WG – Chapter 140: Counter of Death

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—Name of the plan: Fake Prince Charming. 

The air around died the moment I said this, so I spoke the details of the plan as if to smooth it over. 

When I did, my comrades that were speechless at first had their life return to their faces as the talk progressed, and by the time I finished talking about it, everyone was reproaching me energetically.

…Hm?

“Souma, you are the worst!” (Maki)

Maki saying this opened the floodgates and…

“Y-You really are one unapologetical pervert.” (Sazan)

Sazan was flabbergasted. 

“Souma-san…” (Ina)

Even Ina who was comparatively sympathetic about me was looking at me sadly. 

And most of all…

“……”

The look Mitsuki was giving me in silence was painful. 

It is as if she is looking at a pebble on the road…at the corpse of a fly on that pebble. I probably won’t be able to forget this cold gaze of hers for the rest of my life. 

This is the first time I have been directed such eyes of scorn from Mitsuki…no, it might actually be the second time. 

Anyways, my heart is not so stout as to endure gazes like these.

“W-Wait! Listen properly to what I have to say! Leila is really that dangerous!” (Souma)

I raise my voice in order to escape from those gazes. 

No, it is true that this time’s plan is no joke horrible, but lives are at stake here, so we have to do this much. 

In the past, a Nekomimi Neko player compared Leila to a bomb. 

I personally think that to be a good comparison.

I don’t know much about the event of Leila, but due to the necessity of avoiding danger, I have the minimum amount of knowledge about her. 

—And if that knowledge is correct, the fuse of the bomb called Leila has already been ignited. 

It still remains fresh in my mind that Train-chan (Ina) ended up alone due to system convenience, and she chased me around with tenacity like that of a stalker. 

However, that’s more of a consequence of it, or like, an accident that happened because the real world was adopting the game setting. It is not like Ina herself has the personality of a stalker or is a loner. 

What that basically means is that the Ina of the game and reality created a discrepancy. She is an artificial loner character. 

But not Leila. 

After her only family, her father, died an early death, she didn’t open up her heart to anyone, and has been living alone the whole time. That’s her official background story. 

She is a loner from the root. 

And at the same time, it is also an official trait of hers that she would show abnormal levels of affection towards people she has gotten close to.

That Leila, who is said to love troubling the player more than eating her 3 meals a day, is the strongest yandere stalker character that the Nekomimi Neko staff has molded. 

She is a character that’s casually on the official introduction page, and what’s written there is: 

[Leila Milton: Woman

19 years old.

She is skilled, but she closed off her heart when she lost her parents a few years ago. 

She is brusque when you meet her at first, but when you get close to her…she also has a passionate side to her, and she will only fall in love with one man for her whole life.]

An introduction that you could only think of it as bait to lure in the player. 

And the reality is that many players were baited by this introduction page at the early stages of Nekomimi Neko, and tried to get close to Leila.

…Without knowing that what waited ahead of them was despair. 

The troubling and ingenious part of Leila’s event is that you can’t predict such a disaster at the beginning. 

Leila at the beginning can’t be called a sociable character at all just like the introduction page said. 

She is a character that’s said to have 3 phases of evolution, and she changes drastically depending on her affection towards the player. 

Beginning with the lowest, it goes: Tsuntsun, tsundere, deretsun, death stalker. <TLN: Tsun means cold, dere means affectionate.>

It is a name that makes you wonder what happened between the 3rd and the 4th, but it is not like I was the one who decided that, so don’t mind it. 

First, in her tsuntsun phase, Leila is abnormally cold. Or more like, there’s barely any chance to communicate.

Her appearance was already the kind where she rejected human interaction. Wearing a tattered cloak big enough to cover her whole body, with hood on, and even when you talk to her, she won’t react. 

If you try to talk to her despite all that, she would run away. 

It is terribly difficult to increase her affection in a short period of time from here, and this is actually the phase that’s the most difficult to trigger the events of Leila.

Even so, her affection will increase when you encounter her. There’s no changes in her appearance, but even when she looks as if she is annoyed by you, the affection will increase exponentially the more you talk to her. 

And now, this is the important part. Because of her special trait called Little Sister Love Flag, her affection will never lower…

You can make contact with her, ignoring even the influence affection. No matter what terrible attitude you take, you will always be able to get along with her as long as you take your time.

Once you get out of the rough tsuntsun phase, what awaits you is the tsundere domain. 

It is said that this is the most interesting part of her events. 

She never tried to get involved with other people, but she will begin to try and talk to you despite being a bit clumsy about it. There may not be any big events or quests, but a number of small events regarding her will happen. 

In her tsuntsun phase, the affection meter only increased by a little bit once a day, but now it would increase by leaps and bounds depending on how you do it. 

That’s why players would increase her affection in one go and step too deep. 

