CH 1

One year has passed again. My school grades has resulted in an unchanged class. I am still that solitary school student. But, my personal life has changed a little.

There’s a corrugated paper box in my room. I suppress my overjoyed heart and take out the contents within it slowly. This is a delicate instrument that can be broken if it is just knocked a little, so I use special care to take it out and open it.

“Woahhh!”

After opening the paper wrapping, the unique smell of a new machine and the silvery shine that comes from it cause me to shout out. The thing that’s in front of me, is the virtual reality system helmet —– known as “ValGear”. The size of it allows me to use a single hand to pick it up, and it’s a necessary item to play [Another World].

The first virtual reality prototype machine was huge, and they did not truly allow one to truly enter the virtual space, as it read the data from within the virtual reality and then transmitted it into the body. Thanks to technology advancements, the machines now only require to send a fake signal to the brain and let one experience virtual reality —– All these things that were difficult to understand were written in a manual that’s heavy and thick.

This particular one I have here is a relatively advanced version. One of this would need approximately 60 months worth of a high school student’s pocket money, and that’s certainly a sum that a student can hardly afford.

When I entered my details to become a beta tester, I did not know how much ValGear costs, and I found out that it was a frightening sum after I checked the retail price.

Furthermore, ValGear also requires a computer, and to sum it up, if a high school student wants to play this game, the prerequisite costs would have deterred him long ago. That’s not all, since ValGear has nearly no other uses other than playing this game, no one would consider buying this, other than gamers with a surplus budget.

But I have heard that there will be a cheaper version of ValGear this autumn, so perhaps it is normal to wait until then to buy it.

Because of the above reasons, the number of applicants for the closed beta testing were numerous. There was only two hundred slots, and at the end of the application date, they announced that the chance to get in was only 2500 to 1, which meant that there were over five hundred thousand applicants. The games that I played in the past had only fifty thousand players, and I believe anyone would be able to understand the difference here.

But come to think of it, I really did not expect to be selected. When I saw the announcements on the ratio, I had already given up hope, and wanted to say “I surely couldn’t be picked right.”, but it seems like I must have used up all my luck in this lifetime.

None of my classmates was selected to become a tester…….. And when I heard this news in school I was momentarily stunned, and it seemed like I needed to change my initial plans.

How about telling them that I received the qualifications to become a beta tester, and invite them to my home to play….. No, this will not work. [Another World] is a Full-Dive VRMMORPG, and only one person can play this game by using ValGear. Truly, if there’s only one person playing at any given time and the rest of them look on at his strange behavior when he’s in the game, it would not be fun at all right?

Then how about I don’t invite them, but instead tell them that I played [Another World] and talk about it? No, that will not pass either. If we’re already friends, that might not become a problem, but if I talk about this topic when I do not have any particular connections to them, they might come to regard me as a person who likes to brag. I don’t want to do anything that might cause them to hate me, when they are my best chances to become friends.

Then, I should hide the fact that I’m playing [Another World]? They once said, even though they really wanted to play [Another World], they simply could not afford the current ValGear, and would wait for the cheaper ValGear that is going to be released in autumn. So, I should make use of this advantage to play this game in advance, and gather the relevant information on playing [Another World]? And when they started to encounter any problems, I will be right there to provide assistance. Right, I will do that!

Since I decide on that particular strategy, I should start playing now.

I read the thick manual to completion, connect the machine wires, adjust some of the settings and finally crawl into bed with the ValGear worn on my head.

I turn on the switch.

Immediately, I lose my consciousness as if I have fallen asleep, and my whole body is submerged in a space of white emptiness. I am certainly wearing the ValGear right now, but it did not seem to appear on my head right now and there is only bright light in front of my eyes.

Huh? Did I set something wrongly?

“Welcome to, [Another World]!”

Just when I am tilting my head and pondering on what to do, a voice suddenly speaks to me. Following the source of the voice, I turn my gaze over to the direction and find a young girl standing before me. She looks slightly younger than me, with a pair of cat-like eyes and a cheerful smile, giving off a cute impression. Her clothes are mostly white in color, and the design of it is literally shouting [I’m cosplaying~!].

How the heck did she even get into these clothes? I am a little curious over it. Even though the light green hair that she had would not appear in the real world, it was unexpectedly suitable for her.

“What’s wrong? Hello, this player over here?”

The young girl looks at me with my delayed reaction puzzledly. It is not a solution to be silent, so I shall just try asking something.

“….. Erm, is this really a game?”

“Yes, it’s a game! But to be precise, the game has not started yet, and we are still at the stage of character settings.”

Wooah.

Hmm, I’m still at the character design stage. This certainly is similar to other net games. The first thing to do is to set the basic character settings, otherwise without this step completed, I probably could not enter the game. But now that I think about it, who is she? (TL: Thank you, captain obvious.)

“Ah! I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Themis, and I’m the AI to aid the players in [Another World]. I’m also a NPC. Pleased to meet you.” (TL: テミス – It TLes to Themis and you can wiki this name up if you want to know.)

NPC! When she mentions this, I recall that the manual has something like this written in it. Considering that many players would be troubled over the VRMMORPG’s controls, and to allow the game to progress smoothly, every player will receive their own personal AI. It was also written that all the AI helpers would be completely different. I have thought that it would be a cat or dog or an animal that’s something similar, but to think that it would be a girl.

But….. Apart from her hair color, she looks no different from a normal person. Rather than say a normal person, she’s more like an extremely beautiful girl.

How should I say this. I’m amazed with the advancement of technology when I look at the incredibly realistic girl in front of me.

When I know that she’s a NPC, I feel less nervous and I think I can converse properly with her.

