IGTL Synopsis & Chapter 1

Novel title: ゲーム内転移ー俺だけログアウト可能！？ゲームと現実がごちゃ混ぜになった世界で成り上がる！

English title: In-Game Transfer: I’m the Only One Who Can Log Out!? Rise in a World Where Game and Reality Are All Mixed Up!

Shortened title: In-Game Transfer: Log-out (IGTL)

Alternative title: Transferred Inside the Game: Only I Can Log Out!? Climbing to the Top in a Jumbled Game-Reality World; Gemu-nai Ten'i: Ore dake Roguauto Kano!? Gemu to Genjitsu ga Gochamaze ni Natta Sekai de Nariagaru!;

Novel synopsis:

Kakeru Takahashi, 23, worked in Accounting at the exploitative Amazing Corporation.

Unreasonably fired, he figured he could scrape by for about a year if he lived frugally, so he dove back into the full-dive VRMMO “Different World.”

Today was the long-awaited day the major event info dropped. From that day on, Kakeru’s world changed completely.

A hyper comeuppance story woven by a protagonist who can freely travel between the game world and reality.

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Full title: In-Game Transfer: I’m the Only One Who Can Log Out!? Rise in a World Where Game and Reality Are All Mixed Up!

Note: This chapter is sponsored by M. Mark (Saint tier)

Translator: Canon

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Chapter 1 - Getting Fired The Moment I Showed Up On A Monday Morning? You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me!

My name is Kakeru Takahashi.

I was a nondescript clerk in the Accounting Department at Amazing Corporation.

My hobby was sacrificing sleep after work and on my days off to play a full-dive VRMMO, “Different World.”

I have been working at my company since graduating high school, for five years now. I was twenty-three, reigning over society as a proud member of the Unmarried Gentry.

It was a weekday: Monday.

My morning began with my smartphone’s alarms at 6:30 and 6:35 a.m.

—6:30 a.m.

“Teke tokko paka pokopon♪ ×2”

With my eyes still closed, I groped for my phone and silenced the “Opening” ringtone pouring out of it.

Get up and get to work already, the phone seemed to say.

But I refused to rise just because I was told once.

I absolutely wasn’t getting up.

I pulled the blanket back over me and rolled onto my back.

Moments later, the second alarm began to ring.

Had five minutes already passed…?

I had just turned the alarm off, and time was already flying.

When I tried to commit to a third round of dozing, Alexa booted up and started reading Yahoo! News.

“Good morning. Mr. Kakeru, here are the latest headlines…”

Hot on the phone’s heels, even Alexa began nagging me to go to work.

To top it off, the lights flicked on automatically and NHK news started playing from the TV.

Resigned, I picked up my phone and checked the time.

—6:36 a.m.

It was still early to head to the office.

With my eyelids barely open, I tapped a mobile game icon and collected the login bonus.

“Today’s weather for Nishi-Kasai is sunny, with a forecast low of twenty degrees Celsius…”

I was really getting tired of hearing Alexa's voice.

—6:40 a.m.

It was about time to get up or I’d be in trouble.

After launching four mobile games and claiming their login bonuses, I set the phone by my pillow, stretched like a cat with both arms forward, arched my back, and lengthened out.

Then, phone in hand, I sat up and muttered, “Alexa, stop,” before dashing to the bathroom.

The first stop after waking was the toilet.

Then I washed my hands, shaved, and drank a small glass of water.

That had been my morning routine lately.

Those graceful morning routines YouTubers posted?

They were probably staged. A rank-and-file employee had no such luxury of time.

—6:45 a.m.

With NHK’s news murmuring in the background, I shed my pajamas, changed into my suit, slung on my backpack, and put on a mask.

With that virus going around, anyone not wearing a mask got treated like a traitor to the nation.

At first I had kept wishing the whole thing would end soon, but by then I barely cared. I just thought, oh, the case count was in double digits today.

By then I was used to wearing a mask. The early shortness of breath had gone.

If anything, since everyone started masking up, I hadn’t caught a single cold.

Catching a cold was miserable, so even if the virus subsided, I found myself hoping everyone would keep their masks on.

—6:50 a.m.

It was Monday, which meant paper trash day.

Without a word, I grabbed the paper bag with the bundled recyclables and, heaving a long sigh, headed for the door.

“I really don’t wanna go to work.”

Those were the first words I said after getting up.

Personally, I figured anyone with a desk job felt the same.

I stepped outside, locked the door, and dumped the bag at the building’s trash station.

Then, blank-faced, smartphone in hand, I headed for the bus stop.

—7:02 a.m.

If I didn’t catch that bus, I wouldn’t make the 7:12 train.

Since the virus started, our workday had begun at 8:00 a.m.

I couldn’t be late.

The bus pulled up just as I reached the stop.

Barely made it.

Still, I was relieved to get on.

Climbing aboard, I murmured, “To Nishi-Kasai Station,” and tapped my PASMO card.

After that, I silently scrolled through Yahoo! News on my phone.

Yep. It looked peaceful as ever.

Lately some politician had been saying they’d temporarily cut the consumption tax from ten percent to five, which was nonsense. They shouldn’t toss statements like that around so lightly.

Did they have any idea how much work it took to prepare a consumption-tax return?

One offhand remark from them and we were the ones who got wrecked.

