Cecilia was breathing heavily at the unexpected finding. She simply couldn't believe it.
She takes off the dress she was wearing to better examine her own body. It was indeed a fully functional female body, with nipples on her breasts and all the expected parts. And body fluids.
Which was another limitation that was at the same time of design, ethical, and technical. Virtual bodies in the game had no body fluids, obviously.
Cecilia closes her eyes and takes three deep breaths, trying to calm herself.
She had been born in a male body but discovered herself as a trans woman in her early teens. She dreamed of having the hormonal treatment and surgery, but the accident crushed her dreams, along with her spinal cord, leaving her tetraplegic.
Hyperborea has been the world where she could be free and forget that her actual body was in the hospital ward, surviving only with the help of machines.
And now she was in the body of her character in the game. The woman that she always strived to be. And the real deal body, not (for all she was able to tell) a simulation.
But something still doesn't sit right for her.
"If this is reality, I shouldn't be able to do this. Phaneros Ephemarion. Nythea lytha, anthyra phōs."
(Light of the Soul. Death fades, rebirth shines.)
A shining white orb appeared over her hand, floating. It was the most basic of the light spells in the game of Hyperborea, but something that shouldn't be possible in real life.
The normal name of the spell was Fiat Lux, and that was all a player would normally need to say to be able to cast the spell. But that was too lame for Cecilia.
Instead, she got a customization for all her spells, within the theme of her patron deity, Ephemeris, goddess of death and rebirth. All her spells were cast using a custom chant in Ephyraeon, the language of the dead.
It was extra work to memorize all those incantations for all her spells, but she thought that it was cool. And it had the added bonus that in PvP her adversaries wouldn't be able to see through what she was casting.
In any case, the spell was activated. Cecilia sighed, defeated.
"This IS the world of Hyperborea, but at the same time… It feels so real. There's no way this is a dream, is there?"
She tried the trick she learned when she was ten and had used ever since, every time she had a nightmare. She started blinking really fast and hard.
It was a trick that would always wake her up, no matter what was happening in the dream. But, this time, nothing happened.
"So I am not dreaming, after all. Damn. Well, another option is that I'm actually in a coma, so I wouldn't be able to wake up even if I tried, and all of this is a… no, nothing here works like a dream would."
She walked back to her bed, where she had thrown the dress when she took it off. It was a design unfamiliar to her, though definitely something an NPC would wear.
In a reflex motion, she took the dress in her hand and used Appraisal on it.
[A dress common in the kingdom of Drakestadt.]
"Huh?"
A floating window had just appeared, hovering over the dress, conveying information about it exactly like it would have done in the game.
Also, she had needed to just think about the skill. When she played the game, she wouldn't actually speak but would send a mental signal for her character to speak for her, using a synthesized voice.
All because she had dysphoria with her voice.
This time, as she did it by reflex, she also just sent the mental command instead of saying the activation words of the skill. And it worked.
For the next test, she used the mental command to open the general UI. And soon, there it was. The minimap of her surroundings - which showed only the inside of the room -, the gauge with her mana, stamina, and health, and the upper menu.
She called the game menu, which appeared. All buttons were there, except one. There was no logoff button.
She tried the OS commands to close the application, restart, and switch the active application, but nothing happened.
Then she opened her stats. Everything there is exactly as she remembered being in the game before she passed out. The level, the skills, the techniques, the attributes, everything. Even the name, origin, affiliation, and guild.
'Morielen, Underdark, Kingdom of Drakestadt, Dead Nerds Society.'
With hands shaking, she tapped on the name Dead Nerds Society.
Nothing happened.
She clicked on the Kingdom of Drakestadt, and nothing happened as well.
In the game those actions would open the panels of the guild and the kingdom, respectively. And yet, nothing.
She went to the game menu again and found that the guilds and realms menus were grayed out. But not the friends menu.
With hope rekindling, she tapped on it, only for a window to appear with the message.
[No Friends Added.
Find friends in the world and add them as you progress in the game.]
That was the standard message that would appear when you had just created your character and hadn't added anyone in the game yet. The same that appeared for everyone.
Cecilia sighed again and closed the menus, then looked at the dress. She was starting to feel hungry, so she could at least eat something before figuring out what to do next.
The dress was a simple one. Even though she was positive she had never seen that design before, the appraisal toolbox had said that it is common in the kingdom of Drakestadt. In any case, it was not one of her clothes, and it didn't have any underwear.
So she opened her inventory, curious about what she would find in it.
And it had exactly the things she remembered having last time she checked. Which, for her own senses, was just like an hour ago. Two, at max.
There were two things that were different, though.
First, the clothes that she was wearing before waking in this place were there in her inventory. Not only the clothes, but all the magical items and weapons as well. Everything she had equipped was there.
The other difference is that the equipment slots changed drastically. Or, better to say, they weren't interactable anymore.
She tried moving a robe to the body clothing slot, but it was blocked.
Also, instead of the button 'Equip,' there was a button 'Withdraw.' So she tapped it.
The robe appeared in front of her and fell to the floor.
"Oh…"
A thought occurred to her, so she wore the robe and opened the inventory screen again.
The robe appeared in the respective slot on the equipment side.
"Awesome… But, anyway, I can't just walk around wearing this. I don't know if this is the game or a weird alternative reality, but if it's the latter, then this is too conspicuous."
Her robe, which she used to wear in the game, was a signature piece of equipment crafted by one of the most renowned players, who had the weaving-related skills maxed out and also had the manual skills to make the items live up to their potential.
Which meant it was a dead giveaway of 'This is A Person With Money,' which she wanted to avoid at least until she had gathered her bearings.
She took off her clothes again and then looked at the inventory screen once more, holding the robe in her hand. There was no obvious button this time, so she tried giving it a mental command.
((Store.))
And it worked. The robe disappeared from her hand and appeared in the inventory, just like in the game.
"Good. Now, let's see what I have that I can actually wear…"
She had several fancy dresses she carried around for no reason. It wasn't exactly a waste of space, simply because she had a LOT of space.
The problem was the fact that they were all too fancy. On the bright side, nobody could see how fancy her underwear was, and she had some of those as well.
"I think I'll simply put these on and then wear that simple dress I woke up in. Though if it was lent by the villagers, it means that I'll have to give it back later."
She didn't voice the fear that was in her mind since she noticed that the dress didn't belong to her. Instead, after having dressed herself, she went to the door.
"Okay. Time to eat breakfast and try to learn something about what the hell is happening."