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 twelfth expansion pack, Homesteading the Noosphere, effectively trapping over 30,000 Japanese players and several hundred thousand other players worldwide.

Effects of the Catastrophe
The NPCs, known as 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 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 was 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, knowing that their victims would revive at the Cathedral.

With the Adventurers of Akihabara now governing themselves and creating new foods and inventions, the People of Land became envious of the formerly 'disorganized mob' and competed with each other to attain those benefits. The League of Freedom Cities Eastal formed an alliance with Akiba's Round Table Alliance, while in Minami and Nakasu, the sole guild Plant Hwyaden also took control of the Holy Empire Westelande's nobles.

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

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

Changes Over Time
After the Catastrophe, people began discovering ways of doing things in this world that hadn't been in the game. Nureha, using her Overskill, took over all of Minami and the Holy Empire Westelande within one month, even gaining a large following on the first day. She and her forces discovered Real Food Preparation around the same time as or before Nyanta; their discoveries returned flavorful food to the citizens of their respective cities and reintroduced them to the Landers.

Players whose avatars were of the opposite gender found that while they had their avatars' bodies, their voices remained the same. Over time, though, their voices shifted to match their bodies'.