Opening his eyes, Takeru found himself standing on a wide open grassy plains that seemed to be devoid of life. When he looked in front of him, he could faintly see the silhouette of a tall mountain in the distance, covered by what seemed to be fog and clouds. Upon noticing that nothing was happening, Takeru looked around confusedly. After a few moments had passed, and Takeru getting more panicked by the second, small particles of light began to converge in front of Takeru, who, after noticing it, began to pay attention to it excitedly. The particles of light continued to converge, and when it finished, in front of Takeru stood a girl dressed in clothes reminiscent of illustrations of adventurer's guild employees from famous light novels.

"Welcome, TakeMiya," The girl suddenly spoke while Takeru was busy admiring her appearance.

"We welcome you to Second Life Online. In a short while, you will be undergoing the tutorial, which are mandatory for all new players. This tutorial will brief you regarding various in-game mechanics. Before we begin, are there any questions?"

"Why is this mandatory?"

"The tutorial is enforced in the previous patch of the game. That is because during the older patches, where the tutorial was not enforced, many new players chose to skip it, and therefore they were plagued with various issues, such as the lack of understanding of the in-game mechanics, even the basic ones, such as how to attack the enemy. This caused a lot of complaints from the failed players to the developers, and we had to roll back their accounts so that they can start over from the beginning. In order to prevent the same issue from happening, the developers decided to enforce the tutorial to the new players, therefore ensuring that all the players could start with the same level of knowledge of basic mechanics, preventing the issue from reoccuring. Are there any other questions?" 

"None for now," Takeru replied, a bit surprised of the openness of the developers regarding the issue they faced. Indeed, Takeru thought that the reasoning to enforce the tutorial was strong enough, much so that no one should be able to complain. 

"In that case, let's begin your tutorial," The girl replied while smiling, before continuing on.

"In this game, you are expected to control your body much like how you would in the real world. That means you are able to move, walk, and do other simple and complicated actions much like how you would simply do things in the real world. The system that makes this possible, however, is a company secret, and therefore I am not under the liberty to tell you how exactly we manage to basically replicate your body here from the real world."

"For the players' convenience, you will not expend any energy whenever you are simply walking around. This is to ensure that you can have an easier time of mobilizing and maximize your experience here, instead of going from one quest point to the other only to find out you have run out of energy, and therefore unable to perform to your best. Please note that sprinting will cause you to lose energy, so please choose wisely on when you want to sprint. It will be quite dangerous if you encounter an enemy after you spent your energy from running around, after all. For starters, why don't you try walking around? Once you're comfortable, you can try sprinting around as well. In the tutorial area, any energy you expended will be recovered immediately after you finished the action, so you can learn without any worries."

Takeru listened to her instructions intently, and stayed silent for a bit while he was thinking. After banishing the questions regarding how his dad's company managed to create a game as immersive as this, Takeru started to try to figure out how to move his avatar. He tried manually commanding his legs to move, when;

"Ah, my apologies, TakeMiya, but you are simply thinking too hard about this."

"How so?"

"As I've explained earlier, all you need to do is act like you would in the real world. Instead, you tried to manually command your legs to move. You would not do that in the real world, would you? You would simply decide on a destination, and then you will subconsciusly walk towards where you want to go. It's the same here in Second Life Online. If I may, although this is a dangerous advice, you can perhaps consider that you are actually in the real world right now. Some people find it difficult since they consciously separate the game from the real world, but is quite alright once they simply consider this to be a part of the real world as well."

Takeru was intrigued upon hearing her explanation. 

"Why is this dangerous?"

"Because for some people, the distinction between the real world and the in-game world will start to diminish. We are fully aware that this game may exacerbate the problem, but we have safety precautions in place in order to try to suppress it. However, in the end, our precautions are not perfect. That is why we would like to ask the players to personally take care of their health and needs as weel, in order to avoid the worst case scenario where the player can't differentiate between the real world and the in-game world."

"..." Takeru fell into silence. His knowledge started to float around in his head. Although not about this particular problem, he was well aware of similar problems regarding the real world and the digital world. He'd heard a lot of cases where someone became deluded and acted as a stalker, such as towards their favorite idol, or their favorite public figure. 

Granted, he's not here to listen to the psychological dangers of the game, so he pushed the warnings back to the head of his mind. Heeding her advice, Takeru tried to think that he's in the real world. As soon as he decided on a spot to go to, his feet suddenly started to walk unconsciously, much like it did in the real world. Feeling elated, he tried to increase his speed, and found himself starting to run as he wanted. As soon as he started to run, an energy bar suddenly appeared inside his head, which started to deplete as he ran around. Once he came to a stop, the bar instantly filled full, and then disappeared once again.

"Congratulations, TakeMiya. You have sucessfully learned how to move around by both walking and running. Would you like some more time to practice and ensure you fully understand how to move around?"

"No, that won't be necessary," Takeru replied, still moving around, alternating between walking and running.

"Understood. In that case, let us proceed to the next aspect of the tutorial, which is the attributes.

"There are 7 explicit attributes in Second Life Online. The attributes are Strength, Vitality, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Luck. The abbreviation of the attributes in the character screen are the first three letters of the attribute, for example STR for strength and AGI for agility.

