CH 165

Explaining RNG seriously would be hella long, so I will explain this simply. What’s referred to as RNG in games is basically a number randomly generated in a game. 

Like in dice games and life games where you get random numbers with dice and roulettes, advancing your piece the amount rolled, and if it is 3 or lower, you would have to rest. Just think of RNG as the computer version of it. 

However, computers don’t have dice and roulettes, so most would just create a formula that would generate a semi-random number. 

That said, just like how it isn’t impossible to bring out the result you want in dice and roulettes if you practice, the random numbers that the computer created can be manipulated to the same degree or even easier depending on the case. 

You can change the result of what should be a random factor, predicting the random number and manipulating it. 

This is the forbidden gamer technique, RNG adjustment! 

There’s a limit of things that decide the random factors in a game. 

That’s why, if you master the RNG adjustment, you can do super plays like always getting criticals in your attacks, have your enemies always miss or misfire, have enemies drop rare items for certain when you defeat them, get 777 when you roll the slots in the casino, or even have a rare monster of different color in one go. 

…In theory, that is. 

Unfortunately, there’s barely any random number adjustments you can do in Nekomimi Neko.

Nekomimi Neko is apparently the type where the random numbers are generated every time the game begins, but analyzing that is too much for a game-loving college student. 

Even if you have a grasp of the random numbers, there’s just too many factors using random numbers in Nekomimi Neko and, on top of that, the way the random numbers are consumed are completely different depending on the situation, and it is almost impossible to calculate all of it. 

—However, that’s only for the normal random numbers which have their numbers change each time you reset. 

The Nekomimi Neko staff had made a part of the events not change their random numbers even after a Save and Load.

This random number is utilized in the One who knows Wisdom. In other words, the Omikuji** Random Number. <TLN: Omikuji are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan.>

When the Nekomimi Neko players got problems in the quest that they couldn’t solve at all, they tried to change them with Save & Load.

However, we are talking about the Nekomimi Neko staff that don’t cut corners when it comes to making people suffer. 

They have properly taken measures so that you wouldn’t be able to clear it with such means. 

If this quest used the normal random numbers, the problems that appear should change by loading a saved data from just before the quest. 

However, no matter how many times it was reset, the quiz that showed up was the same. 

If it had been the data that was after the problem had already been given to you. But when you redo the One who knows Wisdom from data of before you began, the problems didn’t have any changes to a hateful degree. 

Could it be that the problem in this quest has already been set since the moment the game began? 

There was a moment when even that possibility was entertained.

However, a certain player succeeded in getting a different problem from the one he had before by coincidence. 

That method was a lot more simple than anyone imagined.

—Draw an omikuji before the next problem is given. 

By simply doing that, the problems that show up in the riddle were misaligned.

Now that that had been ascertained, it was now the usual flow.

Verifications from Nekomimi Neko players began, and the structure of this riddle quest had been exposed to the light of the day. 

The timing when the riddles are set is when you begin the One who knows Wisdom, and when the previous riddle has been solved.

It was discovered that, at those moments, it will take reference from the same random numbers to that of deciding the inside of an omikuji in order to choose the next riddle.

Putting it simply, if a number from 1-2,000 is given out, if your omikuji random number is 1, once you solve the riddle 10, the next one will be 11. If your omikuji random number is 5, it will be riddle 15. 

By the way, when you begin the quest, the riddle is 0, so if your omikuji random number is 1, it will be riddle 1; if it is 2, it will be riddle 2.

In that case, the matter is simple. 

Each time you draw one omikuji, the omikuji random number changes.

That’s why you can continue pulling the omikuji until you can get a riddle you can answer. 

Being influenced by this, the next clear method was posted on the Nekomimi Neko Wiki.

A simple clear method for the One who knows Wisdom even Sazan can do: 

→If you can’t solve the riddle, Load, pull an omikuji, and Save. 

It might be hard to understand in written form, but this is basically the method to shift the random number of the riddles before solving them by pulling an omikuji. 

In this way, by doing a really ancient way of random number adjustment, it was made possible to change the problems of the One who knows Wisdom.

However, this adjustment is done with the Save & Load system in mind. 

