Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Log Horizon owned by Mamare Touno or any other anime, manga, video game, and light novel characters or elements mentioned in the story.
Any original characters in the story are owned by yours or permitted by other writers unless specified.
Thank you very much, and please support the official release of this fantastic series.
'Where...Am I?"
...
'It's...dark...'
"[Player: Murakami Toji accepted. User's name: Toji Jaegers accepted.]"
'Whose there...?'
"[Launching Expansion Pack...The New World's Advent.]"
'What's going on...?'
"[Restructuring Player's Status Systems.]"
'Who's saying that...?'
"[Restructuring Battle System.]"
'System...?'
"[Adding new features to the game.]"
'Game...?'
"[Checking World Ranking... Tournament Participant Recognized.]"
'Rank... What's going on?'
[Rank Status-World Champion. Initiate reward features to the Player.]
'The fuck... What's going on?'
"[Initiating Start-up, New World's Advent Update!]"
'Wait! What the hell?!'
At an unknown location...
"Ughhh...!"
Toji was groaning in pain. He held his head with his hand, rubbing its side to alleviate the pain.
"Shit...! What the hell...! My head hurts...and it's not even from hangover...!"
He continues to rub its side of the head until he began to recognize his surrounding.
Toji blinked.
"Huh?"
Then he did it again.
Looking around, Toji found himself in an unfamiliar environment that he most certainly did not expect to be. He was standing small clearing with trees and moss-covered, old-looking buildings surrounding him.
'...What the hell happened to this place? How did I get here?'
Toji thought as the place seemed to be abandoned decades ago, judging from the condition of the floor, furniture, roof, and wall. Vines sprouted from the cracked wall and covered the turned-over and broken furniture inside the room he was in. The illuminating sunlight came from the hole on the top part of the wall. The window beside failed to function due to the number of leaves and moss covering the window. The spot on the wall served as a primary source of illumination in the room.
As he was looking around, he then realizes something was wrong with his sight.
'Why...do I only see with my right side for some reason?'
Realizing how he can only see his right side, Toji began to touch his face and widen his brows in response. A single sentence escaped his mouth with a shallow breath.
"What the...!"
He quickly stands up with his body, touching his face, and realizes that his left side of the face was covered with series of bandages surround it. As he continues to explore, he discovers a mirror on the other side of the wall. He quickly went to the mirror to check himself, only to find out that he was wearing an eastern-style clothing set that he definitely did not wear a few minutes ago.
"What the hell..! Why did I wear this stuff? I was wearing my bathrobes after a quick shower...but this looks like..." Toji muttered as he looks closer to the clothing set. In fact, this specific set of clothing looked like the set of a particular character avatar he played in a particular game he knew for his life.
As he comes to realize who he was, he quickly walked back a few steps, checking out his whole appearance with the light beamed from the hole above. He was a man in the '20s, with a tall, lean, but muscular body build within the clothing, standing at the height of 185cm over. Along with his body build, he had an equal, striking, golden-colored eye on the right and black-colored hair with shades of dark violet, majorities of his hair are obscured, though some of it falls down on his forehead, forming a small bang.
'I know I made my character's appearance based on myself in RL, but it's surprisingly calm and imposing. Especially the way my eyes are formed,' Toji thought as he was putting his fingers at his chin, touching his facial structure, all the while examining his clothing more closely.
For his clothing set, He wears a dark-blue robe coat with a red accent line with a Japanese character "Honesty" on the right side of the arm, while the character "Truth" is written on the left side. Under his robe, he wears a white shirt. He sports white, baggy pants with two black belts weaved through the waist around for storing his items and strapped with two combat knives. Finally, he wears custom shoes, with brown straps and triangular metal plating adorning them.
'Gotta say, my character looks quite badass.' Toji thought he was putting his fingers at his chin while examining his clothing more closely to dust it off. As he was done with how he looks, Toji turned his attention to the outside; he discovered other broken down clearings and buildings covered in moss. The scenery brought a familiar memory from his mind.
'What the hell...'
Toji put the pieces together quickly. The confused expression on his face quickly became a shock as the only possibility came into his mind.
"The voice!"
Toji suddenly remembers the voice, remembering the words that came to his head.
Player...
