Valerie crossed her fingers, watching the screen hovering in front of her with baited breath. She stared at the screen, counting every single second that passed while she waited for the result, but her count must have been off. It was definitely taking much longer than before, but was that good? Or did it mean that it was somehow even worse than 30%?
It might have only been a beta test, but she still had a natural urge to craft herself the best character possible. It would be dreadful if she spent all this time in the beta just to scrap her character and have to restart, or simply not come back to the game at all because of it.
When the screen finally changed, letting out a soft ping as it showed her results, Valerie reflexively clenched her eyes closed and turned her head away. She calmed herself, ever so slightly she peeled open one eye to peek at the results, before opening them both fully to stare at it.
Blood Purity Detected!
Blood Purity - 91%]
91! Hell yeah 91 percent! Pumping her fists, Valerie's flaming body did flips in the air as she wriggled and spun in celebration, unable to hold in her excitement. The Super rare options required 90%, and she had just barely squeaked past that. So of course she was excited! Some of the options were even one of a kind, meaning until the devs updated the game and added more, these sub-races would be completely owned by those lucky players.
Naturally, with her results feeling like a destined jackpot, she would be stupid to do anything but select one of the Super rare options. Even if she decided to give up the game, she could at least sell the rare race for some extra dough, which any whale would pay giga-bucks for. But such a decision would come after the Beta Test, naturally.
Now, all that was left was to complete the character creation process and finally play the game she was here to test.
***
'Phew, Finally finished.'
She had only spent ten minutes in character creation, perfecting her new look. That was probably a new record for her. Usually she took at least an hour, usually perfecting the nose or other features, even if it was a first person game.
Ultimately, she had decided to take one of the one of a kind options and had designed her character based on the description she had been given.
The fact this race would let her live out certain fantasies was definitely not her main reason for picking it. It was absolutely for the rarity and all the meta reasons. Yes sir.
Standing before her was no longer a perfect clone of herself. Instead it was a woman with deathly pale skin, as if she had all the blood drained from her body. Short, wavy locks of the inky, silken black hair framed a truly gorgeous face, with plump lips and an adorable button nose she couldn't help but spend some time crafting.
The iris of her eyes were a piercing crimson that seemed to have an almost eerie glow, which was made even more clear by her unnaturally black sclera. Strange eyes like that was always something she enjoyed doing with all of her character creations.
If this wasn't enough to scream danger, then her mouth full of jagged, razor sharp teeth that gave her a sharp toothed smile was more than enough.
Although it was not a perfect clone, it didn't look completely different. The fact still had the hints of its original in there, merely brought to a more 'perfect' version. She was slightly taller, with a slightly more toned body and a little extra size in the chest. Her ideal version of herself.
There was just one thing that was left…
[Please enter your name.]
Valerie tapped her chin, contemplating the final hurdle as she stared at her new body's wonderful appearance, trying to stop herself from spending another 10 minutes recreating the fact to get it even more perfect.
After a few seconds of thought, a smirk spread across her lips as the new name typed itself into the box, before she confirmed her selection.
[Name: Belladonna Walachia
Race: Fell-spawn
Sub-race: Sanguine Maiden
Confirm avatar?]
[Confirmed.]
Valerie's vision swirled, her body shifting in the air without her control as she found herself drifting towards her cloned body. Just before they impacted, Valerie closed her eyes and shielded her face with her arms… before Belladonna opened her eyes a few seconds later.
She was surrounded by crimson, bathing in a pool of blood as her body steadily floated to the surface. When her head broke the surface, she reflexively took a deep, gasping breath as fresh air flooded her lungs for the first time.
Her body continued to rise, like it was being pulled up by unseen strings, until she stood atop the surface of the pool of blood as if it was completely solid. The crimson liquid rippled softly beneath her bare feet as the scent of iron invaded her nostrils.
Belladonna glanced down at her legs nervously, wriggling her toes before taking a few cautious steps forwards, testing the surface she was standing on before taking unsteady steps towards the lakes edge.
