1 A Game for Everyone

Other Worlds.

Everyone who has it rough in their life always wants to escape, escape to another world.

A world where they can enjoy themselves.

A world where they can dream away.

Whether it being through reading, playing or watching, people always find a way to dream away.

I'm the same as everybody else,

After going through a lot, I decided to forget it all and escape.

The place I migrated to is called "Olympus", a game for The Dreamer. The Dreamer is a VR headset first released before I was even born. I first found the game and really got into it when I was 14 years old. Olympus is a VRMMO where you can live out your fantasies, whether it being through adventures or merchanting

The world truly offers something for everyone.

Within this game, there are 12 people who stand above the rest. They're often called "The 12 Greek Gods" due to each of them, after receiving the title, adopt a skill tree with powers similar to the ancient Greek gods.

"... And the king of these gods was called Zeus, he was the..."

A teacher was standing in front of my desk, glaring at me with angry and disappointed eyes. A textbook found itself flying on to my head at a rapid speed, causing my head to hurt quite a bit.

My eyes opened up, and a classroom presented itself. Around the room, at least two dozen angsty teenagers were staring at me. I could almost feel the glares cut through me.

Instinctively, I quickly jumped up.

Small laughter could be heard throughout the room, and not too long after that small chatter introduced itself as well.

"Kentarou Miura, would you please stop sleeping during my lesson?" The glaring teacher suddenly uttered, causing the laughter and chatter to stop immediately.

With heavy eyes, I opened my history textbook and let out a quiet and submissive "yes, sir".

School is incredibly mundane.

In all honesty, I don't even know why I bother to come here anymore.

I'm universally disliked and constantly get bullied.

I might as well just stop, but I can't. If I would have, My older sister would, somehow, hunt me down and make sure I'd make it to school.

She's a bit scary, but she's the only family member who actually cares about me. So I'm fine with it

Another mundane school day, another 1000 yen bill lost to some jerks.

Grand and majestic trees surround the road leading to my house, the cement pavement hits hard against my sneakers.

My sister, who's walking beside me, takes a step closer to me and says

"How was school today, bro?"

I continue walking for a couple of seconds in a useless attempt to avoid the question. But she just runs up to me and hits me lightly in the head.

"I said, how was school today, bro?"

After a sigh of defeat, I open my mouth to respond

"It was as usual"

She pulls a slightly confused face as she ponders as to what "as usual" implies.

"Whaddya mean by 'as usual'?" she asks after failing to figure it out. With a monotone voice, I say

"You know, getting bullied and ridiculed and losing my lunch money, stuff like that."

She quickly clenches her fist and grinds her teeth.

She then lets it go and says in a less enthusiastic voice

"I'm sorry for not being able to help you."

I glare at my sister in shock, and an unbearable silence follows. I want to break the silence, but I don't know what to do.

But it's better to say something than nothing, in an attempt to lighten up the mood,

I say

"No, it's fine. You don't have to worry about it."

I guess I failed, because she displays the same gloomy face all the way home.

Any 'normal' person would think that I hate my life.

But, for some reason, I don't.

Olympus is pretty much the reason for that.

In the game, I get an immense amount of joy. But in real life though, everything went down the drain.

I'm not quite sure how it happened. But I don't care enough to find out why.

As long as I have my game, I'm fine.

I sit at the dinner table with my hands in my lap.

My parents sit across the table, discussing something.

They seem so distant, they're my parents but they sit so far away from me.

A feeling of solitude pops up, It's a very nostalgic feeling.

My sister enters the room with an unspeakable presence. She's wearing traditional clothing, and it looks pretty good on her. Her nice figure is very defined by it.

She carries the food and puts it gently on the table, the food itself is very fancy and expensive.

That's because we're from the Miura family. You see, there are 4 families in our current society who are considered 'noble'. The Mizuhi family, the Mirato family, Mikubu family and the Miura family.

The reason I'm disliked by the majority of the noble world is that my father married a 'commoner'.

Of course, that's considered a grande disgrace. It's incredibly taboo for someone of noble blood to marry someone who's a 'commoner'.