Expansion Pack...
Battle System...
New Features...World Ranking...
The New World's Advents...
As the words came into his mind, he comes to a shocking possibility.
"Is this... Could this be Elder Tale?!"
Elder Tale, a worldwide massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is described as one of the world's largest and most popular MMORPG in gaming history. It has earned a dedicated following of millions of players throughout its 20-year history and held the first World PvP (Player Vs. Player) Tournament a few years ago. On the Japanese Server alone, about 100,000 active players have created some 500,000 unique characters…along with a very few… individual titles that are scarce and hard to come by.
"No, that can't be right," Toji remarked himself as he walked around, passing the mossy building walls by going through the hallway. He looked around for a sign of life or people that could possibly explain or know what was going on but found no sight of it.
"Hmm... I need to get somewhere I can see a larger area." Toji muttered as he continued to look around. Spotting a stone staircase nearby, he quickly moved up, walking up to the top. Reaching the top, he quickly moved to the outer edge to see.
"Now then... Let's see the...view...!"
Toji was suddenly surprised by a familiar sight as he was stunned into silence. A giant tree that was supposedly the center of the buildings. A single word escaped his mouth with a shallow breath.
"The Whitebeam Tree..."
The sight had confirmed his original possibility he had in mind.
"So this really is... I'm...in Theldesia. I'm in the world of Elder Tale."
Toji responded with the possibility that fantasy novels or games can only become a new reality before him. This was the game world of Elder Tale, in the city of Akihabara.
Toji sighed in exasperation as he was taking a seat at the nearby boulder. He looked up to the blue, vast sky. "After logging on after a while...this shit happens."
A series of glooming and frustrated mark appears on top of his head as he was thinking about the crazy, unbelievable situation he was in. As he was considering what to do, he suddenly realizes an important thing.
"Oh, wait! If this is really a game, then it should have an option to exit, right?" As he was about to figure out how to open up the game menu...
CRACK!
"Hm?" Toji browed in response.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
A series of ominous, cracking sounds were heard out of nowhere. It caused the young man to look around quickly in panic.
CRACK!
"Oooh shit." As he finds the source of his ominous noise,
CRACK!
The floor he was on was splitting apart in quick succession, causing the young man to stand up quickly in panic, but was too late to react.
CRAAAAAAAACK!
"Shiiiiit!" He cursed as he was getting sucked into the split floor as debris of concretes, rocks, and moss fell down along with him. After a few dozens of seconds of break down, he reached to the bottom with a big, disastrous sound that an average human would die.
As the sounds were calming down in a few moments...
...
...
...
BOOM!
A solemn fist was raised proudly from the piles of debris. From that moment, the young man with the bandage crawled out of the in a groaning pain.
"God...Damn it...!"
As he was out of the debris, he drags himself from the pit comically and laying down onto the floor.
"…Auuuugh, my aching body…!" Toji groaned in pain as his entire body felt like it was hit by something somewhat hard, like when you got hit by a 1-ton truck, and you didn't notice something was coming towards you. As he was recovering from the pain, it made him realize that this indeed was Elder Tale's world he knew and played. And...also proving that his character body was tough enough to survive from falling down to the bottom floor with the debris of stones and concretes pounding down on him, with results that could pulverize his significant bones and multiple, deep cuts and punctured organs.
"…Well, this proves that I'm in the world of Elder Tale." Even though he went through such a death and life ordeal, he felt grateful that this was his reality, even though it sounds ridiculous. In any case, He needs to figure out how to use the menu of Elder Tale he knew and played until now.
PING!
"Huh? The hell was that sound?"
As he accepted the reality bit by bit, he heard a slight ping-like sound coming out of nowhere. As he looked around, he started to look at an unknown screen where it popped in front of him.
"…The hell's this?"
In front of him, various floating words appeared. A few translucent windows showing a variety of kinds of stuff were hanging in front of him. He turned around, intending to try to look at the windows in a different position. To his surprise, the windows followed his direction and stayed in front of him. Giving up that idea, He started to read the windows. As he read the windows, he was shocked and surprised by the status screen and its interfaces on the window.
"I see... So this further proves my theory on Elder Tale. It's the same interface used in the game." Toji responds to the discovery he made. The status screen and interfaces he sees before him are the iconic interfaces that Elder Tale used.
