Paying to Win in a VRMMO: Volume 5

by Blitz Kiva

  “And here I was convinced you were a lawyer, Mr. Tsuwabuki,” Edogawa muttered sarcastically, unable to fully conceal his annoyance.

  “Ah, well. I do have the qualifications for that, but I’d prefer to maintain my position as a user and nothing more.”

  It was only afterwards that Edogawa realized that he wasn’t being sarcastic.

  “If you can’t view account information, does that mean you also cannot identify the IP address that is currently using my account?” Ichiro asked.

  “Well, it’s the same as the last two times. Um, America...” Edogawa replied as he checked the security log. He couldn’t view the account itself, but he did have a list of IP address accessing the management server from an outside network through traditional channels. It was a route players used to access their information and log in, but there was only one foreign address among them. Edogawa gritted his teeth. If only it had been inside the country...

  Ichiro peered over his shoulder at the IP address. Normally—depending on how well they could interpret the information—it might be against illegal access laws for someone unauthorized to even look at it, but Edogawa didn’t have the mental fortitude to argue about that now.

  Was it possible to use traditional channels to hijack authority of the management server? He couldn’t find any signs of the address using Ichiro’s account going through any illegal channels.

  Edogawa ran a hand through his hair. It was strange. No matter how he checked the log, he couldn’t find any traces of illegal access.

  “After President Azami calms down, you should consult with the lawyer on the business card I gave her,” Ichiro said. “Then I think it would be advisable to set all engineers on working together to take back the system. Ed should continue to check the security log... and check all computers in the company for traces of data being illegally leaked.” Ichiro continued to leisurely give orders under the guise of suggestions.

  A male office worker spoke up hesitantly. “Um, what about you, Mr. Tsuwabuki?”

  “Mm, I’m going home,” he said entirely casually. “At the end of the day, I am no more than a user of your services. If I were to get any more deeply involved, the problem would just get worse, and I’m keeping my visitors waiting as it is. There’s no need to worry. The lawyer I’ve recommended to you is excellent, and he’ll come right away... though he really does have a wretched personality.”

  Ichiro’s words had a certain logic to them, but they were also ridiculously selfish, Edogawa thought as he glared at the display. If he thought about it objectively, Ichiro was actually behaving quite rationally for someone who had just had his account stolen, and it was kind of him to recommend a skilled lawyer for them. He was showing a lot of consideration for a company unaccustomed to dealing with social trouble. He had done more than most “mere users” might do. No one had any right to complain about him leaving now.

  Even so, Edogawa couldn’t restrain his irritation, which he expressed thusly: “Mr. Tsuwabuki, I really don’t think I’ll ever like you.”

  “I see... although I do like you.” Ichiro waved a light goodbye through the dire atmosphere of the office.

  Edogawa couldn’t afford to keep thinking about Ichiro once he was gone. He pushed the man out of his mind and focused on the task ahead.

  Because of that, he didn’t notice that Ichiro immediately called someone the moment he stepped outside.

  “Hello, Sakurako-san? It’s me. Yes. Could you apologize to Asuha and King for me?”

  No one was responding to the GM Call. It was possible that the developers were just as confused as everyone else was.

  Duplichiro’s rampage through Martial City Delve continued. Players, mostly from the Knights, came together to try to stop him, but morale was very low. After all, their opponent had “Immortal” status—knowing that they couldn’t possibly beat him slowly eroded their will to fight.

  The thought that it was just a game, anyway, just decreased their desire to take part even more. What was the point of taking it so seriously? It felt stupid to stick to a game and its rules in the face of an honest-to-goodness cheater. One player after another logged out, acting like their fun had been spoiled.

  “This bodes ill,” Sorceress said.

  “Yeah, it’s not good at all,” Amesho agreed.

  “What do you mean?” Iris asked. She and Nem had arrived in Delve, led by the Kirihitters. Just as they thought the account hack incident had been resolved, Duplichiro had reappeared. It was natural that they wouldn’t be able to stay away.

