The True Endgame

He is only taken out of his thoughts when he feels himself land on solid ground. Well, land isn"t the appropriate word. It"s more like everything just materialized around him, and the ground was the last thing to do so.
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All of those colors and shapes now paint a beautiful world for his eyes to feast on. There are vast fields of green decorated with flowers being visited by bees and b.u.t.terflies, forests in the distance beyond the gra.s.sy knolls, and all manners of creatures both roaming the land and sky as far as he can see.

His mouth hangs open from how incredibly beautiful it all is. He"s played virtual reality games before, but none have ever looked anywhere this realistic! It is indistinguishable from reality. Not only is the scenery beyond perfect, but so are the senses. A soft breeze brushes through the tall gra.s.s and breaks up around him, he can feel the warmth of the sun above shining down its rays unto him, and – are those waves that he can hear?

Fenrir climbs up the nearest mound to look over the field.

What his climb is rewarded with is the sight of a vast, blue ocean sending rolling waves crashing into a sandy beach. He can even smell it! When he reaches down to take clumps full of gra.s.s into his hands, he can feel even the smallest of details against his fingers! He pulls some of the gra.s.s out from the ground to see what happens.

It"s just like real life! The gra.s.s gets pulled out and leaves naught but a patch of dirt and insects upset that their hiding spot was removed. One of few things would happen in every other game: his hands would clip through the gra.s.s, he could pull but it would be stuck in the ground, or he could pull it out but it would instantly be replaced by more gra.s.s just as tall as before. But here? Here he has pulled the gra.s.s out with ease and all that is left behind is dirt.

And some annoyed bugs.

"This is awesome! I never thought I"d get to experience anything like this! Hey, Saya, you there?" Fenrir asks. His voice is much deeper than it is in real life to match the new, masculine appearance of this avatar.

"I"m always here, Onii-chan. I see and feel everything you do. I"m technically living inside of your brain now. Isn"t that great? We always get to be together!" Saya replies. He can"t see her, but he can hear her voice get transmitted directly into his head.

That is really weird. "I thought you were supposed to be a bit of a tsundere, now you"re going yandere on me?" Fenrir asks. He doesn"t know whether he should speak out loud or just think.

"Oh, that reminds me! Where did I put my knives…"

Fenrir shakes his head. As annoying as she acts, he genuinely finds it all entertaining. His interactions with her thus far more than make up for the cost of the headset.

Wait, isn"t it really pathetic if he finds a bit of interaction with a virtual girl worth seventy dollars?

"Yeah, it kind of is," Saya confirms his thoughts.

"Anyways, how do I open my menus?" Fenrir asks.

"You can"t."

"What?"

"There are no menus."

"I don"t remember reading that anywhere. How am I supposed to manage my inventory and skills and everything else?"

"You don"t. You just go and live your new life here like you would in reality!"

"Then how do you get specialized and build your character? What if I want to be like, a warrior with high strength and health?"

"Then you go do things that will increase your strength, silly Onii-chan! Lift some weights or chop some trees! And let stuff hit you a bunch of times if you want more health!"

"What if I want to be a really smart wizard?"

"You study and try really hard!"

Is it really that simple? Fenrir thinks that he understands, but he"s surprised that this game has a popular character system given that this system essentially makes min-maxing and theorycrafting impossible. How can anybody figure out what the best builds are if there are no numbers nor visible stats to see?

"Alright," Fenrir thinks of what his next question will be, "then what about skills? If I want to be a blacksmith, for example, do I just have to go and make a bunch of iron daggers over and over to level up my blacksmithing? Do skills even have levels? Wait, how do skills work if we don"t know which ones we have?"

