Log Horizon: Alien Chronicles Volume 1

Ch.13

"Sensei, are you sure you're alright?" Shiroe looked up from his map at Akatsuki. Even though she was expressionless, her constant movements around Las Boss showed her worry towards him. She looked for injuries on their healer, though there were none to be found now.

[I'm fine. Even my MP is back up... Ah! Shiroe, ledge over there is unstable.] Las Boss pointing at an area before them.

"Right." Shiroe marked his map and looked for a detour. "If we take this tunnel, we can get back to the main path." Shiroe pointed at a large tunnel just before the spot Las Boss pointed at.

"Heh. So you weren’t lying about seeing the status of areas. You're such a cheater!" Naotsugu grinned, back in his armor as they were trying to get back on schedule for the rescue.

[It's not cheating. As a game master, one of the jobs I had to do was make sure the data of the game was not corrupted for various reasons. Actually, I am one of the GMs focused to bug fixing as there are some just who focus on keeping players in line. Hence the extra menus I have to check things like data for environments and such to find and fix bugs and glitches... Though, they changed with the Catastrophe. I did not realize they were still doing the same thing, but of real life information instead of computer data.] Las Boss glared at Naotsugu.

"Ah. That's right, the character you are in is one of your main three you use. Wait, does your other avatars have these menus?" Shiroe asked, getting confused looks from Akatsuki. "Oh, I forgot. GMs usually have characters specifically for work and then ones for playing. Some GMs were probably in their playing accounts when we got stuck here.”

[They do. Being a GM is my hobby, so I don’t mind all my accounts being work related.] Las Boss was looking ahead, keeping an eye on his menus for hidden dangers. [Oh… That does make me wonder. What has happened to our other characters? You weren’t able to contact Naruko or Sandaime Hokage before.] Las Boss turned to face Shiroe and the others.

"…" Shiroe suddenly went into thought.

"Huh? What do you mean? I only have this one I am stuck in now." Naotsugu asked, confused.

"The same for me." Akatsuki, for once, agreed with Naotsugu.

"I have one other character that I played Elder Tales and got to test out on the beta." Akatsuki and Naotsugu looked at Shiroe with shock. "I was lucky to be able to play it as a kid and was able to keep her once I opened my Japanese account. She is on the test server connected to the American Server. Though, it does make me wonder what has happen for those with multiple characters. I mean, we were confirmed to be missing in the real world, but the game developers can’t see which character we are in."

[Indeed. I know at least several people ended up in my characters by mistake without directly playing. It makes me wonder who else could have been unlucky to be near a player with multiple accounts.] Las Boss sighed, crossing his arms while looking away.

He’s really regrets the situations. Shiroe through, also lamenting on their lack of action. He has been keeping up contact with Shika and Minori while on their journey. He explained the full situation to Shika with finding she was mature enough to understand the urgency. This is the test run. If we can’t save Serara and her friend, there is no way we will be able to save the others.

Shiroe noticed Las Boss pouting, [It does make me worry as we haven't seen any new players either. There hasn’t been any updates on the forums since we found it. However, there was a notice on the forums warning not to touch the computers of players who have disappeared.]

That’s right. Shika and the others ended up trap due to trying to help Boss. Shiroe thought, looking at his map. Could it be they lost control of the game? They must be focused on stopping anymore victims to not be posting on the forums the last few days. Or, have the developers lost control of the forums as well?