[Now then, since your initial species has been decided as 'Moss,' next—]
"Wait a minute!"
[Huh~? Do you have a question?]
"Question or not, what the heck is moss!? Moss!? How am I supposed to play this!?"
[I can't tell you that~ I can't give strategy information to just one player~]
"That may be true, but!"
Certainly, teaching strategy methods to just one person would be a major rule violation. What he's saying makes sense. But still, I find it hard to accept "moss" as my species.
I noticed that the text on Ittan's banner had changed to "Moss decided~ Didn't expect this unusual one on the first day LOL." Even the operators consider it unusual! And this presentation is really irritating...
[Well~ it can't be helped... This is my maximum concession, okay~? This is an online game, and consider why there are three character slots?]
"What does that mean..."
[I can't tell you more than that~]
He seemed unwilling to provide any more information and cut off the conversation. An online game, and the reason for having three character slots... It seems like I should consider this completely different from the offline version.
And again, the text changed to "What a troublesome guy..." Hey, cut it out, will you? I'm seriously going to file a complaint.
[Now, can we move on~?]
"...I have various doubts, but I'll think about it after playing for a while. Go ahead."
[Alrighty~. Next, decide on a name~. The name you decide here will be your initial slot name, the second slot will be name+2nd, and the third slot will be name+3rd, okay~?]
"A name..."
It seems the next decision is the name. Apparently, the second and third slots can't be named freely and separately. I'll take some characters from my real name, Kevin Zane, and decide.
"Alright, make my name 'Kev'."
[Roger that~. Duplicate name registration isn't possible, so I'll check for a moment, please wait~. Yes, there's no duplication, so it's fine~. Is 'Kev' okay?]
"Yeah, it's fine."
[Right, I've registered 'Kev'~. The next decision will be the last~]
"Not many items, huh?"
[Well, yeah~. So let's have you decide your affiliation~. Please choose from the following three~]
With those words, a window is projected in front of me. Ittan's text changed to "Deciding affiliation." Yes, that's a perfectly normal content. This doesn't irritate me. Now, what options are there?
There were three choices written. The contents are as follows:
[Red Collective]
[A radical faction among the mental life forms. They aim to evolve into the human species by killing obstacles and reducing rivals. Recommended for carnivorous monsters.]
[Affiliation Benefit: Increased attack power, increased "Enhancement Evolution" points from killing]
[Affiliation Drawback: Decreased defense power, decreased "Survival Evolution" points from own death]
[Blue Collective]
[A moderate faction among the mental life forms. They aim to evolve into the human species by respecting, harmonizing with, and merging with primitive organisms. Recommended for natural monsters.]
[Affiliation Benefit: Increased defense power, increased "Fusion Evolution" points from merging with primitive organisms]
[Affiliation Drawback: Decreased attack power, decreased "Enhancement Evolution" points from killing]
[Gray Collective]
[A faction that belongs to neither the radical nor the moderate factions. They aim to evolve into the human species by flexibly adapting according to time and circumstances, without fixing their methods. Recommended for prey-type monsters.]
[Affiliation Benefit: Increased mutation rate, increased "Survival Evolution" points from own death]
[Affiliation Drawback: Slightly decreased "Enhancement Evolution" points from killing, slightly decreased "Fusion Evolution" points from merging with primitive organisms]
Hmm, so the evolution point bonuses differ. If I recall correctly, in the offline version, the conditions for obtaining evolution points were: defeating other monsters, being defeated by other monsters, and incorporating non-monster organisms? They were treated as the same kind of points, but in the online version, they're separated? This suggests that the evolution conditions have also changed in various ways.
My species is moss, so which should I choose? Moss is a plant, so "Blue Collective," or since it's likely to be eaten, "Gray Collective"...
Looking at Ittan, the content has changed to "Hurry up and decide~". This guy is annoying...
[By the way, the second and third slots will belong to the same affiliation~]
"Is that so? Hey, is it possible to change it later?"
[Not without conditions, but it's possible~. Though I can't tell you the conditions~]
"I see. In that case..."
If it can be changed later, I'll just decide for now. I don't know the playstyle for moss anyway, so let's go with flexibility. Two types get slightly decreased, but the impact range is less than other decreases, so I'll go with this.
"Alright, I've decided on the 'Gray Collective'."
[Yes, yes, 'Gray Collective'~. There, registration complete~. That's all you need to decide, but do you have any questions~?]
"Isn't there avatar creation?"
[Nope~. Since you're becoming a monster, it's not necessary, right? Oh, you can create one when you reach the human species, but that's when you make it~]
"That's true. This game is fundamentally different from other VR games."
[...That's quite rude, you know~]
Contrary to those words, the text on the banner said "That's a compliment to us!" The operators are playing around too much, aren't they?
[Well then, that concludes character creation. There are specialized quests for each species as tutorials, so please do those~]
"Huh? We're not doing it here?"
[No, there were too many species, so preparing individual maps for tutorials was troubleso—took a lot of effort, so we decided to have you do it on the actual map~]
"Hey, were you about to say 'troublesome' just now?"
[Well, who knows~?]
The banner display shows "Oops!? Did I slip up!?" ...Hey! Is this really an AI? Is there a person inside?
[Well, putting that aside, you've decided everything, so it's almost time to start the game. Are you ready?]
"...There are various things I want to ask, but you probably won't tell me anyway, so I'll find out on my own. There are tutorials for operations and such, right?"
I really don't know how to control moss in a VR game, so I need at least that much.
[Yes, there are~. Once you start, the tutorial quest will be automatically accepted~. You can cancel it, but I recommend doing the tutorial properly~]
And on the banner, there's an irresponsible content saying "Moss is too special, so I won't be responsible for what happens if you don't do the tutorial"... Hey, don't create such a weird species...
"Alright, I got it. I'll make sure to do the tutorial."
[Then, game start. Good luck aiming for the human species~]
"Yeah! Wait, hold on!?"
[Have a nice trip~!]
And so I was transferred to the game map of Monsters Evolution Online. Just before that, what I saw was the banner's text saying "Looking forward to seeing the struggle of an unusual species." I'm really wondering if this game is going to be okay...