"Okay, let's get things in order first..." I calm myself as I look around my surroundings with a silly smile on my face.
It looked like a typical village you would see in those old-style medieval movies. Concrete was nowhere to be found, and instead, the path was made up of mud and flat stones.
There were multiple signs and signatures found on the many converging paths of the road I'm at now.
Undoubtedly, the navigation of this world would have been extremely easy...
But that was only if...I actually knew where to go in the first place?!
Yes! I don't even have an idea if there's a tutorial I must complete before moving! How much more do you think I'd know about the basic locations of this place?!
To resolve this existential problem of mine, I walked towards the stone paths and looked around for any place that could give me a clue on what to do next; however, there was nothing to be found.
And no! I couldn't even go to any of the houses with the signs on them!
I mean, take a look at them!
Marriage center? What use would that be for me when I'm not even married, to begin with
Armor shop? Equipment shop? Catelia's Blacksmith? What use would those shops be for me when I haven't even done this game's tutorial?! And who is this Catelia?!
"It's fine...it's perfectly fine...I can do this...for sure...haha...ha..." I ramble to myself softly as I cover my mouth with my hand whilst looking to the side like a dead corpse who just got revived for the sake of suffering again.
Maybe I should quit.
Nope.
Nope!
My savings are already down the drain anyway, so I shouldn't be thinking that way.
For now, let's look for a solution...we can't give up so easily, especially when we just got to the game.
So then, I looked down at myself, finding a bag in my hands that I've overlooked and forgotten about due to the overwhelming situation I am currently in!
But since I remember it now...
Surely...the bag that the goddess gave me must have something useful there, right?
Right?
Thus, after steeling my resolve, I open the bag and try to look for anything inside.
Luckily, to my advantage, I find two things!
One, being a dagger! It should be good for serving as beginner equipment.
However, the second is...
A...a marriage ring?
I blink a few times, wondering if this was just the result of me being hysterical because of all the times I had to think about harem and harem and harem...
But no.
Apparently not? It was truly a marriage ring...
It was crude, wooden, and did not seem to have any sort of gem in the middle. Instead, what was there in the middle of the ring was a piece of stone that was shaped like a gem.
Naturally, it was of bad quality.
I look at it again and rub my forehead. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this? Run to some random girl and propose to her?"
Thus, knowing better and knowing that there is nothing to be gained from just looking around and not doing anything at all, I might as well log out and check the forums.
After all, what else do I know about Charming Beauties aside from the fact that it's a harem and RPG game?
"Log out," I think to myself, hoping that I will be transported back to the title screen, but nothing happens.
"Log out, please?" I think to myself again, hoping that the mechanics of the game would work if I asked politely.
...but of course they don't.
Hah...
This is nuts, so I have to log out myself via some...some item or device in the game?
Well, since I don't even have a clue on what to do, I can only do one thing to make up my mind on what I should be doing.
As such, obviously, the best course of action now was observation!
It's the best way to understand the norms and general paths that players like me are taking!
"I'm going to look like such a creep if I don't pull this naturally," I tell myself as I resign myself to a bench to look like I'm taking a "rest".
But no! In truth, it was all to disguise the fact that I was glancing to observe the players and women here in this bustling street center!
Sure, I admit that it seems like an overstretch since I could just ask the other players...but I refuse to. Not when I don't even know how players treat other players in this hypercompetitive game.
So for now, I'll pay attention to these minuscule details eif it means that I'll be making progress in my goals.
...thus, after these excruciating 5 minutes of staring into the same scenery over and over again: I've concluded that people usually go to: 1.) the brothel, and 2.) to that weird light that's located in goodness knows where.
Is it going to a tutorial site? To some universal dungeon?
I don't know.
It's just that I have to try going that route.
To the way straight North.
Thus— I did.
10 minutes later, I catch myself panting for breath as I stare at this ginormous ray of light that reaches 200 meters in height and is colored in an ephemeral shade of the fairest blue.
Crystal-like particles surround this weird ray of light, moving around haphazardly and surrounding the players that make contact with it.
And just as easily, those players were gone in an instant: surrounded by a ray of light that enveloped their bodies.
They've disappeared in mere seconds.
It was a breathtaking sight.
It was also equally as scary.
So, without dwelling on my progress, I move forward to that ray of light which I hope gives me a semblance of a tutorial or quest of sorts.
It is my biggest clue as to what to do next.
And yeah— sure! I can totally ask other players here what to do.
...but again, I don't want to.
Not when I still have no clue how other players interact with each other. I don't want unnecessary trouble when I know I could avoid it.
...contemplations aside: I move forward— into the ray of light.
Each step of my body traverses through what seems like translucent particles that seem foreign and unusual when compared to normal light.
Yet it does have a similar function to light: enveloping me in a warm and intoxicating sensation of otherworldly warmth.
Bracing myself for the tutorial, I reach forward to where it seems like...my room?
Hold on...why am I seeing my room?
My room...with a transparent filter?
"What is going on here..." I ask myself, puzzled by the sudden turn of events.
It doesn't make sense. It really shouldn't. By theory, I should have gone to some tutorial site or some dungeon that a newbie can handle.
But I'm back in my room?!
What the fuck?! Is this something like a mind trick that—
Hold on, let's pinch ourselves and— shit, that hurts...
We're truly outside the game. We're in my room. My real room.
...so that ray of light was a portal to log out?
What the hell?!
As much as I'm happy that I learned how to log out of the game...I still don't understand the controls of it all!
There was no quest log. There was no system. There was no tutorial for me to get the hang of the game.
"Wait...does that mean..." I mutter under my breath like a crazed madman as I look around the visor on my head.
Oh goodness.
Oh no.
I have to wait another 10 minutes to enter the game?!