Chapter 10 — A Half-Naked Pervert Seen from an Experienced Player's Perspective
That player's name was Reiji.
After three months of hardship, his efforts to get closer to the woman he admired—using various schemes and bribes (treating her to sweets, etc.)—finally bore fruit. When the woman he had his eye on decided to start Shangri-La Frontier, he managed to arrange it so that he, as an experienced player, would teach her the basics for beginners.
Mia: "So, Yamamoto‑kun, I'm counting on you today, okay?"
Reiji: "Y‑yeah. First of all, it's common etiquette not to use real names in game."
Mia: "Oh, sorry! Then um... Reiji‑kun."
Even though it was a player name, the fact that she had gone from calling him by his last name to his first name made Reiji (real name: Reiji Yamamoto) inwardly overjoyed, thanking his lucky stars that he had chosen to make his player name the katakana version of his real name.
Reiji: "Ahem. So, Mia, you wanted to tame a canine monster, right?"
Mia: "Yes. I can't have pets in my apartment, and a friend told me about this game. It piqued my interest."
It was a rather peaceful reason for playing an RPG, but Shangri-La Frontier boasted monstrous freedom, so many players found fulfillment outside of combat. Mia had essentially been carried through The Rampant Forest by joining Reiji's party, but Reiji rationalized that canine monsters didn't appear in stages before Secondale, so it couldn't be helped.
Reiji: "Okay, the taming procedure is..."
Sunraku: "...Oooh..."
Reiji: "Hm?"
That was when it happened.
The two were at the entrance from The Rampant Forest into Secondale when they heard a noise from the direction of the suspension bridge ravine and instinctively looked over.
And both Reiji and Mia would come to curse their misfortune at being there.
Sunraku: "VOOOOOOOOO!!"
That mask equipment, Reiji thought, diverting his attention from below the neck of the figure—it was one of the masks you could choose in character creation (it could replace the starting headgear, but had zero defense).
The half‑naked pervert sprinting at terrifying speed—if it weren't for the player name displayed above his head, he could have been mistaken for a rare monster encountered randomly.
Mia: "Is that a monster?!"
Reiji: "No, he's a player—he has a player name. Don't attack him."
Reiji vaguely understood why the half‑naked pervert player—named Sunraku—was in a panic.
(The Ravenous Snake does that poison‑dung attack... He must have taken a hit when he was out of herbs.)
Reiji, a player since the service started, recalled the chaos of those early days, when quite a few players had fallen victim to that attack. Strictly speaking, Sunraku was paying the price for messing around as a homeless player and challenging the boss with no means of recovery, but it never crossed Reiji's mind that the reason could be that stupid.
Deciding not to worry about why he was half‑naked for now, Reiji lowered the bow that Mia had drawn—so she wouldn't incur a PK penalty—and shouted to the sprinting player named Sunraku.
Reiji: "The inn is straight ahead, the building with the white roof!!"
Sunraku: "Thaaaaaank yooooooouuuu!!"
As Sunraku sped away in an instant, Reiji, having roughly guessed his stat distribution, sympathized internally.
(That build is no good... I hope he realizes it soon...)
Watching Sunraku go—likely with an AGI‑heavy stat build just like his former self—Reiji recalled the boss he would have to defeat to get from Secondale to the third town, "Thirdrema."
Reiji: "That guy... is so damn tough..."
Mia: "Reiji‑kun, you seemed like a real veteran just now! That was cool!"
Reiji: ""
He froze for a moment.
Then, coming back to his senses, Reiji silently thanked the half‑naked bird‑masked figure who had unexpectedly brought him good fortune.
In the end, although Sunraku died when his HP was completely depleted, thanks to a kind player he succeeded in updating his respawn point and woke up in the inn at Secondale.
Sunraku: "Ah... that was close..."
When he realized right as he reached the entrance to Secondale that he didn't know where the inn was, he had almost given up. But thanks to that kind player, he was truly saved.
He didn't know what would have happened to his acquired items if he had respawned at the initial point, but he wasn't eager to find out. Opening his status screen and confirming that his items remained intact, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Sunraku: "I think his name was... Reiji."
Next time he saw him, he'd have to thank him.
He fiddled with his status for a while, but apparently this game's death penalty applied debuff penalties to stats for a certain period.
Sunraku: "It's getting late. I'll sleep."
Summer vacation had just begun. He'd sleep once, then really dive back in.