Previous Chapter l Next Chapter

Since the moment I decided to have a match with Hisame, I had around 100,000E, but with the 50,000E price of the Magic Airship, and buying the staff at the magic store for around 50,000E, I am completely dry. 

I gave all the earnings from the last day to Ina, so I am one step into being totally broke. 

It is still enough for tonight’s inn expenses, but it would be pretty rough to buy equipment. 

However, do you remember? 

I have bought nothing aside from mythril armor. 

(Going around the capital while still in beginner armor is practically suicide…) (Souma)

Only the accessories, I have bought a lot and worn them. 

Thanks to that, my defense has increased a decent degree, but that’s just a drop in the ocean. 

Speaking of which, I did painfully petty stuff like putting paper between the armor, but I doubt the defense will increase with that. 

“…Guess I should sell my weapons.” (Souma)

I acted big and bought all the types of weapons, but I don’t need anything aside from the Shiranui and the Wakizashi for the sword and the dagger. 

If I sell this extra sword and dagger and add the funds I already have, I should be able to buy the lowest grade armor in this city. 

I decided to head to the weapon store first. 

“I have done it now…” (Souma)

I was supposed to sell my weapons to get money to buy armor, but for some reason, I fell into the downward spiral of buying a different weapon.

It would be one thing in the game, but if I do rash actions in this world, it will directly impact my survival.

Even though I know that…

“But man, that was some treasure I dug up there…” (Souma)

There’s an Item Dig Up Candidate List, and it is a system where there would be items displayed randomly. 

Even if it is shown that day at the store, there’s no knowing if it will show up tomorrow.

“…Oh well, that’s fine. Let’s change gears.” (Souma)

I already bought it, so it can’t be helped.

In the worst case, I can sacrifice Michael-kun…no, I can’t do it in this world that has become reality now, but I should be able to manage if I do a number of quests in the city. 

I had no intentions of going out for a while in Lamurick Town, so I should just take this situation as just the right chance to do the same here. 

By the way, I bought 2 weapons. 

The first one is a dagger called a Heat Knife. 

The attack power is low, but it’s an elemental weapon with fire by default. 

And the one other thing I bought was from the random pick up items, and the most recommended item in Nekomimi Neko.

A small pitch black bag that has a single big hole and 5 small holes.

They are basically fingerless gloves.

I immediately put them on.

“Fuh! My right arm is itching!” (Souma)

I got a bit too into it and said something similar to Sazan. 

Yeah, it looks like these fingerless gloves have strange mana that is not shown in numbers. 

But don’t misunderstand.

At a glance, these fingerless gloves look like totally normal fancy gloves, but it is a peerless unique weapon that has a special ability. 

…It is a unique weapon, but it is not exactly categorized as an Unique Weapon, so please don’t misunderstand that part. 

This weapon is actually the only weapon that has the same ability as being barehanded even when equipped.

There might be people who are thinking ‘Isn’t that the same as knuckles?’, but it is not. 

You can use barehanded skills when you equip knuckles, but the attack power will be calculated from the knuckles, and you can use knuckle skills.

However, these fingerless gloves alone will have its damage calculated like barehanded when using skills.

Then, wouldn’t it be better to just not equip that and punch with your bare fists?

I also think that.

It is a mystery why the Nekomimi Neko staff made this, but…there was probably a chuunibyou within the members.

W-Well, I don’t think I will need to use these gloves, but not only is it pretty rare for it to show up within the random item pick-up, it is at an accessible price of 200E.

I ended up buying it.

(Hmm, I really should enter the guild.) (Souma)

Looking at the weapons, I ended up wanting to customize a bit. 

And then, my next plan came up thanks to that.

“Let’s go check out the Warrior Guild.” (Souma)

There are organizations called Guilds in Nekomimi Neko, and by becoming a member there, you will get a number of benefits. 

