Season 1

Episode 1: Defense and First Battle

Kaede gets convinced by her (gamer) friend, Risa. to start playing a new VRMMO titled New World Online. She picks “Maple” as her name, and a great shield as her weapon. She doesn’t want to get hurt, so she decides to spend all of her skill points on Vitality (defense). After asking someone for advice, she wanders into the forest to look for monsters and somehow acquires uncommon defense-related skills by letting them attack her. The next day, she spots a shield user named Chrome who introduces her to Iz, a crafter specialized in smithing. Iz mentions a dungeon where Maple could acquire gold and better gear. With the help of potions gifted by Chrome. Maple manages to defeat a hydra there (by literally eating it) and acquire a skill as well as a black set of equipment called “Armor of the Black Rose”.

Episode 2: Defense and Friends

Maple acquires the skill “Devour” by eating bomb bugs and equips it to her shield. The next day, at school, she mentions to Risa that the game’s first tournament is going to happen soon and decides to participate. Using a combination of a stun attack, poison from the hydra skill and her shield’s new “Devour” skill, she manages to exterminate all of her opponents and reach 3rd place. Maple talks about it to Risa, who can finally play the game and decides to go for a swashbuckler playstyle. The next day, Sally (Risa) starts playing. Following Iz’ recommendation, her and Maple go to a lake to catch fish required to craft a shield. There, Sally finds and maps out an underwater dungeon. She manages to defeat the fish boss and loot her own set of equipment.

Episode 3: Defense and Reaching Floor Two

Maple’s “Devour” skill ends up getting nerfed, and other adjustments to the game are made to prevent the appearance of another “Maple”. After logging in, the two girls decide to put off visiting the new Second Floor that had just opened and visit the First Floor a little more. While at a café, they meet Dread and Drag who recommend them a quest to obtain the Super Speed skill. They manage to clear it despite the quest being a test of courage and Sally being scared of ghosts. After that, they defeat the deer boss of the entrance to the Second Floor. There they meet Iz, who gives Maple her brand new shield, “Snow White”. Soon after, it is time for the game’s second event to begin.

Episode 4: Defense and Second Event

Maple and Sally begin their week-long adventure, where they need to collect silver medals, 10 of which turn into a gold medal that can be exchanged for prizes at the end of the event. Maple falls in a hidden hole and finds a boss room. After defeating the clown boss, the girls obtain two silver medals. They then find another boss room, but let Chrome’s party to go first. After it gets decimated, Maple and Sally go in as well and manage to defeat the bird boss after a very tough battle and to the surprise of the game’s admins. They obtain 5 silver medals, as well as two monster eggs that hatch into a turtle and a fox. Later, arriving at an Oasis in a desert. they find themselves face to face with another player who challenges them to a duel.

Episode 5: Defense and Spoils of War

Sally faces off against another player in a high speed battle, until Maple leads them into a quicksand trap. Maple, Sally and Kasumi find themselves bound together by chained and forced to cooperate in order to clear a dungeon. They encounter huge invincible snail monsters that they manage to avoid by combining their skills. The three of them ends up getting loot from the dungeon and befriending each other. Maple and Sally spend the last few days of the event farming medals. They also meet and befriend Kanade, a weak player with a mysterious skill called “Akashic Record”, who tells them about a potential place to find medals. Maple and Sally figure out the puzzle and are transported underwater, where they beat a giant squid boss, much to the dismay of the game’s admins. The last night of the event, Sally massacres dozens of players in order to obtain two more silver medals, amounting to a total of twenty (plus the gold one Maple got from getting top 10 during the first event). In exchange for the medals, Maple acquires the telepathy skill to fly on the back of her (giant) turtle pet.