It is obviously impossible to do in this world where you can’t use Save and Load anymore…

“In other words, the pointlessly long talk until now was truly pointless?” (Mitsuki)

“No, don’t call it pointless!!” (Souma)

The more cold than usual words of Mitsuki hurt me, and I ended up raising my voice, forgetting that this is a library. 

“But being told all of that and then resulting in there being nothing accomplished, I don’t know how to respond to that.” (Mitsuki)

“I-It is simply that it can’t be used right now, but the random number adjustment clear method for the One who knows Wisdom is an incredibly effective method to clear quests and—” (Souma)

“As I said, there’s no point if it can’t be used right now.” (Mitsuki)

“Ugh…” (Souma)

The attacks of Mitsuki are pretty painful.

Just when I was about to object…

“…Souma.” (Ringo)

Ringo, who had been silent and seemed to be in a bit of pain, suddenly looked at the direction of the Beckoning Sphinx. 

I directed my gaze there too, and Leila and the others were walking here. 

What bothers me is that Leila is lending her shoulder to Seirie-san. 

“Did something happen to Seirie-san?” (Souma)

When I asked this once they came close…

“No, it is noth—” (Seirie)

“Seirie-san exerted herself too much and collapsed~.” (Maki)

Seirie-san shook her head, trying to play it off, but Maki easily exposed the fact that Seirie-san collapsed.

Seirie-san glared at Maki in silence, but Maki responded with a smile. 

After looking at each other for a while, Seirie-san averted her gaze and groaned. 

S-She is unexpectedly weak…

“We couldn’t manage to solve the problem, so we are thinking about taking a bit of a break.” (Maki)

“I am sorry. Because of me…” (Seirie)

Seirie-san groaned even more at the words of Maki.

It really makes me feel bad.

“Well, it seems like your lack of sleep is still affecting you, so please don’t push yourself too much.” (Souma)

“Thank you very much…” (Seirie)

I directed some words of encouragement and her teary eyes made contact with mine. 

Those eyes of hers were different from the strict atmosphere of before and had a soft nature to it—

“S-Souma! Want to eat a boxed lunch?!” (Leila)

Leila jumped in between me and Leila-san with a speed as if ‘Death to the Infidel!!’ had activated.

“You made a boxed lunch?” (Souma)

“Y-Yeah. W-When I had nothing to do… I made it thinking of y-you, Souma.” (Leila)

I was a bit surprised by how she brought the topic in, but I can’t really refuse if she puts it like that. 

“Uhm, there’s a lot of people, but is there enough for everyone? Me being the only one eating would be a bit…” (Souma)

“I-I think it will be alright.” (Leila)

And so, it is suddenly boxed lunch time. 

It is a bit soon for dinner, but I was feeling a bit peckish, so that works just fine. 

It is apparently prohibited to eat inside the library, so we followed after Seirie-san, and we were brought to what seemed to be a break room. We decided to eat the boxed lunches there.

“U-Uh, I made a whole lot, so eat a whole lot, okay?” (Leila)

Leila said this slightly shily as she began to bring out food from the Cooler Box. 

“Ooh!” (Souma)

As expected of the Cooler Box.

You normally would have to think about the difficulty of carrying it around and what to do when it gets cold, but there’s no need to worry about that if you put it inside the Cooler Box. 

She called it boxed lunches, but she was placing many splendid dishes on the table. 

Dishes that were like a Manchu-Han Imperial Feast were being lined up, and lined up, and lined up…

“Eh, wait…t-there’s still more?” (Souma)

Even when the table was already packed, the dishes didn’t stop coming out. 

I hurriedly stopped her.

“Y-Yeah. I began making them from a few ways back…” (Leila)

“A few ways back, you say…” (Souma)

Leila has been together with me the whole time since coming to the mansion, and I haven’t seen her making all of this food. 

When I directed eyes of suspicion, Leila looked at me with a nervous gaze. 

“I-It is not a lie. I have simply been making them little by little since 3 days ago…” (Leila)

“3 days ago?!” (Souma)

Isn’t that right after meeting me for the first time? 

“Wait wait! You didn’t like me or anything at that moment, right?” (Souma)

“T-That’s what I thought, but I was kind of bothered by it, and by the time I noticed, I had begun making a whole lot of things…” (Leila)

It is not like a lot of terms were bothering me here, but I ignored them for my own safety. 

