CH 57-58

For the Nekomimi Neko players, bugs are your common neighbor, your biggest enemy, and also your best friend. 

The bug I used this time around is of course within the best of the friends. 

It was called the most convenient and useful bug in Nekomimi Neko history, and every time there’s a patch, it was continuously said ‘this time for sure, they have fixed it’, and yet, it remained till the very end. 

Known as: Corpse Knockbug.

When you hit the Critical Point and finish them, the drop rate being 2 times higher is the normal system within Nekomimi Neko. An official setting that even NPCs know about. 

It is true that it is a convenient system, but there’s monsters that are hard to aim for the Critical Point. Their movements may be too fast, and there would be times when you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of that system properly. 

However, one day, there was one person who said: “When you finish an enemy on the Critical Point with a multi-hit skill, the drop rate shoots up”.

If this is true, the fighting style against enemies with important drop items would change. 

A ton of players rode on this theory. 

The result of the tests was that: “Looks like it is correct, but we don’t know what’s the logic behind it”. 

The results varied between people, so a unified conclusion couldn’t be made. 

The only common denominator was that: “Using skills with a high number of hits and high attack power will make it easier for items to drop”.

However, after what a certain player testing this said, the situation made a drastic change. 

In other words, in the time when the item drop is being verified, he delayed the attack timing to when the enemy monster was dead…and his multi-hit skill connected, but the drop rate was increased even then. 

No, on the contrary, he tried to replicate that same situation several times, and it seemed like the drop rate in the cases when he hit them when dead was higher than when he did so when they were alive. 

When hearing that report, all the players went ‘no way…’, but at the same time, every single one of them thought: (No, it might be possible with Nekomimi Neko…).

And then, a new test began. 

What was made clear there was a shocking truth. 

In the first place, how is it that the 2 time increase when you deal the finishing blow on the Critical Point is being calculated? 

The answer was: When ‘the attack hits that Critical Point’, if ‘the HP is lower than 0 after the damage calculation’, then ‘drop rate increases x2’. 

That’s pretty half-assed, but if this had been a game other than an RPG or Nekomimi Neko, there wouldn’t have been any problems. 

The moment the HP touches 0, the hitbox of the monster disappears, and no matter if it is a multi-hit attack, only one modifier instance is applied when you deal the finishing blow. 

However, do you remember? 

In Nekomimi Neko, the corpse of monsters remain for a while even when they die, moreover, there will be times when players can get hit by the attacks from that corpse. 

But that also means you can hit monsters when they are dead. 

And it is obviously easier to aim for the Critical Point of the monster compared to when it is alive. Attacking the Critical Point of a monster’s corpse isn’t difficult, and if it is a dead monster, no matter how weak of an attack it is, if the HP is lower than 0, if you hit the Critical Point, it will fulfill the condition of the drop rate increase. 

Also, the drop rate up calculation is a simple x2, so for each hit you land, it goes 2x, 4x, 8x, and so on. 

What does this mean? 

It means that: by hitting the Critical Point of a monster’s corpse, you can drastically increase the drop rate. 

This is Corpse Knockbug. 

Increase the drop with low risk. A welcome bug exploit for Nekomimi Neko players. 

Now then, the drop items heavily influence your placement and total reward in this competition.

There’s no reason not to abuse the Knockbug.

I have been forming my winning plan around the Knockbug Technique to win this subjugation contest. 

This is something I thought when the subjugation contest of goldens was decided.

When Ringo stops its movements with Lightning Strike, I will run in and hit the Critical Point with Hexa-Stab.

We will aim for 1st place with that plan, and if it is possible, I will have Ringo hold back a little in her attacks, and have me deal the finishing blow to raise my level. 

That was our strategy for the Golden Stray Wild Slimes. 

If I had to go in more detail about it, it would be ‘Ringo defeats the goldens with Lightning Strike, and when it dies and stops moving, I cause a Knockbug with Hexa-stab. 

With that, it is almost certain that Golden Stray Wild Slimes will drop gold coins, so we aimed for 1st place with the reward from that. 

This time around, I used the 6 hit skill, Hexa-Stab. 

When the Corpse Knockbug is done with this, the item drop rate will increase by 2 to the power of 6. 

In other words 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 64 times higher drop rate.

The drop rate of the Wild Slime Gold Coin is 10%, so the drop rate when you use the bug technique is 640%. 

It is impossible for several of the same item to drop through this because of system limitations, but it easily assures the drop of the item. 

The reason why we missed them at first was because there’s a downside in using the Corpse Knockbug technique to win the subjugation contest.

This technique also increases the rare drop rate. 

Because the rare drop calculation is done before the normal drop calculation, if the rare drop happens, then we won’t get the normal drop that is the Wild Slime Gold Coin.

