Bushido Online: Pacchi Festival: A LitRPG Saga

by Nikita Thorn

  On one of the vertical brass handles was a written sign that said, ‘Temporarily Closed’.

  Seiki peered in, but nothing moved behind the silent, frosted glass. “The guy said to just come over.” He turned to his friends. “I know they have a few territories, but he said ‘main office’, so it’s this one, right?”

  “Yeah, this should be it.” Ippei glanced up at the row of red flags decorating the front of the building. Whether by coincidence or whether because the clan had any control over what went in front of their territory, the place had a gigantic cloth sign that said ‘Happy Pacchi Festival’ in big bold characters hanging from the top, which Seiki had never seen repeated anywhere else in the city.

  It had been a day since their run with the West Defenders, and whether or not word had already gotten out about the unlocking of a new Stage in War Games, the City appeared blissfully unchanged. Seiki had to admit it had been a little jarring coming back from their trip to the far edge of Hitsu Temple to find the Festival at its height, with constant parades and cheery crowds who could not care any less how many War Events had been cleared. According to Ippei, only a handful of clans took War Games seriously.

  “And that’s like only about ten percent of the ten percent who take the whole game seriously at all,” the samurai had added.

  If what Ippei said was true, the remaining ninety percent of the people definitely took the Festival seriously, judging from the crowds they had had to wade through to get to the Society’s main office. Its prime location just off the middle of Trade Street meant it was right in the busiest part of the whole city.

  Behind Seiki, Mairin and Yamura squeezed in closer to the building to get out of the flow of the traffic within the alley.

  “So, anyway, you were saying the West Defenders gave you guys a clan invite?” the kitsune was saying, continuing the previous conversation. “Okay, maybe try knocking again, Seiki?”

  “It wasn’t really a clan invite. It was… uh, it was vague, at best,” said Seiki.

  Umiko had mentioned something ambiguous about making the arrangement more permanent, and Ippei had said something equally ambiguous in reply. The West Defenders, however, had been rather busy with the Festival since, and there had not been any more development beyond that.

  “What if they really did, are you just gonna refuse them like you did everyone else?” said Mairin.

  “Of course,” said Ippei.

  Mairin’s eyes lit up in amusement. “Okay, I get it now. You collect clan invites like Achieves.”

  Seiki chuckled.

  Ippei gave a casual shrug. “I’m just waiting for something… better.” His last word was said with intent, and Seiki saw the samurai looking directly at him.

  Mairin’s eyes narrowed. “You mean…”

  Before they could continue that thought, the front doors swung wide open, revealing a man in a pale golden robe, Kazuki of the Shinshioka Scientific Society [Level 27]. Seiki recalled the man was a ninja, although no one would have guessed from the way he was dressed.

  The man smiled broadly as he saw his visitors. “Ah, Seiki-san! Come in, come in. I didn’t expect you to show up so soon, after our… serendipitous meeting in the Shogun’s facilities. But now is as good as any time, and I see you’ve got company with you.”

  “Please no RP,” Ippei groaned.

  Kazuki looked slightly amused.

  “Sorry it was such a short notice,” said Seiki. “Hope it’s all right that I brought my friends along.”

  “Of course, of course,” said Kazuki. “The rest of you, well, I believe we’re not yet acquainted, although some of you do have somewhat of a reputation.”

  “What kind of reputation?” said Yamura.

  Before Kazuki could say anything, Mairin gasped. “You’ve got the robe already!”

  It took a moment for Seiki to realize that the ninja was wearing something called an Embroidered Youkou Robe, which was most likely one of the time-limited pieces people could buy with Festival Tokens.

  “Ah, yes. Alas no matching kanmuri yet. That one will take a few more quests. Anyway, please come in, and, don’t mind this. We’re just doing some housekeeping before the exhibition.” Kazuki nodded at the sign in front of the building as he held the door open for his guests.

