When first logging into CNO, as is the case with most VRMMO titles compatible with The Seed program, your initial avatar creation is randomized in appearance. CNO does offer limited modifications beforehand however. Firstly, you may set it so that, while most of your character's appearance will be random, the height and body type will reflect that of your real world self. The second is utilizing picture files downloaded onto your AmuSphere to make your avatar reflect your real world self fully. Players may also make several alterations to their avatar after creation, though this process does come with a small monetary transaction fee. Changes to an avatar through this method include, but are not limited to, height, body type, eye color, and hair style and color. The primary thing that cannot be changed is an avatar's gender, as per regulation guidelines, all VR avatars must reflect the gender of the player.

-CNO Online Manual: Character Creation

"So I just fit this over my head, turn the power on, and say Link Start?"

"Pretty much. You remember your username and password you set up for your account, right?"

"Of course. I'm not an idiot, you know."

I finished the final parts of the setup as Akari sat down on her bed and slid the AmuSphere onto her head. She didn't own one personally, but apparently a friend from her high school had one and allowed Akari to borrow it for a few weeks since they would be busy. And today she would be using it for the first time and logging into CNO. Seeing as Akari had gone to the trouble of getting the AmuSphere herself, I dipped into my savings and bought another copy of the game so she could install it. Granted it would probably only see use for this short period of time, but if everything worked out in the end then it would all be worth it.

When Akari had first offered to make a character and join my team for the Nexus Royale, I wasn't sure what to think at first. Akari had never played a VRMMO in her life. Heck, the only video games I could recall her playing at all were basic console games when I was younger. But Akari had pointed out the many times I had mentioned CNO's lack of a leveling system, meaning personal skill was the biggest factor in player performance. And technically speaking, she was right. Akari was a master at taekwondo, and my paltry skills in it had taken me pretty far. Only time would tell if she would adapt well to a virtual environment for it, but I was desperate and needed whatever help I could get.

"Once you make your character, wait at the starting point. I'll meet you there."

"How will you know it's me?" Akari asked.

"Simple. I'll look for the newbie who looks like she has no idea what she's doing."

Akari pouted in response. "You're gonna pay for that later."

I ignored her as I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me after Akari laid down on her bed. I quickly headed over to my room one door over and put my own AmuSphere on. I didn't want to keep Akari waiting, and I was honestly a little curious what her avatar would look like.

"Link Start!"

Once I fully logged on, I arrived at the warp gate in Serulis. Akari likely wouldn't have finished making her character yet so I moved to the side and waited as player after player logged in. Girls were usually a minority in VRMMOs, and CNO was no different, which narrowed down the players I needed to watch considerably. And finally, nearly two minutes later, a player fitting the bill materialized.

The girl was around Akari's height, though maybe a few centimeters shorter. She had light tan-colored hair styled in a twintail fashion. Her clothes seemed to be that of the basic starter set, and the way she was looking around definitely screamed "newbie". Chances were it was Akari, though if I was wrong I was running a pretty decent chance of getting publicly humiliated for chatting up some random girl. Argh, I really should have given Akari some sort of subtle gesture to do so I'd know for certain it was her.

But two seconds later, I got all the confirmation I needed to know it was my older sister. And in the worst possible way.

The girl cupped her hands and called out. "Hey, Takeshi! Where are you, bro?!" she shouted. "Your lovable big sister is here, so hurry up!"

I groaned and face palmed myself in embarrassment. She had to be doing this on purpose. Akari had never played a MMO in her life, but even she surely had to know the basic etiquette of not saying a person's real name here. Not to mention the scene she was creating with this stunt.

Akari called out my name once again, with several players glancing in her direction with curious looks. I quickly moved in and grabbed her by the arm. "Come with me, you idiot."

"Takeshi? Is that you?"

"Yes it's me. Now stop shouting my real name in public for everyone to hear!"

As I dragged Akari away, she called out to the other players. "It's okay everyone! I found him!" I could already hear the whispers of gossip floating around. One thing was for sure, I wasn't living this down anytime soon.

I moved myself and Akari to the alleyways to avoid any more onlookers. Once we were alone, Akari's onyx eyes looked me up and down. "So this is what you look like in here, huh?"

"Yes. And my name in here is Tae. So don't go calling me by my real name while we're online." I told her. "Speaking of which, what name did you pick for your avatar?"

Akari smirked proudly as she told me. "I went with Tomoe. But if you ever feel the need to cry into your big sister's arms here, I don't mind you calling me by my real name."

