Chapter 1-1 : Nostalgia World Online
ーJapan, April 15th, 2025ー
My name is Arisa Amamiya. I’m currently sitting at the university’s terrace, eating freshly baked bread I bought at the cafeteria while waiting for my two friends.
Ahh~ The bread baked by that auntie is delicious as always~
After munching on the bread for a while, I saw two familiar faces. One was a refreshing-looking young man and the other was a beautiful older-sister-like young woman.
They approached me and looked at me with a somewhat apologetic look.
「Yo, Arisa. Sorry you had to wait for us.」(Shougo)
「I’m sorry. The lecture took longer than we thought.」(Suzu)
They are my friendsー No, my childhood friends, to be exact.
The young man is Shougo Hibari, and the young woman is Suzue Tsuchiya.
The three of us had known each other since we were in kindergarten. Our houses were close to each other’s so we often played together in the neighborhood.
We chose the same university because it was relatively close to our neighborhood and because this university matched our academic abilities.
If you asked me if there was ever a love affair between us since we had been together for a long time, I would say no. Not at all.
Shougo is a good guy, but Suzue and I only see him as a friend. Nothing more. He also sees us as friends. In fact, he had dated multiple girls since middle school, and we didn’t mind it at all.
Well, for me, I like delicious food more than romance thingy. That’s for sure.
「It’s alright. I was waiting while eating the cafeteria auntie’s ultimate bread, so it’s okay.」(Arisa)
「You really like that bread, huh? Well, it tastes really good, but it doesn’t mean that time flies while you eat it, right?」(Shougo)
「Hahh… Arisa, I wish you had a little more interest in things other than food.」(Suzu)
「What are you talking about? That’s why I bought NWO the other day. I can’t wait to play it!」(Arisa)
「Yeah, but the reason why you want to play it is none other than food.」(Suzu)
「Hehe~ I can’t deny it.」(Arisa)
「Hahh…」(Suzu)
I munched on the bread again while watching Suzue sigh.
Nostalgia World Online, commonly known as NWO, is a VRMMORPG that allows players to experience the in-game environment with their five senses as realistically as the real world. Of course, it includes your sense of taste. That’s the reason why this game piqued my interest.
By the way, because the environment quality in the game was close to reality, the monsters would bleed if you hurt them. Because this game has a strong element of violence, it has an age restriction.
This game is basically for people older than fifteen years old. However, those over thirteen years old and under fifteen years old still can play, but they need written consent from their parents. If they don’t have it, the game stores won’t sell them the game.
「We still can’t log in yet, but you guys have registered, right? What are your in-game nicknames?」(Shougo)
「I’m Alice!」(Arisa)
「I’m Rin. This name is quite popular, so I’m glad I was able to secure it before anyone else used it.」(Suzu)
「I see. I’m Shougo.」(Shougo)
「Huh? You use your real name? That’s so lame.」(Suzu)
「Phu phu!」(Arisa)
「Shut up! It’s easy to remember so I’m fine with it!」(Shougo)
「Alright, alright. Putting aside Shougo’s poor naming sense, what are we gonna do after logging in? You guys have any plans?」(Suzu)
「I’ve been planning to form a guild with some friends. How about you? You guys can join my guild if you want.」(Shougo)
「Nah, I’ll pass. We see each other almost every day in real life. We don’t have to do it in-game. Well, I might team up with you in a party sometimes.」(Suzu)
「I’ll pass too. Your friends are all males, right? I bet none of them can cook delicious food.」(Arisa)
「Oi, Arisa. “Men can’t cook” is a very biased opinion, you know?」(Shougo)
「Well, you’re right. Chefs are mostly males after all, but I wasn’t wrong when I said none of your male friends could cook, right?」(Arisa)
「Uhh… That’s…」(Shougo)
「See?」(Arisa)
「A-Anyway, we might not join the same guild, but we should at least add each other as friends. Since it will be crowded on the first day, let’s meet somewhere in the game on the second day.」(Shougo)
「Alright.」(Suzu)
「Aye, sir!」(Arisa)
That means I will have an entire day to explore the game on the first day.
I wonder what I should do… Hmm…
Maybe I’m going to find a good restaurant? No, maybe I will hunt some monsters and cook them myself.
Either way, I’m so excited to try this game!
「Oh, right. I think the live stream will start soon.」(Shougo)
「Ah, I almost forgot. Arisa, can we use your phone?」(Suzu)
「Sure.」(Arisa)
I opened my phone, turned on the wifi, and attached the charger to the electric socket under the bench just in case.
It’s 11:58, and the live stream we had been waiting for would start at 12.
