OriginStory 36: Let’s Get this Party Started

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Chapter 36: Let’s Get this Party Started.

When Ahava led me back to our party one of the girls saw me and squealed, saying,

“So you’re the Naru Onee-chan I’ve been hearing a lot about! It’s so cool that we’re meeting so many famous gamers! Omigosh, I’m so excited! See, I told you that playing OriSto was a great idea, A-chan! Because OriSto didn’t have an application requirement, we have a chance to be among the top players, even if it’s just for a little while!”

A-chan is Ahava, huh? The squirrel -beastkin girl is bouncing up and down, grabbing onto Ahava and chattering excitedly.

The hyperactive squirrel vs the doll construct.

It’s an amazing contrast in energy.

“Hahaha, I take it this pretty lady and you used to play together?”

“Omigosh, she called me a pretty lady~! Kyaa! This is SO COOL.”

Lol. I bet I could cough and she’d think I was cool.

Is this how celebrities feel? It’s kind of – no, well, this is totally hilarious.

Speaking of contrasts in energy…

“Narunaru! It’s been a long time-! Well, not that long. Since the last game, [lol]!”

“Yo, Rinrin, Bou. How’s it goin’?”

“… Hi.”

Even though they’re twins, Purin-luv and Jin-bou are nothing alike, as usual.

By the way, Rinrin types out his lol’s (wwww’s) into text bubbles, and has been known to infuriate his PvP opponents by filling an obnoxious amount of space with text bubbles of lol’s.

Is it okay for a healer to gain that much aggro, lol?

“… And what are you supposed to be, Rinrin? A shrine priest? Doesn’t suit you, lol.”

Purin-luv – that is, Rinrin, is dressed in a black hakama and white sokutai, with the funny black eboshi hat on top of his dyed-orangey-brown hair.

“No no, looklooklook! <Flight>!”

With that statement, Rinrin sprouted two giant black wings from his back and lifted into the air about 3 meters before touching back down to the ground, whereupon the wings disappeared with burst of black sparks and feathers.

“Oooh, you’re going for a tengu look, huh? So you’re, what, a bird beastkin?”

Rinrin thrust his chest out proudly and said,

“I’m a crow beastkin – geh!”

Stony-faced as usual, Bou delivers a hard chop to the top of Rinrin’s head.

“Stop wasting your cooldowns.”

“Eeeeh? Isn’t it fine? What’s the point of not using Skills when you want to?”

“Because it’s dumb.”

“Bou, you’re too stingy! Stingystingystingysti – Owowowowowow, I give up, I give up!”

Rinrin taps on Bou’s arm franticly as Bou puts him in a headlock.

You’d never think that Rinrin is the older one, lol.

After he escapes, Rinrin dodges again as Bou’s quarterstaff lands where he had been standing with a dangerous amount of force.

What happened to not wasting cooldowns, Bou? That was clearly a Skill, y’know?

So yeah, even though the Bou+Rinrin combo is actually considered a top player duo, their personalities are like this, with one a selfish airhead and the other a violent-kun who tries to kill the selfish airhead, so they’re not really looked for when it comes to things like co-op’s for quests or raids.

When your healer screws around a lot, sometimes jumping into Stealth mode and deserting, or flamboyantly using all his Skills without caring about aggro or efficiency, and the sub-tank is trying to kill him or sneak attack him half the time, it makes the serious top players nervous, y’know?

Although it’s to their credit that even with all of that, they’re still considered top players.

… Ah. I think I know why the Chibi put me in this party now.

“Looks like all the troublemakers are in the same party. Good luck, Ahava.”

I clap her on the shoulder and she laughs monotonously,

“Hahaha…”

Fen is making a look like, ‘Oh lord, there’s MORE of them.’

Hey, don’t put me on the same level as the Bou-Rin duo. It’s kind of insulting.

At least I don’t do things like use a taunt skill on the boss while I’m a healer, or try to assassinate said healer in the middle of the boss battle.

Right when I was going to introduce Fen, since I’m pretty sure he never introduced himself (or like, I’m 100% definite he didn’t), a kid came running up.

Um… That’s, Zeke?

The kid who tagged along as our guinea pig, right?

