Chapter 1: The Apocalypse
Elder Tale, a MMORPG game that has over 30,000 Japanese players and hundreds of thousand players worldwide. But, in 2018, all of Japan had been converted into the Elder Tale world. For these players, what was once a "sword-and-sorcery world" is now the "real world"! We'll see how Nayu and all of the other players survive in the world of Elder Tale.
In the realm of Elder Tale, many of the players have logged in, however, they all seem to have a confused look on their faces. Among the players, a young woman blinks her eyes as she gives a look of confusion as well.
"...What's going on?" The young girl questioned.
She began to look around before looking at herself as her eyes widen. "W-What is this?!" She begins to circle around looking at herself. "Isn't this my Elder Tale character Nayu? If it is, why am I wearing her clothes?!"
She stopped circling around and stood in place as she began to take in the area she was in. Looking around, the area had collapsed buildings with grass and moss growing on top of them. At the center of the collapsed buildings, there lies a big tree grown to reach the sky.
"This area, could it be..." She placed her index finger on her cheek and tilted her head as she closed her eyes and thought.
'The resemblance to Nayu, the people around wielding swords and staffs, and the big tree growing in the middle...!'
Opening her eyes and straightening her posture, she jumped and widen her eyes again.
'Wait, could it be...Is this Elder Tale?!'
As she discovers this thought, her eyes wonder and noticed that everyone else around her seemed to have the same look of realization. Everyone in that area all had the same thoughts, and that was that they are not in Japan anymore, but are in the Elder Tale realm.
"I can't believe it..." She sat down on a nearby boulder. "After logging on after so long, this happens...Why..." Gloom marks appeared on top of her head as she thought about her situation.
"…Wait, now that I think about it...This is a game, and all games have a exit." Nayu opened her menu from the game. Right in front of her, was the character screen for the Elder Tale game.
"Hmmm…the set up is exactly like the game, there's a status button and friends list...Huh? But I can't log off." When Nayu tries to press the log off button, the button shows a red X on top denying her access to quit the game.
"Guess that doesn't work, well I tried..." She looks up to the sky. "...Does that mean that we are all trapped here, stuck in our favorite game..."
As she says that, a man overhead her and began to walk up to her. When he got close, he tapped on her shoulder to get her attention. "Apparently we are all on the same conflict."
Surprised, Nayu instantly grabbed one of her cutlass swords on her waist and drew it so the blade was close to the man's neck. Before she land the hit, she stopped as she took a closer look at him. Looking closely, it was a man around his 20s, with round glasses, blue shaggy hair, a white cape draped above his brown sweater and holding a staff in one of his hands.
Recognizing that the man means no harm, she immediately takes her cutlass back placing it back in its holder. "I am so sorry about that. I thought you were an enemy."
"It's okay, in a situation like this we have to be on our guard." The man moves his free hand forward indicating a handshake towards the woman. "I'm Shiroe. What is your name?"
The woman looked at the man before giving a small smile taking his hand in hers. "My name is Nayu in Elder Tale."
"Nayu..." Shiroe sinks that name and look into his mind. "I see, nice to meet you. "
"Nice to meet you too, Shiroe." She took her hand back as she looked around the area once more. "Shiroe, do you by any chance know why we are here?"
Shiroe held his chin with his thumb and index finger with a concern look. "Unfortunately, I am also confused as to why we are all stuck here." He placed his arm down to his side and looked at Nayu. "But, I am going to see my friend right about this, if you want, you can come with me."
As he gave her the offer, she held her chin between her fingers as she gave it some thought.
'I just met Shiroe, who knows what he can do to me if we went along. But, at the same time, I need to know why are we all here and he's my best bet.'
She eventually shrugged her shoulders before giving him a nod. "Sure, beside I won't be able to solve anything if I just stand here."
With that said, she got off her little boulder as the two walked side by side in search of Shiroe's friend. As the duo walked, there was a noticeable discomfort in the air between the two. Usually silence was nice for the woman, but this was just uncomfortable. "Hey Shiroe?"
Shiroe looked over at her. "Yes, is there something wrong, Nayu?"
'Okay let's make sure to ask a smart question, first impressions count!'
"Are you by any chance a Mage class, it's because I noticed that you have a staff?"
'You IDIOT!'
"Yeah you're right. I'm a LVL 90 Enchanter class." He looks over to Nayu who was holding her head for some reason. "If I may ask, what class are you?"
