The city was just as Shiroe remembered it, the city of Akiba.
　The crumbling ruins, the barracks of the barracks, and the old trees that have taken root in the streets have been left intact, but Akiba, the sacred land of the ancients, is swallowed up by a forest of greenery.
　Akiba is the home of the players in the Free Cities Alliance Eastar, and the central city of the Elder Tail Japanese server.

　Run down Chuo Street and turn the corner of a three-story innkeeper's tavern.
　The crumbling buildings, a legacy of the old century, are made of concrete, but the log buildings that the people of this world added to them have been added to them, and they are all nestled in the bosom of an ancient tree, a strange sight.

　When Shiroe arrived at his destination, Naotsugu sat up from the crumbling mass of concrete and greeted him.
　There are no window panes left, just a gaping hole, and the light coming in at an angle, illuminating the two of them with a high-definition impression that's more than just a game screen.

　Naoe chuckled and lightly tapped the hilt of his sword.
　He was a little over six feet tall. He has a stocky body. A warrior who looked like an old strongman, wearing sober-colored but terribly sturdy-looking steel armor and carrying a shield on his back - that was the current Naotugu.

''Yo!　White.
Hey, Naotsugu.

　But Naotsugu's cheerful voice easily betrayed such a rugged appearance, and he called out to Shiroe.
　The Elder Tail comes standard with a voice chat function. While playing a game, a microphone and speaker connected to the computer allowed you to talk to your friends like a cell phone. Of course, there were users who didn't like the idea of voice communication and insisted on text chatting, but that wasn't the case with Shiroe and Naotsugu.

　That's why Shiroe knows and remembers Naotsugu's voice well.
　As a matter of fact, they had met face to face offline, but they spent dozens of times more time talking stupidly over the monitor. To Shiroe, Naotsugu is this bright yet reliable voice.

　It was gratifying to hear his old and familiar voice again.

(I thought I was calm, but I guess I was mentally overwhelmed in my own way.
　Shiroe was made aware of such things.

''And you......... Manna.''
You look the same to me.

　They stare at each other to check each other's appearance. The figures of Shiroe and the others are basically the same as the characters in the Elder Tail game.
　They were originally made from polygons, and although they were of course quite high definition objects that made full use of the graphics capabilities of the computer, they were still far removed from the real-life graphics.
　Nowadays, however, those polygons exist as completely real objects with the same level of detail as in reality.

　However, upon closer inspection, it does not appear to be a mere realization of the game. The original model data in Elder Tail was designed to be beautiful for both men and women, partly because it is a game. Because Elder Tail is a game, no one likes to be ugly. Good-looking modeling is a natural marketing response to user demand.
　However, Naotugu's current appearance is not only a realization of the Elder Tail's handsome polygon model, but also a reflection of the man he looked like when we met him in person.

His face looks like Naotsugu.
　The old scar that ran the length of his eyebrows, which had been prominent in the game, is gone, and the bright eyes, slightly slack-jawed look, and mischievous smile that had been present in the real world directly, are now floating on his lips.

'So do you, White. You're a brilliant-looking, glasses-wearing, three-eyed, white-eyed, brilliant-looking man.
Just leave me alone.
　My acquaintances say I have a trichotomous face and bad eyesight, etc., but now I hear that the same characteristics are manifesting themselves in my body as well. He repeats what he was teased many times by his direct-sequence, and then turns around again in the usual way.
　I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that I'm not the only one.

What's going on here? Let me know if you know anything. "Belly-button glasses."
As much as I'd love to, it's this guy.
　Shiroe and the others kicked off the crumbling chunk of concrete and sat down after roughly dusting off the dust on it. It's a good idea to get a good idea of what's going on here, but I don't have a lot of information on hand to explain the situation.

　This place is much closer to the center of Akiba than the outskirts of the city where Shiroe had regained consciousness earlier. If you listen carefully, you can hear the faint echoes of the commotion in the center of the city.

'First of all, ha. It's not a dream. And.
Yes.
　Shiroe nodded at Naotsugu's question.

''........''
....

　The silence that flows between them. Both of them are trying to figure out where to start. But if that's the case, the answer is obvious. I'm sure Shiroe is still more knowledgeable about the situation than Naotsugu. As far as Shiroe knows, Naotsugu should not have accessed the Elder Tail in the past year.

　Shiroe told Naotsugu all he knew.

