Rain sucked in a deep breath. What a mind-blowing opening scene!

[ Philipping Lore ] was indeed worthy to claim the name of the best VRMMORPG with 99.5% realism. Just a mere opening scene had excited us to such extent!

As he floated in the air, a very nostalgic song echoed in his ears and the entire Philippine map was shown below him.

[ Lupang Hinirang ]

Bayang Magiliw,

Perlas ng silanganan,

Alab ng puso

Sa dibdib mo’y buhay,

… …

Philippines were known as an archipelagic island. Meaning, it includes both sea and islands which geographically be considered as an independent whole.

--- It is also one of the largest archipelagos in the world. The Philippines comprises an archipelago of some 7,107 islands located off Southeast Asia, between the South China Sea on the west and the Philippine Sea on the east back in the real world.

… …

Lupang hinirang,

Duyan ka ng magiting

Sa manlulupig di ka pasisiil

Sa dagat at bundok, sa simoy

At sa langit mong bughaw,

May dilag and tula at awit sa

Paglayang minamahal

Ang kislap ng watatwat mo’y

Tagumpay na nagniningning,

Ang bituin at araw niya,

Kailan pa ma’y di magdidilim.

… …

Seeing his own beloved country, Rain couldn’t help but be moved. As what was written on the [ Philippine Lore ]‘s official website. The entire Philippines were the game board.

And this place was his beloved country!

One country. An entire world!

… …

Lupa ng araw ng luwalhatit pagsinta

Buhay ay langit sa piling mo.

Aming ligaya na pag may mang-aapi

Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.

… …

Just like the in the real world, this game map was composed of three main parts; Luzon in the north, Visayas in the center and Mindanao in the south. However, what’s different was that this game map ( Philippines ) was over ten times or maybe even larger than that of the real Philippines.

Philippines was supposedly had the total land area of approximately 300, 000 sq km or 115, 831 sq mi; including about 298,000 square kilometers of land and about 2,000 square kilometers of water.

However, according to the [ Philippine Lore ]’s official website, this game map ( Philippines ) was expanded to over ten times as to accommodate all the players in the world.

--- ---

As Rain was moved by the sudden view, suddenly…

- Hello, and welcome to Philippines!

A sweet female voice entered his ears.

This sudden voice caught him off guard and made him suddenly froze for a moment.

Although the sweet synthesized voice was pleasing to the ear, it was missing a sense of humanity, which was breaking the emersion of the virtual reality.

The voice was beautiful but it lacks emotion. As if the speaker was in a play or something, it doesn’t have any emotion within it … or so what Rain thought the moment he heard the voice.

Not far from him, a beautiful young woman was standing while looking at him. Although she was beautiful but for Rain, her beauty seemed ethereal.

However, this was natural for this girl was only a computer AI and not a real girl.

--- Starting initial operations.

--- Scanning for necessary personal data.

--- Unregistered user detected.

Ding! ---Please register a new account.

There was a soft sound and character creation options appeared before Rain’s eyes.

--- Race: Human ( Default )

--- Please pick you character profession!

“What are the professional options?”

- [ Philippine Lore ] is divided into a total of seven standard professions: Knight, Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Archer, Beast Tamer, and Priest.

Along with the synthesized electronic female voice, seven different figures and illustrations appeared in front of Rain.

In [ Philippine Lore ], humans was given various powers and abilities by Bathalang Maykapal to fight the appearing monsters.

Bathalang Maykapal gave them something that which was called ‘Mana’ and thus the birth of people with different powerful professions such as Mages where elements represented by various colors wrapped around their bodies, enabling them to cast powerful spells and magic.

Aside from the famous Mages, there were also other professions as well.

Riding a horse while wearing an impressive and brilliant looking armor and sword; the guardian of all was the high-spirited Knight.

Holding a broadsword preparing for battle was the Warrior.

Dress in brilliant black clothing, the embodiment of darkness, holding a dagger was the Rogue.

Wearing leather armor with a golden bow was the Archers.

Squatting beside a beast was the Beast Tamer.

And lastly those who were dressed in pure white while holding a scepter while exuding a holy light around their body was the Priest!

One by one, he looked at the variety of professions in detail.

Knight specializes in defense, a human shield or commonly known as Tanks. Warriors were vanguards, belonging to the doctrine profession. Mages are long-distance fighters, able to go against the wills of the heavens; however, they are actually relatively weak.

Rogues are a type of Assassins, coming and going without a trace, focusing on sneak attacks and agility. These types of assassins were the best suited to be Lone Rangers.

Archers are also long-distance fighters, but compared to Mages, they are physically stronger, have extremely supple skill, and use the layout of the area to create traps. They can also be referred as Hunters.

Beast Tamer are able to call forth monsters whom they have formed a contract with, but their fighting ability itself is not very outstanding, however, they can use buffs to increase the abilities of their summons; making them as someone not to be trifled with.

A Priest is a healer and they can increase the abilities of their teammates by using buff skills, but their most important aspect is their healing capabilities.

Thinking while touching his chin, Rain looked at the illustrations page after page after which he smiled.

There’s not much to talk about here, the class he wanted was already been decided by him beforehand.

Mage!

The most common and famous type of class in fantasy games.

People that could use powerful magic and AOE type spells.

Rain held a special type of affection for the Mage-profession. After all, boys adored magic.

Powers going against the wills of heaven.

It’s a man’s romance~

With a helpless smile, Rain made the decisive choice of being a Mage!

--- Congratulations on your success of choosing your profession! Now, we’ll scan your body to determine the stats of your character!

Following after, a red light scanned his body.

--- Scanning, please wait…

Rain stood still and let the unknown rays sweep all over his body. He waited nearly three minutes before the light gradually dissipated.

Soon after, a character dressed in leather bearing a similar appearance to Rain appeared in front of him.

--- The state of the appearance shown is scanned from the user. If you wish, you may change your appearance, or sex. However be warned, each account is limited to one character. Once the character has been created, you may not alter or delete your character. Please think carefully before deciding.

A limit of one character per account. This was not a rare restriction for a virtual reality game.

In the [ Philippine Lore ]’s official website, there is a point that is clearly described, that is in the world of [ Philippine Lore ] there is no chance to restart, saying it more straight forwardly, it is that there is no saying of being able to delete your account and re-level like in previous computer games.

Regardless of nickname, initial stats, or class, once picked it can never be changed.

So, before entering [ Philippine Lore ], it becomes necessary to think about the direction of your class, because there is no second chance to pick.

Rain thought for a while as he looked at the hologram that looked completely like him.

Rain was not considered a very handsome man like those models in magazines or in television. If one would scale his looks on one to ten, then it would definitely be five.

Yeah, just so-so.

Even still, he had never been dissatisfied with his looks. Appearance changed in the passing of time, what’s more important isn’t the cover but the content inside of it.

And so, he didn’t change anything and just let it be.

After confirming his choice for a second time, the system continued to do a system check on his body, numbing his brain.

Like a mosquito bite, his blood had been analyzed by the system –

At this moment,

Ding~!

A sound rang out.

- Oh?!

The beautiful AI’s poker face seemed to crumble for a moment as he cast her two eyes on Rain’s body.