NOTE: Asterisks denote thoughts. > denotes flashback quotes. ******************** WILLIAM * You're kidding... * * Was this designed to be impossible? * * I lost. * * We lost. * === VARIOUS Is that even right? Three raid bosses at once? It's not fair. What was that thing? I-Is this the only place like this? You're right. If all the other raid zones are like this now... They'll be impossible. Winning a raid will become impossible. What were we working so hard for? We trained, got good equipment, and worked together. We failed and tried again... When it worked, it felt great. I felt like I'd grown. That's all gone now. Yeah. There's no point. No point in doing anything. The game has abandoned us. Elder Tale has abandoned us. WILLIAM > So what is this good for, anyway? > A game, huh? > A PC game in this day and age? Aren't social games good enough? > You stay at home on weekends? Screw it. > I bet no one ever invites you to karaoke. > Then you talk to your PC, right? > Why not get a hobby that'll be more useful to your future? > Well, there are some people like that, right? > I guess it's fine. Screw it! * What am I supposed to say? * * "We can win next time, so let's do our best"? * * "The other raid zones will be okay"? * * Those are lies. * * I can't say them. * * Wait a second. * * Then what does this mean? * * Does this mean we're— * === VARIOUS We're finished. I guess we can go back to Susukino, and be a good peacekeeping guild. That might not be so bad. Ezzo has a lot of monsters. The People of the Land will thank us. Maybe I can get one of them to be my girlfriend. That might be the smart way to live... === WILLIAM Maybe. * But doesn't that make us no different from them? * * Those bastards who acted like they knew it all * * while they gave us advice we were supposed to be so thankful for? * Yeah, maybe. I think you're right. But what of it? Screw it! We lost. We got wiped out. We may be finished. Maybe it was all a waste. Like they always said... We're idiots who've wasted our time on something as pointless as games. Game junkies who never leave their houses. Vegetables. But who cares? We knew that all along. We knew it, and we do it anyway. But we love games. We chose this. * I don't care if this is the end. * * But I won't give this up. * * There are some things you just can't give up. * It's no big deal. All we did was lose in a raid. That happens all the time. There's no need to be shocked. All it means is that another bit of win-loss data is recorded on the server. Games are what children play. * No... They were special to me. * I won't tell you it's time to grow up and head back to town. I won't let anyone else say it, either. We may be maggots, losers who got beat... But I won't let anyone, not even God, tell me it was a waste. * That's right. For me, they were the center of the universe! * What do the bits recorded on the server matter? They matter. I've decided they matter. And I've decided that they're wonderful, glorious things! The idiots who believe that God has decided exactly what matters, and that it applies to every single person, won't understand. No matter how stupid it looks, no matter how fake and gilded it is, if I—if we—decide it's amazing, then it is! Isn't that what it means to choose? We chose to be here! * I won't let anyone insult that. * We've spent a lot of time in Elder Tale... A very long time. A powerful foe has appeared here, and we'll take swords or bows or whatever we've got, and charge at it. We'll scream and charge at it like children! And sometimes we'll win, and sometimes we'll lose. Sure, it's all a bunch of bits on a server, switching between one and zero. So what? We've dedicated our lives to it. And that's amazing! If we win, we'll have a huge victory party. We'll each take our share of the phantasmals and have a toast. If we lose, we'll get upset, and spend the whole day talking about what we did wrong. If you want to say it's stupid, go ahead. It doesn't matter if it's a toy, or if it's all fake. We think it's amazing. We've decided to spend our time on it. So it's real! * So we lost the raid... * * Something sacred and inviolate. * * Then what do we do? * * What... What do I say to them? * * What can I say? * Because that's what we are, right? That's who we are! I don't care about the people who have everything. * What is this? * * What am I saying? * People who know how to live in harmony with others can have anything, so they can live their lives that way. * What am I talking about? * Do you guys have something like that? * I don't know. * Anything! Something that allows you to go anywhere and befriend anyone. * But this is all I have left. * It can be intelligence. It can be coolness. It can be a bright personality. It can be funny jokes. It can be anything. Do you have anything that lets you shine in the real world? I don't! Not a single thing! I've never told anyone. I couldn't. But you guys are my friends. Without the game, I wasn't able to make friends. I'm so lame... I'm pathetic. But I've made it this far because I had the game. I can understand your feelings because I had the game. When I'm playing, I can tell that one of you wants healing, or one guy who's posted in the back wants to be in the front. Or that she's too shy to say so, but she wants that bracelet that boosts magic. That isn't all. That this guy cares about his comrades. Or that this guy's scared, but he's trying to yell as hard as he can. Or that someone's tired, but they forced themselves to log in anyway. I can tell... I really can tell. * Yeah. That's right. * Elder Tale has taught me many things. * I don't know how other people think. * * I'm self-righteous. * * Uncaring. * * Uncooperative. * * I give up too easily. * * I can't read moods. * * I don't try