When Yusei opened his eyes and saw the world again, he was no longer in the familiar setting of his real-world home, but in a small town styled after the medieval period.
Ancient cobblestone paths covered in moss, pedestrians on both sides of the street dressed in either lavish or simple cloth garments, the calls of hawkers from small stalls, the scent of food in the air, the changing expressions on the faces of NPCs as they passed by and conversed.
Everything felt so real, as if this was truly a real world.
Even Yusei had to admit that Kayaba was truly talented, able to create a world this realistic.
[Ding Dong]
The mailbox notification sounded. Yusei opened it and found an email from an unknown sender.
[If you have any problems, please feel free to email me anytime. I wish you and young miss a pleasant time in the game!]
The email wasn't signed, but Yusei knew it was from Kayaba.
'Quite considerate, I wasn't expecting that. The hypnosis from these Sharingan is really thorough. If one day I wanted to start a war, could I just hypnotize the leadership of a country?'
Yusei closed the email, not dwelling on it. He had no plans to seek out Kayaba after entering the game.
Compared to Kirigaya Kazuto's [Dual Blades] skill, his own Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū and upgradable Sharingan were the real 'cheats'.
So, he was already plenty strong. There was no need to find Akihiko.
"Now all that's left is to quietly watch Kayaba show off." Yusei stretched lazily.
'But, that would probably take a while, right? For now, I should find Shiro and grind some levels.'
Since he had told Akihiko that the siblings were friends in-game, Yusei quickly found the 'Tracking' option.
He saw that Shiro wasn't too far from him. Soon, Yusei found her.
The little girl's curiosity about this world might even exceed her brother's. She had actually gone outside the town to grind monsters as soon as she arrived.
All players started with the same equipment: a long sword and cloth clothes. Forget helmets or shields, they didn't even have leather armor.
Players needed to obtain equipment by grinding monsters themselves or buying from NPC shops.
Classes like Tamer, Sword & Shield Warrior, Hammer Master, or Archer were advanced classes chosen later. Initially, everyone started without a class setting.
"Shiro!"
Yusei called out to Shiro, who was picking up equipment dropped by mobs in the distance. She was also dressed in cloth armor, holding a short sword, looking like a little assassin.
Seeing it was her brother, a rare look of happiness appeared on Shiro's small face.
"Nii."
Shiro quickly shared the equipment she had just picked up with Yusei.
"Nii, this weapon looks a lot like yours. For you."
Yusei looked and saw it was a common white-tier katana, very ordinary.
But for everyone in the beginner stage, equipment dropped by monsters was generally better than what the system provided.
Yusei took it without standing on ceremony. Compared to the sword the system gave him, he preferred using katana-style weapons.
Probably a habit formed because the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu school used katana for its sword techniques.
Soon, the siblings were grinding together. The area outside the starter town only had ordinary young wild boars.
Shiro, needless to say, was a naturally highly talented gamer. Combined with her superhuman intelligence, she picked up this new type of game very quickly.
As for Yusei, he not only had the Sharingan but also Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu. Although some sword techniques in the game's system required reaching a certain level to learn-
One must not forget that Yusei already knew these techniques in reality.
The high-difficulty ones might require the Sharingan's help to use here…
But techniques like Ryutsuisen, a simple downward slash, were still very easy.
Not to mention, the Sharingan was inherently his. He had it even at level one.
In just one afternoon, Yusei and Shiro managed to grind their way to level 5 right outside the starter village.
And this was despite a black-haired youth also grinding a significant number of mobs.
Without him, the monster respawn rate might not have kept up with Yusei and Shiro's leveling speed.