Kuga never want to be a GM. When his father a big-shot developer at gaming company, strong-armed him into becoming a Game Master, he figured it would just mean helping whiny players and resetting bugged quests, and led to boring chores. That changed the day he noticed something… wrong. That is, until he uncovered the secret the company had buried in their neural-link VR code. A player’s fear, their pain, their pleasure, it doesn’t stay inside the game. The person behind the screen feels it too.
He should have reported it. He should have walked away. Instead, he went for the test subject. Enter Koharu Takashina. In the fluorescent hell of her high school corridors, Koharu was wallpaper a silent girl who want to be noticed. But in Ethereal Odyssey, she prayed the system would finally see her. She imagined herself clad in silver armor, a staff of light in her hands, the hero she could never be in life. The character creation screen flashed crimson. [CLASS ASSIGNED: COURTESAN]
