Shangri-La Frontier: Season 1

In the near future, screen based gaming is replaced with full dive VR games. The market is soon flooded with low quality games filled with glitches known as "trash games". A percentage of players are obsessed with completing trash games despite the glitches. One "trash game hunter" is Rakuro, who goes by his screen name Sunraku. His classmate Rei has a crush on him, but is too nervous to talk to him. After spending weeks completing his latest game, Rakuro suffers mental burnout and is convinced

Rei, already a powerful warrior in Shangri-La, visits Firstia hoping to encounter Rakuro when he starts the game. She is disappointed when he does not appear and assumes Rakuro already visited Firstia and left before she arrived. Despite his expertise of boss fights, Rakuro almost dies, not having known the snake boss usually requires at least three players. His victory promotes him to level 14, but his health continues to drop from the snake venom. He is forced to run all the way to Secondil, w

Rei learns Rakuro has already reached Secondil. Other players notice Rei belongs to one of the seven clans formed to hunt the seven unique beasts, in Rei's case her clan hunts Lycagon. Despite executing perfect strikes on Lycagon's critical weak points, Rakuro isn't able to hurt her, and his legs are bitten off, but he swears to find and defeat Lycagon before he completes anymore of the game. Respawning he finds himself afflicted with Lycagon's Curse; he cannot equip armor to his legs or body, t

Rei still cannot locate Rakuro, but Mana convinces her to keep trying. Rakuro reads online walkthroughs and confirms he is definitely the first to meet Vysache. He offers him Vorpal training and equips him with a collar that reduces his experience gains by 50%, but increases his status gains by 250%. Rakuro is unexpectedly invited to BERP, an old trash game used as a meeting spot for hardcore trash hunters, by his online friend Katzo. He is confused Rakuro would play a mainstream game, until Rak

Rakuro tries to rely on skills but almost dies, until Emul saves him, realizing he was being so used to solo playing, he forgot Emul was his party member and can help fight. After dealing Mud-Digger, a lot of damage Rakuro is thrown into the air to die from the extreme fall which cannot be avoided by any skill. Luckily, Emul teleports him on top of Mud-Digger, turning his fall into an overpowered headbutt that kills Mud-Digger instantly. Rakuro is pleased by the victory but disappointed in himse

Rakuro recognizes Arthur as a fellow trash game hunter. They met in a post-apocalyptic trash game where gamers often ignored the impossible main quests to focus on fighting each other for resources. Arthur fought her way to becoming queen and the games unofficial final boss, the Dystopian Empress. In the end, Rakuro killed her in a suicide mission, beginning their unusual friendship/rivalry. Arthur has travelled all the way from the 50th city Fifticia to kill him. Animalia reveals Arthur is the

Animalia's spell kills both herself and Arthur, surprising the assassins so much Rakuro is able to escape into Thirdrema. Rei is ecstatic Rakuro briefly spoke to her, but blames the assassins for the conversation not lasting longer, and kills them all. Arthur takes her loss good naturedly and invites Rakuro to talk later in the post-apocalyptic game, along with his other online friend Katzo. Rakuro teleports to Rabituza to begin playing the unique scenario. For his first training session he is f

Rakuro discovers the Woodmage is impervious to physical attacks, so all he can do is dodge the attacks. After two minutes, Rakuro starts to suffer mental strain and considers just dying as there are no penalties for dying in training matches. He then feels disgust at himself, having grown used to always taking the easiest path to victory in trash games. He successfully steals Woodmage's staff, removing his ability to use spells. Dodging until the time expires becomes easier and Rakuro wins. Wood

Arthur is disgusted by the weakness of Ashura Kai and their leader Orcelott; they used to be proud assassins until the game began applying penalties to murderers. Now they are just another clan collecting experience and hoarding equipment. Ashura Kai is also the only clan who know the location of unique monster, Wethermon the Tombguard, but dare not attack him in case they lose their valuable equipment. Arthur decides to kill Wethermon herself. Rei surprises Rakuro with a friend request. Still u

