The King’s Avatar 

Days pass by so quickly, during the weekend she stays with her family, going to the park, the zoo, and others, taking time with their father before he leaves again but the good time has to end, as December rolls by so does the day of her father leaving, Xue'er and Mingxi taking the time off the university to send their father away from the airport. 

“Remember to bring souvenirs!” Mingxi shouted as their father waved at them and walked to the gate, leaving the two alone. 

“So what are we going to do today? We take the day off and it is still noon.” Mingxi asks as they walk back toward the taxi parking lot. 

Looking at her phone, she saw that it was 13:47 am on December 3rd.

“I'm going to try that game out,” Xue'er said. 

“Glory, huh? I can't even get into it, the first-person view makes me want to puke while moving around so much.” Mingming said while mimicking a puke sound and gesture. 

“Well, everyone has their cup of tea.”

The King’s Avatar 

Arriving back at her apartment, Xue'er takes off her jacket and stretches. Riding a bike in jammed traffic is really annoying. 

Taking her clothes off, and taking the towel she goes into the bathroom and gets a nice long bath. After a bit of refreshing and dressing in something more comfortable, she sat down at her computer and took out the card from her wallet. 

Staring at the print of the card, she marvels at the work they put in just to make an account card look stylish. 

Sliding the card into the scanner, she waits, and… Nothing happens. Until she remembered that she forgot to open the game itself, slapping her forehead in the process. 

After opening the game, she was greeted with the server selection. Looking around she saw what she needed. The 10th server. Clicking on it takes her screen to ID input. 

Inputting the ID and password of the account, she was then taken to the character customization screen. 

The customized screen looks good, there are various features she can use, taking her sweet time in here, she looks over every possible feature from male to female. 

After around an hour she finally finished making the character, with Long flowing blue hair that reached the shoulder, and eyes as white as the snow itself. With a similar face to her, feeling proud of herself, she pressed the Next and it opened up a new tab. 

Name your Character. 

“Hm… name huh?” opening her phone she looked over and searched for some good name but without any luck. 

“hm…” tilting her head side by side, she looked over her character again, “Everlasting Snow,” she mutters. Taking the Xue from her name which means snow and the look of her character she wrote it down. 

‘Everlasting Snow' confirmed? Yes/No

Pressing yes, she saw a light overtaking her screen, taking her to the cutscene. 

Ignoring it, she opens her QQ on the phone and looks for Luo Ji's ID, after finding it, she scrolls up and opens one of the files Luo Ji sends her. It was a tutorial made by him after researching the game for a month before. 

It includes how to control the movement, the quest to do, each class benefit, and such. 

After looking at how to control the character, stop at that and look over the cutscene and skip them. 

With the cutscene skip, it lands her in the middle of the plaza, many players are around her but not so much that she can't move. 

Trying out the movement with WASD, she looked over the basic command. I for inventory and such.

With each button press, her character moves. Now for the hard part of Glory, arm movement. 

She read over what was in the guide. 

“pressing C for the right arm and V for the left arm, the arm will move according to each action but it can be diverted by pressing these two buttons, and holding the right click will make the movement more unpredictable. So there is already an animation for each move but it can change depending on the user input?” Well, trying is better than believing. 

She takes out a beginner sword from her inventory and equips it, clicking on the left click of her mouse, her character slashes one time in an arc. 

“hm… Let's try going downward.” saying that, she presses the C button and holds the right click, the arm of her character moving up and she releases the right click making the character do the action and slashing downward. 

“Oh ho! Interesting.” experimenting with each slash, took around 10 minutes before her finger felt tired from moving from d to c too much. “hm… I should change the keybinds.” changing the keybind to Q and E for Right and left hand movement she tries again and it flows much smoother. 

Feeling satisfied with this, she looked over the guide Luo Ji sent her, it was a beginner quest to get her familiar with the game mechanics and others. 

She also looks over the class summary that is included in the file, looking over each con and pro of every class, there are three classes that she finds interesting. 

Namely a blade master, a mechanic, and an exorcist. But before deciding, she would try all the other weapons first, so she looked over her inventory and found each basic weapon in there. 

It seems the developer wants everyone to try it. Trying out various weapons, she found it hard especially for guns and broadswords. 

Even though there is a crosshair in the middle of the screen she still struggles to hit while making a rapid movement, and the broadsword/greatsword slowness was not to her liking. 

The one Xue'er found easiest to use was a staff, but it felt like there was no challenge in using it so it was back to sword, namely these three. A Lightsaber, a taichi, and a short sword. 

Pondering deeply about this, she decides to use a taichi. As it got range and speed but also light, from what she read from Luo Ji, lighter weight meant good for Blademaster class. 

Finishing deciding on her weapon, she opened the file for the quest guide and saw a 20k-word long essay on what to do and what not to do, chuckling lightly, she proceeded to read them and slowly do what the guide told her to do. 

Doing quests such as escorting and getting wood and delivery, after around 20 minutes she finishes all of them and reaches lv 6.

Looking at the guide again, it says she should start selling the basic weapon and get a green one instead, then after that distribute stat points for the skill that she wants to learn from the class she chose. (It also said that she should get roll and sprint) 

It also says that there are 5 levels of equipment. White means the worst, green means normal, blue means rare, and orange is super rare. Silver is a self-made weapon. 

