Prologue: Kagami Reveals His True Colors?
School can be attended from home. At home classes can be attended using the internet from a personal computer. Without the danger from going to and from school, and with the cost of maintaining the school building, schools in real life were replaced.
In addition, businesses used virtual reality in order to greet customers. Also, since documents were replaced by electronic programs, there were no longer any costs. It was also better to rent a server for the company because the costs to maintain a server were overwhelming maintain than a building for headquarters.
With the exception of physical needs, Virtual reality technology could satisfy everything. As a result of this, virtual reality continued to evolve rapidly.
Certainly, there was no reason for the game industry to not keep an eye on this technology. Although it was fairly expensive, it nevertheless was necessary, so much so that it was often given as a present on a person’s coming of age celebration to the extent that most households had one.
It was only a matter of time for VR-only games to be developed.
Sakimori Kagami was one such youth to be presented with VR equipment on his coming of age celebration.
He enrolled in a normal high school, graduated from a normal university, and worked in a normal company.
He worked from home using the VR equipment he received on his coming of age celebration. During his break, he ate food prepared by his mother and returned to work right after.
There was no commuting time to deal with and overtime was practically nonexistent in small businesses. He spent everyday without any particular complaints.
There was an online game called [Arch Earth Online].
The start of the game was very quiet and closed beta had finished before anyone had noticed.
Sakimori Kagami became aware of such a hidden online game after he had grown familiar with the workload and had time to spare. A commercial had aired at midnight.
The commercial had no sound or movement, with only an access code for VR that had been projected for fifteen seconds.
He had started the equipment out of curiousity, and a title named [ Arc Earth Online] floating in white appeared. There were only two lines after it.
Open Beta start
Download
Those were the only letters.
He did not dislike that attitude of no flattery. While thinking this, he selected the [yes] in order to start the download.
There was no texture for the background either, just a general character font, He did not know what sort of game this may be.
As though Kagami were attracted, he moved his right hand a short distance to play. If he was pushed to say exactly what it was, he would say that an invisible force had compelled him to move that short distance to play.
The installation was completed in 15 minutes. When he launched the game immediately, the background of the home screen appeared with CG comparable to that of the real world.
Kagami committed to memory the excitement he felt when he created his avatar.
Thus, Sakimori Kagami began his everyday addiction to [Arc Earth Online].
[Arch Earth Online], It had been four years since its official start. Advertising related to the game, even in game magazines and the net were practically non-existent. However, posts on the net spread news of the game and game had quite a few players, close to that of the leading online games. It was funny that despite the number of players in-game it had yet to appear officially.
Kagami who had started from open beta was famous and regarded as a veteran player.
The content of the game was a standard fantasy setting. However, there was an overwhelming amount of freedom and it received a great deal of popularity.
There was only one mysterious point for an online game.
Its management.
The game was only updated two times out of the four years it has been in operation. The developer’s identity was not known and there was no official homepage regarding its policy.
However, the game had an overwhelming charm to it. Various people were in agreement that it was better to leave it to its own course up until the management was made known. (not sure about the last sentence)
However, Kagami was one of the people who took an optimistic view. It was better that it had almost been complete from the beginning. It is not an exaggeration to say that bugs were nonexistent in this game. Rather it had been a good decision that unskilled people did not tamper with the game.
That day, Kagami was to subjugate a crowd of monsters that had appeared near the border to the country he had belonged to. Such a subjugation mission was a common thing, the country had a turn system where Kagami and other players taking their turn.
This time, it was Kagami’s turn.
Using a tower as a base he lazily leaves for the national border. In the real world a ringing sound from a call is heard. At the same time, his little sister’s high-pitched voice is heard. In fact, this sound was to inform him that it was time for dinner.
Logging off temporarily to eat dinner, he once again places the VR equipment on his head and dives into virtual reality again.
After trying to start the game from the home screen, he noticed that there was an incoming mail.
He opened the mail and examined its contents. The VR money he had bought for Arc Earth Online was about to expire.
When he began the game he had purchased 1,000 yen, incidentally one month after that he had bought an additional 2,000 yen.
Arch Earth Online, just like other online games had billing items. Although it is like that, there are no items and armor that can be used in the game. There are however, support items that one can be obsessed over.
One such item, [Vanity Case] can be used to change the appearance one’s avatar. It is not an exaggeration that all players buy this item. Naturally Kagami had also bought this.
