Kani Nayuta: "Just now, someone in the game guild suggested a meetup..."
Fresh out of the shower, Kasumigaoka Touji sat on the edge of his bed, towel-dried hair still a bit damp. The glow of his phone screen lit up his face as he read the message, brows immediately furrowing.
Touji: "Did you agree to it?"
Kani Nayuta: "Of course not. Everyone else refused too."
Touji: "Good. Don't go around meeting up with strangers, baka ╰(￣ω￣ｏ)."
Kani Nayuta: "Ara~ Is Winter-sensei worried about me? (▽)*" covers mouth and giggles
Touji: "Obviously. I'm not heartless."
Kani Nayuta: "Ehehe~ ❤️"
Kani Nayuta: "~Send me a nude pic."
Touji blinked twice.
Touji: "Why are you suddenly asking for something like that with such a straight face? The mood completely flipped just now!"
Kani Nayuta: "Ahaha~ I was just kidding. Maybe."
Touji: "Geez... you're impossible."
Kani Nayuta: "But anyway, the person who suggested the meetup kept saying things like 'nudity is truth!' and spams the group with pervy images."
Kani Nayuta: "Then he suddenly claimed to be a girl, saying we should meet IRL if we didn't believe him."
Touji: "That's totally fake. Don't be fooled by that nonsense."
Kasumigaoka Touji let out a small sigh.
As someone who'd seen more than his fair share of online deception, it was easy for him to spot a faker a mile away. There were always creeps pretending to be girls just to get close to real female players…
Wait—wasn't Nayuta playing a male avatar?
Oh. Then maybe she wasn't even the target.
He switched off the ceiling light, turned on the warm bedside lamp instead, and sank into his futon with his phone still in hand. A new message had already come in.
Kani Nayuta: "We thought the same. No one believed him."
Kani Nayuta: "But he's usually so full of himself! Claims to be some super-famous novelist who's sold over two million copies."
Kani Nayuta: "He even bragged that his work got an anime adaptation recently. Said he used the money to fully pay off a house he bought."
Touji's expression froze mid-scroll.
This feels… way too familiar.
Touji: "Is this person's name… Yamada Elf?"
...
In her bedroom in Meguro Ward, Kani Nayuta was waiting for the 10:30 guild raid. Her crystal-blue eyes blinked at the message, a flicker of surprise spreading across her face.
"Yamada...? Could it be... someone I know? No way… But that name…"
The pen name Yamada Elf rang a bell—a loud bell. That was the moniker of a rising star in the light novel world, especially popular in the past two years.
Her first work, Explosive Flame Dark Elf, had just gotten the green light for an anime.
And now someone with that exact name just happened to be on her game server?
She scrambled to reply, a mix of shock and curiosity bubbling in her chest:
Kani Nayuta: "His ID is 'Yamada-sama'… and yeah, he plays an Elf Archer. Do you know them, Winter-sensei?"
...
Touji stared at the message.
It's her! It's really her!
That arrogant Archer in the guild—the one always going on about nudity and her novels—was the same Yamada Elf who had just moved in nearby!
Touji: "A self-proclaimed great novelist with over two million copies sold, who recently bought a house outright and moved in near my place... Yeah, I know them."
Though, truth be told, he only remembered those details from before his transmigration...
...
...
Almost as soon as she saw the message, Kani Nayuta shot a reply into the guild chat:
[Kanikou (Shield Warrior)]: "Yamada Elf?"
[Yamada-sama (Archer)]: "Eh?!"
The Archer, who had been idly standing by the warehouse, suddenly straightened up, puffed out her modest chest, and dramatically placed a hand over it like an actress about to make her big debut:
[Yamada-sama (Archer)]: "I was trying to blend in as just a normal player, but since I've been found out... I guess there's no helping it!"
[Yamada-sama (Archer)]: "That's right! I am the strongest, most beautiful girl light novelist in history, the radiant savior of the light novel industry—Yamada Elf-sama!"
It really was her.
Kani Nayuta stared at the screen, blinking in surprise, eyes flitting between Touji's message and Yamada's flamboyant declaration.
Meanwhile, two notorious shut-in otaku sitting before their screens were equally dumbfounded.
"Huh?! Yamada Elf?!"
Eriri Spencer Sawamura nearly fell off her chair in shock.
As a proper hardcore otaku, she naturally knew the name Yamada Elf. Heck, she was a fan.
She had every volume from 1 to 8 stacked neatly on her bookshelf, and had even created fanart and doujinshi of the heroine from Yamada's most popular series.
To think that this eccentric genius of an author was not only in the same game as her but had been fighting by her side in the same guild this whole time...
It made her heart beat just a bit faster.
Meanwhile, Doma Umaru—aka UMR in-game—who wasn't into ecchi harem rom-coms, had at least heard of Yamada Elf's fame.
Still, she never imagined someone that accomplished was among their humble gaming circle.
As for the more casual gamers who didn't follow the otaku industry...
[Gabriel (Priest)]: "Who's Yamada Elf? Is she some kind of NPC?"
[Yamada-sama (Archer)]: "H-Haaa?! Are you picking a fight with me?!"
[Yamada-sama (Archer)]: "Didn't I just say?! I am the strongest beautiful girl light novelist in history! The savior of the entire light novel industry! Have some respect!"
[UMR (Assassin)]: "Wait, wait... I thought Yamada Elf was a fat, greasy otaku guy? I swear I saw that in an article or something."
[Yamada-sama (Archer)]: "FAKE NEWS! Blatant slander! I've never even shown my face in public! That's all baseless rumor and lies!!"
Yamada Elf was on the verge of exploding.
Eriri couldn't help but sympathize. As Kashiwagi Eri, she too had been misunderstood. People always assumed she was a guy just because she drew for shounen-targeted works.
In this world, authors were judged far too easily based on the content they created.
Still... if her true identity was exposed, it would be game over. Dropping out of school and full-on hikikomori life would be her only option.
[Kanikou (Shield Warrior)]: "Yamada, where do you live?"
The Shield Warrior character had casually strolled toward the Archer's in-game avatar.
[Yamada-sama (Archer)]: "Ehh?! You're asking where I live all of a sudden?!"
The Archer immediately panicked and took a few digital steps back.
[Yamada-sama (Archer)]: "W-What are your intentions?! If you're my fan and want an autograph, we can arrange something... But asking about my house directly is super creepy!"
Clearly, she wasn't about to give out her address to strangers online, even if they were guildmates. Her mother had raised her right—never trust internet weirdos.
[Kanikou (Shield Warrior)]: "Chill. I'm not interested in you."
[Kanikou (Shield Warrior)]: "The person I like lives around your area. He told me he lives nearby."
[Kanikou (Shield Warrior)]: "Oh, and by the way~ I'm a light novel author too~"
Kani Nayuta playfully revealed her own hidden identity, trying to subtly close the distance between her and Yamada Elf...