(The Next Day)
"H- huh?" I muttered as I felt my body shaking with two small arms grasping my hands, shaking me from left to right, along with the shaking, I felt a heavy thing on top of my belly that makes it hard to breathe.
"Wake up! Let's go play New World!" shouted a childish voice from above me so I slowly opened my eyes to see Shiro on top of me, looking at me with shining eyes full of excitement.
"Yawn, sure," I said with a yawn and looked at my phone and saw that it was already 6 am while Shiro got off me.
"Yay!" shouted Shiro with a jump while I chuckled.
"Let me go wash myself first, go wait at your pod already, it should only take me a while," I said to Shiro who nodded and went back to his room while I stood up from my bed and headed downstairs.
"Good morning dad," I said to my father who was sitting on the couch watching the TV while I rubbed my eyes.
"Good morning Aki," said my father while I went towards the bathroom to brush my teeth.
"Good morning mom," I said to my mother who was in the kitchen cooking some breakfast, I always wondered why we don't just order a cooking bot but I guess her cooking has that special taste to it.
"Good morning, Aki. Can you pass me some water?" asked my mother as I went to get a cup and poured some water inside it and gave it to my mother.
"Thank you," she said with a smile as I went towards the bathroom and brushed my teeth for less than a minute while I watched my face and saw my gem-like eyes and chuckled at how different it was from before, I could see the genuine joy in my eyes instead of the fake luster it used to have.
Finally, I gargled some water and went back towards my room, entered the IVR pod and felt my consciousness leaving my body, and was greeted with the dark void.
[Welcome back NoNameDeity] said Ai as I was greeted with Ai's white humanoid figure.
"Open friends list, Shiro," I said and a list appeared in my face with only one account was shown, because my only friend is Shiro, my little brother.
"You ready now?" I said while clicking on the invite button as Shiro appeared beside me.
"Mmm!" said Shiro with a nod as I opened New World.
"Remember to pick human, it will mess with your mind if you pick another race," I said towards my brother and warned him about the abysmally low chance of a mishap happening but abysmally low doesn't mean zero, so might as well be as safe as possible.
"I will!" shouted Shiro as we soon got enveloped by two different spirals of white boxes and I appeared under the tree I log off yesterday and looked at the player list and searched up Shiro and waited for his account to appear so I could friend him.
But as I was looking around the open field, I saw a flash of light appearing above me and saw…
"Shiro?" I muttered and saw Shiro falling towards the ground with a…
"MYTHIC!?" I shouted in shock at the chaotic rainbow of lights appearing from a ball and looked around and breathed a sigh of relief to see that no one else was here to see Shiro's Mythical Class Gift.
As I looked at Shiro's falling body, I watched it come to a near halt when his body almost touched the ground and walked beside him.
"H- huh?" said Shiro as I chuckled and squatted beside him.
"You okay?" I said towards Shiro as he looked at me with wide surprised eyes.
"N- nii-chan?" asked Shiro who looked around in wonder as a soft breeze went towards us, ruffling our hair in the process.
"Yep!" I said towards Shiro while I stood up, and as I stood up, I grasped his arms and pulled his body up with ease because of my E-rank body stat.
"I- is this New World?" said Shiro as he looked around in wonder, he looked at the fleeting clouds, the flying birds, the flowing grass, the shaking leaves, the hopping bunnies, everything was so… real.
"Shocking right?" I said with a smile while patting his head.
"Mmm! It's so cool!" said Shiro as I noticed his white hair and white eyes, and chuckled at how his name complements his appearance.
"You really went full white, huh, you like your cool appearance?" I asked Shiro.
"Yeah! I look so cool!" said Shiro as we walked towards a near body of water and looked at our appearance.
"So what's your Gift?" I asked Shiro.
"It's called Light Manipulation (Mythic)" said Shiro as a ball of light appeared on his hand.
"So just like your Gift in real life, just without the buffs and healing," I said towards Shiro as we looked around the area.