　Naotsugu listened quietly while Shiroe spoke. He asked questions about a few unfamiliar topics, but did not interject his own opinions.
　Shiroe did not like the noise. He never disliked the hubbub, but he didn't like the disorderly commotion.
　Naotsugu was certainly jovial and well-behaved, but he wasn't stupid enough to not clear his ears when he listened closely. Shiroe was Shiroe and had conservative ideas for his age, but he wasn't so primitive that he couldn't keep up with Naotsugu's boyish shimmy. That's probably why the two of them had a thing for each other.

Huh. Hmm. It's a different world. --Another world, involved. Realized...?
'So, what happened to Naotugu?　Are you back in the game?
　At Shiroe's question, Naotsugu opens his mouth.

''Yeah. I heard that a new expansion is coming. I thought I'd log in to see how things were going, now that my work is done,''

　--He's back.
Naotugu's back. He tried to come back, he tried to...
　Shiroe thinks so.

　Naotsugu must be two years older than Shiroe.
　To begin with, he met Naotsugu about four years ago.

　At the time, Shiroe was already an old player in the Elder Tail. Although it wasn't unusual for a boy to be able to use a computer from junior high school, Shiroe was the most indoor of all of them.
　Even when he went outdoors, he was mentally an indoor person... To put it objectively, he was a kid who spent most of his time alone in a crowd.
　Even after entering high school and college, she continued her hobby, traveling in virtual space almost daily.

　Elder Tail already had a kind of exceptional status in online gaming at that time. If you want a real, crunchy, authentic game, play Elder Tail. That's how it was regarded by gamers.

　The Elder Tail, for example, had a rare and grandiose goal - the Half-Gaia Project. It sounds like a joke, but it was a project to create an Earth half the size of the original.
　For players playing on the Japanese servers, the city of Akiba is located in the Japanese archipelago of Tokyo, the initial starting point. For North American servers, the Big Apple and South Angel are the initial starting points. The names Japanese and North American servers are just for convenience, as an organic network of interconnected servers could theoretically travel within the game world to another continent or even to the edge of the world. In other words, it was announced in Elder Tail that players could move to other servers.

　Of course, the Half-Gaia Project was an eventual goal, and as it stands, Gaia in this game is not an exact replica of the real Earth.

　In Elder Tail, the world is divided into zones. A zone is a unit that represents a certain area or area in a game-like manner.

　For example, there are places where vicious monsters appear, such as the vast field zone Fuji Sea of Trees, dungeons such as the Shinjuk Station Building Ruins, and non-combat zones such as Akiba City.
　There are also small zones, such as a hotel room. Some of the zones are for sale, and you can become an owner if you pack a good amount of money.

　Zones are connected to each other in a variety of ways. Field zones are seamlessly connected to each other by their boundaries, so you're not really aware of exactly what zone you're in at the moment.
　When you move around, you switch to the adjacent zone before you know it.
　In some cases, there is a clear separation between the two zones. For example, when a building or room exists on its own as a zone, doors and gates usually function as connection points.

　As far as Shiroe knows, there are already tens of thousands of zones under the control of the Japanese server.
　In a game that's so bloated, with developers using multiple subcontractors to develop games all over the world, having an "old-timer" like Shiroe with knowledge of the game is very useful and reliable.

　That's why Shiroe had been invited by many guilds in his playing career, and had even joined a guild for a short period of time as a trial run.

　Guilds are the community archetype in the Elder Tail, a multi-player team.
　Guild members are given a dedicated guild account in the in-game bank, a safe deposit box to share items, and a number of other useful services. Guild members can easily communicate with each other and, more importantly, call on each other when they go on an adventure.
　That's why most Elder Tail players belong to a guild. It's more convenient and beneficial.

　Shiroe was a stickler to begin with, and he often looked up information about the Elder Tail in other countries. Even among players with the same level of playing experience, he had an exceptional amount of knowledge. In that sense, Shiroe was probably someone who would be useful if he invited them to join his guild.

　None of the players had a perfect grasp of the countless zones. Even Shiroe doesn't have that much memory capacity. But remembering the main traffic routes, the communication between zones, the transporter called the Fairy Circle, and the locations of all of these will reduce travel time, and it's also important to know, for example, what products are sold in which zones and what kind of monsters appear in which zones, and so on.

