Log Horizon: Alien Chronicles Volume 1

Ch.1 Edited

What is your desire, Adventurer?

"Boss, pay attention. I’d rather not have you rez the beginners."

Huh?... Oh, right, I'm playing as Las Boss. The pre-teen shook his head, trying to fight the drowsiness making his eyelids sink. He looked at the computer screens before him.

Almost all of them had some sort of complex programs running or some kind of character login screen. However, the screen right before him showed four people, all game character models, standing in some kind of forest. The two younger character models were fighting goblins as the two adult ones stood nearby where they could assist if need to. It was a game the pre-teen knew quite well: Elder Tales, a post-apocalyptic fantasy world MMORPG.

[Sorry. Nodded off for a moment.] The pre-teen typed into the computer, using his foot to move the mouse and click on one of the young characters. His character - a tall, white haired man - used a healing spell to replenish the health of the samurai-looking boy on the screen. He used the other foot to direct another mouse over the other screens, checking the complex programs.

Still no sign of the damn bug keeping the Alpha servers from connecting to the main game server, the pre-teen huffed. He was getting tired of doing all this work just because he was the only one who knew the programs well enough. Need to train some of the others so I don’t have to deal with this anymore.

"How long have you been up, Boss?" The pre-teen, referred to as Boss, looked at the other adult on the screen, a classic mage character with a white cloak and glasses. Even his calm and somewhat stoic tone of voice matched the mage persona on screen.

How long have I been up? Las Boss looked around, finding food containers and wrappers littered around him, piled higher than the mess of papers, computer parts, and such that took over the small bedroom. It was a disaster zone. The only clean area was where several computer monitors and towers sat, humming right along with the air conditioners that were helping to  keep the room cool. Las Boss snatched up a half eaten sandwich of the top of the pile and bit into it. The bread was slightly stale, but still perfectly edible.

[No clue. A couple of days?] Las Boss typed, hitting the keys hard. He could even feel the bags under his eyes. His whole body felt like it was sagging and ready to just fall over. It was only Las Boss’s own will power that keep his body working.

"Wait, where have you been? I would have noticed you playing several days straight." The mage character asked, concern in his voice.

[Been working. Trying to debug whatever is blocking Alpha server from connecting to Elder Tales. Kind of regretting taking up the CEOs’ offer to bring the game to my world as the director.] Las Boss popped his neck. His whole body felt oddly stiff and achy despite the feeling that it would melt to jelly the instant he relaxed. Must have been working longer than I needed to be.

"If that was the case, then you should have denied my offer. I shouldn't have asked for your help when you need sleep." Las Boss chuckled at the scolding he was getting.

"Ah, Minori, keep an eye on Touya's HP," The mage said, focusing back on the two younger characters.

"Hai!” A panicked girl's voice came up as the shrine maiden character cast a spell on the samurai character.

[Ma, ma. It's what I get for leaving the bad game.] Las Boss was slamming his fingers into the keyboard. Sheer willpower kept him from slamming a fist into the monitors before him. That and fixing one of his computers would take too much time. Even though there was now a company that made the small parts, he was still working on training people to make said computers.