All right, I'll make the 8:33 train without any problems at this rate.
What? The train's here!
Man, this is rough. It's nothing like being in school.
Oh, yeah. It's Sunday today.
That's why the train schedule was different.
I completely forgot what day it was.
Good morning.
Hey.
Suzuki-san, you working on the weekend again?
Yeah. Not done cleaning everything up.
You know, with that new guy.
Oh, you mean the guy that left right before the delivery date?
You're the one cleaning up that mess?
Yeah.
Well, with all the bugs and the changes in design, it'll be hard to finish on time.
You're a nice guy, you know that?
I hope the brass bring in some new people soon for ya.
Turnover's pretty high here, too.
I pretty much expect stuff like this to happen.
You're quite the grown-up, Suzuki-san.
Live long enough to almost be thirty,
and this is how things are.
Time to start the death march.
Okay, I've finished writing all the classes and commenting everything.
Now I just gotta generate the documentation and UML from the source code,
and really start working on the bugs.
Not again...
You keep changing what I have to go over...
Sato—Suzuki-san.
We need to talk about War World.
You tried to call me Satou, didn't you?
Project Proposal
Project Name : MMORPG
War World
We've been on a team together for half a year.
Get my name right, already.
Our client is saying that the game's too difficult for beginners,
and we need to fix that.
What's the plan here?
Huh?
Didn't we already say
that our target audience wouldn't play it if we made it any easier?
Yeah, but...
Maybe we should use the idea we axed before. When you create your first character,
you get an item that reveals the map, and three bombs that takes out all enemies.
I see.
If you clear the area without using items, you get a rare achievement.
That way, skilled players will want to complete it without using the items.
We don't have much time left.
How about we just go with that?
Anyway, Suzuki-san, I'll leave the implementation to you.
Hold on a second.
Yes?
I have to fix bugs in that mobile MMORPG first.
Get me an "OK" from the client in the meantime.
We don't have time to change anything
if we put that feature in and the client rejects it.
Okay. I'll call to confirm now.
Guess I'll go get lunch.
Events on a Sunday out here too, huh?
I wonder if she's lost.
Wh-What's wrong?
Are you lost?
My mommy...
I have no clue what she's saying.
I guess I should take her to a police box.
Okay.
Let's go find a police officer.
Mana!
Mommy!
I was looking for you.
Oh, are you her mom?
Yes, sorry about my daughter.
No, I'm glad you found her.
I'm no lolicon.
I'm glad she didn't think I was trying to kidnap her daughter.
Thank you very much.
No problem.
Mommy, so...
That kid's mom was pretty hot.
All right, that should do it.
I guess I should test it out.
What was the name of this game, again?
Oh, yeah. FFL.
Enter your name.
Satou
Good work.
Oh, you're headed home?
Haven't been home in three days.
Gotta get home before the wife gets pissed off.
It's nice there's someone there to get mad at you.
Oh yeah, you went to Tubby and that girl's place again, huh?
You sure like that place.
You're already 29.
You should get a girlfriend.
Talk to you later.
A girlfriend, huh?
That's a pretty unrealistic proposition when every day's a death march.
I haven't taken a bath in three days.
All right, that's good.
It's done.
I just need to send an email...
Suzuki-san, we just got a bug report from the storage testing team.
Huh?
I just fixed the unlimited free storage space bug.
You mean the inventory in FFL, right?
It's an item duplication bug in War World this time.
Check the attached file in Messenger for details.
Okay...
Duplication bugs are hard to fix.
Tubby Storage Capacity Limit
Tubby
To: Suzuki
Please remove the storage capacity limit during beta testing. We would appreciate if we could be more insistent on the matter. Please change the wording as necessary.
He didn't want to get yelled at, so he sent an email, huh?
He's taking me out to lunch somewhere with plenty of cute girls on staff.
Okay, that's done.
I'm sure there are some bugs left,
but digital distribution lets us patch it later.
I can hear all the users complaining now, but...
I'm tired.
If I can just send this email...
I can finally get some sleep. It's been thirty hours.
My only chance for bliss.
Go ahead and laugh at me for being an corporate slave.
Right now, sleep is my justice.
Where am I?
Is this a dream?
Yeah, of course it wouldn't work.
Huh? What's going on?
I look like I did back in high school.
Having a dream about your younger self isn't that surprising.
In any event...
This has got to be a dream.
I mean, I have dreams about fixing bugs while I'm on a death march, but...
It sucks that I have to dream about War World, though.
It's kind of like War World and FFL got slammed together, actually.
Complete with bugs too, huh?
What? I guess I can control the interface with my mind.
Satou
Character
Satou...
That's the name I always use for my test characters.
Valley of Dragons
Valley of Dragons?
This crevice is the Valley of Dragons?
