Chapter 6: See You Tomorrow

"What the hell are you doing!?"

At Ibuki’s scolding voice, Eiji, running toward us, raised one hand and shouted back, "My bad!!" He looked like he wanted to explain himself, but with more pressing matters at hand, both Meiri and Ibuki immediately began preparing for battle. I agreed—it was better to deal with the reality before us than waste time complaining.

"Sorry! Couldn’t find the enemy, but when I got close to the forest, it spotted me!"

"Seriously, what are you doing… well, never mind. Anyway, we have to do something about that! San-chan, it’s dangerous, so stay back!"

Needless to say, I was already hiding behind the tree where I had been resting, keeping a watchful eye. If I insisted on fighting too, Eiji and Meiri would be forced to protect me on top of everything else, doubling their burden. A level 1 Enchanter with no skills yet has virtually nothing to contribute.

And that thing has area attacks. With my low HP, one unlucky hit would be enough to knock me flat. If that happened, my friends’ efforts to protect me would go to waste. With that reasoning in place, I promptly decided to take up the role of spectator.

Meiri stepped forward with her shield raised, while Ibuki stood behind her, book in hand, beginning his chant. The enemy was already upon us, and Eiji, panting hard, slipped past Meiri’s side. Right on his heels, the Forest Walker raised its branch to strike. Up close, its presence was overwhelming—easily the size of a small building.

"Go for it!!"

"≪Mud Explosion≫!"

"De-ryaaaaa!!"

But we struck first. A magic circle appeared on the ground, erupting in mud in response to Ibuki’s voice. The Walker staggered, its attack motion halting as the mud splashed across its body. Meiri immediately closed the distance and slammed her shield forward. A white, semi-transparent barrier effect flared, and the massive body reeled back. I couldn’t help but shiver a little—what kind of strength did it take to stagger something that huge with a single blow?

"No, it’s a skill that forces knockback! Not raw strength, okay!?"

Catching the look on my face, Meiri barked back even in the middle of combat. The fact that she had enough composure to notice my reaction in such a fight showed how experienced she was. Neither of them seemed particularly fazed.

…Well, it made sense. They were players who had been here since day one, probably among the higher levels in the current pool. So even if it was a field boss, if it showed up in a beginner area, it likely wasn’t that much of a threat to them.

"Haa… haa… Let’s take it down quick!"

"Quit whining and do your job!"

Catching his breath, Eiji raised his longsword high. With Meiri’s sharp remark at his back, he closed in on the Walker, which was regaining its stance. His blade shone with a pale yellow light as he brought it down on one of its many branches. A clean cut—the thick limb spun through the air before dissolving into glittering bubbles of light. Apparently, the system allowed for part destruction too. That single exchange shaved about a quarter off the Walker’s HP bar displayed above its head.

"Switch! Don’t let it rampage!"

"Leave it to me!!"

Eiji kicked off the Walker’s body, retreating swiftly, while Meiri charged in to take his place. Shield braced, sword drawn tight at her waist, she rushed in. The Walker swung its remaining branches wildly to counter, but her shield absorbed the blows without harm.

"Haaaaaah!!"

Her thrust pierced the Walker, slicing away several smaller branches. Once again, the Walker staggered—likely another skill effect—its form swaying unsteadily.

"Alright, let’s finish this!!"

"Wait, idiot, don’t—!"

Ignoring her protest, Eiji followed up recklessly. With a full-force swing, his sword slammed into the reeling giant, leaving streaks of light as the massive tree-like body was knocked off its feet. It crashed several meters away, sending dirt and grass flying with a thunderous impact. The terrain would auto-repair eventually, but the spectacle was brutal and impressive.

Man, the forced knockback in this game is insane. To think it could toss something that huge so easily.

The Walker’s HP dropped below half, and a new status icon appeared beside its bar: a yellow bird and stars spinning around, the telltale sign of stun. So that was it. I had worried too much. Their sense of urgency had made me panic too, but clearly, they had this handled.

Relieved, I watched the fantasy battle unfold before me with admiration. I wanted to level up soon, so I could fight alongside them. I wanted to try magic too…!

Thinking about it, all the gloom I carried before starting this game had vanished. Now, I was genuinely looking forward to living in this world.

