Pop Star Online LIVE BATTLE Part 1

## Story

A beta version of the VRMMO "Pop Star ONLINE", which was available for a limited time before, will be officially released.

In this event, a music band is featured. Attack enemies while performing music!

Who is going to be No. !?

**Story 1**

Asuna: Yup. Well, everyone who responded, anyway.
Liz: We've got seven. You two, me and Silica, and Leafa, Sinon, and Yuuki.
Leafa: So, is there a specific size this band has to be?
Sinon: The information I read said four.
Silica: Just four? That feels like it's the bare minimum The basic band is vocals, guitar, bass, and drums, right? Oh! And sometimes keyboard too!
Yuuki: That's the image I get, but I don't think there are any hard rules.
Kirito: Hold up! This info says "everyone's a vocalist." What's does that mean? I know a lot of bands have singers who play something, but this sounds like we all HAVE to sing.
Asuna: Maybe it's not mandatory, but just an added option? Singing's fun, so I bet everyone wants a turn.
Leafa: Ahh, okay. So a pre-emptive step to prevent band fights.
Liz: So we all can sing if we want, great. Now we just have to pick instruments.
Yuuki: Awesome! So let's break up into bands!
Asuna: Hold on a sec, Yuuki. We've got seven people. We're one short of two full bands. What should we do?
Kirito: Agil mentioned he might be able to make it today.
Liz: I'm not holding my breath. Adults have jobs. They can't spend all their time gaming like us.
Yuuki: Come on! Band time! Let's pick! How about rock-paper-scissors to split us up?
Silica: We, okay... We need to hurry up anyway. Otherwise, the other bands will have a head start!
Sinon: Got it. Let's do this.
Kirito: **Rock, paper, scissors, SHOOT!**

**Story 2**

Yuuki: Yeah! Rock on!
Liz: This is gonna be awesome.
Silica: O-Okay! I'll try my hardest! But where did the other three go?
Asuna: They still need a fourth, so they said they were going to have a band meeting.
Yuuki: They're yesterday's news! We're rivals now! We gotta focus on us!
Liz: You got it! Luckily, we have our singing skill levels saved from the last time we did this. Which means we don't have to worry about being horrendous singers right off the bat.
Silica: Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that.
Yuuki: Huh? I wasn't around last time you guys played PSO. You were all that bad?
Asuna: It wasn't our fault! The game did it to us. Since we were still low level, it added this weird effect to our voices. It went away as we gained EXP and was replaced by something that made us sound much better.
Silica: It even added vibrato to our voices. It sounded great and felt even better!
Yuuki: Waaait a sec, does this mean I'm going to start with a vocal debuff?!
Asuna: Come to think of it, yeah... Sorry...
Yuuki: Aww! But I can't sit around and mope! I'm gonna practice SO hard I'll get better in a snap!
Silica: Okay, do your best. So...how about we pick our instruments?
Asuna: Yup! That's step number one!

Kirito: So what are we going to do about our fourth member?
Sinon: Meh. Someone will conveniently show up.
Leafa: Yeah. Let's invite the first person to--
???: Did someone call?!
Kirito: AH?!
Seven: Privyet! Sorry to keep you waiting!
Rain: Hey hey.
Kirito: Oh, hey! I'm glad you two could make it.
Seven: Of course we made it! This game is tons of fun, and forming a VR band? I HAVE to be in on this!
Rain: We heard about the new system. It sounds cool!
Sinon: It's not an idol thing, so I'm a bit surprised you two want in. Wait... Uh oh.
Leafa: What? What's "uh oh"?
Sinon: Rain and Seven make five. We're one over.
Kirito: Oh. Rats, we are. Well, this is a pickle.
Seven: Kirito, you're out. You can be our manager, I guess.
Kirito: There's no manager position, and I want to sing too! I want to be in the band!
Leafa: How about we rock-paper-scissors for it, like earlier?
Sinon: It'll suck for whoever loses, but bands are four people here. Nothing we can do.
Kirito: Bring it on! I'm winning this!
Rain: Hehe, well, I'm not losing!

