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Chapter 1: Character Setup

『Welcome to KSO!』

It was a white space with nothing except those capital letters and my real-life figure. If I looked around closely, this place is probably the character making room.

Then, I heard a voice from behind.

Nico: 「Welcome Ichijou Reina-sama, I, Support AI No. 25, will assist your character setup. Please feel free to call me Nico-chan」

Seems like this beautiful woman (Nico-chan), who looks like a secretary with a Noh Mask, can help me with my character setup.

Reina: 「I understand, Nico-chan-san

Nico: 「Let’s immediately go into your character setup. Here you may select 10 initial skills in addition to your player name and appearance in the game. Naturally, you cannot change it later, so please be careful with your options.」

Reina: 「Okay then, let’s make it right away」

Now then, as soon as our conversation is over, a translucent screen appeared in front of me. I see, I could make my character by operating this screen.

Let’s see, the name will be… 『Rena』 which comes from my real name. It seems a bit simple, but I’m aware that I don’t have any naming sense as I have ventured nowhere.

Next is race. There are many options, but 『Human』 is the safe choice indeed. As it will probably be too hard for the appearance to be far apart from the reality, I set the height and figure as it is. Let’s keep the hair short so that it won’t stick to the shoulder and make it black with an addition of white highlight too. As I also don’t have a sense for a face, I just kept it like my real face rather than fiddling it strangely. It would probably be okay as there are no real acquaintances who plays games anyway. Would it be enough if I change the eyes’ color into wine red….

The rest is the skills……yikes, there are a lot. My play style is mostly fixed, but it will still take some time if I search for a suitable skills and think about the combination, hmmーーー

ーーーAlright, it took a while but it ended safely.

Reina: 「It’s finished」

Nico: 「Would this be good? Are there any other changes?」

Reina: 「Yes, this should be fine. Please make it like this」

The skills I have chosen are 『Dagger Art』, 『Throwing』, 『Walking』, 『Acrobatics』, 『Medicine』, 『Surprise Attack』, 『Tame』, 『Camouflage』, 『Detection』, and 『Friendship』.

Nico: 「Well then, lastly, please select your preferences」

Reina: 「? Preferences?」

Is there still something left? Or maybe I just forgot about it?

Nico: 「It’s not that difficult, first of all, your sexual guard… it’s about how far would you give your permission to be touched by the people in rangeーー」

Reina: 「Please block everything」

Nico: 「---Understood. Next is the depiction regulation setting, this is the setting whether you would prefer a game-like effect or a real-life basis when cutting your opponents down.」

Reina: 「Then, please give me the real-life basis」

Nico: 「Lastly, about the pain limitation. It’s still fine if there is a little pain however, as it is close to real pain, the system will do a force logout or make a response if it is judged to be your limit, hence there won’t be a worry. So what would youーー」

Reina: 「Please don’t limit that too」

Nico: 「……Understood. Please take care of yourself as it might be an instant death even in reality if someone aimed for your vital parts such as the neck or heart. This is the end of the preferences. Please wait a moment as we are preparing your character data.」

Now then, it took quite a while but I’m looking forward to it.

Nico: 「……Thank you for your patience. With this, the entire process has now completed. Before you get started, there’s one last piece of advice」

Reina: 「? What is it?」

Nico: 「In this world, player can gain skills and influence the world depending on the player’s own actions. Unlike players, NPCs that live in this world can not be resurrected if they die, so please be careful in advance……」

Reina: 「I see, I will take care.」

Nico: 「……Well then, I pray that your adventure would be exciting… Welcome to Karma Story Online!」

With that word, Nico-san lowered her head, and I was swallowed by the white light that filled my viewーーー

Comments 5

  1. Offline
    + 00 -
    Reading this chapter’s like chugging an entire bottle of NyQuil—you flatline for a second, and suddenly you wake up thinking you’re the next sci-fi messiah. It’s got the energy of someone who binged Sword Art Online and a full Demon’s Souls stream, skimmed one undergrad philosophy lecture while half-asleep, and said, “Yo, I can write The Matrix—but, like, anime-girl coded and tragically edgy,” before uploading it on the internet raw—no editing, no rewrites, just pure first-thought-best-thought chaos.

    The “Welcome to KOS!” intro could’ve been a hype, but it lands with the same excitement as booting up a cursed Wii game. It feels like I’m about to get a malware pop-up that screams in Japanese. I could replace this with “Welcome to Evil OC Generator 3000” and literally nothing would change.

    Every VRMMO cliché gets tossed in like the author’s trying to complete a speedrun—floating white space text? Check. Awkward exposition dumps? Double check. A protagonist just standing around like she forgot why she logged in? Triple check. You’d get more tension from a lag spike in Roblox.

    Then there’s Nico-chan, the AI assistant with the Noh mask, which should’ve been cool—spooky vibe, a little unsettling. But there’s no actual purpose behind the design. It’s just a random aesthetic slapped on for clout. No thematic tie-in, no world relevance, no subtext. It’s like the author saw a spooky Japanese mask on Pinterest, said “vibes,” and rolled with it. At this point, she may as well be Hatsune Miku doing a Fatal Frame cosplay for all the meaning it has.

    Then Reina gets to character creation, and the best username she could come up with? Rena. That’s not minimalist, that’s lazy. That’s naming your cat “Cat” and calling it a day. She picks the Human race, keeps her real look, basically hits “default everything” like she’s speedrunning the menu before her Hot Pocket finishes in the microwave.

    This is supposed to be the same evil psycho genius who pulled war crimes in elementary, and she picks the blandest options imaginable like she’s scared of the customization menu. It’s giving “middle-aged dad tries VR for the first time.” Where’s the flair? The self-obsession? The villain swagger we were all teased with? She just skips all the cool parts like she’s late for a dentist apartment. If this was supposed to sell me on her intelligence or depth, it missed harder than a stormtrooper on vertigo.

    The skill selection is comedy gold in the worst way. Peak dollar store rogue build. Camouflage, Dagger Art, Detection, Surprise Attack, Throwing—congrats, you’ve officially created a raccoon with a Steam account. This the kind of loadout you pick when your entire understanding of RPG comes from watching someone else play Skyrim while you sit on your phone.

    Then out of nowhere—Friendship. Just chilling there like a party clown at a Viking funeral. What even is that supposed to be? A cry for help? Maybe that’s just irony. Or... it could be a subtle nod to My Little Pony, or a secret Care Bears crossover! In any case, we have no f#cking clue. Reina just drops it in like it’s totally normal.

    And then we take a sudden hard left into weirdly personal territory. Sexual guard? Realistic gore settings? Pain limiters? Why did this suddenly feel like a fetish survey? Is this a character setup or a very specific Google search history? This is just a few clicks away from turning into a Black Mirror episode nobody wanted. Did the game devs take a detour into their kink files and decide, “Yeah, this belongs in the lore”?
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    1. Offline
      + 00 -
      HAHAHAHA! I love it! This comment somehow seems longer than the chapter itself! I've come back to reread this story after dropping it around chapter 20 awhile back, I hope I continue to see your masterfully written essays in the comments 6
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  2. Offline
    + 00 -
    ok, WHY THE FRIENDSHIP SKILL????????????????????
    it doesn't fit her personality at all.
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  3. Offline
    + 10 -
    let the games begin, and may luck always be in your favor
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  4. Offline
    + 90 -
    Unlike players, NPCs that live in this world can not be resurrected if they die

    *Look at the title* Yeah... Wonder if there will still have NPC alive at the end of the story.
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