7 Visit

Go or No go?

"Fine, I'm in." --- SH: 25 + WN: 11 = 36

**"I'm busy. Look for someone else." --- SH: 29 + WN: 14 = 43

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"I'm busy. Look for someone else."

Lucas sighed as he declined Sam's offer.

Though he still looked quite 'human', it would be too troublesome to explain his hair and eyes if they see through his wig and sunglasses. It was better to be safe than sorry.

"Sigh, fine. Sorry to bother you then."

Sam sighed in disappointment as he ended the call.

In a park a few blocks away from Lucas, there was a small gathering of four girls and three boys.

Sam sighed and shook his head as he ended the call with Lucas.

"Lucas didn't agree."

"...Then that's that. We'll take our leave now."

A girl with long black hair said without a change of expression on her face.

She turned around and was about to leave when Sam called out to her.

"W-wait! We can still get one more guy with us! Then we can hang out in karaoke or a restaurant!"

"No thanks."

"..."

The rest of the girls looked at each other before shrugging and following along with the cold girl.

"Mii! Wait up!"

"Were you really going to agree if that Lucas guy agreed?"

"You looked surprised when you saw that class picture earlier."

Earlier, Sam and his friends were hitting on these four girls.

They talked a lot and bragged about a few things including their high school days. At some point, Sam showed a class picture where Lucas just happened to be in the corner of the photo.

When the girl Mica, or as her friends call her, Mii saw that, she said that condition if they can invite Lucas as well.

Hearing the other girls ask about him, Mica paused.

"...I knew him when we were kids. Before I left and returned to Japan..."

The girls looked at each other again and their urge to gossip activated.

"Oohh! Like a childhood sweetheart!"

"Why didn't you say so!? How about we get those guys to give us his number? We can just go meet him directly!"

Mica shook her head.

"No need. We'll meet if it's fated to happen. Right now, there are more important things to do."

The girls looked at each other and sighed.

"Alright. We'll listen to you then, our future Guild Leader~"

Back in Lucas' apartment.

Lucas looked at his phone for a while then shook his head.

He continued to browse the internet regarding things related to the game as well as see if anyone has mentioned ever being turned into their game characters in reality...as expected, there was none.

A few hours later, his phone rang again.

Looking at the display, it showed an unknown number.

Frowning, Lucas answered to see who it was.

"Hello?"

"Lucas! It's me, Chloe!"

"Chloe? How did you get my number?"

Hearing the familiar voice from the other side, Lucas was surprised.

Is there something going on today? How come so many people are looking for him?

He was just a nobody. Yet Sam, who he hasn't talked to in a long time, contacted him. There's also Chloe who is somehow looking for him as well...

"I asked your boss in the cafe since I didn't see you in the convenience store."

"...Is there a reason why you're looking for me?"

"Ummm..."

Chloe hesitated for a while before finally asking.

"Do you have any plans for today? There's something important I wish to discuss."

"What is it?"

"It's too important to say it on the phone...can we meet up?"

Lucas frowned.

"Sorry, I'm not feeling too well. I can't go outside right now..."

"Hm? Are you sick?...Ah! Wait, you didn't register as a human in World Gate Online, did you? Then your appearance now..."

As soon as Lucas heard what Chloe said, he was shocked.

Although Chloe didn't say a lot, it was enough to imply certain things...things that one wouldn't consider normal at all.

"You...how did you know!?"

"...Like I said, it's better to talk about this face to face...how about you tell me where you live? I'll come over there now. I'll even bring pizza as thanks to the dinner the other night!"

"..."

Lucas was speechless.

Why do they keep thinking he wanted food or something...but that's fine anyway.

Lucas hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing.

Regarding what was happening to him, he really wanted to know what's going on and how he could return to normal.

All he wanted was to play the game. Why did he get turned into his game character!?

He wanted to know why. He wanted to know how all this was possible.

And now, he could only turn to Chloe who seemed to know some things...

Lucas waited for a few more minutes before he heard someone knock on his door.

He looked through the peephole first to confirm it was Chloe. Then, he opened the door to let her in.

After agreeing with Chloe, Lucas cleaned up his apartment and stored away everything that needs to be stored so it didn't appear messy.

"Come in."

"Thanks...Lucas?"

When Chloe came in, the first thing that she saw was the brilliant white hair. Then, she saw his blue gem-like eyes with irises that looked like a wolf.

"Did you choose...the werebeast race? What subrace are you?"

"White Wolf. I was lucky enough not to have extra limbs or animal ears and tails...otherwise, it would really be impossible for me to leave..."

Lucas sighed as he answered.

Chloe gave him another look from head to toe before nodding in satisfaction.

"Not bad actually. You look very handsome! Totally my type!"

"..."

"There's no need to worry so much. Later, I can take you to a salon to fix up your hairstyle, you can just explain that your eyes are colored contacts, as for your fangs...well, just don't open your mouth!"

"..."

How am I supposed to talk if I don't open my mouth!?

Lucas was speechless.

"Forget it, I'll just use a face mask..."

"That works too."

It isn't out of place for one to wear a face mask these days anyway. Other than his hair and eyes, he is still quite 'normal'...

