The World has become boring.

Between Cubia and AIDA, the normal challenges this game offers seem worthless. He had reached the highest level, he unlocked the hidden Dual Gunner class, and he even cleared the Forest of Pain.

Whatever excitement people find in The World does not exist for him. A game is supposed to be fun and challenging. However, for him it was neither. Fun was not a luxury he was afforded when he started, serious business was always going down, and by the time he had taken care of all the threats, he had become the strongest player, devoid of all challenges.

So now, it will be fine, he has made his decision, and he will live with this choice. Ryou Misaki has decided that it is time to delete Haseo. It only takes a few clicks, and just like that, Haseo is gone. Forever erased from The World.

"Now, how should I make my new character?" Ryou spoke aloud, trying to get an idea through his head. There wasn't much he thought he could change by way of appearance. Haseo was already pretty close to his real life look. As he considered this, a picture caught his glance. It was an old photo, one from when he was just ten years old.

He had looked a lot different then, it was a time he had little recollection of. The young Ryou had fallen into a coma and lost many of his memories. Still, the picture gave him an idea. Haseo held the old photo up to the web camera.

His character creation screen had accepted the face Ryou presented, and after a bit of tweaking Ryou was happy with the characters face. A smug looking face, with a blue headband, sporting short green hair but two long bangs, this was the appearance of Ryou's new character.

The face was the most important detail to Ryou, after all the game would automatically register armor and other details once he had selected his character's class. The class of Adept Rogue was always the most appealing to him. Although it was a slow class, he had a life-time membership to The World, and the slow leveling wouldn't bother him.

Taking a look at the four allotted points, Ryou carefully considered which abilities he would choose for his character. Twin Blade was an instantaneous decision; it was a class which naturally appealed to him. With the three remaining points though, Ryou would need to plan out how he wished his character to advance in the future.

Since he had picked Twin Blade, he would need to consider if he wanted his character well balanced or incredibly specialized. When creating Haseo, he went for balance, Twin Blade for speed, Edge Punisher for power, and Flick Reaper for area of effect. Although, he didn't really want to follow the same route as Haseo.

Ryou decided that he would go for specialization, selecting the fastest classes he could. First Twin Blade, then Tribal Grappler, and finally Blade Brandier, the selection may go against the purpose of an Adept Rogue, but it was all for fun, so who cares?

The character creation screen took the data given to it and instantly began creating the character. The leggings still appeared to be the same tight black leather that appeared on Haseo. However, the top clothing was a bit lacking, no shirt or light armor, just a wide overcoat that separated out at the middle.

All he needed now was a name. There wasn't much for him to think about now though. Ryou that would be his characters name, it was a little weird using his real name for an online game, but it wasn't such a big deal.

Now his character was complete. Ryou, the Adept Rogue, it would be the first time he logs in with this player character. The log in process was different than he remembered it, maybe it changed depending on the character, but when he logged in, he felt that things weren't normal.

As soon as he had finished logging in, he noticed a couple of things, in rapid succession.

First, was that he was not in the proper location. Upon logging into The World, one was supposed to spawn in Mac Anu; however Ryou was in a forest. Not a dense jungle where the sunlight could barely shine through, but a sea of trees all the same.

The next thing that caught his attention was the fact that he could not feel the visor over his face or the controller in his hand. This had happened before, when he would invoke his Avatar Skeith, or when AIDA had messed with The World's servers. Could that be what was happening now? Could AIDA be messing with my character?

However, before Haseo could further question the possibilities, he noticed something hopping up and down, trying to get his attention. It was a small pink ball, but it had red eyes, and long floppy ears, almost like antennas.

"My name's Koromon, who are you?" It seemed like a friendly little creature, maybe it could give Ryou some of the answers he was looking for.

"Hi, I'm–" Ryou was cut off by a sudden explosion. The small pink creature in front of him had just exploded, pieces of Koromon were scattered all across the area. Ryou blinked several times before he actually understood what had just happened. Once he finally got a grasp on the situation, he looked forward and noticed another figure, laughing, with a pistol in his hand.

"Oh my god, that was hilarious, you should've seen the look on your face!" The man laughing across from Ryou was roughly the same height. He had a pistol in each hand, ethereal blades protruding from the bottom of the barrels. The outfit he wore was almost entirely white, and his voice was incredibly familiar.

"You're…" Ryou paused momentarily, due to the sheer improbability of the conclusion he reached.

Haseo!