He’s not a top player or mid-top player by any standard. Why is he here?

“Excuse me, Naru Onee-chan, Toru wants to talk to you!”

Zeke snaps to a salute right in front of me.

“Oioi, has the Chibi grown big enough balls to make other people gophers?”

I mutter, lifting an eyebrow.

I mean, we have Chat, y’know?

“Nope! I asked to do it! Since us spectators have nothing else to do before the raid begins, anyway!”

“Aah…”

I suddenly realize that … although 60 people is a lot of people, the crowd here is overwhelming to a point that I wouldn’t be surprised to know it was over 60 people.

But yeah, there are a lot of people who probably want to see the first ever raid of the game, even if they can’t participate.

“Y’know, it’s most likely that we’ll be transferred to an instance, so you guys probably won’t be able to follow…”

“We’re setting up streams from some of the raid members in the square here!”

Ah… Come to think of it, how did so many people get here, enough to fill the square in Nortius?

Looks like I’m going to have to have a talk with the Chibi later.

As Zeke runs off to go talk to other party leaders, I head over to the Chibi’s party.

“Yo, what’s with you using the lower-leveled players as gophers, huh?”

I crack my knuckles a little as I walk up to Toru.

“… Nee-chan. He totally ran off yelling, ‘I’ll tell her,’ before I could yell, ‘I’ll just send her a message.’”

Toru shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

Mm. I figured as much. I’d have to PvP him in front of this crowd if it was something different~.

“Okok, I’ll stop messin’ around, since everyone’s getting impatient. What’s up?”

There are people shifting restlessly in the background, glancing pointedly at the Chibi, after all.

Yoh, who was with the Chibi, or like, the Chibi’s full party is there, plus a Chino (who was probably lent to them by Baldro for their healer), shrugged and said,

“Nn. Well, apparently we need the quest initiator to talk to Byron to get it going.”

“Eh? What a pain. Then, you haven’t gone in even once to ‘research’ what’s going to happen? Oioi, that’s gonna be risky.”

“Can’t help it. I tried going in with a few people once, but we required the full 60-people. It won’t proceed with the dialogue past, ‘We’re going to need everyone we can get,’ so we had to do it this way.”

I frown.

“Then this is just a test run today?”

“Well… if we can manage and clear it, that would be nice too…”

What a pain in the ass… but, well, that’s how these things usually go.

Most likely we’ll have to do this again… guh. I want to go back and pick up the quests I missed and find out the storyline…

Can’t help it. Gonna have to put in 150% and hope we clear the raid this time.

… Hm?

“Hey, didn’t I fully transfer the quest to you? But you still need me to start it?”

I asked as we head to NPC whatsisname’s research office, followed by a crowd of eager tagalongs.

For something like this, I’ll transfer the quest in full and pass any advantages over to Toru, since they come with a lot of social disadvantages – as long as I get my share later.

Anyway, I had clearly set the Raid Leader as Toru … does that not count?

“Uuuun… I don’t know, but I’m still not considered the initiator.”

The Chibi shrugged.

“Is it like that for all quest transfers? Can’t be, right?”

“We don’t know. Most quests have to be shared, not transferred. This is the first one of its kind,”

Yoh responded.

Nn… the devs really need to come out with more info.

Outside the building, Baldro and Stein, another extreme top player, are waiting.

“Are we starting, then?”

Baldro asked.

Stein is standing to the side, looking irritated and bored.

He and the Chibi aren’t on the best terms, but since Toru doesn’t want to make an enemy for life, and because Stein is definitely considered one of the best players, Stein got to add a party to our raid.

It’s, y’know, unwilling cooperation for the benefits of both sides.

Like I said, Toru’s in the getting-along-is-best faction of the top players.

Although he doesn’t always compromise.

“Yeah, Nee-chan’s got to start it.”

“As I thought, it’s the Onee-chan’s raid.”

Stein said that, with a thinly veiled meaning of ‘Toru couldn’t have gotten it on his own.’

Toru’s frowning a little, but I just grinned and said,

“What, you wanted me to solo it? I can’t do that, y’know.”

Stein just rolls his eyes, shrugs, and follows us into the building.