“This player here, please tell me your name before entering this game. It will become your fixed in-game name, so please pay attention when picking one.”

As Themis finishes speaking, a four sided panel appears in front of my eyes, looks like it’s the menu settings.

Hmm…… My name, alright, let me use a name that I picked when I played from my past net games.

“I will use the name [Chaos].”

Chaos…… [混沌], such a Chuuni name. The name display has been filled with the word [Chaos.] (TL: His in-game name is Chaos/katakana. The moon runes are Chaos/kanji.)

“Chaos-san right? I understand. Then, let us begin with the character’s settings.”

Character settings…… It refers to the player’s virtual character inside the net game. The character’s appearance and abilities are decided at this stage, so I should carefully choose every detail.

“A character can change their gender, race, profession, appearance, and stats distribution.”

“What sort of races and professions are there?”

“There are four races, Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Beastman. There are no differences in terms of strength, but in [Estobia], the majority would be humans, while the other races are considerably lesser.”  (TL: イストピア > Estobia)

“As for the professions, the current basic professions that are specialized in combat are, warriors, archers, thieves, magicians, priests. And production professions would be blacksmiths and alchemists. Even though the production professions are able to create items, they are weaker in combat skills.

The only profession that can use magic skills are, magicians, priests and alchemists, while the other professions are unable to use them. Instead, the professions that are unable to use magic would be able to learn physical combat techniques. Also, priests are able to learn healing magic.

Once a character reaches level 50, they would be able to change their professions to a higher ranking one by completing missions.”

Hmm, there are seven different types here. This is quite a dilemma. Even though I want to try the production professions like the alchemist, I am a little troubled when Themis said their combat skills are weaker. That is because I do not know if I have the chance to party with other players, and if I played like my previous net games and end up Bocchi-ing, I have to rely on my own to battle. If that is the case, I need to have a certain degree of combat skills.

Indeed, I should choose the combat professions. With the same reasoning, even though priests have recovery magic spells, their attack techniques are also lesser in number, so I should not consider them. As for thieves, I would forget about it. Even if the stats are the same, I had my lessons learned when I played other net games.

So warriors, archers and magicians? Using arrows and swords seem to be dashing indeed, but magic attacks are cool too. Wait…. How do you aim when you use arrows and magic? What sort of actions do I need to do when I use the techniques? If it was like the old games, if I just press a button, and the character will follow a preset attack. But it will not work in this game, since the one who is really moving is myself. I have never fired an arrow before, and I only learned to use the sword a little in my school physical lessons.

“Hey Themis, what sort of actions do I need to do when I attack or use a technique? Because I have never used a bow and arrows before, I am unable to attack at all if there is no assistance in my actions.”

“When you use archery or skill techniques, the system will adjust the player’s movements. Even though techniques differ from one another, if the character goes beyond the correct position for executing the techniques like laying down on the ground, you would be unable to execute them. Please take note of this point.

In regards to a normal attack, no matter what actions you do, as long as you hit the enemy you would cause damage to them, so there is no need to adjust for that.”

Eh, isn’t that troublesome? I can understand the assistance for executing techniques, as some of these techniques are actions that cannot be fulfilled in reality. If they had to be done completely from scratch, one would surely find it impossible to execute them without the the assistance.

For an example, if there was a technique that needed to jump over an enemy’s head and then strike down from that position, then it would be a technique that could not be used if you do not jump. Players themselves would have to do that jump.

It is easy to understand the explanation of ‘laying down on the ground and not be able to execute the technique’, because you simply cannot jump from that position, not to even mention executing the technique. The same goes for magic techniques, as they have to go through the computer’s assistance since they do not exist in the real world.

But if I don’t have any assistance with normal attacks, then that would mean I had to attack based on the movements in the real world. If that’s the case, I would become an amateur who is going to swing the weapon like a madman. An amateur who does not even know how to wield a sword, while attacking a like crazed person during normal times, but performing artistic like actions when I execute techniques —– One weird warrior has appeared.

Wahhh….. That’s super lame.

I don’t think that I can do exciting battles like the historic dramas, since these are actors who have trained vigorously to be able to perform smooth flowing action. For someone like myself who only attended a few sword lessons during physical classes, I will probably look terrible wielding one. I should remove warrior from my options.

Then archer and magician are left…… Okay, I decided. I’ll choose magician. It is extremely cool using magic right? Besides, if I chose archer, I have to worry about whether I have enough arrows, and it would be tough playing that profession.

“Alright, I have decided on male, human, profession is magician. I will leave it to you.”

“Understood! Next is stats distribution, how would you distribute them?”

“What types of stats are there?”

“There are six types, [Strength], [Physique], [Dexterity], [Agility], [Intelligence], [Will]. Every time your level is raised you will receive stat points, and players can distribute them freely to become stronger. [Strength] affects close range battle’s attack, [Physique] affects physical defence and HP (health points). [Dexterity] affects ranged attack, while [Agility] affects speed. [Intelligence] affects magic attack, and [Will] affects magic defence. Even though [Intelligence] and [Will] are related to MP, that area is affected by other variants, so they cannot be classified together.”

There are six types….. Since I am using a magician, I would surely have many skills, so it’s best if I raise my [Intelligence]. In comparison, [Strength], [Dexterity] and [Agility] seemed to be unnecessary since magicians lack physical attack techniques.

“According to Chaos-san’s profession, your most relevant stats are [Intelligence] and [Will]. With the game’s settings, these two stats will raise a little magic attack and defence. In addition, hit rate and evasion are based on the player’s feedback, and therefore there are no such stats in this game.”

The stats distribution seemed to be similar to the past games, and it should be fine if I distribute them like this. The only difference here is Themis’s explanation on hit rate and accuracy to be based on the player’s techniques. But on this point, I will think of it as a game that requires good control.

