Maki described “Nekoneko” as a demonic game.
Even Maki, who lived by freedom, was afraid of it, which was fitting for “Nekoneko.”
I initially thought that way…
“Because, you know.
I think the first ‘event?’ where the green person appears is already strange!
I was killed instantly there!”
“The green… Oh, ‘Lizardman’s Trap,’ right?”
“Ah, I think that’s it.
It’s unfair to have five enemies appear from the start!”
“Well, that’s… huh, five people?”
From around that point, I felt the situation was getting suspicious.
“Lizardman’s Trap” is a trick event where a woman appears to be attacked by four Lizardmen, but in reality, the woman is attacking the Lizardmen.
If you play for the first time, you often get killed without realizing the woman is a thief, but the fight itself is one-on-five.
You should be able to fight in a situation where you have a numerical advantage.
“No, that event shouldn’t unfold like that…
Uh, how did you fight?”
“Huh? How, just normally?”
“Normally?”
From past experience, I knew I couldn’t trust her definition of “normal” for a second.
When I asked doubtfully, Maki replied nonchalantly.
“Yeah. I just dealt with the woman who attacked and the green people all at once… and beat them.”
“You’re out!”
I knew something was off, and sure enough, it was as I suspected.
She had apparently defeated the thief along with the Lizardmen who were supposed to be her allies.
Reinhardt, my condolences…
Besides, winning a 1-on-5 against those opponents doesn’t seem like something a game beginner could do. However, despite her lack of gaming experience, Maki has unusually good reflexes.
In a VR game where real-world athletic ability directly translates to in-game skill, it’s not entirely impossible.
“Anyway, what happened after that?
If you defeat the Lizardmen, they won’t let you into the town, right?”
“Hmm? I don’t know about them letting me in, I just proceeded normally.
I collected the ‘drop items?’ from inside the carriage and walked down the road.”
No, I think that was more like robbery and murder rather than collecting drop items.
While mentally pointing this out, I didn’t say it out loud and urged her to continue.
“Then I found something that looked like a suspicious fort surrounded by walls.
I immediately realized.
‘This is the enemy’s base.'”
“Uh, uh, enemy base?”
I was dumbfounded by her sudden statement.
Larger towns in this world, as well as the capital, are surrounded by city walls, but calling that a base seemed a bit much.
And what does she mean by “enemy”?
Maki, what exactly are you fighting against?
“Because, the person at the gate with a spear was chasing me and trying to catch me.
That means they’re an ‘enemy character?’ right?”
“No, you, that…”
That was probably a guard of the town, full of justice, trying to protect it from a thief player.
No matter what town it is, killing its decent citizens will result in the worst possible relationship with that faction.
Maki’s defeat of the Lizardman merchant has only lowered the town of Ramur’s affinity.
“I tried my best there, but…
Somehow I lost and had to start all over again.”
“I-I see…”
She said it happily, as if boasting about her struggle, but I was speechless at her misunderstanding.
Normally, one would realize they’ve made a mistake the moment they are attacked by guards upon arriving at a town. However, for Maki, with no gaming experience, it just felt like “that’s how it is.”
From there, Maki’s misunderstanding-fueled playthrough truly began.
Having restarted the game, Maki this time easily annihilated the female thief and Lizardmen, looted the carriage, avoided the enemy base (Ramur Town), and made a cave halfway up a nearby mountain her base.
In this game, HP and MP recover over time regardless of location.
While it’s more bothersome than an inn as you can’t skip time automatically, you can heal injuries and fatigue by resting without needing to use an inn.
Maki accumulated strength by hunting enemies in the cave she made her base and the surrounding fields. Then, under the cover of night, she approached the base (as I’ve said before, Ramur Town) and made her first save at a monolith near the town.
After that, she snuck into town and raided shops to steal supplies.
She was apparently spotted by enemy soldiers (town guards) mid-heist but managed to escape at full speed, narrowly avoiding trouble.
“It didn’t go well at first, but I gradually got the hang of it.
Also, the ‘items?’ in the enemy base are restocked within a night, so it’s really convenient!”
She spoke cheerfully, but it was… well.
Making a mountain cave her home, sneaking into town every night, and stealing valuables from shops.
(That’s completely banditry!!)
What’s more, she wasn’t role-playing at all; she genuinely believed it was the correct way to play.
