Revna awoke in her small room her shield and axe that came with here following her artificial birth, the sun shone threw the blinds on the eastern window as she sat up out of bed, her black undergarments covering her chest and other regions, as she moved to the dresser and closet to get dressed. She thought about the conversation from two weeks ago where a board member from Jörmungandr had come to visit her at Solus and seek her participation in his game, originally, she rejected the idea until he asked the question.
“What is it you seek Miss Ulfhild in this world?” it was a simple question, so Revna answered posthaste.
“I seek battle that is just and fair.” She said thinking of her home back in the Moonshae Isles, of the battle she had fought before being pulled into this word and appearing before her creator.
“If you agree to play the game for a test, I promise you, you will enjoy the battles you will take in the future.” He stated, Revna could not express how or why but she trusted him but agreed to take part in a regional tournament. She would be provided an account that was max level for the test afterwards the account would be reset, and she could keep any prizes she earned from the tournament.
Revna left her room walking into the large lobby, wearing a dress shirt and pants, a freshly wrapped braid by her sheep like horns on her head waiting for her was a research team some of them from Solus Academy and some from Jörmungandr’ s Development staff. Over the past few months, she had been a part of the academies research team because of her expertise on Nordic culture and battle tactics she had helped translate writings from the Viking age, this is of course after she was taught modern day English, though she did admit she was rough at times when speaking to them.
“Morning Miss Ulfhild” someone whom she did not know spoke as she looked over to them, she saw they were from the gaming company. “My name Tetsu Li, I am one of the many Creative Leads, at Jörmungandr I’m here to give you a rough start of the game before the tournament.” He explained seeming far too happy to have traveled from Seattle to the tristate area of Iowa.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Li, so where do we start?” she asked looking at him as her stomach felt tight. “On second thought, can I treat you to breakfast?”
“Sure thing, I can discuss things with you during that time.” Tetsu replied, looking down at the girl. Despite working on a game played by thousands of Virtuals this was his first contact with one. So, as they stood in the elevator, he took a moment to engage his curiosities. “Are you really from the past?”
“Yes, your historians call it the Viking Age. I met with the gods, and they sent me here to do battle, but none of your battles are honorable.” She said her voice sounding cold as she insulted the modern conflicts. The elevator reached to lower floor, and they left it heading outdoors and to the cafeteria.
“So, who sent you here, to this age, and why originate in Iowa of all places?”
“Freya sent me forward in time, and I’m not sure why this place, but I’m glad it was because I have been correcting translations of Norse Prose Edda.”
“Correcting?”
“Yes, for some reason you all believe that Thor had two Goats, they were sheep.” She explained in a way that was matter-of-factly.
“I see, what was the biggest thing to get used to?
“Well, the culture, and then the new technology, I’m still not sure how you all lie so much, and why being upfront is considered crude.” She explained talking plainly again as she shrugged of any fur discussion of it.
“Okay what lessons did the Gods teach you? Tetsu asked curious of what she might have learned from them.
“I mean being honest Thor taught me strength, Loki taught me to be wary of deals, and Freya taught me war tactics.”
“How did they teach you these things?”
“Loki taught me, by tricking me, Thor taught by giving, and Freya by…” Revna paused for a bit. “I guess she showed it to me, but not in the traditional sense, more of she put images in my head.”
“That’s rather cool.” Tetsu stated his lips tugging on his face as he smiled from the new information. As they came to the counter in the cafeteria, Revna ordered a bagel with ham egg and cheese, and a healthy dose of shmear. Where as Tetsu having already eaten ordered a coffee. Before they returned to Revna’s dorm area, as the horned girl devoured her bagel.
Once back Tetsu opened his laptop and pulled up some game data. “Have you played any type of games before Revna?”
