Prologue: A Cozy Party

Alto was gone.

At first, I had assumed he’d gone out shopping or something; I was sure he’d check in with us sooner or later. But it never happened... Romina seemed to notice something strange when she tried to contact him.

So that greedy Merchant of Death’s finally shown his true colors and turned tail... Or so I thought. Turns out, that wasn’t what it was.

“Hey, Kizuna,” said Romina. “Could you try reaching out to Alto for me? I tried calling, but the response was strange.”

“Huh? Don’t tell me he finally snatched our assets and made for the hills.”

Honestly, it wouldn’t have been surprising to me.

“Or maybe he got into something speculative and took a huge hit?”

I can see it. It’ll be a nightmare if we end up having to sell the castle and island rights to pay off his debts. We’ll have to chase that man to the ends of hell, and I’ll be joining in on that execution dance this time. Right, we’ll have to drag him somewhere where we can spawn-kill over and over again.

“It’s entirely possible with that guy—I won’t deny it. He did have a hand in all sorts of things, and I’m not sure if you guys ever saw it, but he’d give ridiculously long lectures to anyone who wasn’t pulling their weight.”

No, I didn’t know about that one.

I did help out with the crab industry, but all I really contributed was labor, and honestly, I left most of it to the Pekkles.

“Just yesterday, he was griping over how the money in the treasury’s gone down by a bit and how our supplies are disappearing. Said he was going to track down the culprit. I figured he was going to ask you about it today.”

When you really get down to it, I don’t know what Alto’s been doing these days. It sounds like there’s so much money and supplies flowing he can’t even keep track of it... But is that really all right?

“That said... He had me do a few checks before he vanished, so I have a grasp on things. Nothing’s gone wrong with the castle treasury. The warehouse, on the other hand... Well, it sees a ton of traffic, so I couldn’t keep an eye on everything.”

To summarize, the moment Alto saw his calculations weren’t adding up, he had Romina double-check for him. The money hadn’t gone down since then. If this was supposed to be some criminal vanishing act, he would have taken the money.

Since he didn’t, it was natural to assume it was something else.

“Have you gotten any strange invoices lately?”

“None. We just can’t reach him, and only him.”

Is he finally showing his true colors?

“Got it. Hey, Alto.”

With little choice in the matter, I sent Alto a private chat request.

“Error. The person you are trying to contact has either turned off their device or is in an area without reception.”

Umm, I’m getting déjà vu here.

That said, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the wording was a little different from what I remembered. Something was different, but it had been so long that I could hardly remember the finer details.

Regardless, back when I was trapped on Cal Mira, it was something like this.

Right, the “this individual” part seemed new to me...

“Is something wrong?”

Shouko walked up to me as I was chatting with Romina.

“Yeah, Romina opened up a chat with me because she can’t find Alto anywhere, so I tried giving him a call.”

“Hmm?”

Taking a page out of my book, Shouko sent a private chat request of her own and got the same message back.

“It’s similar to the message I got when I tried to contact you back when you were trapped on Cal Mira.”

“Right?”

“So it’s the same for you guys, huh...”

Had the man been summoned somewhere, just like I had? Just when things were getting hectic with the next wave knocking on our door? Not that I had any right to complain about that, I’d summoned people at inconvenient times myself.

“What’s it like if you’re on someone’s block list?”

“I have never been blocked myself so I do not have firsthand experience, but supposedly, the message says, ‘You cannot contact this recipient at this time.’”

Sounds like a generic block message to me.

But what I saw when I tried with Alto was different. For him, it was that he had “turned off his device or was in an area without reception.” If he’d just hightailed it after blocking anyone and everyone, then something wasn’t adding up.

“His business partners have been blowing up my inbox, and none of them know where he is. I’ve been handling them instead.”

Well, running a smithy had a business side to it, so Romina could fill in to some extent.

“What about the Pekkle-o-meter?”

Any of the guild’s Pekkles that hadn’t been assigned to work under individual players could be managed through the Pekkle-o-meter. The devices came in limited numbers, and surely Alto had treasured his.

“I found the one Alto carried around tucked away in the castle storehouse.”

He even left the Pekkle-o-meter behind?

I was growing more and more concerned.

“Just where did he go—or rather, where was he summoned to...?”

“Going off the situation, he was probably caught up in some event or other.”

“How troublesome...”

“As long as his businesses didn’t go under... Romina, can you handle it for now?”

“Sure thing. I’m no Alto, and I can’t spread myself that thin, but I’ll do what I can to keep things afloat.”

When all was said and done, we had no way of contacting Alto. I went ahead and relayed the news to everyone.

“Sir Alto had quite the network,” said Yamikage. “I daresay, I imagine his friend list was a lengthy one too.”

“If he was summoned to a settlement for his skills, then our Alto is in real high demand, huh?” Tsumugi added.

Pretty much... He’s a pretty reliable merchant, in that sense. But does that mean he’s going to be putting me on the scales against whoever the new guy is, next time we meet? Seeing who he’s going to use? Knowing Alto... Yeah, no worries; he’ll probably choose both of us. He’s a greedy merchant, after all.

“This is how everyone disappeared, right?” Kanade asked.

Everyone nodded.

“I had a rough time, getting ignored, I daresay.”

“I heard rumors about that,” said Therese. “About poor Yammy. There were people who wouldn’t shut up about calling her the Reaper. L’Arc was grumbling about it.”

Oh, them... Shouko’s former party members. I hadn’t seen them around since the last time we kicked them out, so I didn’t know what happened to them. Therese must have been taking care of Yamikage along with L’Arc.

“Such disgraceful people,” Shouko concluded.

“Well...” Therese replied. “Let’s pray that they’re repenting, wherever they are.”

“Anyway, the bottom line is that Alto won’t be around. For now...all we can do is prepare to overcome the wave.”

It felt like we’d just been doing whatever we pleased for a while now, but our preparations had actually come a long way. We’d already cleared out the old hunting grounds and raised our Energy cap while we were at it; we probably wouldn’t have to worry about that for a while.

If the wave wasn’t coming, we’d be focusing on Mikakage’s quests right around now.

“It should hit tomorrow or the day after. Alto’s not around, but we’ll get through it!”

At my big sister’s rallying cry, we all shouted back a hearty “Yeah!”

Then, “Ah,” Therese interrupted. “I got a call from L’Arc. We’re joining a different party this time.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. L’Arc’s got to pull his weight, or he’ll be in hot water once we get back to real life. Relationships sure are a hassle. Aaah... I wanted to see all the fun events with Kizzy.”

“Yeah, I don’t see myself running into one of those anytime soon. Just forget about it and go.”

“Fiiine. See you later. Let’s play again sometime.”

And with that, we saw Therese off.

†

“Sheryl, are you in?”

I shouted into the workshop that she’d holed herself in for days. Sheryl lifted her head, registered my presence, raised a hand, and put her work on hold before walking over.

“Welcome back.”

“Glad to be back. Did you hear anything from Romina?”

Romina had said she’d tell Sheryl, but I asked to make sure.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Revenge.”

“You sound motivated, at least.”

She hadn’t left the workshop these past few days, instead opting to grind out all the crafting skills that had fallen behind. But despite all that nonstop grind work, it was good to know she was still up for a fight.

“Have you reached a good point in your work?”

“Uh-huh... Doing some prep.”

So she’s been getting ready for the wave.

“Glad to hear it. We’ve been messing around with Cooperation Skills lately; why don’t you try teaming up with Yamikage to see what kind of attacks you can pull off?”

“Uh...huh...”

For a moment, her motivation seemed to wane, but...regardless, Sheryl was good to go.

“You must be the Sheryl that everyone’s talking about.”

Suddenly, Kanade stepped in and approached her.

“I’m Kizuna’s elder sister, Kanade. I know I caused some trouble a bit ago, but I look forward to working with you.”

“Uh-huh... Kizuna and Tsumugi told me about you,” Sheryl said, her eyes shifting to Kanade.

“Hey, Kizuna, what were you two saying about me?”

“Nothing too important. Right?”

“Uh-huh... I don’t know you.”

Sheryl wasn’t as socially inept as Yamikage, but she was still pretty reserved... It would probably take some time for her to warm up to my sister.

“Pleasure.”

“Yes, a pleasure. I’ll be in charge of the kitchen from now on, so there’ll be more than just fish on the table.”

C’mon, sis. Did you really have to use this chance to show off?

“So, what kind of food do you like, Sheryl?”

Kanade’s question was met with complete silence. A bit of time passed before she prodded me and sent a private chat request.

“Is it something I said?” she asked, so Sheryl wouldn’t hear. “She’s kinda not reacting at all.”

“Conversations with Sheryl follow a...unique rhythm. Don’t worry too much about it. If she’s uncomfortable or upset, it’ll show on her face.”

So she’s thrown off by her too.

“I want to...learn more about Japanese food.”

“Japanese, huh? Got it. I’ll keep that in mind.”

When asked about her favorite food, she replied with something she wanted to know more about rather than what she liked. It was a little off, but not worth any concern.

“All right. Next, let’s pick up some equipment from Romina.”

“Okay.”

Sheryl pumped her fist.

Looks like she’s plenty motivated.

After that, we moved over to Mikakage to fine-tune our Cooperation Skills and formation while waiting for the Dimension Wave event to kick off.

“So this is what the furthest map reached in Mikakage is like. It’s a bit challenging, but unfortunately, we don’t have the time to find an efficient grinding spot.”

“With you on the front line, Kanade, it has become much easier for me to fight. I have a far easier time attacking.”

“Yeah, big sis always brings a sense of stability.”

The addition of Kanade solidified our front line.

“But it looks like the load on Yamikage’s increased a bit,” said Kanade. “We really need a healer.”

Yamikage would occasionally heal my sister when she asked for it, so her attack frequency had dropped.

“This game doesn’t require strict formations, so it’s fine, sis. You should look at it more like that hunting game. It’ll all work out.”

“Tsumugi, I’m telling you to think about reliability. Even if anything can work, there’s always a better option. With the wave coming soon, I know we can’t completely change course, but...maybe I could ask a friend who could fill in.”

“I don’t know...we’ve got a few shy members...”

There was Yamikage, and Sheryl too. Bringing someone new at the last second wasn’t going to cut it. L’Arc and Therese both knew a lot of people, but lately, they seemed to be pretty busy.

“Everyone’s so strong, so we’ll fight way better with a proper healer. Several times better, in fact.”

“Look, I get what you’re saying, sis.”

We were just playing for the fun of it, so we didn’t plan on taking it that seriously.

“Ah... If you hunted with that kid, you’d probably change your mind.”

There’s someone that amazing out there, huh?

“Sounds like they’d be stifling to be around.”

Most of us were just doing our own thing. Tsumugi and Shouko could adapt to most formations, but Yamikage? I wasn’t so sure.

“She’s a good person, so it’ll be fine. Oh, but... I can’t get in touch with her, so forget about it. Anyway, I’ve got a good sense of how everyone fights. What’s your usual approach during the waves?”

My sister addressed the first question to Yamikage.

Well, she was the one with the best track record, after all.

“I aim at wherever there are the most enemies and Drain, I daresay.”

“Everyone attacks however they like, and whenever something unexpected happens, Kizuna somehow makes it work out.”

“We count on bro. Everyone’s looking forward to what he’ll pull off this time.”

“Come to think of it, I heard rumors about Kizuna’s performance in the Demon Lord Invasion event...”

As Kanade muttered that, Yamikage and I looked away.

We’d both been in Kappa Costumes, disabling traps while attacking whenever we got the chance. I had no doubt in my mind that whoever saw our glorious feats stained by joke gear had spread the word to whoever would hear them.

“Shouko and Tsumugi did well too!”

“Yeah, bro, but you guys stole the spotlight. That catfight was all everyone was talking about.”

“It never happened. There were no kappas. I didn’t do anything.”

Sheryl frowned. She was apparently still frustrated about her loss.

That was why she was so fired up for her comeback—her revenge.

Everyone seemed aware of it, and I felt it was time to change the subject.

“We reject rigid thinking around here... Umm... Yeah, we leverage innovation to create new ideas, adapt within reasonable limits, strive for the best, and create results full of creativity. Any insane hurdles, and the real powerhouses can handle it!”

“What kind of stuck-up company speech was that, I daresay?!”

“We’re a laid-back company... A cozy party! We do company BBQs on holidays!”

Around halfway through that spiel, I was just waiting for someone to call me out. That’s what I loved about Yamikage. She was the sort who could turn all those awkward “what is this guy even saying” faces into smiles. She was the one I needed to complete the joke.

“Hey, bro, do you even know what you’re saying?”

“Nah? Not at all? I just strung together some words that sounded good.”

“You’re the same as ever, Kizuna... Anyway, I’ve got a good grasp now, and I should be strong enough with my new gear.”

And so, after we’d finished practicing our coordination, we rushed back to the castle where Romina had finished crafting the Brave Pekkle costume we’d requested.

To think my sister’s trusty shield would be used to make a mascot suit modeled after Brave Pekkle...

After receiving a new shield from Romina, Kanade didn’t hesitate to don the Brave Pekkle Costume...standing proudly—chest puffed out—next to the real Brave Pekkle.

“How about that, people?”

“Honestly, sis... You look like you’re getting desperate.”

Our Brave Pekkle had multiplied...rather, it looked like we had a Brave Pekkle parent and child.

“Say what you want, but the defense on this thing is insane. It’s way better than overenhanced crab gear, you hear—more than double it!”

Just how much defense did they cram into that stupid... I began to think. But considering Brave Pekkle’s stats, it did make sense.

“Is this the strongest form of Pekkle Costume armor?”

“I get the feeling it can still evolve. There might even be a Wrath Pengu one that boosts attack.”

Oh, right...Wrath Pengu’s a thing. I can see that being the next step up.

“Combine this with the buff from Kizuna’s Santa hat, and I’m invincible. Water-attribute attacks won’t even register to me.”

“Maybe we should head out to sea and take on some sea monsters that we haven’t fought yet.”

“Fine by me. I’ll draw all the aggro while you guys attack.”

You’re that confident?

“Heal.”

Kanade tested out the heal skill built into the costume to get a feel for it.

“Okay, you shouldn’t count on me for healing, but it’s not awful... Using Brave Pekkle as reference, do I have a slot to equip any accessories on my back?” she asked Romina.

“You really don’t need to take it that seriously...” Shouko muttered, giving a resigned sigh at my sister’s thoroughness. I had to agree with her on that one.

“Milord... I daresay, I respect how committed she is to it.”

“Yamikage, this is the same sister who dedicated herself to a lifetime of absolute penny-pinching to save up for a sword.”

She’d commit to a ridiculous costume without batting an eye. This was the same person who hadn’t hesitated to take up the hobo life.

“How she takes it to such extremes... I can feel her connection to you, Kizuna.”

“Ha ha ha, there’s an accessory with a set bonus,” Romina declared. “It was in the recipes Kizuna brought in.”

The recipes were ones that we got as a reward for defeating the Dark Lord Lizardman. Sure enough, that Lizardman seemed to have some connection to Brave Pekkle.

“It’s called Lizardman Doll. It’s got a hidden effect that boosts costume performance and reduces flinch.”

“Oh my! That’s great for defense!”

“Come to think of it,” Shouko interjected, “when we completed that hidden quest, Kizuna and I both received a Dark Lord Lizardman Soul that can be used in our Intermediary Stones.”

“Right, that. That’s one of those things where you need to set it to get an effect.”

Dark Lord Lizardman’s Soul (Epic)

Axe Mastery 4, Dark Resistance Boost 5, Water Resistance Boost 4

Lizardman Warrior, Shield Support, Energy Accumulation Boost

???...

It turned out to be a really strong combat soul, an Epic Rare one at that. My Intermediary Stone was too weak to draw out its full potential, which meant some of the effects were grayed out while others refused to even show up.

Apparently, Shield Support raised the defense of any party member holding a shield. That meant that my sister’s defense would go up just by having Shouko and me in the party.

Naturally, Brave Pekkle would also get boosted.

“And that means I’m invincible! I could call myself the number one tank on the server.”

Wow... How reassuring.

“Break a leg, sis.”

“Leave it to me!”

And like that, we finished our preparations for the incoming wave.

Chapter 1: Tagalong Sisters

The next day, we waited on the field where the wave would hit.

Therese said she’d be fighting with L’Arc. And L’Arc, well, he was probably going to be with that Aultcray guy.

“Any second now.”

“Everyone’s gotten pretty used to waiting around on the field.”

“Even the supply runners look like veterans. Romina, is everything okay without Alto?”

I sent a chat to Romina to make sure.

“No problem. I have the Pekkles taking care of a lot of it. Sheryl looked like she wanted to use one of the Pekkle-o-meters, so I gave it to her.”

“I get that you’re all strong, but make sure you coordinate properly, okay? You’ve been able to brute-force it with equipment and levels, but failure’s a real possibility this time.”

We all nodded at Kanade’s warning.

That said... The ones in the most danger were me, Shouko, and Yamikage.

If a Spirit took damage beyond their Intermediary Stone’s Shield Energy, they’d start to get weaker and weaker. And, if they played it poorly and let their main Energy pool drop to zero, they’d die, and it’d take a long time to recover all the losses.

At the very least, we wouldn’t be able to return to the front lines—we’d be stuck resupplying at best. This was the game’s main event and all, but if we rushed into it without thinking of the consequences, it would definitely come back to bite us.

Powerful, but crippled hard by death. That was the essence of Spirits.

Now that Cooperation Skills were a thing, it was easy to imagine that the enemy attacks would become more brutal to match.

“I daresay, let’s aim for a good ranking again.”

“Yeah.”

I’d managed to secure a few Rank 1s in the last wave, but I couldn’t get cocky and assume it would just fall into my lap again. It wasn’t like I had the player skills of Shouko or Yamikage.

“Yamikage, you always get a good score. I’m jealous,” my big sister groaned while wearing a Brave Pekkle Costume.

Hey, the players around us are giving you weird looks, you know.

“We’ve got a whole Brave Pekkle family now.”

“That island lord. Where’d he manage to get a second one? And dang, that’s one huge Pekkle.”

“You got it all wrong. That there’s an evolution of the Pekkle Costume equipment. I wonder what the key enhancement material is. I mean, I know it takes a well-used shield, but the rest’s a mystery.”

“Kapapa!”

One of the players had even put on a Kappa Costume for the bit and was running around, shouting their name like a Pokémon. The costumes we sold off had started to corrupt the player base.

This game’s going to start looking pretty surreal if this becomes the norm, although that’s pretty typical for an online game.

By the way, Kanade was equipped with a Lizardman Spike Shield, which was one of the recipes in the Secret Treasures of the Lizardmen collection that I’d given Romina. Of course, Brave Pekkle was equipped with his own copy of it.

“R-Right, I daresay...”

Yamikage seemed a bit overwhelmed. Seems she was still as shy as ever.

“I know eating damage has a ranking, but does blocking damage earn you contribution points too?”

“Of course it does. This time, I’m aiming for the number one tank slot!”

How reassuring.

“Yamikage was always a hot topic, you know? A self-sustaining DPS who’s always at the top in wave rankings. Every mage tries to copy her at least once.”

“It’s a gamer’s nature to imitate and analyze what works.”

“You say that, but I’ve never seen a Drain-focused ninja like Yamikage in any of the wave battles. What’s up with that?”

Kanade sounded pretty knowledgeable—probably because of all the temporary parties she’d been in.

“Yes, that’s the thing. Drain’s output is way lower than you’d think, and that fighting style is so finicky that it’s better to just use regular attribute magic. They say Yamikage’s broken in a weird way.”

Well...she did use accessories specialized for Drain, and her other gear was also stacked with enchantments.

During the second wave—the one Shouko and I were barred from—Yamikage’s performance was solid thanks to all the sea battles, and by the third wave at Cal Mira, her Energy stat had simply reached an absurd level.

“It seems no one else can keep up with Yamikage, the Drain Ninja.”

“Hmm... If you think you can catch me, I daresay, just try it.”

I’m not jealous of your Drain at all, by the way.

“Also, Spirits only make up a small part of the population. The meta on how well Drain synergizes hasn’t really been explored.”

“By that logic, bro and Shouko should be able to pull off something similar.”

“Well, we’re not magicians, she and I.”

