The Flying Robot Vacuum Cleaner
──Please set your character name.
When 7017 opened his eyes, he was standing alone in a world of blinding white.
For a moment, he simply stood there, bewildered, unable to grasp what had happened.
"But I should be dead."
No 'information' surfaced in his field of vision. The device embedded in his body wasn't functioning properly.
7017 concluded that he must, in fact, be dead.
Was this the afterlife?
Or was he dreaming in his final moments before death?
──Please set your character name.
Then, a voice rang out.
As 7017 stood there flustered, trying to make sense of it, something appeared before him.
And when he saw what it was:
"A flying robot vacuum cleaner?"
...was his honest first impression.
It was a flat, cylindrical thing that looked, for all the world, exactly like a robot vacuum cleaner.
Would you like to set your character name to "Flying Robot Vacuum Cleaner"? That is an absurd sense of naming, but if it is my Master's wish, I shall comply.
"No, wait! What are you talking about? Character name?"
The lens that served as the vacuum's eye glinted.
This is the final stage of Character Conversion. Please set your character name.
"Character Conversion?"
That was, without a doubt, a concept from the Games of God created by Yggdrasil — commonly known as Game Labyrinths.
Each labyrinth inside Yggdrasil existed independently of the others.
Which meant that to enter a different Game Labyrinth, a player needed to convert their currently-played character into that labyrinth's avatar.
An emergency situation was detected, so emergency life-saving measures were enacted. Master's body has been converted to be compatible with Yggdrasil.
7017 couldn't make heads or tails of what this robot vacuum was saying.
"What are you on about? Who are you? Where is this? Am I dead?"
Responding to Master's questions. I am the Random Box Device System YggON. An entity commonly referred to as "YggON." The one and only UR grade in existence.
"What the—?!"
The ranks of items that came out of Random Boxes were N, R, SR, and SSR.
No one had ever heard of a UR grade before.
This is the boundary between the Human Realm and Yggdrasil. As Master's real body was moments away from ceasing all life functions, I intervened forcibly. Master's body has been converted and connected to Yggdrasil.
"Converted my body...? The only thing that can connect to Yggdrasil is an avatar made from a game account, isn't it?"
Digitizing the human body itself and connecting it to Yggdrasil — that went beyond the technological concepts of the present age.
That is merely the limit of current humanity's technology. It does not apply to YggON.
7017 was thoroughly confused.
"YggON, was it? So what you're saying is that before I died, I pulled you, and now I've connected to Yggdrasil through your power? And not by creating an avatar and logging in as a game character — with my actual body?"
Affirmative.
It was a story with far too little grounding in reality.
Had he actually already died, and was this all just a delusion?
"Then which Game Labyrinth... which God's Game am I connected to right now?"
Ryu Hwi hesitated to use the term "Game Labyrinth" in front of YggON, which seemed directly tied to Yggdrasil itself, and rephrased the question.
You may simply call it a Game Labyrinth. This is World of Phantasm, an RPG-based labyrinth. Confirmed to have been produced by Ratia seven years ago. I ascertained that Master's records contain extensive information on this particular labyrinth, and selected World of Phantasm accordingly.
"Which means I've become a Gamer of World of Phantasm?"
Master is not a Gamer of any specific Game Labyrinth. Master is not an avatar tied to a game account. Master is subject to no systemic restrictions whatsoever.
"That's..."
If one insists on a distinction, Master is a Gamer of "Random Box YggON." Further details will be provided once Character Conversion is complete.
──Please set your character name.
7017 still couldn't tell whether this was a dream or reality.
A miraculous stroke of luck in his life.
And not just any luck — the single greatest stroke of luck in the world had come to him. That was hard to accept, because his life up to this point had been wretchedly, miserably garbage.
But if this really was reality.
If a real chance had truly appeared before him.
"My character name..."
7017 made a vow.
He would take back everything that had been stolen from him.
He would wrench everything away from the bastards who had taken it.
He would trample every last one of them into the dirt.
So that nothing would ever be stolen from him again, he would climb to the very top of this garbage world.
"Ryu Hwi."
Character name set.
Character Conversion complete.