The most prominent guilds are the Warrior Guild and the Mage Guild, the Thief Guild and the Bounty Hunting Guild. If you become a member, you will be able to use the facilities of the respective guild.

Within those, the especially important ones are the workshop and the laboratory. 

In the Warrior Guild, you can customize your weapons and armor in the workshop; in the Mage Guild, you can customize your magic in the laboratory. 

Considering the battles in the second half, the customization of weapons and magic are a necessity.

The Warrior Guild and Mage Guild have branches in other places, but you can only become a member at the headquarters in the capital, so most players who have come to the capital will go to the Warrior Guild and the Mage Guild at least once. 

Those are not the only benefits in entering a guild. By finishing the events prepared on the respective guild, you can raise your standing at that guild. 

That way, you can obtain several privileges, event reward items, and be able to experience the peculiar scenarios prepared for the respective guild.

There was a lot of effort put into the guild events, and if you were to quantize the main story as 10, the guild events would have a volume of around 4-7 each. 

Moreover, if you finish the events until the very end, you can even see endings for each one. 

The events are also of good quality, and there was a time when I laughed my ass out at the last event of the Warrior Guild: The plan to make all the people into muscle brains. A nation falling from the internal discord of the guild in the last event of the Mage Guild, Purge of the Siren, also made me bite my nails in suspense. 

When you proceed the events up to a certain point, your relationship with others aside from that guild will be devastating, so it will make it impossible to proceed with the main story. No matter how you think about it, this is a fatal mistake that shouldn’t have gotten the go sign. If this wasn’t the case, these guild events would have gotten a higher evaluation.

Most of all because, once you advance until the end of the Warrior Guild event, most main characters will only be able to say stuff like ‘Me, defeat, enemy’; if you reach the end of the Mage Guild event, most of the people in the nation will be dead to begin with.

There’s no way you can proceed with the main story like that.

That said, with the first patch fix, when you reach the end of the events, you will get a ‘It was all the player’s dream’ and get returned to before the branching point. That’s way too much of an escape there. 

By the way, the ‘it was a dream’ punchline as a solution for this had a lot of backlash from the players. The end result was that, after finishing the guild events, you will get a command in the menu screen of ‘Reverse Guild Events’, letting you keep your stats, and you could now reset the effects born from the guild event. 

With that considered, in this situation where I can’t open the menu screen, I have no means to reset the effects of the events, so getting too deep with the guilds will come with its risks. 

However, becoming a member and using the facilities shouldn’t pose much problems. 

Also, I have replayed this game a lot of times, so I have done the guild registration event countless times. 

The entrance quests for the Warrior Guild and Mage Guild weren’t that complicated, so I doubt I will have much trouble with them even with a low level.

“Alright, let’s go.” (Souma)

I opened the doors of the Warrior Guild that had the trademark of crossed swords on it with a light feeling, and ended up opening my eyes wide.

That’s because there’s a blonde handsome man inside. 

“Heya there. As I can see, you are a warrior, right?! No, there’s no need for words! I will give you the honor of exterminating the Demon Lord together with me!” 

He suddenly said that. 

His face is one that I haven’t seen once in the game despite my knowledge of it. 

• Chapter 40: New Comrade?

(What…is the meaning of this?) (Souma)

I was completely bewildered by the unfamiliar blonde handsome man in front of me.

I am confident I have encountered almost all the NPCs in Nekomimi Neko. 

No, there’s of course minor and hidden events in remote places where there might be characters I have never seen before, but this is the capital, and the one I have met here is a blonde handsome man with an extreme character. 

There’s no way I would ignore a person like this. 

And the strangest part is that I encountered him in the Warrior Guild.

I have come and gone to the Warrior Guild’s headquarters countless times, so I know about all the characters that come here at the very least. 

There was no such event in the guild, and there was no character like this. 

I should judge this as an irregular situation.

“Uhm, who are you?” (Souma)

I ask his name warily.

