Chapter 1

To a New Home, To a New World

Gray.

Neither colorful nor colorless. Neither white nor black.

For Kristine Nihil, life was like that. Her only refuge from this gray-colored world was this simple wooden house in front of her. It was her great-grandfather's home.

"I'm back," she whispered with a faint sad smile on her face. With a travel bag hanging on her left shoulder, she opened the front door. Boxes covered with stickers and stamps were stacked near the entrance. They contained her personal properties like clothes, old notes, and other necessities.

She took off her shoes and walked past the boxes. Along the left side of the foyer was a paper sliding door to the living room. The first door to the right, also a paper sliding door, leads to the dining room, and the wooden door past that leads to the laundry and bathroom. Another sliding door was at the end of the hall, and it leads to an open corridor to another wooden building behind the house.

Entering the dining room, Kristine noticed that the house was well-kept despite the absence of its owner for three years. There was a piece of paper on the table. She picked it up and saw that it was a note from the hired cleaner to call if she wanted to continue the service.

Just beside the doorway, to the right, was a L-shaped staircase tracing the corner wall. She went up, and saw four wooden doors lining the hallway. The door nearest the stairs was the master's bedroom followed by the two guest rooms and finally the bathroom.

Kristine knocked on first door gently, almost expecting it to open. After a few seconds, with a wry smile, she opened the door. The master's bedroom was wide but simple. There was only a bed, a closet, a bookshelf, and a table and chair. It has always been like that.

She dropped her bag beside the bed and lay down. With a sudden thought she turned face down on the bed and sniffed the covers.

"Hmm, it smells like detergent," she said and laughed at herself. "I thought it would smell like grandpa. What a shame."

* * *

About three centuries ago, a nation that developed biochemical weapons declared war. Countries were wiped out, geological terrain and the world's climates changed, and other unprecedented disasters occurred. A small technologically developed country, out of options, proceeded with research that violated human rights, and finally developed a squad of genetically modified human soldiers. This squad of super soldiers were sent on a suicide mission to assassinate the leaders of the warring country. They succeeded at the cost of their lives. Only one survived.

His name was John Nihil. He was Kristine's great-grandfather.

With the death of the warring nation's leaders, the war ended, but the casualties produced by the war was irreparable. The world's environment was now unsuitable for life. Using the research of the defeated nation, the surviving countries developed places where humans can live. These were the enclosed cities. Since then, humans have lived within these cities separated from the outside world.

Kristine was born with her great-grandfather's blood thick in her veins. Because of that, she was easily agitated, her temper was short, and her physical abilities too high at her age. The other children would always end up beaten to a pulp by her. Her parents not knowing what to do, asked John for help.

He made her visit his home for two months every year and she went through training under his supervision. He taught her how to fight, how to make use of her physical abilities, and most of all how to control her temper. In a time when no one could understand her even herself, he showed her the way.

Three years ago, John Nihil died due to complications in his genetic makeup. All his earnings from his military work and all his properties were transferred to Kristine. His death was a huge loss for her, but she then made a decision to transfer to his city and go to high school there. That's where she is now.

* * *

Four days have passed since Kristine finished the move. Today was the first day of school. She had already completed her high school application long before moving in to her great-grandfather's house. On the way to school, she noticed almost all students were walking in groups. It seems like most of them had been together since grade school, based on their conversations.

'It can't be helped,' Kristine thought as she walked. Her grade school years weren't as fun as theirs. She had always been an outcast because of her physical condition and temper. Other children her age won't play with her because of fear, and their parents tried to make their children stay away from her without any pretense. She knew that she was different, but not being able to make any friend because of that was a bit too much for her a child her age. Her parents didn't know what to do and seemed to have just given up on the situation.

"Grandpa was really great." With that, her mood improved and she increased her walking speed. Arriving to school without any problems, she attended the opening ceremony followed by the morning classes. The teachers just introduced themselves during class and checked the roster. The day ended without any major events and Kristine decided to go home early.

"Hey, you!" As she left the classroom, a short girl sporting long twin tails that reached her knees blocked her path. "You're name is Kristine, right? Have you joined any club, yet?"

"No, sorry, I'm in a hurry." In fact, Kristine had nothing to do after class and just wanted to go home to browse the net for any jobs she could take around the area. Money was not a problem because of the inheritance she got from her great-grandfather. She just wanted to earn money for her own personal expenses and not to rely too much on someone else's earnings. She wanted to be truly independent.

"Oh, this won't take long! Won't you join the Adventure Club with me?" The short girl was jumpy and excited. Looking at her, Kristine noticed that this girl was also in her class. Her name was Rayhlee Green, and like her, she also didn't have a group of friends together with her. Birds of the same feather?

"Adventure Club?" Was there such a club? Kristine felt doubtful. She didn't saw the said club on the list provided by the homeroom teacher right after the opening ceremony along with the student handbook.

