I wish I could say that only the other players and Delania know my perverted tendencies because even then, my expression makes it hard for people to know I am joking unless I laugh. But due to the lack of closeness I feel with Ilya and Gina, I can’t help but think that she told them.

No, maybe they have already figured it out.

“It’s because you are friends with Zack that they already realized.”

Damn that idiot. Keep your true feelings inside, they can’t get you in trouble that way.

“Ah, but that was the reason for…nevermind.”

Hm? Is that a quest line? Surely, that was a foreshadow to a future event. Please, continue.

“No, focus.”

Alright. Before me stands the two girls from earlier. Gina and Ilya left to go get some snacks, so they must have known that I needed to talk to these people alone.

Wait, could it be that since Delania knows my secret, she got closer to me? And is that part of the reason why I am not close with the others?

Ah, back to the present, my bad.

“Cease your actions. No, it would be better for you to also stop meeting the girls.”

Ah, so first up is Tetra. Actually, is she joking?

“Impossible. I am not changing my whole lifestyle just for the sake of one person.”

“This isn’t about me, this is about the world! Do you not know the danger we face?”

“Are you referring to the end? Yeah, I played the MMO. I know it is based on this world. However, Zack never existed in that world.”

“Because he flunked out after trying to get girls instead of focusing on his grades, it was a common story told by developers. Yes, he did exist in the game. You could find him in his hometown and receive a questline to enter several places.”

“Oh? So he is kind of like the info seller? Anyways, are you a developer?”

“…No.”

“Aha, you hesitated, which means you-“

“I was only trying to not be so rash in front of an NPC!”

“This isn’t some game, you brat.”

Alright, I had enough. Don’t be mean to Delania. She has as much a right as we do since I told her everything I knew.

“How do you know?”

Case in point, Delania! Tada!

“What does pointing at an NPC mean?”

“She is not an NPC. She is a person just like you and me.”

“It is part of the programming.”

Fine. Right back at ya.

“How do you know it’s a game?”

“Because this has to be a game!”

“Did you not see him? God?”

“That must be the guide or something! Surely!”

Ah, she’s flustered. I guess this struck her pretty hard. Wait, is she trying to deny what she feels is true? I wonder what happened…

“Well, a lot of us did get sent here…”

She does have a point. But I died, I know that much. I was awake when I had the heart attack. But to have a lottery function and for so many people to get the ‘transmigrate into a game world’…

“How did you die?”

“Huh?!”

Hm? Is she confused?

“I don’t…”

Bailey interrupted the stumbling Tetra. What a nice friend.

“I died from a bomb. It wasn’t quick. I bled out.”

Ouch. Wait, was there a war?

“Yep, I can tell from your face. Yes, there was a war. A lot of people died. I am guessing Tetra here died in the nuclear war against Russia, am I right?”

Huh? Wait.

“What year did you die?”

“1963. Why?”

At that, both Tetra and I looked at her weird.

“The cold war never led to actual nuclear warfare. Not in my world, at least.”

Holy shit, even Tetra is actually looking at me weird.

“What war? We haven’t had war with anybody since almost 100 years before I came here. And…the year was only 1770.”

“What the…there was no games at either of those years! Only in the 1980s and 90s did electronics go that far!”

Now they both looked at me weirdly.

Well shit. This is weird. We all come from different timelines, but this game unites us all. Wait, then that would explain why we all come to this specific game and why we all have the lottery won. If there are thousands upon millions of different times and worlds, having a few people getting the top prize several times isn’t that unheard of.

But to have the game across multiple worlds and with the same story…

Ah, this is indeed too good to be true.

And I bet these girls understand that now, too.

But why? Why this world? Why are we living in this world?

I could think of several different game worlds than this one.

Is it to prepare for the future MMO world? If so…then that means…

“There are going to be more players in the future, but who knows if they will even be people related to the story? They might just be actual players and we are the NPCs.”

If this game was created by the god or gods, then maybe this is his way of making a sequel or a reboot. It is quite an old franchise in my world…

In the MMO, there were always people who did stupid things. It wasn’t one of those fantasy like ultra-reality games, but it was close. I never played it much since it was a cookie cutter MMO. Get the quest, gather the stuff, turn it in, move on to the next place.

The main reason it was popular was the first come first serve the world had to offer. Essentially, certain quests were one time only while building up a relationship with a character would make them fall in love with you. But, this was a strange part, since if you weren’t keeping your affection high, they could be stolen by another player.

It was nicknamed Love Wars by players.

However, the main plot revolved around a terrible monster hell bent on eating the world. Then there was a monster that wanted to cover the world in darkness. Then there was a monster that wanted to kill everything and rule over the dead.

Yeah, it was just the basic, oh, we capped out, let’s add an expansion with more levels and whatnot.

But…that would mean the game would continue long past our graduation. Oh!

“Hey, did Nolan ever get a wife in the MMO? Did you meet him?”