Chapter 1:
The Character Creator
LUNCH COMES A BIT EARLY the next day since service starts at noon and Akina doesn’t want to miss even a second of it.
“Oh, right. When you boot up the game, make sure you check the unwanted contact blocker in the options menu.”
“Unwanted contact blocker…?”
“It’s an anti-harassment feature. There are a few different presets, so make sure you have it turned on. It makes it so you don’t feel like you’ve been touched, and the other guy feels like he’s up against an invisible wall.”
“I see. It is full dive technology, after all. Guess there’s a lot to consider.”
“Yes, and someone like you absolutely needs it, Sis. Also, make sure you whitelist me!”
“Oh, there’s a whitelist?”
“There’s a setting that disables it against friends and exceptions. I’ll still receive a warning if I go too far, though.”
“Naturally.”
“By the way, you can change values by a maximum of five centimeters in the character creator. Also, everyone ends up looking a bit 2D in-game.”
“I see.”
“Oh! It’s starting!”
“Yeah!”
Akina pitter-patters her way up the steps, and I get ready to head to my room as well. Thankfully, I was able to register her as a friend in advance when I was checking through the official website.
I put on the headset, lie down on my bed in a comfortable position, and power up the game device.
Good morning. What would you like to do today?
I’d like to load FLFO.
Performing a pre-boot check. The device and user are confirmed to be in a safe position. Launching Free Life Fantasy Online.
The game starts up quite smoothly. Though the title screen is displayed, it’s overlayed by a quite conspicuous countdown. The numbers are gyrating…now they’re bouncing…oh, they’ve even begun to spin. You really don’t want me to read the title, do you Future Soft? Not like I don’t already know it…
When there are only ten seconds remaining, the numbers suddenly change into rapidly shifting psychedelic rainbows and start to jump around even faster. Perhaps because of the full dive immersion, the counter—or rather my perception of it—seems to speed up the as the countdown nears zero. Once it’s down to five seconds, the digits begin to swell until…
Bang!!
I’ll give it to Future Software; that one got me, even if I knew what to expect. Anyway, that far-too-attention-grabbing countdown is gone, so let’s begin!
Once I move on from the title screen, the scenery changes to a clearing in a deep green forest. It’s quite a wonderous, serene sight, what with all the sunlight filtering through the tree branches. Though it doesn’t really give off a sense of fantasy…
Welcome to the world of Free Life Fantasy Online! Now let’s make your character, which serves as your avatar in this world. Your premium character customizer will be used at this time.
The voice seems to come directly into my head. It’s writing information straight into my brain…! Guess that’s just how complex FDVR really is.
My avatar first displays as the basic data entered when I initialized the device on various slates of information floating in the air. I try fiddling with them, but honestly, I’m just making it worse. Looks like I’ll have to reset things. Actually, how about I just change the hairstyle and skin tone? Otherwise, I’m going to have a real monstrous creation on my hands. I feel pretty confident in my beautification skills—I take all my mom’s advice on caring for my body.
Pigtails are more geared toward younger children. Hmm, the ponytail doesn’t look so bad. In real life, my hair just about reaches my shoulders, so it’s interesting to see all the new things I can try. An afro is pushing it a little bit—it’s kind of amusing just how unsuitable and inappropriate it is for me. Same goes for the mohawk. How about I make the bangs blunt-cut and give myself a princess hairstyle. Ugh, no, that’s not to my tastes in the least.
In the end, it’s best to just keep it simple. Let’s keep what I have, just make it longer. It’s a pain to wash my hair once it grows longer than my shoulders, and it catches on all sorts of things, so I would never do this in real life—but maybe it’s different in-game. Let’s see it down my back…now down to my hips…next my knees…wow! I can grow it all the way to the ground…! I’m not going to trip on all this hair, am I?
It is possible to tie or cut your hair however you like in-game, but it is not currently possible to regrow it longer.