"As Second Life Online takes into account your capability in real life, you will gain or lose bonus attribute points based on your real life ability. For example, a powerlifter may get bonus attributes in their STR, but lose points in their AGI. These bonus points can be obtained from various bonus quests involving activities that may be commonly found in real life. For example, you may find an NPC challenging you to a power lifting competition, and the result will determine whether or not you deserve the bonus attribute points.

"During those quests, all kinds of external assistance, such as bonuses from existing attribute points will be disabled, and you will find yourself challenging those quests with real-life capabilities. You will get the warning regarding the disabling of bonuses before starting the quest, so please proceed with caution while reading the conditions of the quests, including the rewards and the penalties. You are free to take those quests as you please, as long as you haven't completed the quest. Once you've completed the quest, you will not be able to undertake it again, so please take care in developing your character and undertaking those quests."

"Now, I will explain what the attributes themselves will do.

"First is strength, or STR. STR contributes in boosting your melee damage. Some equipment will also have an STR threshold, so when your STR is under that threshold, you will receive various penalties, such as reduced movement speed, increased energy usage, or other penalties. You can even start to lose energy while walking around.

"Second, you have vitality, or VIT. An increase in VIT will mean an increase of your max energy, as well as your maximum Hit Points, or HP.

"And then, you have Agility, or AGI. AGI affects movement speed, ranged attack damage, as well as boosting your attack speed.

"Dexterity, or DEX, will give you boosts in accuracy and during a crafting process. Once you pass a certain distance, your ranged attack's accuracy will start to depend on your DEX, and the further you are from your target, the greater the DEX value you need in order to ensure your attack will hit. This affects all kind of projectile and thrown weapons. A higher DEX value will also give you a boost in your chance of landing a critical hit.

"Intelligence, or INT, is important for players who want to use magic as the base of their playstyle. INT improves your magic damage and your maximum mana points, or MP, as well as give you various bonuses when working on magical processes such as enchanting or brewing potions.

"Lastly, wisdom, or WIS, will affect your MP recovery. Luck, or LUC, will affect your general luck."

"Of course, there are some other things that are affected by your attributes, but what's the fun if I tell you eveyrthing now, right? I hope you will be able to find out what the attribute points do aside from what I just told you! Do you have any questions about attribute points?"

"No, no questions here."

"Good, good. In case you forget, you can always open the companion app, or you can click on the question mark on the top right corner of the attribute window. Lastly, I will explain to you the magic and skill system in Second Life Online.

"In Second Life Online, there are two separate systems for special moves, which are magic and skill.

"First, let's talk about magic. In the real life, have you ever felt like flying? Or perhaps, you may have wished for the ability to use energy waves after watching some anime. In Second Life Online, you can do just that! Magic uses MP in order to activate, and you can actually design your own spell in Second Life Online. All you have to do is imagine the magic spell you want to create, and the method, and then visualize it actually happening. If the spell is successful, you will then be prompted to name your finished spell, and once the spell is named you will find the details regarding the spell automatically generated by the game, including the MP consumption, damage, and other relevant informations. You can then choose whether to keep or discard the spell, but if you choose to discard the spell, then you will have to undergo the process from the beginning. Should you choose to keep the spell, it will be automatically added to the list of your personal spells, and from then on you can activate the spell simply by chanting the spell's name, so be careful on how you name your spell. Also, please remember that magic spells can damage you and your party members, so if you're chanting an offensive spell, be careful on where you aim. 

"Do you have any question regarding magic? Would you like to have some time to try and create your own original magic spell?"

"No, I think everything is clear for now. Also, I think I'd like some time to try and create a spell, please," Takeru replied excitedly.

"Understood. Please, take your time, and tell me when you're ready to move on to the skills tutorial."

"Thank you," Takeru replied, before sinking in to his own thoughts. He simply couldn't believe the degree of freedom offered by the game, and he ended up getting confused by the possibilities. After a few moments of thinking, Takeru remembered that his initial equipment was a mace and shield, and realized that he didn't have any edged attacks. Therefore, he decided to add a spell to compliment his current arsenal.

For the first spell, Takeru equipped his mace and shield. As he swung the mace around, he started to imagine a blade of air launching away from his mace as he swung it. Suddenly, he felt as if something was flowing from his chest to his arm, and he instinctively knew what he had to do. Trying to keep the flow going, Takeru swung the mace vertically, and as he did, a blade of air flew from the tip of his mace, as large as the arc he created when he swung his mace.

"Congratulations, Takemiya. You have successfully created your first spell. If you want to keep it, please select yes in the pop-up window that will appear shortly, and give the name to your spell."

As soon as the girl finished speaking, a pop-up window appeared in front of Takeru, containing information on the spell:

After pondering for a little bit, Takemiya chose to keep the spell. After selecting the option, he then decided to name the spell "air cutter", and the name of the spell changed appropriately, upon which the window closed automatically.

"Once again, congratulations on creating your first original spell. Now that you've understand how to do so, do you want to spend more time creating more original spells? Or would you like to continue to the tutorial about skills?"

"Let's move on. I'll create more of my own spells later on."

"Understood. Then, let's talk about skills."