"Oh, I'm a LVL 90 Swashbuckler." She stopped walking as she demonstrated the two cutlass swords. "As you can see, I am a duel wielder with cutlass swords."
"Oh, are those swords perhaps from the pirate theme event a few years ago?" Shiroe asked amazed. "I remember that the first to gain one million points would be rewarded them."
"That is correct." She nodded as she put the swords away. "If you can not tell, I based my character off of pirates and since there was a pirate event, I had to get first."
'RIP sleep, but it was worth it!'
Although it seems as though she is only a sword wielder, she actually has guns that are hidden in her inventory. The pirate event that was mentioned earlier, Nayu managed to obtain first place and was able to exceed the accumulated amount. Because of that, the moderators of the game awarded her with a beta prototype of gun weapons that were not featured in the game yet to keep and use.
"If I remember correctly, the advantage of the swashbuckler class was that players are able to duel wield weapons." Shiroe stated.
"Yup, even though the attack power is weaker then an assassins, it makes up for it with the extra combos that it deals." She placed the swords back in the hilt and continued walking.
"I remember because I have a friend who is also a swashbuckler class." He stated. "However, he doesn't use cutlass swords and instead uses sabre swords."
"Hmm, I see..." Nayu was deep in thought before noticing that Shiroe has stopped walking. "Is something wrong?"
As she asked, Shiroe began walking again, but in a faster speed. "Hey! Wait, Shiroe!"
"My friend is over there, so we should hurry there." Shiroe said.
The duo sped walk until they saw in the distance, a man with heavy armor. From his status, he is seen to be a LVL 90 guardian.
"Hey Naotsugu." Shiroe called out to the man raising his hand up.
"Hey Shiroe." The man, who Nayu now knows is Naotsugu, replied raising his hand as well. He tilts his head to the side as Nayu came into view. "Hmm, who are you?"
"Naotsugu, this is Nayu a LVL 90 swashbuckler." Shiroe lifted his hand to present Naotsugu. "Nayu, this is Naotsugu a LVL 90 Guardian and the friend I was telling you about."
"Nice to meet you Naotsugu." Nayu let out her hand. "As Shiroe stated, my name is Nayu."
She didn't receive a answer as Naotsugu was busy circling around the woman analyzing her while holding his chin. When he finish, he stood a foot away from the two and threw a thumbs up with a grin. "She may not be sexy, but she still has her own beauty." Naotsugu said.
Not used to the compliment, the woman's face blushed red as she hid herself behind Shiroe to hide her embarrassment. From the sudden contact, Shiroe was surprised and tried to pry her out. "Hey Nayu, it's okay. Naotsugu is always like this to women and girls."
Naotsugu watched from the side as he rub his index finger under his nose giving a smirk at the scene. "I wonder how did you land a shot at this beautiful woman, Shiroe~. Maybe...she is your type."
The two immediately stopped what they were doing and stepped far away from each other covering their red faces while Naotsugu was laughing at their despair. Once that was all over, the scene got serious as the group sat in a small circle while Naotsugu sat on one of the ground slabs.
"So Shiroe, do you know why are we here?" Naotsugu looked over at said man.
"No Naotsugu, I just log on and suddenly I'm here."
"Hmm, maybe everyone else got here by logging on, but did you notice we can't log off?" Naotsugu said.
"Yeah, when I tried to log off, it rejects to command."
From that comment, Nayu thought back to when she also tried to log off, but failed. As she thought back, she remembered something that she saw on the website before logging on.
"If I may speak..." The two men's attention turn to her as she spoke. "Didn't the website talked about a new update to the game before we all logged on?"
Shiroe thought about what she said and widen his eyes at the realization. "Nayu's right. The Elder Tale site said that the Novasphere Pioneers expansion was to be released today."
Naotsugu suddenly stood up from his seat and looked over at the two. "Well, we can't get any answers just sitting here! Let's go ask other players, Shiroe, Nayu."
"Yeah that's true." Shiroe looked over to Nayu." Are you coming with us Nayu?"
Nayu just showed a small smile. "Of course I'm going with you guys, I want to know what's going on."
"Yep."
"Let's go."
The trio started to walk away from their meet up spot to explore this new world. But before they could take another step, Shiroe tripped over his own feet and faceplanted on the ground, causing the other two to look.
"Oh Shiroe are you okay?" Nayu went over to Shiroe as she stood above his body.
