Chapter 130: Ichijouji Komari’s First Player Kill

(Komari’s PoV)

We were using some bushes as a hiding spot while we waited for some players to pass through a nearby road. After a small while waiting, we saw a party carelessly walk through our hunting spot.

“There, those are good.” Blossom told us.

“So those people, huh?” I replied. It’s my first battle, and I’m kinda nervous. My hands are trembling all over, but I’m also pretty excited. Let’s do this!

“Are you really going to do it?” Masa suddenly asked me.

“What are you talking about at this point, Masa!? This is the most efficient leveling method, remember!?” I told him.

“Yeah…” He seemed to not be very enthusiastic about it, but Blossom helping us out is already a big favor that she is only doing because we’re Kako’s friends. The minimum we should do is follow her advice… Also, I wanna get along with our sister-in-law as soon as possible, so leveling faster is important… Masa should be aware of this too, right?

“Well, there are plenty of people that don’t like killing other players in Virtual Reality games because it feels too similar to killing an actual person, so it’s not like Masa’s feelings are particularly strange.” Blossom chimed in.

“Oh, I see…” I replied. That does make sense, I suppose? And I guess Masa could be worried about that… However, if it’s for our sister’s sake, so I must kill those people, “Then, I’ll start, and you can follow up later, Masa.”

“Ahh…” Was his reply. I’m still worried if he can do his part properly, but I just smiled and focused on the task at hand. I can’t get distracted now after all, even if Masa keeps murmuring things about how ‘will you really do it?’ and stuff like that.

I put an arrow on my bow and started focusing on the nearby party… They have two swordsmen; a person with a big shield, who is probably a tank; two people in robes, one that looks like a mage and another that looks like a priest; and the last one was a dagger user, probably a scout of sorts.

… I think the hardest to deal with must be the tank, so let’s get rid of him first.

“Hey, Marie, you sure you-” Masa started saying something, but I let it flow in one ear and out in the other.

“I’ll kill you.” I whispered to myself, then aimed carefully at the neck of the tank, the spot right between his armor and helmet.

Using the <Piercing Arrow> skill from the <Bow Art> skill tree, I shot my first arrow.

“What the!?” One of the players shouted, as my attack hit the bullseye, instantly killing the tank.

“How did this-!?” The priest started talking, but I didn’t let him finish. I used the <Tailwind> skill from the <Wind Magic> skill tree to make the next arrow change directions mid-air and kill said priest from a different direction. This should buy us some time before they find us.

“Just where are those attacks coming from!?” Their scout shouted. This time I shot an arrow straight upwards, then used <Tailwind> and <Headwind> to control its trajectory to make it fall on top of this scout’s head, killing him too.

“… I think I can keep on hunting.” I murmured as I used <Gust> and <Rotation> to shoot an arrow straight ahead, piercing through the head of their mage…

Unfortunately, it seems the rotation added too much power to the arrow, so it actually went through the mage’s head and continued onwards, piercing the belly of a swordsman at a non-vital spot. He certainly took damage from it, but more importantly, he noticed our position after being hit by an arrow that flew straight towards him… That’s dangerous.

“Seems like they noticed us. Masa, your turn now.” Blossom told him.

“… Understood.” He replied as they dashed towards us in a mad rage… However, Masa seemed to still hesitate to pull out his sword. This was a bit worrisome, but I think Blossom will help us in case of an emergency, so things should end up alright.

When they got close enough to us however, they stopped for some reason and made a surprised expression… One of them ended up exclaiming, “What the hell!? They’re still kids!”

“I’d feel kinda bad if I were to kill them…” The other swordsman replied.

That’s so weird, they changed their behavior completely as soon as they saw our appearance and decided to try being gentle? I don’t quite get it…

Masa seemed to still be hesitating on pulling out his sword, while Blossom’s expression seemed to scream ‘Do it!’

“Look, you seem like you’ve just started playing, so you should try avoiding joining the Chaos Faction-!?” One of the swordsman started saying… He seemed to be completely off-guard though, so I shot an arrow through his forehead.

“What the-!? You little-!” The other one, who was already wounded by my arrow that had killed the scout, turned his back to me in order to see his friend that just had his head pierced… By the time this last swordsman faced me again, I already had another arrow ready, so I shot it directly though his mouth.

I heaved a sigh of relief and said to no one in particular, and said, “It’s over…”

<Level Up>

<You Earned Skill Points>

<Your Karma Has Dropped>

<The Level Of Your Skills Has Raised>

The sudden system messages appearing made it sink in more clearly… This battle was over. We won.

However… “Masa! You need to get it together!” I shouted at Seigi.

“I-I get it, but… They seemed like good people.” He replied apologetically.

“How can you seriously worry about that in the middle of a battle!?” I asked him. I get that it might feel strange to sneakily attack someone, but isn’t it even weirder to hold back because the other party feels kind? At least take them on for real once the battle already started! “We can’t afford to be careless once we are already face to face with our opponents, you know!?”

“Well… I guess you’re right.” He reluctantly nodded… I’m not very convinced he’d do his part in the next opportunity though.

“… I mean, if you really don’t like this, I guess we can try something else?” I ended up giving in.

“R-really!?” He was obviously happy with that statement.

“I mean, yeah, we’re supposed to be having fun while gaming after all.” I told him. It can’t be helped if he doesn’t like killing players in the end, “Although I feel bad for Blossom, you taught us so much already…” I turned towards her and bowed in apology.

She stayed silent for a bit, but then she sighed and said, “Well, I guess it’s alright. There are other efficient leveling methods anyways, I was just going for this one because it’s the best.”

“Oh!?” I exclaimed. So she’s still going to help us?

“Eh!?” Masa too seemed to be surprised by it.

As expected of an experienced player! She’ll still show us the other ideal methods! “Let’s do our best to catch up to our sister-in-law!” I exclaimed.

“… Yeah, let’s do our best.” Masa replied… Well, he’ll have to work harder than me since he is still level 1 due to not participating in this last battle.

“Then, let’s keep leveling until the next event comes!" I exclaimed.

Blossom giggled a bit, “That’s the spirit.”

“I apologize for my sister’s unruly behavior…” Masa made an annoying comment, but I ignored him while looking forward to the future, and thinking of what other skills I would learn as I leveled.