It didn't take long to get the hang of virtual travel. The Game Interface had added a transport panel to Starboy's inventory as soon as he'd signed the contract, and after It had explained to him how to use it, he'd had absolutely no trouble. Literally all he had to do was stand on the pad, and when the world map showed up in his vision, he selected the area where he wanted to go with his mind and was instantly transported there. It was easy.
Since he wasn't fond of his default haircut, he figured the first place he should go was the shopping centre. According to the Game Interface, there was a salon there where he'd be allowed to spend his starting allowance of 1000 free credits on a selection of different hair styles and colours. He could even change his fur pattern or eye colour if he wanted, but he wondered if that would be too expensive. You get credits in this game by selling items and playing mini-games, he remembered. Right after the salon I'll go look for some and see if I can earn some extra for a change of clothes. He looked down at what the Interface had given him: a plain white tee-shirt and old-looking, faded jeans. He didn't have any shoes yet. Since the terrain and weather in-game couldn't hurt the players, shoes and protective clothing were not technically necessary, but Starboy felt weird about being dressed so shabbily. People would judge him poorly if he didn't dress nice. He wanted to make friends, but first he wanted to make sure he could make a good impression.
The shopkeeper NPCs at the salon seemed friendly. They looked like male and female versions of the same avatar, as if they were meant to be twins, and they were very pretty. They spoke with Russian accents.
Starboy looked through the holographic catalog and tried on different hairstyles until he found one he liked. It was a little bit shaggy and made him look like a rockstar, he thought, and it had blue highlights in it. It was only 199 credits, so he bought it, and then he decided to go ahead and blow 120 more on matching electric-blue "eyelights" (instead of fully changing his eye colour, they just added a layer of blue sparkle on top of the already-existing dark grey colour) and 600 to change his fur to a rusty orange colour. When he only had 81 credits left and was unable to afford anything else, he left the salon and studied himself in a mirror outside. He looked edgy and cool. At least, he would if he could get some decent clothes.
He wandered through the shopping centre, looking at the items on display. There were clothes, shoes, costumes, accessories, furniture, even pets. Some items, he found by reading their descriptions, were only able to be worn by certain races or genders. Others could be worn or used by anyone. There was also an option to add items he wanted to a wishlist if he didn't have the credits to buy it just yet. He started thinking about how he wanted his avatar to look and what items he'd need to make it. He added a few things to his wishlist but didn't go crazy with it just yet. I need to find out how easy it is to earn credits, he thought. Then I'll know which items are affordable and which ones I should stay away from. One item in particular caught his eye.
It was a pair of super high-top converse-style shoes in the same colour blue as Starboy's hair and eyes, and they seemed to glow with some sort of magic power. According to the item description, wearing these shoes would make him 20% faster and more agile than normal. He looked at the price: 10000 credits. These were very expensive shoes. Starboy sighed. Well, at least I can dream. He added them to his wishlist anyway and turned to leave the shopping centre. He figured he'd done enough looking for today and decided not to come back until he had enough credits to buy at least one thing from his wishlist, preferably more.
On his way toward the nearest transport panel, Starboy noticed a dimly-lit shop with a sign above it that said 18+. He was pretty sure he knew the nature of the items in that shop, but he wondered exactly what sort of those items would be found in a game like this. Why would this game even have that kind of stuff? He was old enough to go into the shop, but he decided to leave it for another day, even though his curiosity was peaked. It's not like he wanted to buy anything from it, at least not at that particular point in his life. At the moment, he was eager to start earning some coin to buy his new clothes.
Passing the adult shop, Starboy stepped onto the transport panel and warped to the outside, where he would begin his quest for credit-awarding mini-games.
