Editing Log Horizon: Ex. Dragonhowl Mountains (section)

===Part 1 of 3===

The sky loomed high above the earth.

It stretched endlessly.

The sun's rays were harsh, white, and dazzling.

Despite that, the color of the sky, even during the day, could be described as ultramarine, a dark blue, rather than azure.

The color was the blue of a sky closer to the upper limits of the atmosphere.


A grey-tinted mountain range could be seen along the horizon. However, it was nothing special. Those mountaintops were visible up to 200 kilometers away.

Despite the harshness of the sun's rays, the cold wind cut like a blade. Given the altitude, this was only natural.


You could say that this area was hosted on the Chinese server.

It corresponded to the southern region of Kazakhstan in the real world.

In ancient times, there was a town here called Tekeli.


This place was called Aorusoi in Elder Tales.

This wasn't the name of the country, but of the region. This large inland region was surrounded on all sides by various deserts, such as the Kyzyl Kum. Any place that wasn't filled with sand was merely desiccated and desolate wasteland. Few plants grew large or lush enough to serve as concealment, and the meager greenery covered the ashy brown earth here and there.

In the surrounding areas, steppe-like features connected to the plateau, but they couldn't be distinguished just by looking over the view due to the high altitude.

Even during the summer, the temperature would barely pass twenty degrees at best.

Now that it was September, it would fall below ten degrees at night.


There was a reason why Aorusoi was designated a region and not a country. In this enormous area, there were few people.


Although China had remarkable economic growth, the reality was that most of the development occurred in areas closer to the coast. To begin with, Central Asia, which included western China and Kazakhstan, had a low real-world population density.

Elder Tales encouraged players to play on the nearest server, and so the number of Adventurers in a given region was proportional to that region's subscription base. Thus, there were few players in Elder Tales' Kazakhstan since its population was sparse.

For subscription MMOs like Elder Tales which charged users on a regular basis, the user base was a resource that drove development.


South China Power Grid ran the Chinese servers. Since most of the user base was located along the eastern coast, development was naturally focused there. Areas like the Great Wall of China and the surroundings of Beijing boasted epic quests and an elaborate design.

In contrast, areas with low user population suffered from a dearth of dungeons and quests, and their corresponding regions were savage wilderness with equally low population.


However, even in these areas, the geographical features faithfully matched those of reality. From the beginning, these features in Elder Tales were automatically modeled through use of satellite photos and laser measurements.

Though the purpose was simply to reduce labor costs, this idea, real-world topography, was one of the features that made Elder Tales popular.

With the Half-Gaia Project system which faithfully reproduced the earth at half scale and the weather emulator, this Aorusoi mimicked the Central Asia of ancient times, with its dry ground, its chilling wind, and its deep blue sky.


And so this beautiful spectacle was the manifestation of the harsh environment. As a result, in this post-Catastrophe world, a reality that transcended the real had begun to manifest.

In a ruined building next to the road in the center of Tekeli, Leonardo, collapsed from exhaustion, grumbled.

This town was Leonardo's prison.


Driven by a certain reason, Leonardo had visited this town. He had known that it contained a Shrine.<ref>Seems to be a cathedral in the middle of nowhere</ref> A Shrine was a building placed within each player town that served as a resurrection point.

Adventurers that died in Elder Tales revived at the last Shrine that they visited. In this crazy post-Catastrophe world, this fact had not changed.


The Shrine was not just the temple that served as a resurrection point, but it also included a wide Trigger Area. In many cases, this area was the entire city that the Shrine was located within. In other words, entering the city automatically registered a visit to its Shrine. Afterwards, should the Adventurer die, he would revive at the registered Shrine.


The ruined town of Tekeli seemed to be included within the Shrine's trigger area.


Leonardo was pleased with the existence of this Shrine at first.

Due to certain circumstances that led him on a trip to Central Asia, it was a save point that he was thankful for. Traveling through this region was harsh. Having reached it meant that he would not need to repeat that long journey should he die.

The Shrine appeared to be a godsend.


Unfortunately, that was not the case.


"Dammit. Because of this, there's nothing I can do..."


Slowly, carefully, Leonardo watched the outskirts of the town.

He was watching something that looked like a body in a heat shimmer swaying back and forth.

Heat elemental Daylight Shade. It was a level 52 spirit-type monster.

When Leonardo entered the town and climbed the bell tower at its center, he had carelessly touched a watery reflection and triggered something. An event unfolded.

From how the situation developed, he judged that it could only be a large-scale combat event for level 50 players. The ruins were now encircled by innumerable heat elementals.


Leonardo was level 90.

It was no mere boast to say that as an Assassin, Leonardo's skill was first class. He took pride in being his nation's top-ranking practitioner of close combat in the twin katana style. An inhabitant of Avenue ABC born in New York who ate Madison Square Park's "Shake Shack" burgers on a weekly basis, this 'High Geek' had devoted himself to Elder Tales.

... Truthfully, he was an obsessed American geek, but his enthusiasm was genuine. Fight after fight. Junk food after junk food. Of course, he experienced more than that: in-game drama, disputes and cheesy friendship stories; boasting and gossip; endless quests to acquire the next rare drop.


A monster that was only level 52 was absolutely no threat to him. If there were five or six of them, or even thirty, he could at least have broken through and escaped.

However, this was not the situation around the ruins of Tekeli.

Even an optimistic estimate would count thousands of heat elementals encircling the town.

There was no escape.


He had not realized this initially.

By repeatedly charging into the enemy forces, losing, dying, and then reviving, Leonardo learned this fact. The town was besieged on all sides.

This was the worst possible situation.


Normally, getting into trouble would be resolved by Resurrection at a safe Shrine. Alternatively, death could be avoided by use of the Call of Home spell.

However, Leonardo would currently revive at or be recalled to this town, likely because he had been registered at the Shrine.

In other words, death and the Call of Home could not provide escape.


"... I'm hungry. I need pizza."

Leonardo was dying to eat his favorite dish.

He yearned for the cheese filled, parent-disapproved, Giga Meat Pizza of the East Village's sloppy pizza house.


In this post-Catastrophe world, a character's hunger could be felt as physical pain. However, Leonardo didn't know if this world had 'starvation'. He didn't know if hunger could lead to, for instance, a loss of hit points or even death.

Although he still had some food left in his magic bag, it seemed that Leonardo would soon be testing 'starvation'.


"If only this were the North American server..."

On the North American server, Leonardo had friends and acquaintances. Those of his friends who had escaped the Catastrophe (lucky!) were fine back in the real world, but since Leonardo was a game-obsessed maniac, so were most of his friends.

However, telepathy could not be used across different servers.

After the Catastrophe, he had confirmed that not a single friend on his list was illuminated. That was only natural. While most of his friends were on the North American server, he was on the Chinese server.


"Holy shit<ref>HollyShit...I loves me some Engrish</ref>... I can't take this anymore."

With the North American server full of chaos, as though Hell's kettle had boiled over, entering a Fairy Ring would create a safe space to hide. Leonardo had thus thought.


With over five years of experience in Elder Tales, he understood the situation, as unpleasant as it was. It was impossible for one person alone to break the Daylight Shade siege. However, the chance of calling for reinforcements was negligible, and the situation could not be improved by leveling up or acquiring items.

That anyone could happen to pass by was even less likely. Leonardo had stumbled across these ruins by chance. These ruins sat on a plateau without landmarks. (What a joke!)

If you thought about it, it was reasonable to doubt that there would be any quests or events here.


This could be called 'checkmate'.

Leonardo had met his doom.


At the center of Kazakhstan's blue wasteland - Aorusoi.