When I did, the blonde man combed his hair with an exaggerated gesture.

“Oh, sorry for the belated introduction. My name is Alex! The man that will eventually be called the hero that slayed the Demon Lord, Alex!” 

“Wa?!” (Souma)

I was left speechless.

Alex is supposed to be the NPC that’s famous for dying as soon as the game begins. 

There have been reports of people having seen him alive, so it is not like there’s no videos of him at all, but I haven’t seen them.

If this man really is Alex, then it would make sense why I don’t remember that face of his…

(But what’s the meaning of this?) (Souma)

Just as Alex said just now, he should have charged at the Demon Lord as the game began and died.

This is already the 6th day since the game began.

Normally, he should have charged onto the Demon Lord Castle a long time ago, no, finished his charge.

“Fuh, what is it? Could it be that you heard my famous name and are nervous? Or maybe your heart withered at the great enterprise of defeating a Demon Lord? No worries, I can defeat the Demon Lord alone. You just need to tag along in my journey as a warrior companion of the hero.” (Alex) 

No, you will die if you go alone.

Is what I thought, but the more I hear about him, the more I feel he is not that different from his game counterpart. 

The difference would be that he is being fuzzy about this companion stuff.

“Uhm, you plan on defeating the Demon Lord?” (Souma)

“Yeah, that’s right! The important duty of defeating the Demon can only be done by this hero Alex! ” (Alex)

No, you also won’t be able to cut it and die.

That said, his conduct principle doesn’t seem to have changed much from the game. 

Then, why…?

“Then, why didn’t you go defeat the Demon Lord straight away?” (Souma)

When I asked this, his face showed agitation.

His fishy archaic smile disappeared, and his face changed into that of fear.

“Yeah, I was planning on doing exactly that just a few days ago. But well, I got the advice from a virtuous mind, and uhm…changed that plan…” (Alex)

“The advice of a virtuous mind?” (Souma)

Is there a person with enough reason in this world to stop this charging boar hero? 

I find it really hard to believe any amount of reasoning will work on this blonde numb-head though.

But my question soon melted away.

“Just when I was thinking about departing from the capital to defeat the Demon Lord, a single girl ran to me, you see. I thought she had come to show her support, but I was wrong. That girl asked me a question.” (Alex)

Eh, could that possibly be…

“Whether I am a hero or not.” (Alex)

I sigh inside my heart. 

I can already predict what happens next. 

“I of course answered that I am a hero, but that girl said that me being a hero is a b-bad…joke… That heroes should be more intelligent, and that a hero without a single companion is weird to begin with. She said I would get surrounded by weak fry and die before reaching the Demon Lord… B-Baseless insults and abuse… I…I ended up…! 

T-That’s not it! It is not like I thought of being violent! 

I-I just grabbed her shoulder to stop her, and…eh? How do I feel right now? 

N-No, there’s no way I would feel excitement within the shame at being stepped on by a young girl like that…” (Alex)

He was tripping off there and even began exposing dangerous stuff, but I got the gist of it. 

The culprit really was Poison-tan! 

Well, in other words, it is that. 

This muscle-brain dude was easily defeated in an argument by the verbose Poison-tan, moreover, was defeated in physical strength, was pinned on the ground, and his confidence was completely crushed.

Basically, he is trying to get rid of one of the faults that Poison-tan pointed out, so he is now running about trying to gather companions.

I can at least see the reason for how it ended up like this. 

Just like how Hisame now takes requests from people aside from me, the people of this world now do the actions they only did to the player to other people as well. 

Putting it simply, Poison-tan only spitted out poisonous words to the player, but now, she spits out poison to other people as well, and her poisonous fangs sank onto Alex.

Poison-tan has made me suffer so much until now, but a life has been saved thanks to her poisonous tongue, so let’s say Poison-tan did a good job this time around.

Also, I have never seen the face of Hero Alex, but I personally liked him in the game. 

Him being saved is something to be happy about. 

