Instant Death

“Don’t worry! Ho-kun’s Crimson Lotus Sword will vaporize the iceberg in an instant!”

From next to Tomochika, who was looking up at the luxury cruise ship, came a carefree female voice.

Judging from the content of the conversation, she was probably talking to Tomochika.

When she looked next to her, she saw a tall woman smiling at her.

“Uh, is that a finishing move or something?”[1]

“Stop it, Mom! Why are you interrupting a stranger’s conversation?”

The woman was holding the boy from behind.

The boy’s head was resting on the woman’s ample breasts, which made him look quite uncomfortable.

If he walked here like this, he must have been quite noticeable.

“That’s right. You were worried about an iceberg, so I thought I’d put your mind at ease. Ho-kun is very strong!”

“I’m really sorry, my mother can’t read the mood…”

She seemed confident but didn’t seem to be particularly hostile. Tomochika didn’t know how to react.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s confusing. We’re like a small mercenary group. We’ve been hired to guard this ship.”

“Uh, you mean with your mother?”

“Yes. I also have an older sister and a younger sister.”

The boy turned to look into the distance. He must be having a very hard time.

“Are there going to be pirates?”

Yogiri asked.

“Yes. But it’s not every day that a cruise ship of this size is attacked, and that’s why we’re here. Come on, let’s go! We’re all waiting for you!”

The boy urged his mother and quickly made his way to the ship.

Pirates will come……“

Tomochika had an increasingly bad feeling about this.

“But we have no choice but to go by boat. If you really don’t want to, we can find another Sage to help us.”

But the only one whose whereabouts were known was Yoshifumi, the Sage of the Ent Empire.

The city of Hanabusa, where he stayed before, seemed to be under the control of Alice the Sage, but it was a long way from here, and there was no guarantee that he is there.

“Well, we’ve come this far, haven’t we?”

“Thats a crude description of events? Where’s the Prelude.”

As she was pondering, she was approached again.

She turned around and saw a boy who looked Japanese standing there, staring at Tomochika.

She thought it might be a misunderstanding, but it seemed that the boy was talking to Tomochika.

Tomochika was a little offended.

The boy’s tone was mocking and ridiculing.

“Huh? I thought you were an explanatory mob character, but it looks like you’re not. From the looks of it, you’re the heroine of the next event?”

“Well… Who are you?“

She thought that if it was a Japanese boy, he might be her classmate, but Tomochika did not remember him.

However, there were a good number of Japanese people in this world.

In addition to the summoning of the Sages, they have were there for various reasons.

So it was not so strange that there was a Japanese person there, but he was acting too familiar for a first meeting and what he was saying was suspicious.

Tomochika became more and more suspicious.

“My name is Yosuke Hiiragi. If I can talk to you, does that make me a party member?　Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s over here.”

“Japanese? You’re Japanese, right?”

“Hmm. That’s how it’s set up. You’re an unusual NPC.”

“I have a feeling I’m not going to get through to you!” (Tomochika)

Tomochika thought back to the people she had met when she first came to this world.

In general, this kind of overconfident person did not listen to others.

“Do you think you’re in a game?”

As Tomochika wondered if there was any point in talking, Yogiri spoke to Yosuke.

“Hey, hey, hey. What’s going on? I’m bored. The game characters are aware that they’re in a game? It’s breaking the fourth wall. It sounds like something a crappy scenario writer who’s just trying to be weird would do.”

Yosuke frowned. Apparently, he didn’t like what Yogiri had to say.

“I know it’s a dumb scenario, but I was wondering if you could join me for a minute.”

“What? Isn’t there some kind of event that happens when you go out to sea on a boat? Well, if this is a flag, then so be it.”

“If we’re in a game, what’s your perception of it? Are you sitting in front of the TV holding a controller?”

“No way. What do you think VR is for?”

VR, or virtual reality.

Tomochika had at least a vague idea of what it was.

“How is that even possible? I don’t think we’ve perfected the technology to build a world this realistic.”

“I don’t know much about it, but when I play, I’m in some kind of capsule.”

“What year do you think it is?”

Yosuke’s answer was almost exactly the same as the time when Tomochika and the others went on their school trip.[2]

In other words, it didn’t seem to be a product of future technology.

“Is that like being able to log in and log out?”

“Enough with that. I don’t want to see this kind of boring development in a fantasy RPG world.

After saying that, Yosuke headed for the ship. Those who seemed to be his friends followed behind him. f𝓇𝘦e𝑤𝘦𝚋𝒏૦ѵℯ𝒍.c𝐨𝒎

Perhaps it was because of what he had just said, but they seemed to be puppets with no will.

“……Eh? What was that? What does he mean? I don’t get it. What was that guy?

“In a game… I’ve been ignoring that possibility because I can’t help but think about that sort of thing.”

“What? The game thing is a lie, right? It can’t be real, can it?”

“Well, it’s possible, actually.”

“It’s possible?”

For example, in the future, when all subatomic motion is simulated on a very advanced computer. But there’s no way to prove it. It’s like the butterfly dream or the five minutes before the world ends hypothesis.“

“Well, if this world is real, it’s a dodgy world with magic and stuff…”

“So there’s no point in worrying about it, but if it’s a game, there’s a possibility that you can log out and go back to the original world.”

From Yogiri’s point of view, he came to the other world while he was asleep, and it is possible that he was forced to participate in the game at that time.

However, Tomochika has knowledge of the moment she came to the other world. When she was on the bus, she suddenly found herself in another world, and she could not believe that she was being forced to play a VR game.

『Hmm. But that’s only if you’ve started the game at some point. If you were created as a character in the game from the beginning, it would be impossible to log out. 』

Mokomoko joined in the conversation.

However, Tomochika has a vast amount of experience and memories from before she came to this world. It was hard to believe that they were all fake.

“Yeah. If we are right in the middle, there’s nothing we could do about it, so there’s no point in worrying about it. I guess the only thing we need to worry about is the guy himself.”

What do you mean?“

“If he thinks this world is a game, he’s got the potential to do some pretty crazy stuff.”

“Yeah! It’s true that in a game where you can kill NPCs, you might do!”

“Dannoura-san, you’re that type, right? I can’t do it. That’s why I couldn’t go on the assassin quest in Skyrim.”

“What? What’s with this? It’s like I’m an atrocity.”

It seemed that even Yogiri, who has killed people without hesitation in the past, cannot do so in the game.

Tomochika felt that this was somehow unreasonable. ｆ𝓇𝘦ℯ𝙬𝑒𝐛n𝐨νe𝙡.c𝑜𝗺

Notes:

1. A finishing move like in a Video Game

2. The same as in they don’t know or understand why they’re here, I think