The whole world faded to black, the light slowly returned and I found myself standing in a wooden room. It looked a lot like a cabin on an old sailing vessel. I could see hammocks attached across the room in places, a chest in one corner.

  “Generating character based on player’s appearance,” the same disembodied voice announced.

  Before me, a female outline appeared, about a foot shorter than I am. It began to fill in, starting at the feet: knee-high black leather boots, tucked in khaki trousers, a thick belt, a white loose-fitted blouse, an open safari-style jacket and finishing with that stereotypical explorer’s hat. The face surprised me the most, though. It looked familiar. Too familiar. Similar to my sister’s or one of my cousins.

  “Would you like to modify the appearance of this avatar or enter the Velkaria with it?”

  “Modify please.” I hastily said. The resemblance was freaking me out slightly. It felt wrong somehow.

  A screen appeared before me, like a floating tablet computer. It was solid to the touch and I found myself looking upon a typical character creation interface. Tabs across the top of the screen read ‘Presets,’ ‘Skin,’ ‘Face,’ ‘Hair,’ ‘Body,’ ‘Voice,’ and ‘Finalise.‘

  The ‘Presets’ tab was already open and the remainder of the screen was filled with various female faces. I scrolled through maybe a hundred or so different variations. All female. I clicked over to the body tab, and while there were a lot of options, none related to sex.

  “Change to Male,” I tried calling out. Nothing.

  “Back,” I tried, no response. I spent a few minutes digging through all the options I could find. I even tried forcibly closing the game and restarting it, but it just brought me back to this room as soon as the game loaded.

  I submitted a ticket to support detailing the issue. The automated response came back shortly later, apologising for the issue and stating that due to the unexpected high volume of requests, it would be approximately 48 hours before someone would be available to assist.

  I let out a sigh and took a seat on the chest in the corner. I could wait… my eyes fell on the female explorer before me. I opened up the body tab and started playing with the settings… it didn’t take long before I had sculptured something ridiculous in proportions.

  I shook my head and rolled my eyes, before a thought entered my mind…It wouldn’t be the first time I had played a female character in a game…I hit the reset button and brought the avatar back into looking more like a human and not someone’s surgery-gone-wrong fantasy.

  I then got to work exploring the options with serious intent and not just for the funniest combination.

  I may have gotten carried away. Ok, no, I definitely got carried away. Before me stood a svelte redhead, approximately 5’5” in height. Slim, but toned musculature. Large green eyes sparkling like she knew something you didn’t. A smile which could light up a room.

  I switched to the voice tab. It was mostly greyed out with a tick box at the top, ‘Use own voice?’ ticked. I unticked it. The page opened up to reveal sliders titled ‘Age,’ ‘Pitch,’ Tone,‘ ‘Resonance,’ ‘Stability,’ and ‘Clarity.’ A drop-down list titled ‘Accent.’ There was a button at the top, ‘Calibrate to Avatar’ and two at the bottom, ‘Record’ and ‘Play.’

  I clicked the record button and said, “My name is Michael Kane, and you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”

  Hitting the play button, I heard myself say the words. I tried the calibration button and it adjusted the sliders. ‘Pitch’ moved up to about the 60% mark, ‘Age’ moved down. Hitting play, it played back the same words I had just recorded, but in a feminine voice.

  I tried playing around with the sliders, but usually found myself coming back to the one generated. It just felt right for her. She had a higher voice than my own, but not to the point that it was squeaky or breathy. I tried out a few of the accents, and while I toyed with giving her a strong Irish lilt, I decided to just stick with my own. With effort, I could make her sound appropriate as needed.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Clicking onto the ‘Finalise’ tab, I found myself staring at what I consider to be the hardest part of character creation. The Name.

  It had to be right. It needed to be appropriate to the scenario. It couldn’t just be something lame like ‘N00bKill3r69’ or ‘MegaChad.’

  Fortunately, there was a button to generate a random name. I hit it.

  ‘Odessa Wintermere’ filled the name boxes. I tried again.

