“I’m so bored...” Toru Aikawa muttered to himself as a salaryman left the store with dinner in hand.
Landing a part-time job at a convenience store had been both a blessing and a curse. Right now, he was at his wits’ end thanks to a couple having an interminable conversation in the dining area, but still he toiled away, handling customer after customer like an automaton.
“Hello... Will you be paying with card or cash...? Your total is seven hundred and fifteen yen... Thank you for your business...” He’d lost track of how many times he’d repeated those stock phrases today.
I’m so bored...
It was miserable work—the kind that didn’t even give you the satisfaction of feeling like a cog in the machinery of the world. It was absolutely thankless. And yet, there was a reason Toru spent so much time working. The long hours he spent in this dreamlike haze of a waking life were all for the sake of investing in one particular game.
Virtual reality technology had been advancing by the minute for years, to the point where people were beginning to whisper about “full immersion.” And then along came Real World Online, a game that made everything else on the market look obsolete. A real, honest-to-goodness other reality.
As a game, it was a magnificent flop. But the developers said that their true goal was not to create a game, but a world. It had to have been some rich person’s pet project. There was no other explanation for how they could have neglected to add a feature most games took for granted: a way to respawn.
Anyone who had ever touched a video game—anyone with common sense—found it completely absurd. If you died, it was game over. In the blink of an eye, you could lose a character you had invested dozens, hundreds, thousands of hours in. What part of that was appropriate for a game?
Reviews asked as much, at least. They said that it was a mistake. That it wasn’t a game at all. They referred to it as a “death gauntlet.” They called for the demonic development team to be put to a swift and merciless death. They accused management of being detached from reality. And worst of all, they called it a waste of time. It was universally panned.
On the other hand, from a certain perspective, if the game sought to emulate reality, death would have to be a component. By throwing out all common sense in favor of a game where you couldn’t redo your deaths and overcome obstacles through trial and error, they were able to make something truly immersive. And that level of immersion had a certain attractive quality.
It also took tremendous effort to traverse the land, which was so close to being its own reality. It was possible to travel to villages, towns, cities, kingdoms, and even whole other worlds, but doing so was immensely difficult. It took literal days of traveling to get anywhere as a new character.
The AI-driven NPCs you could find around town had new dialogue every time you talked to them, and moved about for reasons of their own. The number of limited-time quests and plot elements that could change based on player actions was staggering. You could even make enemies of a particular village, town, or country. The computing power it took to run the game must have been unimaginable. Between the huge variety of classes and races available and the sheer size of the world, no one player would ever see more than a tenth of the game’s content.
Moreover, a character’s appearance was endlessly customizable. There were more options than a person could reasonably wrap their head around. It was easy for players to lose themselves in the character creator and spend all day making their avatars. Alternatively, they could upload a picture and the game would search for the closest available parts in its library to create the player’s idealized self.
The words “Real World” in the title were anything but empty. The world awaiting players through their displays might as well have been another reality. That was the game for whose sake Toru Aikawa planned to throw away all his hard-earned convenience store money.
Well, that wasn’t entirely fair. Toru had gotten into college and suddenly found himself with a lot more free time than he’d ever had before. But he didn’t use it to study or spend time with friends. Even if he worked hard and applied himself in pursuit of a high-paying job, it would still be the game, not reality, where he found himself looking for meaning.
When he was small, Toru had dreamed of wielding a sword, vanquishing wicked monsters, and protecting the innocent. And as he grew up, those fantasies never went away. In class, he would fantasize about a bad guy with a gun suddenly bursting in and taking a powerless girl hostage. He spent his time somewhat delusional, imagining himself saving the day.
Now an adult, he found himself even more at odds with reality than he’d been before. Society was unjust. His friends just annoyed him. His bosses and seniors were wrong about everything. Religion was useless. While he bowed and faked a smile for his store manager, he daydreamed about telling everyone how he really felt.
Real World Online had lasted six years with the support of its core players. Surely they were no different than him—drawn to the game as a way to escape a self they detested and a life full of nothing but tedium.
