1

  In the year 2138 AD there was a term: DMMO-RPG.

  That word was an acronym for “Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Game.”

  The system worked through some clever nanotechnology, the most of which, wasn’t understood by the playerbase.

  What was understood, however, was the fact that these devices let you enter an entirely new virtual world, with the sensation was as if you lived in it — so long as it met some restrictions.

  Among the all DMMO-RPGs, a very competitive market at the time, the scene was ruled by one game in particular, known for it’s remarkable “Player freedom”, and means of expressing oneself.

  Yggdrasil

  Running for 12 years since its inception, the game has been tirelessly worked on by its developers, and the depths of it’s world have yet to be fully explored.

  One of it’s main selling points was the well over two thousand job classes, as well as a plethora of racial classes. So long as you met the requirements for these classes, you could mix and match any classes under the one hundred level limit — no matter how terrible or strong the combination.

  This let each Player make an original build — or selection of classes — whenever they wanted, if you wanted to copy, you would have to know the specifics of another Player and follow them exactly.

  This was complemented by the high level of customization in equipment, letting a player change the appearance, stats, and special effects of gear — so long as they had the proper data crystals.

  The places to use these levels and gear were just as grand, that being the nine worlds the game housed, most of them still having secrets never found by its players, many of them lamented the Developers not making these places obvious enough to find, but they did not budge.

  These worlds were, Asgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Midgard, Jotunheim, Niflheim, Helheim, and Muspelheim.

  This game would ignite the hearts of Players worldwide, calling hundreds of thousands of Players to delve into its depths, soon, when one thought of DMMO-RPGs, they thought of Yggdrasil.

  —This however, would all have to be left behind soon.

  2

  A vast cityscape spread out across a large swath of land, at the edge of it a intricate wall of metal and light. The main attraction of this “city” was the grandiose stage at it’s center, with enough seats to fit twenty thousand Players.

  But now there were only two people filling those seats.

  A hulking Angel in a gleaming set of armor — though half of it seemed to be bindings as if to hold back some power, its many arms and wings spread across a few seats, it was if its very presence demanded respect.

  If it were not so clearly angelic, it might be viewed as a monster, beneath the noble surface surely lied something not meant to be disturbed.

  Next to the Angel sat a Demon, idly twiddling her thumbs. She had sharp red skin and a long tail, perhaps the model was designed to appeal to a certain type of Player.

  However, the Demons clothes did not complement it at all, a standard, real world janitor’s outfit.

  The former was a Seraphim — among the highest ranks of Angels a Player could achieve, they had supreme power over weaker opponents, making them a very unpopular class. The later was a simple imp, customized by the Player to look more humanoid, and it was safe to say this Demon could not be higher than level 5.

  In fact, if they were not part of the same guild, the Angel’s various aura skills would tear the Demon to shreds.

  Yet the two sat together peacefully, if these were monsters, their opposed factions would surely be fighting, but they were Players.

  In Yggdrasil, Players could choose their characters race from three different categories: humanoid, demi-human and heteromorphic.

  Humanoids were the basic Player type and comprised humans, Dwarves, Elves, and the like. Demi-humans tended to be worse looking, more like animals, but possessed superior attributes to humanoids, some being Goblins, Beastmen, Ogres, and so on. Finally, heteromorphic races had monstrous abilities, as well as appearances, but despite their stats being generally higher than those of other races, they also possessed various drawbacks. There were around seven hundred playable races in total, including the advanced versions of these races.

  The two seated here were of the last category, in fact, the whole of the guild was comprised of heteromorphs, but that was a secret to those outside of it.

  The Angel began speaking, a deep voice projected from it, in a uniform clinical way, clearly through a microphone.

  “I didn’t think you’d show up on the last day, started feeling sentimental? haha.”

  “I guess you could say that, Enter-sama”

  The demon spoke in a bored voice, both of them sounded like adults, though neither of them seemed to have the spark of life in their voices. Only a lingering awkward feeling stuck between the two.

  “Don’t call me that”

  “You chose that ‘name’ didn’t you?”

  The Angel — Enter name — folded one of his several pairs of arms over his chest, sending a scowling emoji — one of the only forms of expression in Yggdrasil.

  “Fine fine you’re the boss… sir.”

  “Don’t call me that… either.”

  “Jeez, you’re no fun at all… mam.”

  Enter gave the Demon a light kick, and the game calculated the damage she would receive, against her total and physical defense, with Enters attack and hand-to-hand combat rating, the total ended up being zero, as they were part of the same team.

