Just so you all know, this is a rewrite of my original "The Day [The World] Died." This will be posted on a new account under the pen name of Kyyteo. But I thought I'd leave the first chapter of the new fic here for you guys to mull over while I'm writing chapter 2.

Haseo stood in front of the large gathering which had come to join his guild Canard. Having his own area made his guild much more appealing to the new, and longtime players. Net Slum Tartarga was a special area in many different ways and the guildmaster, who had a hard time admitting he had grown fond of managing the guild, made sure to make use of all its features for his guild members.

Ever since the guild Moon Tree nearly collapsed, many of their former members decided to make their way over to Canard. They viewed it as a less extreme version of Moon Tree, but keeping intact the original ideal of helping other players enjoy [The World] to its fullest. But a crowd that gathered today was really large, and Haseo couldn't really believe what was happening. Death Grunty stood at the guildmaster's side, wagging his tail quickly, and looking quite pleased with itself.

"I'm Grunty, You're Haseo! *oink* You've done well my servant! I can see just how hard you've been working for my guild! *oink* But don't think that I'm done with you just yet. *oink* I'm going to squeeze every last drop of effort from your body until you're just a shriveled up prune *oink*" Silabus, who was sitting at a table with Gaspard handling new member registrations, laughed to himself, thinking about how little the guild had actually changed despite gaining huge popularity.

Haseo noticed the Co-Guild Master's laugh and walked over in front of him, standing in front of the person he was processing with his arms crossed. "Do you wanna go punk?" He asked in a half smirk. Silabus felt a drop of sweat roll down the back of his head as he tried to wave Haseo off. "Now now, I didn't mean anything by it. I just was thinking that you've changed so much yet so little at the same time." He chuckled again as the adept rogue walked away, apologizing to the person he stepped in front of.

He never thought he would have to create so many different ranks in the guild, and in a way it was starting to look like how Moon Tree had their ranks set up. He himself oversaw all of the Captains and Lieutenants that each managed a portion of the members. Silabus, Gaspard, and Atoli of course were his first choice. But to his amazement, Matsu, and Alkaid both stepped up to help manage the guild.

He turned his head to the beast player he called his friend. Gaspard had really changed the most thanks to the guild, and his own hard work and efforts. He was able to stand in front of a crowd without completely shutting down, whilst keeping the happy attitude and infectious smile that Haseo had come to rely on during the days that were tougher for him.

He looked around and saw all the players interacting with each other. Matsu was spawning in monsters for the lower level players to fight against, and showing them the mechanics of the game. Shino was sitting with a bunch of other players just chatting away. Alkaid, who was there moments prior, had taken a large sum of players to attempt a raid boss. And Piros the 3rd, who wasn't even a member of Canard, was spinning his "hypothetical" stories and, oddly enough, inspiring those who listened to him.

But the one person he wanted to see the most, wasn't online at the moment. He opened his Member Address list and glanced at Atoli's name. She had been absent from [The World] recently, which worried Haseo and made him a little antsy and on edge. He turned around and shouted at his two friends. "Hey! I'm gonna head offline for a bit. I'll catch up with you guys later."

The Blade Brandier laughed awkwardly and said to Gaspard "He's just going to leave us with all these new members isn't he?" Gaspard smiled and said "Oh come on Silabus, it's not all that bad. We can do it!"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ryou Misaki, the player behind Haseo, removed his M2D, and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. He rarely got much sleep anymore, devoting most of his time to [The World], while still maintaining a part time job, and keeping up his grades at the private school he went to. He stood up and walked to the kitchen of his apartment. He didn't know what sounded good to him, so he just threw some bread in the toaster and walked away for a moment, pulling out his phone and checking it.

He had hoped to see a text from her, but there was nothing. He had to admit, after what had happened between them at the Hulle Granz Cathedral… when he turned his back on Shino and chased after her… things were a little awkward. Neither of them knew what to do at that point, and neither of them really could talk about how they felt about each other. So they stayed as friends for the time being.

Everyone around the two knew though, and were getting frustrated that they weren't an official couple yet. Alkaid, who had feelings for Haseo still lingering in her heart, was the most adamant about him and Atoli. She sent him not so subtle messages constantly, reminding him that if he didn't treat her right that the twin blade would be there to unleash a world of hurt on him.

He opened up his messenger and decided to send Chigusa, the player behind Atoli, a text message.

'Hey. Haven't seen you in a bit. Get back to me when you can. Everyone's worried.'

He sighed softly and put his phone down on the table that was in his kitchen.

The apartment that he lived in was much too big for just one person, but it was the one that his father had bought for him after Ryou insisted on moving out. He couldn't really accept that his dad had remarried after divorcing his mom, and wanted out of a situation where he would potentially have to accept someone else in his life who he would have to call "Mother." Especially after what had happened to his biological mom. The apartment Had an almond colored scheme, that kind of brought a little warmth in the roomy place. His kitchen was tiled, and decked out with granite countertops. He rarely cooked, but when he did he was really good at it, there just wasn't much reason to do so unless he had company.

He grabbed his toast from the countertop and walked past the kitchen table he never sat at, into the living room which was connected to his kitchen. He had a fake plant by the door to his apartment which really was the only decorative thing in the place. The door lead into the living room where there was a blue couch pressed up against the wall, with a coffee table in front of that. Directly across from that was an entertainment center lined up with consoles of the past he liked to collect, and an oversized LCD screen that he only used when he watched the occasional movie.

He plopped down on the couch and started to munch on his toast. The teen turned his thoughts to his friend Ovan. He was a wanted criminal now, thanks to CC Corp using him as a scapegoat. He sighed and thought about how it wouldn't matter, because the real life Ovan was in a hospital somewhere, in a coma. For the first week after the defeat of Cubia, he did nothing but search the areas, hoping to find his friend somewhere, but with no luck.

Shino made him stop though. She told the teen that he had already lost so much time trying to bring her out of the coma that she was in, and if he tried to do the same for Ovan, it would consume him again. He knew that wasn't entirely false, but he still wanted to do everything he could for his friend.

His eyes started to flutter close, letting exhaustion take him. The young teen finally was able to drift to sleep. Not too long after that, his phone vibrated and his screen showed he had a text message from Chigusa.

Okay so, let's see what I can do from here. I'm excited to rewrite this, and I hope that anyone who reads this will like it. If you enjoyed it, or notice something I could improve on, please don't hesitate to leave a review! Thanks a lot all.

-Kyyteo