"All right then…" Toji holds his hand to his chin, searching through the interfaces by seeing the image on the left part of the window. It was a portrait of himself from the bust-up wearing his usual scowled, badass glare expression. Next to it was a symbol in the form of a fist, symbolizing his primary class.
"Toji Jaegers. Race/High-Human. Monk, Lv. 120… Holy shit, my level cap is maxed out! How's that possible, and why is my race a...High Human? Isn't it supposed to be Human?" He ponders on his level and race.
In the Elder Tale, the character's playstyle determines what race, class, and subclass they choose to play with. In the Elder Tale, the total level cap for the character is 110 due to the twelfth pack expansion a few years ago.
"Oh right, the thirteenth pack expansion came out today. It did feature new elements and features for the players to explore. And the reason why my level and race is this because of the World Tournament I had a few years ago."
Elder Tale's game companies news stated that the thirteenth pack expansion had a new level cap of 120 and new features, quests, items, etc. There were also special rewards to the top-ranked players who participated in the World PvP Tournament held by the Elder Tale committee.
Toji puts his hand to his chin. "At least I found why my race is different, and my level cap is already maxed out. It's due to the tournament rewards." He continues to check out his profile and discovers something else that he recognizes. "And there's my special subclass... All right then, let's see what else."
Under those words, two colored bars were visible. The top bar, which had the gradient color from bright yellow to dark green, had the word 'HP' on it and the numbers' 19,128/19,128'. It represents the total health points of the character that the user used. The bottom bar, which had the gradient color from dark purple to dark blue, had the word 'MP' on it and the numbers' 6,167/6,167', representing the user's character's mana points.
He continued to explore the interface, reading each of the available windows very slowly. Finding the task was much more challenging than He expected since they only needed to click their information through their own monitors. He gestured his hands and fingers, moving into one of the words, and found that it reacts to that simple gesture. As he was looking around, he saw the one Icon that could save his unfortunate fate.
'The log-off button!' He exclaimed in his mind as he was reaching the log-off button quickly.
Thong! Thong! Thong!
"Huh? I can't log off." Toji said as he tries to press the log-off button once more.
Thong! Thong! Thong!
The button shows a red X on top, denying him access to quit the game. He sighed in exasperation as he rubbed his bridge.
"Shit... Guess that doesn't work..." He sighed to calm himself and slapping his cheeks together.
"All right then, what else is here..." He recovers as he continues to search the interfaces. Another window opened, which was information about his overall stats of strength, dexterity, vitality, luck, and other stats. To be honest, he was on the higher end than the other players in the Elder Tale since…that particular quest he completed a while back granted him a special subclass.
'Well... I guess they could call me both Beater and Cheater...' He thought as he was shaking his head in response. He continues to move on to another window. This time, it contained the description and explanation of the gears he possesses. He hoped his equipment was there in all honesty since he put a gruesome grinding and time getting them. As he was clicking on the gear icons, he sighed in relief as it was there in his storage…
'Thank fucking god...' He felt immensely grateful to god as he found his gears were in order, as he was concerned about how to survive in this unknown, alien world without his essential pieces of equipment and kits.
He continues to search the interface to get familiar with the positions, icons, and other features with a heavy relieved sigh, looking down for a few seconds, and suddenly discovered that the interface was gone.
"Oh shit! I need to call back the screen! But how...! Hmmm...!" He grunted as he browsed his brows determinedly to get the screen, concentrating his mind to the limit.
And suddenly...
PING!
"Huh?"
Somehow, the screen came back to him. Cueing that as a signal, he tried different gestures with his hand.
'Interesting. So that's how you bring it up to me.' He realizes that it appears that if an individual focused on their forehead region, the world would present a translucent status screen displaying all sorts of values and graphs. By controlling the cursor with their own mind, they could perform all kinds of action.
"All right. Guess that worked out pretty well in the end. Even though I'm still stuck here..." He looks up to the sky. "...Does that mean that there are others trapped here, stuck in our favorite game..." After figuring out how most of the interfaces worked, he could still do anything serious with his situation.