Shouko, Yamikage, and I all had our own fighting styles. Sure, Shouko had started to fish with me lately, but we still used completely different weapons in battle. It was only natural.

“What if you picked up Drain as a sub-weapon? You’ll probably get more Energy that way than by defeating monsters normally.”

Kanade made a proposal to the two of us.

“I might’ve heard you out in the early game, but the Energy cap is fixed until we get the next update, and we’re pretty close to it. Is there even a point?”

By now, we’d met the conditions to raise the cap. Back when we started, though, the limit had seemed so distant that it had been all about grinding as much Energy as possible just to maintain our builds. There was even that time when Shouko used up all the Energy she had stored up to protect everyone, standing as a wall to endure the vicious attacks of the city liberation boss. She was instrumental to victory, but unfortunately, that led to her getting kicked out of her party.

“If I pick up too many skills, my hourly Energy cost...”

And I lost Mana if I wanted to swap things out, so constantly juggling setups would be a net loss in the end. I’d been raising my Energy Production whenever I could, but that had a cap too.

Essentially, learning Drain would come at a heavy cost for me.

“We were actually talking about me or Shouko learning magic back when we were developing Cal Mira, but it was expensive and there were annoying requirements we had to meet, so we put it off.”

“Yes, unfortunately, trying to learn everything is not easy.”

“I daresay, the system could be a bit more flexible with learning skills.”

While the three of us lamented the woes of being Spirits, Kanade, Tsumugi, Sheryl—and even Romina in Chat—looked upon us with furrowed brows.

“To other races, you guys look like you can do everything.”

“Seriously, it always seems like you’re swapping skills and builds left and right.”

“Right?”

“The grass simply looks greener.”

I mean, yeah, we envied the other races too. I was boosting my Mana Production, believe me, but higher-tier skills didn’t just drain Energy, but Mana too.

“Let’s be real, the people from other races change their builds too, right?”

Why are we the only ones expected to adapt to every situation?

“Yes, some people go all in and completely overhaul their builds. Those people usually have to farm Cal Mira’s instance dungeon to make use of its time compression.”

Oh... So they use the dungeon to work out those proficiency issues.

“Well, you guys are all about doing your own thing. Forcing a mold on you wouldn’t do us any good. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be the party everyone looks up to.”

“I-I daresay, they look up to us?”

“Of course they do. I told you everyone’s copying you, right, Yamikage? And Shouko and Tsumugi have insane natural reflexes.”

True... Seeking enjoyment has always been our creed, but Shouko and the others are all top-tier. Not to mention Tsumugi and Kanade are veteran gamers. They earned our game keys by winning a fighting game tournament, after all.

Sheryl was staring at us silently. It was kinda scary for some reason.

“And you, Sheryl. Your name comes up a lot among spear users, you know, although people are always arguing over whether your main focus is on spearmanship or carpentry.”

So basically, they were having theory crafting debates. They were probably saying things like “Her skill composition is clearly this! This one’s her main and this one’s her sub!” Even when there was an actual definitive answer, it was nothing but back-and-forth speculation.

“Uh-huh... What do they think I am?”

Ah, she’s curious.

“Around sixty percent say spearman, thirty say shipwright-specialized carpenter.”

“And the rest, I daresay?”

“I’ve heard pirate and whaling captain too.”

For some reason, Sheryl looked a bit embarrassed as her eyes drifted to the floor.

“So, what is it really? You know, don’t you, Kizuna?”

“Diver,” I said with confidence.

“Uh...huh.”

Ah, by that response, I’m not wrong, but not right either.

“Lady Sheryl is an explorer, milord. The shipbuilding was just a part of her journey to reach the unknown.”

Sheryl nodded at Yamikage’s words.

Come to think of it, she did start shipbuilding to find new land. I was stuck on the whole fishing angle.

“I never realized there were so many rumors about us,” said Shouko.

“Incidentally, what about me?” I asked.

“Adorable crossplayer Kizzy.”

“Lalalalala! I can’t hear you!”

Adorable? Please! This is all my sisters’ fault!

“But honestly, most people call you the Fishing Master, naturally.”

“The last wave left quite an impression, I daresay.”

“Yes. Rumor has it you camped out alone by the underground lake long enough to drive a normal man crazy, so if anyone ever receives an invite to fish from you, they should decline if they value their sanity. That’s what they told me,” Kanade explained.

“A-And how did you respond?”

Shouko and Yamikage were giving me some cold stares.

“Well, of course, I told them, ‘That kid’s got some outrageous patience once he sets his mind to something. A month by the underground lake wouldn’t surprise me one bit.’”

“Actually, it was only half a month,” Shouko corrected Kanade as if to give her some sense of relief.

But that’s just going to have the opposite effect on her!

“A fifteen-day test run, I’d imagine. If I told you to go fish down there for thirty days once the wave is over, you’d do it. Right?”

“I-I wouldn’t take it that far.”

“Nonsense! There’s no way you wouldn’t—someone as persistent as you. Aren’t you the one who flooded all the coasts with crab traps?”

“She knows you too well, I daresay.”

“That’s a big sister for you.”

Yamikage! Romina! Don’t just nod in agreement!

Tsumugi grumbled, “Our brother’s so easy to read when it comes to this stuff.”

“But I’ll give it to you,” Kanade said. “Fishing here isn’t easy; you’d need patience like yours to pull it off.”

“It definitely turned out way different from what I thought when I first started playing,” I said.

“We were supposed to carry you once we got decently strong, bro, but you ended up getting stronger and richer way faster than expected,” Tsumugi said.

“I still remember how you made us burst out laughing with that Herring Lord,” Kanade added.

Urgh... They still remember that? That was ages ago.

“I heard you were the one who came up with the Empty Can business. You’re really doing well for yourself, huh?”

“And we ended up having to carry sis instead.”

“Shut up. You went to join Kizuna way too fast. Don’t you have any pride as a gamer?”

“Knowing when to bet on the winning horse is part of being a gamer, sis.”

That was the difference between Tsumugi, who didn’t care about appearances and joined just because it seemed fun, and Kanade, who clung to her pride as an older sister and kept chasing what she believed in.

“Good grief... Honestly, this game’s progression is so different that my past experiences aren’t really helping me.”

“Yeah, sis only starts to shine once the meta is established. It’s no wonder she fell behind.”

“I just value efficiency.”

I knew what my older sister was good at, and she was so good at it she even managed to impress Alto.

“But now, my theories are useless, and I’ve decided to compromise with my equipment and wait for better gear in the next update. I won’t be falling behind again. If anything, you guys need to keep up with the updates, or you’ll be the ones left in the dust.”

“Hey, I’m not sure about me, but everyone else will adapt.”

I mean...once I decided on the sort of fun I wanted, I was the sort who stuck with it. I was aware of that.

“Kizuna has been fishing this whole time, even while playing with us.”

“True, I daresay. You’re committed, undoubtedly so. I daresay, you should keep at it.”

“I agree. It’s better if Kizuna stays the same.”

Everyone accepts me as I am. It’s a good feeling. If only someone other than Shouko would fish with me.

“Truly, this game is too deep and meta-defying. With its regular updates...Second Life Project is the perfect name for it.”

“Our bro even has a fan club, you know. It’s hilarious.”

“No it ain’t!”

There was something wrong with those people, making some weird guild centered around me. I only let it slide because it was a fishing guild.

“Having fans is important, Kizuna.”

“Oh right, sis, didn’t you say there was an idol participating in this session?” Tsumugi asked.

“I heard about that,” Romina chimed in. “The competition for entry skyrocketed with all the people screaming, ‘I’m joining this game to meet her!’ I’m amazed I was lucky enough to buy a spot.”

“Maybe it’s because all those idol-otaku types got in. They’re finding their moe fix with you, bro.”

I wouldn’t like that... If that’s why they’re like that, that makes it even worse.

“What if someone actually thinks Kizuna is that idol?”

“I am not an idol IRL! I’m a guy! And I don’t mean ‘I’m an idol but a guy’—I mean, I’m just a guy! If anyone says, ‘But you’re really an idol, right?’ I’ll start spamming dirty jokes, you hear!”

I’ll scream the dirtiest things I can think of! How about that?!

“Kizzy just publicly declared he’s not a real idol, I daresay.”

“Heh heh heh, I already know, I daresay. But we’ll support him anyway.”

“A spam of dirty jokes from Kizzy? Yes please, I daresay!”

“Please do it. I daresay, the censor bleeps will arouse something within me.”

“2D is formed from the dreams of old men... That’s common sense.”

“All cute girls are 2D. Ergo, all old men are cute girls.”

“Crossplayers are the best, I daresay. Those tagalong sisters did good work.”

“Little lady, your party never fails to give us content.”

“Ah, it’s L’Arc! Don’t forget you’re only getting a pass because you’ve got a girlfriend!”

“I want Aunty Therese’s delicious rock candies!”

“Whoa! The jealousy of the fans is off the charts!”

“Who are you calling aunty?! I’m not that old, dammit!”

The creeps who’d decided to find their moe in me started blowing up the field chat! And worse, they were all far from normal, well-adjusted people. L’Arc and Therese joined in at some point too.

But this jealousy was insane. And I felt a bit sorry for Therese.

“Who are you calling a tagalong?! Who?! I’ll have you know they call us the beauty sisters in real life!”

That was what set Kanade off.

It was true, but saying that in game didn’t exactly lend her any credibility.

“That boost-bust broke Brave Pekkle is trash-talking, I daresay.”

“Ignore her. She’s no good. Just one of Kizzy’s tagalongs.”

“Agreed, I daresay.”

“Yeah, ignore me! I dare you!”

Seriously...hardcore fans have no fear. If sis starts holding a grudge...she might bully me about this to the end of time.

“I... Should I change my speech tic, I daresay?”

“Don’t worry about it too much.”

Perhaps Yamikage didn’t want to be associated with them, but she was playing a female character, so it was probably fine.

“Getting back on track,” I said, “even if there really is an idol playing this game, how would you tell? The voice changer is perfect, so if they tweak it, you’d never know.”

“I know, right? I wonder if they’re still trying to find her,” my big sister replied, her anger seeming to settle somewhat.

“We’re still searching, but no luck, I daresay. Heh heh heh... Kizzy is our only solace.”

“Anyone here who’s an idol in real life! Please raise your hand and sing that song! You know the one!”

“Whoo!”

The field chat was running with it.

“If some idol actually stepped forward in this situation, they’d have to be insane...”

For now, let’s open up party chat. No more eavesdropping.

“So, is anyone in our party a real idol? Oh, also, sis and Tsumugi are technically considered beautiful in real life. For what it’s worth.”

At least, that was what my friends in school would tell me. I was just the plain brother stuck between them. That was probably why I never developed a thing for sisters, be they older or younger.

I even heard Alto mutter, “I’m glad they’re not my sisters...” or something at some point.

“Not me,” said Shouko. “I am most definitely not an idol.”

“Nor am I, I daresay.”

“No...”

I turned to Romina’s chat window.

“Unfortunately not.”

“If it turned out to be Alto, that’d be the best punch line.”

“He’s not here to confirm it, but if that guy were an idol, I’d turn off the TV every time he showed up.”

We could only pray our Merchant of Death wasn’t the idol. That said, the idol industry was full of shady business, and maybe someone with his business acumen would fit right in.

Anyway, there didn’t seem to be some secret idol hidden among us. Not that it would matter if there were.

“There won’t be time for chitchat once the wave begins. Everyone here fights their own way, right? I’ll do what I can to make it easier for you.”

It happened just as Kanade showed her determination—

Just as it had several times before, the black dimensional rift let off a dull glow. The event had begun.

Chapter 2: The Fourth Dimension Wave

“Hm? It’s starting, it’s starting! Hey, the monsters are popping up!” a voice reported across the field chat.

“Now then, it looks like this wave is going to be a land battle. I know some of you weren’t happy with the results of the Demon Lord Invasion Event, so let’s go all out this time!” a cheerful voice echoed across the channel.

Come to think of it... I’m not hearing any messages from the person who commanded the first and third waves. He wasn’t in the Demon Lord Defense either.

“So what are we facing this time?”

I turned my eyes to the field, taking in all the monsters we’d be facing off against.

First up was the Dimension Naga—humanoid monsters with the lower bodies of snakes. Next, the Dimension Garuda—bird people, essentially. Add on the Dimension Djinn, which were like genies that carried their own lamps, and the massive Dimension Airavata—three-headed elephant-like beasts—looming behind them...

“Looks like it’s mostly humanoids this time.”

“Yeah, you see that kinda lineup in games now and then.”

“True enough.”

“They do seem to have some sort of theme going on here.”

I exchanged my impression of the lineup with my sisters. Most of the monsters seemed to have come straight out of Indian mythology.

“Shall we see what they can do?”

“We shall score big again, I daresay!”

“Let’s go!”

Everyone seemed fired up enough.

Now to check the map...

“Report. Black tower spotted in A-2. We’re pretty much used to this by now.”

“Umm... It’s too far to tell, but there’s something that looks tower-ish somewhere around B-5 or B-6. That’s probably it.”

“One sprouted up at D-3 too.”

Reports continued rolling in from the chat.

We’d started around E-5. A somewhat mountainous area labeled as...the Meshus Mountain Range, was it? Anyway, it was a tricky map with a bit of elevation and steep cliffs that you needed to take detours to get around.

Still, our mounts did solve the mobility problem to some extent.

“All right, people! Let’s do this!”

“Yeah!”

“Eee!”

“Eee!”

“Eee!”

“What is it with you people?! Each and every time... Stop acting like low-level mooks! Are you trying to lose?!”

The battle chat was as free-spirited as ever.

“We should head out too. So, what’s the plan?” I asked.

“First, we need to gauge the strength of the monsters. Shouko, Tsumugi, and I will take the lead! Our goal is the closest tower at D-3,” Kanade proclaimed while raising her fist.

I guess splitting up will have to wait, then.

By the way—and this probably went without saying—I’d taken a good number of Pekkles with me. Since we weren’t on a ship, their headgear came in all shapes and sizes.

“Understood. Let’s test the waters.”

“Let’s goooo!”

With my big sister at the vanguard, Shouko and Tsumugi charged at a nearby pack of monsters.

“Getting ready...”

It was at that point that Sheryl crouched down and began fiddling with something. It seemed she had her own plans.

“Kizuna, Yamikage, you need to prepare yourselves too.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Let’s do this! I daresay, it’s time to show our party’s coordination!”

I took out my ice knife and began charging Blood Flower, while Yamikage started channeling a spell of her own.

“Come on! Come on! Hate Call!”

With a flick of Kanade’s fingers at the monster pack, a swirling vortex of wind erupted around them. Then suddenly, the monsters all turned toward her and rushed in.

It had to be some sort of aggro skill.

“Just like we practiced! Shield Defense!”

Kanade raised her shield and called out. The transparent shield that formed and faded above her was the visual cue that her skill had taken effect, and just in time too. She was quickly greeted by the weapons of a Dimension Naga and Dimension Garuda.

Clang! The sound rang out as she blocked both their blows.

But one attack seemed to flow into another, and the monsters backed off just in time for a Dimension Djinn to bombard her with fire magic.

Is she okay? I wondered. But moments later, she came out totally fine.

“That hardly even registered... It would’ve hurt quite a bit with my old equipment.”

Kanade was outfitted with a defense-specialized Brave Pekkle Costume. Though it looked completely out of place, its performance was top-notch. What’s more, she had a Lizardman Doll on her back.

“It’s not worth using a heal.”

She’d become considerably tougher, her confidence and complacency rising to match. And meanwhile, more and more monsters were flocking to her.

“Whoa! These things hit hard! If I’m taking this much damage with overenhanced crab gear... Tanks, don’t aggro too many at once! Make sure you’re parrying properly!”

“So they’re going with an all-out offensive setup this time...”

“Wait, that Brave Pekkle’s holding a ton of monsters and tanking like it’s nothing! I don’t even see any healing effects! Is that okay?”

“It’s the Island Lord Party, right? I heard from that Merchant of Death. The hat the island lord wears boosts the abilities of every Pekkle on the battlefield, and it also applies to Pekkle Costumes.”

So Alto’s info made its way here too, huh?

Of course they’d be curious why the Pekkles had performed so well in the Dimension Wave near Cal Mira and during the Demon Lord’s Invasion. They probably saw a rise in their own Pekkles’ abilities when I was on the same field too.

“Then we just have to equip some Pekkle gear too, right?”

“Sounds nice. I’m starting to want some for real.”

“A royal guard unit protecting our Idol Kizzy, I daresay. ’Twas a life lived praying to become a Brave Pekkle, pen.”

“So who’s that envious—I mean, shameless fool taking up that honorable position?!”

“Sister.”

“His big sister, from what I hear.”

“Oh, the overenhance-obsessed hobo?”

“The crab buffet regular chick? What a shame. She’s even got that plushie strapped to her back like she’s got a thing for crocodiles.”

“Shut up! What do you mean ‘a shame’?! This thing on my back is part of a set bonus!”

Sis just snapped?!

“They say sister, but maybe it’s actually his brother?”

“Kizzy’s...big brother, you say?!”

“Double femboy, oh my god!”

“Allow me to explain! A ‘femboy’ here refers to when someone whose character design looks like a girl turns out to actually be a boy. Back in good old Japan, they use the term ‘otokonoko’ and—”

“Here we go again.”

“TL;DR. Keep it to three sentences or less.”

“Theory: Kizzy’s big sister, actually big brother. Brave Pekkle is femboy. Therefore— Hip hip hooray!”

“Hip hip hooray!”

“Eee! Eee! Eee!”

“That’s kinda moe, I daresay. But what’s the truth of the matter?”

“Real big sister, apparently.”

“Tsk!”

“Who the hell ya think ya are, calling me a man?! Don’t call me a femboy! And whoever just clicked their tongue—let’s take this outside! I dare you!”

My sister’s protests took over the battle chat as she withstood the onslaught. The monsters kept whaling away on her, and she seemed cool as a cucumber... Her insane defense had to be what was letting her argue like that.

And, since her Spike Shield had a counterattack effect, every monster pounding on her was taking damage in return.

But, as was to be expected of a large-scale event. The chat was scrolling at a ridiculous speed. Right now, the main topic was on the “sister=brother conspiracy.”

Hip hip hooray.

“Kanade... She’s incredible. It would be difficult for me to fend off so many monsters while fighting at the same time...”

Shouko’s play style was more about drawing smaller groups and parrying everything they threw out. That was how she endured it—and that was probably why Kanade’s hyper-defense build must’ve looked like a completely different world to her.

“Ah, got so busy ranting... No, scratch that. I’ve barely taken a scratch. Shouko, Tsumugi, wear one down for me!”

“Understood!”

“Here I come!”

Shouko and Tsumugi darted behind one of the Dimension Naga pummeling Kanade, their weapons ready to strike.

“Wild Dance First Formation: Rapid Strike!”

“Wind Sickle!”

Shouko unleashed a basic fan skill and Tsumugi a basic scythe skill.

“Hsssssh!”

With a meaty slice sound and a critical hit effect slicing into the Dimension Naga, the monster seemed to take a good bit of damage.

I had to wonder just how strong it really was—I mean, it didn’t seem like much compared to Kanade, but... Yeah, wait, why is she pulling even more monsters?

I was still charging up my skill, but maybe I didn’t need to get it all the way to full.

“Kizuna! Yamikage too!”

“Got it. Let’s go, Yamikage.”

“I know, I daresay.”

At Kanade’s signal, I slipped behind the same unguarded Dimension Naga, matching my pace with Yamikage’s.

There was a faint ping...and that was it. My Blood Flower went off with Yamikage’s spell, activating a Cooperation.

“Bloody Bomb Splash!”

The Bloody Rain Yamikage chanted intertwined with my Blood Flower into a devastating combination. Her dark magic had been imbued into my ice knife, giving its edge a blackish-reddish light as I sliced up the Dimension Naga and finished it off.

“Hssssh!”

A wet squelching sound filled the air, and with a flashy crimson-black effect, a spray of blood drenched all the monsters in the area.

Smoke began to rise from their bodies.

“All right, now we’ve got a strong defense debuff and DoT on all of them! Finish them off!”

