"Hmm… I haven't really played many games," Kaede Honjou said with a sigh, gazing at

the box art of a new video game. Her friend Risa Shiromine had insisted she take it.

"And I always end up doing whatever Risa says…"

The cover showed several characters holding swords and staves, topped with a

colorful logo that read: NewWorld Online.

VRMMO games like this one were all the rage these days. Even Kaede owned the VR

console required to play them. Not that she'd used it much. It was collecting dust in

her closet.

She only owned it because Risa—again—had talked her into it.

"Sigh… I can never say no to her…"

Kaede was holding a note from Risa that listed all the instructions on how to get

started.

"When she looks at me with those puppy-dog eyes, I lose all will to resist."

Risa had been convinced Kaede would play the game. Not playing would definitely

leave Kaede feeling guilty.

"Might as well…! Guess I'll run through basic setup."

Kaede dusted off the machine and fired it up.

It wasn't like she had anything against games.

And if she had someone to play with…

With that in mind, Kaede started the game up.

Armed with Risa's instructions, Kaede got through NewWorld Online's initial setup

easily enough.

"Whew… I guess that's it."

She was ready to dive into the virtual world. It had been a while since Kaede last

experienced this sensation. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she

was in the game. But not in a town or anything; she still had a little setup left to go.

"First… a name? Hmm. Well, I don't want to just use my real name, so… let me see…"

She thought for a minute and decided to use the English name for the tree she was

named after. She typed Maple and hit CONFIRM. The panel hovering in front of her

changed, prompting her to choose her starter equipment.

"Greatswords and one-handed swords. Maces and staves. Hmm… I'm not really great

at running around, and I don't want to get hit a lot… Maybe I should pick staves and

be a mage?"

She flicked through more options until she found one that seemed perfect for her.

"Great shield and short sword? Not much attack—but the highest defense? Oh! As long

as I have super-high defense, I won't take any damage!"

Convinced by the tutorial text, she finalized her starting gear selection.

Great shields were not a common first choice among most players. Raising defense

only negated damage in the very early game, and most people agreed that pouring

points into DPS was more worth it.

And not many people picked their starter gear based on the assumption that they were

going to get hit a lot. Plus, there were plenty of shields that could be equipped with a

one-handed sword or a mace—just not a great shield.

Since those options offered more flexibility, they were far more popular.

"Next, my stat points… I guess I better put them all into Vitality."

This was a very one-sided build. Put bluntly, she was min-maxing her stats. Great

shields already left her with low attack, and putting no points into Strength only

exacerbated that shortfall. Plus, since she was ignoring Agility, she wouldn't receive

any speed boosts, meaning she could only move as fast as she did in real life.

And how many people could honestly claim that they naturally moved faster than a

charging beast?

"Oh… I can't adjust my height? I wanted to be taller."

Kaede was only four-foot-nine. She was slim, cute as a button, and more popular at

school than she realized. But however much she might want to change things,

discrepancies between a player's height and build in the real and virtual worlds often

detracted from the experience, so she was forced to abandon the idea.

"Okay. I think I'm ready! Let's do this."

Her body was enveloped in light.

And when she opened her eyes again, she found herself standing in the middle of a

bustling village.