From a distance, a practice enemy pranced around, utterly untouched. "Okay, buddy, you're going down..."  Mei Lin squinted, then flicked her wand. A burst of light whizzed past the moving strawman, harmlessly scorching a nearby tree. "Ah… this is way harder than using a mouse and keyboard…”

 

The dummy didn't even flinch. It twitched, then bent over in a taunting spank-the-butt pose.

“Oi, devs, you shouldn’t make fun of new players…”

 

Frustration mounted, the scorched tree a stark reminder of her miss. With a determined huff, she shifted targets. "Alright, menu time."  Frantic gestures filled the air, fingers tracing invisible shapes.  "Hello? Menu!? Inventory, open! Stats, where are you... Is this one of those gesture-based games? How do I even…”

 

The menu remained stubbornly elusive. Mei Lin abandoned the gestures, switching tactics.  Crouching low, she began to creep forward, the picture of stealth... until a wayward root sent her sprawling with an ungraceful thump.

 

"Stealth: zero. Charisma: questionable..." A flock of startled birds erupted from a nearby bush, their virtual squawks startled but distinctly unimpressed.

 

With a sigh, she eyed a new target: a low-level boar-like creature sniffing curiously nearby. She scrambled up, tried to swing her wand...and stumbled backward from the recoil. The boar looked vaguely offended.

 

Finally defeated, Mei Lin flopped back into the grass. "I used to make this look easy..."  Then, a laugh bubbled up. "Guess I'm starting from the very bottom again, huh?"

 

She hauled herself up, slapping her cheeks with a wince. The virtual sting served as a jolt of focus. "Alright, no time to mope."

 

Every spell cast vibrated through her, the dissonance of wrong aim a discordant buzz beneath her fingers. Slowly, closer... a flicker of triumph as the strawman finally registered a hit. [1/1] blazed on her quest tracker.

 

"YES!" The cry was ragged as she slumped again, this time with earned exhaustion.  "Five-minute breather please..."

 

---

 

She grew more familiar with moving her virtual body with each quest she completed. Her steps became more confident as she ran through the small beginning town, turning in quests for herbs or juice. Eventually, the town mayor gave her a recommendation letter before sending her off to the main city.

 

The clunky steps of the tutorial faded into memory. Mei Lin's movements grew less tentative and instinctual with each level gained. The familiar thrum of combat echoed in her bones, even in this new world. It's time to push those limits...

 

After exiting the tutorial zone, she entered a field pulsating with oversized slimes. Other players milled about, their hesitant attacks starkly contrasting with the playful grin that spread across her face. A few veterans, likely on alt accounts, glanced her way.

 

"Well, look what we have here..." one drawled. "Cute newbie alert! Though, Astral Maestro?  Damn, that's a rough starting class." He tilted his head, a flicker of doubt replacing his smirk as he no doubt scanned her profile.

 

"Maybe we should offer some pointers..."  His companion swaggered towards Mei Lin before stumbling to a halt, mouth agape. 

 

“W-what kind of newbie plays like that?” 

 

Mei Lin barely registered their whispers. Her world had narrowed to slimes, spells, and the intoxicating rhythm of combat. Not raw power, but precision – each spell flowed into the next, cancels timed to the split-second, echoes of countless battles fought in the world of Astral Road.

 

Slimes bobbed in her wake, their mindless aggression the perfect tool. A chugged mana potion became another weapon in her arsenal. It looked chaotic, almost comical, but there was a deadly grace beneath the clumsiness.

 

A hush fell over the onlookers. With a final flourish, the slimes bunched together, ripe for annihilation. An eruption of fire and the field was splattered with goo.

 

“Is she making a mob train? Isn’t she a new player? I don’t recognize her from the top players.” 

 

Mei Lin was pulling the slimes by aggroing them and grouping them behind her, using large AOE skills to kill them efficiently once they were herded together. 

 

"But... her element swaps!" The veteran sounded almost offended. "Perfectly choosing each element –  experts spend months mastering that! She would have definitely been famous already..."

 

"Hold on..." His companion squinted, and the casual amusement drained from his face. "Isn't there something… familiar about her?"

 

Her character’s hair might be white instead of her black hair in real life, but those veteran players recognized the face instantly. Female pros were rare, those at the top even more so. Mei Lin was the goddess Veilweaver, who dominated the scene with her superior mechanics. 

 

"Mei Lin? She retired years ago!" 

 

“Holy shit, no way! She’s back?” 

 

One scrambled for the nearest town, fingers flying. "Forum's gonna explode – the legend's back!"

 

Meanwhile, Mei Lin remained blissfully oblivious. The slimes were little bags of EXP, each level a thrill of rediscovery. That ruthless efficiency, honed against the best of the best, was now unleashed on unsuspecting goo.

 

“Woohoo! This is way more fun than doing those stupid quests!” Her delighted laughter rang out while she watched the exp bar fill up. 

 

---

 

Later, the adrenaline faded. Sunset bled into twilight, finally replaced by the harsh lights of the city. Mei Lin logged out, the VR headset yanked off with a triumphant whoosh. Her eyes stung in the sudden darkness, her room barely visible in the moonlight. Stomach growling, muscles twitching with a mix of soreness and restless energy, she hauled herself upright.

 

"Tomorrow's gonna be a blast! They won't even know what hit them!"

 

A flicker of doubt wormed its way in, like some low-level dungeon trash. 

 

Was one day of practice really enough? Nahhh! But you gotta think positively! 

 

"I'm a star in the making, everyone will see!" Her reflection in the window - a blur in the half-light - got the pep talk instead of a mirror. She puffed out her chest, the grin wobbly around the edges.

 

The night dissolved into a restless dawn. 

 

Mei Lin's fingers drummed a frantic rhythm against the armrest. Each squeak of the worn chair was a jolt to her system. The sterile air carried a faint tang of whiteboard cleaner, a stark contrast to the sweat beading on her brow. 

 

A chill seeped through her thin sneakers from the concrete floor– was it the room, or the icy knot of dread in her stomach?

 

The hum of the esports facility was less a buzz, more a low throb matching the pulse in her ears. Mei Lin waited near a cluster of identical chairs, the fake leather cool against her skin. Each scuff mark on the ground hinted at countless others who'd sat here, nerves thrumming beneath their bravado.

 

Other faces blurred past. A bulky teen gnawed his knuckles, eyes darting. A petite girl with vibrant hair who looked too young to be here, her worried gaze clinging to a woman in the team tracksuit. That could only mean one thing... these were her competition.

 

A door clicked open. "Mei Lin? I'm Coach Zhang." His smile was practiced, eyes flicking over her with assessment. His gesture towards a stark meeting room felt less like an invitation and more like a summons.

 

The room crackled with a tension that clung to the whiteboard's scribbled formations. Mei Lin's breath caught as the door swung open – a snag on a memory she'd thought long buried.

 

There, amidst unfamiliar faces, sat a girl she knew too well. Her face held no trace of casual interest, only an icy contempt that mirrored the dread twisting in Mei Lin's gut.

 

"Mei Lin?" Her old rival's voice was a blade, each syllable echoing in the tense silence. "What the hell are you doing here?"

 

The corners of Mei Lin's mouth, usually held in a practiced smile, dipped momentarily, breaking the illusion of cheerfulness. "Guh…"  The sigh escaping her lips held more exasperation than surprise. "Honestly, that's what I want to ask you…"