"Shit...! I need to cool it off for a few minutes." He said as he lay down on the floor where there was soft grass growing out of it. He closes his right eye once more and trying to get some shut-eyes…or, in this case, a shut-eye for a few moments or two and figure things out later on.
After dozens of minutes have passed... Toji senses someone from a distance, walking closer to him.
'Well... There goes my nap. Guess I had to jump the person within my striking distances.' Toji thought as he was keeping up with his act as his target was getting closer to him. When he got close, he kneels down, tapping his shoulder to get his attention.
Instantly, Toji sweeps his leg quickly to incapacitate him.
"Whoa!"
The person falls to the ground backward due to the quick kick. As he grabs the individual with his right hand at the person's neck, he grabbed one of his knives on his waist and drew it quickly, reading its position to strike. As he raised his left hand with the blade on, ready to hit the enemy down...
"Wait! Toji, it's me! It's Shiroe! Shiroe from Tea Party!" the enemy exclaimed, causing Toji to stop at the nick of his neck.
"Wha." As Toji regained his senses, he takes a look at his supposed enemy. It was a man around in the '20s, with round glasses, blue-colored shaggy hair, a white cloak with a collar large enough to act as a basin for water. He draped the cloak above his dark-brown turtleneck sweater with a harness over it. He wore green pants that go from a lighter green on the top to a darker green right above the knees. He had a magic bag essential in the early Player's quest, held in place by a belt on his left side. While his dark-orange-colored staff was knocked a few steps away from him.
Surprised, he immediately steps back, taking his knife back, placing it back in its holder. He held out his hand with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about the surprise attack. I thought you were an enemy to strike me down."
Shiroe shakes his head and smiles back, taking Toji's hand. "It's okay. In a situation like this, we have to be on our guard."
Shiroe stands up, almost measuring Toji's height. The two stared at one another for a few moments, smiling at one another, and then raised their hands up, handing a high-five to one another.
"It's good to see you again, Shiroe," Toji responds as he smiles.
Shiroe nodded in response. "It's good to see you again. Toji. Glad to see your combat senses are sharp as usual." He teased with a playful smirk on his face.
Toji smirked back in response. "Well, I have to match it up to your little, cunning schemes, right?" He teased back with equal reaction, causing the two men to laugh in response.
"How did you find me? I thought I was a little further away from the center of Akiba." As Toji inquired to Shiroe, who nodded in response.
"Well, I was thinking about why I was here. But, I heard a big sound coming from here." Shiroe pauses for a moment before continuing on. "So, I have to find out what happened, and it turns out, I found you here." He looked at Toji with a smile.
Toji smirked for his 'cool' deduction. "All right, Sherlock." He gestured his head to one of the places. "You want to go somewhere else. I get the feeling that others would have caught off on the sound." Said as he looks at the messes that he was in earlier.
Shiroe nodded in response. "Yeah, I know an obsolete place where we could get some peace and quiet for us to discuss."
"Heh," Toji smirked. He starts to walk. "It's good to know that you always have your cool together." Responded as he walks with his companion.
"Well... I wouldn't say that. I mean, everything feels too real. "Respond in a mix of concerned and sheepish looks.
Toji Shrugged his shoulder in response. "Nonetheless, it's good that we found each other, right?" Said as he formed his hand into a fist. "Shiroe of the Villain in Glasses."
Shiroe smiles in response. "Well. You're right." He fist-bumped in response to his friend's quirk. "I know this isn't how our reunion turned out, but welcome back, Toji the Ultimate Monk."
"Ahahahaha."
"Hahaha."
The two of them shared a burst of hearty laughter, one that encompasses the feelings of friendship, comrades-in-arms, and brotherhood that felt appreciated by the duo as their former days in the Debauchery Tea Party.
Akihabara, Akiba Central Plaza
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
"IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE!?"
"I SAID I WANTED TO TALK TO THE GM! ARE YOU DEAF!? I KNOW THEY'RE THERE, LET'S GO!?"
"Calm down, son! I only sell food!" said a vendor as Shiroe and Toji walked past the vendor and looked around them and took in they weren't the only one that was in Elder Tales.
As the duo walked down the Akiba Central Plaza, they could hear many commotions around them, like many people yelling and shouting. No, rather than a human being, the sound was more like the cry of agitated beasts.