Yuuki: **Booow chicka waaaaaah!**
Asuna: Woo! Nice, Yukki! You rock that bass!
Yuuki: Thanks! I'd never get this good this fast in real life. But with the system backing me up, I went from zero to rock star in the blink of an eye!
Liz: Yeah, playing music in VR is easy. It's basically a rhythm game. Just memorize the song and play at the right times, and voila!
Yuuki: I'm still pretty bad at singing. I'll leave the vocals to you three for now and just focus on my bass.
Silica: Okay! Anyone in the band can be on vocals, so it's best to leave it to the person who's highest level.
Liz: Agreed. We can always change things up later, or give someone a solo or something.
Asuna: Sounds good! Well, what do you say we go rent a stage and practice?!
Yuuki: Yes yes YES!!
Asuna: Ooh, in the white flower garden...
Silica: You're an amazing singer, Asuna!
Asuna: Hehe, thanks. It's Liz's turn next!
Liz: Oh yeah, get ready to be blown away by my awesomeness!
Yuuki: ...Huh? Wait, Liz!
Liz: Why?! I'm about to rock!
Yuuki: Look! Over there! Monsters are charging the stage!
Silica: Yikes! That's a whole lot of them!
Asuna: Are they trying to stop us from practicing?
Liz: What do we do? Take a break to beat up these monsters?
Asuna: I think that's our only choice...
Silica: Okay! Then let's get some weapons and... HUH?! Where'd they go?
Yuuki: They all disappeared the second we stopped practicing!
Asuna: That's...weird.

**Story 3**

Asuna: That means we'll need a bouncer... or one of us will have to fight them off.
Silica: But that means someone can't practice. You can't fight and play an instrument at the same time.
Yuuki: Nope! See this gauge? If you fill it, your instrument gets auto-play for a bit. Anyone who's got a full meter activates the ability and goes out to fight off the monsters. Then we just switch once the ability is about to wear off. How does that sound?
Asuna: Hmm... I think it can work!
Liz: It might be the only way we can practice, so I'm down to try it.
Asuna: Great! Nice idea, Yuuki! Now we just need to plan out the order of rotation.
Yuuki: Yay!
Liz: It looks like my drums fill up that gauge really fast.
Silica: On the other hand, my keyboard takes a while to fill up. But once I activate the auto-play mode, it lasts for a long time.
Asuna: So each instrument has its own quirks. How well we play the songs probably affects things too.
Yuuki: It's a really cool system, that's for sure! Let's get cracking and try all sorts of stuff out!
Asuna: Yeah!

**Story 4**

Asuna: Hyah!
Monster: **Yipe!**
Liz: These guys just keep coming. I guess it's endless spawn until the song's over?
Silica: Asuna! Your guitar's almost done playing itself!
Asuna: Got it! I'm heading back to stage! Next up is...
Liz: Me! Our next song's a ballad too, so there isn't much drumming to do. That means my gauge will drain slow, so I can fight for a while!
Asuna: Yup! Now get out there, Liz! Switch!
Liz: Leave this to me! STAGE DIVEEE!
Yuuki: Phew! This is tough, but it's going real well!
Silica: Yeah! This is our fifth song, and we're still going strong!
Yuuki: That's progress! We only made it to two songs before the monsters broke through when we started.
Liz: We're finally getting the hang of this game!
Asuna: Playing and battling is important, but so is picking songs and reading sheet music! It also seems like the monster spawns are random, so we need quick judgment too.
Yuuki: Yup yup! It's a fusion of combat and music! We're battle bards! Wooooo!
Liz: Huh. I guess it's kinda like a musical tower defense game.
Asuna: What's "tower defense"?
Liz: You don't know? It's a genre of game. Basically, a defensive battle simulator.
Yuuki: I've tried a few, but never any that use music like this! Totally innovative!
Silica: Hehe, well, I like it! ...Hey, by the way, how do you think Kirito's band is doing?
Asuna: Oh yeah! Let me message them and see.