  “Hey! you made your character a girl under all that armor, that’s not my fault.”

  Everything the Demon said seemed to be trying to provoke Enter, but they did not share any negative emotions. Perhaps it was because they were the only ones there for each other, at the end.

  “Game should be closing servers in one hour.”

  Enter’s microphone picked up his long drawn out sigh, even the shoulders on his character’s model fell loosely at his sides.

  “I don’t want to get a real job.”

  “Hah… you got that right”

  “…”

  “Hey…”

  “What?”

  The demon stood up, pulling up a console, checking the Guild register, a list of all the players who were considered part of the Guild as well as who was online, and to neither’s surprise, it was only the two of them.

  “Want to test the equipment, while everyone’s gone?” The demon began to descend the steps of the stadium, heading for the stage in the middle.

  “What is this, the plot of a romcom anime?” The Angel floated down to the center as well.

  “Shut it, you know I don’t mean it like that, it’s just that… it would be a shame if these memories were left here to die… even if they’re just data.”

  “I don’t want it to end.”

  “I know.”

  3

  “Huff… huff…”

  The two sung their hearts out, in the final hour of the game’s servers, neither were very good, one could say the demon was a little better, but it is safe to say they should stick to their respective jobs, instead of taking the stage.

  Those being “Bodyguard” and “Manager” for the Angel and Demon respectively, even one who played the game for the majority of time the servers were running, one would question the need for a bodyguard in Yggdrasil, a mercenary maybe, but an exclusive bodyguard was virtually unheard of.

  That was, except in this case. it was widely known that the developers of Yggdrasil enjoyed making collaborations to sell more cash shop items, one such collab was one with an idol company known for it’s virtual stars, in this case the idol was “Arthur” based of an ancient female king of history. She was popular due to her voice, in fact compared to most idols she was said to have a singing voice that rated in the top 5, such was it that she hosted live concerts in the ever popular game.

  This however, was a point of contention within the community, for one, there was now a guild that had to be formed to protect this idol, interfering with long time players due to their high place on the leaderboard, which some had accused the developers of favoritism for. It also effected new players, other than the scandal around her two bodyguards, whenever the team had to farm or grind in certain areas, there were rules about not being able to interact or attack the idol, meaning they often got first pick of the best dungeons or they had the authority to kick other players out.

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  In fact, to perceptive players and high level guilds, the three at the top were known for their particularly nasty personalities, all different but united in how extreme they were when angered.

  First, Enter name, the Seraphim Angel, he was generally tame even if he was described as mostly heartless, but he had absolutely no tolerance for Players he determined to be ‘Ugly’, if you had mismatched armor or tried to make a disgusting looking Player Character, he might even go so far as to PK (Player Kill) you unprovoked.

  Next, Cardiovascular, the Sagittary Centaur, the second bodyguard of the idol, and was known for his ruthless abuse of game mechanics or glitches, coupled with the fact that no one understood what Job or Racial Classes he leveled to get so powerful, or what the equipment he used was able to do, there are rumors that he was able to beat a World Champion in a one-on-one battle, but the developers dismiss these claims, it later came out that he was banned from entering the World Champion tournament entirely, leading many to believe the rumor to be true.

  Lastly, is the idol herself, Arthur, Racial Classes unknown, while many players knew how horrible her bodyguards could be, few knew that she could be even worse when provoked, on the outside she was as bright and shining a star as ever, that didn’t change even when people met her or got in her way, most of the time she held back the other two from getting into fights, but that was most of the time, the developers and even the idol company have tried to keep it under wraps the few times she’s made entire guilds “disappear”, some say that she just got their accounts banned, others say that the company had actually killed the players.

  Besides the top three, there were actually many other members of the guild, but they either did not participate in combat or did not have high enough levels to, simply put, they were hired to keep the place running and actually manage that part of the game so that those who were best suited to combat could focus on their job alone. And that they did, at one point they reached the top 10 guilds in the world, this was unthinkable to most other high level guilds, as while they were technically a team of around 50 players, only those three actually fought in raids, insanely hard dungeons in which usually triple or quadruple the amount of players would be needed to defeat one. This was mostly due to two reasons.

  The first reason was the highly specialized builds possessed by the top three, it was generally understood that you could make a build so powerful that you could carry the weight of more than one player on your team, but such builds either required the World Champion or the World Disaster classes. In other words, it wasn’t easy to make a combination of classes that could do the work of two people effectively, the reason being that the Yggdrasil never released the information about the classes officially, and the few fan made sources are unreliable at best, and misinformation meant to confuse other players at worst. It is said that there at least 20 classes that haven’t been discovered yet, either due to the complex requirements to get them, or being limited to specific events.

