Roam exited the dungeon, a complex network of mountain tunnels, at a dead run as if hell itself was on his heels. His heart was jackhammering in his chest but it wasn't because of the cardio he was currently doing. It was fear and anxiety born out of a situation he didn't understand.

This was supposed to be a game, so why did he feel real pain? How did a raid with a few friends end with him unable to log out or contact support? His party had been downed and none of them were respawning nor responding to his messages. So many questions swirled in his head, tho deep down, what he feared most right now was the answers.

The thousands of viewers watching his stream kept spamming his chat, saying that news outlets were reporting that players were dying in the real world, but he refused to let himself believe them. They were just being assholes, a concerted effort to gaslight him as some kind of dumb prank. Probably a new Internet meme or something.

He was sure of a few things tho. He couldn't get out of the game, there was a bug in the system making him feel pain to the point of blacking out, which he did earlier, and a message from a party member who had stayed behind to celebrate the new years event held in the nearby city of Kyoto said they needed help.

It was just past 1am in the real world, and around 10pm inside the game. Instead of the usual black, starry skies, it was red, bathing the Japanese countryside in an ominous scarlet hue. A rend, like a crack in a mirror, split the heavens in half. The moon was full and white but the sky fissure passing through it made it look like a smashed porcelain plate.

Once out of the perimeter of the dungeon’s entrance, he returned to world map rules so grabbed the magic bamboo whistle hanging around his neck and called the beast of burden it was attuned to.

“Your mount is afraid and cannot be called at this time.

(Mounts are unusable until the “Parade of the hundred demons” event is cleared)

What the hell is this? Roam had never encountered that in the game before. The word parade did spark his memory however. He looked to the opaque words floating on the middle right of his vision and checked his quest log.

QUEST: UNHOLY PROCESSION

The barrier between the mortal and astral realms has weakened enough to allow strong monsters to step into our world. Yokai commander Nurarihyon and his legions of depraved monsters, drawn by the new year celebrations, decided to join the festivities. Although, their idea of a good time is eating humans and reveling in chaos.

CLEAR CONDITION:

-Defeat Nurarihyon

-Survive the night

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE(S):

-Zero deaths

*note: RS:O’s regular day-night cycle is locked in perpetual night until the server wide event is over.

Monsters crossing into our realm! This must’ve been the beginning of the new story arc in the expansion that unlocked today. And the reason why the system wasn't working as intended. He just had to go get his friend and sit tight for the mods to fix this shit.

Roam broke out in another sprint, heading downhill into the dense eerie forest surrounding the dungeon, hiding its the location.

Weaving through the ancient trees, he heard a blood-curling screech somewhere to his left. He had caught the attention of one of the spirit monsters trudging through these haunted woods. It began chasing him and quickly gained ground as its ethereal body could phase through tree trunks.

Another ghost materialized ahead. Roam altered his trajectory to try and avoid aggro-ing the newly spawned enemy but another piercing scream let him know he had failed. He did avoid a head on encounter but it was now following him as well. He could hear both of them rasping behind him as they were slowly catching up.

A glance at his avatar’s various status bars around his field of vision told him he was about to run out of stamina.

He was going to have to engage them. He wouldn’t be able to defeat these high level mobs alone without getting hit but he could perhaps create some distance. The thought of experiencing the intense head pain from before chilled him to the core.

Roam spun around to face his opponents as his stamina ran dry, hands darting to his secondary weapon, a wooden short sword made from a sacred tree branch. With one hand on the scabbard, the other on the handle and his waist bent forward in an aggressive stance, he activated his “Flash draw” iai skill and his blade shot out like a blur. It was a fast light attack that dealt low damage but combined with his sacred short sword, which stunned spiritual beings for 5 seconds, was enough to stop the first target dead in its tracks. His blade returned to it’s sheath just as fast as it had been taken out, enabling him to use the skill once more in quick succession. The second ghost was stunned, it’s clawed hand outstretched and a mere inch from his face.

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Roam stepped away from them while reaching into his inventory and taking out a Taiyaki-a cake shaped like a fish and filled with red bean paste that restored 20% stamina. He had items that recovered more but they all took longer to “eat”. He barely had time to shove it in his mouth before the spirits regained their mobility.

He landed a second round of stun attacks then spun around and activated his sprint. Focused on gaining as much distance as he could, he did not pay attention to the tree branches cutting his skin or poking into him or the hp he was losing due to environmental damage.

-5hp

-5hp

Roam swore up a storm out of confused anger as he could feel the pain even from those. What the fuck was happening?

He burst out of the wooded area unto a small dirt road, then slowed back to regular jogging has his stamina was nearly depleted once more. He had lost the unwanted attention of the spirits but still stuffed his face again in case he encountered something else.

He followed the path until it merged with a bigger one winding itself down Mount Atago. He spotted a Jizo statue where the roads intersected and approached it. Something was off. There was a cloud of dark miasma in front of the bald deity’s eyes, with reddish motes floating in it. It was as if the statue was cursed, its sight stolen.

Roam was wary but trekking through areas teeming with strong mobs that could literally hurt him wasn’t any better then setting off a potential trap. He decided to try using the statue to fast travel back to town anyway. He checked is inventory and took out an offering.

SUPERIOR JIZO CANDY: +5 to all stats for an hour upon arrival at fast travel destination (cannot be stacked). He placed the candy on the pedestal at the statue’s feet. A window popped up in front of him alerting him that it couldn't be used at this moment.

Roam grabbed is hair, losing his cool. How was he going to reach the safety of the city which was miles away? He turned in a circle, analyzing the environment around him. Was there something he could use? All he could see were rocks, grass and tall trees.

Tall trees! An idea struck him. It normally wouldn’t work well on flat ground but it would on a very steep hill.

He ran towards a tree and right before smashing into it, activated his ninja footing skill which allowed him to run on any surfaces at the cost of 1 mp per second. Running up the trunk, he retrieved a piece of fabric tied to a metal rod from his inventory. Reaching the top of the tree, he launched himself in the air with a front flip and at the apex of his jump, pumped 20 mp into a one time cast skill. The energy spread through the cloth via the magically conductive metal. The wing shaped fabric came alive unfurling into his glider.

Roam soared through the skies, heading towards the illuminated city of Kyoto in the distance, slowly losing altitude as he got closer.

From this vantage point, he had a wide, clear view of the area and what he saw beneath him was nothing but pure carnage. There was fighting everywhere he looked. Monsters ran rampant on every streets, barely suppressed by players and the Emperor’s npc armed forces. Roam was baffled as cities were not zones were PvE combat occurred.

He angled himself so that his path aligned with the first tallest structure around which happened to be the adventurer’s guild pagoda. He stuck the landing on the tiles of a ledge midway up the tall tower.

Assessing the dire situation below, he could tell that the players were not doing well, many of them writhing in pain on the ground screaming or hovering a feet off the ground in a chrysalis of golden light, the telltale sign that a player was defeated and had not been healed fast enough to rejoin the fight. They would have to respawn manually. But they weren't choosing to do so…

Roam had the sick feeling in his stomach that what his viewers had tried to tell him was true. Players were dying for real.

15 months earlier…