  Seiki was not sure what he expected the inside of the Society to look like, but certainly not a plain and strangely elongated entryway that was only five feet deep but stretched the whole width of the building, with a long simple shoji wall that ran parallel to it, blocking the rest of the territory from view. The only other features visible were narrow staircases at both ends of the corridor that were mirror images of each other.

  “The one on the left goes to the private territory,” said Kazuki, sounding somewhat apologetic as if to say this was not the best of first impressions. “We don’t own it. The opposite side leads up to our clan hall, which I’m afraid I’ll need a quick moment to tidy up; so, in the meantime, do make yourselves comfortable in our public lobby.”

  With a hasty smile, Kazuki quickly disappeared up the staircase. “Ten minutes,” he shouted to reassure them as his footsteps faded away. “I’ll find somewhere private for us to talk.”

  Seiki had not specified in his post message what he was there to discuss, but it was perhaps not difficult to guess. At least Kazuki showed no sign of knowing how much more Seiki had learned since their last conversation in the Court Prison, which was a relief.

  Earlier that day, they had immediately called a meeting with the rest of their friends to share their discovery in the Hitsu Temple. After several hours of discussions over many more takeaway ice desserts, they had unfortunately not made much progress beyond a large number of wild and completely baseless theories.

  One thing, at least, was now certain: the unlabeled item they had received from the Nezumi Temple was a key.

  “And the Society doesn’t know this, or they would have called it a key and not a ‘seal’,” Mairin had speculated.

  The mysterious door with the demonic runes on top of the Hitsu Temple pagoda was even more puzzling. The door was hidden in an advanced instance that only a few players could reach, but was not part of the instance, as it did not appear on the shared mental map. Seiki and Ippei had been careful not to mention anything to the West Defenders, and the clan showed no apparent awareness of it. At first they speculated that it was a hidden secret, part of the treasure system, and that players needed to beat the instance before being allowed to open the runed door for reward with a specific Shadow Key, but then the notification clearly said it was the wrong key.

  “Maybe the Society’s one will open it?” Mairin had suggested. “Maybe there are loads of doors hidden everywhere in the world, and if you have a key you try it out. Or maybe you have to actually decipher the Demonic Clan language around it and it will tell you how to open the door.”

  None of them seemed to be very sensible guesses, and eventually they arrived at the inevitable conclusion that the smart thing to do was to talk to the Society—the only other party known to have one of these unlabeled keys in their possession.

  “Remember, we’re here just to talk about how we got the... ‘Seal’, all right?” said Ippei, after the Society leader had disappeared up the stairs. “And ask them how they got theirs, and maybe that will give us more clues as to what these ‘Seals’ are supposed to be.”

  “Yeah, yeah, Shadow ‘Seals’, I know.” Yamura was already reaching for the shoji door. “I can’t believe I’ve never been in here before. And I can’t believe it’s still public, and…” The ryoushi halted in surprise. “They have a real couch in here!”

  The so-called public lobby was a moderately large room with two narrow latticed windows at the far end. The flooring was light-colored hinoki wood and the wall panels were painted white. Very much like the front door, the room had a distinctive anachronistic feel to it. A large grandfather’s clock stood at the far end between the two windows.
Next to it was a bookshelf that held a few bound books and a decorative bonsai tree. What immediately drew the eye was, however, a large Victorian Sofa [imported treasure], with a polished painted frame and striped yellow and gray silk cushion.

  Mairin was off in fox form, beating Yamura to the luxurious piece of furniture, before transforming back into a human girl and frowning. “Yeah, it’s as uncomfortable as it looks.”

  Seiki followed his friends into the room. The ryoushi was right. There was no welcome notification for the territory, and Kazuki had not needed to invite them to a group to let them in, which meant they were indeed still in a public area.

  “So this is the clan hall, but they’ve made some part of it public?” Seiki asked.

  “Apparently,” said Ippei.

  “Since anyone can come in, why isn’t this place constantly swarmed with, you know, people… trying out the couch?” Seiki laughed.

