language skills. Shugo has an encounter with a mysterious woman named Aura who gives him a bracelet that sometimes rewrites the rules of The World. There’s a mystery associated with the avatars Shugo and Rena are using, and it might be tied up with a former player turned administrator named Balmung. Balmung seems to be more interested in preserving the whimsical nature of the world and cultivating interesting players than fulfilling his administrative duties.

The reader doesn’t see the characters’ outside lives. The entirety of the manga is set in The World. I was made more curious about Shugo and Rena’s school life when a side character was introduced that was played by someone they knew in real life. For the most part the characters relate to each otheras the character types they are playing – Mirelle is a little greedy, Shugo gradually becomes the prototypical RPG hero, Rena is encouraging and often in need of a rescue, and Aura is the mysterious object of the quest. As the story progresses Shugo and Rena become caught up in the mystery of the dot hackers and the history of a mysterious event that took place four years ago where people in real life were left unconscious after an event in The World. A non-player character named Zefie attaches herself to Shugo. She says that she’s lost and looking for her mother. Shugo unfortunately attracts the attention of an overzealous administrator and he and his companions have to hurry to solve the mystery of the dot hackers before