Universe Tales: Virtual Log of the Fallen One

Maria was reading through the news on a fan-made UT site. The site was called UniTale Times and it aggregated all the latest news on what was happening in the game. It was the game's online newspaper.

A lot of interesting happenings and events were ongoing and Maria was missing all of it to her regret. The chaotic starting planet was where all the action was happening and she wasn't able to participate in causing even more havoc for the players.

Yes, that's right. Maria only felt that it was regrettable because she wanted to join in on the fun and wreak havoc. She found it amusing whenever there was any chaos and wanted to be a part of it.

Her friends said that the events happening there were causing them headaches but Maria saw it as an opportunity to go have fun. She even earned a deadpanned look from her friends when she said that it was a shame that she was on a different planet.

Speaking about being on a different planet, Maria's friends had activated the interstellar teleportation device and have been reaping the fruits of their labor by harvesting and mining the materials from the sub-planet that the device led to.

Many guilds and groups were envious of their accomplishment and the rising power they were garnering. They regretted ignoring the game's main quest so they learned from their mistakes and had their players focus on unlocking quest chains and completing as many quests as they could.

Whether it was a significant quest or not, the guilds and groups were all focusing their attention on them while at the same time keeping watch and hindering each other's progress. This was what caused Maria's friends their headaches while at the same time there was a group of game supremacists that have been targeting all the corporate guilds in the game.

There was an article about them and Maria was interested since she heard that many of the high-ranked players in the game were part of this organization. It wasn't that Maria wanted to join them or anything, but she wanted to see how long they'd last if she attacked them.

The same went for all the other guilds in the game besides the Fallen Angels. Her forces were growing stronger everyday and she wanted to test them on a player or NPC force. Her target at the present was the vampire's Blood Faction, but if she recklessly attacked such a huge force, it would spell her doom.

Also, she still had some internal management to attend to which Ash was practically shoving at her face to prevent her from going out and waging war again. The complications with the other ogre forces in the mountains weren't over yet and they needed to quickly deal with that.

The nearby ogre city had received news of their presence from the lucky survivors of their previous campaign so they had been stocking up on resources, scouting their army and distributions of power as well as tightening their defenses.

The battle ahead would take some time to finish and Maria needed to thoroughly plan for it. Thankfully, Ash was there so she left it all to him to manage. She wasn't a strategist and the only time she's ever been at war was during the previous campaign.

She had no experience whatsoever so it was wise of her to leave it to someone who was. Ash had been through many battles so he knew what he was doing. Maria was learning from him in real-time because she wanted to be able to do it alone the next time they went to war.

For now, all of that was within the game. In the real world, winter break was about to begin and that meant the semester's final exams were starting soon. Maria had to take a few days off from streaming and gaming to study for the exam.

Of course, when she was sick and tired of it, she dived into the game to hunt a few monsters and once she let off some steam, she would dive back into the books and study. Fortunately, she was able to download the softcopy of her textbook into the game so she was able to study while playing.

She even did a few study streams where all she did was sit at her table and study after doing some management work for her faction. It was dull for most people, but the hardcore fans were just happy to hang out with her and talk.

Whether it was good or bad, people found out that Maria was only a year 2 or 3 high school student.

*****

"Mary~~~ Help!!!"

"Ouch...you don't need to yell, Liz…"

Inside Maria's room, her friend Elisabeth had jumped on and clung to her like a panda. She was whining because their exams would be starting the next week and she hadn't done any studying. Maria's other two friends had also come because today they would be doing a study session together.

"You should have studied a few weeks back. I mean even I was doing some studying in the game!" Maria said as she pried off the clingy Liza from her body.

Her best friend had started groping her in weird places but this was a normal occurrence whenever they were at a private place. Liz always acted like an old pervert but it was all just fun and games.

"Sorry to intrude."

"Liz dragged us here…"

Amanda and Emily said. They weren't like this one friend of theirs that was too focused on playing UT and didn't study for their exams. Liz was only reminded of that because she dropped by on Maria's stream and noticed that she was studying.

