The eighth preliminaries have finished, and now it is time for the big main event. Maple and her friends are excited for what is to come, and of course they are doing so at the highest difficulty. Things proof to be a lot more difficult than expected, and teaming up with old rivals and friends might be required.The nature of the series hasn't changed much over the past volumes and the ninth is no exception. It is a light-hearted wholesome and funny story about a group of friends having wacky adventures in a slightly broken MMO. There are no serious threats, although this volume is rather action packed with the event being a survival one with each minute things becoming more difficult. Still, if you came for strong characters, detailed and believable world building or tense plots, how did you manage to reach volume 9? It is a tad short even for a light novel, more so when you realize it includes a couple of very short short stories at the end which for the most part are set in much earlier parts of the series.All in all, an entertaining fun read for when you are looking for something simple and straight forward without any drama and exactly what I expected.