The Xiao Long-Rose household could be found suspiciously empty, most of the time. Taiyang, proud father of two innocent girls, was a teacher at the prestigious primary combat school, Signal Academy, where his daughters attended, and with lessons stretching from early morning to near sunset he was rarely at home during the day.

Even in the weekends, the man was needed for various tasks, mostly detentions however, but that did nothing to deter the spirit of the huntsman who in spite of his full schedule and numerous activities, was still as energetic as a toddler on a sugar high.

The eldest daughter, Yang Xiao-Long, was fairly well-known around the island of Patch, which they called home, and fairly well-liked. A popular girl, Yang spent most of her daylight hours with her numerous friends, talking and laughing in the main city of Patch, which hosted Signal. Usually, she'd return home a scant few minuted before her dad, or she would not return and simply sleep at a friend's house.

This left the youngest daughter, one Ruby Rose. She had a few friends, but no incredibly close ones. She didn't spend much time in the city after school, except if she wanted to scan the shops for the newest weapon magazines. She was fairly socially awkward, though that was perhaps caused by her own lack of social interaction.

Thus, with lots of time in an empty household, Ruby tried her best to contain her boredom with various activities.

Exercise had been one of the first ideas, and that had stuck into a routine which took a considerable amount of time...at first. But after a while, even upping her exercises still made the workout last an hour at the longest.

Next, she tried singing, and that lasted for only three days, or more specifically, until she registered her singing voice, and promptly nearly died of embarrassment. It was one of the few times Ruby thanked whatever deity out there for not giving her neighbors.

Third, came dancing. And that was when Ruby discovered she had two left legs...and a broken vase.

Finally, the last thing that Ruby tried, were video games. She now proudly considered herself a huntress-in-training, and a gamer. It was hard not to! At first, every single bit of lien she had went into weapon magazines, and whenever she had some to spare, she would buy herself a video game. At first, she'd landed a batch of incredibly cheap games. They were decades old, and easily playable on her equally old computer, which she had to retrieve from the dark attic.

And no, she hadn't been scared.

She didn't expect much to be honest. Plugging the computer in with relative ease since every slot was numbered with whatever cable was supposed to go there, she turned it on, inserted the disc containing the game, sunk into her chair, and prepared to be bored in half an hour and go back to brainstorming.

Just as she reached and beat the final boss of the game, a voice called out from downstairs, more exactly her dad's voice. Dinner was ready.

Six hours had passed, and she hadn't felt them at all. This was it. Perhaps not the most ideal way to spend her time, she thought at first.

Now however...things had changed! Now, if she had some spare lien, she'd buy herself a weapons magazine. Otherwise? Everything went into games, and better computer parts, until her recent, fourteenth birthday when her father had bought her a top of the line computer.

Nowadays, she had a 'treasury' as she put it, of over 200 games. Some new, some old, all equally enjoyable. She'd learned so much from them. A shooter based on the Great War had taken her through thousands of moods, giving her the gritty details of war, shown her the mentality of the people, taught her the history of the conflict, and more than all...made her feel as if she was right there, fighting the injustice of Mantle and Mistral, fighting for the right of self-expression, for the freedom of it's people.

It had been enlightening, and had brought a slew of changes to her thoughts.

More came...an RPG set in a fantastic land, populated with orcs, a slew of elves, lizardmen, vampires, werewolves, and so many more races. It had taught her the meaning of the soul, the value of life, and the dangers of conflict in a world without aura, without hunters. It also taught her that nothing could stop people once their cast aside their differences and fought as one.

So many games, so many lives she had lived, from the comfort of her own home. So many decisions, good and bad, so many moments where she sat on the edge of her chair, eyes nearly glued to the screen, waiting to see what happened. Games had proven to be incredible, and she didn't regret one bit that she'd dumped all her time in them.

However, something strange happened, and Ruby Rose would forever blame her precious games for this outcome, not that she minded of course.

It was after one fairly long saturday night spent at her computer playing a dark, medieval RPG of insane difficulty, that she fell asleep right after defeating an optional boss, in her opinion the hardest boss yet found.

And thus the next morning, with Yang gone, sleeping at a friend's place, and her dad having already left for work, no one could hear her scream her lungs out the moment she woke up at her desk, and a light red screen with black writing on it assaulted her eyes.

Falling backwards, she struck the back of her head on the wooden floor, and blinked blearily as yet another light red screen popped into her vision.

You have taken Aura Damage!

Do you wish for Aura Damage messages to be displayed in the future?

Yes/No

She simply stared, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly before making an instinctive choice. Lifting her hand upwards, she tapped the no button.

