《Snowdrop's Dreams》 Chapter 1: Happy Birthday The silver blade appears in my hand. It¡¯s a thick kitchen knife, the one with the sharpest edge. There¡¯s nothing surrounding me, all I can see is the pitch black background and my arms in front of me. I raise my right hand, carrying the blade, and cut horizontally into my left wrist. Blood slowly begins to trickle down and I continue moving the knife down my arm in a spiraling fashion until I reach my elbow. The blood beautifully covers my pale white skin, as I hold it up to get a closer look. Then, I laugh at myself for holding such thoughts and push it out of my mind, focusing on what¡¯s in front of me, I smile. ¡°Elle, did you hear what I just said?¡± I look up at my loving mother who¡¯s driving the car to my favorite place to eat, an out-of-the-way sports bar with an authentic Italian menu, for my twenty first birthday. Her frizzy, thick hair is perpetually in various stages of being bleached blond and although her face is wrinkled from all the tanning she does, it doesn¡¯t betray her true age of 57. Never acting her age, she retains a bright, youthful spirit that is contagious to anyone around her¡ªeven me. She often makes me wonder who¡¯s the parent and who¡¯s the child in this relationship, but I don¡¯t mind. In fact, I very much love my mother and often find her childish demeanor to be rather cute¡ªas long as she continues to listen to reason. She¡¯s manic depressive, after all. ¡°No, I didn¡¯t. What¡¯d you say?¡± I ask from the backseat. ¡°I said, your first drink has to be a Jaeger Bomb!¡± My mom¡¯s current favorite actor-singer Gun-Chan has a song where he asks for a Jaeger Bomb. Ever since she saw him drink it in a video, she¡¯s been obsessed with that drink. Many eye rolls have ensued since I introduced her to him¡­ However, despite the many years that have gone by, I will admit he still holds a special place in my heart too. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Hahaha. Alright! But, if I don¡¯t like it, you have to drink the rest!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll love it!¡± She smiles back. My father, sitting in the car seat in front of me, starts to chuckle a bit as well. On top of my father¡¯s head he has naturally blond, gradually whitening and balding, thin hair. Because my father¡¯s face, neck, and head are always varying shades of red, the bald spot located in the center of his head really looks like a painted target. Like my mother, he also doesn¡¯t look his age of 54. Sometimes, he tells me, people mistake him for being in his thirties! I don¡¯t believe him though, since he¡¯s always playing tricks on me. He believes I¡¯m really gullible, but I just like to act like I am. I really love my father and his ¡°dad jokes¡± as he likes to call them. ¡°You can drink all you want, but you better not drink enough to throw-up.¡± My father teasingly scolds. ¡°Ehh~ I thought that was the whole point! You¡¯re supposed to drink that much so you never do it again, right?¡± I ask. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re already old enough to be drinking¡­¡± I rub my dad¡¯s head and reply, ¡°Neither can I.¡± Normally, I suppose a twenty-one year old girl would celebrate by going out to a club with their friends or something. However, I no longer have any friends, so it¡¯s just me and my loving parents that can¡¯t get rid of me. Despite me being a waste of space that can only eat, sleep, and breathe they¡¯re still diligently taking care of me. They even bought me a cake and presents like they have every year before. I could almost cry, but my guilt won¡¯t allow me to and I¡¯m about to partake in some delicious food. Chapter 2: Unexpected Gift When I was 2 years old, the very first fully immersive virtual reality device was invented by Ayumu Suzuki, a 25 year old Japanese American man. His dream was to one day let it be available to the general public. A decade later he was finally able to make the device cheap enough an average citizen could afford to buy one. Now, there are all sorts of different types and versions it''s completely overtaken all other gaming platforms with every major gaming company trying to come out with the next best thing. Two years ago, Ayumu came out with the first Virtual Reality Visor (VRV, commonly pronounced verve). The VRV sends and receives neural transmissions. I don''t really understand all the inner workings, but with it, he d¨¦buted the most popular MMORPG of all time, designed by Ayumu himself, "Dreamland." Of course, VRV 2.0 already came out this year, but it''s ridiculously pricey so my parents surprised me by buying the first version. Unlike most years, where I ask and then receive, I didn''t ask for anything and only mentioned in passing that playing the Virtual Reality game Dreamland would probably be fun to do someday since so many people love it all across the world. Honestly, I''m not much of a gamer. I don''t have the hand-eye coordination that''s required to be any good, so I generally quit after getting frustrated. However, Virtual Reality is different. I can become a brilliant player in that realm because my problem isn''t my brain, it''s my body. That''s why, I''m really excited to be playing Dreamland and have just finished setting up the gear right now. I take off my black horn-rimmed glasses, setting them down on my nightstand, then proceed to lay down in my bed. After getting as comfortable as possible with an achy body like mine, I slide on the VRV. As the VRV lights up, a status screen appears in my mind.
Scanning for user information¡­
Unregistered User detected. Would you like to create a new account?
"Yes." A bright light spread all around as the VRV scanned my body from top to bottom with its lasers. The process for registering as a new user included a full facial and body scan to keep your initial character as close to reality as possible. Too much modification can lead to dissociation amongst other mental problems and was strongly advised against. However, modification was allowed because most people don''t want to look like themselves in a game. Soon after the light faded, a rotating 3d image was displayed in front of me. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Is this you?
Looking at the image in front of me made me instantly frown. It had been years since I had really looked at myself in the mirror. I can''t believe what my body has become¡­ I''m a relatively short girl at only five feet one inch and three quarters tall. At 180 pounds I know I''m morbidly obese, yet I still believe myself to be well proportioned. I have rather thick thighs which I hate because they rub together uncomfortably when I walk unless I wear long shorts. My butt looks rather meaty, but for some reason it will attack like a bony butt when I sit on others¡­ Actually, I''m sure quite a bit of my weight goes into my breasts, which I''m proud of at a D almost DD cup. Still, it bothers me that when I''m not sucking in my stomach, it sticks out further than my breasts¡­ I have beautiful tiny feet and hands that could easily be mistaken for a child''s. This is probably due to the fact that around the age of 12 I stopped growing up and out and just grew out. Similarly, my face is also childish and innocent-looking with constantly rosy cheeks caused by a skin condition that I inherited from my father. I like my face, it''s cute and doesn''t even require make-up. In fact, I find it hard to find women I believe to have a prettier face than mine, but I still dislike the chubbiness of it. I wish I was skinnier so my face could have a more mature feel to match my age. I mean, looking at the size of my "double chin" I can''t help but think "Wahh~ I really let myself go¡­" However, amongst all my flaws, there is one feature I love the most--my eyes. It''s hard to find light blue eyes as big and beautiful as mine. Regardless, I want to deny the truth that the body I''m looking at is mine, but instead I mutter out a dejected, "Yes." I then proceeded to fill out all my personal information. The final step is sealing it with an eye scan, which prompted a loading screen. How do eye scans work anyways? Is this really an effective system? My eyes change on a daily basis. Some days I have up to twenty floaters, other days I have none, and most days my pupils are super enlarged from my papilledema, hiding my irises. Even if I can understand how my eye''s redness level doesn''t matter, shouldn''t those other things affect the scan''s results? Well, what do I know? I''m no genius. I guess this is just another question that shall forever remain unans- Cutting off my train of thought, the loading screen finished loading.