1 Chaos Start

Chaos Year 1, Day 215, 3:12 pm.

Tsuriyama Household, Gifu, Japan.

"Onii-chan, I'm coming in." 

Tsuriyama Riko, my 12 years old little sister, abruptly entered my room. I swiveled my rolling chair to face my rude sister.

"How many times did I tell you not to enter the room without knocking?"

She just rolled her eyes, completely disregarding my authority, and skipped toward my PC desk. Then she made herself comfortable, jumping onto the desk.

"Sora ojii-san came home today. He was looking for you. I tried calling but you never replied. Even the door was locked…" Riko explained while glancing at my PC screen, but suddenly got startled, "Ah, did you just pass my best score? It took me months to get that score."

"Heh! You are 10 years too early to reach my gaming skill level." I smirked, taunting her. 

"Hmph!" Riko pouted, folding her hands.

'Yep, totally worth it. She looks so cute while pouting.'

Satisfied, I then focused on the matter at hand. "So why was he looking for me? You didn't ask?"

"Yeah, I did. Well, he brought something home. What was the name again?  Ah right, VR Studio or something." She replied, easing up again.

"Oh? Alright then, Let's check out this VR thingy first."

Trailing behind Riko, I left my room. Just as we took a left towards the living room, I caught a glimpse of an oval-shaped capsule. And right away I recognized it.

"A VRSC?!" I gawked at the machine with awe. 

"A what?" My sister frowned.

"It's called VRSC, short for Virtual Reality Station Capsule, not VR studio." I explained to her.

"You know about it?" Riko's big green eyes sparkled.

"I did a little research on it last year when Chaos got launched."

My lips curved into a slight smile as I touched the cold metal surface of the machine. I really could not believe it was finally before my eyes. My heart might have even skipped a bit.

'God knows how many days I waited for this day.'

"Ah, Chaos. the game that you were so obsessed with." She walked around the VRSC, inspecting it, and then tilted her head in confusion. "What's that got to do with this huge thing?"

"You play the game using this capsule. I'll show you later. Now help me with this." I groaned while shoving the capsule forward with all my might, but failed to move even an inch. 

'Damnit, I need to start working out again. When was the last time I went to the gym?'

After an enormous amount of struggle, we finally managed to drag the capsule into my room. It stood out like a sore thumb among the other furniture in the room.

'It looks like an oversized egg with a door lid on it. Did they lack designers or something?'

"You know how this thing works? I think ojii-san brought a manual book too, It should be somewhere in the livi…"

"I don't need it. I know how it works." 

I read the manual for the capsule many times before to feed my curiosity and thus knew almost everything about its operating system. So, I started working on it immediately. 

But Riko's constant starting and awkward dawdling annoyed me, ruining my concentration. 

"Don't you have anything else to do, Riko? You don't play games anyway, so what are you hovering over here for?" 

"I want to watch the virtual thing too." 

"It's not a TV. You enter into a different world." Ah, wrong words.  I intended to repel her but messed up instead.

"Eh, what do you mean by that? Wait…like Kirito?" Her eyes glittered, reaching her climax excitement. 

For some reason, like every other girl from the series, Riko also worships that dumb annoying guy. 

She babbled on, "I wanna get into that other world too. You have to let me use it, please Onii-chan. I even helped you and all. I'm your only cute little sister, right? You will let me use it, won't you?" 

Considering Riko's personality and excitement level, I could pretty much tell that this pestering would continue for hours. Rather than tolerating this until the end only to give in, I should just surrender early on. 

'At least let's offer her some peace of mind.'

"Okay, okay, I will. Just move over now. And get out. I can't concentrate with you here."

"Okaay, it's a promise." She spun around and hopped out of the room. 

'Hey, when did I promise? Anyway, finally, I can work in peace.'

After setting up everything, I sat inside the capsule and wore the headgear which connected me with the virtual reality world. A loading scene appeared before my eyes. It read,

'The Altus Town, named after a great magician known as Altruino, is a prospering town known for its friendly and welcoming neighborhood. But the greatest attraction of the town is the Altrus Academy, established by Altruino himself. At first, it was a magic arts academy. Later on, it opened up to all kinds of basic combat and craft arts. Since then the academy has produced many great warriors over time.'

I read the description on the logging scene three times already. By that time, the loading bar progressed to 42℅ only. I kept staring at the loading bar. Soon my vision started clouding up, as my consciousness drifted off to a past scene, that I even dreamt of many times.

My consciousness visualized the day when 'Chaos' was released globally. They broadcast the in-game world on a big screen, inside a conventional hall. I still could remember it crystal clear.

