Chapter 2 - The Birthday

[Keiko Kobayashi POV]

I was up, cleaning my teeth with the electric toothbrush in one hand. Looking in the mirror, I take a hairbrush with the other hand and arrange my simple brown hair, and then I put on my contact lenses, which served both for me to see and to hide the heterochromia in my eyes. Naturally, one iris was light brown, almost amber, and the other was completely dark, as if the pupil had taken up the entire space of the left iris. But thanks to those contact lenses, my eyes were now brown, pretty generic.

Leaving the bathroom, I passed the hall clock, it was starting to chime six, revealing it to be 6 am. Even though things here were modern, I had decided to buy a structure that resembled a pendulum clock from the 17th century... Yes, a clock that imitates a model from 500 years ago. You can call me crazy, but I still love the most classic things, even though I didn't live in that time, at least in this life.

Anyway, this time meant two things to me, the first was that it was finally morning, even though I couldn't see the sun in this polluted world, I knew it was rising. The second thing was that my mother was possibly close to arriving, knowing the way she is. With that, I removed the manual lock on the door, so she could use her key and get in on her own, and walked to the kitchen, getting some products and making me a strong coffee.

Unlike people in the year 2136, I didn't like the idea of ​​using an electronic coffee maker. Did I have one here at home? Yes, but I still felt that doing these things by hand made it taste better, even if it was a psychological effect, I still prefer it that way.

I sat on the couch in the living room, drinking my coffee and putting on a news channel on television, even so, I took my cell phone and started to see more specific news with my father's company and about YGGDRASIL. It was very interesting to see the things that the game already had in early access, it made me want to start my adventure right away, but I was still waiting for my parents to arrive so I could have my social moment with them, or at least with my mother, because my father still hadn't confirmed whether he would be here physically or holographically.

As I started to read the company news, I ended up hearing the doorbell. I got up and walked slowly to the door. When I opened it, I saw a woman 160 centimeters tall, with short brown hair and a soft smile that brought me calm, her appearance reminded me of a 25 year old girl, but that was just because of how our society has evolved, or maybe it's the surgeries she had?... Maybe...

Because I'm 187 centimeters tall, she had to lift her arms wide to hug me, but I bent down a little to return the hug. "Oh my little baby, getting a year older today! How nice!" she said excitedly.

"Thanks for being here, Mom." I kissed her forehead while making room for her to enter.

I soon noticed that next to her there was a gray haired man, he was wearing a classic butler outfit and was holding a two-story cake, even the facial features revealing that he was probably quite old, his body was well taken care of, enough for him to carry the cake in one hand. Looking back at my mother, I noticed that she was holding a gift bag.

"Very good to see you too, Master Keiko." Said the butler, with a friendly smile.

"Likewise, Garry. Want some help with the cake—"

"Don't worry, he himself said he wanted to come carrying the cake to see you. The others are missing you too, are you sure you don't want at least one of them to come and help you?" My mother interrupted me, already justifying the situation. She walked into the living room, putting the gift on the sofa.

"I'm pretty sure of that, Mom. Even though I love everyone there and most of them I consider childhood friends, my apartment is too small for me to have a helper. You know I always try to live a simpler life saving an amount of the money dad gives me sometimes." I answered her, letting Garry in. He left the cake on the living room table.

It wasn't such a decorated cake, since my mother knew my tastes. It appeared to be a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting on both floors. On the top, it had written "Happy Birthday, my sunshine." In the space that was left on the bottom, there were icons of swords, staffs and shields. Which left me pretty confused, getting closer to see if I wasn't crazy.

"Oh! Did you like that?" Garry commented. "Master Kobayashi told us you were going to start a job reviewing a new medieval European-themed game that's very fantasy, with princesses, kings and mighty dragons! So we decided at the last minute to ask the baker to put that on the cake."

"Ooh.. Got it, I think this is very cute." I said, smiling, but mentally I sighed.

