CC Ch P1

Prologue 1

“A-ah…… so it seems like I have died”

My life seemed to be set on hard mode from just having this communicationally challenged constitution. Why I use past tense is because, I now have already died.

Just because I can’t give a good impression to other people or I can’t convey well what I have on my mind or I can’t look people in the eyes when talking… just because such simple things like that, I felt difficult living my life.

Well, even if I thought hard about the happenings before I died things already can’t be helped so let’s just leave it at it.

What I should be thinking now is, what should people do after they died?

I don’t think I’ve done enough good deed in my life to get me to heaven. In the first place, I’ve thrown my valuable life that my parent gave to me quite lightly like that. Just because I want to help my childhood friend who have been ignoring me for a long time.

“Wait…… Why did I still have my consciousness? What is happening?”

Even I who have challenged constitution like this could talk to myself quite well. It just that, when I talk to other people, the difficulty level increases too much I can’t even keep up.

First, I can’t look directly to people eyes when talking. It’s a think that no matter what I did, I can’t conquer it ever since I’m a kid. When making a group in the class I will always be the last person who left behind every time so my teacher had to assign me. Even if my parents accompanied me, I still can’t decently speak.

“Look at people’s eyes when talking” that line seems to be spoken to me for maybe over than ten thousand times in all my lifetime back then. I honestly want to apologize to my parents and teachers and those others that still care enough for me to keep nagging that at me.

“…… Why did I keep reminiscing of the past like this?”

I then try to check out where I am now. First thing that I notice is its pitch black here. The next thing I notice is that I have my consciousness, but I don’t have my body.

Would you understand if I said that it feels like get thrown off in a place with no gravity? If it was a game then the feeling is very much similar to when opening the menu. The player body is not there but your consciousness still there and you can think about things freely, but you can’t move around because the body is not there.

“Is it normal to be like this after death?...... Dammit, if I know things would become like this I shouldn’t get myself died like that”

If things going to be like this then even when my account got hacked and I lost all my fortune in the game, I should’ve just stayed at home and start all over again from scratch.

「Eternal Magia」

In my short life, one third part of it was all invested in that game.

I who can’t decently play with my peers during grade school strangely can communicate without any problem with other people inside the game. It was a 3^rd person view type of MMORPG so even the characters don’t need to look at each other eyes when talking.

And because speaking in game was done via using keyboard, it was totally different from when talking in real life so I can communicate decently without being nervous or showing any suspicious behavior. Because of that, I have a high sociability level inside the game.

“Ahh… dammit…… the mood is getting gloomy”

So what if I can talk decently in games? If I can’t talk decently in real life then there is no meaning in that at all. I think I heard such similar line from another childhood friend of mine before. This one is a guy and I’ve been together with that guy until high school. I died as a junior so it’s been about ten years we know each other.

I heard that guy and the other childhood friend that I save while costing me my life was an item. That was the cause why I change my job from a ‘half shut in’ into a higher leveled one ‘total shut in’. But well… I don’t hate him that much. I even pray for their happiness honestly.

“Well I exchange my life for saving her anyway……”

I also have a bad habit that can’t help but saying things that is reversed from what my true feeling says.

I really thankful toward my friends who tried to pull me out from being a shut in…… but I always chase them out while saying things that I don’t really meant to.

Like saying:

“So, did you want to show off your good side by trying to help me or what?”

Or saying:

“I am perfectly happy being here. People who go outside like you all must be living a tragic life. Reality eat shit”

“…… But I actually understand. I understand that it was I who got estranged by the society that is pitiable.”

“OWAA!! W-What was that? Who was talking there!? Show yourself!”

I suddenly hear a voice and that immediately switch on my communicationally challenged constitution inside me, making me act suspicious. This is the kind of thing that I hated most. When people suddenly talk to me I can’t instantly get myself ready to deal with them. Don’t expect me to calmly response.

“Why did you get scared when talking to people? And it doesn’t seem that there is any conspicuous trauma in your heart”

“I beg you please don’t talk to me like that!”