"Anyway...explain. Why do you know about what's happening to me?"

"Sigh...to tell you the truth, I don't know much else as well. Alright, I'll explain what I know while we eat. I'm starving."

"..."

As ever, Chloe was in her 'my pace' mode so Lucas could only follow along with her whims patiently.

Since she said she'll explain, there's no reason to get impatient about it and make a big fuss.

The two of them sat at the dining table and Chloe started to much on the pizza without minding her appearance as she began explaining.

To this tomboy-ish girl, Lucas no longer bothered and simply ate some pizza as well as he listened.

"How much do you know about the game, World Gate Online?"

Chloe asked.

"It's the first-ever fully immersive virtual reality game in existence. Made by IDEA Corp. who also made the VR devices, Portal."

"And what do you know about IDEA Corp?"

"Not much. Just that they're really rich and supposedly the more futuristic company in the world..."

As he spoke, Lucas started to wonder.

Just what kind of company is IDEA Corp? How come they were able to make such a futuristic thing?

Although Lucas is no genius, he had always felt that the VR device Portal is decades ahead of their time...yet it had suddenly existed in the past few years...

Not to mention, the IDEA Corp suddenly popped up out of nowhere. Instantly surpassing Apple, Microsoft, Tencent...it had now become the largest and richest company in the world!

The Chairman of this company remained unknown. However, he didn't have any board of directors or a CEO. He was the sole owner of the entire thing! One can only imagine just how rich this guy is!

"Well, the thing is. My father is the lead supervisor of the development team in World Gate Online."

"I see...wait, what!?"

Lucas nodded first. However, he suddenly realized what she said so he asked again in shock.

"My father's the lead supervisor of the development team."

"...Does that mean he also knows why I'm...like this?"

Chloe nodded with a sour look on her face.

"Seems like it. Sheesh! Did you know? My father suddenly went and ask me to go to you and take you to him later on! He only explained a little to me...but only when I saw you did I believe him!"

"What do you mean?"

"It's like this. See, even though there's a development team for World Gate Online, the truth is, they can't really interfere much of the game. They always just chalk this up to the media as their 'principle' and whatnot or the 'will of the AI' but I've always found those excuses as bullshit!"

"..."

"I mean, look at me! I'm the daughter of the lead supervisor of the development team! Can't I at least get one legendary weapon or pet!?"

...No, that doesn't work that way...

Lucas was speechless once again.

"Also, don't you feel like the NPCs of that game are like...way too realistic!?"

"Well...apart from the goddess at first and the vampires and the dragon that killed me, I haven't really met anyone else so..."

"Wait dragon!? You really saw one in that place you were sent to!? How is it!? Does it look cool!?"

"It's scary...scary real..."

Lucas trembled as he remembered being burned to death by that dragon as well as the echoing curses in his mind as he died.

Although Lucas had only met a few characters in that game, he can somewhat tell what Chloe meant when she said they were too realistic.

"See? I've always felt that the world in that game was too real...until earlier today, my father told me about it."

"About what?"

Chloe squinted her eyes to appear serious but it was hard to take her seriously when there was pizza sauce on her cheek.

Lucas ignored it and waited for Chloe to answer.

"That world...the world in the game World Gate Online...is real!"

"What...!?"

Lucas leaned back in surprise.

...Granted, his reaction was a bit over the top, still, the shock in his heart was real.

All this time, he has had this thought in his mind when he first saw his own game character become his real body. However, he still tried to deny it in his mind as it was simply too unbelievable...

And maybe, if he had accepted that, he might not be able to return to normal anymore...

Now, it seems that was indeed the case.

Lucas sighed as he thought of this.

Seeing his expression, Chloe smiled wryly and cheered him up.

"Alright, that's all I know for now as my father didn't tell me anything else other than your condition. I'm sure you have a lot more questions. I do too. That's why...let's go look for the guy who can answer all these questions. Maybe there's also a way for you to go back to normal."

"...Alright. I'll go with you."

Lucas only hesitated for a second before nodding his head.

From the way he sees it, the other party already knew about him. It was pointless to avoid them and even more so, antagonize them.

The fact that they sent Chloe to fetch him proved that they meant no harm to him...at least, for now.

"Come on. There's a car waiting for us."

"Alright. Oh, you should probably wipe that sauce on your cheek too."

"..."

Chloe froze.

She touched her cheek and saw there was indeed some sauce.

Her face blushed a bit as she ran to the restroom to clean up.

Lucas chuckled and waited for her while preparing his things.

Well, he only picked up his hoodie, face mask, sunglasses, and his phone.

He wore the black hoodie and pulled the hood up to cover his inconspicuous white hair before wearing his face mask. Together with the sunglasses, he didn't look suspicious at all...

When Chloe left the restroom and saw Lucas in this appearance, she nearly reached for her pepper spray but then remembered where she was.

She looked at Lucas who was covered from head to toe and laughed.

"What kind of getup is that supposed to be!? You look like a creep! Take that stuffy hoodie off and that ugly sunglasses!"

"But..."

