Dead Nerds Society: What Do You Mean My Guild Was Also Isekaid? Chapter 34: Martin

((I think this girl’s obsession with has reached an unhealthy point... But she has been left completely alone in this underground place, isolated from the world, for all those years. I guess this is all she could do to keep going on...))

Cecilia cast a loving look onto Mina and gently patted her head.

"It’s okay, Mina. I’ve been absent for far too long. I understand. But now I’m back, and you won’t ever be alone again. So please, take them down later?"

Mina was frozen in place, with her cheeks as pink as it was possible to be.

"You promise, Master?"

"Yes, I promise."

Mina looked up at Cecilia with her eyes shining with joy.

"Okay! I want to be with you forever! I’ll take them right now!"

Cecilia went back to the main hall of the base to check the available equipnt. It was all as good as new, even perishable things that should’ve spoiled ages ago.

((Maid’s techniques are really powerful... Well, now all that’s left is to set up the rune and head back to Drakenhof.))

At that mont, a notification pinged up in the corner of her vision, along with a ring sound inside her head.

[Cecilia! So you really ca as well.]

((Huh? Oh, it’s Martin.))

She opened the chat screen.

[Martin! I didn’t expect to find you in this world.]

[Well, I did have a hunch. You were the first of us to die, after all.]

[Oh? So I really did die...]

[Yes... all of us did, so I think that soon everyone will be here.]

Even though there wasn’t a voice or face of any kind, Cecilia was still able to sense the sadness in his words.

[So, am I correct to guess that you were the last one?]

[Sowhat, yes.]

[’Sowhat’?]

[In any case, you were the first person ever to die while connected to the ga. The dia made a big deal out of it, but it was later revealed that it was just an electric blackout in your hospital, that the owners were trying to hide by shifting the bla.]

[Oh... What a la way to die. Then, is it safe to assu that every player that has returned has had the sa fate? Did everyone just die while connected?]

[Well, I can’t affirm with full certainty that it’s the truth for everyone, but everyone I t were players who died while in the ga. So, it’s safe to assu, but there might be so outliers I don’t know about, yet.]

[Do you know about every person who died while connected?]

[Well, I AM the leader of the Dead Nerds Society. Of course I did my research before dying myself. Obviously, I don’t know all of them from the top of my head, but luckily I wrote it all down in an in-ga book that was in my inventory...]

[That’s our leader for you. So, do you have any leads on what might have caused this?]

[Nope. Not a clue.]

[Yeah, I expected that. Anyway, do you know sothing about the Closing of the Servers that people talk about?]

Cecilia’s hands were sweating as she thought of what information she had amassed until now. Suddenly, sothing soft touched her hand, startling her.

"I’m sorry, Master. I saw you were sweating, so I’m wiping the sweat. Are you chatting with soone?"

Mina obviously couldn’t see the UI of the ga that was opened in front of Cecilia’s eyes, but she was used to her master spacing out like that. It was a common sight when players were using the chat or checking anything on the several screens in the ga.

"Yes, I’m talking to Martin."

"Oh, that perv is back again as well?"

"Perv?"

((As if you could say anything about that, Mina.)) Cecilia thought, rembering her own pics in the catgirl’s room.

"Yeah. He’s a man, yet all his followers are won."

"I don’t think that alone makes anyone a pervert, though... Did he say sothing weird to you?"

"No, never."

"Then stop calling him a perv."

"As you wish, Master."

Cecilia sighed and turned her attention back to the chat, where Martin had already sent three ssages.

[Yes, I was there when it was announced. We never knew what prompted the devs to close the ga, and the official excuse was ’technical issues,’ which always sounded like bullshit.]

[The dia was doing a nasty campaign against neural reality tech, and every ti soone would die while connected, they would do a huge commotion about it, even when it had nothing to do with the technology.]

[For example, there was this French guy, a healthy teenager, who was playing in his house when so thugs broke in. They shot him, thinking that he was mocking them when he didn’t answer their questions about money in the house.]

((A French guy, healthy teenager... Wait, isn’t it...?))

[Wait, Martin. Was that French guy called Jules Petit?]

[Yeah, that’s the one. Do you know him?]

[He’s living in Drakenhof. Caused a bit of commotion there, but he’s a nice guy.]

[Hmm... That’s good to know. I an, that he is well and safe. The dia did a huge campaign about it. I rember that a priest went to the Senate and gave a five-hour speech about the souls of people who died while connected not being able to return to God or so bullshit like that.]

Cecilia’s mind was still processing the information when another ssage ca.

[I think that that was the last straw. Exactly one month after that speech, the company announced that they would be closing the servers exactly one month after that. They even refunded all purchases made in the last four months.]

[Wait. One month? So you died in that one month? How?]

[Yes. I died one week before the servers closed. Carol and I were the only ones still alive at that point, and we had lost the will to keep on fighting our RL condition. Losing Hyperborea was like being disabled a second ti.]

[I see...]

She understood the hidden aning behind those words but didn’t press the issue. Instead, she sent another ssage, in a more positive tone.

[Well, we didn’t lose Hyperborea in the end. We’re here. And this is our real life now.]