"Damn dad... I said it was in a Nordic runic theme game, not medieval European... But lucky for me these icons fit both themes." I thought, knowing my dad probably heard half of what I said to him on the phone the last time. Which would be acceptable, since he works a lot, but in that case, he was on vacation and said he was taking a bath in the pool when we were talking, so there was no excuse for not paying attention to a call with his only child.

"I'm glad you liked it! Well, my little baby. How about telling me how your new career is going? Since your great-grandfather's generation, our family has taken care of the company, so seeing you taking a different path is always exciting to think about! " my mom said excitedly and patting her side on the couch.

The reason she is like this is that the family business is really of great importance and having, after three generations, someone who was not interested in participating due to the level of responsibility, was very difficult to predict, thanks to the Japanese culture of honor to the family. But no wonder, Kobayashi.Inc was actually one of the 7 multinational companies related to the restoration of the planet. So me not feeling excited to participate in something so big went against all logic, because nowadays, everyone always wants to show themselves and take the best opportunity possible to make a lot of money.

My father's company was responsible for 60% of the world's supply of street breathing aids, as well as super powerful filters that kept pollution from entering ventilation systems. My great-grandfather who started this idea, and he was so sure that his company would stand out compared to the others, that he decided to change his last name, to our family's current name. Kobayashi means small forest, that is, a place where there are trees, where there is fresh air.

We could say that the family name was the lucky charm that made the business work. My father was thinking of double his luck by naming me Keiko, which can mean "lucky boy." But as you can see, so far, I'm not getting the "luck" he originally wanted.

"I haven't really started writing or making videos about it yet, mom. In fact, the game finished installing this morning, according to the notification I received. So far I just have the site all tidy, waiting for me to write the content on it... I was even thinking about starting to play today after we celebrate." I replied my mother as I sat next to her.

"Great! You're laying the groundwork and hoping the first thing you write is really your first impressions! That's perfect! Make it more natural. And actually, natural is better! Ohohohoo!" She said this with a long, classic anime aunt laugh.

Why was she laughing? "Natural is better!" is one of Kobayashi.Inc's slogans. and my mom usually never gets a chance to say that line in normal conversation, so when she does, she's always laughing, finding it funny. I, on the other hand, don't see any fun in it, but I always laugh lightly, so as not to sadden her.

"But so what? Will you go all blind? Or do you have a friend who will play with you?" she asked me smiling.

"Oh... Well... One of Dad's employees said he'd be playing early access too, so I asked him if I could follow him around when he's in free time. He happily accepted." I replied as I saw Garry taking some of the coffee I had prepared earlier and offering a cup to my mother, after she politely declined, he drank the coffee so there was no waste.

"An employee of the company there? Hm... I hope that's all right, you know how your father is with lazybones there. Because this week isnt a normal rest week."

"Relax, from what I've seen he's having to play anyway because of a doctor's recommendation." I said in a low voice, it was weird talking about it. My mother sighed, understanding the situation.

In the last 3 to 4 decades, the amount of work done by people has increased dramatically, making cases of death from stress become more recurrent, especially here in Japan, where this type of death already happened a century ago, but not so much. Because of this, video games, vacation time and the like were made must-haves. Depending on the person's workload or basic health, doctors may even recommend the amount of additional hours a person should have for relaxation. One study says that the perfect minimum time was 7 days straight every two to four months, because after 7 days of doing nothing stressful, there would be no more neurons or muscles affected by mental work.

{A/N: Using real information to justify events mentioned briefly in the original work.}

But of course, there are some companies that do not follow this, and these are always forced to put in the contracts in relation to the "possible" reduction of these "rights". Kobayashi.Inc was one of those who took this medical situation seriously, as "a small forest should be relaxing and healthy to be in".... Yes, that's another slogan.

