"No creature is born inherently evil." - the Song of Mercy
There was a new game at the Store.
"Heavenly-Defying Master" as the name suggested was an immersive role-playing game with an oriental-style fantasy background. Not that rare a thing to see nowadays, considering the recent boom of cultivation novels and the whole wave of BL-dramas sharks biting into the young-adult oriented products and tearing the former king - isekai - to shreds. The only reason this particular game seemed to stand out so much was the fact that during the character creation process, there was literally not a single "good" option to choose from.
You either played on the side of the evil or not played the game at all.
"So we are the bad guys?" Astra chimed in, throwing herself onto one of your shoulders. For the last three years or so she was a perfectly passable table mate, a generally nice person to chat with and a terrible snoop to stick around. Which pretty much made her your obligatory best friend, obviously. "Nice!"
"What got you so excited, lightbulb? With the exams rolling by, there's no chance in hell we'll be able to play it."
Life was unfair like that. High school was a terrible low-budget romcom full of plot holes where you were content with the role of a decently unseen background character number 5. If the genre would suddenly change into horror, you'll either die first or stick till the end, only to add some high-energy drama to the main pair with a predictable betrayal.
Astra on the other hand was a female lead material kind of girl. Not only was she an embodiment of sunshine stuck into a girl's body for reasons untold, she was also a literal Little Mistress of an Ancient, Wealthy As Heck Family. A Clan Princess, no less! Even the reason you two went to the same school was cliché - the sheltered greenhouse flower had run away from home to experience the life of the commoners.
That's pretty much how the two of you met, really. She was a stupidly nice person not all there in her head and ready to get mugged for dear life, and you were passing by and bored enough to help her. Little you knew at the moment that this princess has a soul of a starved dog. You feed her once, and she would never let you get away.
So, after the incident, the superpowers of money did their dirty thing and Astra was begrudgingly placed into your class. And that's how the two of you were stuck together for almost three years now.
"Suuuure thing. But Kama-chan, can we at least make up our charas and get some cool names?" Oh, the fates were cruel. She had used her hidden God-level technic on you. The Peerless Eyes of Hopeful Longing! Too low, Little Star, far too low!
"We will not play till the exams are over." Where was no jumping off that burning bus now. You were onboard and had already fastened your seatbelt. The only rational thing left to do was to take the wheel in your hands and steer it away from the danger roads.
Was this how life will always play out for the two of you? With Kamelia Young slowly growing to be a professional caretaker and trusted, rational right-hand woman for her little princess? If so, maybe the life wasn't all that bad.
"Sounds fair. But now you have to promise to choose the same fraction as me!" She was a daughter of a noble birth. You give her a handful, and she shreds your whole hand to pieces. "This way we will stay together forever, even in the game!"
"What fractions are there anyway?"
Time to choose!
[ ] Rogue Cultivator – those who don't follow the rules are trash yet those who leave behind their friends for the rules are worse than trash, as the saying goes.
Rogue Cultivators' faction as name suggests are mostly consisted of runaway disciples of various righteous sects. By deciding upon this option, the player would either become a first-generation Rogue with a cleverly made-up reason for their betrayal of the sect or the child of an already created rogue cultivator.
-[ ] First of her name. You are the one who run away.
-[ ] Runs in the family. Your parents did the deed.
Opens further [Rogue Cultivator] character creation. Race is [Human] by default. You will spawn in the [Human Realm].
[ ] Demonic Cultivator – peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Demonic Cultivators are notorious abominable counterparts to their righteous reflections. By utilizing the vices of a human being and engraving it into their Dao they challenge the heavens to their will. And bear the scars of heaven's wrath in turn. Balancing the thin line of a human being and an abominable ghost is a hard path to take. And yet those who succeed make the heaven tremble.
Opens further [Demonic Cultivator] character creation. Race is [Human] or [Abomination] by choice. You will spawn in the [Human Realm].
[ ]
Demon Cultivator – it takes a village to rise a child, after all.
Residing in the boiling pot of blood of the Endless Abyss, these creatures find their own way of cultivation and their own way of life. Vastly different even among themselves, the demons claim four great continents and an innumerable amount of smaller isles as their domain. Hated by gods and monsters alike, demons spat at the heaven's will and take the fate into their own hands.
Opens further [Demon Cultivator] character creation. Race is [Demon] by default. You will spawn in the [Endless Abyss].