The screen vanished, replaced by the former one.

You have slept at your desk!

AP and HP recovery while asleep halved

Ruby carefully extracted herself out of her chair, climbed to her feet, only to sit back down onto her bed. The message kindly followed her.

"Alright...Ruby, no more games for you. You've had enough. Snap out of it!" She blinked rapidly, before closing her eyes for a good half a minute, and then opening them again.

The message was still there.

Out of instinct and desperation, she took a clumsy swipe towards the screen. Once her hand made contact with it, it simply moved towards the direction she was swiping, and vanished along the way.

Looking left and right, no remains of the screen could be found.

Ruby still slapped herself for good measure.

"Alright, alright...what is happening?" Pacing around the room, she started thinking up a storm. What if that was only a game induced hallucination? Was she going crazy?...And what if it wasn't!? Did she just become a game character!?

Stopping dead in her tracks, she took a large breath of air, and then decided on a simple enough course of action. If those screens hadn't been real, than she was going right back to sleep and taking a pause off of games for the next week. But if it hadn't been...then that would be simple enough to prove. What did every single game have, regardless of genre or age?

"Menu!" Gods did she feel like an idiot, pointing right in front of her and shouting the word.

And then the miracle happened. A red box with black text appeared right in front of her forward pointing finger.

Menu

-New Game

-Settings

[Additional Features Will Appear After Starting A New Game]

...Oh, Barnacles. This is real.

The most dubious of thoughts started popping up in her head. Was someone playing a prank on her? Did she eat anything strange before going to sleep? Was she dreaming?

Wait...wait a damn second!

An epiphany struck with all the force of an Ursa, and with a groan that was usually reserved for the things that Yang would never let her live down, she slumped back on the bed.

"This is my semblance isn't it...?"

Suddenly she shot upright. Her life is a game! Oh this was exciting! Yeah, sure, Yang would tease her about it to no end, but her life was a game! Her semblance was awesome! She couldn't wait to see what kind of game it was. Was it a shooter? Was it an RPG? Was it an RTS? What was her semblance like!?

Barely containing her energy, she bolted to her feet and bounced on her heels. Her finger hovered over the New Game button, before stopping for a second.

"Alright, semblance, you're awesome. But the font and the color is killing my eyes! So before we start let's do something about that."

Her finger dropped somewhat, and she tapped the Settings menu.

A plethora of different options appeared in front of her eyes, and in true gamer fashion, she carefully studied and changed each and every single one. Boxes appear at a distance of half a meter in front of her, and not ten centimeters, check! Boxes are an easy light brown color with black text, check! Notifications while in combat are stopped, check!

Whistling a merry tune to herself, she increased the size of the boxes and added a fancy light gold border to surround them. Nothing like playing a game while being stylish.

Finishing up, she checked every single option again, before nodding to herself. Scrolling to the bottom with her finger, she tapped the Confirm button and returned to the main menu with her changes saved.

"There! This is much better." Finally allowed to let loose, Ruby's eyes sparkled as she prepared for awesomeness in three, two, one...

You have started a new game!

[Player] - Insert your name here

She rose an eyebrow, before tapping the player slot. Suddenly, the letters disappeared, and she was left with a large, levitating keyboard to type on. Using her right hand, she carefully tapped her name.

Welcome, [Ruby Rose]!

You have started a new game!

Progress before starting the game will be converted and kept!

You will be granted access to all of the Game's features as you level up!

As a new player, you will be granted a [Starting Weapon], and a [Gift]! Please choose them from the list provided.

Wide eyes stared at the brown screen. Progress before starting the game...Was that her training? and her Aura training? What did it mean by converted and kept? Maybe she should have waited for Yang!

Before panic could set in, Ruby slapped her face with both palms. Shaking her head wildly, she thumped her fist into her chest.

If there was anyone out there that could handle a game, that person was Ruby!

Tapping the Starting Weapon button, a list exploded downwards from it, leaving Ruby dizzy just starring at it. This would have been so much easier if she only had to pick a class! One thing in particular was noticed quickly by her, the fact that all weapons presented were of a 'Common' quality.

Suddenly, her eyes twinkled as she spotted a button at the very top of the list. Tapping it, information bloomed from the button, giving her a yes or no prompt.

Randomize Selection?

By randomizing selection, you will be granted a random weapon!

This weapon will also receive a random quality level for their weapon.

Higher quality levels will be rarer than lower quality ones. You have been warned.

Yes/No

Alright...So she was getting a free weapon of her choice, but if she picked one at random than there were chances to get a better weapon?

