CH 30-31

Inside of the accessory store. 

I frown at the bad memory that resurfaced in my mind.

The proposal event and the worst event that happens from this: the Blessing of the Demon Lord.

This is still a trauma of mine.

One of the selling points of this game is the marriage event, and most of the NPCs that have a character can be married.

I don’t know if it is because Nekomimi Neko is quite the free world or they simply found it a pain to change events from men and women, but there’s an ocean of people you can marry in this game.

It ignores gender and race, and as long as it is someone who can be married, you can marry them. There’s mostly no penalty in marrying.

Moreover, you will get items and skills as a bonus for each one you marry, so you would apparently be losing if you don’t do it. 

The marriage event is easy to trigger. 

<TLN: From here on, the ones who read the previous chapter don’t have to read this part. Look down for the line to see where it ends.>

First, you present a ring accessory and put it on their finger. 

After that, you have to open up by saying ‘I have something important to tell you’ in front of the monolith which will move you into the confession phase.

You will then speak your confession, and if the affection is more than 100, your confession is successful.

You will safely make the proposal.

However, making the proposal doesn’t mean marriage.

That’s the evil part of this game and what makes Nekomimi Neko be Nekomimi Neko.

When you finish the proposal, it will automatically move to the marriage oath, but the moment you say the oath, you will hear the voice of the Demon Lord from the sky. 

And then, the Demon Lord will give the Blessing of Immortality to the marriage partner. 

This is impossible to avoid, and the characters that get hit by this ‘Blessing’ will stop still completely as if time had been frozen for them.

This cannot be healed no matter the means, and they won’t die or get old in that time, but they will be in a state like that of a living statue.

In other words, the moment the player tries to marry, that beloved partner will be technically petrified, and the players will be shocked by this. 

However, the Blessing of the Demon Lord doesn’t end with that.

Next, under the pretense of ‘making the player push through their eternal love’, everyone aside from the ‘marriable characters’ a blessing will be given to all the marriage partners, and you will forcefully be prohibited from marrying others.

Because most of the marriable characters are characters you can bring as companions, in the case you are adventuring with companions, there’s a high chance those companions will also get the Blessing.

You would think only your marriage partner got their time frozen, but then see your companions and the people you are close with having been Blessed too, and then you would receive your second shock.

What’s so fearsome is not only that. 

As I said before, you can only propose in front of the monolith, but there’s a reason for that.

In the explanation of the proposal event, there’s a warning written clearly there. 

[Your data will be saved automatically when you begin a proposal event. You won’t be able to retry regardless of the result of the event, so be careful].

In other words, it will automatically save and you can’t redo it. 

Moreover, this game was intended as an MMO, so there’s only one save file. 

You can’t just replay it with a backup save file. 

The player would lose the companion that they went as far as wanting as a marriage partner, moreover, most core characters will be in a suspended state; your adventure will be hampered. 

—-<Recap ends here>—–

Of course, there’s no way anyone would be able to predict such a horrible event would happen from confessing, so the players that didn’t get the information beforehand from the internet would get caught in this trap, be shocked, despair, and rage. 

The waves of this were extreme, and at a certain forum, there was even an exclusive thread to complain about this event. 

I would still find it acceptable if it were the penalty of failing an event, but this happens when you succeed.

Moreover, you can’t reset? That’s going beyond just being evil.

That said, I am one of the people who got caught in this. I instinctively erased the data from the shock, and didn’t touch Nekomimi Neko for 3 days. 

Putting it in a different way, it also means that I recovered in 4 days and began the game from the very beginning.

Even so, this shocking event really did take root in me and had completely become a traumatic experience.

This is actually part of the reason why I mostly played solo.

However…

Even though this Blessing of the Demon Lord managed to create a flaming hell among the Nekomimi Neko players, in the 8th danger stages on the Nekomimi Neko Wiki, it is the third counting from the lowest. In other words, it has been evaluated with a C rank in danger level.

Even though this event is such a bundle of maliciousness, why is it ranked C?

There’s around 3 reasons for that.

-If you are going to continue the game solo, you can still continue the story (with patches) without any issues.

-It can be easily avoided if you know about it beforehand.

-The method to solve this is incredibly easy to imagine and there’s no trick to it. 

That’s basically the gist of it. 

Let me go into detail here.