"A-Ah yeah I'm okay, I'm not used to this body since it's taller then my original body." Shiroe stood on his knees as he dusted the dirt off.
"Interesting, so does it feel as though you are in a tall body suit then?" She held her chin in thought of a smaller Shiroe in a bigger Shiroe.
He copied her actions as he held his chin as well. "Well, I can still move smoothly, but my walk strides as well as body portions are different. But with time I think I can adjust."
"Then Let's continue." Naotsugu called out to the two before walking ahead.
Nayu held out her hand to Shiroe as she assisted him in standing up. Once Shiroe got back on his feet, the group continued on their quest of exploration.
"Hey Naotsugu?" Shiroe said.
"Yeah, what Shiroe?"
"If you're here, then does that mean you finally logged back into the game?"
"Yeah, after 2 years I finally had time to log back on, but who would have thought that I'd be caught up into this."
"True." Shiroe said.
While the two men were talking, Nayu was looking around the area lost in her own thoughts.
'It seems that I was not the only one who has not logged on in a while. The last time I logged on was when I was in high school...'
Her thoughts were interrupted as something hard hit her head. When she looked down, she noticed it to be a small pebble. As she looked around the area they were walking, the small pebbles she noticed on the ground began to grow in numbers realizing that they were there intentionally.
"But from where..." She said to herself as she surveyed the area.
Her eyes soon caught onto a man with a ninja costume who was hiding in one of the nearby buildings. Noticing that the rest of the group hasn't found out, she decided to separate from the group and used her tracker skills sneak up on the ninja. Once she was in the same building, she noticed the mysterious ninja was about to throw a big boulder at the group.
"I won't let you hurt my group." Nayu took out one of her guns and held it behind the ninja's head. The ninja froze in place as he heard the gun barrel being loaded before slowly turning their head to see the woman glaring at him. "Then, why were you throwing rocks at our group..."
The ninja didn't say as the two stared at each other, no words exchanged. It was interrupted though as Naotsugu and Shiroe walked up to notice the ninja still holding the boulder as Nayu stored her gun seeing that reinforcements have arrived.
"Huh Nayu, Akatsuki?" Shiroe looked up shocked.
"You know who the ninja is?" Naotsugu looked at Shiroe shocked.
"I was in a party with him before, he never talks though." Shiroe replied walking up to the two.
Nayu overheard Shiroe mentioning that the ninja and him were friends as she turned to look at the ninja. "You...know Shiroe..."
The ninja didn't say anything, but gave a small nod indicating that they were friends. Nayu nodded before walking over to a nearby crate and sitting on it until Shiroe and Naotsugu arrive.
Eventually Shiroe and Naotsugu arrive in the building to see the swashbuckler and the ninja both sitting on crates waiting for them. As the two guys came into view, Nayu sat up from her box and walked up to the two.
"Hey Akatsuki you're here too, does that mean you're in the same situation as us?" Shiroe asked.
When Shiroe said that, the ninja, whose name was Akatsuki, lowered his mask and looked at Shiroe.
"Hey Shiroe..." The ninja spoke as a feminine voice was heard. "You have the potion that changes a person appearance right, let me have it."
The group stared with wide eyes before Nayu was the first to speak. "Hey, did his voice sound like a girl or is it just me?"
"…Nah it sounded like a girl." Naotsugu added with a deadpan look.
Shiroe recovered from his surprised as he dug through his pouch and gave the requested potion to Akatsuki who hid behind boxes to drink the potion. As Akatsuki was drinking the potion, Nayu looked over at Naotsugu with confusion.
"Hey, Naotsugu?"
"Yeah what's wrong?" He looked over at her.
"If Akatsuki's voice sounds like a girl, does that mean that he is actually a she?"
"...Y-Yeah, I guess" He replied.
"But does that mean that sh-."
Before Nayu could finish that sentence, Akatsuki lets out a blood-curling scream and a light appears where Akatsuki is.
A few moments later
"Hey Shiroe?" Akatsuki said behind the boxes.
"Yeah Akatsuki?" He looked over at the boxes.
"T-Thanks for that."Akatsuki said.
When she comes out, the group was shocked to see a small cute girl with long hair coming out with Akatsuki's clothes looking baggy. A status screen appeared indicating that Akatsuki has successfully changed into a girl.
"A-Ah it's okay Akatsuki-san." Shiroe turned red from the sudden change of image.
