Free Life Fantasy Online

T/N: The Future Software chapters were previously skipped as they partially spoil certain events that were yet to happen in the main story.

On one of the spacious floors of a high-rise building.

Many PC's are lined up, with people sitting in front of them, staring at the screens.

The only sounds are the faint humming of the machines, the clicking of keyboard and mouse and the rustle of paper.

Into this quiet world, a female voice is thrown.

『The first extra race on the server has been obtained.』

A few seconds after the voice sounds across the floor, people who were sat staring at their computers stand up, crying out in surprise.

"Yggdrasil! What is the race!?"

『Voice authentication… match. The race is Corpse Princess.』

The surprised voices echo across the floor again…with one man making strange noises.

He is in something of a frenzy. Certainly he seems out of control.

"Well…leave him alone… Yggdrasil, what is the name of the player who became that race?"

『The player name is Anastasia.』

FLFO's control AI… Commonly known as Yggdrasil. The origin of the name comes from the world tree.

The name Yggdrasil was chosen tremendously lightly, but it stuck as no one complained about it. Perhaps knowing that if they did, they would be told ‘Then you think of a name'.

A search was performed on the player mentioned by Yggdrasil.

"Hey, Yamamoto-san. What kind of person is it?"

"Calm down a bit, I'm looking into it now."

"Really, I didn't think that one would be the first."

"Well, I guess that's what everyone thought…"

"…Hm? Did you just say princess, Yggdrasil? Anastasia? No way, a female player!? Fuoooooo."

"Hey! Don't scream in my ear!"

The race, or whether it is a prince or princess, is determined by the gender of the player.

The employees responsible for designing that race are making a lot of noise.

Following the words of the representative, ‘If you want to design something like that, then make sure you implement it into the game properly, okay?', several races were created, and after adjustment became extra races.

"But, the race that the management most wanted not to be first…"

"That's just how the world is, huh?"

"Says the one who made it."

"Let's hope they're a decent person. No, seriously."

"Really…"

Thinking in accordance to the settings of the race, the stronger it is, the more brutal the difficulty to become one.

While some races are well known or have easily understood conditions for unlocking, others are unique to this games setting… with some being original or inevitably stronger due to the setting.

The latter are more difficult and the hints are fewer.

And the Corpse Princess in question provides no hints.

At best, you might be able to notice the hidden room by looking at the map…? But there is nothing else.

"I wonder how they managed to clear that frankly crappy room. Are they a mas…err…what kind of guts do they have?"

"Did you just try to say masochist?"

"…I changed my mind partway."

"No hints, a zone for a single person, instant death if you fail. And the only applicable races were early zombies, right?"

"Right. And wasn't the route set to change every real day?"

"Oh, there was that too. …How did they clear it? It's difficult to even walk straight as a zombie."

"No, really. Well, it's a race that is worth the trouble."

"…That is if they can follow the evolution route to the final stage."

"Come to think of it, there were a lot of conditions…"

"With bad luck, the route is already closed from the moment the character is created."

"…Ah, the possessed skills."

After a short conversation, information on the player Anastasia is displayed.

"Is this…filling in the map?"

"It looks like she took advantage of not being attacked to completely fill the map. That's why that kind of race…"

"Ah, she really died a lot."

"Rather, isn't it surprising she got through with just this number? Time is…"

After checking the time from the log, a video showing that time is brought up.

"…I see, she moved while crouching."

"Almost sitting down, even. Slow and steady?"

"Yeah…"

The employees have no choice but to be impressed while watching the video.

Due to their life in the game being entirely in the catacombs, there is no way to understand the personality of the player.

So, from looking at the account registration information, it is discovered that it is the elder sister of Akirina, a winner of the beta tournament…and so, with a sigh of relief, they returned to work.

Then, a little later, when she evolves into an Immortal Princess, there are yet more cries of surprise. Along with shouts of ‘A beautiful girl!?' and ‘Both sisters are pretty girls!'.

The employee who says ‘That chest armour is dangerous. Can I make a few changes to the extra equipment?' is driven into the corner by the glares of the female employees. What is he planning when he's already on the edge. Truly self-destructive.

Control AI Yggdrasil informs the employees of the occurrence of an event.

『Preparations have begun for the World Quest, Starting Town Defence Battle.』

On hearing this, the employees swallow their words…then rise to their feet with a clatter.

"So it's finally here! But this is bad timing!"

In a weeks time, they will be holding the first official event, a combat tournament.

However, the world quests are essentially automatic. It's all up to the AI.

There are various conditions, which when achieved will trigger the start of the event automatically, so it cannot be helped.