“W-Well, that’s enough of that talk. And so, I noticed what I am lacking. More importantly, how about it? Will you come with me to defeat the Demon L—” (Alex)

“No.” (Souma)

But this and that are different stories.

I went through the trouble of getting away from Ina and Hisame to be alone. 

I have no intention of becoming the companion of a weirdo here. 

“P-Please wait! I need a warrior and a priest the most for team balance! You can just follow us…” (Alex)

“No, I don’t care.” (Souma)

I have been trying to be polite here, but I accidentally let my true feelings out.

“W-What is it that you don’t like? Not to toot my own horn here, but I am level 200, you know? Coming with me would be better than journeying with anyone else…” (Alex)

I couldn’t bear listening to any more of this. 

“Speaking of which, I forgot I had some other business. I will be excusing myself here.” (Souma)

“Wa?! Wait! You—” (Alex)

I brushed off Alex who was still trying to stop me, and left the Warrior Guild.

“Good grief. Alex has really fallen.” (Souma)

After getting out and confirming Alex is not chasing after me, I spill out that complaint. 

The reason why I liked the Alex from the game was because I sympathized with him challenging the Demon Lord despite not being a match against it. 

Numbers are power in the game and reality. 

It definitely would be easier to achieve your objective with 3 people of the same ability than with only one. 

That’s the same in Nekomimi Neko. 

Nekomimi Neko is a game where your companions pull your leg 30% more than other games, but even with that, the difficulty decreases sharply with companions than without. 

I know that and accept it. 

…However, closing your eyes to such difficulties and challenging the Demon Lord alone; isn’t that what a true hero is? What a brave one should be? 

I won’t say you have to fight alone to be a hero, and I by no means am throwing out the heroes who fight with comrades. 

But I definitely don’t want to become the comrade of a guy that submitted to the insult of ‘you are not a hero because you don’t have companions’ and began searching for them. 

If I were told that, even if I had been crushed in all other arguments, I definitely would have her take back her statement that you can’t be a hero alone. 

That’s the pride of loner gamers. 

…You could say I am mad, feeling as if loners have been dissed here. 

“That said, from the looks of it, I won’t be able to get close to the Warrior Guild for a while.” (Souma)

He did say he needed a warrior, so he must be keeping an eye on the Warrior Guild for that. 

It is a simple way of thinking, but it certainly is also a valid option.

However, even if he is high level, I doubt there’s anyone who would want to be comrades with that guy.

If he plans on keeping on until he finds a companion, getting close to that place in the next few days will most likely net me trouble. 

Well, I will be needing the weapon customization when I get a weapon that has more attack power and effectiveness than Shiranui. 

No need to force myself to get involved with the Warrior Guild for the near future. 

Also, there’s one other guild with important facilities. 

“…Here.” (Souma)

The Mage Guild. 

I take a deep breath in front of the door that has a mark modeled on a magic circle. 

The Mage Guild events are more rebellious than those of the Warrior Guild. 

Of course, as someone who has complete understanding of the event details, I doubt I will be having difficulties, but an irregular situation might happen from the world having become reality just like it did before. 

I steeled myself so that I am fine no matter what happens and opened the door…

“…Huh?” (Souma)

I encountered a lump of iron.

It must have noticed me being dumbfounded, the lower half of the lump of iron, the mouth that’s the only part showing any flesh, speaks to me with a high pitched tone. 

“Welcome, mage! Rejoice, you have been blessed with the best luck in the world. The leading magic creator of the world and genius mage, owner of the evil dark right arm, this Sazan-sama will—” 

I close the door without saying a word.

“…Fuuh, that was close.” (Souma)

Now that I think about it, there might have been a character like that who wears an exaggerated iron mask like that. 

Nope, I have no recollection of it. 