In summary, I'm a half-blood.

I've always thought it was absurd, why do these people automatically get to have it better in life?

How can they consider themselves superior to everybody else?

Even though they're all lazy assholes who get everything handed to them at birth.

The noble families constantly marry each other to avoid incest.

For my biological parents, they died in a car crash when I was young. I'm almost sure it was staged by some damn noble. But because of that incident, I had to move somewhere else. Surprisingly, this "branch" of the Miura family accepted me and I've lived here since. I'm grateful to them for letting me live here.

I grab a plate and take some food.

My sister sits down next to me and takes some food. My father says

"So, how was school today, Ai?"

Sister stops eating and looks up at father.

"It was fine." She responds in an uninterested manner

Mother joins the stale conversation and I'm left quiet, eating my food.

For the record though, the food is really good.

Dinner's finally done.

I start walking towards the stairs leading up to my room.

Each step I take towards my room is filled with excitement. The whole day has been building up to this, I can finally enter the world of Olympus.

I run into my room and quickly jump on to my chair in a swift and smooth manner. The Dreamer is sitting right in front of me, ready to be used.

I grab it in haste, almost as I'm scared that it'll disappear.

I put it on my head and instead of my room being the thing I'm seeing it's complete darkness.

I have to shout the magical words for it to start.

It's a bit of a silly requirement, but it kind of makes me feel like I'm in a cool shonen manga.

I take a quick breath to utter the words, but I'm interrupted by a knock on my door.

"Yes, what is it?" I ask. The response to that is of my sister's voice

"Don't forget that we have to attend the Mizuhi meet in a couple of hours."

Upon remembering, I let out a small grunt. I respond

"Yeah, I understand."

The family meet, it's a bi-monthly event where each family gathers and have their own meetings. Because my step-mom is from the Mizuhi family, we have to attend two family meetings every two months.

I quickly think about it but then shake my head. I don't want to waste my time thinking about that. Now, I need to focus on the game.

"Dream away!"

Suddenly my vision is filled with a portal looking thing.

Immediately, I get flown into it.

Now, I'm standing at the last place I was at. On top of a hill, with a view of the city of Athens.

The Olympus map spans the whole of Greece.

I'm leaning against Parthenon with a smile on my face.

I open my UI menu to see if any of my friends are online. I scroll down the list and see that "OctopusesAreCool" is online.

I quickly open up a chat and type "Hey, AC. What's up?" and send it.

While awaiting a response, I stare once again out to the big city of Athens.

You'd be surprised as to how short the buildings are, there's also a considerable amount of trees around the area.

I think I read somewhere that there's a law that prevents anyone from building something that would block the view of this very building, the Parthenon.

It's an interesting fact, but useless in the end.

While looking out, I see a person walking on a road down below.

It's a girl, her avatar has braided red hair and expensive-looking armor.

It's hard to make out the details of her, due to it being quite a distance between us. Even with my upgraded sight.

Still, OctopusesAreCool is taking quite some time to respond, which isn't really like him.

Well, since I have nothing else to do, I decide to run down and greet the woman.

It feels so easy running down the road, nothing like reality, especially with my fragile body. Every time I enter this game, I get surprised at how realistic yet unrealistic it feels. Running down the road gives me a sense of freedom while the wind blows gently in my face.

...

The red-haired woman is walking along the road leading to the grand Parthenon.

She's had a rough day in reality and wants to relax at the sight of the big and old city of Athens.

She had found this game a couple of years back during one of the toughest times of her life.

She's forever grateful to "Global Theorizers", the developers of Olympus.

While walking along the hard concrete road, she notices an Avatar running down the very road she's walking on.

The avatar is of a slightly above average looking boy with armor that she'd never seen before.

She was surprised to see another person in this area, most people are around the Thessaloniki area. Suddenly, the boy picked up the pace and started running towards her at a mildly shocking speed. And then, in an instant, The boy suddenly disappears, only to appear in front of her a fraction of a second later.

"Hello" The boy says with a wide smile.

