Chapter 44: Exile Life Day One — Already Bored
Sunraku: "...Sugar... caffeine... food."
Head hurt. Not enough. Fridge... fridge...
Sunraku: "...Khaaah!"
Energy drink! Vitamin pills! Sweet buns! Waking up at noon and starting with this—unhealthy to the max, the best! Well, it’s like drinking a hangover cure; I’ll eat a proper breakfast too. Full-dive games burn energy, so if you don’t take in nutrients, your performance suffers. Slurp. Sucking the energy drink through a straw while throwing together a quick breakfast. Dump homemade salmon flakes over rice, add nori, a pinch of shichimi as a secret touch, then pour over mentsuyu and hot tea for an instant ochazuke.
Sunraku: "Ahh... hits the spot."
Mentally, mostly. Eating isn’t just nutrients; it’s about fulfilling a craving. I quickly shovel in the ochazuke, then head back to my room while thinking through my next steps.
Sunraku: "For now, I can stay in Rabituza even after finishing the scenario. But on the flip side, there’s nothing to do here..."
Thanks to the title of Honorary Rabituzan Citizen, I can remain in Rabituza even after clearing the Unique Scenario. But the problem is that there’s less to do here than I thought. Rabituza, being a hidden area separate from the main map, doesn’t really have an “outside” world. If I just wanted to watch rabbits for animal therapy, this might be the perfect environment, but at the very least, there’s no “pioneering” or “adventure” to be had here.
Sunraku: "And that other Unique Scenario too..."
By clearing the Unique Scenario “Invitation from Rabituza,” a new one triggered: the Unique Scenario “Epic of Vorpal Bunny.” Going by the name, it gives off a seriously ominous vibe. I overlooked it at the time, but it’s a monstrous Unique with a recommended level of 80—nearly the level cap. My guess is it’s tied to Vash... a Unique Scenario involving Vysache, who reeks of being a Unique Monster himself.
I’ve already confirmed that accepting a Unique Scenario doesn’t restrict main game progress, so I took it for now. But the conditions to advance it are ridiculously cryptic. It says:
“When the souls of the Divine Era waver, that rabbit shall tell its epic.”
I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. In my personal experience, conditions like this are almost always impossible to meet at low level. Divine Era…………... Ah, right. I forgot—in this world’s lore, the civilization that fell in the distant past is called the Divine Era. That means I’ll have to seriously look into the lore... but...
Sunraku: "What a pain..."
Back when I was glancing through strategy sites, I once opened a lore analysis site to see if there were any clues from the setting that could help with progression. What greeted me was an absolutely monstrous mountain of analysis—so huge it took 20 seconds to load even on my pretty decent connection. Apparently, there are clans that specialize in lore analysis, and the combined result of all those individuals endlessly theorizing was that overwhelming info dump. Picking useful info out of that would be exhausting, and above all, I have zero motivation for it.
Sunraku: "The Unique Scenario can definitely wait... so that means..."
The original problem rears its head again here. The current situation is totally outside what I had planned. I was just going to enjoy the game however the wind blew, but instead I’m in exile. Well, I’m used to getting chased by players and hiding, but voluntarily diving into that situation versus being thrown into it are two very different things.
Sunraku: "Then how about I just disclose the Unique?"
I accidentally blurt out what’s probably the smartest solution... then snort and laugh it off. I’m the type who prefers “Only One” over “Number One.” Even if I were tied to a chair and spawn-camped forever, I wouldn’t disclose the Unique. Besides, even if I did, would anyone believe “I showed my Vorpal Soul to Lycagon the Nightslayer and a Unique Scenario flag triggered”?
Sunraku: "Hmm..."
Well, whatever. Let’s just log in.
I tried talking to Emul about something along the lines of “Wanna go outside but getting targeted sucks,” and the response I got was:
Emul: "In other words, Sunraku-san wants to hide his appearance, wa?"
Sunraku: "Nn, nnnn... well, I guess when you boil it down, maybe that’s it..."
Maybe there are ways or equipment to hide your name that I just don’t know about. As for appearance, if I used armor or something, I could probably fool people at first glance. But even if using appearances to deceive and quickly vanishing from sight is the optimal solution for me... that damn curse making it impossible to equip torso and leg gear really stings right here and now. And since my look is pretty flashy, I stand out compared to other players running around with no equipment.
Emul: "In that case, I know a place that sells good stuff, wa! Right this way, wa!"
Sunraku: "Wait, there’s a shop here?!"
Led by Emul, I arrived not in the town of Rabituza itself... but in front of a single Vorpal Bunny inside the Rabbit Palace.
Peatz: "On? What’s this, Emul-neechan. What’s up?"
Emul: "Sunraku-san! This is my little brother Peatz, wa!"
Peatz: "Nice to meet ya. You’re that... thing, yeah? The bird person the Emperor of the Night is so fond of."
Sunraku: "’Bird person’...? Look, this is just a mask. I’ve got a perfectly normal face under it. See?"
Head equipment can be removed separately. In front of Emul and this newly discovered third talking Vorpal Bunny, I take off the Staring Bird Mask and show my real face. Come to think of it, I put a lot of effort into creating this face but have barely shown it. In a way, the bird mask was my face... wait—
Sunraku: "Wait, why are you so surprised?"
Emul: "You could just take it off normally, wa!? I assumed there was some deep, complicated reason you couldn’t..."
Sunraku: "No, not really... I just never had a reason to."
I’d completely abandoned defense anyway, so there was no reason to take it off or swap it out. If I had to say, maybe when I bought the Partition Blade equipment I had a chance to change gear, but the fact that the alternative was a Robber’s Mask was the problem. More importantly, don’t look at someone’s bare face like that—like a sandbag player in an FPS who just got flanked. Even if it’s not my real face, it still stings a little.
Emul: "A-Ahem! A-Anyway, if you can remove that mask, that’s perfect, wa! Peatz, didn’t you once say you got your paws on an interesting piece of cloth?"
Peatz: "Cloth? Ah, that thing. Thought it was funny and could sell, but... for the price, it just looked like plain cloth, so no one was biting. I went through a ton of trouble to get it—it’s from the ceremonial garb of those Beastmen, y’know."
Cloth?