  Kirihito (Leader) answered Iris’s question. “Users are going to start abandoning NaroFan if this keeps up.”

  NaroFan was a game—it was a place to have fun. There were certainly complaints about the questionable combat balance, and the term “crappy” was thrown around a lot, but nevertheless, everyone obeyed the rules and enjoyed themselves in more or less the way the developers wanted them to.

  But what if some cheating jerk arrived, stole an account, and started powergaming his way through? It was only natural that they wouldn’t want to have anything to do with that. No one was so attached to the game that they would hang around after the fun had died. And once that passion had cooled, it would be hard to restore.

  Duplichiro was actively undermining Narrow Fantasy Online itself.

  “Do you think that’s what Duplichiro was trying to accomplish?” Nem asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Sorceress replied, tilting her head. “It doesn’t look to me like he’s thinking that far ahead. Right, Amesho?”

  “Yeah.” Amesho nodded readily. “It looks to me like Duplichiro is just having fun. Just playing around with the power he’s found. Right, Sorceress?”

  “I can’t help but feel like you’re trying to imply something...”

  The petite Anthromorph just giggled and replied, “Nah!” She was a hard person to get a read on.

  Iris tilted her head. It was impressive that she could even have Sorceress in the palm of her hand. All she could think was that she’d better not show any weakness in front of her.

  Back on the front lines, the commanders of the Red Sunset Knights were fighting with Duplichiro.

  But...

  “Ngh, damn!” Stroganoff shouted.

  “What’s wrong, boss?”

  “I forgot I have a group reservation for this afternoon! Gazpacho’s going to yell at me if I don’t get back soon! Tiramisu, command is up to you!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  With that, Stroganoff logged out.

  It seemed he ran a small restaurant in Yamanashi. They were living in sad times when a man like that could become the leader of one of the game’s biggest guilds.

  “Parmigiano, Gorgonzola, we must hold the line with our lives!” Tiramisu called.

  “Right!”

  “Counting on you. Let’s show everyone just how cool we can be.”

  It seemed no one had to worry about the Knights losing morale or the will to fight, at least. They really enjoyed the roleplay.

  “Parmigiano, attack with ‘Barrier Piercer.’ I’ll push back harder with ‘Judgment!’”

  “I don’t have a very high Arts level with that, though!” Parmigiano called. She was referring to attack Arts that pierced through damage nullification effects. They had extensive cooldown times, and stacked on fatigue quickly, so most players didn’t put in the work to raise them.

  Of course, even with piercing properties, there was no getting through that Immortal status. Their struggles were pointless.

  “Gorgon, support us with debuffs.”

  “If I must.”

  Tiramisu readied her Celestial Sword and struck out at Duplichiro. At the same time, Parmigiano unleashed Barrier Piercer.

  Duplichiro just grinned and stood his ground. He blocked the arrow unleashed by the bowgun with Weapon Guard. Why would someone who was already Immortal bother guarding? There was no reason, clearly; he just wanted to mock them.

  Duplichiro slipped in clo
se to Tiramisu and performed a barehanded “Bash.” It unleashed faster than Judgment, and his fist caught Tiramisu right in the throat.

  “Ah...!”

  It was a perfect counter, unleashed just before the damage calculation. Duplichiro held on and lifted Tiramisu up by the neck.

  “Tiramisu!”

  Gorgonzola activated “Paralyze.” It was a foolish move—status effects wouldn’t work on Duplichiro, either—but this was the instinct of a player using a spell he had prepared to try to save his comrade. Duplichiro wielded Tiramisu like a shield, causing the paralyzing debuff to hit her instead.

  “Eek!”

  The spectators gasped. The relaxed atmosphere was now completely gone. Duplichiro had gone too far for this to be enjoyable, even as losing-side roleplay. Now it was just uncomfortable to watch.

  Still holding Tiramisu by the throat, Duplichiro began to run recklessly forward. He broke through the ring of Knights and spectators around him, kept running, and slammed the “Saint” against the wall as hard as he could. The effect of “Break Object” sent large cracks spreading through the surface of the wall.

