Chapter 11: Reunion with the Teacher was the Worst – 2

O GM who judges righteously and examines the heart and mind, I have revealed my cause to you, so I will see your vengeance on them.

Spriggan Chapter 11, Verse 20.

Bustling.

A huge plaza teeming with countless people moving together.

Where is this?

Who am I?

I was standing dazed in the middle of it all.

Just a while ago, while having a meal at a restaurant, a Tiger tribe female student named Perizet told me to go to GM sanctuary and genuinely repent and apologize.

She said to log into Rudera for that.

From my perspective, it was such absurd nonsense that I couldn’t even find the words to reply.

“Oh, friend. We were going to play Rudera anyway. Why not go with this girl while we’re at it?”

The friend beside me didn’t even try to dissuade me and suggested we go together.

This guy, who seemed kind of cool when he stopped that religious zealot, went crazy at the mention of Rudera.

This guy… maybe he has no friends but me.

He seems even more addicted to Rudera than I am.

Anyway, because of that, I was lying in my dorm room, logged into Rudera, waiting in the plaza on the first floor of the Tower of Labyrinth to meet the two of them.

Of course, I logged in with a newly created level 1 account, knowing the chaos that would ensue if I used my usual GM account.

I never imagined my first adventure would be heading to a sanctuary unknown even to me.

The absurdity made me chuckle.

Maybe it was a good thing.

The various worlds created inside the Tower of Labyrinth were all planned and created by me.

They were all worlds born from my imagination.

Because it was my own world, it became a world I couldn’t enjoy.

“But if it’s a place created by the players.”

A place created by the players, unknown to me.

A place I could enjoy because it was unknown to me.

I felt a slight thrill of excitement inside.

“Hey! Albus!”

At that moment, I heard a voice calling my name from afar.

Turning my head in the direction of the voice, I saw Wald waving at me.

“Hey!”

Unlike Earth’s virtual reality games, Rudera does not provide avatar or custom features, so players’ appearances are exactly the same as in reality.

To be precise, it was based on illusion magic, so it looked exactly as the player imagined themselves, but it was the same as their real appearance.

Thanks to that, I could recognize Wald immediately even though we were meeting in Rudera for the first time.

“What the heck, Albus. You…”

Balt, who had run up to me with a bright smile, squinted his eyes when he saw the clothes I was wearing.

“Isn’t this the academy uniform? Did Rudera have an academy uniform?”

Oh no!

In my hurry to create a new account, I had reflected the clothes I was wearing when I returned to the dorm after the meal.

Of course, the Lichten Academy uniform does not exist in Rudera.

Even though the players’ appearances are copied, the outfits are related to armour items, so only the outfits existing in Rudera could be worn.

“Oh, that’s…!”

What, what should I say…?

‘I’m actually a GM, so I can make clothes at will, but I accidentally brought my real outfit? Hahaha.’

I couldn’t get away with that.

As I couldn’t think of what to say, Wald spoke up.

“Decorating Rudera armor to look like an academy uniform. You must be really proud of the academy, huh?”

Balt said as if he found it surprising.

“I heard that the Lichten Academy itself is the best educational institution on the continent, so first-year students often feel proud. It makes sense. Hmm.”

As he said that, Wald nodded.

“Ah… Ahahaha.”

I just hoped my laughter didn’t sound awkward.

Did it go well?

“Hmm. Neither of you are late.”

Suddenly, Perizet’s voice came from behind.

“Ah, you scared me!”

Wald jumped in surprise.

She had been hiding and waiting, but now she revealed herself.

“Can’t you appear properly? You scared me!”

…She was here?

I was also surprised like Wald because I never imagined she would be hiding at the meeting place.

If it was my GM account, I wouldn’t have missed her while she was hiding, but since I was using a newly created sub-account that reflects my real-life specs, I didn’t notice her at all.

‘It seems I need to activate the ability to see players’ status windows.’

I adjusted the access permissions of the sub-account I was currently logged into.