Episode 6: Defense and Reinforcements

After playing NWO for a week straight (in-game time), Maple ends up making a fool of herself at school by acting like in the game. After logging in, her and Sally decide to make a guild (the newly added system) and go look for a house to claim. They decide on a tree house, then recruit their friends: Kanade, Kasumi, Iz and Chrome. Maple is officially appointed as the guild leader, and decides to name the guild “Maple Tree”. After mining and farming to earn funds for the guild, the group has their first meeting. On Chrome’s suggestion, they decide to recruit more members for the upcoming fourth event: a guild battle. Back on the First Floor, Maple meets two girls she had noticed before and invites them to the guild. After discussing at a café, May and Yui explain they are Strength-focused and decide to accept the invitation.

Episode 7: Defense and Upgrades

Maple is out leveling with May and Yui in the hydra boss dungeon. After trying to speedrun it, they obtain Strength-boosting skills and reach level 20. Everyone in the guild also goes out grinding: May and Yui train with Sally, Kanade levels up her Akashic Record skill, and Chrome helps Syrup level up and loots a unique set of equipment. As for Maple, she stumbles upon a storyline quest. She first skips through an escort mission by flying, then gives the required item that she already owned, and finally skips a boss fight due to completing the first two missions so fast. Lastly, she completes a special quest that grants her a new skill: Loving Sacrifice, a skill that grants the Cover effect to all her allies. She asks Iz for a set of equipment to complete the angel look. Meanwhile, Payne’s guild gets ready for the upcoming events.

Episode 8: Defense and Third Event

The third event requires guild members to hunt cows and gather special drops. While trying to avoid crowded areas, Maple stumbles upon a weird coin-looking item near the church from the last quest. Inside the church, she finds and defeats a dark knight boss, and obtains new skills. The event ends, and Maple shows everyone the new skills she got: Predator, Seeping Chaos and Atrocity. The last one notably turns her into a giant monster, which allows her to make quick work of the Second Floor tree boss. The game’s Third Floor finally opens, and Maple’s guild goes to explore it. Maple finds a quest that activates with the coin she had found earlier. It triggers a boss battle that she easily wins using a mecha suit skill given to her beforehand.

Episode 9: Defense and Fourth Event

After showing everyone her new mecha skill, Maple goes to the beach with Sally, May and Yui, when they spot Frederica scouting them. Sally challenges her in a duel, during which she gives her wrong intel by using fake skills. Back at the guild, it’s revealed the fourth event will have every guild compete to steal and defend orbs. After deciding on attacking/defending teams and spending some time leveling, it’s time for the event to begin. Sally uses her agility to steal multiple orbs, then runs into Dread. After a short duel with him where she fakes her skills again, she steals Flame Emperors’ orb as well.

Episode 10: Defense and Attack

After bringing orbs back to the base, Sally heads out again to gather more, followed by Kanade, Chrome. Kasumi and Iz. Sally gets surrounded by members of the Order of the Holy Sword while other Maple Tree members each get stuck into tough battles. As she is about to die, Maple makes an unexpected appearance and saves her. Frederica uses that opportunity to inform Dread, who attacks the now defenseless base of Maple Tree. He defeats Yui and May, but is stopped in the nick of time by Maple and Sally. Having successfully secured a lot of orbs, the group switches to plan B: letting Maple attack guilds together with May and Yui. Using Syrup, they fly through the maps and take down one guild after another. before aiming for Flame Emperors. They blaze through Markus and Misery’s defense, until Mii arrives.

Episode 11: Defense and Mighty Foe

As they being their battle, Mii uses knockback attacks to push Maple away from Yui and May, leaving them defenseless. They retreat on Syrup to let Maple face off against Mii, Misery and Markus. After a drawn out battle without much progress, Mii decides to cast her trump card skill, “Prison of Fire”. Markus and Misery attack Maple to buy her time, then she unleashes it and traps Maple in a cage of fire where she suffers damage over time. Out of other options, Maple uses “Machine God” to break free and beat all of her opponents. Mii tries to take her down with “Self-Destruct”, but Maple survives the attack. Back at the base, Maple Tree changes their groups then goes back on the offensive to defend their spot on the leaderboard. Later, the Order of the Holy Sword attacks Maple Tree with a small group of their top players: Payne, Drad, Drag and Frederica. Maple Tree suffers severe damage, as Payne is about to beat Maple.

