Chapter 303: Strange Bonds and Chance Encounters Smell of Apples

Fuck, this shitty backwater town has way too few places to hide. Fuck.

Sunraku: "Emul... change of plans. There's no way I can register with the guild in this situation."

Emul: "Kyu..."

Sunraku: "Wake up!"

Emul: "Fugyuh!? G-Good morning, wa—mmph!?"

Sunraku: "Aaand... quiet, please...?"

After turning female and changing clothes at high speed, I dove into the crowd and made my escape. I chop Emul awake after the crush of people left her dizzy, then clamp a hand over her mouth before she can yell.

Right now I'm at Firstia's exit—the gate leading into The Rampant Forest.

Apparently the aftershock of the frenzy that erupted behind me when I fled has already reached this far. Without letting the players starting to murmur, "What's going on?" notice me, I put on my own best "Huh, did something happen? That's craaazy" act and try to slip out of Firstia.

Sunraku: "Listen, Emul... Rabituza. Rabbit or otherwise, if we can just make it to Rabituza, all that's left is to sleep. Right? Like a rabbit bolting for its life..."

Emul: "R-Right..."

It's fine. At least in this town, nobody knows Sunrako. I considered retreating into Inventoria until things cooled down, but who knows how many hours I'd have to spend inside that storage space.

Damn you, masterpiece game. Why the hell are so many people logged in this late at night...? Because tomorrow's Saturday? Fuck.

Sunraku: "All right. Blend into the background. Just one ordinary slice of everyday life. We're refined young ladies leaving town..."

???: "You're Sunraku, aren't you?"

Sunraku: "Pohyo."

I thought my heart was going to come out of my mouth.

Sunraku: "N-No, no, no. I am not Sunraku. I am 'Sasorawa,' wa. You have the wrong person, wa."

Emul: "You're copying me—pffft."

Shut uuuup!

The low male voice grabs my heart in a fist. I turn around with a pleasant smile, and there stands a female avatar looking straight at me with a toothy grin. Her appearance is the exact opposite of her voice: brown hair tied in a ponytail, both wild and dignified, with scar-like face paint running from her nose across her left cheek.

???: "Ahh, don't worry about it. There's just one thing I want to ask. I'll keep quiet and let you go after that, so quit being so wary."

Sunraku: ".........So? What do you want to ask?"

???: "I'm Baibaru from the Phi Server. Are you Sunraku from the Mu Server?"

Sunraku: "!!!!"

My heart might actually have flown out of my mouth that time.

A friend request arrives at the same instant as the question. No explanation needed: the "YES or NO" displayed as my response to this request from Survival will itself become the answer.

Sunraku: ".........A 'Survivor' from the deserted island, huh?"

Baibaru: "Damn right... Never thought we'd run into a coincidence like this...!"

Well, shit. Calling us complete strangers would be ridiculous.

I've met this guy before.

I accept the friend request and we exchange looks in silence. I've reunited with acquaintances from other games a few times before, but this is different. Survival Gunman—and especially the people from its "Greek-letter servers"—weren't connected by something as simple as merely having played the same game.

Baibaru: "We've got plenty to catch up on, but... things are getting pretty noisy around here. Drop me a line once you've had a chance to breathe."

Sunraku: "Okay."

We trade grins and part as though nothing happened. A player who looks like a member of the Dress-Up Tias-chan Squad starts talking to Baibaru, and it seems he manages to hold them up for me nicely.

Emul: "Sunraku-san, is he someone you know, wa?"

Sunraku: "Mm... more or less."

Phi Server... Baibaru... Yeah, I know him. Survival Gunman has pistols, unreliable as they may be, yet that server was infested with lunatics who chose to survive against giant creatures through bare-knuckle fighting. If I remember right, the player who ran the wildest among them was named Baibaru.

Sunraku: "Man, what a terrible time I've ha—"

Three minutes pass.

The disguise torso and leg equipment shatter. (Total price: 900,000 Mani.)

The impact of the clothes bursting makes the breasts jiggle.

The eyes of the player who witnesses it lock on.

Without missing that instant, a wild Vorpal Bunny slashes the player's throat with a kitchen knife.

Sunraku: "...Correction. I'm currently, right this second, having a terrible time."

Emul: "...Sunraku-san, let's go back to Rabituza, wa. Today must have been an unlucky day, wa."

Sunraku: "Ah—no. Fifticia... no, actually, make it Eidort."

Emul: "Hai na, hai na. You're going to see your friend, wa. Then I'll wait for you in Rabituza, wa."

Well, that's part of it. There's one more reason too.