"…Eh."

"Are you kidding me!? And its HP’s already below half!!"

Even as I relaxed, my friends’ anxious voices broke through. But why? Everything looked like it was going well.

"Damn it, let’s hit it with another combo—no, wait, cooldown’s not done!"

"My knockback skills are still on cooldown too… River!!"

Meiri suddenly looked at me with a strangely desperate expression. I tilted my head, confused. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ibuki begin chanting in a rush.

"Hinata!!"

"Sun-chan!!"

"…………?"

Not knowing why they were panicking, I couldn’t even react when they called my name. Then, all three voices overlapped, demanding the simplest response:

"Run!!"

"Get out of there!!"

Before Meiri and Eiji could reach it, the Walker stirred. Shaking off its stun, the massive tree rose, red light and smoke blazing from its body, and charged straight toward me.

『Mad Rush』— Walker-sensei’s most troublesome ability. It’s also a common trait shared by many boss characters. Specifically, it activates when their HP drops below half, lasting for three minutes. During that time, their movement speed and attack power increase, and they become immune to knockback. What’s more, threat management—such as aggro values that determine targeting, or even taunts that normally force enemies to attack you—are all temporarily nullified. The boss will simply keep attacking its chosen target until that person is down.

Because of this skill, if you mindlessly try to whittle down their health, you’ll just end up getting beaten into the ground by a berserk teacher. Walker is the first wall players face—a teacher who physically demonstrates how to fight giant monsters, how to deal with AoEs and ranged attacks, and just how terrifying the common boss ability known as Mad Rush can be.

"～～～～～～～！！"

Driven by fear of being chased by a gigantic monster—and of the death penalty—players are forced to learn their place, and just how dangerous combat truly is. Just like me right now, running around with tears in my eyes. Ah—he just grazed me!

"Slowing him down! Ace, Meiri! I’m counting on you!
≪Viscosity Liquid≫!"

"Take this! …Damn, he’s not staggering!"

"Te-ryaaaaaahhh!!"

From behind, I could hear the three of them desperately attacking the teacher. Normally, I’d love to watch and learn for future reference, but unfortunately I was too busy running for my life. If I slowed down even a little, he’d catch me, and then I’d be in for a brutal thrashing with that branch of his. Honestly, with the low endurance of a mage, I probably wouldn’t last even three hits.

The cause of this whole mess is simple: the stun effect triggered earlier by Eiji’s skill. Apparently, when a monster recovers from a stun, its aggro values get reset. For active monsters, a built-in routine then reselects their target. For bosses, if there are multiple players within range, they’ll prioritize in order: the lowest level, the lowest HP, and the lowest defense.

…So you get it now, right? The moment Walker snapped out of his stun, his aggro reset. And the second he locked onto me—the perfect match for all those conditions—Mad Rush triggered, fixing his target onto me. At that point, Meiri’s taunts were useless, and even knockback skills couldn’t pry him off me.

"～～～！！"

Whether Walker would catch me first, or whether the party could finish him off in time, the desperate chase dragged on. Walker’s constant running while pursuing me only made things more complicated. Thanks to Ibuki’s spell—wrapping his legs in a viscous liquid—his movement speed had dropped, and for now I was just barely staying ahead. Still, the occasional branch attack whizzing past me was enough to chill my spine.

"You bastard…! I won’t let you lay a single scratch on a beautiful little girl right in front of me!!"

Meiri’s impassioned shout somehow sounded incredibly reliable. Was this what they called the suspension bridge effect? Either way, I had no idea how much HP Walker had left, or how much longer I had to keep running. The stress just kept piling on. A strange fatigue was creeping over my body—probably my stamina giving out. In this game, stamina loss translates into exhaustion, damage translates into pain, and in some cases even injuries are replicated. Keep running like this, and my stamina would just drain away until I had nothing left.

"!?"

And finally, my stamina gave out. With my naturally low endurance—and still not fully accustomed to this body—it was a miracle I’d managed to keep ahead this long. My strength failed, and as I staggered, I tripped over a jagged bump in the dirt gouged out by an earlier branch strike. My body pitched forward. In the slow-motion flow of the scenery, I looked back—and saw the looming shadow of a branch, slicing through the air toward me.