  He got his answer immediately as he spotted a sign on one of the inner walls that said, ‘Shinshioka Scientific Society territory – Please do not enter without proper business. Violators will be permanently banned from the newsletter list and all updates’.

  Underneath the sign was another handwritten notice in three lines that said, ‘Running from street brawls. Does not constitute ‘business’. You have all been warned.’

  Seiki guessed that was enough of a threat to keep people away.

  The lobby, although not big, seemed to have been filled with enough curious items to hold visitors’ interest for a while. Beside the couch was a small coffee table with an ornate carved leg, also labeled [imported treasure]. The bookshelf was full of player-made items, including a collection of short stories, titled Tales from the Wilderness, and a thick book titled A Brief History of Shinshioka, credited to Ibumi of the Court Minstrels, as well as several bound volumes of the Shinshioka Scientific Society Newsletter from the last six months. Ippei eventually picked one up and sat down on the couch, while the rest of them continued to explore.

  Against the left wall, set between two decorative scroll paintings, was a large storage chest that could double as additional seating, with two floor cushions set on top of it.

  Mairin tried the chest and found it locked. “Isn’t it bold to put a treasure chest right here? Although I’m sure it will turn out to be empty if you lockpick it.”

  Seiki casually inspected the item.

  Koumyou Chest. 180-slot storage chest. Enchantment: Superior Jikei Engravings – share the convenience of storage with your visitors. Item slots are limited to the highest number each user has unlocked for their personal storage. Crafted by Michiko of the Crafters’ Guild.

  “A hundred and eighty slots!” Seiki nearly choked. It was three times as many as he had at the moment, and he had spent a fortune on his current one.

  “Oh, I see,” said Mairin in surprise. “It’s a… shared personal box. The White Cranes have one of these on their third floor. It’s like your personal box, but they enchant it so everyone can use it.”

  “How does that work exactly?”

  “Whoever opens it sees their storage in it, and you refresh it by opening and closing.”

  “Okay, so it’s like a portal to your storage,” said Seiki, which was how he had always conceptualized the connection between all his personal boxes. “Why put it here, though… in public?”

  “Yeah,” said Yamura. “Why put a crazy good storage box over here, with all these things. Look, they’re either treasure or antique or… uh, imported treasure, whatever that is.”

  “You get imported treasure from the port city near the ocean at the other end of the Wilderness,” said Ippei. “That’s after all of Fuoka.”

  Mairin seemed amused. “Oh, right, where you died to some slugs.”

  Ippei sighed. “That’s not exactly what happened.”

  “Okay, so these are all super expensive stuff,” said Yamura. “You see my point? They put a storage right here. What’s to stop someone from just coming in, stealing all the stuff and putting it straight into their box? Like, look at this thing. This must be worth a zillion gold.” Yamura nodded toward the ornate grandfather’s clock. Unlike Ippei’s golden watch, this one apparently told game time, and each swing of the pendulum moved the hands forward by three seconds rather than one.

  “Well, I suppose you’ll have to be able to lift it off the ground,” said Ippei with a straight face.

  “You probably won’t be able to close the lid afterward,” said Seiki.

  Yamura let out a grunt. “Oh, come on. I’m not talking about the clock. Okay, take this piece. Someone can just easily pocket it.” The ryoushi picked up a small bird-shaped ceramic figurine from a table beside the couch, another [imported treasure].

  Mairin giggled. “Didn’t I say you were in the wrong clan?”

  Ippei laughed as Yamura glared at her. “They have anti-shoplifting panels all over the room.” The samurai nodded toward the walls. “You can’t transfer ownership of anything without a trade prompt.”

  Seiki had never heard of such a thing before. “What do you mean?”

  Apparently he was not the only one. Mairin raised an eyebrow, grabbed a nearby decorative metal box and slid it into her sleeve. The item faded back into its original position on the table a few seconds later, causing the kitsune’s eyes to widen. “Okay, it just auto disappears from your inventory.”

