Spoiler

wimbledon

This is my first attempt writing a story—I don't really have a good grasp of the level of detail I need or how to pace it, so don't expect much in that regard. It also feels weird tagging my own work as ‘Comedy’, since my writing could just be, uh… not funny.

Anyways, I don't think I’ll be focusing too much on the RPG aspects during the main story; I might add them for reference, or during other people’s perspectives, but our dear protagonist will kinda just be… stat-illiterate, I guess.

Yeaaah. That's my excuse.

Don't expect regular updates; I’m a slow writer, and I usually just chip away at each chapter until I’m satisfied with it. I’ll try to get these first few chapters out of the way faster though, if only to get through the slow stuff.

As for this chapter... I'm thinking about rewriting it since I'm not sure if I like how it turned out.

[collapse]

“Big bro, I’m home~!”

A middle-school girl kicked open the apartment door (she gently turned the knob by hand before not-so-gently pushing the door open with her foot in a dynamic pose) and made karate noises as she jumped through the doorway.

Her brother, Ferris—a young man with fairly long, disheveled hair and dull, amber eyes—jumped at the sound of the door slamming open, accidentally flinging the hotcake he was cooking.

“Hmm.” Ferris glanced up at the pancake. It was firmly stuck to the ceiling.

… He decided to set that problem aside for the time being.

“Welcome back, Amiya. Don't slam the door.”

“Uu— Sorry, I forgot…” Amiya replied, closing the door extra carefully to compensate.

Like her brother, Amiya had bright amber eyes and dark hair; however, she preferred to keep her hair in a short, boyish cut.

“Anyways!” She spun around, switching gears. “Did my package arrive?”

“Nn… it's on the table.” Ferris gestured with his spatula. “What did you get, anyways?”

The box was made of a stiff black material, rather than plain cardboard. Relief lettering spelt out the name [SOL TECH]. Ferris didn't know what that company sold, but the box alone made whatever-it-was seem disconcertingly expensive.

Amiya patted the top of the box with a broad grin.

“It's a FD-VR headset! There’s an MMORPG coming out soon called New Star Online, so I preordered two sets so that we can play together!”

“It's a… what for… what?” Ferris tilted his head in confusion. Amiya’s eyes widened in shock.

“Eh, you haven't heard?” Amiya said. “It's been all over the news for the last few weeks.”

With the cooperation of various governments, SOL Tech developed the world’s first “full-dive” virtual reality headset; while full-dive technology already existed, the devices for it were not only massive, but also prohibitively expensive. Due to the scale and difficulty of the project—not to mention its present success—SOL Tech’s new headsets garnered international attention.

Furthermore, SOL Tech also revealed that they were developing a game in parallel with the headsets: New Star Online, or NSOL, which had its own ambitious goal of “complete player freedom”. The system would spontaneously generate skills and custom items, and the NPCs would be able to act as though they were real people.

“Anyways, you get how cool it is now, right? That's why we gotta play it!” Amiya gushed, her eyes sparkling.

“I see,” Ferris said, not getting it at all. He didn't really understand what she was talking about, but he was excited for the opportunity to spend some time with her all the same. That said, Ferris did have some reservations about the headsets.

“...You spent your allowance money on this, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, but—”

“It's your birthday today… I would have bought it for you if you’d asked.”

Amiya pouted.

“You’re working too hard already. I’ve never seen you go out with friends or play games or anything; you even dropped out of school to start working… and I can't really get mad at you, ‘cause I know you're working so hard so that I can do all that stuff.”

She gave Ferris a hug and buried her face into his stomach.

“You always do so much for me, but I never get to do anything for you. I wanna make you happy, too!”

Ferris cried a little.