Chapter 10: Chapter 1.9 Starting the Game

Chapter 1.9 Starting the Game

 

On the morning of August 1st, the girls of the group gathered in the capsule room. It was twenty minutes until the start. Some of the girls gathered in small groups and chatted happily among themselves to pass the time. Some of the other girls were busy with their phones, chatting or texting on them. A smaller portion of the girls stood alone, waiting for the start of the beta test.

Melinda was among the latter portion. She stood near her chosen capsule and waited patiently for the beginning. Simone walked toward her.

"What happened between you and Eva yesterday?" She asked straight away.

Melinda looked at her and sighed.

"Did she manage to complain?"

She didn't expect that she would go to complain.

"I transferred her to another group," Simone said instead of answering.

"Maybe it's for the best," Melinda agreed.

"So, what happened? I want to hear your side of the story."

"Everything was fine until she called me a whore," Melinda answered briefly and then shrugged.

Simone sighed and shook her head.

"Oh, I'm going to have so much trouble with you guys in this group. I knew it wouldn't be as easy a job as I received assurances."

Before the start, all the girls changed their clothes and went to the restroom beforehand. Everyone remembered the last test, which brought back unpleasant memories.

When there wasn't much time left before the start, Simone gathered everyone around her once again.

"Once again, I remind everyone that you can leave the game at any time. Don't forget that. Today, when you activate the capsule, you will find yourself in a personal subspace. It will initially be empty except for two doors. One leads out of the game, the other into the game. Full access to player status will be possible in the game. One more thing. Don't expect to be around each other in the game. The world in the game is vast. You will most likely get scattered across all continents."

After saying this, she thought for a moment, wondering if she had forgotten to tell the group any important information. But nothing came to her mind. She glanced at her watch. It was ten minutes to nine.

"That seems to be all. Now take your capsules and enter the game."

Melinda returned to her capsule and after a moment she lay awaiting activation. A flash of light followed with a click, and she fell into oblivion. When she opened her eyes, she saw a gray haze all around her. Beneath her feet, she felt a solid surface. Looking around, Melinda saw two doors. Above one door were an "Exit" sign and a timer that indicated 7 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds. Above the second door was the "World of Souls Online" sign, under which the timer also counted down. It showed 9 minutes and 11 seconds to go in. She didn't know what to do with the time remaining, so she just sat down on the floor and wait.

When the timer counted it disappeared, and the door flew open. Behind it was an impenetrable blackness. Sighing, Melinda walked into the blackness. She was in total darkness. There was no source of light. She couldn't feel the ground beneath her feet, either. A few seconds passed. It was just like the last time. Then suddenly, a message appeared in front of her.

Do you want to stay human? Yes / No

The message surprised her. No one had ever mentioned such a possibility. But before she could think about it and make a choice, it was gone, replaced by another message.

You have chosen: No.

"Hey, stop," Melinda shouted, but nothing happens. Then, abruptly it became light all around, and she began to fall slowly.

The difference from last time was immediately apparent as she looked down and terror gripped her.

"What the Hell? " Shouted Melinda nervously.

Far below her, she could see the land. She saw high mountains on one side and the vast ocean on the other. Even the clouds were below her. Through the gap in the clouds, she saw a thin line of the river and something green, forest-like, on one side of the river.

Her fall began to speed up. Soon she was in a transparent sphere shrouded in smoke and fire. The wind began to howl all around her.

‘It must be a spectacular sight to behold,’ Melinda thought nervously.

***

At this time, in a small town called Littlecreek, which had thirty thousand houses, the local elder, the priestess of the shrine, and the head of the guard stood on the roof of one of the tall buildings. They were looking up into the sky with their heads up.

"When does it finally start?" Asked the head of the guard impatiently.

Because of the upcoming event, he was distracted for half a day from current duties, and he was not unreasonably worried about his underlings. And then the weekly caravan needs to send…

"Soon," replied the priestess calmly.

There was no hurry for her. She has already completed her current tasks for the day. She was now looking forward to the upcoming entertainment.

"Will we see their arrival from here?" Asked the head of the guards again after a moment.

"Yes, the message says the whole town will see."

"And why are we even getting into this? We have enough trouble without otherworldly adventurers in my city with the local adventurers."

"In my city," the elder, standing a little behind the two, corrected him," and we need new residents. You know that."

The head of the guards sighed heavily. There was always a shortage of guards in the city. He had to seize every opportunity to increase their numbers. Though he doubted the aliens would be happy to serve as guards.

They stood like that for a few minutes before he spotted something glittering in the sky.

"Is that it?" He pointed his hand upward for the others.

