Chapter 1 - Gate of Hades

Chapter 1

Morning light were protruding through the gaps between the curtains. Mixed colours between red, orange and yellow of light were shining itself all over the bedroom. Squinting my eyes, I threw the blanket over the head and tried to go back to sleep. After a brief pause, I sat straight up. Yawning while rubbing my eyes, the clock on the desk viewed 5:30AM. Slowly getting off the bed, I headed towards the bathroom to start my morning routine.

My name is Soujiru 25 years old, single, oh and an N.E.E.T (No Education, Employment or Training).  Most of the people in the society would look at me as a scum of the Earth but I could not care less. Why can’t I enjoy my peaceful living way of life? What gives them the right to tell others how they live is wrong?

My parents are the board members of Japan’s number 1 Law firm, but when they found out that I was a lost cause, they threw me into this small 30m² one bedroom apartment and told me to “go learn to live like a human being”. They send me the most basic necessities and all else, I had to earn myself. I guess this is like the saying; ‘lions throw their cubs off a cliff’ to grow stronger.

As for financial income, my hobby is my job, a job earning rare items, building equipment, making gold and selling it for real money over the internet. I am not earning much but it’s good enough to get by, pay for my electricity bills, meals and even enough for me to upgrade computer parts every once in a while.

In the year 2026, Japan’s largest game making companies all combined their resources to create this one game. Requiring 2TB storage to run, VRMMO-RPG, Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Player Game, the name “Di Inferi”. A game where it was it proclaimed to have the greatest amount of freedom and allows you to do almost everything you could do in the real world and much more. I have reached the maximum level of 100 and have one of the highest tier equipment that could be found in the game.

As I finish eating yesterday’s left over pizza with a glass of orange juice, I turn my computer on and put my virtual reality head set on. At this current time, we don’t have the technology to plug in our brains into these computers like that old famous animation, so we still need to control our characters using a controller.

Screens inside my headset covering my eyes are suddenly turned on, showing a very bright white light. Simple routine calibration tests were done by looking and turning my head around in different directions. “Welcome back to ‘Di Inferi’, log in?” I hit the button saying ‘Yes’ and it’s as if all the light turned into particles and I was warping at the speed of light like from that popular TV series.

My field of view changes to an open green field, covered with nothing but blades of grass on top of a hill, overlooking a small town further down. I breathe in the fresh air, technically the same old air from my room but it definitely feels so different when I am in the game.

Ding, Ding, Ding

As I log into the game, members of my regular party messaged me:

“Good morning Mr Leader”

“Leader!”

“Hello Leader!”

I go on to say hello back to them and glance at the top right corner of my vision to read the current time, 6:00AM. It surprised me that these guys are on so early in the morning. I messaged: “Good morning everybody, why are you guys online so early in the morning?”

“Leader, you should teleport to us, we’re near the Gates of Hades.”

“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”

Going into my inventory, I pull out a crystal with the name “Teleportation Crystal”, relatively cheap item that you can obtain by paying real life money in this game. I lift the crystal high in the air and shout: “Teleport to Party Members!”

The field of vision changes from the grassy plains to a world surrounded by lava and volcanos, dirt coloured black as charcoal under my feet and I see black smoke covering the entire sky. Just about 50 meters away from my location, I see three figures waving their arms to greet me.

“Hina, Nakajou, Kurisu, good morning.”

“Good morning leader~”

The cheerful girl in front of me with long strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes is Hina Misawa, her game class is Paladin. Paladins are front line tanks whom draws attention from their enemies away from other party members, they have large amount of defence and health. She is wearing silver heavy Armor with a large shield and sword along with other accessories that grant her abilities. Her height only reaches to about 150 cm and her looks, rather than to say beautiful, I would describe her as being incredibly cute. Her voice also sounds very childish, though I do not know her age, she did mention in the past that she was a university student in Japan.

“Nee-! Leader! Listen! Baka-jou* made us stay up all night! He hasn’t even let me go to the bathroom yet!”

[TL Note: Baka = Stupid/Idiot]

“Hina! We agreed not to call me by that name!”

