this is the 'Continue' button so he proceeds to click it with his fingers.
As he touches the symbol, he can actually feel it as it glows brighter.
"Woah, this is next level." he whispered. Another text box appeared.
"May we know your name?" Ryota read. He thought that this might be the part where you have to think of a 'username'.
He ponders on the name he will choose. He really does not want to have his name as his username, because he doesn't want his classmates to know about him playing the game.
"And sucking at it too." so he thought.
Eventually, Ryota chose to go with the name ‹Kota›. He assumes it's not that far off from his name but not easily recognizable enough for it to be him.
He once again tapped on the little button that glowed. It just gets Ryota excited every time he sees it glow.
As the button glowed, clouds soon started to circle around him swiftly as if he's about to get caught in a whirlwind. But, these clouds start to take some sort of shape.
"Must be the clothing section?" Ryota talks to himself, and as he predicted- a large text box appeared to inform him of customizing his character.
Right now, Ryota looks like your average Japanese citizen right now- which shouldn't be something bad for a game. Black hair, black slanted eyes.
He looks upon all the variety of clothing and customization boxes that appear before him, not once does Ryota not gape in awe from all of it just floating around him.
From accessories, designs of hair, even customizing your race? Ryota knows this kind of thing is frowned upon in reality but for sure, this is a game- he will be accepted for who he is despite what his race is in-game from the actual race he is.
Ryota continues to be amazed as he toy around for what seems an hour of transforming himself into his ideal character. He soon settled for his identity and the game gave him one last check.
Fair skin, long hair with a side braid that somehow makes him fluid- perfect for his idea of a male character. A set of blue eyes that match the sky and sea. His body size is more on a lean side but definitely with muscles, something Ryota aspires to be when he hits eighteen next year.
As he confirms his personalization, Ryota suddenly feels as if gravity is pulling him into the water. "What the?!"
He braces himself, holding his breath and getting sucked into the waterfalls. "Crap, I do not know how to swim!"
He tries to swim but it doesn't get him nowhere, he just started to float in the water that sucked him in. "Am I gonna have to die in this game already?"
In what feels like an overdramatization, Ryota sighs thinking he might've done wrong in the process leading to this.
"Wait, I'm sighing?" Ryota suddenly thought. He noticed he has not been holding his breath for quite awhile but does not feel anything- no lung pressure, anything.
He finally realized that he can breathe in this water. Of course.
"For a smart person, I feel so kind of stupid." Ryota facepalmed himself with this realization. "I have to keep reminding myself that this is a game."
A text box soon appeared. This text box seems to show him a set of character types. "Oh, so this is the part where I have to choose what kind of character I am! Wicked."
The waterfall soon sends out bubbles around Ryota which houses the different character types in the game.
He studies all of the classes he can choose from. He remembered all of them when he reviewed everything in the game manual on his way home, to which Ryota applauds himself for.
He continues to look over the character classes, outweighing his options. ‹Warrior class›? Ryota feels like it's too much in the front lines which he hates being in. Similarly to the ‹Tank class›, he rejects it for the same reason. ‹Assassin class›? Ryota thinks it takes a lot of caution and risk taking with these classes- same with the ‹Marksman class›. ‹Support class›? Boring.
He soon came to realize that the only class he is interested in is the ‹Mage class›. Perfect for his kind of intelligence- strategizing your position, setting up unforeseen traps, using magic from all kinds of variety. The more he thought about it, he thinks that the Mage class is pretty stacked and overpowered.
Ryota immediately imagined what kind of power he would hold. He thought he had the potential to become the strongest mage in this game with how smart he is. Without any other hesitation, he immediately chose the Mage class.
He would feel his body changing, as he saw a floating box that seemed to show him his stats. He has a fair amount of stats spread around represented by a green color, with an additional amount represented by a blue color.
Ryota thinks this might be the repercussions of being a Mage class. His weakest point being his ‹Stamina›, which is fair for a mage. His ‹Strength› and ‹Dexterity› are in a decent amount but his ‹Intelligence› and ‹Wisdom› are off the charts. Surprisingly, his ‹Charisma› did not have any additional changes.
Ryota noted that Charisma is used for personality, so he thought that this is a kind of attribute he needs to actually work on as the game progresses.