　There are countless zones, countless different types of items and monsters, quests, quests for adventures, lore, ancient knowledge, and all sorts of other elements that the developers have come up with.
　The Elder Tail is a virtual world that is a mixture of all of these elements.

　However, Shiroe had a hard time adjusting to the "convenience" and "benefit" of the virtual world. That's not so much the case now, but back then Shiroe was much more selfish and childish... and embarrassingly fastidious.

　Shiroe wasn't good at being dependent, but she wasn't bad at being relied upon.
　But it's one thing to say you're not good at it, it's another to say you're not bitter about it.

　There are all sorts of humans within an online game. With humans, relationships naturally arise. There were not only clean relationships, but countless dirty relationships as well, which was very stimulating to Shiroe, who was in junior high school.

　After a short time in the guild, Shiroe noticed that the people around him were using him as a kind of strategy site. The high level of Shiroe was like a handyman who was led from place to place and even sent into battle at the convenience of others.

　Shiroe had a hard time adjusting to these relationships, and she had a hard time getting along with them. So he left all of the guilds he was in for a short period of time and went on a series of ad hoc relationships and solo adventures.
　Before he knew it, Shiroe was a lone wolf, and for a lone wolf, his amount of knowledge and level of knowledge had made him a decent and well-known player. And in proportion to that, he's become a very twisted player.

　It's a good thing that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you can't get away from the fact that you have to go to the right place.

　It was at the Tea Party of the Prodigal that Shiroe and Naotsugu met.
　The Tea Party of the Prodigal is not a guild.

　It was only the Tea Party of the Prodigal, and there's no other way to describe it.

　From an objective standpoint, these were just the players who happened to be there.
　It was a "fluke" and yet they were "always" and "always" there.
　-- Shiroe and the others were there.

　The guilds are all different.
　Their personalities are all different.
　They have nothing in common.

　But Shiroe and his friends would meet in abandoned buildings, sometimes on the grass, sometimes on the starry hills.
　And they went on an adventure.

　The Elder Tale is a medieval-style fantasy of sword and sorcery. The players talk about this world as if it were an official setting, thousands of years after the real Earth.
　According to the lore within the world of Elder Tail, some sort of great conflict took place and this world was shattered... and rebuilt by a miracle of the gods.
　It's a creation myth, as is often the case in fantasy games.
　There are orcs, goblins, trolls, giants, chimeras, dragons and all sorts of other standard monsters.

　Most of the players enjoy fighting. Fighting monsters and gaining experience to level up and acquire rare and powerful items is one of the most common ways to play Elder Tail.
　But these are battles and harvests, not adventures. It was at the Prodigal's Tea Party that Shiroe first learned that repeated combat and adventure are two very different things.

　It was at the Tea Party of the Prodigal, where she was always there, and where she had a companion to support her. Shiroe was one of them.

　It was at the Tea Party that Shiroe found what was probably the first friend she ever had, and one of those friends was Naotsugu.



　◆


So, you're back on the job?
Yeah, somehow. Yeah, it's been a rough year for me, man.

　The Tea Party of the Prodigal was active for two years. Those two years were probably the happiest and most productive of Shiroe's time at the Elder Tail.
　However, due to a number of circumstances, the Tea Party of the Prodigal came to an end, leaving behind a number of legends.

　One of these was Naotsugu's decision to suspend his gaming activities.
　One winter, Naotsugu got busy with his job and was not able to play games for a while. The timing is also unfortunate, as other members of the team have to leave the game for their own personal reasons.

　The Tea Party of the Prodigal was not a guild.
　And more than being a guild, it was not a relationship that was only bound together by profit and loss. Shiroe and the others - though none of them ever said it because they were too old and embarrassed to say it, they cared about their friends.

　That's why they suspended the activities of the Prodigal Tea Party indefinitely, not because of who they were from, but because of the importance of their friends. Of course, I thought about inviting new friends to continue our activities. But that would be another adventure, another story.
　The end of the Prodigal's Tea Party was a sad thing, but none of the others had any regrets on their faces. Shiroe and the others had shared many adventures and enjoyed them more than anyone else. The reward was good enough for them.

'I've finally gotten used to the job. Thanks to you, things are going well. The only problem is that there are no, not one, not one, nice pair of jeans in the company.

I see why you don't have a pretty girl.

