Kusoge Online (BETA) - Volume 1 - Chapter Pr

Prologue 
 
—People died easily in this virtual world. 
The fire demon Balrog's, this dungeon's lord, huge figure crumbled to Sasaraki's feet. His large build emitted a sparkling, minute light. Like sun rays reflected on a lake surface. An effect, exclusive to dungeon lords. 
"...W… We did it…" 
Sasaraki mumbled in amazement. 
One of their party members had died and the rest of them were on the brink. 
Driven into a corner, his ally had unleashed an attack and pierced the boss's vitals. 
"Eh… Ah, I-I… critted…?" 
The girl gave forth a shaking voice. Long, black hair, jet-black cloak, dark-purple dress, big breasts. Her name was Azrael. A member of Sasaraki's guild. She gazed at her sword that had brought the boss to his knees with a look of disbelief. 
Looking at her figure, Sasaraki's emotions finally welled up. 
We— won! 
"We did it… we did it, Azrael! We cleared the dungeon!" 
Sasaraki spread out his arms widely and shouted. 
Azrael turned around. She blinked with her big eyes. 
"...Ah…" 
Her childish face changed its expression from bewilderment to a smile and both swords fell to the ground with a clang. Tears welled up in the corners of her round eyes. She spread out her both hands, turned to Sasaraki, and jumped into his— 
"Wait, NOT HAPPENING—!" 
 
—She stopped in the nick of time. Azrael hugged herself as if to hide her breasts. 
"W-W-W-what's with pose?! How filthy!" 
"Eh… Ah, s-sorry. I didn't give it much thought." 
It certainly was a posture screaming 'hug me.' 
"Liar! You were staring at my breasts! Filthy!" 
"No, that's just because you were about to leap into—" 
Azrael's breasts were big. Really big. 
So he usually endeavored to not become aware of them too much. 
"Hmph. This isn't the time to cheer, anyway! Lizna died, you know?!" 
"Ah, yeah, isn't that right…" 
Lizna was another one of their members, she was a healer. 
She had passed right before they'd struggled on to the boss. 
"Jeez, you lack sentiment." 
Azrael muttered and picked up her both swords from the ground. 
"Lizna… please rest at ease…" 
She formed a cross with her swords and shut her eyes. 
It looked as if she was praying for Lizna's peace of soul. 
"Ah, that's pretty cool!" 
Those were his honest feelings, but Azrael glared at Sasaraki. 
"...Hmph—" 
Turning the other way, she shut her eyes again. In his heart, Sasaraki heaved a sigh. 
...She really does still hate me, huh…? 
 
A month ago, Sasaraki had joined Azrael and Lizna's guild. Lizna had been nice to him since the beginning, but Azrael had bluntly treated him like a nuisance. In all honesty, it was a bit— no, it was very sad. 
It had been Sasaraki's dream to experience fantasy. And seeing Azrael making a cross with her swords and praying to God in front of his eyes— that was very fantasy. She was a two-swords-wielding dame. 
Sasaraki looked at Azrael once more. 
Her blades reflected the kill effect and were illuminating her face. 
She had well-ordered features. Her body was great, too. Just looking at her made one's heart pound. 
Wait, those aren't my intentions, I said! 
He shook his head to clear his mind. 
The more I think those things, the more I'll be hated. 
—And then… 

"Huh?" 
He felt something was off. 
"The sword's— floating?" 
Azrael's sword wasn't in her grip. 
It was about 20 cm displaced. 
"Could this be… 'Lag'?" 
It was phenomenon he'd been told of by Lizna before they had entered the dungeon. 
"Don't move until the boss's death effect's over. Definitely, definitely don't, okay?" 
When he asked for the reason, it appeared that probably for the sake of producing the boss's death effect, the vicinity was put into slow motion. That slow motion was quite tricky, even though objects would be slowed, players wouldn't. And if you wonder how that'd work out— 
"Wait, Azrael, if you move now—!" 
He panicked and warned her, but it was too late. 
"Ragnarok, return to your scabbard." 
Azrael returned her beloved sword Ragnarok (naming by Azrael). 
The tip of the blade which was 20 cm displaced due to lag… 
Easily pierced Azrael's abdomen. 
"Eh… Huh—?" 
Finally noticing by the sound, Azrael looked at her abdomen in puzzlement. 
Yet, she felt no pain. There was no pain in this world within virtual reality. 
Instead, you could hear sounds that seemed to hurt. Even so, the human brain is mysterious, and through sound alone it felt like you really took damage. 
That aside, the damage count popped up above Azrael's abdomen. 
 300. By the way, Azrael's total HP were 105. 
"Hagufuu—?!" 
She fell over with a plonk. 
"AZRAEL—?!" 
He screamed, but there was no reply. It seemed like she'd become a mere corpse. 
When Sasaraki'd gotten speechless, Azrael's body started to emit a white light. It was excessively gaudy player death effect. Above her corpse it said, [Arc Sword Azrael rests here] 
And then a vivid sfx echoed. A rectangled message window popped up in front of Sasaraki's eyes. 
 
[Do you wish to play back the message from your friend Lizna? YES/NO] 
When he pushed the yes button without a word, her voice was played back. 
[To Sasaraki-kun. It's me, Lizna. Azrael-san died, right? She's already resurrected, so we'll head for the lowest floor together now. By the way, did something happen? 
Azrael-san won't tell me a thing and just keeps crying, 'Just go and die, devs!'] 
After listening to it, Sasaraki sat down on the floor and sighed deeply. 
People died easily in this virtual world. 
—Mostly due to bugs. 
 
 
 
Status 
Name 
Azrael 
Level 
(Before level drain) 97 (allegedly) 
Job 
Deathbringer Angel (allegedly) 
Personality 
Proud (allegedly) 
Skills 
Killing Blade: Brings death to all life. A quick slashing attack. (allegedly) 
Heaven's Literarity 666: A sword combo which hits the enemy 666 times within seconds. (allegedly) 
Death Angel's Second Coming: The Death Angel's powers lets her focus the concept of death in her sword or something like that, you know what I mean. 
(allegedly)