Free Life Fantasy Online-Chapter 1: 01 Prologue

01 Prologue

*Ding-dong*

“Coming now!”

“A delivery!”

I receive a fairly big box from a young man who did the delivery. It was addressed to "Tsukishiro Akina"… looks like it’s for my little sister.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Goodbye~.”

I see off the courier, lock the front door, then call my little sister who is on the second floor before carrying the box to the living room.

The package that arrived was from Future Software and written on it is “Tournament Prize”. My little sister Akina could be said to be a gamer. As for me, I only play games from time to time.

“Did it come~?!”

“A fairly big box came.”

My little sister soundly peels off the tape from the cardboard box, before taking out three boxes from inside.

“Oohh! Here, Onee-chan, a gift for you.”

“Hmm? It’s your prize from a tournament, right?”

“It is, I picked a main unit and game set. You were interested in this, right? It’s a quantity-limited special edition, THE special edition!”

“Ohh, you mean the thing from CMs?”

“It’s FLFO! I won a prize in the beta’s tournament!”

Free Life Fantasy Online, in short - FLFO. Japan’s first Full Dive Virtual Reality MMO in developing of which, multiple corporation were engaged right from its conception.

Apparently the base concept for it had “Leaving everything to professionals" in mind. As a result, vegetables were recreated with help of farmers; cooking with the help of cooks; woodcrafting with that of carpenters, smithing with that of swordsmiths; and so on… There really was a lot of various companies involved in it.

And the company that gathered all of this and put it in a game, was the game's developer and its managing company “Future Software”.

Well, from a player’s perspective, this doesn’t really matter as long as the game is interesting.

Naturally, there is fighting against monsters with things like swords, magic, and bows. There are also crafting professions like smithing, tailoring and carpentry. Cooking and fishing is also possible. One could even buy land in-game to do agriculture and keep livestock.

Although it is not recommended, if one wanted, they could play as bandits or pirates and live a life full of the thrill of being chased by both NPCs and players.

And with an enormous number of skill combinations, it was near impossible to find two same builds unless players in question matched each other on purpose - which also meant that it was easy to make your original build and live your second life in fantasy. Apparently this part is this game selling point.

“But, why did they send two main units? Maybe I should go send an ticket… even if they sent it by mistake, maybe they’ll let me keep the new model~.”

Although there were VR games that came out before, this is the first VRMMO. Which is also the reason is why my little sister already owned a main unit for VR. It was possible to play the MMO with old models, but matching the new game’s release there was a new model that was released. And now, it appears that two units of the new model and a game copy have been sent to us.

“Well, in any case… it starts tomorrow, so use this one, Onee-chan. It’s FLFO, so I think you will be alright with it this time!”

“Let’s see..."

I start to open the box I received and let out rustling sounds while at it.

“I’ll go send them a message!” says Akina and runs upstairs to the second floor. Since I received it, I guess I will have to do initial settings, so it's best to do them right away. The official service starts tomorrow… on Saturday at noon.

I quickly read through the instructions of the VR device.

To complete the initial setup, lie down on bed and follow the instructions…

First, input your height, weight and three sizes. After the input, you will be undergo a precise scan.

This part… it’s a pain to measure again, so it should be fine to put in my sizes from memory?

Setting an alarm is possible “For example, if you set your alarm to 19 o’clock, you will be notified inside the game.” ...oh, I guess I could use this?

Next, I open instructions for the game and find a flimsy explanation.

This game is a Full Dive-type Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Game.

Attention: In order to play this game, you are required to have a VR device and a connection to the internet.

※For those who play on the internet, online games for the first time.※

Avoid conversations in which you might share your personal information; it’s dangerous. And it can be immersion-breaking.

Even when playing with your friends, please call each other by your character names.

Other players are humans, just like you. Let’s not act rude while we play.

There are people that are roleplaying (RP) as they play the game. They act according to their setting… in other words, they pretend to be the character they have created. If you do not understand them, please ask them to explain in secret.

Also, do not insist that rude actions are roleplay. You will be hated.

Actions such as stalking can, in some cases, cause players to be caught by the police in the real world, so please be careful.

Adhere to online manners and have fun playing! Young gamer’s parents, please explain everything to your children.

This is a promise between you and the management. For details, please check the official website.

It isn't my first time playing an online game so I knew most of this, but I should still be careful. Wait, there is no URL written anywhere… I guess they are telling us to browse their official site.

On a small piece of paper, there was what seemed to be “A Limited Bonus Start-Dash Campaign Code”. Umm… a bonus to the amount of possessed money you receive upon the game start. A set of consumables for novices. A premium character creation ×1. ...They aren’t giving us anything exceptional. It is an online game, so I guess this is about the biggest bonus we will get.

