Cultivating Anthro CEO RPG Hero Harem Reincarnation In Another World - Chapter 129

Everyone in my class knew the school was eventually going to close.

Secretly, I was hoping from the start that it would happen. That I could be given an opportunity to just kick back for the next few weeks, until this whole “pandemic” thing dies down; slacking off and playing video games, without a care in the world…

Unfortunately, we can’t always have nice things.

Almost everyone is under lockdown, now. So from this day on, I have to attend all my classes online. Which, admittedly, is something I was seriously dreading at first…before I learned that all of the classes would be taking place in some kind of “virtual reality world,” that was similar to a video game: using a revolutionary new technology called V.R.H.I.D., which stands for Virtual Reality Human Interface Device—like something straight out of an Anime!

Everyone in my school was sent home with one, and they’re basically like VR glasses pushed to the extreme: designed as a pretty huge, kind of clunky dome-shaped helmet that taps into all of your senses; allowing you to become fully immersed in the game world, using all five senses!

Sounds incredible, doesn’t it? Like every gamer’s dream come true!

Though, strangely enough, this is my first time hearing about it; even though my friends and I are all huge gaming nerds. I mean, you would think a technology THIS advanced would break the news…

“Well, it’s fine. This just makes it so I have no idea what to expect!”

The hard plastic visor helmet locks neatly over my head, fully encasing my eyes and ears, a flexible rubber harness lining the inside of it—I guess to provide me with some degree of comfort. I slide my hand against the top of it, fumbling my fingers along the sleek surface until they find what the manual had referred to as the “main synchronization activation switch.”

But when all that’s left for me to do is to flip it…I hesitate, at the very last second.

‘This is it: my first entry to the virtual world.’

I take a deep breath, and try to remember the famous words of that one American astronaut. Something like, ‘one small step for mankind…’

Then crack a smile, as a tempting thought suddenly occurs to me:

“I wonder how cute the girls in my class will look”—since the designs of girl avatars in most MMOs are typically made to be so…let’s say, appealing to the eyes.

Then again, if this was an MMO made specifically for schools, I probably shouldn’t have such high hopes going in. Hell, the administration will probably make us still wear our uniforms—even in a virtual fantasy world! So overall the chances of me seeing my crush dressed in sexy fantasy armor…are looking pretty slim.

Anyway, that’s enough dallying. According to the schedule I was given, my first class starts in about half an hour and I still haven’t gotten through character creation!

So I plop down on my bed, facing up at the ceiling of my room covered in lewd posters.

“One great step to pervert-kind!”

Finally, I hit the switch.

CLICK.

A sharp, electrical whirring noise fills my ears, lasting only seconds before being replaced by a bouncy, repetitive tune as a clear picture comes into view.

Right away, I’m shocked by what I see.

It’s a character select screen, as expected; really as most people would expect when logging into an online game for the first time. What’s surprising about it for me, though, is the default-generated character that I am immediately greeted with: a pretty girl with kawaii bright yellow eyes and long, wavy dark pigtails…

Dressed in a totally lewd cow-spotted bikini.

I…couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Eh…!? How is a character like this allowed in a school-approved game?”

Let alone, allowing for a male student to play as a female avatar—which, for countless reasons I could think of off the top of my head, PROBABLY wasn’t in the school’s best interest.

“Well, at least this way I have an idea of what to look forward to. Hehehe…”

By moving my hand, I am able to control a mouse pointer through the virtual space.

And by squeezing my fingers into a fist, it serves a similar function to a right mouse button press: allowing me to make selections from the long list of customization options that were available.

There’s no way I’ll actually play as a girl character. However, with graphics so rich and detailed…and so many style and body variations to choose from…

It wouldn’t hurt to take a small peek at what’s possible, now, would it?

The sheer quantity of options was simply mind-boggling. There was short hair and long hair; hair done in braids, in one tail or two, or in elegant weaves; lips that were small and soft, or long and brash. Demure, sensitive eyes. Focused, narrow eyes. Or, an aggressively “tsundere” glare. These just to name a few, out of the hundreds on display.

