Chapter 33: The Armored Knight Saw It!

If there is an out-of-print trash game in the East, I will click "Buy" on an internet auction. If there is a sighting of a trash game with scarce distribution in the West, I will travel solo on a maglev train to visit the shop. As a result, I have been bestowed the mud-colored title of "Trash Game Hunter" by numerous fellow trash game players. However, I have never experienced an NPC doing not just a double-take, but a quadruple-take at me.

"Next... per—son? No, why half-naked? T-That bruise! Even on the legs!?"

And thus, the gatekeeper pointed out every single insane point about Sunraku in one go... If there were an in-game NPC popularity poll, I'd vote for you, baby. That reaction was just too good. I once laughed my head off seeing a bugged character whose "head would rotate on the horizontal axis when walking," but at least this guy provided a laugh that was several times healthier than that.

The gatekeeper was groaning, unsure of what to do with me and my full-blown suspicious person aura. But here, Emul's tongue spun at full speed to avoid the label of "a woman accompanying a mere pervert."

"No, no, please wait, Mr. Gatekeeper. For him, this is... urgh! He has a terrible past, desu wa...!"

I was honestly surprised. Not just by the AI that rivals humans in its ability to "fabricate lies," but by the fact that through Emul's eloquence, the character known as Sunraku was concocted into:

"A wandering warrior who continues a pilgrimage to break a curse, guided by fate. He is a Holy Warrior destined from a past life by the God of Fate to fight the Night Raider Lycaon. He challenged Lycaon after reincarnating but was powerless, had the curse carved into him, and is now guided by destiny."

Or some such explosion-ready setting packed with way too much lore.

"I feel like I just got cheered on super hard..."

"That curse holds that much power, desu wa. Sunraku-san could even boast about it more!"

Is that how it is...? Well, being looked at with eyes of respect and awe by an NPC is itchy, but it doesn't feel bad. I wonder what it would be like if I showed it off to players? They'd probably just ask, "Where can I equip that tattoo on my avatar?" at most.

"If we can enter the town without issues, then fine. Let's go, Emul."

"Yes, sir!"

If I were to use a metaphor, yes... it was like taking a super-high firepower attack with a defense-penetration effect right to the face.

No, this could no longer be described by in-game phenomena. Feeling a shock as if a siege hammer had smashed directly into her brain, Psyger-0—who had cut down the Mud Digger with a single stroke and sprinted full speed to Thirdrema—was watching the scene from the shadows of a rock, utilizing her full (albeit clumsy) stealth capabilities as a hardcore player.

(U-Um, that... who is that girl?)

A player named Sunraku with no equipment on his torso or legs, equipped with the bird mask of "Staring." It is almost certainly him. If there were another person with the same player name at the exact same time, it would be very troubling, but surely, the only one who fits the description of "Sunraku, a player you never know what he'll do next" is him.

However, from what she had heard, Hizutome Rakuro (Sunraku) was not the type of person to play games with others. Could it be that her supporter (Mana Iwamaki) had concealed information? Unconsciously, the hand she had reached out toward her sword clenched into a fist.

(No... calm down, be rational... Big Sister said that calm observation is crucial for first-time encounters...)

Ahead of her gaze was the boy who had spectacularly betrayed Psyger-0's initial goal of "guiding a beginner hand-and-foot." He had charged forward with the force of breaking bamboo. Beside him was a girl with a monocle, dressed in an outfit that Psyger-0—who had seen a fair amount of this game—had never seen before. She deduced that this girl might be a "Fashion Hardcore"—a player who plays for aesthetics rather than strength. However, gathering such a stylish outfit between the start of the game and Thirdrema would be difficult, and she felt a sense of incongruity from the girl frolicking about so cheerfully.

(I definitely heard he was with a talking Vorpal Bunny... but that's a human, right? That...)

It wasn't that she didn't know of monsters that could transform into humans, but those were usually more obvious. As she continued to watch the girl speaking to the NPC gatekeeper for a while, Psyger-0 finally realized the true nature of the incongruity.

(I see... no Player Name is displayed.)

In other words, that girl appears to be an NPC... Psyger-0 felt relieved that the biggest barrier to her "Operation: Talk to him as a senior player"—which had suddenly appeared—was just her jumping to conclusions. The other issues hadn't been resolved—in fact, the mystery had only deepened—but for Psyger-0, who was operating on 80% personal emotions, those were trivial matters.

(Into Thirdrema... I must chase them... Ah.)

On a different note, in Shangri-la Frontier, NPCs can also spawn (pop). For example, just like the line of NPCs queuing to enter Thirdrema that just generated right in front of Psyger-0's eyes. Incidentally, if one were to shove aside or harm NPCs here, in the worst-case scenario, "Wanted" posters of the player would be distributed not only in Thirdrema but in the towns before and after it. They would end up being chased by NPC guards, bounty hunters, and in some cases, players looking for a prize. From Psyger-0's perspective, the mobs around Thirdrema were no enemies at all, but since lowering NPC affinity affects various things, the Platinum Knight could do nothing but watch as the half-naked bird-head and the white-haired girl—who was for some reason holding her butt—walked beyond the gate.

Author's Notes & Lore:

By the way, among the NPCs, there are some characters who have already broken through Level 100 at this point in time.

Translator's Remarks:

The Armored Knight Saw It!: The chapter title (Yoroikishi wa Mita!) is a play on the very famous Japanese TV drama tropes, specifically Kaseifu wa Mita! ("The Housekeeper Saw It!"), where a domestic worker witnesses secrets/scandals in a household.

East/West Poem: Sunraku's opening monologue parodies the structure of Kenji Miyazawa's famous poem Ame ni mo Makezu ("If there is a sick child in the east..."). Sunraku replaces the altruistic acts with buying trash games.

Baby: Sunraku actually says "Baby" (Beibē) in katakana in the raw text