It's here, the game that got pushed back dozens of times, waiting over a decade for it to come out, that's right, since I was 8. And it just so happened to come out on my 18th birthday. Come for me now AI ladies, I am barely legal, single, and ready to mingle.

Black Lotus, Sequel to White Lotus, whereas White Lotus was fantasy, Black Lotus is modern with space ships and mechas and lazers! It's so cool I can't wait to put it in!

I put the cartridge in the console and get into the VR capsule. The game boots up, and I move my limbs so the game gets a sense of my height and where my limbs are and everything. Now, everything turns white, flashbanging me, and in black the words "Black Lotus" appear, and a black lotus separates the two words. Now comes the registration.

I put in my credentials, and I now can move on to character creation. I can pick different races it seems. My options are Human, Exo, Eliksni, Cabal, Hydori, Lodori, Ork, and Sanguine. I look curiously at the Sanguine race and this is what it says

My inner Chuuni is speaking to me. I must pick this, I must become an arrogant vampiric count, perhaps a fallen Noble who seeks to rebuild his domain even greater than before! Yes, and he will become the strongest of all, manipulator of blood, and even darkness itself, nay, not a manipulator, a ruler. And there comes the name, Erebus. The old Greek god of primordial Darkness. 

I put my skill points into unarmed, leadership, and other various things. Now that I made my character, I must now pick where I start. I have four options

The Grand Empire of Lucharia, a highly militaristic and xenophobic empire of humans, Hydori, and Lodori who see all others as lesser species. Not for me, I would get killed on spawn.

The Black Lotus Syndicate, a criminal organization powerful enough to contend with the other three galactic powers. Here, nothing matters except wealth and power. This is a possibility, but I think not, I will be a noble, not a crime lord.

The Faleeki Republic. A corrupt but still lively republic which frequently wars with Lucharia. Almost what I'm looking for but not quite...broken down as I want.

And then I see what I've been looking for, the Federation of Free Peoples. While it sounds nice, it seems it's actually a loose alliance of local warlords who got tired of the bullying of the Republic and Empire and banded together. While divided against each other, with wars being frequent, against external threats they are to be feared.

This right here, while mighty when united, they're too busy warring against each other, making each other weak. Perfect for me to make a name and eventually my own kingdom. I pick it, and a loading screen occurs. After it loads im placed in a room, and it turns out this is my house. Great to know we start off with a safehouse. I notice that I'm thirsty, so I walk to the fridge and open a bag of fake blood and drink it. Taste like real blood. Kinda...good. I take a look around the house, find no weapons but I do find some light armor and a journal apparently written by my character. I open it and read it.

"After so long, I've finally saved up enough money to buy a house on this gods forsaken planet, and gods know how much longer it'll take to get off of it. Tomorrow I'll go the Freelancer's Association to pick up some more jobs. Luckily, the people in charge don't care about me being a Sanguine, so long as I get the job done. Seems like someone else has other ideas though, as I've noticed someones been eyeing and following me lately. Should keep my claws sharp just in case."

So the Freelancer's Association exist here as well, I'm sure the ratings are the same too. And I'm apparently being hunted. Hope the guy won't be too difficult. I debate on wearing my armor, but decide that since my backstory is a fallen prince of a now ruined kingdom, I won't deign to wear armor unless it's under my royal garb. One must look fashionable after all. It seems a suit with armored threads and automatic mending will be our first purchase, and then a ship, along with all the nail filers I'll need to sharpen my claws and fangs. I examine my claws, and find that even running them down my arm causes me to bleed. Ouch. They extend about half a forearms length. I wonder if one day I could make a blade out of them.

And so I go outside for the first time, and see that I am in a jungle town. I wonder why I wasn't assaulted by sunlight but realize that the jungle canopy blocks out the light. I go over to the FA building to pick up a job. I enter and everyone looks at me. Suddenly a brawny dude comes up to me and slaps me on the shoulder. 

"Hey Vamp, heard you got a house now, so glad for you. Say, you goin on a job today?"

I expose my Chuuni, for that Is what this character is for

"My name is Erebus, my friend, and of course I'm going on a job, even royalty needs money you know"

He laughs and points at someone

"That's fair, so look, this noobie here said he wants to learn the trade, and says he admires you, why dontcha take him with ya this time yeah?"

"Normally I wouldn't, but this time, sure, why not, Im in a rather generous mood. You there, what's your name?"

"I am Vayr sir! It's an honor to meet you, thank you so much for taking me along!"

"Remember this, when I need your help I'll call on it."

"Of course sir"

He grins at that.

I walk to the mission board and see what we can do. It seems I am at D rank.

"Vayr, what rank are you?"

"D, sir"

"That makes it easy."

I pick a job for hunting a pack of Panthers that have been terrorizing the towns livestock.

"Follow my lead, don't get arrogant, that's my job." 

"Yes sir"

We head out the grazing grounds, and the Panthers are already trying to eat the animals.

"Vayr, get the left, I'll go right."

Vayr nods and splits off. I claw at a panther and while it dodges, I still nicked its leg, which apparently is enough to cause it to limp. I've already forgotten how sharp my nails are. Vayr stared at me for a second but gets on with his side. 

Panthers it seems are not hard, but they're not exactly easy either. They're fast and nimble, dodging your hits easy, the only shot you really get is when they prepare to pounce, they stay still and in strike range for about a second or two, and they pounce. In that two second time frame you have to hit them and they'll be stunned, and from there it's easy. Only hard thing is not chickening out and nailing the timing right. Taking advantage of this I casually slaughtered about a dozen Panthers before realizing that I already handled my side and was helping Vayr's side.

I was totally suspicious of him at first because of the journal, but it turns out he totally was a noob. Or so I thought as a Lazer shot grazes my shoulder as I turn around. Ouch, pain may be turned down but it most definitely is there.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"Shut up filthy vampire, you are nothing but an abomination, feel the wrath of the heavens night spawn!"

"Is that so? Then, let Erebus, first prince of a kingdom long since forgotten, guide you to the heavens"

He fires shot after shot, but due to a genius manouver called the Z strafe, which is nothing more than running in a z pattern, I dodge most of his shot, but a few still manage to hit. As I get closer I manipulate the blood of the Panthers to bind his arms and legs, temporary holding him in place and leaving him unable to shoot. I'm now in front of him, and I take his gun from him. I shoot him in the same shoulder I was shot in.

"Your soul, will be so sweet"

He screams, but I cover his mouth, and bite down on his neck, getting my first taste of true blood. I drain him dry unfortunately, I planned on saving some for later. I wonder if panther blood will do. I put the panther blood in my inventory and decide to find out tomorrow.

Now, concerning time between Black Lotus and real life. One day in real life is ten days in Black Lotus, so the time dilation is 1/10. That means every 6 minutes in real life is an hour in the game. Luckily, we can sleep in here too, since I sleep about 10 hours a day, that means I can spend 100 hours minimum in Black Lotus, not to mention free time, which is another 4 hours, I can spend about 140 hours in game every day, which is almost 6 days in game. That is a lot of time. Sanguine need to feed on real blood once every 10 days, so daily irl, however with synthetic blood they need to consume the same amount of blood in a human three times in 10 days due to lack of nutrition. Since I already consumed a whole human, I'll be fine until tomorrow. I need to worry about how to procure genuine blood if animal blood doesn't cut it. Either that or spend a cut of each paycheck to buy synthetic blood.

That's enough of mechanics and math, it's time to head back to get my paycheck, but first, a souvenir, I look at the desiccated body and decide to take a shriveled up finger as a memento. Maybe with time I'll make a necklace or wristband of them, maybe even both.