Saika lets out a small yawn. Being a VR game beta-tester isn’t an easy job. Nowadays, it’s not enough to just give feedback and bug reports. You actually have to pay attention and write an essay reflecting on everything you encounter.

  At least, now that the CBT (not that CBT) is over, and the game he has pytested is releasing today, Saika can finally enjoy it without the constant reminder of submitting a report about bugs, exploits, mental health risks and gore censorship and whatnot every single day.

  He’s quite sleepy from staying up te constantly for the past week, but this game, Divine Path Online, usually referred to as DPO for short, is one of the most anticipated games in the past few years.

  Despite neural VR technology being developed for years now, the VRMMORPG that gamers have dreamed of since the olden time never became a reality. And the reason? Well, why make a polished MMORPG, a genre that’s notorious for its high investment cost, when one can pump out slop gacha games filled with pay-2-win microtransactions, and rake in hundreds of millions of Credits?

  It wasn’t until 3 years ago that a small studio called Unconnected Dreamers Studio stepped up and announced the development of DPO and started to crowdfund the game. After countless startup frauds, crowdfunding is handled very carefully by the government. Thus, without needing to worry about getting scammed, the gamers, thirsty for a good MMO, contributed in droves.

  However, they still can’t match the capital of the rge AAA studio. So, in order to cut costs, Unconnected Dreamers Studio decides to take old IPs whose copyright has expired, and incorporate them into their game. This, coupled with outsourcing work to talented volunteers from the gaming community, has helped bring this game, DPO, into fruition.

  With so much hype behind the game, Saika, as a pytester, is inevitably hooked as well. Even though the closed beta has felt more like a job than a game, he could really feel the polish and care the developers have put in.

  He grabs his VR headset. This model is called GenLink. The Gen here actually comes from the Japanese kanji 幻, which means ‘phantasy’. As a proud Japanese citizen, shouldn’t he support his own country’s product?

  Well, in reality, he just doesn’t have the money for a better one. The GenLink is considered the best VR gear for a normal gamer. As for high end stuff, they are really expensive.

  Looking at the clock, it is almost 18:00, the official unch time for DPO.

  Saika puts his GenLink on, and his vision briefly goes dark before returning, revealing a small room with a sofa and a table. A wide-screen television sits in front, and at the corner of the room is a cupboard containing all kinds of snacks as well as brewing tools for tea and coffee.

  The other corner holds a small bookshelves, with various titles neatly arranged in alphabetical order. This is all for show, of course. Since everything here is virtual, they can be changed with a simple flick of a finger.

  Saika walks over to the sofa and takes a seat beside a peacefully sleeping golden winged cat.

  The creature starts to stir, not because of the disturbance, but because it is already 18:00. It brushes its own eyes, before gncing at Saika.

  “Welcome back, user Harukawa Saika. It has been a few days.”

  “Hello, Yuru.” Saika winces as he hears his own name. To this day, he can’t understand why his parents have given him such feminine names.

  And not only that, instead of using 幸香 or 沙依果 like a normal person, his parents writes his name as 災禍, with the meaning of ‘camity’. Really, can adults still suffer from chuunibyou?

  After managing to suppress his resentment, he turns to look at the winged cat… This creature is his Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). AI technology has come a long way, and they are basically identical to a human being, save for a few crucial hard-coded safeguards preventing a Terminator incident from occurring.

  And this room… Well, simply put, it is the main menu of DPO. Since he’s a pytester, this pce has been customized to his preference. Other pyers would just get an empty room.

  ”Saika, would you like to enter the game now? The game is newly unched, and every second counts, you know?”

  ”Yeah. Let’s go.” He nods.

  The cat hops onto his shoulder, and in an instant, he finds himself in a familiar pce.

  “You know the drill.” Yuru’s voice comes out from his shoulder.

  Various objects float inside this void. Sequence Potions, Soul Gems, Angel Feathers, Mechanical Blueprints, Jade Talismans…

  He can’t help but remember how cringe he was st time he was here. What did you even mean by “This is the path that I choose”? He’s dying of embarrassment just recalling it.

  He quickly shakes his head and regains composure.

  “Yeah, I know the drill.” Saika says, as he strides towards a set of parchments, and grasps it firmly.

  ’Ding! Confirm selection of the Machinery Master css?’

  “Confirm.”

  With that, all of the other items disappear. The space starts to dissove before his eyes.

  ”Well, Saika, see you in a bit. I hope you have fun in the world of Solune!“

  “Is that a procedure or something?”

  Yuru always says that line whenever he joins the game, so he’s quite curious.

  “Who knows?”

  There are no other character creation steps, like appearance or name, since Saika has already done that during the closed beta. He has only altered his hair color from bck to ashen grey, and he didn’t even bother to use a different name, and simply inputted Saika in romaji.

  Saika’s vision fades into bck, just like when he puts on the GenLink, and before long, he finds himself in an unfamiliar town. Various other pyers are scrambling around, trying to interact with objects and talk to NPCs.

  “They are quick, huh? I thought they’d take their time choosing their starting css.”

  ”Not everyone is a weirdo like you, who spent half a day looking at those items.” Yuru has also arrived and floats beside his shoulder.

  In Solune, pyers are referred to by NPCs as Adventurers, while PDAs like Yuru are called Spirit Companions. Don’t fret the settings too much, it’s just a game, after all, and this is an easy way of expining the pyers’ respawning and leveling up.

  This town is quite unfamiliar for Saika. He’s a pytester, and he can’t choose his starting location unlike normal pyers. There’s also a Pytester Debuff on his status bar, which increase his EXP cost by 10% for 7 days.

