Part 2: Perplexity of Shizumoto Yuuto
Currently Shizumoto Yuuto is in a somewhat confusing situation.
He clearly remembered that after logging
out from the MMOFPVRPG (Massive Multiplayer Online First
Person View Role Playing Game) “Rage Against Heaven Online” 『RAHO』 at 11 PM he goes to sleep to get up early
since tomorrow he needs to finish the laboratory assignment from Professor
Higuchi. But when he opens his eyes, not only the sun is already up, he found
himself in a place that do he not recognized.
But after looking at the furniture and
various swords that displayed on wall stands, he thinks the room had a
similarity with his 『Personal Room』 at RAHO. Not only
is that, but his view also cluttered with RAHO interfaces windows just like when he
played the game. Correction. The window seems to floating in the air, but moved
following Yuuto’s head movement.
He can see the Top Window that contained his Avatar
information:
【『Yusis』| 『Yuuto Shizumoto』 |『23』】
【『Health: 100%』 |『Mana: 100%』 |『Stamina: 100%』】
【『Male』| 『Human』 |『Japan』 |『DSL: 95/128』】
【『Neuschwanensee』 |『Guild Vice Leader』】
【『Incarnation Mode-1: ON』 |『Limiter: ON - MAX』】
But since when the Character Information
Window contains his real name? The other Window that showed his Skills,
Equipment, Inventory, or Jobs aren’t different with what he remembered before
though.
At first, Yuuto thought that he forgets to
finish the log out procedure and take off his HUD (Head Up Display) device or
he was still dreaming. But something is not right.
RAHO wasn’t
a VR (Virtual Reality) game. It was just a mainstream MMORPG that use the
advancements in 3D Monitor Display and Stereoptics to render graphics using HUD
that the player wear in front of their eyes to create hyper-realistic images.
The player then controls their character using the integrated gauntlet
controller (that was copied from a famed console game).
Using that logic it would be strange that
Yuuto could feel the softness of the bed he sleeps on, the warmth of sunlight
that pierces through the windows or the smell of fresh flowers from the
fluttering curtains that was carried by the morning wind. There are no devices
to replicate the realistic sense of touch, thermal and smells installed in his
computer. He also doubts the existence of technology to recreate this
sensation. So this is very strange.
If you ignore the game-like windows then
it had no different from reality, of course it means that there are no Log Off
button.
‘What is going on?’ Yuuto mind enter a state of
deep thinking. Various hypotheses started from realistic to fantastic flashes
in his mind. Just when he still thinks about it over and over, the door of his
room is opened by someone.
That person is a young woman who wears a
stereotypical frilly maid outfit. Her long brownish yellow-tinted hair is tied
into two side tails that rest on her shoulder. Her youthful face can be
considered a natural beauty that could win in a beauty pageant with a curved
proportional body that could invite envies from most females.
Yuuto wonder who is she, but then he saw
her resemblance with Florea, a 『Guardian』 NPC (Non Player Character) from his Guild in RAHO. Since when, the NPC got
that realistic texture details? There is also no string of text on top of her
head or a NPC marker indicator. Luckily she wears a nametag with Florea
d’Printempts written in cursive Latin letter on her chest. Somehow this
reminded him of maid café?
Oh yeah he remembered that the person who
organized the guild 『Guardian』’s customization, fellow Vice Leader
MayDoeSueKey said about: “A Castle mush have Maids inside!”. He wants to bought
48 『Guardian』 NPC,
but Guild monetary and data limitations makes him only purchase 12 of them.
“Greetings, Heaven Lord Yusis. This one sincerely
welcomes Lord Highness’ descent from High Heaven.” [i]
Florea speak with a very formal tone of
voice while giving him a cutesy curtsy. This pulls Yuuto back from his
thoughts. Because, hearing Florea speaking, Yuuto was a bit surprised. This is
strange. Although advanced voice synthesizers are already frequently used in
mainstream and indie games to provide quick voice acting to game character
(without the high cost for voice actors) since several years ago and RAHO also used it to voicing some of their
important (and numerous) NPC, but Florea shouldn’t had the 『Voice
Pack』 installed in her.
The Guild “Neuschwanensee”, which Yusis
belong to, is not a rich or powerful guild; so, it didn’t purchase the optional 『Voice
Pack』 for
any NPC it employs since it had a rather high price tag. He stills remembered
how MayDoeSueKey sulks about the lack of Maids’ voice pack, but the Guild
Master said: “Throwing Financial Assets for Unimportant Cosmetical Features are
counterproductive!”