7017 became Ryu Hwi once more.
Title: World of Phantasm
Developer: Ratia
Genre: RPG
Yggdrasil read the data of existing 'games' and generated new ones based on the information it absorbed.
Put simply, you supplied the 'ingredients' (the original game), and it cooked up a new 'dish' (a Game Labyrinth) from them.
At present, those ingredients were all but monopolized by a massive game development company named Ratia.
Ratia had churned out games indiscriminately, and the vast majority of them had been manifested in Yggdrasil as Games of God.
World of Phantasm was one of the games Ratia had produced.
Among the Game Labyrinths built on Ratia's titles, it was a reasonably long-running one, played by a great many Gamers.
The Linzea Guild and Linfel — who had fabricated crimes that never existed and dragged Ryu Hwi down to rock bottom — also made World of Phantasm their main stage.
Ryu Hwi set foot into World of Phantasm.
A game set in a fantasy world akin to the Middle Ages.
That sweeping, majestic landscape unfolded before his eyes.
He looked up at the sky.
He looked down at the earth.
Feeling the coolness of the wind brushing his cheek and the solid certainty of the ground beneath his feet, Ryu Hwi realized that he had truly arrived in the Game Labyrinth he had dreamed of for so long.
It was overwhelmingly richer in detail than the simulated World of Phantasm he had experienced before.
A reality that no simulation could ever replicate existed here.
He bent down and cupped the earth in his hands, running his fingers through the soil of the ground itself.
"I really made it into a labyrinth."
It wasn't a dream.
It wasn't a dying hallucination either.
His eyes grew damp. The tears he had held back even when his last living kin left him now threatened to spill over.
Every pain and sorrow and surge of rage he had endured came washing over him like a wave. But he forced it down and steadied himself.
"Is this the Forest of Beginning?"
The forest he had seen countless times in simulations.
It was said that any Gamer entering the Game Labyrinth of World of Phantasm for the first time always began here.
"This is where it all starts."
UR rank.A full body Character Conversion.
They were all things still hard to believe. But the fact that he was standing here right now was undeniable reality.
First, Ryu Hwi moved to check his status.
Each God's Game had its own unique system. In an RPG, it was standard to have a level-based stat and skill system.
World of Phantasm was a classic RPG, too.
You accumulated experience to raise your level and stats, then fought while juggling skill cooldowns and MP costs.
He'd ground his way through this game in simulations often enough to know the system inside and out.
He reached for the UI to pull up his status window...
"Huh?"
No UI appeared in his vision.
Flustered, Ryu Hwi scanned his surroundings. But no matter where he looked, World of Phantasm's UI was nowhere to be found.
"System, status window. System, status window!"
No matter how many times he tried, the system UI refused to appear.
And just as he was starting to panic:
Master, kindly stop flailing about. It's embarrassing.
YggON had appeared.
A robot vacuum cleaner that clashed spectacularly with the fantasy backdrop.
"Flailing about?"
I believe I informed you prior to the Conversion. Master is not a Gamer of any specific Game Labyrinth and is subject to no systemic restrictions. Which, conversely, means Master receives no systemic benefits either.
Stats and skills were part of World of Phantasm's system.
If YggON was to be believed, then Ryu Hwi, who was not a Gamer of World of Phantasm, was ineligible for those benefits.
"Then how am I supposed to fight?!"
Without system benefits, even getting out of the Forest of Beginning — the tutorial zone — would be a struggle.
Sigh.
The UR-grade YggON let out an audible sigh.
Regrettably, it appears the luckiest man in the world — the one who pulled this UR Random Box Device System YggON — has his intelligence stat set to a rather low level. lol
It was openly calling him an idiot.
Master receives the support of the System YggON. As Master is permanently enrolled under the System YggON, the systems of other Game Labyrinths are unnecessary.
"Meaning I have to play World of Phantasm with a completely different system?"
I'm relieved you understood faster than expected. Slightly raising my evaluation of Master.
Ryu Hwi's head was starting to ache.
"Then how exactly are you going to help me?"
My formal designation is Random Box Device YggON. Have you forgotten already?
"You can't be serious..."
Random Box. Gacha. Pull. Spinning the wheel.