That day, standing among the sea of people in that hall, I muttered some words, that I couldn't hear because of the commotion shrouding me. Even though the ears couldn't pick up, the heart knew very well the indistinct sound I murmured that day.

There were people everywhere in the hall, gazing toward one screen exclaiming with excitement and wonder. Everyone was busy trying to get a picture of themselves, selfies. They wanted to create memories.

But they didn't care about the ones they came with. That memory they wanted wasn't about enjoying the moment together with their beloved ones. They just wanted the world to know that they were in front of that big screen, at that moment, busy with themselves.

There were people everywhere, but there wasn't really anyone. They were all fake people in their make-believe society. I wondered if others could comprehend this empty feeling, this hollowed heart inside me.

No, it wasn't because I lost a loved one, nor because someone broke me. I wasn't even a loner. 

"Then what twisted my view of society?"  I asked myself.

My inner subconscious figured it out. I read too much into people, a cursed little ability indeed. Wherever I observed, all the relationships were built on lies after lies. On the surface, they all seemed very happy, but deep down they all knew, nothing would last. They acted to get along until that last day came. In reality, they were all alone in their vast solitary worlds. 

Once you recognize these small details, you can't live in the bliss of ignorance anymore. Your heart aches, you start longing for...no, you start craving for something.

I wished, Chaos would suck in all the chaos of this sham of a society. I believed that only Chaos could lead me towards what I craved.

As the loading completion notification buzzed, my consciousness sprung back to the present time. It was the moment of truth. Henceforth, I began a new journey towards my dream.

After the loading scene ended my vision clouded up again, and everything turned deep dark. Right away it brightened up again bit by bit. But this time, I could breathe and feel the air around me, see my arms and legs. I listened to the breeze whistling, not just some background music. 

'So, this is Virtual Reality.'

However, It was white everywhere, even the floor, just like the Construct from The Matrix. 

'Is someone standing behind me too?'

Looking around, I found no one. As I wondered what I was supposed to do, suddenly a screen appeared above my head. I gasped, jumping backward.

"Ahahaha… Did I scare you, Master?" A child giggled above my head on the screen.

'An AI? But why is it a child? Not that I mind though.'

"Where am I? Is this the character creation room?"

"Well, we call it the Chaos Initiator though."

'We? Who's we? Well, it's not important right now.'

"Wait, if I didn't create my character yet, what am I right now?" I asked.

'The hands look like mine though.'

"It's a character look-alike your real self, created by the system, scanning your entire body." The AI explained. "In your case, it was me who did it. Meaning I have already seen you all naked, Master."

"Is that so? Well good for you." I said, shrugging my shoulders. I didn't mind AI watching me all naked. They wouldn't gossip, as they had no human filths. "Now then, what do I do?"

"You can recreate your character here if you like or you can progress towards the name selection part."

'Nah, I don't have the time for character creation nor do I want to. It's too much pain with all those details.'

"Okay, let's move on to name selection."

"Alright Master, What do you want your character's name to be?

"Ryoki… R-y-o-k-i"

"You can't use this name, Master. It has been taken already."

I began this journey really late. Chaos was more than 7 months old already. So it was reasonable that someone had already taken my name. but I did want to beat that guy up for some reason.

"Okay then, let's just go with Ryo. It should be available, right?"

"Nope."

"Tsuriyama?" I frowned.

"Nope."

'Please let me use one reasonable name, God.'

"Maryo."

"Still not available."

"Mario." 

'C'mon…'

"Same." 

'Fucking hell….'

"Rio?"

Even the AI got tired. She just shook her head left and right this time.

'Just what the fuck is going on? Now, what do I do? Nothing's coming to my mind anymore. Ughh fuck everything.'

"Rio-002"

"Ah, that one is available."

'Of course, it's available. Or else I would have logged out and cursed everyone on the forum until I cooled off.'

"Do you confirm your name to be 'Rio-002', Master?"

"Yup"

"Now you need to create a password first for safety issues. I like to call it the Magic Words. It's kinda catchy that way."

"Hoh…Hmm, let's see…okay I've decided. It's 'El Psy Congrii'."

"Okay then, I set it as the password, please don't forget it, master," She said. "So, Are you ready to enter the Chaos world?"

"Wait, I don't choose the class now?"

"Not yet, Master. You will get to choose your class during the Main Quest."

"Oh, I see." Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. Here we go. "Okay then, let's log in." I confirmed, opening my eyes again.

"Alright. Welcome to Chaos, Master."