I came to, in a pure white space. It was like there was light everywhere. In fact, it was too bright. I tried to cover my eyes with my hands, but I didn't have any. I probably didn't have a body AT ALL since I couldn't even close my eyelids. Then after around 3 seconds, I just happened in a room similar to my own and on the bed (my bed?) was someone familiar.

{Author: Note that there is no grammatical error above. The MC feels himself a phenomena that 'happened'. (Perks of being in a VR).}

"Trichia!?"

"I knew it was you!" She said and jumped on me as if finally delighted at my reaction.

She clung to my neck but this time I didn't fall, unlike the time at the airport. She wasn't heavy at all.

"How are you here?" I asked, still surprised.

"I'm the administrator." She replied with a smile as she got off me.

"Well, I kind of guessed why Yuko was building an AI, but I didn't think he'd... Umm..." I stopped my chain of thoughts.

"Let me retain my personality?" She finished my unfinished words.

"Yeah... But I guess no one can guess what goes on in that genius's freaking head."

"And so. Here I am." She said with another big smile.

I gave another cuddle to my cute little sister. Yeah, I still consider her my cute little sister.

After that, we sat down on the bed(my bed?) and I faced her.

"I have a few questions, do you mind?"

"Go ahead." She tilted her head a bit.

(Ah so cute! Gotta stop the urge to hug her! Aaarghh!)

Hiding my inner thoughts from her (thought I was pretty sure she somehow knew), I proceeded.

"That bright light when I came in. Was that you doing?"

"Yes. When I noticed your wave patterns, I realised it was you, so I prolonged your login so I could build myself a form and this room." She gave me another cute smile.

(Okay. Too many things to retort in that answer, but lets continue.)

"Okay.... Next question. What did you mean you're an admin? Do you look over the players?"

"No silly. I look over the system." She said with a giggle.

(Again! Too many things to retort! I think she's doing it on purpose!)

*stare*

I gave her a detective like glare. Was she playing with me?

"Haaahh.."

I sighed in defeat. She had the upper hand and I didn't have a chance to begin with, if she was actually serious.

"Okay then. What do you mean by the system?" I asked, helpless to change the pace.

"The system is.. The system." She again tilted her head as if confused.

(SHE'S DEFINITELY DOING IT ON PURPOSE!)

As if realising she had won, she giggled again.

"Hihihihi... I'll explain. The system is what let's you be here. It is what defines you. It is what runs everything in this world. As for me, I am what runs the system. If we use your world as an analogy, I will be something akin to a god, the system will be the forces of nature and you will be.. well, you. So I define the laws of nature, and the laws of nature define you. Let's take an example. In this world, there exists stats. So I say to the system, 'make a stat called strength'. The system will create that stat for every individual. And the individual will have a value for the stat himself. So, in short, I created the 'stat system' and the system generated that stat for you. Just like a god defined gravity, and gravity itself is now what holds you and your planets together. You get it?"

"Ugh.. Somewhat? So you're like a god who controls everything."

"Hihihihi. I do not 'control' everthing. I define it. There's a difference. But don't worry yourself too much. Knowing it wont affect you any. Hihihihihi."

"Umm.. Okay.."

"So you finally want to log in?"

"... Sure"

Right as I said that, the room disappeared and appeared:

Welcome to INFINITY OUTBREAK

It was accompanied by a bgm and after 2 seconds, came a loud husky voice saying "Welcome to Infinity Outbreak."

Then I was.. sort of, teleported to a field. There was a grassland as far as I could see with no one else in sight. And then a pretty female said:

"New user detected. Please enter your name."

It was probably for the name in the game.

"...Rota." I chose to keep my real name.

"Please repeat the name to confirm. To change your current choice, please speak another name. Note that once a name is chosen, it cannot be changed in any circumstance."

"Rota."

"Name confirmed. Hello Rota. Would you like to take the tutorial?"

"Skip it." It wasn't me who answered.

I don't know when but Trichia appeared beside me.

"Why?"

"It is basic exercises to get used to virtual reality and a bit about the system. You don't need the exercise since you already have a lot of experience. And about the system, I can tell you WAY more than what the tutorial will."

"Point taken."

"I'd like to skip it." I said to the pretty female voice

"Confirmed. Please select your starting location."

Just as she said that, a huge list of names appeared with 3 columns. The first was the Name of place. Seconds column was Population. Third column was Users. This one showed how many people who logged in selected that place. The list was sorted in descending order of number of users. The top spot had a whooping 8,901,039 users. Almost 9 million! The second spot had 126,766 users. It went on and on and on and on and on....... and on. There were quite a few of the lower numbers from 1 to 5. Most probably friends who decided to play together.

I looked towards Trichia for help.

