A Dimension Unlike Earth

In the God Realm, a dimension apart from Earth, lesser gods made their dwelling in Orthean Palace. Several of them had gathered there in a single hall.

"Ner. Come on, what's the real secret?"

"I heard plenty of the higher gods entered this contest too... You're honestly incredible."

"You don't have any connections either, right?"

"I don't think so. Winning with no one behind you only makes it more impressive."

"And she even became a lesser god through the great war, of all things."

Watching her fellow gods fuss over her, Ner, a seventh-rank god, allowed a faint smile to touch her lips. Until not long ago she had been nothing more than a tenth-rank deity at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Then, in the largest ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠contest the God Realm held all year, she had been selected almost out of nowhere. The task had been to create a single virtual world and designate a site fit to serve as a battlefield, and to general astonishment she had surpassed hundreds of rivals to claim first place. Her rank had leapt several grades in a single stroke.

No-Pay Casual Gamer... His real name was Shin Yujun, wasn't it?

The War of the Gods Ner had created had too few users, and it had failed to meet the paid-item purchase requirement. It was a work that did not even qualify to enter the contest, and so she had all but given up.

And then, of all things.

Two weeks ago, the user No-Pay Casual Gamer bought thousands of limited-edition items all by himself, and everything changed.

At last the work that had never met the original standard barely scraped over the line—and then it won. In the end, the War of the Gods Ner had made pulled off the astonishing feat of crushing countless competitors and taking the prize.

Shin Yujun. You really are a lucky charm.

Because of that, the smile these days never left Ner's lips.

But where did he get all that money?

When she looked into his personal records, his household was not wealthy either. If anything, he was a destitute orphan. The cryptocurrency he had bought long ago had simply risen in value, and only relatively recently had he become a nouveau riche. That was probably why he spent so freely. So Ner thought.

Not that I mind.

First prize in the greatest contest in the God Realm, one in which fraud could never intervene.

I won because my ability was outstanding, but without him I couldn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even have submitted an entry in the first place.

She was deeply grateful to Shin Yujun, and so she had granted No-Pay Casual Gamer a very special reward.

Special doesn't even cover it. It's a reward far too generous for a mere player.

A smile lingered at the corner of Ner's mouth. Now that the Great Cataclysm had struck Earth, that perk would become an enormous source of power for him.

A stiffness had settled over his body. For some reason, it refused to move. Yujun lifted only his eyelids a fraction.

"Huh?"

What greeted him was not the room he always saw, but a place he did not know. He stood in a dense forest, trees packed tight and thrusting upward, and they blocked out the sky so thoroughly that even in broad daylight, with the sun up, the surroundings stayed dim. Yujun was staring around in a daze when the words appeared before his eyes.

"This is..."

It was writing much like what he had seen in his room before he lost consciousness. No—more precisely, it was identical to the system interface from War of the Gods.

A dream?

The shocking news that the game's service was ending must have dragged him into some strange dream like this.

Was the server shutdown really that much of a shock?

He let out a hollow laugh as he looked around, and then his eyes went wide.

"Huh?"

The layout of the forest was strangely familiar. At first he had been too flustered to really see it, but he had definitely looked upon this scenery somewhere before.

This place... isn't this the Tutorial Forest?

The Tutorial Forest. The backdrop that appeared the moment you created a character and logged into the game. He had only ever seen it as graphics, so he had been confused at first, but looking again, he was certain.

Have I been living too deep inside that game?

Yujun pinched the back of his hand, hard.

It hurts.

The pain was vivid. This was a situation that ought to have been a dream, and yet it did not seem to be one. He examined the hologram window again.

Two perks... I think the operator said she would give me perks. Don't tell me this is what she meant.

He looked more carefully. Synchronization was complete. The inventory had been transferred, and as a second perk he had obtained a trait.

"Wait. Wait."

He drew a slow breath to steady himself. If this situation was tied to War of the Gods, then there was a good chance a status window existed as well. The hologram floating before his eyes had, in fact, asked him to check it. But how? There was no mouse, and no keyboard on which to press a hotkey. At times like this, the standard method would do. Yujun focused hard and willed his status to open.

He could not close his mouth. A status window appearing at all was astonishing enough, but an S-Rank trait and a Legendary title were sitting there plain as day.

I'm level 1?

A trait he could set aside, but a Legendary title had been so difficult to obtain that even he, back when he was level 500, had possessed only a handful.

Wait. This is a title I already had.

Legendary Item Collector. It had belonged to the No-Pay Casual Gamer character. He had been so bored that he went around gathering every rare item he could find, and one day the title had simply appeared. He knew this was no dream, yet he slapped his cheek hard once more. His face burned.

