“Now then, Ma-kun. This way! I’ll make sure you get there.”
“Y-yeah, sure…”
Masato gave up and started walking. She was pulling his arm, so he didn’t have much choice.
There were suspension bridges between the floating islands, and they crossed an especially imposing one, headed for a particularly large island.
The road was lined with statues of gods, and at the end of it was an impressive palace with a domed building at the center. Mamako seemed to be leading him there.
Right, calm down. Don’t give up. Think. You can keep up.
What did this mean? What was happening? Given everything that had transpired so far, it seemed safe to assume they’d definitely been transported into a fantasy game, but…
But Mom’s here. Gotta do something about that. Before anything else. Yeah.
“Uh, Mom? Why are you…?”
“Here we are! Apparently, there’s an event here first thing. This is going to be so much fun!”
“Huh?”
His head still reeling, he was dragged down a long passage to the event checkpoint.
They were in the center of the palace, under the domed roof. An old man on a throne was waiting for them.
He was well built, wearing gorgeous clothing and a train embroidered with gold and silver thread. He had a long white beard and wore a crown inlaid with jewels like some sort of… king…
“Welcome! I am the king, ruler of the Transport Palace!” Ding!
He actually was the king. Did he have a name besides King? There didn’t appear to be any soldiers or ministers around, just this guy.
“I’ve been waiting for your arrival! I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Thank you! It’s a great honor to be invited. Come on, Ma-kun. Where are your manners?”
“Oh, um… Thanks…?”
Following Mamako, Masato bowed his head before the throne, doing as he was told.
The king smiled broadly at them both and said, “Let us begin with your names. State them, please.”
“My name is Mamako. And this is my son, Ma-kun.”
“Lady Mamako and Lord My Son Ma-kun? Then let us register those names.”
“No—wait a second, Your Majesty! My name’s Masato! Masato!”
“Hmm. Then your mother is Mamako, and the son is Masato, correct? Then let us register those names.”
The king held up his hand. Two windows appeared in the air, demanding that names be entered. Mamako’s and Masato’s names appeared on them, and registration was complete.
“Uh… Wait, was that just the initial account setup?”
“Indeed. By the way, once registered, a name cannot be changed.”
“Tell us that first!!”
Accidentally registering with your real name was a common enough mistake, but when you couldn’t change it later? Even worse. Masato pounded his fist on the floor in frustration. At least there was a floor to take it out on.
“Dammiiiiiiiiit! Whyyyyyy?!” Bam, bam, bam.
“M-Ma-kun! Don’t punch the floor! What will the people downstairs think?”
“Hoh-hoh-hoh! There’s nobody living down there. Don’t worry. Punch away! But now that your accounts are set up, allow me to present you with your base stats. Accept these.”
The king wiggled his fingers, and the screens slid over to them. When they came to a halt, they were showing Masato’s and Mamako’s status pages.
Masato’s account name was Masato. Yep, just his real name. His job was listed as “Normal Hero.” There were numbers for attack and defense, and terms like “combat licensed” and “crafting forbidden.”
He glanced at Mamako’s status screen, and it also showed her real name, Mamako. Her job was “Normal Hero’s Mother.” She was listed as “combat licensed” and “crafting forbidden” as well.
He had a lot of questions, but most of all…
“Um, Your Majesty… Why am I a ‘Normal Hero’?”
“Normal means normal,” the king replied with a pleasant smile. “Nothing dramatic like saving the world. As a Normal Hero and a Normal Hero’s Mother, you should aim to get along normally, for normal happiness.”
With this mission statement delivered, he pointed far into the distance.
“Now be off, hero!”
He said this so theatrically you could almost hear the fanfare.
“Right, let’s go! …No, wait. We can’t go yet!”
Go where? Do what? This made no sense.
“Hmm? You can’t?”
“Of course not! You haven’t explained anything yet! What’s even going on?! I don’t even have the slightest idea!”
“Hmm. Then allow me to explain. Listen well!” The king cleared his throat and announced, “In the simplest terms, this is an online closed beta, and using certain techniques I couldn’t possibly explain, we’ve transported you into the game world! We’d like you to be our beta testers.”
“Geez, that’s kinda…simplistic…”
“Our test players are selected carefully based on the results of a certain survey…although we do sometimes pick poor fools who write the names on an anonymous survey. Because it’s easier to figure out who they are. I won’t name names.”
“Pffft, who’d do something like that? …Wait. No, it couldn’t be…”
He felt as if a booming voice were yelling “It is!” at him, but it had to have been his imagination. He hoped it was.