The Golden Sakurai rare drop of the goldens has a drop rate of 0.1%, and after the Corpse Knockbug, it is 6.4%.

Considering the rate, it wouldn’t have been strange at all for it to drop 3 more times, but I don’t know if to call it lucky or unlucky, but in the end, it only dropped once. 

But there was one more miscalculation.

It is of course the existence of Hisame. 

I didn’t think we could get 1st place with the subjugation numbers to begin with. 

It may be strong in the random elements, but this is still a Nekomimi Neko event. 

I did expect a somewhat strong character to participate, even if I didn’t expect it to go as far as being Hisame. 

But no matter how strong the enemy, I thought we would be able to get ahead with the difference of the reward for each kill. 

Normally, you get 10,000 for the subjugation, and if we calculate the average of the delivery item, it is around the same, so a total of 20,000 for each kill. 

On the other hand, we are assured a gold coin drop, so we get 10,000 for the subjugation, and 100,000 for the item, so a total of 110,000 per kill. 

If the enemy defeats them normally, if we were to defeat 80, even if the other side defeats the remaining 420, they can’t match us, so our win is assured then and there. 

If I could defeat at least 50, the other side would need to defeat 275, so it would be hard to lose. 

That’s what I thought. 

But with Hisame accurately hitting the Critical Points, she was a monster that earned an average of 30,000 per kill.

Due to this, my safe margin was not a safe margin anymore. 

Moreover, judging by what Hisame said, the chance that she was aiming for more than half was now present. 

After 1 hour passed, we succeeded at the Corpse Knockbug 66 times. 

That’s around 7,300,000E. In the case Hisame managed to get more than half, her numbers shouldn’t reach 7,500,000E.

And, at that time, there was no way of me knowing, but Hisame actually defeated 251 goldens, and managed to get a total reward of 7,710,000E.

If we didn’t search for the spawn point of the giant rock or if Hisame had continued hunting even after going over 251, we would have definitely lost. 

In that sense, you could say this is the victory of the ones who didn’t give up.

(Yeah, it really was a close fight.) (Souma)

Ringo and I received the award together, and I reminisce on this time’s competition in that fashion. 

The reason no people are calling this clearly strange record as cheating must be because this world is half a game. 

They probably know that it is impossible to cheat in this competition. 

After the announcement of my results, the venue went silent for a moment, but when she announced my victory once again, they raised loud cheers to congratulate us. 

Despite there being a lot of extremely crafty events, Nekomimi Neko has a lot of good people too. 

…Well, even that is within the plans of the developers. They make the worst events even when there’s no ill-intent from them, so it made the players suffer even more though. 

Anyways, getting praised by others is great. 

A smile surfaced naturally in my face, and I waved back towards everyone who was directing congratulatory words towards us.

(…No, that’s not it.) (Souma)

It is not exactly everyone. 

Almost all the people here are congratulating us, but there’s at least one exception.

The exception is…

“…Impossible…” 

Rather than calling it expressionless, it is more like her emotions have flown off somewhere from the disbelief, standing there with her cat ears facing down.

It is Hisame. 

After the announcement of the results, it is now the prize award. 

However, because our prize is an explosive amount for being 1st, it is apparently difficult to give us the prize here, so we were told to please come to the Bounty Hunting Guild’s headquarters to accept it. 

I was a bit uneasy from this development that wasn’t in the game, but…

“They most likely have their preparations to make, so no need to hurry there, okay?!” 

Judging from this courteous attitude, I doubt they are going to be shirking payment here. 

We walked around the city as told, and decided to take it easy as we headed to the guild to receive our prize.

“Ringo, think about what to do with the money we will be getting, okay?” (Souma)

We walked through the city as I said this. 

Things I would like to buy when I have money, things I need to buy; a whole lot of things were overflowing in my mind, and I was feeling merry here. 

After going around for a good while, we arrived at the Bounty Hunting Guild, but…

“Temporarily…closed…?” (Souma)

That’s what was hanging there. 

My confidence of not shirking payment because of the game’s system shook heavily there. 

But reconsidering that maybe they will give the prize even if they are not operating, I opened the door. 

“Oh!” 

I thought it might be locked, but the door easily opened, and there were a whole ton of people talking with the lights on.

Looks like they are working. 

I put a hand on my chest in relief, took a step inside, and was surprised. 

(W-What is this?! This sudden and overwhelming feeling as if I am on the Away side!!) (Souma)

The inside of the guild has clearly made a complete turn compared to when I saw it at noon.

Stuff like [Economic Modesty], [One day One Meal], [I won’t be selfish until I win], [Money is important] were written there. Posters that were clearly not there before were now posted here and there, moreover, the one at the reception is an old man! 

“Haaah, my ears have not been working well recently…” 

He said this monologue, appealing to his bad ears. 

Is it an office inspection? There’s a girl I see often in the city who is speaking with a middle-aged employee at the other side of the counter.