After going to the NWO developer’s official Mytube account and waiting for a minute, the live stream began.
I held my phone slightly forward so the two could see the screen too.
『Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Shinji Todo, and I’m the president of Avenir, the game development company that made Nostalgia World Online. Before we talk further, I’d like to express my gratitude. Thank you for purchasing NWO. I can guarantee you that you won’t regret your decision. Since it’s lunchtime, and I’m sure many of you are busy right now, I’d like to get to the main topic right away. First of all, the server will be open at 12 pm this Saturday as stated on the official homepage. As some of you may already know, time in VRMMRPGs flows differently from the real world. In NWO, time flows three times slower than in the real world, so some people may lose track of time and become confused. Because of that, we will provide the players with the real-world clock in the UI aside from the in-game clock. Time awareness is important, but the information I’m going to tell you next is very important too, so I want you to listen to me carefully.』(Shinji Todo)
The man on the screen cleared his throat and changed his expression. He looked somewhat serious for some reason.
『Our goal is to provide players with realistic feelings while playing this game. Therefore, we used the super-intelligent AI developed by our team to create NPCs that have almost the same level of intelligence as us humans. Do you understand what this means? …That’s right! In other words, the NPCs in the game are ‘alive’!』(Shinji Todo)
When he said that, the comment section went wild.
[Oi, oi! Seriously!?]
[That’s awesome!]
[I wonder if I can have an NPC as my girlfriend.]
There were some weird people in the comment, but I tried to ignore them and focused on what the man was saying.
『Therefore, I want you to treat them like human beings. If they die in an accident in-game, they will disappear forever. Also, if you upset an NPC, that NPC will act coldly toward you, so please be careful. For those who are not good at communicating, you don’t have to worry about it because the NPCs won’t judge you based on your communicating skills. If you treat them with kindness, they will think that you are a good person even though you’re not good at talking. Also, PKing (player killing) is not prohibited but it may cause the NPCs to have a bad impression of you and will greatly affect your reputation in the game. Players will have different experiences depending on their actions. With that in mind, I hope you will enjoy playing NWO and I hope this game can become your second home. Since we still have time, I’d like to answer your questions, so please ask me anything in the comment section.』(Shinji Todo)
At that moment, the comment section was flooded with questions.
[How can we form a guild?]
『To form a guild, you can go to the Guild Hall in the city and talk to the receptionist.』(Shinji Todo)
[Are there any unique skills?]
『There are tons of unique skills in the game. You can unlock them by clearing certain conditions or raising the level of certain skills to a certain level.』(Shinji Todo)
The man on the screen kept choosing questions and answered them one at a time.
There’s something I want to ask. I don’t know if he would pick my question or not, but I typed it in the comment section anyway.
「Oh? Arisa, you have a question?」(Suzu)
「Yeah. There’s something I’m wondering.」(Arisa)
『Alright. Next question… Oh! I think I found an interesting question. “Are monsters also ‘alive’ like NPCs?”』(Shinji Todo)
「Whoa…! He picked my question!」(Arisa)
I was so happy, but not with the other viewers.
[Oi, oi. Who cares about monsters?]
[Monsters exist only for us to kill!]
[You should have picked a better question!]
「Eww… These people are terrible…」(Shougo)
「Arisa, are you okay? Don’t mind them.」(Suzu)
「Yeah, I’m fine.」(Arisa)
Suzue looked at me worriedly, but I honestly didn’t mind what other people thought. I felt that I had to ask about this.
『Alright, I think this will be the last question I answer for today. The answer is… yes. Just like the NPCs, the monsters are also created with our super-intelligent AI, so they will have their own mind. Even though you hunt a pack of the same monsters, each of them might think differently and have different physical abilities. For example, if you hunt two monsters of the same type, one might be faster and more powerful than the other, or one might run away while the other would try to attack you. However, unlike NPCs, monsters can spawn in certain dungeons. Not only monsters, but rare herbs can also spawn in dungeons, so you don’t have to worry about running out of monsters to hunt and herbs to collect. Dungeons can be found after you complete hidden quests that you can get from certain NPCs or you can find them yourselves while exploring the world in the game. Since monsters are ‘alive’ and have their own minds, they sometimes come down to villages to attack humans. Depending on the players’ actions, various occurrences might happen, and the developers will not be involved in the occurrences happening in the game. We, the developers, are looking forward to seeing what will happen to NWO in the future. Of course, as a developer, I really hope players will lead the game into a bright future, but who knows? Well then, this concludes today’s live stream. I hope you enjoy your life in NWO world!』(Shinji Todo)
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