Prologue

"Haaah... It's almost time for the server to kick me out."

A pitch black figure melded out from the shadows. On his face was a mask which looked like an ugly, smiling demon. His cloak was so dark blue, it was difficult to make out where his body ends and the shadows begin. His waist sported two legendary-tier daggers - Izanami and Izanagi. In his hand was an inconspicuous chalice. He tossed the chalice in the air, and let it fall back onto his hands.

"It's been fun... Although stealing is no longer as exciting as it used to be."

Fuma Hattoru, known as "Black Silence" in YGGDRASIL, had just finished plundering the treasury of an empty guild base. He couldn't believe his eyes when he recognized a World Class Item just sitting in the middle of a room, waiting for someone to grab it. His initial reaction was that the treasure room was heavily booby trapped, and summoned shadow clones to see if anything would trigger. While Hattoru could check every inch of the room by spamming his trap detection skill, he didn't have the luxury of time on his hands. At the time, everyone was outside watching the fireworks set up by the GMs and other players celebrating the end of an era before logging out. There was a chance that they might come back. If his clones triggered a trap, Hattoru was confident he could escape undetected before anyone noticed what was going on.

Instead, nothing happened. His clones walked around in circles over and over again, like robots suffering from faulty AI, but nothing happened. So Hattoru ran up to the item, snatched it without regarding if the pedestal it was perched on was a trap, or if the item itself was a trap, and booked it. And Hattoru's gamble paid off. And yet, Hattoru didn't feel giddy with accomplishment, as he should have. After all, he was now in the possession of one of the most rarest and powerful items in YGGDRASIL, a World Class Item. There were only two hundred of such items, and they contained game-breaking power. So why did he feel empty?

Hattoru sighed. He knew full well why his little heist went off without a hitch. It no longer mattered if someone stole their item. They had successfully protected their item until nearly the end of the game, and that was what mattered the most. This item meant nothing to Hattoru, but it probably meant a lot of good memories for the guild who owned it. And no one would be around to even notice that it was gone. The thrill of evading the hunters lost all its meaning if there were no hunters to evade.

Hattoru looked up at the night sky. Flying castles and fireworks dotted the darkened skybox, and he could hear cheers of jubilation in the distance. The in-game Shout channel was flooded with messages of thanks to the developers, and thanks to the community. Hattoru couldn't help but smile. He, too, had a lot of good memories about the game. He had quit a year ago, and came back to see his guild defunct, base trashed, NPCs gone, and treasury emptied. It was to be expected; their guild base wasn't the best. Hattoru didn't care about the base. It merely served as a small hideout so that he could hang out with his online friends. When he had no choice but to quit, it would make sense that his small guild would do the same.

Hattoru's obligations to his job spiked when he was to take over a vacant post left to him by a family member. As a junior executive of a then-small firm, he had no time to play any games. Now, after much blood, sweat, tears, and luck, his firm has exponentially expanded due to a merger, and he could delegate most of his tasks to subordinates more talented than himself, which freed up more of his time. Life was suddenly looking up for him. When he discovered that YGGDRASIL was shutting down, a feeling of dread washed over him, as he had really enjoyed roleplaying as a ninja of ancient Japan. He would miss the level of immersion that YGGDRASIL gave him.

Curious about the effects of the item he just plundered, Hattoru opened his console, selected his inventory, and equipped the item. It replaced his earring slot, despite having an in-game sprite of a chalice. He could see that, indeed, it was the real deal, when he saw the [World] tag pop up on one of his statuses. It was called the Mimisbrunnr, and when activated, it blinds or disables the user's visual sensory organs while providing unlimited mana regeneration, and allows its user one free cast per day of any spell the user wishes. It also allowed one extra free use of a mana-consuming skill, but since Hattoru has no mana-consuming skills, he had no way to take advantage of this. Hattoru's eyebrow rose. It was a completely worthless item to him, since he had no mana in the first place. But he could see how deadly this item could be in the hands of someone with the World Disaster class.

An idea struck him. He activated Mimisbrunnr, and attempted to cast [Wish Upon A Star]. His vision went dark. He could see nothing but his basic UI, which included a new bar for him, a full mana bar. He opened the spell selection menu from his console, looking for the spell he wanted. When he couldn't find Wish, he started to look for other Super-Tier spells. Soon, he figured out that the Mimisbrunnr did not allow the casting of Super-Tier spells, and that left a sour taste in his mouth. Of all the World Class Items he plundered on the last day, he stole the most worthless one to him.

As the clock ticked down towards 12 AM, Hattoru hesitated, unsure if he should just throw the Mimisbrunnr away or not. After thinking about it for a couple of seconds, he decided to keep it. After all, it didn't matter anymore and it was an ultra rare item. He will wake up in the real world soon, cuddle next to his dog, and sleep until noon tomorrow, as it was his day off.

He jumped up to the top of a tree to get a view of the night sky, and watched his timer tick down.

11:59:55... 11:59:56... 11:59:57... 11:59:58... 11:59:59... 12:00:00...

12:00:01... 12:00:02... 12:00:03...

"...Eh?"

Hattoru tapped his watch, and stared at it in disbelief. It was still counting the seconds well into midnight. And yet, he didn't log off. He tried to open his console to log off. No luck. He tried messaging a GM. Impossible without the console. He couldn't even see his UI anymore. It was as if he was trapped in the game.

"Eh?!"