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There were other optional downsides, picked from common traits amongst vampire stories, which could be added in exchange for +10 points to any base skill.

At first Kou thought that only an idiot would choose to be at a disadvantage like that.

But after looking at it more closely, he found out that those extra points did not count for the max cap of 100 points, letting him become even stronger if he wanted.

In other words he could break past the limits that way, including the overall cap of 1200 points across all Skills.

Seeing it from that perspective, it was easy to imagine some extreme situation where having that advantage could decide whether he won or lost, which was quite appealing to him.

And there was something else he thought… it would help a lot with roleplaying.

He had been lucky enough to get a unique character, so getting as much enjoyment from that with both Skills and roleplaying made sense for any gamer.

Only…

“I’ll definitely have to pass on Pure-Blooded though.”

After reading further, Kou sighed as he said that.

While he could become stronger, the additional stats very enticing to him, Weakness to Sunlight (Strong) was more than enough downsides to his character.

Losing 5% every second was too much, it was almost like asking to die. Having the tick rate be 3 or 5 seconds would have been far more reasonable.

So with a very hesitant finger, he chose to be a Mixed-Blooded Noble Red. Then from the optional downsides he opted out from No Reflection on Mirrors.

VR games were entirely in first person.

In other words, the only way for someone to see their own avatar was on mirrors, or some other reflective object.

So choosing that downside meant that Kou would have no way of seeing his own appearance, something he had been unable to do so far too. In a way, that was a harsh punishment.

The other downsides would have affected his daily activities more though, as they included things like Unable to Cross Running Water, or Unable to Enter Houses Uninvited. Those could get him in far trickier situations.

Many of the downsides correlated with common traits of vampires, and in the end he decided they were not worth the risk.

Kou had wanted to put points into his various Mastery Skills too, but those would naturally go up as long as he used a weapon, so he held back from that.

But Fall Resistance and Health Regeneration would only gain points if he fell from very high places repeatedly, or took a lot of damage from enemies and waited for his HP to regenerate, which all sounded like too much effort, so he put many points there.

There was a Shadow Magic ability that he wanted that required 30 points to unlock though, so he put some points there too.

Then there was Hemomancy, if he used it too much, he would eventually need to replenish the blood he had, which would be extremely difficult for him. So he put the most points there.

He had no point of comparison though, so he had no idea if he would start as a strong character or as a weak one.

“Well, I’ll just deal with it somehow.”

With that optimistic view, he lastly entered his character’s name. Like always, instead of Kou, he chose the first four letters of crimson, writing ‘Crim’ and pressed the Done button.

A moment later the huge dome above began cracking, before shattering into countless twinkling fragments, and a light that grew so bright it blinded him.

Eventually the light faded, letting his view recover.

He blinked a few times, and then he finally saw… a scenery that was not a lively citiscape.

“…Ruins?”

He rose up from where he rested, something that resembled a stone coffin, and examined his surroundings.

He was in a crumbling stone shrine, the stones nearby worn down and abandoned for a long time, as plenty of plants had creeped in and no one had removed them.

A portion of the ceiling had also caved in, but there was no blue sky visible through it, only the lush leaves of trees.

“Hmm… where am I?”

According to the manual, as soon as a player was done creating their character, they would be spawned into the Starting City Wyndham.

But no matter how much he tried to look at it from a positive viewpoint, he was obviously nowhere near a human settlement.

Kou’s mumbled question was only met with the wild and slightly unsettling cawing of crows.