Across the lake, which she only realised now from the surface was in fact only a small pool a few metres across, others were struggling with their first steps too as they tentatively made their way to the solid ground a metre or so away.
Walking was, surprisingly, not a difficult feat. It was a reflexive and deeply ingrained ability that one had trouble forgetting, and was much easier when your own body wasn't fighting against you. It had only been a few years since she completely lost the use of her legs, as she had been relying mainly on crutches before that.
Not to mention immersive VR games like this weren't exactly new, she had walked in many of them before, but none to this level of detail.
She could feel the weight of every step, feel her muscles tense and relax as she shifted her weight and feel the way the liquid yet solid surface beneath her shifted to support that weight. The intense smell of the blood beneath her filled her lungs, as every breath brought with it a fresh dose of the powerful smell. A smell that was most delicious and was making her mouth water for some reason.
She could even feel heart beating in her chest, which was the most odd sensation of all as it did not follow a regular human rhythm. Instead it beat but once in a minute, a powerful pulse that felt biologically impossible and yet felt just… right.
Finally reaching the pool's edge, Belladonna stumbled onto solid ground and relished in the feeling of the cold stone against the soles of her feet. Yes, she had walked in many games, but none of them felt like this. For the others, it had always felt like a simulation, no matter how immersive.
But here? This felt like she had grown a new set of legs, or had simply regressed to when her muscles weren't eating themselves alive. It almost brought a tear to her eye, but she composed herself and focused on the task at hand.
Beta Testing. Beta Testing… What is it a Beta Tester does exactly… Her brother had done it enough in his old career, but he never really talked about the details of it. Or… maybe he did and she simply toned him out and forgot about it. That was pretty likely, especially if she was playing her own games at the time.
Damn him and his poor timing for telling her such things! Clearly it was his fault and no one else's.
She glanced towards the other testers in the room, but they offered no help at all. They all had such serious looks on their faces as they analysed their status screens - which she could see floating in front of them but the details were encrypted. Those not concerned with the screen simply bolted out of the room as fast as they could through the only exit, which had a projection of that same bal- uh… incredibly handsome wizard standing next to it.
Letting out a sigh, Belladonna looked over her own body. She was no longer naked, thank god, and instead was clothed in basic ragged brown clothing that hung loosely off her body and seemed like it had been made out of a potato sack, and which used a hempen rope as a makeshift belt.
The only other equipment she had as part of her noob gear was a leather bound journal and a basic dagger that looked like it was carved out of bone and which had a strip of leather wrapped around the blunt end to act as a handle. Both of these were found within a simple bag that was styled like a purse, with a strap that went across her chest, and was made seemingly of the same material as her clothes.
The dagger she understood, basic noob weapon, but the journal gave her slight pause. When she flipped through it, all of its pages were completely blank. If she willed it, words would write themselves onto those pages, as well as erase themselves.
It took her a few seconds to realise she actually had been told about this, it had simply been part of the intro she had been not paying much attention to.
Her foggy memory of the intro vaguely reminded her that she was supposed to record her experience with the game, assumedly in this journal. Probably so the devs could fully analyse her Beta Testing activities.
They had also mentioned something about 'royalties' but that was when her memory completely failed her.
Oh well, probably wasn't that important anyways.
She glanced at the wizard, considering asking him for help on what to do, before looking down at the dagger she had been given. The systems like smell, touch and other feelings were incredibly advanced. But what had been most startling was pain.
It had been perfectly simulated, to an eerie degree. So, Belladonna wondered, what were the limits of that system?
She was a Beta Tester, right? So it only made sense to Beta Test that system.
A smile spread across her lips and she nodded to herself, confident that she found the right answer to what she was expected to do, as she spun the bone dagger in her hand. With one swift movement, she plunged it into her own chest, piercing it through her own weakly beating heart.
The smile never left her face, even when she collapsed to the ground dead.