"Come on don't be mad" She tried to say something but I just totally ignored her.
"Don't ignore me.." She looked very sad but I just continue ignoring her.
"Damn! it doesn't work.." I heard her mutter. I just ignored her completely and ate the tempura udon she promised me.
Because I didn't have any clothes that really fits me I just wore my now oversized hoodie without anything underneath. She also tidied my hair, making it smoother and silkier. The good thing is that my hair is pretty short so it won't need much care.
"Okay! Okay! I'm sorry!" She finally apologised to me. Because she didn't do any weird things and just genuinely showed me how to take care of myself I'll forgive her for now.
"Hmph! Apology accepted.." I snorted and went back to eating. After a while I finished my meal and just found my big sister just staring at me in a daze.
"?" I looked at her confused while tilting my head. Besides my head there is an imaginary question mark. When I looked at her for a while she finally snapped out of her daze and stood up with a noticeable blush on her face. I just tilted my head at her behaviour and left it at that.
"Oh yeah.." I remembered about something important. Something that I have been waiting for long.
"Today is that day isn't it..?" I looked at the time and realised I still could. I checked my phone to see a few unread messages from both Genki and Setsu.
[Setsu: Yo, Genki, Kuuji on yet?]
[Genki: Not yet still need to help my mom..]
[Setsu: Then let's meet up later on 1 P.M near the main plaza.]
[Genki: Sure, see you later!]
That concludes all the messages. So 1 P.M huh.. that's around 30 minutes from now.
"I'm gonna be in my room.." I said to Nee-san and went upstairs. I locked the door and went on to my computer.
"Let's got on first shall we.." I opened the website that I left on last night and checked it. The website opened and I was only greeted by a single box of text.
[Thank You For Pre-Ordering The Game 'Tale Of The Unbound'.]
"Simple huh.." I closed the website and went over to one of my most expensive gear in this house. The gear is only a small piece of equipment you put on your ear and when you turned it on it will automatically expand into an 'Augmented Reality Neuro Gear' or we usually called it ARN Gear. I laid down on my bed and turned the ARN Gear on.
"Well let's see if it's worth it.." Then instantly my vision was covered in a blinding light.
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"*sigh*.. What can I do..?" I gazed into nothing in particular while doing the dishes.
"Even if I already knew this particular phenomena it still felt weird if it happens to your close one.." I remembered about the information I have gathered about this weird phenomena. The researchers and doctors in my institute called it the 'AGC' or Abrupt Gender Change. It's a weird and rare phenomena. In total we only have seen less than 150 cases or in spesific 103 known cases.
In our research they did not find any weird gene and biological changes other than the gender stuff. Your blood and DNA will still be the exact same other than the information about gender.
"Should I report this to them..?" I pondered about my next action. While I'm certain Yuuji won't be taken in and will be monitored by me the higher ups will be annoying to convince.
"Ah let's just report it shall we." I quickly finish doing the dishes and opened my bag and took out my phone. I then called someone that is listed as 'Institute'.
*Ring~*
"Hello how can I help you today?" I heard a female voice over the phone.
"Please connect the phone to Mugen-san." I requested politely.
"And with who this is?" She asked about my identity.
"Ah yes.. this is with Akai Sora." I told her my name and she immediately went to work.
"Done. I will connect the phone to Mugen-san in a few seconds." She quickly informed me.
"Thank you for the work." I thanked her and I heard a quick 'You're welcome' from her before the call was connected to Mugen-san.
"Hmm? Hello Akai-chan, how are you doing?" A man with a raspy voice and kind tone could be heard from the call.
"I'm fine, Mugen-san." I answered his greeting and immediately went on to business.
"Assuming you're calling in your days off.. you want to report something don't you?" He correctly guessed my intention.
"Indeed. I wanna report to you about the AGC phenomena. I encountered another case near me." I started my report.
"Hmm.. what?! Explain more!" He was certainly startled about the report.