“Everything on [Intelligence].”

“All in on DPS right! Certainly, compared to other professions, the good points of a magician is their high magic attack and AOE skills. In comparison, your skills will consume a lot of mana and your physical defence and HP will be low, is that fine?”

“Yes, no problems at all.”

Indeed this game is the same. Typically the professions that use the magic skills, will mostly have high DPS and powerful AOE techniques that kills the foes quickly. But their HP is low and their defence is like a piece of paper. If an enemy slips past, these characters would be instantly killed. The magic professions will try to make up for these weaknesses by raising their evasion or HP, or party up with other players to protect them. Since I don’t know if I can party up successfully, I should raise my [Physique] when I level up.

…… Even though that should be the case, I just chose to go all in on DPS. I think I will just continue playing with the mindset of [kill or be killed]. In any case, the stats distribution comes to an end.

“What do you intend to do with your appearance? I’ll call up the character’s appearance now.”

As soon as Themis finished talking, there is a full 3D body that appeared in front of my eyes. It seems like the basic appearance bases itself on the person’s real world appearance. I have never looked at myself from a high angle, and I feel  really amazed by it. When I am staring at myself, another four sided panel appears in front of me. It seems to be the editor, but…..

“Isn’t this a little too difficult right?”

There are simply too many options in the display. I don’t know changing what options will lead to what change in my body parts, and complicated to the point of not being to use it. It is difficult to understand the meaning of the options by reading the user interface, and using instinct to try it out is impossible. Looks like I need to spend effort on using this.

“I’m terribly sorry. I will feedback your comments to the company to simplify the UI. Even though this is an inconvenience to you, but the only option is to let you spend more time to adjust this portion. The time to improve the Editor’s UI will probably take some time.”

Themis lowered her head with embarrassment. But she’s merely an AI helper, how is she going to report to the company? This AI Themis is done incredibly well, her answers are no different from a real person.

But changing the appearance is kind of difficult, what should I do….. Forget it, I will just play using this appearance. Setting my other options had taken quite a bit of time and I want to play as soon as possible.

“I’ll just use the basic appearance.”

“Understood. Then please tell me which starting point you would like to begin in the game. There are the starting points of Casstal’s kingdom capital Maldor, Baecasal’s empire Satbruken, and Commune United Kingdom’s Kreiman. The differences of these three are the only the locations.” (TL: The kingdoms are TLed from CN > EN. Expect changes in the future once I check the WN raws)

“Please help me set as Maldor.”

“Understood, transferring you now!”

There is a magical circle emitting green and white light appearing at the bottom of my feet, and I become enveloped by a piercing bright light. While I close my eyes, I transfer to [Estobia].

“Chaos-san, we’re here.”

When I hear Themis’s voice, I slowly open my eyes, but the surroundings make me lose my words.

Green, green, it is still green — I am situated in a place where there are only trees. When I raise my head, there is a ray of sunlight piercing through from the dense leaves’ small openings and I cannot help but squint my eyes. The forest releases a peculiar type of scent that can only come from vegetation, and the cool air from the tree shades is stimulating against my skin. I gingerly stretched my hand to feel the tree’s bark, and actually felt the even texture from it.

Wow. Everything here looks like the real thing, but this is only virtual reality!

“It’s too amazing! I can feel everything with my five senses, isn’t this no different from the real world!”

“That’s right, they spent a lot of effort on this because the company placed a lot of importance in recreating the real thing!”

Themis’s tone was full of self confidence. When I looked at the [Another World] on the television screen, I only thought [it really looks like the real thing] and that was it. To think they even made it feel like the real world. Their slogan [do you want to experience a new world with your own body?], is not an exaggeration.

But……. is this place really Maldor? There does not seem to be any city buildings and also no human presence too. Surely it is not a kingdom that co-exist with nature, and the humans live deep within the forest right?

“When I look clearly now I’m in the forest, is this really Maldor? Eh? Where are you Themis?”

Even though I keep hearing Themis’s voice, I am unable to find her presence anywhere. Actually, rather than saying her voice went through my ears, her voice is resounding directly in my mind.

“In order not to disrupt the player, I will hide by default. If there are any help needed, just give me a call and I will appear, like this!”

When she finishes speaking, she suddenly appears in front of my eyes. It is certainly true that an AI helper like her is supposed to aid the players in the game, but if she is accompanying them by their side, they might find her to be very annoying.

“Ara……. This is not Maldor hah…….”

—— I seem to have heard something really dangerous.

Themis looks left and right and then stays in a daze at her original position.

“Erm, even though the location is within the Casstal’s kingdom, but this isn’t Maldor. The capital is located in the center of the kingdom, and if that is set as the destination, then this place is located to the southern west. I deeply apologize, but it seems that something has gone wrong with the teleportation.”

This problem crops up from the start…… Are you sure it really is okay if something like this comes without warning? But it is also true that the goal of the beta test is to discover problems like this. If the starting location is off, then why not take a few steps to go back? It is not a solution to keep complaining here, so I should just ask how the game controls work.

“I’ll leave it to you to report the error. There’s one more thing, is there any tutorial for teaching the new players? I want to be familiar with the basic controls.”

“If you want to learn it, then let me explain some of the basic controls. First of all, the computer needs to confirm the information from the player. If you think about [I want to see the character’s information], [Open up the character’s information panel] or other commands similar to it, the window would appear in the air.”

I only just need to think about it? Character information, appear before me! …….. It really comes out, I see, so this is the character’s information panel.