He and I aren’t on bad terms, he just sulks because he thinks the Chibi has an unfair advantage because of me.

That’s not true, y’know?

If the Chibi was just a leech, there’s no way anyone would consider him a top player.

And the Chibi’s a good leader. I, on the other hand, am … ahem.

Anyway, most of the time it’s just me tossing annoying things at the Chibi, so it’s not like I’m giving him stuff for free.

I’m giving the Chibi the stuff I don’t like to do.

Hm? What’s the difference between Stein and Kuroski?

I dunno.

Stein complains, but he doesn’t harp on it to make up for his lack of ability, maybe?

I had to reconfirm the NPC’s name, but remember it as we barged into the researcher’s office.

“Yo, Byron-san, I’ve brought a bunch of people, but are you guys ready for an expedition?”

I raise my hand in greeting, ignoring Baldro’s scandalized look, like I had just barged into the men’s changing room or something.

Byron raises his head.

“Ah, the adventurer from a while ago! You’ve managed to get so many people?! It’s more than I expected!”

He looked out the window at the suddenly crowded square.

Even though I know it’s a script, it’s still pretty funny because this is the amount the quest required us to have.

I snickered and said,

“Ah, if it’s too many, I can send ‘em back-“

At my statement, Baldro, Stein, and the Chibi all stiffened.

“Wait! No, that number is perfect! Please let them stay.”

Niiiya. I can’t help but smirk as Byron panics.

Behind me, the other three players have also breathed a sigh of relief.

“…Nee-chan. You have a bad personality…”

The Chibi sighed and put a hand to his face.

People would have been SO pissed if the number of members allowed to participate got reduced, after all~.

I shrugged and said,

“Maa, isn’t it fine? The quests are pretty much set in stone once they pop up in the quest log, right?”

“If I was 100% sure of that, I wouldn’t be so worried, right?”

Well, that’s true too.

“Anyway, we’re ready any time, so if all of you can leave now, we’re ready.”

Byron stands energetically.

“Hmm… how are we going to get there? This is a lot of people…”

Toru starts to say, but Byron interjects and says,

“We have a teleportal set up a little away from the ruins, with a guard around it –“

“Wait a minute, I haven’t heard of this. You don’t need to set up the new teleportal, then.”

I can’t help feeling a little cheated.

“Ah… it was just recently set up, when you accepted our request – but we really can’t afford to lose that manpower due to need to constantly guard it, and we can’t make a base within the ruins, then.”

Hm. It feels a bit contrived, but whatever.

Like he sensed my skeptical thoughts, Byron explained,

“If we’re going to make a base anyway, it’s better for it to be within the ruins. Where the temporary teleportal is, there’s still quite a distance into the ruins, and the Sabrelions are still things to be wary of. We’re not going to waste the Ancient Barrier by setting up a base where our researchers will get attacked before even reaching the ruins.”

“There’s gonna be fire hydras in the ruins, though.”

“Fire hy – a, the Fire Worms. There’s supposed to be a repellent effect once the Ancient Barrier is set up.”

Hm…

“Okay, well, we’re ready, I guess.”

“That’s great! We’ll go over and get everything ready!”

Ping!
You have activated the portal for Raid Quest: Ruins of the Fire Worms.

Outside, there’s a mini-teleportal now, next to the main teleportal.

As we leave to inform everyone the Raid Start! is about to happen,

RAID CHAT: [Toru]: Looks like there’s a partial escort phase, then the defense phase, so everyone be prepared. Tank parties, divide half around the NPCs and half among the vanguards.

RAID CHAT: [Baldro]: DPS parties half front and half behind?

RAID CHAT: [Toru]: Sounds good.

RAID CHAT: [Yoh]: Roger

RAID CHAT: [Stein]: Got it.

RAID CHAT: [Kazeboshi]: Roger

RAID CHAT: [Ahava]: We’ll be in back

RAID CHAT: [Chino]: Then healers and rearguards around the NPCs?

RAID CHAT: [Baldro]: Sounds good.

RAID CHAT: [Hisui]: Ok~!

RAID CHAT: [Kohane]: We’ll be in front

…

And so on and so forth.

