ONLINE GAMERS {ARC 1 CHAOS IN ASTRAL CITY} Interlude

Interlude: A knight and his journey.

Ayaka was a strange person.

From a very young age she had been infatuated with the knights of the round table and heroes of legend.

While most girls her age dreamed princesses’ and dolls, she had a much odder dream.

There was no specific point in time that she could remember that sparked this love for tales of men clad in armor in her.

To her understanding, that love of knights had always been there. The chivalry, the honor, she loved every aspect of them! And she was very, very vocal about these passions of hers! It was clear to everyone around her as well as those that met her, that she loved and adored valiant and heroic knights.

Admiration soon turned to longing.

I want that thought a young Ayaka as she watched a film portraying king Arthur and his knights of the roundtable, her eyes lit up in wonder.

She yearned to be like the knights she so desperately admired.

“I’m going to become a knight!”

It was a headstrong statement from the young soft-looking girl, little did she know it would lead her downa path chasing an impossible dream, or rather what would be impossible if not for games.

That’s right, she made this dream a reality though through games.

Games. One of her online friends had once told her.

Don’t be afraid to be yourself! You can be whoever you want to be! Even if no one understands or accepts you, even if the whole world is against you. You only have one life so why waste it worrying about what others think?

The place where Ayaka was free to be the heroic knight she’d dreamed of, a place where anyone could be anything they wanted.

Ayaka had been playing games for years. In terms of what kind of games, she played, she mainly played VRMMOS. With the advancements in technology VR games became an easy go to for escapism. She played several VR games. She was so good in fact that she had been recruited by a pro guild early on.

The world of gaming was free and without constraint. And the friends she’d made because of gaming were kind and fun.

On the very first day that NWO released officially Ayaka and her party members had been caught up in the hype for the most anticipated virtual reality game and inadvertently ended up trapped here.

And thanks to that Ayaka met Tsurugi Hime the level nine.

◆◆◆

That was the story of how the knight Percival who’s Irl identity was Ayaka got trapped in NWO.

Apparently Tsurugi Hime was a guy in real life, who was only playing as a big breasted girl thanks to the meddling of his older sister, although in all honesty Ayaka doubted that was the case.

“It’s the truth! It’s not like I would choose to look like this willingly…” said a panicked Tsurugi Hime, the blonde girl in question.

Though Ayaka perceived Tsurugi’s state to be panicked her face betrayed no emotion.

It was, admittedly, a very difficult task to tell exactly what Tsurugi was thinking. She was very expressionless. But it emerged in conversation every now and then, her real emotions because she wasn’t exactly a machine at the end of the day, she was human.

Ayaka grinned to herself with satisfaction and nodded.

After a bit more teasing Ayaka helped Hime out with a few more problems and the two bid farewell.

“Don’t worry I’m playing gender bent too so I won’t judge you! This is a safe place Hime-sama!”

The only response Tsurugi Hime could dish out was an emotionless “Umm…”

◆◆◆

ASTRAL CITY (AT THE GUILD BAR)

“And that’s basically how I met the second ranked level nine! With some details omitted here and there.”

four other PLAYERS reacted differently to her claim of knowing a level nine.

“Reeally!” “wooow!” “Yo, you really buddy’d up with a level 9?!” “…”

Percival was a member of a five-person guild known as Crimson Storm.

She explained everything about Hime.

The others listened to her intently, occasionally snacking on the food at the table or drinking from their jugs.

On Percival’s right was Homura. She was a level six player a girl with straight long black hair down to her feet. As a Player Homura was their strongest, she was the team’s ace in the hole and one of Percival’s closest friends.

Homura was a great scissors user, her avatar was basically a fighter class avatar who used a giant pair of scissors as her weapon, she frequently changed her avatars appearance to match whatever she felt like. Sometimes she would come dressed as a maid, a nun, cat girl or just plain old cosplay a character she liked.

Outside of combat Homura was basically an idiot.

Today Homura came dressed as a maid, “So what was this Tsurugi Hime like? Was she more Dandere or Deredere!?”

Homura was literally foaming at the mouth in anticipation of Percival’s answer.

“Apologies my friend but… I don’t really know.” Percival said.

Ayaka had some experience with anime and manga, but the archetypes used to describe different character traits wasn’t really something she knew, she wasn’t as much of a fan for that sort of thing like Homura.

“Hime-chan is definitely a Kuudere.” A calm voice Mahatama the party’s healer said sitting across the table from Percival.

He was a level six and a healer. Homura shook her head and scooched over to the boy clad in religious cloth

“I see why you would think that, but from what Percival says she’s expressionless but easily gets flustered! Those are trademark Dandere behavior tropes!”

The two level six otakus ended up debating what dere type Hime was.

Percival and the rest of the party members couldn’t understand what the two were so ferociously talking about and decided to ignore them.

“Anyway… So how close are ya with your new level 9 buddy?” Rock the party leader asked. He was a tall dark-skinned shirtless man with boxing gloves on each of his fists. His hair was cut completely bald. He was a fighter class like Homura, and a level five just like Percival.

In terms of strength, he was somewhere between Percival and Homura.

Percival was not sure just how much of his relationship with Hime he should share.

It was obvious why he was asking this.

As of right now Astral city was split between two factions, Kimiko’s faction and Kagashi’s faction. Kimiko’s faction was made up of district one to district three and Kagashi’s only had rule over district seven. Kimiko had the overwhelming size advantage in followers.

But in a battle between level nines the number of troops you had at your disposal was not important.

If thousands of ants tried to help an elephant win against another elephant, would they contribute in any way?

Only Hime could be of use in the oncoming battle, Rock wanted to report back to Kimiko, Percival knew as much.

“Sir Rock, Hime-chan isn’t willing to fight for Astral city, but she is willing to fight for my sake as a friend. So, to answer your question sir, we are indeed good friends. However—”

—I want to keep her out of this!

That meant not telling Kimiko about Hime. It meant going against the lord they had sworn to serve, Percival wasn’t sure how to say something so dishonorable.

“We ain’t gotta tell that snot nosed brat anything. If ya wanna keep your friend out of this mess that’s your decision. Protecting your buddys is plenty knightly!” Rock gave Percival a pat on the head.

◆◆◆

Two of Percival’s guildmates were level six. Homura the party’s main fighter and Mahatama the party’s healer. The two of them had somehow managed to make it to level six. Rock and Rider were at level 5 and Percival himself was at level 5.

All together the party was significantly stronger than most parties at the guild if not the strongest. They took on the highest paying updated quests and sometimes even met up with Astral city’s boss Kimiko.

“Alright everybody Percy says he made friends with a level nine! So, in honor of that achievement drinks on mee!” Homura shouted.

“Hell no!” Rock the party leader tried to stop them but it was too late.

“HELL YEAAAAH!” Everyone in the guild bar cheered.

Homura often did things like this she was the sole reason the party was in soul crashing debt despite being the best party.

As king Arthur once said—King Arthur never actually said this—if you can’t beat them, join them! Percival thought.

“O fellow brave warriors Let us, see who can bottom the most booze!” Percival said as he and the players of the guild all took a swig of ale.

◆◆◆

They all drank till they couldn’t stand.