Later that night, Aznod found himself in his room, his virtual reality headset lying on his bed in front of him. Even though he did not often indulge in games, Udona made sure that every resident of the palace had the most advanced gaming equipment available. Also the most advanced terminals, and really anything that they would enjoy media with.

Aznod laid down on his bed, putting the headset on. As soon as he pressed the button, there was a brief feeling of weightlessness, before he was standing in a completely blue landscape. This was the default menu screen for most virtual devices, and Aznod hadn’t taken the time to customize it ever since Udona had given him this newest headset.

The automated assistant, taking the form of a silver-haired kitsune woman, appeared before him and smiled. “Greetings, user. How may I help you today?”

This wasn’t a true artificial intelligence, instead only equipped to handle some basic interactions. “Display games.” Aznod said with his hands behind his back, several doors appearing along a white wall in front of him. Each door had a different icon representing which game it connected to.

His eyes scanned over the row of doors, before walking over and opening the one at the far right, the door with an icon he had never seen before, titled Fragments of Acidia. As soon as he stepped through, the world around him altered drastically. His vibrant blue void became a dark abyss, with Aznod himself standing on the single point of light that he could see. “Greetings, player. My name is Fifi, and I will be assisting you with your character creation today.”

Aznod’s eyes locked onto the source of the void, where a silver humanoid appeared. Given the spark of life in her eyes, she was very likely a true artificial intelligence, red lines trailing down her body. “Understood. Is there anything to hear before we get started?”

“Fragments of Acidia is a game that prefers to show its story, as opposed to tell it.” Fifi said with a smile. “As such, you will find little narration, and your quest log will only cover details that you have seen or heard. Now, which race would you like to play?”

Around Aznod, more than two dozen points of light appeared, each one showing a different version of Aznod himself. There was every major race, as well as several of the more advanced secondary races, and some that Aznod had never seen before. “Please keep my race and appearance the same.”

All of the various images of Aznod vanished around him. “Very well.” Fifi nodded her head. “In that case, I need to ask whether you wish to synchronize your power profile with your real self, or if you would like to start a new profile?”

“Synchronize.” The choice was obvious to him, but he could see why it had to be asked anyways.

“In that case, there is only one question left. Do you have somewhere that you would prefer to begin, or would you like to have your starting position randomized?”

Hearing that, Aznod recalled the information that Udona had given him. “Triton Three, within the Principality of Auravia.” That was the starting zone that Udona had suggested for him, though Aznod was quite curious about it. If he had to specify an individual planet, as well as the country within that planet, just how many starting zones would there be in this game?

Fifi simply nodded her head. “In that case… happy travels, adventurer of the stars.” As she said that, her image faded away, replaced by a starry landscape that spun around his body. The stars moved fast enough that they began to blur, before suddenly… he was standing in the middle of a town square.

His clothes remained unchanged from what he wore in the real world, aside from the addition of a metal bracelet on his wrist. Aznod could feel a connection to this bracelet through his mana, though the mana itself felt… strange. If he had to describe the natural sensation of mana, it was a serene flow passing down through his body. Now, it felt colder, less flexible. He could focus on individual ‘particles’ of mana, at which point they lit up and became warm, but he could not control it further beyond that.

“Welcome, adventurer.” A figure said from in front of Aznod, attracting his attention. The person looking at him appeared to be a man in his early thirties, a human by the looks of him. The most surprising thing was the look in his eyes, one that you didn’t see in any NPC of Vision Expanse. He felt alive. “I wasn’t sure if we’d be getting any new adventurers just yet. My name is Balrun, and I can direct you to wherever you need to go.”

Aznod nodded his head at that, not sure if this was going to be a common thing for all NPCs of this game, or if something about Balrun was special. “In that case, can you direct me to an institute for learning magic? I should quickly adapt to the magic system of this world.”

“Certa--” Balrun was cut off as pixels flashed in the air next to him, a golden-haired kitsune girl looking to be only eighteen or nineteen years old appearing. She wore a tight leather outfit, with a metal pin in the shape of a hollowed triangle on her chest. On one side of her hip, she wore a thin pistol, reminiscent of Deckan’s card guns.

“I’ll take things from here, Balrun! This is a friend of mine!” She said excitedly, grabbing Aznod by the hand. “Come on, let’s get going!”

It didn’t take much to know the identity of the kitsune, causing a smile to tug at Aznod’s lips when he saw her eagerness. “Of course.” He allowed Udona to guide him along, pulling him away from a chuckling Balrun. As they moved through the city, he could confirm that not all NPCs had the same level of self-awareness as Balrun. The vast majority of those walking the streets had similar looks in their eyes as the NPCs of Vision Expanse, with only a scant few possessing the glimmer of true life.

“You said you want to learn about magic, right? That’s probably a good place to get started. I bet you won’t even be able to use your Saint energy without properly understanding how the magic in this world works.” Aznod couldn’t help but notice how she had purposely said the word ‘world’ instead of ‘game’.

“That’s true. It would be inconvenient for me to be unable to utilize my fighting style…” Granted, a large portion of his style relied on card magic, so he was going to need to learn the magic system either way.