All of them didn't know a single thing about how they got here, and neither would it give the duo any information about how they got in here. Was there may be a pattern of people that have been chosen to be here in Elder Tales?
Toji has a narrowed expression. "The situation is worse than we initially thought."
"You're right. And I get the feeling that this is going to get far worse as time passes."
The duo shared their concerns about their situation. They continued to walk towards the destination for their spot to discuss their situation. Before they could take another step, Shiroe tripped over his own feet and faceplanted on the ground, causing Toji to look.
"You're alright?" Toji went over to him as he offered his hand to Shiroe.
"A-Ah yeah, thanks." Shiroe took Tojis's hand, standing on his knees as he dusted the dirt off. "I'm not used to this body since it's taller than my body in IRL. Maybe that's why I'm almost tripping the whole time?" He held his chin in thought.
"Interesting. So, does it feel as though you are in a taller bodysuit then?" Toji held his chin in thought as well.
Shiroe nodded in response. "I guess in a way. What about you, Toji? How tall are you, IRL?"
"It's over 185cm tall." He responds immediately, causing him to move his body around for a few minutes, throwing out a few jabs with sharp sounds in the air, causing Shiroe to widen his eyes on his action. "Well, I can still move smoothly." He held his chin in thought. "But, there are some few strides to figure out. But with time, I think I can adjust."
Shiroe nodded in response. "All right then. Let's continue to walk. We're almost at the destination." Toji nodded in response as they continued to walk ahead.
As they walked away from the commotions in the Akihabara, they found a desolated building area of the Server, in the area of White Beam Tree, the beginning area of Akihabara. They entered one of the desolate buildings and started to walk up the stairs.
"So Shiroe, What you have been up to these days? I mean before this...Apocalypse?" Toji asked as they walked up some stairs
Shiroe hummed in response. "Well... I graduated from my engineering school just about two months ago and attained my graduate degree." Toji whistled in response, causing Shiroe to rubbed his cheek with his finger. "After that, I'm currently freelancing from my home right now as a CAD designer. The pay's decently good too, thanks to the connections I got from my senpais."
"Oooh. I guess a congratulation in order, huh?" Toji browed in amused response as Shiroe responds, 'thanks.' "And did you choose to work from home because you wanted to play Elder Tale like a giddy gamer? Or is it that you don't wanna be social?" Toji teased as he was poking his friend with a shit-eating smirk on his face.
Shiroe shook a moment before recovering with an embarrassed look on his face. "W-well... It's actually kind of both... but more to the former. What about you? I haven't seen you or log in a while." Shiroe inquired.
Toji sighed tiredly as they reached more than halfway through the stairs. "Well... I have taken a...extended vacation. The jobs I was hired to do were quite stressful and even messy to clean up..." He muttered at the last part, which Shiroe caught with his ears, but understood as he was one of the few people who knew about his IRL job.
"So...I'm guessing you're on vacation now?" Shiroe inquired.
Toji nodded in response as they reached more than halfway through the stairs. "Yep. So, to spend my well-earned vacation, I wanted to try out the new expansion pack." He gestured his hands in defeat. "Thus, bring us to the world of Elder Tale."
"I see." Shiroe shared his sentiment.
Toji nodded. "All right. It's my turn to ask. What else have you been up to? I actually heard a rumor on the Server that you were tutoring a pair of newbies. Man, I was shocked to hear that, you know?"
Shiroe shook up a moment at his friend's information.
'Man... it's scary that he's informed so well.'
Shiroe quickly recovers before he was getting more teased by it. "U-um yeah. I actually looking out for a pair of new players. They're twins, as a matter of fact. One's a Samurai named Touya, and the other is a Kannagi named Minori. I taught them the basics of hunting for items and monsters, advice on combat, and players' items."
Toji browed in surprise. 'Interesting never thought he was nice to other players.'
"Hmm. I see." Toji hummed in response.
As they reached the top of the stairs, Toji grasps the door's handle, opening it to reveal the entirety of the Akihabara, plus the beautiful, open vast, blue sky, causing the two to be awed by such view that never existed in the game.
"You can't get this from a computer monitor." Toji mused as he admires the view before.