"Yes! Please accompany me!" The girl suddenly bowed while pleading in a loud voice attracting the stares of the students around. To make her stop bowing as quickly as possible, Kristine accepted the request.

'I'll just accompany her then head home,' she thought as they entered the annex building behind the general classroom building. They walked past clubrooms filled with new students applying. Finally, they reached a plain door, which looked like that for a storage room, at the end of the hallway on the third floor.

"This is it," Rayhlee said and took a deep breath, then knocked on the door. A voice from inside the room answered, "Come in."

As soon as the door opened,

"Hello, my name is Rayhlee Green and I would like to join your club! My older sister is an alumna of this club and recommended it to me!" The sudden outburst surprised Kristine and she jumped a little. Looking inside, she saw two female students standing behind a projector. One of them was operating a computer unit while the other was staring intently at the display on the wall. It was a map with most of it covered in black. Some of the visible parts where shaded green, blue, and red.

The girl operating the unit looked at us with a smile and said softly, "Please come in and close the door so the light won't enter." The two did as told and stood near the door. Rayhlee was fidgeting after her sudden introduction seemed to be ignored.

"It seems like there's no other choice but clear the nearby dungeon before expanding the town," the student staring at the map said while nodding her head. "But we lack manpower."

"Well, we don't have a male player in our guild after all," the girl behind the computer said and chuckled.

"Funny," the other girl said with a serious face and turned around. She took out a remote from her pocket and pressed some switches on it. The projector dimmed and the lights in the room suddenly switched on. "Rayhlee Green," she said looking at the girl beside Kristine, "and you are?"

"Kristine Nihil, first year student," she answered promptly. The student seemed to have a surprised expression, then nodded and reverted back to her serious expression.

"My name is Catherine Pascal. I'm the club chairman. This is Anna Kanova, the secretary. We're both third year students. You said you two would like to join our club?"

"No, I---" "YES!"

"Then we'll hold a simple test tonight at midnight. The meeting point is the inn at Alfao."

"OKAY!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Kristine said in a rush. "I-I-I don't understand what you're talking about!"

The other three looked at her with surprise.

* * *

Tataria, an unexplored world of swords and magic by the company World Games. It was a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role playing game released 10 years ago. The game gained its fame because of the amount of realism it offered along with its unique system Dream Realizer. It allowed the user to play the game while asleep in an accelerated state. Experiencing two full days in the game only took 24 hours in reality. This garnered a lot of attention and controversy but the actual technology still remained a secret. Despite that, Tataria's main selling point was the freedom the users could take with their actions, the amount of unexplored lands to travel, and the extremely realistic interaction with the NPCs.

"That's basically it," Anna concluded. Kristine didn't know the existence of this game because she had been too busy training and lived in a different city. Add that to the fact that she didn't have any friends to recommend the game to her.

"So what's the relation of this club with the game?" Kristine asked.

"Just like the club name, our main purpose is to go on an adventure, to explore the lands of Tataria," Catherine answered.

"Tataria, although it's been present 10 years ago, still have a lot of unexplored areas. Most players were too busy improving their combat abilities and trying to earn money. Exploration of those areas were left to hobbyists like us."

"I guess I'll give it a try then." Kristine wasn't that interested at first, but after hearing about the realistic combat system and the picturesque landscapes as described by the two seniors, her curiosity was piqued.

"I'm guessing you don't have the required game unit in your home, so just give me your address and I'll make a call to have one installed before evening." The serious senior offered.

"Is that okay? I haven't joined the club yet."

"I'm pretty sure you'll get hooked to the game but you'll have problems as a beginner and so we'll lend you a hand. Here's my email address. Send me a message in game as soon as you're done with your character and I'll come over to get you started. You can then make a decision if you want to join our club or not."

"See you two tonight, then," Anna said as she guided the two out of the room.

* * *

After buying dinner from the convenience store to take home and heat up, Kristine found a truck with World Games printed on its sides and three people wearing black and blue overalls standing outside her house. As soon as they saw her, they approached and greeted then reported that they were here as requested by a Ms. Pascal. Within 30 minutes, they set up a small inconspicuous device behind the house. After signing documents, Kristine saw them off.

"So all I need to do is sleep somewhere inside the house and I'll be able to access the game." Kristine was reading the game guide as she ate dinner. "Hmm.... that's kind of suspicious." No one can access the game except for her within the set boundary, the walls of her house, unless she allows it. "A lot of things here are strange, but I guess that's just how the world works nowadays."

She took a bath after dinner and prepared to sleep.

"I'm kind of excited. I wonder if I'll be able to sleep like this." Kristine laughed as she lay down on the bed. "Grandpa said that the world used to be covered with wide expanses of green forests and blue oceans. I wish I was born before the war."

Closing her eyes, for some unknown reason, she quickly fell asleep.

Would you like to enter Tataria?

Yes/No

Yes