“Up until recently I didn’t remember much about my time with my mom just that I was happy and that she loved me, one day when I was around 6 six years old she died in a car accident while I was in the back seat,” Zoey said sadly.

“That must have been scary for you, I’m sorry that you had to experience that so young” Tina  replied sympathetically 

“Yeah it was, much of the time after that was a blur I know I was moved to my dads and that he started taking care of me, got my haircut signed me up for all the sports he could and until recently I had no doubts in my mind that I was a male” Zoey replied coldly 

“But now you feel differently?” Tina asked 

“Yeah, everything changed about 6 months ago when I turned seventeen my aunt who was my mom’s younger sister by ten years messaged me” Zoey began as she retold the story of what happened.

Aunt Jessie: hey kiddo, I miss you and haven’t seen you in a while and wanna take you out for your birthday. 

James: Sure thing pick a day and we can try to make it work though I'm pretty busy with football so it might have to wait till the weekend.

Aunt Jessie: Still playing, football huh?

James: Yeah it's all I can ever remember enjoying that and baseball

Aunt Jessie: Okay just checking on my favorite nephew 

James: Saturday should be perfect, see you then Aunt Jessie 

Aunt Jessie: See you then kido <3

Saturday came around and James met his aunt outside when she pulled up in her car

“Hey kiddo how have you been? It’s been what two years since we last talked in person?,” Aunt Jessie said as James got into the car and proceeded to drive down the road.

“Yeah it was Christmas when you and dad got into that nasty argument about how I was raised after mom died,” James said.

“Yeah sorry about that I had some concerns but they seemed to be for nothing,” Aunt Jessie replied.

“Don’t worry it’s fine honestly don’t know what that was about but anyway that's in the past and celebrating, where are we going anyway?” James asked.

“Well do you know how I stream for a living?” Aunt Jessie asked.

“Yeah you are one of my favorites, what's that have to do with where we are going?” James asked confused 

“Well, I figured that I’d buy you a VR system and a top-quality on at that” Aunt Jessie said.

“But those cost a fortune!” James exclaimed.

“Yeah well you deserve it plus I wanna play War of the Realms with you” Aunt Jessie replied.

“ I have been wanting to play that forever but dad never bought me a rig,” James replied happily 

“Well shame on him then, you are a great kid who works hard and deserves to have fun and not just work,” Aunt Jessie replied.

“Wish my dad saw it that way,” James replied. 

“Well now he doesn’t have a say because I’m buying, now we’re here so let's get your rig and then dinner?,” Aunt Jessie replied.

They exited the car and entered the store to buy James his rig and got dinner and cheated then went home and right before he got out Aunt Jessie gave him a tip

“When you are creating your character if you randomize it then you have a chance of getting a unique roll, although you can’t alter the character since the appearance is tied to the build. So keep that in mind if you like a build but not the look of a character.”

“Okay will do, thank you again for everything you’re the best aunt ever,” James replied with a smile.

“You don’t have to tell me and don’t forget to connect your phone to the rig so we can call each other easier,” Aunt Jessie replied.

James entered his house and ran upstairs and unblocked the rig. It was a helmet that was sleek and had a port on the back to plug in thumb drives to install new games. James wasted no time in downloading and then logging into the game and was greeted by a voice 

“Greetings and welcome to the world of I am the AI tasked with introducing new players to the game,” the AI said cheerfully.

“Uh hi, what do I do first?” James replied confused.

“You can calibrate your headset to what your ideal body would be, this will be done by analyzing your brain's subconscious desires. Do you wish to do this, you can also randomize your class and character build based on your character body do you wish to accept?” the AI asked.

“Yes,” James replied thinking of all the possibilities a big strong character could give him to play 

“Do you wish to be automatically loaded into the game world once your character is created?” the AI asked.

“Yes,” James replied and shortly after the world lit up and James was blinded by a light and when it faded he found himself in a forest, but something felt off, and felt as though he was all-around smaller than he expected he found this odd and so he opened his character view window and what he saw made his jaw drop. 