(No! No, Maki! “Nekoneko” isn’t that kind of game!)
However, my cry from the heart went unheard.
“The hardest part was probably weapons.
After my first sword broke, I tried a few others I found at the base, but they were all weak, so I gave up.”
“Gave up?”
“Yeah, I figured I didn’t need weapons anymore.”
“Unarmed combat?!”
Maki declared that she would abandon the use of weapons.
Moreover, she claimed the weapons were weak, but there were no weapons in town weaker than the Rusty Longsword she started with.
This might be…
“Hey, Maki. Did you actually equip the weapons in the menu screen?”
“Menu screen?”
“The screen you bring up to log out!
Did you actually select ‘Equip’ there?”
“I didn’t do that!
Wait, just holding a weapon in my hand isn’t enough?”
This was her response.
I had never heard of someone playing an RPG so poorly, quite literally ignoring the basic rule of ‘weapons don’t work unless equipped.’
Unarmed play from the start normally wouldn’t last.
However, Maki, using the speed that came from not having weapons and her exceptional reflexes, moved with the agility of a wild beast, defeating monsters and humans alike.
Still, the difficulty of fighting unarmed isn’t just about attack power or reach.
“But, aren’t many unarmed skills difficult to use?
How did you handle that…?”
“Huh? Skills are what?”
“W-what…!?”
Time froze.
“You, don’t tell me, not like that…”
It was unbelievable, though I thought it might be…
“Have you never used skills?”
“…? Yeah.”
She answered immediately without hesitation.
If anything, I was the one looking at her as if to say, “What are you talking about?”
It’s understandable that someone who had never played a VR game or a regular RPG, and hadn’t read the manual or met the tutorial NPC, wouldn’t stumble upon the concept of skills.
No, but, still, is that even possible?
“W-wait. But, you know, there are events that can’t be cleared without using skills or magic…”
“Besides the first one, are there other ‘events?'”
“… Ah, ahh.”
It was a shock.
I was speechless.
But that made sense.
If she’d been holed up in a cave the whole time, and her relationship with the townspeople was at its lowest, no events would have occurred.
Well, there are events that happen in fields and dungeons, so it’s not impossible, but events that require specific flags to be set wouldn’t occur, and if she never moved from the vicinity of Ramur, the number would naturally be limited.
“Wait a minute!
Then why did you say ‘humanity is destroyed’ and ‘like a demonic game’…”
“Hmm. Because everyone, people and animals alike, would suddenly attack me the moment they saw me.
It felt so savage, so horrible.
If Soma hadn’t told me that games involved ‘fighting enemies,’ I would have been incredibly surprised.”
“I’m more surprised by your interpretation!”
Besides, the demon is your playstyle, not the game.
“So, so, it’s not related to bugs, then?”
“Huh? What are bugs?”
She looked at me as if asking “What are those, are they delicious?”
“What in the world…”
I sagged onto my knees right there.
“Nekoneko” has many bugs.
Even after patches, there are countless bugs, enough to be hit by a dog walking by.
However, Maki’s playthrough was so far out of left field that there was no room for bugs to occur.
Maki didn’t trigger a single event, didn’t equip weapons, and didn’t even use skills, just repeatedly fought.
In such a situation, there were hardly any elements that would cause bugs to occur.
Even if a bug did occur, the game-ignorant Maki probably would have just accepted it as ‘how things are’ and ignored it.
(What is this…)
I felt frustrated.
Complaining about impossible game balance, being shocked by inexplicable monsters, being messed around by events with bad personalities, and shedding tears over fatal bugs.
That was the correct way to enjoy “Nekoneko” as I knew it.
Only those who overcame these challenges could discover the surprisingly useful systems of “Nekoneko,” its unnecessarily abundant skills and magic, and the usefulness of its countless bugs.
And then, rebelling against “Nekoneko’s” unreasonableness, deriving pleasure from outsmarting the creator, they would gradually get hooked on the game.
That was the righteous path for a “Nekoneko” player.
Maki, brazenly skipping all of that, turned “Nekoneko,” or rather, RPG systems in general, into a survival infiltration action game by fighting monsters unarmed and infiltrating enemy bases to steal supplies.
And the most irritating thing was,
“Also, there’s another reason I called it a ‘demonic game.’
Even though it’s such a terrible game, it’s actually a little bit, just a little bit, fun, and I can’t seem to stop playing… heh heh.”