"Not happening." I replied dryly. "So why Tomoe?"

"I swear, do you pay any attention in history class? Tomoe Gozen was a famous female warrior back in the late Heian period." Akari explained. "Pretty fitting, right?"

I shrugged my shoulders. It was a reasonable enough inspiration for a name. Though most VR players these days tended to be a bit more original with names. With how many people played VRMMOs in today's day and age, the idea of naming oneself after someone famous or a mythological figure got old pretty quickly. Most went with something more personal, or in some cases a normal name they just felt sounded cool. My own handle Tae was created simply as a shortened version of "taekwondo".

After teaching Akari - or Tomoe rather - how to open and navigate her menu, I had us add each other to our Friend's Lists. With that out of the way, I looked at the time. It was around 1 pm right now. I had a meetup with someone else at 3, which gave us a little less than two hours. And there was no better way to kill that time right now than getting Tomoe's gear in order. If she was going to be of any help in the Nexus Royale, then her starting gear definitely wasn't going to cut it.

While a few NBS units were only available as quest rewards, or found at the end of certain dungeons, a vast majority of them could be purchased at shops. I took Tomoe over to the main NPC shop that sold almost every type of NBS you could purchase. Of course, none of them were in the price range Tomoe could afford with her small starting amount of 1000 bits. But that wouldn't be a problem since I'd be the one paying for all her equipment. I also had some spare Cores in my inventory that could be used to upgrade whatever NBS she decided to go with a few times. There wasn't much other choice considering there was no way the two of us would be able to farm enough bits for her to get everything she needed by the time of the Nexus Royale. We'd hopefully be able to get a few more Cores for her through some of the early story quests, but any more Cores she'd need I would have to buy myself. And buying Cores was not cheap.

Every NBS unit available for purchase was lined up along the walls like empty suits of armor in a castle. Each one had a window hovering next to it, detailing its name, class, and stats. The price was shown floating over each unit's head like a player cursor. Most of your standard NBS units cost somewhere in the ballpark of fifty to a hundred thousand bits, depending on how good it was. Nothing I couldn't afford, but it was still going to put a dent in my wallet. Especially considering everything else I'd be buying to get Tomoe caught up.

Tomoe browsed each of the NBS units as we passed them by. She seemed to be more focussed on the style rather than how good it actually was, but I was managing to keep things relatively balanced in her choices. After nearly twenty minutes of looking around however, Tomoe found one NBS that really caught her eye.

"What about this one?"

I took a look at the NBS Tomoe had found. It was an Attacker type model called Lotus. The design was a sleek green frame and a yellow visor along the eyes. It looked almost like a cybernetic version of a kung fu character. It certainly fit Akari's style, that was for sure.

Glancing at its stats, the Lotus model boasted some rather impressive values in its STR and AGI. Perhaps the highest I had seen any NBS that hadn't been upgraded. Upon closer inspection however, those high values suddenly made a lot more sense. While it had a lot of offensive potential, its DEF was abysmal. Even with its somewhat ok HP stat, it was clear that the Lotus was meant to be a glass cannon in every sense of the term.

"I don't know…" I said. "With that stat spread, it would only take a couple solid hits to kill you. You'd have to be able to evade almost every attack that comes your way."

"Then there should be no problem. I didn't spend most of my life having mom train me in taekwondo for laughs after all."

I shook my head. "I have no trouble believing you could take any player in CNO on in a fistfight. But CNO isn't martial arts. There's swords, guns, all kinds of weapons. If anything, players that fight hand to hand are a rare breed."

"But this one looks so awesome." Tomoe insisted. "Come on. Pretty please?"

I let out a sigh. It was true that if Tomoe could make full use of the Lotus model and her taekwondo in CNO, she could be a serious threat to plenty of players. But that was a big "if". Even I had gone with my Hermes model mostly for its speed to allow me to get in close and evade most long range attacks. And even then I didn't rely entirely on my taekwondo in combat.

While pondering whether to trust my sister or not with this, my eyes caught sight of something towards the bottom of the stat screen for the Lotus model. I leaned in closer to get a better look.

[Bonus skill: Heart of the Dragon - 30% increase to STR and HP if nothing is equipped.]

It wasn't often, but there were some NBS models that came with a special skill to them. They were usually on the gimmicky side, but there were times they helped push a NBS's utility up a bit. And it seemed Tomoe was one such NBS with a skill. 30% to both STR and HP was nothing to scoff at, though not being able to equip weapons or gadgets was a pretty harsh condition.

