Sky World Vol 1 Chapter 2.08

VOLUME 1

Chapter 2: The Quest
Part 8

The circ.u.mstances behind Jun’s arrival in Sky World were different from those of the other players.

He came to Sky World in a special way. The girl who called herself Alice brought him. They made an agreement. He came voluntarily.

Because of that, Jun was not clear on exactly what happened during the Birthday. Before that day, he hadn’t even played the game.

That was approximately three months ago.

Jun, turning on his computer as usual, found a message in his inbox. Its sender was a good friend with whom he played MMORPGs, an online friend.

They had not met in real life. However, they were quite close on online bulletin boards and online games, and sometimes talked about their real life situations.

Jun trusted Kai, that friend, much more than even his cla.s.smates in school. Kai always looked for interesting things to do. Whenever Kai found a new, interesting game, Jun never doubted him.

When the new school term began, Jun had stopped hearing from Kai. All of a sudden, Kai sent an email to him.

It was a very short mail.

All it said was, “Have you heard of ‘Sky World’? Come see the end of the blue sky . If you’re interested, join!”

Jun didn’t quite know what Kai was talking about.

Kai was a troublemaker. He loved stirring things up. He was the kind of person who was always cheerful, but he was also very good at managing crises. He had the uncanny ability to sense when something was getting close to a breaking point and had stepped away from many a situation to prevent them from becoming serious. Thanks to him, Jun had been dragged into many problematic situations, but he also ended up helping out Jun a great deal when it came to others.

Jun didn’t respond to his email. He regretted never getting his real name or where he lived.

However, he was interested in the content of the email. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a guy who seemed like he could disappear again at any moment.

“Seeing the end of the blue sky, huh.”

Jun blamed himself. Why, after reading that email, had he not installed Sky World? Any MMO player would have been interested. Why didn’t he do anything? Why didn’t he have faith in Kai? Why didn’t he act?

Kai always mentioned that about him.

“Jun. You have to take fate into your own hands. I really believe in that. Life is a series of choices.”

His family situation was complicated. Jun picked up on that. The troublemaking personality that he showed online was just a way for him to let out his stress.

“Hey, if you were never good at anything you did, you were always depressed, and it seemed like you were stuck in a bog, would you give it up? Or rather, would you continue struggling until the bitter end? That’s what I would do. If the chance arose, I would jump at it, no matter who or what was involved. How could I let a good opportunity by? I don’t need a reason to make a decision.”

He would definitely do whatever he could to take even just one step towards getting out of that bog.

That was surely why he sent that email.

That being the case, in ignoring his email, Jun had let go of a long-awaited opportunity from Kai. Jun wouldn’t be able to take that step with him.

When he met Alice, that regret kept on coming back to him.

But then, at that time, he still didn’t even know her name.

“Are you interested in seeing the end of the blue sky?”

The sudden appearance of that gothic Lolita girl with silver hair and golden eyes was accompanied by those words.

Together, Alice and Jun went into a karaoke box. There, she installed Sky World onto his tablet&h.e.l.lip;

There, Jun experienced a momentary lapse of awareness.

Then, wearing his school uniform as he had been when they entered the karaoke box, he found himself standing in an unknown middle-age-esque town.

In the beginning, he didn’t know whether or not that was Sky World. It all seemed too real. The lukewarm meadow wind blowing through his hair, the fresh scent of gra.s.s, and everything else seemed to be real.

No, it actually was real.

It was another world, just as real as his own, called Sky World&h.e.l.lip;

Jun got down onto the ground. He had yet to choose his cla.s.s, and all of his skill levels were at zero.

Soon, the nearby Alice said, “With a special phrase, ‘Wake Up!’, you can become the adventurer shown on your equipment window.”

It seemed she would be his guide in place of a tutorial.

In accordance with what she said, Jun spoke the phrase and his body became covered in radiant light. In just a short moment, his school uniform turned into leather armor. A dagger was stuck into a sheath on his waist. His underwear turned into coa.r.s.e linen cloth. It did not feel stiff at all. Jun got used to it pretty quickly.

“First of all, imagine a cursor on the corner of your head. If you concentrate hard enough, your HP bar and message window will appear.”

His first attempt was not successful, but after a few minutes, he became able to see the game-like icon and window as if it were virtual reality.

He learned about things like calling up his tablet, using skills, and battling with automatic fighting mode on from Alice.

“You can change your hair color and your eye color. Just ask a magician in town.”

“Aside from those two things, is nothing else changeable?”

“Your face is mostly based on your real life face.”

“On me, specifically Junichiro Mikimori?”

One of this world’s puzzles was solved. Or maybe it had deepened. Jun shook his head in relief.

The first time he saw a monster nearby, he was terrified. Large Rats , just ordinary weak monsters in other games, disgusted him with their repulsive scent and movements.

