Welcome to The Novus, the World of Opportunities. You can be whoever and do whatever your heart desires. A book detailing User Conduct and Restrictions inside the system has been added to your inventory.
"W-wait! I haven't changed my avatar yet!"
Let your adventure begin!
I reached up and saw a rocky ceiling above me. My hand looked exactly like it did in real life, so I continued inspecting the rest of my body. I even had the same birthmark close to my left flat nipple.
"Oh… no… I'm… still me! This has to be a mistake!" I cried, hearing my disgustingly male-ish voice. As I looked at my surroundings, a notification took my attention. I made a hand gesture as the Video Tutorial had taught us, and my User Interface materialized in front of me.
New Quest! Find a way out and visit Unus Town - Reward: 100 gold
"Oh, fantastic."
I yanked my hair and suppressed a scream.
"Easy now, it's not like it's your fault..."
I just lay down again and sighed. Like a complete idiot.
"I might... be able to make this work somehow... just like back in the real world. I'll get some new clothes, some makeup, and try again… 'Be whoever and do whatever you want' my ass!"
As I remained quiet, the sound of distant voices came to my ears. There were other people nearby, but their sound was muffled. I crawled out and glanced outside. The place was lined with individual caves. I guess everyone spawned on their own.
The voices were now closer. I peeked inside my neighboring cave and found a pair of ass-cheeks right in front of me! "What the—!"
I shut my mouth with both hands. Did they hear me? Apparently not, since the girl inside was loudly moaning. I peered again and realized what was happening.
"This is amazing!" a guy was grunting while pushing his hips furiously against the girl.
"Yeah! It feels just like in the real world!" she cried, and judging by the tone of her voice, she sounded more than pleased.
They've just respawned, and the first thing they do is check if they can have sex inside the system? Sure, why not? I felt a little envious, actually. But I doubt that guy would let me join them. Maybe if I looked more girly like in my previous—Wait… Are those their clothes?
Would you look at that? The girl's dress was there on the ground for anyone to take.
I swallowed nervously before crawling toward them. Reaching out carefully, I snagged the clothes—gotcha!
I quickly retreated to my cave and changed, just as the guy's voice echoed from next door: 'I'm cumming!'
I glanced at my body and nodded approvingly. Wearing this white-sleeved cotton dress, and thanks to my bob hairstyle just above my shoulders, I at least looked androgynous enough.
Now, to get out of here.
* *
What were the developers thinking? This body, face, and voice were carbon copies of the real me. The capsule I got into must have scanned my naked body, and all those questions the computer asked were probably to record my voice patterns. Bleh! Being the real me sucks. Did you know that, developers?!
After walking through a series of rocky corridors, I got into a more spacious cavern where other players were already slaying their first monsters—A translucent, small creature.
"Slime," I said aloud after a name appeared above one of them. I observed the others, who used their feet and fists to kill them.
That was lame.
One got close to me, and the first thing that came into my mind was how cute and soft it looked.
"Aww! Come here, little fella!" I beamed, and the monster rushed to tackle me. "Not happening, asshole!"
I stomped on it and made it explode, leaving my leather boot and leg stained with jelly. Yuck…
"Nice move!" A guy said, giving me a thumbs up. "What's your name?"
For a moment I wondered if my real name was displayed above my head like with these slimes, so I didn't think of hiding it. "Taylor…" I blurted out. "You?"
"I'm Steve. Do you want to team up? There's a secret quest that I discovered after killing five of them. If you kill 30, you'll get 200 gold. We could split the reward."
Was it my imagination, or was this guy being too nice to me? Whatever! The stolen dress and years of faking my voice were working!
He was dark-skinned, tall, with short hair and a fit body, so my answer was an absolute yes!
"Sure," I replied shyly, making my voice more feminine.
"I also figured out how to create a temporary party. That way, the system will split the gold for us. It's a pretty neat function. We don't need to be added as friends to start a team."
A notification got into my field of vision.
Steve Riggs wants to start a Battle Party!
"Did you get it?" he asked, showing me what a perfect smile looked like.
"Yes, Steve Riggs. Your last name has a good ring to it."
"Thanks! So, are you ready?"
"Absolutely! I bet I can kill more of them than you can!"
He burst out laughing. "We'll see about that!"
Minutes later, when I'd killed my ninth Slime, I saw the couple from before walking out of the respawning caves. The girl was wearing the guy's shirt, looking embarrassed, while he looked around, shirtless, like trying to discern who had screwed them over. There were like 20 people around. He would never find out.
"Kick of Vengeance!" a blonde girl cried out loud, 50 feet away from us, and a current of air manifested from her feet and cut a Slime in half. "Did you see that, Alan?! It worked!"
"It sure did! But, h-how did you do it?" her partner asked.
"Did that girl figure out a special technique out of nowhere?" Steve asked, half-smiling.
"Beats me," I said bitterly after noticing that he was staring at her.
That blonde was pretty as hell! She was stacked, had a tiny waist and a big, round butt... She was everything I wanted to be. Of course I'd get mad if the first 'friend' I've got in this freaking place started drooling over her!
"Hey, we're almost done," I said, not even trying to hide my resentment.
Steve turned to me and gave me an apologetic smile. "Yes, let's finish this!"
"Fine, whatever," I muttered, stomping over the two last ones, which prompted a notification to appear immediately inside my head.
Hidden Hunting Quest Completed! You and your teammate have received 100 gold each!
"We did it, partner!" he beamed and raised his hand so I could shake it. But I was not in the mood for that.
"Steve? Come here for a second, please?"
"Yeah, what is it?" he asked, frowning. "Is something wrong? Are you hurt?"
When he got close enough for me to grab him by the collar of his shirt, I pulled him down to whisper in his ear. "Hand over that 100 gold, and I'll make it worth your time."