"Yeah..." Shiroe added in response. "Let's sit over there at the boulders." Shiroe pointed at the boulder.
Toji nodded as they walk towards the boulder, sitting down while looking at the city view.
Shiroe started to go through his menu screen, clicking on the Friend List to see who was online. All the while, Toji was checking his ingredients and items in his inventory. As Toji was pondering Shiroe's action, Toji looked at Shiroe, who was still going through the Friend List.
"How many do you think they're here in Elder Tales? In the Servers?" Toji asked as he was grabbing a potion from his inventory.
"Hmm... I would say about 30,000 players in the Japanese Server alone." Shiroe responds in thought as he goes through his Friend List. "And possibly, maybe more than hundreds of thousands of players around the Global Server in my rough estimate?"
"I see. I'm guessing the majority of the people we knew is online?" Toji inquired.
Shiroe nodded as he was still going through the list. "Yeah, a lot of the people we knew are currently online. That includes Touya and Minori, the twins I mentioned earlier. There's Krusty from D.D.D, Isaac from Black Sword Knights, Marielle, and Henrietta from Crescent Moon Alliance, Einz from Honesty, and Soujiro and Nazuna, and Saki from their own guild, West Wind Brigade, and a lot more..."
Toji nodded in response as he knew the people mentioned by Shiroe, for some of the friends were their former comrades from the Debauchery Tea Party before...their eventual disbandment. And he was known to be hired as a freelancing adventurer for the majorly known guilds in the Japanese Server for a...reasonable, fair price.
As they pondered on his own inventory and list, A lilting tune, like xylophone notes, rang in Toji's ears. The familiar chime signaled the arrival of a telepathy link.
"Someone's calling me on the telepathy link," Toji said.
"Hm? Who's calling?" Shiroe asked.
"Let me check and see." Toji narrowed his eyes, concentrating his attention on his forehead, and chose "Select" from the menu that appeared in his mind's eye. And he selected his Friend List to figure out the caller, only to be surprised by it.
Mika, Level.110
Guild: Non-Affiliated.
"It's Mika!"
Shiroe widens his eyes as Toji looked at Shiroe, who nodded in response and quickly clicked on the incoming Icon.
Ting!
[Umm... Hello?]
"Ah...!"
Toji shook up as the voice heard through the telepathy link felt familiar and longing to him, even though the voice sounded different. Shiroe paid attention closely to the conversation.
"Mika... Is that you?" Toji asked.
[Yeah! Toji..is that you?!]
"Y-yeah! I'm here, Mika!" Toji exclaimed as Shiroe smiles in response.
[Thank goodness...! I'm so glad to hear your voice, Toji.]
"Same here. I'm glad to hear your voice." Toji agreed with the same response. "Are you alright? You aren't hurt, right?" Toji asked with a concerned and soothing tone to Mika, which Shiroe always respected and put Toji in high regard.
[Yeah, despite the situation we're in, I'm managing it. Thanks for your concern.]
"I see. That's good to hear." Toji breathed out in relief. Shiroe tapped his shoulder, motioning his hand that he's getting a call from someone. Toji nodded in response as Shiroe was taking his own telepathy link.
[Umm...Toji, do you know what's happening right now? and where are you now?]
Toji sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck."...unfortunately, I don't know either what's happening right now. All I know is that we're in the world of Elder Tales." He paused for a moment before continue. "As for where I am, I'm here at one of the abandoned buildings in Akihabara with Shiroe."
[Oh, you're with Shiroe? That's good to hear. Is Shiroe next to you?]
"Yeah, but he's taking a call from his someone. I'm assuming it's someone he knew."
[I see. Toji, I was thinking about coming to you if that's alright with you?]
"Hmm..." Toji held his chin with his thumb and index finger, humming about the thought.
'It is a bit of a risk to take.' Toji thought as he looks at Shiroe, who was almost done with his link. 'And there's Shiroe who has basically no experience in combat...but his level is at the top. Hmm...'
As Toji continues to count the merit and demerit of his action, he decided to slap his thigh. 'Screw it... Even though it's a bit of a risk, I'm gonna have to take this task alone and asked Shiroe to meet up later.'
"Mika, where are you in Akihabara right now?" Toji asked.