For this Yuuto just want to retort, “But you just
spend the majority of Guild Fund to recreate late medieval German castle-town
and build it like a SimCity...”
So the guild-purchased-NPC can only
communicate to players using standard floating textboxes, at least the textbox
is decorated (since MayDoeSueKey won’t relent on this point!)
“Lord Highness?”
It seems that Florea is waiting for Yuuto reaction.
Let’s see... What to say? Nah... Let’s go for this.
“Why is the need for formalities this time? Is my
descent are not something trivial that doesn’t warrants such treatment?”
Yuuto jokingly speaks with a royal tone of
voice; half-jokingly mimicking a feudal lord in a historical drama he saw
before. Well, she did call him ‘Lord Highness’ right?
He thinks that Florea face goes pale for a
moment. She then quickly kneels at the floor, performing a splendid perfect
dogeza. Eh? Why? Yuuto confused, isn’t he just asked ‘rather’ nicely? What is
she thinking?
“This one earnestly asks for Lord Highness’
forgiveness if this one in ignorance had made Lord Highness displeased. I beg
for Lord Highness’ clemency.”
Florea formal tone is gone and replaced by what can be
said as weeping sound. Yuuto inadvertently feels bad for this NPC.
“I’m just teasing you, Florea. Raise your head; I’m
not mad with you.”
Yuuto said without his previous superior
voice and replaced it with a kinder one. Florea raise her head and looks at
Yuuto with her still damp eyes, a couple tear beads are huddling in her eyes
corner. ‘Well this expression is nice’ think Yuuto. He gives one of his hands
to help Florea get up.
“Mou *cheeks puffing*. You such a mean teaser, Lord
Highness. You scared me; make me thinking that my greeting is something
appalling or something...”
Florea pouting… Then she remembered something, and
quickly back to her previous perfect genuflecting position. Yuuto swear he
can’t follow Florea movements, what a scary girl!
“Pardon this foolish one Lord Highness for failed to
pay respect Lord Highness, and dare to raise her voice rudely without thinking
about her position. This one once again begs for Lord Highness’ clemency.”
What? For some reason Florea apologies once
again. Is her internal programming malfunction or something? She is interesting
anyway.
“No need to ask for my forgiveness, Florea. Raise
yourself. No need to be scared of. You may speak and address the way you
comfortable with.”
“Is it all right Lord Highness?”
Florea stare at Yuuto face. She radiates a
strong aura of cute small animal. This makes Yuuto flinches, he is really weak
against this kind of stare from women. Blames his male gender.
“It’s an order, Florea.”
Florea smiled, and then raise herself up and tidying
her rumpled uniform.
From what Yuuto can surmised, Florea acts
outside the capabilities of NPC script function. Although NPC AI can reacts to
different player input; but it still limited by their pre-programmed routines
and functions. Even from this rather limited conversation, Yuuto thinks that
Florea is more like ‘Human’ than ‘NPC in a game.’ The NPC he knows won’t
suddenly do dogeza or pouting at least.
First, the sensory experience and now this
realistic NPC reaction, somehow, this is less and less seems to be dream-like
or game-like.
“Now, Florea. It’s unusual for a NPC to greet a player
when they logged in. Is it related to our circumstance now?”
Yuuto ask Florea directly trying to find an answer.
“This one is sorry, Lord Highness. But this one didn’t
understand what Lord Highness implying to. This one only fulfills the Sir
Keeper request to greet the Heaven Lords.”
Florea speaks with her ‘serious’ tone again.
“Is that so…”
So it seems Florea didn’t know the reason why Yuuto is
in this game-like reality. But maybe, she doesn’t understand the terminology
Yuuto used? Yuuto needs to dig how much this NPC knows on this issue.
“Florea. Do you understand what are ‘NPC’, ‘player’
and ‘logged in’ means?”
“This one do Lord Highness. NPC referred to Mortals that
lived on Mortal Realms. Player is deity-like Heaven Lords that came from High
Heaven. ‘Logged In’ means that the Heaven Lord is Incarnating to Mortal Realms
in an Avatar of blood and flesh.”
She seems to be familiar with the phrase although the
meaning is rather off. Let’s test again.
“Do you know that you are in a Role Playing Game?”
“Apology, Lord Highness. This one didn’t understand.
What is Role Playing Game?”
So, she didn’t know. Is she means she didn’t know she
was in a game?
