by Blitz Kiva
“I suppose.”
“I wish that artificial intelligence itself could face charges,” the lawyer said. “I would prefer that, too. But legislation in that area is still immature, which means the responsibility for the incident still lies with the developer, and Rosemary is still just considered to be no more than a program glitch. And a glitch has to be fixed.”
Ichiro had already thought of this, too, which was why had he let Rosemary escape. A decoy had been left behind in Thistle headquarters that had claimed to be Rosemary, so if that was deleted as part of fixing the bug, that was fine.
“If...” Edogawa began. “If the true Rosemary program is found, Pony may order her to be deleted.”
“We’ll pray that that doesn’t happen,” Ichiro said concisely.
That was the thing Ichiro most wanted to avoid. He didn’t just want to avoid it; he had to do everything in his power to stop it from happening. But the chances of it happening were extremely high.
Edogawa scowled, too. He was probably remembering what Ichiro had told him the other day.
If there was a chance that his friends’ enjoyment of NaroFan was going to be irreparably hampered, Ichiro would do everything in his power to stop it, no matter what it took. That meant keeping a door open to the possibility of buying the development company himself. To steal back Thistle from the hands of Otogiri.
But if he did that, it would mean that Ichiro couldn’t keep playing the game. The world of Narrow Fantasy Online itself would belong to Ichiro, and once he possessed it, it would no longer interest him.
“So, we’ll pray that that doesn’t happen,” Ichiro repeated in a whisper, then stood up.
“What, heading home already?” Shaga asked.
“I asked what I wanted to ask. As promised, I’ll pay.”
Ichiro picked up the bill and headed for the counter.
“I’m back.”
“Welcome home, Ichiro-sama!”
When he arrived home, he found Sakurako’s smiling face waiting for him. That by itself was standard enough, but there had been a slight change in the Tsuwabuki household itself over the last few days.
Most of the furniture had been purged, starting with the Armonia luxury sofa in the living room. The TV was black and white, the bulbs were naked, and in the center, there was only a low tea table sitting on top of a rush mat. On the walls and windows, Sakurako had stuck up papers covered in motivational slogans: “Luxury is the enemy!” and “I will not want until I’m cured.”
Her time as the Dark Transaction Knight had fatally altered Sakurako’s views about money. This was only natural; she had spent several hours spending close to 2 million yen per hour. This had ground the middle-class Sakurako’s sense of monetary value into dust.
“I-Ichiro-sama! What would you like for lunch?” she asked.
“Mm.”
“Grilled spiny lobster would be good, wouldn’t it?” She giggled madly. This, too, was the result of her falling to the dark side of the cash.
“Nonsense,” he said. “Chicken ramen, please.”
“Ooh...”
Ichiro wasn’t trying to scold Sakurako. This was the result of her loyalty and devoted hard work, and he wanted to look kindly upon her, as his master. It wasn’t as if Sakurako’s rampage had made a dent in Ichiro’s JP Morgan private bank account, anyway.
All he had to do was simply accompany her on her rehabilitation. It had been funny to watch nouveau riche Sakurako falling to the fiscal dark side, but it was less pleasant to think about what she was going through now.
“What will you do today, Sakurako?” he asked.
“Ah?”
“Since you can’t play NaroFan. I almost forgot how it is that you typically spend your day.”
“Oh, I’ll be catching up on my anime backlog... I’ve got a lot of games piling up, too,” Sakurako said, her gaze distant.
For the past month, NaroFan had been at the center of her life. For someone with as varied interests at her, it was only natural that she would have a lot of things piling up. With two days until service resumed, it would be good to use them to catch up on interests that had fallen by the wayside.
“I wonder what the others are doing,” Ichiro commented.
“Iris and Asuha said they were using the opportunity to finish up their summer homework.”
“That’s a good thing.”
From a personal standpoint, Ichiro found it a bit sad to think that Tomakomai’s uninterrupted login record would be interrupted just short of the one-year anniversary. And he wondered how Matsunaga, Stroganoff, and the others were doing. If they had real lives, they probably weren’t lacking for things to do.
Ichiro sat down in front of the low table. Sakurako set down a tray with two chipped donburi bowls, eggs, and a bag of chicken ramen.
“Egg? Isn’t that a little bit indulgent?” he asked.
“What? I can’t have that, either?!” Sakurako’s expression became desperate. He was reminded of an earlier discussion they’d had about instant ramen, in which she had insisted that chicken ramen had to be eaten with an egg. “I’m fine! I’m recovering my middle-class sensibilities!”