In a dark endless space like this, hearing things without a clear source like that making me feel afraid. I’ve played horror game before but I only set the voice in the barely minimum that I can hear while also playing a moe anime by side. That kind of play style is definitely how a chicken would play. When something suddenly pops up I can just swap my view to the moe anime beside it… Why did I think that kind of useless things in this kind of situation?

“If you feel afraid when you don’t see my figure then…… Okay, is this good?”

“……”

Before I can say “What is good!?”, my field of vision suddenly filled with bright light.

What the…… Where…… is that cloud what I see outside? What I can think of is just that it was like visiting a floating sanctuary out of a game.

By the way I was now in a kind of temple or sanctuary that can usually be found in fantasy genre story. Of course still without having any body to form myself.

And a woman suddenly appears before me before I know it. She looks even younger than me when I’m still alive. She has a beautiful silver hair and a long pointed ear.

In the game “Eternal Magia” that I played, there is a race that has physical features like the girl. It was similar to a race that lives in the forest and excels at using magic, the elf.

“Excellent, it seems that you still have your memories intact. Even after reduced to only being a soul but still possessing your past memories is a good luck. And I have it easy also because I don’t need to explain things too much. After all, memories get easily scattered normally when someone experiencing that kind of death”

“What do you mean by only a soul…… I don’t understand! Don’t screw with me!”

That is what I said but as usual it was the opposite from what I think in mind. In my mind, I was thinking “Oh so it was like that”. The main component in my challenged disposition is that I suck so bad at talking and I’m not good at expressing my feeling so others could understand.

I have something in my true feeling but what comes out from my mouth is another different thing. And my challenged constitution is still there even when I am reduced to a mere ‘soul’.

Soul… spirit… that intangible thing inside us that allow the body to live right? I learn something like that from some manga that I liked so I remember it. It seems like to be true after all.

“I see now…… the real you are very prudent but when talking to other people you got panic and end up talking about things that was the opposite of what you think that most of the time is quite offensive. So in short you are just a bipolar kid eh? Or maybe you just can’t be honest with yourself?”

“Who the heck are you saying things like that about me? Don’t act all high and mighty like a god because we are in a temple. It’s just going to make me sick”

[But well, she might really be a god or should I say goddess? But why does a goddess trying to talk to someone as lowly as me? Somehow I feel happy because I can have a decent (?) conversation with someone after a while. But she must think of me as an obnoxious person…… she really is pretty. I don’t want to be hated by her]

---- W-What is happening? How can the thing I thought in my head making voice like that?

“Hehe…… feeling like happy, or pretty, it’s better for you to say it straight out you know? Who knows it might give you good luck. Aren’t you always like that? Saying the opposite of what you actually think and make people misunderstand you right?”

“N-No… Well……”

[Didn’t I hurt Hina too with my harsh word……  That girl is been wearing that same barrette like forever. But really, saying something like ’So you still wear my present that I gave you on a whim from all that years ago? Isn’t it already looks too childish on you?’ was really cruel right…… And she never wears any other kind of hat ever again after I said that to her. If that thing were never to happen then she might never go to Kyousuke side…… A-ah. I really am garbage. There really is no hope for me]

The voice of my heart is leaked out again…… This is bad, everything that I’ve been meaning to say all of it leaked out. And this time it was about my pitiful life! Communicationally challenged or not I already can’t make any excuse for being a jerk.

“Fuun…… So you liked that girl named Hina eh? And in the end that girl was stolen by your other childhood friend Kyousuke. To top it off, there are another misfortune accident happening to you right?”

“So you really knows about that as well…… Ha… If you already knows then why bother asking?”

[After I become a total shut it, I look for a way to collect money so I won’t give troubles to my parents…… So I was thinking of using the currency used in ‘Eternal Magia’ and exchange it into real money via RMT (Real Money Trading). It was actually not a wise option but I can’t think of any other way for me to earn money…… So I managed to save up one trillion (10^12) eterna in the end. That amount of money can be exchanged into twenty million yen (two hundred thousand dollar)…… But someone from my guild conned me, letting my password to be known by him, and my account got hacked like that]

When I log in again in the game, my skill and level is still the same as before but all my money and my item are gone.

That money and item is the result of my hard from when I was a fourth grader until a junior in high school. My play time is already exceeded twenty thousand hour. But it was all gone like a bubble in seconds.