And then, when the affection meter goes up to 50 in her 2nd phase, she will go…

“I…might not hate you…”

She will leak this and you will enter the 3rd phase, the deretsun. 

That’s where we finally enter her main event. An exploration quest to historic ruins (obtaining the item we need starts from there) and, at the same time, it is also where the hell of the player begins. 

When you reach the 3rd phase, Leila will evolve into a splendid maiden.

Her faded blond hair will be properly taken care of, and she would show cheerfulness and gloss that would make the girls in the world envy her. Her skin that was dirtied with soot and mud would now be all glossy and sparkly, and even the clothes she wears will grow fancy in one go. Her defense will also go up. 

Her love towards the player will be shown clearly in between all her shyness, and there were many who would be charmed by that contrast in her beginning days and now.

But you can only enjoy that state of hers for only a few minutes…no, depending on the person, it could only take a few seconds. 

At this stage, her yandere traits will bloom.

Nekomimi Neko doesn’t have a dating system of boyfriend and girlfriend. Yet, despite not going out with Leila or anything, whenever the player interacts with a girl in front of Leila, her hidden parameter, the jealousy gauge, will increase.

And when this reaches max, she will do a literal instant kill attack: Death to the Infidel!!

Putting it simply, Death to the Infidel!! Is a stabbing attack with a knife, but it has the instant death effect on the player. If it hits the player, no matter what stats the player may have, they will definitely die. 

Or more like, even a scratch will lead to instant death. 

No matter how good your equipment is, it goes through it, and even if you use another character to shield yourself, don’t know the logic, but it also goes through that person too. 

Moreover, Leila also gets agility up, infinite stamina, and even super armor and status immunity, so you can’t even keep her at bay. 

Your only means of escape is to avoid or run away which is the worst way to tackle it for a player. 

By the way, the reason why that phase is called deretsun is not because ‘she is normally all affectionate, but gets all cold when the two are alone’, it is because ‘she is normally affectionate, but when you cheat on her, she will leave you cold (with a knife)’.

I really want to say that’s not tsun in a lot of meanings.

Moreover, her boiling point for jealousy is terribly low. 

If you try to make a female character into a party member, stab with a knife! 

If you have a chat with a female character, stab! 

Even if a female character is the one that comes to talk to you, stab! 

Even if you do some shopping at the item store where the female clerk is at, stab! 

I experienced this myself, so there’s no doubt about it.

It isn’t impossible, but you won’t be able to play the game properly like that. 

This is when the player will finally notice…

—Crap, this woman is a landmine. 

The next thing that players will do after noticing this is to harass Leila. 

They would do friendly fire, throw away equipment, and give affection down items. 

They would try to lower the affection of Leila with any means thinkable. 

But there’s absolutely no chance this will lead to anything. 

Little Sister Love Flag is not for show. 

That harassment serves of no effect on Leila. 

No, at this point, anything the player does to Leila increases her affection, so it instead does the complete opposite. 

As a result, either the affection of Leila will go over 75, or if you clear her main quest, the historic ruins exploration, she will evolve into her final form the next day. 

—Leila’s 4th phase: Death Stalker. 

I have only heard about it, but the beauty of Leila will be polished even more here. A halo would appear every time she spoke, and light particles would dance around her when she moved, so they call that figure of hers a poison butterfly shedding scales of light. 

Her stalker level will obviously level up. 

She would give the player the heirloom, Eye of the Heavens. 

This item that the father of Leila had found at some ruins somewhere has an effect similar to the Explorer Ring of Mitsuki.

But the difference between the Explorer Ring is that it is not to learn about the location of the target, but the opposite. It is an item that lets the other party know of your location. 

If you are given this, it is your end. Leila will always know your location, and the very moment you separate from her, she will chase after you regardless of day or night by relying on its reaction. 

There’s apparently a player who ended up going too far and killing her, but on that occasion, you will be labeled as the killer of your lover, and you will be hated by the NPCs, and go straight down the outlaw playthrough. 

Not only that, no matter the reason, when the high affection Leila dies, the affection from all the influences will drop to the ground. This happens regardless if you do MPK <monster player kill> or do so from terrain damage. 

‘Then, just throw away the Eye of the Heavens’ -is what people would say, but that’s also difficult. 

The Eye of the Heavens has the indestructible attribute, and if it is away from the player for more than 24 hours, it returns to your hand on its own. How kind of them. 

There was a simple exploit that allowed you to destroy indestructible items, but it has already been fixed, so you are technically checkmated the moment the Eye of the Heavens is given to you. 

When I finished my long explanation, Mitsuki asked me in wonder with her cat ears twitching. 

“…I don’t really get it. I now understand how dangerous this Leila person is, but doesn’t this just mean that you just have to make sure not to get involved with her from now on?” (Mitsuki)

Yeah, that’s what you would normally think.

But that’s not it. 