Though in our case, perhaps it was just the boost we needed.

Between the 72,000 bit price tag for the Lotus model and buying whatever leftover Cores would be needed to upgrade it ten times, I was going to be shoving out a lot of money. On top of that, I'd still need a decent amount leftover to hire Dante and the other player I had in mind. If we went with the Lotus model and didn't have to buy any equipment for Tomoe, that would be a major money saver. And I was going to need all the bits I could for hiring negotiations. I just really hoped I wasn't going to regret this.

Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"You really want this model?" I asked Tomoe. When she nodded her head I gave in. "Alright then."

After buying the Lotus model, I transferred it over to Tomoe with a trade request. Seeing as she wasn't going to be needing any weapons or gadgets, our shopping trip had ended earlier than expected. With Tomoe and Shingo on my team, I currently had three members.

Next on the agenda was making sure I could convince Dante to be our fourth.

I killed the remaining time until my meeting by showing Tomoe around the city. With this being her first time trying full dive VR, it was no exaggeration to say she was amazed by how lifelike everything seemed. It truly was as if we had been transported to another world. She even mentioned that she could see why I was so hooked on it. Who knows? Maybe by the end of all this, she'd be a gamer herself and stick around in CNO.

On second thought, perhaps I shouldn't be wishing for that. The last thing I needed was my sister giving me the little brother treatment both irl and in-game.

Once the time neared 3 pm, Tomoe and I went to the meetup location Dante had given me. It was the roof of one of the buildings in the upper section of Serulis. A good location to avoid many evesdroppers. Even those that could see us from the flying taxis would probably barely be able to make us out if they spotted us.

Punctual to the letter, a player that I could only assume was Dante walked out onto the roof once it hit 3. The only time I had seen him before this was when Violet and I had fought him, so this was my first time seeing the face underneath the mask of his Diablo NBS. His avatar had ashy gray hair and sharp red eyes. An unbuttoned dark brown coat was worn over a simple shirt and pants. Underneath the left sleeve of his coat, I could just barely make out part of the red gauntlet for his NBS.

Dante turned to face me. "It's been awhile, Accel Brawler." he greeted. "I hope you aren't holding a grudge over our last encounter. Rest assured, it was simply business. I'm no longer contracted to attack you."

"I'm aware." I confirmed. "How much did Elisse explain to you about this meeting?"

"Simply that you wanted to hire me for something, and not to let the rest of her guild know about it." he explained. "She told me you would explain the details. Since you contacted me through her, I assume you already know who hired me for the previous hit."

I nodded my head. "Yeah. And you don't need to worry about pissing off your old clients. I'm not out looking for revenge. Though the job I need you for does involve fighting Sparrow Wing."

"Very well. This wouldn't be my first instance of fighting a previous client." Dante's eyes drifted over towards my sister. "And if I may ask, who is this? Your new partner? Her clothes implies she's rather new to CNO."

Leave it to Dante to have a sharp discerning eye. While I had gotten Tomoe a decent NBS, we hadn't bothered to go shopping for any casual gear. After all, the clothes players wore had absolutely zero impact on the performance of a NBS. They were nothing more than aesthetic design.

Tomoe gave a cheerful smile and waved. "You can call me Ak-"

"Tomoe." I finished, quickly cutting her off from blurting out her real name. I really needed to drive in the lesson of using handles while in-game to her later. "She's related to the job. I'll get straight to the point. I'm planning to enter a team in the upcoming Nexus Royale. I want you on it."

I couldn't blame Dante for the brow of suspicion he raised at the suggestion. Even I had to admit getting a ragtag group of players together for a major tournament like this was far from ideal. And his thoughts on Tomoe told him I wasn't exactly gathering a group of elites, even though I hadn't told him Shingo, a player I'd be shocked if Dante had heard of, would be on the team as well.

"Are you planning to win the Nexus Royale with a thrown together team? Or is there something specific in the tournament you want done besides victory?"

"Ideally, I want to take first place." I told him. "At bare minimum, I need to make sure Sparrow Wing doesn't."

"I see…" Dante once again glanced at Tomoe. "And how long have you been playing CNO?"

"A few hours." Tomoe answered without hesitation. It didn't exactly help in convincing Dante, but lying to him or dodging the question would probably just end up biting me in the ass later so I let it go.