Rakuro is unable to enter the boss arena as other adventurers are currently attempting to beat it, so Rakuro must wait his turn. After watching those adventurers die, Rakuro confronts Clown Spider and requests Emul not to assist him. After knocking Clown Spider from its web, he weakens it by dropping boulders on it, then he stabs its critical weak point and beats it without taking any damage himself. Sunraku receives an email from Arthur, as does Katzo, who recently started playing the game and

Vysache is unhappy with Rakuro's plans, but Rakuro explains Ashura Kai are exploiting a game mechanic; harvesting experience by starting a fight with Wethermon, then running away without actually fighting. Arthur plans to give Wethermon the fight he deserves. Vysache feels sympathy for Wethermon, cursed with being undead and unable to join his wife in the afterlife, so instead Wethermon guards her tomb. Granting him death is therefore honorable and true to the Vorpal Soul. Vysache takes Rakuro's

After defeating sentry robots, Rakuro and Katzo follow Arthurs' complicated map to a hidden room within the ruins rumored to be tailored for fast levelling. Emul is amazed by Rakuro's explanation that Katzo is a man in a female character body. They find the room, Tearlight Lake, which according to Arthur contains the monster Lifestide Lake Serpent. If caught with a fishing rod it bestows a lot of experience points. After dragging Lifestide to the surface, Rakuro reveals his temporary weapons, Em

Arthur leads them to Setsuna's secret hiding place in the Prismatic Forest. She explains Wethermon blames himself for her death which occurred during a silly marital argument, so he sealed her grave behind a barrier powered by moon magic, hence why it is only accessible once a month when the moon is dark. She hopes they defeat Wethermon so they can be together again. From her modern clothing and language, Rakuro suspects her backstory involved dying in the games Age of Divinity, and wonders if s

Dragonfly eventually wins one duel using a double-punch glitch Rakuro and other players have not seen before, impressing them as no one has discovered a new BERP glitch in years. In exchange, Rakuro shows her a glitch he discovered; Doppleganger, which creates a glitch clone of himself as an ally in duels. Dragonfly decides to invent a name for her new glitch. Returning to Shangri-La, Rakuro decides to try Skill-Linking by visiting one of Emul's triplet siblings, Elke the Skill Gardener in Rabit

Shangri-La undergoes a major update with new quests, maps and a new job title. Players notice all shops are sold out of resurrection items. Rei finally sends her letter to Rakuro inviting him to explore the update, but she then receives a message from Psyger-100 that someone revealed the location of Ashura-Kai's headquarters, so players are organizing a massive revenge attack. Rei is forced to quickly send a letter cancelling Rakuro's invite. Both letters leave Rakuro confused. Emul reveals she

Arthur hands Rakuro and Katzo the Tearjewel of Rebirth (four per person since she bought twelve for extras and emergencies) before the battle with Wethermon, and the Divine Lifesalve that lets them revive at half their max HP (five per person). She relays the plan they'll follow in order to conquer Wethermon. After they survive the battle for ten minutes, Wethermon summons his horse, a tactical mount named Kirin. Together they attempt to prevent Wethermon from mounting Kirin by Katzo attracting

As Wethermon burns, Kirin reconfigures itself into a robot to fight Katzo and Arthur who prevent it helping Wethermon. Rakuro fights Wethermon alone, but decides just surviving another ten minute stage is boring, instead he wants to really defeat him. As such, he equips a real helmet of Quad Beetle armor and his Moonblades since Wethermon's armor is crumbling from the holy water, meaning he can now take damage. Rakuro's critical attacks succeed in causing Wethermon to fall to the ground. Arthur

Wethermon begins using the same set of multiple attacks repeatedly, ending with the same unavoidable instant death attack, claiming he will not fall until Rakuro surpasses his ultimate move. Rakuro quickly runs out of full resurrection items, leaving only the 50% health recovery items. Rakuro deduces the only way to win is to somehow perfectly parry Wethermon's unavoidable instant kill attack. Arthur and Katzo manage to shatter the armor around Kirin's waist, exposing its critical weak point. Co

