The Latest Game Is Too Amazing

Because science and technology are always advancing, they’re split up into various branches. Likewise, the game industry also follows the times, and a game that uses the latest technology emerged.

The VRMMORPG, Another World…

It’s the first RPG in the world that has adopted VR technology to allow a large number of people to play through the internet. The setting is a classic medieval fantasy game where swords and magic are used to defeat violent monsters. With a realistic virtual world created with VR technology as your stage, you use swords and sorcery to fight against monsters the size of multi-story buildings. There are many who are captivated by this incredibly appealing imagery.

I’m one of those people.

When a show featuring an VRMMORPG aired on TV recently, the magnificent sight of knights and mages taking on a giant dragon was unforgettable. I made up my mind that I would definitely play one.

However, perhaps because VR entertainment technology has only recently been developed, the VR equipment that you need to play it, the Valgear headset, is always an expensive item. It’s worth something like double the price of a normal computer. That isn’t something that I, a normal, average high schooler, could possibly get my hands on.

The moment I was about to cry and give up, I noticed a certain internet article.

“Recruiting ‘Another World’ Beta Testers”

There are many MMORPGs that recruit a group of ordinary users as beta testers to test the burden on the servers, check for bugs, and adjust the balance before release. Another World is no exception, and they appeared to be recruiting testers from the general public. However, it was limited to people who owned an expensive Valgear, and it would be impossible to test it without one. Therefore, they would present a Valgear to 200 testers through a raffle. That’s how they announced their recruitment.

This advertisement was probably one that several thousand, no, tens of thousands of gamers would bet their sliver of hope on and cling to that thin thread of opportunity. But still, maybe there was a chance… With that fleeting hope, I too bet my sliver of hope on it.

And today… is the start of the beta test. Today, I will fulfill my greatest wish and set foot in the world of a VRMMORPG – the world of Another World.

…Whoa, so this is Another World!

Upon logging into the virtual world for the first time, I arrive in the middle of a forest. The sound of trees shaking in the wind and the scent of plant life slightly tickling my nose fool my senses into thinking that this could be the real world. I can’t even imagine how in the world they would produce this sort of phenomenon. Configuration and basic controls were all that was in the manual sent with the Valgear, so it’s impossible to understand the technical side of things.

Well, no matter how long I spend engrossed in it, it won’t change that. Maybe I should act like a tester and try some stuff out. First, basic controls… How to display all the different windows, such as the status window.

How it works is that, if you think of the window you want to look at, a semi-transparent screen will be displayed. There’s the status window for checking your character’s condition, the skill window for looking at the skills you possess, the event window that displays which events and quests are in progress or completed, the item window for displaying the items you own and equipping them, and the map window for looking at the area and world maps. After briefly checking all the windows, there were no particular windows I couldn’t access, so there seems to be no problem.

While I’m at it, I check my items. The ones that are already equipped are a cloth shirt, pants, leather sandals, and a long, thin oak staff that’s about my height. In addition to that, it looks like I have five of each of the lowest level HP and MP recovery potions.

By the way, there’s a reason my starting equipment is a staff instead of a sword or a knife.

In Another World, you have to create a character that will act within the game. The character’s class is one of the things you have to choose. There are classes like, for example, Fighter, which uses a sword and shield to fight, or Archer, which specializes in bows. At first, I intended to choose Warrior. However, when I read the manual, I had a sudden doubt: During battle, can people who have never held a sword before fight properly?

Try picturing it. At best, my swordsmanship skills are only on the level of dabbling in kendo during gym class, so it would probably be accurate to call me an amateur. Picture a total amateur like that being put into a VR battle that’s almost real, swinging a sword around.

…No matter how much I think about it, all I can envision is something awkward and uncool. I’m fine with keeping that kind of demotivating spectacle to my real life classes. The only reason sword fights on TV or in movies look that cool is because the actors are trained to put on a good show.

For that reason, I chose Magician. The majority of skills a Magician can obtain are magic skills. Therefore, there are almost no close-range attacks, and I can probably avoid making any weird movements. And since a staff is necessary for using those skills, that’s the starting equipment for magic users.