“Well, let’s learn by doing!” Udona grinned, pulling him out to the edge of town. There, he could see rabbits with disheveled appearances, their fur mangy and eyes glowing red. “These are Hunter Rabbits, a common starter mob on this planet. Even without magic, you could slap one to death at your level, but let’s try to just use magic for this.”

Aznod nodded his head, waiting for Udona’s explanation. As the Goddess of Education, her words were easy to understand, even if they at first seemed to not make perfect sense. “So, right now you only have the basic assisting device, which is the bracelet you’re wearing. You can save spells that you prepare on it as programs, and activate those programs through the bracelet. Its mana interface allows it to siphon your energy and automatically activate the mana to cast the necessary spell.”

To demonstrate, Udona grabbed her pistol, aiming it at one of the closest rabbits. Without a moment’s hesitation, she pulled the trigger, a line of light swirling around her wrist for a brief moment before entering the pistol and firing in a straight line. The rabbit’s head was pierced clean through, causing it to collapse to the ground.

“Think of mana like computer code here. It’s all just ‘on’ or ‘off’, and the arrangement of that energy forms the basis of your spells. Trying to cast without an assisting device… Well, it’s not impossible, but…” Again she demonstrated, holstering her pistol and aiming an open hand at another rabbit. True to NPCs of most games, the creatures hadn’t immediately scattered at the death of their kin.

White light sluggishly began to gather in front of her hand, similar to when she cast with the pistol. However, while the pistol’s spell fired almost instantly, this one was delayed for several seconds. In addition, when she fired, it was a thick blast of energy that completely missed the rabbit she aimed at.

The creature’s eyes went wide, glowing bright red as it turned and charged at Udona. As it approached, its speed increased, a pair of horns protruding from the top of its head. Finally, it jumped at her torso, aiming to stab her with the horns. Udona seemed… less than worried about the attack.

There was a crunch from the point of contact, before the rabbit simply fell to the ground, dead. “This armor has a low level thorns effect.” She explained with a shrug. “Won’t do much for people of our level, it one-shots creatures like this. Anyways, see what I mean?”

Aznod nodded his head, looking at the bracelet on his wrist. “In that case, how do I set up a spell?”

“That’s a learning device.” Udona explained, smiling. “Activate the mana in it, and it will open a menu to let you construct basic spells. Since it’s only the lowest level device, it doesn’t allow total customization. You’ll need to save up for a higher quality one for that.” She patted the pistol on her hip as she spoke.

Aznod followed her instructions, and a menu did indeed appear. There were a number of basic spells, along with the option to create his own. Though, when he selected that one, there were just different standard choices, such as selecting the spell’s element, range, and shape. Still, he created a few rather simple spells that weren’t on the list. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

Udona tapped her chin in thought, before shaking her head. “Just focus on which saved spell you want to activate when you trigger the device, and it will do the magic itself.”

Aznod nodded, pointing a closed fist at another Hunter Rabbit. He focused on activating one of the most basic spells, Arcane Missile. Like with Udona, lines of swirling light appeared, before a pulse of energy caused the rabbit’s head to explode. “I see.” He nodded his head in satisfaction. There was no message of experience gain or anything like that, leading him to believe that either this game did not feature such things… or these monsters were really so low level that they had no impact.

Next, Aznod began asking about other basic systems, such as inventory or how to acquire weapons. The only thing that he had on him to start was the casting device, as well as a sum of money that seemed… surprisingly high for a new player.

The inventory was rather easy, but the money… “When you first start the game, you’re automatically given money based on the level of your abilities. That way, people like you and I aren’t stuck using rags while we try to save for something decent. Typically, going to the weapons shop is part of your tutorial, but I skipped that to help get you acquainted with the game faster!”

Aznod gave a small nod, tapping into his divine power. Golden light spread out, Udona’s eyes briefly widening as the rabbits were disassembled, any usable ingredients stored in his inventory. “Right… forgot to mention that.” Just as Aznod was about to question what she meant, a window flashed in his view.

Fragments of Acidia detected!

Fragments: Cooking, Preparation, Optimization

Would you like to register these fragments?

“Just select no for now.” Udona shook her head. “Sorry, part of the game’s whole thing is that gods are considered fragments of the game’s equivalent of the Keeper, an original deity named Acidia who shattered his existence in order to breathe life into the world. If you register your domains, or ‘fragments’, the NPCs will automatically recognize you.”

Aznod nodded his head at that, following Udona’s advice and choosing not to register for the moment. Clearly, she wanted to play without the divine considerations for the moment. “In that case, I’ll need to acquire a skinning knife.” As he said that, he turned around to return to the town, but Udona stopped him.

“Not here. They don’t have anything suitable for your level here. We’ll head to the orbital station to get your gear. I only had you start here because it was a good spot to introduce you to the magic system. If we went to a higher level zone, the basic spells wouldn’t be able to help you anymore.”

Aznod blinked, but nodded his head and let Udona guide him away. She knew best where they should go.