"Sorry, you guys~~~ with all that was happening in-game. I forgot about it!"

"More like you forgot that you were still in school!" Emily teased.

"Hey, that's so mean!" Liz protested in reply.

Maria spent the next week spending less time inside the game and focused her attention on tutoring her academically hopeless best friend. Thankfully, Amanda and Emily weren't as dumb as Liz so they were able to help her instead.

When the exams ended, Maria and Amanda naturally took their place within the top ranks while Emily was a few ranks below them. Liz had managed to barely pass all of her subjects without getting a red mark.

That was all she asked for so the girl was over the moon when she saw the average grades on all her tests.

"My dad won't confiscate the VR set now!"

"That's why you were trying so hard?!" Maria exclaimed.

"Exactly! Now, let's head back into UniTale! Those Freedom bastards have been causing some problems during my absence so I'll have to address them soon…"

"Don't forget that we have to run some dungeons and continue exploring and mining that sub-planet that we acquired," Amanda added.

"Ugh...so much stuff to do…"

Maria pouted and said, "I envy you guys. You're on the planet where all the action is happening. Meanwhile, I'm stuck by my lonesome on Vanhal killing mobs and raiding towns…"

"Hey, I'd rather be you, Maria! At least you don't get a headache dealing with the players!"

Maria stuck her tongue out before asking, "Why not just kill them all?"

Amanda, Elisabeth, and Emily all sighed in distress at her words.

"If only it was that easy," Emily said. "We're dealing with very high-leveled and cunning players and it's hard for us since they're in the shadows while we're in the light. By the time our backup arrives, the team or hunting groups that were attacked would have long since been killed…"

"...Sounds tough," Maria said.

"Yeah, it is. It's giving me extra headaches from calculating our losses," Amanda sighed and continued. "Argh, I wish those bastards would just disappear! Why are most of their forces aiming at us?!"

"It's because we're the best guild out there and there are some stupid and salty people who don't like seeing us rising above them," Liz spat out spitefully.

Seeing her friends complain, Maria felt a little sad and left out.

"I wish I could help you guys somehow...I mean, I bet if I unleashed my army and indiscriminately killed all the players that are or look like they're aiming for your guildmates, I'm sure they'd back off and stop targeting you…"

"!"

"Hold up, Mary. That's a little extreme!"

"Really?"

"Y-yeah… I mean, if we did something like that, we'd be ruining the gaming experience of other innocent players!"

"Huh? Why are you thinking like that, Liz? Aren't other players already ruining the players in your guild's gaming experience? Why be merciful?"

"Ah...well...I guess it's because I'd like to keep our guild's image clean. If we started indiscriminately attacking players just because they seemed suspicious, we'd have to deal with the backlash from the gaming community."

Maria thought hard for a moment before saying.

"Hmmm~ but people are ruining your guild's activities. If you did start killing players indiscriminately, just blame it on those people who have been interfering with your guild's players. Turn them into the cause for your actions and shift the blame! Public opinion will fall on your side if you play your cards right~"

Hearing her devious words, Liz and the girls were stopped and stared at her like they were looking at someone foreign.

"...Who are you and what have you done to my precious and pure Maria?!" Liz screamed as she grabbed onto Maria's shoulders and shook her.

"Uwah!"

"Honestly Maria...where did you learn to think―no―to scheme like that?" Amanda pushed her glasses up and asked.

Liz stopped shaking her so Maria replied, "Well, I learned from Ash? He's quite a good teacher when it comes to warfare and politics. Since I'm going to become Queen one day, I'll have to learn all about that so I'm starting early!"

"...I dunno if I should thank this game for making you more outgoing or blame it for being a bad influence to you," Liz said with narrowed eyes.

"Heh, once we reunite with Mary in-game, we'll just crush our opponents with brute force! Having to constantly scheme and watch our backs while playing a game is just not my style~" Emily said.

"We'll have to get to her first and foremost. I looked up at the database and apparently, planet Vanhal is the 3rd main scenario planet of the game," Amanda said. "You got a pretty significant head-start, Mary."

"Hehehe~"