　Shiroe translates Naotsugu's words and lets them flow lightly.
　Naotsugu is an entirely good guy.
　It's a good thing that you have the guts to do it, because it's a lot more than Shiroe. This gutsy attitude can be called excessive in some cases, and Shiroe doesn't know that Naotsugu has lost his sense of humor under any circumstances.
　This is mainly about "panties," which, internally, is a synonym for beautiful girls and a unit of good luck and happiness. It's a complex and bizarre concept. He is out of the ordinary when it comes to panties. It seems to be his life's work.

I'm not sure what you're looking at. You're a dirty, dirty festival.
I'm not a gruesome skank.
Yee-hah, that's muggy and dirty. There are two kinds of men in this world. There are two kinds of men in this world, the open-minded, open-eyed lecher and the introverted, smoke-filled lecher. I'm an open person. And I like butterflies. And White is moody. And I'm sure he likes pussy.
　Shiroe's mouth is bent into a crooked shape at the ridiculous theory.
　However, he's not in a bad mood.
　Naotsugu has always been able to read the air and soften the atmosphere with such incomprehensible material. And although excessive talk of pants is annoying, it doesn't mean that Shiroe, as a healthy young man of his age, is not interested in the opposite s*x. And of course, the underwear of the opposite s*x.

It's true that I like pants too, but it doesn't matter what's inside them.
I know what's in it for me, and that's the Panties Festival.

But this is not good.
Yes.
　A loud sigh from Naotsugu.
　Shiroe nodded. I know too well what Naotsugu is going to say.

It's a good thing that you're able to do that, because it's a good idea to have a good time. I'm going to be able to go back to normal.

　Naotsugu making light-hearted remarks as if it were a tea ceremony.
　It's a question that's probably on the minds of countless players left behind in this world, but perhaps the reason he's been able to say it more playfully than any of them is because of Naotugu's mental toughness and kindness to Shiroe.

'The way I see it, this is a generational shift for God. A god with a middle-second delusion has been enthroned.'

This is a relentless situation. I mean, what the f*ck is going on here? It's a desperation fest.
Yeah. I suggest you give up on the idea of coming home for now.

Your relentless awareness of the status quo is relentless.
It's a suicidal maniac to put a stop to the status quo.
You are the mastermind behind the tea party's plans.

　Naotsugu reciprocated Shiroe's response with a light-hearted retort and shook his head a few times as if to change his mood before continuing with a reformed expression.

''Alright, I've given up for the time being. So that's that. It is a classic fantasy novel situation where we have to survive in the future.

　Shiroe nodded at the question, though she never said she was happy about it. As far as Shiroe can remember, all she did was live her life as usual, bathe as usual, log in to Elder Tail as usual, practice hunting with the newbie twins she had recently met, and then suddenly she was cut off from consciousness as if she were suddenly.

　We were forced into this world - or caught in this situation - when we were acting in roughly the same way as we normally do.
　It may be that there may be some cause or our fault, but Shiroe cannot see into it at this time.

　And if there is a way to escape this situation and this other world, Shiroe doesn't know how, at least not at this moment.

　So, whether they find their way back to their home world, or wait for the same "accidental" return to their home world that they were caught up in, Shiroe and his friends will have to survive in this world for the meantime.

'There's a chance that if you die in this world, you'll wake up in your original world, but I wouldn't recommend it. ''The world might be ruined, so I borrowed 100 million in salaried money! And I mean that in a similar way.
It's not so smart, is it? If you're really going to die, you're just going to be dead.
Yes.

But survival is not a problem, is it?　White Counselor.
I don't know.

I mean, we're level 90, right?　It's not so hard if you want to get through the hard-to-reach zone, but if you just want to survive, it's not so hard. I've got money. The equipment.....mine is a bit old, but it's pretty decent. That shouldn't be a problem, right?

Well I don't think I necessarily do.
Why?
　Naotsugu doesn't seem to be fazed by the situation.

　I envy Naotsugu's optimism. That toughness is something Shiroe does not have.
　But as Shiroe, he had a vague sense of unease. As if to chase after that anxiety, he goes to assemble the words in his mind.

I don't know if we're in a different world or a video game, but the fact that we're in a different world... or a video game world... is already weird.

Yeah?　Um. That's true, though. Huh?

I'm just saying. 'If it were normal, it would be impossible to get lost in another world. As long as the impossible has happened, the natural doesn't apply to the natural now. So if you believe you can survive as a matter of course, you'll get hurt.'