There had been times, vaguely, when he had wished for a situation exactly like this—idle fantasies of stepping into a game like War of the Gods and living it for himself. He had never imagined the fantasy would become real. Then the part about the inventory being transferred... maybe that was real as well. There was no reason for the Item Collector title to be sitting on his status window otherwise. Yujun opened his inventory the same way he had opened the status window, and for a long moment he could only stare.

So many items filled it that they would not all fit in a single glance, and nearly every one of them was painted red—the mark that an equip restriction was in effect, and that he could not wear them yet.

Well, my level is 1 right now...

He reached a conclusion. Reality had changed to resemble a game, and this situation was absolutely not false. He did not know why, but the status window of War of the Gods, which he had believed shut down, was showing itself intact. His level, skills, and titles had been reset, yet the inventory remained exactly as it had been.

Wait. What the operator said at the very end... she told me not to doubt it, and to accept it. Was that what she meant?

At that moment, the hologram that had kept floating before his eyes updated.

A difficulty setting had appeared. This, too, was familiar. Unlike any ordinary tutorial, War of the Gods let you choose how hard it would be. Yujun had made characters other than No-Pay Casual Gamer and challenged the tutorial again and again. Setting Beginner aside, he had cleared Intermediate, Skilled, and Expert. Hell, however, lived up to its name. Even getting past the opening stretch had been difficult. Through attempt after attempt he had once reached the middle, but that had only been possible because luck had favored him enormously.

It was too hard.

More than that, among every user who had ever played War of the Gods, not one had cleared Hell difficulty. Even Only I Don't Have a Cat, whose control had been overwhelming, had tasted defeat there.

Even just clearing Expert, the reward is no joke.

Considering how wildly the reward changed with every step up in difficulty, the prize for clearing Hell would be beyond imagination. But this time his life was on the line. He still did not understand how any of this had happened, yet he would have to move his own body and run the tutorial. The risk was far too great.

What do I do?

Under ordinary circumstances he would have started on Beginner without a second thought. Now, though, he had perks and items that set him apart from then.

Let me think.

He opened the inventory and looked over the items.

There really are an absurd number. Did I hoard this many?

Some of them he could not even remember obtaining. In the end, he found what he was looking for. As he scanned down the list, a smile touched his lips.

These were here.

Four items. He took them out and checked each one's information in turn.

The Super Novice Set. A conditional set that could be worn only at level 5 or below, and Legendary grade—the second highest in War of the Gods. Anyone could see that the attack and defense were absurd for gear a level 1 was meant to wear. The set effect, in particular, could only be called insane. An increase to critical hit chance was an option that did not even appear on most high-level items. If the set had a drawback, it was only that it could not be traded.

With just these, couldn't I clear Hell difficulty too?

Confidence stirred in him. The Super Novice Set was that far beyond the standard.

Hell difficulty it is.

It would have been a lie to say he felt no unease at all. Even so, Yujun trusted his items. It was no exaggeration to call War of the Gods a game that began with items and ended with them, and the Super Novice Set gave him a confidence that had a certain logic behind it.

To think the day would actually come when I use these.

The Super Novice pieces had always been a dilemma. His level was already too high to wear them, and they could not be traded.

I couldn't use them... but they were too good to throw away.

Having steeled himself, Yujun selected Hell difficulty. The hologram scattered, then formed again.

"What?"

There had never been anything like that before. Choose Hell, and the tutorial used to begin at once.

Did they change it this time?

At this point he was growing curious about who the operator really was. He had always thought it strange that there had been no communication with the users at all, and the one and only time she had appeared, her words had been suggestive.

Is she actually a god or something?

Yujun let out a short laugh at the idle thought. Clearing the tutorial successfully came first. That was the priority. He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠equipped the entire Super Novice Set. Full armor ought to have weighed his body down, but as the item options raised his Strength and Agility, he grew lighter instead. Once his preparations were finished, he selected Hell difficulty again.

Ah. Right. There was the part where you pick a weapon.

Five kinds of weapons lined up before his eyes and hung in the empty air: a sword, an axe, an iron club, a spear, and a bow that came as a set with arrows. They were the weapons issued by default in the tutorial. Checking their options, he found nothing different from before.

I don't particularly need a weapon right now, do I?

He had the Super Novice Sword, a blade far too good for a level 1 to wield. The weapons handed out in the tutorial were therefore completely useless, and since he already had gear to switch into once he reached level 5, a tutorial weapon would only be a burden. The inventory's space might have been infinite, but he did not much like junk taking up a slot. He stood there for a while without choosing, and the contents of the system window began to change. Fine particles scattered like dust, drifted this way and that, and then took form.