Hell yeah! She cheered, punching her fist up with a whoop. She hadn't picked what type of weapon she would specialize in, but she needed to build her own weapon this year! Maybe whatever she got would be what she would use later on!

With a soft exhale, the seasoned gamer prepared, and punched the button, prepared for anything.

A wheel appeared in front of her face with a pointer at the very top, and within a split second started spinning furiously. Despite this Ruby's eyes slipped to the writing above the wheel.

Quality levels are as follows: Broken, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Mythical, Legendary, Artifact

She whistled slowly...Seven different quality levels for gear. That was pretty rare for a game to have. She wondered just what the difference was, how did the quality levels affect the gear, but before her train of thought could progress, the wheel begun to slow down dramatically.

Staring with bated breath, Ruby couldn't hold her squeal as the wheel came to a grinding halt, and the pointer was placed right on top of a rare item!

Steel Scythe

Quality: Rare

The box depicting the weapon had a yellow hue to it, likely due to the fact that colors could be translated for quality levels much like in most RPGs. It was curios however that the weapon didn't tell her the damage, but she presumed that was due to the fact she hadn't equipped it yet, and thus couldn't calculate without her stats.

Speaking of which, she needed to pick a gift too, and get to the fun part...min-maxing. Oh yes, this game was her life, you could bet she was going to munchkin the hell out of it!

Back to the main screen, she tapped the gift button. Lots of trinkets could be found, but none of them seemed to be any good. There was a ring that increased her HP, but it stated clearly that the increase was tiny. Her eyes scrolled down the list, until finally a useful trinket was found.

Master Key

Can open any lock

Her eyes sparkled. Like truly, sparkled.

The Master Key, the one item that was worth any trouble it needed in order to be obtained in any game. As a gift! Laughter bubbled up and past her lips, but she didn't care.

Finally, the screen closed, and another far larger one took up her vision.

Character Sheet

Name: Ruby Rose

Age: 14

Title: -

Class: Novice (100% increase to EXP gained)

Level: 7 (12.7% Complete)

HP: 500

AP: 700

CON: 6

STR: 7

DEX: 4

AGI: 11

INT: 14

WIS: 12

CHA: 10

LCK: 6

Stat Points: 10 (You have been given 10 stat points for beginning a New Game)

Bloodline: ? (?)

Oh, yeah. This was probably what previous progress meant. She begun at level 7, not 1, with some decent stats. Probably decent stats. Also, where was the Steel Scythe? and the Master Key? Did she have an inventory function?

And should she spend the stat points? Or should she save them for later?

Taking all the time she needed, she figured that saving stat points was probably a good idea at the moment. There was experimenting to be done, before such decisions could be made. What if body stats improved via training? What if they could only improve so much through training, and it would become incredibly hard to take them further by only doing that, needed her to dump points into it? And how would she go about increasing her mental stats? Right now, she needed to scout the field, and only after, take action.

Congratulations! Due to your critical thinking, your WIS has gone up by one!

...All right, so wisdom could be increased by making good, thought-out decisions. Who would've thunk? There was probably more to add to that, but she'd get to it eventually.

Right around the time she would figure what the hell was the Bloodline thing. Seriously, her semblance was keeping secrets from her! No fair!

Her ranting couldn't get much farther, because the brown box in front of her suddenly vanished, only to be replaced with another. This one, for whatever reason, was lighting up in color, turning back to normal, and lighting back up.

And as Ruby finished reading, her eyes grew wide and her smile even wider.

Quest!

Precious Memories

{Tutorial Quest}

"There are few things that bring back precious memories more than old toys"

Primary Objective: Find your old toys! (Rewards: 1000 EXP, Unlock Arena Feature)

Hint: The First Sleeps with the Monster

Bonus Objectives:

- Finish the Quest before Yang gets home (Reward: ?)

- ? (Reward: ?)

Her first quest! And she only needed to find some of her old toys! This was free EXP right here. Now if only she could figure out how much EXP meant a level, or a percentage, than that would be great!

But! Before starting the mission, she felt the need to be prepared. This was a quest. Anything could happen. So...

"Inventory?" She felt like she was asking her semblance to speak, which in a way was kinda true but also kind of creepy. And silly.

But nevertheless, a box appeared, this one split into fifty smaller boxes of equal size, in two of which were her two items. She refrained from pulling out the scythe yet, and instead opted to only take out the Master Key.

Breathing deeply, she couldn't help it anymore, and stomped the floor while cheering. This! This deserved a whole plate of cookies in celebration! But first, she needed to find some old toys.

Now then...Where did the monster sleep?