“Then how much does a glass of orange juice cost?” he asked.
“1,700 yen! G-Gwaah!” she screamed.
That was the price it cost at room service at the Imperial Hotel. It seemed it would take a little while yet for her to be fully recovered.
In the end, they put their chicken ramen in the bowls, sprinkled a few green onions on top, and then poured hot water over it. The smell of junk food wafted throughout the luxury apartment. Sakurako watched the chicken ramen soften with sunken, hollow eyes.
“Once you’re cured of your nouveau riche disease, we’ll go out somewhere nice to eat for dinner,” Ichiro assured her.
“Do you mean it? Is that a promise?”
“Yes, that’s a promise.”
The ramen seemed to be just about right. Ichiro murmured a polite “Let us indulge,” then picked up his chopsticks and brought the chicken ramen to his mouth. It wasn’t bad.
“Ichiro-sama, are you comforting me?” Sakurako asked.
“Mm, I suppose I am.”
“Thank you...” Sakurako perked up a bit and started up on her own chicken ramen.
Later, Ichiro got an e-mail from Matsunaga. It contained a URL, which took them to a movie that he and Sakurako watched together. It was a video of Kirschwasser’s actions from beginning to end—after he had fallen to the fiscal dark side and awakened to the surge of spenderous intent—and it seemed to provide a significant boost to Sakurako’s rehabilitation.
Of course, it would be difficult to describe how silly she looked while watching it...
Afterword
How are you? I’m doing fine. It’s been a while. Blitz/Kiva here. I’m very happy I was able to bring Paying to Win in a VRMMO volume five to you all.
That was the Account Hacking Arc, a.k.a. the Fake Young Heir Arc.
Those who have read this far will probably know this already, but Paying to Win is a bit of an oddball series. There are lots of stories that deal with online games and VRMMOs, but my intent here was to deal head-on with more difficult topics. One of these topics was microtransactions, but account hacking is a major one!
If I may say so, I’m a fan of Kamen Rider. Starting with Ryuki, the Riders started using henshin devices, and you sometimes got a twist where someone other than the protagonist got their hands on the protagonist’s device and transformed into the protagonist Rider!
Of course, you don’t see it too much anymore. I was pretty shocked the first time I saw that, though, so I wanted to put some of the shock that I felt back then into this Account Hacking Arc. I guess I’m trying to say, in a system like that, it could really happen! Someone other than the protagonist could use the protagonist’s power, his form, his catchphrases for evil!
Think about it, everyone! Think of all the protagonists in all the online game stories around the world! Wha
t if their accounts were hacked by a villain? Wouldn’t that be exciting? Actually, I guess Summer Wars did that already!
My one regret about Paying to Win is that I couldn’t work in an intense segment in which the protagonist creates a temporary avatar and confronts the person who’s using his own avatar face-to-face. I bet that would have been really fun. I hope someone will do it. A story like Giant Killing, where a high-level avatar is taken over, and the protagonist thinks, “I’m the one who knows best what that avatar can do!” Please, go write it!
Okay, then. It’s time for the ROSTA. (That’s short for “running out of space, time for acknowledgments.”)
I’m sorry for causing everyone a lot of trouble this time around, too. To my editor, Mr. K: Let’s do even more together this year! Like eating dinner on your expense account!
And to Rein Kuwashima: Thank you for the lovely illustrations! The cover page this time was especially excellent! I love how evil Duplichiro looks!
To the sales people, the proofreaders, the printers, the agents, the booksellers: I can live another day thanks to you. Thank you very much.
And of course, a big thank you to all the readers.
By the way, Sera’s gender finally came to light this time, huh? This was the result of the survey I asked for back in volume one.
Incidentally, this is only for the published version. In the web version, Sera’s gender is the opposite.
I’m currently writing a stupid short story on Shosetsuka ni Naro where the fact that Sera’s gender is different on parallel worlds causes an error in the system. I only update it on April 1st every year, though...
I’ve also written quite a lot of other short stories, so please search for them.
I’m on Twitter, too. Search for me: @kiva_blitz.
Well, keep in touch, everyone!
See you!
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Copyright
Paying to Win in a VRMMO: Volume 5
by Blitz Kiva
Translated by Elizabeth Ellis
Edited by Emily Sorensen
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Blitz Kiva
Illustrations Copyright © 2015 Kuwashima Rein
Cover illustration by Kuwashima Rein
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2015 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2017 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: November 2017