The Crescent Moon Alliance guild throws a party in their guild hall to commemorate Serara's return, in addition to keeping Nyanta's cooking methods a secret from the rest of the city. Afterwards Marielle explains to Shiroe that during his absence, Akihabara remained relatively peaceful despite an unnatural uneasiness befalling its citizens whereby no fault of their own, a social divide was established between the strong and weak guilds. Marielle also outlines that since the player level-limit was raised to 100 following the Novasphere Pioneers update, the stronger guilds such as the Black Sword Knights and Silver Sword have been leveling up using EXP pot items obtained from the Hamelin guild who had been requiting low-level players for the sole purpose of creating a monopoly on their EXP pots to the stronger guilds. Following this news, Shiroe later ponders on all of his excuses up until that point but upon running into Nyanta, realizes that he had just been using them as a means to run away from the reality of Akihabara's state of affairs—despite his friends remaining by his side. Afterwards, Shiroe calls Minori and assures her that he will save them. Filled with new resolve, Shiroe meets with Marielle, Henrietta and Sh?ry? the next day and asks them to aid him and his newfound guild—Log Horizon, in ending Hamelin's plot and restoring Akihabara's sense of goodwill.