Well, that aside, I’ll go ahead and try depositing and withdrawing items. For items, if you think of the item you need, you’ll be able to take it out from the item window, and to put one in, you touch the item and imagine it returning to the item window. However, it’s only possible to store items that display an item information window when you look at them, so you can’t target a pebble that’s sitting at the side of the road.

Having more or less finished checking the controls, I look around at my surroundings one more time.

…Where am I, anyway? And where is everyone? It’s the first day of beta testing, but there isn’t a single person in the area. If I remember correctly, there should be 1000 beta testers. It feels a bit weird that there’s nobody here in a game that’s just started.

It’s also weird that there’s no tutorial to help beginner users understand the game controls and rules, like a typical MMORPG. Well, there certainly are games that don’t have tutorials, and it could be that it’s only beta testers who don’t get one.

I can’t do anything just by staying here, so I’ll go somewhere else. There might be a town or something nearby.

After deciding that, the instant I display the map window and take a step forward, I hear a girl’s high pitched scream. Maybe this is some sort of event? Judging by the timing, moving could be the event trigger. In that case, I’ll have to follow along with whatever this event is!

It looks like it wasn’t too far away. Within two or three minutes, I find the girl who screamed. She has red hair tied up in a bun and is wearing a long blue skirt. In front of the frightened girl, there are starving, slobbering wolves. This is probably the sort of event where I’m supposed to save the girl from the wolves.

There are five wolves, which are low level monsters around level 1-3. In that case, even at level 1, I’ll be able to defeat them… I think, probably. This is probably a tutorial event. If it is, the tutorial monsters shouldn’t be that strong. And early on, a difference of one or two levels isn’t that big, and worst case scenario, I can use potions, so I doubt I’ll lose. That’s how it was in the MMORPGs I’ve played before, at least.

Before the battle starts, I’m overcome with nervousness. It’s a Magician’s job to fight from the rear guard. Compared to most other battle positions, classes like that have paper-thin defense and are weak on the level of being ridiculed. It’s probably the same in this game. Taking on this many enemies all at once isn’t a good plan. In that case, it’d be better to fire a surprise attack from here while I’m some distance away.

Magician skill, Mana Bolt Lv1. It’s a single-target non-attribute magic attack that deals damage in proportion to the Intelligence stat. For a Magician, who has high Intelligence to start with, the damage becomes that much higher. I don’t know exactly how much HP the enemy has, but it’s not that high… probably. It’s alright, I can win…! With that feeling, I point my staff at the level 1 wolf and activate my skill.

The wolf gets hit with a purple electric shock and releases a death cry as it goes down.

One hit, I can win this!

Naturally, since their ally was attacked, they switch targets to me.

Since Mana Bolt is the first spell you learn, the MP cost is comparatively low and the skill’s recasting time isn’t even one second long. I keep using Mana Bolt and, one after another, I target and attack the low-level wolves, which seem to have low Constitution.

…As expected, the level 3 wolf doesn’t fall in one hit, though I panic when I realize it needs a second hit because I can only use one more Mana Bolt. But I attack all the wolves enough to defeat them, so I guess it’s alright in the end.

The enemies seem to be set pretty weak. Just like you’d expect from the first event, the difficulty level is low.

After defeating five wolves, my level goes up.

With the battle over, I direct my gaze towards the girl who seems to be an NPC. However… It’s a bit late to be asking this, but is she really an NPC? Her expression looks more like the genuine reaction of a player than that of an NPC controlled by an AI. Maybe it’s also a problem to make things too realistic.

After staring at her for a long time, I notice her face changing. She’s… perplexed? Also, there’s no reward for the event’s completion, and I’m not being led to the next event. I know! If I look at the event window, I’ll know if this is an event or not! After realizing that, I hurry to check the event window.

…As I suspected, it’s not there.

In that case, I can think of two possibilities. The first is that I haven’t met the conditions to start this event. There are situations where the event doesn’t occur depending on your level, race, or class. But the difficulty level is low, and it’s hard to imagine that such an early event would be separated by race or class.