"So the victim of this phenomena now is my little brother.. or sister now." I explained to him who the victim is.
"I see.. is the victim fine right now?" He seemed concerned about Yuuji wellbeing. He certainly knew about my affection to Yuuji. He also knew about the mental problems one could face when they became the victim of the AGC phenomena.
"He is currently fine at the least. In fact he seemed to accept it quite fast.."
"I see.. well let's not explain it in call and just write a written report for now. I will have the others know and we will have a meeting when you came back."
"Understood. Thank you for your time." I thanked him for his attention.
"No problem" He hang up from the call.
"*sigh*.. More work to do even in holidays.." I sighed at my misfortune but I still have to do it.
"Well for now let's get some rest.." I entered the guest room and just slept there.
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I opened my eyes and saw white.. White everywhere. White roof, white walls, white floors. This simple basic and infinite room is something called the 'Main Room'. It's a room that is made to chose what activities you will do. To choose you only need to approach a floating screen that will be always the same distance no matter how far you walk.
I scrolled through all my games and found it 'Tale of The Unbound'. I mentally chose the game and the room suddenly turns dark. Then the room suddenly expands outwards with an incredible speed.
[Welcome to the world of 'Tale of The Unbound' or the world of Strelitzia.]
The scene then suddenly changed. The former room turned into a vast scenery of a beautiful world. Clear blue skies and sea of greens.
[Strelitzia is a vast world filled with adventure and mysteries. A world where one could find the key of the chains of their existence to become what is called a true 'Freedom'.] The scene changed into a vast multitude of terrains, area, cities and islands. Between each scene the sounds of the winds, people storms, animals and all the things could be heard, could be felt and could clearly be sensed. The company put in so much effort to this game it's incredible.
[So good luck finding the key, you will need it]
"They are also awfully honest.." Well they fully meant it. Even before they started the project they make a voting poll to determine something. That something is the 'difficulty' of the game. I and the boys obviously chose the highest one and it surprisingly won..
"So I expected much from this game.." I then looked at the still ever changing sceneries and stepped forward. Suddenly everything halts and stopped.
[Are you ready to find the key to your chains?] I looked at the floating text with only 1 option under it.. It's [Yes] or [Yes] so obviously I chose [Yes].
[Then let your wings free just like the Bird of Paradise.] Suddenly birds with multiple colors filled the screen and when they are all gone the surrounding changes into a room once again. But, Instead of the blank white room this room looked like a medical check up room. In the middle there is a piece of equipment with a big arrow pointing to it written.
[Please Scan Your Character Here] I slowly walked into the equipment and stood up onto it. Instantly an a transparent ring appeared through me up and down. Then a box of text suddenly appears in front of me.
[Name: ___
Age:__
Gender: Female (Cannot be Changed)]
The box of text contains the basic information about a player that are needed. But I was a little horrid at the 'Gender' part. I kinda forgot I'm a female now and also based on the guidelines 'Gender' inside a virtual world could not be changed.
"*sigh*.. How am I gonna explain this..?" I looked down towards my body and released a sigh.
"Well.. that's a problem for future me.." I decided to throw the problem away to the future me.
For the name I have already decided on that and for age I will just fill in my real age in.
"Right.. for the name I will choose Miyu.." I actually have already chose this name since a long time ago. They were quite confused on why I chose a feminine name but decided not to really question it.
"For the age.. just 16." I just simply entered my real age as it doesn't really matter anyway. I then clicked confirm and the floating text slowly starting to disappear forming a card. Once the card is fully formed it fell down and catched it quickly. On the card is written the information I just entered.
Then instantly the room shatters into pieces distorting the space around it leaving only darkness.
[Entering the game 'Tale of the Unbound] A loading screen appeared with a progress bar under it. It seems to increase quickly so I just waited patiently.
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When it finally hits the 100 percent mark the same scenery started forming once again. The same bright skies that I always liked no matter where it is. Then I looked around. My surroundings are that of a normal forest grounds with trees covering the most part.