“Players can confirm the various stats from the window. According to the game rules, you can gain XP by defeating monsters, but your stats will not increase when you level up. When you level up, you have to go into this window panel and put in your stat points to increase the various stats. If you only wish to confirm your HP and MP stats, the system has a simplified function to display only these two different types of data. Please take note that once you distribute your stats, the effect will be permanent and no further changes can be made. Then, please use the same method to open the skill menu.”

The window changes to the skill menu. There were nearly hundred of icons, where arrow heads pointed to a messy and complicated tree-shaped map —- but this tree shaped map did not extend endlessly. When I reach the starting point, the icons that are displayed can be counted with my fingers —– The very first one that comes from the top is [Magic Bullet LV.1] with the arrow pointing downwards lit up, while the rest of the icons and arrows were dark in color. If every icon represented a skill, then I am able to learn quite a lot of them.

“This  is the skill menu. From here the players can confirm the skills that they already learned, the next skill that is connected by the tree, as well as the controls for using the skill. When you distribute the skill points, you require the points that you receive during a level up. The icons that are lit up shows the skill that players can use now, while the arrows that are lit up means you can distribute stat points to the next few icons. Normally, if you don’t follow the skill-tree, you would be unable to learn the skill. Currently, the only skill you can use is the attack magic [Magic Bullet].”

“What does LV 1 means on the Magic Bullet?”

“It represents the level of the skill. You can spend your skill points on leveling them up, and the highest you can go is LV 5. By strengthening the skills, you can boost their power and range, as well as shortening the casting time and cooldown. But, the stronger a skill is, the longer it takes for the original casting time and cooldown. Please take note of that.”

That is a headache. Should I spend points on learning new magic or strengthening what I have now? Since the points are limited, I still have to take note on not spending points of the weaker magic skills in the early stage of the game.

“How do you activate the skills?”

“When you shout out the magic skill you can activate it…… Ah, you don’t need to shout the level of the skill out okay. Even though some skills might require some actions, but you can do the same thing as calling our your character screen, it will be fine to think about it in your mind. But most of the early game skills are straightforward in its path, so you don’t need to do all these steps.”

So it is voice activated, suddenly I feel like the technology has regressed. I will try it in any case.

“[Magic Bullet].”

Huh? Nothing happened?

“The skill was not activated, did something go wrong again?”

“No, I have not finished yet…… Besides the incorrect posture or insufficient MP, there are a few situations that will not permit users to activate the skill. For a magician, if you don’t equip a magic staff you cannot activate the skills.”

“I see, if I don’t carry an equipment that is related to the skills I can’t activate them hmm. But I don’t have a magic staff.”

“Your initial equipment — The magic staff is placed into the inventory window, you should take it out now. Please open your inventory window.”

I changed the screen to the inventory panel, and there icons displaying potions and a magic staff.

“This is the inventory panel. Players can place items or take them out from here. The method to take them out is to touch the item, please touch the staff’s icon on the screen now.”

When I touched the icon, it disappears, and replaces it is a magic staff instantly appearing in my hands—-

It certainly is a novice equipment, rather than saying this is a magic staff, this is more like a wooden staff —-  and at the same time there is a popup displaying for the magic staff’s information stats. It is really convenient with the information window appearing once I hold it in my hands. There is one other thing, I do not know when my clothes changed into a long robe and cloak, which are also the classic clothes for a magician. Perhaps I changed into them when I got teleported here? There were too many astounding things that happened one after another, and I only notice this change now.

“When you wish to put the items back into the inventory panel: Just think of [Place the items away] will do. As long as it an item, the size would not matter and can be kept away. On the whole, items that are not taken out cannot be used, but if you require to use something like a potion or similar recovery items, you can use them directly without taking them out from the inventory window. This function is called the [Emergency usage]. But once that is done, players would be unable to take the items out from the inventory panel temporarily, and they would not be able to use the [Emergency usage] a second time. Please take note of that.”

As I listen to Themis’s explanation, I try practicing by putting the staff in and taking it out again. After all, there would be no time take a potion during battles as it would break my concentration. I should pay serious attention to this aspect.

“Please open the map for your next step. The map panel can display the kingdom’s overall map and a map of Chaos-san’s surrounding locations. Chaos-san’s map will display the nearby enemies, NPCs and players.”

I call out the overall map on the map screen and find there is a blue mark on top of it, appearing on the south western area on the [Maldor]’s location. Looks like this mark represents my current location. I change back to the map of my surroundings. There are barriers that appear to be from trees. There is also the function of zooming in and out to prevent any blocking of visibility. Themis is indicated with with a green mark, and besides her, there are several red marks and another green mark in the surroundings.

“Do these red marks represent enemies?”

“Yes, the red marks represent enemies that are attacking a certain target, and yellow marks represent enemies that are not attacking a target. Do you wish to go there?”

Since Themis’s mark is green, does that mean the NPC is also a NPC? A NPC surrounded by magical beasts…… and is being attacked by them? Is this something like a mission or event? That is kind of interesting.

“Okay, let’s go over and take a look.”

“Understood, in order not to disrupt the battle, I will hide myself temporarily.”

Themis disappears after saying that. This is my first battle in this game, and I gripped the magic staff tightly with my heart raring to go with full of expectations, and ran towards the red marks.

It is easier than I have expected to move the character, and I run for about two minutes before reaching the destination. Since the one who is moving is the character, I naturally did not feel tired.

What enters my eyes was a young girl who is close to my age, seemingly from a village nearby. She is surrounded by seven or eight wolves and they are about to pounce on her. If this is a mission, surely it feels like a [Save the village girl from the pack of wolves] right? (TL: Yes, save the girl from a pack of ‘wolves’!)

“Are the wolves strong?”

