A major update to the MMORPG Elder Tale leaves thirty thousand Japanese players living inside the game world, in bodies that can fight but cannot truly die. Rather than run off to farm monsters, the reclusive strategist Shiroe gathers the guardian Naotsugu and the assassin Akatsuki. He then takes on the harder problem: turning the stranded players crowding the game's Akihabara into something like a working society. This is the original light novel series.