Rei Yoru, an eleven-year-old girl, is quite a unique person. Much like her parents, she is only awake at nighttime, she is nocturnal, but sadly there is a reason for that, and it makes her upset to her core. The reason she is only up at night is because she has an intense fear of sunlight. She knows the term for it, Heliophobia, she knows that it is not that common but there are people that suffer from it. As for Rei, she does not know when she formed this fear, or how it even happened, her parents said that it most likely is a memory that she had repressed and sadly even they do not know how it happened.

Rei feels guilty about it much to her parents' words, saying that fear of sunlight would not stop them from loving her, and that even though they would have to change their schedules that they would make it work out for all of them. It did not stop her from feeling guilty, that every decision they made were forced all because of her, which was why she wanted to be rid of her fear. It was a good thing that her father was studying to be a psychologist and promised to help his daughter when she needed it.

Like right now, Rei and her mother, Ichika Yoru, and her father, Souta Yoru, were in her father's study preparing for one of the main things to help recover from fear, exposure therapy. Though it was nighttime, right around 9:00, so they could not expose her to sunlight, but they refused to do that thinking they should start out small and work their way up. So instead of sunlight, they decided to use the next best thing, a UV lamp. Since UV lights would have the same effect as sunlight this would be the best way to help Rei out.

"Are you ready sweetie?" Souta asked his daughter, looking in her direction. Rei was wearing a red long-sleeved shirt with navy blue pants, she had dark grey hair, blue eyes, and, due to lack of sunlight, pale skin. Rei shuffled her legs in place, not moving from her spot. "If you want, we could pick this up some other time?" Souta asked thinking to himself that maybe it was for the best they should stop.

Hearing him say that made her gasp and shake her head saying, "No!" Thinking that she shouted that she covered her mouth. "No! I want to do this." She still felt nervous making her mother, who was in there with them, calmly place her hand on Rei's shoulder trying to reassure her.

"It's going to be alright Rei, just tell us to stop if you want to stop." Looking up at her mother, Rei nodded her head and then turned to walk towards her father.

Souta turned on the UV lamp, causing Rei's eyes to shrink as she took one step back. Steeling her nerve, she walked forward again finally making it to the table with the lamp. "Alright, let's begin." Her father said, Rei nodded at that. Raising her hand, she slowly moved it closer to the light, though she was moving slowly she was close making her hand feel warm. A few seconds went by, and Rei finally placed her hand into the UV light, the light felt warm to any regular person but to Rei it felt like her hand was on fire. She started taking deep breathes to try and calm herself, but it was not working, her heart started beating fast and she started feeling like she was chocking on her own breath. Wanting to stop she screamed and took her hand away from the light, jumping backwards in the process.

"Turn it off." Ichika said to which Souta reacted immediately, turning off the UV lamp, they both hurried over to their daughter. Rei just sat by the wall of the room breathing onto her hand that was exposed to the light while also crying. Her mother and father embraced her as the tears kept flowing.

The embrace however, made Rei cry a little bit more, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry." Rei said to her parents.

"No hon, don't be." Her father said to her trying to reassure her. "It's been 10 seconds, a new personal best, you are getting better."

"I shouldn't have to do this at all." Rei said in destress. "Why is this happening to me?"

"Rei." Ichika said trying to comfort her daughter. "Fear is complicated, there's no telling how these things happen." Her mother started rubbing her back in another attempt to comfort her. "We can only just try to help you conquer them. Don't worry, we'll help you get through this no matter what." Saying that, however, did not may Rei feel any better and she bolted from the room, crying. "Rei, no!" Ichika tried to call to her, but her calls were unanswered as Rei ran to her room. Ichika and Souta were left alone in the study contemplating what happened, though this was not the first time their daughter ran from them like that. "I don't know what to do." Ichika said to her husband.

"Neither do I." Souta said. "If only she could understand that something this wouldn't make us love her any less." Ichika agreed with him. Suddenly a thought came to her, and she whispered her thought to him. "I thought we agreed to wait for her birthday?" Souta questioned.

"It's only a month away, besides maybe it's time for some different exposure therapy." Ichika said with hope for her daughter in her eyes."

Souta had thought about using a different method of exposure therapy for a while but could not think of what to use. It was not until they got Rei's birthday present that the answer finally came to him, so he agreed. "I'll go retrieve it."

Ten minutes after Rei ran back to her room she sat on her bed crying, blaming herself for everything that has happened and thinking about all the things that will soon happen all because of her fear of the sun. She only wanted to be alone right now, her parents allow her that when she felt upset, right now however, her solitude was interrupted by a knock coming from her door. "Please leave me alone."