Anyways, to cook a variety of dishes for a man she only saw once and didn’t even know if he would eat it…

Chills ran down my back.

“…Hn. Tasty.” (Ringo)

“Leila-san really has talent in cooking.” (Mitsuki)

“E-Even I…if I had 1 year…no, 2 years…10 years, I would be able to cook something like this easily…!” (Ina)

“Yup, tasty! I would say Dustdus Pudding comes first, then this.” (Seirie)

“Fuh, to think you would be able to satisfy my palate. You really do have the skills.” (Sazan)

But my comrades have been honed for this. 

They didn’t really falter at what Leila said, and were munching on the food. 

…I feel like there’s even an unnecessary one who was fished from the scent, but I would be losing if I am bothered by it. 

Seirie-san seems to have recovered from the healing effect of the food, she looks pretty okay now. 

But considering that she has collapsed twice, I couldn’t just not say anything. 

“…Hey, how about stopping?” (Souma)

Everyone’s gazes gathered at me when I said this.

I was being stabbed with gazes of doubt and criticism, but I still speak. 

“I understand that feeling of ‘We have already come this far’. But I said it from the very beginning, right? Our objective is to not let the Mage Guild get the Nekuranomikon. Clearing the One who knows Wisdom is not absolutely necessary. 

I won’t say there’s no point, but I don’t think there’s worth enough to the point of making someone push themselves.” (Souma)

“That’s…” (Leila)

Leila, who was the most motivated, found it hard to say anything.

Seeing this, I got happy even when this wasn’t the moment for it. 

Leila says a lot of dangerous stuff, but I am truly glad that she is not the kind of person who would say ‘Seirie doesn’t matter, so I want to continue the quest’.

And if I can convince Leila, it is only a matter of time. 

“Fortunately, the Nekuranomikon is fine. That’s why—” (Souma)

“Please let me do this.” 

But an unexpected person objected to my opinion.

“Seirie-san?” (Souma)

The bespectacled librarian lowered her head deeply at me. 

“Souma-san, I caused you trouble due to my thoughtless actions. I apologize from the bottom of my heart for this.” (Seirie)

“Eh? A-Aah, no, that’s…” (Souma)

And then, in the time I couldn’t keep up with the change in the situation, Seirie-san pushed on. 

“But that’s exactly why I want to solve these riddles. 

I am grateful for your consideration. 

However, this is my own selfishness to take responsibility for my mistake, and my resolve.” (Seirie)

“Seirie-san…” (Souma)

As if being roused by this, Leila, who had her head hanging down until now, spoke. 

“It is not like you don’t want to clear the trial of this sphinx, right? You would be happier if it was cleared, right?” (Leila)

“Well, yeah…” (Souma)

“T-Then, I want to do it. I want to make you happy with that.” (Leila)

“Leila…” (Souma)

I was at a loss for words at her soft yet strong gaze. 

“Eh, what’s that?! That’s not fair! I-I will do it too! Cause you know, I-I love riddles!!” (Maki)

Maki raised her voice as if saying she didn’t want to be late in the ride here. 

The reason for one of them is awfully light, but that’s why those must be the honest feelings of Maki.

I look at Leila, Seirie-san, and Maki with complicated emotions. 

Even if their motivations are different, it seems like they all have a strong desire to clear the quest. 

…Now that it has come to this, there’s no reason to be against it. 

I raised both hands in silence and showed I yielded here. 

The faces of the 3 got bright in one go.

It is not like I want to throw cold water on this, but I really have to ask this. 

“And so, do you think you can clear it?” (Souma)

The reaction to this was extremely obvious, and the 3 hung their heads down. 

Looks like it is not a favorable situation.

“After that, we advanced a little bit and reached the 26th problem. But the one that came up, we just can’t…” (Maki)

“It might be my imagination, but I feel there’s something off about the question. That said, I still don’t know what it is…” (Seirie)

Maki and Seirie-san explain. 

It has pretty much gone as I imagined.

It was worth searching for a hint in the diary then. 

I paused for a brief moment as if teasing them, and stepped in as an advisor. 

“Then, I will give you advice…no…” (Souma)

I glanced at Mitsuki.