  “This isn’t like your private territories, where no one can take anything without your permission. Clan territories are all fair game, and it forces you to spend clan resources on benefits. In this case, it’s special panels,” said Ippei.

  Not entirely sure what his friend meant, Seiki inspected the closest wall panel:

  Red Cedar Wood Panel. [Enchantment Slot]: Takamichi Wall Seal [Rank 3 Reinforcement]. Pickpocketing disabled. Items placed in the open in this room are protected from theft.

  This meant very little to Seiki. He knew clans could design their hall anyway they wanted, and he supposed the clans could add wall panels to divide their space into different rooms. Each panel seemed to come with a slot, where an additional enchanted Seal could be added.

  “So, like, how clan territories out the East Gate collect rice from the villages or something like that to upgrade their clan, clan halls in the city does… interior design?”

  Ippei laughed. “I suppose you can put it that way. From what little I’ve seen of clan PVP, they usually go for defense, so if their clan hall gets invaded, they have enchanted panels that periodically heal clan members, or slow enemies down.”

  “Now that makes sense,” said Seiki. “But the Society has… anti-Pickpocketing?”

  “Highly-skilled Pickpocketers might be able to bypass it, hence the rank on the panels. The higher rank, the higher Pickpocketing skill you need to pull something off in this room.”

  Mairin turned to Yamura. “Hey, fancy trying your hand against the Society’s Rank 3 anti-theft system?”

  The ryoushi shook his head. “No point. My Pickpocketing is only Level 8. After the first few quests, I couldn’t find that stupid thief master to level it up anymore.”

  Seiki glanced around the room, wondering what it was that he was not understanding. “Okay, what about looting dead bodies? Do these panels protect you from being looted?” It would at least make sense if that was the case.

  Ippei laughed. “Probably not. Or they would have a lot of people running in from brawls to die in here to avoid getting looted.”

  Seiki pondered some more. In a way, the Society was set up very much like Ichikeya Inn, where the whole of the ground floor was open to the public and the real clan territory only started at the staircase leading up to a higher floor. In Ichikeya’s case, the tavern downstairs served as an area for gathering and gossips, which fit the whole narrative as a front for the clan’s shadier line of business. Here, at the Society’s main building, it seemed the owners had gone to great lengths to create a public living room, which they then
instructed the public not to use. Seiki supposed the wall panels and enchantments had not come cheap either, not to mention the various [imported treasure] lying around and a storage box that anyone could use provided they could unlock it.

  “Okay, I don’t understand the design,” Seiki finally gave up. “What’s the purpose?”

  “I know. It’s obvious,” said Yamura. “It’s for flex.”

  A chuckle sounded from the shoji door, where Kazuki had reappeared, a tiny smile on his lips. “This is just to avoid having to invite people into the territory. You see, we contract a large number of freelancers, and we don’t want the risk of putting them all on our guest list or inviting them to a group every time.”

  Mairin cocked her head. “Freelancers… for?”

  “Commissioned experiments,” said Kazuki. “Things like spawn rates and drop rates, or quest rewards, so we can document everything we know. We also offer a small reward for anyone who shows us something new that we’ve never seen before. So a public area right on our doorstep like this is ideal for quick trades.”

  “I see,” said Seiki as he glanced at the setup of the lobby again. “So they don’t have to risk carrying whatever rare items they have on them, because they can just get them from their box once they’re here.”

  Kazuki nodded. “Exactly. The last thing anyone would want to do is to go into a clan territory, where they can be murdered and looted as soon as the territory owner changes the combat rule. Having a public area protects both parties, and allows for greater transparency. This was my idea, by the way, and after we started it we have seen an increase in people coming forward to show us new things.”

  “New things like what?” asked Yamura.

  “Anything. People can write to us with the label of the thing they have found, and if we don’t have it in our records yet, we give a flat reward of fifty gold. Well, fifty for an item. A hundred for a new quest chain or quest giver. Our latest one was quite a nice turtle.”