1 Astral Haven Online

[Character customization sequence loading... Please design your choice character. You can only make certain changes once upon finalizing your choices, so please choose well.]

The guide for the VRMMORPG announced as Noah's mind was brought to the customization space where a featureless humanoid form was presented to him to customize as he wanted. He hummed as he browsed through the various options that were made available to the premium account he had managed to snag before the game company ran out of stock. There were various features that were unavailable to free-to-play users, as he had seen on the forum and on the homepage of the game on the internet.

For example, instead of leaving the choice of race up the a random lottery, he could choose his own race. This, among others, was one of the main reasons why he had pushed his already strained budget in order to get the premium account.

'Human, Mantis, Elf, Giant, Cyclops... Wow there's really a lot of variety, isn't there?' He laughed mentally as he scrolled through. 'Even an option to switch your race to a weaker Astral life form. Mandrake Co. didn't skimp out one bit.'

Noah spent his time combing through the almost endless options, although calling it almost endless was a bit of an exaggeration. He was just eager to get on with the game, but he had promised himself not to rush through this aspect of the game.

Eventually, he settled on an odd weakened Astral life form to start out the game with. If he wasn't satisfied, he could always delete his account and start all over, although it would be a bit overkill and also a waste of time. The race he chose was called Lesser Void Humanoid. The description went as follows:

[Lesser Void Humanoid.]

<Level 1>

<Strength: 10>

<Speed: 10>

<Endurance: 7>

<Willpower: 15>

<Intelligence: 10>

<Health: 100>

<Mana: 80>

<Stamina: 10>

<The Lesser Void Humanoid is a very distant offshoot of the Void Race that was derived after the extraction of the genes of a Void Space Lord, and the distribution of these genes among baseline humans. The results were quite mixed, but was largely successful in the end, with the rate of failures being just under five percent of the test subjects. These subjects were then released to proliferate on their own which led to the spread of the obscure race of humanoids. The Lesser Void Humanoid has a decently robust physique and also has a potential to be a decent mage. Further information is unavailable as it is kept within the hidden database of the Void Space Lord that started this project.>

<Race Potential: S grade>

___

Not only were the stats of the this race quite decent among the starters, but even its potential was top tier. Although potential wasn't the main determiner when it came to present power, as long as he was able to progress into the later stages of the game, he would be able to draw upon the full power of this race. Aside those up sides, the looks of the race was also cool, so why not?!

The skin of the Lesser Void Humanoid was the same as that of a human, but the moment the Lesser Void Humanoid was exposed to certain elements of vacuum, then their skin would turn to a shade of silvery gray. The aesthetic was quite nice and Noah liked cool looking things.

Without further ado, Noah selected the Lesser Void Humanoid as his starting race.

[Please customize the looks of your character.] Came the stoic voice of the game guide once again. The figure of the Lesser Void Humanoid had zoomed in, leaving him with a humanoid figure that had no distinctions between genders, but had the looks of the Lesser Void Humanoid.

Quickly, Noah began to configure the looks of his character. He had already decided on what to make it look like beforehand.

He selected silver hair, playing with the style of the hair a bit to make sure it fit his needs. He made the hair short on the sides and long on the top, brushing the hair on the top to the right side of his face so that it fell over, giving him a sleek look. Next, he chose bright blue eyes that looked like a mix between blue and silver to complement the hair color. He then made some more simple adjustments, refining the looks of the character, giving it sharper features in order to make sure it retained its masculine look. And of course, he made sure to set the gender of the character as male.

[Your character has been customized. Please confirm your decisions as most of these decisions can not be changed after you leave the customization space.]

'Confirm.' Noah gave him consent to finalize his choice.

[Your choice has been keyed in. Please wait while your character is being generated on a random spawn sight.]

While the guide carried on with what it was supposed to do, Noah began whiling away his time by opening the in-game chat where players were conversing with each other heatedly. This wasn't the first, second, nor the third month of Astral Haven airing. This was already the fifth month since the game was released. The only reason why Noah was just joining was because he wanted to put his all into his studies, as he was in his final year of school. The moment he had graduated, he launched the game, diving into the VRMMORPG with an unrivaled ferocity.

Now, here he was, ready to begin his adventure into the vast, vast world of Astral Haven Online.

Ding!

[Your character has been generated. You will spawn in the Mandarkle Dark Star Base, Far System. Good luck, Player.]

With a final word, along with a swirl of violent white lights, Noah was whisked away from the empty customization space in the blink of an eye. The next moment, the white light was fading away, leaving him standing on a plain gray metal platform in plain gray clothes. The clothes were silky on his body, and were the generic newbie spawning material.

Noah checked his surroundings, a bit irked at how real everything looked. He knew Astral Haven Online was renowned for its extreme and groundbreaking breakthrough in the Virtual Reality front, but he didn't know it would be this realistic!

While he was absorbed in his thoughts, a large metal door that was embedded in the wall at one side of the room slid open. Noah jerked out of his thoughts with a start. In came a whole squad of heavily armed soldiers, each of them standing well over six feet. At the head of the procession stood an equally heavily armed man, but his armor was adorned with various medals and other decorations that made him stand out. He was also without a helmet.