The first thing I did when I got home is that I ate the lunch I have bought along the way as fast as I could so that I can dive in New World whose servers are already up.

But before that, I got some messages from both Aria and Michelle.

[Add me. My IGN is LadyQueen Blade. Choose Twilight City as a starting point. People are already rushing to level up. Hurry Quickly!]

[What is your in-game name? Mine is Michi Mochi.]

Both send their character name for me to add later. Those messages act as a reminder that I should probably stop wasting my time on the phone and dive into the New World.

'I wonder how it looks like officially entering the first time.'

Booting up the Link, darkness entered my eyes but this time, instead of transporting me directly to the training room, I was standing on an empty space of only serene waters with clear sky for its reflections.

"Welcome, Traveller! What would be the name of our new hero?"

A little figure appears out of nowhere with her cute voice which I have been familiar off for the past week. Nothing beats the cuteness of RiRi which has the same appearance as yesterday. Good thing ETHER has not decided to change anything about RiRi or else I would be posting in the social media as soon as possible.

"Charlotte"

"Name Taken."

"Cherry Blossom"

"Name Taken"

"...Cherry Winter"

"Are you sure you are Cherry Winter?"

"Yes"

"Welcome, Traveller Cherry Winter. Would you like to change your appearance?"

"No"

"Please choose your starting location."

"Twilight City"

"You have chosen to start in Twilight City. Is this your final decision?"

"Yes"

"Transporting to Twilight City. Good Luck Traveller, Cherry Winter!"

Usually, people will be wasting a lot of time in character creation, but because I do not care any of it, the time it took for my character to be created was lessen in a minute.

There was no cutscene or anything to introduce us into the game and instead, it just threw us immediately in the world. I am able to think of this because, after all of that, another nausea hit me.

That quick sequence surprised me and I feel like an ant when I opened my eyes. The reason being myself free-falling and the view I was welcomed with is the Twilight City along with the vast landscape of the world.

Currently, it is early in the afternoon and I can already see how beautiful the city looks like. There were a flock of birds accompanying me in my fall which makes this experience a whole lot better.

ETHER has really done a good job creating the world design and letting the player view and appreciate it at the beginning while each one of us was skydiving thousands of meters up in the air. I cannot help myself wanting to explore the New World right away.

Now that is said and done, I estimated fifteen seconds before I saw the ground.

While I was enjoying the view, I noticed that my fall does not look like it was slowing down any time soon. The haunting experiences during the movement training in the platform room came back to me once again as I imagine myself hitting the ground at astounding speed.

"RiRi, how do I stop falling?"

"Don't worry Traveller. You will be completely safe."

It was already in my instinct to ask RiRi for help whenever a problem comes up. And all the time, her answers were the solutions to my problems, so I trusted her words completely.

"..."

Although she reassured me that I was completely safe, I unintentionally closed my eyes waiting for my fate. Only when I noticed nothing happened after seconds of what supposed to be my impact did I open my eyes.

"Oh, you're the new traveller? I am Sir Mortan, the knight assigned to guide you in this city."

A heavily armoured knight reached out his hand to me who has fallen on the ground. He did not question anything about why people were falling from the sky or the weird screams of fellow players around me.

He is an indifferent NPC whose sole purpose was to help me. So I ask.

"Hello, Sir Mortan. Where do I go next?"

I felt awkward and stiff when talking to him because interacting with these NPCs of the New World is far different from I am familiar with. Additionally, there was no scripted choice to choose from when talking with these people, so I can say any nonsense and they will react accordingly.

This AI of the game was one of the best-selling features for the new-gen of gaming.

"I was instructed to guide the travellers to the Training Grounds first. It is my duty to accompany you in the city until tomorrow, Traveller."

I let him lead the way since he said there was no time to waste. I got only up to tomorrow to have this knight guiding me in this big city. It would be in trouble if I got lost immediately and waste all my time navigating through the streets.

*Walking*

'I miss RiRi'

Having this person lead the way, made me remember the guide I was with a while ago. That small and cute fairy that you can poke her cheeks anytime was something I want to be a free feature of this game. I do not know if I can meet RiRi at a later time, but if it is not the case, I would hate ETHER for it.

Walking down in Twilight City, the streets were already busy with not only NPCs but also with players. I can already see people who were level 2 running around and taking different exits. The game was just recently online, and people are already grinding fast.

Aria might act like them and speedrun the introductory quest. I do not know for the case of Michelle, but I am not in a hurry to grind. Getting strong is important and all however, I am more of a gamer who enjoys the game at my own pace. Although, I should probably get going to be able to help Aria in her quests.

"We are here"

A barracks with an open field beside it has people practising different weapons inside of it. In one side of that field, I can see players who were trying out the available weapons of the training grounds. On the other, the soldiers of Twilight City I assume are having a synchronized drill.

"Just enter and tell the receptionist that you are a traveller. They will know what to do."

"Thank you"

I entered the barracks and do what Sir Mortan told me to do. I found someone who looks like the receptionist and inquired as to a Traveller.

"Just go to the left and you will find a red door that will lead you to the weapons room. After choosing one, you can proceed to the blue door to practice your skills."

She has that to say before a quest popped up.

[Starting your Journey]

[Difficulty: Player Quest

Go to the weapon room to choose the weapon that best fits you. You can take your time and try as much as you want.

Quest Rewards: Starter set and Beginner weapon]

Unlike Sir Mortan, she just gave me the details of the rooms I should go for trying out weapons with a quest. It is probably for the best because letting the player read up the quest instead of guiding us themselves can reduce the time of accommodating an individual.

Although it still cannot be avoided to have a line when the playerbase was this many.

"Excuse me. Can you move, lady?"

Someone with a voice that was very rude shoved me off. When I look who just did that, a rough-looking man with beginner clothes met my eyes.

"What are you looking at?"

He met me as a person that looks for trouble wherever he goes. His gestures were trying to be intimidating because all he can do was talk since the security in cities is very tight.

He tried to annoy me, but I just ignored him and left to the weapons room. This seems to have annoyed him further since I heard some grunting at my back after I left the room.