Chapter 1 - Prologue
“Prologue”
Sunlight-filtered forest.
Accompanied by the rustling of branches and leaves, a pleasant breeze gently passes through. There stood a solitary boy, rooted to the spot. Before his eyes stood an ancient tree that seemed to have lived for thousands of years—a majestic and sacred presence, akin to a divine tree. It felt as if even the earth and air were pure here, unlike anything he had ever experienced in Tokyo, Japan. The boy was bewildered as he thought,
“Where am I?”
No one answered his question. He simply stood there, facing the giant tree.
**********************************************
A few hours before the boy found himself standing still in the forest.
Seiji Ishikawa, an ordinary salaryman, had returned home and was browsing the internet while having dinner. It was his daily routine. On that day, he was looking for information on the latest installment of the game known as “Fantasy Saga” or simply “FS,” which was said to be in development. FS was a globally acclaimed role-playing game, known for its deep scenarios and continuous introduction of new systems within the basic structure of heroes defeating the demon lord. Even after 26 years, it remained popular.
Seiji’s only hobby was gaming, and FS was his absolute favorite. He had been playing it since he was five years old when the first FS was released. Upon hearing that the 16th installment was being made, he had even replayed numbers 1 through 15.
Each time a new FS was released, he would play it multiple times, whether it was a remake or a spin-off. He was an enthusiastic fan, to say the least.
As he aimlessly surfed the internet, searching for the latest information, he came across some breaking news that left him stunned. It reported the passing of Keigo Nakajima, the developer of FS.
“No way… Can’t be true,” Seiji thought.
Although 65 years old, Keigo Nakajima had an energy that belied his age. In a recent article, he had expressed his enthusiasm for developing the latest installment, FS16, and Seiji’s heart had been filled with excitement.
What would happen to FS now? Seiji continued to click through various articles on the internet, where opinions about the game’s fate were flying around—ranging from FS coming to an end to other developers taking over.
Among them, he stumbled upon a certain website.
“New Fantasy Saga Trial Version Players Wanted.”
“Is this for real?” Seiji wondered.
It had only been a month since they announced they were starting development. Seiji assumed it would take at least a year before the latest installment was completed.
“Well, even if it’s just a fan-made project, if it’s good, I don’t mind. Right now, I just want to immerse myself in the world of FS,” Seiji thought, and he clicked on the link.
Suddenly, a series of questions began to appear.
“Answer the experience points of the slime that appears in this FS trial version.”
Normally, one would think it odd to ask such a question to play a trial version of a game. However, for Seiji, it was an easy question. He had the confidence to answer because all slimes that appeared in FS had an experience point value of 1.
“Does this mean I can play if I answer correctly? Is this quiz part of the game? Well, whatever,” Seiji thought as he clicked away.
“Name three characters that appear in this FS trial version.”
“Monofu Lauren, Kaizafu, and Lyla.”
Seiji answered the following questions one after another without any trouble. These three characters were considered minor characters, but they appeared across multiple installments of the FS series. Monofu Lauren had been present from the beginning, Kaizafu from FS7, and Lyla from FS11—always visible either by name or appearance.
“Is this a measure to prevent people from searching for answers on the internet?” Seiji wondered.
Most things could be easily looked up online, but when it came to questions about the new game, he wouldn’t know the answers.
“There’s no time limit mentioned, but if I take too long to answer, maybe it’ll end,” Seiji thought.
“Name the father of Keel Hauwakona, who appears in this FS trial version.”
“Zakka.”
As Seiji calmly continued to answer, his excitement grew. While many people could easily answer the experience points of the slime, remembering Zakka’s name was a different story. It was a character from FS3, and Seiji had to recall the storyline in FS11 to deduce that Keel was Zakka’s son.
After correctly answering a hundred questions, he faced the final one.
“This is the last question. Please answer with the name of the character you’ll use to play this FS trial version.”
“You mean my character’s name, not my real name, right? Finally, it’s the last one. It was quite a challenging quiz. It brought back memories of all the previous games,” Seiji thought, feeling a nostalgic emotion. He entered “Sage” and pressed the Enter key.
In that instant, everything went black as if the power had gone out.
“What’s this? A power outage?” Seiji panicked, trying to stand up, but he couldn’t feel his body.
“What… What’s happening!?” he thought, his consciousness fading away.
“Am I… dying? From overwork? But I wasn’t working that hard,” he wondered.
Just before losing consciousness, text appeared in the pitch-black void.
“Welcome to the FS trial version.”
It was in the familiar font used in FS.
