I'm Standing on a Million Lives - Episode 4 Recap

Iu tells Yusuke her story, revealing to the viewers just what happened to Sayuri, the girl who was kind to her as a child. Sayuri was bullied - the torment was too much for her to bear and she committed suicide. When Iu started elementary school, she was also bullied. The faculty was cruel to her because her father and older brothers were cruel to them in the past. Iu’s classmate friends stood up for her. That’s when she realized that her friends were her strength and she had to be responsible for changing her own world, which is how she became so successful and popular. She didn’t want to end up like Sayuri. But in this insane new game world, she could die and lose everything. That’s why she pleads for Yusuke’s help. Both Kusue and Yuka pretend to be sleeping but overhear Iu’s story.

The four revisit the town from the first quest to gather intel, but it looks like it’s been abandoned for years. Yusuke wonders if time moves faster in the game world than in their own. They run into a traveler who informs them that their destination, Radodorbo, is on the complete opposite side of the continent. It would take 30 days by horse to get there. Coincidentally, a fighting tournament is being held in a town nearby that rewards the winner with three horses. As their only viable option for travel, the four start walking to the town.

On their walk, the party is ambushed by bandits. Yusuke soon learns that attacks against humans with weapons penalize a person’s experience points. Instead of fighting, the four attempt to run away, but Iu is captured. 

Both Yuka and Kusue think they should go back to save Iu. But Yusuke disagrees with the idea, pointing out that all their lives are on the line in completing the quest. The only way to save everyone’s lives, including Iu’s, is to make sure someone survives to complete it. Kusue, on the other hand, thinks “saving a life” is more than saving life itself, referring to the emotional and mental danger that Iu is in. At this point Yusuke suggests they split up - Yusuke will go to the tournament while the girls go to save Iu. They agree.

The girls are immediately captured by the bandits and thrown in the same cell as Iu. Yusuke, meanwhile, kills a bunch of goblins and gains a new class - creature wizard. He does his best at the tournament but is killed by his opponent, named Kahvel the Knight. Yusuke revives, to Kahvel’s relief. 

Yusuke negotiates with the bloodthirsty Kahvel to borrow horses in exchange for intel on the whereabouts of the bandits. The two and Kahvel’s brigade raid the bandits’ base and save the girls. As for the journey - fortunately, Kahvel and her father are willing to lend them a wagon that they all can fit in. Kahvel simply wants to accompany the party and train them in sword fighting.