IGTL Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Realizing My Level Was Reset

“So why were you drinking so much at the Adventurers’ Guild, Kyle? Booze only slaps you with a bad status, right?”

When I warned him, Kyle cocked an eyebrow.

“Huh? Don’t tell me you still haven’t noticed.”

“Eh?”

What on earth was he talking about?

Before I could ask, Kyle shoved a beer stein into my hands.

“Hey, what am I supposed to do with this?”

“Just drink,” he muttered.

“I mean, I don’t want a bad status…,” I grumbled, but I reluctantly took a sip. A rich malt fragrance blossomed across my tongue.

“!? W-What is this… this beer actually has flavor!?”

Not just that, there was a real aroma when I sniffed.

A large-scale event? Did that event overhaul the systems?

“Yeah. I didn’t believe it either until I drank this. Like ‘he’ said, this world has become reality.”

“This world became reality? What are you even saying?”

Kyle gave me a look of exasperation.

“Seems you still can’t accept it. Look over there.”

I followed the finger he pointed. A player in tatters slumped at a table.

“He’s wrecked.”

“Yeah. He went through the dungeon’s ‘Refinement.’”

“Dungeon ‘Refinement’?”

Was there ever a quest like that?

Kyle’s face turned grave.

“A lot changed the moment this world turned real. Look at this.”

He pulled his Adventurer’s Emblem from his item storage and showed me.

“Hey, you’re pretty drunk. You sure you want to flash your Adventurer’s Emblem?”

An Adventurer’s Emblem displays your status. It’s bad manners to peek at someone else’s stats.

“It’s fine. Check it.”

“If you say so.”

I took Kyle’s emblem and tapped “Inspect” on my menu.

“W-What the hell!?”

His status showed as level 1. 

“What is going on?”

“Beats me. I just noticed it was like this. After the big event, the Yggdrasil Shop vanished, monsters got ‘real,’ and our levels got reset to 1. You’d drink too.”

He drained his stein, raised a hand to the waiter, and ordered another.

“…Hic. One more beer.”

“Right away, sir,” the waiter said, jotting on a ticket before heading to the kitchen.

I froze at the exchange. Kyle frowned.

“Huh? What’s with you spacing out?”

“W-Well… wouldn’t you? The waiter just said something that isn’t from a canned line.”

“Yeah, that startled me at first too. But the world’s real now. Of course he talks. More importantly, check your own status. Judging from you, I bet you haven’t looked.”

“R-Right.”

I hadn’t checked since I maxed my level.

I tapped “Status” on the menu.

“W-What!?”

My once-capped level now read 5.

“L-Level 5…”

Total reset.

While I gaped, Kyle slid a menu across to me.

“…You drinking too?”

“…Yeah. Suddenly I feel like I should. Waiter, a beer—make it a stein.”

“Right away, sir,” the waiter said, scribbling and heading back.

“Back to the point. After the event, adventurers all rushed into dungeons. Guess what happened.”

“You don’t mean…!”

Our levels reset after the event. Marching into a dungeon like that…

“Yeah. Those who head into beginner dungeons are lucky. The monsters are weak, and good gear can carry you. But the ones who went to intermediate or advanced dungeons? No chance. Lots of serious injuries. Some even died.”

“…I see.”

T-That was close! I had literally faced a beginner-tier boss at level 1! Without my paid Mob-Fenrir Suit and Mob-Fenrir Bazooka, I was done for.

“And that’s not all. Now that it’s real, getting hit hurts, just like reality. When you kill a monster, it doesn’t crumble into black dust. The corpse stays. If you want materials, you carve them out. Obvious, when you think about it. And look at them…”

Kyle nodded at the battered player again.

“…That’s ‘AAAA,’ a high-rank DW veteran. In the real world, he’s one of the veteran players who worked as a home security guard for forty years, supported by his parents. Back when DW was ‘just a game,’ hits didn’t cause pain. You just watched the HP/MP bars and chugged potions. Now it’s different.”

“Yeah… no kidding.”

Pain dulls judgment. With a huge level gap, maybe you could brute force it, except our levels got reset. In this ‘real’ world, fighting monsters is basically going to Serengeti with a sword to fight buffalo and lions.

If it didn’t hurt, maybe. But now that it does, you can’t fight properly.

Weird, though… I didn’t feel pain. And my kills still dropped items normally. What was going on with me?

While I mulled it over, the waiter arrived with two brimming steins.

“Thanks. Here.”

“Much obliged!”

We clinked and downed them in a single go.

“Ahh! That hits the spot. Never thought I’d be drinking beer inside DW!”

“Same. By the way, did you book a room at an inn?”

“Huh? An inn?”

Kyle sighed.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t.”

“Well, what’s the point? Inns are only for HP recovery.”

I had beginner potions. Why bother?

Kyle cradled his head.

“There is a point. This world is real. Where are you going to sleep?”

“Ah…”

Good point.

Well, I can just log out and sleep back at the cafe…

I glanced at Kyle.

No way I could tell him “I’m the only one who can log out.” Whatever.

“Don’t ‘ah’ me. When you finish, go find an inn. With PK in this world, sleeping rough will get you killed.”

“Y-Yeah, I’ll be careful… Ah! What about ‘My Room’…?”

“My Room” is the private space you access from the Yggdrasil Gate. I had mountains of overflow items stored there. We used it like a shared stash and had the bare minimum of room goods.

“My Room disappeared along with the Yggdrasil Shop.”

“What!?”

My Room… gone!? That vault had heaps of items and the in-game currency, ‘Col’!

“That’s bad.”

“Everyone stuck here is thinking the same thing. I get it, you won’t accept it until you try. Go to the gate and see for yourself. Bet you can’t enter.”

“Yeah… I’ll check.”

His pitying gaze stung.

“Sure, a lot’s worse now, but one thing is better.”

“Better?”

“Yeah. I hoarded login bonuses and farmed beginner dungeons for potions. I think I could survive for about ten years without doing anything. It wouldn’t work like that in the real world.”

“…R-Right.”

Fair enough. Still… Kyle, you good with that?

Well, to each their own.

I finished my beer, set some Col on the table, and stood.

“Then I’ll head to the gate. After that, I’ll look for an inn.”

“Got it. Stay alive.”

I waved and made for the Transfer Gate “Yggdrasil.”

“I only came to the Adventurers’ Guild to grab a quest, and it turned into all this… Oh, there it is.”

―Transfer Gate “Yggdrasil.”

I faced the gate, opened my menu, and looked for “My Room.” At the very bottom, the words appeared.

“Oh… it’s there.”

All right. Let’s try it.

“Transfer. My Room.”

Blue light wrapped my body, and I warped to My Room, a warehouse filled with various items.