  “Ngh!” Tiramisu, paralyzed, could not react. Duplichiro kept her pressed against the wall, then raised one foot and mercilessly slammed his knee into her.

  One hit, two hits, and more... Had he activated the “Kick Mastery” Skill? The merciless strikes from his knee pierced through Tiramisu’s usually solid defense stats and shaved away at her health.

  The Knights quickly moved to help her, but all of their attacks were rendered meaningless by his Immortal status, producing only empty zeros above his head.

  When he was done, Duplichiro slammed Tiramisu onto the ground. Her health was drained to its dregs, and she struggled to move despite the paralysis effect that had hold of her. He stomped down on her, holding her there as sparks of fire magic began to flicker in both of his hands.

  The spectators’ reactions were varied—gasps, aversion of eyes, cries of Tiramisu’s name—but then, a moment later, a black whirlwind of blades came ripping through the crowd.

  An unleashed Bash strike traced a wide arc and struck Duplichiro in the arm, a “Counter Cancel” timed to hit just before the spell’s activation. Flipping the blade of their straight sword, the intruder spun around and struck at Duplichiro’s abdomen.

  Another Bash.

  Though this chain formed from what was typically the most basic of attack Arts didn’t produce any damage, it still trumped Duplichiro’s reaction time and kept him on the defensive. The grin disappeared from Duplichiro’s face. Tiramisu was freed from the leather shoe pinning her down.

  The one who had slammed onto the battlefield with the force of a cannonball was a young man. He glared at Duplichiro now, his black Accel Coat fluttering in the wind, the tip of his XAN lowered.

  “Is that...”

  It was a requirement at this point, so they all cried out as a group, “King Kirihito!”

  But there was no joy or exaltation in their voices.

  He was the game’s second strongest player, the man who had once gone toe-to-toe with Ichiro Tsuwabuki. But everyone was thinking the same thing: Not even he could hold down Duplichiro. On the contrary, they all expected to see King suffer a humiliating loss to the cheater. A sense of tragedy hung over the scene; nobody wanted to see that happen.

  Tiramisu, on unsteady legs, returned to the crowd of onlookers, as Gorgonzola and Parmigiano did the same. Sorceress began to cast healing spells on her.

  “How did it feel to play the jobber?” she asked.

  “I never want to do that again. It was genuinely terrifying...” Tiramisu said, looking like she was on the verge of tears. Amesho said, “There, there,” and soothed the much taller woman.

  Now, back to King and Duplichiro... Iris looked at the two men facing off and screamed, “King, you can’t fight him! He’s got Immortal status!”

  “I know.”

  “You know...?”

  His casual tone caused everyone watching to fall silent. He knew, yet he was still going to fight? It was hard to believe King Kirihito felt like jobbing, too.

  But, in defiance of the atmosphere of doubt hanging over the group, one man called out, “No, King won’t lose!”

  It was Kirihito (Leader). The Kirihitters all nodded in agreement.

  “Yes, King can win!”

  “He has some amazing secret plan we don’t know about!”

  “That’s our King! He’s so cool!”

  “Excuse me, but could you please shut up?” Iris snapped.

  “Yes, ma’am!!!” they responded in chorus.

  King just stared, unsmiling, at Duplichiro.

  Despite The Kirihitters’ passion, the mood among the onlookers remained tragic. No matter how strong a player King was, the system was absolute.

  How could he possibly hope to deal with such an opponent?

  But then, King Kirihito whispered softly, as if intoning the words of a spell, “King Kirihito doesn’t lose.”

  It was Duplichiro who charged first, dashing swiftly across the ground to bear down upon King Kirihito. King lightly dodged his closed-fist strike, then swung his sword back. The strike, which invoked no Arts, struck hard against Duplichiro’s neck, but the result was another empty “0 damage” visual. Groans of disappointment could be heard from those around them.

  King continued with a series of strikes, fluidly chaining together one, two, three... but not one of them dealt any damage to Duplichiro. If Duplichiro hadn’t had “Immortal” status, his HP would surely have been close to zero right now. Everyone watching gritted their teeth.