She talks to the NPC that was introduced during the quest and starts selling the gear she didn’t need and buys a new Taichi from the shop. It cost 5 golds which is kind of expensive considering she only has around 50 golds.

Then walking toward the NPC who teaches Blademaster skill, she talks with him and he shows how the skill works, he slashes upward then lunges at the dummy stabbing it multiple times, and shows how to guard. 

[Congratulations! You have learned Upward Slash, Lunge, and Guard.] 

With the system announcement, she smiles lightly and begins trying the skill out. After all, Luo Ji's guides say that she should get the feel of the skill first before putting in a point. 

With a new weapon in hand, a new skill at her disposal. She walks toward where the guide indicates her, the Green Forest dungeon. 

Walking toward that, she spotted many players shouting. Even though it is still in the middle of a weekday.

“Looking for Healer! 3 / 4!”

“Need a tank! Someone who knows how to take a hit!” 

“DPS! Need two more DPS!” 

Looking around she found a group that was similar to her, in beginner gear, and got 3 people. Walking toward them she began to type. 

“Hello, are you still looking for a member?” politely to not sound aggressive. 

The 3 of them stare at her, and the one with a green cap similar to Peter Pan,  types back. His name is One Shot Arrow. Does this game have a bow? 

“Yes, we are looking for DPS, are you one?” 

“Yes, as you can see, I'm a swordsman, but I'm new to the game.” Xeu'er type. 

They went silent for a few seconds before a woman named Night Sky answered. 

“OK, but you have to listen to us ok? Also, do you have a mic?” 

“Yes,” she replied after getting a party invitation. 

The last member, bearing a shield and a sword. His name is…Yuei cannot escape Fea? Hmm, weird. 

With the party set, they go into the dungeon and the surrounding area changes immediately. 

“Ahem, Hello hello!” Night sky spoke… But it a male voice!? 

“Damn, and I thought you were a girl,” Fea spoke up. 

“Yeah, I got my hopes up too! Snow? Can you hear me?” One Shot Arrow asks. So all of them are guys.

“Yes, I can hear you,” she spoke into her mic. And all hell broke loose. 

“a woman! A real woman! Miss, can I have your QQ?” Night Sky said. 

“oi back away you creep! Don't you see you're scaring her! So may I have your number?” One shot arrow pushed him away and came to kneel at her. 

“Hm, such a brute. Women like men like me!” and Fea suddenly starts flexing muscles, Xue’er didn't even know that you could do that. 

Backing away from the group, there suddenly was a new announcement from The System. 

[Warning! You have encountered a Hidden Boss. Midnight Phantom cat!] 

With the sound of a system alerting everyone, most of them change their attitude. 

“A hidden boss on the first try! Miss Snow really brings Luck!” Night sky said. 

“Do we roll for drops?” 

“Yeah, we should roll for it.” while Fea and Arrow discuss the loot drop. 

Xue’er sat silently letting them finish forming a plan, browsing on Luo Ji's guide. She found it, the boss and hidden boss files. 

Looking over the file she found the midnight Phantom Cat. There is a strategy to beat it and also what to do when it becomes ‘enraged’. 

Xue'er may love video games but she is not really playing a lot of MMOs so there are terms that she is not familiar with. 

“Miss Snow! We finished discussing the plan!” Hearing Night Sky call her character she closes her phone and focuses on the screen. 

“So this is what we will do,” Fea spoke up. “First let me take on the boss alone to build it aggro, then Arrow and Snow will chip in damage, and Night will heal us as he sees fit. Is this ok with you?” 

Fea turned to ask me and I nodded. Or at least bobbing my mouse up and down. 

“Ok! Since this is Snow's first time let go slowly.” with that, they move onward. 

Fea being a tank, leads them while Xue'er takes the left and Arrow takes the right, and Night being a healer stays behind them. 

Walking in further they encounter a pack of goblins. And as discussed before, they let Fea in first and pull the aggro. 

After around 10 seconds, he shouted. “I got all of them!” With that as the indicator, she rushes in and aims for the one goblin that sticks out of the rest. 

Controlling her character, Everlasting Snow slashes upward, sending the goblin up and she jumps after it, performing a clean slash before using lunge and stabbing it numerous times, she ends it with another slash to the head. 

The goblin turned to light as it disappeared before her eyes. 

“huh… So This is how combat works in this game?” it flows smoothly, each input feels like she is controlling herself instead of character. 

With there still being a dozen more goblins, she decided to try it out further. 

After a few minutes, there was only the last goblin remaining. 

“Man! I thought she was a noob but she got skill!” Arrow said as he finished the goblin off with his gun. 

“Yeah, I was really surprised when she just rushed in and pulled 3 goblins on herself! Hahaha!” Fea laughed as he got healed by Night. 

“So how was it, Miss Snow? Your first time fighting in this game.” Night asks her as he turns to heal her HP. 

“It… Was more fun than I thought, I normally play RPG but not MMO so I have a little bit of skill.” Xue'er said honestly. 

It was a new experience, a fast-paced first-person that was not a shooter, but an MMO. Each control feels smooth to her and it feels right somehow. 

Maybe she found a new game to pass the time. 

“Good good! Games are meant to be fun!” Fea said. “Then let's continue!”

With that, they continue in the dungeon.