"Rei," The sound on the other side of the door came from her father. "Please open up, I just want to talk to you." There was no answer making him continue. "I don't want to have to order you to do something you don't want to do I just want to talk. Can we please just talk?" After what felt like a minute of waiting the door opened slightly signaling Souta to go into Rei's room. It was dark in there save for a desk lamp, Souta looked and saw Rei still sitting on her bed with a look of sorrow in her eyes. He sat down beside Rei doing his best to comfort her. "I'm sorry Rei." Rei looked at her father, surprised at what he said for she did not see why he should apologize. "We should've used a different form of exposure therapy instead of a UV lamp."

"But I was the one who suggested it." Rei said to her father.

"And I should've considered a different approach, one that was easier. For that I'm sorry." Rei did not say anything after that, so Souta reached inside his jacket to pull something out. "So maybe this could help you out more than that UV lamp ever could." Rei looked and saw that it was gift wrapped, but her birthday was not for another month. "I was hoping to wait for your birthday to give you this, but your mother and I think that maybe now is a good time." Souta handed the gift to Rei.

"What is it?" Rei said while examining the gift.

"You've only been talking about it for weeks now." Hearing her father say that caused Rei to gasp loudly. She opened it up and saw that it was a game, she took a look at the title to see what it was.

NewWorld Online!

Rei gasped in surprise again, after a few weeks of having the VR system she finally had a game to go with, and it was the one that she always wanted to play. Although, a part of her believes that she does not deserve this. "Why are you giving me this?"

"Well in addition to it being the game that you always wanted to play, maybe you can use this help yourself out. Give the kind of exposure therapy you need, and the time you do at your own pace."

Rei does think that maybe this could help her conquer her fear, but she was not crazy about being exposed to virtual sunlight. If she cannot be exposed to regular sunlight than virtual sunlight may be just as bad. She has been looking into some information on the game especially the time that goes by, thankfully, besides events, the time in the game passes by like normal time. So, if she were to play this game than she would only play at night. "I don't know what to say."

Souta smiled at her. "Then just say that you'll except it and know that no matter what we will still love you regardless of what you're going through. We don't blame you for the things that have been happening, so don't go beating yourself up for this." Rei still had doubts about that but decided to leave it at that. "Alright now I have to get going to work." Souta got up from the bed and headed towards Rei's bedroom door. "Enjoy the rest of the weekend, but make sure you study for class tomorrow night."

"I will." Rei said before her father left.

Rei looked down at the new game in her hands and was so excited she could hardly wait to install it. She checked the time to see that it was past 10:00 at night, the perfect time. She grabbed her VR system and placed the game inside the console, putting the gloves and helmet on she was ready to start playing. Laying down on her bed she got the game started.

Opening her eyes, she looked around and saw that she was in a bright blue colored area. Knowing that this was the setup screen she got ready to create her own avatar. First, she needed to pick out a name, she would have been a fool to use her real name, people do tend to do that sometimes but that would usually be a sign of ignorance since the point of RPG's are for you to not be the same you. So, with a quick second to think it over she finally thought of something short and simple as she typed in her username "Owl" a bird most known to like dark places. Next came the difficult part, choosing your first weapon. There was a whole bunch of weapons to use, from swords, to shields, to staffs, it was hard to choose until her eyes landed on something, namely the two daggers.

"These look amazing, light weight as well, but not that powerful." Rei did see that having daggers was not a smart move since they had low amount of damage to them. She however, thought otherwise. "I'll just make them stronger." With that she chose the daggers.

Next came yet another difficult part of the setup process, she needed to place stat points into some of the stats that she has. The stats she has are HP, MP, STR, VIT, AGI, DEX, and INT, sadly thought, she only had 100 points to spread out, so she needed to make them count. Rei put 20 points in STR, 10 points in VIT, 30 points in AGI, 10 points in HP, and finally 40 points in MP, she thought to herself that those were the most important for now and she would have to add points to the other stats later. Finally, it was time to make her avatar. She thought to use her actual body as a base, but she chose to change the color of her into a sparkling white and the color of her eyes a light shade of yellow.

With all this done she was finally ready to play the game.

Rei, or as she is now called in the game, Owl, kept her eyes shut hoping to be away from the sunlight but then she slowly opened them to see that it was dark in the game, her information about the time that passes in the game was correct. She does hope to do what her father suggested and try to use the game as exposure therapy to get over her fear but that would have to be for another time, until then she has a game to play. Looking around she did not see that many players in the area, only like a couple of players, seems that the game is crowded when it's daytime.

"Not many people here." Owl said to herself. "Oh well, not going to let that stop me. Should find some monsters to beat so I can level up." She looked around and saw a path that led into a forest. "Maybe I'll start there." With that said she took off running to the forest area.

As she ran the few people that were playing took a glimpse at her and started saying things that she did not hear since she was far away from them. The players commented things like she looked a little young to play the game, others commented that even though she was in starter gear that her appearance looked a little creepy with the white hair and yellow eyes, almost like a creature from the old supernatural stories they were told. The players saying this however, thought best to leave it at that and not try to start anything that could get them into trouble.

