Chapter 2

"Alright, since the initial race is decided as 'Moss,' what's next—"

"Wait a minute!"

"Huh? Do you have a question?"

"Question? What the heck is Moss! Moss! How am I supposed to play with that!?"

"There's no way I can tell you that. I can't give out strategy information to just one player."

"Maybe that's true!"

Indeed, giving out strategy information to just one player would be the ultimate foul play. What he said was correct. Still, it was hard to accept that it was Moss.

Moreover, the banner that had once read "Decided on Moss—Who would have thought such a unique choice on the first day, lol" had changed. Operationally, this was just too much! And this presentation was really annoying...

"Well, I can't help it... This is the maximum concession, okay? Think about why there are three character slots in this online game?"

"What do you mean by that..."

"I can't tell you any more than that."

It seemed he had no intention of giving out any more information, and the conversation was cut off. An online game with three character slots... It seemed I had to consider this as a completely different game from the offline version.

And the text on the banner had changed again to "What a stubborn guy..." Hey, cut it out! I'm seriously going to file a complaint!

"Alright, can we move on now?"

"...I have a lot of reservations, but I'll try playing and see. Let's move on."

"Sure thing. Next, let's decide on the name. The name for the initial slot will be the name you choose here, the second slot will be Name + 2nd, and the third slot will be Name + 3rd."

"Name, huh..."

The next thing to decide was the name. It seemed that the second and third slots couldn't be named individually. I might take some characters from my real name, Kishizaki Keigo, and decide on a name.

"Alright, let's go with 'Kei' for the name."

"Sure thing. I'll check for duplicate names, so please wait a moment. Yeah, no duplicates, so 'Kei' is fine. Is 'Kei' okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Alright, I've registered 'Kei.' This is the last decision, right?"

"There are few options, huh?"

"Sure. So, let's decide on your affiliation. Choose from the following three options."

At that, a window was projected in front of me. The banner text had changed to "Deciding on affiliation." Yeah, a pretty standard content. This didn't annoy me. Let's see what the options are.

There were three options, as follows:

**Red Swarm**

A radical faction among mental life forms. They aim to reduce rivals by killing obstacles and evolve into the human species. Recommended for carnivorous monsters.

**Affiliation Benefits:** Increased attack power, increased 'Enhancement Evolution' points from killing

**Affiliation Drawbacks:** Decreased defense power, decreased 'Survival Evolution' points from death

**Blue Swarm**

A moderate faction among mental life forms. They respect protozoa and aim to evolve into the human species through harmonious integration. Recommended for nature-based monsters.

**Affiliation Benefits:** Increased defense power, increased 'Fusion Evolution' points from integrating with protozoa

**Affiliation Drawbacks:** Decreased attack power, decreased 'Enhancement Evolution' points from killing

**Gray Swarm**

A faction that does not belong to either the radicals or the moderates. They aim to evolve into the human species by adapting to situations and not fixing their methods. Recommended for prey-based monsters.

**Affiliation Benefits:** Increased mutation rate, increased 'Survival Evolution' points from death

**Affiliation Drawbacks:** Slight decrease in 'Enhancement Evolution' points from killing, slight decrease in 'Fusion Evolution' points from integrating with protozoa

Hmm, the evolution points have different bonuses. I remember that in the offline version, the conditions for obtaining evolution points were: defeating other monsters, being defeated by other monsters, and absorbing non-monster organisms. They were treated as the same points, but in the online version, they are separated. This means the evolution conditions will vary a lot.

My race is Moss, so which one should I choose? Moss is a plant, so maybe 'Blue Swarm,' or since it could be prey, 'Gray Swarm'...

Looking at the banner, it now read "Hurry up and decide." This guy is really annoying...

"By the way, the second and third slots will also be affiliated with the same faction."

"Is that so? Can this be changed later?"

"It's possible, but not unconditionally. I can't tell you the conditions, though."

"I see. In that case..."

If it can be changed later, I'll decide for now. I don't know how to play as Moss, so I'll be flexible. The slight decrease in two types of points is less impactful than the other decreases, so I'll go with this.

"Alright, I'll go with 'Gray Swarm.'"

"Sure, 'Gray Swarm.' Got it. Registration complete. Is there anything else you want to ask?"

"Is there no avatar creation?"

"Nope. You become a monster, so it's not necessary. Oh, you can create one when you reach the human species, but you'll have to do it then."

"That makes sense. This game is fundamentally different from other VR games, isn't it?"

"...That's a rude thing to say, you know."

Despite his words, the banner read "That's a compliment to us!" The developers are really overdoing it, aren't they?

"Alright, that's it for character creation. Each race has a dedicated tutorial quest, so go ahead and do that."

"Huh? Not here?"

"Yeah, the number of races became too large, and preparing individual tutorial maps was too much trouble, so you'll do it on the actual map."

"Hey, did you just say 'trouble'?"

"Uh, what are you talking about?"

The banner displayed "Oops!? Slipped my tongue!?" ...Hey! Is this really an AI? Is there a person behind it?

"Anyway, let's put that aside. We've made the decisions, so it's time to start the game. Are you ready?"

"...I have a lot of questions, but you probably won't tell me, so I'll figure it out on my own. There's a tutorial for the controls, right?"

I don't know how to control Moss in a VR game. I'd be in trouble without it.

"Of course. When you start, the tutorial quest will be automatically accepted. You can cancel it, but I recommend doing the tutorial."

And the banner read "Moss is too unique, so without the tutorial, who knows what might happen." Hey, don't make such a weird race...

"Alright, I got it. I'll do the tutorial."

"Great, let's start the game. Good luck on your journey to the human species."

"Alright! Wait, hold on!?"

"See you!"

And with that, I was transferred to the game map of Monsters Evolve Online. The last thing I saw was the banner reading "Looking forward to the struggles of the unique race." Is this game really going to be okay...?

2018/12/2 Content Revision

Removed the part "Well, only a small number of people do that, so" from the banner's line about avatar creation.