Chapter 6: A Wild Pervert Appeared!
The Almiraj I unfortunately ran into along the way dropped nothing, and I already have about 30 Almiraj meats, so I don't need any more.
Frowning at the mildly cumbersome movement, I walked toward the direction of the voices.
Sunraku: "This way... ah, there they are."
Partly hidden by a tall thicket, I saw a group of three players—one male, two female—walking along a game trail. A lucky party composition. Their names displayed above their heads confirmed they were players.
Sunraku: "Knight, thief, mage... convenient."
I recalled that mages learn Fireball as an initial skill. From memory, all mages started with fire attribute. I had about 70 raw meats in total: Almiraj, Orc, Vorpal Bunny. If I offered some, they might share a fire with me.
As I hesitated over how to approach, it seemed the trio had encountered a monster.
???: "Wow, it's cute!"
Cute. That rules out orcs and goblins.
???: "It looks like a rabbit... is this a monster too?"
Hmm, an Almiraj? The Vorpal Bunny seems to be a rare enemy, so it's not like they'd run into one by chance...
???: "This rabbit walks on two legs."
Isn't that a Vorpal Bunny?!
When I peeked out from the thicket, the mage girl was approaching a Vorpal Bunny without a care. From my experience defeating dozens of them, I clearly understood that the neck‑slicing rabbit was already poised to attack.
Sunraku: "Waaaaait up!!!"
???: "Huh?" ???: "What?" ???: "Huh?"
A half‑naked, bird‑masked figure leapt from the thicket, raising twin swords.
I knew I wouldn't make it in time. As I jumped, I activated Flash Counter.
I lunged between the mage girl and the Vorpal Bunny as it pounced on her, using my right blade to knock away the bunny's cleaver. Twisting my body, I spun and slammed my left blade upward into the Vorpal Bunny.
A critical hit must have landed; the Vorpal Bunny burst into polygons in one blow. Too bad, no drop, I thought idly as I took a landing stance and turned to face the trio.
At that moment, everyone finally understood the result, if not the full context.
In other words, the result was that a half-naked, bird-masked pervert with intensely staring eyes had leaped out of the thicket and brutally slaughtered an adorable rabbit.
???: "KYAAAAAA!!" ???: "NOOOOO!!" ???: "WHOA AAAAH!!"
The trio raised their weapons, charged at me, and swung down...
Sunraku: "Whoa, that was close!!"
Even I felt a chill from being attacked from three directions while crouched after a landing. I used Tap Step—a skill I hadn't expected to need—to create distance, then loudly and clearly demanded they stop fighting.
Sunraku: "Stop! Stop! I'm a player! Stoooop!!"
???: "Pervert!!!"
Sunraku: "I can't deny that! But look! My player name is displayed! I'm serious!!"
???: "Die!!!"
It's not that I have no PvP experience, but I'd really prefer to avoid my first encounter with SLF players being PvP.
In the end, I had to keep dodging and parrying until the thief girl calmed down and restrained the other two.
???: "Um, well... even though you saved us from a dangerous monster, we're sorry..."
Sunraku: "Ah, no. I'm more at fault for starting my adventure in pervert gear because I got blinded by money..."
After somehow getting my evaluation changed from "rare enemy, bizarre creature: Half-Naked Birdhead" to "oddly dressed player, Sunraku," I bowed to the three.
The knight's name is Souma, the thief girl is Kahho, and the mage girl is Reena, apparently. In this game, you can customize appearance freely, but apparently you can't change your voice. So it's common for someone who looks like a little girl to speak and be outed as a middle‑aged man. Judging by their voices, these three are probably middle school students.
I really feel bad for scaring my juniors, but leather needs to be processed before it can be equipped as armor, so until I reach a town, no matter what I do, I'm stuck with this outfit.
???: "Um, so... Sunraku-san, have you been leveling here all this time?"
Sunraku: "Ah, yeah, something like that. I only meant to observe monster movements, but in the end I wanted to test various things."
It's a habit from my kusoge days. Drop rates with decimals were common, so "hunt every enemy mob until they stop spawning" is ingrained in my body.
But no, please, no infinite respawns.