Raven opened his eyes to find himself in an empty, white room.
The room was a blank, pure white expanse, devoid of anything interesting. It was completely featureless, and each wall was around 5 meters long. Looking down at Raven's body, he discovered a plain, white, featureless form that was the same size as his real body.
After a brief moment which Raven spent examining his surroundings, a robotic voice spoke.
"Welcome, Raven, to the Full Immersion Virtual Reality Environment. In this area, you can test out the features of Full Immersion VR, create an avatar, and select which games you would like to play."
Still examining his weird, plain body, Raven said, "Uh huh... what games can I play right now?"
"Currently, you are not in possession of any games. In 13 minutes, you will be able to play Leigthaven Online."
Raven began stretching his body, marveling at the realistic sensation of stretching his muscles. "Well... guess I can edit my avatar before the game releases. Also, can I make this room a little more... interesting?"
"Of course. For both your avatar and this room, just imagine what you would like it to become."
Raven rubbed his featureless face, contemplating. 'Well, I don't really know what I want my room to look like... let's start be testing the limits then.'
Raven closed his eyes, and imagined a vast, open field of grass and flowers stretching for miles in every direction. In the center of this vast field, he imagined an offroad Jeep, with a man sitting in the driver's side. As he imagined this, he began to feel the warmth of the sun, and a crisp breeze blew across his body. Raven opened his eyes, and a beautiful field of grass appeared before him. It was exactly what he imagined, only much more realistic and vivid.
'Whoa, this is amazing! Everything feels so much more realistic than the haptic suit.'
Turning to his right, Raven found a jeep parked. Inside, a lifeless version of the man he imagined was slumped over in the driver seat.
"I see, so is it not possible to have living beings in this environment?"
"Artificial Intelligence is beyond the processing power of this device."
Raven shrugged, and opened up the door to the jeep. Dragging the lifeless man out of the vehicle, a strange idea popped into Raven's mind. Staring down at the body, he began to imagine a different form it could take. Right before Raven's eyes, the body began to shift. In a few moments, it had become a replica of his real body. Raven dragged it a few feet behind the jeep.
Smirking, Raven got into the jeep. Looking at his hand, he imagined the key to the jeep, and it appeared. Turning the jeep on, he paused for a moment. 'Oh, yeah. I don't know how to drive. Well, I've played VR racing games before. How hard could the real thing be?'
After setting the jeep into reverse, Raven slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and the jeep sped into action. A second later, Raven heard a loud thump as the jeep ran over his lifeless body.
Raven stared out the front window, looking at his mangled corpse, and began to laugh. 'Wow, you can do a lot just in the Virtual Environment!' Putting the jeep into drive, he began to speed off into the distance.
***
It took Raven five minutes to reach the edges of the fake world. Around 30 seconds of that Raven had walked, since the jeep had flipped over after he drove it into a ditch.
When Raven reached the edges of the room, a barrier appeared, preventing him from moving any further. 'Well, I guess there is a limit to the size then. Although it is quite a large limit.'
Right before the barrier, Raven imagined a mirror, and examined his fake body. Contemplating for a moment, he began to imagine a new form for himself.
After a few short moments, he had completely transformed. His new form was deathly pale, with dark hair and red eyes. He had his hair come down to his shoulders, and an androgenous face. Raven smiled, revealing a pair of fangs.
After spending a few moments examining his body, Raven imagined a pair of clothes for himself. Nothing special, just a plain shirt and pants. 'Yep, I am still too lazy to come up with my own character. So, I'll just go with my LGO one. No real reason to change it, either. If I want, I can disguise myself as any type of person, and I can make myself look threatening or harmless, depending on the situation. No sense fixing something that isn't broken!'
Turning away from the mirror, Raven asked, "Hey, how long until Leigthaven Online releases?"
"Liegthaven Online releases in 6 minutes 43 seconds."
"Ok. As soon as the game releases, can you boot up the game?"
"Of course."
Raven plopped down on the grass, and closed his eyes.
As the wind gently blew through Raven's hair, he smelled the scent of grass and flowers. The warm sunlight kissed his face, and the sounds of birds chirping filled the air. It was a tranquil and peaceful moment. In the real world, Raven mostly kept to his home. It was nice to enjoy the outdoors like this for once, even if it wasn't real.
As Raven continued to lay in the grass, he felt a buzzing in his mind. Looking up, he saw a screen floating in the air. On the screen was the game's logo.
"Leigthaven Online is now available. Would you like to launch the game?"
'Of course.'
In a single second, Raven's whole world was enveloped in a flash of white. The next thing he knew, he found himself standing on the balcony of a tall, medieval tower.
Around Raven were the rolling hills and mountains of the countryside, dotted with forests and rivers. Throughout the countryside, many strange and fantastical creatures roamed, such as dragons, unicorns, and giants. Many of these creatures were engaged in ferocious battle with each other, and even humans. In the distance, Raven could see the towering walls of a massive city, surrounded by a sprawling countryside.
Looking up at the sky, Raven saw the sun beginning to set, casting a brilliant array of colors that seemed to stretch on forever.
As Raven was admiring his fantastical view, he could hear bombastic, adventurous music slowly rise in volume. At the same time, a message faded into view right past the fence of the balcony.
"Welcome to Liegthaven Online, adventurer! Ready to start the game?"
Raven shrugged. "Yeah, no reason to wait."
At that moment, the entire world seemed to vibrate with energy. A massive, magical spell formation appeared in the sky, and a massive explosion destroyed everything in view.
After the explosion, everything went dark and silent, until Raven heard a voice.
"Preparing character creation."