Wethermon praises Rakuro for his skills and names him Descendant of the Frontier, before crumbling to dust over Setsuna's grave. Setsuna's ghost thanks them and reveals she is not actually the real Setsuna, but is a perfect copy left behind by the real Setsuna to help Wethermon find peace, hence her title Setsuna of Bygone Days. Now that he can rest in peace, Setsuna's fate is to disappear, but first she tasks them with discovering the truth behind the world by finding Bahamut, though what this

After batting and killing Arthur, Rei asks if Rakuro and Arthur are lovers and is relieved they are not. The friend-summoning expires, sending Rei back where she came from before she can ask to join his party. Rakuro retrieves one of Arthurs swords Rei forgot to pick up. At Utopia Entertainment, the company that created Shangri-La Frontier, everyone is panicked as the World Story called for Wethermon to be the fourth unique monster killed, not the first, especially the lead world designers Tsuku

Examining the items in the Inventoria, Arthur determines none of the armors will function without a "none-standard Ether Reactor", and without the armor, they can't equip any of the weapons. Katzo reveals he received one reactor as loot for defeating Kirin, but it is broken and none of the NPC blacksmiths can repair it. Rakuro suspects Vysache could repair it but before handing it over, Katzo demands to know how to access the vorpal unique scenario. Rakuro reveals about fighting Lycagon for 5 mi

To become an Ancient Craftsman Bilac requires a working Legacy Weapon from the Age of Divinity and a Magic Application Unit from the Road of Past Glories. Fortunately, the katana Harbinger is available in the Inventoria, but as joint-owners of Inventoria Rakuro needs Arthur and Katzo's permission for Bilac to dismantle it. Rakuro decides to head for Past Glories first, though it is a long distance away somewhere between the towns Eighdold and Eleventar. By chance, Lightless Barrens is close to E

Rakuro is intrigued that the canyons upper cliffs are infested with Crystal Scorpions even Bilac is afraid of as scorpions are often over level 100. Eventually they confront the area boss Humming Lich, which can only be damaged by holy weapons, which Rakuro does not have. Bilac comes up with a solution, so Rakuro and Emul keep the Lich distracted but panic when it splits into 7 smaller skeletons. By polishing the Decapitator sword with holy water Bilac removes the rust and gives it a holy attrib

Rakuro climbs the canyon walls and finds the Crystal Nest Cliffs. Immediately he is attacked by a gigantic scorpion made entirely from crystal and within moments he is surrounded by dozens of scorpions and killed. He refuses to accept defeat, at least until he has gotten something out of it. Returning to the nest he locates an unusual deposit of black crystals which he manages to collect before being killed again. The crystal turns out to be Aroncaleth Lapis which has high concentrations of magi

Bilac admits crystals are better suited to magic jewelry than weapons. Fortunately, she knows one of the best jewelers for the job, D'Arnyaata. Unfortunately, to get the jewels to D'Arnyaata, Bilac is forced to summon hyperactive Cait-Sith Aramiys, Vice-Captain of Cazzeria, the Cait-Sith Kingdom. Needing rest, Rakuro logs out and ends up ignoring messages from Arthur and Katzo to meet for something important. He returns to Bilac and discovers that, since Cait-Sith's are notorious for stealing fr

To turn Beelac into an ancestral craftswoman and to get the futuristic toys in Inventoria up and running, Sunraku needs a magic control unit.

Sunraku and his pals make it into the Divinity-era workshop and retrieve the magic operations unit, but Pencilgon and Oikatzo have a score to settle with him before the quest proceeds any further.

It's time for Sunraku to face the music as Pencilgon and Oikatzo force him to come face to face with the various factions he's been ignoring.

Pencilgon makes a proposal to the other clans. Sunraku forwards his interests in Rabituza, and faces a setback in his farming of the Crystal Scorpions.

Sunraku's attempts to farm the Crystal Scorpions for money are complicated when a giant gold scorpion enters the fray.