Episode 12: Defense and Bonds

Maple survives Payne’s attack thanks to “Stout Guardian”, but she’s cornered as Iz and Kanade get eliminated. As everything seems lost for Maple Tree, Payne decides to finish it all with “Sword of Destruction”. At that moment, Maple throws away her shield and uses “Counter”. Payne survives the attack thanks to “Stout Guardian”, and follows up with “Sword of Vanquishing”. Maple finally uses “Atrocity” and decimates the enemy party. After the battle, she stays in her monster form and the guild goes on the offensive, with the goal of eliminating most of the other guilds to secure their spot on the leaderboard. Together with Flame Emperors and Order of the Holy Sword, most of the remaining guilds get exterminated, and Maple Tree finishes in 3rd place. The game’s admins decide not to nerf Maple, as she has become the face of the game and attracts a lot of new players. A few days later, Maple Tree holds a party to celebrate the end of the event. Flame Emperors and Order of the Holy Sword are both invited, and they all watch highlights of the event together.

Season 2

Episode 1: Defense and Christmas

Maple and Sally log in to check out the game’s brand new Fourth Floor. After making quick work of the Third Floor’s machine boss, they arrive in a rural Japan-style world. The guild splits up to check out the place: Sally gets into a duel with Frederica, and Mii’s real personality as a softie gets found out by Maple. A week later, as the game’s fifth event is nearing, Kasumi clears a quest and obtains a special katana titled “Bewitched Sword” as a reward. In exchange for an amazing power, she receives debuffs for a little while after using it. However, the debuff actually turns her into a child, and she’s immediately found out by Flame Emperors’ Shin. After that, the event begins. Maple and Payne team up, to the disbelief of the game’s administrators. Among them, a new secretary seems to be in favor of taking measures against Maple. After the event, Maple Tree holds a big party with the other guilds. They all open the presents gotten from the event, which turn out to be Christmas-themed clothes.

Episode 2: Defense and Floors 5 and 6

While Maple is sick with a cold, the rest of the guild beats the Fourth Floor’s kitsune boss and go up to the Fifth Floor, which just opened. When she logs back in, Maple decides to go solo the boss without anyone’s help. As such, she ends up at the wrong place and fights the tower’s boss instead. After acquiring the skill Pandemonium, she is joined by members of the Order of Holy Sword, and they defeat the floor boss “together”. After reaching the Fifth Floor, Maple finds Yui and May who just respawned after being defeated. She helps them clear their quest, then join up with the rest of the guild to beat the slime Floor Boss. They arrive at the Sixth Floor, which is a horror-themed one. Sally is creeped out, but forces herself to go on a quest for an item she really wants. After some mayhem in a haunted house, they obtain skills but no items. Back in the real world, Risa is left alone at home and spends the evening on a call with Maple.

Episode 3: Defense and the Seventh Event

Maple goes back to the haunted house in order to obtain the item Sally wanted. After giving it to her, she finds Mii and grinds with her for a bit, before hitting up a café together. They’re joined by Frederica and Kasumi and chat for a little while. Soon after, it’s time for the seventh event to begin. It consists of a tower that each party has to clear. Sally and Maple team up for the challenge, and make their way through each floor, beating one boss after the other. The admins watch each of the monsters they set up get beaten one by one, hoping one will be able to counter Maple.

Episode 4: Defense and Tower Conquest

The event continues. While Maple and Sally are advancing at a good pace, Chrom’s group (with the rest of Maple Tree) is proceeding at a decent pace as well, while Order of the Holy Sword are steadily ahead and Flame Emperors are in second place. After a tough fight with the 10th floor’s boss, Maple and Sally manage to clear the tower. They each get a new skill, then Maple Tree heads towards the Sixth Floor’s boss room, as the Seventh Floor is opening soon.

Episode 5: