Prologue

Arc 1: The Final Quest

"Man, I'm beat..."

Setting the prepared meal I'd gotten at the store on the table, I undressed myself and left my suit on the floor. I lived in a one-room apartment, complete with a dining room and kitchen. I'd say it's been about...a year since I moved in here and started working at my current company.

I had a rickety, old table sitting next to my futon that hadn't been washed in forever and trash bags that littered the place. It was a 23-year-old room with absolutely nothing going for it, save for one key item: a beautiful mechanical helmet -- a wonderful item that takes me away from the reality I'm living in into an entirely different world.

That world is called, "Real Life Online," or "RL" for short.

It's a VRMMO, or Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online platform that allows a fully immersible experience for a skill-based game. It's the first, safe version of its kind and its emergence made waves across the world.

There were countless occupations of all different sorts, the ability to gain skills based on the choices you made, and gorgeous looking NPCs, or non-player characters. People had rushed to pre-order before it even went on sale, and the servers were so overloaded when it came out that they actually shut down.

A month before, once RL went online and before it was officially announced, I'd learned that "Trader" was a class people could take as their occupation. It was an occupation I'd taken a shine to and had seen in picture books from when I was younger -- a class where one could travel to distant lands and live a life selling goods here and there.

Trying to save a little bit at a time to hit that five thousand dollar mark threw me for a loop, but after trying to make things work one step at a time, I was finally able to buy one for myself. That had been five, no, around ten years ago, and I'd had stars in my eyes -- I was so excited. I'd come home and jump into the machine without even eating a bite of food.

"...Oh, man."

Just the sight of the gear for the VR made me let out a sigh.

The online game of a different world -- even people who sucked at it claimed that it was really fun to play, but those were nothing short of lies. I started hating life the moment I set eyes on that helmet.

"Trader" -- that class has to be the worst one known to man.d