“As far as the game itself goes, as it’s still in testing, it doesn’t really have an official title yet. At the moment we’re just calling it MMMMMORPG (working title).”
“You realize adding extra unexplained Ms just makes it sound like a parody title, right?”
“The genre is your typical fantasy MMORPG. There are many job choices, and you can choose to play in combat or pacifist mode. You can go fight if you want, or you can focus on making items or decorating your home. Play however you like! You’re free to choose the play style that’s best for you.”
“Except in our case…”
“Yes, to gather performance data, we assigned you to jobs nobody else had picked yet. You can’t change them, I’m afraid.”
“So much for freedom. Just the way the world is, I suppose…”
Totally unfair, utterly unreasonable. The world as we know it.
But being selected as a beta tester was a pretty big deal. And test playing within the actual game? Masato was actually quite pleased about that. Feeling slightly better about things, he picked himself up off the floor.
“Sigh… Well, I think I get the gist, at least. Your standard online game, right?”
“Mm. I’m glad you understand. Lady Mamako, any questions from you? You understand how the game works?”
“W-well… Um…”
“Hmm? If something’s bothering you, let me know. I’d be happy to answer.”
The king gave her a friendly smile.
Looking totally lost, Mamako asked, “Well, then… What exactly is…an account?”
““You don’t even know that?!””
“Hmm,” the king said. “Just…out of curiosity, what do you think an account is, Lady Mamako?”
“Let’s see… An account is…” Mamako paused, thinking. “A…a…a…a…,” she repeated, counting on her fingers. Then she beamed as if she’d solved the riddle.
Yep. That was definitely about all Mamako knew about online gaming.
The king’s pleasant smile grew slightly strained, and he looked at Masato.
“Lord Masato, Lady Mamako is in your hands. Good luck!”
“Wha?! You’re just giving up?! Do something!”
“There is nothing more I can do!” Ding, ding!
“How did you make that sound like a proclamation?!”
“I am but a mere NPC! I can only say what the writers have written! If you wish me to explain the core fundamentals, prepare a text description of less than ten kilobytes! Do your jobs, management!”
“You’re running on a script but bad-mouthing upper management?! Whoa, that’s some impressive NPC scripting…”
“I should mention that this game contains both test players and NPCs, but it’s quite difficult to tell the difference. If you really need to distinguish, just hand them something smutty. NPCs will just read it verbatim, you see.”
“That hardly seems necessary…”
Then again, I could make them say…or… Nope, nope, I’m not doing that. Nope.
Right.
“I believe that’s enough talk. You’ll figure the rest out by playing!”
“Yeah, I suppose… It’s quicker to just jump right in instead of having you explain it to me… Wait?!”
Masato had almost accepted that this was ample explanation, when he realized he’d forgotten his biggest question.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a sec. There’s still one big problem, and she’s standing right next to me!
Mamako had suddenly sneaked up beside him.
“H-hold on! We still haven’t addressed the biggest problem!”
“Yes, I can imagine what you’re about to ask, Lord Masato. You want to know why your mother is with you, correct?”
“Y-yeah! Explain that!”
“But I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“Huh? Why not?! They didn’t prepare that text for you?!”
“That’s not it… It’s just that having your mother with you is intricately connected to this game’s purpose. For that reason, I shouldn’t elaborate further. A detailed explanation would result in us forcing our backer’s intentions on you, and that shouldn’t happen. It’s best if you figure it out yourself on your adventures and make your own decision to engage in it.”
“Huh? Um… Wh-what’s that supposed to mean…?”
“Your mother was given a more detailed explanation. Children should just enjoy themselves! Go where you please, adventure together, and let it take you where it will. With that…”
The king stood up and tapped his throne. It vanished into thin air, and the stone beneath it sank into the ground with a low rumble, revealing a spiral staircase.
“To the next scene! Come this way.”
“Stop! I’m not ready to proceed! I demand an explanation!”
“Now, now, just bear with me a minute. However unhappy and mistrustful you may be now, hero, I promise this next bit will make your jaw drop. We’ve got some presents for you!”
“You can’t trick me with crap like that!”
“What’s this, then? You don’t need the new-account first-login exclusive bonus?”
“E-exclusive…?”
Thwack! A direct hit.
Every online game had amazing exclusive items for early adopters… Who could resist those? There was no way Masato could pass up this chance. They were his! His alone!
He might be a hero, but how could he resist such temptation…?