"It'll be delivered within the hour, thank you for purchasing Legends of Etheria, your purchase includes all required VR equipment and a copy of the game already installed. Please refer to the instruction manual and contact our support if you need any assistance."

With a sigh, Ray leaned back in his chair and stretched. "Welp, there goes my food budget for the month. I really hope it's not an overhyped game."

"Trust me dude, it's worth it. I went in to play for a few minutes and it was awesome."

"Fun for you maybe."

"You always have to be so cynical...just trust me, it's awesome as fuck."

Ray smiled, teasing his buddy Bob was always entertaining. Bob was the main reason why Ray even decided to buy the game, he was perfectly fine playing regular PC games until he was pestered to try the new VR game. Pester being constant emails, messages and talking about how awesome it is at school.

"I'm just joking with you dude, just show me how to setup the VR device when it comes ."

"Hah, easy enough."

Fast forwarding 1 hour later, Ray was wearing a helmet with a translucent visor and black leather gloves with wires attached to the back of the helmet. "Ok, now just lie down and turn on the power. The helmet will switch on automatically, just follow the instructions given and I'll see you in game!"

"Alright thanks dude." Ray shut off the phone and placed it on his study desk, it was time to see what's so hyped about this game. "Andddd on." The visor lit up, and Ray felt his consciousness being dragged away from him. It was a very strange feeling, like being ripped away from your body except without any pain.

Ray reawakened in a black room with a mirror and huge shelves of what seemed to be body parts. "Woah, what the hell is this?" The shelves had scales, tentacles, spike and many other different parts and the weirdest part was that in the mirror, Ray had no reflection.

"Welcome player to the character creation room. At first glance it may be confusing but I shall explain it as best as I can."

"Like regular RPGs, Legends of Etheria has different races such as elves and ogres but the player need not choose a race. Players may choose various body parts and combine them to create their own unique race if they so wish it. However, for new players it is recommended to start with one of the pre-sets that we have prepared."

That's cool, so I can create my own race if I wanted to. But considering my creativity I think letting others do it would be better for the entire game, wouldn't want some hideous lizard-octopus hybrid running around in a new game like this.

"I think I'll just pick a human pre-set, I have a friend waiting for me." As Ray said that, there was a pause where he couldn't move and in the mirror he saw pixel by pixel merge together to form an image of a young and handsome man.

Ray chuckled and did a 360 turn to look at his new body, it was muscular and had black hair and eyes with no blemishes. "Looks pretty default to me but this is awesome, it feels like a real body. I'll just use this then."

"Acknowledged, please give yourself a name before entering the world."

"Just use my real name, Ray. It'll be easier to find me that way."

"Very well. Ray of the human race, welcome to Etheria. Please brace yourself."

"Alrigh- wait, brace?" Before Ray could react, he felt the ground open below him and he was falling down a large chute only to be ejected into the sky of a new world. "Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Splash! Ray landed face first into a lake. Ow. Ow. Ow. There was pain everywhere. "Agh...what the hell..my whole body hurts."

"That's what you call literally throwing you into a game eh Ray?" A familiar voice and one that brought a painful smile to Ray's face. "Fuck you Bob."