The day of my 14th birthday finally came. My friends and I skipped school to buy our first Full Dive VR device. As strange as it may sound, they didn't cost much more than a regular phone — mainly because they had become essential to everyday life thanks to technological advancements.
After many hours of waiting — there were always lines wherever these devices were sold — we were finally able to go home and install WordCasting. Once my copy was installed, I put the device on my head and entered the game world.
That world was vastly different from ours. It felt like the world had stopped at the Middle Ages: castles, old buildings, and untouched nature were everywhere. But there was a constant presence of technology, thanks to system windows hovering above everything. Animals had tags showing their names, health points, and other stats. Structures displayed ownership information and the materials they were made of.
As soon as I entered, a system window appeared in front of me:
[Welcome, Player. Please enter the name you will be known by in WordCasting]
I chose the name from my past life: "Nero."Oddly, I wasn't asked to create an avatar — but honestly, I didn't care much about that.
I arrived in the tutorial zone, and shortly after, my friends Marie and Kaiser appeared too.Marie had a satisfied expression on her face. Kaiser looked devastated — he had just said goodbye to his dream of creating a female avatar. Apparently, the Full Dive device somehow scanned our real-world appearance and applied it in-game.
Those two were already bickering, as usual.
Kaiser: "Marie, you're only laughing because you know that, as a girl, I'd be at least 200 times cuter than you!"
That was a lie. Marie was very beautiful and had a surprisingly mature body for her age. She had long black hair with thick bangs that almost covered her eyes, and her eyes were bright red. She always insisted that it was their natural color and that she didn't wear colored lenses — which, of course, was a lie. No one believed her, but I didn't care much. After all, everyone goes through that phase in early adolescence.
Marie: "Sure, keep telling yourself that. How much longer are you planning to keep up this embarrassing femboy act?"
"Fem"—what now?I really couldn't keep up with what they were talking about. But that was normal. Mentally, I was at least twenty years older than them, so the bond they shared was naturally stronger than what either of them had with me. That hurt more than I wanted to admit, but it was understandable.
The tutorial itself was pretty simple. It explained the "WordSystem" of the game.There were three categories of words:
Attack words, which were various formulas used to damage enemies
Defense words, for creating barriers and shields
Healing words, which were used to restore allies' health
It may sound limited, but there were thousands of formulas.Each formula had a Mastery Level. The higher the mastery, the more efficient the formula — it also sped up the casting time.Apparently, at higher levels of mastery, you didn't even need to say the full phrase. Some high-level users could activate a spell by speaking only half the incantation.No one had ever reached full mastery of any formula, but rumors said that once you did, all you had to do was think the spell, and it would activate.
After finishing the tutorial, players were divided into three classes: Sword, Shield, and Staff.We didn't get to choose — it was assigned by touching a magical crystal or something like that.There were a few people in line with me and my friends. Marie and Kaiser went before me.As expected, Marie got the Sword class, and Kaiser got the Staff class.Then it was my turn.
I stepped up to the crystal and touched it."Please, let it be something decent," was all I could think.I'd been waiting for this moment for 14 years.
The crystal spoke:"SWORD AND SHIELD"
Everyone in the room turned to look at me — even my friends.
Marie: "Jh—I MEAN, NERO, HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!"
John was my real name in this life, though I'd never liked it much.Kaiser didn't say anything. He just stood there staring at me.
"I don't know, guys... I don't know what's happening," I answered.
I opened my character window to read my skills and other information.
[Name]: Nero[Class]: Sword/Shield[Level]: 1[Skill List]: [???] Lv.1
It looked like I had really received two classes.But the strangest part was the entry in the skill list.It was supposed to be empty — and yet, something was there.An unnamed skill? How was that even possible?
Eventually, people lost interest in me.As I asked around, I learned that getting two classes was rare, but not unheard of.Still, it was more of a burden than a blessing.Managing one class was already difficult — let alone two.
I decided to log out, and my friends did the same.We regrouped in my room to talk about what to do next.Somehow, despite just being three players, we had a complete team.
Marie and I had both expected to get the Sword class — and in a way, we did.But this change made us genuinely happy.Now that we had all three roles covered, we could compete in the game's ranked team battles.There was just one problem: PvP teams ranged from three to six players.That meant we'd be one of the smallest teams in the competition.