Pratch felt an intense headache. The amount of pain could be described as that his head was hit by a truck running at full speed. But there was no physical injury to be seen, or at least he wasn’t bleeding. He tried to touch his temple with his hands to realize that he couldn’t feel the headset he was supposed to be wearing moments ago. He must’ve successfully connected to the virtual reality. 

 

He is standing in a grey room which seems to expand without limit. Surrounding him was a stream of floating white lights that seem to not serve any purpose whatsoever. In front of him, a white translucent panel appeared along with the following texts: “Code Redeemed! Your spawn point will now be set to Shirudal!” Pratch acknowledges the message then tap once on the panel. As soon as he tapped the screen a new panel popped up, “Code Redeemed! You have unlocked the hidden race in your character creation!”. Pratch paused. He put his hands up to stroke his chin while trying to remember the content of the book he just read.

 

‘Races...If I remember correctly when you create your character you will be able to choose a race for your character from 9 races which include: Aarakocra, Aquarius, Human, Elves, Dark Elves, Dwarf, Dragonkin, Ferlionel and Orcs. However, players can have traits from other races up to 3 races….As for hidden races, they are races that players will be able to choose once they reach a certain level...I don’t remember much…’

 

Given that not only the guide book had over 414 pages, Pratch also read it by skimming as well as brushing his eyes through the paragraphs. It is true that Pratch had excellent memories but the problem was that the information didn’t get registered properly initially. Pratch tapped once more on the panel.

 

Another panel appeared, “Code Redeemed! You received Mask of the Unknown Shifter x1!

 

He tapped again.

 

“Code Redeemed! You recei-”

 

Tapped. 

 

“Warning! Your soul is n-”

 

Tapped.

 

…

 

Eh? What was that?

 

That last panel… it wasn’t a code redeemed message, it was a warning. But Pratch was too hasty,  he didn’t get to read it. What was it? Something about his soul…. Should he be worrying? 

 

Before Pratch could descend into deep thoughts, a bright cyan panel appears before his eyes.

 

“Beginning process to create your vessel” 

 

Vessel...huh. 

 

That is one hell of an interesting choice of word to use. He remembered that in the guide book, they always refer to the player character as either “the character” or “the avatar”. But never was Vessel. What could it mean? 

 

Suddenly, the blue panel expands, it’s height now rises higher than Pratch’s height, the width reaches around all the sides of his body. Its surface started to shine, the light was so bright that Pratch needed to temporarily shut his eyes, once the light died down, he opened his eyes and sees a reflection of himself.

 

Right now he looked exactly like a white porcelain mannequin. Everything on his body was white, even his eyeballs were all white. When he opens his mouth, the insides of his mouth were also plain white.

 

At the very top the screen there were many tabs that were labelled differently from each other. He instinctively knew that this was the character creation menu. He had seen a similar menu before when he played a game back when he was in high school. Pratch first selected the Race tab.

 

A list then appeared in front of him, and it seems to go down ceaselessly. Just how many races does this game have? He wondered. He hovered his hand over the scroll icon, then dragged it all the way down the list. Once it reached the bottom, Pratch was amazed by the revelation. There were a total of 72 races, including the original 9 races he got to choose. 

 

Pratch wasn’t a fashion enthusiast, and so his taste in looks and clothing are very low. He prefers usefulness more than aesthetics. Nevertheless, like most of the other players who play MMORPG, Pratch takes his time slowly in creating his character.

---

After who knows how long, the man, whos was surprised he hasn’t grown a beard, finally skimmed through the entire race list description. Not only that each race have different appearances, but they also have different traits and stats that will affect the gameplay for each character. 

 

For example, Aarakocras are basically bird people. They have extended limbs like arms and legs that resemble a human being, but they have bird heads and large wings on their back. So they can fly unlike a regular human being, have excellent vision and claw-like feet. Although they sounded superior in every way in comparison to a human race, that is not at all the truth. Due to having large wings stuck on their back, this makes them larger stature than human, and so when fighting in an enclosed space like caves, for example, would resulting in them having restricted movements and become sitting ducks for monsters to devour upon. 

 

Pratch already has an ideal assassin in his mind. An assassin just like him, a perfect mercenary that can adapt to any of the terrains possible, while at the same time does not stick out like a fish out of water. And so he thought that human is the perfect fit that goes with him the most. But a thought came to his mind. “I have the privilege to choose a race that is hidden, not many might have this same opportunity as me, so I should just take my time carefully.

 

He kept scrolling down until he saw the race that clicked something in his mind earlier. He tapped onto it and inspected the race.

 

<Race Name: Yu-Tien-Li>
<Description: Yu-Tien-Li, known in the common tongue as the “Grey Reapers”, they are the race that dominated the entirety of Valley in the Mists since ancient times. Their appearances are described as “blighted-humanlike creatures”. “Their skins were paled like ash, skin hard as stones, eyes sharp like snakes and hairs long and sharp like the dragon spine” “Not much else was recorded about them”. “Anybody who dares to enter the Valley of the mists must always remember how many caravan members were there in total, as throughout the journey the number might decrease or increase without notice”. “It was common that a caravan of sixteen return with two despite them claiming that fourteen others stick with them throughout the expedition at all times until the last second that the mist subsided”. “The Grey Reapers were declared Extinct a little more than 300 years ago when the Diabol-Tien Mountain collapsed and buried the Valley of the Mists under along with all of the jungle in the vicinity”>

 

Pratch’s eyes went wide to the description. This is the perfect race he should play in. Abilities to blend in with the crowd, check. Abilities to survive in the barren valley, check. Extinct species with inconspicuous looks, check. It couldn't have been more convenient for him. He selected on to the race and hit confirm. 

 

The panel shifted to the next tab, he now has to choose the gender. Pratch without a shadow of a doubt selected male and went on to the next tab. Why would he choose a female body? In Pratch’s mind, he personally finds the female body to have many inconveniences when comparing with a male body. Not only that the fat on their chests weighs more, causing balancing issues, but their muscle structure was also lacking. Sure they might have a smaller surface area, but Pratch just felt that it wasn’t right for himself to be a Woman character. 

 

Following the sex tab, now he gets to fully customize the character’s body aesthetic. Needless to say, he skipped most of the options as he couldn’t care less of what he would look like and decided to leave most of the values at default. Pratch moved his eyes from the panel to the reflection. What he sees could be said that he sees another version of himself standing there. Same height and width. The ashen hair reaches his shoulder which was shaped similar to a lion’s mane. His blackened eyes were as sharp as a hawk, and his body muscles chiselled to the point where it looked more defined than his real body, but it does not exert the feeling of being bulky and stocky but rather strong and flexible. 

 

Feeling satisfied with his selection he hit the confirmed icon at the bottom of the screen.

 

His body suddenly was covered by the floating lights, as soon as the light died down, Pratch was already in control of the body he was looking at previously. 

 

Before he could move his body, however, a new message was displayed in front of him.

 

“Vessel has been created.”

 

“Transporting the vessel to the spawn point…”

 

Pratch’s surrounding was soon blinded by a bright light and for the second time today, he lost his consciousness.