Chapter 1: Prologue and First dive
1112 Words
“One day, everything was gone and everything could change in one second.”
That’s what I thought when I realized when I came to this world. A world is full of threats. Monsters, demons, and evil humans.
Change is not wrong at all. Change always comes to one person. Everything will change. Green leaves withered, turning them to brown. Young becomes old. Children who know nothing gain wisdom. Day becomes night. Days become months. Months become years. And so on…
Everything can change, but one thing certainly won't change in one human.
It was…
“This is what I wanted all along.”
I grinned as I looked up at the wide midnight sky. My wide curious eyes looked through the stars. A sky filled with countless stars.
“It's beautiful, right? Don’t you agree?”
“Why is this happening?”
“Yuki... Alicia… This is what I wanted all along? My eyes are opened. If there is a perfect sacrifice, it was me…”
Yuki ran to me with tearful eyes and put her hands on my shoulder.
“No… This is not it! Please don’t sacrifice yourself.”
I shook my head and responded.
“Nope, I must take responsibility… This is also one of my desires.”
I must take responsibility. This world and the real world. The people I met and the people I lost. This is the only thing I can do. My selfish request.
“I’ll save everyone.”
I said and closed my eyes.
Before everything comes to an end. Let's turn back time and tell the long story. The story that begins with fun games turns into something I never expected.
♦♦♦♦♦
One night at Kaede’s house.
“I don't play games, and I always end up doing whatever Yuki says…”
Said Kaede Kishimoto with a sigh, gazing at the box art of a new video game. Her friend Yuki Honjou had insisted she take it.
The cover showed several characters holding swords and a staff, topped with a colorful logo that read: Fantasy World Online.
A VRMMO game like this is all the rage these days. Even Kaede owned the VR console required to play them. Not that she’d used it much. I was collecting dust in her closet.
She only had it when her father gave her something at Christmas last year. Her family was not always around because they didn’t know what Kaede wanted.
Still, even that’s the case. Kaede grows up to be a kind girl.
Kaede then gets the note on her desk containing the details on how to get started on playing the game. Yuki had been convinced Kaede would play the game. Not playing would leave Kaede feeling guilty.
“Might as well… I guess I’ll be running the basic setup.”
Kaede dusted off the console and fired up. It wasn’t like she had anything against the games. And if she had someone to play with…
With that on her mind, Kaede started the game.
Following Yuki’s instructions, Kaede got through the Fantasy instructions online’s initial setup easily enough.
“Whew… I guess that’s it.”
She was ready to dive into virtual reality. It had been a while since Kaede last saw them experience this sensation. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she was in the game. But not in a town or anything.
Kaede had something left to do.
“First name? Hmm... I don’t know what to put. I guess I'll go with my real name then.”
She typed her name Kaede in the English alphabet and hit the confirm button.
The panel hovering in front of her changed, prompting her to choose her starting equipment.
“Greatsword and one-handed sword… Maces and staves. I’m not great at games. I don’t have any idea. Using multiple magic as a mage is cool, but I’m not that bright at understanding such a complicated magic system.”
Kaede flicked through more options until she found one that seemed perfect for her.
“Sword? This looks like the most basic one and it’s said easily in difficulty. Numbers are appearing and it has decent damage compared to other weapons. But if I train hard I might become a great sword user. Just kidding…”
Even though she said that she is not messing around and thinks deeply about choosing a weapons class. Class can’t be changed after making one after all.
This moment is similar to the moment a trainer is about to choose her first Pokemon partner. I must think seriously.
“Easy…Hmmm…”
Convinced by the tutorial text, she finalized her starting gear selection.
Kaede chooses the sword.
Swords are the most common weapon among the players. Raising Attack to make the sword more powerful in the early game and most people agreed that it’s the most used and powerful weapon class.
Because of that, searching on the internet for new builds and techniques for using a sword is easy to find.
There is another reason why Kaede used the sword. She wanted to impress her friend Yuki. Also, having a sword in the game feels like being a cool hero. Because most heroes use a sword.
“Next is my stat points… I guess I had better put them all into my attack.”
Innocent and a little dumb. Kaede pours all her points on strength. It’s something a normal player would never do in a game.
This was a very one-sided building. Put bluntly, she was min-maxing her stats. strength already grants her some strength boost, but after pouring more skill points into her strength. Her attack skyrocketed.
Because she didn’t know anything, she didn’t look at it and ignored it.
Putting no points on vitality only exacerbated that shortfall. Plus, since she was ignoring agility, she wouldn't receive any speed boost, meaning she could only move as fast as she did in real life.
And how many people could honestly claim that they naturally moved faster than a charging beast?
“Oh… I can’t adjust my height? I wanted to be taller.”
Kaede’s height is about 145 cm. She also had a slim figure, and with that lovely appearance and stature, she was secretly liked at school, but Kaede had no way of knowing that. Height was her complex, but it seems that changing the body, height, and weight are different from the real world originally, you cannot play very well, so it can’t be helped.
"Then, it’s okay with this…”
Kaede’s body was enveloped with light.
The next time she opened her eyes, that was the vibrant castle town’s square.
- Writer