to get involved with other people. * * That's what I was told for so long, * * I started to refuse to be with others. * * But in Elder Tale, even someone like me was able to connect with others a little. * * And as long as I cared about them, * * Elder Tale taught me many secrets. * * The first thing I learned was teamwork. * * Some people did well at it. * * Some people did horribly. * * Some were talented. * * Some sucked. * * But what mattered was working with them. * * Even when I thought someone was terrible, * * sometimes I just didn't understand what they were trying to do. * * And then I started doing raids. * * For some reason, I ended up guild master. * * And the next thing I learned was, strangely, the nights we spent excited over stupid stuff were the nights we excelled. * * Some of my companions were healthy. Some were sick. * * And a lot of them had problems, of course. * * I learned that all of them were like me. * * I started to care about my companions' lives, * * and what they wanted me to do. * * And I learned to be open-minded and ask others for their opinions. * * That was after my companions had learned to deal with my temper. * * Most raid guilds don't last long. * * Even if you get an item as the result of a raid, * * you don't know who it belongs to. * * Some members aren't happy with what they get. * * Some only care about what's in it for them,and relationships are ruined. * * But we learned to talk with one another. * * I told my companions everything honestly, * * and they forgave my short temper and trusted me. * * And the name, Silver Sword, spread throughout Elder Tale as one of the up-and-coming raid guilds. * So I understand that it feels like we're finished now. Like it's game over. It feels like this is the real end. And it may be. It may be, but... When I came to this world, to be honest, I was happy. You all were a little bit, as well, weren't you? No one here was one-hundred-percent unhappy, right? Because... This world is Elder Tale, after all. The world that we became almost stupidly obsessed with. The world of the raids that we were better at than anyone. Here, we thought, we might be able to make it. But more than any of that, I was happy to be with you guys. You were all just like in the game. I mean, so was I, but... That doesn't matter, I guess. We could do raids together. No one in this world would make fun of us. But that means that, even if we lose, we don't run! We may not be able to win! We probably won't. Odds are, we'll lose. But we can't run. There are some things you can't just accept. Anyway, if we go back, then what? What would we do? If you take this from us, what's left? We played Elder Tale so much that others thought we were weird. I've spent these last two years on Elder Tale. I thought about it from morning to night. Eating, sleeping, bathing... Everything was for that! Even my studying was for Elder Tale! Me, too. If you want to call me a vegetable, go ahead. I'm a weirdo gamer. I'm so unsuited for society, I can spend a whole evening overjoyed over a rare item! That's how serious I've been about this! But that means that I can't run from two or three extra raid bosses. Even if I ran, where would I go? Will I run away and spend the rest of my life making fun of games? If I stop raiding, can I make friends? Can I laugh and say, "Yeah, that was a waste of time"? Screw that crap! === DEMIKAS That's insane. Then you're telling us to keep dying instead of running? How many times do I have to go through that? If we have some way to win, that's fine. But we don't. Not anymore. We're just playing a game. Even in a different world, that doesn't change. We're useless mouths to feed. And we can't even win the game we play. Will you still tell us not to run? === WILLIAM I ran once... It was bothering me, but I finally figured it out. It was the first Round Table conference in Akihabara. Back then, I wanted to do raids in this new world more than anything. > I'm not wasting my time with this. > The safety of the city? > That's stupid. > It's a waste of time. Honestly, I thought they were fools, wasting their time on an impossible task. I did something so horrible that, if someone had done it to me, I would've wanted to punch them. It's funny. I know that now. I ran. I ignored them because I didn't think it would work. * But there was one player who didn't run. * * He was the man I looked up to. * * The legendary party who'd gone toe-to-toe with the best, * * on the toughest quests, without ever making a guild of their own. * * The Debauchery Tea Party. * * When I heard the rumors of them, * * I used to dream that, someday, they would let me in, too. * * But before I hit level 90, they split up. * * The members went back to being solo, * * without forming a guild, and split up. * * I didn't understand why they'd left their legend if they were just going to quit. * There was a raid that I thought was pointless, impossible, and unwinnable, but he... But Shiroe won it, and made Akihabara. A raid that created a city! How can you make fun of that? I thought he was an incredible leader. * Of course. * * I... I looked up to him. * * He couldn't just be an ordinary guy. * And when he came to me for a favor, I was so happy, I agreed instantly. Of course it would be impossible. The villain in glasses brought it to me. Of course something horrible would happen to all of us. He's a nuisance and a sadist. You can see it by looking at him. But I thought it was fun! I hoped we'd win. The reason was because we're *gamers*, damn it! === VARIOUS Guess I'll try it. Yeah, I could give it one more go. WILLIAM * I'm seriously an idiot. * * But I want to win! * * No... I... I want to give my friends victory! * Let's do this, people! Let's go plant our flag!