About the first one, the demerit of this event is that almost all of your companions won’t be available anymore. 

Most of the store characters are mobs, so there’s almost no issues with using the stores, and the story events (with patches) can still advance even if the characters are frozen.

Actually, in ver 1.00, it would be impossible to clear the game if you activate the marriage event, but there were so many other worse bugs that did that and more, so it wasn’t that much of an issue at that time.

It might lack clarity if I explain it like this, so let me give an example here. When speaking of risks, there’s a dungeon with a stupid name like Grand Labyrinth with Absent Minotaur which was far worse than this.

The dungeon is a gigantic labyrinth as the name states, and you can use a quest item that’s of exclusive use for this place which would change the labyrinth at random to help you out, but there were no means of replenishing the uses of that quest item until version 1.11.

Normally, that would be fine, but the problem is that the randomly made labyrinth sometimes creates labyrinths that you can’t get to the exit no matter what. Moreover, the resting spot of that dungeon having a save point created many tragic events. 

In other words, if the quest item use reaches 0 and you get a labyrinth that the end can’t be reached, moreover, you saved at that time, it will be impossible to get out of that labyrinth and you are completely done for. 

When that happens, players are only left with the choice of searching for an exit that they won’t ever reach, or erase their data and start from the beginning.

It would make any grown man cry.

This quest that was baptized as Minotan Absent Trap was given the honorable B rank with this quest. 

Because of the patches, the current ranking is D.

Now then, the 2nd reason is: as long as you don’t propose, it won’t happen, so as long as you know the information beforehand, you can avoid stepping on the landmine.

It is the same as the lizardmen trap. A first-timer killer. So it also means that veterans can avoid them while humming.

When compared to things like unavoidable story quests or the tornado that occurs with no prelude when you are walking in the desert, the Sudden Death Game in the Desert, which is almost impossible to avoid, you can say the danger level is pretty low.

And the last one. The method to solve this is simple and clear.

The Demon Lord goes out of their way to show up as the target for revenge, and even gave the hint of ‘it can’t be undone by human hands’, so as you can tell, the method to undo this Blessing is to defeat the Endbringer Demon Lord that is the last boss. 

The quests get more and more ill-natured from midgame onwards, so you could say having a straightforward solution is rare. 

For example; the Blue Bird of Michael quest that you can get in Rihiter has no bugs, no battles, and a good reward, and yet, because of how twisted it is, it was given a rank C.

This quest begins by being asked by the mother of Michael-kun to search for a blue bird that has a mysterious power for the sake of his ill son, but this is quite the rascal of a quest.

You go around every part of the city for things that might serve for the illness of Michael-kun, he slowly gets better, and when he does, Michael-kun will say ‘I picked this up at the garden’ and gives you a feather of the blue bird.

The player will then assume the quest is going well and the illness of Michael-kun is slowly being healed, but it simply ends with Michael-kun getting better, and the quest itself fails.

In order to clear this quest, you need to go around the city and gather items that are…clearly bad for his body.

When you do, Michael-kun will slowly get weaker, and after repeating that several times, you can find the corpse of the dead blue bird at the bed of Michael-kun.

There you will learn the shocking truth that Michael-kun’s real identity was actually the blue bird who was acting as her gone child for her sake. 

By the way, after that…

“I promised, so I will pay the reward, but don’t show yourselves in front of me ever again… If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have ever asked you for anything.” 

Is what the mother of Michael-kun would say and you would clear the quest. 

The one who made this quest is definitely the devil or something.

As you see now, compared to those quests, this Blessing of the Demon Lord event is actually pretty straightforward. 

This event is certainly a big obstacle for marriage, but everything returns to normal once you defeat the Demon Lord, and if you do the marriage event after that, the event won’t happen.

A developer commented ‘You can marry as you please and even make a harem’ and that’s certainly true. 

But why do you need to defeat the Demon Lord before the marriage event?

If I were to put myself in the mindset of those developers, this is probably what they wanted to say.

“If you have time to marry, clear the game.” 

And the response of the players would be.

“Then say that from your goddamn mouth!” 

At the very least, that’s what I want to tell them.

One theory said that a Nekomimi Neko staff member created this event as a grudge for not being popular with the ladies, but most of the players in Nekomimi Neko accepted this event in the end.

