Pale Continent, Gemstone Grassland.
Dawn was just breaking.
Seven silver-blue streaks formed a V, slicing through the amber daylight and tracing smooth, intersecting arcs above the boundless green fields.
They swooped down, skimming the sea of grass and stirring up overlapping green waves with a tide-like rustling.
Then they climbed, roaring across the sky.
The camera abruptly zoomed in.
At the head of the formation was an elegantly streamlined Firmament Ray. Its broad, translucent wing membranes refracted dreamlike halos of ice blue and pale violet in the sunlight. It glided silently, like an enormous crystal petal borne on the wind.
A figure stood on its back.
His long, pale-blue hair hung loose, streaming freely behind him like a waterfall, while his lightweight robes, embroidered with flowing cloud patterns, billowed in the wind.
On either side, six slightly smaller Firmament Rays spread their slender wings, weaving a fluid formation around him. They turned, climbed, and dived at his will, the air currents parted by their wingtips trailing fleeting white lines in the sunlight, like improvised calligraphy with the sky as its canvas and the wind as its brush.
At that moment, the player's gaze was focused on the video call in the upper-left corner.
Onscreen, a middle-aged figure who resembled him was enjoying a meal by the coast, a greatsword strapped to his back and a pretty Spiritlight woman seated beside him.
The middle-aged player bit into his grilled fish, narrowing his eyes in satisfaction. He smiled at the woman beside him, then turned back to the screen. "Son, look at this sea, this fish, this life... ah, this is the life. Things are so good nowadays. Every household has a Game Pod. Lie down inside, and you have a whole world. Nothing like back then..."
The middle-aged player smacked his