Normally, when Blood Flower landed the finishing blow on an enemy it would dismantle them on the spot. Merging it with Bloody Rain changed that up a bit, transforming the corpse into a mass of blood that splashed onto nearby monsters and applied a powerful debuff.

“Of course! Circle Dance Zero Formation: Snow Moon Flower!”

“Death Step!”

Shouko’s and Tsumugi’s Skills went off, mowing down all the monsters that had been swarming around my sister. Oh, wow... When we actually factor in the debuffs, the monsters get blown away in an instant.

That’s right, it only took a moment for the entire swarm to be struck dead.

“That takes care of it for now. Seriously, I’m so tanky I don’t even need a heal.”

We did some mock battles before the wave, and our stability was on a whole nother level.

“You guys aren’t half bad. Your offenses are second to none.”

“It is an honor,” Shouko replied.

“Taking out a whole bunch in one go is satisfying and all, but there’s no bite to it. You know? I think I like it better when I can keep on smacking ’em, sis.”

I guess I could see where Tsumugi was coming from. Efficiency was important, yeah, but it did take away the fun of things when there was zero resistance.

Kanade would tank, Yamikage and I would apply the debuffs, and finally, Shouko and Tsumugi would clean house.

As a strategy, it was pretty solid.

“We’ve only just begun. With that said, the Cooperation Skill between Kizuna and Yamikage is incredibly strong. Can you two keep it up?”

“I’m not saying we can’t...”

“I want to go wild, I daresay.”

I didn’t mind being on support duty, but Yamikage probably wanted to sate the Drain fix of hers. She was an attacker, after all.

“Would you prefer we spread out to sow chaos across the battlefield?” my sister said, trying to sound cool. But she really lost a lot of that intimidation factor when she was wearing a mascot costume.

Honestly, it was more surreal than anything else.

“Right. We’ve all prepared for this wave in our own way, so I’m sure we can all hold our own.”

“You may be right. I mean, just look at how sturdy I am in this equipment. I knew it would be practical, but I didn’t expect it to be this good.”

“Yep. You’re giving weight to those conspiracies, sis.”

“Don’t worry, sis! You always try to act like that cool, unbothered type, but honestly, that spiteful side of you feels more authentic! Hip hip hooray!”

“Kizuna! Even you?! And Tsumugi, you’re eating my fist IRL.”

Teasing when you got the chance was just how our family did it.

“In fact, Kizuna! Your fans are all pretty hardcore, right? Why don’t you go over and play Princess Catfish?”

“Give me a break! What’s the point of crushing on me?! I’m a guy, I tell you!”

“The hard choice between a cute little brother and an unappealing big sister. The clash of fates.”

“Life is cruel, Jack.”

“Not too long ago, she was willing to do anything for money. You know that? That’s probably what’s fueling all the rumors. Hip hip hooray.”

“Eee! Eee! Eee!”

“Get it together, people!”

Just having me and Kanade chatting in the middle of the battlefield somehow seemed to reinforce this sort of...shady image of her. Like there was no low she wouldn’t stoop to for cash.

That was the internet—once an image stuck, it just wouldn’t go away. It was both a blessing and a curse.

Also, evil mook RPer, please use human words.

“Hold on, everyone. Let’s think about this rationally. This time, the monsters are mostly humanoid, and they’re swarming her. Sounds like natural character progression if you ask me.”

“I see, so she’s become their princess! The princess of all the monsters! I knew she had it in her.”

“Only monsters swarm like that. We mustn’t stoop to their level.”

“In this case, monster could refer not just to actual monsters, but also the people you surround yourself with. It’s a metaphor emblematic of—”

“TL;DR.”

“Five words or less.”

“Don’t try this at home. All the good boys and girls from Kizzy’s Fanclub, just worship from afar.”

“Rather than this ‘big brother’ with crossplaying allegations, I’d prefer to root for Yamikage or Shouko!”

Seriously. Stop getting worked up over me.

“All right, guys... I’m going to go MPK a few idiots. Feel free to go do your own thing.”

Ah... Sis’s patience finally ran out, and she’s gone full Wrath Pengu.

With heavy steps, she stormed off, gathering up every monster in her path.

In big events like these, trolling always walked a fine line between harmless fun and bullying. Still, going off the general mood, everyone was just laughing and goofing off and no one was actually taking it seriously.

It was all just jokes and jabs, with nothing to be gained from taking it to heart.

If anything, finding new quality material for future laughs was one of the main attractions. Come tomorrow, no one would even be thinking of it beyond “Oh yeah, that happened.”

That said, is this going to be okay...? I wondered. Then again, whether my sister took someone out or got taken out in return, the death penalty wasn’t too bad.

“Umm... Should we go after Kanade?”

“C’mon, bro! It’s all a misunderstanding!”

“Aaaah! The new Brave Pekkle came, and he’s got monsters with him! I’m getting run over!”

“Hurry up and apologize to the man! Wha? Gaaaaaah!”

“Judgment upon any who call me a man!”

“C’mon! We haven’t said anything wrong!”

“I’m just jealous you get to talk to Kizzy so much, so not apologizing. L’Arc, drop dead.”

“Why are you dragging me into this?!”

“Aww, poor L’Arc.”

“Therese, don’t act like this ain’t your business.”

“Thank you for bringing all the EXP!”

“Hey... I’m sure she’ll be back after she MPKs the ringleader.”

“Aha ha ha! Our sis landed herself quite the role, huh? Reminds me of Yammy.”

“That doesn’t make me happy, I daresay!”

The wave battle dragged on without an ounce of tension.

“Anyway, let’s keep at it our way. Just remember that the way sis taught us to fight might come in handy down the line.”

“Indeed. Your Cooperation Skill with Yamikage is very powerful. We can’t fall behind. I’d love to achieve Cooperation in battle with you too, Kizuna.”

It would definitely be fun if I had some skills that could combo with Shouko’s. Unfortunately, I just didn’t. Maybe I should pick up some simple magic.

“If it’s just about chaining attacks and not actual Cooperation Skills, landing a big hit after Double Needle works nicely.”

“Yes, but I would prefer something that feels like a proper combination.”

Hmm... Yeah, I get it. It would be nice if we had one. We’ll have to do some trial and error.

“Well, let’s put that aside for now. Sis is getting farther and farther away, so I’ll have some Pekkles fill in for her while we head to the nearest tower.”

“Right.”

“Time to go on the offensive! Circle Drain, I daresay!”

Yamikage unleashed her signature spell on the monsters that had spawned around her. It was a solid hit, going off the sound, but not enough to finish them off.

So even a super boosted Drain isn’t enough to take them down.

“Don’t forget about me! Here’s the new skill I learned! Haaaah!”

As she let out a war cry, Tsumugi was suddenly wrapped in some kind of shimmering energy membrane—and then, tufts of hair sprouted all across her arms and legs.

“Let’s go! Crimson Heaven Wheel!”

“Hsssshhh!”

The Dimension Naga and Dimension Garuda softened up by Yamikage were cleared out by Tsumugi’s skill.

“Keep ’em coming.”

“So, Tsumugi, is that the Demihuman’s Beastification skill?”

“Yup. My proficiency’s low for now, so all I’m getting is an attack buff.”

“Does it make you more beast-like when you level it up?”

“Dunno about that. It didn’t show any of the animations when I was making my avatar, so I dunno what’s gonna happen.”

Huh, so that’s how it works.

Apparently, different races could modify a few things in the initialization process that didn’t come into play until late into the game. Spirits didn’t have any of that.

“I need to attack and fill up a gauge before I can use it—it’s kinda a pain, not being able to blast them right at the start.”

You powered yourself up by charging a gauge in combat—whether that felt like a bother or like a flashy finisher probably depended on the user.

As I slashed an approaching Dimension Naga with my ice knife, the Auto-Steal kicked in, snatching a Dimension Naga Scale.

I’ll turn that over to Romina later.

“So anyway, this skill... I can charge it for some reason. I don’t know what that’s about.”

“Sounds like it might factor into a Cooperation Skill? Most charge skills seem to do that, though I don’t know what it combos with.”

“Yeah, maybe. Let’s test it out later, Yammy. And let’s keep an eye out to see if anyone else’s using it in the event.”

Events like these were the perfect place to spot strong players and unfamiliar skills. Just like other people were watching us with great interest, we could observe how the other players fought too.

We followed our own path, yeah, but there was still plenty to learn.

Just like how my sister taught us so much.

“Thanks for the carry, crossplay sis!”

“Appreciate you holding them for so long!”

“More mobs incoming!”

“Bro, you just earned yourself a fan for life.”

“Could you people knock it off already?!”

And that same sister...was off on a journey of MPK.

She gave enough warning, and if they knew she was coming, they just had to fire off massive AoEs into the swarm. She was pretty much a walking EXP pack to anyone confident in their skills.

I could only pray sis managed to wipe them out in the end.

“H-Hey, Island Lord Party! Help!”

Just then, I heard a desperate cry for help.

At first, I thought it was one of sis’s victims, but no—a half-decimated party was being swarmed by countless Dimension Garuda and Dimension Djinn, and they were begging for backup.

“Okay, let’s move—and fast!”

I quickly switched to my fishing rod and let out a few quick casts with Hate & Lure to turn all the monsters’ attention toward us.

“Let’s go, pen!”

“Come on, pen!”

Chris and Brave Pekkle moved like clockwork, Chris charging while cloaked in water and Brave Pekkle summoning a Lizardman to soften up the mobs I’d peeled off the weakened party.

“Now it is my turn... Kizuna and the Pekkles have done their part, so I’ll show off my new technique. Watch closely!”

As if refusing to be outdone, Shouko pulled out her rod just like me.

Really...? For Shouko, wouldn’t it make more sense to use a fan skill? I thought. But considering the distance, perhaps she judged it was the better option. I held my tongue and watched.

I figured she’d use Hate & Lure...but then...

Her lure zipped around the Dimension Garuda and Dimension Djinn, coiling round and round in tight loops... Then, as the last loops closed around their necks, she gave the rod a sharp jerk, hooking the line onto a nearby rocky outcrop.

“Critical Wire.”

With a snap, the line was pulled taut. The critical effect burst from their necks, and the monsters dropped dead. Precisely because they were all so humanoid...the way their heads popped off so cleanly was kind of terrifying.

“Ooh! Lady Shouko! That was incredible, I daresay!”

“That was like the work of a professional! I try to go for the necks too, but you’re so quick and smooth with it!”

“I’m not stopping here! Haah! Bind Rope! Into...Wild Dance First Formation: Rapid Strike!”

Shouko bound a flying monster near the party in distress—not with a lure, but by simply wrapping it in the line. She dragged it close and took it out with her fan while it was still immobile.

“I may not be on Kizuna’s level, but I can fight like this too!”

No, err...if I had to say, that’s not really how you fight with a fishing rod? But considering I’m the one hooking monsters in the mouth and yanking them up with Pole Fishing, maybe I shouldn’t be talking...

“Umm, are those rope skills?”

“Yes, that’s right. Even though I’m using a fishing rod, it fulfills the conditions for rope skills.”

Granted, if you were using a fishing line to attack and restrain, I could see why it would count toward rope proficiency. Maybe fishing rods were actually categorized as some kind of hybrid weapon?

I guess smacking things with a lure isn’t all there is to it. But does that mean I’ve been unknowingly raising my projectile proficiency or something?

“Do you want to try it out, Kizuna?”

“U-Umm, well...”

Would I be able to wrap a line around a neck and pop it off like that? Honestly, I wasn’t confident that I could. Shouko had grown a lot when I wasn’t looking.

It wasn’t so long ago that she was just mimicking me, dangling her line.

“Shouko.”

“Yes?”

“Have you ever tried to strike a monster with a lure, hook them, and reel them in?”

“You do it so naturally, Kizuna, but it is a lot harder than it looks.”

Nah, I’d say wrapping them in the line’s a lot harder. Hooking the mouth seems easy by comparison.

With that in mind, I hooked a Dimension Garuda’s mouth and yanked it up with Pole Fishing.

“Drain, I daresay!”

With Yamikage landing the last blow, we’d managed to wipe out the monsters assailing the other party.

“Thanks. You saved us there.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“All right! Is everyone good to go?!”

“Yeah! Let’s do this!”

“Woo-hoo!”

Once they’d finished patching themselves up, the party we’d saved took off running.

There was a lot of give-and-take—if we wanted to clear the event, we’d have to cooperate with one another.

Still...the way Shouko uses her fishing rod is very different from how I use mine. Come to think of it, she was leveling her rope skills back on Cal Mira, so maybe that led her to develop a different fishing rod fighting style.

“Aight! We’ve reached the tower!”

And with this and that, we’d finally gotten to the nearest tower.

Naturally, there were already other players pounding away at it.

“Let’s take it down!”

“Yes!”

On Shouko’s call, we all nodded and began our attack on the massive black structure.

For my part—well, it was an immobile target. I pulled out the Hakugei no Tachi and began charging Blood Flower.

“I don’t know if the event tower counts as a boss or something else, but this weapon’s the most efficient here.”

“Indeed. We’ll go all out as well!”

“Rather, shouldn’t we spread ourselves out some more, I daresay?”

“We’re only getting started. Everyone’s just rushed to the nearest tower. Once we smash this one, we can hit up the others.”

“Yup yup, we need to get it done while sis is tearing up the front lines.”

With that, we started hacking away at the tower. But, as though sensing that their base was in danger, the monsters started to swarm in.

We had Brave Pekkle, Chris, and the other Pekkles acting as shields while the rest of us dodged their attacks and endured, but ignoring them gradually started to become annoying.

“They just keep coming.”

“I daresay, shall we scatter them with an AoE?”

“Guess so. Yamikage, I know you’re not thrilled, but let’s hit them and try to debuff the tower while we’re at it.”

“This is one of those times I don’t mind, I daresay.”

Yamikage started chanting. She already knew what I was getting at.

“Shouko, Tsumugi.”

“Yes, of course! I’ll make it easy for you to aim.”

Shouko used her fishing rod to bind a nearby Dimension Djinn, lifting it up with an almost Pole-Fishing-esque motion and slamming it back down.

“Ggheeeh!”

Oh... That actually does some solid damage. And the restraints are too strong for it to break free. I guess that’s the power of some high-grade line.

“I’ll weaken it as much as I can! Hah!”

Beastification-buffed Tsumugi swung her scythe wide, getting some damage on the other monsters in the area while she was at it.

As for me... I’d finished charging Blood Flower to a decent level.

“Yamikage, we’re doing it again!”

“I know, I daresay!”

I unleashed Blood Flower at the Dimension Djinn Shouko had tied up, triggering a Cooperation Skill with Yamikage.

“Bloody Bomb Splash!”

For the second time today, our Cooperation Skill burst out like a crimson flower and splattered the area in a massive defense-lowering debuff.

“Whoa! The Island Lord Party just gave us some Cooperation Skill support!”

“This’ll be big! Let’s hope it debuffs the tower too.”

“As expected! And with that new Brave Pekkle stirring up the battlefield and gathering up all the monsters, it’s way easier to land hits! These guys are the real deal!”

Taking in the gratitude of the players around us, we watched as the monsters Tsumugi weakened were taken out by Bloody Bomb Splash’s explosion. Then the magic happened—more and more explosions as fallen monsters erupted into bloody blossoms one after the next.

Yep, the skill caused a chain explosion. Unfortunately, the monster had to be taken out by the weak blast for it to work, so the chain didn’t usually spread too far.

Still, bing-bang-boom! The sound of explosions filled the air as the monster population around the tower plummeted. The blood that splashed on the tower began to let off smoke.

“Now’s our chance!”

“Yes, let’s do this!”

“I’ve still got firepower to spare.”

It was time for my ace in the hole—I pulled out the Energy Blade. Or rather, Prototype Variable Energy Blade IV.

“Oh, it’s been a while since I last saw it, Kizuna.”

“It’s getting stronger bit by bit with each wave reward.”

I scanned the area... Oh, I don’t know them, but there’s another Spirit using one too. Yeah, that’s the right weapon for a time like this.

The player was using it in sword mode, swinging up a storm. It all came down to luck in the wave rewards, and weapon choice too. Still, I had to imagine my Energy Blade was one of the more enhanced ones.

But if a bunch of Spirit players got together and pooled their upgrade parts, there’s no way I’d ever be able to compete.

“Shouko, Yamikage. Energy Blades drop pretty often for Spirits, right?” I asked, growing a bit curious.

“So I’ve heard. Though I daresay, luck has never been on my side.”

“I have not gotten one either.”

Maybe it wasn’t as common as I thought.

“If we could gather up multiple upgrade parts, we could have a monster on our hands.”

“You may be right. If I ever get one, I’ll give it to you, Kizuna.”

“Same, I daresay.”

Appreciate it.

“However, from what I’ve heard from Alto and Romina, the current limit is IV.”

“Meaning mine is maxed out, huh?”

“Also, III and IV share the same Energy Multiplier.”

Meaning the main perk from going to IV was the variable function that let it get the bonuses from weapon mastery. Unfortunately, it did not have a variable form for dismantling weapons or fishing rods—my main weapons.

A sword might get some bonuses from my dismantling skill set, but I can’t see it giving me too much. It’d be more effective to lean on Bow Mastery since I already trained that for cover fire. Okay... I don’t know the exact multiplier, but if we want to get it in one go, this is the play.

Out of the list of transformation icons, I selected the bow. Then, vwooom! With a satisfying sound, the Energy Blade took on a new shape. I was able to invest Energy into it when I drew the string. And...I could use it for bow skills too.

Huh? A new skill just popped up...? I glanced down and saw the Dark Lord Lizardman’s Soul icon blinking. Energy Blast... That’s the same skill the boss used.

“Aight, then eat this! Energy Blast!”

I pulled back the string and released it to a thunderous boom as a massive beam of Energy erupted from the bow and slammed into the tower with an incredible flashy effect.

“Whoa!”

How about that?! Defense-down debuffed, and a hit from my Energy Blade! That ought to do it, I thought. But the tower was still standing. Even though I pumped in twice the Energy it took to collapse a tower in the last wave, it wasn’t enough.

“What a flashy beam, I daresay. To think something so outrageous could come from a bow.”

“The skill popped up through a synergy with the Dark Lord Lizardman’s Soul. We’re all Spirits here, so why don’t we pass it around and have everyone pour in some Energy? Next up, it’s your turn, Shouko. It’s even got a fan mode, so why don’t you try it out?”

I handed off the Energy Blade to Shouko.

“It certainly has one. I’ll try transforming it.”

She promptly unfolded it into a sizable war fan.

“Umm... This seems to be a fan that throws out blades of Energy when I swing it.”

“Hmm...”

I swear I’ve seen a weapon like that somewhere before. Fans, huh? Come to think of it, this game sure chose to include a weird weapon in the starting roster. It’s a shame fishing rods never made the cut for transformations.

“All right, let’s see... Oh, I can use Energy Blast too.”

Shouko poured her Energy into the fan, filling it with even more than I did and causing it to change shape even further. By the time she was done, it looked like an oversized version of those disco dance fans from the time before the bubble burst.

In fact, it was so large it had become more of a ceremonial prop fan than anything else.

“Here I come. I’m following your lead, Kizuna. Energy Blast!”

Shouko gave a large swing of her fan, an Energy Blast firing off from its edge.

It mowed down the surrounding enemies and stuck the tower dead-on! Soon, with a deafening crack, the black structure began to fall to bits.

“Tower at D-3 destroyed!”

“That was fast! We haven’t put a dent in ours yet.”

“The Island Lord Party shredded it.”

“Oh, them. Yeah, that makes sense. Anyone know what tricks they used?”

“Kizzy and Shouko fired thick beams with glowing weapons. I would have loved to see Yamikage’s attack too.”

“Energy Blades, right? I didn’t think they had a skill like that...”

“And to think they were calling that race a ‘loser pick’ before launch.”

“What I’d give... We need a race change update, ASAP.”

And thus, it seemed that the chatter was picking up again.

“Nice work, team! Now move on to the next target!”

Oh? That voice is definitely Kanade’s... What is she even doing right now? No, wait, do I have to ask?

“C’mon, Big Brave Pekkle. Follow the sound of clapping!”

“We’re all counting on you, Hero of the Pekkles!”

“Drag them over! We’ve got our nukes ready!”

“Thanks a bunch!”