The woman stands frozen, with only one thought in her mind;

'Just who is this?'

...

OctopusesAreCool, more commonly known as OctopusesAC, was wandering around Athens trying to find the road that leads to the Parthenon.

He had seen "Flaming hand's" message earlier but had decided to surprise him.

He had to be a bit sneaky, otherwise Flaming Hand would notice him with his skill "A Million Eyes". OctopusesAC already knew that Flaming Hand would be waiting at Parthenon, they'd known each other for a couple of years so they knew a lot about each other.

As he walked up the road, he started hearing some steps and for a second the steps stopped and a voice could be heard.

The voice was Flaming Hand, a clear "Hello" was heard.

OctopusesAC thought this was weird, 'had the guy gone insane? Why is he talking to himself' he thought to himself.

After walking another meter he saw another person next to Flaming Hand.

A beautiful woman with red-colored hair nonetheless!

On an impulse, he wanted to run up and greet the girl.

But in order to get the surprise, and to satisfy his curiosity, he decided to run behind a tree and listen to the conversation.

"H-hello" The girl responds in a slightly confused manner.

"I was wondering, why are you in this area? There's not a lot of people here since that incident." Flaming Hand asks.

The girl holds her confused expression while answering

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Oh, I just like the view of Athens from the Parthenon." Flaming hand says while scratching his cheek.

OctopusesAC observes as the girl quickly blushes but then shakes her head. She then answers

"Well, I do too. That's why I'm here."

Flaming hand suddenly gets a look on his face, Like he had a Eureka moment.

"How about we go up there together?" Flaming hand asks.

'Is that the Eureka!?' OctopusesAC almost screams out.

The question didn't really solve the girl's confusion, she answers

"Why should I go up with you?"

"Well, you're alone and I'm waiting for a friend. I thought it was perfect. But if you don't want to, I'll leave you alone." Flaming hand says nonchalantly.

OctopusesAC witnesses yet another quick blush before hearing the girl responding

"We can do it, I don't really mind."

OctopusesAC suddenly gets a bit jealous.

'I always get equally surprised at Flaming Hands social skills. But I have a feeling he's just lucky in his interactions.' OctopusesAC thinks to himself.

...

I got this girl to accompany me to the Parthenon while I'm waiting for OctopusesAreCool. But I guess I don't have to wait too long.

The girl walks a couple of meters up the road before turning around and asking

"What are you looking at?"

She was referring to me, staring at a rock. I chuckle a bit before yelling

"AC, I know you're there! How about you come out!!?"

And from behind the rock, something comes out. An avatar of a young man with brown hair and eyes. The avatar is wearing casual clothes and has an annoyed facial expression. The girl immediately takes a couple of steps back and says

"Someone was listening!?"

OctopusesAC walks up to me and angrily exclaims

"How did you know I was there!? There should've been no way for your 'A Million Eyes' ability to notice me!"

I get a smile on my face and explain

"That's where you're wrong, my friend. First of all, I recently upgraded the ability, so it's easier for me to detect things within an 8-meter radius. Second of all, you let go of your concentration when you first saw that girl, so I was easily able to detect you. It was a nice try though, if I might add."

OctopusesAC stood there, shocked at his mistakes. I then follow it up with

"Don't mind it. Why don't you join us and walk to the Parthenon?"

Slightly depressed, OctopusesAC responds

"Fine." and mutters to himself "Why can't I surprise him?"

but upon sight of the girl, he instantly brightens up and runs up to her. He grabs her hand and kisses it, and follows it up with

"Hello, beautiful lady. May I know your name?"

Disgusted, the girl pulls back her hand and looks at me while saying

"Who is this guy? He's acting like a creep."

OctopusesAC immediately counters it with

"Come on, don't be like that."

while I answer the question

"AC's a women-lover to the extremes. He has a weirdly strong passion for them. Although, he isn't usually this excited about it. Come on, AC. Take it down a notch, won't ya?"

OctopusesAC jumps back a pace and bows as an apology.

We start walking up the road, chatting along the way. I find out that the girl's name is Charlotte. Her username is KeyboardWarrior92.

