Chapter 2.1

As I entered the main gate building, I spotted Elizabeth at the edge of my vision along with 4 people. One seems familiar, I remember him being the one Elizabeth had a friendly banter with earlier during our 1st class. I approached them slowly, suppressing my bubbling social anxiety about meeting strangers, and acted as politely as I could.

"I hope I didn't make you guys wait?" I said apologetically as Elizabeth saw me approaching.

If I had known they were already here I would've come a bit earlier. I spent my time at the library while waiting for the allotted time since I didn't want to stand in the main gate building for minutes just waiting awkwardly.

"Ohh no no! We just arrived earlier than expected." Elizabeth vehemently protested

That makes sense. It was only 3:25 the last time I checked.

"I can't believe you managed to recruit another member this fast." Said the familiar boy.

"Well, considering Liz, it is not entirely unexpected." responded a calm feminine voice.

"Ohh I forgot to introduce you guys. Katherine, these are my friends. We all come from the same high school."

She introduced them to me one by one careful to not overwhelm me.

"This is Lenna my best friend"

Lenna is shorter than me. She had long brown hair with a side bun and a homely face. She seemed laid back and greeted me with an acknowledging smile.

"This is Beny the support of our team."

The guy named Beny is a shy-looking boy with glasses and short-cut hair. He's kind of cute, like a little puppy you would want to protect. Protect from whom though? That is the question.

"H-Hello." The meek boy greeted.

"A pleasure," I replied disarmingly.

"This one is Romel." She pointed to the guy from earlier in our first class that she was bickering with.

"Nice to meet you, Katherine, I heard about you from Liz. Don't worry I'm pretty skilled. If you have me on your team, I'll be sure to carry you." He boasted while thumping his fist against his chest for added effect.

Are you a gorilla trying to show off or something? I asked deep in my mind.

Although he sure seems confident in his skills. Is he really that good? The question popped into my mind while remembering his earlier statement concerning Zetta.

"Nice to meet you too," I replied politely while giving him an acknowledging nod.

"The chubby guy over there is Reynolds".

A portly guy a little bit shorter than me with a short cut wavy hair greeted me with a friendly smile.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Katherine."

His plump figure is quite a contrast to his gentle demeanor.

I pondered for a moment before asking. "Don't we have too many players?"

In CoA, a team match only consists of 4 players for both sides totaling 8 players in-game. The team composition varies depending on the team but the most popular and well-balanced one is the 2 supports and 2 carries comp. Carries are usually Champions that lean towards a more damage-oriented build. They mainly deal damage in order to eliminate the enemy team. Supports however have many variations. They can be healers, crowd controllers, tanks, buffers, and debuffers, among others. Their main purpose is to support their carries into dishing out as much damage or hindering the enemy team in doing so.

"Ohh it's ok, Lenna doesn't really play and is only here to watch our game. And Raynold said he wants you to be able to join so he won't be playing."

"Anything for you Miss Katherine," Raynold said with a gentlemanly smile.

I forcefully smiled at him and just nodded, I mean I don't really know how to reply to that.

Elizabeth for her part walked beside me with her face nearing my ears "Just ignore him, he's weird like that whenever he sees a beautiful face." Elizabeth whispered conspiringly.

"I-I..... see," I said taken aback by the compliment

So, he's a real-life example of a simp huh?

"June said his team was already there waiting for us. Ready to go?" Elizabeth asked me.

"Okay, lead the way then," I spoke politely.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this. This would be my first game in a long while, more than 2 years to be exact. Thankfully I still played single-player VR games as a pastime so hopefully, my skills haven't rusted that much.

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While chatting on the way,

We arrived at the VR cafe after a 5-minute walk. It was a modern commercial building with a slick and futuristic design.

Going inside, the interior of the VR cafe was dark, almost unlighted except for green, blue, and red lines in the walls and ceilings lighting the place for the enhanced ambiance. There are also hundreds of VR pods that my eye can see and most of those are occupied. I noticed the staff also sanitizing the pod after a user finished playing which is a plus.

There are also plenty of televisions that hang on the ceiling that replay professional games, mainly of CoA but also a few other games that I do not recognize. It is my first time playing in VR cafes but with the atmosphere that they have, I cannot refute its appeal. During all of my inner musings, Elizabeth already approached the counter.

"Hey, Anna! Is June already here?" Elizabeth asked the lady manning the counter.

She had lots of mini computer screens surrounding her with CCTV footage playing. You can see almost all of the VR pods in the place if you look at those screens.

"Ohh Liz welcome, he's already waiting for you guys on the 3rd floor. You can find your reserved pods there if you go into the room on your right side after taking the stairs. The pods are #'s 315 to 318." The lady politely explained

"Thanks! Let's go guys." Elizabeth enthusiastically led us upstairs into a huge room where I saw another batch of about 20 VR pods each with ample space with each other. There are plenty of other customers aside from us. Near the unused VR pods, we saw a man waiting for us in the corner of the room.