On the menu in front of him, he saw a girl he could only describe as cute, she had cat ears that were blue just like her long hair that reached down past her breast which he assumed was a C cup. Down to the middle of her back and had a blue tail. She had all-black eyes with cat-like retinas that appears to flow from white to a deep crimson at the center He checked the details and saw the following list 

Name: Zomengandey

Race: Infernal Cat Girl- Unholy Offspring of a Cat goddess priestess and a Demon priest blessed with powers of light and darkness.

Height: 5’2 

Weapon: Dual katana 

Skills 

 

• Fire and Dark magic infusion into weapons 

 

Build name: Nightstalker Mage 

Buffs: 

 

• Greatly increased magic ability 

• Improved sight in the dark

• Improved agility and reflexes

 

“This has to be a glitch there's no way that this is what I want,” James thought as he examined his body outside the menu and didn’t notice the giant praying mantis come up behind him until it loomed over his now smaller frame which caused him to let out a girlish yelp and cover his face. 

“Look out!” A voice shouted before slicing the praying mantis in half 

“Thank you,” James replied looking up at the tall beautiful blond-haired woman dressed in a leather battle skirt and sleeveless leather top with a shield and sword on her back. 

“Don’t mention it,” The savior said smiling, “If you’re looking for the town it's about 15 minutes that way” she pointed straight ahead. 

“Thank you, um?” James said not sure what to call her 

“Avalia, and you are?” said Availa smiling at James causing him to blush.

“Zoey,” he said almost instinctively which he found odd and made a mental note to ask his aunt later.

“Well Zoey I’m actually on my way back to town if you wanna walk with me and buy me a drink to repay me for saving you,” Avalia replied with a grin.

The started the walked back to town but were soon confronted by a band of bandits

“Well well well, what do we have here. An amazon and an abomination to the gods” the leader said walking to the front of the group.

“Let us pass you asshole!” Avalia spoke up

“Now that's not very nice, we just wanna talk, to the abomination,” the leader said pointing to Zoey 

“I have a name and it’s Zoey,” Zoey said 

“Well Zoey we don’t take too kindly to your kind we were going to just kill the amazon but now that we saw you our god demands that you be killed instead,” The leader said walking forward drawing two katanas from his back. 

“What do I do, I don’t have a weapon?” Zoey said turning to Avalia as anxiety began to well up 

“You’re a catgirl you have claws use those, Zoey almost instinctively drew her claws and the right one burned a white fire and the left a cold black.

“Stay still and let me hit you!” the bandit said annoyed as Zoey continued to dodge each slash and jab as he wildly attacked her, she saw an opening and lunged forward-slash across his chest. 

“You bitch!” the bandit said kicking her back and to the ground. 

He walked to Zoey and towered over her, his much larger build sent fear down her spine 

“Guess this is where you die,” the bandit leader said holding a blade up to Zoey’s neck causing more fear to well up, she closed her eye’s to brace herself for the sword to pierce her. As she waited for the final blow she heard the clang of metal causing her to open her eyes and saw the bandit leader with a sword through his chest before he disappeared into pixels to reveal Avalia “Sorry about that, you okay?” she asked.

Zoey blushed a deep red while she glanced away before saying “No it's fine I really appreciate it, thank you.”

“You just owe me two drinks now,” Avalia laughed.

“Fine, I honestly don’t know what would have happened if I died” Zoey said

“You would just respawn in town, speaking of which let's get to town so you can get some gear,” Avalia said. 

Avalia collected her loot which was 200 gold and split it with Zoey, they walked to town. Once they arrived Zoey received a notification Quest completed: Reach town without dying Reward: 1000 gold. 

