The character creation notification blinked bright and blue. As I pondered how I wanted to approach the type of character I want, I decided the best course of action would be to study what I can change from the very beginning. After all character creation can often dictate the way you play for the rest of the game depending on what customization is available.

  Hmm it's addressing me? A game mechanic perhaps.

  "A name...." I breathed.

  My character name would dictate how others view me. Of course a simple name like "John" could have any number of connotations in the gameworld or Twoen I should say. Then you could look at any other name with an "XXX" in front or behind it and instantly they're written off as an inexperienced, naiive 13 year old. Of course i've come across this very same problem a multitude of times. Simply choosing one of my old ones won't work. As an unspoken rule similar to never taking the urinal directly beside a pissing man when there are clearly many empty, my brothers and I never and I mean NEVER choose the same name twice. The reason being it's no fun when I know exactly who Derjar or Nojas is in game. As an added rule we alter our appearances ever so slightly, just enough to not be recognizable by the other two at a glance. However I've already picked out a name beforehand in order to get a head start.

  "Cobb" I said. It's a spin on my dad's name.

  Ok this is actually pretty cool. Suspiciously the dialogue isn't what I expected of a typical VRMMORPG and it's surprising that I find the way the blue boxes address me to be especially cool. I note the strangeness and move on. I haven't become the near best at every game I've ever played to be beffuddled by strange blue boxes. Note the strangeness, not a threat, probably some game feature.

  What followed was a huge list of races. It spanned down from something called a "Aaaaaol". It seemed I was on page one of "A" races. I focused on the "Aaaaaol".

  "Holy Jesus Christ! This fucking detail what the hell?!" I yelled.

  What stood in front of me was an Aaaaaol of human height and he looked a lot like me. A character mirror. Cool beans. I walked up to my Aaaaaol self and brought our forearms together. Even at this distance I could barely make out the outline of transparent feathers. I flicked my eyes to my Aaaaaol self's. Cat-like and without a doubt it seemed like I was being examined with mirth. This was especially disconcerting because I knew for a fact I wasn't making any sort of expression similar to that. I wrote it off as a feature of the race and humans perception of their cat-like eyes. I waved mirror Cobb and he dispersed into grey mist. I decided to look up the Tyou. I went to the search bar on the list located at the top and typed in "Tyou".

  "Amazing. There must be thousands of cultures waiting to be discovered in Twoen!" I exclaimed as I browsed through the races.

  With this level of detail for each race? I counted hundreds! Hundreds! On the first page of the first letter! Jesus Christ with that kind of detail what does the governing A.I. of this game packing? Does this mean that a population for each of these races exist in the game? Is it possible for the A.I. to manage something so complex? How often do these cultures intermingle? Are they isolated or united? Impossible this level of detail piques my interest yet at the same time I make sure to keep my expectations low.

  "This game won't keep my attention for a week." I sighed. "Just like every other game."

  I knew the initial hype and im experiencing the symptoms right now. One of the reasons I don't check the forums of games I play is because I get dissapointed with the game everytime I check. This way when I actually get into the game everything is a surprise and it keeps my attention for at least a little while. It's sad really the things I do to milk every game of it's entertainment value. Still the number of races is simply astounding.

  I browsed many races and read their little excerpts provided by the prompts for a good 10 minutes. At this point I had found the advanced search function which I played around with. There were many boxes of which I could tick and a search bar for specific keywords to be on the look out for. I ticked humanoid and looked through the hundreds of options trying to figure out what I wanted.

  Derjar would definitely opt for a character that worked up close and personal. Nojas would go for something that could take out opponents without their knowledge. Of course a basic warrior and assassin would just limit them both. Likewise they knew something as simple as a Mage would only limit my potential. But classes were found in Twoen not in character creation and even then to think that only basic classes were available was naiive and stupid. There would be something for me as there would for both of them.

  I ticked the "Magical" box, wanting something magically inclined. I also ticked "Physical Body" which is self explanatory. Among my 10 minutes browsing I came across various races that weren't physical. I had a headache the first time I tried to control a body that wasn't solid and so I vowed never again.

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  "Yeah that's right bitches. Don't underestimate human ingenuity!" I talked to no one in particular.

  That being said choosing a human is boring. Don't get me wrong I do have racial pride but still why play a game if not to get away from reality? There were many more races but I didn't have the time to waste sitting here and carefully selecting our of hundreds of races. My brothers were probably already in the game!

  I chose Jjerg because its human-like yet not being so. Immediately a tan man about the age out 18 appeared in front of me. His gem hair was black like obsidian and his eyes were a shiny brown. His hair stood up by itself with no interference. I kept my weight and height the same, I added no muscle nor removed any fat, I changed the face however. I removed my dimples, made the jaw a tad sharper and I was pondering how I would change myself when I realized with this race I didnt really have to. I reverted my face to default and changed my skin to an emerald green and gave it a bit of transparency. If I stayed still I could see some muscles outlined in the legs and arms of my character mirror. Cool beans. With obsidian black hair and emerald green skin it didnt look as weird as I thought. Still something was missing. I looked into the eyes of mirror Cobb and realized I was looking at the problem, shiny brown eyes dont cut it. I replaced them with obsidian black eyes to match the hair. My god holy Jesus I looked fucking cool. Green and black made a good pair. I added some white sparkles in my eyes so it wouldn't look too creepy or unsettling to others.

  "What am I?" I asked. "I am a Jjerg" I said.

  With a jolt I was sucked into my character. Everything seemed normal except I felt.... harder? I breathed easier and felt lighter yet denser. My hair also never fell in my face anymore and stayed a messy spiky. Attaining this look without gel? A miracle. Looking around my eyes felt normal I was still in the grey emptiness of character creation.

  A way to skyrocket through the beginning levels of the game? Sign me up. I wouldn't put it past Derjar and Nojas to use this to their advantage either. Sure Twoen's got my attention the lore and worldbuilding apparent in JUST the character creation is astounding! But difficulty and realism? Probably not, hoping for that much from a single game is expecting too much. I've been looking for a game like that my whole life and because of that i'm very skilled. I could probably beat the highest tier difficulty myself. Speaking of which I swiped away the "Challenge Start" prompt.

  From what I gather there are starting towns or cities which are protected probably something similar to a newbie zone. Then there are towns or cites without those protections on them. Apparently choosing a Challenge Start will give you a random location to spawn to. I'm assuming that normally you choose your starting town and normally some starting items are given to you.

  Hmmm. Normally dying in the game brings you to a safe zone in which to revive. So although all the difficulties below "Absolutely Insane" are indeed difficult with enough time escape should be possible even in Brutal difficulty. The fact that "Absolutely Insane" has no safe zones likely means i'll be resurrecting among hostiles everytime I die. Although since I don't plan on dying so it shouldn't really be a problem. There is no other way if I don't take the risk and my brothers do then I'll be hopelessly behind. My brothers are complete monsters when it comes to VRMMORPGs they are as confident in their skills as I am in mine.We may seem normal. But when it comes to gaming we are all abso-fucking-lutely insane.

  "Start" I said. With a stupid grin on my face.