One [Vanity Case] cost 500 yen, yet it was only something you use to reset the appearance of an avatar.The reason for the popularity of this item was the abundance of options to choose from.
Officially in the beginning of the game there were thousands of choices to choose from, however using a [Vanity Case] to reset had tens of thousands of choices to choose from. All players now logged in with a shoddy avatar and used a [Vanity Case] to reset their appearance. It was to the extent that it was now common sense to do so.
The avatar which Kagami had made was the figure of a magician which exuded dignity. He had white hair with a white beard that had a close resemblance to an experienced magician. Obsessed, Kagami spent no less than one day creating it in the guise of that figure.
And the name of the avatar, the first name turned out to be the same as a much loved headmaster magician appearing in a world famous movie; an adventure starring a magician returning a ring.
The name was Dunbalf.
The class was a summoner.
In open beta by the way he had chosen a magician, however it was impossible to learn magic skills. At the beginning one only learned [Magic: Flame]. Later, you could only hit with a cane.
However much one raised your level, magic skills were not learned. There were no instructions or tutorials to coddle players.
You were suddenly introduced to the world and completely left alone; his was normally unheard of in a game. You were left to investigate on your own, however it was fun. However long he searched for the method to learn magic skills, in the end he was unable to do so.
Because of that, he reset to another magic class at the start of the official game.
Summoning expert techniques become available when you enslave the soul of a killed enemy with a contract. Summoning techniques became possible after completing a class exclusive quest. The difficulty of the class exclusive quest was high, however Kagami was able to understand it because the method was posted on a bulletin board.
Because of that, he became a summoning expert.
When the game officially started, there was a lot of complaints regarding the lack of description. However, a player by chance shakes the game by becoming an emperor.
That is, a player can found a nation if the conditions are met.
To become a king, develop a town, and raise an army. To invade foreign lands, to construct forts for defense, to hire mercenaries and other similar things. Players were excited by the fact that they could create their own stories with their own hands.
In addition, major events caused by players will be added to the arc chronology that can be browsed from the menu.
After this happened, people were able to enjoy a variety of play styles. There were those who burned with ambition to found a nation, those that longed for government positions, those who loved freedom and adventure, those who founded secret societies, and those who became merchants and assassins. Because of this, complaints gradually subsided.
Furthermore, the degree of freedom was not limited by [level]. For example, there were many kinds of items such as weapons and armor, and medicine that even included legendary class. It was also possible to create totally new items depending on the creativity of the player. They were even able to create things beyond legendary level.
You could say that you could do anything in game that you could do in reality.
Some players were totally addicted to the role of blacksmith, all players would know the name of a skillful craftsman. For example, one sword had been traded for millions.
For those who chose to do carpentry, some players developed building technology and some had built castles as well.
Those players who were obsessed with digging discovered hot springs, and are now managers of hot-spring resorts.
A friend of Kagami’s thought of teaching fencing and opened up a dojo in order to teach.
What kind of skills are possible? What kind of things possible? Players challenged a variety of things, anyone could become successful. People said that there were no limits to the system in sight.
People were able to invent new sports, people were able to realize their romantic dreams of pirates, there were people who collected information single-handedly, and there were those who sold information that walked on a tightrope of danger.
Also, there was a person who created lists of skills that were divided by classification. They visited players who created original skills and summarized it in a book for those who wished to learn details of their skills.
The book was published as a skill list book, and it became a huge bestseller and he amassed a great amount of wealth.
As a matter of fact Dunbalf is a great man who developed some special techniques as well. One is a technique that he made from trial and error to make up for the weaknesses of a magic job.
What is the technique? It is a second class. Kagami’s main class is summoning expert, in addition to that, he has another magician class that is called the xian expert. This was a close quarters expert. In order to acquire the class, various training methods were used.
By being struck by a waterfall, hanging upside down from trees for a day, walking against a storm and other various things.
By the way, one month since the game had started someone was able to find a way to acquire magic skills. A magic catalyst was paired up with a piece of magic paper with a magic circle drawn on it. Then, magic experts had to use [Magic: Flame] to burn it. The problem was that many catalysts were needed and the paper itself hardly appears.
It was eventually found in the end, It was not simple to learn after all.
In addition to the vanity case, another billing item that Kagami has purchased was a [Floating Continent]. It was the size of a schoolyard with a track that stretched to be about a hundred meters for one lap. He built a house and cultivated a field and made a manufacturing facility. It was a convenient item that be used for most things. Because it was possible to travel by flying through the sky, it was used as a vehicle which ignored the geography of the land. Kagami built a cheap residence and used it as a warehouse.