Kirito: No... How... How could I lose at rock-paper-scissors so badly? Now I'm just a lone musician fated to wander the world in search of a band that'll take me in... How cruel this game is! The stage calls, so close, and yet so far away... \*sigh\* It'd feel too weird to just invite random strangers to form a band with me. Man... Playing solo's fine in an RPG, but in a band? It's just sad.

**Story 5**

Liz: Hey, Asuna. Have you heard back from Kirito yet?
Asuna: Yeah. He's, uh...all alone. Leafa and Sinonon ended up forming a band with Seven and Rain. He's the odd man out. Apparently, he lost in rock-paper-scissors again.
Yuuki: Ahahaha! He's so unlucky!
Silica: Is Kirito going to be okay?
Asuna: Maybe, if Agil, Klein, and someone else shows up.
Liz: Eh. He's always the best at everything within five minutes of doing it for the first time. Let him get a late start. It'll be better for the rest of us.
Asuna: Hehe, it was totally like that in SAO.
Yuuki: Well! We've got a head start! Let's get so good he'll never catch up! Next Song!
Silica: Yeah!
Asuna: ... Hmm... Something's strange.
Yuuki: Yeah... Where are the monsters?
Liz: Look, over there! Where'd that giant stage come from?! And why's it facing us?!
Silica: I don't know! It just came out of nowhere... OH! Look! Another band! They're playing opposite us!
Player: So you guys are our next opponents, huh?! It's a battle of the bands, and we're gonna win it!
Asuna: Don't tell me... Musica; PvP?!
Yuuki: Ahh, cool! It's a VRMMO, so I'm not that surprised. I guess we'll have to fight them while still rocking out, just like with the monsters.
Liz: Gah! One of them is already heading our way!
Asuna: What do we do? The gauge isn't full yet!
Yuuki: I'll go! Play without bass for a few minutes, okay?!
Silica: G-Got it! Do your best, Yuuki!

**Story 6**

Liz: Yeah, somehow. I'm just glad we were able to smash up that other band's set.
Silica: Y-Yeah... It was our first PvP match like this, and it came out of nowhere. I was scared!
Yuuki: Hey, look at this! I see "PvP" list in this menu! I guess we'll face off against another band if I press this.
Asuna: Yeah, looks that way. We should've looked through the menu earlier...
Liz: It's our first time, and reading all the tutorials gets boring, so you just have to go for it. Then something sudden and surprising happens, and it's like "WHOA! TIME OUT!"
Silica: Hehe, that's exactly what it's like. It looks like this game was designed around fighting monsters and doing PvP to gain points.
Asuna: Yeah. It may just be a beta test, but let's aim for the top. I'm sure Sinonon's band and Kirito are thinking the same thing. Speaking of Kirito, I wonder if he's formed a band yet...
Liz: You haven't heard from him?
Asuna: No... Maybe he's busy? I just hope he's busy with a band, and no busy trying to find a band...
Silica: Yeah...
Yuuki: That's enough about Kirito! Let's get back to practicing! We finally know how this whole thing works. Now we've just got to get more EXP and points, streamline our skills and rotations, and boom!
Liz: I'm with Yuuki. I get the feeling a lot of PvP bands will have sweet tactics. We'll need backup plans.
Asuna: Got it! Let's brainstorm!