She was evidently still playing tag and drawing aggro. With all the assists she was earning off the other players, she was definitely getting some serious contribution points.

“You two are putting on quite a show, I daresay. ’Tis a shame I didn’t watch you fish on that night, or I would have been able to join in.”

“The Dark Lord Lizardman’s Soul is simply too strong. Heh heh... I got to shine with the same skill as you, Kizuna.”

Shouko sure is cute at times like these.

“Aight, you’re up next, Yamikage. Take the Energy Blade.”

“Got it, I daresay.”

“Hey, bro, bro, bro!”

“Hmm?”

“You know how sis is pulling hard aggro? And you know how your hat is the key to that strat? Wouldn’t it be hilarious if I snatched it?”

Tsumugi came to me with a foul proposal. You’d go that far for a laugh, oh sister of mine? Really?

If she actually did that, it’d weaken the helper Pekkles of every player on the field, and then Kanade would get run over by all the mobs she’d pulled.

“Tsumugi...”

“Lady Tsumugi...”

“I just thought it! I never said I was gonna do it!”

“To be honest... I am getting tired of being stuck with this hat.”

Sure, I could change its appearance with the overlay I got from Aultcray, but it was still the Santa Hat underneath. I was at the point where I wanted to try out different equipment. It would be nice if I could wear some sort of hat a fisherman would wear, right? Like a nice fishing cap.

“Oh, the woes of an island lord, I daresay.”

“It’s incredible that it can cover an entire field.”

Pretty much... This was why I lost every option besides wearing what had once been the prized headgear of the artist formerly known as Santa Hat Pekkle (now known as Chris). After all, just wearing it turned my summoned Pekkles into NPCs that were stronger than some low-tier players.

It was no wonder they were calling me Pekkle Master... Whoever coined that term was on to something.

“Anyway,” said Shouko, “let’s shift gears and move to the next tower. Shall we split into two groups this time?”

“How do we pair off?” I asked.

“If we want the best matchup, it’d be me and Shouko, and bro and Yammy.”

Tsumugi’s proposal was actually relatively safe. Shouko could draw and hold a few enemies while parrying their attacks, which made her a good partner for Tsumugi with her plentiful scythe AoEs. Quite a reliable duo.

Their healing options were slim, but Shouko could recover some Energy by killing mobs, letting her sustain herself well in a prolonged battle. And more than that, she’d gotten even stronger after learning to use her fishing line for rope-based binds and attacks.

As for me and Yamikage...I could summon endless Pekkles, use Brave Pekkle as a shield, and command my Pekkle Flock to attack, so we were never short on hands. Add in our highest DPS Yamikage, who could also heal, and it was pretty much an airtight formation.

What’s more, our Cooperation Skill could spread a defense-down debuff and DoT on all monsters in the vicinity.

Sure, my physical prowess didn’t stack up to any of theirs...but maybe that was all right.

“What about milord pairing up with Lady Tsumugi? Blood ties might count for something in battle, I daresay.”

“Well, we could, but I dunno. How about we settle it with rock-paper-scissors?”

Are we really doing this?

“The tower at A-2 has fallen.”

“Wow, that was fast.”

“Well, yeah, we’re not gonna let that Island Lord Party hog all the glory.”

“We got a late start, but we’re still in the race.”

“Keep telling yourself that, but with L’Arc and Therese on your team, it’s pretty much the island lord’s handiwork anyway.”

And just like that, another tower was down. They’re falling a lot faster than I expected, I thought. Way faster than during the first wave, at least.

There was the fact that everyone had gotten quite used to these wave battles, for one, but it seemed L’Arc and Therese were fighting the good fight too.

“That was fast.”

“During the second wave, I daresay, things were going very fast all the way up to when the boss showed up.”

“Yeah, that boss took some time.”

“I guess the towers are just a warm-up, huh? A way to get used to the battlefield.”

“Indeed. Now, shall we head to the last one? We do have our mounts.”

Now that you mention it, we could ride over quickly and get into battle.

“Everyone, focus on the last tower. And watch out for traps!”

Incidentally, while we were moving forward without paying them much attention, the battlefield was littered with traps at regular intervals to slow the players in their tracks.

“Whaaaaaaaah?!”

“You okay?! Hang on, I’ll get a heal ready.”

A nearby player mistakenly stepped on one, triggering a rockslide from out of nowhere and taking damage.

Just in case, we’d disarm them or shoot them with arrows to trip them off safely, but they were popping up so often that they’d become a real pain to deal with.

“Hey, Brave Pekkle? Why’re you going the long way around? This way— Wait, what was that click?”

“Gyaaaaaaah! Bear trap!”

“Finally fell for it! Now here’s all those monsters you wanted! This is what you get for insulting me!”

“We didn’t say anything wrong, Kizzy’s big brother!”

“We’re not going to lose to Brave Pekkle! Not here! A true gentleman never yields! All the guys in Kizzy’s party are the problem. L’Arc is guiiiillltttyyy!”

“I already told you, I’m a woman, for crying out loud! Urgh...you’re tougher than you look!”

“Keep feeding us EXP, why don’t you!”

“Why do you guys hate me that much?! If it bothers you that much, just go talk to that little lady yourselves!”

“A true gentleman admires from afar! I’m team Shouko all the way!”

“Team Yamikage coming through!”

“Ah! It’s just like we covered in the Kizzy Seminar! The traps don’t scare me one bit!”

My sister sure seemed to be having fun. And L’Arc was the target of some deep resentment.

Also, what’s with these random factions asserting themselves?! And don’t call it a Kizzy Seminar!

The battlefield was seemingly sprinkled with players who’d leveled up their trap skills through working in the crab processing industry, and they’d gotten to work disarming traps for the rest of the player base.

Meanwhile, the mastermind behind the whole industry—the Merchant of Death—was still missing.

“Roger that! Moving in on the last tower!”

The other players were on the move.

Come to think of it, we let Sheryl act on her own, but is she okay? My sister is one thing, but lately, it’s like there’s been this wall between us. I’m worried, I thought to myself as I spurred my mount to charge across the battlefield. But... Huh? Why are there so many ballistae all over the place? Were those always there? And there’s those wires stretching along the ground, connecting them all... What’s going on? Did some battlefield gimmick spawn in?

My mind was filled with questions that I didn’t have time to find answers for. We kept pushing forward, defeating every monster in our path.

I’m getting the hang of casting my lure mid-combat.

“Milord, the way you and Lady Shouko use your fishing rods is very interesting, I daresay.”

“I couldn’t pull off Shouko’s hit-man-style executions if I tried.”

Her line had to be stronger than mine. She’d use the rod to bind the enemy, then strike them with the fan in her off hand and carve them up once they were weakened. It was quite a nasty combo.

For weaker enemies, it was practically a one-sided slaughter.

“I think you could do it too, Kizuna. Personally, I’d love to learn a skill like Tsumugi’s.”

“Once we figure out an awakening skill or whatever they threw in for Spirits, we should have some more options.”

Or maybe I’m asking for too much.

“We’ll have to pin our hopes on a future update.”

“By the way, Yamikage, you’re a Drain ninja, but you’ve got a ton of spells, right? Doesn’t it get hard managing all those skills?”

On top of Drain, she had light magic, healing magic, lightning magic, wind magic, and more. Our ninja was working with a huge toolkit. I mean, she probably swapped them in and out as needed, but that had to burn through Mana like crazy.

“I daresay, I keep it within reason. I’ve been learning, you know.”

When we first met, her skill distributions were so ridiculous that she was losing Energy every hour.

“On that note, there is an attribute that I arbitrarily fulfilled the conditions for while adventuring with everyone, I daresay. I’m mulling over whether or not to specialize in it.”

So like Shouko, she fulfilled the conditions for a new skill just by playing around day after day.

“So there are magic skills you can grind out in your daily life, huh?”

“Milord, if you or Lady Shouko were to pick up the prerequisite basic magic skill, you’ll definitely have it unlocked too, I daresay. In fact, it’s an attribute very suited to you, milord.”

“Ah, I...think I know what you’re talking about.”

“What? Shouko, you have a lead?”

“Yes. Truthfully, the Snow Moon Flower fan skill I use required more than just Fan Mastery. It required water-related skills too.”

Really? So, water?

“Water?” I asked to confirm.

“Yes. Skills like Shipboard Combat and a few others were enough. I’d already met the conditions when the skill first showed up. I still don’t know what directly caused it to appear, though.”

“So if Yamikage met the conditions by hanging out with us...?”

“It is water attribute magic, I daresay. Of course, using Bloody Rain also raises Water Attribute Magic Proficiency, which makes it easier to learn.”

“So you’re planning to sub into water magic, Yammy?”

“I’m considering taking it for enemies immune to darkness, I daresay. Swapping spells on the fly will start to hurt my DPS down the road.”

Apparently, lightning magic was unlocked by raising both water and wind together. The skill tree was a bit convoluted.

“Considering that Lady Shouko uses a fishing rod as a weapon now, and considering this game seems to reward strange combinations, having a few unusual abilities might pay off, I daresay.”

Rather than supposing that combat wasn’t everything, she was insisting that daily life skills that could double as combat skills would give us an edge.

“Then Yamikage, you should start fishing with us.”

Welcome to the world of fishing... I beckoned to her, only for her to wave me off.

“I have no interest in fishing, so no. However, I daresay, I do have something else in mind. I think I’ll give it a try.”

“What are you gonna do, Yammy?”

“Pick up an instrument, I daresay. It’s piqued my curiosity.”

That’s a bit surprising, coming from her...

“You can play?”

“I have not learned the skills, I daresay. But like Lady Shouko, it is something I was always good at. I have some experience with performance, I daresay.”

“I should have known. So you were the idol all along.”

That idol that’s secretly playing the game.

“I swear on my honor I am no idol, I daresay. In fact, the in-game idol is you, milord.”

“Oh, them’s fighting words if I ever heard them. You’re on.”

Who are you calling an idol? It’s a mystery why someone like me has a fan club in the first place. If anything, Yamikage’s got more of that moe appeal going on for her. She’s a Japanimation Ninja, for crying out loud! And she’s even got that air of misfortune going for her.

“I’ve taken music lessons before, so I think I can make use of those skills in game, I daresay. I’m sure there’s some synergy between performing...and magic chanting, I daresay.”

Ah, so her main focus is still magic, and she wants to learn some music as a subskill to enhance it. Makes sense. And if it’s a skill she’s familiar with, she can practice without relying on the system’s assistance. It’s like how previous gaming experience can come in handy.

No, wait... Yamikage, you can actually put on a performance in real life?

My parents tried to send my sisters to music lessons once upon a time. Kanade dabbled in it during elementary school while Tsumugi totally refused due to lack of interest. Instead, Tsumugi went through phases of various sports.

Thinking back on it, Kanade was always the prim and proper one while Tsumugi was the wild child.

“And of course, I’ll be on the lookout for other aspects I can use in combat, I daresay.”

So basically, she was just experimenting with music as a support option.

“Do you have anything, Lady Tsumugi? If we say that Lady Kanade’s subskills are cooking and survival, do you have anything besides combat, I daresay?”

“Huh?”

Tsumugi always got bored so easily that she’d be stuck on nothing but fighting games and FPSs. I really couldn’t imagine her learning any serious production skills.

Sure, she’d grab scythe and other combat skills without a lick of hesitation, but everything else seemed to fall to the wayside. Maybe she could settle for fishing or trapping, since those naturally rose with all the processing work?

“Do I have to learn something?”

“Not really, but won’t you get bored if it’s nothing but fighting? Plenty of RPGs have side content too, right?”

“True, but I seriously have zero interest in production stuff.”

It was pretty much impossible for our pure combatant Tsumugi to pick up another hobby. She’d begrudgingly help out with the crab industry if need be, but anything beyond that was a hard ask.

“For Lady Tsumugi...I daresay, how does juggling sound? Or maybe dance? Something where you move your body to entertain a crowd might work out, I daresay.”

“Juggling?”

“Or more generally, some kind of performance art. Flashy tricks, I daresay. You know, those people who spin yo-yos forever and do all sorts of stunts?”

I see. That might suit a girl with the attention span of a goldfish.

“But practicing sounds like a pain,” the girl grumbled.

“You practice in training mode to win fighting games, right? Same sort of thing.”

“I see. Good analogy, bro.”

“In Tsumugi’s case, she mostly does things by intuition. With a bit of practice, she’ll probably pick up on synergies quite fast.”

And just as there were hobby skills that could synergize with combat, there had to be combat skills that could feed into hobbies.

“I see...but do you actually get anything tangible from doing tricks?”

Well...that was a painful question. It was a little different from production skills.

“My music experiment will not provide any tangible product either, I daresay.”

“And you’re still gonna learn it, Yammy? I know there might be a synergy with chanting, but still.”

“Lady Tsumugi, a Second Life is more than defeating monsters, I daresay.”

“I’ll think about it when the time comes.”

Honestly...Tsumugi wasn’t wrong. It was never too late to pick up a hobby, and there was nothing wrong with waiting until her life stabilized.

“Lady Tsumugi, Lady Shouko discovered new techniques by combining fishing with ropes. It isn’t a bad idea to experiment and see what leads to new skills, I daresay.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’ll try juggling if I feel like it. It might be a hint for something new.”

In this game, diversifying seemed to be more effective than focusing on a single point.

“I get it. It’s a waste not to try out various things and have fun. I mean, fighting alongside everyone’s just a hobby for me to do in between fishing.”

“Milord...”

“Yeah, my bro’s a bit...”

Hey, don’t look at me like that.

“You’re very consistent, Kizuna.”

“You only started fossil cleaning because you found fossil fish, I daresay.”

“That’s commitment for you. Now then, the tower’s in sight. Everyone’s hammering away at it, so it’s only a matter of time before it falls.”

At Tsumugi’s words, we all turned our eyes to the last remaining tower and the all-out attack that was being carried out on it.

“This thing’s pretty sturdy.”

“I mean, it makes sense that they’re getting harder to take down with each wave.”

“But this one feels more than twice as strong as the last one. Not to say we haven’t gotten stronger ourselves.”

The chat was filled with messages like that.

In our case, we managed to brute-force it with the Energy Blade...but the second one also went down pretty quick. Was the last tower just tougher than all the rest? The way the players swarmed around it made it look like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie with the zombies swarming a building where the survivors were holed up, though it was a bit rude to think of people that way.

“It’s a little hard to approach it, I daresay.”

“Yep.”

“Really? I think it’ll be a piece of cake. I’m gonna go attack, ’kay?”

And with that, Tsumugi charged at the tower.

Left behind, we launched some long-range attacks and watched from afar; before long, the tower collapsed.

With all the work the other players put in, maybe we didn’t have to come after all.

“All right! Third tower down! It’s boss time.”

“Yep! This wave went by nice and smooth.”

It was the fourth one... Of course, the players were getting used to it.

“Are you stupid? The enemies were pretty strong! Don’t you get that the Island Lord Party and a few no-lifers have been shaving them down for you?”

Hmm? So it’s confirmed—the monsters are considered strong. Well...we’ve got good equipment and a good Cooperation Skill to scatter debuffs. I won’t deny that.

We’d also made up for our lacking numbers with Pekkles, drastically reducing the damage we took as we pushed forward.

“There’s no telling how much of a pain the boss is—”

The chatter paused mid-sentence as a vast array of monsters suddenly spawned all around us. At the same time, a tremor shook the ground.

“Wh-What?”

“Umm, boss confirmed at A-2! It’s a humanoid monster with an elephant’s head, Dimension Ganesha! The quakes are insane!”

Wait a second, we’re pretty far from A-2. You’re telling me those tremors reach all the way here? Whoa...we’re shaking! We’re shaking! Did they have to go this hard on the effect?!

“Kizuna!”

“Whoa! This one might be a challenge!”

The spawn rate skyrocketed as Dimension Garudas and Dimension Djinns started swarming the players en masse. And it wasn’t just ten or twenty of them either—so many I could only describe them as countless, as each individual player soon found themselves surrounded by multiple monsters at once.

“Haaaah!”

“Hraaah!”

“We’ll thin them out with AoE! Tsumugi! Follow me!”

“Yeah! This might actually be pretty bad!”

“Yamikage, let’s carve out some space to fight!”

“Kizuna! You’re over there, right? Hold out until I get there! The armor’s keeping me alive, but it’s getting rough...”

“Thanks! Big help!”

“Gwaaaaaaah!”

“Iwaaaaaaaaaaaahk!”

Kanade seemed to know where we were and was trying to regroup, but her voice was nearly drowned out by the sounds of players getting taken out.

We might be in trouble.

I found myself thinking back to the first wave battle—that one was a close fight. Of course they weren’t gonna let us clear a wave this easily.

“Hah! Circle Dance Zero Formation: Snow Moon Flower!”

“Crimson Heaven Wheel!”

“Bloody Bomb Splash!”

Shouko’s Snow Moon Flower sliced up the surrounding monsters with her petals, Tsumugi’s skill blasted them back, and finally, my Cooperation Skill with Yamikage turned them into debuff-spreading bombs.

“Now! Anyone near the Island Lord Party! Clear out the monsters and secure your safety!”

Blood splattered around the other players, spreading the powerful debuff. Thanks to that, their damage spiked and the number of monsters around us plummeted in seconds.

As for dismantling... Yeah, looks like I won’t have the time.

Aah, I can see Kanade!

“Guys! She’s got a massive pack on her tail!”

“Let’s go, pen!”

The original Brave Pekkle, sensing a party member in danger, took off toward my sister. I quickly glanced at his stress gauge... He’ll be fine for now, I concluded. That said, he was pretty borderline, and I didn’t know how long that would last.

Either way, we need to hurry and get those monsters away from sis!

“Bloody Bomb Splash! Stat!”

“I am not the island lord!”

“It’s Blood Flower and Bloody Rain, right?! Anyway, everyone use your AoEs to thin them out before you drop! Otherwise, we’ll never be able to clean house!”

“Pekkle is not a monster, pen!”

“Sorry, Pekkle! Be my shield! We need to hold out just a little longer!”

“Pennn!”

I could hear the sounds of Pekkles falling from all around. They were the Pekkles of other players, mind you. We were barely holding on ourselves, but...we hadn’t even reached the boss yet!

“No matter how many we take down...”

“There’s no end to them. There’s way too many enemies.”

Shouko and Tsumugi kept spamming AoEs. Yamikage and I let out our Bloody Bomb Splash whenever we could to chip away at the mobs swarming us, but the spawn rate was downright absurd.

What the heck is going on here?

“There’s no time to attack the boss!”

“Are our levels too low?!”

“Island lord, Kizzy’s big brother, please put an end to this! No need to hold back! We can’t handle this anymore!”

“No-lifers, carry us, please!”

We’re starting to get whiners! Hey, frontliners! How are you letting us steal your thunder?!

“L-L’Arc! I-I never said I needed your help, you got that?!”

“Ah, thought you were the island master, but it’s you, Rose! Thanks for that.”

By the sound of things, L’Arc and Tsumugi’s old party members were still pulling through. Although...why was L’Arc getting the tsundere treatment?

“Kizuna! Tsumugi! I finally caught up,” Kanade said. “With that said...the spawn rate is out of control. The player base as a whole is getting pushed into a corner.”

“It’s more fun when there’s a challenge!”

“Yeah, of course you’d say that, Tsumugi. Shouko, are you all right?”

“Somehow or other...”

Though she said that, we’d taken a fair few hits. I’d already lost all my Shield Energy, and I’d been on the receiving end of direct damage a bit more than I would have liked.

I could still fight, but at this rate I’d fall below the requirements for my armor—and then, I’d be auto-stripped and massively weakened. If we didn’t use sis’s proposed formation to get to the boss and hit it fast, the situation would only get worse and worse.

“Gwaaaaaah!”

“Another quake! So you take damage just by being near it? Only the super agile players can keep jumping while attacking, but what choice do we have?”

“It’s throwing boulders now!”

“Isn’t there some kind of gimmick to debuff this thing?!”

“This boss is just straight-up OP!”

The players engaging the boss were struggling, to say the least. We’re going to have...quite a few casualties from this.

“Now this is what I call a fight, am I right?”