In one of the conference they said that the world of 'Strelitzia' is huge and mostly undiscovered. No information could also be leaked to outside of the game other than the in-game forum which is still a mystery. It's also said that every player will spawn on a different location in a uninformed radius around the first starter town.
I then analysed the UI of the game. The UI is pretty simple with the normal MMORPG UI. There are no settings here as most of the things are just set to almost perfect realism. Also just like any normal games there are also a minimap with most of it still consisted of dark areas.
"So this is the world.." Right now I still have the same body as real life with an 'average' humans capabilities. My outfit consisted of a plain white shirt and pants.
"Fuuu.. Haaa..." I took a deep breath feeling the scent of nature with the cool air yet have the feeling of warmness in it.
"So.. let's start shall we." I smiled and started to just walk towards my north searching for the starter town.
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"Finally.. that took an unexpected long time.." I finally found the starter town after around 20 in-game minutes. The time here and in real world is different. In the announcement and conferences they said that 1 minute in the real world will be around 2 minutes in game. Because of the time difference they have set up a system of alarm in the UI. Basically a digital clock of the real world's time is showed on the UI with that you could set up an alarm based on how long you wants to play the game for. This is extremely helpful as you can't really hear and feel what happens in the real life unless the device is forcefully disconnected.
On the way here I also saw a lot of wildlife and different types of plants. I also saw a few beautiful spots that I could use as a potential basecamp spot. But leaving all of those, in front of me is a gate of the town 'Miden'. It still seemed quiet as not much players have logged in as only the first hundred batch could really enters the early release.
"Morning there, young miss." A man that looked like the depiction of a viking in real life greeted me when I approached the entrance of the town.
"Good morning also.." I greeted him back in low voice as even in a game I'm still not very good at communicating.
"Are you trying to enter the town, young miss?" He asked with a kind tone. I only nodded my head in response.
"Do you have an identity card?" He asked me. I tilted my head at him as I don't know which card he is asking for. But then I remembered the card that is made earlier. I checked my pocket and found it.
"This..?" I showed the card to him.
"It is, young miss" I gave him the card and he took it while smiling. He took out a small device. It's basically a small cube with reflective surface. He held my identity card in front of the cube and suddenly the cube scanned the card. I looked at the unique device with interest as it's quite a useful piece of device. He eyed the card then back at me with a little confusion. But I could see him visibly shrugging off his confusion.
"Done! You can enter the town, young miss. Have a nice day!" He handed me back my card and permitted me to enter the town. I took my card back timidly and entered the town in a hurried manner after bowing a little for thanks. He only waved back while smiling at me.
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"Woah.." I'm amazed at the cheery atmosphere of this town. This town is bustling with cheerfulness everywhere. I just sort of walked around in a random manner as this game have no beginner tutorial so mostly you need to learn everything by yourself.
"Hello there young lass." I then suddenly heard someone calling out to me. I looked at the source of the voice. The one who called out to me was an old man around 60 years old. He wore a brown colored shirt and trousers. He walked with a cane even though his walking posture is actually very good.
"Um.. hello?" I greeted him awkwardly. He laughed at my awkwardness as my greeting was very out of place for my looks.
"Are you lost, young lass?" He asked me right to the point. And may I also answer right to the point.
"Yes.." He's very right. I'm pretty much a lost child at this point.
"Hahaha, want me to show you around, young lass?" He offered his help to show me around the town.
"..Won't it bother you?" I'm a little hesitant to accept his help. As anything still could happens. It's also noted that I treated everyone here just like a real person so I would never thought of them as a NPC.
"It's fine, young lass. It's also fun to show some younglings around from time to time" He laughed heartily. He has a very kind air around him making him could be trusted even more.
"..Then please show me around." I accepted his offer.
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(A/N: I'm gonna start posting more and more chapters throughout all of my novels)