“Father, you work here?” 

“That’s right. It is an important job that protects this city indirectly. Right now…there’s trouble with money, but I am sure it will be okay. Father will work hard for the sake of our family, okay?!” 

They were having that nonsensical conversation as if saying the outside world is a harsh one. 

On top of that, for some reason, there’s a female guild staff member by the side who is carrying a child and saying: “I am sorry, the pay this month is going to be tight. If I could get my salary, I would be able to provide for you”.

Moreover, there’s a young staff member and an elderly staff member talking about how important their job is for the country and the city. 

“…Really?! Then, it would be terrible if this guild were to be gone.” 

“Yeah. That said, the country does provide supporting funds, so it wouldn’t go down with just anything. But if they had to suddenly pay a total of 82,700,000E on that very same day, it might go under.” 

It was so incredibly barefaced that even someone as dense as me could tell…

In other words, it is that…

(These guys are trying to make me give up on the prize by attacking my conscience!!) (Souma)

And in this way, the stage switched from the plains to the guild, and the last and biggest fight of the Golden Stray Wild Slime Subjugation Contest began!! 

…Probably.

We are completely on the Away side inside the guild.

But why did it turn out like this? 

(Could it be that…) (Souma)

This is just conjecture, but because of the game system, the staff members can’t deny paying me the prize money. 

That’s because not paying you the prize money didn’t happen in the game.

Just like when Ina tried to put on 3 rings, there must be some kind of mental restriction in them, so if I were to demand payment, they wouldn’t be able to refuse me. 

The guild staff must understand this instinctively, and are taking this approach because of this. 

If they are done for once I say it, they just have to make it so that I don’t say it. 

There would be times when the player would forget about receiving the reward. 

It is a bit of an irregular scenario, but if we were to say ‘we don’t need the prize money’, they probably have the freedom to accept that. 

(That said, what should I do?) (Souma)

I obviously didn’t expect this situation. 

If this is simply them not wanting to pay a large sum of money, I could push it through, but I feel like they are actually on the brink here. 

If they can pay in the game, they should be able to here as well, is the kind of thinking I had until now, but I had no event in my game time where I got a monster outbreak of goldens that deals with an astronomical sum of money, so maybe it is simply that no one knows, but this is probably what happens when you hit around 99,999,999E.

Our total reward is 8,270,000E, and with the 1st place bonus, it is 10 times that which is 82,700,000E. 

It is pretty close to 99,999,999E.

If I were to push through here and the guild goes under, and I end up getting hate from that, it wouldn’t be fun. 

That said, giving up on as much as 80,000,000E is out of the question…

I fall into thought and…

“…Prize money, please.” 

She might have gotten bored, or maybe she saw that I was troubled here. At some point in time, Ringo came forward and said this. 

(Ooh, that’s impressive, Ringo!) (Souma)

In this case, not being able to read the room is the best. 

The guild’s atmosphere froze at those words, and the old man at the counter went…

“M-My ears have not been working well recently…” 

He was trying to resist here, but judging from the buckets of sweat, I doubt he is going to last long. 

In contrast, Ringo’s next action was excellent. 

Without even denouncing his clear attempt to escape, she simple went:

“…Are you going to break…your promise?” (Ringo)

She tilted her head and asked this. 

That’s rough. 

They brought children and babies on us here, but innocent words are at times the most powerful psychological attack. 

A sour mood spread around the guild, and the forehead of the old man finally began to sweat a waterfall. 

I feel like it is only a matter of time before the guild gives up. 

This is by no means me seeing the situation wrong, but the one who moved first was a person deep inside at the other side of the counter. 

“I would like to hear about it too, Guild Master-san. Why are you not paying the money?” 

The one who smacked the hard-hearing old man was a girl who came here for a workplace tour. 

I was surprised about how the old man at the counter is the guildmaster, but seeing who that girl was was not on that level of surprise. 

(Now that I take a closer look, that’s Poison-tan!) (Souma)

Unknown name, unknown age, a poisonous girl with bottomless battle power; Poison-tan. 

I thought it was a girl I saw often in the city, but it was actually a girl I saw often in the city. 

But this girl that should only show herself walking around the city is for some reason here.

Is the middle aged staff member there really her father, and she simply came to meet him? 

I was curious about this, but I learned the answer soon after.

“That’s strange~. Even though I came here to help out since you asked me to help, why is it that I am being made to help out in doing a bad thing~?” (Poison)

Hearing this, I nodded internally. 

She is like a bundle of presence and personality, but her appearance alone is that of a normal city child. 

She was probably scouted as an extra while she was walking around the city. 

(I feel bad…) (Souma)

Learning about the situation, I felt deep pity. 

This is of course not towards Poison-tan who was brought here with a half-assed excuse. 