"So, what class will you pick?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'll pick mage!" said Shiro with sparkling eyes.
"But you can already replicate magic with your Gift, you sure you don't want to also be physically strong?" I said towards Shiro.
"Hmm, I don't know," Shiro said with a smile.
"How about Paladin? I'm a priest so we could be like a duo, you can gain a random skill and Minor Heal, and you already have Light Manipulation so you could become good at close and long-range combat" I said towards Shiro.
"Okay! I'll be your shield Nii-chan!" said Shiro while flexing his nonexistent muscle.
"Sure sure, let's go towards the town for now and get you your class," I said as we walked towards the town while he looked around in wonder and continuously gasped in awe along the way until we finally reach the church and entered it along with tons of new players.
"Hello mister Priest, I'll donate 1 silver," I said towards the old man and gave him a silver coin.
"Oh Aki, thank you for your donation, is that your brother? You both look very handsome" said the Priest with a smile while patting Shiro's head.
"Mmm, we are indeed brothers, and if you mind, he wants to be a paladin, could you help him out?" I said towards the Priest.
"Sure sure, just stand over here boy," said the Priest as Shiro walked in front of the old man as he got enveloped by a halo of light and just like that, Shiro is now a priest.
"Follow me, boy, we need to get your leather armor and your skill books," said the Priest as we followed him towards a room where a rack of armor and weapons along with a pile of books was seen.
"Here, this is your leather armor, what weapon would you like? The sword, the mace, the flail?" asked the Priest.
"The sword!" said Shiro as he grabbed a sword from the rack as the Priest nodded and walked towards the pile of books and pick a Minor Healing and a random book.
"Here, your skills," said the Priest as Shiro used the book and gained two new skills.
"Ooooh, it's called Danger Sense and Minor Healing," said Shiro as I nodded as those two were very useful skills, especially Danger Sense which will be useful late game.
"Well go on now boys, remember to have fun!" said the Priest as we were escorted out of the room.
"Goodbye, mister Priest!" I said to the priest as I guided Shiro towards the Adventurer's Guild as he was already wearing the leather armor and the starter sword.
"Hi, miss!" I said towards the receptionist as we walked through the relatively small crowd as it was a bit early today.
"Oh Aki, having fun as an E rank adventurer?" said the lady towards me with a smile.
"Yep! And my brother here also wants to be an adventurer, can you help him out with the registering?" I said towards the lady while patting Shiro's back.
"Hello!" said Shiro with a smile while going for a handshake.
"Well hello there little guy, just follow me inside, you can just wait over here Aki," said the lady as Shiro followed her inside to the registering room while I looked at my Adventurer's Card that shows an E that shows I am E rank.
After a few minutes, while I looked at the quest board, I saw Shiro walking out showing me his Adventurer's Card.
"Look look!" said Shiro.
"Mmm, so I already chose a quest over here," I said towards Shiro and showed him the quest notice.
[Quest: Help! A Wild Boar is currently inside my farm just outside the city and it's not going away, you can keep the boar to yourself, I just need it away from my farm]
[Reward: 5 silver and vegetables]
"You up for the task? It's just an E-rank wild boar, and we don't even need to go find a Wild Boar, we just need to go to the boar and hunt it down" I said towards Shiro as he slowly read the quest notice.
"Sure!" said Shiro with a nod and with that, we went towards the receptionist and officially took the quest.
AN: This is 1562 words, by the way, you're welcome.
Realistically speaking, if I make an Ebook on K1ndle, and price it at like 2.99 - 9.99$, how many of you will buy it? Just asking to gauge how this question will evolve over the years.
I will probably move to K1ndle in the future because money, or maybe drop writing altogether, I don't know.
The Sword of Damocles hangs above each and everyone one of you with its ever present threat of despair, so send me some power stones with your power of friendship and save the thousands perhaps even millions to come who will read this masterpiece immortalized in the tunnels of time.
(March 16, 2022 – 112th day of writing)