Natsuka drew in a deep breath and decided to first try telling the truth.
[Natsuka: “I know everyone is curious about what on earth happened to me this past week…”]
[Natsuka: “If I told you that I accidentally transmigrated to another world, and on top of that have been entrusted with the duty of summoning heroes and slaying a World-Ending Dragon — would any of you believe me?”]
[Thunder Warhammer Wielder: “Shocking!
For real or not, death?!”]
[Blank: “Heh.
I’d recommend calling the police.
If you’d said Qin Shi Huang commissioned you to help him restore his empire, with the elixir of immortality as payment — that, of all things, might actually have been easier to believe than this.”]
[Guitar Hero: “Natsuka-san, if you’ve been kidnapped, blink once!”]
[Natsuka: “I’m clearly telling the truth!
As long as you accept divine blood, I can transport you over — a genuine, real-deal otherworld grand adventure.
And on top of that, you’ll be gifted a Falna from the very start — as long as you accomplish [Excelia] and keep leveling up, even eternal youth isn’t out of the question.”]
In order to prove he wasn’t talking nonsense, Natsuka even took a fresh selfie on the spot and uploaded it.
The very next second, however.
[Brutal Hero: “Yo, your setup actually looks pretty convincing.
Why don’t you just say you’re participating in the closed beta of a new game — at least then we might still be a little interested.
Otherworld adventure?
Only an idiot would go.”]
[Chiba’s Fallen Saint Kuroneko: “SAO bills itself as a Second World, and it really is quite intriguing — a pity that the closed-beta slots are so few.
As for Mr.
Descender, you wouldn’t, by any chance, actually be involved in some new game’s internal development, would you?
Going by the way certain companies behave, the knockoff product is just about due to surface around now.”]
Natsuka stared at the screen, the wind suddenly gone from his sails.
Telling the truth — no one believes it.
Then why not just play along with Kazuma’s line of thinking?
After all, he had originally already been planning to use SAO’s exact framework as the recruiting model.
If he claimed he had been secretly invited by some game company to participate in their test, not only could he explain being out of contact for a whole week — he could even round out the whole spiel in one go.
Seemed like that just might work.
[Natsuka: “Then suppose, hypothetically, there really was a Second World game just like SAO, with 100% realism, virtually indistinguishable from reality — would any of you be interested?”]
…
Sakura City.
In a perfectly ordinary apartment.
Gotoh Hitori, who had just finished uploading her guitar solo for the day, was curled up inside her closet, scrolling through group messages.
She had drawn herself up into a tight little ball, head buried between her knees — only the faint glow of her phone screen lit up that slightly spaced-out little face of hers.
“A Second World, huh…”
She mumbled softly.
“If it’s inside the internet, then I should still be able to stand up a little bit at least, right…”
“In that case, maybe I’d even be able to make friends…”
Bocchi, in real life, was a textbook example of social anxiety — couldn’t be more textbook if she tried.
But the moment she got online, she’d somehow become an awful lot bolder — to the point that she could even, in a comment section, straight-out and shamelessly praise her own guitar playing.
However, the whole full-dive game thing was still way too advanced for her.
That day, when she was sitting in the living room watching TV with her family, the SAO promo that had suddenly popped up had practically, in a single instant, pried open that tiny little world of hers that contained nothing but her guitar.
If she really could start over a whole new life in another world…
That would be wonderful.
Thinking of that fan online — the one who had been the very first to support her — a tiny little bit of courage, unexpectedly, slowly began to grow inside Bocchi’s heart.
…
Meanwhile.
In a secluded mountain forest somewhere on the outskirts of Sakura City.
A girl fitted with a glass eye and a prosthetic leg was sitting up on a tree branch, the night wind lifting the tips of her hair, the hem of her clothes swaying gently.
Iwanaga Kotoko. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
As a child she had been chosen by the yokai; at the cost of losing one eye and one leg, she had become the Goddess of Wisdom of the yokai.
Her duty was to handle the yokai-related incidents that occurred in the city, and to explain all those unreasonable anomalies using means that fell within the bounds of reason.
At this very moment, she was just putting her phone away.
And standing beside her was the yokai who had come to report.
“Are you certain?” Kotoko asked.
“Yes, Princess.” A blood-soaked samurai ghost lowered his head in reply.
“In the vicinity of that lord’s residence, there have indeed appeared some very strange spirit-power reactions — the possibility of post-mortem spiritualization cannot be ruled out.”
“Is that so…” Kotoko reached up to rub her temple, letting out a soft sigh.
“Which is to say, there’s also a chance he turned into a spirit and has started haunting things.
Honestly — not a single one of them ever lets a person have any peace.”
She paused for a moment, then turned her gaze again toward the city in the distance, its lights faintly visible.
“Lately, anomalies of this kind really have been growing more and more frequent.
Just what on earth is going on…”
The samurai ghost gave a low murmur of agreement.
“The yokai have felt it too.
The activity of yokai-energy lately really has gotten a great deal more active than before.”
Hearing this, Kotoko sprang down from the tree in a single leap.
The way she landed, light and graceful, hardly seemed like that of a person with only one leg.
She set off in the direction of the city proper, the hem of her skirt swaying gently in the night wind.
“Ahh, why is it that things just keep getting more troublesome, like being deflowered for the first time…”
Faced with the off-color little joke the girl had just blurted out, the samurai ghost fell silent for a good long while, and didn’t dare follow up with so much as a single word.
____
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