7 Homunculus

The Pandemonium official website had a complete guide, lore, and everything about their game in just one night.

But, although there were many categories to click on, most of them contained only general information, which players could check through the in-game support guide.

The developers put a footnote, "We only put what is necessary as we don't want to ruin our players' journey in discovering our vast, fantasy world by themselves. Everything on this website, you can access it on the in-game support guide for convenience."

So far, they did what the other developers had done, trying so hard to make their games look like they had something unique, but in reality, there was none.

However, the mechanism Pandemonium offered was intriguing for many people, especially the no restriction in learning skills because it had no specific classes, meaning they could go for a jack-of-all-trades build.

Another footnote slipped at the end of the website's front page, "If you find yourself lost in the game, don't forget to check the in-game support guide. We have everything you need to solve your 'necessity' problem."

"Hee..."

A girl excitedly navigated through the Pandemonium website on her holo-shaped tablet.

After discovering and reading everything on the website, she was captivated by the game, making her want to play it.

However, it was still early in the morning. As a patient, she needed permission from her nurse. Moreover, she had not yet had her daily check-up.

She still had an hour before her routine check-up and medication. In the meantime, she spent her time finding a video about Pandemonium. Despite her diligent search, it was to no avail.

Be it in the streaming platform, Sphere, or social media video platform, Coremest, the girl didn't find any content of Pandemonium.

Only when she accessed the website back did she know why.

Pandemonium and the company that developed it, Nebula Universe, were a relatively new name in the industry. The game was only released 13 hours ago. And their player base was only a few.

'A new competitor to the market, but they didn't do a single advertising or promotion? Wow. I'm speechless. Are they that confident with their games, or is all their budget spent on the game development?'

No matter how good the game is, if no one knows about it, then what is the purpose of making it in the first place? It's not like they produced it for themselves, no?

An hour later...

The girl finally got her medication and check-up done. During that time, she had obtained the nurse's permission to let her play a game again, to which the latter had installed Pandemonium in the patient room's gaming device.

Now that the setup was done, the nurse helped her patient to lie on the device's bed.

"As promised, you can't play all day long. I'll send a message through your device when it's time to stop playing, okay?"

Nodding eagerly, the patient said, "Okay. I promise I'll immediately log out when the time comes."

A bright smile plastered on her face as he made a 'peace' gesture with her hands.

With that, the nurse closed the device. Immediately, the patient launched Pandemonium with AI's help.

She found herself standing in the white, infinite space as a blob of floating fire, similar to a soul.

Taking her time to admire the somewhat eerie yet calming void, then she glided toward the blue light.

Her body materialized in that white world.

Unlike her frail and sickly appearance in the real world, the game made her body's condition and complexion better in the game world. Or it could also be said that it was her original, healthy form.

She could walk, and her heart seemed to be in better condition. It was the first time she felt that. Normally, her heart problem was still replicated even when she was playing a game. But not this time. It was as if she didn't have any complications at all.

The happiness was surging, but she suppressed it. It wasn't the time for that. She needed to create her character.

In front of her stood a girl who resembled her from head to toe. The AI clone.

She remembered it was supposed to be the support guide.

"Hello, are you new here?" The clone greeted the girl.

"Yes!"

After she confirmed the support's question, it began explaining the general information about Pandemonium.

Once it was done, the girl started creating her character.

Among the seven selectable races, she chose Homunculus.

Unlike the other races, Homunculus had sub-races a player must consider: Humanoid, Slime, Imp.

The girl went for an obvious pick, a Humanoid-type Homunculus. Her traits were [Artificial] and [Good Natured].

With 100 XP in her possessions, she used it to add more traits: [Beauty], [Pious], and [Poor Hearing].

The two positive traits cost her 40 XP, while the negative gave her 20 XP back. In the end, she was left with 80 XP.

After setting her character's race and traits, it was time for customizing her appearance.

This part was what most players put their effort into.

Everyone wanted to look charming.

They wanted to impress others with their make-up characters.

Although players couldn't choose the opposite sex for their characters, it was still possible to customize it like one. In other words, making a trap character.

Fortunately, they couldn't change their voice pitch. Unless the player in question was capable of switching their voice from woman to man and vice versa, there wouldn't be that many victims, hopefully.

One more thing: most VR games don't have a chat or text feature. So did Pandemonium.

The girl didn't change much of her initial appearance; she only changed her hair color to silver because her Homunculus race already did everything.

She proceeded to the starting area selection, prompting her to consider which would be the best region to start off.

Among the seven nations and monster territories, the support guide recommended the human's holy nation "Phentrum." It was the only place where Homunculus could live like a decent being, not a slave.

The girl had already planned ahead of what she would become and where she would start after reading articles on the official website.

And it was good to know that her plan and the recommendation region were aligned.

With that, the girl named her character "Evangelion" and opened the door to Pandemonium.

"I'm so excited!"