Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke. It belongs to a very cool dude in Japan.
Basic Gaming Vocabulary:
NPC - Non-player character. These are usually AI (Artificial intelligence) kind of things and assist in game play. Others include monsters and some GMs.
HP - Hit Points/Health Points.
Passive Aggro - Passive Aggro monsters are monsters that don't attack you unless you attack them first.
Grinding - Killing the same monster over and over, usually for leveling purposes.
Chapter 1: Creation & Gameplay
Ocean blue eyes swept across the room, which had lost its dazzling brightness but remained a simple shade of white. Before long, he had stopped floating and found his feet make contact with solid ground, smooth against his bare feet. The only thing he was wearing was a thin sheet of fabric similar to a hospital gown. In the middle of the space in front of him, the only thing he could see was a system message blinking brightly red on a large pop-up window.
"Welcome to Kiseki World Online. As this is your first time logging in, an NPC will be provided to assist in the creation of your character. We hope you enjoy your time in this game."
Kuroko pressed a finger to the small arrow next to the dialog box, and the message dispersed into a flurry of scattered pixels, only to be replaced by a smiling NPC girl. A small pop-out window next to her read, "Poroffi Shio". She introduced herself and her purpose. Her voice was nearly human, though one could hear faint traces of it being synthesized in the electronic undertones.
She raised her hand in a presenting position. "Please select your character type."
Three images of the blue-haired man, all differing slightly from each other, appeared in front of him with a flash of light.
"Each race has different attributes and your choice will affect your character later in the game. Choosing your race is a finalized decision, so you may not change it later. Among these three basic choices are several sub-groups for each category. I would suggest imagining what type of class you will choose in the future as it may clash with your choice here."
The three choices laid out in front of Kuroko were labeled as "Human," "Elf," and lastly, "Beast." The one which bore the strongest resemblance to Kuroko was the Human race, which was his exact replica down to the very last detail. The other two choices were very much identical as well–save for a few obvious differences like the Elf's longer and more pointed ears and the Beast's furry tail.
.
Humans: This race's stats are the most well-balanced among the three, though their magic capabilities tend to be slightly lower than their speed, strength, and dexterity. Human-type players are generally compatible with all classes, though are not optimal for specialization.
Elves: The Elf race is the most dexterous and has the highest magic capability of the three, though they lack in strength and are often only average in speed. Elven-type players tend to be compatible with Mage and Hunter classes.
Beasts: This race is the strongest among the three. Along with their strength, many tend to be quite fast. Beast-type players lack strong magic capability and, often, weapon mastery skills. Many who choose this race are compatible with Fighter and Rogue classes.
.
Waving his hand, Kuroko opened his status window. Among the four statistic categories, his Intelligence stat (basically a measure of "Magic" capability) was far higher than the rest, and far better than most Beginners according to the ever-smiling NPC.
"Probably the system's way of making up for my lack of physicality," he thought, closing the window. He had been terrible at the physical registration tests.
This was all fine for Kuroko though; he was more interested in a supporting class rather than becoming a front-line combatant. In the first place, he wasn't even sure if he would be playing the game for long since he rarely even played video games. With that in mind, he reached towards the Elf version of him. The second his fingers made contact, the other two races disappeared and two different types of Elves took their place.
One of them was labeled as a "Dark" Elf. A grayish-brown skinned version of Kuroko with hair that was more of a violet-blue than sky. The other was a "Light" Elf. This one was just slightly paler than him (Though he was already extremely pale to begin with), and had hair a shade or two fairer. Both those and the more neutral Elf in the middle sported the trademark elongated ears.
According to their descriptions, although Elves in general had high magic capability, the Dark Elves possessed higher relative strength and dexterity, but less of the other two categories. The Light Elves were the exact opposite, being stronger with Magic and faster.
Kuroko decided since it was already strong, he might as well go for broke with more magic capability, and so he neglected both the Dark and Normal Elves in favor of the Light one. With another flare of white, the image moved towards him and overlapped with his body, and he felt rush of warmth as it became a part of him.
A mirror appeared in his midst.
In his reflection, Kuroko now donned traditional Beginner gear: plain tan and brown garb in the form of a loose tunic, tights, and boots. Being an Elf, he also had the pointed ears, of course. It was hard not to stare at them.
"You will no longer be able to change your race", the NPC chirped, repeating what she'd said earlier. Kuroko stared back into the mirror, and his observant eyes noticed that–besides the ears and clothes–something else seemed slightly out of place.
"…How tall am I?"
