Chapter 2

Hunger makes one unfit for battle.

Keena, formerly known as Katsura Natsuki, decided to first have breakfast before dealing with the problem at hand. She cautiously descended the creaky, steep stairs and moved to the first-floor dining room and tavern. There were only two people there: the girl from earlier and a middle-aged, robust woman who seemed to be the innkeeper.

The dining room had eight sets of round tables and four-legged chairs. If it were full, it would be difficult to walk between them. In the tavern, only two men who looked like farmers were sitting, having breakfast with bread and soup.

"Hey, miss, take a seat. Your soup will get cold."

"Ah, yes."

Hesitating about where to sit, she was urged by the innkeeper and, after a moment's thought, sat at the counter. Bread and soup were quickly placed in front of her, and the girl who had come to her room earlier set down a wooden cup of water. Keena, who had already noticed several questionable points in this game world, decided to think about them while eating.

(By the way, how many years has it been since I last ate with my mouth?)

She tore a slightly hard roll and dipped it in the soup, which tasted like a stew. Her taste buds, which she hadn't used in a long time, allowed her to express her honest opinion.

"...It's delicious..."

"Oh, miss, you're saying such nice things."

The innkeeper, who had been frowning, suddenly changed her expression and leaned on the counter, chatting casually.

"To smile that much, it must be really delicious. What kind of poor meals have you been eating until now?"

"Eh...?"

She must have been smiling without realizing it. Only after being pointed out did she notice that she was smiling. Recalling her past meals, which consisted only of water and pills taken orally and intravenous drips after the accident, Keena reflected on the lack of human dining and felt a sense of emptiness.

"Well... I didn't really eat voluntarily..."

"What a sad thing to say. If your meals are so bleak, you're losing half of your life! Here, it's on the house. Help yourself to seconds."

"Ah, thank you."

After being patted on the shoulder, Keena's cheeks twitched when she saw the stew and soup almost overflowing the wooden plate.

(Can I finish this...?)

Realizing she was hungrier than she thought, she ended up eating so much that she asked for seconds. After drinking water to settle her full stomach, Keena looked around the first floor of the inn.

This village, she remembered, was supposed to be on the border between the White Kingdom of Ferstes and the Green Kingdom of Gruskey, thriving as a trade route. There should have been many carriages and numerous inns due to the frequent passage of merchants (according to the world setting). But why was it so desolate?

The last time she logged out here, there were NPCs everywhere, and it was quite noisy with ambient sounds. The most significant difference from the game was that the NPCs, who used to respond with fixed lines, now reacted with genuine emotions. This was no longer a world of NPCs.

This was why Keena recognized it as a world that was both a game and not a game. The question was how long she could survive here. With this conclusion, Keena decided to investigate further.

First, she opened the item window to check her money. From the nine zeros displayed, she took out a small amount of the in-game currency, 20 gil, to test if it could be used, showing it to the innkeeper.

"Excuse me."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"I want to stay for a while. Can I use this?"

With a jingle, she placed a large, silver coin with flower designs on both sides on the counter. In the game, money was just a numerical value, but seeing it in physical form, Keena thought it was quite cute.

"Hey, you!?"

The innkeeper and her daughter reacted unexpectedly. The girl stared wide-eyed at the pile of coins, and the innkeeper carefully examined one, flipping it in her palm, before sighing and returning it to the pile.

"It's usable, miss, but you shouldn't flaunt such a large amount of money like that."

"...Huh?"

Large amount? This? No way.

A pill that increased attack power by 5% for thirty minutes cost about 40 gil in the store. A shovel could be bought for less than 10 gil, so she thought this amount would be enough for one night. Her calculations were completely off.

According to the innkeeper, four coins would be enough for ten nights, and she realized she needed to recalibrate her sense of money. She was relieved that the innkeeper, the first villager A she met, was honest.

Still...

"This village used to be more lively, right?"