Others standing nearby looked in the direction he was pointing. There in the sky, they saw the glowing ball, which was falling fast toward the ground.

"Yes, that must be it," the priestess agreed.

"I hope they don't survive the fall," said the head of the guards," and we won't need to go looking for them."

He doesn't want any unnecessary trouble.

"Then they get a resurrection in my sanctuary in three hours," the priestess disagreed with him.

What he heard made him a little angry. He remembered that the aliens are blessed with one free resurrection every day. And that made him feel an undeniable disgust for the aliens.

"And even so, we still have to go to the place where they fell," the elder finished him off.

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"May the light elves take them," the guard swore.

"Don't hope they won't," the priestess immediately disappointed him, "they'll have their own aliens to deal with."

"How many will there be," the head of the guard asked. He now realized that he could not avoid what was about to happen.

"Unknown," replied the priestess, "could be any number from one to dozens. But it's not just our city, all the cities in the kingdom will get that kind of happiness. So…"

"I hope there won't be any humans," the elder sighed before the priestess could finish her sentence.

"They have a human population," the priestess said in surprise, "I told you both about this at the last meeting."

The elder looked at her in surprise. He could have sworn this was the first time he'd ever heard of it.

Soon the fireball disappeared from their sight behind the treetops. Then they felt the ground shake slightly. Nearby, frightened birds flew up. After about thirty or forty seconds they heard the muffled sound of a thump.

"Boom."

"A bit far," commented the head of the guards.

"A bit far," the elder agreed, "but we have to go. Assemble a search party."

***

Not far from Littlecreek, in a small clearing, there was real hell. In the center was a huge crater six or seven meters in diameter. The trees surrounding the clearing were missing some of their leaves and somewhat burnt. Clouds of steam were rising from the center of the crater. Soon it dissipated slightly and a translucent glowing ball, inside, which was a person's silhouette, became visible. After a few seconds, the ball disappeared and a figure became visible, standing on one knee and bowing its head. The figure slowly straightened up.

"I am alive! " Shouted the figure in a pleasant female voice.

 

Melinda slowly looked around to see where she had landed. All around was a clearing with burnt grass and a crater from the landing.

Despite everything that had happened, she was alive and even without a scratch, but she had no idea where she was. There was not a soul around, just the destruction from the landing.

"And what was that message? Do you want to stay human or not," puzzled she.

She examined her hands. There didn't seem to be any changes. Normal human fingers. She was even wearing clothes. A gray, loose dress of rough material and simple design, with a thin belt of rough fabric. There were chest ties that tightened the breasts a bit. The cut on the dress left her neck open all the way to her breasts. The white, more delicate fabric of the undershirt was visible around the edges. As Melinda remembered such a shirt called a chemise in the old days.

"Are they getting bigger," Melinda suddenly let out a cry of surprise. She cupped her hands around her breasts, "well, they're definitely feeling a little bigger," she confirmed her fears.

She twisted slightly to the side and realized, surprised, that the clothes were comfortable. Her breasts fit tightly in the dress and didn't interfere with her movement, not even dragging her forward under their considerable weight. The dress was below her knees, but had a wide skirt and did not interfere with her movement. She wore leather boots on her feet.

Melinda leaned over to see what kind of underwear was under her skirt. To her surprise, there were white braies, the progenitor of modern underwear. But she didn't get a good look. Her hair fell down on her chest.

"My hair!" Let out a new exclamation of surprise Melinda. She'd had short hair since high school. But this one was long, at least to her shoulder blades, and it was straw-colored with a red tint.

Melinda straightened and fixed her hair, then turned her head back and froze in horror. In her field of vision was the tip of a tail that was at ground level and wiggling in different directions. She slowly, without taking her eyes off of it, brought her hands down to waist level behind her and started slowly lowering them. Almost immediately she found what she was looking for. The palm-wide tail started just above her tailbone but was hiding by the skirt of her dress. By all appearances, it was more than a meter long and ended in a tail about four centimeters thick.

"Why," she whispered softly, and tears came to her eyes.

But the most frustrating thing for her was that her tail refused to obey. No matter how hard she tried, the tip of the tail would not let her hold it. It behaved in a completely chaotic manner. After fighting it for about five minutes, she finally gave up on him.

"All right, you little rascal. I'll deal with you later."

Melinda slowly looked around the clearing to see where she was again. The forest was dense all around. Only the trees closest to the clearing were without leaves.

‘To wait or not to wait?’ She thought. ‘And if waiting, what to do? What if no one comes?’

She had no food with her. Neither did she have any weapons. She didn't even have any pockets on her clothes. Finally, she remembered about the player status screen.

"Open my player status," she said in a voice, and her status screen popped up in front of her.

 

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