I had left only minimal permissions because I thought having too powerful permissions would make the adventure less fun, but it seemed I needed the status window permission after all.

“Hmph. Humans have small bodies, so their courage must be lacking too.”

“…Excuse me? Did you just say that? No, this is sexual harassment!”

“I never mentioned any specific body part.”

“But you looked there!”

Listening to Perizetand Wald bickering despite not having known each other for long, I brought up their status windows in front of me.

Ding

Waldbruck Stein

LV 79

Class: Magic Swordsman

As mentioned before, Wald had the rare class of Magic Swordsman.

‘Level 79, huh.’

In real terms, it was the level of an intermediate to advanced Sword Expert.

‘This guy… is stronger than I thought.’

Because he always seemed to just laze around or talk about games, I unconsciously underestimated him, but his status window was surprisingly impressive.

Thinking of my sister, who is in her third year at the academy and is called a genius for reaching the peak of Sword Expert, Wald would at least be considered quite talented.

‘Of course, part of it is thanks to obtaining the rare class in Rudera.’

Even so, getting through the extreme difficulty to obtain the class means he has considerable skill.

I closed Wald’s status window and opened Perizet.

Ding

Perizet al Brigand

LV 92

Class: Sand Assassin

…92?’

Considering that the wall beyond which is the Sword Master is level 100, her level was that of a top-level Sword Expert on the brink of becoming a Sword Master.

…She’s almost at my sister’s level?’

Isn’t it considered talented just to reach Sword Expert before one’s 20s?

Why are there so many monsters?

Her level made me doubt my ability to read status windows.

On top of that, she had the rare class of Sand Assassin.

‘If we had fought at the restaurant earlier, it would have been a real disaster.’

Seeing her status window, I realized that if she attacked me, I wouldn’t stand a chance.

‘Oh, wait a minute.’

Then, her full name, which I hadn’t focused on properly before, caught my eye.

Perizet al… Brigand.

Isn’t Brigand the surname of the Beast King?

And “al” is a middle name permitted only for direct descendants of the Demihuman chieftains.

Why is this woman…

Come to think of it, the Sand Assassin was a class that could only be obtained in the Spriggan’s Great Desert.

The modern Spriggan’s Great Desert is under the control of Brigand.

……… Is this woman possibly a direct descendant of the Demihuman King…!

“Human. You might need to shorten your words a bit.”

“Huh? Are you trying to fight?”

“No, Wald. If you fight, you’ll die. You’ll be torn to pieces.”

“Hmph. Very well. What matters now is not your small pride or body parts.”

“I’ll kill her.”

Okay

Wakd drew a sword from his inventory.

Quack

“Kkaak!”

He was mercilessly crushed by Perizet.

“Uh… what is this woman? I couldn’t even see her move.”

“Hmph. This is the special power that GM bestowed upon us Demihumans. Praise the great GM.”

Although I didn’t see Perizet’s movement, judging by the overwhelming figure that subdued Wlad, it seems that my status window’s ability isn’t wrong.

As an experiment, I opened the status windows of passing pedestrians.

Ding

Hans

LV 12

Ding

Jane

LV 31

Ding

Robert

LV 28

What’s going on?

It’s normal.

Am I just unlucky enough to get involved with these fanatics?

As I sighed inwardly and was about to turn off the floating status windows, my finger slipped.

“Huh?”

And the slipping finger turned on another pedestrian’s status window.

Ding

And in that status window, I discovered a creature I had never seen before.

“…Hmm?”

***

Emperor Ahenobarbus noticed the gaze of a boy.

To avoid attracting anyone else’s attention, he hid his power and minimized his presence.

Even in this world of Rudera, which was gradually becoming interesting to him.

No human had seen through his hiding and his skills, except for the divine and transcendent beings.

“It’s interesting.”

Already, it seemed that many things had happened while he had left the continent unguarded.

He smiled slyly and followed behind the boy being led towards the gate by a Demihuman.