If it could be solved with that, I wouldn’t be panicking this much. 

“No, the item that we will be needing from the ruins can’t be cleared without Leila. Also, I have never done that quest even once. I don’t know how to clear the ruins and don’t know its location either.” (Souma)

It would be more accurate to say that I was in the middle of doing the quest. 

I had raised the affection of Leila to the point of deretsun before coming to this world, and we were about to head to the ruins together as an escort NPC.

There wasn’t any item I needed at that time, but I wanted to try doing the infamous event of Leila and obtaining the famous spell that you can get in the ruins. 

However, I saved right before when Leila’s affection was at 24, so that I could turn back at any time.

I saved it at a spot where it is barely at the point of tsuntsun. 

The reason for that is…

“Also, if you raise the affection of Leila to the 2nd phase, tsundere, you can’t turn back anymore.” (Souma)

This is the biggest trap set by the Nekomimi Neko staff. 

Anyone can tell how dangerous it is when Leila enters the 3rd phase, deretsun.

That’s why, there were many who would save before Leila’s affection reached 50, where she enters deretsun, or simply before getting stabbed.

But that’s already too late. 

Way too late. 

Leila, who falls in love with love, can have her feelings exacerbated by not being able to meet you. 

That’s right. The special trait that competes with Little Sister Love Flag, the automatic affection up: Up Count of Death!

“C-Caunt of Des…?” 

Maki, who is bad with this engrish stuff, had her eyes wide open, so I explained it in a simple way. 

“When Leila goes over 25 affection and enters the 2nd phase, even without meeting the other party, her feelings will still increase. Putting it in game terms, it means that her affection meter increases automatically. In an extreme way, even if you didn’t meet her once after she turned tsundere, there’s still a chance you will get stabbed the next time you meet.” (Souma)

This is why she is compared with a bomb, and one of the reasons why her danger level is ranked number one among the NPCs of the capital. 

Even if the Nekomimi Neko players knew about the visible danger, they understandably couldn’t notice the invisible danger that was slowly creeping its way. 

And so, the players that increased the affection of Leila all the way up to 25 had entered a debt they couldn’t pay back. 

“U-Uhm, but there’s the chance that Leila-san hasn’t entered the tsundere phase yet…” (Ina)

Maki had fallen silent, so Ina took her place and said this as if trying to comfort me, but there’s no such hope. 

“No, actually, when Leila goes from tsuntsun to tsundere, she would always say a certain line. A line when seeing her most beloved deceased father on the player. She would look at the player and say…‘Dad?’.” (Souma)

From how I am saying this, everyone must have already noticed that she has already said this.

“T-Then, could it be that it is already…” (Maki)

Maki asked nervously, and I answered with a smile as if I had reached enlightenment. 

“Yeah, I am already done for.” (Souma)

“…I-I see.” (Maki)

Maki looked daunted at what I said, but she still asked without giving up. 

“B-But even if so, she is still a human, right? Can’t we just do something and get along with everyone?” (Maki)

I snorted at the way too naive…no, at the words of someone not used to Nekomimi Neko. 

“You can say that because you haven’t been stabbed by Leila in the game, Maki. Even if it is the same slime, if you put a Yellow Slime by the side of a Stray Slime, what do you think will happen? This is technically that.” (Souma)

Maki frowned, probably imagining it. 

“…Is Souma going to be…eaten?” (Ringo)

Ringo looked up at me with eyes of worry. 

Maki hurriedly followed up.

“I-It is going to be okay, it is going to be okay. This Leila person may stab, but I don’t think she would eat people…ah.” (Maki)

But it seems like she noticed something in the middle and fell silent with her face flushed. 

…You…what did you imagine just now?

But considering the source of her nickname Night Stalker, it might not be that far…

“Anyways! The way to somehow get out of this is to use her yandere trait and have her fall in love with someone else!!” (Souma)

I shouted this in order to shake away my hesitation. 

No, there’s actually methods to incapacitate really obstructive NPCs like ‘the Infinite Corridor Suppression’ or ‘the Eternal Stone Statue’, but doing this to an actual person has way too many ethical issues. 

This plan that I couldn’t perform in the game and has a lot of unknown factors, the Fake Prince Charming, is still within the peaceful spectrum. 

Looks like my comrades agreed reluctantly after seeing my energy. 

But only Ringo, who hadn’t shown any reaction until now…

“…If it were me…” (Ringo)

Was about to say something, but when our eyes met, she shook her head and fell silent. 

It seems like there really are parts she finds it hard to accept, but it can’t be helped. 

Striking first is crucial. I decided to carry out this plan before they change their mind. 

“That’s why, I will be bringing the partner of Leila now. Let’s go, Sazan!” (Souma)

“…Eh? Me?” (Sazan)

I grabbed Sazan, who was spacing out, unable to keep up with the situation, and we rushed out of the mansion. 

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