In front of the South Gate, Royal Capital Altea, Kingdom of Altar — Ray Starling.
“I thought I was going to die...” My heart was pounding after being suddenly dropped from the sky, and I forced in breaths to help calm myself down.
The feeling of the fall still remained with me:
The sight of scenery changing vividly before me at high speed.
The sound of my body scraping against the air as I fell.
The chill in the air whipping around me.
The smell of wind I had never smelt before.
The taste of dirt from the ground — I had fallen over in a daze, confused at how abnormally safe my landing had been. There hadn’t been any pain — it was apparently turned off by default — but all five of my other senses had perceived this world just as they would the real one.
“This... is too real,” I said quietly.
A true dive VRMMO... I finally had a sense that the dream game had become a reality.
I did think the theatrics had been a bit over the top, but I had now made my way into the world of Infinite Dendrogram.
I looked about my surroundings and saw a large gate behind me. It was encompassed by white castle walls that stretched up as far as I could see. There were also soldiers clad in Western-style armor serving as its gatekeepers.
This gate is one of the places I saw in Cheshire’s room, so it’s probably safe to say this is Altea, the Kingdom of Altar’s royal capital.
The gate was open leading into the town, and for a while now, carriages and people had been coming and going.
It seems I can pass through just fine.
As it was my first time, I timidly — or, more accurately, suspiciously — passed through the gate and was able to enter the town without any trouble.
“All right,” I said with relief. It looks like they don’t do inspections for people entering or leaving Altea.
Since I’d safely made it into town, all that remained was to head to where I was supposed to meet my brother.
“If I remember correctly, he said a large water fountain on the capital’s central street,” I said. “He did say I could reach it by heading straight from the entrance, but... hmm... I’ll take a look just in case.”
I recited the words “main menu” in my mind, and just like it was described in the manual, a game window appeared in front of me. The window was split into two; on the right side was my name and a simplified view of my stats, while on the left side was a list of various menu commands.
I glanced over at my stats and saw that my current level was 0. Jobs in Infinite Dendrogram supposedly each had their own level, and since I was currently jobless, my level was stuck at 0.
“Map... Here it is.” I found what I was looking for in the menu and opened it up. A new window appeared displaying a map of the Royal Capital Altea.
Normally, a map had to be filled in by traveling around or by buying maps. However, the manual explained that a player’s starting area, the capital of the nation they joined and its surroundings, got input into the map from the start.
This is useful.
“I see. I see,” I murmured.
The city of Altea was circular in shape and surrounded by castle walls. These walls had a gate at each of the four cardinal points, and stretching out from each of them was a large, stone-paved road leading to the center of the city.
The roads would have intersected into a cross if they had continued; however, this was not the case. At the center of the royal capital was another ring of castle walls, and inside it was the area for nobility. Special permission was required to enter this area, and at its center was the royal castle.
Well, I probably won’t have any need to go there for a while, I thought.
The central street we were supposed to meet at was the one running from the South Gate to the nobility area. The gate I had just passed through, by the way, was the South Gate.
So if I simply head straight, I should be able to reach the water fountain.
I was walking while looking at my map and thinking this, when...
“Ah?!”
“Huh?” Somehow, I had locked eyes with a woman I didn’t know. She had run out from a side alley, and since I’d been engrossed in my map, I hadn’t noticed until she was right upon me. I reacted late and wasn’t able to avoid her, causing us to collide. As a result, I was flung more than fifteen meters away.
“Gah...” I muttered. That felt like it caused some serious damage.
As a matter of fact, the window screen I still had open showed that I’d lost 80% of my HP. In addition to this, I appeared to have broken some bones. The status effects “broken left arm” and “broken right leg” were now being displayed.
Just one collision with a lady, and I receive such near-fatal wounds as these... come on, just how shockingly frail am I?
“A-Are you all right?!” The woman that ran into me rushed over to my side with a pale look on her face. She had soft hair and kind facial features... and was wearing white, metal armor that looked absurdly heavy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that thing weighs a hundred kilos.
“I-I’m...” I tried to tell her, “I’m okay. It was no big deal.” However, my body was still numb from the damage and I couldn’t properly move my tongue.
“I’m so sorry! Force Heal!” Her hand instantly glowed white and particles of light fell from it onto my body. My HP was completely healed, and the status effects for my broken bones were also gone.
“Oh... ohhh...”
That must’ve been healing magic. It was a common occurrence in video games to nearly die and then get completely healed, but this was what it was like to actually experience it. ...It’s kind of scary.
“I’m terribly sorry! This is all because I wasn’t paying attention to what’s in front of me while running...” she said.
“N-No, I was also looking away... By the way, are you okay?” I asked. We’d collided with enough force to give me near-fatal wounds, so I was worried that she might have been injured as well, but... she was completely unharmed.
She appeared to be a really high-level player, and the equipment she was wearing looked to be of a high-grade as well. Her stats, then, would most likely be high, too.
So that’s why our collision ended up the way it did.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “But I caused you to get such a terrible injury...”
“Oh no, y-you were kind enough to heal me, so I’ll be just fine.” I couldn’t help but speak politely. On top of that, I was fairly sure my voice was shaking. The damage from when we’d collided had caused me to lose my nerve.
“B-By the way, it looked like you were in quite the hurry. Is there something wrong?” When I asked her this, the woman suddenly appeared to have remembered something.
“Well actually, my little sister left the house and I was in the middle of searching for her.”
“Your sister?” I asked.
“Yes. This is her in this picture. Have you seen her anywhere?” Asking this, she took out a picture and showed it to me. Although this world has a fantasy setting, it would appear that pictures are readily available. In the picture was a cute little girl. She looked like a younger version of the woman in front of me, but with straight hair instead of wavy.
Her sister, huh? I thought. Like me and my brother, she must be playing this game together with her sister.
I could only stay silent as she looked at me in desperation. I felt bad for her, but I hadn’t seen her sister. “I’m sorry. I just started recently, and I just entered this town through that gate a moment ago...”
“Is that so... Then she might already be inside... Um, this is my contact information,” the woman added. “If you happen to see my sister anywhere, please contact me! Also, I’m really sorry for running into you!” She took out a piece of paper, wrote something on it, and then handed it to me.
“There’s no need to apologize, so please go and search for your sister,” I said.
“Thank you... Well then, goodbye!” she said and darted off, leaving me with a memo in my hand. The following was written on it: “Liliana Grandria, Knights of the Royal Guard Vice Commander, Kingdom of Altar.”
“Huh?”
Characters I had never seen before were being translated into Japanese in my head. More shocking than that, however, was the rest of the memo...
“The quest ‘Search for Milianne Grandria, Difficulty Level 5’ has started. Please see the quest screen for further details.”
I was at a loss for words.
Umm... yeah.
Although she looked like a real human to me, this meant that she wasn’t actually a player, but instead...
“She was an NPC?!”
And just like that, I realized again just how unbelievably realistic Infinite Dendrogram was.