Isekai Space Adventure

There are certain moments that are etched into a man’s memory for the rest of his life, his first time falling in love, his first time making love to a woman, his second time making love to a woman…None of those things had happened to me.

But as I stood outside my apartment complex embracing the overly perspiring delivery guy in an awkwardly long embrace, I knew this memory would be a significant one. In my hands I finally held the ultimate escape from the confines of my terrestrially bound virgin life. No more grueling part time jobs, no more disappointing love life, no more judgmental comments from my family.

For I held in my hands, Infinite Space Frontier Online II. The ultimate Space adventure VR RPG, rumored to be a thousand times more realistic and expansive than the original Infinite Space Frontier Online. Eight years. I’d waited eight long years for this game. The original release had been praised as the greatest Space Adventure ever released in any medium, I’d poured tens of thousands of hours of my high school life into the original game, even skipping out on going to college to give myself more time to play.

With the Delivery man having sprinted away strangely fast, I myself rushed back into my apartment which I’d invested my meager savings in transforming it into a shrine to the original game. Plastic Model starships lined the shelves above my gaming system. A replica Frontier Model 3 Magnetic Pistol sat on my desk next to a half empty cup of lukewarm ramen. Above my bed hung a poster of the blue skinned, white haired Vixen from the cover of the original game stretched across the hood of a starfighter in her silver bikini from when she was captured and made a Pirate slave. A superb optional plot line from the first game. The original release lacked any sexual mechanics but this time I’ll be able to bend her blue ass over the hood of my fighter and go to town on her.

I recklessly tore the package open, I had ordered a second copy to keep sealed for display anyway so there was no reason to be careful. The developers claimed Infinite Frontier II was going to change gaming forever. A galaxy containing billions of procedurally generated inhabitants, Fully simulated economies, evolving storylines, entire Alien civilizations with tens of thousands of years of history and most important of all-the sex was supposed to feel the most realistic of any ever programmed.

I hurriedly inserted the cartridge into my VR headset and clumsily put it on my head. Even though the installation would take several hours, I wanted to dive right in the very second it was ready.

To my surprise everything went black the moment I put the headset on. This wasn’t right. There was no start up screen, no download queue menu, no safety warning reminding me not to remove the headset during the link phase. Just an eerie darkness. Then things just got stranger, I couldn’t feel the floor anymore. I was suddenly no longer standing in my bedroom, I wasn’t standing anywhere at all, I was floating. I could feel myself drifting in an endless dark void where I could no longer tell up from down.

“Am I supposed to start out just floating in space? It’s a space adventure but shouldn’t there be stars, or a planet or hell some sort of light source anywhere.” I wondered. “Shit I really hope this old headset didn’t just fry my brain.

Out of the darkness a glowing rectangular box materialized directly in front of me:

INFINITE FRONTIER ONLINE II

WELCOME PLAYER

“All right.” My brains not fried, I felt a moment of relief. “Let’s do this.” Then a messaged I didn’t understand briefly appeared

ISEKAI PROTOCOL COMPLETE

I clicked a second small box that appeared beneath it- ENTER THE FRONTIER.

At the push of the button my vision exploded with a blinding white light.

I jumped backward. “Jesus!” I felt the tips of my toes graze something firm. I was back on solid ground and stumbling to regain my footing. The darkness had been replaced by an all white room with no visible walls or ceiling. A new screen appeared and an omniscient yet calming female voice said:

PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER

Four holograms appeared in front of me. Each one color coded, Blue, Red, Yellow and Black. She began reading out their descriptions to me:

The first option, the blue hologram wore heavy combat armor and carried an assault rifle.

COLONIAL MARINE: Heavy weapons. Power armor. Advanced Weaponry. (Start with a set of advanced combat armor and AI companion)

The second Red hologram modeled to resemble my silhouette was wearing a battered jacket with a pistol hanging from his hip.

ROGUE: Bounty hunting. Gambling. Marksmanship. (Start with your own private Ship and Guild License.)

The third hologram glowing a bright yellow Stood with better posture than I actually had. It was wearing a crisp expensive looking officer’s uniform.

FEDERATION BRIDGE OFFICER. Exploration. Science. Diplomacy.

(Start with a Federation Passport offering access to many otherwise restricted planets and a Junior officer companion)

Finally the black Hologram. Wearing a skintight suit with some armored padding in critical areas and holding a saber with a glowing tempered heat edge in its hands.

IMPERIAL AGENT. Espionage. Stealth. Infiltration. Assassination.

(Start with an Imperial KillBot and Imperial Agent companions.)

Well, time to make the most important decision of my life…