“I played on a handheld device, but it was boring.” She admitted
“That is understandable a lot of Virtuals do not like handheld gaming systems, so you are not alone. Jörmungandr uses a memory cortex located in the headset, when using it the user is placed into a coma. This prevents the user’s body from moving while they play the game, this does create limits within the game as say you can’t move your legs in real life you wouldn’t be able to move them in game.” “So a disability remains a disability in game?” She asked intrigued by the idea. “Would this not create a disadvantage for that player?” “It does, but real warriors overcome their disadvantages right, Revna?” Tetsu rebuttable knowing Revna admired true warriors.
“You’re not wrong, how many people have disabilities in the game?”
“Between 12-15 percent of players are thought to have a physical disability. But there is a professional team made exclusively of Virtuals with disabilities”
“That’s really cool if I enjoy this game, I might want to do battle with them.” she expressed as she smiled menacing.
“You would have to catch up to them, thankfully today is the day to make a name for yourself.” Tetsu said pulling a data card from his pocket. “This is a premade account, set for a level 70 Berserker class, I want you to break the game so we can fix it.” He explained showing the true intent of Revna participating in the tournament.
“Tell me how to play ill see if your battle simulator can handle a champion of the Aesir.” She spoke highly as her eyes almost lit up from the excitement. From here Tetsu set up the headset and game on his computer and helped Revna learn how to connect to the game.
“The first fight will just be a tutorial, after that you can play in the tournament we still have about an hour before registration, and we cleared the only obstacle by giving you a maxed-out account to test.” Revna nodded to him still having the same glint in her eyes as before as she reached up and turned on the headset. “You might find this tedious.”
Revna heard the voice of Tetsu but was already in the game so no motion could be made thanks to the helmet. For the first part Revna interacted with a voice and completed setting up the profile as it was a blank account.
“Welcome to Jörmungandr Online, please input variables manually or authorize a body scan.” A masculine voice informed her as she noticed she was now in a white metallic room.
“Authorize Scan” she said thinking it would be the easiest way as she felt a ray of light sweep over her body as it was scanned
“Virtual detected, please be advised only human body settings are currently unlocked.” The voice informed her, she took the statement as meaning her horns wouldn’t be in the game, at least not yet.
“No disabilities detected, vision 20/20, dominant hand right, please select a language:” the voice requested.
“Futhark.”
“Language not permitted, please select a language.”
Revna groaned. “Fine, English”
“English has been selected, please select pain threshold, zero is no pain, five is normal.”
“Five”
“Registration complete, please finalize all settings.”
Suddenly a text box and an image of Revna appeared in front of her, in the image she was wearing skins and chain mail that looked familiar to the armor of her own time. “Approve all settings” she confirmed as the screen went black and then came back as she was now looking in the mirror and free to move, she began to examine the armor, feeling the rough pelts and cold coiled metal. “This is sensational!” she shouted in the room by herself, she noticed a shield on her back and axe on her side and donned them giving a couple swings and bashing into the wall, it felt so real, and the weight was even there she had no idea the simulation would be so accurate, which now made her want to thank Tetsu. “System log out” the screen went black and Revna could see the visor of the helmet.
“Welcome back” Tetsu said looking down at her as he was monitoring the data on his laptop.
“I had no idea it would feel real, I can’t wait to fight someone!” she said the blissfulness of her voice bringing a smile to Tetsu’s face.
“I set your Skill points to focus on stats, your strength and defensive abilities rather that on actual skills, your Ultimate skill is Bifrost,” Tetsu pause making sure Revna was listening to him. “Bifrost is a powerful skill that will incinerate an enemy if its health is low enough.”
“So, I might not even need it?”
“Right.” Tetsu agreed, “but you have to take an ultimate skill and all of them are activated skills, so I believe Bifrost would be the most suitable given your lack of experience with games, just point and activate and Bifrost will cover the area” he explained.
“Got it, should I go back in?” she asked seeming as excited as before.
“Go ahead.” He said still smiling and he let her go back into the game after connecting her to the tournaments lobby. “Have fun Revna.”
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