“These are forest wolves, level 1. The names and level will be reflected on the magical beasts’ heads, please take the information into consideration during battles.”

As I listen to her, I peer to the front and find out the wolves are indicated with a green status bar and the name [Forest Wolf Lv 1]. Amongst them is a wolf with a green status bar filled with some red on the right side, and on the other hand, a girl with a green status bar.

It looks like the status bar is the health bar, green represents the HP bar, green represents the remaining HP while red represents the HP loss. If the HP bar is completely red it would represent death.

It seems that I do not have any more time to think about it, the event has started, and a wolf starts to approach her with its fangs bared to attack!

“[Magic Bullet]”

I cast the magic spell onto the attacking wolf. As it is a starting magic spell, the skill is activated in an instant, and there is a streak of purple lightning that appears at the tip of the magic staff, and hurls accurately to the forest wolf. The wolf gives a shriek and collapsed to the floor without getting up. The HP bar has turned red in the blink of an eye, and it looks like I successfully defeated it. As expected from putting all the points into the intelligence stats, I actually killed it with one blow. As a result of my attack, all the wolves’ line of sight gathered onto me.

But it really is quite scary to see all the forest wolves rushing at me with low growls. I suppress my fears and continue to keep on using [Mana Bullet], trying my best to start attacking the ones with the lowest levels. [Mana bullet]’s cooldown is really short, with the time between two attacks to be nearly zero. In addition the required MP is also very little, so I can keep on using it without stop.

Still, the enemies hold the advantage in numbers. One of the wolves which has the highest level bypassed my attacks and approached closely to me.

Help——

Fear makes my reaction slower by a beat, and even though I try evading to the side when the wolf comes at me, my right arm still transmits waves of impact…… What surprises me is the feeling of a classic controller vibrating on my right arm. There are claw marks on the wounds, but it did not hurt at all.

I check my character’s status and my HP has dropped by half, but it seems like I am fine otherwise.

I see, so this game does not really have the sensations of pain. If I think about it, it makes sense. If this game was created to have the same sensations of pain in reality, this game would not have been permitted to be relased in the market. It seems like the game will only cause a physical reaction to where the injuries are, to remind the player which body part has received an attack.

Since I know there is no pain now, then there is nothing to be afraid at all. With that line of thought, I start to feel that the attacks from the wolves are nothing much, how fascinating indeed. I giggle to myself inwardly, these wolves are nothing special at all.

From that point onwards, I keep releasing [Mana Bullet] and successfully defeated the wolves, then sighed with relief and look back at the young girl. I did not have any concentration left to spare during the battle. It seems she has just sat there in a daze throughout the whole time, but with this outcome the problem is solved right?

Honestly, is she really a NPC? No matter how I look at her, she looks no different from a human being. Even though I’m not as surprised since I saw Themis’s as a preexisting example, but her expressions are too lifelike. From how she appears, she is shocked by my appearance and even hold some form of wariness to me.

……. Why am I getting treated this way when I did things to such an extent. Her attitude now is literally treating my existence like a criminal, with no holes in her guard.

Normally, when you see someone helping out to solve the magical beasts that is attacking you, you would normally say [That was really a close one, thanks for helping me out here.] or similar words of thanks, and the attitude should be quite friendly right?

I keep staring at her. Maybe I am overdoing it by looking at her too much, I get the sense that she’s becoming even more frightened and wary of me. WIth the silent atmosphere hanging in the air every passing second, even a bocchi person like myself has started to sense something wrong with the situation.

Could it be that I have mistaken something? This place is completely desolate. If it is something like a mission, it will surely appear at some noticeable building or cave. Will the game company really make an attacking event in wilderness like this? A NPC surrounded by wolves that keeps on waiting for a player to rescue her —– That’s too bizarre, and I laugh when I think about this point.  (TL: Surrounded by ‘wolves’, can I join in with the surrounding? Cough.)

But, the girl who sees me laughing shrieks a little. This makes me feel like I am bullying some form of small animal, help me, I feel like I cannot take this anymore.

When I look at her again while my thoughts spin in my mind, I notice a wooden staff at the side of her feet. Eh…… Even though it looks like a wooden staff, but that might be a magic staff? Maybe she was not just receiving attacks from the wolves, but battling with them? There was a wolf with some damage to the HP bar, then things are different. Maybe she is not a NPC, but a player like me ——

My face becomes green when I consider this possibility, I quickly confirm a thing with Themis.

“Themis, could it be that the green marks on doesn’t merely represent a NPC?”

“The green marks on the map represents both NPC and players desu.”

Just like I thought —- When I get this fact, my entire body is flushed with cold perspiration, because she’s really a player in this game. Even though she is dressed like a village girl, but when I reflect upon it I have never seen what the default equipment is for a female player. If I did not guess wrongly, it means that she wanted to fight with the forest wolves, and I disrupted her. This is really bad…….. (TL: You know nothing, Jon S–, Chaos-san, You know nothing!)

When a player is fighting with an enemy, while another player did not get the original player’s permission and attack the same enemy, it is known as KS- Kill Steal. This not only causes trouble to other players, it is also something that violates the etiquette in a common MMORPG. This is because the EXP distribution is typically based on the DPS done by players. KS will cause the original player to get less EXP, and that is why it is seen as a taboo.

And it is also due to that reason that players often find areas that are far away from others. Of course, if the players themselves request for aid, that would not be a problem. However, this time it was completely wrong, and a mistake from my part by attacking without confirmation.

The outcomes of these scenarios would often lead to arguments, and if the situation is serious, the names might even be spread to the various forums. With that, the infamy of the players who KS-ing will spread everywhere, and sometimes even cause to them to stop playing.