What's that?
An enemy?
Do I have something...
Three Meteor Showers and one Search Entire Map.
This is the idea we came up with real fast to help out new players.
In any event...
Acquired Spell: Search Entire Map
Used: Search Entire Map
Red means these guys are enemies.
Elite Lizardmen Elite Lizardmen: Captain
Elite Lizardmen?
There are three hundred of them, and they're all about level 50!
Acquired Skill: Observation
I'm Level 1. There's no way I can beat them hand-to-hand.
Are those Lizardmen?
They don't know I'm here, do they?
Acquired Skill: Pain Resistance Acquired Skill: Fear Resistance
It felt like it burned me.
Is this really a dream?!
This is bad!
I'm going to die!
Acquired Spell: Meteor Shower Acquired Skill: Summoning Magic: Other World Acquired Skill: Practical Magic: Other World
Used: Meteor Shower
No way!
Not implemented yet?
This sucks!
Used: Meteor Shower Used: Meteor Shower
Damn it! I'm going to be defeated over a bug?
What type of bad ending is this?
Acquired Item: Dragon's Claw Acquired Item: Dragon's Horn Acquired Item: Small Seeds Acquired Item: Herbs Acquired Item: Antique Vase Acquired Item: Expensive Water Pouch Acquired Item: Silk Robe Acquired Item: Plate Armor
Acquired Item: Wyvern's Tail Acquired Item: Wyvern's Claw Acquired Item: Wyvern's Eyeball Acquired Item: Nameless Flower Acquired Item: Fragment of the Valley of Dragons Acquired Item: Old Charm Acquired Item: Short Sword Acquired Item: Lizardman's Flesh
Acquired Item: Lizardman's Blood Acquired Item: Dragon's Flesh Acquired Item: Wyvern's Bones Acquired Item: Wyvern's Bones Acquired Item: Wyvern's Blood Acquired Item: Wyvern's Saliva Acquired Item: Coal Acquired Item: Chunk of Obsidian Acquired Item: Fragment of the Valley of Dragons
Hello, Satou here.
I've been a busy little worker ant, like every good Japanese person should be,
Acquired Item: Old Charm Acquired Item: Magic Shield Acquired Item: Hand Axe Acquired Item: Lizardman's Blood Acquired Item: Lizardman's Tail Acquired Item: Lizardman's Fang Acquired Item: Gold Ore Acquired Item: Natural Water from the Valley of Dragons Acquired Item: Sacred Wine
Acquired Item: Dragon's Eyeball Acquired Item: Heavy Axe Acquired Item: Wooden Sword Acquired Item: Lizardman's Tail Acquired Item: Lizardman's Horn Acquired Item: Poisonous Mushroom Acquired Item: Golden Lyre Acquired Item: Dragon's Blood Acquired Item: Wyvern's Bones
but I'm certain that I'm not upset enough to want to disappear to another place.
Satou
Acquired Item: Mysterious Liquid Acquired Item: Fire Staff Acquired Item: Main Gauche Acquired Item: Lizardman's Blood Acquired Item: Lizardman's Tail Acquired item: Lizardman's Eyeball Acquired Item: Depression Mushroom Acquired Item: Coal
Acquired Item: Gold Ore Acquired Item: Power Shield Acquired Item: Wyvern's Eyeball Acquired Item: Chain Mail Acquired Item: Iron Sword Acquired Item: Lizardman's Corpse Acquired Item: Lizardman's Blood Acquired Item: Lizardman's Tail Acquired Item: Weeds
I felt like I was doing something important because I was busy.
Acquired Item: Laughing Mushroom Acquired Item: Suspicious Powder Acquired Item: Chunk of Obsidian Acquired Item: Great Sword Acquired Item: Lizardman's Flesh Acquired Item: Lizardman's Eyeball Acquired Item: Lizardman's Horn Acquired Item: Venomous Liquid Acquired Item: Rare Flower Acquired Item: Broken Iron Armor
Acquired Title: Conqueror of the Valley of Dragons
I'm being honest.
"The Catastrophe That Started with a Death March"
It couldn't be.
He was too close to be in target range.
I've lost now.
Acquired Skill: Ancient Scalefolk Language
Elite Lizardman: Captain
This is just like a game...
He wants me to fight with this sword?
Acquired Skill: One-Handed Sword
Acquired Skill: Evasion
Ow!
That really hurts.
That hurts way too much.
Elite Lizardman: Captain
His life bar is almost gone,
but I don't think I can win this.
Acquired Skill: Parry
Acquired Skill: Throwing
Acquired Item: Elite Lizardman's Corpse
This is too brutal, even for a dream.
There has to be a way to end this fast.
Like a log out button...
What? I can't log out or save?
This dream isn't so nice to its players.