**Story 7**

Liz: Leave the beats and the beatdowns to me! Monsters, watch out!
Player: Woooooo! This is our chance! Get 'em!
Silica: Asuna! There's another band over there! We got PvP next!
Liz: Don't tell me they saw us fighting and decided to hit us when were vulnerable!? Jerks!
Yuuki: I think so! They were waiting for us to wear ourselves out! What a vicious strategy!
Player: Quiver in fear, worms, for our power will sweep over you like a plague of brutality and death!
Silica: That guy's...kinda scary...
Liz: I guess they're playing rock too? Wait, scratch that. This is definitely heavy metal.
Silica: Heavy metal is supposed to give your band member a big attack buff.
Asuna: ...Liz. Scratch the rock. Let's switch to a medium tempo song next instead.
Yuuki: Ohhh, I get it! That music's buff lets you evade enemy attacks.
Asuna: Exactly. We'll be able to weather their assault for a time with it. Once they start getting impatient and careless, we switch to a rock number. Then we hit them with a counter attack! Bass isn't vital for that, so Yuuki, you're on offense.
Yuuki: That's what I like to hear! Leave the fighting to me!

Player: Grr... These girls are tougher than we thought! I figured they'd go down easy... Bah! Hey, guys! This is a waste of time! Let's scram!
Liz: "Scram"? Seriously? What happened to your metal bravado? Fine, run away, wimps!
Asuna: Phew... We managed to survive both the monster attack and that band's ambush.
Yuuki: Yup! It was a tough fight, but we won! That feels pretty good!
Liz: Those metalheads were real underhanded. But we kicked their butts, so hah!
Asuna: It was pretty unfair of them, but I guess it's a solid tactic. Everyone plays differently, and it's not like it's against the rules.
Silica: Nope, anything goes! And according to the leaderboards, that band was really high ranked too. See?
Asuna: Hmm... Wow, they were 22nd? ...Hey, how'd they know when to ambush us?
Liz: Maybe they were spying on us?
Silica: According to the help files, you can spend points to remotely check on other bands.
Asuna: Oh, I didn't know you could do that. I guess we have to spend points, not just earn them.
Yuuki: I'm worried we'll get ambushed again. It's an effective strategy, so I bet everyone will do it.
Silica: Never fear! You need the skill "Crash Concert" to do it. Only the top heavy bands get that.
Liz: Skills, huh? I guess there are all sorts of special abilities in this game.
Asuna: Hehe, seems that way! There's all sorts of depth to PSO still to discover!

**Story 8**

Yuuki: And another monster bites the dust.
Asuna: Our next song's that fast number with Silica on lead vocals. It erects a barrier around the stage.
Liz: Wouldn't we be better off doing another idol song? It'll give us both a barrier and a passive-heal effect.
Asuna: Yeah, good point. Alright, idol song it is! Silica, take it away!
Silica: You got it! I'm gonna sing my heart out!

Rain: Those four are as impressive as always. Skill use, formation, tactical awareness... All perfect.
Seven: Rain! Stop admiring them and get back to practicing! They've got a huge point lead on us! We've got to catch up! Besides, we lost against them last time! If they win again, I'll be REALLY annoyed!! We need a plan! Think of something, now!
Sinon: You say that, but I don't hear any bright ideas from you. Band leadership is crucial in this game. Asuna's been a leader in VRMMOs for years. She's smart, quick-thinking, and a flawless commander. It'll be hard to beat that.
Leafa: Yeah. I know that you and Rain are amazing singers... But individual talent can't carry us in this game: it's all teamwork and overall band skill.
Seven: What's with you two?! Giving up before the battle even starts?! What, you're so used to losing you don't even have the guts to try?
Sinon: What was that?! You picking a fight with me?!
Rain: H-Hey, cool it down, you two! Seven, you went too far! Sorry... I'll give Seven a stern talking to later.
Leafa: No, it's okay... It's partially our fault for all the negative talk...
Sinon: Fine. I'll be an adult and drop it. But I do NOT like being called a loser. Besides, I admit I let myself get discouraged about having a rival as tough as Asuna.
Leafa: Seven! Sorry, and thanks for the aggressive pep talk! We'll work hard and beat Asuna! Promise!
Sinon: I'm with Leafa. Let's win this.
Seven: Leafa! Sinon! That's the spirit! Let's beat the snot outta everyone and reach number one in the beta!
Rain: Huh. That was a...surprisingly positive end to all that.