And then, there was my little sister, her eyes sparkling in anticipation. Yeah, she was reliable, but...things weren’t looking good. They weren’t looking good at all. Whenever Tsumugi got that look, we’d find ourselves in a losing battle more often than not.

“We can fight, I daresay. But it’s looking quite grim.”

“Indeed. I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but we might be done for if we can’t take them down faster.”

“This is a rough one for the casual crowd...”

Frontliners, this is your time to shine. I’m seriously counting on you here.

“Uwaaaaaaahhh!”

“Aww snap! The party fighting the boss just wiped! And the field is locked down! They can’t respawn back in!”

Oh, right. Once the boss shows up, you can’t rejoin the battle if you get done in. Isn’t this pretty bad?

The boss party getting annihilated was already putting us on the ropes.

And that was when a party chat came my way.

“Uh-huh...”

That voice...! It’s Sheryl!

Come to think of it, she went off on her own!

“Sheryl! Are you okay?! I mean, I know it’s chaos with all the spawns.”

“Sheryl, are you safe?”

“Uh-huh.”

Judging by the tone, she seemed fine.

“Lady Sheryl, where are you, I daresay?”

“D...6.”

That’s...pretty far, and way too far from the boss!

What do we do?

Considering Sheryl’s safety, the best move would have been to regroup with her, but if we didn’t take down the boss, we’d be whittled down, and more and more players would be forced out of the field!

And, if everyone wiped...then what? The event would be considered a failure.

We need to make a decision fast.

“Kizuna, why don’t we split in two to rescue Sheryl?” asked Kanade.

“That sounds about right, sis. No...if L’Arc’s closer, we could ask him.”

Kanade and I discussed it back and forth, but then...

“No problem,” Sheryl calmly replied.

No, to be more precise...it was like she was brimming with confidence.

“Installation done. Go time.”

“Installation...? What do you—”

Before I could ask what she meant, Sheryl gave the order.

“Fire!”

Chapter 3: Fourth Wave Complete

As soon as Sheryl gave the order— Kshk Kshk! Thumpathumpa thumpathump! A torrent of sound filled the area.

“Ghhh?!”

“Graaaah?!”

“Ghee—”

At the same time, what could only be described as a rain of arrows came pouring down, turning the monsters into pincushions. I surveyed the area for the source of the sounds and saw that the ballistae—the same ones we’d passed by on the way to destroy the tower—had sprung to life on their own and had begun shooting at every monster in range.

And they were working in tandem with cannons as well.

Bolt after bolt, they kept pouring out and cutting down the monster population.

Hey! I can see some bolts made from squid and crab byproducts mixed in.

“Wh-What’s this?!”

“It’s raining arrows!”

“I-I’m saved! No wait, what the heck is this?!”

“The ballistae are moving on their own!”

“Dude, those are auto turrets!”

“I thought they were just props, but huh?! What kind of gimmick is this?!”

The other players, saved as they were, were just as startled as we were. At least, judging from all the voices in chat.

“I spotted them a while back and tried using one, but there were no triggers and no ammo, so I moved on. What’s going on here?”

“Were they set up from the start?”

“What mercy have you bestowed upon us, oh mighty devs?”

“Screw that! Let us players figure it out on our own. If they rig it so that it’s impossible to clear the game without some cheap trick, it just kills the vibe.”

No...that’s not it. These weren’t put here by the devs.

“No, I saw it. Those turrets? The island lord’s diver girl was setting them up at breakneck speeds.”

“I saw it too! The hell is she doing? I thought. But... Guess it was a strategic setup.”

“Hold up. You’re telling me the Island Lord Party did all of this?!”

“Just how many turrets did she place?!”

“Good news: We don’t do jack, and the mobs will get shredded.”

“Bad news: We have to stand around like useless morons and watch it happen.”

Chat is melting down.

“I’m here to report that Dimension Ganesha is getting turned into a porcupine with all the bolts those turrets are firing into him. An elephant in a needle stack.”

“His HP is dropping like crazy. This is insane.”

As the area around us was cleared out, Shouko and Kanade both turned to me.

“This is Sheryl’s handiwork, right?” my sister asked.

“Probably...”

“So it seems.”

“Kizuna...” asked Sheryl. “Where are you?”

“Between B-3 and B-4. Near the boss.”

“Uh-huh...”

That was where the conversation ended. Moments later, I spotted her racing toward us on her mount.

“Mobs clear! Everyone! The boss may look like a mess, but still! Charge!”

“Y-Yeaaaaaah!”

“I mean... I don’t think anyone here’s getting MVP at this point.”

“Someone’s got to scrape up the scraps!”

“Take what you can get! And I’m getting that last hit!”

The players regrouped and rallied, and they stormed the boss.

“Hurry,” Sheryl said flatly, pointing toward the bolt-ridden monstrosity.

So, we followed her lead and launched ourselves at the Dimension Ganesha—a living pincushion on its last legs.

Even then, the ballistae and cannons were bombarding it nonstop.

“P-Pwhaaaooo.”

What even is this situation...? I wondered as I got in a few hits. Then, thud! Dimension Ganesha crashed to the ground. His sad death cry left a lasting impression.

I mean...the poor thing had been turned into Swiss cheese by all the turrets. His misery was practically palpable.

The skies cleared up, a refreshing breeze signaling the end of the wave.

Is this really okay?

“...!”

Sheryl stood there with a smug, triumphant look on her face, while all the other players—me included—were left at a loss for words.

“Umm... Good game?”

“Was it really?”

“What just happened? Someone explain.”

I had to agree with whoever said that.

The Fourth Dimension Wave has been Cleared!

So said the system window.

“For what it’s worth...we cleared it, but I don’t really feel accomplished or anything...”

Seriously, what was all that? We were more confused than anything else.

“Those turrets weren’t there from the start, and they didn’t just sprout out of the ground.”

“Yeah, and some of them were firing squid and crab.”

“Wasn’t that cannon just shooting straight garbage?”

“The island lord must’ve done something again.”

Why are they pointing fingers at me?!

“Kizzy is innocent, I daresay! I mean, I just saw her looking completely blindsided!”

“Yeah, our sweet Kizzy doesn’t have the brains or foresight to pull off something like this.”

“I wanted to see her fishing up the boss again.”

“Give me some more crazy fishing.”

Just think about it. We’re on land. Are you mocking me?!

Even if I did manage to get a lure in its elephant mouth, the poor thing was already knocking on death’s door by the time I got there! The players’ expectations were all united in a strange direction.

As I grumbled to myself, the result screen popped up.

My Damage Dealt Ranking is...8.

I managed to get a decent score with my Energy Blade and my Cooperation Skill with Yamikage, but as expected, I didn’t contribute that much in the grand scheme of things. And considering the Energy I had to burn, I could only go all out when it was a large-scale event like this.

Yamikage, meanwhile, was at Rank 2. Her firepower was as absurd as ever.

It was mostly her AoE magic that shined with the massive monster spawn rate.

Silent but smug, Sheryl puffed out her chest. A proud Rank 1.

The gap between first and second place was like heaven and earth. Everyone else looked like children, comparing their acorn saplings to her proud forest of total dominance.

Well...we did decent too, so maybe we’re a little above the average sapling.

Her top ranking was only natural with the countless turrets she unleashed on the battlefield.

“Pennn.”

Looking closely, I saw that the turrets were moving in sync with the Pekkles stationed at strategic points, this linkage creating essentially unmanned machines.

Could it be...?

“Presumably, she figured out some way to link objects with Machinery, I daresay.”

“Uh-huh...”

Whoa. Not bad.

“You stationed turrets on the battlefield? That’s incredible,” said Shouko.

“Got the idea from Kizuna...”

“From me? What part?”

“Mass deployment.”

“She’s talking about the crab traps, I daresay. All those traps you scatter everywhere are what inspired her,” Yamikage filled in the details.

Sheryl nodded. “I made a lot.”

“Squids, crabs, and ballista bolts too,” Shouko mused. “There were a lot of things flying across the battlefield.”

“Ah ha ha, you know how to keep things interesting, Sheryl,” Tsumugi chuckled away.

Well...perhaps this was what they called fighting smart.

“Seriously, getting stuck up in fixed notions is doing more harm than good. Maybe I should pick up some stranger side jobs myself.” Even my big sister was impressed.

Yep, this round was Sheryl’s absolute victory.

With that said...your Money Spent Ranking is also outrageous.

“You better apologize to Alto when he gets back. He was crying about how the money and goods in the treasury were disappearing en masse.”

“Uh-huh...”

It was easy to see that the culprit was Sheryl. She’d holed herself up in the workshop, cranking out all the turrets she’d used in the battle. Just how much skill experience had she gotten in the process?

She scrounged up as many resources as she could get and built whatever she could... Maybe her Machinery level had even reached the realm of Romina’s smithing.

“But bro, you’re still at the top of the overall ranking.”

“Wait, it’s not Sheryl?”

For some reason, my Overall Rank was 1, just like it had been in the last wave.

But why?

“Well, after all the money you raked in, it was bound to happen,” Shouko said with a sigh.

Everyone, apart from my sisters, looked away and gave an awkward nod.

“Seriously,” said Kanade, “this kid isn’t aware of what he’s done. It’s tragic, really.”

“What did I do?”

“Bro, think about all the usable gear that flooded the market from your crab trap fishing spree.”

“Sir Alto had a hand in it too, I daresay, but it is just as much your responsibility.”

Ah, come to think of it, is Alto’s name on there?

I took a quick glance and saw he was not listed anywhere near the top of the livelihood ranking.

He probably got exempted, I concluded. Combing through the whole list to find him seemed like a pain, so I decided to put it off.

“You’ve been the spark for entire industries, and not only that—you still rushed into battle and contributed in combat too. How could any other player hope to keep up?” Kanade explained.

“Is that how it works?”

“And that’s not all, bro.” Kanade shook her head. “Just you wearing that Pekkle buffing hat pushes your combat contributions through the roof.”

“I’d imagine so. You’re pretty much playing on easy mode. Oh my, I’ve earned some considerable contributions as well.”

Kanade had earned an Overall Rank 6. Her ranking had shot straight up from rock bottom. And as for overall battle contributions, she was Rank 3, just behind Sheryl and myself.

“You drew hordes of enemies to make it much easier for everyone else to fight, after all.”

But in actuality, she’d been scouring the battlefield in search of the players who insulted her. Pulling aggro away from the other players did rack up some points.

By the way, she barely took any damage at all, thanks to her overwhelming defenses... Her zero offense full defense build couldn’t be underestimated.

“Hmm, not bad at all. Better than expected, at least.”

“It’s a shame, though. It didn’t really feel like a fight.”

In contrast to Kanade, Tsumugi seemed disappointed.

Naturally, we all scored pretty well on Livelihood. As for my older sister’s lower marks in that area, well, that was probably because she joined late. Her time spent homeless likely dragged her down, but it was only up from here. Surely.

“When all’s said and done, the Island Lord Party stole the spotlight again.”

“No, wait! Everyone! Think about this rationally. This is no time to go all ‘hip hip hooray’!”

A single player spoke out against the situation, sounding oddly tense.

“What?”

“Something on your mind?”

“We just got outdone by the island lord again, right? Same old. That’s just how it goes with the top dogs.”

It was all a matter of perspective. At a glance, it looked like we were just playing around, and I was sure someone would bring it up eventually. Honestly, they weren’t wrong. We were just doing whatever we found fun.

Despite that, our results came from good compatibility with the game, good companions, and a good environment. Shouko looked like she was ready to protest, but I shook my head and told her to let it go.

“Makes sense. To all those folks who are working to the bone grinding EXP, we probably look like we’re messing around,” I said. “Right, sis?”

“Essentially. But they also have to learn that your group aligns more with this game’s design philosophy.”

“’Tis a matter of putting effort in the right direction, I daresay. I have yet to experience it myself, but I’ve heard it said—nothing sticks if you don’t work with a clear goal in mind. It is apparently the case for entrance exams.”

The way Yamikage put it was a bit off, but I couldn’t deny the point.

“It’s not like that, I tell you. C’mon, people, think back to the last wave. Forget about the Demon Lord’s Invasion for a second.”

“Your point?”

“That one was a complete victory for the island lord too.”

“Try to catch on. You were doing it last time, but not this time.”

“Stop beating around the bush!”

“Say it in three sentences or less!”

Yeah, they were definitely being purposely obtuse, whoever they were. What was different between the last wave and this one? Back then, we’d gotten a head start and the other players didn’t get to shine.

So, what about this wave? What were the other players not doing, and where were we getting our advantage?

“Ships?” muttered Sheryl.

Well...that gave us an advantage last time. But ships didn’t work on land.

“You talkin’ about ships? We had ’em last time, but ships don’t run on dry land.”

Someone said the same thing as Sheryl.

“Half right, but you see it already, don’t you? Last time, we all built up ships to prepare for the wave, right? But this time, we figured, ‘It’s on land, so we don’t need to do anything.’ Meanwhile, the Island Lord Party set up turrets... See what I’m getting at? The moment we know the field the wave’s on, we should be doing something with the terrain!”

What was the land equivalent of a ship? A chariot... No, not quite.

Ah... I see.

Sheryl was a shipwright, but remove the ship from the equation and she was a carpenter.

“Wait... You don’t mean...”

“It’s like we don’t know the first thing about this game! Forts, I tell you! You saw her set up those turrets! And we were just sitting there, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for something to start!”

“Ah... Sure enough.”

“So that’s why the game has so many production skills. It was foreshadowing this.”

“For real...?”

“So the devs’ intended strategy was for us to use the waiting time to set up defenses?”

“Waaaah... Now everyone knows we’re complete idiots!”

“And the fact they were only setting up after the battle began means even the Island Lord Party didn’t know. That was our chance to get ahead of them!”

And thus, the chat was filled with cries of frustration.

So, basically...in the game’s defensive battles, preparing for the wave also included decorating the battlefield with gimmicks and objects created by carpenters and other specialized crafters.

You could essentially put up a fort to make it easier for everyone else to fight.

Now that he’s brought it up, that definitely sounds like something the devs had in mind.

“It’s...true. You can actually use construction skills on a wave field. They’re restricted on normal fields, so it never crossed my mind!”

With all the crab traps I’d placed along the water’s edge, I knew that placement restrictions were a thing. Some areas just wouldn’t allow it. And, apparently, you couldn’t construct structures on normal hunting grounds.

“So basically, they’re leaving every little thing up to the players? Them letting a player develop Cal Mira should’ve clued us in to the importance of construction. It’s our fault for missing it.”

“Meaning if we’d just known the rules, this wave’s difficulty would’ve been a joke?”

“Here I was thinking the enemies were too strong despite all the level grinding. Turns out we were the ones who needed to think up the gimmicks.”

“So we’re gonna have to start taking in crafters from now on.”

“Urp!”

The field chat was devolving into chaos.

So you can even build forts... If there’s as much freedom as there is in ship modification, we’ll have a lot of room for creative strategies going forward.

“Looks like it’s time to drag Romina onto the battlefield.”

“Right, well, let’s shift gears and check the update.”

I fiddled with the menu and pulled up the update notes.

Oh? Added abilities for Spirits... Looks like you can unlock new capabilities by doing certain actions. I’ll have to remember to investigate and gather intel on that. Even the last update had a few parts we never figured out. I mean, gaining power from defeating monsters probably had to do with raising the Energy cap, but still.

The update mentioned new skills being unlocked, but considering we still didn’t know all the skills from the last update, there was really no way to know what was new and what wasn’t.

Items had apparently been added too, but...how many of them?

Overall, there seemed to be less content than last time. Then again, the second wave we’d been exempted from was something similar. Maybe this was the norm.

Or so I thought until I stumbled across the words “Unique Skills Added” in big, bold letters.

So now we’ve got Unique Skills on top of Secret ones. Speaking of which, I think Fever Lure was a Secret Skill.

“Twelve Unique Skills, each obtainable by only one player in the game?” Shouko read it aloud.

“Wow, that sounds kinda exciting,” Tsumugi cried out.

“In any normal MMO,” said Kanade, “throwing in a feature like that would cause a riot.”

“But since this is a Second Life Project where logging out isn’t an option, I daresay they can put in whatever they please,” Yamikage offered.

“The jealousy’s still gonna be off the charts,” I concluded with a sigh.

Everyone quietly read over the Unique Skill section.

“The problem is that there are plenty of Secret Skills too, so it’ll be hard to say who has a unique one,” said Kanade.

“And there’s no way they’ll let one person get all of them,” I added.

“It’s clear we still don’t fully understand everything about this world,” Shouko mused.

“But isn’t that what makes it fun?” said Tsumugi. “I mean, sis will rise to the top the moment we learn everything, and bro will mop the floor with her the moment she gets bored of it.”

That was the usual pattern in our family. For someone as easily bored as Tsumugi, new elements and hidden skills were what kept her engaged.

“Kizuna’s persistence is something we should learn from.”

“That kid is an extreme case. There was this farming-heavy game we played before, and of course Tsumugi gave up on it right away. But even I quit because of how unnecessarily tedious the systems were...and yet Kizuna just kept going and going.”

“He basically ignored all the combat and reached the level cap through farming alone.”

“I remember back when the game was still popular. When we showed our friends the results screen for Kizuna’s crops, they were stunned... They said it was completely maxed out, that whoever did it had a few screws loose. Even players from actual farming families were shocked.”

Shouko stared at me blankly. “Kizuna, you can farm too?”

“That was another game. Right now my soul life is all about fishing.”

Even if I played that game to the point that it started to slow down from process overload, it didn’t matter now. These days, I was in it for the fishing.

Just then, a chat request came in from L’Arc and Therese.

“Nice work, little ladies.”

“I knew it would’ve been more interesting on your side, Kizzy.”

“Well... It was unexpected for me too.”

“Yeah, I figured it was Sheryl. All that prep work must have been for this event.”

“Looks like it. While Sheryl was busting her butt, the rest of us were out having fun.”

“Ha ha, same as us, then.”

“Come to think of it, L’Arc. That NPC you told us about gave us some new dialogue, and we stumbled into a Secret Quest too.”

“You serious...? Ah, man. What I’d give to play with you guys.”

L’Arc let out a deep sigh.

“Is your boss being too hard on you?”

“Nah, he’s not even here. I’m just working with some folks I don’t know, searching for someone. I can’t have all my fun with your gang, y’know.”

He’s not here? Well, I mean...meeting new people is its own brand of fun, I guess.

“That said... We might be headed for an event where we’ll lose contact for a bit.”

“Oh? You got a lead?”

“We’re on alert,” Therese chimed in. “There’s no telling when it’ll happen, so we’re keeping our distance. Wouldn’t want to be a bother.”

“Yeah, something like that. But I think it’ll be more fun with you, little lady, so we might invite you too.”

“You don’t have to...”

“There’s manners among friends. Anyway, if nothing happens, we’ll come hang out, okay?”

“See you later, Kizzy.”

By the sound of it, L’Arc had a lead on a nice quest.

“Well’n, it’s time to claim some bonus rewards.”

“I’m sure you’re set to get another Energy Blade Expansion, milord.”

Hey, Yamikage! Don’t go jinxing it!

“Here’s praying it doesn’t happen! And... Reward Check!”

The wheels on the slot spun round and round. The fishing rod and fish icons are all I need! Now what will it be? And whatever it is...I need a hit!

“Pennn!”

From out of nowhere, a Pekkle appeared on one of the reels and pennn’d it to a stop.

No! Not you!

One after another, I’d landed three Pekkles in a row.

Please say psych! Please bump down one slot! I screamed in my head. But...nothing happened. The result was locked in.

Acquired Pekkle House

To put it mildly...what the heck is this? What even is a Pekkle House?!

I went and checked the item that appeared in front of me.

A dollhouse? It seems to react to the Pekkle Pipe.

“Is that what you pulled, milord?”

“Yeah. Honestly, I don’t know what it’s supposed to be.”

It’s got to be a dud, I thought. But as it turned out, it was a special item.

The description said it was magic, at least. Untradable, undiscardable, and overall a pain.

Was this an item only the island lord could obtain?

“Then it works out nicely, I daresay. Here, milord.”

Yamikage handed over something called a Cost Reduction Adapter Energy Blade Attachment alongside the Energy Blade I’d entrusted her with.

“You...”

“That’s what I pulled, so I’m giving it to you as a present, I daresay.”