“It’s better if you don’t know Florea. After
all, you can think it as a forbidden knowledge for your kind, so forget it.”
‘No one will takes the fact that they are only part of
game features well, so it’s better stay hidden…’ Yuuto surmised.
“This one, understand Lord Highness.”
“Then, do you know who you are?”
Here comes the existential question that had been
asked by billions human before…
Florea seems confused but she still faithfully
answered.
“This one given name is Florea d’Printemps. One of 12 『Guardian』 of 『Holy
Land』 Castle
who receives Divine Blessings and is the loyal servant of Heaven Lords of
Neuschwanensee’s 『Holy Land』.”
“Nice answer.”
If only people in real life can answers that question
easily.
*smile* Florea presents a refreshing smile. She seems
happy to be praised.
Yuuto think the initial information gathering is
sufficient for now. Back to square one question.
“Now… Why you come to greet me in the first place,
Florea?”
“This one is sorry, Lord Highness. This one almost
forgets. Sir Keeper Mitteherz had prepared Lord Highness’ reception ceremony in
the Grand Hall. So if Your Highness had no any activity, please attend the
banquet with the other Lords.”
So there are some other players than myself? Yuuto
can’t hold back his surprise. He needs to find out more about this.
“The other Lords? Can you please give details about
it?”
“Yes, Lord Highness. Other than Lord Yusis, there are
also seven other Heaven Lords than had descended at the same time. The other 『Guardian』 had
already gone to greet them. Does Lord Highness need this one to tell Lord
Highness the whereabouts of the other Heaven Lords?”
“Thank you Florea. No need for that, I can found it
out by myself.”
Yuuto touch the floating information
window to open the Friend List and Guild Member roster. It seems that what
Flore said is true. There are 7 other people that logged in than him. He read
the glowing text. Iusticia, Haimona, Terranova, Alciel, Unapietra, Stellahymne,
and Melbiena.
They are all Neuschwanensee guild members
and had been in a party with Yuuto for several occasions. But the other guild
member name is dimmed which means they are offline. His friend list also filled
with dimmed name. The usual raucous global chat log is eerily quiet, empty from
sales pitching, party invites, or random babbles.
The system message log only show the login
report of 8 people. It feels like the whole RAHO is only played by those 8 people.
Using his Guild Vice Leader‘s prerogatives rights, Yuuto left a message at
Guild Announcement.
〖Meet me at the Round Central Hall. URGENT!
We need to talk.〗
He was at first wonder how he will write
the message since he can’t type using ‘real world’ keyboard anymore. But then a
transparent flying keyboard conveniently suddenly appeared. This feature is not
existed in RAHO before, but at least it’s convenient.
After he closes the information windows, he turns his
attention to Florea that observing him carefully since sometimes ago. Seeing
that Yuuto looks at her, Florea face started to pale once again. But before she
performs her flash dogeza, Yuuto speak first.
“Florea, I had new order for you. Relay to Mitteherz
to hold the ceremony at later this evening, maybe at 17.00. There are things I
need to discuss with the other Heaven Lords first, so tells the other 『Guardian』 to
guide them to Central Round Room.”
“As Lord Highness’ commands.”
Florea then use spirit conversation 『Whisper』 to
convey Yuuto message. When she turns to find her Lord, Yuuto had already gone
to somewhere. She had did her job splendidly right? The Lord doesn’t angry with
her right? She won’t receive any punishment right?
Since she hasn’t seen a Heaven Lord for quite some
time, she was very nervous. She was really worried that she would shame the 『Guardian』 name
by doing something that displeased the Heaven Lord, or more frighteningly she
could receive punishment from the Heaven Lord for her conduct.
Heaven Lord is an existence that could
slay Deity-level Beast with just a flick of his finger (not that Florea had
seen it), level a Mountain Range just by waving one hand (not that Florea had
seen it), or part the sky by slicing it with one arm (not that Florea had seen
it) so one can only wonder what limits a Heaven Lord can do. That’s why she had
been warned by her Sisters to watch her manner and don’t offend the Heaven
Lord.
‘I’m succeeded right, Sisters?’ Florea silently gaze
at the empty ceiling.
The Timid Maid 『Guardian』, Florea, once again pass the wonderful
day safe and sound...
⋞⋟≼≽⋞⋟≼≽⋞⋟≼≽⋞⋟≼≽⋞⋟≼≽⋞⋟≼≽⋞⋟≼≽⋞⋟≼≽⋞⋟≼≽
[i] Lord
Highness: Tenshu Denka天主陛下
