CH 2

The day I chose a female avatar

In this day and age, full-dive VR technology is an integral part of everyday life.

As a result, Kurenai fell asleep smoothly and moved to the VR space.

Then, when Kurenai opens his closed eyes…he is in a mysterious room enclosed with a transparent dome, through which you can see the starry sky.

A new policy of full-dive technology, is that the device must not interfere with the body functions, that maintain life. The in- and output signals are transferred via the NLD.

It is said that the clarity of the virtual world it created, greatly surpassed the VR technology of the previous generation…

『Welcome to the world of Destiny Unchain Online. From now on, we will start the character creation procedure.』

Standing in front of her, a beautiful angel with wings sprouting from her back…it seems to be the guide AI for character creation…speaks to him, and Kurenai’s attention, which was distracted by the scenery, shifts to her. (Bersleid: Switched out goddess with angel.)

『If there are no symptoms, such as poor physical condition or discomfort in movement, we will proceed to the race selection of the character creation procedure. Would you like to access the NLD’s genetic registry to search for suitable races?』

The Terms of Use opens in front of him, he skims through it once, and presses the “YES” button. (Bersleid: Should’ve read it closely, maybe you would have found out, that you will be gender bent.)

Then, a number of figures appeared around Kurenai, dressed in various fantastical costumes.

Although it was based on his irl appearance, these ones had long ears, horns and tails… and various other physical features.

“I wonder if I should choose my favorite race from this…?”

As Kurenai was looking at the character models that appeared one after another…

『Report. During your genetic data scan, we detected a unique sequence.』

With such a message from the AI angel in charge of character creation… the current VR space distorted.

As if something had gone wrong, the space became grainy and the background outside the dome turned dark.

The preset models of the races that had been lined up so far began to disappear one after another.

“… What is this?”

――It’s bugged.

In the early days of VRMMO, I heard that this was a rare occurrence in games using old-generation electronic computing machines, but this phenomenon was unheard of in the integrated nanophotonics optical computing devices that are mainstream in modern NLDs.

–Hey, is this okay on the first day of release?

Despite Kurenai’s worries, all his preset models have finally disappeared, and…

『A was detected among the races you can select.』

Along with the angel’s voice, this time in the space in front of him, a new, single figure was formed from her feet.

What appeared was… a much smaller body than Kurenai.

Milky white hair down to her waist and clear white skin. An outline that draws a soft curve, that still retains its youthfulness.

Framed by long eyelashes of the same colour as her hair, the lifeless eyes staring at him were a clear crimson, that seemed as if they could see through you.

Her dainty body was composed of smooth curves all over her body, and she was well-proportioned like a work of art.

“…Wait a second, a girl!?”

The figure was unmistakably that of a young girl, about the same age as Kurenai or slightly younger.

“By the way, why are you naked!?”

……Because it’s a game for all ages, there are no depictions of any of the private parts.

However, Kurenai, who is in the middle of puberty, hastily averts his gaze when he sees the girl without a single piece of clothing.

However, the curiosity overcame his embarrassment. Even as he blushes, he peers at the girl through the gaps between his fingers.

“… Ah, albino, I guess.”

He gulps down his saliva, while staring at the naked body… while taking care not to look down as much as possible, he cautiously touches her small face.

……She didn’t seem to disappear, and his fingertips returned the feel of elasticity of human skin. Apparently, she was kind enough to let me check it by touching it.

When his hand touches her cheek, it feels smooth and squishy. He felt like he could go on forever. Suddenly, a strange feeling touched her finger.

“Is this… a tooth? But…”

There was a faint sense of discomfort when his thumb touched her closed mouth.

While I felt something immoral about the act of sticking my finger into a cute girl’s mouth, I gently inserted my finger into her little cherry-coloured mouth and tried to pry open her lips…there. As expected, it had cute little fangs.

“……fang?”

“It’s like… a vampire from stories.”

“…!?”

At that moment, what ran through Kurenai’s brain was a sight of blood, a memory of regret.

–It’s okay, it’s just a little blood, so it’s okay.

Even though the adults rushed to stop the bleeding, the awkward smile of a girl in tears, who was a childhood friend of his, tried to comfort me, as I clung to her and cried.

It was just play pretend.

Influenced by the old horror movie I saw the night before; I started playing pretend.

However, partway through, Kurenai, who seemed to be in a feverish state, bit his childhood friend’s neck as if he was drawn to her.

……After all it was just the power of a child’s jaw. It didn’t matter.

But on her neck, the scar of his teeth vividly remained.

And since then, Kurenai has completely refused to put anything bloody into his mouth.

“If only I had such small, sharp fangs at that time.”

If only I had these fangs that were optimized to obtain food.

A bitter feeling torments Kurenai, wondering if he could have done it without hurting her so much.

“I am……”

“That’s right… this is my true self.”

“I was originally supposed to be like this.” He was whispering. Somewhere deep down, it was ingrained within him.

“I… want to be you”

The moment I said that, the world went dark.

— Race: Noble Red was selected.

–Consent of the registrant “Mangetsu Kurenai”, confirmed in the deep psychological realm.

–The analysis of the original biometric data of the subject… completed.

–The distorted gene information has been corrected.

–Transferred to “Cradle”…success.

–Body reconstruction processing started. Isolate and protect within “Destiny Unchain Online” for the awareness and safety of “Mangetsu Kurenai”.

—The cradle is activated.