Toru left through the employee exit, heading out into the night. The moon shone lonely in the sky, dimmer than the streetlamps that illuminated the people and buildings with a pale greenish light. Sometimes, people walking by would have two shadows—one cast by the lamps and the other by the moon.
He walked along the sidewalk, choking slightly on exhaust fumes as one car sped up to pass another. But today, there was a spring in his step. Today was the launch day for RWO’s latest patch. There was going to be new land to explore, new materials for crafting, special limited-time loot boxes, new monsters, and, most importantly, new raid bosses. Nothing could upset him too much when he had that to look forward to.
Humming and swinging the bag his bento was in, he passed through a handful of crosswalks on his way to the dormitory where he lived alone, his pace increasing with every step. And then, right as he passed the intersection in front of his favorite karaoke place, something happened.
Suddenly, a bus appeared, its side mirrors broken off, driving well above the speed limit. Its body was badly dented and scraped from previous collisions with walls and cars.
“Wha—?!” He exclaimed as the bus rocketed toward a red light. “No way! Are you serious?!” The driver had to have fallen asleep. If not, why were they about to plow straight into a crowd of people crossing an intersection?
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Toru yelled as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Fortunately, he’d noticed the bus before it had gotten too close. As long as he trusted himself and kept running, he had plenty of time. Plenty of time to reach the girl.
She was frozen in place, tears streaming down her cheeks as her body shook. “Run!” he shouted. “Get out of there, you idiot!”
Wait, he thought. Can I really help her? This is super dangerous! But by the time that thought occurred to him, it was too late. His body had already acted.
“God dammit!” He leaped forward, seizing the girl by her arm. What the hell?! What am I doing?! The headlights of the bus were blinding in the darkness. He was out of time. No! I won’t make it!
This wasn’t what he’d planned, but his body was already moving. A second before the bus reached the girl, he planted his feet and grabbed her shoulders with both arms. Using his body as a pivot, he tossed her aside with enough force to send her flying through the air. And then...
“Oops...” The bus plowed into him with unimaginable force. It happened too fast for him to even feel the pain of the blow. His crushed body flew through the air.
I was...really looking forward to that patch... he thought. His dream had come to an end.
~ ‡ ~
From somewhere, there came a voice. “Another new character, #####? You must really like making them! I’ve never heard of someone with three active characters before.” Toru should have had no way of hearing anything, and yet...
“Oh, em, gee! She’s adorable! And your girl voice is amazing! You really went all in.”
More and more voices joined the first, all of them laughing and having fun. Some were nostalgic. Some felt like bad memories.
“How much money did you fork over this time?”
“Are you leveling your new character? Can I help?”
“So is this one of those femboys I keep hearing about?”
“The character is a girl. It’s the one playing her that’s a boy.”
“What do you mean, ‘playing’? Ohhh... But what if the one playing her is a femboy?! Gulp...”
“Shut up, creep!”
They went on and on, chatting away merrily.
This was the day of #####’s birth.
“Hey, what kind of character build is that? It looks super unbalanced!”
“I agree. I don’t think it’ll perform very well.”
“’Tis a peculiar one, methinks.”
The voices showed no signs of stopping. They were coming from all around.
“Look, what’s the big deal? He can play whatever character he likes.”
“Long live the cutie!”
“Can I buy those stockings?”
“No! Step on me while you’re wearing them!”
“There’s just gotta be a pervert... Sis, would you do something about them?”
“Hmm? You want me to give you a squeeze?”
“N-No thank you!”
There were always people in #####’s corner, helping her out as she continued to grow.
“Rghhh! How come I keep doing less damage than you?! I’m a pure mage!”
“Hee hee, ##### is a unique character. Don’t think too hard about it.”
“Forsooth! And that is why I shall stand ever ready to rush to thine side!”
“I’m coming to save you, Princess!”
In fact, everyone gave her their full support. The days passed like a wonderful dream, each one flowing into the next.