Translator: Silver Editor: Namorax

「Prologue: Ossan, Dies」

Author’s Note:

This is the series I’ve worked on.

So what’s next?

This time it’s a polite ossan protagonist.

He may look young, but he’s in his 40s.

What will you become, ossan?! You’re not gonna strangle me, right?

Let’s start with such a feeling.

VR-RPG 【Sword And Sorcery】

It was the popular full immersion game released for the 【Dream Works】gaming system.

The game itself was currently on its seventh expansion and the number of enthusiastic users was on a constant rise.

The sensory synchronization system created through synaptic and electronic inputs simply outdid any other company’s gaming system. All five senses could be experienced in the virtual world, which grabbed the attention of thrill-seeking gamers and insured that people would constantly return to the game world.

Osako Satoshi is one such gamer, who went by 【Zeros Marin】while enjoying his time in the virtual world.

His avatar had bangs that covered one of his eyes, a stubble and a figure that wasn’t anything special.

While he wore first-class equipment, it was all unified by a design scheme that favored inconspicuousness.

Many people didn’t suspect that the medium-sized man in the dirty grey cloak was actually one of the game’s top five players.

Moreover, he was one of the best destroyers in the world.

In this game, combat damage was determined by skill level and player level.

The elements that attracted the most attention, however, were the equipment and item creation, and the ability to craft your own spells.

Magic functioned in this virtual world by stacking 56 basic symbols and 10 numbers in a unique order.

The 【Spell Circuits 】system allowed the player to remodel the initial spell’s power and effects by hand, resulting in situations where the power and magic power consumption of a spell could be lowered (for some reason magic power decreased with a spell's strength).

Even in cases where the damage calculation should have resulted in zero damage, it was common for a unique effect to be attached to the spell, leading multiple players in investigating the modifiers available for each spell. The system was so confusing at first that the game was labeled kusoge (a shitty game) early on.

After countless hours in the field, it was eventually discovered that if you primed your avatar’s magic beforehand it was possible to create optimal spell conditions.

However, since most magic didn't have any numerical values it was necessary to guess how much magical power was required to prime a spell

The  【Spell Circuits 】 caused quite the commotion at launch because there were no hints that spells could be modified, and it was only discovered purely by chance.

The 'setting' behind this was that players were able to find clues by exploring dungeons and the game world, but it was up to them to inspect or ignore those hints.

Although the game offered a tremendous amount of freedom, only those who truly immersed themselves in its mechanics took advantage of the system, while other players used the standard magic.

The time-consuming trial of creating magic was viewed as too restrictive for those who enjoyed exploration.

However, depending on the skill of the player it was possible to create spells with no cast- or cooldown-time.

As a committed hobbyist, Satoshi spent his free time crafting high-powered spells that conserved energy and was renowned as a famous magician for his efforts.

Well, infamous magician……

He’d set up a party with friends of a similar level and they would constantly tackle difficult high-level quests.

Currently, he and his companions were fighting an evil god from the story mode.

He didn’t know how long they’d been fighting.

He just knew that they’ve come this far to defeat the last boss.

The five of them had managed to force the ominous evil god into its third form.

They were equipped with various magical weapons and had been overwhelming the evil god with their firepower since the start.

Several years had passed since the game’s release, but they have always monopolized the highest player rankings.

A major contributor to that was Satoshi’s magic, which was classified as some of the strongest and most effective magic in the world. Satoshi threw his everything into this world as it was the only place where he could relax.

Once upon a time, he’d been a programming technician for a top corporation, but he was laid off for some reason and now lived a lonely rural life.

He’d spend every day playing the game. In other words, he was socially withdrawn.

In this fictitious world, he was an influential 【Sage】 and the envy that his status generated only pulled him deeper into it.

He was a bachelor over 40 and he had no family besides an older sister, so it could be said that the virtual world is the only place where he could be himself.

Incidentally, he was a wizard in real life as well.

He would have had decent looks if he fixed his appearance, but he’d become too ingrained in his surrounding to do so.

『Well…… It shouldn’t be much longer, right?』

『Hey! Kill him quickly.』

『I’ll follow after you. Appreciate it, will you?』

『I’m looking forward to the rare drops』

『Then, we’ll end it with that formation?』

Successive waves of magic attacks immediately reduced the evil god’s HP to 0.

Because they were so strong a number of cheating allegations had been raised against them.

However, it was nothing but eccentric enthusiasm, which overturned common sense, that lead them to develop magic without paying other people any mind.

The magic was also unusually complicated and other players struggled to unravel their incomprehensible system.

It was a clever way to produced powerful magic at a glance, but it bordered on obsessive at its worst.

Because they refused to share their magic with anyone, the allegations of cheating only increased.

『It’s over』

『What now?  Do it again? I’m heading to bed after this……』

『I have work after this, I’ll pass. I’m bowing out』

『Me too. Sorry, I’ll make up for it some other time.』

『Well, today was a long one. Night, everyone〜♪』

『『『『Night〜♪』』』』

His companions logged out and vanished one after another.

Only Satoshi remained in the evil god’s castle, checking the loot they’d received.

However, him being there alone was the start of everything.

The evil god’s body suddenly began to move.

It’s glared at its hated enemy as its body began to release miasma.

『I will not permit…… A creature such as you to destroy me・・・ I shall not permit it!!』

『What?! Impossible, it’s HP should be 0……』

『Accursed Goddess…… those who sealed me, as well as those who know nothing, yet oppose me!!』

『The event isn’t over?! This is……』

The evil god directed it anger towards him as it threw all of its power into a curse.

The surroundings were drowned in a strange light.

On that, the power all across Japan went out.

The corpses of several unidentified people were discovered a few days later, but the cause of death was never discovered.

On that day, Osako Satoshi quietly passed away in a rural japanese village.