The other possibility is that this isn’t event-related, the girl is a player, and she was hunting, not being attacked. However, this possibility is very bad for me. Aside from a few exceptions such as parties, in MMORPGs, kill stealing is bad etiquette.

While I’m worrying about what to do, the girl lets out a laugh.

…Just like I thought, she’s a player.

But if she is, what was that laugh? She didn’t just think that she could use my rude behavior as material to post a callout online, did she? If she does something like that, then after this, whenever I play with this character, people will be talking about me behind my back. S**t. But I’m the one in the wrong here. If I’m called out, there’s nothing I can do about it.

“…Sorry.”

First, I have to give her an earnest apology.

And then, since it’s awkward, I turn around to leave as soon as possible.

“Wait, please! Um… Please, tell me your name.”

…I apologized, but it seems that to her, what I did was unforgivable. Apparently, she has a quick temper.

If I stay quiet, my name probably won’t get exposed. But I don’t care what happens, I’ve already accepted it. If it’s exposed, then worst case scenario, I can just remake my character, and since I only just started, I’ll be able to catch up just fine.

“…Chaos,” I respond, giving her my character name, and I immediately log out.

After messing up on my first day in Another World, I spend the rest of the day depressed.

The next day, I get curious and look on internet forums for an Another World callout thread, but in the end, I wasn’t mentioned. I wonder why she didn’t post it? Did she not intend to make a post about it…? W- wait, did she want to become friends?!

I messed up. None of my friends are playing as it is, because of how hard it was to make it into the beta test. It must be the same for her too. I’m already clumsy with words and have few friends, I can’t believe I missed that chance!

There’s a possibility that she might still be hunting in that area… Secretly holding onto that hope, I decide to not delete my character and hunt in the same area, but in the end, I don’t see her again…

I kick the wolves in the area around as revenge, but it doesn’t cheer me up.

…Next time, I think I’ll treasure my encounters with others a bit more.

Located in the southwest region of the Castal Kingdom, Callo Village has a population of 200 people, which makes it one of the smaller of the kingdom’s villages. Centered around farming rather than any particular industry, it is only one of many quiet villages on the frontier.

“So, is that story true?” a middle-aged man in his 50’s, the mayor of Callo, asks a young man while making a sour face.

“Yeah, it seems to be. Who would’ve thought that forest wolves would show up on the main road?”

The story they heard that morning from a merchant covered in wounds gave the villagers a shock. Forest wolves primarily live deep in the forest. They aren’t particularly strong, and it’s possible for an adult to drive one off if it’s by itself, but their basic nature is to form packs, which makes them troublesome monsters.

A monster like that taking over the main road is a huge problem. Trade with the city is an indispensable necessity, especially for a village like this that has no industry. If they leave things as is, they’ll eventually wither away.

“I wonder if the rumors are true after all.”

That rumor is only something they heard from a merchant who came from the city, but it’s been secretly spreading throughout the kingdom.

The evil god’s revival…

The ancient evil god that was sealed by the gods long ago in the era of the world’s creation has revived, and monsters and demons have become more active. If you think of it that way, it makes sense that forest wolves are showing up so close to civilization.

“In any case, if forest wolves are appearing in the vicinity, we must not let anyone else hear–”

“Mayor!” a boy bursts in with enough force to break the door down, interrupting the mayor, who stares at the boy.

“What’s all this commotion!”

“Lila went out to pick wild herbs and got attacked by forest wolves…!”

“What?!”

The boy’s report leaves the adults in the room shocked.

Callo villagers sometimes go out into the forest seeking medicinal herbs and cooking ingredients. That is also the objective of two sisters from the village, Lila and Cynthia. Because there’s no danger of monsters unless you enter the backwoods of the forest near the village, the two went together. But today is different.

“Cynthia, be quiet, there’s something here.”

Feeling a threatening presence, the red haired 14 year old girl, Lila, grabs her younger sister’s hand, hides in a thicket, and waits. Cynthia, who looks 2-3 years younger than Lila, sees her older sister’s serious expression and obediently does as she’s told.