Or more like, Nekomimi Neko players who were still playing this dumpster fire of a game even after the reviews wouldn’t be surprised by something of that extent, or players that would learn about the fearsomeness of Nekomimi Neko and quitted, so there were no people who would complain every time for something of that level.

If the present me were to get caught by that event, I would just go: “Wa?! You did it again, Nekomimi Neko!!” 

And then go…

“At any rate…wonder if I can steal the items from the frozen ones.” 

Is how you would change gears a few seconds later and move on.

Once you get used to Nekomimi Neko, you all end up like that.

There would be times when a new player would get caught in that event and complain in the forums, but…

“That’s the default in Nekomimi Neko.” 

“You literally signed up for it, lmao.” 

Those are the kinds of comments they would get and they would withdraw, so they have practically become features of the game at that point.

The explanation got a bit long there, but that’s basically it. 

‘The other events are worse, so everyone stopped caring’.

It is truly the worst kind of reason. 

That said, it doesn’t take away the maliciousness of the Blessing of the Demon Lord, and the harm to the player is big in this event despite not even being a bug, and it is certain that it is the one that hits your mind hard compared to other events. 

However, there were still quite a good number of people who would trigger the Blessing of the Demon Lord knowingly before they even defeated the Demon Lord.

You would usually think this event has only demerits, but there’s a rare skill you can only obtain in this event. 

A special skill you obtain from having your most beloved partner be hit by the Blessing of the Demon Lord: [Incarnation of Fury].

It is a name as if it was representing the player going mad from rage at this event, but rare skills have power that can be considered Balance Breakers in Nekomimi Neko.

The Incarnation of Fury is mocked as a one person exclusive skill. It can only be used once every 24 hours, and you can’t use it if there’s comrades nearby (non-hostile NPCs).

But its effects are truly dramatic.

For 30 seconds after activation, it increases all the base stats of the player by 3 times, but once it is over, it will lower your base stats to 0.01%. A broken ability has a lot of meanings.

The target of the skill is your base stats, so it doesn’t affect the modifiers of the weapon and the proficiency, but it is still a lot. 

Spells that tinker with the base stats are important, moreover, even high class magic would be stuff like increasing the physical strength by 50% at most, so you could say the effects of that skill are on a league of their own.

If I can get that, I would be able to obtain great power that would help me in surviving in this world.

But even if that’s the case…

“U-Uhm, sorry. Could it be that I made you remember something painful?” (Ina)

I have no intention of going as far as changing the girl in front of me, who is lowering her head and is on the verge of tears, into a silent statue to obtain that power. 

“Ah, sorry about that. It is not something you should be worried about, Ina. It is just that…” (Souma)

I said the Blessing of the Demon Lord is still a trauma of mine, but rather than that event in itself being etched in my heart, it is more about having erased the data.

If I didn’t erase the data there, I could have defeated the Demon Lord after being stripped from my friends, and gotten back Thiel and the others.

Of course, I know NPCs are not truly alive or have actual feelings.

But even if their existence was a lie, my feelings of wanting to save them were real.

I don’t ever want to make an action like that -one that would lead me to regret it.

That’s why…

“I have decided to definitely not marry.” (Souma)

—–

Nekomimi Neko Wiki – Event Danger Rank:

E

A normal event.

Let’s clear the game while enjoying these rare and normal events. 

D

Events with a lot of difficulties and twists. 

But the standard in Nekomimi Neko.

C

Events you should exercise caution towards.

Depending on the situation, it could lead to locking you from clearing the game, or lead to negative effects in your future gameplay. 

B

Events that must be avoided. 

Impossible to clear with regular means, and it will make it more difficult to clear the story.

A

You must avoid these events. 

If you encounter one, there’s a high chance it will be impossible to clear the game. 

S

If you save after it happened, it will be impossible to progress.

There’s the chance that you are already done for even if you saved before it happened.

SS

It is okay, there’s still hope! …Is what you should tell yourself.

SSS

Man, you can play this wonderful game again from the very beginning? You are one lucky bastard!! 

※These ranks and explanations are solely for reference.

“Eh, isn’t this a Transmission Ring?” (Souma)

In order to change the atmosphere that got weird from the marriage talk, I pointed at the ring I found with a bit of an exaggerated act. 

Transmission Ring is, as the name states, a ring that lets you speak to people faraway.