If I exchanged it one day earlier… or maybe exchanging it bit by bit every time I reach a certain amount… I will do without having to experience this kind of regret.

After that I spend my days like a crippled man. Even at that time I’m still not thinking about dying yet.

What made me get out from my house at that day is because I heard somebody quarreling in front of my house under that heavy rain… and then I see the two who quarrel in front of my house… they were Hina and Kyousuke.

Hina suddenly run away but that Kyousuke just stand there in daze, not even trying to chase her. I don’t know what I can do for her, probably nothing, but still I ran after Hina leaving my house behind.

“…… There is one thing that I want to tell you. Sooner or later, everyone that plays ‘Eternal Magia’ will be given two choices between keep staying in their own world, or get transported to a different world”

“Ha……?”

[Hey wait a minute, what did you mean by that? Isn’t that just a game? Why did those people have to choose between two worlds?]

“And related to that matter I don’t really need to explain any further. Thanks to your unexpected early sudden death, we can do this ‘interview’ earlier than planned”

“U… Unexpected early sudden death……”

[On that day when I leave my house to go save Hina…… Don’t you, who are a goddess, can tell what going to happen before? That ‘unexpected’ from you is unexpected]

I never expected it will be this easy communicating with other people when my heart voice leaks out like this. It is embarrassing when other people know my real feeling but it was hundred times better than hurting other people.

If I can be like this when I still alive…… No. If I did become like this when I’m alive then that would be troublesome too. Thinking about what if is also unproductive.

“First, I want to congratulate you for being one of the player that had played for over than twenty thousand hour. The player from earth is numbered roughly a hundred and fifty thousand and yet the one that reach such play hours can only be numbered by fingers. You…… Morioka Hiroto, is Japan number one player. Even when your account got hacked, all that playing time is not really lost. What you lost are only things that you ‘earn’, ‘collected’, or ‘forget’ only right?”

“Bullshit…… Even if my level and skill is still there, it would mean nothing if I don’t have decent equipment meant for my level. Why did it only happens to me?”

“It was simply, because the way you play easily gathers envy from your surroundings. Yes, it was you, who are the leader of one of the top two strongest guilds in ‘Eternal Magia’.”

My communication skill in game is simply godlike.

And that was not only applied when interacting with other character, but it also applied when I interact with an NPC (non player character) too. I used the obsolete skill that no one even bothers looking at, the ‘negotiation skill’ and put 100 bonus point into it. The level cap is 75, each 1 level up I will only receive 3 bonus points. There almost no other way to get more bonus point beside that so it was really precious. And I spent 100 of those precious bonus points into that skill that people think useless.

There is no one else beside me who am eccentric enough to spend more than 10 points on negotiation skill. With 10 points allotted on negotiation skill a useful skill [bargaining] will be granted so most people will stop at that point. After that, another skill will be granted only when negotiation skill reached level 30 and that skill is [seducing] which have a very low success rate. Because of that, people stop spending their precious bonus points to negotiation skill. It is hard to raise the character level and player can’t easily create a new character to play so it was natural. After all, there are hundreds other skill available in ‘Eternal Magia’ and among those skills, there are some superior skill that people can recognize by just looking the name.

Using cheat or hack to maxed all the skill and become an invincible player is something often heard in the world of MMORPG. But ‘Eternal Magia’ data protection especially those that connected to player status are heavily protected. No one manage to breach it and fiddle with the number inside. Even when a famous hacker tries to study the client program, he can’t manage to open the black box.

Well aside from that, I am the only one that put 100 points in negotiation skill. And I am the only one who knows how wonderful that skill really is. With 100 points in negotiation skill, NPC that can’t be engaged in talking usually like the king will even bow his head down in front of me. Even the legendary class NPC who slain the demon lord, with the use of negotiation skill, can be hired as a mercenary.

When I use the skill, I make sure I pay extra attention so that no other player can see me to prevent my secret from leaking out. And by using that skill, I managed to solo clear a super transcended difficulty dungeon that no one else managed to clear, collect many secret information, and increase the number of my ally.

As the result, I gathered a huge number of allies to help me, and then they ask me to create a guild so we could play together. With that, I successfully become a guild master.