This is a really a headache. And it’s all my fault, with none on her side. I better apologize sincerely to her, even if it was a mistake on my part, it was still my fault.

“Sorry.”

My guilt and shy personality caused my whole body to tremble, but I did my best and apologize to her by bowing deeply. Even though I am unable to look at her appearance and her reaction, but I hear something like a deep gasp, and a short while later she answers in a small voice: (TL: Chaos-san is so adorkable.)

“No, I’m the one, erm, sorry.”

Why is she apologizing to me? Did she feel embarrassed from being so guarded against me? Or did she forgive me? But to a Bocchi me, this tense atmosphere is making me fidget all over. I better leave before things get worse. When I lift my head up with this intention, I did not expect to see her smiling.

Did she really forgive me? —– She’s such a nice person, and if it we did not meet each other under this situation, we could have become friends damn it……. I actually made a friendly person so troubled, what I have done! My heart is full of guilty feelings and I do not have the mood to play anymore. The only thing I want to do now is logout of this game and go back to the real world.

When I think of that, there is a window display that pops up in front of my eyes. It is some form of information panel, and there is [Do you want to logout? Yes / No]. It seems like logging out is the same as calling up the character window, once I think about it the message will pop up and confirm.

“Do you want to logout from the game? It will take approximately ten seconds to do so, and if you get interrupted by magical creatures, you will be disrupted, please remember to check your surroundings and whether it is safe to do so.”

Themis did not forget to add her explanation. I thank her in my heart, and press the [Yes] icon to begin logging out. With that, the same magical circle appears at my feet, and I should be able to teleport out.

“M, may I know your name?”

The girl asks me in a panic.

“…… Chaos.”

Once I answer her, the light from logging out envelopes me, and as I close my eyes from the blinding light, I lose consciousness.

When I come to my senses it is pitch black in front of my eyes, and there is a heavy feeling on my head, making me realize that I have returned to reality. I carefully take ValGear out of my head and did a lazy stretch.

When I think about the girl that I just met in [Another World], I really did something that was terribly embarrassing. But from the attitude when she asked for my name, perhaps she wants to be friends with me. If that is the case, I might have lost out on a great chance. But I think I should not worry too much. The game has just started and I met a player immediately when I just logged in, I’m certain there will be many chances in the future and I should place my hope then!

In any case, I will put my destination as the kingdom of Maldor. There should be many players there and the chances to be friends will definitely increase. I still have to raise my levels from beating the magical beasts. Let me put in some serious effort tomorrow!

******************************************************************************

The Caro village is located in the southern part of Casstal, its population approximately two hundred, and is considered to be a small village. The residents there relies solely on agriculture. The remote road in the north-eastern village is a forked road that leads to the capital and to the Commune United Kingdom. As the road is very far away, few people pass by the village.

However, this road is an important lifeline to this village to be able to communicate with the outside world. As a village that even traveling merchants hardly come to, they would have difficulty in surviving if they did not rely on fixed intervals to sell their agriculture items and wooden supply to the capital. They would use the money from what they sell to buy the necessities for living. And now, the information that one of the resident has brought, became the biggest threat to the village’s survival.

“Are you certain?”

A man whose age was over half a century —– This village leader makes a bitter face, and asks in a heavy tone as if pleading to the heavens. The cadres surrounding the leader also wear grave expressions.

“There is absolutely no mistake about it. I saw it with my own eyes. This is the first time that I saw so many forest wolves appearing in the forked road.”

Everyone present there becomes silent when they listen to the young hunter, praying that is a joke.

The forest wolves —- normally would not appear on a road where humans travel. They are magical beasts that gathers only within the deep forest. If there is only one of them, they can send some adult males to drive it back, but a pack of wolves are completely different, and they needed the whole village to fight. But if that happens, there would be a definite loss, and the worst outcome was to lose the males within this village.

“The only way is to hire some adventurers to take care of this issue.”

“What sort of foolish nonsense is that, once you go onto the road you might encounter them, any number of lives will not be enough!”

Normally, when a road is built, they tend to be far away from the magical beasts nesting area, and the chance to encounter them would be low, therefore making it safer. But with a road that deviates from the above rules, one might encounter a magical beast’s nest without knowing and perish. This remote road that linked to the capital is not an exception.

“But no matter how long we wait, there will not be any adventurers coming to this desolate place.”

In order to fight against the magical beasts, it is a norm to hire adventurers to drive or vanquish them. Even if they could not find an adventurer in the village, once they go to the kingdom they could hire someone. But considering the fees, it is not something that can be easily done. In addition, the village’s location is in a remote place. Unless something serious happens, there were almost no adventurers that came.

“We have to wait for the kingdom’s army.”

“Didn’t I say it earlier, it’s not the main road but the remote one. This kingdom obviously will not place much importance to this village. How long are we going to wait? Before that, the people in the village would not be able to live on!”

Actually everyone present knows it clearly, there was no other way than to bring everyone to fight to the death. But who does not cherish their own lives? Therefore they were ignoring this solution where they would have to bet with their lives. They keep discussing without any resolution, and time passes by. By now the village leader also understands that there is no end in sight and decides to just bolster the defences to ensure safety.

“In any case, we can only tell the villagers there are forest wolves appearing, and it is dangerous and they should not go near the remote road. There might be other magical beasts appearing the nearby forests, and we need to warn everyone not to arbitrarily enter.”

“Help!”

Before the village leader finishes speaking, there is a young girl’s voice in the air. When the village leader and the cadres turn back to look, they discover a weak girl panting and sitting down on the ground with a look that she’s about to cry. This young girl is one of the villager’s residents. Her older sister, Lila, was fourteen years, and they are very close together.

“What’s wrong?!”