We arrive at the top of the hill, the Parthenon is standing before us.

We take a seat on a bench in front of the structure and look out towards the city.

The city is filled with a beautiful orange hue due to the sun.

It's one of the most breath-taking sights I've ever seen. It's the perfect moment for me to ask my question!

I suddenly stand up, and the others look at me.

I walk a couple of meters to the edge of the hill and turn around in a dramatic fashion. I start with

"Look, I've been thinking about this for a while and I have decided to chase the title of Zeus."

OctopusesAC and KeyboardWarrior92 immediately become shocked.

"And I want to ask you two something."

I take a step forward and bring out my hand. I then let the words fly out with passion

"Will you two join my squad and chase the dream of Olympus with me!?"

...

OctopusesAC and KeyboardWarrior92 are frozen solid as a result of Flaming Hand's decision and request. OctopusesAC is the first one to act, he says

"Are you crazy!? Zeus is the king of kings! The current holder, NiceCookies, is rumored to be the strongest player in the game yet."

While staring at Flaming hand's smiling face, KeyboardWarrior92 thought to herself

"This is a perfect opportunity to protect me. From what I saw before, he seems like a strong player. Finally, I've found someone."

Almost as if OctopusesAC interrupts KeyboardWarrior92 in her thoughts, he continues his rant

"I don't want to lose all my items, you know. 3 times in a row and you're out. As you already know, I'm weak. There's no way that I'd be able to take down even one of the 12 entities.

KeyboardWarrior92 gives OctopusesAC a pitiful look, "A man isn't supposed to be like this!" she quickly comments in her head.

Flaming Hand breaks his long silence with

"Come on, AC. Don't be like that. It'll be fun! We'll go looking for the 16 keys scattered across the country together and then beat the gods up and take Olympus for ourselves."

OctopusesAC is about to go another rant before KeyboardWarrior92 interrupts him and exclaims

"I'll join you on your journey."

Flaming Hand and OctopusesAC react at the same time

"WHAT!?" OctopusesAC yells

"You will!? Yes! That's great. You're the one I thought would decline."

KeyboardWarrior92 gets a confused expression as she asks

"Really? How so?"

Flaming Hand responds

"I mean, we literally met like 25 minutes ago. I don't even know what your favorite ice cream flavor is."

KeyboardWarrior92, assuming Flaming Hand's asking a question, answers

"I like Pistachio."

Flaming Hand could in some weird way guess that Pistachio would be her favorite.

He then answers his own question

"Really? Personally, I like Stracciatella ice cream more. It's SO good, have you tried it?"

KeyboardWarrior92 thinks about it for a couple of seconds before coming up with an answer

"No, not yet at least."

"Well, You just have to tr---" is all Flaming Hand manages to get out before getting interrupted by a frustrated octopus loving guy

"Why are you two getting along!?"

Flaming Hand's the first one to respond

"We're going to travel together for quite a while, so it's good if we get along, right?"

OctopusesAC could only stare at the pair in shock as he pondered on the like likeness of such a quick friendship.

It'd taken him and Flaming Hand a couple of months before they reached a stage of any resemblance to this.

'Could there be another reason for KeyboardWarrior92 joining Flaming Hand? Of course, that's only logical, but what reason could it be?'

OctopusesAC asked himself, he came up with a few answers but if he was going to convict her of something, he needed to be 100% sure.

'Still though, KeyboardWarrior92 is so beautiful! My heart hurts when I think of reasons for her to betray Flaming Hand. OK, I've decided. I'll join them! To make sure my precious friend doesn't get hurt, and also to try and win over KeyboardWarrior92.' OctopusesAC bravely shouted, inside his head.

All that was left now was for OctopusesAC to actually tell Flaming Hand.

OctopusesAC stands up with his slender legs, giving him some attention from the others.

"Why did you suddenly stand up? If you don't want to join us, then don't. I won't value you less because of it."

OctopusesAC's heart is beating at an inexplicably fast pace, his mind is a bit foggy and he's dizzy. Truth is, OctopusesAC himself isn't very good at social interactions.

