The Game!
{In a small room, Apartment 702, Megabuilding X23}
I stared at the flickering screen in surprise. The scene seemed so familiar, and after spending a couple of days getting somewhat used to this dystopian world, this was the last thing I expected to see. A man wearing red armor looked down at an army on the screen. A multitude of weapons made of cold steel were pointed at the man, who had a small smirk on his face.
His mouth moved as he said something before he dashed at the army, his hands flashing through several seals before he breathed a sea of fire in the camera's direction. The whole screen went ablaze as words emerged: Elemental Nations.
'You have got to be kidding me,' I thought before quickly connecting to the net. To an onlooker, my eyes would look like they were glowing as a holographic projection onto a screen in front of my eyes, which allowed me to see and control a holographic panel with just my thoughts. In a moment, I searched the keywords that had just been displayed and found the net address of the game website.
Navigating through a couple of ads, the invasive ones literally taking over my vision, I quickly arrived at the net address. The change was obvious. Not only was the vibe of the webpage totally different from the bland mass content of the dystopian capitalistic world, but the tune that was embedded on the page also brought back some happy memories.
The background music was the title track of Naruto. As I leaned back and relaxed to the familiar tune, my eyes scanned the page for any information regarding the game. Elemental Nations, apparently, according to the page's website, was a VRMMORPG developed in conjunction with the company's first full-dive technology.
('...with complete immersion into the new world. With adjustable pain and other sensory input, the difference between reality and fiction would not be noticeable. In addition, the difficulty of survival in the Elemental Nations is a key aspect of the game. There will be no additional lives, and each death will require the creation of a new character. With a cooldown period of 14 days.')
'Yeah, so no dying. That meant provoking someone strong would not be a good idea. Though I wonder how real it would feel.' I thought. Would I play this game? Was that even a question? However, I wonder how they would handle the whole masses of players that would play it. There was no mention of a server or anything, and if millions of people play just one game, then the world of Naruto would become fucked, right?
'I mean, there were what? 40,000 shinobi in the 4th Great Ninja War.'
Still, the concept of the Naruto world being brought to life enticed me. I quickly scrolled down to register or buy the game, only to see that the game was free, but I needed a special pod designed by the company Link-In.
'Right, VR pod...' I clicked on the buy option and winced when I saw that the price of the pod was 2000 dollars. I had the money, but this was going to put quite a dent in my savings. The only reason I had that much money saved was because the original consciousness of my current body was quite frugal with his allowances.
'Still, this purchase would wipe out over half of my reserves. Considering that the world I was in was quite brutal in itself, I logically shouldn't buy this.' I thought as I clicked the buy button. Another holographic projection appeared at the corner of my vision, indicating the successful transfer of funds.
'Well, no regrets now,' I thought as I scrolled up, intending to review every bit of information that was publicly available.
...
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{7 Days Later}
(LuvDelight: Read the forum post. Apparently, the world has some supernatural power called chakra that we can control.)
(SlaySaber: @LuvDelight: I wonder what it would feel like to fly through the air and blast through buildings.)
...
The forum was abuzz with plenty of posts and activity. It was quite different from what I expected. The game apparently didn't gain much of an audience, as the theme and trailer were pretty far off from the normal taste palette of this world. I was already lying inside the VR pod, a wire connected to the back of my head, directly plugging into my neural port.
It was a weird coincidence. But at first, when I felt the metallic port at the back of my head, I suspected that I had transmigrated into the Cyberpunk universe. However, after struggling with the mental commands of my neural interface, I was quickly able to search the net and gained a superficial understanding of the world.
There was no mention of something like the Blackwall or other famous characters. The cyberware was more bland, no matis blades or anything like that. Cyberpsychosis still existed, but it was milder and quite harmless. It was referred to as mind break here, and no, it wasn't anything like the porn category...kind of.
I was eyeing one of the neural enhancements myself, but it's not like there was a necessity; better reflexes would not help me during my studies... Yes, I was stuck in school once again; it was a byproduct of being the son of parents who worked for multinational corporations.
...
(BauerAsta: @WittyCo: the servers are starting soon. See ya guys in the game!)
...
A similar barrage of messages appeared in front of me one by one, and I closed the forum and instead navigated to the external connections. The VR Pod was already loaded, and a timer appeared before me. Second by second, the digits changed until they were all zeroes.
'Connect,' I thought. I was already familiar with the pod's commands. My vision blanked out as darkness engulfed me. Momentarily, I felt vertigo overwhelm me as my senses got jumbled. It was barely a moment, but I was standing in a dark room. My surroundings were completely dark, but somehow, I was able to see my hands and my body quite well.
'How does that work?'
I didn't have much time to marvel at the fact that somehow I was now in a tiny body, something fit for a 12 to 13-year-old, when a glowing blue panel appeared in front of me.
[Welcome to Elemental Nations]
[Choose Starting Village:]
...
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AN: I recently read a story similar to this, and I did not agree with the author's choices. So here's my version of the story!