Chapter 185: Touring the Abyss City with a Bunny Part 2

Emul was first jumping all over my legs, but he was gradually moving his way up and up, until he reached my head. Normally I would think nothing of it, but now it made a really strange though cross my mind.

So in order to try to alleviate that I started doing squats, push-ups, somersaults, sideway jumps and all other manner of small exercises to try to pinpoint what was that feeling. And even though moving around certainly made me feel better, it didn’t help much for my mental state.

What was that strange feeling? I felt as though it was something important, but now I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.

「Could you please stop moving around like that so sudden, Sanraku-san? You’re freaking me out.」

「Hmm? Oh, sorry about that. By the way, where’s Alva? You know, the giant fish dude? I can’t see him around here.」

「The fish person got tired of waiting and went out on his own saying something about “Having to find his lost sword!” or something like that.」

His beloved sword, huh……? Come to think of it, he DID say something about searching for a sword of some kind when I first met him in the city. I don’t know if it is something that is related to the Unique Quest EX, but maybe it would be a good idea to help him look for that sword. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even get something out of it for myself.

Anyways, from what I have seen Alva’s combat prowess is quite high, so there is no need for me to go after him just yet. He’s a big fish and he can probably handle all the enemies around the town and can hold his ground on his own. Now, what about that stupid brat?

「Alright, you little sh*t…… Where are you? Come on out, I won’t bite…… that hard.」

「If you are looking for the captain-guy, he’s right there.」

「The bed that I was sleeping in?」

「Beneath the bed, to be more exact.」

Hee…… really now? But after I bend over and looked under the bed, I could actually see a pair of frightened eyes cowering on the ground. He looked really miserable, just like a frightened puppy-dog. Eeh……

「He’s been going on at it like that for quite a while now, wimping and trembling. Show some Vorpal Soul, why don’t you!」

「No, you know, I think I kind of get how he feels. This whoel situation was rather shocking and sudden……」

Was he acting too frightened? No, I don’t think so. I do believe that his response to this situation is really appropriate. I would be even more surprised if he was acting all high and mighty despite the fact that he was thrown into an underwater city that was crawling with fish-zombies.

Thinking like that, it was actually quite odd that Alva decided to go out on his own like that. It would be a whole different thing if he was actually a Player. I mean, if it means triggering an event flag or obtaining a strong weapon, we would jump right in the middle of a black hole without a moment of hesitation.

「Yeah, right…… Well then, Emul. What do you say we go out there and try to search for Alva’s sword as well?」

「Honestly, I thought you might suggest something like that, Sanraku-san. Well, it’s still getter than “Let’s go take down those four towers! Buahahahahahaha!!!”」

Somehow, that remark really managed to tick me off. So in order to let loose some steam, I decided to pinch Emul’s cheeks and try to see just how far they would be able to stretch. See? That’s what you get for acting all cheeky!

「Let go! Pleash, let go of me! I beg of you!」

「That wasn’t very Vorpal Soul what you just said, you know? So maybe try to act a little bit more like a true Vorpal Soul carrier would, otherwise I’ll do something even worse to you.」

I said that, even though just a few days ago I resulted to overdosing on caffeine so I could bring out my absolute best. But I mean, we managed to achieve our goal in the end, so that justifies it, right?

「Alright, listen, you sh*thead! We’re going out for a bit, so make sure to lock the door and stay where you are!」

「R-Right!」

Even though Rust was the strongest player in the game called Nephilim Hollow, she was still trying to have as much fun with the game as she possibly could. I was also getting a feeling that Mold was exactly the same type as her.

What I mean to say, is that their main goal in playing games it to experience them and have “fun”.

There are roughly two types of gamers out there: the ones that care for the game’s story and the ones that only care for the graphics to be as high as possible.

Former type does not care even if the game system is utter crap. They only care for the scenario, characters and the world-building. They tend to be active outside of the game as well and even clear it multiple times just to experience the story again…… That kind of players.

The latter type only cares about the technicalities of the game. Stats, rarity of equipment, the amount of frames the game runs on, the resolution etc. For them, as long as their numbers are high enough, the story and characters didn’t even needed to be there to begin with…… That kind of players.

Now, there is nothing wrong with being either type of gamers. There is no one correct way to play games, after all. Both types can buy whatever games they feel like buying and they can enjoy themselves while playing them. But if you were to ask me which type would stick with a game for longer, I’d say it is the latter type.

How does items work with different parameters? Is a certain action going to be as powerful when performed under a certain set of circumstances? Players like that tend to like to experiment a lot and do trial and error more often, which results in enhancing their experience tremendously.

And it seems that Rust and Mold were doing some sort of field research during their spare time when I was gone. Namely: the behavior of mobs on the map.

「Basically, if you get discovered by the fish-people, you’ve got about ten seconds to get rid of them, otherwise they will call for reinforcements. But if you kill about half of the encountered fish-people, they won’t be able to call for backup.」

What’s more, even though the probability of that is quite low, fish-people can drop items that normal fish would give you. But here it was open for debate: supposedly you can’t obtain items if you kill fish-people outright, but if you destroy certain individual parts of their bodies, the items shall drop.

「You can nullify the effects of the mermaids song by physically plugging your ears beforehand.」

Listening to the mermaids song debuffs you, but if you plug your ears shut you can negate that effect completely. When it comes to me…… Nah, I think that Akitsu Akane needs to learn that tip by heart.

「Large sea creatures emerge during the night, but during daytime only fish-people and mermaids roam the streets…… I see, I see.」

Zombie apocalypse, but no boss monsters will appear. The only reason that giant fish appeared before was because of Emul’s magic, so it won’t normally show up during daytime.

「Slimy, so slimy…… Don’t you think so too, Emul?」

「I don’t think it’s something to make fun of, especially if it relates to Kutanid……」

Anyways, we shall worry about Big Bad Guy on the seventh day of our stay here. But for now, those other boss monsters could be a pain in the ass to deal with, especially because they require you to do things you’re normally not all that accustomed of doing.

「Now then…… Where should we look first?」

「No way! There’s no way!」

「Back in my country we call it road divination. You place a stick like this, you let it fall to the ground and then you go towards the direction it indicated.」

And since we have no branches here, I guess that one of my swords should fit in and do the trick rather nicely.

「It fell towards our base of operations.」

「Does that mean we’re going back to sleep?」

Nah, the direction of the fall is mostly RNG, anyways. And when it comes to me, I never give in to RNG! Even if I had to search the whole city stone by stone……

「Emul. Did you hear that?」

「Loud and clear! The voices of fish people!」

「Can you understand what is it saying?」

「Hmm, I cannot be too sure, but it’s something along the lines of “I’ve found iiittt!”」

It came from over there…… Might be worth our while to check it out. But is it going to be our friend? Or maybe…… something else entirely?

Oh well, some zombie mowing is just right for getting back into the swing of things.