Dante took a few steps closer to Tomoe. Then without warning, he moved in and quickly closed the distance between them. Before I could even say anything, Dante threw a quick punch at Tomoe. Most players probably wouldn't have been able to react in time to avoid it. But Akari - the girl behind Tomoe - hadn't spent over a decade practicing taekwondo for nothing. She didn't even bat an eye as she twisted her body and leaned to the side. She grabbed Dante's wrist, stopping him cold. Dante then followed up with a kick, but Akari managed to block that as well, forcing her free hand against his knee. With one quick motion, Tomoe spun Dante's body around, swept her leg under his to make him lose balance, and pinned him down on the roof.

Even though Dante wasn't using his NBS or a weapon, even I had to admit I was a little surprised Tomoe had managed to stop him so easily. Dante struggled to break free for a few seconds before giving in. "Alright. I've seen enough."

Tomoe smirked as she let Dante go and got up. "You'll need a bit more practice to show me a good time, boy."

Dante got to his feet. "CNO's lack of a level system means a player's personal skill can be a major factor in combat. Clearly you didn't choose her for no reason, Accel Brawler."

"So does this mean we can count on your support?" I asked.

Dante was silent for a few seconds, contemplating something before he finally spoke. "Thirty thousand bits. Ten thousand for competing. Twenty thousand if we win. That's on top of the cut I receive from the top prize."

As with any big name event for a MMO, the grand prize for the Nexus Royale was nothing to sneeze at. Unless things had changed since the last one, the winning team received a total of 100,000 bits, split evenly between all players. If we won, Dante would be receiving quite the payday. I already knew ahead of time that Dante's services weren't going to come cheap. That didn't make the price of hiring him any less painful though for my wallet. But at the end of the day, I was desperate. I needed as many skilled teammates as I could get. Dante was a mercenary with a decent enough reputation that even the info broker Lepus had known about him. That meant he was good at working with strangers, and very skilled at what he did. Without him, my chances at winning the Nexus Royale were even dimmer than they already were.

"Fine." I agreed. "I expect you to give it your all for this."

"Naturally." Dante said. "So who else do you have for this team of yours?"

"Besides the three of us, there's one more player I've recruited. He's good at heavy artillery and taking hits. Natural long-range tank." I explained. "His handle's Shingo, though I doubt you've heard of him."

"In other words, he's nobody special." Dante summarized. His words were harsh, but not untrue. "What's his NBS?"

"Metal Ogre. Guardian class."

"Makes sense, given what you said of his playstyle." Dante brought his hand to his chin as he thought. "I can switch between long range sniping and close range combat." His eyes went to Tomoe. "I assume she's a close range specialist, like you?"

"Correct. She'll be using a Lotus model."

"Interesting choice. Regardless, I suggest recruiting one or two others if we're to have any chance at winning."

"No argument here." I nodded. "If we're going to win with a team put together on the fly, we'll need more than combat skill. We're going to need brainpower to help strategize."

"You sound as if you have someone in mind."

"I do. And we're meeting them next."

Five minutes.

There were a lot of things you could do in that time frame. Make a quick snack to eat. Change into a new set of clothes. Watch a funny video or two online. Play a quick round of solitaire. I could think of a lot of ways to spend that time.

Of those ways, none of them sounded as bad as getting laughed at nonstop by a little girl in a rabbit hoodie.

After negotiations with Dante had gone successfully, the three of us went together to my next appointment. I was a solid player in my own right, and Dante was probably even stronger than me in a fight. Tomoe and Shingo were both going to be helpful additions, but the Nexus Royale was going to be jam packed with several big name guilds. Each of them would have skilled players who had spent countless hours improving their teamwork over time. I was going to need more than me and Dante to carry a team to victory. Violet and I had fought against Zenos back in the event where I had obtained the Ultra Core, so normally I'd try the unlikely chance at getting CNO's number two player on our side. But Zenos was already the guild leader of Asterisk, not to mention being one of the defending champions, and as such would already be entering with his own team. That left a very short list of players I personally knew that could fit the bill.

Lepus was CNO's top info broker. She knew basically everything there was to know about the game. And while she wasn't someone who often went into the fields, rumor had it she was no slouch in battle either. She was exactly who I needed to increase our chances at taking down Sparrow Wing and winning the Nexus Royale.

But after explaining my offer to her, Lepus's reaction had been to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Five minutes now she had been sitting in her chair across the desk in her office laughing as if she was listening to the world's greatest comedian.

By this point, I was getting understandably irritated. "You know there's a thing called being too over the top."

