Untouchable (VRMMO Litrpg story)

Chapter 2.1

As I entered the main gate building, I spot 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 approach them slowly, suppressing my bubbling social anxiety about meeting strangers, and acted as politely as I can.

"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 don'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 is 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 wholely 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 seems 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 out 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 in 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 brushed-back hair greeted me with a gentlemanly bow.

"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 is 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 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.

--------------------------

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 this atmosphere that they got, 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 looser 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, all 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.

I was teleported to a relaxing plain with the statue of a goddess who I presume was Andartha in front of me. The statue's eyes were closed and you could feel the majesty oozing out from its demeanor. A statue so perfectly out of this world that no matter how many times I see it, I always feel a sense of awe and reverence.

After that was the account prompt from the game. I immediately input the username and password of Elizabeth's secondary account or smurf as they like to call it. What greeted me was a character with an IGN of Beth. It has Elizabeth's body proportions geared with a cleric-type robe and her beautiful facial features.

So, she even used the face scan to copy her face to her 3d avatar. I don't think I have the courage to do that, since if it were me, I'll customize my looks. Body scan I can somewhat live with, but a face scan is a whole different topic. Strangers seeing a realistic 3d version of my face even in an online game feels wrong to me. Though she did say that she streams so I guess it's not an issue for her. I guess streamers are built differently in confidence factor huh?

I hit the 'Start' button.

Loading.....

Loading.....

Loading complete

The smell of fresh air suddenly filled my nasal senses and the hustle and bustle of the town flooded my view. As I walked around, a sense of nostalgia suddenly run through me. If I'm not mistaken this is the port town of Melos. A town that can be accessed in the later stages of the game. Considering this account is max leveled, it makes a lot of sense she would be here. This town brings a lot of memories. This was one of the town my sister had a quest that was too hard for her involving a certain skilled NPC. In the end, I was the one who completed the quest by beating the NPC for her.........my sister. My heart suddenly dropped.

*Warning: mental and emotional state fluctuating.

Player is Advised to take a break.*

I dismissed the notification. Calm down. I took a breath and tried to calm myself. I forced all the thoughts outside my head and cleared my mind. I need a distraction.

I looked at my inventory. She has a purple set with a purple weapon. Pretty good actually. The strength of a set is linked to its rarity. White is normal, Blue is rare, Purple is epic, gold is mythic, and red has the highest grade of legendary. Pro players usually have all legend gears and weapons but you won't know unless they show you their gears. But for a pro player, showing your gear is a huge taboo cause if it was somehow leaked, their enemy will surely know their strengths and weaknesses based on their stat build and resistances.

Her weapon is called Staff of Resolute Thorns. It increases the effects of healing skills. It also has a weapon skill. Weapon skills are what makes getting a higher-tier weapon more important than an armor set. Some weapon skills can even change the tide of battle if used correctly. High-tier weapons are just that strong. It is the main reason why a good blacksmith is needed in any pro team.

Thorn burst: Conjures small thorns that impede the enemy's movements.

Cooldown: 21 seconds.

Cost: 50 mp

Quite potent but not comparable to red weapons. Still has a fast cooldown for a purple though and it doesn't need to be channeled.

I then took a look at her stats.

It is..... quite a strange build, and that is me being considerate. It's a hybrid of dex and int. It is like she wanted to be a support mage but then decided being a DPS carry is better and changed stats priority mid-game. In short, it is completely trash! No wonder she made another account, this must have been her 1st one since it is full of newbie mistakes. While it may not matter that much for casual players, this type of build would be disastrous when you play on a competitive level. That is probably why she easily lent it to me...... Give me back my gratitude!

Well let's look at the bright side, it suits me fine with me being a DPS carry player back then. I won't have that much damage as a full DPS-oriented build but I can still use support skills, so in other words, a Jack of all trades kind of character without any speciality.

I checked the settings. The auto translator is on but the voice changer option is off. It seems that she likes to use her real voice quite often even in the game. Streamers really are built differently.

While customizing the settings to my preference a sudden notification popped up.

Player Lizbeth has invited you to a PVP lobby. Would you like to accept? (y/n).

I accepted the invite.