  ‘Nora Beaumont’

  ‘Elsie Clark’

  ‘Arabella Morrison’

  ‘Charlotte Chamberlain’

  ‘Aenara Ravenscroft’ I went to hit the button again and stopped…my head tilting as I tried out the name.

  I moved my thumb towards the randomise button again…stopped…

  And then hit the finish button. The tablet disappeared from my hand. The avatar before me smiled, turned and hopped into the hammock behind her. She wiggled herself comfortably and then closed her eyes. Her body became translucent and faded into just an outline.

  “To start your adventures on Velkaria, match the position with your avatar and close your eyes.” The disembodied voice said.

  I hesitated for a moment. They couldn’t have thought of a less weird way to do this? I shrugged and moved over to the hammock. I don’t know if you have ever tried to get into a hammock, but it wasn’t the easy hop my avatar made it look like. Once settled, I closed my eyes and felt the hammock start to move.

  “Careful now,” a woman's voice told me. Her hand came to rest on my chest and stopped my sway. “You have been asleep for a week and it’ll take a moment for you to adjust.” I felt her hand covering my eyes. “Ok, try opening your eyes now, and let me know if it is too bright.” I did as she asked and just saw a very dark palm of her hand.

  “No, just your hand.” I tried to speak, my voice raspy.

  “Good, I'm going to move my hand now, close your eyes if it is too bright. Some have gained light sensitivity from the Transition and it’s better we protect your eyes than you damage them trying to be brave.” She moved her hand away from my face, revealing the shaded cabin. I turned to look at her face. A matronly woman of middle age, dressed in a somewhat conservative nurse’s uniform. “Excellent. Would you like some water?”

  I nodded and she lifted a wooden tankard to my lips. I could feel the wood grains on my lips, the tepid room temperature water as it wet my dry mouth. If you have ever been incredibly dehydrated, you will know how much you come to crave even basic water. For me, in that moment, it tasted divine.

  “Looks like your thirst is still intact. That is another good sign. The next test is to follow my pencil tip. Just your eyes first, please.” She lifted her pencil in front of my face and moved it slowly around my vision. She moved it quickly a few times; I could see her nodding in my peripheral vision. “Excellent. Now keep your eyes straight and move your head.” I complied.

  “Excellent. How are you feeling?”

  “Ok, but I'm confused by these tests.”

  “Memory loss? It was explained to you that we would be doing these tests before you accepted the integration,” she asked at the sight of my confused question. Then let out a sigh, before leaning back against a pillar, “Your name is Aenara Ravenscroft. Eight days ago, we crossed over the Great Line, where the system integration starts. You were one of the first groups aboard our vessel to accept the prompt for Integration into the system. From what the Captain told us, it would take anything from one to nine days, depending upon how complete the integration would be. For me, it was two days. Integration is what will allow us to master the Ancients’ powers and tools, but the first wave said that not everyone was completely compatible with it. We were told we would learn more about it when we arrive in the New World, as there are people there with a lot more knowledge.”

  “My integration isn’t all that high, though.” She continued. “I’m told it will grow over time if I work on it. The next test is to confirm if you have been successful. Close your eyes and think ‘Display Hud.’”

  I followed her instruction and when I opened my eyes, I could see writing appear; the ‘nurse’ had ‘Doctor Amy’ hovering near her. There was a red bar hovering in the top left of my vision, a blue in the top right.

  “I think that has worked, Doc.”

  “If you are seeing name tags, it looks like you had a more successful integration than most,” she confirmed with a grin. “Not going to pretend I'm not jealous. Let’s see if we can get you on your feet, then you can join the others in learning how to use the advanced features the system gives us."

  She offered me a hand and I used it to get out of the hammock. “Usually, this long off your feet would leave you weak, but most people after 5 days, without serious complications, seem to be able to adapt quickly.”

  Her hand withdrew and I found I could stand on my own without difficulty. “Try touching your toes.” I did. “No dizziness?” she confirmed after I stood back up with no issue. “See if you can walk across the cabin and touch the wall.” When I did so with no problem. “Final test then,” she said, handing me a pile of clothes. “Get yourself out of that shift and into some clean clothes. You can then go about seeing if the cook will feed you at this time of day.”