Akatsuki managed to find clothing that fit her that looked similar to her previous look. Once she change, she looked to Shiroe with admiration. "Shiroe, for what you done you are now my master."
"E-Eh it's okay Akatsuki-san."
Nayu stood on the side with Naotsugu happy now that there was another girl in the group. Seeing as how she had yet to introduce herself, she walked over to the ninja with a hand out. "Hello Akatsuki, I'm Nayu, a Swashbuckler nice to meet you. Sorry for how I acted back there, had to be safe you know?"
Akatsuki takes Nayu's hand and shakes it with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Nayu. And it's okay, it was only to protect your friends."
As the two girls released their hands, they shared a look, taking in that this was a start of a beautiful friendship between them.
"But Akatsuki, you're really shor- AH!" Before Naotsugu finish that sentence he got kneed to the wall by Akatsuki.
"How rude Naotsugu." Nayu stated turning to Akatsuki. "Don't mind, he is a idiot."
Next day
After their first meeting, the group of four were walking in the middle of nothing before seeing a nearby town. Once they entered the town, they noticed that it was bustling with people as a NPC market was in town. While the group walked around, a noticeable grumble was heard among them.
"W-Whoops..." The group turned to Nayu who held her stomach as she blushed red. "Sorry guys, after a day of walking and talking, I need food.
"Haha it's okay Nayu everyone gets hungry once i-." Naotsugu's words were interrupted as his own stomach grumbled as well.
"I guess this means it's time to get some food right, Shiroe." Nayu looked over to him.
"That's right, come on let's go buy food everyone."Shiroe said walking to a food stall.
"Lets go!" Everyone else followed after him on the mission for food.
The group raided all the food stalls as they bought so much food from the market to save for later. Once they bought enough food, the group gathered as they laid all of their food out which sparkled.
"Okay let's eat!" Naotsugu taking a piece of the food. But as soon as they all took that first bite, they all froze with the food still in their mouths.
"...Sorry but I'm done now." Nayu placed the kebab she ate down with sadness. The food did not taste like anything so it brought her hunger and glee down.
"What is this it doesn't taste like anything." Naotsugu said with tears running down.
"Even if all this food looks so good, it has no flavor at all." Akatsuki eyed her food with disbelief.
"That's true." Shiroe replied.
Nayu looked up with a stream of tears falling on her face. "Man, there goes the one thing I could have enjoyed!"
Due to the disappointing lunch (You fail me food I shall never trust you again!) the group repacked all of their food. As the group was packing the food, Nayu looked around to see Shiroe holding his hand to his ear indicating that someone must be talking to him.
"Hey Shiroe are we heading out now?" Nayu said to him once the call ended.
"Yeah, but I have to go talk to a guild leader about something so we have to go over to the guild hall first okay?" He looked over at her.
"Yeah it's okay." Nayu turned to the others in the group. "Hey Naotsugu, Akatsuki, we are heading out!"
"Okay." Naotsugu.
"Got it." Akatsuki.
The group finish packing up all the laid out food and headed off to the guild hall.
At the guild hall
"Wow there are so many doors in this building huh Shiroe?" Naotsugu said in awe.
"Yeah Naotsugu, each of these doors represent each guild with their very own zone and hall." Shiroe replied.
"Even guilds from far away can have halls here, right?" Nayu stated.
"Yep, any guild created will have a hall in any guild building." Shiroe said.
'When I used to play, I didn't join any guilds so seeing the guild hall is fascinating!'
The group walked around the guild hall until they reached the door for the guild Crescent Moon Alliance. As the group opened the door, out comes sparkles that radiate from the cuteness of the room.
"S-So much pink and cuteness..." Nayu sweat-marked as the sparkles hit her face.
While the group was looking around the room, a women's voice was heard. "Shiroe!"
The group turned to the voice to see the guild leader Maryelle jumping in the air before landing a hug on said man. As Nayu held a white teddy bear in her arms, she noticed a dark aura radiating off of Akatsuki, who was glaring at Maryelle.
"D-don't mind Akatsuki..." Nayu said.
Maryelle eventually released her hold on Shiroe before launching herself to Akatuski hugging her. "Ah so cute! Hey Shiroe is she your girlfriend?"
"N-No she isn't Maryelle!"Shiroe said a bit red.
Maryelle released Akatsuki before targeting Naotsugu next for a hug, which annoyed him due to her weird behavior. As she released her hold on Naotsugu, her eyes landed on her next hug victim, Nayu.