"Approximately 165 cm tall", the NPC informed, "the Elf race tends to be less physically adept."
"…"
If it were anyone else, they'd have probably sighed in indignation if they felt what the blue-haired man was. He had always been particularly sensitive about his height, yet the system made him shorter than he already was. Damn the fact that the average height for Japanese males was 5'8" and he was two off in real life, now three in the game. He wasn't really even that short, but he still got teased mercilessly about it (mainly by his best friend), along with his baby face and skinny body. Because Kuroko is who he is, however, his face remained passive; but a person with extremely keen eyes might have noticed just the slightest twitch breaking his blank expression before it returned to stoicism.
The NPC proceeded to explain the basic game commands–such as opening windows or equipping an item–Kuroko had already memorized from the gaming manual which came with the gear. Next came the explanations on classes, stat points, and skill points which were more detailed than what he had read. The blue-haired man, or Elf, I should say, tried to digest as much of the information as he could. Although this was only a guide for Beginners, the game was so complex that it consumed the next fifteen minutes just to explain the simplest of gameplay rules and how-to. With one final sentence explaining what guilds are and how to join or make one, the NPC gave an even bigger smile before dispersing into a cloud of pixels and disappearing completely.
.
"Would you like to begin game play?"
"Yes"*
"No"
.
"Yes"*
"No"
.
Again, the room around Kuroko dissolved away, falling around him, and was replaced by an entirely new setting.
The Beginner Island Town was like something you'd see in a rural town of a medieval country. Beginner players were scattered around, standing, sitting, and talking with others, some purchasing items from the NPC vendors, and wandering through the primal-looking stone buildings and run-down cottages arranged in close proximity of each other. The only thing that made it a little more cheerful were several banners and flags dangling from the rooftops of random houses, adding color to the otherwise plain view.
Having gotten to this part of the game, Kuroko was given Beginner equipment, some potions, and a small amount of "ladomi", the game's currency. He walked towards one of the game's first training areas to test out what fighting was like.
Even though Kuroko wanted to become a class that involved Magic or some other kind of long-ranged way of attacking, all Beginners had to start by using a short wooden sword to kill monsters until they reached a certain level.
"Equip {Beginner's Sword}", he said, and with a gripping gesture, the weapon materialized in his hand. More experienced players could equip weapons without having to say the name of what they wanted to dispatch from their inventory. They just had to visualize their item and perform the motion and it would appear, but for someone like Kuroko, saying it out loud made it a lot easier for future reference.
Kuroko trailed behind some other players who were also headed toward one of the Beginner monster maps. They walked side-by-side, in a line of four blocking the path, and he often had to stop because he couldn't get around them. At the edge of town where the walkway widened, the Elf passed them and diverged out a random exit.
Stepping out of the Beginner's start point to this map (all the monster maps on the island were duplicates though) led to several paths into the woods. Each had a sign next to it, labeled one through four in order. The Elf walked into the first as it seemed to be the obvious choice for a starting player.
This especially for someone who had never played any VR games up until now.
The path he walked through was littered with wooden signs reading "Beware!" and "Turn back!" and other mild warnings like that. It was like something you'd see as a child trick-or-treating on Halloween, minus the fake mist, colorful flashing lights, and abundance of pumpkins carved into Jack-O'-Lanterns. He didn't turn around like the signs said to (who would?) and, instead, found the opening of the forest which led to a wide, open field full of waxy green grass and fluffy clover.
Nearly blending into the grass were small, basketball-sized globs of some kind of gelatinous material hopping all around in the field.
Ah, this must be what they call 'Slimes'.
The blue-haired man may have had little knowledge about gaming, but he at least knew that.
So that he wouldn't be in anyone else's way or they in his, Kuroko walked to the edge on the map where there were less players and located one of the little globs, plopping around without a care. When it jumped, he swung at it, grazing it and causing a small amount of its jelly-like form to fly off, its HP lowering by about half. Following Kuroko's previous assumption, a small window next to the creature labeled it as a "Slime Monster," one of the most basic of basic starter monsters in just about any RPG.
The creature jumped up and proceeded to attack him with a headbutt. It didn't hurt much, or at all, really, but Kuroko still lost two of his thirty HP. The gloop-ball charged at him again, but this time, the Elf side-stepped and brought his sword down straight through the creature. The split sides then exploded into a mass of pixels.
That was easier than expected.