"I was expecting it to be later…"

"It seems to be one of the main hunting grounds, so I thought it might be a possibility."

"Well, it didn't overlap with the event, so let's say it's still fine?"

"…That's true enough. There's not much for us to do for world quests though, so just keep preparing for the event."

"『Okay.』"

The employees take their seats again and continue with their work.

"Ahh, I want to play this game too."

"Put up with being a GM."

"That's just work! And I'm partnered with a problem child…"

"It can't be helped, you're part of the management."

"When I watch the broadcasts…it looks like they're having so much fun! Thank you!"

"Yeah."

Of course, there is also a department that monitors the official bulletin board and player live broadcasts.

After the AI finds a post that violates the rules, the employees investigate further. They also check for violations in user broadcasts. And also check that uploaded videos have not been altered.

Since the bulletin board and live broadcasts are updated in real time, it is possible for the management to follow what the players are doing.

Although the usage is different from the players', it is also an important source of information for the management.

However, while looking over such information, the game-loving employees have to bear with it.

They cannot do it themselves. They cannot afford to give out unnecessary information about the game. Having behind the scenes knowledge would be quite advantageous.

"Oh, by the way, there was some information posted on the board about extra races and equipment."

"Oh, Anastasia-san? Did she post it already?"

"Anastasia, Alfreet, and Honehone released it together. Those two also seem to have cleared the conditions for extra races."

"Alfreet and Honehone…Ah, from the beta!"

"It looks like the Necronomicon and the horse have been recovered."

"The horse aside, the book, seriously. Are they both level 30 evolutions?"

"No, it's 20 for one of them."

"I see…I wonder…will the princess, the sage and the knight be forming a three person party?"

"It seems like the formed a party to check out the buff. Well, it was only a matter of time before they found each other even without the buff."

"Yeah…well, that's probably right. But yeah. They're not being very greedy if they're publishing the information already."

"It seems like it's also meant to serve as anti-PK measures. In terms of equipment."

"…I see. But even if someone picks a fight in the current situation, won't they just have it turned around on them? Though they might have a chance with ranged light magic…"

"In the current situation, I suppose so. Princess's equipment is at the level of the next map areas. The conditions for strengthening it are special, but followed to the end it will become divine treasure class…"

"….Princess?"

"It seems like she's become known as Princess because she's dressed like a princess? She's also using the royalty assistance."

"I see, so Princess. Is the board excited?"

"The inhuman board is having a festival. Princess is being praised a lot. Well, that's natural, since she dropped the nuclear bomb of extra races and equipment."

"It doesn't matter anymore, to the person that already became one… Well, that's good for us. I hope this will encourage people to be more curious and try things out."

"Right. I wonder if the existence of extra races will increase the population of inhumans a bit."

For better or worse, people are susceptible to ‘special'. ‘Limited time only!' and ‘Now only!' and so on.

For extra races and extra equipment, they are one-of-a-kind special. And people are very selfish and jealous. Being jealous is understandable, but they should at least not bother other people.

However, it's a game, so people who go too far will end up on a GM blacklist. Going out of their way to make others uncomfortable is no good.

The management wants people to enjoy the game, so they will respond as best they can to that.

"By the way, that Princess, is she going to participate in the tournament?"

"Ah, no, from the log it seems that she isn't interested in playing against other people."

"Well, there are people like that."

"That's right. It's hard to say the Japanese are very active in PvP, and even more so in VR?"

"I guess so. Is PvP too much of a hurdle? Well, it's still worth giving a try."

This first event is scheduled for just before the summer holidays.

Plans for the second event are already underway, with it scheduled for the end of the summer holidays. Well, it doesn't matter to the working people and the management, but the students will be happy.

"What about the second batch?"

"It's on schedule."

"What about the small event that was arranged for the second batch?"

"That's going well too."

"Okay, it's good that things are going well. What about the bug fix team?"

"Business as usual…for better or worse…"

"Oh.. do your best with that."

"Hey."

"Are you ready?"

"Okay here."

When the management side is ready, the control AI Yggdrasil announces the beginning.

『World Quest: Starting Town Defence Battle, final preparations underway.』

The management have a job to do too. …The recording of the event.

The recorded video will be edited and used on the official website and in commercials.

In addition to the usual automatic recording, the employees manually decide on several recording locations. The so-called free camera. It is done quite casually…just hoping they can record something useable.

The plan is to have several cameras prepared, one focused on the front line, one that sticks to the headquarters, following the captains, and several that roam the battlefield.

"So the captains are waiting in the rear. Well, that's right."

