Translator: Hasr11

Editor: Lu

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 1: “Another Dimension Online”

A/N: This a BL story based on a novel that I posted on Narou ¹ that is a non-BL fantasy. You can read this as a standalone story, so there is no need to go to Narou to read it. The other story is not BL but just fantasy.

Besides, this story is one that is only for my gratification, no matter where or how it turns out.

I started writing this story because I wanted to read a VRMMO novel, so I can’t take responsibility for whether it’s interesting or not. If you understand the fact that this is purely for “my own gratification”, I would be happy if you read it when you have time.

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“A Dungeon Searcher? ”

During lunch break, I, Kengo Gouno was eating my bento with a friend while talking about a VR game we both were addicted to.

“Another Dimension Online” was a VR game that was a hot topic at the moment. It was popularly known as ADO.

Ten years ago, the hero had defeated the demon king, and the world had returned to peace. The opening cutscene that began with that narrative, was a masterpiece, starting with a scene of the hero fighting a battle to the death against the demon king. 

I don’t think that there’s anyone who didn’t get excited when they saw the red-haired hero letting out a tearful war cry after defeating the Demon King. I too, was subconsciously moved by the cutscene. Most games usually asked you to level up to defeat the demon king after they had appeared. However this game’s timeline was set after all of the events. It was strange.

The concept of this game is “freedom in your hands in another world,” where you can do various things freely with various jobs from combat to production.

The game was released when we entered junior high, and even now, five years later, it still firmly ranks as one of the most popular VR games.

Both me and the friend in front of me, Yuuta Takahashi, had been playing it ever since the ban on VR games was lifted when we turned 15.

“Ahh, I logged in on the weekend and everyone was levelling up their skills in the forest, and a super good-looking silver-haired guy in a robe called out to me.”

“That person was a dungeon searcher, was it?”

“Yeah, we went in together. To the Secret Dungeon.”

“Whaaaaaaaat?!”

Yuuta’s words made me shout out in disbelief.

Because that “dungeon searcher” is an NPC that’s been a hot topic on the streets lately, and rumour was, if you accept a quest from him, he’ll take you to the secret dungeon and give you an orb.

But I couldn’t find anything on the Internet about the conditions for meeting him. All I had were some rough guesses that maybe my level wasn’t high enough, or perhaps I hadn’t cleared a certain quest.

“So, so!? Did you get it, the orb!? ”

“Yeah.”

Seriously?！

It’s not fair that only Yuuta gets it! I screamed and snatched away a piece of fried chicken in Yuuta’s bento.

“Ah! I was looking forward to eating that too! ”

“Never mind that, you continue!”

When I urged him to change the topic away from fried chicken, Yuuta suddenly asked to divert my attention, “Wanna come to my house today?”

Of course, I replied immediately.

I was a ghost member of the science club while also being a part of the go-home club² at the same time, so I can’t call it a club activity if I don’t make it a priority to go home after school. You get it, right?

Of course, it was to play ADO.

And Yuuta in front of me was also a part of the go-home club just like me.

When ADO first came out, the game was so popular that it even led to all VR gear selling out one after another.

Before it, the supply of VR gear itself had always been stable. As a junior high school student at the time, I was eating breakfast when I heard on the news that this was the first full-dive VRMMO game to become so popular ever since the full dive-type VR gear technology³ was released in Japan.

We didn’t know what kind of effects ADO would have on physical development and on the undeveloped brain, and for developmental reasons such as this, it was not allowed for those below 15 to create an account or login.⁴

Yuuta and I, who loved playing video games even then, were looking forward to the day we turned 15 and even saved up our New Year’s money for it.⁵

I spent as little out of my pocket money as I could, and of course saved all of my New Year’s money. I enviously watched Yuuta, who was born two months before me, immediately buy it, enduring till I myself turned 15 and immediately bought my copy just like him.

All of my savings were gone in a flash. But I had no regrets.

We had no idea what team number we were going to be in, but we spent most of our time logged in, except for school and sleep, trying desperately to close the gap with those who were already top rankers, giving them a sidelong glance.

But even a mere 2 months, were still 2 months.

When I happily logged in, Yuuta was having fun with a party of strangers under the very name “Takahashi.”⁶

The difference in our levels— 25.

I couldn’t just disrupt Yuuta’s party of four, which had 2 men and women each, making for an incredibly balanced party that worked hard to advance together, and say “let me join too.” Thus, I trudged through the city with my starter equipment, jostled by the waves of people enjoying themselves with various equipment. It was still a traumatic memory.

But, well. Yuuta was Yuuta, and I am me, therefore, I’ve decided to embark on the path of production.

I decided to aim for production right from the start, because if you try to form a party with others right away, you won’t have any time to work on your production skills.

That’s why I mostly play solo.

In the VR game I had long awaited, I was playing solo. I’m not sad, totally not. I deluded myself into thinking like that.

It’s okay though, because I have something called alchemy.

That’s right, what I was enjoying right now, was alchemy. At first, I chose to become a pharmacist, but as I raised my job levels, for some reason a notification had told me that there were “Conditions Met” and I got the option to choose the alchemist job. 

At first I thought it was simply a higher-ranking job, but since it could be set as a side job, it was of a completely different job category. Besides, it wasn’t as if the condition for getting a higher-ranking job was that you had to raise your current job level. Another production friend of mine, Rinne who had started as a pharmacist, was still stuck being a pharmacist. While I had been raising my personal level in small steps, Rinne had been solely raising his job level, so I think his job level in total is twice of mine.

I found it annoying to get dragged into dilemmas, so when I entered the city, I set my main job as pharmacist and sub job as alchemist.

When I got home today, I was going to try the recipe for a potion which I happened to get yesterday, one that would give me a buff.

However, the matter about the dungeon searcher was more important.

I couldn’t wait to hear the rest of his story and restlessly sat through the afternoon lectures, eagerly waiting for school to end.

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Hasr: Strap in for a ride folks, this one is gonna be long (and you’re gonna enjoy every second of it)