“Good morning, everyone! It’s 8 AM on Tuesday, 7/8.”
The morning after the birthday stream.
I had impulsively set up a streaming slot.
“It’s a stream to deliver so energy to everyone struggling with their morning commute!”
“I’m not lying, but that’s just a secondary goal.”
“I thought I’d take a quick run to Zeronoa this morning as a bit of exercise. It’s what you’d call a morning routine, probably.”
“That’s right! Well, it’s not exactly an event, but sothing unusual is happening in Zeronoa.”
Yes.
There was a reason I had impulsively taken this early morning slot.
☆
Let’s go back to early this morning.
An anomaly had occurred in Zeronoa.
The news spread rapidly across the internet, and naturally, it didn’t take long to reach Rin-chan.
Woken up by Rin-chan at 6 AM, I carried the much sleepier Rin-chan to the living room table.
While waiting for Miharu to prepare breakfast, I asked Rin-chan why she had woken up so early.
“What’s the anomaly? What happened?”
“It seems that NPCs with exactly the sa face started appearing all over the city since last night.”
“Like doppelgängers? Are they elusive or are there just a lot of them?”
“A lot of them.”
Although Rin-chan had woken up, she hadn’t really looked into it much herself, so we decided to investigate it together after breakfast.
Originally, in Zeronoa, there were a few rare NPCs rumored to carry so sort of quest flag, but they were rarely encountered.
One of them was a naless young girl NPC, cloaked in a black hooded robe. This was the girl NPC that Haruru had briefly ntioned before, the one searching for the black wolf.
She would wander the outskirts of Zeronoa’s city from morning till night, vanishing when you tried to speak to her, or suddenly appearing behind you when you least expected it.
Like a ghost, uncertain but certainly existing NPC.
“It’s like an urban legend, isn’t it?”
“Definitely.”
Regarding the strange occurrence, my birthday livestream concluded at approximately 6 PM yesterday. Around six hours later, as the clock struck midnight and the date transitioned, the anomaly began to unfold.
“In every part of the city, and on every server simultaneously, the sa NPC was confird to appear. The number, according to archives left by many strears and testimonies on forums, easily exceeds a hundred per server, and considering the size of Zeronoa’s city, it wouldn’t be strange if there were a thousand or even more… The details are still under investigation.”
“For now, all we know is that a lot of them have appeared.”
“Could it be an event?”
“There’s been no announcent, so if anything, it might be the result of soone progressing a quest… Like when Es≠Trillia was unlocked.”
The unlocking of the underwater ruins of Es≠Trillia happened because a player won a ga against a solo nad NPC on Lake Trillia.
Considering that, it’s possible that the actions of a single player could be the trigger.
However, when Es≠Trillia was unlocked, there was an official announcent to the players. Thinking about it, the situation might be different this ti.
“If it’s related to the black wolf, that’s a bit concerning.”
“It’s one of Nana’s goals, after all.”
“Yeah. Plus, you’ll have to start preparing for the WGCS soon, right? Regardless of whether we can beat it, I’d like to face it before then…”
“That’s true. The main tournant is in mid-August, so from next week we’ll have to focus on practicing for the WGCS for about a month. Of course, it doesn’t an we won’t have ti for WLO, but the reason Touka is working so hard right now is because of her end-of-term tests at the end of the month. We don’t want to waste her efforts, so we’d like to focus on the WGCS.”
We had obtained the right to participate in the main WGCS tournant through the BATTLER.
In the All-Stars Regulation we’re participating in, we’ll be able to play the “actual ga used in the tournant” one month before the competition.
It seems to be the start of the open beta test, to be precise. The official release is scheduled to be right after the tournant ends.
The WGCS main tournant will be around the Obon festival, so the start of the open beta test was also supposed to be around next week.
“Since we’re in Zeronoa, I’d really like to join in on a boss fight this ti.”
“Sounds great! I couldn’t join last ti because of the BATTLER… Oh, but I haven’t even arrived in Zeronoa yet.”
“That’s right, you haven’t. Can you make a quick run for it?”
“Yeah, if I have a map.”
The route from Griffith to Zeronoa is quite straightforward now that it’s been developed.
It takes about four hours including battles, or less than two if you just moving. There should be rest spots where you can save along the way, so it’s a distance you can cover with a bit of spirited walking, like doing two days of consecutive walking exercises.
It’s not set up to be as ti-consuming as when coming from Fias to Griffith, navigating through a huge dungeon and all that.
“Maybe I’ll just quickly stream my jog there this morning.”
“That’s a good idea. The earlier, the better. Most people start work after 9 AM.”
“Will do!”
It’s 7:30 AM. After quickly finishing breakfast on the table, I start preparing for the stream in a hurry.
☆
“So, there’s no reason to stay in Griffith forever, I’m thinking of heading to Zeronoa.”
“Exactly. I even took down the last golem with a little nudge. I’ve stayed in this area for too long, and I’ll breeze through the dungeon as a test run for the new weapon.”
I got the map to Zeronoa from Rin-chan.
Sure, I could roughly find my way using echo positioning, but having a map is always better.
With it, there’s almost no chance of getting lost on the way to Zeronoa, and I should be able to get there easily by mid-morning.
“The main challenge in getting to Zeronoa seems to be the level difference with the monsters. If we can just get past that, it seems like the adventure part will be a breeze.”
Even though the route to Zeronoa has been developed and mapped, reducing the hassle of adventure, the number of players who have actually reached Zeronoa is still small.
The reason is that the level of monsters encountered along the way suddenly spikes.
Specifically, it jumps from level 50 to around level 70 on average.
As a rule of thumb, hitting level 70 is recomnded for players aiming to safely reach Zeronoa. This suggestion is based on the assumption that you’re in a party; if you’re going solo, you’ll want a bit more room for maneuvering.
And as you’d expect, the grind for levels becos more ti-consuming the higher you go, right? Naturally, making the leap from 50 to 70 demands a significant investnt of ti, and that’s a major hurdle causing many players to get stuck.
“Being a solo wizard seems tough. Even with plenty of SP, you’re inevitably going to be lacking in sturdiness and agility.”
Wizards, unlike physical classes, don’t use Arts much, so they always have plenty of SP.
However, wizards need to fight around their finite MP, even with automatic recovery, as opposed to SP, which ans they need to specialize more in firepower (that is, intelligence).
This naturally tends to lower their agility and dexterity, both of which greatly affect evasive actions, making it difficult for solo players to handle enemies effectively.
And that’s exactly the kind of situation Rin-chan was in when she got cornered and defeated.
“Well, I should be fine. I’m confident I could make it there while humming a tune.”
“That’s actually true. When there’s a level difference, monsters beco less likely to appear.”
Just like when I wasn’t attacked by any monsters in the Forest of Ends, monsters with an extre level difference don’t attack players.
They won’t run away, but they will avoid you.
They co out if you’re within a certain radius, kind of like parting the sea like Moses, being exquisitely avoided by the monsters.
If you chase them, you can engage in battle, and you can defeat them from outside their range, so it’s not like there are no opponents to fight.
“Well then, I’ve talked about my goal, so let’s get going! Aiming for a Zeronoa arrival speedrun!”
“Is it just or are these turning into screams?”
While engaging in such playful banter.
I started running towards the sixth city, Zeronoa.
As declared at the end of chapter 5, we’ll skip the entire WGCS arc, but after chapter 6, there will be a jump of one month in ti, so please consider this as a prelude to that.
Reviews
All reviews (0)