"Hahahahaha, g-go on! Tell it to me again!" Lepus said, barely holding back her laughter. "You want me to join some random thrown together team for the Nexus Royale, and help you win?! That's the funniest joke I've ever heard!"

"Except I'm not joking."

"In that case, you're an idiot." she told me plainly. "The Nexus Royale is one of the biggest events in CNO, second only to the Cyber Clash. All the top guilds are going to be competing in it. And you want to win with yourself, me, a mercenary player, some no name rando, and a complete newbie."

"I know it's not exactly the best lineup-"

"It's impossible." Lepus said. "If two of your players were actually well known instead of being no names, then maybe I could see a chance. But right now, the only players with a reputation worth a damn you have are you and mercenary boy over there. And even then, most of your reputation only comes from being the only player with an Ultra Core currently."

"Even so, I don't have a choice." I told her. "I have my reasons for needing to win this."

"Trying to win back your ex, stalker?"

"That's not…" I let out a sigh. "Okay yes, technically it involves Violet. But I can't go into the details."

"Well frankly I don't care what your reasons are. Cause it doesn't change the fact that this whole thing is one heaping pile of 'not my problem'. What reason do I have to help you?"

"I'm willing to pay you."

"Money isn't the issue. It's how doable this whole thing is." Lepus turned to Dante. "Be honest with me, mercenary. What would you rate your chances of winning at?"

Dante pondered it for a brief moment before answering. "If you were to join, probably 20%."

"There you have it. Even your own teammate doubts you can win this."

This wasn't working. I needed a new angle to sell her. "Think of it this way. You run a business here in CNO, right? Imagine if you were to help a dark horse team win this. Your reputation would skyrocket to heights unheard of. You'd have so much business, you'd have to swat them away."

"Big rewards come with big risks. If I enter with your team and we get taken out early, people might question my skills."

"Would CNO's smartest player really get taken out that easily?"

Lepus's lips curved just ever so slightly upwards at that. "You certainly know how to sweet talk a girl, I'll give you that much."

"Does that mean you'll do it?" Tomoe asked.

"It means I'm considering it." Lepus corrected her. "Tae here isn't wrong that winning the Nexus Royale would make for good free advertisement. But it's going to be extremely difficult. And extremely difficult warrants an equally extremely high price tag."

I already knew I wasn't going to like the answer, but I asked anyway. "How much is it going to take?"

"... One hundred thousand."

All three of us widened our eyes in disbelief. "WHAT?!"

"Did I stutter? One hundred thousand bits." she said. "I'll even be generous and let you deduct my cut from the grand prize from that."

"That's still 80,000 bits!"

"That's my price. If I do this, I'm going to be dedicating my precious time to investigating the other teams, not to mention coming up with a viable strategy for the event itself. That takes time away from my info broker business, which means I lose money. I'm going to need enough bits to make up for that loss, on top of my fee for my services. That comes out to 100,000 bits."

Eighty thousand bits. I could buy a whole new set of equipment with that kind of cash. Frankly, it was an absurd price to ask for. Lepus knew that we were desperate and she was taking full advantage of that. Normally, I wouldn't even be able to afford such a thing on top of everything else I was going to be shoving out bits for. But if we won, I'd also have my own twenty thousand from the grand prize to contribute towards that. And since Tomoe's whole reason for being here was to help me win the tournament, she wouldn't have any use for her cut either. That lowered the cost to forty thousand, which was a bit more doable. If I was lucky, maybe I could also convince Shingo to contribute his winnings as well.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for bankruptcy. "Fine. One hundred thousand it is."

Lepus showed just the tiniest hint of surprise. Had she been expecting me to refuse and walk away? "I hope that girl is worth all this for your sake, stalker."

She was. Lepus's stalker comments aside, I couldn't abandon Violet now that I knew everything going on behind the scenes. Gale was using Violet's past to blackmail her. CNO was a game first and foremost. Something meant to be enjoyed. This wasn't the death game SAO was. I wasn't about to let Gale get away with bringing real world issues here. Especially when it involved Violet.

The closest player I had to a friend after Violet, Shingo. My older sister and taekwondo expert, Tomoe. The mercenary who had held his own against both Violet and myself, Dante. And finally CNO's top info broker, Lepus. Finally I had some semblance of a team formed, even if it was a bit shoddy.

Now I just had to pray it was going to be enough to take Sparrow Wing down.

A/N: And with that, Tae's team has been made. The Nexus Royale is nearing closer. Hope you are looking forward to seeing all of these characters in action. See you all when the next chapter rolls around.