Creating avatar

Excited, Cain opened the door to find a drone twice the size of the previous one in front of his door, painted metallic red, holding a box while hovering in the air.

Cain was surprised to see him as this drone was a little different from the previous delivery drone, this was a drone with combat capabilities, which was only seen when sending valuable or important items.

After the initial surprise, he decided to ignore it while he received the package and went into the room, ignoring the drone and closing the door, he went to his room excited before opening the package, inside was a helmet similar to a mask, covering half of the face and leaving only the mouth free.

It came with some accessories and a special charger, as well as an instruction guide with the logo of a potato on fire and the words 'HotPotato' below, ignoring the manual, he began to observe the helmet in detail, it would not be the first time that he would enter a virtual space since in the camp there were also training sessions with virtual reality equipment.

But the ones I used in training were human-sized capsules and more advanced than this one, so I was very curious, it had an advanced and very fashionable design, highlighting red and white colors, with a purple crystal on the temple. of the helmet, being unknown if it was for aesthetic or technical purposes.

It was about 2 hours until the official start of the game, until then Cain planned to get used to the helmet and find a comfortable position to play, putting on the helmet without turning it on first, he lay straight on the bed to test, it was a relatively comfortable position, but Cain didn't like the feeling very much, after thinking about it he brought an old massage chair from the living room into the room.

Sitting down, he found the most comfortable position possible and prepared to turn it on, although it was still impossible to enter the game, the helmet could be activated to enter the so-called limbo, this is what the virtual space that is between all the games and applications is called. of virtual reality and 'user consciousness', so it was also known as the internet in virtual reality.

Turning on the helmet a countdown appeared in front of Cain, when it reached zero everything in front of him went dark before it lit up a moment later, he was in a street full of people, and looking up he could see layers and layers of floating floors full of people, as if the clouds above you were filled with people.

This was Cain's first time in limbo, but he had quite a bit of knowledge about it, normally there shouldn't be such a flow of people since this is just a space between games and reality, but it seemed that the popularity of Road of Destiny had more than one expectant of its beginning.

It was so full of people that it was a bit stifling so Cain recited a voice command.

"enable ghost mode"

The instant he spoke, everyone around him disappeared leaving the streets and buildings empty, this command would make everyone else invisible and intangible, thus isolating the user from the rest and giving him a moment of peace.

Cain looked around for a while and tried a few options like the menu before sitting on a newly created menu bench, in this limbo space one could technically do whatever they wanted as long as they had permission to do so, after all this space was practically created by the users.

When he sat down, he opened a screen in front of him that looked more realistic than the holographic ones he used in reality, it was as if a high-definition television suddenly appeared in front of him, this was one of the advantages of being in limbo.

Then I continue browsing in search of information and tutorials, although I had an advantage in the combat part of the game, I lacked a lot of knowledge or strategy, for this reason, I had spent the last week researching and watching videos about this type of game in my spare time.

Thus time flowed little by little until finally a notification appeared in front of Cain.

[In 10 minutes, Road of Destiny will officially open, and the character creation space will open, do you want to enter?]

[Yes/No]

Cain was surprised for a moment before pressing 'Yes', instantly the scene changed and he appeared on a violet cloud, there was nothing else on it and you could see a gigantic and endless world below, and above a vast sea of stars as far as the eye could see.

Since there was nothing in the big cloud, he didn't know what to do until he noticed a growing bulge in the cloud right under his feet. Surprised, Cain jumped back while looking at the bulge, when a large potato was expelled from it and floated in front of him.

[go to another one who is not scared, that is very disappointing]

A mechanical voice-like system notification reached his ears, although this seemed to be more expressive than the one he had heard before, Cain was speechless and didn't know what to do.

[you don't have to be startled, I'm Potato your assistant in the creation of your character]

The potato spoke again when small eyes and a mouth appeared on it, Cain was about to speak when a screen appeared in front of him.

[character creation profile]

There were many options on the screen, to choose your character name, customize their appearance a bit, choose the race, the starting area, and many more. Although several of these were blocked.

[As this is the first day of Road Of Destiny, many of the options are locked and will be activated in the future depending on the player's progress in the game, repeating names are allowed, but some are locked as they are related to important titles or events within the game, the rest you are free to choose]

The potato continued talking while choosing the customization options, as it said there were many options and several were blocked, such as the one that allowed you to choose which world to appear in.

Out of curiosity, Cain typed a name which was quite frequent in games of this style, to test the limitations in the game regarding names. He wrote 'Demon lord' in the space when an alert went off.

[This name is locked and ineligible]

"As expected, these types of names will be blocked" Cain muttered.

Then I continue to try other options, you could change the color of your hair and eyes, but some colors were blocked, there were also only 3 races currently eligible; human, dwarf, and beast-man.

After thinking about it for a while, he decided to change his hair color to blue on a whim, and his eyes to green from their original black color. By using the virtual reality headsets, they would do facial and body recognition, so Cain's body in virtual space was the same as the one in reality.

