The capsule was delivered to Ning's hotel room through a robot and was easily set up once the power cord was attached to the socket.
The capsule, which was made up of entirely metal and glass on the outside had a padded inside that looked very comfortable to sleep in.
Ning was about to step inside when Saphandra spoke.
"Wait, don't go in just yet. What about me?" she asked.
"I was just going to check," Ning said. "Right, system what should we do for her? I don't suppose a capsule like this could be used for spirits, right?"
<The System can create a simulation of the capsule inside a separate Spirit space so that she can play whenever she wants to.>
"Great, do it," Ning said.
<Understood>
A different Spirit space appeared that did not have time-stop capabilities, but Saphandra could join the game through there.
Saphandra quickly entered the space and came back out half a second later. "Should I choose Soaring Star Online, or do you plan on playing any other game?" she asked.
"Soaring Star Online? Is that the game's name?" Ning asked.
"Yes, it has around 500,000 players playing right now," she said.
"What's the second one?" Ning asked.
"Uh, something called Heaven's Conquest, but it only had about 2000 people playing," Saphandra answered.
"Oh yeah, we're definitely playing the one with more players then," Ning said. He got into the capsule and at the same time, Saphandra got into her spirit space.
Slowly, Ning felt the air cool down as his body froze. However, his consciousness was already separating from him as he was pulled into a different world.
A world that was completely dark.
Then, a female voice spoke.
<Welcome to Soaring Star Online.>
Light burst out from in front of Ning as the world expanded wide open and some things appeared in front of him.
"This feels so real," Ning said. "Is this real?"
<It is real in the sense that it is happening. But no, no such physical location is present in this universe>
Somehow, even in a game, his system was speaking.
"I see," he said. "Right, don't bother me too much unless there are emergencies. And you won't have to help me or tell me informations. I want to enjoy the game just as I can."
<Understood.>
Ning looked around and saw a small platform up front. He slowly walked up and something popped up.
"Oh, is this character design?" he thought.
[Please make the character you want to play as.]
"Hmm... let's see. I like red hair. Short hair obviously. Tall body... but not so tall. Let's see, blue eyes. What else?" Ning continued to edit his body as best as he could.
He ended up looking like himself to a certain extent, but with red hair, blue eyes, and more well defined muscle.
Once he was done, a blue panel hovered in front of him, not unlike the pseudo-system that Genesis had implemented, and it showed 3 different wings on it.
[Please choose one of the Wings below. It will determine which faction you play from.]
"Factions?" Ning wondered what that was.
The left most one were wings that belonged to a bird, and he could see the feathers even through the silhouette. "Birds are a faction? Why?" Ning wondered. What sort of game was this?
The middle wing was one that belonged to a butterfly. Ning definitely didn't want this one. It just... didn't look good. Besides, what if he ended up as a bug person for some reason?
The last one look surprisingly familiar to Ning. "Wait, aren't those the same wings Derel had?" he thought. Dragon wings. "Dragons are a faction too huh?" he thought.
There was no more thinking he needed to do here. Since Dragons were obviously the best out there, he clicked on that silhouette and pressed 'Accept'.
However, even as he did, some words had appeared below the Dragon wings silhouette that immediately caused Ning to frown.
"Fuck! I shouldn't have been so hasty."
Light enveloped him slowly as he started disappearing from this world, but the frown in his face slowly changed to a smile.
"Whatever, I would have still chosen that anyway." Then, he disappeared and appeared somewhere else.
* * * * * *
Saphandra stood in front of her own character, a small girl with a beautiful face, long blue hair, and purple eyes. She pressed accept, and the character disappeared.
She looked at her own body and realized that she had changed. She pulled hair and saw that it was blue too.
'It's already changed huh?' she thought.
Then, the panel appeared for her as well to choose the wings from.
Saphandra looked at the different wings and nodded to herself. "I see, so that's how they get the wings huh?" she thought.
Every night for the last week after Ning went to sleep, she would sit around watching TV. During that time, she had come to learn about the game and that was how she was able to tell Ning as well.
"The feathered wings are for the Angels faction, the butterfly wings are for the neutral faction, and the bat wings are for the Demon faction," she said to herself.
"Hmm, if I want to have fun, then I definitely can't join the neutral faction. But, between Angels and Demons... god, I hate demons."
Without hesitation, Saphandra chose the Angels faction and disappeared from the world of white to a normal world that looked no different from Nulwurn.
'Hmm, not much modernness here, huh?' she thought and looked around.
People all around her either had no wings, or had the Angelic wings. She didn't see anyone with Neutral wings or Demonic wings at all.
As she looked around, her attention was pulled back by a panel that appeared in front of her.
[Quest: Complete the Tutorial (Part 1)
Tutorial: Locate the training hall and ask to be trained.
Quest Reward: Complete the Tutorial (Part 2)]
"Training hall? Where's that?" she thought. She started walking as she now needed to find this location.
