Creation

Clunk. Jonathan's head slammed against his keyboard. It didn't take long for word to spread about his new unemployment status. Discretion was not one of Mr. Checnov's virtues. It was as if the whole world knew of Jonathan's little storeroom indiscretion. Pervert, sexual deviant, the backroom beef buffer, these were just a few of the names he had been called. That last one might have been funny had it not been for the circumstances.

Margery had taken the scandal particularly poorly. She had originally envisioned Jonathan as a rather plain person, with rather plain desires that matched his rather plain face. Someone nonthreatening she could bring home to her strict parents. All of this she had explained to Jonathan in an excruciatingly uncomfortable chat which had ended with Jonathan's 'newly single' status. Word of that status had also spread fast. He was single, and he was a social pariah. Even Jonathan's own sister had been avoiding his calls.

Clunk. Jonathan's head started to throb. He decided that he had punished his keyboard, and his head, long enough. Standing up from his computer desk he surveyed his bedroom. The cramped space had an assortment of empty drink cans and takeout containers haphazardly scattered across his floor and desk. He did his best to avoid looking at the small mirror hanging up on his wall. The last time he checked, a thin layer of stubble had begun to overtake his face and his eyes looked like they were being pulled down by the heavy sacks underneath them. He stretched out his lanky figure and let out a determined grunt.

'Alright, enough moping.' Jonathan felt a little lighter as he began to gather up the clutter around his room. He would sort out his messed-up room then start sorting out his messed-up life.

A sudden flash of light came from Jonathan's computer screen followed by a strange trumpeting jingle from his speakers. 'Odd' Jonathan thought, he was sure he had powered-off his monitor when he started cleaning. The screen showed Jonathan's email, one new message waiting for him. 'I must have left it open.' He thought as he approached the monitor to turn it off again, the email could wait until later. Then again, it wasn't like the mess was going anywhere. He hesitated as he glanced at the message's subject line:

Live without fear.

"The hell?" Jonathan went to mark the email as spam. He squinted as he checked the message's sender. It was from Isekguy Studios, the creators of Netorare Emperor. Jonathan sighed and checked the email, Isekguy Studios was known for sending out quirky special offers and Jonathan was a sucker for a good deal. "This better not be spam."

To: Jonathan Night

From: Isekguy Studios

Subject: Live without fear.

Congratulations! You have been accepted to join the closed beta for Live Without Fear. A brand-new experience in the world of roleplaying from Isekguy Studios. Delve into a fantasy world where you can be yourself without judgement! Our state-of-the-art artificial intelligence directs player-driven emergent storytelling and gameplay. This game is unlike anything you have ever seen and is a great way to relax and escape from your plain and socially awkward life. As this is a closed beta, we expect a few bugs that we hope you can help us squash. Click HERE to sign our NDA and create your character today.

'Plain and socially awkward life?' Jonathan pondered 'That's an odd way of putting it. I don't think people enjoy being called plain or socially awkward no matter how accurate the statement was. The marketing guys really dropped the ball on that one.' At the bottom of the email was a scantily clad girl with long pointed ears and blonde hair that flowed over her transparent unbuttoned robe and down to her waist. A tattoo that resembled a bulbous lily emanated a light-purple glow from her chest. It definitely looked like Jonathan's kind of game but something about this email seemed off. He didn't remember signing up to the Isekguy closed beta mailing list. A quick internet search showed that the sender's email address checked out, it was the legitimate Isekguy Studio's promotional email. That put Jonathan's mind at ease, maybe they had just noticed his playtime and thought he would be a good candidate to test their new game.

'What the hell, why not?' Jonathan clicked the hyperlink and proceeded. He scrolled past the enormous wall of fine print that appeared shortly after. 'Accept... Accept... Accept...' All fine print was essentially the same, so he didn't waste his time on it. A few minutes later he had finally landed on the character creation screen. It was surprisingly sparse. Only three fields: name, gender, special ability, and an image of a character that looked eerily like him.

Jonathan rubbed the back of his neck. Usually, he was pretty boring with his character names preferring to use just Jonathan or Jon. He liked to self-insert into the game's world, and it helped him feel connected to the character he played. No reason to change it up now. Jonathan entered "Jonathan" as his character name.

"ERROR please do not use your real name." The character creation screen complained in a high-pitched robotic staccato.

"Urgh, alright." They must have had Jonathan's name on file somewhere. He tried entering "Jon".

"ERROR name too short. Try again." The robotic voice blurted.

Jonathan spent several minutes trying different variations of his name, each one returning error after error. Stubbornly he continued until the system accepted a name that he entered "Jonn Nightmare".

"Fine. NAME ACCEPTED..." The game conceded.

Jonathan chuckled at the character screen's belligerence. He imagined that a significant amount of coding went into making the screen snarky, hard work that might have been lost on the regular player. Although, he wondered why the game wouldn't let him use his own name. Perhaps it was a privacy thing? The username he ultimately chose was somewhat on the pretentious side. 'Nightmare, what am I twelve? I hope other players don't think I am weird.' Jonathan paused as it dawned on him that he didn't really know anything about the game he was about to play. Was even multiplayer? Maybe it was just a solo experience, and he would be able to avoid the embarrassment of interacting with other humans with such an edgy username.

The next information box was easy. Gender. Male.

"Are you sure? Playing as a female might be an enlightening experience." The character creation screen chimed in.

'Nope.' Jonathan didn't really play games as a female lead when given a choice. It was probably for the same reason he named most of his characters after himself or perhaps it was just due to a lack of imagination. Jonathan rarely pondered that thought. Besides, who would want to play as a female called Jonn Nightmare? They should have put the gender question first.

That left Jonathan with a single field remaining to fill in, the special ability. This time it was a categorized drop-down menu. There were a hefty number of abilities listed, ranging from superhuman strength, to teleportation, to the use of powerful in-game artefacts. 'Balancing this game must be a nightmare.' He shook his head at his unintentional wordplay. He scrolled down until he reached the final category, sexual abilities. 'Here we go.' He browsed this category with more care than the others. One ability in particular stood out: Arousal Control. The ability to heighten or lower the sexual arousal levels of nearby characters. 'Perfect'. As he selected it, Jonathan's thoughts wandered to the ways in which he could use this ability, making some unsuspecting NPC girl fall down, hot and bothered in the middle of a crowded street unable to hold back the urge to touch herself. He hoped that the game allowed for this particular fetish but considering it was from Isekguy Studios, it almost certainly did.

"SPECIAL ABILITY ACCEPTED, you pervert. Initiating." The computer said in a mocking monotone.

Jonathan's room was immediately plunged into darkness. 'A power short?' Jonathan groaned at the thought of having to redo the whole character creation process. But wait, it shouldn't have been pitch black. It was only the afternoon, there should have still been daylight coming from outside. An intense wave of white light enveloped Jonathan's body as the room around him peeled away into nothingness, leaving Jonathan alone in a vast sea of white. The light began to dim as the scent of beer, cooked meat and the hearty warmth of a fire overwhelmed his senses.

"Where am I?".