Lila notices the scent of a beast from upwind. It can’t be… While praying that she’s wrong, she quiets her breathing and searches for the presence. But unfortunately, her prediction is correct. The monsters that her parents warned her about so many times in the past are right there in front of her.

Forest wolves… and five of them, at that! Or maybe she’s lucky that it’s only five of them. Apparently, they got separated from their pack, so you could say it’s a stroke of luck that there are no other wolves. Furthermore, the wolves haven’t noticed them, and they’ll be hard to find since they’re downwind. At this rate, they should be able to let the wolves pass them by.

Out of nervousness and fear, Cynthia squeezes her hand tighter. Lila squeezes back to let her know that it’s okay.

Two wolves start walking away from the area. Keep going and leave, Lila and Cynthia silently plead. Then, suddenly, the biggest of the five forest wolves stares at the thicket the sisters are hiding in.

In this moment, the wolf only has a subtle feeling that something’s out of place and hasn’t actually noticed the girls. It’s only instinct, like working off of a hunch. If there was nothing there, it would leave with the other wolves.

But that’s not a possibility the girls have considered. They’re struck by a terror that makes their chests tighten. The older sister, Lila, is somehow able to withstand it. However…

“…Eep!”

The younger sister, Cynthia, can’t withstand it. Overwhelmed by those eyes that seem to have seen through her, she lets out a scream.

…And that reaches the wolves’ ears.

Their ears perk up and five pairs of eyes pierce through the thicket the girls are in.

“Cynthia, stand up! We’re running!” Lila shouts, and the sisters immediately start running at full speed.

As if in response to this, the forest wolves howl and start chasing after them.

There’s some distance between the forest wolves and the sisters. However, there’s an unimaginable difference in speed between a human and a wolf.

At this rate, the sisters will become their prey in the blink of an eye. Without hesitating, Lila thinks of the plan with the highest probability of survival. She comes to a stop.

“Cynthia, keep on going and run away to the village. I’ll stay here and keep the wolves at bay.”

“…No, if you do that, you’ll…!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with them and get away somehow! So hurry to the village and call everyone here!”

Cynthia briefly hesitates.

“Hurry!”

Startled at her sister’s urging, Cynthia runs off to the village with tears in her eyes.

It’s better this way. Even in the worst case scenario, her little sister will be saved. Having fulfilled her duty as the older sister, she’s relieved, just a bit.

But she’s not about to just lie down and take it. She breaks off a branch and makes it her weapon. If she makes the forest wolves flinch and uses that chance to run away, there’s a chance she might be saved.

The pursuing wolves surround Lila. She continues attracting their attention to buy time for her sister to escape. Her grim resolve as an older sister forces her to stand, legs trembling in terror.

“Aaaaaaaaahh–!!” she raises her voice almost to a shriek and threatens the wolves.

A forest wolf bares its teeth and starts to attack. She hits it so hard that the branch bends and then tries to somehow break out of the circle of wolves. However, the forest wolves skillfully swap positions to keep Lila from breaking out as they close in on her.

Lila hits them a few times, failing to drive them off, and she gradually loses stamina. As if deciding now is the time to strike, the wolf lunges at her.

“Ah!”

It bites down on the branch. With incredible strength, the wolf tries to snatch the branch from Lila.

Without the branch, she would have no way to resist. She desperately pulls on the branch and tries to take it back from the wolf.

However, the wolf isn’t alone. The other wolves attack the defenseless girl. She unthinkingly releases her grip to avoid their claws.

…She can’t fight back now. Losing the rationality that she’s held onto up until now, she sinks down to the ground and sits.

The wolves seem to perceive that she won’t resist anymore. They steadily approach Lila. She closes her eyes, her teeth chattering in fear.

Immediately after, there’s a shriek–

But the girl isn’t the one who made it. Did that sound come from a wolf…?

When Lila opens her eyes, one of the forest wolves has collapsed and is foaming at the mouth. The other wolves are concentrating their gazes on someone else instead of her.

