"Take your time to create your avatar. I'll let Ana assist you," Alex's voice echoed.
And before anyone could speak, the space shifted, and everyone was separated so they could create their avatars peacefully.
Alex remained in the previous location, waiting for everyone to return. During that time, Ana materialized a table full of delicious snacks: pies, sweets, and savory treats of all kinds. Alex picked a few and began to eat.
Although this is a virtual world, the charm is that you can eat food and actually taste it. This proves how wonderful and mysterious the human mind truly is.
Time passed, and nearly half an hour later, the first person to finish creating their avatar appeared.
Alex glanced over and remained silent, as he noticed that the person who had finished was Mia.
To describe it, Mia's avatar was simply her 16-year-old teenage version. Alex didn't know if it was fate, but Mia had created her avatar exactly like her appearance after her grandmother helped her.
"You look beautiful! Care to join me?" After admiring her beauty, he invited Mia to sit with him.
Mia, who was a bit shy, looked at Alex silently, and when she heard his compliment, a lovely smile appeared on her face.
The reason she didn't change much about her avatar was that she liked her more mature appearance and wanted to see if Alex would like it too. Now, hearing his response, her nervous heart filled with joy.
"I want to!" Mia replied and walked over to the table of delicacies.
Although she was surprised when she saw the large table full of food, her mind began to subconsciously accept the absurd things without her realizing it.
The surprises Alex had brought her were too many to count. Why worry?
Alex picked up a slice of strawberry pie and offered it to Mia.
"Try this. The best part of eating here is that you don't have to worry about gaining weight!"
Hearing Alex's explanation, Mia's bright eyes sparkled even more. She took the pie he gave her and tasted it.
"It's so delicious!" Mia murmured happily after savoring the pie.
And so, the two ate and chatted while waiting for the others to return.
Ten minutes later, two people appeared one after the other: Missy and Sheldon.
Sheldon's avatar looked very much like him, but the modifications made him resemble Spock from Star Trek. Missy created her avatar to look like an older version of herself, but to describe it, she looked like a magazine model.
"This is so cool!" Missy said and ran over to Alex as soon as she appeared.
Alex looked over both avatars from head to toe and said:
"Your avatars turned out great. Especially yours, Missy — you look stunning!"
"Really?" Missy lifted her head proudly and puffed out her chest as if trying to show something off.
Alex wondered if all women worry about the size of their breasts. Both Mia and Missy had made theirs larger.
"The level of freedom is amazing. I wonder how you managed to do all this?" Sheldon said with an expressionless face.
Alex noticed the nickname above Sheldon's head and replied:
"That's the power of science!"
Both joined Alex and Mia and waited for Billy and Tam.
About five minutes later, Billy appeared. His avatar was based on Superman. Maybe because he was dressed as Superman, created his avatar accordingly. Everyone knew it was Billy — well, because Billy was unmistakable.
Almost half an hour later, Tam appeared, and his avatar resembled the actor who played Captain America in the movies.
Alex was surprised by the coincidence, but now that everyone was gathered, he needed to bring them together after creating their avatars and nicknames. It was time to start playing.
Alex's gaze swept over everyone, and he opened his mouth to speak:
"Now that everyone has finished creating their characters, it's time to start playing."
As soon as his voice fell, everyone's bodies vanished from the location, without giving anyone a chance to react.
After entering the game, Ana could transfer the necessary information so each person could understand this new world.
Although the time rate inside was different from the outside world, Alex wanted to enjoy every second in here.
He didn't want to wait for everyone's parents to come looking for them before they started playing — that would make all his effort to bring them here go to waste!
When Alex and the others regained their vision, they were all inside their respective homes in this world.
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I haven't posted any chapters recently because I'm unemployed and need to earn money to buy food and pay the bills. Making money by writing novels isn't an option for me. First, there's the language barrier: my native language is Portuguese, and my English is very poor — zero, to be precise! I use AI to translate the chapters from Portuguese to English, which causes some sentences to lose their original meaning. I thought about posting novels in my native language, but I couldn't find platforms as good as this one for new authors. I tried posting a novel on another site, but after two days, it didn't get a single view, which shows how bad that site is for new authors. That seemed strange to me, since the site is very famous. Anyway, see you next time!