The cat ears of Mitsuki were twitching as if she wanted to say something, and I rephrased myself. 

“It might be a bit underhanded, but if I were to say that I have the diary of the person that set those riddles which could serve as a clue to solve the riddle quest, would you want to read it?” (Souma)

When I said this, Leila and Seirie looked at each other and slowly nodded. 

Looks like the two have the same opinion.

Maki is also making a ruckus, going ‘let me read it, let me read it’.

“I see. Then, I will let you borrow this.” (Souma)

I was about to give the diary to Leila and hesitated at the last moment. 

Depending on how you see it, you could call this the diary of this world’s creator. 

If they read this, they might learn that this world is a game. 

Even if not, they will still feel something is off. 

(No, even with that…) (Souma)

I shook my head lightly and pushed the book onto Leila. 

“The details of this quest are written around the 5th page. You might find some things curious when you read this. I will definitely tell you after. That’s why I would like you to just swallow those questions and concentrate on clearing the quest.” (Souma)

“Souma… Okay, got it.” (Leila)

Leila received the Nekomimi Neko development diary with a serious face and immediately began reading the page I told her. 

Maki and Seirie-san also came in from the sides.

Ina seemed like she wanted to read it too despite not being involved in this at all, but the 3 looked so serious that she had no choice but to give up and withdraw to the back. 

I sent a gaze to Mitsuki, asking her ‘this should be fine, right?’, but she didn’t make eye-contact with me and had her cat ears folded as if she was saying she doesn’t hear anything.

Good grief, what a shy girl.

“To think such a book…” (Seirie)

The diary I let them borrow must have been shocking. 

Seirie-san leaked out those words while following the letters as if she were eating them. 

“Ah, this Order refers to being able to write letters like gyuuun…” (Maki)

On the other hand, Maki, who is the only one who has knowledge in modern computers, is the one explaining to them the terms they don’t know.

“Aaah! Racoon!!” (Maki)

“Y-Yeah, that problem really did have a lot of ‘ra’ to the point it felt weird.” (Leila)

Looks like they found the hint. 

“I-I see. It is true that I can’t deny this can serve as a hint. There’s a lot of ‘ra’, so that means it is that, yeah.” (Leila)

And within that group, there’s Seirie-san who is desperately trying to act as if she gets it which I watch over with lukewarm eyes. 

They then stood up soon after and ran to the Beckoning Sphinx. 

“Uhm…after taking out the ‘ra’s here, the real question is…got it! The answer is woodpecker!” (Maki)

When Maki entered her answer, the pinpon sound announcing it was correct rang.

“Yay! Got through the 26th riddle!” (Leila)

Maki and Leila high-fived happily. 

Watching this…

“Yeah, in this scenario, the chances of it being ‘woodpecker’ are 99%.” (Seirie)

Seirie-san, who seemed like she still doesn’t understand why the answer is woodpecker, shifted her glasses up and down while saying this as if all-knowing. 

“We are plowing through!” (Maki)

Maki challenged the 27th riddle as if borrowing the momentum of the previous difficult problem and immediately got it right. 

The 28th and 29th were cleared consecutively, and at the celebratory 30th…

“…Again, huh.” (Maki)

“I-It seems so.” (Leila)

A hard question again.

Having their answer fail despite that normally being the correct answer, the shoulders of the two drooped at the feeling of a difficult struggle, but that was actually convenient for me. 

I step forward as if moving away Seirie-san who is fixing her glasses silently in vexation. 

“No, you did well. I can finally make my move.” (Souma)

“Souma?” (Leila)

I said this and tapped the shoulder of Leila. 

I then said this to Leila who had her eyes wide open.

“I already know the answer to that… But just leave it like that without answering it right…” (Souma)

I looked at the sphinx once more, and then turned around, and walked to the exit of the library. 

“S-Souma, where are you going? Could it be that you are already giving up?” (Leila)

Leila called me while I was heading out. 

I stopped at this and shook my head. 

“No way. As if I could let this perfect opportunity slip by.” (Souma)

“Eh? T-Then why are you heading out?” (Leila)

I smiled boldly at the following question of Leila and answered…

“…I am heading off to pull an omikuji.” (Souma)

The game of random number adjustment, Nekomimi Neko. 

The whole picture is about to be revealed…