Who in the world…? Lila follows the wolves’ gaze. Standing there is a black haired, black eyed boy wielding a long staff.

From Lila’s point of view, he looks pretty shabby. The boy, who looks about as old as Lila, is tall compared to other village boys around the same age, but he has skin so fair that it’s as if he’s never done farm work in his life, and he seems thin and not very muscular. She’s never seen a boy like this in the village before.

Then, a traveler – maybe an adventurer type? But even so, all he has on him are sandals, a shirt, and pants, far too light for traveling clothes. Who the heck is this guy…?

While she’s thinking about this, the situation progresses. Apparently, the one who took down the forest wolf was the boy after all, and the wolves, ascertaining that he’s an enemy, move to attack him one after another. But far from panicking, the boy points his staff at the forest wolves, fires purple lightning, and continues taking them down.

Lightning? Is that magic?! So that’s it, he’s a mage!

She’s never seen a mage fight before. It’s a remote village, so mages pretty much never visit. Therefore, she’s moved by the fact that he’s strong enough to easily defeat five forest wolves solo.

When the final forest wolf, the large one, goes down, she gulps.

The boy who defeated the wolves focuses his gaze on Lila. She’s overcome with an entirely different fear than from the forest wolves. It’d be nice if he saved her out of good will, but why is this mysterious mage in a place like this? If he pointed his staff at her, she’d be powerless before his overwhelming power. She could be coerced into unspeakable actions that would make her lose her dignity as a woman. Thus, she’s on guard, but… the boy only stares.

For a short while, time passes as no words are spoken. Just as she thinks to herself, ‘I wonder what’s wrong,’ the boy’s expression changes to a deeply embarrassed one. She wonders what could possibly be the matter. Why would he be embarrassed?

…Maybe he doesn’t know what to say? No, that’s ridiculous. Is it even possible for someone that strong to shrink at the sight of a village girl like her? But there’s certainly something bothering him. In that case, this mysterious, fearsome mage is starting to look like a charming boy. Imagining this, she unintentionally lets out a laugh.

“… Sorry.”

The first thing the boy says is an apology.

‘I wonder why he’s apologizing?’ she thinks.

He probably didn’t mean to cause any harm, and he seems to have saved her purely out of good will. Maybe he noticed that he put her on guard. But she’s the one who should be thanking him.

The boy turns to leave. Oh no, she has to stop him and thank him…!

“Wait, please! Um… Please, tell me your name,” she ends up asking instead of thanking him.

“…Chaos.”

“Um, thank you so much for saving me!”

However, before her words of gratitude can reach him, the boy vanishes. As if he doesn’t even need gratitude.

Teleportation magic. The high level magic that she’s only heard in fairy tales leaves Lila speechless.

She might have just been saved by an incredible person… That premonition crosses her mind. And it will soon prove to be true.

The vigilance committee heads out to search for Lila at around the same time that she arrives at the village.

She explains the situation to the mayor while soothing her sobbing little sister. That day, the sisters sit on the floor together just like that, which they haven’t done in a long time.

Days later, she’s called to the mayor’s house.

“What can I help you with?”

“I called you here because I wanted you to take a look at this,” the mayor says while pointing to a forest wolf’s corpse.

Maybe the vigilance committee defeated it? Even so, there are no arrow wounds or any external wounds anywhere to be found.

“The truth is, we received a report the other day that the main road was taken over by forest wolves. We sent some people from the vigilance committee to investigate, but the only forest wolves they could find were already dead. They seem to have been killed with magic.”

…It can’t be. The boy with overwhelming power crosses her mind.

“…Sir Chaos…”

“You think so too, huh? …To think that, in addition to saving you without asking anything in return, he would also save our village… Surely you could call someone like that a true hero.”

The mayor’s words ignite a passion in her heart. The thought that an unremarkable village girl like her was saved by a truly great person lights a fire in her.

…Later on, Callo Village would become known as the land where the legend of the hero Chaos first began.

Chaos’s Achievements

Rescued Callo Village girlEliminated monsters from Callo Village main road