"Took you long enough. I thought your team chickened out Liz."

A guy in his late 20s with a clean-shaven head, who would not look out of place in a gym with his huge build, taunted Elizabeth.

"We got here as early as we could, June. Unlike you, we have classes you know? And who's afraid of who? We destroyed you in our last betting match."

"You were just lucky back then. We improved our team play the last time we fought so don't expect it to go your way. And we have a new player joining us today." June said smugly.

"Is all your team already here?" she asked

"They're already playing, they got bored waiting for you guys to show up. Anyways, same as last time?"

"No bets today, only a normal match. We're also playing with a new teammate from our university." She signaled to me.

"Ohh, already forced another member to join your team? Well, it's no surprise considering your nosy personality." June teased while glancing at me as if wanting me to confirm.

"Hmph I am not THAT meddlesome.....right?" Elizabeth looked at me pleadingly.

"You are though." I shrugged nonchalantly.

June burst out in laughter while Elizabeth pouted.

"Hahaha well let's just play with no bets. But the loser still has to pay for the VR pod usage."

"Fine, just don't regret it after we beat you guys." Elizabeth conceded

After finalizing the stakes, June left for his VR pod.

"D-don't we get to warm up first?" Beny chimed after June left.

"Don't be too scared. The enemy will be barely enough as a warm-up." Romel reassured us.

Elizabeth, who seemed used to his overconfidence ordered them to proceed. "You guys go create a lobby, I'll just lend Katherine one of my accounts."

We each took a VR pod of our own, and I took the farthest one #318. As I opened the pod, I felt a sense of nostalgia coursing through me. It has been a while.... too long since I last played CoA.

"Add me on VR chat and I'll send you the username and password to one of my accounts. I already told you my info, right?" I nodded and she continued.

"Also don't think about winning or losing. Focus on the game and have fun." She smiled brightly.

What a kind person, I needed the reassurance with me being already this nervous about playing. Well, I doubt we will lose anyway considering that they already beat the enemy team in their last bout. I'm not that weak that my joining them would drag the team down.... even if I haven't played in a while...probably.

"Are you sure it's ok for me to use your account?" I felt conflicted.

"Of course! I don't really use it that much since I always play carry. You know how to play support right?"

I nodded.

I haven't actually played support since I mainly play carry but I've fought plenty of them enough times to know all their strengths and weaknesses and the do's and don'ts when playing it.

"And don't worry, we have the same height and body size so you won't feel much dissonance when playing my character."

What she was referring to is the real body vs VR body dissonance.

It happens when the proportions of your body are completely different from the body of the avatar you made. This makes your movement awkward and laggy, making it impossible for you to play at your best. This is why all the guides you would see for beginners, most of them will strongly suggest the use of the full body scan when creating a character. This will make your avatar as coordinated as possible with your original body. Of course, this still doesn't stop a lot of guys from creating a female character and regretting it later on in higher levels of gameplay. Honestly, I can't understand why they would place themselves in such a huge disadvantage.

"Then I'll log in now." I stepped inside the open pod and then pressed the button for it to close. The smell of detergent permeated my senses. I can see the VR pod was well-sanitized and regularly maintained. Seconds later a robotic female voice resounded through the pod.

*Please put on the nerve gear.*

Obliging, I grabbed the nerve gear placed in the middle of the pod. This is the main feature of the VR pod, the nerve gear. The nerve gear sends fake electromagnetic signals to your head at a frequency unique to the brain. Then the nerve gear produces artificial waves to stimulate the brain to provide artificial senses for the virtual reality that you experience.... or something like that, I'm not a neurologist so don't know the complete details but that's the gist of what I read in passing interest.

Though I sometimes have the irrational fear that there is some kind of overblown conspiracy device that will fry your brain to mush if you die on a game thanks to an anime I watched when I was younger. But the VR pod had been studied and cleared of any dangers and there are no reported cases of anyone's brain getting fried so that helps a bit in assuaging my irrational fear.

*Vital signs green, mental state green, emotional state green, preparing for virtual dive.*

*Loading 26%..... loading 59%..... loading 100% complete. Initiating full dive.*

All my senses suddenly became empty in a split second then came back anew like they were never gone. I immediately find myself in a space with planets beautifully and artistically aligned. It must be the VR background. It can be changed depending on the user's preference like the background of a desktop computer.

"Show all apps," I called.

A list of cubes suddenly appeared in front of me and I immediately regretted it. It was numerous. Different games, social media outlets, networks, and many other things I did not recognize. There were over 50 apps installed here. My VR pod only has about 20 apps and I don't even use half of them. I guess I'll just have to use the search menu as opposed to opening the app manually.

"Search and Open VR messenger." The VR acknowledged my command and opened the messenger. I sent a PM to the account that Elizabeth told me about earlier and after a short while, a sudden red ping lingered at the edge of my vision. It was Elizabeth accepting my friend request. Along with a message for the username and password of her account. I memorized both then proceeded to open Champions of Andartha.