Just how far could an Energy Blade be upgraded?

I mean, the update clearly expanded the upgrade list.

And, with nothing else to do, I clicked the new attachment into place.

High-Density Enhanced Energy Blade Attachment V

Oh? The variable forms include a dismantling knife and a drill now. Is it more practical now that it’s evolved beyond a prototype?

Unfortunately, there was still no fishing rod.

The mileage you got out of invested Energy seemed a bit better too. I only ever used it at clutch moments, so I’d have to run some tests to confirm it.

“How was your reward, Kizuna?”

“What about you, Shouko?”

I knew it really didn’t matter, but this time I felt like hearing her results before sharing mine.

“I received something called Thread of Heaven’s Dew. It seems to be usable as fishing line, so I’m planning to put it on my rod.”

“Oooh! Awesome!”

Well color me jealous. You think she’ll give it to me? I sent her a hopeful look. How about a trade? Your thread, my Pekkle House. No, I know the system won’t let it happen, but still...

“Don’t beg her so blatantly, milord.”

“I apologize; it seems to be untradable. You can look at it, but I am the only one who can use it,” Shouko said.

Urgh... That just makes me want it more.

“Aww...”

“What did you get, Kizuna?”

“Some Pekkle House thing. I don’t really get it, but it looks like a dollhouse. It’s got equip slots like a mount, but...”

“I daresay, even if you want to test it out...how exactly do you use a dollhouse? I don’t really get it.”

I know, right?

Still, I set it on the ground, and it began to swell. Larger and larger—until we were left with a dome-shaped building unmistakably modeled after a Pekkle.

“A shelter. It must be a tent-type item,” Kanade calmly said as she eyed the expanded Pekkle House.

As for the door...it had a hole just the right size for a Pekkle Pipe.

Without a word, I slid the pipe in. And with a clunk, the door opened.

The inside was surprisingly spacious with furniture all themed around Pekkles.

“Ah ha ha! You’re becoming more and more of a Pekkle Master, bro! Pen-pen!”

“Shut it!”

“Is this to let us rest wherever we are? Having it might make camping easier.” Shouko nodded.

But I wasn’t so convinced. “Yeah, but...”

“It could be convenient for fishing too,” she insisted. “You could go inside and step out right to a fishing spot.”

Is she trying to say it’s good for night fishing? If you look at it that way, it’s not too bad. Especially in places where we can’t use a ship...

“First, we’ll have to see where we can actually use it.”

“You can’t use them in monster-heavy fields, you know. Tents,” Kanade informed me.

Of course, there were places where you could never know where a monster might spawn. That just left fishing spots and those odd safe areas where the monsters stayed away.

Regardless, everyone seemed to get something—some hits, some misses.

My big sister scored her second mount: a rideable dragon with apparently higher specs than her last one.

“Now then... I guess I ought to dismantle the Dimension Ganesha.”

“Sheryl did most of the work, so we should get a sizable share.”

“Uh-huh...”

“How about we use the materials for Sheryl?”

Sheryl shook her head at my question.

“Cover losses. I’ll hand over the drops later.”

As expected from the MVP—she even got some loot.

From Sheryl, I received Ganesha’s Longsword, Ganesha’s Japa Mala, and a throwing weapon called Vajra. The sword was straightforward enough, but I’d need to think about how we were going to use the beads and Vajra.

The beads boosted magic, so Yamikage was our best bet. As for the Vajra, no one in our group could use it, so I decided to have Romina process it into something else.

“So you want to compensate us for all the materials you used on the turrets? Even if we don’t make a weapon out of them, you could always use the materials to make ship parts, you know.”

“I know...”

On to the dismantling. The monster was massive, so I broke out the Hakugei no Tachi.

My skill rank was more than enough to handle it, and the blade sliced cleanly through.

The boss’s humanoid features gave me pause, but I managed to get through it without issue.

Most of the yield was tusk, bone, and hide. Brave Pekkle’s reacting to something. Once we’re done dividing up the drops, I’ll try giving him a few things.

“For now...let’s head back.”

With that, we left the still-debating players behind and took off.

That night, my sister treated us to a feast to celebrate our victory.

Chapter 4: Unique Skill—Hunting Gear

“Hmm...”

With the feast behind us, I found myself lounging around in my room, idly scrolling through my skill list to see if anything new had popped up since the update. All my past actions were logged, and there was a chance I’d already done something to unlock a newly added skill.

Yeah, they added a few things... Shipboard Combat branches into Navigator and Astrologist now.

As Spirits, our system had a few quirks, but we were pretty much working with the same skills as any other player. We used to joke about how we were playing divers and fishermen, but those job titles were starting to show up as proper skill names.

They were all high-tier skills, which made it a hard choice whether to take them or not.

And then there was...the skill called Pekkle Handler. I’d apparently gone above and beyond all the requirements to acquire it, but I decided to pretend it didn’t exist.

If I tell Shouko and the others about it, they’ll probably want me to take it ASAP for the sake of boosting the Pekkles. Especially Kanade—she’s the one person who can’t find out.

Her being my sister, her suggestions essentially became commands. No... I had a good track record of having most things work out in my favor, so maybe she wouldn’t bring it up. At least, not immediately.

She has a strangely sharp insight into these things, so ironically, she might be one of the safer options, I thought as I pondered over what skills I’d take.

If possible, I wanted to elevate my fishing-related skills even further.

Although I’d managed to surpass the cap on Fishing Mastery, I’d fall behind if I didn’t acquire even higher-tiered skills to level up.

And so, struck with decision paralysis, I ended up scrolling through the endless list of acquirable skills until...my eyes shifted to a certain skill shining more brightly than the rest. It seemed to be demanding my attention.

☆ Hunting Gear (Unique Skill)

Conditions:

Fishing Mastery X+ or Spear Master X+

Acquired 100+ varieties of fish

Trap Mastery X+ or Bow Mastery X+

Night Vision V+ or Presence Concealment V+

Diving V+ or Excavation V+

Dismantling Mastery X+ or Tanning Art V+

2,000,000 creatures hunted (monsters excluded)

100,000 traps placed

In possession of a secret skill related to hunting.

Fished 5 lord fish never before fished on the server or defeated 5 area bosses never before defeated on the server.

Must have ranked within the top 5 of the Livelihood Ranking before.

1000 Energy consumed per hour (will not fall below Lv. 1 on Energy deficit)

Required Mana to Acquire: 1000

A Unique Skill that can only be acquired by the chosen. Provides a massive boost to all actions related to hunting.

70% bonus to all actions using a hunting weapon.

Overall stat boost.

Unlocks an exclusive combat skill and exclusive weapon slot.

WARNING:

* Damage to humanoid enemies -99%. This applies even when not using hunting weapons.

** May impose participation restrictions on future planned content.

*** All corresponding skills will be absorbed into Hunting Gear and their proficiencies will be reset. This cannot be undone. However, these skills can be relearned and their effects can stack with Hunting Gear. Achievements related to skill levels will be retained.

“Hmmm...?!”

What’s all this about? That sounds pretty broken.

A massive buff to everything related to hunting on top of a seventy percent boost to hunting weapons—there was strong, and then there was completely OP.

As a drawback, the skill couldn’t be removed, and my damage against humanoid enemies would be cut down significantly. This wasn’t just about monsters; if they ever implemented PVP elements, this skill was basically telling me to give up all hope.

To top it all off, I’d have to relearn every hunting-related skill I’d ever acquired, including Fishing Mastery.

Still, my recorded achievements—like the fish species in my fishing log—would remain, and I could re-unlock the skills by catching them again.

If it’s just up to Rank X, that’s not too bad.

The issue...was that the prerequisites were ridiculously high.

The skills in question could be raised to some extent (mostly with crab fishing), but...needing to fish up five never-before-fished lords was a harsh one! I mean, you had to be on the hunt for lords that no one had ever seen before. And here I was, having already cleared all of the conditions.

With requirements this strict, maybe I should just grab it as soon as possible. Rather, they’re so strict it almost feels like they designed the whole thing for me specifically.

Still... They were still the sort of things you could meet if you played the game long enough. And, given it was labeled as a “Unique Skill,” did that mean it was first come, first served?

I checked to see if there were any other Unique Skills on the list, but I came up dry.

There was a high chance it would only show up after you’d met all the conditions.

“Hmm...”

I’d lose most of my skills in exchange, but it did say they would be “absorbed.” Maybe that meant I could still get their effects while paying the mere 1000 Energy upkeep for Hunting Gear.

And if I relearned any of the old skills afterward, they’d stack. That was...ridiculous. Downright busted.

“The only thing holding me back is the ninety-nine percent damage decrease on humanoids... Is it just people, or humanoid monsters too?”

Monsters like the Dimension Garuda had a decent number of human-ish traits. And there were Lizardmen, Orcs, and Goblins too...

This had the potential to become a real issue down the line... I could definitely see them throwing in a battle arena as endgame content.

No, on second thought, I never actually play the PVP modes in most games.

Kanade and Tsumugi were good at that stuff, but me? I was always in it to have a fun time without fighting anyone. With that in mind, it wasn’t much of a drawback at all.

And if the skill was first come, first served...if I didn’t grab it, someone else would. I’d never forgive myself if I hesitated long enough for it to disappear into someone else’s hands.

Normally, I would have discussed it with everyone else, but it was late, and they said they were going to bed... I should at least check with Shouko.

She’d been with me through thick and thin, and she was the easiest person to talk to... No, maybe Yamikage was just as approachable.

I sent my chat requests to Shouko and Yamikage.

“Kizuna? Is something wrong?”

Shouko immediately picked up. Yamikage...showed no response. She was already asleep.

“I was scrolling through the new skills before I went to bed. And, well, I saw a Unique Skill and wanted to discuss if I should take it or not.”

I explained the Unique Skill called Hunting Gear to her.

“That is certainly a difficult decision. Thank you for consulting with me. However...wouldn’t it be better to discuss it with everyone?”

“Nah, it’ll get messy if I bring it up to my sisters. Romina might give some sound advice, but I get the feeling she’ll say the same thing as you. L’Arc will tell me to do it, no questions asked. But honestly, no one else really understands how it is with Spirits.”

“In that case, Yamikage would be a suitable person to consult.”

“I sent her a chat, but no response.”

She was always quick to tuck in, after all. Not that she was the sleepy sort—she was always fully alert when we needed her. That was just Yamikage. If she wasn’t compelled to stay up late, she simply wouldn’t.

“It just feels like I might lose it if I don’t act fast. It’s making me nervous.”

“To be frank, with conditions so strict, I doubt anyone but you could meet them...”

“If you play the game long enough, requirements like these aren’t as hard as they seem.”

Take the two million kills, for example. It looked like a big number, but with small fish—sardines, herring, saury, and the like—if you went out to sea on a fishing ship and took in a big haul, you could snag tens of thousands of them in one go.

Say you did two trips a day for around forty thousand total, you could hit that number in just fifty days. With the right environment, you could have it done in the blink of an eye.

We weren’t the only players with ships, and you could scrape up tons of fish if you just attached a bottom trawl. The number wasn’t that difficult to achieve.

“Yes, but being the first to catch a lord will be a considerable hurdle.”

“Not at all. You snagged one yourself not too long after you got into fishing, Shouko. You just need to do that five times.”

“I still think you’re rushing into this...but I do understand it’s not a bad skill to have. The issue is that penalty to damage against humans.”

“Yeah. Thing is, I almost never do PVP.”

“I understand that. I did have a hunch that you weren’t the sort of person to enjoy it. However...if they are giving you a warning, it probably means that the feature will appear eventually. We might be split into teams to fight one another in a wave battle.”

Ah... I never thought of that.

“With that said, it seems you were never planning to focus on PVP. Ultimately, I think this is your decision to make, Kizuna. If the day comes that we have to fight humans no matter what, then I and everyone else will pick up the slack. After all, you’re someone who wants to fish wherever you go, right?”

So you’re saying it’s just more of the usual.

“I see... Thanks. I guess I’ll go ahead and take it.”

Talking it over with Shouko solidified my decision.

Even if it caused some trouble down the line, when that happened, I would just need to fall back on fishing. That was why I started playing the game in the first place.

I slapped a nice, juicy check mark next to the Hunting Gear entry on the Skill Menu and focused on acquiring it. After making sure all the prerequisites were learned at their highest possible level, of course.

The fact it was even showing up meant I met every requirement within the skills available to me.

The cost might be steep... I thought. But if Hunting Gear was good enough to justify it, maybe it was actually a bargain.

Warning: Once acquired, this skill cannot be removed.

All corresponding skills will be absorbed and you will be unable to reacquire the original skills unless you meet their conditions again.

Are you sure?

[Yes]/[No]

As expected, a confirmation message popped up. They really didn’t want me to regret my decision. Without hesitation, I selected “Yes.”

Are you really sure?

[Yes]/[No]

They’re really being careful about this. If they hit me with a “Are you really, really sure?” prompt after this, it’ll start to feel like a comedy sketch.

And as that thought crossed my mind, I watched as all my familiar skills slid their way off the menu, swirling and fusing until they settled neatly as a single new entry on the list.

Congratulations! A player has obtained one of the 12 Unique Skills—Hunting Gear!

A message was posted for the entire world to see.

Wow...this has to be a pretty important skill, then.

“That was surprising. It suddenly broadcast to the entire player base,” Shouko said.

“Right. I’m just glad it didn’t list my player name.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to stand out, more that...being the island lord already got me enough of the limelight. I could see people snapping at me for going even beyond that.

I never imagined they’d announce it game-wide like that.

It reminded me of some ancient MMORPGs where players or guilds who crafted ultra-rare items would get publicly paraded around by the system. I’d been on the edge of my seat there.

Fortunately, the announcement just said a player got the skill and nothing more.

Anyway, let’s check out my skills again... Yep.

Fishing Mastery, Dismantling Mastery, Trapping Arts, and more. Pretty much every skill I’d focused on was gone, and I hadn’t met the conditions to learn them again.

Yet, the sensation I felt—more so, the bonuses—when holding a fishing rod didn’t seem to have dwindled at all. If anything, my senses felt sharper than ever before.

And since my equipment only had a minimum Energy requirement and didn’t need any specific skills to equip, that wasn’t an issue.

Now then...let’s look at this Exclusive Slot item.

Hunting Gear Weapon Slot: Beginner’s Hunting Gear

■

■

■

Description: A special beginner’s weapon granted to the player who acquired the Unique Skill Hunting Gear. Possesses the power to link corresponding weapons with a mysterious force.

So does that mean I have...more weapon slots? How does that work?

Curious, I pulled it out of my inventory and found something like a glassy orb in my hand.

“What’s this?”

This is Hunting Gear?

Please set a corresponding weapon.

It pulled up a list of the weapons I had on hand. It seemed I could input dismantling weapons, fishing rods, and bows.

Maybe there were other compatible weapons, but that was everything from what I had on hand.

Pickaxes and drills could not be slotted.

Well, maybe that was obvious; those were for excavation, not hunting.

Ah, I got an item called Hunting Gear Manual. Reading the instructions is important.

Hunting Gear allows you to instantly shift between hunting weapons by setting them in the Hunting Gear Core. This eliminates the lag when switching weapons and allows you to swap simply by focusing on a skill that requires a different weapon type.

By swiftly switching weapons, you can chain skills that previously could not be linked.

So basically, it’s a weapon that lets me use skills without going to the trouble of swapping between a fishing rod and a dismantling weapon. For now, I’ll set a few things and give it a test run.

I opened up the slots and inserted my Munagi Bone Rod and Blue Shark’s Ice Knife... Ah, looks like you can’t put in duplicate weapon types. So they’re not going to let me do the ultimate fishing rod, fishing rod, fishing rod loadout. How stingy.

That was a bit inconvenient. There were times when it was better to change between weapons of the same category to better match the enemy. Not that complaining to the system was going to do anything for me.

Oh, but I can put Energy Blade in there.

That felt like a bit of an overlap, but apparently the system didn’t mind. It felt a bit sloppy, to be honest.

Beginner’s Hunting Gear

■ Munagi Bone Rod

■ Blue Shark’s Ice Knife [Sinner of Thieves]

■ High-Density Enhanced Energy Blade Attachment V

That looks about right.

“Okay,” I muttered.

Immediately, the glass orb turned into a fishing rod. The orb had embedded itself in the center of my reel.

So that’s the transformation gimmick?

“Maybe the stats changed...?”

I gave it a few test swings...but that wasn’t enough to tell. Still, the fact I could use it without Fishing Mastery meant it wouldn’t be an issue.

“Hate & Lure.”

I fired off the skill at no one in particular... That was a skill that hadn’t been reset. It still worked just fine.

“Into Cleaver.”

The lure zipped through the air and vanished as soon as it made contact with the wall; in that instant, my weapon shifted into the ice knife and unleashed Cleaver.

“Hmm...”

So that’s how it works... It’ll take a bit of getting used to, but being able to instantly fire off a different skill might give me an advantage. But what about charge skills?

I switched back to the fishing rod and focused on using Blood Flower.

And then...it began charging, still in rod form.

“I see... So I can charge it while using a different weapon... That might be handy. Hate & Lure.”

The rod’s Hate & Lure shot out as per usual.

“Blood Flower!”

And this was immediately followed by a transformation and Blood Flower’s animation with barely any downtime.

That’ll remove some gaps in my defenses.

The only issue I was seeing was...that this would be far more effective in the hands of someone like Shouko or Tsumugi with lightning reflexes.

Next up is combat skills. Let’s see... Hiding Hunt?

“Hiding Hunt.”

My body faded into a semitransparent state.

Hmm... I guess that means I’m hidden? I mean, hunting is all about approaching prey without being noticed. That’s about what I’d expect from a basic beginner-level skill.

I knew concealment skills and spells existed—Yamikage used them.

“Kizuna.”

Oh right, I’m still in a chat with Shouko.

I’d pushed her to the edge of my mind while I focused on testing.

“It looks like I can slot multiple weapons and change between them without any downtime.”

“That does sound convenient, doesn’t it? And you can use it on top of holding another weapon in your off hand?”

True enough.

“But honestly...it might be more useful in someone else’s hands.”

I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of guilt, having claimed a Unique Skill limited to only one player. It came with this...vague sense of pressure. This feeling that I’d have to perform well in events and live up to everyone’s expectations.

“It was a difficult skill to obtain,” Shouko reassured me, “so there’s no point in worrying about it. More importantly, I think our activities from tomorrow onward are going to be a little more interesting.”

“Yeah. Sorry for keeping you up at night.”

“Not at all, I should have gone to your room directly.”

That one’s not on her. I stumbled upon the skill by chance and called her up for a quick word.

“Should I inform everyone?” Shouko asked.

“Nah, Yamikage’s asleep already, so it can wait until tomorrow. It’s nothing to make a fuss about.”

At most, I could head to the port for some night fishing as part of my testing.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, so anyway, sorry for bothering you, Shouko. Just take it easy.”

“Not at all. Thank you for coming to me. Well then, I’ll excuse myself.”

With that, our chat came to an end.

“All right...time for a little night-fishing test run.”

I grabbed my gear and headed out.

Cal Mira was still lively in all the usual spots, even at night...but I maxed out Night Vision before taking Hunting Gear, so my range of vision was a lot wider than I was used to.

The darkness barely bothered me anymore.

“I hear someone’s already picked up a Unique Skill.”

“Hunting Gear, right? Kinda weird name for one, huh?”

“You’re telling me. Sounds more like a concept than a skill. And that ‘one of a kind’ business is just nasty.”

“Based on the broadcast, it sounds like there’re twelve of them in total... I wonder who snagged this one.”

The voices of gossiping players reached my ears more clearly than before. Was this also a bonus from Hunting Gear? Something about my senses just felt different.

My build had shifted heavily thanks to the Unique Skill. I just knew I’d need some time before I grew into it.

That was when I noticed silhouettes off in the distance, trying to watch me in secret.

Looks fishy to me.

I stared at the figures watching, stalking while maintaining a set distance.

“Hey, is it just me, or is Kizzy looking at us?”

“There’s no way, I daresay. We’re merely keeping a warm and protective eye on her to ensure no ill-intentioned folks approach. I’m sure Shouko or Yamikage are simply in our general direction.”

“I’d love to watch her fishing all buddy-buddy with Shouko.”