{+5 Experience}
{Obtained: Slime Gel, 6 ladomi}*
{slime monster archived}*
The notices appeared at the blue eyed man's side. He made a sweeping motion with his hand and moved it to his front. The Elf vaguely remembered something about an archive for the game's creatures. Something along the lines of "If you kill a monster a certain amount of times or are lucky, all its vital information will appear in a catalog of monsters." Collection of all the monsters within certain categories would be rewarded with special items or ladomi.
{+5 Experience}
{Obtained: Slime Gel, six ladomi}*
{Slime Monster archived}*
A thick, floating book appeared in front of the bluenette. Each page was a multitude of empty squares when he flipped through it, except for one which held a picture of one of the Slimes he'd just killed. He pressed on it with a finger and watched its information appear.
Species: Slime Monster
Level: 1
Hit Points: 10
Common Attack(s): Head-butt
Common Item(s): Slime Gel
Experience: 5
Status: Passive Aggro
Description: Slimes are the weakest creature in Faun Tazeire. Their weakest point is their entire body. The best method for defeating them is to cut them in half.
Kuroko closed the window and began to mercilessly murder Slimes.
After a short session of monster grinding, the Elf decided that the process had become rather tedious.
By now, he had become level four and wanted to try fighting something more challenging since the Slimes would always die in one hit; and he didn't even have to try anymore because even the slightest poke caused death. The Adventurer walked back to the forked road and past the second path into the third. After some more leisure walking, he came across another Slime-filled clearing that was very much similar to the first. Instead of green Slimes from before, however, the monsters here were a bold shade of orange–like traffic cones–and only somewhat translucent.
Avoiding the other Beginners, Kuroko approached the nearest glob and slashed at it. Instead of slicing past like it did with the first monsters he had fought, the sword got stuck about three-fourths of the way through. The slime growled...growled? With that, the monster dissected itself from the shabby weapon and turned around. At this time, the Elf noted it had a face. He could literally only process the thought of, "it has a face," while staring. In the few seconds he spent studying it, the slime molded its nearly-split body back together.
And pounced.
Instead of just lunging at or tackling Kuroko, it bit him. The creature's canines sank in around his arm, drawing a bit of virtual blood as it did. The bite didn't hurt as much as the Elf had thought it would (it's teeth were actually quite sharp), but the damage was much greater than the first slime monster's.
The Slime detached itself and landed on the ground with a hard thump, ready to strike again once a few seconds passed. This type of Slime was visibly faster and quite apparently denser than the first, making it a much tougher opponent. Nothing the Elf couldn't handle though.
Kuroko evaded its next attack, and this time, putting more power into his swing, he cut the monster again. With the extra force behind his strike, the sword permeated the slime's jelly-like body and traveled through to the other end. The two cut sides dissolved into the all-too familiar scene of scattered data once more.
{+15 Experience}
{Obtained: Orange Slime Gel, 22 ladomi}*
{Orange Slime Monster Archived}*
{Kuroko has leveled up!: Level 5}
Judging by the amount of exp he got compared to the one from the first map, going to the next area probably wouldn't make much of a difference, so the Elf spent the rest of his training time in there. About twenty minutes later, he reached level 10 and promptly returned to plaza in the middle of town. "I should probably check the time", he thought as he made a small circular motion with his left hand. The time appeared in front of him: 21:38. As of the current moment, he'd spent less than two hours in game-play.
Although the time wasn't late for most people, the blue-eyed man had a college class in the early morning and rather liked to be well rested. He decided to stop playing so he would have time to perform his nightly routines before sleep.
A fun piece of information Kuroko had read about before he started playing was that while a player was online, the VR gear would induce a state of hibernation on the body, shutting it down so that the users wouldn't hurt themselves by trying to move along with their avatars in the real world. The first few VR games released had had problems with that, and it'd taken nearly another year before this kind of technology came about. While the body would be rested nowadays, there was still the problem that the brain remained active and people would still be fatigued due to the mental strain unless they got at least two or three hours of sleep.
Kuroko decided that he would put off choosing his in-game class for the next day. His hands moved in front of him, the right shifting left and the left shifting right, passing each other to open up the system operations window, and he pressed the "log-out" button.
.
"Are you sure you would like to quit game play?"
"Yes"*
"No"
.
"Yes"*
"No"
.
And, once again, the world faded to white.
168 cm is Kuroko's height in the actual KnB series. It's about 5'5 or 5'6. The Kuroko in my fic is about two cm taller than that, but his in-game avatar is shorter by about three cm.
For American readers, 21:38 is 9:38 P.M.
Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Anything is appreciated, really XD