Chapter 1

I am just an ordinary high school girl.

...If only I could say that, but the truth is, I'm a hikikomori. Ever since I was little, I always felt a bit out of place when I was with other people. The feeling that life was hard only grew stronger as I got older, and by the time I became a middle school student, I couldn't go to school anymore.

I did take the high school entrance exam, but I still couldn't fit in, and now I'm just on the rolls, having decided to repeat a year. With that, there's no point in going to school.

Not going to school, I instead immersed myself in games.

The game I was hooked on was an online RPG.

I chose the elf race, with silver hair and golden eyes. I started playing the game as soon as it began, pouring all my spare time into it. Part of it was that I had nothing else I wanted to do, but the game was really fun.

I didn't belong to any specific team and hardly ever chatted. I liked playing solo.

Killing monsters, gathering materials, crafting equipment, leveling up, and completing the main quest.

If I played without sleeping, my level would max out in no time, my equipment would become the strongest, and my item box would be full.

Even so, I never got tired of the game.

The developers held many events, and these weren't just time-consuming simple tasks; they were carefully crafted to always keep me entertained.

That day, I logged into the game as usual and was digging in the Spirit Cave.

In cave maps, you can mine minerals with a pickaxe.

This activity of gathering mineral materials is called "digging." The materials you can gather in the Spirit Cave are useful in the mid-game, but I had already maxed out my levels.

So why did I come here?

—Because there was information about a rare item on the internet.

But I think the information wouldn't have made sense to ordinary people. Only those who knew a certain secret could understand it. It was that kind of information.

While watching intermediate players dig at the mineral points in the cave, I kept going deeper. I easily defeated the cave boss and went even further.

"Defeat the boss, don't take the materials, and follow the right wall..."

At first glance, it was just a cave wall.

But as my character merged into the wall—

"There's a hidden passage."

I think only a very few people know about it.

When the character fully merges into the wall, the screen stays dark for a while. During this time, you can't see how the character is moving, and it's a bit unsettling, but you can keep moving forward. Then, the screen lights up—

"I made it."

The Spirit Cave. The small room at the end of the hidden passage.

In the cave map, this is the only place that's a room.

A wooden floor, white walls, and a lamp glowing with magic light.

I don't know why the cave map suddenly changes like this, but it's too well-made to be a bug, and I think the developers intentionally created it.

But there's nothing here.

When I first discovered it, I was excited, thinking there might be a strong boss, a treasure chest, or a path to a different map. But no matter how much I investigated, there was nothing.

I even spent a whole day in this small room, thinking it might be related to the time, and visited every day, thinking it might be related to the date.

After a year, I gave up, thinking there was nothing, but apparently, there was something here.

The information on the internet was very minimal.

"Dig in the small cave room on Christmas (God Pickaxe)"

No one replied to the scant information, and it was forgotten.

But if you knew the "small cave room" was here, the information became much more credible.

"Dig with a pickaxe on Christmas..."

I had tried coming on Christmas and digging with a pickaxe, but I might not have done both at the same time. How could I have missed it?

By the way, it's not just any pickaxe; it has to be a God Pickaxe.

You can craft tools by gathering materials and synthesizing items, and they have ranks.

There are five ranks: (Rag), (Common), (Good), (Excellent), and (God).

Each rank has its own characteristics, but the God Pickaxe guarantees SS materials. However, it breaks after one use.

A lot of S materials are needed to craft a God Pickaxe, so most people don't use it because it's not cost-effective.

But I don't need to be stingy with S materials, so I use it often.

"Alright, let's give it a try."

I swallowed hard.

December 25th. Christmas. Digging in the small cave room!

Even though it's a small room, there are many points to dig. In fact, the entire floor is a digging point, so if I wanted to check everything, it would take a hundred tries. Since the God Pickaxe breaks after one use, I would need a hundred of them, but I can handle it.

So, I raised the God Pickaxe in the center of the small room and plunged it into the wooden floor.

But—

"Nothing happened..."

I didn't expect it to work on the first try, but I was a bit disappointed.

The status screen only showed "The [God Pickaxe] has broken." As usual. It should guarantee SS materials, but no items appeared, and the pickaxe just broke.

"Next."

But this kind of thing happens often in games.

I quickly regained my composure and started moving the pickaxe a little at a time from the upper right corner. I didn't mind breaking all hundred pickaxes.

As I kept breaking pickaxes, time passed. I had already finished half the room and was in the second half, slightly to the right of the center. When I swung the pickaxe in a spot with no particular landmark, it happened.

"Ah—! An original effect—!!"

It worked!

The information was true—!

"Amazing! I've never seen an effect like this!"

Even after playing the game so much, there's still a world I don't know.

—That's why I can't stop.

—That's why I love it so much.

The wooden floor where the pickaxe was plunged began to crack, and light spilled out from the cracks. As the light spread throughout the small room, the screen turned into a white space. There, my silver-haired, golden-eyed elf stood, and in its hand—

"A gem...?"

I've never seen an item like this...

As I wondered, the screen changed, and I found myself back in the Spirit Cave boss map.

And a new line was added to the status screen—

"I obtained a [Divine Gem]"

I did it...!

I was really happy.

However, the item didn't appear in my item box, and it wasn't an equipment or accessory. There was no change in my stats, and I didn't get any new titles.

It didn't exist anywhere.

But there was definitely an original effect, and it was displayed on the status screen.

So, I definitely obtained it.

—What effect does it have?

—There might still be gems sleeping in this world.

Thinking about it made me excited...

I was confident that I could still enjoy this game, so I decided to sleep in my bed for the first time in a long time.

And—

—I apparently died.

That's so disappointing...!