You would think it is a convenient item if you only hear that, but talking long distance with an NPC isn’t that useful, and they didn’t have the AI to use this. 

It is most likely an item that was made at the time when it was still planned as an MMO.

I knew about its existence, but I didn’t use it in the game, however, in this world where NPCs are real humans now, it should have some actual use.

“Do you know how to use this?” (Souma)

When I asked the clerk this, she explained to me politely.

If you put a finger on the gem part of the Transmission Ring and say the name, you will be registered in it. Next, someone else wears it and they think about the registered person, and it will be possible to call them.

It seems like there’s a different method that doesn’t require Order, but there should be no problem there.

I try it out by saying my name and giving it to Ina.

Ina switched it with the ring on her index finger and called my name.

“Uhm…hello, Souma-san?” (Ina)

When she did, even though I was several meters apart, I heard the voice of Ina as if she spoke into my ear. 

Yeah, that’s it.

But what should I do when I want to respond?

When I asked the clerk…

“Sorry, how do I—” (Souma)

“Kya?!” (Ina)

I learned the answer before I finished asking.

Ina was covering her ear in surprise.

Looks like everything I say can be heard by her while the transmission is on.

“T-This feels kind of weird. I hear double Souma-san.” (Ina)

Ina said this and I could hear her both from her and directly into my ear.

It is inconvenient, or more like, a bit ticklish.

I lower my voice so as not to startle Ina too much and…

“Uhm, this is…” (Souma)

“Hiiih!” (Ina)

Looks like that had the opposite effect. 

Ina raised a short scream and jumped.

By the way, that scream also sounded directly in my ears, and it felt weird.

Or more like, it is as if we are doing some sort of weird play here.

To think I would fall into such a predicament with such a mere Transmission Ring.

What do I even do…?

“How do I stop the transmission?” (Souma)

I ask the clerk, seeking for a solution to this.

Maybe because it was a normal voice this time around, Ina somehow managed to endure it.

Rather, because she desperately endured a scream, I could hear her heavy breathing in my ears.

That’s terribly uncomfortable.

I didn’t listen to her till the end, so I reap what I sow here, but I would like her to tell me how to stop this as soon as possible. 

The clerk made a troubled expression, being hit by my gaze filled with expectation.

“Actually, when that begins its transmission, there’s no way to stop it.” 

“Eh?!” 

“Eeeeh?!” 

The two of us screamed at the same time, and the two of us writhed in agony at the same time.

This is rough in a lot of meanings.

“T-Then, could it possibly be that we will be like this for the rest of our…” (Souma)

The clerk shook her head to the sides at the worry I voiced with rough breaths.

“No, that’s of course not it. However, I forgot to tell you this, but…” 

“Yeah?” (Souma)

Judging from her way of saying this, there must be a solution.

And yet, why is she making such a gloomy expression?

“That ring is actually a one-time use item and will break after a 3 minute call.” 

A *pakin* sound rang. I turned around and what was once a ring fell from the finger of Ina.

(Eh? Don’t tell me I have to reimburse that?) (Souma)

Fortunately, I managed to escape reimbursement by buying the one other Transmission Ring they had.

Of course, it is our fault for suddenly testing it out, but the clerk forgot to explain it to us beforehand, or more like, there were so few people buying them, she forgot that they broke until after we had already used it. 

I think it is a convenient item, but it might be dragging its unpopularity from when it was still a game.

It is at an accessible price of 1,000E for one, and even if there was an accident, I would say it was a good buy. 

It is a product that doesn’t sell at all, so they shouldn’t have suffered that much of a loss.

I register myself in the Transmission Ring and give it to Ina once again.

“Thanks. Then, I will keep it in my bag and treasure it, okay?” (Ina)

I thought she would put it on immediately, but she said that and put it in her bag. 

This is unexpected, but Ina said this awkwardly. 

“Because if I think of Souma-san and call your name, it will end up like before… I am sure it will break immediately if I were to put it on.” (Ina)

“I-Is that so? T-Then that way is better.” (Souma)

Does that mean she is always thinking of me? 

It seems like she didn’t mean anything with her words contrary to the marriage talk of before, but that in itself hit me.

“U-Uhm, Ina, it is better to not say such things so nonchalantly. You might make the other party misunderstand…” (Souma)

But Ina laughed it off.