"Sun-chan!!"

――――DOGOON!!

The branch slammed into my back, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I was thrown to the ground, bouncing across the grass. Even with pain dampened by the system, I still felt a harsh blow, like being smacked hard across the back. If this weren’t mitigated, I couldn’t even imagine how bad it would have been. The thought alone made me shudder.

"Kh…gh…"

"Hinata! Stay with me!!"

Checking my HUD, I saw my life gauge already in the danger zone from that single strike. Whether surviving it was lucky or unlucky, I wasn’t sure. I coughed, trying to push myself up, but my body wouldn’t obey—dull pain radiating from my back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a new status icon: a figure outlined in white, marked with a red X.

It was the injury status icon. This game included a Damage Emulation system—once you took a certain threshold of damage, it reproduced everything from wounds to fractures, even limb loss. It was designed to keep things realistic, preventing the classic “as long as you’ve got 1 HP left, you can keep fighting fine” situation.

The pain itself was manageable—even with fractures, you could still force yourself to move; it was more like sore muscles. Not unbearable. But system-wise, your range of motion was restricted. My legs weren’t moving properly anymore. Running from the rampaging Walker was out of the question. First quest, first boss, first death penalty… quite a lineup. If nothing else, I’d learned one thing: even in a game, being cornered and killed by a monster is anything but pleasant.

Without a doubt, one more hit and I would have been finished. I braced myself for the inevitable transfer back to the church, closed my eyes—

――――And then, a tremendous sound shook the ground, as something huge collapsed nearby. A gust of wind, thick with dust, blew across my body.

"…………?"

Cautiously opening my eyes, I saw him—Walker—lying shattered on the ground. The embodiment of nightmare that had chased me so relentlessly was now motionless, his massive frame breaking apart, dissolving into countless bubbles of light.

"S-Safe… finally…"
"That… was so much harder than just doing it normally…"

Meiri and Eiji, who had driven their longswords into his body, slumped to the ground, leaning against Walker’s enormous frame as it faded away. A short distance off, I saw Ibuki also drop to a seat, his exhaustion plain.

Somehow, it looked like I had survived.

I watched Walker’s form scatter into the air, leaving behind nothing but fading light. The one who had terrified me so thoroughly was gone, just like that. Only then did I let out a long breath of relief. Checking my status, I found no HP, no stamina, nothing left to give. My body ached with exhaustion. I didn’t want to move another step.

I collapsed back into the grass, gazing at the sky above. The sun was sinking, painting the horizon in shades of orange.

"Sun-chan, are you okay? Does it still hurt anywhere?"

『I’m fine. Really.』

After turning in the quest, our party stopped to rest at an open café near the eastern gate. Thanks to the potion they’d shared with me, my body was fully recovered, no lingering pain or discomfort. Even so, Meiri seemed weighed down by guilt, blaming herself as the tank for letting the rear guard—me—nearly die.

『It was just an accident. You did protect me.
Besides, you treated me to this—so this ice cream makes us even.』

I smiled, pointing at the plate in front of me with a scoop of chocolate ice cream perched on it.

It would have been cruel to dismiss it all with a "It’s just a game." The truth was, it had been terrifying. The system’s pain dampening didn’t matter—the immersion was so intense that it was like waking from a nightmare where you’d almost been killed by a monster. Add to that the real penalty of losing five percent experience on death, and it wasn’t something to laugh off.

They had all felt the same. That’s why they tried so hard to protect a beginner like me—and thanks to them, I was sitting here alive, drinking tea. I had no reason to be angry. If anything, I was grateful.

"Ugh… thank you, Sun-chan. Still, as a shield knight, letting a little girl go through that right in front of me… I need more training."

"Yeah, same here. I should’ve been more careful… sorry for scaring you like that."

『Eiji, you too—it’s fine! It was an accident! A freak accident!』

I couldn’t stand watching them beat themselves up, so I cut the conversation short, half by force. They still seemed a little down, but time would take care of that. Honestly, if anyone had the right to sulk, it was me—the one who panicked and tripped, dragging everyone down.

As I munched on my ice cream, I caught Ibuki’s eye. I shot him a look that said, Back me up here, will you?

"Well, Sun’s right. No point in dwelling on it too much," he added smoothly.

