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Prologue: Irulande

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TL: Kazue Kurosaki

ED: Kazue Kurosaki

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I was running through a deserted farming village while out of breath. I choose a narrow path, scatter my pursuers and hold out my breath while hiding in a shack. I have less than 10% of my magic left and only a little bit of protection left. This is a genuine crisis.

“Haa, shit, you monster.”

I had challenged the strongest magician in the world. My mind and body were in tatters. I had gathered a large number of people, lured him to an advantageous location and set up traps, but it still ended in a draw. It makes me want to cry.

I seriously wounded my opponent… but I’m like this. And most importantly, I lost my precious friend. Tears blur my vision.

No, I will never accept such an ending. Even if I win, it’s meaningless without Kuuna. She had finally started smiling, and it ended like this!

“I’ll start over. I’ll do it all over again no matter how many decades it takes to reach this point again.”

This world is a game. You can’t save, but you can begin a new game.

It’s been 28 days since I’ve entered this game from reality. I’ll have to return to reality in a few hours. Once I return to reality, I’ll have to start over again. Next time, I’m going to get the best ending possible.

I’m playing Irulande, a single-player VR-RPG.

The setting is a typical medieval fantasy, an action RPG with monsters. But there’s a huge difference compared to other games.

“Magic Creation.”

Leaning against a wall, I mumble that and a window appears in my head. Countless strings of text run through that window.

This is the greatest feature of this game. The programming of magic using an original language.

In order to break out of the situation with my currently little magic power remaining, it’s necessary to have a powerful magic with low magic power consumption. Since there’s no optimal magic at hand, I’ll improvise.

“A good method is coming up. Is it an improved version of the formula I created three months ago?”

The development of magic is done with the cooperation of tens of thousands of people. Although it’s a single-player game, the exchange of information and the shared development of magic is very active. You can chat and upload your magic to the database and everyone can share it.

“Hm, this is a lot easier to use. Whoever altered this has good taste. The developer is… Haru. I didn’t realize there was such an approach.”

I muttered as I read the method of the magic formula.

Methods are parts, if you want to put it simply.

For example, there’s magic that produces fire arrows and magic that produces fire swords.

If we break down each process, it’s basically like this:

For the fire arrows: produce the flame (1). Form the shape of an arrow (2). Release from the hand (3).

For the fire sword: produce the flame (1). Form the shape of a sword (2). Maintain the shape (3).

Rather than creating both from scratch, the process of making the flames (1), which is used by both, should be cut out and completed as a component so that both types of magic can be developed starting from process (2). And it’s also convenient when creating new magic in the future.

Most of the more frequently used methods are developed by the players and registered in the database. There’s one aiming method that is used in 90% of all auto-aiming magic, according to the data.

“Hm, I can use this as is. All I have to do is combine it with my favorites.”

The magic in the database is open source, meaning the magic formulas are open to the public. As soon as a good one is found, another player will improve it. Through this repetition, magic is refined.

To put it in another way, nowadays, there’s no longer any need to create magic formulas from scratch. You can create as many original magic spells as you like by simply combining methods.

But that’s not the best way to use it.

“Coding, start.”

Magicians play with the new original magic created by combining methods.

What methods need is versatility. As such, there’s inevitably going to be some waste. We cut them down and specialize them for the new spell. By doing that, the performance level is increased by one.

Just like I wanted, the spell that produces overwhelming destruction with little magic power consumption was completed.

“You came to a place like this, traitor! Because of a single woman, you have destroyed this world!”

A swarm of enemies in silver mail break through the shack. There must be 20 of them. They came to hunt me in my moment of weakness. There’s a lot of them, but none of them are high-rank. At most, they’re a bunch of rank 3s.

I smiled and put my hand in front of me.

“To me, Kuuna is my world. Space Destruction.”

I cast the magic I had just completed. The magic formula runs through my head and I begin the calculations.

Access the laws of the world. Rules higher than physical phenomena were approved by the world and the magic was activated.

Through magic, space itself is forcibly distorted and released. Then, tremendous energy is generated as a reaction to the restoration of space. The aftermath blows up everything around it.

Everything in front of my eyes turned white.

“This is useful. The only problem is that you can’t go easy with it. Still, its destructive power for the amount of magic it consumes is worth mentioning.”

The enemy disappeared without leaving a single speck of dust, and even the ground was deeply gouged. In fact, even the building two houses away have vanished.