The girl comes to her senses when she gets yelled at by the village leader. Even though she is still a little dazed, she tries her best to tell everyone.

“Onee-chan, Onee-chan, she…… Forest, picking herbs in the forest, suddenly there were a lot of forest wolves! Onee-chan…… to let me run away, she used herself as bait, please, please save Onee-chan!”

“What!? Damn it, call every man in the village to take up a weapon! We are going to save Lila!”

The words of the young girl cause the villagers to stir, and everyone prepares to take up a weapon and handle this urgent situation.

*****************************************************************************

The young girl from the Caro village, Lila, resisted the fear with everything she had from the advancing magical beasts.

She and her younger sister came to the forest as usual to pick herbs. If they do not go deep within the forest, they would not encounter any magical beasts, and the two of them always held a cheerful feeling to stroll in the forest. It was nothing more than a common occurrence to the villagers.

When Lila finished picking the herbs and wondered if it was time to go back to the village, her younger sister suddenly looked and pointed at a place with disbelief.

“Onee-chan, what is that?”

Her younger sister was pointing at something that was a black spot. When Lila focused on it, she found it was a grey magical beast.

“Forest wolves……”

She had wanted to think why the forest wolves which only lived deep in the forest would appear here, but Lila immediately forgot about this question and only wanted to escape from this place.

“It’s a magical beast! Let’s run!”

The two sisters feelings were mired in uneasiness, praying that the wolves would not discover them while moving away. But things went against their wishes, and the wolves seem to have sniffed out their scent, and after they howled they started rushing towards the two sisters.

“Run!”

With a sudden yell of desperation, they spent every effort into fleeing. But the howls seemed to have attracted more of the wolves, the shuffling of feet started to increase behind them. With the sisters’ speed, anyone would know that they would be caught up by the wolves before they reach the village.

What should they do? Lila hesitated for a while, and made her decision. Her action was to —– attract the forest wolves’ attention. If they continued running, both of them would end up being eaten, but if only one remained behind, the other would have the chance to escape safely. If the younger sister stayed behind, she would just end up as the forest wolves’ meal. It had to be the older and physically fit sister who can bring about some time for her younger sister.

The only option is to let her younger sister escape and she would think of a way to escape from the wolves.

“Onee-chan! If we don’t hurry the wolves are about to catch up!”

“Leave me! Just go ahead an run!”

The younger sister saw that her older sister had stopped running and paused in confusion. But Lila could not care too much any longer, and urged her sister to run.

“But……”

“Listen carefully, I want you to run as quickly as possible, and call the villagers over! During this time Onee-chan will think of a way to lead them away, understood? Go now!”

Lila pushed her confused sister. Her sister lowered her head and started running towards the village. Lila picked up a long wooden stick and rocks, and yelled at the forest wolves.

“Come here! I’m right here!”

In order to attract the attention of the forest wolves, she threw a rock at it and hit it. The angry wolf turned its attention to Lila. She went into a different direction her sister went, and the wolves started to chase after her.

She gritted her teeth to suppress her of not knowing when the forest wolves would tear her apart with their sharp fangs and fled.

But this plan soon drew to an end, as there was a pack of wolves waiting for her in the front. Lila’s face was filled with hopelessness. Eight forest wolves surrounded her in the end and continued to growl at her. Even though she had a wooden stick that was useless in defending her, she still held on tightly to it, as if this stick represented her last hope.

The wolves continued to circle closer and closer around her, and one of the wolves which felt that it was close enough suddenly pounced at her, but Lila’s wooden stick struck at it. She continued to glance at it while it whimpered back away with a few steps, while continuously swinging the stick at the other wolves.

But a wolf spotted the chance and bit at the stick in Lila’s hands. She desperately tried swinging the wooden stick to shake the wolf of, but the conclusion was as expected. The wolf which was stronger tore the stick off her hands, and she fell to ground with from the recoil of losing the stick.

“Ah!!!”

The incredible fear forced Lila to scream.There was no way to escape or fight back. Even so, she continued to push herself back instinctively by shuffling her legs. The forest wolves seemed to understand its prey was unable to resist any more, and they showed their drooling fangs and continued to press closer. It was just a few steps away before Lila became the wolves’ meal.

“[Mana Bullet].”

The purple streak of light hit squarely on the forest wolf nearest to Lila. It screamed loudly when it got struck and collapsed to the ground without getting up again. Even though there was no apparent injury, but taking a look at its motionless body, the wolf was certainly dead. Lila appeared confused when this happened without any warning. When she looked over at the direction where the ball fired, she discovered a youth with rarely seen black hair.

This sudden helper —- An unknown boy in Lila’s eyes, gave her the impression that he was very unreliable. He looked like he was close to her age, and appeared to be taller than the other boys in the village, but he looked very thin without any signs of muscle on his body. Perhaps he did not do any farm-work, as his skin that was visible from outside his clothes were pale.

She thought he might be a noble, but the clothes on him were tattered and the possibility of that was very low. His frightening gaze from his black irises were accompanied with a cold, merciless expression, made Lila tremble with fear.

In the blink of an eye, the forest wolves had changed their targets to the youth and charged at him. He did not seem to even flinch from them, and continued to fire the streak of purple light at the wolves one after another and brought them down.

Could that be magic? Lila finally thought of that possibility. Even though she hardly communicated with the world outside the village, and did not have the chance to witness magicians using magic, but the figure in front of him who used some form of special skill to defeat the enemy was the exact image of how magicians were depicted in the legends.

And in front of this youth who had overwhelming strength, the forest wolves could only await death. One of the forest wolf’s claws swung at his arms, and blood splattered all over and dripped down slowly. But the boy did not react to that, and even showed off a surreal grin. It was a smile to mock its foe.