Instead of saying “temporarily” or “cut the consumption tax,” I wished they’d lower the income tax or the resident tax.

From an accounting standpoint that would have been far easier to process…

While I was grumbling, we arrived at Nishi-Kasai Station.

Even though the bus was still rolling, everyone shifted their posture toward the exit.

I followed the lead of these total strangers, leaning toward the door, and the driver slammed the brakes at the stop.

Was that day’s driver a newbie?

That was how rough the stop felt.

Whatever.

I disembarked on autopilot. Per routine, I hugged my backpack to my chest, fished out my PASMO card, gave the electronic board a quick glance, tapped in, and boarded the train.

—7:35 a.m.

Arriving at Kayabachō Station near the office, I swung by the convenience store to buy breakfast and lunch, then headed into Amazing Corporation.

I punched my time card and sat at my desk.

—7:45 a.m.

There was still plenty of time before the day started, I thought, just as I unwrapped a mentaiko rice ball. A voice came from behind me.

“Ah, Takahashi-kun. Do you have a minute?”

Just when I was about to eat, the one summoning me to a conference room was a manager currently struggling with gout: Mr. Ishida, Director of the Administration Division.

I gave up on my mentaiko rice ball and headed for the conference room.

“Excuse me.”

“Mm, have a seat.”

No sooner had I sat than Director Ishida addressed me.

“Takahashi-kun. How old will you be this year?”

“Huh? This year? I’m twenty-three now, so I’ll be twenty-four…”

“Oh, I see. I see. In that case, we’re fine.”

“Um, what do you mean by that…?”

Director Ishida paused, then produced two sheets of paper.

He set them on the table and slid them across to me along with a pen and a vermilion seal.

“To put it simply, I’d like you to write a voluntary resignation letter. Voluntary, of course.”

“Wha… why?”

When I asked, not understanding at all, his mood suddenly soured.

“There is no ‘why.’ I heard from Edano in General Affairs. Apparently you were spending your lunch breaks writing novels on a posting site as a side gig. That’s not all. According to Edano, you were shirking your duties and spreading baseless slander and rumors about other employees. This is a serious issue.”

“What!? I did write novels, but I confirmed with Mr. Edano in General Affairs that it wasn’t a problem. And shirking work or spreading rumors? I would never.”

If anything, the one who slacked off where no one could see and read e-books, and the one who badmouthed people and spread groundless gossip, was Edano. I didn’t care about other people enough to say such things.

“So you were saying Edano was lying?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what I was saying.”

At that, Director Ishida’s anger spiked.

“Honestly, doubting poor Edano… You’re twenty-three years old and you still can’t take responsibility for your own words?”

“E-Even so… these accusations were fabricated by Edano, and believing everything he said blindly was a bit…”

What exactly had that jerk told him?

“Enough! If that’s your attitude, then I have my own. If you refused to write a resignation letter right now, it would be summary dismissal. No severance. Is that acceptable?”

“Uh…”

When I didn’t write the letter, he moved on to intimidation.

Fine.

I had been at Amazing Corporation for five years.

Every day it was overtime, overtime, overtime; an endless parade of unpaid hours.

Honestly, I had been wavering about changing jobs.

I hated that I was being forced out over lies Edano fed him, but so be it.

I probably wouldn’t ever have to see Ishida or Edano again, and if I thought of it as eliminating two sources of stress, I could live with it.

Since this was an abrupt departure, there wouldn’t be much chance for handover, but I’m sure the ones who drove me out, Edano and Director Ishida, could figure it out.

“Understood.”

I wrote my name on the resignation letter Ishida had prepared, stamped it, and handed it in.

“Honestly. You should have done that from the start. Don’t make extra work for me. You can go home now. Don’t come in tomorrow.”

With that, Director Ishida left the room.

“Sigh… unemployed starting tomorrow, huh…”

It looked like I would still get a 500,000-yen severance, and I had three million in savings.

I figured I would manage somehow.

Besides novel income, I had blog revenue too.

I decided to treat it like a long-awaited vacation. I’d handle the paperwork at Hello Work for unemployment benefits, then dive into “Different World.”

I stood, left the conference room, went back to my desk, shouldered my backpack, and walked out.

Thanks to staggered shifts, no one besides Director Ishida and Edano had come in yet.

There was no need to offer farewells to those two.

They had never done anything for me, so even as a standard phrase, I refused to say “Thank you for everything.”

I took the elevator down and stepped out into the sunlight.

“So this is freedom…”

The morning sun was dazzling.

It felt as if it were illuminating the path of my life from there on out.

A sudden, extra-long holiday. And I intended to enjoy it to the fullest.

Freed from the curse called “company,” I headed straight to Hello Work, completed the required procedures, stocked up on supplies with ironclad resolve not to leave home while I enjoyed “Different World,” and returned to my place in Nishi-Kasai.

“Alexa, I’m home.”

This was my apartment.

A 1LDK*, a castle of my own, rented for seventy thousand yen. (1-bedroom + Living/Dining/Kitchen)

No sooner had I stepped in than my greeting echoed through the empty rooms.

“Welcome back. I’m happy you’ve returned.”

Only Alexa told me “welcome home.”

I crammed the mountain of groceries from the supermarket into the fridge, powered on my headgear, slipped it on, and lay down on the bed.

“—Connect ‘Different World’.”

With that, I dove into the world of “Different World.”

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