Within the game you couldn't make too many changes to your physical appearance besides changing the color of your hair or eyes, you could add scars or slightly change the size and features, but without transforming anyone to avoid fraud.

Because of this, Cain didn't bother to customize his avatar much beyond changing his hair color, he didn't have any complexes about his appearance and it would be nice to stay the same in case he runs into a friend or acquaintance.

As for the starting city, I leave it random, as I investigate the beta-testers played in a remote and artificial region, so their knowledge of the map would not be useful in the official launch, also the options were very limited per person to avoid that the big guilds would all group together and gain an advantage over the others, being that way he could well leave it to fate.

Then returning to the main point, he set out to choose a name, in the last week he had racked his head thinking about which one to use, to achieve his goals he cannot choose a name that is too pathetic or random, but neither one that is very egocentric or exaggerated, for that had suffered so much when it came to finding a name that he found striking, but at the same time humble.

But finally after much thought he found the perfect name for his character, he could only hope that he wouldn't find himself locked by the system or he would suffer a lot to choose another one in time before the game started.

Finally, he opened the tab to select a name and typed the one he had chosen.

[Please choose a username]

"Wordly Spear"

When typing his selected name a loading symbol appeared next to it waiting to be approved, at first Cain didn't take much importance to it, but after 3 seconds he started to worry when he chose a name to test the waters before it was an instant rejection, for which began to worry him now that he was taking so long fearing an inevitable rejection.

Finally, after 5 seconds that seemed like hours to Cain, the response notification arrived.

[Username confirmed]

Seeing it, he couldn't help but let out a sigh, after this he quickly reviewed the rest of the customization options to check that everything is fine and as he wanted, he didn't touch many of the options, leaving them as default due to his lack of knowledge in the subject, just as the race was predetermined as human since he did not want to risk trying a race that might not suit him.

Checking everything correctly, I was about to finish the character creation tutorial when the floating potato spoke again.

[very good newbie, I like you a lot so I will do a personal favor and answer one of your questions, ask whatever you want and I will answer you as far as the restrictions allow me]

Hearing this, Cain was very surprised, at first he thought of starting a conversation with the potato when it appeared since it was a tutorial avatar, but every time he tried it he was interrupted by her or the customization options so he had given up.

On top of that, he somehow felt like the potato was in front of him, but at the same time far away, it was a very strange feeling like when you were watching a 12D movie, seeing his characters right in front of you realistically, but knowing They are not in the same dimension.

But now out of nowhere that feeling disappeared and it felt like the real person appeared in front of you, or in this case the real potato…

Returning to the direction of his thoughts, Cain reflected for a moment before carefully asking a question.

"any questions?"

[That's right, any question, and now that I've answered it, I hope you have a good trip!]

Upon hearing the response, Cain was speechless and almost cursed for the stupidity he had committed, he did not think that this potato was going to be so treacherous and cheat him like that, but he could not do anything about it, it would be very pathetic to rationalize or fight with an AI.

[hahahaha easy user, it was just a joke, but the fact that I will only answer one question is real so choose your words carefully from now on]

With a shrill, ghastly laugh the potato spoke again in its systematic voice, causing an unpleasant contrast in sounds and increasing Cain's urge to curse by five in an instant, but he restrained himself from wasting this opportunity and getting ripped off by the potato. again and reflect deeply on what question to ask.

After deliberating for a full minute, Cain rearranged his thoughts and raised a determined expression.

"Well, my question is, what advice would you give me to play this game properly?"

At the question the potato was completely silent for a moment before bursting into a desperate laugh, this time the mechanical noise of the system became so sharp that it was as irritating as the sound of fingernails dragging on a blackboard.

After laughing madly for what seemed like an eternity the potato finally answered.

[Okay, here I thought you would ask about unique item locations or quests, or even the origin of the company, but this question is unique]

Pausing, the potato began to float higher and higher, forcing Cain who was irritated by his mockery to look up to see it properly, at the same time what seemed to be a golden flame began to surround it giving a majestic scene... or so it should be if it weren't for the fact that it looks like a baked potato.

[Well the answer to your question is extremely simple and at the same time extremely complicated, Road of Destiny was created to pave the way for heroes and lead them to their promised destination, while also giving a path for the helpless and unworthy to sublimate and reach absolute glory if you want to play this game "properly" you just have to follow your heart and be honest with yourself, only you can take yourself to heaven or damn yourself to hell, so just live how you want to live]

Pausing again the golden light began to increase in intensity to the point that even Cain could feel the radiating heat, but he couldn't care less as he reflected deeply on the words of the baking potato.

[Well, this is the end of your answer and our time, I hope you have a happy adventure... or a disastrous end, in any case, everything depends on you, good luck]

In the end, a ray of light covered Cain from nothing before he disappeared with the one with the violet cloud while decency to the immaculate world below...