A few minutes after Owl entered the forest area, she sadly had no luck in looking for a monster to beat, she was really looking forward to it as well. Owl searched everywhere, in the trees, behind some bushes, even in small holes in the ground, but not one monster in sight. When she looked online earlier, she got a bunch of messages from people that they cannot take a few steps without getting attacked by a random monster. Perhaps it has something to do with the time of day. Either way she was getting a little annoyed by this and she would have screamed in frustration if she had not have heard something in the near distance.

Placing a hand by her ear, hoping to get a better image of what the sound was, she kept listening. It sounded like someone playing a flute. Looking in the direction of where the noise was getting louder Owl walked forward to see what was making that noise. After a few steps she brushed away a bush and saw that the thing that was making the noise was exactly what she thought it was, someone was out her playing a flute. Narrowing her eyes, she could not tell if this was a quest giver, a regular NPC, or a player, she however, did not have time to think about it since the person looked up at her. The mysterious was wearing a top hat, a black tuxedo suit, a black cape, and a sugar skull mask over their glowing green eyes.

"Hello." The mystery person said to Owl. Looking up and down at her the mystery person said, "You must be a new player, either that or you like that equipment." Owl blinked and looked down at her equipment. "I mean no offense, but I find that look a little tacky, on anyone not just one person. Again, no offense."

Confused, Owl only said, "None taken." However, this conversation has not answered the question that she wanted to know. "Is there supposed to be a quest or something?"

The mystery person blinked in confusion then quickly realized why Owl asked that question. "There be some confusion, I'm not an NPC, I'm a player." Having her question answered she did not know whether to be relieved or not since she just suddenly ran into another player out her in the forest where they can just attack her if they wanted to. Standing up the mystery person pointed something that looked like a staff in the hand that did not hold a flute. "You do have the right to take my life, but I won't make it easy for you." Stunned by this sudden change in attitude Owl just stood there stock still until the mystery person started laughing. "I was just kidding." They put the staff away and held out their hand. "You can call my Nerm."

Still stunned Owl moved closer to Nerm and shook their hand. "Owl." Nerm blinked in confusion and looked behind them thinking that there was an actual owl. "My name…it's Owl."

"Oh, well that's a unique name. Again, no offense." Nerm said making Owl wave it off. "So, what brings you out here?"

"I was looking for monsters to defeat so I can level up, but I can't seem to find any." Owl said once again looking frustrated at that fact.

"No kidding, the monsters are different at this time of night, they're like real animals more agile and strong and the weaker ones are burrowed up and sleeping, you'd be lucky to find some of them." Nerm explained to Owl making her groan at this. A thought then came to Nerm. "How about I help you with this one." Owl looked at them and saw that they were clearing their throat.

"Taunt!"

A few seconds of silence went by and then both Nerm and Owl heard some rustling in the bushes. They both turned to the direction and saw two wolves jump out, following behind them in the air they saw three bats above them. Owl was about to scream with Nerm pulled out their flute and started playing it, causing the beasts to stop in their tracks at the soothing sound. Just then Owl saw one of the wolves jump up and attack the bats, taking down one of them and pinning a second one to the ground while the third bat was attacking the second wolf. Owl was confused and looked at Nerm for answers, but she saw that they were motioning for her to attack the beasts while they were fighting each other. Pulling out her daggers Owl rushed toward them all and while they were busy, she was slashing each one of them one after the other releasing small particles of light from the beasts after each strike.

Finally slashing one of the bats, all the beasts were defeated, leaving Owl the only one standing. She was about to cheer for her victory when she got a notice. Looking at it she read the notice.

"You are now Level 2."

"I went up a level, cool." She saw that she now has five stat points to add. She put two points in STR, and three DEX. After that she got another notice.

"Skill: Close Combat I acquired."

Owl then heard clapping and turned around to see Nerm doing just that. "Congratulations on your victory Owl, you never forget your first."

Owl was still confused about something though. "How did you get them to stop attacking us?" Instead of answering her question Nerm simply pulled out a window with some text and showed it to her.

Enchanting I

Cause an enemy to obey your command, grows in time, allowing for more targets and/or stronger enemies to obey. Does not affect tamed beasts and bosses.

Condition

Have a non-tamed enemy fight another enemy in your stead.

Owl was amazed about this skill, probably not something that she would use, but was still amazed. "I placed that skill into my flute. Now I make other enemies fight for me."

"That's amazing." Owl complimented.

"Thank you." Nerm said appreciating the compliment. "So, what do you plan on doing now?"

"Well, I was still hoping to level up some more, but with what you said…" Owl trailed off hoping that she would not have to say anything else and that Nerm would know what she was getting at.

Luckily, they did know and asked, "Would it be alright if I accompanied you?" Owl did not say anything but simply nodded. "Well then how about we add ourselves as friends?" Owl nodded again at that and preformed the right actions to add Nerm to her friend list, Nerm doing the same thing. "Alright then let's go look for some more beasts." With that Nerm and Owl took their leave and began looking for monsters to defeat.

So far Rei was really loving this game.