“It’s not ‘heh heh’!!”
Despite playing like that, she was under the impression that she was enjoying “Nekoneko” like a true gamer.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
“… I’ll teach you.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll teach you real RPGs, I’ll teach you ‘Nekoneko’!!”
Saying that, I grabbed Maki’s hand and started walking.
“S-Soma?”
As Maki’s flustered voice was heard, I wondered, “When did we stop having the same tastes?”
When we were kids, we used to play pretend.
I was the hero, Maki was the captive princess, and we defeated invisible evil demons and dragons made of air.
I didn’t expect us to enjoy the same thing as Back then.
But it was problematic that Maki misunderstood “Nekoneko” as a game where you “just rampage with a strong body.”
In the first place, Maki fundamentally doesn’t understand what an RPG is.
In that state, it was as if Maki was playing with self-imposed challenges: “Solo Play,” “No Equipment Change,” “No Skill/Magic Use,” and “No Item Purchase.”
She might have gotten by with just her reflexes in the early game because there were no crucial event battles, but this world isn’t that forgiving.
As far as I was concerned, Maki wasn’t playing a game.
She was just rampaging in a virtual reality world.
Games have their own rules, their own principles.
Understanding them or not makes a significant difference in game efficiency.
“W-where are we going?”
Grasping her hand tightly, Maki asked.
I had acted on impulse as well, but…
“We’re not going far. Uh… that should be fine.”
I quickly decided on a destination.
It was the living room where we had decided to stay on the first day.
The sofa and table were arranged nicely, providing some obstacles.
I led Maki to the edge of the room and said,
“Hey, Maki. Can you touch that wall over there and come back?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Uh, just for a bit. Ah, try to do it as fast as you can.”
I asked Maki to do that.
My plan was simple.
While RPG elements exist, it would be difficult to demonstrate the benefits of events and equipment here.
So, I decided to quickly show Maki the power of skills.
That way, she would properly understand that games shouldn’t be played the same way as reality.
“Okay, here I go!”
Unaware of my intentions, Maki announced, and then,
“So fast!?”
She started running with a speed like a gust of wind.
It was different from Mitsuki’s refined, graceful movements.
With a supple motion reminiscent of a wild beast, she dodged tables, grazed sofas with reckless movements, and touched the wall.
She then turned and returned to me at almost the same speed as she left.
“Was that okay?”
Maki returned without a single breath. I replied with a strained “Ah.”
“So, how was it?”
“Uh, well, it was… inhuman…”
“Eh?”
Maki made a displeased face, but it was an honest impression.
I knew Maki had high athletic abilities, but after she switched places with the princess in this world, her abilities had reached a level impossible in reality.
Perhaps I was a bit mistaken.
It might be impossible to clear “Nekoneko” solely through natural athletic ability, ignoring game theory. But Maki was now a princess.
If she had the same specs as Princess Shelmia in the game world and could utilize them fully, it would be truly astonishing.
Royal family abilities far surpass those of NPCs, and she likely had excellent equipment.
As seen in the ‘Capital City Attack’ event.
Perhaps Maki had acquired a body capable of exhibiting sufficient strength even without using game-like elements.
—But.
“Maki. Please watch my next move carefully.”
“Soma?”
That was something that would absolutely surpass the limits of a gamer.
Honestly, I couldn’t even compare to Maki in terms of athletic ability.
It was a sad truth, but it was the truth.
I haven’t forgotten that day in high school when we played badminton instead of tackling, and she ended up covering my entire face with ink.
Ever since that day when I, a younger girl, defeated me soundly, I swore I would never compete with her in sports again.
But in a game, it’s different.
In a game, anyone can become a top player.
You can run at world-record speeds with just a few button presses, play a masterpiece with well-timed key inputs, or use a special move by choosing a simple shortcut.
I myself cannot run like a track athlete, nor can I wield incredible swordsmanship like a master swordsman.
But I can “order” skills.
Watch this, Maki.
“This, is the game’s, ‘Nekoneko’s’, ‘normal’!!”
Shouting,
(Step!)
I first leaped forward with a speed that I, normally, could never achieve.
My body accelerating.
However, at this rate, I would crash into the sofa in front of me.
(High Step!)
So, I short-canceled that step and used a High Step to turn at a right angle, ignoring inertia.