"It was four generations ago. Since the founding of Gruskey, it has declined quite a bit. Recently, adventurers like you are rare."

"......Eh?"

The name was new to her. It was as if the name of the country was a mix of the White and Green Kingdoms. "Isn't this inside the game?" she asked, confused again. The innkeeper's story continued without pausing, leaving Keena behind.

"About two hundred years ago, seven countries started a great war, and everything was in turmoil. The angry god chose leaders from among the people, and they worked hard to consolidate the countries into three, leading to the present day."

Perhaps struggling to find someone to talk to, a heckle came from one of the farmers who had finished eating.

"Don't tell the adventurer girl such obvious stories."

"Shut up! Get to your field work!"

Chased away by the innkeeper's powerful shout, the farmers immediately fled the inn. Keena was the only remaining customer.

The information from the conversation only deepened Keena's thoughts.

The seven countries were the exact world setting of the VRMMORPG Reideil she had been playing until yesterday. Instead of fixed classes like warriors, priests, and mages, there were four thousand skills. Players could solidify their race, equipment, and skills to create their desired virtual avatar, allowing for highly flexible gameplay. The high degree of freedom led to it being sarcastically called a "laissez-faire world" on large online forums.

Once a month, the seven countries held a large war event to gain territory. Occupying a specific area of a color country would grant limited special event items. Before the event, players would hold detailed strategy meetings, but if the server went down and didn't recover by the event day, it became a laughing matter.

Hearing that the seven countries—white, green, red, blue, brown, black, and purple—existed two hundred years ago, Keena's common sense crumbled.

How could she survive in a world two hundred years after the game she used to play?

She needed to start by understanding the world's common sense and had a lot to check.

"Still, to ask about such old things, have you been here before?"

"Eh? Ah, well..."

She couldn't honestly say she had just logged out here last night, so she hedged her answer. However, the evidence of her own appearance proved otherwise.

"Are you an elf, miss?"

"Ah, yes, I am."

Keena's current body was the exact virtual avatar she had used in the game. Before descending the stairs from her room, she had confirmed this by looking in the "True Mirror," an item distributed in an event that was otherwise useless. To her surprise, instead of her emaciated self, her avatar character was reflected.

Her dull golden hair, which reached her shoulders in a semi-long style, and her deep blue eyes were her most distinctive features. Her slightly pointed ears, which poked out even when hidden, were a sign of her long-lived sub-human race.

Among the elves, the High Elf race she chose was specialized for rear roles, with the highest intelligence growth and MP cap among the races. Some users considered it the ugliest of the different racial combat animations, and it was not very popular in Reideil. Keena rarely saw them in her recent play.

"Yes, I was here once when it was lively..."

With no reason to hide, Keena answered honestly, and the innkeeper smiled.

"Really? You know the old village. It's touching to have a long-time customer stay at this inn again."

Keena smiled wryly, having been set up as a regular customer.

"By the way, my name is Maire. This is Ritt. Please make yourself at home here."

"Yes, thank you. I'm Katsura... Keena."

After leaving the scene and returning to her room, Keena immediately began checking herself and her items.

Opening her status, the first information displayed was "Name: Keena. Level: 1100. Race: High Elf. Title: Skill Master No. 3."

In Reideil, the level cap was 1000, with an additional 100 levels from special quests. This quest was a difficult event requiring multiple players, and even Keena's group had to recruit participants from inside and outside their guild to attempt it. They finally cleared it with a large group of four parties and twenty-four people, and some members even cried during the process. The quest creators' malice was evident, and everyone loudly complained. After that, no one else was rumored to have cleared the quest, making the original members the strongest in the game.

The benefits of being a High Elf included a 10% bonus to combat and skill use in natural environments and sharp eyesight. The drawback was the inability to gather plant materials for technical skills. Keena relied on guild members to gather them or bought them from vendors.