Looks like the first raid of the game is about to kick off.

—-

—-

TALENTS

[Axe]Lv30       
[Bolstered Endurance]Lv36
[Sharp Senses]Lv27
[Scavenge+]Lv1
[Spirit of the Wild Hunt]Lv26
[Inheritance of the Forest Guardian]Lv30
[Discovery]Lv22
[Bolstered Dexterity]Lv28
[Counter]Lv20
[Mine]Lv17
[Scribe]Lv16

Avg Lv: 23
TP: 25

 

Extra

—

The Assassin Beauties

Ahava and Megu were in the same high school and graduated last year, so they are now new college students.

Previously they were also in the gymnastics club together, and so although the two of them liked VR games, they never had all that much time to play. So of course they could never be considered among the top players.

This year, the two decided to join a less vigorous college circle to have time to play games together.

When OriginStory was first advertised, the price was cheap and it generated an extraordinary amount of hype, so the two girls decided to get together to see how far they could go.

As former gymnastics club members, naturally their motor skills are a bit above the average person, and being used to competitions, the two girls also enjoyed the pressure to keep getting stronger and remaining somewhat relevant as strong players.

Although they weren’t among the best of the best, they’re doing pretty well for not being well-versed in gamer-isms.

The two became somewhat addicted to the small PvP nights the players held at Karolstrem’s South Gates, although they preferred to do 2v2 battles rather than 1v1.

They began to be known as the Assassin Beauties among the PvP addicts, due to their dual [Stealth] Talents, and the fact that, although there were some women, there was still a larger group of guys who enjoyed PvP, so they stood out.

Anyway, it’s still early in the game, where most people were more focused on leveling up their Talents and getting their equipment together, so there truly were only a very few people who took time to horse around regularly in PvP.

The efficiency in gaining ExP through PvP combat is less efficient than doing PvE combat+Quests, after all.

Well, being two beautiful girls, they had more than enough people to party with when they felt like power-leveling, so they weren’t too concerned with that.

—

Starting Servers

It’s not unusual for an MMO/VRMMO to go belly up within a week of its release, so most companies have begun to start out the first few months with just one server.

Most server capacities are limited to somewhere between 5,000players to 20,000players, depending on the size of the company, and accounts are limited to one avatar each.

Whether or not this is the reason for the trend where games have started severely limiting alt-creation, it’s true that nowadays, even after the servers have been expanded and multiplied, you aren’t able to make many alts.

It seems like, as VRMMOs have begun to have nearly limitless options, people have begun to feel like it’s pointless to make avatars in attempts to clear all the possible storylines.

Perhaps the sentiment of ichigo ichien (You get one chance for every opportunity) has taken off in this world’s culture, as well.

Another trend, which is much more frowned upon than even the smallest starting server, is “Application Requirements”.

Some VRMMOs require people to submit applications for account creation at first, and only people who are approved will be able to create accounts in the first few weeks.

Although most claim to be lottery draws for account spots due to the limited number of spots on the servers, some believe that the idea behind it is to entice top players from other games over, both with guaranteed spots and preferential treatment.

And in certain situations, that can actually be the truth.

As you can imagine, that is not a popular move among the gaming community.

It’s become popular opinion that the worst games have tiny starting servers and application requirements, and most games that match that description end up being widely flamed.

Of course there are always exceptions, especially when we’re talking indie games or small, less well-known companies, but in general, companies have only just begun to realize that application requirements after beta are a bad move.

OriginStory had a whopping 50,000 player limit and no application requirements, so the outrage that normally accompanies the starting servers of a game wasn’t as widespread as usual.

This move also gave many people the impression that NuSphere has a lot of confidence in this game, bolstering its image and generating more hype than usual.

Btw, Naru rarely plays the games with application requirements out of principle.

It’s completely not because she’s too lazy to fill out the applications. Honest.

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<A/n: Hm. I thought we’d get into the raid, but Bou and Rinrin decided they were going to be dumbasses, so it kind of turned into showcasing what a train wreck of a party Naru has.
Well, this type of story works best when the side characters are interesting, but I’d also like to be informed, sometimes.
Fluvia 15 also up>