Normally, when changing direction, people, no, living beings, always decelerate.
In this case, you would first brace your feet to kill forward momentum, then push off the ground to gain energy to move sideways, and finally make a ninety-degree turn.
But those are the rules of the real world.
Following the game’s rules, it’s different when you cancel a skill.
You can move sideways instantaneously from top speed with no warning.
I jumped sideways, perhaps too much.
However, this cleared anything obstructing the path between me and the wall. At that point,
(Shukuchi!)
As the combo finisher, I naturally used Shukuchi.
When a human wants to move normally, they need a running start to reach top speed.
But with this Shukuchi, you reach maximum speed instantaneously from activation, and that speed easily surpasses humanity’s running limit.
However, it would be troublesome if there was a recovery period after that. So, I continued to the wall.
“All right!”
At that moment, my hand naturally touched the wall. This was the turn-around!
“Soma!?”
Maki’s surprised voice could be heard from behind, but I ignored it.
It might look like a flashy collision, and you might think it’s painful, but when you collide with an obstacle while using a movement skill, not much damage is inflicted.
(Air Hammer)
A moment after I collided with the wall, using precise timing, Air Hammer repelled me straight backward.
While being repelled, I began chanting the next spell.
On the way back, I wasn’t planning to dodge obstacles one by one.
(Shuntou!)
The dagger skill Shuntou can be used in any direction: up, down, left, or right. From being sent backward, I instantly turned around without any visible turning motion.
I leaped over the sofa, then sprang into the air.
Using the Air Hammer I had chanted earlier, I flew through the air.
Moving in a straight line, the room’s width wasn’t that great.
From there, I connected Shuntou and Air Hammer once more.
“Well, that’s about it.”
I landed in front of Maki.
I didn’t need to measure the time; I knew.
Maki had also returned at a speed that defied human limits, but I had definitely returned faster.
With this, Maki would realize the usefulness of skills, I hoped.
“How was it?”
I asked with anticipation, and then,
“Soma, why did you stop being human?”
“I didn’t stop!!”
She said something incredibly rude.
I resisted the urge to say, “You were pretty much the same,” and began to lecture Maki.
“See, this is a method of movement that utilizes the game system.
In other words, it’s a game-like way of moving.
Maki, you should learn this too…”
“But I won’t lose either!”
However, she wasn’t listening.
“I held back a little before, but if I get serious, I can be faster.”
“No, that’s not it…”
It seemed I had ignited Maki’s fighting instinct.
I tried to stop her, but it was too late.
“Watch this!”
Screaming that, Maki shot towards the opposite wall.
I really didn’t have time to hold her back.
I could only watch in stunned silence.
(Right, this is Maki…)
While she was reflecting on me, she seemed a bit meek, but once that was over, she was back to her usual self.
Maybe she should have been a little more subdued.
As I slumped, my vision caught sight of a piece of paper fluttering down to the ground.
“Huh, is this…”
It must have flown out when Maki burst forward.
What I thought was a piece of paper was actually that prayer strip.
I picked it up out of habit.
As usual, it was a ridiculously sweet wish written in large letters: “I want to be a princess.”
But…
“Huh?”
When I looked closer, I noticed something else.
In the corner of the strip, I saw something small written in what looked like characters.
“…Lia ①?”
Was it some kind of note?
It was small and the handwriting was messy, so I couldn’t read it well, but it seemed to say something like that.
“What is this?”
As I puzzled over the nonsensical cipher,
“How is it, Soma? This time, it’s more… Ah, no!!”
Maki, who had returned, snatched the strip from my hand.
And then,
“Y-you saw…?”
She asked, acting strangely suspicious.
Did “seeing” refer to the strange string of characters written in the corner?
“Well… I saw it, but…”
As I said that, Maki’s face turned bright red in an instant.
“It-it’s not like that!!”
For some reason, she shouted loudly and ran out of the room without looking back.
“Ah, hey, let’s talk…”
My words echoed emptily in the now-empty room.
“What was that about?”
Maki was always incomprehensible, but today, she was more so than usual.
Perhaps realizing this, even after coming to another world, Maki was still Maki.
This was a fact that was both reassuring and troubling.
For today’s lesson:
—Maki and I just don’t click!!
Lia ①…
It appears to have been a complex cipher that Soma’s intellect could not comprehend.