As expected of Ibuki, always good at reading the mood. With his help, Meiri and Eiji finally started shaking off their gloom. At last, the air around the table lightened, and I could breathe easier.

I sipped the orange juice in my glass. The food in this game tasted astonishingly real—refreshing citrus sweetness with just the right tartness, washing away the heavy flavor of chocolate. It was said that players even went on food tours here, enjoying the recreated cuisine. The only downside was that, unlike real food, it couldn’t fill your stomach outside the game.

As for my ice cream and juice set, the others insisted on paying: Meiri and Eiji as an apology for not protecting me, Ibuki as a sort of "welcome to the team" gift. I tried to refuse, saying I had money from the quest reward, but they wouldn’t hear of it. Ibuki pointed out that I’d need to save up for weapons and armor anyway—and after hearing how high the market prices were, I realized he was right. It was better to invest in gear than argue over pride.

After all, I couldn’t keep relying on them forever. Putting the money toward equipment was better for all of us.

"A… oh crap, look at the time!"

Suddenly, Meiri shot to her feet with a shout. Blinking, I glanced at the system clock—sure enough, the sun was already low. It read 17:30. We had logged in around noon, so in reality only about five hours had passed. Yet it felt at once like a fleeting moment and like an entire day.

"Ugh, I’ve gotta eat dinner and then head to cram school."

"Already that late, huh…"

"Yeah, I’ve got kendo practice myself."

So that was that. Meiri and Ibuki had cram school, Eiji had training at the dojo—and apparently, today’s adventure was wrapping up here. As for me, if I didn’t get the housework done before my mom came home, I’d end up without dinner.

『I’ve got chores too—need to clean the bath and get dinner started before Mom’s back…』

I guess this was the end of our day together. A strange pang of nostalgia welled up in me, reminding me of those childhood evenings when playing with friends would abruptly give way to parting at dusk.

"Wow, Sun-chan, you really help your mom out? That’s so admirable!"

…Ah. Right. Now that she mentions it, my “chores” did sound a lot like an elementary schooler’s to-do list. And once that image was carved into her mind, there was no undoing it. Should I try to explain? Tell her that I was actually a high school boy, not some girlish-faced grade schooler? No way. Even if I said it, would she believe me? And if she did… what kind of reaction would that earn me?

『Yeah, well… whatever.』

"He gave up," Ibuki muttered dryly.

What else could I do? Any attempt to clear things up would only dig me deeper. I swallowed the sigh that rose in my throat, finished off the last of my ice cream, and followed the others as we paid our bill and drifted toward the edge of the road to say our goodbyes.

"Hey, Sun-chan, are you gonna log in again tomorrow?"

At Meiri’s words, both Eiji and Ibuki turned toward me, waiting for my answer. I hesitated only for a moment, but the truth was already clear in my heart.

I’d played online games with them before, sure. But those had always been through a screen, reduced to mere words on chat. And in real life, our meetups had dwindled to once or twice a month at most.

This—being close again, laughing together, fighting side by side—it had felt like playing with my friends the way we used to. Even if it was a virtual world, even if our touches and voices were just lines of code, it was still infinitely better than text on a screen.

I’d been nervous about starting. I’d been embarrassed, even scared. But getting to spend time with them again had been fun. Really fun. And I wanted more of that. That was the unshakable truth, no matter how false the rest of me had become.

『Yes. I plan to play again tomorrow.』

"Great! Then let’s add each other as friends. I’ll even introduce you to some of mine—we can all go questing together!"

『I’d like that. Please take care of me!』

I accepted warmly, registering Meiri into my friend list alongside Eiji and Ibuki. For someone like me—who had avoided most players, sticking almost entirely to solo runs with just the two of them—seeing a new name added there was something I hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

"Then, see you tomorrow… Hin—ah, Sun."
"Yeah. Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow it is! Promise, Sun-chan!"

Their smiles told me all I needed to know. Whether or not they enjoyed today as much as I did, I couldn’t ask outright. But when I said I’d be back, they looked relieved. Happy. And that was enough.

I smiled back at the three of them.

『Yeah. See you all tomorrow.』

　　　Online★Communication
　　　　　　　　Contact.00-6『See You Tomorrow』