Even though Lila knew that the smile was not meant for her, she still felt goosebumps all over her skin. She had clearly felt frightened of the wolves that were chasing her from the very start, and her body was rigid from the dread. And yet the youth calmly killed them one by one, and his actions were so practiced that she knew he was familiar with these sort of bloodbaths from battles. (TL: Oh my gosh Lila stop being a M or I’ll go crazy!)

Lila could not help but suspect, did the boy really wanted to help her? With her life hanging by a thread, a magician would appear in a remote place like this? Did he come here for some purpose? She hoped that he came here by coincidence from hunting magical beasts and lent a helping hand when he saw her in danger.

Once all the forest wolves were defeated, Lila and the boy’s eyes met.

The way how he studied her from eye to toe made her more and more uneasy. After a while, the boy displayed a smile, but there was nothing funny that she did.

Could the boy want me? —– Lila groaned in her heart and curled up. The boy seemed to be weak, but he killed eight forest wolves without even panting once. If he really wanted to do so, he could easily made her gave up. To fulfill his desires, he might force her to do actions so terrible that it could not be spoken. The young girl could only try to suppress her fear and defend herself from him who could pounce any moment.

But the boy only stood there in silence. Lila felt more and more puzzled over the boy’s aim. Just when she was about to ask, he suddenly frowned and muttered to himself….. Is the boy also troubled?

“Sorry.”

A simple word.

He apologized.

Lila looked on in confusion when he suddenly spoke before understanding what he said. Why did he apologize? Because it was rude to keep staring at someone? No, if one was to think about it, he was probably apologizing for scaring her right? He really did not have any intention to molest her, and it appeared that the boy was really helping out due to his kindness. Lila was instantly relieved, and also understood one thing. The boy helped her out with kind intentions, and not only did she not thank him, she reacted as if he was a frightening wolf. Lila’s face was dyed in scarlet when she thought about it.

“No, I’m the one, erm, sorry. ”

Because of her embarrassment her voice was reduced to a whisper, but she still chose to apologize carefully. The boy seemed to understand it was a misunderstanding, and when he raised his head, his expression was reverted to that cold one. It looked like he did not know how to express himself, and therefore chose to be quiet. When she compared the heroic figure during the battle against his shy figure during conversation, Lila smiled from the huge difference.

When he saw her smile, the boy muttered to himself again, and there was some form of red magic impressions at his feet. Was that teleportation magic? Even though Lila did not understand magic very well, she had heard of teleportation magic in fairy tales. It was a magic that was incredibly difficult to perform, and the boy who saved her, was a magician beyond imagination.

“M, may I know your name?”

It seems that the boy was prepared to leave after everything was settled. Lila thought she needed to say something, and asked him for his name in the midst of her panic.

“……. Chaos.”

The boy answered honestly.

If Lila did not take the initiative to ask the boy, he might have just chose to leave quietly. Lila thought that his noble deeds of not expecting any form of rewards were beyond praise.

“Erm, thank you for saving me!”

Even though Lila wanted to thank him, the figure of the boy had disappeared, and she did not know whether he heard it.

“He left…….”

*****************************************************************************

The boy’s figure disappeared into the air almost like a dream. But the forest wolves were still in front of her, representing that everything was true.

Three days later, when Lila returned safely to the Caro village, the village leader called her to ask questions. She began to think back how he met that boy.

After he left, Lila met up with the villagers who were going to rescue her. Her younger sister even hugged and cried for a long time. The two sisters slept together after a long time. Perhaps the younger sister could still remember the frightful incident, and she did not leave by her side.  After comforting her sister because the village leader wanted to talk to her, she managed to promise not to follow.

“May I ask why you called for me?”

“I asked you to come so you can look at this.”

There was a forest wolf’s carcass placed on the table, but there were no signs of arrows or wounds. Lila was certain that it was killed by magic.

“A few days ago there were a large number of forest wolves in the forked road. We originally did not know what to do, and we only sent a team to investigate just recently. They actually reported that they did not find any trace of the forest wolves. And because of that, they investigated the nearby areas and found there were several of the forest wolves’ bodies. We thought it might be the kingdom’s troops or adventurers, but we did not receive any news at all. As there are are no signs of injuries, I thought….. I wanted you to confirm things, but it seems like I  was not wrong.”

“….. Chaos-sama?……”

She thought about the boy who saved her three days ago, killing the magical beasts without any fear with overwhelming strength without any forms of returned gratitude. He was like a hero from the legends. She thought that he would have gone somewhere else after using the teleportation magic, but he came back here again, and even solved the village’s impending disaster.

“It looks like you think that it was him as well…… To think that he not only rescued you, he saved the entire village. Surely, the title of a true hero, must be describing a noble man like him.”

At this moment Lila was moved beyond words. She felt she had seen a legendary person in the epic tales and she was even a part of his stories. Lila thought, although she was a just a side character in his tales, one day Chaos would appear in front of everyone and became the celebrated hero that was loved by all.

Not long after, her prediction actually came true.

Chaos would become the legendary hero of [Estobia]. When they talked about his achievements, the earliest one that could be traced was rescuing the Caro village. Even after his name was left for all ages to know, they were unable to find anything earlier in the history books.

Thereafter, whenever the future generations talked about his heroic deeds, they would start from the tale of saving the young girl from the Caro village. And as the birthplace of the first heroic tale, the name of the Caro village spread everywhere.

This was the prologue of the legendary tale, the grand hero Chaos, who appeared like a mysterious comet in the skies.

TL: Somehow I get the vision of the story’s editor asking the author to come out with ways to explain the RPG elements to newbie readers. Just…. wordy as heck.