An alarm sounds off in my head.

It’s warning me that the time is up… I’m being forced to log out.

I gently close my eyes and open the menu screen. There are only three options there:

A) Logout

B) Database Access

C) Communication

There’s no status, no equipment screen, no party screen.

There’s not much that’s game-like in this action RPG.

There are things like levels, but you can’t save. If you get cut, you bleed and feel pain. Old age takes its toll on the body and death is the end.

You can even eat food and have sex.

In other words, this is basically a reality where magic can be used. Such is this world.

I hit the A) Logout button and get out of this world.

◆　◆　◆

I wake up and get out of the coffin-like VR machine.

A VR machine is a machine that connects your five senses directly to your PC, giving you the feel of being in a virtual world. Nowadays, there’s one of these machines in every home.

I look up at the clock.

“23:59. Just in time, as usual. If it weren’t for the regulations, I would have stayed in more. One month is too short of a time.”

VR-RPG Irulande, the only game in the world which has a realized time acceleration feature.

For every hour in the real world, you can spend a week in the game. However, the game itself is protected and can only be played for four hours from 20:00 to 24:00.

“One day is a long time. I have to go back and start all over and make Kuuna happy and smile this time.”

I have been playing Irulande every day for six years now. In terms of the time inside the game, I’ve spent 168 years over there.

There are three main reasons why I never get tired of playing Irulande.

It’s the only game in the world that can perfectly reproduce the five senses. The existing VR technology has technological limitations and it’s considerate to not destroy the real world industry, so the senses of touch and taste are much duller than in reality. Food doesn’t taste good and sex isn’t enjoyable.

It can’t be helped. If you could eat good food in a game, you’d take supplements in real life and enjoy a feast in the virtual world, the restaurant industry would crumble. The human race would also become extinct because women would be able to do their jobs over there. But Irulande ignores those limitations.

Second, the AI is completely human-like. It’s a single-player game, but in the world of Irulande, there’s millions of NPC running about. These NPC are so elaborate they feel like real people. There’s no feeling of discomfort when talking to them.

Finally, there’s no objective. Players are born as the world’s best homunculus. You start the game as a 16 years old with enough talent to be considered a genius, but you can really do anything. You can do business, hunt monsters and become stronger. You can even go to school. Everything is just like in real life.

“If only we had the same bodies in this world as we do over there.”

Life in Irulande is more successful than in reality. Unlike in reality, the advantage of being born a genius and the original magic, which is, to put it mildly, several hundred years more advanced than the world standard in Irulande thanks to the joint development, guarantees success in life.

There’s no end to the number of players who really want to play in the world of Irulande for the rest of their lives.

Naturally, there’s no way such an ultimate game wouldn’t cause problems, it’s being regulated by the government, which even prohibited new sales and even owning the game. There’s even a story that the company that produced the game was subjected to an investigation.

Even so, there’s no way those who ever got a taste of this game would let go of Irulande, and the game’s database is still accessed by approximately 200,000 people every day.

The players also how strange it was that the service was able to continue even under such conditions and suspected that there might be something happening behind the scenes at the production company of Irulande, but turned a blind eye to it as if it was a trivial matter in order to continue enjoying the game.

At that moment, a system sound came from the VR machine.

A virtual screen appeared in the air. What was displayed there was…

“Irulande, service termination notice?”

My face turned pale and I clenched my fists.

No, I want to continue playing Irulande. I have to start over and save Kuuna! The management says that Irulande is set to uninstall itself in a day.

“No, I won’t be able to return to Irulande! I won’t accept this is the end!!”

Don’t take away my world and my Kuuna. I screamed desperately.

Maybe my prayers were heard. The VR machine made another system sound and a new window popped up.

"If you can accept two conditions, I will allow you to start another new game in Irulande. Those conditions are…"

I read each letter aloud slowly.

"1. The time limit will be removed, but if you choose to stay in reality you’ll never be able to return to Irulande again. 2. There’s no new game, once you die it’s logout."

The corners of my lips rise.

Isn’t this just better? I’ll find my happiness over there, together with Kuuna.

"Here’s your choices: 1. Go to Irulande. 2. Stay in this world. Be careful, from now on, it’s not a game, but reality."

Without hesitation, I pick option 1. Go to Irulande.

"I understand. It’s not a game anymore. I’ll be waiting in the real Irulande, my hero-kun."

And then, my consciousness faded away.