Akina came back while running soundly.

“There’s a bonus code, want it?”

“Ahhh, you can use it, Onee-chan. We beta players have different bonuses.”

“Oh, is that so.”

“We got to keep our money, after all. Also, a few other items, too.”

“And this premium character creation?”

“That’s one of the few microtransaction features there are, it allows you to use more parts when creating your character. Beta players’ character creation also used that, so I don’t need it.”

“I see, I’ll use it then.”

『”You have mail.”』

Looks like a mail arrived on the Connect Board that Akina was holding.

“Oh? Ohh, a response! O-Ooo... management’s so generous! Hyahhoo!”

“They let you keep it?”

“They say they sent two for me and Onee-chan right from the start.”

“Hmm?”

“When I picked my reward, I said “I want to play with Onee-chan so I pick main unit and the game set!”.”

“I see..."

“By the way, if it’s sold I will get my account banned, so don’t do that, okay?”

“I wouldn’t sell a gift I received from my little sister.”

“Then I’m off to do the initial settings!””

“Sure. Maybe I should go do the same..."

I see Akina off as she goes upstairs with a box in her hands.

It feels like between us sisters, all of calmness has gone to me and all liveliness to my little sister. The quiet me, and the energetic little sister. Although our faces look fairly similar, our colors and atmosphere are completely different. I took after our father and Akina took after our mother. Our father is a foreigner who was caught by our mother at their workplace, so we sisters are halves.

Well, the relationship between us is extremely good. Despite how she acts, it’s not like Akina is thoughtless, so there is nothing to worry about.

Now, let’s begin taking care of the initial settings. I put the instructions back into the box and carry it to my room.

Our rooms are very simple; there are beds and bookshelves, as well as a round tables and large cushions. There are also a few animal plushie decorations. My room is mainly dark-colored, while my little sister has a light-colored room.

I take out the main unit from the box, then plug in the power cord and internet connection. There is no problem with being connected by a cable since I will be lying on the bed anyway. I’m really glad the cable reaches it.

Let's make an account before it charges to a certain extent. Registering an account… oh, I can enter the code here. Let put it in.

After browsing the official site for some time, I move to do the initial setup.

I lie down on the bed and put on the VR unit. It is a device that covers the eyes and ears, and looks like a visor. Since it was made with sleeping on one’s back in mind, there was nothing on the back of the head, my nose and mouth were also free for breathing purposes.

『“Welcome. I am a Support AI. From here, we shall commence with the VR device’s initial settings. Please input the necessary data.”』

Following the AI’s instructions, I filled the rubrics with thought controls.

『“Bodily information is merely a reference. A scan will be performed which bases on this data.”』

Height was...158cm, and I think my weight was around 52kg? I haven’t measured myself lately… My bust is...waist...hips… and done.

『“A precaution before the scan. Please do not use any pillows, remove anything covering you, relax with your body facing upwards. For female players, we recommend wearing clothing that accents your body line or, if possible, to undertake the scan in your underwear. Will you proceed with the scan?”』

Wait a moment… pillow into the corner… move bedding away, my clothes… it’s spring so there’s no problem. Just in case I nudged my breasts to set them in position… I lie on my back… and I'm ready.

『“Commencing scan… please remain in your current posture.”』

I quietly waited while the AI informed me of progress in 10% increments.

『“...Scan complete. Height: 160cm Weight: 54kg, Bust size――"』

Ignoring the AI that politely lined up my bodily data, I accepted the results. Then next, a hologram appears before me. It was a very familiar figure of me, colors aside. I can only admit that the scan was extremely precise.

『“This is your basic data. This data will be used for various things. In games, it will be read in various character creation editors, and modified differently for each game, often allowing you to further tweak it. It is possible to update this data through the options menu.”』

Looks like the initial setup is complete.

『“The initial setup has been completed. What will you do now?”』

Next is… the game’s installation.

『“Please select a method of installation.”』

This time I’m not downloading, but installing from a medium. I move on the bed and connect the medium before commencing with the installation.

『“Loading data… Genre: FDVRMMO… Free Life Fantasy Online, a.k.a. FLFO, has been loaded. Will you proceed with the installation?”』

Yes.

『“Commencing installation. Estimated time until the installation is complete: approximately two hours. There is no problem with taking off your VR device. You can also do different activities in the meanwhile as well. In such a case, the installation will continue in the background, but in some cases the processing speed might decrease. Please take care.”』

It’s nearly lunchtime, so let’s take it off for now. There isn’t anything in particular for me to do with it anyway.

When I finish doing things and check the VR device, the installation was complete. Let’s register an account with the game for now, then just wait for the live service to start.

...I start gathering information about the game on the net, and before I notice it's already midnight. I proceed to do my stretches and go to sleep.