  Back during the beta, his starter town is called Cirrus, situated in a mountainous area. And now, the pce he’s in right now is called Manika Town, located right in the middle of the Shining Pin, which is a region he has heard of but never been to.

  Well, starting locations don't affect him much. He ignores all the pyers who are cmouring to get inside the Town Hall, and instead approaches a guard nearby.

  “May I ask if there is an Engineer Workshop in this town?”

  “Of course there is! You are an Adventurer right? Well, I would recommend you go to the Town Hall to get a map first. All Adventurers can get one for free.”

  “Thanks for the advice, but I really want to get to the Engineer Workshop right now. Can you show me the direction?”

  “Oh, no problem. You see that fork? Turn left there and go straight until you see a barbershop called The Beard Snipper. Turn right there, and at the next fork, turn left, then keep going straight past the bridge, turn left there and go straight. There’ll be a restaurant…”

  After a very long one minute, Saika has obtained the direction to the Engineer Workshop. He swiftly follows… Yuru’s direction, and arrives at his destination. Really, why bother to remember dialogues when there’s a cute cat here to remind you?

  His goal at the Engineer Workshop is to change his specialization, as well as to level up!

  By picking the Machinery Blueprints, the pyer will choose to walk the path of a Machinery Master. And Engineer and Mechanic are the two different archetypes of the Machinery Master path.

  Mechanics focus on crafting powerful equipment. Their special stat, Machinery Affinity, grants huge bonuses to crafting Mechanical equipment, components as well as repairs.

  On the other hand, Engineers lean more towards innovation and optimization. Their special stat, Machinery Insight, grants bonuses for creating, altering or upgrading Machinery Blueprints.

  Don’t think that Engineers are worse at combat since their equipment is of lower quality. The difference in Blueprints can make up for that gap, making the two archetypes just about equal.

  Saika silently recalls what he has learnt during pytesting as he knocks on the door.

  “Ahh, welcome to the Engineer Workshop.” A boy, around 14 years old, appears behind the door.

  “Please come in.” He politely guides Saika inside.

  “Then, what business do you have with us? Do you wish to commision an item? Or have your machine repaired?”

  “Um, no, none of that. Can you inform your master… That I would like to become an apprentice Engineer here.” Saika says.

  The boy stares wide-eyed at Saika, surprised at what he’s just said, before running inside. Saika just lets out a chuckle, and takes a seat at a chair nearby.

  “He’s pretty cute. Don’t you think, Yuru?”

  “… Do you, perchance, have some weird preference that I don’t know about?”

  “Of course not! I like girls, 100%! But if you just mean what I like in general, then I do have some strange preferences indeed…?”

  While Saika does enjoy big guns, robots and sci-fi like other guys, he is also into cute things like plushies, dolls, or frills and ribbons.

  Though, that is, of course, something he strictly keeps to himself. He already has a feminine name and a somewhat androgynous look, there’s no need to add more fuel to the fire.

  As the cat is about to say something back, it seems that someone is already coming out from inside the Workshop.

  “Oh? A Spirit Companion? Then, you must be an Adventurer, right?”

  The person who has spoken is a middle-aged man whose appearance screams “Scientist”, what with the gsses and white b coat.

  “Yes, Sir. You must be the owner of this Workshop?”

  “That’s right. My name is Tyler. You want to be an Engineer, don't you? Since you’re an Adventurer, I assume you should have some foundational Machinery knowledge?” The Workshop owner starts talking as he leads Saika and Yuru inside.

  “Yes, sir. I do have some Machinery and Science knowledge, and I have learnt the working mechanism of Basic Steam Machines before coming here.”

  “Good! Good! Everyone must start somewhere. It seems like you’re not the other brats who want to jump right into Electricity without understanding Machinery properly!”

  Inside the Workshop are two separate areas. One side is filled with gears, pipes and pistons, painted in bronze color. The others contain a mess of motors, wires and cables, which are all components for Electric Machineries.

  “Alright, give me your Adventurer ID, I will get you registered with the Town Hall as an Apprentice Engineer.”

  Does Saika have that? He does, it is one of the starting items in every pyer’s Inventory, alongside 3 days worth of Food.

  He hands the ID over to Tyler.

  “Alright, I’ll be back in a moment. Until I get back, how about you make something over there? I need to assess your skill level.”

  “Got it, sir.”

  As Tyler turns around and leaves, Saika walks over to the Steam portion of the Workshop. There is a full set of tools there, all made of Wrought Iron, a staple metal at the start of the game.

  He grabs a Wrought Iron Hammer and a few Bronze Ingots, walks over to the Anvil nearby, and gets to work.

  A/N: Some stuffs about the characters

  SpoilerYuru, the golden winged cat, is based on Yurushia from Akuma Koujo. She's a character that I like a lot, and for some reason she popped into my mind when I try to come up with an animal/mascot companion. The other candidates were Kyuubei, Zundamon and Eevie, but they didn't really fit. So, we got this cat instead. Its name was going to be either Yuru, Shia, or Rushia, but I thought Yuru sounds the best. I have taken the design of Yurushia and only that. Her personality is very different, as you can see.

  Remember, Yuru is just a cat. Do not the cat.

  Harukawa Saika is written as 春川災禍. I expined the Saika, but Harukawa is simply the character for 'Spring' and 'River'. He's meant to be a more feminine boy, with potentially some crossdressing in the future, hence why I chose this name. I am very straight though, I just like cute things like Saika does, no matter the gender.

  The Engineer stuff is going to be based loosely on a mix of The Legendary Mechanic and Gregtech. Han Xiao was a pretty cool character, and I like the power system over there. There won't be any Mechanical Deities though, not until very ter on.

  [colpse]