“Once you’ve completed the tutorial battle, you can choose your cla.s.s at any time.”

Doing as Alice said, Jun gestured for the tablet to appear. On the screen was Jun’s current stats. All of his stats were at 5. He had only the basic combat and vocational skills. His cla.s.s was shown as “Hero Candidate.”

He checked Kai’s email about Sky World again. Then, he looked on some beginner websites, and learned the basics of everything. That was useful.

If he had played the actual game himself, he might have ended up choosing the white magician for its buffs, or the summoner for the many different creatures it could summon.

Once the battle ended, he felt lightheaded .

“I’ll choose the magic swordsman.”

“Once you choose a cla.s.s, you can never choose another.”

“No problem. I’m following my intuition.”

Magic swordsmen were attackers. Choosing a front-line attacking cla.s.s was very common among newbies. Inevitably, the number of front-line attackers became very high. Whenever a group started recruiting, they would be overwhelmed with join requests from front-line attackers.

Actually, magic swordsmen were magic warriors that could use the forbidden black magic. Their chuunibyou [1] attack names made them very popular, and magic swordsmen were the third most common cla.s.s. The most common was the white magician, and the second was the heavy warrior. Because those cla.s.ses were able to easily find groups, they were very popular among veterans.

“Archers are common among westerners. Say, have you watched any movies?”

“Sky World’s players are, for the most part, j.a.panese.”

“Seems that way. The W-LD brand is only used in j.a.panese educational inst.i.tutions.”

“But archers are easy to use in the beginning. They don’t have to fight hand to hand against scary monsters.”

“That’s right in the early part of the game. They aren’t too terribly special after that though. Cla.s.ses like the heavy warrior, which has limited mobility, and the white magician, which cannot really do much on its own, are much harder to play as in the beginning. &h.e.l.lip; But things like the black magicians’ teleport spell and the summoner’s summons make them seem kind of cool. In any case, it’s nothing like fighting in a Scope Dog [2]. Players here actually go on real adventures.”

Right. Jun chose the magic swordsman because of its capacity to solo, and because they were said to have a promising end-game. He weighed the pros and cons, and ended up deciding on that.

For starters, magic swordsmen were good at survival. Since he was afraid of dying and losing battery, Jun, as much as he did not want to, spent a bit more than a month doing nothing productive. Next, magic swordsmen were very good at traveling alone on foot. That would be a great help for completing quests. And the last reason&h.e.l.lip;

“This is not a game world. You can’t rely on automatically avoiding monsters’ attacks. You have to do it yourself.”

In the middle of his first battle, he was able to somewhat move along to the rhythm of the Large Rat’s movements. However, he still swung his short-sword around rather randomly, so only some of his. .h.i.ts connected.

Putting two and two together, Jun reasoned, “People who practiced martial arts should probably be able to fight monsters regardless of their cla.s.s. Even if they didn’t have a sword or a staff, couldn’t they still strike pretty hard at even the biggest of monsters?”

“I haven’t tried, so I wouldn’t know.”

“If you think they can’t, but don’t know for certain&h.e.l.lip; shouldn’t you try it out?”

If they could avoid the enemy’s attacks themselves, players could use creativity to make up for the magic swordsman’s main weak point: defense. Before choosing his cla.s.s, he thought about it one more time. Studying the enemy’s attack patterns, and avoiding their attacks based on them, could really be effective. He decided to test it out.

“Is this what the developers wanted?”

Alice did not respond.

“I won’t be banned for abusing any bugs, right?”

“You won’t.”

“Great.”

Satisfied with the results of his test, Jun opened up his tablet and chose the magic swordsman as his cla.s.s. He heard a fanfare in his head, and saw a system message confirming his decision.

“By the way, what’s a Scope Dog?”

Alice looked curious.

That day, Jun, as if in a trance, continued fighting near the town.

Magic swordsmen only started with one spell, one that could create water and bread. That’s all that was needed to survive. It wasn’t very tasty, but at least he would not have to worry about finding food or drink. As for a place to live, there was a safe zone nearby with a small hut in which he could stay. Alice had taught him that safe zones had barriers that prevented monsters from pa.s.sing through. She said there were no other players on the island. He could do whatever he want there. Jun took his time perfecting his battle strategy.

Then&h.e.l.lip; before he knew it, the sun set and the moons began to rise.

Looking up at the sky, Jun finally noticed.

There were two moons.

Both about the size of Earth’s moon, they shined with a pale radiance.

He thought they were beautiful.

He felt uneasy, not knowing what would become of him in the future.

However, he was happy.

(Kai. I surely can catch up to you. One day, I’ll find you)

Having taken his first step towards that ambition, he could never allow himself to stop.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

[1] – lit. second year middle school sickness; characterized by using excessively grandiose names for ordinary things and believing that one has hidden abilities (magical or non-magical)

[2] – An very bulky armored suit from Armed Trooper Votoms.