Oh, so I see. Then let’s go all out and have it down to my calves. I’m not doing much with the bangs, but I’ll make the sides a bit longer…aaaaand there! Let’s set the finish to “glossy” and the hair color to black. Oh, and the eyes to a bright purple. Mmm…outright purple is a little finicky. Should I make it reddish-purple, or bluish-purple…? Yeah, let’s put it more on the blue side of things.
That looks good. Let’s save and continue.
Please select your race. Please note that modifications will be applied to your current character model based on your chosen racial group.
Jeez…this game has a really wide selection of races.
HUMAN:
A very average race.
If you’re ever in doubt about what to choose, give humanity a go.
BEASTMAN:
Gains a different specialty depending on the species.
Wolf: Specializes in Strength
Rabbit: Specializes in Dexterity
Bear: Specializes in Endurance
Fox: Specializes in Intelligence
Cat: Specializes in Agility
DWARF:
A race known for their high Strength and Dexterity. However, their movement speed is quite slow.
Recommended for crafters.
ELF:
The glass cannons of FLFO, they have high Intelligence and Dexterity but can’t take a hit.
Recommended for ranged combat.
GIANT:
Creatures with high Strength and Endurance, though they’re very clumsy.
Use your size to your advantage.
MACHINA:
Known as “the armored ones” or “the automatons,” these creations boast high stats overall but are abysmal at casting and resisting magic.
Hmm, it’s exactly what I saw online. It doesn’t look like anything’s changed from the beta.
The beastman race can be widely customized, ranging from just ears and tails to full bipedal animals—much to the joy of the online furry community. However, it seems that every species, apart from foxes, have low intelligence in exchange for an enhanced sense of sight and smell.
Dwarves—perhaps due to their shorter legs and stature—are said to gain less speed than the other races for every point invested in agility. Whether this is due to physical differences or an actual adjusted formula, only the company knows for sure. The speed difference was first theorized when two freshly created characters held a race with their initial equipment and the same stat investment.
Elves are, as stated, glass cannons: They can’t take a hit to save their lives. Rumor has it that they gain fewer hit points per investment. In contrast, giants gain an enormous amount of HP. As you might expect, they have towering builds ranging between two to three meters tall. With humans, two meters is just about the upper limit. And while you can generally adjust within five centimeters of your actual height, each race has its own built-in scaling features.
According to an official statement, people who are actually over two meters tall in reality can still be over two meters in-game.
Machina start out with stats that are overwhelmingly higher than any of the other races, but their MP growth is downright unsalvageable. Apparently, it isn’t zero, but it might as well be considering how little they get. I guess they have high intelligence stats because they’re machines—but they don’t have the MP to make it useful. From what I could find, they operate on their own system of EP, or Energy Points.
In addition to all these options, the game also lets you select inhuman races, and there’s a wide pool to choose from.
You have selected an inhuman race. These races are geared toward those who reject sanity.
The inhuman races are grotesque life-forms called monsters. They generally have higher stats, though there’s a wide spectrum. However, as they lack human traits, they come with certain demerits. For example, if you decide to play as a slime, it’s apparently quite difficult just to learn to move properly.
But, on the other hand, the inhuman races grow faster than human classes and have their own unique evolution system to change race. With large enough changes, it is possible to get a complete skill rebuild in the process. However, a wide selection means a wide array of weaknesses as well.
It looks like the game designers took the stance of, “It’s not our problem if you can hardly move. You’re the one who chose to play as this race.” But who knows; what was once a completely useless skill could become something incredible. Safe to say that this is mainly a route for those with dreams and patience.
During the beta, the inhuman forums were filled with cries of agony. It got so bad it was almost like listening in on the screams of hell itself. As a result, they didn’t expect more than 10 percent of the player base to choose the inhuman races once official service began, and that was being generous.
User-controlled inhuman players have symbols over their heads so they can be told apart from game monsters by other players, and yet they were still relentlessly attacked and abused, with many players saying, “You’re just a monster, you know. This doesn’t count as a real player kill.”