“I got a reward for a quest,” Zoey said 

“That's good, with the gold you can get some armor and weapons,” Avalia said

“Yeah where do I go anyway?” Zoey questioned 

 Avalia opened her mouth to explain but a notification “Unfortunately I have to go my parents need me  sorry bye,” Avalia in a hurry before logging out. She looked around for any clue on where to go but started to wander around before being tapped on the shoulder causing Zoey to turn around and saw someone dressed in all white cloth armor with striking raven black hair and crystal blue eyes 

“Hey you look lost, need any help?” the girl asked 

“Yeah, I need help finding the shops,” Zoey said. 

“I was actually heading there to sell some stuff so I can take you there, my names Sasha by the way what's yours?” she asked.

“Zoey, my name is Zoey,” she said not wanting to out herself as a freak for playing a girl.

“Nice to meet you,” Sasha replied smiling. 

They arrived at the shops and Sasha led Zoey around and once the shopping was finished Zoey had a dual katana set on her back, armored wrist guards stopping at her elbows a leather battle skirt with metal armor covering her hips and metal shin armor.

“Cute!, I'm actually going to meet my mom who runs an Inn and it's getting late and if you wanna replenish energy sleep is required” Sasha said 

“That sounds nice I’d like that a lot thanks,” Zoey said thankfully.

The two girls walked back to the inn and each got rooms one there Zoey called her aunt “Hey kiddo,” She looked at Zoey and was shocked You certainly look different she smiled

“Yeah this is what the game gave me, but I think this is a glitch because there's no way that this is what I would want,” Zoey said gesturing to her body.

“The game never makes a mistake, how do you feel?” Aunt Jessie said

“I feel fine whats that have to do with anything?” Zoey questioned.

“Usually if someone who plays as the opposite gender would have bad dysphoria and not be able to play.” Aunt Jessie explained 

“That's not- I don’t have-what?” Zoey said confused.

“Dysphoria is something people who are transgender feel when there's a discount between the way they see their gender in their mind and the way they see it in the mirror.” Aunt Jessie explained.

“I AM NOT TRANSGENDER!” James said angrily “I’m not one of those people, I’m not sick” Zoey countered 

“I never said you were, and even if you were transgender it wouldn’t matter because I’d still love you.” Aunt Jessie replied.

“I’m going to bed now, I’ll call you in the morning when you are thinking straight and not that I’m transgender,” Zoey replied annoyed before hanging up and lying down before drifting off tho sleep.

Zoey opened her eyes but was mush shorter and younger in a little girls room

“Hey Zoey sweetie you ready to go to Sally’s for the sleepover,” Her mom said standing in the doorway 

Zoey turned to the doorway and saw her mom and tears welled up as she ran over to her mom “Mommy!” Zoey instinctively sad “I'm scared.” 

“Oh sweetie it’ll be okay and if you need me to pick you up early just have Sally’s mom call me okay.” her mom said lovingly as she lifted Zoey up to give her a kiss.

“Okay mommy,” Zoey replied before her mom helped carry he stuff to the car before strapping her in. 

The scene seemed to change instantly and it was Zoey crying as a different adult woman was on the phone 

“Yeah, Zoey wants you to come get her she's scared.” the woman who Zoey knew was Sally’s mom.

“Thank you,” Sally’s mom said hanging up the phone “She’s on her way”

The scene changed again and this time Zoey was in the back of a pitch-black car driving down a road after stopping for a stop sign at an intersection a bright light filled the car and then the noise of metal being crushed.

The next thing Zoey knew she was being taken somewhere by a strange man, the car came to a stop. Zoey was taken out and carried onto a porch “Excuse me, sir, I’m Mr. Qunicy and I regret to inform you that your wife died in a car accident however I have your daughter here and you are her guardian now.” Mr. Quincy said 

“I don’t have a daughter, I only have a son, that kid ain’t mine” Zoeys dad replied.

“She is you son this is Zoey she was your son but now is your daughter, now I have to be going so I'm sorry to leave you like this, sorry again,” Mr. Quincy said setting Zoey's bags on the curb before pulling off.

Zoey’s dad looked down at her and saw the remnants of the son he knew “Get in the house boy,” Zoeys dad said opening the door further before walking to pick up the bags.