Chapter 10: A Half-Naked Pervert from the Perspective of an Experienced Player

The player's name is Reiji. After three months of hardship, utilizing every trick in the book and employing bribes (like treating her to sweets) to get close to the girl he had a crush on, his efforts finally bore fruit. He had managed to maneuver the situation into a setup where he, the experienced veteran, would lecture her, the beginner, as she started playing Shangri-La Frontier.

"Okay then, Yamamoto-kun. I'm counting on you today, okay?"

"O-Oh. First of all, it's basic manners not to use real names inside the game."

"Ah, sorry! Um, well then... Reiji-kun."

Even though it was just a Player Name, shifting from being called by his surname to his first name caused Reiji... real name Reiji Yamamoto... to dance wildly with joy inside his heart, glad that he had chosen the katakana version of his real name for his character.

"Ahem. Anyway... Mia, you wanted to tame a dog-type monster, right?"

"Yeah. I can't keep pets at my apartment... and I got interested in this game after hearing about it from a friend."

Although it was a reason somewhat too peaceful for playing an RPG, Shangri-La Frontier boasted a monstrous level of freedom, so there were many players who found purpose outside of combat. Mia, who had passed through the "Forest of Rampancy" in a state bordering on parasitism after joining Reiji's party, didn't know that dog-type monsters didn't appear in stages prior to Secondil. Reiji had accepted that explaining this was unavoidable.

"Okay, so the taming procedure is..."

".........oooo........."

"Hm?"

It happened right then. Standing at the entrance leading from the Forest of Rampancy into Secondil, the two involuntarily turned their gaze toward a voice coming from the direction of the canyon spanned by the suspension bridge. And both Reiji and Mia would come to curse the misfortune of being in this spot.

"VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

If I remember correctly, that mask is a character creation item (swappable with starting headgear, but has 0 Defense), Reiji thought, trying to avert his consciousness from everything below it's neck. If that half-naked pervert sprinting at breakneck speed didn't have a Player Name floating above his head, Reiji would have mistaken him for a rare beast from a random encounter.

"I-Is that a monster!?"

"No, it has a Player Name, so it's a player. And don't attack it."

Reiji vaguely guessed the reason why the half-naked pervert player... a person named Sunraku... was panicking.

(The Gluttonous Giant Serpent uses a poison feces attack... He must have gotten hit by it after running out of herbs.)

Reiji, a player since launch, felt a wave of nostalgia for the chaos of those early days, recalling how quite a few players fell victim to that attack. Strictly speaking, Sunraku was paying the price for living a homeless life, engaging in "disrespectful play," and challenging the boss with zero means of healing. However, Reiji never imagined the reason was something that stupid. Deciding not to worry about why he was half-naked for now, Reiji instructed Mia to lower the bow she had raised (to prevent a PK penalty) and shouted to the sprinting player named Sunraku.

"The inn is straight ahead! It's the building with the white roof!!"

"THAAAAAAAAAANK YOOOUUUUUUU!!"

As Sunraku dashed away in an instant, Reiji guessed his approximate stat allocation and pitied him in his heart.

(I hope he realizes quickly that that build is a dead end...)

Watching Sunraku go, assuming he had dumped his stats into AGI just like Reiji once had, Reiji recalled the boss that had to be defeated to get from Secondil to the third town, "Thirdrema."

"That guy... is really tough..."

"Reiji-kun... you seemed like a total veteran just now! That was cool!!"

"........."

Reiji froze for a moment. When he returned to his senses, he silently thanked the half-naked bird-head for bringing him unexpected luck.

To state the conclusion: although Sunraku died from total HP loss, thanks to the kind player, he succeeded in updating his Respawn Point and was able to wake up at the inn in Secondil.

"That was... cloooose..."

When he reached the entrance of Secondil and realized the fact that he "didn't know where the inn was," he had almost given up, thinking this is the end. But thanks to that kind player, he was truly saved. He didn't know what would happen to the items he obtained if he were actually sent back to the initial spawn point, and he didn't exactly want to volunteer to find out. He opened his status screen, confirmed that his items remained intact, and finally sighed in relief.

"If I recall... his name was Reiji."

If we ever meet again, I have to thank him. He fiddled with his status for a while, noting that the death penalty in this game seemed to apply a debuff correction to stats for a certain period.

"It's about time. I should sleep."

Summer break has just begun. I'll sleep once and then start grinding in earnest.

Author's Notes & Lore

The Poison Dash: "Sprinting full speed to Secondil while panicking about the Poison status" was a fairly common sight in the early days when strategy guides weren't fleshed out. Even now, players who don't look at strategy wikis still reenact this scene.