Chapter 6: A Wild Pervert Appeared!

The unfortunate Almiraj (Horned Rabbit) I bumped into on the way didn't drop anything, but I already have about 30 slabs of Almiraj meat, so I don't need any more anyway. Frowning slightly at the subtle difficulty of moving due to the weight, I walked in the direction of the voices.

"Over this way... Ah, there they are."

I ended up hidden in some tall grass, but I could clearly see a group of a male and two females walking along the animal trail. It was an enviable party composition... and since names were displayed above their heads, I knew they were players.

"A Knight, a Thief, and a Mage... How convenient."

If I recall, Mages learn Fireball as an initial skill. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure all Mages start with Fire affinity. Between the Almiraj meat, Orc meat, and Vorpal Bunny meat, I have about 70 pieces of raw meat in total. If I offer them some, they might share some fire with me.

Just as I was agonizing over how to initiate the conversation, it seemed the trio encountered a monster.

"Wow, it's cute!"

Cute. That rules out Orcs and Goblins.

"It looks like a rabbit, but... is this a monster too?"

Hmm, an Almiraj? But Vorpal Bunnies are supposed to be Rare Enemies. There's no way they'd encounter one right on the—

"This rabbit is walking on two legs."

It IS a Vorpal Bunny!!

I peeked out from the grass to see the Mage girl carelessly approaching the Vorpal Bunny of all things. Based on my experience of slaughtering dozens of them, I could clearly see that the Head-Hunting Rabbit was winding up for an attack.

"WAAAAAAIIIIIIITTT!!!"

"Heh?" "Eh?" "Hah?"

A half-naked bird-head burst out of the grass, dual swords raised high. I knew I wouldn't make it in time just by running, so the moment I leaped, I activated Flash Counter. I dove between the Mage girl and the Vorpal Bunny leaping at her. With my right blade, I parried the cleaver the bunny was holding. Twisting my body in a spin, I slammed my left blade into the Vorpal Bunny from below. It must have been a critical hit; the Vorpal Bunny died in one strike and exploded into polygons. Did it drop anything? Nope. While nonchalantly thinking that, I rolled to break my fall and turned to face the trio. And finally, everyone present—regardless of the context—comprehended the result of the situation.

...Namely, the result: "A half-naked bird-headed pervert with oddly intense eyes burst out of the bushes and brutally murdered a cute rabbit."

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" "IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" "UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The trio raised their weapons. Three people charged. Weapons swung down...

"Whoa, dangerous!!"

Dodging a simultaneous three-way attack from a crouching position after a roll was enough to send a chill down my spine. Using Tap Step, the second skill I thought I'd never use, to create distance, I loudly and clearly demanded a ceasefire.

"Stop! Stoooop! I'm a player! Staaaahp!!"

"Perveeeeeeeert!!"

"I can't deny that! But look! Look at the Player Name displayed!! Seriously, look!!"

"Diiiiiiieeeeeeee!!"

It's not that I don't have PvP experience, but I really wanted to avoid my first encounter in ShanFro turning into a deathmatch. In the end, I was forced to continuously dodge and parry until the Thief girl finally regained her cool and held the other two back.

"Um, well... You saved us from a dangerous monster, yet we attacked you... I'm sorry..."

"Ah, no, the fault lies more with me for starting my adventure in pervert gear because I was blinded by money..."

Having somehow managed to change their evaluation of me from "Rare Beast: Half-Naked Bird Head" to "Player with crazy fashion sense: Sunraku," I bowed my head to the three of them. The Knight boy was Soma, the Thief girl was Kahho, and the Mage girl was Rina. Apparently, while you can customize your appearance as you please in this game, you cannot change your voice. Because of this, cases where a little girl speaks with a middle-aged man's voice are evidently common, but judging by their voices, these three seemed to be middle schoolers. I felt truly sorry for frightening these three—who were my juniors in every sense of the word—but since animal pelts couldn't be equipped without processing, I was stuck in this getup until I reached a town no matter how much I struggled.

"U-Um, so, Sunraku-san... have you been leveling here... the whole time?"

"Ah, well, yeah. I intended to just watch the monsters' movements at first, but I ended up wanting to verify a bunch of things."

It was a habit from my days playing Trash Games. Since drop rates below the decimal point were common, the habit of "hunting enemy mobs until they go extinct" had been ingrained into my body.

Please, don't let there be infinite spawns.

Author's Notes & Lore

Half-Naked Players: Basically, there is almost zero merit to not equipping armor in this game. Therefore, the reasonable number of "Half-Naked Starters" usually buy the cheapest armor immediately. Consequently, the very small number of half-naked players encountered outside of town areas are either:

• Perverts who get excited by being seen half-naked.
• Masochists who enjoy the state of taking massive damage.

The protagonist might best be described as a "Barbarian" who has gone feral in a different sense.

Translator's Remarks

• A Wild Pervert Appeared: The chapter title (Yasei no hentai ga tobidashita) is a direct reference to the classic Pokémon encounter text ("A wild [Pokemon] appeared!").