I Nutted
2035.
The long-awaited Fortuna Divergence was finally released.
Just as everyone had hoped, it delivered an entirely new kind of experience.
Being able to actually live inside creations and fantasies that had only existed in stories before was nothing short of magical.
The visuals, audio, touch, smell, and taste—all of it felt so real that people completely forgot they were lying inside an FD Capsule.
To give buyers the ultimate fantasy, Tyche bundled a game called Fantastic Land with the hardware.
Fantastic Land was, as the name suggested, an amusement park simulator.
That might sound ordinary at first, but it was anything but.
Every ride in Fantastic Land was something completely impossible in the real world—pure, over-the-top fantasy engineering.
People rode attractions that pumped out way more dopamine than anything reality could offer and thought the same thing:
Fortuna Divergence is a god. Tyche is invincible.
Fantastic Land became the moment people realized exactly what full-dive VR could do.
Once the reviews started spreading, even those who had hesitated because of the steep price caved and placed their orders.
Eventually demand exploded so hard that supply couldn’t keep up, despite the insane cost.
After that, owning a Fortuna Divergence became something people openly envied.
Countless game companies that had been watching closely played Fantastic Land, saw the potential in full-dive VR, and immediately jumped into development.
The genre evolved at breakneck speed.
It was becoming the world someone had always wished for.
I turned into a high school senior.
I feel like a ton of stuff got skipped, but let’s just gloss over it.
The year is now 2037.
It’s been two years since the Fortuna Divergence we all wanted so badly finally launched.
In those two years, a ton of games came out. I played almost all of them.
Some were genuinely fun and exciting. Others were so insanely well-made in the worst ways that they pissed me off.
At the start, the market was flooded with buggy messes that truly deserved to be called trash games.
The bugs were so ridiculous they caused actual pain, but eventually I started enjoying them in a twisted way.
After about a year, decent games finally started releasing, and now I’m having a pretty good time.
But the game I really wanted still hadn’t come out.
An MMORPG.
Most full-dive VR titles so far had been single-player.
Sure, online games existed too.
There were a few team-based shooters where players split into sides and blasted each other.
I enjoyed the racing games quite a bit.
There were fighting games where users could duel directly.
Those fighting games were even used by real pro athletes for practice since there was zero risk of injury.
Plenty of online competitions were already running.
But no MMORPG had appeared yet.
A couple half-assed attempts had launched and died quickly because of major problems.
Maybe the scale was just too big?
It clearly wasn’t easy to make.
I was sure it would come out eventually… but the wait was killing me.
If an MMORPG drops, that’s when the real flexing can begin…
While I was stuck in that frustrated state…
Tyche—the company behind the Fortuna Divergence—along with Utoplay, the studio they had acquired, dropped a trailer that felt different.
It was a short video titled Another World.
The video opened on a forest that looked like it had the perfect air quality. Trees overflowed with vibrant green leaves. A crystal-clear stream bubbled past.
Small animals played around—until an arrow suddenly buried itself in one.
Something approached the dead animal.
It was an ugly green monster.
A grotesque green creature—probably a goblin—that hoisted the corpse and cackled.
Right then, an arrow made of ice flew in from behind and struck the monster.
The viewpoint switched to the goblin’s perspective. As it painfully turned its head, what came into view was…
A warrior holding a massive greatsword, an archer with a bow, a priest carrying a huge cross-shaped staff, and a mage pointing a wooden staff in its direction.
An adventurer party.
As they approached the goblin’s corpse, an axe suddenly flew in and embedded itself in the ground.
Countless green monsters had surrounded them. The adventurers prepared for battle.
The moment the fight between the adventurer party and the horde of goblins was about to explode, the camera soared into the sky, revealing a breathtaking world.
Grand background music swelled as something approached from the distance.
It closed in at incredible speed—a black dragon.
The black dragon opened its maw wide toward the camera and unleashed a dragon breath right as the video cut to black.
“I nutted.”
The second I finished the trailer, my dopamine exploded.
“This is straight-up orgasmic.”
(video link)
Insane
“I’ll be an adult next year.”
The moment we met at school, Kang Yu-ri hit me with that line.
Her intentions were extremely impure.
“...So what?”
“Just keep that in mind.”
Keep what in mind, you prickly girl?
I have no idea why she’s crossing her arms and emphasizing her chest while saying this.
Is she trying to show off how much she’s grown?
Why is her uniform so tight?
At this rate she’s going to fire off legendary button missiles.
At some point Kang Yu-ri had dyed her hair blonde and perfected those signature roll-bun drills.
It was flawless, like a character straight out of a manga or anime.
When I asked why she styled her hair like that, she said it was the same as her favorite character from a game I used to play.
It was ridiculous, but thinking about it, there really was a character like that.
And that character had huge breasts…
I desperately focused my eyes to stop my gaze from dropping.
She must have noticed, because she looked secretly pleased.
“It’s great that I grew so well, right?”
“W-what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I mean my height, obviously. I’m not exactly short, am I? You like mature types, don’t you? Or were you imagining something else? Hoo hoo hoo.”
“...A mere cafeteria girl shouldn’t be saying such impure things!!”
“Darling sometimes says weird stuff too, you know? That old-man vibe is a bit much. It’s a bad habit, so please fix it, my lord.”
“D-darling? My lord?? You’ve lost it again!”
“I’m just joking. Why are you getting so worked up? But I wonder which part was the joke? Hoo hoo.”
“Both parts are problematic!”
Her head got bigger and now she keeps trying to tease her elders.
She only learned the bad stuff.
And with my male hormones going completely crazy these days, this is driving me insane…
She keeps stimulating me in every way possible, so I’d rather avoid her if I can.
Kang Yu-ri had grown up well.
Maybe a little too well.
By senior year, there was honestly no real difference between her and a full adult.
Her face had become more like a grown woman’s. The parts that should protrude did, and the parts that should curve in did.
It made resisting temptation genuinely difficult.
Just endure a little longer… Wait. Why the hell did “just endure a little longer” come out of my mouth, you idiot.
I slapped my own cheek, trying to reset my thoughts.
“What’s wrong? You’re making that handsome face look ugly.”
Chup. Chup.
Kang Yu-ri casually reached out and touched my cheek.
Slap.
“Are you crazy?! Don’t just touch a healthy young man’s face!”
“Pfft! I think I had a similar reaction once before. Now the roles are reversed?”
“...”
Now that she mentions it… yeah, that did happen.
She used to be so cute when we were little.
These days she doesn’t give off that easy-to-handle kid vibe anymore.
“Anyway, aren’t you curious?”
“About what all of a sudden?”
“You saw it. The game.”
“...!”
The fact that she suddenly brought it up meant…
“You know about that?!”
“Hmm~ I wonder? Hehe.”
“What is it? Tell me already!!”
“Actually, I don’t know.”
“.......”
I seriously wanted to smack her once.
Just one hit on the butt with a switch.
But if I actually did it the genre might change, so that was a no-go.
“You little…!”
“But I did hear a few things.”
“...?”
“You know my brother, right? The honest one. He secretly told me…”
I leaned in and focused on her quiet voice.
“You know how our Tyche has been heavily investing in AI technology, right?”
“Well, yeah…”
Tyche’s AI technology was pretty well-regarded, and they were famous for pouring endless money into it.
“It looks like that investment hit the jackpot. They used that AI tech in this game.”
“Oh…”
This was definitely bigger information than I expected.
No wonder Tyche was confident enough to drop just a short trailer.
AI technology jackpot, huh… I’m getting more and more excited.
“And at the end, my brother left me with one meaningful line.”
“...?”
“He said the gaming industry is about to be ruled by that game.”