“What are you saying, Souma-san? There’s no way I would say something like this to anyone aside from you.” (Ina)

“Eh, a-aah…right.” (Souma)

I thought for a moment there that she confessed to me, but Ina isn’t flustered at all.

Meaning that she didn’t try to imply anything with it and simply meant ‘there’s no one who would talk to a loner like me’.

To think she is shooting out heavy hitters when she has no intention of it instead of when she is actively trying to seduce me, I can’t underestimate this woman.

While I was overwhelmed by this unexpected powerhouse…

“But really, thanks a lot. This is my first time receiving something like this from a man. I will treasure this for the rest of my life!” (Ina)

“O-Okay…” (Souma)

Ina continues her attack.

This probably means ‘I have no friends, so I have not received anything from anyone aside from my mother’, but even when I know that, it still hits me hard.

I should be retorting with ‘no, actually use it’, but I ended up missing the opportunity. 

This girl is trouble.

This girl is currently not Train-chan.

Right now Ina is…

Heroine-chan!!

The rush of Heroine-chan was intense after that too.

Since we were there, we also got one pendant and, since we can wear two bracelets in both arms, I bought 2. I equipped 10 rings for a total of 13 accessories, but because of that, I looked like a frivolous man.

I wanted to hide both of my hands with 10 rings in this world where you can only wear 2, and…

“If it is okay with you…” (Ina)

She said and gave me some gloves casually.

After that, we went to the magic store we didn’t have the chance to get a peek at, and I ended up buying a large amount of magic books that were displayed at the store. 

I sighed at my wallet that was now miserable and…

“Uhm, want to go to the Cave of Trials? I would like to raise my level a little bit more too.” (Ina)

She tried to be considerate with me there. 

There’s no shadow of her troublemaker times when we first met. 

She is already a reliable partner…I won’t go as far as saying that, but it is true that I have begun to think that having Ina with me helps me out a lot.

Could it be that, now that she has grown out of her loneliness, her hidden consideration skill has blossomed?

The stocks of Ina are rising endlessly. 

She really might be Heroine-chan.

After finishing our shopping, we did two sets of trains at the Cave of Trials, and we once again raised the level of Ina and our money. 

It is not on the level of before, but the level of Ina is now 72, and we managed to earn 60,000E. 

I once again received half which is 30,000E, and since another wakizashi dropped, I took that one for myself.

Train won’t activate if I am not present, however, it really pains me that I am receiving this much despite not doing anything…

“Please don’t worry about it. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to think of this way of earning money without you, Souma-san.” (Ina)

She tried to follow up with that.

Heroine-chan is seriously a heroine.

It was already getting late at the time when we sold the items.

It seems like Ina will be returning to her home again, so we separate for now.

“Then, we will be parting here for now.” (Souma)

“Yes. But I feel like I am forgetting something.” (Ina)

“Forgetting something?” (Souma)

But I don’t think we have forgotten to buy anything, and we didn’t bring anything to the Cave of Trials. 

“Ah, sorry. It is probably my imagination! Then, later!” (Ina)

“Yeah, later.” (Souma)

We promise to reunite with a natural feel.

This is also something unthinkable if it had been 1 day ago.

“Now then, I have to work hard for a bit more!” (Souma)

Parting from Ina, I walked to the outskirts of the town.

And then, that night…

*Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble Rumble…*

“Uhm, actually, can you please do that a little more silently?” 

“Oka~y, I will try.” (Souma)

Thanks to the training in the church, my Step proficiency and the level of movement skills have increased. I learned Jump, High Step, and High Jump.

“Alright!” (Souma)

I pump my fist with Mariel-san’s reproachful gaze at the corner of my eye. 

I won’t say this part is thanks to Heroine-chan, but thanks to her, this has been a smooth day. 

And then, the night passed and the 5th day of my game life came…

“Good morning!” 

I was healed by the smile of Heroine-chan who came first thing in the morning.

Of course, I plan on parting from her for her sake when I leave Lamurick, but it might be okay for me to be grateful for the luck of meeting her. 

Right after I thought that, I learned about it…

That this girl called Ina Trail is Train-chan to the very core. 

“…You are Souma?” 

The new calamity that she had pulled…was in the shape of a beautiful black haired woman.