{7 hours later}

It was already 1:45 pm, I was sitting on the couch watching a movie on a streaming service, along with my mom, while Garry had been ordered to clean my house, because according to my mom "You living alone has left you weird way." I won't and won't try to complain to her about it, as she barely comes here all the time, and I actually forgot to pack things up yesterday, as I usually do, so she wouldn't come over and say that.

We had ordered food online, and according to the gps, it would still take 5 minutes to arrive. That's when I finally had the courage to speak out on that subject.

"Mom, Dad isn't coming today, is he?" I asked quietly, still looking at the television, but that didn't stop her from noticing that I was a little hurt by this situation.

"Relax, my little baby. He actually told me he wanted to talk to you via hologram in a few minutes, possibly half an hour, so we can sing happy birthday with the cake being the dessert for our lunch." She smiled and gave me a kiss on the cheek, I couldn't help but smile slightly. That martenal affection was always nice to feel, especially in dark years like these.

It didn't take long and the delivery guy finally arrived, I was going to pay with my credit card, but my mom decided to do it in my place, since I was the birthday boy. Garry, meanwhile, was picking up the food and putting it on the table. To be honest, it wasn't all that great for me, but it wasn't cheap either.

The lunch was a complete kit of classic Japanese food, common in the last century, with slices of salmon, fresh vegetables, octopus, and other things in this level. Like I said, it wasn't amazing... for me... but for people of that century, it was considered a splendid meal. Even though livestock and fish farming improved with the help of water and air purifying companies, these products were still very expensive as producers were still trying to lower the price bit by bit.

Before eating, we prayed, showing our gratitude for that. Honestly I could taste the food, it was really worth it for the price. Much better than my lunch yesterday, which I had to add salt to give it some flavor.

Shortly after we were done, my smartphone rang, and I saw it was a holographic call with my dad, so I placed the smartphone on top of the table and clicked a button. Thus revealing a man with an old appearance, but not in the sense of elderly, but in the sense of mature and respectful, he was a little bald, but he chose that, because he wanted to be "as natural as possible" for interviews and meetings. The hologram made was from his belly to a little above his head.

"Hello my son! My great Keiko! How are you doing?" He said in that lively voice, but it was pretty "repetitive" because it's the kind of voice he always uses when he appears on the news.

"I'm great, we've been waiting for you so we can eat the cake." I smiled and stood up, turning my cell camera to the cake on the table.

"Oooh! Great! Let's go then!" he said, making everyone stand up and start singing happy birthday to me. He even put a song through the holographic presentation to try to sound like "the cool dad".

After that, we had a slice of cake, with my dad eating a 3D cake emoji as he was watching the party through a holographic projection. We talked a little, until it was the time for him to go to a meeting. Soon after, my mom also decided to go out with Garry, taking 4 slices of the cake with her so my dad could taste the real thing when he gets off work.

I was now alone in my apartment again and decided to look at the gifts I got.

As always, on every birthday, my father had given my bank account a very generous amount of money, while my mother had brought me some accessories like fake earrings, semi-transparent shirts to simulate tattoos and a small box. Opening that box, I saw a photograph in a beautiful reddish frame.

The photo was me, my mom and dad on one of our vacations together to an artificial beach in Okinawa. I was only 5 years old at the time, but I could still vividly remember it, it was a great day and lots of silly but fun things going on.

I felt tears running down my cheeks and I gave the photo a soft kiss. Why so much emotion in this? Simple, it was really a physical photograph, it wasn't a hologram, it wasn't digital, it was real, touchable.

I got up, wiping my tears and went to my room, putting the things my mother gave me into the closet and leaving the photograph on my computer table. I sat down quietly and sent a simple email to my future "coworker".

"I'm entering now, according to your timetable you sent me, today you are free. The place I will spawn is Álfheimr. Wait for me there." I said as I typed and sent it to him, quickly sitting down at the VR console to enter YGGDRASIL for the first time.