　At Shiroe's words, Naotsugu looked puzzled for a while, but then he asked with a terribly disgusted look on his face.

''That's an insanely disgusting three-paragraph argument.
But we shouldn't run away. You're not going to escape.
That's true.
　Naotsugu's palms are clasped and opened; maybe he's worried about whether or not he can trust his body, which is supposed to be at 90 levels.

'One more thing I'd like to point out, although it was flying in this fiasco there's probably a new expansion pack in place.

The clearing of the noosphere?
'Yeah. Assuming that the new expansion pack is being introduced, not only does it add new items, monsters and quests, but it also adds new zones, right?
　Best of all, even the zones that were there before may have been remade.

Now that I think about it, that's true.
　Shiroe, who took his gaze away from Naotsugu, still did not stop speaking.

I'm not sure about sword skills because I'm a sorcerer, but magic seems to work fine. It's a slow and dangerous choice in battle because it's once selected from the menu to use from the grimoire, but I've confirmed that you can use it in a short chant if you register a shortcut.
Yeah. I can do my own signature swordsmanship, I know that, because I just tried it earlier.

But that doesn't mean it's going to win the battle.
Is that so?

How tall is Naotugu?　Real, but still.
183. That's the same as this character.
　Naotsugu waves one hand in the air and makes a gesture as if to stroke the tip of his head.

'I see, so it doesn't feel too different. I'm a few inches different. It's quite uncomfortable. Hmm. It's as if I'm wearing thick-soled shoes. If the length of my arms and legs were different, the discomfort would be greater. There is a gap between my real body and this body like that.
　The body we use now is not what we are used to. Even if we were able to use swordsmanship and magic, it is unclear to what extent the sensation of actually moving the body is suitable for combat.

'Oh. That too. It's a difficult festival. Cumbersome.
...and even more than that, this situation makes it difficult to check status.

　He continues to explain to the curious-looking Naotsugu.

It's true that if you focus on the forehead area, you can see the status screen. If you form a party, you should be able to check each other's HP and so on. However, I think it's quite difficult to be aware of this all the time during a battle.
　It's not difficult for me, but for Naotsugu to be aware of the enemy in front of him when he's in a situation like this, I think it's quite difficult to be aware of it while cutting each other.

Does that mean the fighting is pretty tough?
I think we should assume so.

　I didn't explain this to Naotsugu again, but visibility is also a big problem. If I was playing the game on a PC, I could have played it from a much wider field of view, which would have allowed me to see the whole picture, but in a situation like this, you can only see about 120 degrees in front of you.
　For example, when you're fighting huge enemies like trolls or giants, you'll have a much bigger blind spot than you did before. --I could tell you that there were a lot of problems when it came to combat.

That's it?

There's more...
What? Is it hard to talk?
　The sound of a troubled sigh. Shiroe was surprised to recognize it by ear. It was something that came from Shiroe himself.

　Shiroe was the first to think of that possibility.
　Honestly, the problems we've talked about so far, the problems of combat and the differences from the game, are trivial. It's certainly troublesome and increases the difficulty, but I don't think it's an insurmountable problem.
　I didn't want to talk about what I'm about to do, so I was just stalling for time to bypass the conversation for a bit.

'What the hell. Great Counselor.
　Naotsugu tells me that Shiroe is not a great strategist.
　It's a good thing that you're able to talk about a lot of things because you're dealing with Naotsugu, but in reality, you have to worry about a lot of things on your own.
　That's why he was called the chief of staff at the Tea Party of the Prodigal because of his attention to the little things. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a thing.

Elder Tail's Japanese server has about 1.2 million registered characters and is said to have around 100,000 active users.
Yes.
　It was a list of numbers that Shiroe and the rest of the players could only assume were common knowledge.

Today was the unveiling of the new expansion pack, so I'm guessing there were a lot more people accessing the site than usual. I've estimated the number to be around 30,000 for the Japanese servers. That's not too far off the mark, considering the percentage of people who are logged in to the game among their friend lists.
　I'm sure you can be sure by now that there are about 30,000 Japanese people in this other world, and I'm not talking about North American or European servers. I don't know about the North American servers or the European servers again,
　Naotsugu nodded honestly.

''In other words, there are 30,000 people here--''
　Shiroe didn't dare to say he was a player.

'But we don't have a governing body or laws.