The World Champion tournament hadn't even started yet—and Nine's Own Goal was already planning its conquest.
Sign-ups had just opened, and the system was swarming with hopefuls. PvP forums were in chaos. Build guides were exploding with last-minute optimizations. Everyone was scrambling to register as their world's representative.
Except for Sin, who had casually dropped into the sign-up like he was ordering lunch.
Touch Me registered next, followed by Takemikazuchi, Ancient One, and a few other strong PvP freaks in the clan. They didn't register for the same world, of course—that would've been stupid. There were only nine World Champion slots total—one per world—so the clan made sure to spread out their entries, giving themselves the best chance of landing at least one crown.
And, as expected, Touch Me did it with his usual flair, yelling JUSTICE NEVER RESTS! as he confirmed his registration.
Sin pretended not to know him.
Meanwhile, their clan was exploding.
What had started as nine awkward loners trying not to die had grown into twenty-seven members in just a few months.
The secret? Two words:
Touch Me.
He couldn't not save people. Especially heteromorphic players.
YGGDRASIL, in its early days, had been brutal to non-human avatars. Some of the strongest jobs in the game required a dark little clause: PK a certain number of heteromorphic players. So naturally, low-level heteromorphs became prime hunting targets.
Some players called it immersion.
Everyone else called it griefing.
Touch Me called it injustice, and he built a one-man rescue brigade that picked up persecuted players like lost kittens. Skeletons, insects, wraiths, ogres, aquatic horrors—didn't matter. If you were being hunted and you screamed loud enough, Touch Me would show up with sparkles and an aura that screamed "Saturday morning hero."
And once he saved you, well… you usually joined the guild.
That's how they ended up with 27 members, most of whom looked like they'd wandered out of the boss gallery of a horror MMO.
The clan was lounging in their rented base that evening—technically a clan hall, not a true guild base since they didn't meet the 30-player requirement to apply for one yet. But with their growth rate, they'd hit that number within a week.
It wasn't a bad place. Big meeting room. Some lounges. Even a customization slot where Amanomahitotsu had forged a giant skeletal dragon statue that occasionally breathed sparkles.
"Atmosphere," he had grunted.
Sin stood at the center of the room, halo spinning slowly, arms crossed.
"…and that," he finished smugly, "is how I finally unlocked One Who Has Lived a Thousand Lives."
A pause.
Then chaos.
"NO FAIR!" cried Peroroncino, flailing his creepy bird wings.
"Are you serious? That's the race skill with the multiple avatars, right?" Bellriver said, adjusting his skeletal robe.
"I heard the quest chain for that takes over 200 hours of in-game karma farming," Bukubukuchagama muttered. "How are you still mentally intact?"
"I'm not," Sin replied calmly.
"I respect that," Ulbert Alain Odle said with a low chuckle. "So. What's the first avatar going to be?"
Everyone leaned in.
"Well," Sin said. "I haven't decided yet. Figured I'd ask."
"Make a dark god!" Ulbert immediately said. "Like the final boss of some eldritch anime. All tragic backstory and apocalyptic powers."
"Yes!" Peroroncino added. "Give him, like, black fire wings and a twelve-stage transformation with piano music playing in the background."
"I can write a tragic monologue," Herohero said quietly. "If you need lore."
"Make his attack names in Latin," Variable Talisman offered.
"Oh oh oh—let's make a full boss room!" said Nearata. "We can RP a cutscene. He can descend from the ceiling upside down."
"I will forge the altar," Amanomahitotsu muttered, already sketching something.
"You people are out of control," Yamaiko said, sipping tea.
"Absolutely," Sin said. "But I love it."
Touch Me, watching from the side, chuckled. "I thought you were all about efficiency."
"I am," Sin replied. "But I already have the perfect build. I can afford one ridiculous RP slot."
"Good," said Ulbert. "Because our clan needs a face."
"Do we not already have… your face?" Sin asked, gesturing vaguely at the crowd of fanged, glowing, bone-armored chaos avatars behind him.
"Correction," Ulbert said. "We need a final boss."
Everyone turned back to Sin.
Sin raised a glowing, faceless head. "Why am I the final boss?"
"You're the only one who floats ominously and doesn't blink," Whitebrim said.
"You literally glow judgment," added Tabula Smaragdina.
"And you're definitely the strongest," Beast King Mekongawa muttered. "Whether you admit it or not."
"Touch Me's the leader," Sin countered. "Shouldn't he be the boss?"
"He's the hero," Genjiro pointed out. "The final boss comes after the hero."
Touch Me sighed loudly in the corner. "I'm just here to help people."
"You're just here to get bullied for having a girlfriend," Suratan said.
"Yeah," Temperance agreed. "How dare you be happy."
Touch Me gave Sin a look.
Sin slowly raised his hands in mock innocence. "What? I didn't say anything."
"You glared at me yesterday when I brought up my anniversary date."
"I don't have a face," Sin replied. "I can't glare."
"You managed."
They kept debating builds for another hour.
Should the first alternate Sin avatar be:
A fallen paladin seeking redemption?
A cosmic horror in a child's body?
A corrupted god who gives power to weak players for unknown prices?
A love-starved villain with beautiful eyes and a world-ending passive?
"I vote for all of the above," Peroroncino declared.
"You want him to make a harem of himself?" Nishikienrai asked.
"YES."
"No," Sin said flatly.
"I could write lore for that," Herohero added.
"Still no."
By the end of the night, Sin hadn't decided which avatar to make first.
But he had a short list, a dozen terrible suggestions from his guildmates, and at least three offers from Peroroncino to commission custom voice lines.
Somewhere in the chaos, Touch Me got roped into helping build a full boss fight arena for Sin's future "dark lord" RP.
And for just one moment, all twenty-seven members of Nine's Own Goal sat together in a rented base filled with monsters, weirdos, and one reluctant anime villain-to-be—
—and it felt like home.