"I dont suppose you have a recommendation?"

"What do you need?" She asked.

"Umm.. Somewhere I can level up fast and without much hinderence."

"Hmm. Let me see."

She just stood there for a few seconds like a statue.

"Try Kinshin." She said suddenly.

I started looking for the place she mentioned but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"All the places with a church or a temple have been mentioned in the list. This is so that everyone has a respawn point. That is where you go back after you die. Respawn point is selected as the last temple or church a user visited."

As I was looking in the list, Trichia started explaining about something. I listened intently and acknowledged with a nod.

"Also, you can search for a place in the list by saying 'search' and then the name of the place."

I almost fell down.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner!?"

"You never asked. Also, it was funny. Hihihihi."

"Haaaaah.. Search Kinshin." I sighed and searched for the place as Trichia directed.

The list scrolled down quickly and a highlighted row appeared. It was the place I was searching for but..

"Umm.. Trichia. You sure this is the right place? There's a popoulation of only 50 and no users."

"Thats the one. Its a secluded enough place so you can level up without drawing too much attention."

"If you say so."

I selected the highlighted row and was now standing in a church.

"The system's too quick. It should make a warning that you're going to be teleported." I said to Trichia.

"There was but it was patched. The testers said that once you get used to it, it is better to not have the system ask confirmation for every little thing." She told me.

(Testers huh? Well its kind of obvious that there would have been, if you think about it.)

"Okay, so now what?" I asked Trichia.

She just stood there looking at me.

"You're right. I should make my own decisions." I told her.

"I didn't say anything." That's what she said but I could tell she was happy her point got across.

Where I was right now, was right outside a temple. I started walking in a random direction looking to see if I can find someone.

"Trichia, tell me about the system, would you? The stuff I'd need to know from the tutorial."

"Right. Say 'Status'."

"Status."

Name : RotaSTR : 10LVL : 1HP : 100/100AGI : 10Race : HumanSP : 100/100INT : 10Title :MP : 100/100LUC : 10Points Remaining : 0

"You can tap on anything to know more details about it."

I did as she was told and tapped to check what everything was. It was simple actually. Pretty obvious I would say. Starting from the top, my name, race, title, health, stamina, mana, strength, agility, intelligence, luck and the remaining stats points I have. The description on the stats was a bit interesting though. Every point in strengh increased health by 10 points and a bit of damage. Same for the others. Agility affected SP and my speed. INT affected MP and casting speed. The most interesting was Luck.

Stat: Luck

Every point in Luck increases drop rate of monsters by 0.1% and critical hit chance by 0.1%.

So if I have 1000 points in luck, the monsters will have twice the rate of dropping loot and every hit I do will be a critical hit.

(Nice.)

"Saying 'skills' will open your skill list but you won't have any at the moment." She started speaking again as she realised I was finished.

"Okay."

I tried it anyway and Yup! It was empty.

"Next, try 'inventory'. Every beginner receives 10 pieces of bread and a copper dagger."

"Inventory." I said, but before I could check, we finally came across our first group of people.

"Who are you!? Where did you come from!?" It was a group of 2 guards holding spears in their hands and one of them who spoke.

Now that I look at it, I've reached the village gate. They must've been surprised that I approached the gate from inside rather than outside.

"I... I came from the temple." I decided to go with the truth.

"You lie! How can you come from the temple when we've never seen you enter our village!?" The said point their spears at me.

It looked pretty bad. Whatever phenomenon called us users here, they probably weren't aware of it. Trichia did say this place was secluded.

(What do I do? Do I make a run for it? The gate is in front, I'm sure I can run away.)

A few people were starting to gather and I was running out of time. Also, I didn't want to rely on Trichia for everything.

I decided to try to talk my way out and keep running away as last priority.

"Hey hey. There's no need to be hostile here. I'm just a random traveller. I don't mean nobody no harm." I raised my hands half up to show I didn't hold any weapons.

They lowered their spears but still kept vigilance.

"You'll come with us. The chief will decide what to do with you!"

(Okay. Bad situation. I have no idea what the chief is like, so this is like taking a gamble. He could, for all I know, turn me into his slave. But he could also be a good man, maybe giving me a place to stay. Do I take the risk?)

(NO!)

The guards had lowered their weapons and one of them was walking towards me. I quickly ran to the side and escaped the first guard but the second saw me move and ran after me. I was moving to the gate in a curve while he was running to me in a straight line. He'd easily catch me. When he was close to about 1 meters, I slowed my running and dodged his spear. Since I slowed my running a bit, he was now running past me from my front. I easily tripped him and ran out the village gate.

Victory!

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killerdoomc guessed it right that Trichia was our 'AI Goddess'. Congo!