He always manages to uphold his persona for a solid 30 minutes, after that he gets more and more anxious by the minute.

But now isn't the time for OctopusesAC to tap out, he has to tell them and then just book it.

"Yeah, just don't join." KeyboardWarrior92 says in a distant and cold tone.

In her head, she's thinking 'Please don't join. If you join, I won't get Flaming Hand's full protection. It's a bit ridiculous to put all my hopes into a person I met 20 minutes ago. All I have for evidence that he's strong is a hunch. But then again they usually say that a woman's intuition is strong.'

While KeyboardWarrior is debating with herself if she's going to trust Flaming Hand with her life, OctopusesAC is gathering his words to tell them. Well, there weren't many words to say. OctopusesAC takes a step and declares his will

"I'll join you on your journey."

Flaming Hand gets a pleasantly surprised face, and KeyboardWarrior92 outright thinks 'NO' inside her head.

"Really? That's good. What brought on the change of attitude though?" Flaming hand asks OctopusesAC

"Oh, nothing special." OctopusesAC says while scratching the back of his head.

"What? Whaddya mean by 'nothing'? Something must have changed." Flaming Hand counters.

OctopusesAC insists, saying "No, really."

...

It was a really picturesque scene to behold.

The 3 newly formed comrades dancing around the huge ancient building, covered in a golden shine. The 3 of them, at the moment, felt the joy of youth.

Even KeyboardWarrior92 felt happy, but she didn't admit it to herself.

The 3 of them were ready to pursue the 'Dream of Olympus', but their planning was a bit interrupted by a knocking sound.

Flaming Hand noticed the sound and looked at the others for their reactions, but failed to notice any.

He then realizes that the sound is from his own room.

He knows that he must quickly respond, otherwise the 'knocker' will get angry.

So he just quickly says

"I have to go now, let's meet here again after school tomorrow."

and suddenly, the avatar of Flaming Hand just disappears, leaving the fierce keyboard warrior and the octopus loving guy left.

KeyboardWarrior92 quickly comments on the situation

"So he's in school, huh?"

and then OctopusesAC comments on KeyboardWarrior92's comment

"You seriously think a hard-working adult male would play a game like this?"

KeyboardWarrior92 sits down and continues the conversation

"Can I take that as you're in school too?"

OctopusesAC answers with a simple "Yeah" and sits down, he then continues with "Aren't you?"

KeyboardWarrior92 sighs, pressing her hand against her temple.

"Well, yeah I am. Although I don't like to reveal too much 'real-life' information about myself."

Immediately upon hearing this, OctopusesAC pulls out a notebook and starts writing down the important information. KeyboardWarrior92 immediately notices this and yells out

"Why're you taking notes!?"

After finishing up writing, OctopusesAC looks up at KeyboardWarrior92 with a smile and says

"Could be useful in the future."

KeyboardWarrior92 glances down at the page of paper and notices the amount of information. Everything from her appearance to her behavior was written down on that piece of paper that OctopusesAC held so dear to him.

"I'm ashamed that I, even for a second, thought you were a normal-functioning human. In the end, you're just a creep." KeyboardWarrior92 says with a distant gaze at OctopusesAC. OctopusesAC says in a delighted voice

"Ahh, How cold. You're such a tsundere, Mrs. KeyboardWarrior.

Irritatedly, the so-called Tsundere yelled out "Shut up, I'm not a tsundere!" before logging out of the game.

OctopusesAC is left sitting down with his note in his hand, after enjoying the calming silence for a minute or so, he decides to also log out.

This leaves the ancient building Parthenon left, staring out to the city that had been the target of a devastating attack.

...

"It's time for the family meet now, hurry up" my sister yelled through the door.

I broke into cold sweat, the dreaded family meet was up and I hadn't mentally prepared myself yet. Well, It'll just be like any other family meet, some insults here and there directed at me and that'll be that.

"I'm coming!"

I said while gritting my teeth and holding my hand in a fist.

With regret on my mind, I walked towards the door.