Chapter 1

A great number of stars wander above the night sky. Sometimes a glimpse of a shooting star made people the most fleeting moment. They then recite their wishes from the depths of their heart.

Shooting stars is nothing but a meteorite.

Accompanied by a thunderous roar, the mass falls upon the earth with overwhelming speed.

There might be people who enjoy seeing them far far away. But no one would want to see this downpour nearby.

And right now hundreds of meteorites are falling in front of my eyes.

I shouldn't say it like it's other people's business. This disaster is unmistakably caused by me.

Due to my thoughtless choice about 10 minutes ago, now meteorites gouge the earth.

Striking dozens of kilometers away, trampling down the [enemies] there. From the corner of my viewpoint, the red dots on the radar are disappearing along with their lives.

And then, a while after most of the meteorites disappear into the earth the slightly delayed sounds reach with a bit of ground tremor.

Before the wave of dust crawling on the ground...

Suddenly, I'm struck with acute pain, like it's some divine punishment

My head feels like it's splitting.

As if my body is being torn apart and scattered away.

Immediately after my consciousness parted from the pain, my body was swept away by the dust wave.

♦♦♦♦♦

Turning back the time a little.

I'm working on holiday to meet a certain much-delayed project deadline. The so called smartphone and PC browser game from a major company that dispatched an outsourced subcontractor programmer to complete it.

Even a black company doesn't normally commission one person for two projects. However, the junior programmer disappeared on the verge of release, leaving lots of bugs and specification changes! Deplorable!

Working in a place with a high turnover rate, the only programmer around is the junior and me. Having no means to anticipate the situation, I'm forced to not only manage my project but also stuck with my junior's doomed project.

"Alright, completed all the classes, I/O, and comment entries, the rest is auto documenter from source code, relation diagram and seriously squashing the bugs.

I let my neck loose for a bit.

Surveying my surroundings, the office is a full house on holiday like always. My neighbor, an outsourced person responsible for debugging, is grumbling while working, but no one shifts their focus. There is no room for that. The surrounding designers and planners work silently with hollow, dead fish-like eyes.

When I returned from getting some coffee, the monitor already finished displaying the output material needed for debugging.

Even so, with no documentary to work with, I can't get fired up.

It can't be helped if the junior who was thrown into OJT right away complains about dying. Among the 4 programmers who were present when the junior entered the company half a year ago, only I remain, I'm not even sure how many are it in the whole company.

"Rin, the client claims that the difficulty of WW is too hard for a beginner, what do we do?"

You almost said Rin damn you. We've been in the team for half a year, stop getting it wrong!

The overweight director and planner turned his head over here with his usual troubled face.

Moreover, even though such a troublesome thing arises, he somehow looks happy. Why are there so many M's among developers?

WW is an abbreviation of the smartphone and PC browser game [War World]. It's an orthodox strategy game with a bit of a social aspect in it.

"Didn't they say that the main target market won't play it if we lower the difficulty any more ?"

Yes, the current difficulty level was decided after many meetings with the clients. Those time-wasters were a waste eh? Miserable.

"Why don't we use the canceled bonus for the first timer, then show all enemies on the map and the 3-time map annihilation bomb? And give the skilled guy who doesn't use it a rare title or such as a present for clear condition?

"Since there's no time, let's go with that~. I'm counting on you for the implementation Rin."

Mr. Overweight said it as carefree as ever.

"I'm still debugging the smartphone MMORPG right now, just give the OK to the client for now. There's no time to fix it if it gets rejected due to poor implementation."

"OK. Will immediately tell them on the phone~"

The gigantic figure of Mr. Overweight disappears into the smoking area with the phone in hand.

I continue to work while silently muttering to myself.

The GO sign on Mr. Overweight's office lit up, he's out eating junk food late at night.

After correcting numerous superficial errors left behind by my junior, I leave the rest to the debug team.

That reminds me, what was the name again? It didn't usually come out since I always call it MMO or Roleplay. Oh yeah, it's [Freedom Fantasy World]. Because it's easy to mix up with WW's former name, [Fantasy War World], no one called it with the proper name. When I think back on it, the documentary marked it as FFW. Since we removed the [Fantasy] from WW, nowadays it's not ambiguous though.

While the modification for WW goes on for a while, I'm sending the bug I discovered from FFW to the debug team... All-nighter again today huh?

The checking continues until the next morning, Miraculously the client program of the MMO-RPG is delivered.

