Come Meet the Must-Pick Player in Sword Online

■■■ is an exceptionally kind player. She only beats up people who get on her bad side, so she's not a troublemaker at all. Even the friendly NPCs say she's perfectly normal.

A player who's been marinating in games about eternal war is tired and wants to try something with a different, more relaxing vibe for a change.

So the game system recommends a game called Swords and Oaths Online. In it, you can have more than a hundred playable characters at once. They live together at a base called the [Honmaru], farming, raising horses, and going on missions. Missions include, but are not limited to, killing Time Drifters, slaying demons, and guiding newcomers. There's plenty of freedom.

The player is intrigued, so she decides to give it a try. Then a little mishap occurs: she has to create the playable characters based on swords herself.

Player: Isn't this a bit too much freedom?

There's another problem. The characters the player creates using the system's creation mode are just her own secret identities. Unless she controls them, they'll remain permanently idle. That's not how Swords and Oaths Online was advertised! She'd clearly seen that the more than a hundred sword characters all lived together like one big family, each with their own behavior code, and could move around independently without her control. More importantly, she's not very good at creating people. The NPCs she'd made in her previous game all looked less human than the last.

Game System: The system administrator's duty is to provide players with a smooth and enjoyable gaming experience. Leave it to me to create and run code for the player's sword subordinates! They'll all be beautiful, powerful, and loyal!

Player: Great! I'll leave it to you!

To promote recruitment, the Central Government of Time has released a big-budget 3A game, Aion Between the Hours.

The game's protagonist is a trainee Saniwa trapped in a nightmare world by a curse from historical revisionists. To escape back to reality, the protagonist must slay evil spirits and break the curse. In this nightmare world, every single sword warrior who appears is strange in their own way.

The most beautiful blade, pure and immaculate; a towering, taciturn odachi tengu; Genji twins with scaled tails; an old man from the Ichimonji family whose hair is made of golden feathers...

They save the protagonist when she's in danger, but when their sanity drops too low, they lose control and go berserk, turning into boss units the protagonist has no choice but to defeat.

And when they go berserk and become boss units that the protagonist can't handle, their master, creator, and mysterious Saniwa intervenes by descending directly into the corrupted swords, stopping them from causing further destruction and saving the protagonist. The Saniwa also claims to be the protagonist's senior.

The "senior" clearly doesn't seem noble or righteous. If anything, she gives off a strong villainous vibe.

Saniwas: What senior? We could tell at a glance you're no good!

As the story continues, the "senior" guides the helpless protagonist step by step from a novice into a battle god. Throughout this process, the "senior" remains shrouded in suspicious mysteries. She even seems to be the source of all the madness. Yet the protagonist can't stop her heart from wavering, and little by little, the "senior" changes from an almost certainly evil mastermind into a mysterious senior whose true nature is unclear, but who is damnably charming.

Protagonist: I was the first junior the senior ever took under her wing. She taught me every skill I needed and gave me the Demon-Slaying Sword, a symbol of our legacy. She passed her trust and conviction on to me. During that time, I was her only junior. The days I spent with the senior will stay with me forever. Senior, I can't forget you! Senior! Without you, my future would have no sun, Senior! Don't abandon me, Senior!!!

The players, just as thoroughly smitten and delirious as the protagonist: This protagonist would still be drooling even after being cured! She's completely out of her mind! I'm different, though. I know all the evil the senior does is real, and every sword and person is nothing but a tool to her. But the good she does is real, too, and every sacrifice is worthwhile. So I adore you, Senior. I'm willing to be your tool, Senior, babble babble babble...

Psychics playing Aion Between the Hours in the real world: If I could meet the senior in person, I'd gladly spend the rest of my life as a Saniwa, fighting to the death against the Time Drifters!

Kitsunezuki: Really? Then sign a contract with me and become a Saniwa!

There are only three kinds of people in this world: those who have never met the senior, the senior's fans, and the senior's deranged fans.

Player: I've helped my junior get stronger again today. I'm such an excellent and responsible senior!

[Please read before starting]

1. Before the official updates begin, the blurb may be revised and adjusted according to the author's inspiration. Thank you for understanding.

2. The player is an absolute stat monster.

3. No CP, but there will be Saniwas and sword warriors shipping characters.

4. There will be a lot of forum-style content. Aion Between the Hours will have official comics, as well as fanfiction and fan comics.

Theme: Those comforted by love need fear neither things nor people.