Chapter 48: So there Are People Out There That Consider A Straight Passage to Be a Dungeon.

I feel like we’ve been here before. Have we been here before? …… Ah, that’s right.

There was this game that was called “The Universe Storm”. It was advertised as the “survival competition with aliens in the vast expanses of the Universe”. It was full of space colonies, inter-stellar travels and aliens that would evaporate your sanity the moment you lay your eyes on them…… They one day attacked the Earth and it was your duty to stop the invasion, since you were the only one capable of stopping them with your unique arsenal of weapons. It was full of slimy monsters and monsters with tentacles, and it was Modorokatsu that recommended it to me.

It was a game with the apocalyptic setting, which campaign ended in an event where the people of the Earth eradicated the aliens by delivering a coordinated nuclear strike upon them. I was a spaceship pilot in that game.

「…… Huh!?」

Ah, what the hell am I doing!? I know the sensation that I was feeling now was somewhat similar to that time where I played “The Universe Storm”, but this was ShangriLa Frontier, and what’s more I needed to take care of something truly incomprehensible at the moment.

Returning my thoughts back to my current situation, I yet again focused on the arm of Saiga-0.

When it comes to the friends system, it is something that is implemented in most games these days. Some people treated it as proof of becoming friends with other players. Others treated it as a measuring device for their own status. And in this game you could show your friend list to anyone.

Usually you would give priority to people from your friend list when forming parties, but there were also other applications which were a whole lot more useful than that. Just what was Saiga-0’s intentions here?

「…… I don’t get it.」

Was this person trying to appeal to me in some way? No, like that it would almost certainly feel like split personalities.

Was it some attempt at trying to become all buddy-buddy with me first so that I disclose the information on my own some time later? If so, wouldn’t it be faster to just put a weapon to my throat and threaten me with it?

It was really scary that she was going to such lengths with me. I don’t know what she was playing at, but I wasn’t going to play by her rules! It would take a whole lot more than but a simple friend request to make me disclose my information! I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I have some experience with dealing with people! I need to stand up!

For now, I chose to accept the friend request in order to try to get to know Saiga-0 a little bit better. But it wasn’t a sign of surrender. The opposite, actually. It was a challenge. Proof that I wasn’t going to be broken so easily.

「……………」

「……………」

There was this awkward silence between us. It was the same kind of silence that would fall between two Western gunmen right before their duel would start. But in this situation we had no one who would announce the start of the duel. The first one to speak would not necessarily be the victor. How was I going to handle Saiga-0, who was clearly better than me in every single aspect possible?

Damn it, this whole situation was bad for my mental health. It felt exactly the same as that situation with Pencilgton from before, but this time around I couldn’t think of any solution and I was just staying in one place. This won’t do. I must do something. Even if it would be on the count to three, anything at all!

「…… Umm.」

「!!!」

She made the first move! No, this doesn’t mean anything! The ball was now in my court, but I could still do it. Bring it on! Saiga-0!!!

「If you’d like…… I could, possibly…… Help you out? If you don’t mind?」

My brain just stopped for a moment out there. Or would it be more fitting to say that it was stuck processing what I just heard?

Maybe I was overthinking this whole situation way too much? Maybe it was really easy of a situation from a third party’s viewpoint? For a moment out there an idea like that crossed my mind, but I quickly rebuke it, thinking to myself that it is too early to jump to conclusions.

「Ah! It wouldn’t feel right for me to beat the game with the help of someone who is way higher than me when it comes to levels! Thank you very much, but I must politely refuse……!」

「I, I see…… This, wouldn’t feel like conquering the game, right?」

「No, it’s not like that……」

Silence again. But this time it felt slightly different. It was awkward, but that kind of awkward when you play a dating sim and you go for a confession with the heroine of your liking, but end up getting rejected because your love meter wasn’t high enough to trigger a positive flag.

「Ah, this is, I know, I would only be an obstacle to your playstyle……」

「Ahh, no, no…… I’m sorry for jumping the gun with a proposition like that so suddenly……」

「No, no, this isn’t……」

Suddenly, there was a whole lot of hustle and bustle behind my back. Was that the players that came here to look for me? Talk about bad timing……

「…… Ah, umm, the thing that you do, please do your…… best. Umm, maybe we might cooperate sometimes in the future?」

「Eh? Ahh, yeah…… Sure, why not?」

Surprisingly enough, Saiga-0 retreated from the gate. I didn’t know what kind of roundabout game she was playing, but maybe her good intentions were truly genuine.

Anyways, it seems that she had no intentions of stopping me here. I still couldn’t be sure what her real intentions were, but for now my utmost priority was to get out of Thirdrema as soon as possible.

…… Speaking of which, judging from her voice, was Saiga-0 a woman? Men pretending to be women were aplenty in video games, but women pretending to be men were something of a rarity…… No, they were a true endangered species. I was sure that she was a man judging from the tone of her voice and her manner of speaking…… And there was also her avatar, that looked pretty masculine, but I guess that there are various kinds of players in this world, women and men alike.

I jumped in place a time or two and then dashed through the gate leading out of Thirdrema.

A fighting game where people would be dismembered and explode. A social-heavy MMO where you could re-skill your skill points upon every single log-in. A farming simulator where all of your crops and livestock could be blown away by huge monsters or natural catastrophes…… I have played a lot of games that I thought would gain his interest.

At the same time as she acquired ShangriLa Frontier the shop clerk recommended to her that before starting with this she should probably start with something simpler to learn all about the concepts of VR gaming. Once she was ready to start she came for advice from her older sister, who at the time was a hardcore player herself, even achieving a very high rank in the ranks of the guild “Shwarz Wolves”. Thus, with a little bit of help, Saiga-0 was born.

Then she decided to play something different for a change of pace, but all this time she was longing for the moment she would return to ShangriLa Frontier at last.

And the days of her labor has finally bore fruits once the four syllables appeared at the top of her friends list, spelling out “SANRAKU”.

「Nnnnnnnnnnnn…… OH FUCK THE HELL YES!!!」

After a while, there was a certain rumor circulating around Thirdrema…… The players would state that the heavily armored knight was looming the streets looking awfully happy for some reason.