I am pitying everyone from the Bounty Hunting Guild who were so hurried that they ended up getting the worst person they could.

“B-But if they were to take the prize money here, tomorrow, the guild would…” 

The old man that’s supposed to be the guildmaster refuted this as if he didn’t understand what was going on and…

(Aah, he spoke back.) (Souma)

I ended up facing the sky after seeing that.

That’s probably the worst choice you could take in this situation.

“Heeh, is that so?” (Poison)

As proof of this, see?

Poison-tan’s lips curved into a smile as if she were a hunter who had found her prey. 

Just what poison will she be spitting out here? 

My brain can’t even begin to imagine. 

The only thing I know here is that there’s no other choice for the guildmaster other than paying the prize money. 

“Sorry for the wait. Here’s the 82,700,000E.” 

10 minutes later.

The guildmaster, who had his heart completely broken by Poison-tan, gave me a crystal with the prize money while out of breath. 

“Thank you very much.” (Souma)

Saying this, I receive the crystal and observe the guildmaster once more. 

There’s already no light in his eyes in less than 10 minutes as if he had aged in one go. 

Is that also because of the stress? 

It felt like the already thin hair of the guildmaster was even thinner in presence than before. 

“Uhm…there’s something I would like to ask…” (Souma)

It is not like that’s the reason why, but I didn’t end the talk there and spoke to him.

His eyes devoid of light wearily look at me. 

“I suddenly got this high sum of money and am troubled about how to use it. That’s why I was wondering if you could tell me.” (Souma)

There’s no reaction from the guildmaster even when I said that. 

This guy doesn’t get a hint. 

But if I say the next words, I am sure he will bite. 

“For example; lending the money to a place that will definitely pay me back.” (Souma)

His reaction was dramatic as expected. 

Light returned to the withered eyes of the guildmaster. 

“C-Could you possibly mean…” 

“Yeah, I was thinking of lending a bit of money to this guild.” (Souma)

The moment I said that, not only the guild master, the whole guild raised cheers. 

“T-Then, please do…” 

I answered the guildmaster, who looked like he was going to jump on me at any moment here, with a smile. 

“Now, please calm down. For now, I will lend half of the prize money: 40,000,000E. How’s that? I am fine with the interest being 10% every 10 days.” (Souma)

The guildmaster fainted.

“…I was just kidding there though.” (Souma)

The 10% every 10 days is actually an interest rate that is used in black-market loaning places. 

10% isn’t anything, is what you would think and would leave it be, and then, it will swell into 2 times the amount in 3 months with the magic of numbers. It is of course illegal in Japan. 

In this case, if we go with the loan of 40,000,000E, the first interest would be of 4,000,000E. 

They have to return the equivalent of 4,000 lodging days every 10 days or the debt gets bigger and bigger, so you could say that’s excessive. 

Of course, I have no intention of doing such greedy business. 

Or more like, I don’t plan on making it big by lending money. 

This was simply a joke to loosen up the guildmaster. 

I was a bit shocked that he actually took it seriously. 

Well, after that, I spoke to both the guildmaster and Poison-tan, and lended the Bounty Hunting Guild 40,000,000E which both sides agreed on. 

They said that they just have to manage for a few days, and judging from their motivation, I would say they will be returning the money within 9 days. 

However, this won’t be them paying a prize money from the guild, but returning a personal debt, so I can’t expect the game system to assure me anything here, so there’s no knowing if I will actually get it back. 

Meaning that there’s the risk of them playing dumb or shirk the payment. 

Normally, I would be worried about it, but since Poison-tan is in the middle of this deal, I am not that worried. 

Since Poison-tan has served as witness of this deal, if the guild were to do something unsavory here, the guild master will have to bid farewell to his hair. 

Well, in the worst case, I don’t really mind not getting the remaining half. 

Even after splitting the 42,700,000E with Ringo, I am still left with 20,000,000E.

With that much, I can do pretty much everything that I wanted to do. 

Of course, having as much money as possible is nice and all, but with this much money in my hands, I should be a bit more broad-minded. 

For now, let’s forget about all that pain in the ass and just be happy about not needing to worry about money anymore. 

I thought of it like that, but it seems like this world of Nekomimi Neko doesn’t allow such peace. 

“You again, huh…” (Souma)

The one who appeared in front of us again was Mitsuki Hisame. 

“If this is about challenging me to a match, or a complaint about the subjugation contest of before…” (Souma)

I tried to get ahead of her and crush the possibilities, but Hisame shook her head. 

“It is not that. There’s something I would like to request of you.” (Hisame)

“…Eh?” (Souma)

I changed my attitude towards her different tone from usual. 

She then proposed this expressionless and her cat ears standing while I was on guard. 

“I promise the best treatment that no other job would be able to match. How about you come to my dojo and put your strength to use?” (Hisame)