I totally don’t remember it, but I do feel like the base of that stupid mage was the capital…

No, anyways…

There’s one thing I can say at this point…

“I can’t go to the Warrior Guild or the Mage Guild now…” (Souma)

It hasn’t even been 30 minutes since I began moving, and yet, I am now drawing a blank on what to do next.

“This was a rough day in its own way… Seriously, in a lot of ways.” (Souma)

Now that becoming a member of the Warrior Guild and the Mage Guild is technically impossible, I decided to head to the closest tavern. 

There’s the choice of going to the Bounty Hunter Guild, but the sky was already turning dark now that I took a closer look. A rush of weird encounters has been happening here. 

With how things have been going, I might end up meeting the Tea Drinker or the Rose Piercer at the Bounty Hunter Guild. I would lose it. 

Most of all, I have been working intensely after pulling an all-nighter, so I am so sleepy right now. My body can’t handle it anymore. 

The Bounty Hunter Guild is not a place you register in like the other two, so as long as I have no plans on taking a request, there’s no problem with leaving it for tomorrow. 

By the way, the lodging cost is 1,000E.

It is the price of 5 fingerless gloves. That’s daylight robbery. 

The old man innkeeper of this city with a scary face and his daughter Alice-chan were both kind, so it is probably a simple difference in the cost-of-living. 

This is the disparity of regions.

By the way, I spoke a bit with the poster girl Alice-chan at dinner, and she was a really good girl.

As you can see, Alex and Sazan are lost causes, and there’s cases like Ina and Hisame, so you can tell that this world has barely any decent encounters. 

I won’t go as far as saying I want a fateful encounter with a beautiful girl that falls from the sky or crashes onto me at an intersection, but I think it would be nice to have more encounters with nice normal girls like Alice-chan who speak to me normally and are healing. 

Well, even without Alice-chan, this inn is pretty comfortable. 

At the times when I was in the capital, I would go ‘this is a game anyways’ and stayed at a horse shed that has no need for money. I had no connections with regular inns, but this place is unexpectedly nice. 

I once again think that after seeing the room that’s one size bigger than the one in Lamurick and the visibly fluffy and clean bed. 

“Alright.” (Souma)

The first thing I do after entering the room is open the bag and bring out the Master Torch.

A fluffy bed sounds enticing for an all-nighter body, but going to sleep without having achieved anything would feel bad. 

I use Shiranui and the Heat Knife to train my weapon proficiency inside the room, and I will sleep once my drowsiness has reached its peak. 

Today I met Alex, Sazan, and also Alice-chan, so dark clouds are already covering my loner life, but I won’t give up. 

I will survive this world while keeping up my loner life, and prove that being alone reigns supreme. 

I collapsed on the bed while my thoughts were getting heated up by the corrosion of my drowsiness.

(So soft…) (Souma)

For my current self, this fluffy bed is a gigantic enemy that would be stupid to fight against. 

Drowsiness quickly gained momentum, and I was swallowed in an instant, my consciousness sinking into the darkness.

And in this way, the shocking 6th day of my game life closed its curtains. 

The next morning, I felt a strange difficulty to keep asleep, and I woke up absentmindedly. 

But maybe because it was still too early, or because yesterday’s fatigue still remains, it was a pain to get up. 

The nice scent of the sheets that tickled my nostrils and the lukewarm bed that’s like the warmth of a person were not allowing me to wake up completely. 

(It really is so fluffy… Hm?) (Souma)

I feel like the bed is not as fluffy as the time when I slept last night. 

No, it feels really nice to the touch -first-rate even- but I wouldn’t call it a bed…it is more like a living being…

Thinking this, I faintly open my eyes and…

“Uwaah…” (Souma)

I ended up letting out a voice mixed with shock and admiration.

But that can’t be helped. 

Looks like the encounter rush is still active.

Because…

“W-Who are you?” (Souma)

In front of me, on top of my body, there’s a beautiful blue haired blue-eyed girl without a single piece of fabric on her. 

Previous Chapter l Next Chapter