"Geeezzz, so many questions, Onii-chan. Don"t worry so much! There are stats and skills, but they"re all hidden and managed by me. Every single player has their own a.s.sistant, like me for you, to manage their avatars. If you"re doing things to increase your strength, I"ll increase your strength! If you train your speed by running a lot, I"ll make you faster and give you more endurance! If you fight with one-handed weapons all the time, then you"ll gain a skill that increases your ability to fight with one-handed weapons that will rank up whenever you meet the criteria for it! You just won"t know what skills you have, and you won"t know how to increase them. The only way for you to find these things out is by playing and communicating with other players. Trust me, Onii-chan, you"ll notice the differences as you play! Just do whatever you want. There"s literally skills for everything from walking to fighting, from eating to crafting, and from holding your breath to climbing mountains! It"s just like real life. The more you do something, the better you get at it no matter what it is," Saya finally pauses to take a deep breath.

Fenrir wants to flick her on her forehead since he knows she doesn"t need to breathe.

"And finally, there"s even the possibility of doing something or just being lucky enough that a new skill is created entirely for you! You won"t know it of course, but if the overseer decides that you"re worthy of something, then she"ll create a new skill and send it to me to add to your collection! Like maybe if you make it your life goal to kill millions of cute little bunnies, you"ll get the special ability to instantly kill bunnies just by looking at them!"

"But I like bunnies," Fenrir says.

"What kind of wolf are you?" Saya asks.

"The friendly kind."

He can"t see her do it, but he can feel the rolling of her eyes within his mind. "Alright, so there are technically stats, skills, character sheets, and all of the normal stuff, but it"s all invisible and only accessible by you and the other a.s.sistants. And if I ask for details, you won"t give me any. Is that right?" he asks her.

"Right, Onii-chan!"

Thinking about it, this is actually pretty nice. It means that he doesn"t have to worry about what the best build is or limiting himself to only a few repet.i.tive tasks to gain experience. n.o.body can judge him either in case he accidentally places the wrong points into the wrong stats, or if he"s not wearing the best-in-slot gear! Then he realizes something. "I"m guessing there"s nothing like a friend"s list to look at or anything like that, and no party screens either. Right?"

"Right! If you decide to be like a healer, you"ll need to pay attention to visible damage and if your party members are asking to be healed."

Poor, poor healers. Healers already get enough bull for letting party members die, and now they have to somehow keep their comrades up without even being able to see health bars and knowing how much damage they"ve taken? There is no way that he is going to be a healer. "One last question, I think. How much stuff can I ask you? I mean, how much are you allowed to tell me?"

"I"m not allowed to be any more specific than I have been. Anything else would be considered cheating and get you a ban, and all bans are permanent! I"m hardcoded not to tell you anything more anyways, Onii-chan. To answer the next question you"re about to ask," she"s in his head and can read his thoughts after all, "you can talk to me and ask me questions whenever you want! I"ll also relay any important news relevant to you, tell you if anybody comes into your room, warn you of health concerns, and wake you whenever you"re ready. Other than that, I can be as quiet or as talkative as you would like me to be."

"Thanks for the information, Saya, but don"t answer my questions before I get to ask them. It feels weird. Also, you don"t mind if I focus on the game instead of keeping you company, do you?" Fenrir feels guilty about asking this, but there is a ma.s.sive world set out for him to explore.

"B-baka Onii-chan, leaving me all alone in your head while you explore… just kidding! We"re basically the same person. I have access to all of your thoughts, memories, and feelings. Everything you experience is what I experience, so I"m just as excited to explore the world as you are! Show me lots of interesting places and do lots of fun things for the both of us, okay?"

He still doesn"t know how to feel about the fact that she has access to all of that, but it"s comforting knowing that focusing on the game instead of her won"t make her lonely.

"You"re too nice, Onii-chan! What are you going to do if a bad guy tries ambushing you? Worry about his feelings? I promise that you don"t need to worry about me. Besides, what kind of silly person worries about an artificial intelligence when they don"t even have clothes yet?"

"The friendly kind," Fenrir replies.

"Geez, Onii-chan! I"m supposed to make your heart go doki-doki, not the other way around!" Saya whines.

Fenrir raises a hand to flick the air in front of him. "That"s for your forehead. Wait, what did you say about clothes?" he asks before looking down.

Not a single piece of clothing hides his body.

Needless to say, the surprised gasp he makes--followed by an immediate attempt at hiding himself--does not exactly match the masculine appearance of his avatar.