“Yeah, I hear they’re fishing together these days.”

“We’ll snap some screenshots and use them as reference for the books we’re making together. Nin-nin.”

Yeah, definitely my so-called fan club. No doubt about that. So they’re watching me in secret? I don’t want to get anywhere near them, but I’d really appreciate if they didn’t lurk like that.

Still, the skill was pretty convenient...seriously. It came with detection too.

I considered giving them a warning if they got too close, but... How about I startle them with a new skill?

“Hiding Hunt.”

I faded away and started moving.

“Sh-She vanished?!”

“Did Kizzy pick up a stealth skill to keep out of the spotlight?”

“Even if she did, there’s none of the usual tells of stealth—no shadows or faint footsteps. If even my Presence Detection can’t pick her up, maybe she used a return item to warp back to the castle?”

Hmm...so my level of stealth is pretty high. I can feel my movement speed’s gone up a bit too. All right, enough testing for now.

In any case, I slipped away from the fan club and made it to the pier at the port.

Fishing alone is a bit...dull. I’ll call out Chris and Brave Pekkle to keep me company.

I summoned the Pekkles and instructed them to fish; it wasn’t long before we were all immersed in a tranquil motion by the water’s side.

I didn’t find any lords or any big catches, but my sense for fishing was the same as it’d ever been.

I met the requirements to relearn Fishing Mastery, and once I did, the rod felt snappier in my hands. It was like my technique had leveled up.

It was deep into the night by the time I was done with my relaxing fishing time. I returned to my room at the castle and fell asleep.

The next morning...Kanade, L’Arc, and Therese had vanished.

Chapter 5: Division of Labor

“Error. The person you are trying to contact has either turned off their device or is in an area without reception.”

Seeing as Kanade was nowhere to be found, I sent her a chat and got an automated message in response.

“I can’t summon Brave Pekkle No. 2 anymore... To think my own sister, after all the consideration I showed her, would just forget her debts and skip town... Oh, the humanity!”

“That’s right! You’re awful, sis!”

I exchanged my complaints with Tsumugi as we were both faced with the fact that our sister wasn’t around when she was supposed to make breakfast.

It was a joke, of course. We both knew better.

“Umm...” hazarded Shouko, “I don’t think that’s the case.”

“Lady Kanade isn’t so shameless, I daresay.”

“Uh...huh?”

Since Sheryl had been holed up in the workshop the whole time, she didn’t know too much about my sister. Judging by her expression, she wasn’t quite sure how to react. Yeah, they’d exchanged greetings, but that was about it.

“They’re clearly not serious, so you don’t have to respond so seriously,” said Romina.

“Pretty much,” Tsumugi conceded.

With Kanade absent, the task of cooking breakfast had fallen to me.

Naturally, I grilled up some of the fish I’d caught the night before and served them along with a few sides that sis had prepared in advance.

“If we’re being real here,” I said, “I’d say she was probably summoned away like Alto. Probably by an old friend.”

Romina nodded. “I’d imagine so. She does have that missing leader, after all... I’d wager she’s the one who called her.”

“Ah, do you know her? L’Arc and Therese seemed to know her too.”

“Yeah, she’s a good person, I’d say. Pretty well-known—anyone well-connected would recognize her. As for L’Arc and Therese, I’d suspect Mr. Aultcray had a hand in that.”

It turned out Romina knew her too. Aside from Alto—who wasn’t around anymore—she was the only one among us with any reach.

“I’m sure you’ve at least heard her voice before, Kizuna.”

“Hmmm...”

“Come to think of it, she resembles you in certain ways.”

Who could that be? No one’s coming to mind.

But regardless, a few more people had gone off the radar, and I was sure they’d get in touch sooner or later. They were probably in some area scheduled to appear in a future update.

“On another note, Kizuna. That Unique Skill that was announced in last night’s broadcast—you’re the one who acquired it, right?”

“Yeah. A one-of-a-kind skill called Hunting Gear. It works a bit like this.”

I pulled out the orb and demonstrated a few moves.

“So you barely lose any time switching weapons, huh?” said Tsumugi. “Sounds like the right weapon for you, bro. Seeing how you’re always swapping.”

“Yes, she does have a point,” Shouko chimed in.

“The weapon transformation is similar to that giant catfish fan of yours, though,” said Romina.

“This one feels like it’s more specialized for transformation. Well, since it says it’s a beginner’s weapon, I figure it can be upgraded or replaced with something stronger. Could you take a look at it, Romina?”

I handed the Hunting Gear core to Romina for inspection. It was apparently impossible to trade it, but she could at least take a closer look at it.

“Hmm... I see. I didn’t know there were weapons out there with such unique gimmicks, though I suppose it’s a unique weapon for a reason. One of a kind, just for you.”

“Hey, they might release some downgraded version in a later update.”

“Don’t say that. Don’t even think it! What are you trying to do, spoil the romance?” Romina scolded me.

I guess it’s my fault for not playing along.

“I daresay, I’m a bit jealous.”

“How about we search for another one together? If we pick up all sorts of skills, we might stumble across another Unique Skill eventually.”

“The conditions will probably be pretty brutal. Only someone like my bro would spread himself thin over so many skills.”

“Indeed. I daresay, the game seems to reward versatility.”

I guess there’s a lot we have to consider.

Since the developers were selling the game as a complete Second Life, it made sense that stacking up various sorts of experiences would put you at an advantage.

“Oh? It looks like I can craft a new vessel for your Hunting Gear’s core.”

After looking into this and that, Romina seemed to figure something out.

“If you can make it, does that mean you can mass-produce them?”

If she could craft them, maybe we could hand them out to other players. But what exactly makes a skill unique? As the question flashed across my mind, Romina shook her head.

“No, according to the entry added to the help menu, I’ll only get the crafting option at the forge if the person with the corresponding skill puts in a request. Even then, the weapon that comes out of it can only be wielded by you.”

Darn...so even if someone else crafts it, the weapon type is still locked to me.

It wasn’t like I was aiming for something like crab armor where it flooded the market, but it would be way easier for me if I could just go out and buy a finished product without jumping through any hoops.

Compared to that, gathering the materials and having someone forge it would in all likelihood be quite the grind.

Hmm, yeah, I guess that’s the drawback of having a unique weapon.

“The crafting difficulty’s up there as well.”

“Pretty rough?”

“Hey, I’m not saying I’m against it. I’m grateful, even. This will let me rack up some smithing experience in spades. It’s just what I was hoping for.”

Oh...that’s good to know.

“At present...though they’re incredibly difficult to craft, the strongest hunting gears look like they’re made of materials from the Demon Lord’s Four Heavenly Kings. Looks like I’ll just barely be able to make it from the stuff you and Yamikage brought back. It’s a good thing you got the Aqua Jewel—that one’s the most important piece.”

“Didn’t Shouko win her invasion battle too?”

Sheryl’s stare turned blank at the mention of the invasion.

Hey, you did great in the wave battle! You don’t need to be like that. Come on, you can keep up that smug grin a little longer.

“Unfortunately, her drops are just short of what we need. If you ever get another chance at those materials, I’ll try to make it.”

“We gathered so many things on our end, but it wasn’t enough?”

“Not much we can do; it’s all down to luck. I’m looking forward to beating up those Four Heavenly Kings again.”

“And there’s also a matter of ownership—you all have the rights to your own materials... Are you okay with this, Yamikage?”

She had to be talking about the materials from the Heavenly King of water that Yamikage and I had brought back.

“It is no issue of mine, I daresay. Please use it to strengthen milord.”

“You sure?”

“Trying out super rare equipment and skills is practically an event in itself, I daresay.”

“Ah, yeah. Makes sense.”

She wanted to see what a guild member could do with the sort of equipment we rarely ever came across. Hunting gears fell right into that category.

“The weapon in question is called Gear of the Great Blue Sea. I’ll get to work right away. I’ll activate Cooperation with some of my blacksmith buddies I raised—just wait.”

And with that, Romina headed over to her workshop, called together a team of craftsmen, and began the forging process.

“All right, people! We’re gonna be making an incredibly rare and difficult weapon. Let’s join forces and get this done!”

“I don’t even know what we’re making, but I can already tell it’s gonna be amazing.”

“Thanks for including me!”

“So the Unique Skill holder was the island lord?”

“Aight! Let’s do this!”

At the call of a top-tier blacksmith, craftsmen gathered from high and low, and the rhythm of hammers rang out as the Cooperation minigame began. Since we all lacked the necessary skill, none of us knew what was actually going on, but everyone seemed to be hammering away at their assigned stations.

With immense concentration, Romina shaped the materials we’d brought in, while other smiths crafted other parts in parallel.

“Come to think of it, I heard that blacksmithing was also done through division of labor like this in the old days of Japan,” said Shouko.

“Yes, from what I heard, there was casting, forging, and sharpening the blade. And then there was fitting the hilt, assembling it, and engraving the signature. Unfortunately, I don’t know all the details, I daresay.”

“Hmm...”

“When everyone works together...the difficulty goes down and the risk of failure decreases. Even non-specialists can successfully craft this way,” Sheryl explained.

That’s one of the amazing parts about Cooperation skills. There’s only so much one player can do alone.

Eventually, Romina and her team finished the forging. The weapon was complete.

“Phew...that was quite excellent smithing experience.”

“Thanks, Romina. It’s a huge help to get this much EXP right after the update.”

“I should be the one saying thanks. And we’re not done yet! Back to work, people!”

“On it!”

As the blacksmiths all returned to their work, Romina came over to us and handed me a transparent blue crystal sphere. It was a beautiful blue, as if the sea’s essence had been sealed within it... At a glance, I knew it was something extraordinary.

The slots of my already-equipped hunting gear were automatically transferred over.

Gear of the Great Blue Sea ☆

□ (Harpoon-Exclusive Slot)

■ Munagi Bone Rod

■ Blue Shark’s Ice Knife [Sinner of Thieves]

■ High-Density Enhanced Energy Blade Attachment V

Unique Effects: Water Attribute Boost, Harpoon Weapon Scaling Up, Guidance of the Great Blue Sea.

The performance of all my weapons spiked just from equipping it... It was incredible. There was no other way I could describe it.

Looks like I got a new slot.

Perhaps it seemed like I was short on vocabulary, but really, that was just how crazy the power-up was.

With that said, this hunting gear seemed to have exceptionally strong synergy with harpoons. A dedicated slot had been added just for them.

A harpoon, huh...that does fit the whole “hunter of the sea” vibe. Maybe I should borrow some of Sheryl’s old equipment?

But just as the thought crossed my mind, Romina seemed to pick up on it and tossed me a Lizardman Spear as an added bonus.

She wants me to use this, huh? It’s a spear, but it doubles as a harpoon.

I slotted it in.

“We’ve crafted the strongest one first. Now just put in a request, and we’ll forge every other hunting gear we can in one go. We need to earn EXP, so please, let us take the job.”

“Got it. Keep cranking them out.”

“Thanks for that. We’ll put all the finished gear in the castle’s storehouse. It’s all yours, don’t get me wrong, so feel free to take them out as you please.”

“Thanks, Romina.”

“It’s just a hunch, but...I get the feeling there’s some room for further development. How about we strengthen it even more once we have the materials?”

“You can even tell that much?”

“I can see the evolution tree. It should be possible—once we identify the right materials, that is.”

That’s a common game mechanic. But that’s kinda terrifying; it’s already ridiculously strong at its current level.

“I’ll get back to work, then. Come again.”

With those words, Romina turned and returned to her forge.

“Wouldn’t want to be a bother. Let’s get going.”

“Right. We should be off.”

“Where are we going, I daresay?”

“Yeah, it’s not like they added any new areas to explore. Or maybe there are hidden ones.”

That’s the strange thing.

The wave had passed, but it hadn’t come with a large-scale expansion. Despite that, we’d already made our rounds through all the existing hunting grounds in preparation for the wave, which meant there wasn’t much left to do.

“We could go hunt a fish-dragon...or do some grinding around Mikakage. Maybe we could challenge the deeper parts of Cal Mira’s dungeon that opened up.”

My Fishing Mastery skill had been reset, but I could quickly recover my ranks by collecting all my crab traps. No one else seemed keen on doing it, in any case. I planned to handle it on my own anyway.

Not much else I could do when Alto—the one running the operation—was missing.

But right now, testing Hunting Gear comes first.

“I’m curious about what lies in the depths of Mikakage. Why don’t we focus on tackling quests more seriously?” Shouko suggested.

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m on board with that! If sis were around, she could tank for us. It’s a shame.”

Well... Kanade went out of her way to lecture us on fighting in formation, but she herself was hardly around to actually fight with us.

“We shouldn’t struggle much with our current strength. I daresay, with the update boosting proficiency gain a bit, this might be just the right time.”

“I want to fight something that poses a challenge.”

“Let’s start with testing Kizuna’s skill.”

“Fine, fine. Now onward!”

And so, as our expectations for my new weapon and skill grew, we started on our way back to Mikakage.

†

“Shall we start with the mountain stream?”

“Good idea. If we go too far ahead, we won’t be able to tell how much stronger I’ve gotten.”

As we sat aboard Mikakage’s high-speed transportation system, we discussed our destination. In the end, we set a course for the mountain stream where you could fish up kappa.

The monsters there were just around the right level of difficulty.

There were other players scattered around here and there, but not so many that we’d have to fight over hunting grounds.

Soon enough, we ran into a Red Iron Bear, and I drew my weapon.

I wasn’t nearly as good as Sheryl with a harpoon. Instead, I settled on the Blue Shark’s Ice Knife [Sinner of Thieves]. This was a good chance to see just how much my attack was being boosted.

“All right, Kizuna. Let’s give it a try.”

“Got it!”

I focused on the Red Iron Bear barreling toward me, took my stance, and...

“Ngoooaaa...aaaaaaarrr.”

The charging bear seemed to be moving strangely slowly... I had to blink a few times just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating as I watched its slow-motion approach.

What’s up with that speed...? It’s not a bug...I think. But still, it’s far too sluggish.

I glanced back to see Shouko and the others quietly watching over us. In their eyes, I could see all their glistening expectations. They wanted to see what I could do.

Aight, let’s see what I’m capable of without skills.

I dashed at the lumbering Red Iron Bear and took my first swing.

Kshk! I felt a light resistance in my hand—and then, its HP dropped to zero in an instant. The bear collapsed.

“Huh?”

I stared in disbelief, looking back and forth between the fallen bear and the knife in my hand.

“This is...”

“Wow...”

“Bro closed in unnaturally fast and took it out with one hit.”

“I daresay, was that Blood Flower or a new skill?”

“No... I literally just ran up and gave a light swing.”

My comrades were giving startled blinks with surprise written all over their faces.

“So it really is a tremendously powerful skill.”

“From what bro said, it’s a flat seventy percent boost to attack, but the math’s got to be mathing in your favor. Maybe you’re getting another boost from slotting it into your exclusive weapon and it’s like an already strong weapon is getting boosted even further.”

“Uh...huh.”

“It feels like we’re sliding into an equipment-focused meta.”

“At this point, you’re unstoppable, milord. I daresay, the next wave will be a sight to behold.”

So...what? Did I just gain attack power on a completely different scale?

While Shouko, Tsumugi, and Yamikage used their sharp combat instincts to overcome their foes, I’d just...relied on a skill and a brainless swing to one-shot a Red Iron Bear.

“F-For now, I’ll dismantle it.”

I knelt down to harvest the Red Iron Bear’s materials. The dismantling this time went without issues. I hadn’t relearned my Dismantling Mastery, but the Hunting Gear skill provided enough of a bonus on its own.

“But it’s hard to get a proper measurement if the Red Iron Bear went down in one strike. Let’s continue testing somewhere farther in.”

“Y-Yeah.”

That was pretty much all I could say.

We arrived at the farthest point we’d ever reached in Mikakage, and I swung my weapon at the first monster we met.

As expected, I one-shotted it all by myself.

“Hunting Gear is way too broken!”

After a few battles, I figured it out. The moment I entered combat, some sort of acceleration was cast on me, making everything around me—enemies and environment alike—look like they were moving in slow motion.

If I had to summarize...it was like the system was fiddling with time perception on a player-by-player basis. One second for my party members was stretched into one and a half, maybe two seconds for me. Cal Mira’s dungeon worked on a similar system, where five days inside translated to one day outside.

It was outrageous system assistance allowing even someone like me—who lacked Shouko’s athleticism—to fight on her level.

“You crossed into the realm of mastery overnight, Kizuna. You are very fast.”

“What can’t this skill do?”

“Milord...your firepower is off the charts.”

“You’re pretty much a one-man army, bro.”

Honestly, I had to wonder if it was really all right, giving out a skill this broken.

“The thought that they might have thrown in an enemy strong enough to actually make this skill necessary scares me.”

Yeah, if they designed an enemy with my current strength as the baseline...we were in for a nightmare.

Incidentally, my mount’s speed scaled with me, so he was also moving blindingly fast. The Pekkles had their own stats and so were not affected.

“A frightening thought, I daresay.”

“If the late game turns into instant-death fests, you Spirits are going to have it hard.”

Right, it was a common conundrum in games. It happened way too often whenever there was a difficulty selection system—rather than adding more complex patterns at higher difficulties, a game would just make it so you’d die in one hit.

And, since we were Spirits—Shouko, Yamikage, and I—losing all our Energy would mean throwing ourselves into the lengthy grind to recover it. I could only hope the game didn’t take it that far.

“For now, since bro’s gotten so much stronger, why don’t we pick up one of the tougher subjugation quests in town?”

“Right. That might be nice for a challenge.”

“Got it.”

“Kizuna’s grown up so splendidly... I can’t afford to fall behind.”

“It’s the system doing all the heavy lifting.”

“The stat inflation is ridiculous, I daresay. We need to track down some powerful equipment for ourselves.”

“If this is what the new skills are like, this update’s definitely added all sorts of things.”

“Uh-huh.”

I couldn’t deny it—I was the only one who’d undergone ridiculous growth. The gap in our abilities had been reversed and then some. All thanks to this Unique Skill.

With that said, this stuff never stays long. It’s only a matter of time before equivalent equipment, skills, and items show up.

In games with job systems, new advanced classes usually stirred up the player base when they got introduced, but...once new gear came out, sticking with an existing class generally turned out to be a safer bet.

I feel like I’m the strongest in the world right now. And we’d better clear some quests and gather some materials before the feeling wears off.

So, we picked up all the available subjugation quests around Mikakage’s wetlands, and I darted around at breakneck speeds, finding the monsters and instantly cutting them down. It was a short and unfulfilling venture.

“Next up, we can either do the instance dungeon or defeat the boss in the mines,” said Tsumugi. “But...the sun’s already setting. Why don’t we rest for the night?”

“Got it,” I replied. “Then I’ll bring in my crab traps and rebait them. Would you rather stay at an inn or the Pekkle House?”

“I want a good bath. Let’s save camping for tomorrow.”

“I agree with Lady Tsumugi. I daresay, let’s stay at the inn today.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Aight. Shouko, want to come help me with the traps?”

“I’ll keep you company.”

Together, we went to check the traps I’d set around the wetlands.

Oh? There’s a loach in this one. And a snail...and a freshwater clam too.

Collecting the crab traps bumped my Fishing Mastery back up to Rank II.

“You’ve been full of surprises today, Kizuna.”

“I’m just as surprised as you are. I never thought my stats would skyrocket this much. The problem is I’ll be completely useless if a humanoid monster shows up.”

That ninety-nine percent damage debuff would turn me into a complete deadweight.

“Like the Darkness Lizardmen, perhaps?”

Yeah...they looked like the sort that would cause Hunting Gear’s penalties to kick in.

Were they closer to humans or lizards? It was hard to say...but it was definitely worth testing.

“But if my attacks don’t get through, I’ll spread debuffs with Lure: Double Needle to support you.”

“That’s true. We’re not fighting alone, after all.”

“And then, there’s...Hiding Hunt.”

The moment I activated my concealment skill, Shouko and I faded to a half-transparent state, and the monster that had been creeping toward us suddenly lost track of our presence.

I swapped to my fishing rod and smashed my lure into it.

Then, with a flashy effect, the monster instantly went down.

“It looks like you land critical hits while hidden.”

“Seems like it.”

