ULMF – 002

Automated Audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN6xiSsxkik&t=1s

===*

In the deep midnight-like darkness, Syutaro woke up…

Originally, fainting in a game would result in a forced logout after a warning message and a 60-second countdown by the system that caught the brainwave signature – but Syutaro, unaware of this, woke up without questioning it.

(I believe I used dungeon creation…)

He has no recollection of what happened after that.

In his mind, this was a part of the newly created dungeon, which seems a bit strange since it’s somehow turned out to be a massive structure.

When he looked up, all he could see was darkness. There was a only moon far above.

(What is this, did dungeon creation also make a building? I thought it would start in a cave or something like that.)

Syutaro, who had imagined that he would have to explore the dungeon all by himself from the very beginning, felt a bit discouraged.

Curious about the details of his skills, he moved his eyes to open the menu, and he noticed a small icon glowing. It’s a mail notification.

From: mother

To: Children

Logout is now disabled.

Pain setting is now permanent.

Resurrection is no longer possible.

No one can return until ‘he’ is destroyed.

The third death will be your last.

Syutaro was speechless at the contents of the message.

Reflexively, he looked for the logout button on the menu but noticed that it was blacked out, even though it was indeed present on the character creation screen.

“What is this?”

Logout is now disabled.

Pain setting is now permanent.

Resurrection is… not possible.

It took him a few seconds to realize what was happening.

And after that, Syutaro’s mind was thrown into a jumbled mess, and in the end, he was left with nothing but despair.

“uuaaaAaaAAAaAAAAAAAHHH!!!!”

Syutaro is screaming.

The pain in his throat was real, and he began to cry after he realized it.

(I can’t go home.)

(If I die, it’s the end.)

Being in this place without parents, relatives, friends, or even strangers, only feeds additional fear into his brain.

(I’m Scared, scared, scared–)

“Hey, you.”

Amidst the screams, he clearly heard a girl’s voice.

For Syutaro, just being aware that there was someone else in this place is enough to give him a bit of peace of mind to break free from his despair.

And after a bit of coughing, Syutaro looked toward the voice with a messy face and found a girl of about 13 or so years old with a pale, lifeless complexion.

Long hair, large eyes, simple clothes, all pure white.

Her fake appearance was somehow more dainty than eerie, and despite his tears, Syutaro couldn’t help but admire her appearance – even the few horns that grew behind her looked good on her.

“Why are you here…? “

“Ahh! That! I’m in trouble! I can’t log out. I can’t log out!”

The girl’s question was interrupted by Syutaro. He put his hand on her shoulder impatiently – and then he noticed. Syutaro realized that this girl may not yet be aware of the current situation they are in.

Syutaro fears that she will immediately burst into tears and start screaming if he tells her the painful reality. The thought of being the one who will bring a distraught to a girl puts him into a difficult position. As a man, Syutaro feels that he cannot bring himself to put a girl who would probably be younger than him into such a mess…

The girl who was abruptly grabbed by the shoulder looked surprised and moved away from Syutaro.

(I’m not sure what to do.)

Syutaro cursed himself, wishing he had been quicker to calm down.

“……”

“……”

An awkward silence passes.

The girl who was being alarmed put her arms around her chest and squeezed out her voice.

“who are you….?”

At that time, there was the sound of the door opening. Then several people followed their footsteps, and several men and women appeared behind the girl.

One is a beautiful man in a butler’s uniform.

One is a huge towering man.

One is a strong-looking silver-haired woman.

Plus other two who appear to be knights.

“Bumpy. Who is this man?”

“I don’t know, but ……”

The man in the butler’s uniform stares at Syutaro with a wrinkle between his eyebrows, and the white-haired girl replies while pouting.

Looking at their somewhat inhuman appearance and demeanor, Shutaro had assumed that they were the [NPC]s he often heard about.

NPCs – in other words, [non-player character] is a character created by the mother and automatically operated by the AI.

Syutaro recalls the previous information he read in videos and on strategy sites, in [Eternity], the existence of NPCs that talk and act like a sentient being was hotly debated. And Syutaro has seen and knows them well.

For example, the town’s blacksmith, general store, and adventurer’s guild management are all NPCs, as are the gatekeepers who defend the town. Thanks to the latest technology, their speech is natural, and their facial expressions are rich. They also need to eat and sleep.

However, they cannot have conversations that have nothing to do with their assigned roles. For example, if you ask them what their favorite food is, they won’t answer you. That was one way to distinguish between NPCs and players.

Another easy way to distinguish between NPCs and players is the presence of a [name tag] floating above their heads.

Next to the NPC’s name, there is an NPC indicator. If it is not there, it is a [Player], and if it is there, it is an [NPC].

That’s what it says on the wiki.

“Uh, you are …….”

While thinking about this, Syutaro looked above their heads while trying to make a conversation – and he was speechless.

There is another kind of character that the name tag can distinguish.

It’s Mob, which stands for [Moving Object], which means something that moves– but in [Eternity], they also represent the [Monster] or in other words… an [Enemy].

The butler, the big man, the silver hair, the knight, and this girl are all [Mob]s.

And they are actually something beyond that. They are [Boss Mob].

The beings labeled as mobs are enemies of players.

They are beings that must be fought and defeated when they come face to face with people like Syutaro.

They are beings that will attack and kill you.

<Pain setting is now permanent.>

<Resurrection is no longer possible.>

Syutaro remembered the message.

A flash of death came to his mind, and Syutaro collapsed – he fainted from the sheer terror he felt.

TL note:

I need to change some of the author’s abbreviations to fit the context better.

For example, PC in the raw is an abbreviation for Player Character. It will get confusing when a native English speaker sees that, so I change it to  [Player].

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