Once everything seems to be finished. A text box once again appears to give Ryota disclaimers, rules, and just generally everything a welcome message should.
"Here goes nothing." Ryota muses as he taps on the glowing button. This triggers a bubble to wrap around him and before he knows it, the bubble speeds him down the waterfall.
For anyone this might be an awesome ride, but for Ryota? He just knows he probably would've been shitting his pants from this kind of tubeline.
He soon exits the waterfall and he sees a sea of clouds that soon part into what now Ryota sees is land. He's finally here.
He is now in Encadia Realm X.
Ryota's bubble soon drops him off to a forest. This forest is not just any forest, it's a village. He would immediately be surrounded by large trees that act like buildings with smaller housing of trees and actual wooden homes.
He's also surrounded by a vast number of people just busy playing the game for themselves. A lot of these people can be seen forming parties, buying items, searching for quests, while others are chilling and just talking to other players.
"It really feels like I'm in another realm." Ryota says in awe. "But it doesn't feel off, it feels human."
Of course it is, Ryota knew most of the people here are humans anyways, and with this being the most popular game at the moment, he just knew that a lot of people are flocking here like in real life.
Ryota emphasizes to himself, reviewing this game as a virtual reality world that is not real but feels real. "What a lot to just admire right now."
Ryota would see his name- Kota, stats and other important stuff in a sidebar, generally feeling things right now. He now thinks it's time to act as Kota now.
Before Kota could even move a step, he is met with message boards pointing him to stuff he has already noticed a few seconds ago, but made him explore from Settings, Mail, etc.
Kota is forced to undergo all the tutorial instructions but he appreciates now how the game immediately wants him to find friends. Something that was never encouraged to him in the real world.
He immediately tried to find Sayaka's username, remembering that she gave her username before separating from school. This took him a few minutes but he soon added a username called ‹Megumi› which is Sayaka's username in the game. He also sent a message immediately after, informing her that he is Ryota.
As he continues to explore, Kota would receive a notification that his friend request got accepted. A chat pops out in unison.
‹Where are you?› - Megumi.
‹The starting point, what about you?› - Kota.
‹Just grinding levels in the dungeon, wait for me there! Go explore or something.› - Megumi.
Kota just sighs in relief. He would finally get to see Sayaka's character. He wonders what she would look like. A bombshell? An amazona?
Kota can't stop thinking also about what kind of character Megumi is. She might be pretty strong.
As he waits for Megumi, Kota continues to explore while reading basic mechanics of the game using the ‹How to Play› manual.
He reads that his Mage class allows him access to a variety of spells many classes would not obtain in the early stages of the game. Mage classes have a variety of weapons as well from ‹books, staffs, scrolls to magic crystal balls› that have different effects compared to ‹shields, bows, swords and daggers›.
"Wow, can't believe we have a lot of variety for such a flimsy class." Kota thinks over. "Guess that's what intelligence and wisdom is for."
He realized that a lot of his additional stats are for those two, implying he would have greater chances for abilities that involve ‹magic› itself and ‹logical abilities› as well. This immediately excites Kota, imagining once again in his nerdy state what kind of power he can withhold as a Mage class.
He looks at his weapon, a simple ‹Wooden Staff› with just additional Intelligence as an added bonus. Nothing extraordinary.
Kota knows from the instructions that his basic attack involves sending out energy balls, with a charged attack involving a charged up energy beam.
As Kota soon walks around, his environment suddenly changes into a misty black room with a bed of flowers in the middle. He is startled by the sudden change.
"What the hell?" he whispered lowly. "Where am I?"
He stopped, looking for anything else but is fixated on the flower bed- as if it's pulling him in. Kota walks forward and further until he sees a silhouette forming out of nothing at a farther distance.
This silhouette shone bright and flows against the contrasted misty black place he is in. "Hello?"
He walks further and further. The silhouette is starting to take more shape as he progresses… Kota must be looking at its back.
"Hello?" he said, to which the light figure turned around and suddenly his sight glitched.
Before Kota could get any more glimpse, he sees that he is back in the forest village he was once in.
He is wide-eyed. His only thought was, "What was that?"
At the right moment, someone is approaching him, running like it's getting chased by a wild boar.
"Kota!"
He focuses his sight a bit more and realizes who it was.
It was Megumi.