"How could there not be a problem with a captain dying?"

"Well, we don't want them to be bored, so it's good that some will head that way…"

"They're spending their free time playing a game after all."

"So the commander was Princess, after all. …I feel sorry for the thieves."

"Princess might be the natural enemy of the thieves. But can she withstand the boss?"

"Currently, she's weaker than the general, so it depends on the person herself and those around her."

『World Quest: Starting Town Defence Battle, ready….started.』

"Oh, Princess is in high spirits! Thanks for the great picture!"

The defence battle begins with the opening line from Anastasia.

The line was recorded from the best angle. From the viewpoint of the management, it's great that she is spirited. In the sense of making a promotional video.

"It looks like everyone's having fun! Good!"

"But actually, this is ‘dangerous people charging at the enemy with smiles on their faces', isn't it?"

"You're not supposed to say that!?"

"The Japanese spirit, is it…"

The management side is also in chaos, divided between a group happily watching the video from the free cameras while making noise and a group staring at the logs while praying for no bugs.

There is a huge temperature difference.

"Mumu! Princess talked the Resident adventurers into standing down. Fine play."

"There could be an S clear."

"Could be."

"However soon after the start it might be, I knew it would be like this with goblins…"

"They shouldn't die if they don't get surrounded?"

"Well, this time is pretty much a common setting being used as a tutorial for world quests."

"The goblin army is a classic, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

The goblins and hobgoblins are swept away by the players, and the goblin thieves make their move. Half of the lower-levels are shot down by the anti-air fire, with the rest making it through to headquarters, where the captains are stationed.

A free camera follows them, taking shots from below and beside.

"If we wanted to raise the difficulty, they could continue straight towards the city…"

"There are still too few players with anti-air skills."

While mumbling, they keep an eye on the screen and watch the battle against the captains.

"Mm, they're as good as expected."

"Right. As expected of the famous top players."

Of course, the stream of the player Cecil is also being watched.

Being famous, the number of viewers is amazing, exceeding 10,000 in the first few minutes and already around 70,000.

Before the arrival of the thieves it was mainly a view of the front line from behind, so was mostly in a chat state, but now that the battle has begun it is exciting.

『Those bugs are annoying, degozaru!』

『Argh dammit! My sword slips off those bugs! Damn resistance…』

『Their weakness to blunt goes through nicely. And thieves are simply strong.』

Voices of people having fun can be heard and the comments are scrolling by fast.

Then the number of thieves drops below ten and they all start aiming at the commander at once.

『Our commander is being so reliable that I’m in awe-degozaruna.』

『By the way, Princess was a Zombie-type, right?』

『No, more importantly, that weapon parry and weapon guard is the issue here, right? Normally you can’t do things like that.』

『Princess-was-actually-a-tank-theory -degozaruna~.』

Both on the free camera and Cecil's stream…despite being targetted by all of the remaining thieves, Anastasia was shown preventing and parrying them away.

"…This is amazing."

"Maybe I'm just wrong, but isn't this decision-making kinda crazy?"

"It's crazy. You can't manage that just by raising dexterity and strengthening the equipment…"

"I mean, the set effect of that equipment looks good, but it's quite tricky, isn't it?"

"I know it is, because I tried it myself… It's hard to use because it only speeds up some aspects."

"That's right… So normally it would be better to obediently raise your agility… well, we made it like that on purpose…"

"If it was the same as agility, it would be too strong."

"Right. DVR is inevitably dependant on the person inside, so we expected that some people would like it and some would be able to make better use of it…"

"She's using it brilliantly."

"Is it a miraculous match with the person inside?"

"Maybe so…"

Likes and strengths are completely different things.

Someone can like something, but be especially bad at it.

Dive type VR is different from conventional games. You don't wear a headset, hold a controller, or so on… You actually move. It is a little bit different from the reality, because your physical performance becomes the performance of the game character.

You don't have to convert the character's movement in your brain, or supplement it in your brain, as in the past games.

It is necessary to move according to your own image, and to create a body with appropriate stats to allow you to move according to that image.

From the point of view of a track and field athlete, the phenomenon of ‘I don't have enough endurance' or ‘I'm slow…' will occur for a while after starting the game.

If there is a difference between your ideal character and the character that actually suits you, you are likely to feel stressed.

Roleplayers might be the only ones to not feel stressed by this. These people are the type to enjoy even the differences.

If there is a player you admire, and you think to yourself… ‘That person is cool! I want to copy that!', even if you were to take the same skills, you are yourself and others are others. This is not a game based on clicking skill shortcuts, so it is natural.

