Chapter 33: The Armored Knight Sees!

If by some miracle a certain sh*tty game went out of stock, it was always possible to hunt it down on an Internet auction. Or you could just visit every single second-hand gaming shop that was around, in the hope of finding what you are looking for there. This tenacity of mine earned me the title of the “Sh*tty Games Hunter” and during my career as such I have witnessed many different things in different games. But this encounter with an NPC…… that was new.

「Next…… person? No, but why are you half-naked?」

Screamed the town’s guard while pointing his finger at me. That reaction was certainly new and fresh to me, although it was also incredibly funny. But after several seconds of him looking at me funnily and laughing it was starting to become annoying, especially so since it was attracting the attention of other PCs and NPCs that were present at the checkpoint.

I am sure that the guard was about ready to throw a witty comment about a beautiful woman bringing some pervert into their peaceful town, but before he could do that Emul opened his mouth to intervene.

「Now, now, please wait just a moment, mister gatekeeper! You see, this San…… I mean, this thing here…… There are some really complex circumstances as to why it is looking like that……」

No, this was also a huge surprise. Who would have thought that a mere AI that was inferior to humans would be able to conjure such likely lies on the spot?

「You see, this creature here was a brave warrior in its previous life, one that was mighty enough to challenge the Night Prowler Luukan himself in battle! However, upon his death a powerful curse was put on him and now he is forced to reincarnate under this hideous appearance. But still, even though he looks like this his soul didn’t forget its mission and his journey’s throughout the land to lift the curse and challenge his opponent once more.」

This lie was so obvious and so blown out of proportions that I wouldn’t be surprised if the guard didn’t actually buy it! I mean, what the fuck, Emul!?

「Really now? Honestly, this thing doesn’t look that strong to me……」

「That is because the curse is so powerful! If this here Sanraku-san was to regain his full potential and power, he would be invincible!」

And that was even more obvious than the previous lie! But…… No, it can’t be! I mean, it was actually a good thing that the NPC apparently bought the story, but the way he was looking at me now…… I’d much rather wanted him to look at me with pity! Besides, what about other players!? What if they start to ask questions like, where can I get tattoos like that!?

「Well, it’s a good thing that we managed to get into town without any problems, at the very least. Let’s go, Emul.」

「Sure thing!」

The Mud Digger was engulfed in a sea of flames that erupted from a high-level spell, additionally casting a burn effect on it.

Saiga-0 was sprinting through the swamps, slashing away at smaller mobs and casting magic at bigger enemies, adamant on getting to Thirdrema as soon as possible. For some reason, she had a very bad feeling about what was going to meet her once she gets there. And those bad feelings turned out to be true, for when she arrived at the checkpoint leading into town……

(Ah, this, this woman…… Who is she!?)

Right next to some woman there he was: the player named Sanraku, wearing a bird mask and without his shirt or pants, with legs and chest covered in curse marks.

Saiga-0 was relieved to see that it was indeed Sanraku, for if it turned out that this person was someone else, she would probably lose it, and wouldn’t know what to do anymore.

However, something was off. Sanraku wasn’t the kind of player who would play in a party. No matter what type of game it was, he would always play it solo.

Maybe someone concealed that information from her, but seeing someone else at Sanraku’s side made Saiga-0 clasp her hand strongly on the hilt of her sword (Note: and thus a new Yandere joins the club. Nice.).

(No…… Calm down…… Remember what sis said to you: calm observation is crucial for making a good first impression.)

Sanraku has already exceeded her expectations by coming so far on his own, going beyond what a mere beginner would be able to accomplish. But now, when she saw that woman dressed in strange clothes unlike anything she had seen before and wearing a monocle, Saiga-0 was overcome with this sudden urge to just walk over to her and punch her straight in the face. Something was telling her that she was a player with loads of money on her, since it wasn’t possible to buy such fashionable clothes this early in the game. She must have bought them with real money, which also meant that their stats must have been rather poor. No matter what she thought about that woman, her appearance was screaming red flags all over.

(I thought that the one accompanying him was supposed to be a Vorpal Bunny, but…… That woman’s a human, right? Huh……)

It wasn’t that uncommon for monsters to be able to turn human, but you could easily distinguish them from the crowd. And after watching that woman for a while, Saiga-0 finally understood what was so unnatural about that woman.

(I see…… There’s no player name on display……)

In other words, this woman was an NPC, not a player. Saiga-0 let out a sigh of relief, since now there was no more obstacles standing between her and Sanraku. She could carry out her plan “Approach him as a Senpai inside the game” no problem.

The mystery was still there, and answers to her questions were scarce, but now Saiga-0 was able to regain her composure and put her personal feelings aside.

(Inside of Thirdrema…… I must follow them……)

While she was thinking like that, the amount of NPC in front of Thirdrema checkpoint grew larger and larger. Before she even realized it, there was quite a crowd in front of Saiga-0.

If she tried to cut the queue or push the NPCs around in order to get there faster, not only the guards would intervene on the charge of harming the NPCs, but worst case scenario there would even be a bounty placed on her head, which would even attract other players to hunt her down, wanting to cash in on the prize. So harassing the NPCs in general wasn’t that good of an idea.

So even if she was reluctant to do so, Saiga-0 had to wait for the queue to proceed forward, all the time having to suffer the torture of observing Sanraku chatting with that woman. She felt like a whole eternity had passed before she could enter Thirdrema herself.

Incidentally, some of the NPCs in this game have levels which exceeds the value of one hundred.