[Let's see... I'm surrounded by a couple of abandoned buildings, but I can see the Silverleaf Tree nearby.]
'Good. It's not that far.'
"All right then. Listen, I'm going to head out and be there at the Silverleaf Tree. You just need to find yourself a way to get there. Can you do that for me?" Toji asked.
[Yeah, I can do that. What about Shiroe? Isn't he coming with you?]
Toji shakes his head. "...Unfortunately, I can't. Even though we're in our character's body, I can't take the risk of taking someone who has no IRL combat experience...besides me, that is."
[I see... Well, be careful out there. The last thing I want to know is you...]
Toji sighed in response."...I know, don't you worry. You be careful too. I'll see you then."
[okay. See you then. And Toji...]
"Yeah, what is it?"
[I'm just glad...so glad that the person I care for and love is here with me. Despite the situation, we're in.]
The statement brought Toji a caring smile. "Yeah... I'm glad too. I'll see you then."
[Okay, I Love you, Toji.]
Toji laughed softly. "Me too, Mika."
"So, how did the call go?" Shiroe inquired as he adjusted his glasses.
"Mika's somewhere nearby at the Silverleaf Tree. I'm gonna go and get her." Toji responds as he gets from his seat and dusting off his clothing.
Shiroe narrowed his expression. "... I'm guessing you don't want me to come along?"
Toji grimly nodded. "Yeah... I don't mean to be rude, but I can't have someone dragging me down, especially during actual live combat. Sorry about that." He shared a sad smile towards Shiroe.
Shiroe shakes his head and smiles in understanding. "It's okay. Anyway, I just got a call from Naotsugu."
Toji widens his eye in response. "Naotsugu's here?"
Shiroe nodded. "Yeah. I'm guessing Naotsugu settled down on his promotion job."
"Okay then. I'll fill you in after I meet up with Mika." Toji responded.
Shiroe nodded as he ready his gears. "Understood. I'll meet up with Naotsugu and fill you in when I make the chat call."
"Okay then. Good luck yourself." Toji holds his fist out towards Shiroe.
"Thanks, you too," Shiroe responded as he fist-bumped with Toji.
"Hmm..." Toji narrowed his eyes, concentrating his attention on the destination he takes.
Elder Tale, a highly popularized MMORPG that has millions of players worldwide, became our new reality. On May,5th 2020, the worldwide servers with hundreds of thousands of players worldwide and around 30,000 players in Japan Server awaited the thirteenth pack expansion, The New World's Advents.
It was the day where everyone was expected to have something that awaits us to explore new opportunities and adventures.
But instead, it marked the beginning of something that no one expected.
Right as the pack was about to update, an event occurred. This marks the day where we were forced to embrace our new reality before us.
A truth, the world that is supposed to be fantasy, a world of sword and sorcery, became our new reality.
Author's Commentary:
Hello there everyone, and I hope you enjoyed my story. I am writing this story because of several reasons.
First up, writing fanfiction became a hobby. I enjoy writing because I can be creative and enjoyable when it comes to expressing my idea. I am still considered a novice when writing a good story compared to other talented authors. I wanted to do this, and I decided to do this finally as a part of my new year's resolution. By doing this fanfic of mine, I can channel my creativity into storytelling, which is beneficial to my main occupation of being a concept artist for animation & game studios.
Please, I ask for your constructive feedback and commentary if I lack anything in my story or make mistakes. Other than that, thank you for your sincere support for this humble story of mine.
Second, I was inspired to write this series by reading the canon series, fanfics written by various authors such as:
Log Horizon a new world.
Log Horizon: The Irregular Enchanter
Reading these series with a few more has inspired me to write. I wanted to write a fanfic of Log Horizon. I wanted to explore the character relationships with my OC and other characters in the story, plus exploring the possibilities and practice on how to write and illustrate an MMORPG or related light novel or webcomic series...
To finish off, I'll be working on this fanfic, including my first fanfic, Heroic Anomaly in My Hero Academia fanfic series.
As for the time schedule release, it is at my own discretion as I have other projects to do besides this one. So I'll post it up whenever I can, thank you for understanding and supporting this wonderful series of mine.
So without further ado, let the story begin and enjoy!