The title "Skill Master" was awarded to those who mastered 1500 magic skills and 2500 technical skills out of the 4000 available (which continued to increase due to designer preferences). Keena was the third in history to achieve this, hence the "No. 3" in her title.

This title was the reason Keena avoided the major cities and repeatedly logged in and out in this remote area. The 4001st skill automatically obtained with the title, "Scroll Creation," was problematic. It allowed Skill Masters to write their skills on parchment, making it easy for other players to obtain skills without completing tedious quests.

However, the constant requests from other players to "give me this, give me that" led to the Skill Masters becoming frustrated and petitioning the developers for a solution. One Skill Master even became depressed and quit the game. The developers decided to have Skill Masters take over some of the NPC quests for skill transfer.

Each Skill Master was given a base, with the goal of reaching the top and granting any skill obtained from difficult quests to those who broke through. The bases varied widely, from beautiful but deadly trap-filled mansions to underwater palaces and floating castles. Some bases moved daily, making them difficult to find.

Keena's base was a silver tower surrounded by a vast forest. The goal was to reach the top floor, which took real-time 24 hours. If you stopped along the way, you were sent back to the forest's edge. It was considered relatively lenient among the Skill Masters.

She checked the items and equipment in her inventory.

Her main equipment was the Fairy King's Robe, which only high-level High Elf females could wear, likely making her the only one in the game. Her knee-length hot pants and thick boots both had status-boosting enhancements. Her left arm had an arm guard with a deployable bow, using magic arrows that consumed MP. Her right side had a headband with a feather decoration that deployed an invisible barrier when MP was consumed. Her weapon was a lightning short sword, a top-tier item that paralyzed enemies with even a slight hit.

"Frankly, I'm overpowered..."

Her basic strategy was to use attack magic, but being prepared was better, especially since she no longer played with her guild. Even though her race was less suited for front-line roles, she could serve as a sufficient tank for low-level party members. She just needed to decide what to keep from her base's storage.

"......Ah!"

Keena suddenly remembered her support AI, which she had completely forgotten about.

Her uncle had specially made it to assist her when she had difficulty moving independently. Though bedridden, it helped with daily life, from adjusting the bed to making emergency calls. In the game, it assisted with commands and recorded detailed logs, among other useful functions.

It also informed her of check-up times and whether anyone had visited while she was sleeping. After a long time, it had become a partner-like presence. She called out, worried it wouldn't respond.

"Kii-chan, are you there?"

"Yes, I'm here."

Relieved by the response, Keena listened as the AI, in a voice devoid of emotion, reported two urgent matters.

"There are two urgent matters."

"Really? What happened?"

"First, the hospital system was disconnected. Second, the link with Reideil's master system was cut."

"I see. ...Thank you."

Both were expected given that this was a game world that was also different from a game world. The question was why Keena was here. She had never heard that Reideil, the VRMMORPG, was about to end service.

Even if she was far from the capital and her guild, the developers would inform logged-in players of important events, and her guild would tell her.

Recalling her last memory, she remembered her uncle and cousin visiting, and she logged out. After chatting with them, she logged back in but eventually succumbed to sleep and left the game running.

Something must have happened between then and now.

"Hmm... Kii-chan, was there any abnormality last night?"

"Yes, there was one."

"Really!?"

The AI must have been unsure whether to report it as an emergency.

"After you went to sleep, there was a two-second power outage. Both previous issues occurred at that time."

"Power outage?"

"Based on 80% speculation, it was a blackout."

"Ah, a blackout. ...A blackout!?"

Clearly a significant abnormality. Keena concluded that the most likely cause was a blackout, and the realization made her vision go dark.

"Keena?"

Katsura Keena's body functions had deteriorated to the point where she could only survive with life support, which she knew and had been warned by doctors. A two-second power outage, during which the hospital's emergency power system kicked in, was enough for her spirit to escape to this world.

In other words, Katsura Keena's physical body had died.