  Yet the top three were known for that strength, each of them were known to be able to do the job of two to three players on their own, even Enter name who was the weakest out of the three due to his build’s focus on crowd control and massive AOE attacks could be seen fighting on equal terms with high level close range fighters. Cardiovascular was never reported to be killed by another player, meaning that his PvP record was flawless, though some still claim this is false there is no evidence to back up that claim, at some point people stopped challenging him altogether for fear of losing their items, thus he remained uncontested even if he didn’t have the most kills, and in raids he acted as the party’s tank and DPS, a feat again only held by World Champions, yet no matter how many times the players asked, the developers only denied that he had that class. Arthur was yet another build filling two roles, as both the healer and the support, with the constant health and buffs she could provide her teammates it was estimated that they have about a 50 levels worth of strength after level 100, even when Cardiovascular was accused of cheating, it was generally assumed that whatever build Arthur had was either impossible or the classes were chosen directly by the developers to be the strongest possible combination.

  Together they made a team that was impossible to beat without overwhelming force, not that anyone in the right mind would challenge them anyway, for the fear of losing their account or punishment by the idol company. While they did not have a flawless record against raids, they had a lower than average death count against them, aided by the fact that they were still just a team of three, and of course only their successful attempts were broadcasted. There were still many fans despite the controversy surrounding them, in fact it would be appropriate to say that most people who played the game were a fan of either the idol or the 3 person raid team, seeing their impressive feats as inspiring. The people you would see most often that disliked them were either high level players that felt they were cheating, or anyone that simply hated the idol company and anyone associated with them.

  “Now that it’s coming to an end, I feel like I should have tried to get to know you better Enter… you’re a lot of fun!” The demon was sitting at the edge of the stage, still holding a microphone and sighing to herself. Due to the difference in jobs the two didn’t really interact much, her main concern was sorting items at the guild as well as providing mental support to the idol, places where a bodyguard wasn’t needed. As a result, the few interaction they had were usually one word exchanges or a simple inside joke within the guild, though the two still were able to share in the experience of being near the Arthur, a generally pleasant experience minus a few scares…

  “There’s a lot I wish I did differently, since Arthur graduated I’ve had a lot more free time, yet I still find myself only playing this game, how about we meet again and form a party in Yggdrasil 2?” Enter stuck around the guild, keeping it running even after the collaboration ended about a year ago, Cardiovascular stopped playing at the same time, he was only playing for the money the idol company paid him. Enter needed the money as well, but he could live rent free if he wanted, Enter lived in the storage floor of a coffee shop. Having saved the life of the owner over a decade ago now he was still allowed to live there, though when he found a job in Yggdrasil he had started to pay rent. In the past years he has been coasting on the bit of money he had saved, even if he was effectively homeless, he spent most of his income on the game, buying mostly cosmetics but some cash shop items as well.

  “Sounds good, though… before that, what’s your name… like, your real name.” She asked and Enter was taken aback, though it didn’t take him long to respond, after scratching his head, which his model in game mimicked.

  “Chen Guorong…” He didn’t remember much from his childhood, and he knew he did not have a native Japanese name, which gave him some questions, ones he never got the answers to. Though he didn’t really care about that, as long as he could live like this forever he wasn’t interested in learning about his past, this game was all he had at this point.

  “Oh really?, I won’t press it though… hah… I didn’t expect you to actually answer so I’m kinda put on the spot…” She pauses for a moment, her character was hugging her knees and she used a sweat-drop emote to show how flustered she was. A few moments later she stood up and began walking off the stage, to where one of the storage areas were. “I’ll give you my name too, let me just prepare a bit… and I always wanted to try out Arthur’s mic haha..” She sounded nervous even though her character’s face didn’t move. Accurately displaying emotions in real time was still a technical limitation that Yggdrasil couldn’t overcome, therefore most people wore helmets or masks to not just stare at an expressionless faces.

  “…”

  The second reason the top three were unbeatable was the world items they possessed, Enter’s 7th Arm and Wing, Cardiovascular’s Spear, and Arthur’s Microphone, all of them were world items with overwhelming power, Equiped with them they could easily take on multiple level 100 opponents, as well as take on raid bosses despite their low numbers. In fact they were the guild with the 2nd most world items, only being beaten out by one of the strongest guilds in the world, Ainz Ooal Gown, though even coming in 2nd meant that most of the highest level guilds had one, maybe two world items, team of 6 or even 10 players equipped with a world item each would be able to beat any content available. But no one knew how many the top guild possessed, if it were in the double digits then the stories of Ainz Ooal Gown being the unbeatable guild might be true. Though, that guild is accused of cheating just as often as Arthur's.

