2 1. Starting Again!

A warm feeling of air rushed past him, matching Sihle's jubilation. His brown hairless skin developed goosebumps as the sounds of majestic trumpets from the VRMMORPG: Odyssey danced in his ears. Inside a black inviting void, a machine voice chimed in, "Cantos Industries welcomes you to your Odyssey! Please state character name." Sihle was ecstatic at the all-too-familiar voice.

Seven days ago, he had been reborn during his eighteenth birthday party. His past self had sent back some of his memories from fifteen years in the future. The memory infusion process had left him confused, with too many gaps and confusing memories, but through the chaos, he knew he had a purpose.

At the unreal prospect of being able to save his sister's life, Sihle was overwhelmed with joy. Although his memories about Odyssey had arrived safely, the reason for such an extreme and dangerous method had not. It worried him, but he was focused on the money, glory, and power that Odyssey offered. It was the only combined project in the history of the solar system and humanity, where every major power could slug it out for supremacy.

What Sihle knew was that his wonderful, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed baby sister would be dead in six months. Next week, she would come out of the folded land, and he would find out that her illness was caused by Baron International. Unless he got the money for treatment from Odyssey, he had no other short-term means to help her, even with his new knowledge.

Fortunately, in his village, his friends had plenty of reasons to join him. Be it for debt relief, revenge, greed, fame, or fun, each of them had a reason to follow Sihle into the fray. With his memories, he could train them up to be deadly in the initial stages of the game. How far they would grow would be up to their individual effort.

Sihle spent the week preparing his friends for the upcoming challenges they would face, taking advantage of his memories to build for them an empire that would rival the Ten Glory Guilds. He also made a few smart investments in real-world companies that would profit from Odyssey, hoping that they too would become moguls in the future.

As he gazed at the image of the seven dominant species appearing in the black void, he felt the awe-inspiring expansiveness of Odyssey. The seven species he saw were only the main ones for his continent of Liguria. Each of the seven land continents had its own species and history, each with its gifts and deficiencies. However, Sihle had no choice but to play the human, as the leader of the party, since they needed to register in the human kingdom where they would operate. In other games, they would all play as non-humans, but Asrugo, the small unimportant kingdom, was ninety percent human.

Sihle had convinced his friends of the kingdom's strategic location, which had access to three of the seven seas. The volcanic ridge called Dragon's Jaw secured the border from the eastern empires. The biggest of these volcanoes was also a rank 5 Dungeon, but Sihle's knowledge of this was from his old memories. It was the only dungeon on the continent without a major power controlling it. In his past life, a rank zero guild had raised themselves to a rank five powerhouse by controlling this region.

Sihle quickly selects the Barren Coast region as his starting point, and after a few seconds, he transfers to a dilapidated wooden hall. The building walls are old, with triangular wooden pieces forming the walls. In the doorway, a large plane of seven-color glass, much like a rainbow, greets him. Sihle walks through this plane and appears in Odyssey for the second time.

He immediately opens his character sheet, which displays his personal information in a window laced with golden floral borders. Sihle laments the lack of a special racial trait. His character, Tyr, is an ordinary man in every sense - neither tall nor short, with short black hair and light brown eyes. The only thing that stands out is his distinctive white beard, a quirk from his avatars in previous games.

Name: Tyr

Race: Human

Domain: None

Title: None

Class: None

Profession: None

Level: 0

Physical Attributes:

Strength - 1

Endurance - 1

Dexterity - 1

Mental Attributes:

Intelligence - 1

Wisdom - 1

Willpower - 1

Spiritual Attributes:

Power - 1

Force - 1

Balance - 1

Tyr sends his Risha or spirit pattern to his real-life friend list. Since he is now registered at this cathedral by walking through the multicolored glass plane, Maria Mei is the first to join him. She is also eighteen, like all his friends, but more importantly, she is his unrequited love interest. In his previous life, he lost touch with all his friends.

This time, Maria is playing a higher realm being called Arkenia. She looks paler than her normal Asian self, but her bust is nice and plump, just like her rosy red cheeks and wonderful smile. Her wings, to his surprise, are silver. He hadn't told her that the differences between Arkenias mainly come from their wings, but she must have done her own research.

John-Baptist's avatar is a slim and tall half-elf named Seren. He has dark green hair, sharp blue eyes, and a longbow strapped to his back. Seren moves with grace and fluidity, his movements betraying the hours of practice he has put into archery. John-Baptist has always been the group's primary damage dealer and he takes that role very seriously.

"Hey, guys!" he says, his voice deep and gravelly. "Looks like we made it to Odyssey in one piece." He turns to Sihle and grins. "Nice beard, man. I see you've been taking care of it."

Sihle chuckles, rubbing his beard absentmindedly. "Yeah, it's become something of a trademark for me, I guess."

John-Baptist nods. "Well, it suits you. And hey, maybe it'll give you some extra charisma points or something." He winks at Sihle, who rolls his eyes.

Mei laughs. "So, are we ready to start exploring?"

Sihle nods. "Absolutely. I think we should start by looking for some quests. We need to start earning credits as soon as possible if we're going to pay off these implants."

John-Baptist nods in agreement. "Agreed. Let's see what we can find."

With that, the group sets off, their avatars moving in unison as they explore the dilapidated wooden hall and the world beyond. They're ready for whatever Odyssey has in store for them.

John slithers closer, snapping his jaw at his friends before saying, "I'm glad we did that one-week history course, otherwise I don't think I could breathe let alone adventure today." This is genuine right now all over the game. People who skipped the one-week in-game history course are sending a long-winded, violently worded message about how difficult none human races are to control.

With a small flutter of her wings and Nineth Immortal creates some distance between them so she can get a good look. She can see folded golden scales on his back that she thinks must be his fins when he swims.

Tyr says, "looking good man, Raul is going to be so jealous. Ign1?" Raul and John have a rivalry going back decades. Since they all attended the same V.R. college. Because of the increase in demand for skilled labor, all kids from sixteen up attend colleges in a three-fold V.R. Spaces. The fold is a simple system to describe the time dilation experienced in these spaces. Raul and John have known each other the longest, having only moved to the village as part of their education and of course, the governments' development program, which earned them ownership rights in the village.

John says after breathing deeply and a little uncomfortably, " I think the simplest translation would be SKY Ocean Hunter, but during my history lesson the others just called me Sky." Unlike other games, players learn the history of their people for a week before the game for two reasons. First months of protest by role players and secondly, over seven billion letters written from earth to Jupiter all asking for this concession from Overwatch. Odyssey is so vast that the seven-player continents' various seas and realms don't share a common history, meaning that legendary classes were regional and needed some research.