When I woke up, I was sitting in a pure white space, and I could see the words “Welcome to V.F.L.O,” floating in front of me.
It was the character-creation screen I’d seen in the trial version.
Back then I could only pick from characters the devs had prepared, but since this is the closed beta, it seems I can make my own.
For now, I touched the floating text and got started on character creation.
First up, it seems you choose a race.
There are about thirty races in the selectable list alone.
There are beastfolk, and some non-human ones are included too, which means monster play is possible as well.
The pop-up description text lists each race’s various traits, but I already know which race I want to use.
The Oni race, the one I used in the trial version.
It’s a race specialized for combat, strong in melee fighting.
And it has a racial trait called Combat Rhythm that tells you the timing for just guards, parries, counterattacks, and critical attacks through sound.
I wanted to play a character in the closed beta using the race I’d poured myself into to death in the trial version.
When I selected the Oni race, the screen moved on to appearance settings.
A character modeled with next-generation modeling by the newly developed game engine rose up before my eyes.
So the default is a macho male character with short horns growing from his forehead and a muscular build?
I don’t want to use the default face.
Considering other players too, a joke character is out of the question.
I’ll go with a safe handsome design.
Age thirty, short black hair, red eyes to look Oni-like, body size at the racial max of two meters, weight 120 kg, muscle mass MAX…
The character floating before me turned out to be a handsome macho character who also looked like a game’s final boss.
Well, with this look, I won’t freak other players out even if they see me.
The gold-skinned character that showed up in a video the game company posted on social media was awful, after all.
I thought the freedom was way too high.
With the appearance settled, the initial skill selection screen came up next.
Slots with various skill names written on them spin around, and it seems pressing confirm decides your initial skills.
The Oni character I’d used so much in the trial version had four combat skills set as initial skills, so if possible I want to fill mine with combat skills.
There seem to be all sorts of skills besides combat ones.
Just from a quick look, I could glimpse knowledge-type skills, crafting-type skills, and special-type skills here and there.
I spun the slots, and since I pick four initial skills, I clicked through them.
I’d braced myself for rerolling3 until I got all combat skills, but the slot god gave a miracle2 to me, a background-voxel old man.
The four were [Musclehead]1, [Steel Body], [Inexhaustible Stamina], and [Nimble Fingertips].
I ran my eyes over the stat pop-up descriptions.
[Musclehead]… The STR rank improves to “S” and the INT rank becomes “G-“, but in exchange the damage of critical attacks becomes ten times. *However, it disappears if you have sex with the opposite sex.
[Steel Body]… The VIT rank improves to “S”, and physical-type status abnormalities are nullified. When you just guard, physical and magic damage can be nullified. *However, it disappears if you have sex with the opposite sex.
[Inexhaustible Stamina]… The AGI rank improves to “S”, and stamina-consuming actions and skills cost 1 to use. *However, it disappears if you have sex with the opposite sex.
[Nimble Fingertips]… The DEX rank improves to “S”, and attack accuracy gets plus 30%. Counterattack damage becomes ten times. *However, it disappears if you have sex with the opposite sex.
The perfect musclehead combat god has been born…
This really feels like a character that used up a lifetime’s worth of luck.
With the racial trait Combat Rhythm, I can deflect ranged attacks with parries, and if I just guard against magic, I take no damage.
On top of that, stamina cost is 1, so I can use it continuously.
If I land critical attacks and counterattacks, damage is ten times.
Accuracy correction applies too, so the harshness of Combat Rhythm‘s trigger timing is eased.
I can master a one-hit-kill musclehead warrior.
But what’s with “However, it disappears if you have sex”?
V.F.L.O.’s rating was supposed to be all ages…
System-wise, sexual acts with other players or NPCs were supposed to be impossible.
Why is a line like this written in the skill description?
Is it a bug? There’s a chance it’s a mistranslation too.
Well, having sex isn’t the point of playing the game, so it’s not a problem.
For now, slot god! Thank you! With this miracle character, I’m going to enjoy the world of V.F.L.O. to the fullest!
I immediately pressed the confirm button to bring this miracle character to life.
What to do about the name…
A cool one would be nice too…
I agonized over it this way and that, but no good name came, so I typed in Norkin4.
When the official version comes out, a character rename item will probably be released too, so for now I’ll go with this until I think of a good name.
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Norkin
Oni Race
Male 30 years old
HP: 1000/1000
MP: 0/0
ST: 1000/1000
STR: S
VIT: S
INT: G-
AGI: S
DEX: S
LUK: F+
Job: none
Active skills: none
Passive skills:
[Combat Rhythm]
[Musclehead]
[Steel Body]
[Inexhaustible Stamina]
[Nimble Fingertips]
Combat skill: none
Magic: none
Equipment: Cloth clothes (5)
Base attack value: 100
Base defense value: 105
Base magic power: 0
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Compared to the fairly well-equipped character I used in the trial version, this initial character became ten times… no, a hundred times stronger.
Once equipment and skills are in place, I can get even stronger.
Looking at the finished Norkin, I thought my coming V.F.L.O. life would be a satisfying one, and my grin wouldn’t stop.
Having finished a perfect character creation, I pressed the [Confirm] button, and a warning text appeared.
[Start the game with this character? YES/NO]
Of course it’s YES.
With this character, I intend to take the top of V.F.L.O.!
[You really won’t regret this? YES/NO]
YES! No problem!
[Then, please enjoy V.F.L.O.!]
The message voice was mixed with noise and hard to hear…
The ringing in my ears and the noise kept getting worse.
Wrapped in a dazzling light, my vision was lost, and my consciousness cut out along with it.
Trivia:
- The repeated ‘*However, it disappears if you have sex with the opposite sex’ caveat on all four skills quietly sets up the series premise and hints the game’s rating and system limits are not as airtight as the protagonist assumes.
- The spinning-slot initial skill system makes the protagonist’s perfect combat build a matter of pure luck, tying his ‘used up a lifetime of luck’ feeling to the same lottery that got him into the closed beta.
- The escalating warning prompts (YES/NO, then ‘You really won’t regret this?’) read as the system knowing more than the player, foreshadowing consequence before the game even begins.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ Literally ‘meathead’ or ‘muscle-brain’; used here as a skill name meaning raw physical power over intelligence, with a deliberate comedy contrast against the INT rank drop.
2 ↩ Slang for an improbably lucky pull, borrowed from gacha culture; it frames the protagonist’s skill roll as a miracle draw.
3 ↩ Short for ‘reset marathon’, the practice of restarting a game repeatedly to reroll for a desired result; rendered here as ‘rerolling’.
4 ↩ The player’s chosen handle; it reads as a blunt, unglamorous nickname, fitting his self-deprecating ‘background-voxel old man’ image.