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I saw myself as a white silhouette in the middle of a sky, floating and watching the VR-MMORPG title screen appear in front of me. Soon a floating keyboard appeared where I started to type.... Putting my username, password, email... I always signed up at a fast speed, because I was already used to doing things at the last minute. With everything confirmed, my surroundings changed, becoming completely dark as a mannequin appeared in front of me, where I could model and modify it using values ​​or sculpting with my own hands. To the side was a panel with more basic and simple to understand information, with predetermined options to select from.

"Hmm... Let's see... Human... I want red hair... Eyes... Amber... Hm... What else did I write in that spreadsheet anyway? Ah! This!" I talked to myself while I was modeling my character and adding cosmetic things that every user had access to when creating the account.

After finishing that, the terrain around me changed and I could see the white silhouette that represented me being filled in by the character I created. I was able to move it smoothly. Doing a few simple jumps, punches and kicks to test. With that done, a screen popped up to choose two things. The class and place as first spawn. As expected, some options of both options were crossed out because of my choice to be of the human race.

And of course, there was a reason for that. It would be too bad if someone who hasn't researched before, choose a realm of freezing temperature as their first spawn, with the character being human. This would make him die constantly, until they were able to enter the teleport and change realms before they died again.

I made my choice of class first, and when I clicked on confirm there was a notification noise.

[Congratulations, for choosing your class and being a human, you gained 1 mandatory class level! Your base stats will be affected!]

"Eh?! I thought any human of any class started with 5 in all stats... Well... Anyway..." I took a deep breath and clicked on Álfheimr.

[You have decided, Alfheimr, the realm of light. Often confused as the representation of paradise for those who want a simple and peaceful life, it is home to beings like fairies, light elves and pure spirits. But beware, even though they are incredible and peaceful in theory, in practice they will attack you at any cost if you invade their territory! Do you accept it anyway?]

The system spoke to me after my choice.

"Woah.. Great way to explain in lore the existence of aggressive monsters in a realm considered beautiful and incredible." I thought to myself before answering the system. "Accepted!"

Everything around me became clear and I soon felt that I was on solid ground. Taking a few steps, I stepped out of a ray of bluish light that went from the ground to infinity above me. Apparently it was still morning inside the game, there was no one near me, or so I thought.

A little further on I saw a character of the heteromorphic race, an half-insect to be more specific, that player was wearing basic white armor and had a big sword, they were the base items of a paladin, very similar to the description he gave me before. But what impressed me was when he got closer to me, making me see his IGN perfectly.

"Hello!! K-kun! Welcome!!!" He possibly called me "K" because he didn't want to say my name and because my acronyms are K.K. possibly he also hadn't gotten close enough to see the in game name above me.

"[Touch_Me]? Really? Is that your IGN?" I said staring at my father's employee, who just laughed.

"That name actually means 'Touch_Me if you can!'." he chuckled gleefully at the name choice as I lightly clapped my hands. "But I loved your name too! It suits me a lot!"

"I agree, it has everything to do with it. Because of my name I decide to start in Álfheimr." When I said that, he stared at me, trying to understand, until the answer hit his mind and he screamed with joy.

I put my hand on my chest, looking at my avatar. I'm now a guy 185 centimeters tall, with red hair and a type of mark on my face's left. My clothes were super common for my class, it was only a shirt, pants and boots, all in a brown-biege spectrum. Soon after this I said proud, already starting my roleplay. "This is the birth day of one of the humans who starts in this magnificent world, [Hikari]!"

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Nickname: Th3Unkn0wnF0r35T

Started Playing: April 4th, 0000

{A/N: Year 0 because is in Early Access}

IGN: Hikari

Job: Nomadic Rogue

Residence: Álfheimr

Alignment: True Neutral ————— Karma: 0

Total Level: 1

Racial Level:

Human ————— Lv.Max

Jobs Level:

Rogue ————— Lv.1

Ability Chart:

Hp: 6 | Mp: 5

Phy.Atk: 7 | Phy.Def: 5

Agility: 8

Mag.Atk: 5 | Mag.Def: 6

Resist: 4 | Special: 5

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