Of course, probably there are still some bugs remaining, but since the super weapon called [Update Patch] exists for net distributed programs, there's no need to worry. I feel like I can hear booing from users but I'm sleepy. While the debug team was working, I forwarded the modified exe package of WW to Mr. Overweight via intra-company mail, then I retreated to the haven under my desk to sleep for the first time in 30 hours.

Ah, bliss. The time of a corporate slave. For now, sleep is justice!

♦♦♦♦♦

Lucid dreaming…

It is being aware that you're inside your dream.

Right now, I'm in the wilderness.

I'll stop since it looks like a line from Pol-san

Yep, wilderness. I guess it's okay to liken it to the American Grand Canyon.

Why do I know that it's a dream?

One, because I remember sleeping under my desk. Another is because I can see [Icon] for 4 on the lower right and [Menu] written on the upper right of my vision.

It looks like the thing on WW I worked on earlier.

However! This is the first time that I'm dreaming about the thing I worked on during a debugging Death March. Though I'm not sure why it's wilderness instead of my work room...

Was it because the room was dry, I'm feeling that's the reason.

Somehow the menu opens when I tap it with my finger. A transparent window often used for near-future stuff appears in my vision... I have a poor imagination if I say to myself, I'll never be a planner or designer.

The menu is divided into tabs for [INFO], [MAP], [Unit Management], [Storage], [Exchange], and [Log], as well as [Status], [Equipment], [Magic] and [Skill] menus that don't exist in WW.

Did it get mixed up during the FFW debug last night?

Well, you can't expect consistency in dreams though.

When I check Status, the level is 1, HP, MP, Strength, and all other attributes are 10. This is the basic status that hasn't been assigned with bonus points. Come to think of it, the last check was character creation.

Hmm? There are also Job Types and Reward and punishment parameters that don't exist in FFW. Where did it get mixed in from?

Age, 15 years old... Did I want to have the mentality of a student again?

[Job Type: Management], but I don't even have one subordinate!

Even so, [Affiliation: None], is it a sign that I want to change jobs...

The content truly has hidden meaning in it... Ah, I want a vacation.

The peculiar ability of [Unit Creation] or [Unit Arrangement] is probably mixed in from WW, but is there any need for the peculiar ability field to be written in the menu?

Furthermore, what is with the last ability being [Indestructible]? What a strange dream.

Come to think of it, I left it on the desk to eat but I lost to the drowsiness in the end.

[Magic] and [Skill] are blank.

There are 10 skill points but sadly there are no skills to allocate them to.

Opening [Setting], I added a map and radar on the basic indicator. The map displays a wide area and my position. Radar is almost the same as a map but it searches for enemies in the area and adds color-coding to enemies and neutral units.

I'm shown on radar as a small white point. The surrounding 100 meters are shown in gray, indicating an unexplored region.

"Umu, I cannot see any enemies. It's free time. If only this was grassland I could indulge myself in lying around inactive."

I'm not interested in lying down on a rough ground.

I inadvertently stare at the icon "4" in the lower right corner. [All Map Exploration] is 1, [Meteor Shower] is 3. These are the measures for newbies from the arrangement with Mr. overweight.

[All Map Exploration] is just like the name suggests, search all the regions in the range. It also makes it possible to view detailed information, including the weak points of all units.

I thought that the scope of information was too much with no practical use for it, but Mr. overweight pushed for it to be included in the package.

I tried tapping it on a smartphone.

The radar searched for all enemies and countless red dots appeared. I lower the magnification on the radar to display a wider area.

Red dots filled half the map... Aren't the enemies too many?

I choose to keep them company with my army using [Unit]

I'm getting fired up on having a small army defeating a large one!

♦♦♦♦♦

...There was an era when I thought such a thing.

[Unit Creation]... Possibility to make a unit, none.

[Unit Arrangement]... Can't arrange nonexistent unit.

"Attacking with a level 1 character."

Truly a dream. Even absurd things are unreasonable.

I glanced at the [Meteor Shower] icon on the lower right.

This is [Meteor Shower], the celestial annihilation.

[Meteor Shower] is set with high-tension parameters; it could destroy everything, besides the campaign scenario's last hidden boss, in a single blow.

It's a message for beginners that says "Bulldoze the map you can't be clear with this".

Would you push?

>Yes

ＹＥＳ

Heil Braiking!

The last one seems to be a bit different.

Maybe the effects the from all-nighter remain, I tap the icon while thinking such a thing.

...The silence hurts.

I expected something amazing but nothing is happening, is it?

I was sad for a moment and proceeded to lie down. My back hurt from the rough ground.

Then I turn my face toward the sky, something comes into view... Thank you for waiting.

We're finally back to the opening scene.

Rin's life in a different world begins this way.