Café The Serpent’s Apple. According to its setting, it's a café that welcomes the ruffians of the back alleys. It exists in almost every town—and, incidentally, the proprietor has exactly the same face in every one of them. I can't imagine this game making a boring compromise like that, so there is probably some kind of lore behind it.

As a rule, taste is deliberately muted in this game, but what you can order at this café is an exception: it actually has proper flavor.

That said, if it's sweet, cake and a lump of sugar taste pretty much the same, and Pencilgon describes the alcohol as "non-alcoholic soda that merely has the word alcohol attached to it." So, ultimately, if you want to eat something, do it in real life. Yeah.

Shopkeeper: "...Welcome. Your order?"

And the words Bounty Hunter Lutia left me together with a certain item when she departed pointed to this place as well.

All right, then. Let's go in while mixing in some roleplay that fits the atmosphere.

Sunraku: "Drawn by the scent of apples... I don't suppose you have apple pie?"

Shopkeeper: "...Our 'secret menu.' Who referred you?"

Sunraku: "A woman named Lutia. It was a hot, intense night..."

It really was intense. Let my guard down and I'd be cut into six pieces. I got a firsthand lesson in how terrifying an NPC specialized in PKK can be.

While tossing out that little joke, I slide the item Lutia gave me—the Stag Emblem Letter of Introduction—onto the counter.

Shopkeeper: "............I see. Yes, it's genuine. In that case, honored guest, please wait in that private room until your apple pie is ready."

Sunraku: "Sure."

A few seconds of silence. Then, as though nothing at all had happened, the shopkeeper slips the letter inside his clothes and gestures toward the private room.

Maybe covering it with clothes doesn't lessen the intimidation I give off, because even though I currently look like a slender girl, none of the ruffian NPCs try to pick a fight with me.

Huh? What're you staring at? I'm not a damn show. I'll knock you flying, asshole.

Sunraku: "Well then. Let's see what happens..."

Leaving the NPCs who avert their eyes behind me, I approach the private room the shopkeeper indicated. A private room in a place this underground-looking gives me nothing but shady images. I open the door...

Unlike the "Gate" Emul uses, my vision is swallowed by darkness together with a surprisingly rough impact.

Sunraku: "...Nwhoa!?"

It's like unconsciously stepping on a banana peel and slipping—as though the balance I'd been maintaining to stay upright until the instant before had been reset. Fortunately there is a proper floor under my feet, so I manage to brace myself and avoid falling.

It resembles the moment a huge monster sends you flying: for the briefest instant, it feels as though my inner ear has been shaken up. In other words, teleportation magic.

Sunraku: "...That's pretty damn crude."

???: "Oh my... I had heard you were a man...?"

A woman's voice—too low to call her a girl, but too full of life to call her an old woman.

I raise my head. There is a woman wearing a dress, though not an aristocratic sort of dress. How do I put it? She gives off less of a noblewoman vibe and more the aura of the boss of a hostess club.

Sunraku: "Long story short, I've been turned female, but I'm the same person inside... So? When does the apple pie arrive?"

Woman: "...Hehehe. You have some nerve. Very well. It seems you are indeed someone worthy of her—Lutia's—invitation."

A broad grin.

It isn't quite the sadistic smile of the scumbag model who is technically my boss. The smile of someone looking forward to a brutal fight, like that all-receiving fish or the human TAS woman, is a little closer.

I feel a strange sense of déjà vu. Wearing an indescribably, purely delighted smile, the woman puts it simply.

Woman: "Welcome to Café The Wandering Sword... Let me present you with the option of becoming an Avenger."

[Hidden Job Quest: "The One Who Grants a Faint Wish — Revenge Dead Edge" — Begin? YES / NO]

Unemployed me: a chance at a job has arrived.

Q. Haven't you seen that face somewhere before?

A. It's your face when you're looking at a shelf lined with shitty games.

Avenger

A hidden job configured as an advanced job from the outset. Strictly speaking, if you treat Unaffiliated as the starting job, then it's simply a normal higher-tier job.

Right up until shortly before updating this chapter, I was torn between calling it "Fixer" or "Executor," but the former leaned too heavily into assassination, while the latter made me think of a priest with glasses, so I settled on the current name.

Bounty Hunters are Avengers who exclusively target Player Killers.

There are cries in this world that no one will hear. Whether because of money, power, or some other reason.

That is precisely why a wandering sword with no wielder—no ties—is needed. Motive does not matter. Past history matters a little.

In short, it's bounty hunting. They quietly gather dangerous cases—for example, true to the job's name, acts of "revenge."

After all, in the world of SLF, humans aren't the only things that can become the target of someone's grudge.