"Oh my gosh!" Maryellen hugged Nayu tightly. "You are a beauty! What's your name?"
"H-Huh...My name..." Nayu tried to comprehend the situation as her face turned blue. "I-It's Nayu...Please let me go..."
"Ah so cute! You can keep the bear." Maryelle looked over at Shiroe as she kept hugging Nayu."Hey Shiroe, is this girl your girlfriend?"
The two player's faces turned red as Nayu was able to escape the grasp of Maryelle running over to akatsuki for protection, failing to notice that the bear was still in her grasp.
"N- Not her either! I don't have a girlfriend Maryelle!" Shiroe said beet red.
Eventually the moment ended when the door opened to reveal another member of the guild, Henrietta.
"Hey Shiroe. Now that you're here we ca-!" Henrietta spokek but stopped once she noticed Akatsuki and Nayu. "Oh My Gosh! SO CUTE!"
Henrietta sped off from where she was and hugged both Akatsuki and Nayu due to cuteness and beauty radiating off of the two. No one in the main room noticed that the rest of the guild members were right outside the door seeing their guild masters acting like they were. Eventually everyone calmed down and got to business, with the group sitting across the guild masters.
"Then Shiroe, to business, right now 19 members of Crescent Moon Alliance are online right now and 18 of them is in Akiba." Maryelle said in a serious tone. "Just like Akiba, the other cities Shibuya, Minami, Susukino, and Nakasu are in the same conflict and they can't transport to other cities due to inter-city transport being offline."
"Hey, won't it be easy playing this game because we are familiar with this." Naotsugu said.
"True, but due to the new expansion there might be new monsters as well as quests and items." Shiroe said.
"Hey Shiroe, do you want to join Crescent Moon Alliance?" Maryelle asked suddenly.
Shiroe just shook his head in response"Sorry but I will have to decline your offer Maryelle."
The discussion ended as the group exited the guild hall, with Maryelle and Henrietta watching them.
Once they were outside, Nayu walked at a slower pace as she thought about something that had not been discussed yet...Death.
"Hey, Nayu, is something on your mind?" Naotsugu turned back to her and asked.
"I was wondering about this since it wasn't brought up..." She held her chin as she looked at the group. "But in this game, what happens if we were to die in game?"
"Eh, well...Maybe we can get out of the game, or we might die in real life." Shiroe looks at her."For now, we should go try out the combat system okay everyone?"
"Okay."
The group resumed walking and began to head into a nearby forest, the thought of dying being pushed back to the back of their minds.
In the forest
The group eventually arrived at the forest called, The Archive Tower Forests. It was really quiet and it made the group wonder where are the monsters. They eventually realized that their LVLs were a bit high, so if the monsters were low LVL they would not be able to encounter them. But, in the Archive tower forests, the monsters will go aggro at the sight of players.
"Hm, hey guys..." Naotsugu called out stopping the group from moving any further. "Our mini-maps don't work."
Nayu tries to open her map, but fails to do so. "He's right, I guess for this area, we'll have to walk blind."
Suddenly, LVL 28 Brier Weasels appeared in front of the group.
"Hey look they're level 28." Naotsugu took out his sword as they approach. "I think we can beat them."
The group took out their weapons and began their attacks. The group began to use the skills on the skills menu, but none of their skills were dealing damage to the weasels. Nayu began to stuggle when suddenly a weasel charged at her. Unable to access her skills menu, she slashed her sword upwards activating the Sharp Edge skill killing the weasel.
"Wow Nayu, how did you do that!" Naotsugu said watching what happened.
"I don't know, I just swung my sword and sharp edge activated." Nayu said doing the same thing to another enemy. "Like that!"
Shiroe took in what she said before he gave a look of relization calling out to the group. "Everyone! Don't rely on your skills, just move your body."
Trusting Shiroe, they exited the skills menu and began to swing their weapons eventually landing successful hits on the weasels started to get more aggressive, but that didn't affect the four players as they continued to active their skills. The number of weasels eventually diminished to none as the players lied on the group resting, taking in the new information they have learned.
At another place
"Maryelle please help me." A girl's voice called out.
Suddenly, players from another guild started to go after the voice's owner. "Hey there she is, come back!"
When she heard their voices, she soon ran off not wanting to be caught. But, What she didn't notice was that someone was looking at her run from the shadows who would be her savior from the players.