  “Wait,” Sorceress murmured suddenly as she watched the battle. “He’s not using any Weapon Guards.”

  “Because he doesn’t need them, right?” Iris asked.

  “Of course he doesn’t need them,” she said. “But he’s trying to block the attacks, and he’s failing.”

  None of them understood what she was saying, but Sorceress just giggled, twirling her parasol.

  “The difference between not doing it because you don’t need to, and trying to do it but failing, are like day and night. It must really be getting under his skin.”

  It seemed her comment was right on the mark. King Kirihito’s blade struck hard against Duplichiro’s body over and over again. Each time, Duplichiro tried to block with his hands, and each time, he failed.

  King’s blade seemed to taunt him, as if saying to Duplichiro, You’ve already died five times.

  In concrete terms, of course, it accomplished nothing. It was just a nonsense provocation, which meant nothing if Duplichiro just ignored it. Yet it clearly was working.

  “He was trying to use Immortal status to act like a god-moder, but King’s using it to prove his own superior pwnage. That’s our King.”

  “It sounds pretty gross when you put it that way.” There was no malice in Kirihito (Leader)’s description, but Iris still shot him a cold glance.

  Soon enough, Duplichiro stopped even bothering with Weapon Guard. He just stood still and let King hit him. He just grinned as if to say, “Hit me as much as you like; it won’t work.”

  “It’s working! It’s working!”

  “The pitcher’s scared! Hey, hey, hey!”

  As the onlookers began to clap their hands and jeer, Kirihito (Leader) continued to explain. “Miss Iris, in shonen manga, the one with the cooler fighting style wins.”

  “R-Right.” Iris couldn’t really understand what he was trying to say, but she offered a vague note of agreement anyway.

  “Just like Galactica Phantom is stronger than Galactica Magnum because it has a cooler visual.” It was Tiramisu, of all people, who backed the young man up.

  “But this isn’t some shonen manga,” Iris said, though she was starting to understand.

  The system’s restrictions were absolute, but it wasn’t the system that controlled the avatar; it was the player. If they were human, they had feelings. They liked appearing cool, and they didn�
��t like being humiliated. Such things could have a big influence on whether or not they kept playing.

  And right now, Duplichiro was truly being humiliated!

  While “Immortal” let him drag things out to a ridiculous degree, he still couldn’t do a single point of damage to King Kirihito. He was just getting hit, over and over again. Attempting to stand there and look smug after all that made him look even less cool, and King Kirihito was fighting in a manner designed to highlight that.

  “He’s truly terrifying...” Iris whispered.

  “If it were me, I’d die from embarrassment,” Tiramisu murmured.

  “I suppose Taker felt the same way. The strategy works really well on people like that,” Sorceress agreed with an inscrutable whisper.

  As Duplichiro just stood where he was, King made a move to sweep his leg.

  “Ah.”

  “Ah.”

  Duplichiro fell right over.

  King wasn’t employing a Skill nor an Art, just an exploitation of the game’s laws of physics. Duplichiro had been standing there with eyes closed and arms folded, which meant that if he lost his balance, he’d topple right over. It was the ultimate show of lameness.

  “So? Want to keep going?” King asked as he stepped on Ichiro’s head. It was nearly the same position he’d had Tiramisu in before.

  “Aah, what should we do?” Nem seemed to be in a flustered panic. “What should we do, Iris? Ichiro is... Well, it’s not Ichiro, but still! His head is being stepped on!”

  “Does that make you uncomfortable, Nem?” Iris asked.

  “It’s awful. I don’t want to have to look at it.” Nem covered her face in both hands.

  Iris stood with her hands on her hips, watching with great interest. “Really? I find it extremely refreshing.”

  Sorceress nodded. “I know, Iris. I do, too.”

  Iris and Sorceress exchanged a firm handshake.

  “I just wish it were me, making the real young heir eat dirt like that...”

  “I know, Iris. I do, too.”

  Iris and Sorceress exchanged a fistbump.