This [Floating Continent] cost 2,000 yen. This meant that he had 500 yen remaining which was about to expire. Kagami only bought a “Vanity Case” and a “Floating Continent” from the beginning but because money could only be bought for every 1,000 yen 500 yen would remain,
As is expected, due to the fact that it was 500 yen from four years ago, there was not a great deal of regret for Kagami. Kagami nevertheless had a tendency to be frugal and felt that it would be wasteful so he opened the billing item list.
[Advanced Smithy], [Advanced Alchemy Room], [Advanced Sewing Room], [Advanced Craftsman Room], [Advanced Kitchen], [Advanced Woodworking Room].
Exclusive room for convenient tool making for 1,000 yen.
[Floating Continent], [Golem Fort], Swan Lake], [House of Brick], [House with Butler], [House with Maid], [Old Castle], [Noble Mansion A], [Noble Mansion B], [Spiral Tower], [Rich Field].
Terrain building features and etc. for 2,000 yen.
The only other thing in this line up was [Vanity Case].
There was no other choice than the [Vanity Case]. You must charge a minimum of 1,000 yen. This is the world of adults. The adult world is dirty.
Kagami felt that it was wasteful to just let the money expire so he purchased a [Vanity Case]. VR money balance became 0.
In order to accomplish his subjugation mission, Kagami logged in. He opened the item column by operating his bracelet type terminal. It contained the [Vanity Case] that he had purchased earlier.
Incidentally, this bracelet type terminal was one of the first additional items that was included in the two updates of the game.
Up until then, menu manipulation was done with keys that floating in mid air. Suddenly raising a hand in town or during combat turns off the feeling of the scene as if it were hollow. It was invisible to others but your world view is blocked. Many players hoped it would be changed and it was done. ( trouble with the latter half of this)
[Vanity Case] it had been four years since he had last used one. It was a small box that had the appearance of a lacquered casket. Kagami stared at the small box as he recalled those days in nostalgia. At the start of open beta, it was not possible to create an avatar that matched his tastes. It was already a distant memory of soot of brown haired young men who overcame open beta. (trouble with the last sentence)
You can choose from nearly ten times the amount of options as compared to the start of the game by using the billing item [Vanity Case]. The moment he saw the comment on that he hastily bought the [Vanity Case].
Kagami immediately used the [Vanity Case] and exclaimed with joy in virtual reality. This was because he was able to use all the components he wanted. He produced the best avatar by paying particular attention to detail.
And thus he created [Dunbalf].
Kagami at that time, had only been able think of creating the best avatar he could create in his head. He could not remember now what other features there were.
Kagami with a little interest now used the [Vanity Case] to open the avatar creation screen.
As for the components, it was possible to narrow down the search by searching for impression categories such as [Lively], [Reserved], [Confident], [Timid] and other various impression categories as such as [Mysterious], [Solemnity], [Melancholy], [Cheerful] and the like. As expected, if one were to go down one by one, it would take you all day.
While Kagami was looking at the parts list, he felt the renewed conviction that [Danbalf] was still the best after all.
There was probably no one that could exceed this avatar. After all he created his ideal male image.
While Kagami was gazing at his former achievement of manliness in great satisfaction, he noticed one character displayed on the menu.
Male
It was a character that showed the avatar’s gender.
Then suddenly a thought appeared in his mind. That is he was able to perfectly reproduce his ideal male image.
Then, how about his ideal image of a woman?
When he changed the sex from a man to a woman, [Danbalf] changed to a girl.
A small feeling of embarrassment was felt. Although it was just a game, he stared fixedly at his female appearance and was unable to say he was not ashamed.
With an effort to contain his slight feeling of shame or rather excitement, he chose parts one by one.
One by one he examined the parts sorted in [Confident]. At this point Kagami’s preference was greatly revealed.
How much time has passed since he had begun creating his ideal female image? When Kagami stared at the avatar which he had just finished satisfactorily, a call from his younger sister alerted him to breakfast.
When he operated the bracelet terminal menu to confirm the time, it showed that it was 9 o’clock in the morning. Thinking that there was no problem because it was Sunday today, Kagami immediately afterwards was attacked by an intense feeling of sleepiness.
When he tried to touch the menu for the purpose of logging out, the world blacked out for him and Kagami fell asleep.