Another World

As she left the room with steady steps, Tahlya pressed a dial on a board that was left to the door, closing it with a single finger press.

Fell turned around and began inspecting the room but he soon finished with a face filled with disappointment. The room was beyond empty, and he quickly made a tour of it. As Tahlya said, there was nothing except the mysterious chair in the middle of the room.

He decided to inspect it before testing it. "Assist AI, analyze its components and try to summarize this machine's function."

Blip! Plop! Blip! A series of electronic sound resounded in his ears. "Quite cliché…" Fell thought while his AI made several lightning like computation.

While he waited for it to finish, he decided to inspect his surroundings with blood detection. To his shock, his range was severely limited in the tutorial room. "How weird…", he thought while looking at the walls surrounding him.

"I don't even have a tenth of my normal detection range…", as he waited for the AI to do its job he tried to find a solution to the wall blocking his senses. But it was to no avail. The only option he had found that worked was by applying blood detection is a straight line; Making it possible for him to check the tutorial rooms that were linked to his own.

Bip ! He heard the AI's series of electronic beeps stop, and a robotic voice sounded in his head. "Research finished. According to the data, I received and by comparing them to what I have access to. I can assure my host that this machine is a cerebral link."

"Cerebral Link…", Fell pondered as he looked at the object. The AI resumed its speech, "It will use brain waves to translate your intent to the game. It is completely safe", it finished succinctly before the voice blacked out.

"The conditions aren't great for blood detection to work. This is still a good experience as I might get some insights with this game!" he exclaimed before jumping toward the Cerebral Link that was in the center of the room.

He sat on the large chair-like structure, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The moment the machine sensed the weight that was on top of it. Deep intricate runic lines lit up on its outside structure, and Fell saw an interface appear in front of him.

He opened his eyes and closed them again. "How peculiar…", he thought as he read the interface.

"Welcome Fighter. To access the world of Battle League you need to choose an ID and create an Avatar."

Fell thought about a random and mentally tried writing it. "Stroke, this should do as a name", as he thought about the name it swiftly appeared in the interface.

"Regarding the avatar, I guess a slightly different version of how I look should do the job", the interface followed his thought as it showed him a blond version of himself, his amber-colored eyes were turned green. And even if he could see the similarities, he was sure that no one could link the two of them.

"This should do the job. Uhm… Tutorial start?"

The dark around him disappeared, and his surroundings were washed white. He lifted his head and looked at the sky, it was blue; He was left dumbfounded by the realism. He couldn't make any difference between the two worlds as if his soul itself was taken to this virtual world.

"The tutorial will start in a minute, get used to your body and choose a weapon. This tutorial is also an assessment and you will be graded according to your performance."

Looking around him, he noticed a wooden rack filled with weapons. He picked a random one-handed sword and put around his waist, then he lightly jogged around to get used to his virtual body.

"Not bad… It's actually similar to the body of a first realm cultivator, and not a bad one on top of that!" He exclaimed as he slowly got used to his in-game Avatar.

"I guess this game's first difficulty for the player is getting used to a strong body. The differences between their real body and their avatar would become a big wall for a lot of players. The higher their synchronization with the Avatar, the higher their damage output will become." He pondered while lightly bouncing on his feet, he moved his neck around and lightly shook his wrist to get used to his body.

"Get Ready. Face the following wave, survive while clearing them." The interface reappeared declaring the beginning of the tutorial.