“Like I care! You made us go around hunting for Fire Elementals for 8 hours without rest! Baka-baka-jou!”

The man in green light Armor with a bow is Nakajou Hiiragi, he has short black hair with brown eyes along with a naturally gifted great looks. He is our Bowmaster, dealing large amount of damage in long distances, he is our rear guard. His height reaches 180 cm, just as tall as I am and has voice belonged to an adult. Hina and Nakajou tends to have a heated argument every time they are near each other, even having to say that, they work amazingly well together.

“You’re the one who said you wanted to visit the Fjord Mountains for Ice Elementals tomorrow! How the heck are you planning to get those with that crappy gear?”

“It’s not crappy! TEI-!”

Crack

“AHHHH- WHAT THE? OH YOU LITTLE-“

Hina seems to have kicked Nakajou in the shin and broke his leg so he could not move.

“Ahh- guys, can we stop the fighting? Either way, we got enough fire essence to make up Hina’s gear, so let’s stop and rest for a while.”

Kurisu Ichijo, the guy with blonde hair running to past his emerald eyes, he tries to pull the two of them apart to stop the fighting. He is equipped with two long rapiers on his waist and wearing a similar light Armor to Nakajou, but his in red. His Job class is a ‘Swashbuckler’, dual wielding swordsman that deals large amount of damage in close combat, he is our front line vanguard. Swashbucklers are known for being extremely difficult to play, profound in dodging and combos that most find extremely hard to pull off. His voice sounds that of a teenager, though have yet to ask about his age, his height only reaches to about 170 cm.

Finally, myself, I am an Arch Mage that deal huge burst damage at the same time support myself and others with boosting spells or healing spells. I’m wearing a black magician’s overall and other accessories that boost magic, along with a staff tall as Hina over there.

I chanted a high grade healing spell and healed the oddly bent leg of Nakajou. A 1 meter magic circle glows in light green on the floor underneath his leg and his bones were magically put back into place.

After settling both Hina and Nakajou down, a message popped up in front of our vision. A small semi-transparent rectangle screen with a Yes or No button and a message.

“Your party has been exclusively selected to participate as Heroes to fight against a calamity, there, you will be faced with great difficulties and trials. Do you wish to accept?”

Huh? What is this?

All the party members and I look at each other dumbfounded, then Hina asked; “Is this some sort of event?”

I look at Kurisu and Nakajou and ask; “Have guys you heard of such events being held today?”

“Nope”

“No… Sorry, this is news to me”

Okay… So, none of these guys have heard of any events such as these… Usually whenever there is an event, the game company only released information about it on their website. Hmm, maybe I’ll ask them to join me.

“Do any of you have plans today? I would like to check this event out.”

All of them shook their heads in reply, usually all three of us are playing this game minimum of 12 hours a day.

“I don’t mind spending more time playing, I have no plans for the week, and I was just going to play ‘Di Inferi’ all week long.”

With a smirk on her face, Hina makes fun of Nakajou again.

“Leader, Bakajou doesn’t require sleep or food, so you can work him to the bone you know?”

“What was that Chibi*!?”

“Don’t call me Chibi!”

[TL Note: Chibi = Small/Shorty]

Kurisu smiles awkwardly while gesturing his hands to stop fighting.

“Haha… Looks like everybody is okay with staying up for a while longer, I am quite interested in this event, let’s check it out Mr Leader.”

We all nod and at the same time, we all push the button and click “Yes”.

As soon as I pressed the button, my screen blacked out, it looked like my virtual reality headset had just turned off. Next moment, I felt as if I fell out of my chair and was falling. Naturally, I flailed and yelped, reaching for anything that could hold me. Although I have stretched my hands to where my table should have been, I could not grip onto anything and just braced for impact.

I should have hit the floor, but why am I still falling? I can feel the acceleration becoming faster and faster and faster. I threw my headset out from my face but the world was pitch black, a void, dark space, not even a spec of light could be seen anywhere. I could not even see my own limbs as I continue to flail it in front of my face.

I screamed helplessly as I continued to fall through the dark void.