Catastrophe

The Catastrophe (大災害 Dai Saigai) (also referred to as the Apocalypse, Revolution, May Incident, and Third World Fraction) refers to the event on May 3, 2018, that trapped all players who were logged into the popular MMORPG Elder Tale inside of the game. It was triggered by the release of the game's 12th expansion pack, Novasphere Pioneers, effectively trapping over 30,000 Japanese players and several hundred thousand other players worldwide.

The NPCs, known as the Landers, were also affected by this incident. Depending on exactly what happened, either they suddenly gained memories, personalities and backgrounds, or the adventurers who had existed in their world as combat automatons suddenly did. Other changes include the fact that they weren't giving out quests, a change that was in fact brought about by their shock over what they called the "May Incident". This effectively left the Adventurers with nothing to do. Since survival itself is extremely cheap, (average of 35 Gold per day), there was little incentive for them to venture out beyond their cities and earn more money. As a result, the Adventurers had to deal with overwhelming feelings of despair and boredom. Many of them resorted to killing other players, (PKing), just to pass the time. This in itself is pointless as Adventurers will re-spawn after dying.

With the Adventurers of Akihabara now governing themselves and creating new foods and inventions, the People of Land are now envious of the formerly 'disorganized mob' and are competing with each other to attain those benefits.

Shiroe learns from the mage Ri Gan that the Apocalypse was the third World Fraction, a spell so powerful it can change the rules of reality itself.

It is currently unknown if the people of the real world knew of the players' mysterious sudden disappearance on that event or not.