Chapter 33: The Armored Knight Saw It!
To the east, if there's an out-of-print kusoge, I click purchase on an online auction. To the west, if there's a sighting of a kusoge with an extremely limited distribution, I take a solo trip by linear motor car to visit the store. And in the end, I've even been granted the mud-colored title of "Kusoge Hunter" by numerous kusoge players. But even I have never had the experience of an NPC doing a quadruple-take at me.
Gatekeeper: "Next... person? Wait, why are you half-naked? Th-Those marks! On your legs too!?"
Well, this gatekeeper pointed out every single insane thing about Sunraku all at once... If there were ever an in-game NPC popularity poll, I'd vote for you, baby. Your reactions are way too entertaining. I've busted out laughing before at a character whose neck rotated on a horizontal axis when they walked due to a bug, but at the very least, he provided a laugh several times more wholesome than that. The gatekeeper had been groaning over what to do with me, an individual radiating a full-on suspicious person aura—but at this point, to avoid being labeled as "the woman who brought along a pervert," Emul's tongue went into overdrive.
Emul: "Now now, wait just a moment, Gatekeeper-san. For him, that's... gah! He has a terribly painful past, wa...!"
I mean, I was truly astonished. Not just at the fact that an NPC could make up lies with an AI practically indistinguishable from a human's, but at how Emul's silver tongue spun the character of Sunraku into something like: "A sacred warrior bound by destiny to fight Lycagon the Nightslayer from a previous life under the guidance of the god of fate, who reincarnated and challenged Lycagon only to fall short and have a curse carved into him, and now continues a wandering pilgrimage to break the curse, guided by fate." —Something so overloaded with settings it was about to burst.
Sunraku: "I got cheered on like crazy somehow..."
Emul: "That's how much power that curse holds, wa. Sunraku-san, you could stand to be a little prouder of it, wa!"
Is that how it works... Well, being looked at with respect and awe by NPCs is a bit awkward, but it doesn't feel bad. I wonder what would happen if I showed it off to players—at most, they'd probably just ask, "Where can you put those tattoos on your avatar!?"
Sunraku: "If we can get into the city without any problems, then fine. Let's go, Emul."
Emul: "Hai na!"
If I had to compare it to something—it was like taking an ultra-high-power attack with a defense-penetrating effect directly to the head. No, this is beyond comparison to any in-game phenomenon. As if a battering ram had slammed directly into her skull, Psyger-0—who had cut down Mud Digger with a single stroke and sprinted all the way to Thirdrema—was hiding behind a rock, concealing her presence with all the skill a hardcore player could muster despite it not being her forte, and was watching the scene unfold.
(Th-That... that girl... who is she?)
A player with no equipped torso or leg armor, wearing the Staring Bird Mask—that's the player named Sunraku. It's almost certainly him. If there were a completely different person with the exact same player name at the exact same time, that would be a huge problem, but at the very least, "the player Sunraku who you never know what he's going to do next" could only be him. But from what she'd heard, Hizutome Rakuro—Sunraku—wasn't the type of person to play games with anyone else. Could it be that his supporter, Iwamaki Mana, had been withholding information? Her hand, which had unconsciously reached for her sword, clenched into a fist.
(No... calm down, stay calm... Sister always said that careful observation is crucial in unexpected situations...)
Right before her eyes, completely betraying Psyger-0's initial goal of "guiding him step by step as a beginner," he had charged forward with overwhelming momentum. And the girl in a monocle, clad in equipment even Psyger-0—who had seen a fair amount of this game—had never seen before... She hypothesized that the girl might be a fashion-focused hardcore player, one who plays for appearance rather than strength, but at the very least, pulling together such stylish equipment between the start of the game and Thirdrema was exceedingly difficult. And there was something off about the girl frolicking and laughing excitedly.
(I heard he was with a talking Vorpal Bunny... but that's a person, right? That...)
It's not that she had no guesses for monsters that could take human form, but those were far more obvious... And after watching the girl speaking with the gatekeeper NPC for a while, Psyger-0 finally realized the source of the discomfort.
(I see... there's no player name displayed.)
Meaning, that girl was apparently an NPC... And with that, Psyger-0 felt relieved that the greatest obstacle to her suddenly conceived "approach him as a senpai of the game" operation had been nothing more than her own jumping to conclusions. The other problems were not only unsolved but were growing more mysterious by the moment, but for Psyger-0, who was acting on roughly eighty percent personal feelings, those were trivial issues.
(I have to... follow them into Thirdrema... Ah.)
Changing the subject, in Shangri-La Frontier, NPCs can also pop into existence. For instance, just as the line of NPCs waiting to enter Thirdrema had spawned right before Psyger-0's eyes. Incidentally, if you were to shove past or harm an NPC here, at worst, wanted posters of the player would be distributed not only in Thirdrema but in the two adjacent cities as well, and you'd end up pursued by NPC guards, bounty hunters, and in some cases, players after the bounty. From Psyger-0's perspective, any mob in Thirdrema was no threat, but a drop in NPC affinity would affect various things. And so, the Platinum Knight could do nothing but watch as the half-naked bird-head and the white-haired girl—who was for some reason clutching her rear—walked beyond the gate.