And so far, that’s only touching the surface. Because, in addition to all these features I was able to select from, I could also freely morph the body shape to my liking—with the use of a truly impressive array of proportional sliders!

Many sliders that, combined, give me complete control to the smallest detail…

Over height, and weight.

Hip, and thigh size. Breast, and butt size.

I can feel my face start to sweat; my heart beating fast as, through all this fiddling with the customization options, my ideal woman slowly comes to fruition before me: A girl that is thin, and—adorably—short, with delicately straightened shoulder-length light brown hair and soft pink lips prone to a subtle parting; of a moonlight fair complexion with soul-piercing brown eyes that peered out, like hungry dragons, from the cavernous shade of her uncropped, tightly clustered bangs.

In fact, the avatar on my screen looked almost exactly like my crush at school!

“Noriko,” I whisper, like someone in a trance, as even just saying her name out loud brings a rush of warm blood to my face. An aching, dry tension to my throat. Butterflies in my stomach.

Not to mention, a huge erection in my pants.

For as gorgeously spot-on as my little recreation might look, though, it certainly isn’t going to be MY avatar; I was merely experimenting with what could be achieved through this game’s character creation screen. Which now, I can say, from reading the results with my own two eyes, was beyond anything I’ve ever seen before, in all my years of gaming…

For a game meant to serve as a stand-in for a normal education, of all things.

How would this even work? I wonder. My teacher had been very vague on details when he told my class about the V.R.H.I.D. on our last day of school. No instruction on what to do after we’d created our avatars.

There was only one way to find out. But, before that…

I moved the cursor to change my gender.

Curiously, though, the gender option for [Male] was greyed out.

“Huh. Is it some kind of glitch?”

Figures. A game that looks this good, with so many customization options, must be TEEMING with glitches. Like a lot of the newer big name titles coming out these days.

“I’ll try restarting. Maybe that’ll do the trick.”

Hah! Easier said than done. My Noriko clone is just standing there, cutely staring at me, while I frantically search for a way out of the game. And to make matters worse: I’m not sure how, or when, but it was like I had lost control of my arms beyond being able to use them to control the cursor. Nor was there the presence of a standard ‘X’ icon at the top of the screen, that I would be able to click to close it. Or even a [Systems Menu] option. Or anything of the sort that you might reasonably expect.

“What gives? Is this some kind of sick joke?!”

The only way out, it seemed, would be through the bright orange [Confirm] button—but there’s no way! How embarrassing would it be to play with my classmates using an avatar that resembles my crush?!

All of a sudden, the screen began to flicker. Giant blots of pixel artifacts were randomly popping up, growing like cancerous masses.

More than concerned, I was scared.

This glitchy piece of shit was directly plugged into my brain, after all. That being the case, there’s no telling what permanent damage it could be causing me right now!

I’m already a huge dumbass pervert—I can’t afford to lose any brain cells!

That’s why…I’ll click on [Confirm].

Damn it. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!

The screen is already too covered in glitch mess for me to see what’s showing in the next menu that pops up. Except, that is, for a sliver of another orange [Confirm] button, which I hastily click.

Damn it, damn it, damn it…

The screen goes pitch black, as I can hear the BGM growing more distorted.

None of this is right. A modern, cutting-edge game shouldn’t be taking this long to load. Perhaps a result of, most worryingly, a fatal error or corruption to the internal game files.

What if this causes me to go braindead? Or, if I’m stuck in a coma for the next 30 years?

My mind is a mess of absolute worst-case scenarios, when thankfully, I see a halo of light appear off in the distance; slowly growing in size.

Someone, or something, was approaching me in this empty, dark space.

I fall to my knees, begging.

“Please! I don’t wanna go braindead. I don’t wanna die!”

I have no way of knowing if this floating wisp thing can actually answer help at all, but I’m desperate. And with nothing but this one mysterious entity to bank my hopes on, there was no room for shame.

But then, shockingly, it gives a reply:

Speaking in a man’s voice, filled with sagely sincerity and wisdom. Like a school guidance counselor who isn’t just totally phoning it in, for a change:

“Lo…another poor, lost soul—passed onto Deep Karma, far too soon.”