“Noooooooooo! Somebody help meeeeeee!”
“Ora ora ora ora! Stop resisting and let Lady Shiru hunt you down! Oraaaaa!”
A day after the battle royale, Korin—the little ninja who’d been roasted to death by Yuri’s giant monster—had gone hunting in the forest. As she was doing her best to raise her level, and venting her frustrations on any monster she encountered all the while, she was constantly daydreaming of someday overthrowing the beautiful yet aggressive Demon Lord. Her training session was cut short, however, when a red-haired girl with a huge sword rushed at her without warning.
Korin had immediately sensed she was in danger and had dodged the attack, but the mysterious assailant hadn’t let up. The fight had quickly turned into a game of cat and mouse that had them running through the forest.
“Eek! Wh-What’s wrong with you?! Just when I’d almost killed enough monsters to get over the way Yuri killed me!”
“Hah?! Then that makes two of us! Killing players is the only way I can get over dying to that harebrained Demon Lord!”
“Wh-Why players?!”
Korin knew this type of player as a “PKer,” that is, a player killer—someone who spent their in-game time hunting other players rather than monsters.
To an efficiency geek like Korin, PKers were a total mystery. Although points had been awarded for every kill at the PvP event, Blade Skill Online didn’t usually encourage players to attack each other. Player kills did offer experience, but it wasn’t possible to take the victim’s items afterward. Meanwhile, defeating monsters would yield both experience and items, making it more efficient.
“Wh-Wh-Why are you hunting players?! Did you say your name was Shiru? If you’re angry, just take it out on monsters like I do!”
“Don’t be a fool. When I punish a monster, the only screams I hear are artificial! If I’m going to play a virtual reality game, I at least want to hear the screams of real humans!”
“Eeeeeek! You’re insane!” Korin realized that the player pursuing her was more dangerous than she’d first thought. She sprinted at full speed as her tears raced down her cheeks...but her pursuer was evidently well practiced at chasing people. She always took the shortest route between the trees, managing to get close enough to Korin to slash at her back, grazing her with the point of her sword several times.
In the Full Dive System, players moved using their senses rather than a controller, which had some unusual consequences. With her higher agility stat, Korin should have been faster, but her pursuer was a professional man hunter. And not just that, the dull pain in Korin’s back and her instinctive fear of hostile people both slowed her pace, allowing the PKer to gradually close the distance. Korin felt like screaming at the game’s creators, “You didn’t have to make this part realistic!”
“Ah!” The chase came to an end when Korin tripped over a tree root. There was no coming back from her mistake—she didn’t even attempt to break her fall as their life-and-death struggle approached its natural conclusion.
The PKer slowly approached Korin as she groaned in pain. “Well, you really made that difficult for me, didn’t you?” She pointed her sword at Korin, tracing her blade’s tip along the perimeter of Korin’s torso as if marking out “cut here” lines for her head and limbs.
“Eeeek?! Let me go and I’ll do anything! If it’s money you want, you can have it!”
“I don’t want your money. Heh, heh. Since you gave me so much trouble...I think I’ll cut you into tiny little pieces while your HP gradually dwindles to nothing!”
“But why?!”
The killer wore a sadistic smile as Korin could only tremble and cry.
Their world was only a game. No matter what injuries players had, they’d only ever feel very slight pain, and there’d be no damage to their real-life bodies. Korin fully understood that, but...even with that knowledge, who could remain calm at the prospect of being dismembered?
It was all too much for Korin to bear. She was facing such intense malice for the first time in her life that she felt overwhelmed with fear.
Korin’s reaction only added to the girl’s—to Shiru’s—excitement. With a warped smile on her face, she raised her greatsword high and prepared to bring it down on her victim. “Ah ha ha! Let’s start with your feet!”
“Aaaaah?!” Korin’s scream echoed through the dim forest as the blade swung down.
“Hold it right there!” said a gallant voice moving fast toward them. It belonged to a woman wearing a dress and holding an umbrella like a blade. She’d used it to block Shiru’s sword swing.
“Who do you think you are?” Shiru demanded.
“My name is Françoise. As much as I hate to ruin your fun, I feel I must interject!”
Françoise and the PKer stood in front of Korin glowering at each other. From where she sat, Korin could sense a fierce struggle between one player’s desire to kill and the other’s sense of justice.
“Pah... There’s no fun in a serious fight.” It was Shiru who stood down. She effortlessly leaped into the air and landed on a broad tree branch.
“My oh my. Are you running away?”
“Laugh while you still can. The little one might have escaped me, but you... You’ll come to regret obstructing Lady Shiru’s hunt. This isn’t over—I know your name and face. Next time we meet, I’ll have countless followers behind me.” Shiru scowled as she turned and left.
Her parting words had sounded so much like a generic evil speech that, in other circumstances, Korin might have laughed...but with this girl, she felt sure that someone so sadistic really might be spiteful enough to come back with a gang behind her.
Françoise must have been thinking the same thing. She sighed while throwing back her blonde hair. “Whew. Never have I seen someone so stereotypically evil. I know a certain Demon Lord who can be a little aggressive at times, but if he’s delinquent material, that girl’s fit to lead a biker gang.” Françoise then muttered to herself, “I do wonder what would happen were the two of them to meet.”
“But...!” Korin couldn’t help but cry out. “Françoise, was it? How can you be so relaxed?! Now you’re a target and all because of me. She could come for you at any time!”
“Oh ho ho. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. And you mustn’t forget that this is merely a game. We should consider encounters with peculiar characters as events of sorts and try to find some enjoyment in them.”
“But...!”
Although Françoise had a point, Korin couldn’t easily accept it after being faced with such barefaced malice. With the Full Dive System making everything feel like reality, Korin couldn’t ignore it when an opponent genuinely wished her harm. She didn’t want to go through the same experience a second time, nor could she stand the idea of someone else suffering in her place.
Just as Korin was about to start crying again, Françoise placed a gentle hand on her head. “Thank you for worrying about me. But I’ll be quite all right. I’m a better fighter than you might guess, and if I were in real trouble, I have a smooth-headed friend who’s stronger than I, albeit a little perverted. I could even seek help from a beautiful woman with the heart of a fearless demon lord.”
It pained Korin just to look at Françoise’s kind smile. She must be so much stronger than me. All I can do is cry.
It was as though Françoise was concealing considerable strength. In that respect, she wasn’t so different from the aggressive girl who’d succeeded in becoming the strongest player with the least probable build, though it might have been strength of a different kind.
“I’ll... I’ll get stronger. Then if a PKer targets me again, I won’t cry about it!” Korin promised herself she’d gain the strength to enjoy Blade Skill Online to the fullest, just like Yuri and the girl in front of her.
“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Françoise replied, warmly approving of her determination.
A few days later, a thread appeared on the message board, replete with screenshots, titled “[Important Announcement!] Gorgeous Girl and Petite Cutie Sighted in Loving Embrace During Forest Hunt [Yuri News!].” Korin was so furious she vowed to find and PK whoever made the thread!