Oh, well. I guess I'll have to heal up, at least until the dream ends.
Acquired Skill: Self-Healing
I'm already healed?
Oh, yeah, I guess the pain did stop.
That means...
Satou
My max vitality has gone up.
That's not all.
I'm level 310?!
I see...
I leveled up due to the Meteor Shower.
The weird skills I used to defeat that last guy were because I leveled up, huh?
My ability points are all at maxed out.
Where's the log...
Skip, skip...
I'll skip anything that doesn't make sense.
I guess this is a log of what happened.
What about skills?
I've gotten more magic skills.
Character
Meteor Shower
Search Entire Map
I have that Meteor Shower I just used,
but does this mean it's disabled?
Meteor Shower
Search Entire Map
Character
Meteor Shower
I guess I just have to turn it on.
This is a dream. Why make everything so complicated?
Character
Meteor Shower
Requires 1 point to upgrade.
Anyway, I better test it while I've got the chance.
If I get into another mess,
and it tells me I don't have enough MP or something,
I'll be pissed off.
Anyway, this should be far enough away.
Used Spell: Meteor Shower
Those are huge!
What's going on?
This magic is too dangerous.
I'd be some evil demon lord if I used this all the time.
Meteor Shower
Requires 1 point to upgrade.
Better play it safe.
I'll turn this off.
I'm thirsty.
Storage
Loot, huh?
Lizardman corpses are loot, too?
All Items | Well Bag
A water pouch, huh?
I'll try taking this out.
It appeared!
That's good.
This is the first time water has tasted so good.
I get infinite water out of this thing, huh?
I don't know how it works, but it's pretty useful.
I wonder what else there is?
Shiga Kingdom: Saga Empire: Parion Province: Dorag Province: Yowork Kingdom: Kuvork Kingdom:
Wow, I've got a lot of money, too.
I don't feel like organizing this,
but I guess I won't have any problems going into town.
Storage
A holy sword, a divine sword, and a magic gun.
I feel like I'm a geek back in middle school again.
Magic Robe
Winged Sandals
Hmm? Wow.
There we go.
I don't have as many skills as I would have thought.
Observation
I wonder if you get more via some sort of action instead of by leveling up.
I guess I'll add the points to things I mostly think can be used in battle.
It'd be bad if I ran into things like those lizardmen.
Fear Resistance
I guess I'll get some sleep, and try traveling after that.
It'd be boring if I didn't go anywhere.
Soldiers' Stronghold
I guess I'll try heading to this "Soldiers' Stronghold" place first.
The air's great.
I haven't felt anything like this recently.
Acquired Skill: Telescopic Sight Acquired Skill: Long-Distance Vision
I'm not sure how long this dream will last,
but it's a nice break from things.
All right. Here I go.
Acquired Skill: Sprinting
Acquired Skill: Spatial Mobility
Acquired Skill: Keen Hearing
Soldiers' Stronghold
So this is Soldiers' Stronghold, huh?
Seiryuu City
A monarchy, huh?
Seiryuu City...
Looks like this is the closest place.
Seiryuu County Army: Magic Soldier Lv. 9 Seiryuu County Army: Knight Captain Lv. 31 Seiryuu County Army: Soldier Lv. 7 Seiryuu County Army: Knight Lv. 20 Seiryuu County Army: Soldier Lv. 5
There are about 100 soldiers.
The highest level is 31.
Their average level is 7.
Pretty low.
Wyvern
What's that?
A wyvern, huh?
I wonder where it is.
Acquired Skill: Hand-to-Hand Combat
Ouch...
Wait, that didn't hurt.
I wonder if it's due to my Pain Resistance skill.
Or maybe it's because my endurance is high.
Go away, you!
Used Skill: Throwing
Level 310 makes you pretty strong.
Huh?
Soldiers' Stronghold
Wyvern
That's not good. The soldiers are that way, I'm pretty sure.
I guess that's kind of my fault.
Acquired Skill: Shigan Language
Used Skill: Keen Hearing
Used Skill: Long-Distance Vision Used Skill: Telescopic Sight
I don't know what they're saying.
Character
Shigan Language
Soldiers, hold your ground!
Show them our Seiryuu spirit!
Acquired Skill: Lip Reading
Here it comes!
Lancemen, keep your lances planted.
Keep them in position with your feet.
Let them off the ground, and the wyvern will blow you away!
Bowmen, pull it in.
Wait until it gets scared of the lances and slows down.
Most of the arrows are being deflected by the wyvern's hide.
I wonder if it's because its hide is so tough,
or their levels are too different.
Turbulence!
Air Hammer!
Lightning Bolt!
It's coming my way!
Stop him, Zena!
Right!
Air Cushion!
Resist Fall!
Acquired Title: Lifesaver
A City Tour That Started with a Death March