Call it whatever you like.
Ryu Hwi collapsed where he stood, his legs giving out beneath him.
He was really being told to spin Random Boxes even inside a Game Labyrinth?
"What do you want me to do with Random Boxes? You think spinning that thing raises my stats?"
Seeing is believing.
YggON's lens glinted.
Initiating tutorial.
In that instant, Ryu Hwi's field of vision filled to bursting with information that hadn't been there a moment before.
⚠ ALERT!
Logged in to the YggON System.
Day 1 Login Bonus — YggON Ticket ×1
▸ Log in for 7 consecutive days to receive a Guaranteed SR YggON Ticket.
▸ YggON Pickup active!
▸ World of Phantasm — Increased drop rate for World of Phantasm items.
▸ You have uncompleted Daily Missions!
A system UI.
But it was not the World of Phantasm UI that Ryu Hwi remembered.
There had once been a trend of 'collection games' in the old days.
But since Yggdrasil's appearance, they had been swept into the back pages of history for various reasons.
The UI now displayed in Ryu Hwi's vision was far closer to one of those collection games.
Please check your Achievements.
"Achievements?"
✦ ACHIEVEMENTS ✦
▸ Pulled the UR YggON. (COMPLETE)
Reward: YggON Ticket ×100
▸ Connected to World of Phantasm. (COMPLETE)
Reward: YggON Ticket ×5
This brings your total to 106 tickets. Please execute the Random Box.
For now, he had no choice but to do as YggON said.
At present, Ryu Hwi was in a state where he received none of World of Phantasm's system benefits at all.
Without level scaling or skills, what could he possibly accomplish?
It all came down to this Random Box.
Ryu Hwi activated YggON.
🎰 YggON RANDOM BOX — 10-PULL 🎰
Consuming 10 YggON Tickets.
The gacha animation played out.
The presentation itself was nearly identical to the Random Boxes he'd spun until he was sick of them.
Something game-related would probably come out of it. Ryu Hwi waited quietly for the results.
Ten meteors streaking across a night sky.
And the results were...
"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?!"
Ryu Hwi shouted without meaning to.
The results were so garbage he couldn't bear it without yelling.
The only remotely usable thing was a single Short Sword.
Resigned, he spun the Random Box again.
He spun the Random Box again.
A storm of N-ranks.
"What even is this..."
Anxiety crept over Ryu Hwi.
Could it be that the Random Box this UR YggON so proudly boasted was actually completely useless?
A few pieces of equipment had come out, but playing World of Phantasm without any level-based stat gains was going to be brutal.
Master, are you truly the luckiest man in the world — the one who pulled this UR YggON? I am appalled by these wretched results.
"Shut up! How am I supposed to clear a Game Labyrinth with garbage RNG trash-gacha like this — how am I supposed to play World of Phantasm?!"
He'd finally entered the Game Labyrinth of his dreams, only to open the lid and find he was being forced to play a luck-dependent piece of junk.
All that remained were 36 more pulls.
He didn't even have expectations anymore.
What a short dream it had been. Ryu Hwi spun the Random Box, glancing irritably around the Forest of Beginning.
Then, the scene before his eyes turned to gold.
"...?!"
The animation was different from before.
Golden meteors were falling. Two of them, no less!
This was...
"Sword Mastery and... Parry?!"
The Random Box he'd assumed produced nothing but random junk had just produced a skill.
Sword Mastery was one of World of Phantasm's skills, granting swordsmanship-related bonuses as your level rose.
And Parry was...
A skill that didn't exist in World of Phantasm!
In a given Game Labyrinth, you could only use abilities implemented through that labyrinth's own system.
And yet...
The Random Box of YggON is bound by no restrictions whatsoever. Which means—
—as long as you can pull it, you can use it, transcending systems and genres alike.
This system truly did transcend the technology of the present age.
Above all, it was when he saw what emerged from the final pull of the 106-pull Random Box — the rainbow-colored meteor — that Ryu Hwi truly understood the truth of it.
A rainbow-colored meteor. In other words, an SSR.
Through the UR YggON, Ryu Hwi had just pulled something utterly absurd.