Nick tilted his head at the metal crate sitting in the corner of his room.
"Hm?"
He knocked on it twice. Clang, clang.
"I've never seen this here before… or have I?"
He squinted.
It looked old—rusty around the edges, like it'd been sitting there long before he was born.
Then, as he leaned closer, he noticed something strange.
An envelope half-trapped underneath it.
"Eh?"
Curiosity instantly replaced confusion. Nick crouched down and fished it out from under, brushing off the dust. The paper looked ancient—yellowed and brittle—but what froze him was the name written on it.
It was addressed to him.
But the date?
The letter was written the same year his father died.
Nick blinked twice.
"That's kinda… sus…"
He tore it open with trembling fingers. Inside was just a single sheet of paper—creased, faintly stained, and carrying two small words in handwriting he instantly recognized.
—For you.
Nick's chest tightened.
His father's handwriting.
He didn't even think—he dropped the letter and quickly tried to pry open the crate, but it wouldn't budge.
"Come on, come on, open up already!"
He grunted, shaking with a weird mix of curiosity and dread.
After a second of fumbling, he rushed to his closet, pulled out a crowbar, and wedged it under the lid.
CRAAACK—!
The metal bent with a sharp noise, and the crate split open.
Inside—
There was a mountain of strange tech parts.
Basically disassembled machinery.
Some pieces were light and sleek, others were dense and heavy like they were pulled from a futuristic lab.
"What are these…?"
He muttered, picking up a few.
"Is this… like a Lego set or something?"
He turned one over in his hands, then froze.
The next piece he pulled out was a helmet.
Not just any helmet—sleek, black, full-faced, with delicate neon-blue circuitry on its frame.
"Eh?"
He tilted it.
"This… kinda looks like a VR headset…"
He adjusted it against his round, chubby head, grinning faintly at how ridiculous he probably looked.
"Hmm… what else is in here…"
He rummaged deeper into the crate—then froze again.
His fingers brushed against a game disk.
The cover art shimmered faintly under the dust.
EternaLove Online.
He blinked. "Wait a sec—"
Then everything clicked.
His dad's old project.
The one he always heard about—a secret VR experiment that blended a fantasy RPG with… dating sim elements.
Nick's eyes widened, and slowly, a smile crept across his face.
"If this is the headset and that's the game… then—"
He looked back at the scattered tech parts.
"—this might actually be some kinda VR pod!"
He stuck out his tongue in concentration as he started fitting the parts together. He looked so excited. Click after click, the pieces began locking perfectly into place. He kept glancing at his phone for assembly tutorials, muttering under his breath like a possessed engineer.
Hours flew by before he finally sat back, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
"YOSH! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧"
Before him stood a fully assembled VR pod.
He picked up the headset and turned it over in his hands, smiling faintly.
"This is probably the weirdest thing Dad left behind… but damn, this looks cool."
He plugged the cables into the pod, adjusted the ports, and reached for the disk.
"Now, the game…"
The cover art hit him like a truck.
Nick's face instantly turned red.
"Wha— wait, what!?"
He stumbled back, clutching the game pack.
On the cover were three half-naked elf girls posing in scandalous armor.
"I-, IT'S A HAREM!?"
He stared in disbelief, then back at the back cover—and made the mistake of reading.
"A deep relationship system. Over 50 unique heroines to befriend. Includes affectionate obedience—manage your personal slave harem!"
Nick blinked twice.
"Wha… WHOA, WHOA, okay—stop—stop right there."
He leaned back and lifted a brow.
"Slave harem?"
His face burned red as his brain tried to process it.
"Ma-, Maybe it's about… economic management? You know, granting freedom through earned trust? A… a post-capitalist allegory or something?"
He mumbled quickly, trying to convince himself more than anyone else.
"Da… Dad's not the kind of guy to make these kinds of games… right?"
He flipped it again.
"Features include loyalty collars, forced cuddling, and a whining mechanic—"
Nick's expression went flat.
"Of course it does (;一_一)…"
He sighed long and hard, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I can't believe I'm doing this…"
Still, curiosity always won.
He slotted the disk into his PC and watched as the launcher came alive with a faint hum.
"I'll… check it out anyway."
He climbed into the pod, lying back.
The seat molded perfectly to his body.
It was unnervingly comfortable.
"This better be good…"
He muttered as he lowered the headset onto his head.
Then—
[World Shift!]
Light swallowed him whole.
Colors bled together like oil on water.
System diagnostics echoed in his ears.
[Vision: Online]
[Hearing: Online]
[Smell: Online]
[Touch: Online]
[Taste: Online]
[Language set: English]
Then—
[Welcome to EternaLove Online!]
Nick opened his eyes to a blank white void.
A holographic keyboard hovered before him.
[Please enter your name and gender!]
He blinked, then grinned.
"Oh, this part? Easy."
He typed:
[Name: Nero Ardenvale]
[Gender: Male]
Nick had been using that alias for years online.
It was his ideal self.
[Would you like to design your character or make one at random?]
Nick smirked.
"Psssh! As if I'd ever let an AI design my character."
He clapped his hands with bright eyes.
One thing Nick loved about playing games online was that nobody knew what he really looked like.
He hated his looks, so he never missed a chance to make an avatar whenever the game allowed it.
He always made his avatars the same way.
Tall and stylish, with long legs, a sharp jawline, and a clean, perfect chin. His eyes were always that cool, hunter-like shape, colored a striking blue, and his hair was long, black, and healthy-looking.
When it came to the body, he didn't settle for six-pack abs—he went all out and picked eight. The result was an avatar so beautiful and sexy it was hard not to stare, especially with that athletic, well-built physique.
"Oh yeah… this is it! This is me."
The version of him that wasn't fat, bullied, and didn't hate his reflection.
But then—
[Choose a size!]
"Huh…?"
A holograph of glowing poles circled around him.
They were all different by an inch or two.
Nick blinked.
"Eh? What's this? Shoe size?"
He knew it wasn't. He knew.
He gulped.
"Surely it's not that kind of game…"
He squeezed his face righteously.
"Hmph! I would never indulge in such!"
He held his chin high. But a few seconds later—
[You have selected 12 inches!]
The game began to load.
He just slumped happily in the glowing white space.
"Come ooon, start up already…!"
The world brightened.
A pulse of light swept through the void.
[Initializing EternaLove Online.]
And then, the real story began.