**Story 9**

Liz: It's smooth sailing so far, Now that we have the hang of things, want to go on the offensive?
Silica: Oh, yes! I'd love it! We can't play any heavy metal, so we'll have to fight fair and square.
Yuuki: We'll need a fast-paced song to attack with. That'll up our combo damage.
Asuna: Yeah, let's do that. But we have to practice first. Let's see where we are in the rankings... Wow! We're ninth!
Liz: We've clawed our way up there. So, want to challenge lower-ranked bands? That's the safe option.
Yuuki: Boo, that's boring! Let's take on people higher than us!
Silica: I-I'm good with either... But for our first offensive battle, how about playing it safe?
Asuna: Hmm, this is a toughie...
Liz: Yup, and it's your decision, oh great and powerful band leader!
Yuuki: I'm with Liz! You pick, Asuna!
Silica: I agree too! Leadership is very important in PSO, and you're pour commander!
Liz: Right?! Great! It's settled! Lead us, maestro!
Asuna: Oh, come on! Stop that, it's embarrassing!
Yuuki: Maestro? Ooooh, because she's like a great music person or something?
Liz: Yup. I thought it was appropriate, given the situation.
Yuuki: Hehe, I'm down with that! It's what you call an orchestra conductor who's really good. Speaking of which, I finally get why they're so important. I always thought they were kinda pointless.
Silica: Yeah, me too!
Asuna: Hmmm... Hey, check this out.
Liz: The leaderboards? Let's see... Wait, whaaat?!
Asuna: This band was 40th a second ago, and now they're 25th!
Silica: How did they shoot up the rankings so quickly?
Yuuki: Gah! I blinked, and now they're 13th! That's insane!
Asuna: ... Alright, guys, new plan. Cancel the offensive. We're checking out this band. I really want to see them in action. It might be Seven's group.
Liz: I second that. I get the feeling we'll want to scout this band before they some strumming for us.
Yuuki: Even if it costs us point, it'll be worth it. Let's go!

Player: Gnngh! Dude... We surrender! You rock too hard for us!
Liz: So this is the place, right?
Silica: W-Wow! They took on two other bands and a pack of monsters at the same time, and still won!
Yuuki: I can't see them yet. But I can hear... Is that a...shamisen?!
Asuna: Wow, that is a shamisen. And... I hear a shakuhachi? Some taiko drums...and a koto?!
Silica: They're all playing traditional Japanese instruments? That's unusual.
???: Sup, girls?
Asuna: A-Agil?!
Agil: How'd you like our set? Pretty sweet, huh?
Klein: Heh, how's it going, girls? If you've come to fight, be prepared to get rocked.
Liz: Klein's here too? I guess I'm not surprised to see you.
Yuuki: Wow! You guys are amazing! How'd you shoot up the ranks so quick?
???: Heh heh heh...
Asuna: Waiiit... I know that laugh...
Kirito: We shot up the ranks so fast because I'm the band leader!
Asuna: Kirito. Why am I not surprised? So, you teamed up with Klein and Agil?
Kirito: Yeah. Leafa and Sinon teamed up with Seven and Rain, so I was the odd man out. So I ended up killing time until Agil and Klein dived in.
Klein: K-dawg here was so sad at being left out, he burst into happy tears the second he saw us! Hah!
Kirito: No, I didn't! I wasn't crying! I swear!
Agil: Ha ha ha, Klein exaggerated, but not that much. You were a mess, kid.
Kirito: You guys suck...
Asuna: Hehe, aww. Well, I'm very glad you got in a band.
Silica: And now we know why they've been doing so well. Kirito's on their side. That's basically a cheat.
Yuuki: Hold up. You need four for a band. Who's your other member?
Kirito: You'll never guess.