Rolling off the stone slab, she stood barefooted in ankle deep grass and checked out her body. Okay, it wasn't her real body, although it looked and felt like a RL body. The olive-skinned beauty now had skin so white it made milk look dark. Her body was slim without any curves, and she had no breasts to speak of. And her hair was just as white as her body.
"Okay, I'm actually freaking out here," she said. All she wore was a simple light gray tunic that barely reached her upper thighs. She felt the wind going up it, and her eyes went wide. "I have sex parts!"
And no underwear.
Her previous VRMMORPG body didn't have any genitalia or orifices below the waist. The sexiest thing it had were nipples. Now she had it all, but with the body of an albino boy. Well, except the sexy parts.
When in doubt, she always checked her stats. Just wondering about how to call up her Heads Up Display activated it. She concentrated on the Status tab.
Current status
:
Name:
Not Selected
Race:
Not Selected
Class:
Not Selected
Leveclass="underline"
10 (0% to next level)
Alignment:
Neutral
Health:
100/100
Strength:
10/10
Endurance:
10/10
Agility:
10
Mana:
N/A
Skills:
N/A
Possessions:
(Click to View/Hide)
Player Kills:
0
Deaths:
0
Asha stared open-mouthed. "I lost everything! I've been reset to default."
Panic consumed her for a second. She took a deep, steadying breath and counted to ten. Then she counted backwards from ten. Her heart was still pounding, but it wasn't the end of the world. New game meant a new character. And there was still the chance her High Elf Sorceress could be pulled up.
She returned to the HUD and studied it a moment. In the upper left hand corner of it was an amazingly accurate picture of her real life face. The faint blue bar stretching out to the left had tabs she could check. All in all, it was a pretty pathetic HUD, offering her very little. At least it had a map option.
Asha concentrated on the character icon, and a translucent screen appeared before her eyes. None of her three alternate characters were listed. Her jaw dropped and for a second all she wanted to do was scream in anger or cry.
"I'm going to call customer service and chew someone out for this," she said. Then she noticed the blue ? flashing in the lower right corner, so concentrated on that. Instead of a new pop-up, a small avatar appeared before her. "Hello, are you customer service?"
That's when Asha realized she had her English accent back. A tiny smile tugged at her lips for a second, before her anger returned.
The avatar reminded her of a cartoon character. He was a black ball, with big eyes and no mouth. A purple, crooked wizard's hat was cocked to the right, with silver and gold star and crescent moon decorations. His hands were fat, white-gloved cartoonesque things. And that's all there was of him. When she concentrated on the avatar, she saw:
Admin.
Nothing else.
"Hi, Asha Balasubramanian! Welcome to the Hidden Realms. How may I be of service?"
The Admin avatar started darting back and forth in the air, bouncing up and down in excitement. It reminded her of a little boy in a candy store. His voice was male, and youthful, but sounded like an adult. She envisioned a computer geek working in a cubicle eager to help.
"You can start by explaining what just happened, where I am, and where the hell are the three characters I so painstakingly created and built up?"
He flew up too close, and one disembodied hand reached out a fat finger to pull her tunic out to peek down inside, but she slapped it away. He streaked back about ten feet and grinned. Okay, he didn't have a mouth, but she could tell by his eyes he was amused.
"Ah. First of all, you are in the Goblin Run River Valley, on the frontier of the Kingdom of Kumar. Specifically, this is your Spawn Site. This is where you'll respawn each time you die, unless you designate a new respawn site."
He paused to stare at her legs. She tugged down on her hemline, which stretched the thin fabric across her tiny breasts, drawing his attention to them.
Hands curling into fists. "Yes, yes, I actually figured that much out myself. And keep your eyes to yourself."
He wagged his brows at her, making her face heat up. I'm being sexually harassed by a cartoon character.
"Actually, I'd like to speak with a female, or a less juvenile male," she said. "A manager would be perfect."
"Hey, you got some attitude. That'll help in this world," he said. "Now, as for your previous characters… That should've all been explained to you when you requested the move to this realm. They're gone! Forever. Sorry, but that is one of the consequences for leveling up to the Hidden Realms. You are only allowed one character, and once chosen it cannot be changed. So, yeah, you start from scratch. Sorry!"
"May I speak with a manager?"
"No," he said. "Do you want to create your character now? I suggest, harem girl."
"I demand to speak to a manager!"
"No," he said. "Since you're not ready to create your character, I'll continue with your orientation." Her status page popped up again, and the Admin flew in front of it. He started pointing to different options. "You can change reporting around, what your pop-ups look like, when they pop up, etc, etc, etc…"
"Why won't you let me speak to a manager?"
"You belong to me," he said. "Players in the Hidden Realms aren't authorized to speak with managers. You have to deal with the Representatives assigned you."
She glared daggers at the little bastard. The Admin waited patiently, barely moving as he floated just feet in front of her. After a long moment, he snapped his fingers and the HUD changed to the Character Screen. "Shall we make you the best player you can be now?"
Asha closed her eyes and calmed herself down. She vowed to call the company's corporate offices tomorrow and tear into them, but who did you complain to about customer service? The Hidden Realms had the most brilliantly realistic graphics she'd ever seen, so she wanted to play in this world. But the rudeness of her Rep was beyond belief.
"Fine. I'm guessing you can autofill my choices from the previous realm?" He shook his head. "Why must you make it so hard? I have spent a lot of time and money playing this stupid game. Will I be able to log into either the Hidden Realms, or previous version of Realm of Battle, and play which version I want?"
"No. You're here permanently."
Sighing, she shook her head. Maybe I can create a new account with a different credit card number or something. But first, I'll test run the game, and then e-mail the others and report what I've found.
Asha turned her full attention to the Character Sheet. The Admin touched NAME and an empty box appeared.