"No buts! It's fine just wearing the face mask! It's not like you have animal ears!"

"...Fine."

"And that ugly shirt too! Take it off! Don't you have better clothes!?"

"..."

Lucas was speechless.

He looked at his shirt and was about to defend it but Chloe just glared at him.

The glare itself isn't really bad. But it just looked like she was looking at scum...in the end, Lucas gave in and picked another shirt.

Since he was only removing his shirt and not his pants, there was no need to cover himself for it. He removed his shirt which revealed his smooth white skin.

Due to his race characteristics, he even gained eight-pack abs which made Lucas laugh. Others had to train hard for eight packs but he basically did nothing...

Well, maybe the things he did in the tutorial area can be considered as training too.

Chloe saw his muscles and whistled in amazement.

Lucas half-expected Chloe to turn around in embarrassment but hearing her whistle embarrassed him instead.

Lucas coughed and turned around to pick some clothes.

"Wow, that's a nice tattoo you have there."

"Tattoo? What tattooo?"

"This big black dragon tattoo on your back. It looks quite cool. Didn't take you as someone who'd get such a large tattoo, Lucas. I'm impressed."

"Huh?"

Lucas was confused.

He didn't recall having any tattoos.

Confused, he went to the restroom to look at his back through the mirror.

Earlier when he took a bath, he was only focused on his face and didn't look at his back. Now that he looked...there was indeed a large black dragon drawn on his back surrounded by black flames...

"When did I have this?"

Lucas muttered.

Could it be...? A black dragon...that dragon who killed him before...was he the one who put this thing on him?

Chloe's head appeared on the door.

"What's wrong? You didn't know about that tattoo?"

"No...did you already forget? This is my game character body...and there's no additional tattoo customization when creating a character, right?"

"Oh yeah...well, isn't it fine? It looks cool!"

"..."

Lucas sighed.

Since there was no use thinking about it...might as well just accept it.

He picked a shirt that Chloe was satisfied with and wore it.

Walking out of the apartment with his white hair and face mask followed by a beauty and a sportscar gathered a lot of attention.

Lucas heard a few people asking which K-POP artist is he...he's not even Korean though!?

The two of them got in the backseat of the car.

During the trip, the two of them chatted about stuff in the game. Though, it was mainly Chloe advising Lucas about certain things once he really starts playing.

Chloe herself is one of the top-ranking players at level 68. Her class is also quite interesting. She chose the Gunner class.

Among the players, they call her the Bullet Goddess.

Lucas had seen this name pop up every now and then when he searches for information in the game.

Apparently. the Bullet Goddess has a god-like aiming ability. Her main fighting style is using a sniper rifle and she's damn good at it. She manages to hit her opponents on the head with near 100% accuracy.

However, this doesn't mean that she's weak to close combat at all.

Lucas even saw a video of her using two handguns to engage an assassin with a close-range fight and ended up winning flawlessly.

Lucas just didn't know that the Bullet Goddess was actually Chloe since she had worn a pair of goggles and hood in the game, hiding her appearance.

Her title of Bullet Goddess came about when the players felt as if she was controlling the bullets to always hit her targets.

"Speaking of which, I'm a fox werebeast too so we should be able to play together sometime!"

"Really? But I don't recall seeing the Bullet Goddess in the videos having a tail or something...and your fights are often shown in the Southern Continent of humans"

"Please, aren't you the same? Although, other than animal eyes, I also have fox ears instead."

"Ah."

"Also, after choosing a class, you can teleport to other continents. I just like to wreak some havoc in the overly serious Southern Continent! Those guys always think they're all bigshots because they have bigger guilds and had big lands. How stupid!"

"..."

Lucas decided to just listen and not say anything.

After some time, they finally reached a tall building filled with windows.

Chloe got out and spread her arms exageratedly.

"Welcome! To IDEA Corp!"

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React! (Poll ends in 2 days)

-"WOAH!"

-"..."

-*Clap*clap*clap*

-*Yawn...*

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AN: This time's poll isn't really important...well, I guess it is if you consider it as the MC's character settings and attitude towards Chloe. XD

Anyway, the chapter is quite long and it will still take a while for another choice so might as well just cut it here and have a bonus poll XD

Poll ends in 2 days!

To the guy with alts out there, don't make it too obvious in webnovel XD I didn't count those five alts as it was too obvious lol

Also, a missed character? XD Well, let me explain. Even though the 'route' has been decided, the characters the MC is bound to meet on the other routes still exist so there will still be interactions in the future. It's just that the choices decide the MC's attitude or circumstances of their relationship if it will advance or regress.

You can treat this as a dating sim and simp all you want XD Just don't go to the bad end!

If Lucas had gone to this group date, Chloe would've lost the chance to explain a few things to Lucas and things may turn out differently in their future interactions. Who knows, maybe Lucas will lose his trust in Chloe or something? Something like that XD.

But anyway, the route has been decided! Let's see how this will turn out XD

PS: I will still be introducing a few more girls...and guys...to the story and they can either end up with Lucas or just remain friends...but for the love of God, please no yaoi! I don't have anything against it but I just won't be able to write it myself! XD

See ya next chap!

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