“Yoroshiku!”

A tall man awaited Dantes on the other side of the doors. A typical paladin, but his appearance reminded him a bit of Renegade…

…

…This was an unexpected situation. A funny situation? Dantes could not quite tell. Maybe he would’ve been dumbfounded if it was literally any other situation.

However, this simple phrase was enough to inspire him to return to his old mindset and try to move on from the past memories. Where had the Dantes that complained about a $99 game gone? If he didn’t actively try to be happy, to pretend to be happy, then he would not be happy. So here went nothing…

…

What the fuck?

In front of him stood a red-haired man (what was up with the abundance of red hair?), speaking broken Japanese. Calling it broken Japanese would be a compliment. This was as close to Japanese as Everybody’s Tower was to a good game, but even that would be unfair to Everybody’s Tower, a literal death game.

“Omae wa’s Dantes, right? Watashi no’ve heard dekai about omae!”

“...Could I speak to someone else please?”

“Hm? Okay!”

The door closed with a thud before reopening to reveal Svirit. Finally, a familiar face.

“Hey… Is it finally time?”

Now that Svirit was no longer a mere stranger, Dantes realized how great her voice was. Was it deeper? It was definitely more relaxed. With her eyes slightly slanted to the lazy side, she always looked a bit high, but in a good way. It must’ve had something to do with appearing sly, or coy. Only if Dantes actually knew what any of those words meant. You know, like a cool, comfy girl.

It’s an RPG after all. A Role Playing Game. You could be anyone you wanted within these boundaries. Your appearance, voice and even mannerisms could be changed to become an idealized version of someone. It did not even have to be yourself, it could be someone you admire or love or someone you dream about. Appearances meant nothing. Identities meant nothing. Names meant nothing.

“...I just wanted to learn more about you guys,” said Dantes, “then I’ll decide for myself.”

“Cool. I can help you with that.”

Svirit invited Dantes with a gesture, and the door soon closed behind him. The building had many windows — many, many windows. This type of building would only be feasible in a videogame such as this due to stability and cost. It was quite a luxurious place by ET standards as well. It must’ve had hundreds, no, thousands of contributors. It was ludicrous, in a middle-of-the-road kind of way.

She lead him around the guild, maneuvering between the furniture and people. Whoever constructed this place clearly was inexperienced. For example, the door to the first-floor bathroom could not open fully due to a shelf on the perpendicular wall, and there was a chandelier in the kitchen, which brushed against hairs. Overall, it was quite a mess.

"So... Who's the guild leader of Section 8?"

"You mean Crownslayer?" asked Svirit, "Or the old guild leader?"

"The old guild leader? I thought this guild was only a few days old."

"It is..." said Svirit, "Actually, I was the old guild leader."

"You?!"

"Yeah, I mean, no one else really wanted to do it. It's a lot of work, you know?"

"What happened?"

"Well, Crownslayer showed up a day or two ago and challenged me to a duel. I mean, I didn't even know duels existed, did you know that? Anyways, he was one of the best players I've ever seen, and high-level too. So that's how I became a tour guide instead."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Really?"

"Eh, no. I actually don't have any formal role anymore."

Crownslayer... For some reason, the name sounded familiar. Where did he know it from? Perhaps in some kind of a mobile game? Anyhow, the name itself did not matter, what mattered was what kind of person he was.

Suddenly, the sound of crashing and tumbling paused all other noises, and everyone on the first floor focused on an individual falling down the stairs.

"O-ouch..."

Crownslayer was an elusive character, covered from head to toe in dark armour. However, it seemed that the armour did not break the fall much, perhaps making it worse due to its weight.

"Are you okay, Crownslayer?" asked Svirit.

Crownslayer? This guy who just fell down the stairs?

“...”

The man did not say anything after falling down the stairs. This must’ve been a common enough occurrence gauging from the reactions of those around him. It was difficult to imagine he was a particularly powerful player, but he would need to check his stats beforehand.

The way you checked another player's status was very simple: simple roll your fingers and hand into a tube, a useless telescope, then target your target. Then it'd show you something like this:

Crownslayer

Lv55

Samurai

HP: 48500

MP: 0

ATK: 20000

MAG: 20000

AGE: 56988

...

Usually not something like this.

Also, 'Samurai'? Dantes had never heard of such a class before. To his knowledge, such an option was not available to him -- was Crownslayer another live tester like Vergiln?

"B-- I mean, it's great to meet you finally, D-Dantes," said Crownslayer.

"Uh, it's great for me too."

"...Anyways, do you want to duel?"

"...Do you just duel everyone you meet or...?"

"Uh... Isn't that what samurais do...?"

"My brother in Christ... I'm literally a healer..."

'O-oh, sorry. Then do you want to have a cooking contest or...?"

"Look, I'm not here to challenge you to become a guild leader or anything, alright?" said Dantes, "Also, where'd you get that Samurai class? I've never seen anyone with that class before."

"Uh... I just... found it."

"Huh?"

"...Look, my friend actually gave me this gear, so I don't know okay?"

"...Huh, sure."

"...So do you wanna duel or...?"

Dantes simply walked away from the conversation. That was one of the great parts of playing a video game. For some reason, in real-life conversation, it is inappropriate to leave in the middle of a conversation, however, in the virtual world, there is anyone to hold you accountable. It did not matter -- Dantes wasn't even Dantes, he was... someone else entirely.

As Dantes walked through the multi-floored guild, Svirit and the Japanglish man from earlier joined him.

"So, how'd you like the guild so far?"

"...It's fine."

"It's fuckin' sugoi!"

"...Nobody asked, man."

"Do you want to know my backstory as a side character? Having a backstory actually keeps me from being a fodder character [blah blah blah. A few more pages of words] and that's when I returned to my mother nation of America and learned to be my true self. But I learned that only online such behaviours were barely acceptable [blah blah blah. I guess it wasn't over yet] and yeah, I didn't want to take up so much time explaining the backstory of a meaningless side-character, but then again, I guess he can be like an emotional death-fodder? I don't think anyone care enough though [blah blah blah]"

Dantes turned toward Svirit.

"...Is he always like this?"

"I have no idea. I just met him a few hours ago," said Svirit, "but I guess that's how it is in Everybody's Tower, isn't it? Even in this prison, it's the free-est we've ever been in our lives. People become fluid -- they come and go and they change however they like."

"A dystopian fantasy, cow in a VR headset?"

"Something like that, yeah. But it's less of a Matrix situation because we're surrounded by real people."

"...Do you feel free in ER?"

"...I do."

Dantes thought about himself. His situation. Would it be better to live in Everybody's Tower rather than to escape? What if they could shape the first floor to be the best it could possibly be, and live a life of relaxation in this fantasy city, fantasy countryside, fantasy world?

His real life was not great. Nobody's was really. That was one of the biggest reasons why ER became such a massive hit across the globe, crowned as the ultimate form of escapism.

At the end of the corridor awaited Crownslayer -- to Dantes's surprise.

"...Can I help you?"

"...Let's have a duel," said Crownslayer, "this time, I'm not asking."