  More to the point, if she was grabbing her world item, that would be a major violation, as Arthur’s bodyguard letting someone else use her equipment would get him fired. Though, he was already out of his job…

  Even more pressing was the time…

  “23:59:35… she better hurry up if she wants to make it in time…” Enter spoke to himself, no one was close enough to him to activate proximity voice chat, so only silence answered him. With the speed of his character he would be able to catch up to her within the short amount of time he had, in fact, with his speed he could travel anywhere in this world, the loading times would keep him from going to other worlds. I shouldn’t spend the last few moments of my time thinking of a guild I’ll never see again…

  “23:59:48…” He kept counting the time, closing his eyes to remember the years he spent in this game, in Yggdrasil. He always thought of himself as someone who wasn’t fun to be around, Arthur seemed to tolerate him, but Cardiovascular always hated him, only the staff seemed to like him, but he never put the effort into making friends with anyone. He was trying to take back all the time, if he could spend the rest of days in Yggdrasil with that demon… right… I still haven’t heard her name…

  As the seconds counted down he felt all of it fade away… all the memories, an unusual amount of strong emotions welled up inside him, spilling out into tears… There was no change in his character though.

  In one movement he was outside, the black wing hidden among the six white wings on his back flared up, the slightest twitch of it took him anywhere he wanted. And now he was only a few meters away from her… as she held the microphone, a bit surprised by his sudden appearance, but she began speaking nonetheless. “Chen! my… my name is…”

  23:59:58, 59—

  “A…”

  And that was it…, she was gone and so was the fantasy world he had been living in for 12 years…

  “I guess it was a good dream…”

  00:00:00... 1, 2, 3…

  “Huh?”

  Enter opened his eyes.

  He expected to see the storage room he lived in, yet he was still outside, for a moment he felt like he had been finally thrown out for being a freeloader…

  This was definitely the smell of a forest, wait… Yggdrasil doesn’t support smells, what is this? He looked down at his hands, to be greeted by seven inhuman palms, just like in the game.

  When the game ended he was supposed to be kicked out, did they delay the shutdown?

  Still taken aback, Enter looked around to see if there were any clues.

  Hundreds of thoughts rushed through his mind, wondering just what could have happened, yet nothing could explain it. If they delayed the shutdown there would have been an announcement, or…

  Enter opened his command console, meaning to manually check the in game announcements, but…

  There was no command console.

  Enter tried another method, a GM call, they would have to respond to that, if he was stuck in virtual reality then the developers would be in huge legal trouble, yet…

  That didn’t work either…

  “The hell!?”

  His voice echoed through the forest before fading away, without a response.

  This was the last day of Yggdrasil, or at least, it was supposed to be. The announcements and developers had all said that today it would be shut down, was this some sort of prank? The devs have always been unreliable and often messed with players, maybe they were trying to scare everyone as one last send off…

  “God damn, you shitty devs” He almost thrashed around, scared and angry at the thought that he might be trapped… but just out of the corner of his eye he noticed movement. Someone else?

  Enter turned to the sound, a bush rustling… before a creature jumped out, one he’s only seen in games, but it used to be real at one point…

  “A deer?”

  Instinctively he slashed at it with his scythe, but it wasn’t a monster… it seemed like a low level animal type and yet… There was no doubt about it, that was real blood, the blood of an animal no less. He began to topple over, falling flat on his ass. On some level he knew what was happening, it wasn’t a game, yet he was still the angel he was in the game, it all seemed so incomprehensible…

  But then

  He was calm.

  Like a wave of numbness washed over him the panic he was experiencing faded within a few moments…, enough to watch as the numerous abilities his character held activating, a white ring of slashing magic extended from the creature, cutting down trees and slicing up other small creatures feeding the ability until it cut down the whole forest…

  Enter was specialized in crowd control, Seraphims were a race that held supreme power over weaker creatures, by killing one he had slain the ecosystem, the blood that kept his ability running eventually ran out as the creatures it was killing finally outran the slashing magic…

  Enter had to come to terms with reality.

  He was no longer in Yggdrasil, nor was in his storage room. Enter had somehow been sent to a new world.

  A fragile world where one swing of his scythe could spell disaster…