Imitating the movement of another person is not something you would be able to do easily. It might even be impossible. Inevitably, there is a difference in taste among the players.

Of course, since this is a game, it is possible to create the same character in terms of data. However, it is up to the player to make the most of it. In any game, it is common sense that ‘even if you use a strong character, you will lose if you are not good with it'. Rather, if you were able to win at everything just by using a strong character, it would soon become depopulated as a bad game.

This could be considered both the good and bad point of dive-type games.

There are people that are not good at moving their bodies, so there is an automatic option for moving the whole body when activating skills, and semi-auto that only provides assistance. But playing completely manually is also popular.

They are playing the genre of VR games in the first place, so there are many who want to move on their own.

Well, there is a big statement about such things on the official website, warning people to be careful and not misunderstand things. Of course there are those that don't read, so it will become a problem as more players are added… the whole management team believes so.

This game is an MMO. It's not like the solo VR games released so far. There will inevitably be people who compare themselves with others. And when that happens, the GMs will be called in to deal with the jealousy. They are seriously hoping for people to avoid it.

It would be easy to just say: ‘Don't blame the management for your poor motor skills'. Even if they were to sue, the data is the same and logs and videos can be taken from the server and provided as evidence to allow for a win…

…Leaving that aside anyway, the event is still going on.

"Somehow, it feels like the general's last ditch attempt to aim for the commander will end in vain…"

"This Princess, she is both a magic attacker and a sub-tank, right?"

"I don't know what you're getting at, but you're right."

"Just a premonition that a dangerous race has been taken by a dangerous person."

"Well… fortunately? Is it a good thing that she at least doesn't seem interested in PvP? Or should we bemoan that such a famous player won't participate?"

"There's no doubt that for long-distance battles, at present, the magical firepower of Princess is at the top. And for melee, if the aura is on and she is prepared to defend…"

"She's likely to win the moment weakness is applied…and the poison is bad too."

"If it's an instant kill before the conditions are applied…I don't think she can manage it."

"She's in dire need of strength and agility, but has a lot of HP due to being an Immortal. And she's able to handle all the thieves that are of a higher level from the front."

"That's true. She's handling everything that is in her field of view."

"And she's not using a parry stance."

"Parrying everything from the front…maybe it's a jedi?"

"No, in terms of race, wouldn't she be more like Vader?

"Oh, that's right."

The two are joking around while watching the video, but a third employee inserts a less pleasant comment.

"Ah…Jedi is possible…"

""Eh?""

"She has both sensing and detection, and there is the integration of the evolution of those two skills, right? And then, the strongest route for this race is… the one that she respecced towards?"

""Ah…""

"It's a pure monster route… I really want her to continue down the strongest route as she is. I definitely want to see it."

"The evolution for that race was complicated, wasn't it? It feels like harassment."

"It's not harassment, it's just a result of following the setting, isn't it? Because we didn't expect to see anyone follow it in the first place…"

""Well, true.""

"But that route is quite a way off, and it's the most difficult one, so it's fine. Hahahaha."

"I see, that's a flag. Well, maybe…the year after next."

"No, no, that race doesn't have too many hints about the requirements, but the required level is low, isn't it?"

"Ah… right, the Nether is 30. So… 40!?"

"Princess already has the essential skills. If she keeps going like this, won't it be within the next year?"

"Oh, now you mention it, she has light and darkness and didn't take the other four attributes."

"She also has alchemy, so all the prerequisite skills. After that comes improving the skills… so it depends on the luck and personality of the person inside."

"…Let's not talk about this. What will be, will be."

"Well… there's nothing we can do to change it anymore."

As the conversation wraps up and they turn their eyes back to the video…Princess is displayed, casually handling the onslaught of the general as the other players are blown away.

"Mm, do you remember the attack pattern?"

"…Well, I had enough time to watch the first half. I assume you do though."

"Don't mind, general, you were a good guy…"

"I wonder about the person controlling Princess."

"Her sister being who she is, it's no surprise she's a gamer…"

The management looks on with kind eyes at the battered general laying on the ground, after being completely shut down by Princess and attacked from the surroundings.

And with that, control AI Yggdrasil announces the end of the event.

『World Quest: Starting Town Defence Battle has ended. Starting the tally.』

Hearing this, the head of the development department gives instructions to the employees.

"It's over… Then we need to check the recording and edit it to the right size for the TV commercial and the trailer? After that…would be posting it on the streaming site? And thanks to the video team."

"『Got it.』"

"Business as usual for everyone else."

In a few days, the edited video will be released on the official and streaming sites, followed by the commercial playing in peoples living rooms a short while later.