It was basically like an assassin’s skill set. Like Vanishing Attack or Assassin’s Kill.

Judging by the “Hunt” part of the name, it was most likely an ambush skill meant for taking prey unawares. But most conveniently, the fact I could move while concealed made it useful for avoiding unnecessary fights.

“It feels like we’ve gotten a grasp on just about everything the Hunting Gear skill is capable of.”

It gave broken combat stat boosts and bonuses to everything involving hunting—including fishing and trapping. Plus, you could stack its effects with other skills.

It made sense why only one person in the game could learn it.

It broke the game balance so badly that if another player happened to catch me using it, they’d probably cling to me out of envy.

“Do you think I can land critical hits too?”

“Dunno. Want to try it?”

“Yes, please.”

Once the cooldown ended, I activated Hiding Hunt to conceal the both of us. Shouko crept up on a monster and struck. The moment she attacked, both of our concealments were lifted, but the same flashy effect burst out as the monster took massive damage and went down in one hit.

“That’s rather powerful.”

“It’d be nice if I could stack it with Lure: Double Needle, but...it seems like it gets canceled out if I use another skill.”

Concealment seemed to lift if I used any other skill or attack.

“Just having one at a time is more than enough.”

Is it really fair for me to be chasing higher numbers at this point?

“Anyway, let’s head back.”

“Yeah.”

With the crab traps reset, we returned to the inn and sank into the hot springs for some nice rest and relaxation.

“Good night, Kizuna.”

Just like last time, Shouko and I enjoyed the bath together, gazing out at the scenery while exchanging some idle banter. I had a proper soak, but to be honest...I wasn’t tired at all. The excitement of my new skill was still keeping me going.

“Good night, and rest up. We’ll have another round of quests tomorrow.”

“Yes, then until tomorrow.”

Since she’d accompanied me for the crab traps, it didn’t feel right to drag her out for night fishing too. Pretending that I was headed off to sleep, I watched her retreat into her room.

†

“All right! Let’s fish the night away!”

I headed out into the wetlands and dangled my line. It had become a daily routine at this point.

The monsters in the area had been reduced to such small fries that I could deal with them with a smack from my fishing rod if they got too close.

That means I can fish in places I haven’t tried before!

“Hmm, hm, hmmm.”

I hummed a merry tune as I let the line drift...when suddenly I heard a strange gurgling from not far off... What looked like a giant hand formed entirely out of water suddenly sprouted out of the ground!

“Wh-What?”

The hand zoomed toward me with frightening speed.

Instinct kicked in; I entered battle mode—everything around me slowed down—and slipped past the hand, slashing it with my ice knife along the way.

But it felt like I’d cut through open air. Once again, the handlike thing came at me.

“That was close!”

I quickly dodged out of the way and leaped back.

“What’s up with this monster—”

I didn’t have time to finish that thought. Three more of the hands had already sprouted behind me, ready to strike.

“N-No fair...”

Thinking back, there had to be no way of escaping that gimmick. After all, even Shouko, Tsumugi, and Yamikage, with their acrobatic player skills, hadn’t been able to avoid it.

And then, there was me—engulfed by those massive watery hands without the slightest clue of what was happening.

Chapter 6: Frontier Summon

“Urgh...”

When I came to, I was met with light so harsh I had to blink a few times before I could register anything around me. In my mind, it had been night only moments before, and my brain struggled to keep up with this sudden sunlight.

It feels like I’m lying on a bed of sand...

I immediately reached out.

“Hah!”

I heard the soft sound of nearby footsteps, as if someone had just dodged out of the way.

This sensation...is strangely familiar.

“Hey, you. You’re finally awake. Sorry for calling you out of the blue. But we need a bit of your expertise.”

Shaking my head to clear it, I...took in my surroundings.

Harsh sunlight pouring down relentlessly over the sands and skies that seemed to stretch out for an eternity in every direction I looked. And in front of me...my sister Kanade was extending a hand. Her face was half-apologetic, half-pleading.

“Hah... I don’t think I even have to ask, sis. But did you...invite me to a development event?”

“Something like that. I was just called here myself.”

“I see. So where exactly are we?”

My mind was still a little fuzzy. I was still stuck in the nighttime mindset.

“The Prado Desert, apparently.”

They have an event like that in the desert? I mean, it’s probably something similar to Cal Mira, but...

“I apologize for calling you out like this. If only I could have asked in advance...” said a somewhat familiar voice.

I turned toward it, and there stood...a girl, about the same size as me.

Her race was Demihuman, just like Tsumugi...though a bit more fox-like. For one, her tail was super fluffy and she was clearly going for that kitsune aesthetic. She was overall pretty striking in her traditional Japanese outfit.

Ah, an older, stern tone and a loli design...that’s a stereotypical fox girl for you. Like, a loli-fox-eared-granny, huh?

I’d played enough games to have seen characters like her before. It was a popular design choice.

“You must be Kanade’s blood relative, Kizuna. Lord of Cal Mira Island.”

“Yeah. Never thought I’d be called on.”

To be fair, I was a well-known player; the chance of me being summoned was never zero. L’Arc had hinted at something similar, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

“Aye, you see...”

“I recommended you.”

Kanade proudly puffed out her chest. Of course it was you.

Well, I was no stranger to how unreasonable these events could be. I was the one who’d dragged my party members into my own mess.

Let’s just say it’s my turn and accept it.

“I take it you’re the lord of this island...err, desert?”

“Aye. I was the one who summoned you. I do feel bad about it, but won’t you lend me a hand?”

“I understand the situation. So, umm...”

I paused to check the name of the person in front of me.

My own name—Kizuna†Exceed—was embarrassing enough, and everyone just called me Kizuna. But the fox girl before me... I knew her. No, it wasn’t like we’d ever spoken before, but I just kinda knew her.

With her voice and manner of speaking, she had to be the same person who’d been in command of the waves from the first wave up to the one on Cal Mira.

I see...that’s why Romina said I’d know her voice. It was her.

And, though this was our first direct conversation, her name was...pretty out there.

Player Name: m9(^Д^)

It was...that. You know. An emoji of her pointing a finger at the screen and laughing. An old ASCII used on certain anonymous image boards, also known as a kaomoji or emoticon.

As for what “m9(^Д^)” meant, well, it was basically a way of saying, “Look at that guy and laugh.”

How...am I supposed to pronounce that?

It was a joke name, and I really didn’t know what to say. It was the first time I’d seen anything like it in Dimension Wave.

“What is it?” the girl asked.

“The name, right?” said Kanade. “Everyone’s like that when they meet you for the first time.”

My sister gave a few sympathetic nods.

If you get it, then throw me a bone here!

“Oh... Is that so?”

“Umm...”

“There is a very deep reason behind this.”

“A reason? Is it like mine?”

What? Did someone pull some mean stunt like when a certain pair of sisters swapped my avatar and I logged into something completely different from what I’d made?

“You don’t have it that bad, Kizuna. This girl here has to explain herself every single time.”

“It’s not like I’m happy with the name either!”

“What? Is this your doing again, sis?”

You couldn’t be satisfied with just me? You had to sink your claws into the other players too?! Is she some kind of IRL friend?

“Of course not! I don’t know her in real life either. I just know the story behind that strange name of hers.”

Okay, maybe my sister isn’t that bad.

“So, what’s up with the name?”

“Aye...well, the truth is... I poured my heart into making this avatar.”

And so, m9(^Д^) went into her tale.

Apparently, she spent night after night painstakingly crafting her avatar and getting it up to the same unnecessarily high level of detail as my own. And, once she was finally finished and satisfied...it was long past midnight. In a delirious state of exhaustion and accomplishment, she kept entering and erasing potential names while building up her profile.

Dimension Wave required players to submit multiple potential names on registration. You’d think it’d manage duplicates by ID, but no. Every name had to be unique.

For me, Kanade, and Tsumugi, the † and the Exceed slapped on the end let us avoid any overlaps, so we got through easily enough. But simpler names were far more easily taken.

Especially when they were names from famous games and anime.

And as it turned out, m9(^Д^) had been among the list of her potential names.

“And you ended up with that?”

“I want to go back and smack the me of back then for not checking properly.”

She’d put in joke names, had a laugh about them, and erased them soon after. Then came the hesitating, mulling...and finally entering something cool. Unfortunately, at least one of them had slipped through the cracks.

“‘Yeah, no way, no how! Ah ha ha ha ha! Look at him and laugh! Ah ha ha ha!’ and that should have been the end of it. And in my sleep-deprived delirium, I swear I deleted it and input something proper... I never could have imagined that I’d forget to hit save!”

Meaning...she self-destructed. Always save before you exit a program. Unlike me, a clear victim of sabotage, she’d completely brought this on herself.

The real enemy here was the mix of accomplishment and exhaustion. And the reckless bravado that came with the midnight hours.

“Most people call her LOLey or LAHAL.”

Yeah, that emoji was usually associated with mocking laughter: “Look at him and laugh.” Shortening it to Lahal made it more name-like. And, using the standard LOL, adapting it to Loley for a little girl character was a bit on the nose.

“Do you know how much they’ve teased me since I logged in with this name?! It’s been downright miserable!”

You kinda made your own bed here... I thought. But if I said that, I knew it’d sour our working relationship, so I chose to keep quiet.

Everyone made dumb mistakes.

Still, what should I call her, then? I think I could get away with Em-Nine, but that doesn’t sound right.

“Uh...well, I guess I’ll go with Emoji.”

If Shouko was here, I could see her going with a more tactful name like that.

“Hmm...you’ve got a decent personality after all. I can see why you’re the lord of Cal Mira Island.”

“Right...”

Not that being the island lord had anything to do with personality.

“Anyway, we should introduce ourselves properly. I’m Kizuna. IRL little brother of that girl over there and, as you know, the lord of Cal Mira.”

“Aye. And I, as you prefer to call me, am Emoji. I am recognized as the lord of the Prado Desert and, once upon a time, I led a guild as its master.”

“Right, from what I’ve heard from Kanade, it was one of the top guilds. I remember hearing your voice during the wave events.”

At least, I was pretty sure I’d heard something like that. She was apparently leading the top-rankers while we were busy developing the island.

“I’m sure my guild members thought so. We would challenge high-level hunting grounds together and bring down powerful bosses.”

Yeah...considering the way she handled command and coordination during the waves, she definitely struck me as a serious person. People with charisma were already powerful in real life, but in an MMO where numbers meant everything, they were absolutely unstoppable.

And with that in mind...a supposedly horrible name that became a joke and conversation starter for everyone she came across... Maybe it wasn’t such a bad name after all. It served to smooth out communication, at least.

“I have the build of your quintessential support healer—specializing in healing and buffs.”

So she’s the highly skilled healer that Kanade told us about.

That was something we severely lacked in our own party and an indispensable role in any online game. Spirits could only heal the Shield Energy of their Intermediary Stones, but it was still way better than nothing.

She’s probably one of those hardcore combat types.

“But with that said, what I truly wanted to do before launch was farming. A little building here and there too.”

What’s this? She’s got a hobbyist side as well?

On closer inspection, although her overall impression was “kitsune mage with a Japanese theme,” her actual equipment leaned more toward farming.

I was surprised to hear that from the leader of a first-rate guild.

No, perhaps that meant she had a deeper understanding of how the game system worked. After all, there were hidden stats and proficiencies beyond what was displayed on the stat screen.

I glanced at my sister...

“Not everyone can dive straight into their gimmick from the get-go like you. Most people fight and earn and make sure they’ve got a stable life going before they spec into side content.”

She had a point. Who in their right mind would roll into this kind of game playing “full-time fisherman” from the start? I could see why it was preferable to build strength and gather resources before trying out hobbies.

My plan was to have Kanade and Tsumugi carry me after they got strong, so it was less important for me. They’d expected it to go that way too.

“It was my dream to cultivate the wilderness from scratch...but alas, I’ve been kept too busy for that.”

Apparently, she was in it to have fun. But she had to build her war chest if she wanted to live her life in peace, and so battle became the priority. A party grew into a guild and grew even beyond that, swallowing up all the time she’d saved for farming.

“Then this cultivation event’s got to be right up your alley.”

“Aye. When I discovered this hidden event and earned this frontier, I was jumping for joy.”

Emoji gestured behind herself...at a desert oasis and the buildings scattered around it. There were rows of farms stretching out from the water.

“So what’s someone like you need from me? I get that Kanade recommended me, but...wouldn’t you usually start with close friends?”

Don’t tell me that she prioritized efficiency and that ended up with Kanade being summoned last?

“I mean...even Tsumugi was saying that you were the Yamikage of your group, sis...”

“Hey, Kizuna! I know about Yammy’s reputation, but don’t you dare put me in that category!”

Honestly, in a settlement full of strangers, fishing was about the only thing I had to offer. No, wait, am I actually being seen as a useful person for development...? But if my sister’s here...did she call Alto too?

“Oh, right. Have you seen my little Alto anywhere?”

“Your guild’s exclusive merchant, yes? I did not call for him. Kanade asked me the same question.”

“Yeah, he’s not here.”

“Huh? He’s not?”

Emoji and Kanade both shook their heads.

Then he’s at a different settlement?

I didn’t know how many there were...but thinking back to the chest at the start of my development event, the chest had four buttons on it. It was safe to say there were four areas in total, though this was pure speculation.

“I had a different candidate to fulfill the merchant role here...”

Regardless, it seemed I wouldn’t be having a tearful reunion with Alto.

“Food supplies are running low, bun! If we don’t plant soon, we’ll all collapse, bun.”

As we were talking...a rabbit in a Santa hat hopped up to Emoji. I stared, then shifted my eyes back to Emoji who, after a moment, realized an explanation was in order.

“That’s Bunowny—the helper character for this settlement. They’re like the Pekkle from Cal Mira.”

“I figured...”

He was just whining about hunger. Is this place going to be okay?

“‘When a bunny and a brownie put their strength together, you get a Bunowny, bun!’ At least, that’s what he said at the start.”

Right, brownies are a sort of fairy. Then I guess the other settlements have something similar.

“So each settlement has their own mascot, huh? When I first opened the chest, there were four buttons, and I chose the fish one. That’s how I got Pekkles.”

“Four? I only saw one.”

“It...might be first come, first served.”

So me choosing fish removed Pekkles from the selection pool, leaving only three options.

Still, for the girl to be trapped in the desert when she wanted to farm...that was some tough luck.

Thinking back, the uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean was probably the best possible environment to raise Pekkles. If I’d gotten Pekkles in the desert...was there even a fishing spot? I’d have to pin my hopes on the oasis.

Emoji nodded. “It’s possible.”

That raised the odds of there being four settlements in total.

“The first time I saw it, there was only a carrot button, you see. And when I pressed it, a Bunowny appeared.”

“I see... So what happened to your hired Pekkle when you employed a Bunowny?”

Support characters sometimes went away if you hired a different one. I had to make sure.

“My Pekkle handed his hat to the head Bunowny, who bestowed it on a newly summoned Bunowny that inherited his abilities.”

So there’s a conversion feature? Maybe each mascot has their own jurisdiction.

Anyway, that report from the Santa Hat Bunowny seemed to be a status update on the development area. Apparently there was a food shortage.

Maybe the development hasn’t gotten too far?

“And now... I’ll tell you about the friends I summoned. From here, the tale turns dark...”

Emoji began recounting what had happened in the Prado Desert.

After being granted the settlement on the frontier, Emoji enthusiastically threw herself at the event. Soon enough, the Bunowny asked her to invite her friends over.

Those who came were just as enthusiastic, eager to seize success just as the lord of Cal Mira’s party had done before them.

Eventually, they managed to open the Desert Dungeon. It was all smooth sailing up to that point. That is, up to the point they realized that the drops were hardly any different from what they could get from Cal Mira.

These were the players of a top-ranked guild—ones who prided themselves on being frontliners. The moment Cal Mira opened up, they charged into all the content it had to offer... Now, they were faced with a dungeon that was the same difficulty level as the one they’d cleared ages ago. No challenge, no thrill.

On top of that, desert development took quite a lot of time. Progress felt like no progress at all, and a sense of impatience began to set in among the settlers.

Worse yet, they’d been summoned in the midst of challenging Mikakage... Would they have been better off there than here? Their doubts grew louder.

“Wouldn’t we have become much stronger had we stayed?” became a common talking point.

“We pushed through it, mind you. Little by little, the development advanced. However, each time someone new arrived from the outside, they would bring with them gear stronger than anything we could find here. It started with crab gear, and everything that came after that.”

Well...crab gear was famed for its incredible versatility. We were the ones who were selling it, after all.

“And finally, the people I summoned started shouting, ‘Don’t drag us into your obsolete content!’... They dove endlessly into the dungeons to make up for lost ground, and I was left developing on my own.”

Yipes. So there are still players who only think about combat and nothing else? This must be the issue Alto was skirting around back there.

“When I first summoned them, they’d boast about surpassing the Island Lord Party. After a point, I heard them muttering...‘It’s all rigged. It’s pointless to even try.’”

That sounds like something Shouko’s former party members would say. They’re not here, are they? I don’t even want to think about it.

“Loley here has real leadership and player skill. But she’s too kind—and that kindness attracts all sorts. She even invited the player that kicked me from the guild.”

So in a way, I’ve been invited into enemy territory? That’s a little concerning. I might burn a hole through my gut if I don’t handle this properly. My character’s weak to stress after all. Probably.

Emoji went on, summarizing what happened afterward.

The whole place turned into a toxic environment, most likely. She looked completely exhausted as she talked about it.

Getting locked away...in a place like this had to be insanely stressful.

Even I’d felt like Urashima Tarou when I finally left the island.

But at least on Cal Mira, we were able to push past the front lines and find powerful weapons and tools while fighting formidable monsters. Here? Here, it felt like just going to Cal Mira was enough... It was no wonder they wanted to wrap up development ASAP and leave. That was in a gamer’s nature.

“If they know the goal, they should just grit their teeth and work toward it.”

Was this how it was for people who only had a mind for combat? They could say they’d do it, but it’d just be all talk? Did they not see a problem with that?

“The problems went deeper than that. First and foremost were the members themselves.”

There were problems left and right, but this didn’t seem to be why she’d called me.

“Each new arrival was stronger than the ones already here. That made the atmosphere worse and worse.”

Then came the demon lord’s invasion event. The settlement’s members were exempted and got a considerable reward from it.

This just served as a reminder that they were stuck in obsolete content.

Come to think of it, that’s around the time I stopped hearing Emoji. She was always taking command in the events before that.

Sure, it had to do with how the events were structured too, but it felt like our command structure had gotten a lot sloppier since...though we still managed to clear them.

“The moment someone I summoned told us that new areas had opened up in Mikakage...that was the breaking point. Everyone began to speak ill of me.”

Ouch...harsh. It’s like she’s sitting on a powder keg ready to blow at any second.

I could easily have seen myself going down the same route. I didn’t know many people, and it was only because my party members were easygoing that they accepted my actions.

“Development finally reached a point of fatal stagnation. Nothing worked no matter what I tried. We were completely stuck.”

“What was the problem?”

“Well, you see—”

“Kizuna, you’re good at farming, right?”

My sister impatiently cut in before Emoji could answer me. It was like she’d been waiting for this.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“Cut the bull! Don’t even try to deny it! I know how obsessed you were with that crazy farming game.”

Fair enough. I definitely sunk a lot of hours into it.

“I mean, yeah, it was the kind of game where actual farming websites, videos, and academic textbooks could be treated as legit strategy guides.”

Most farming games were simple: Dig a hole, plant seeds, water, wait, harvest, and profit. But the game we played instead opted to cram in all sorts of complicated and esoteric systems in an attempt to get closer and closer to absolute realism. That was the hook that made it famous.

Wait...is that why sis called me here?!

If Bunownies ran on carrots, then someone would have to grow the crops to keep them going.

“Dimension Wave’s development mechanics are pretty loose,” I said. “Back in Cal Mira, all I had to do was fish.”

You just had to give the Pekkles the fish you caught, and they’d do the work for you.

“If I had to say...this region, being a desert, might have a higher base difficulty for development. They too thought that things would grow if you gave water, and they did lend a hand...”

Oh...so the challenge level is way higher when the rewards and EXP are the same. Of course you’ll have people complaining about that.

“Think about it, Kizuna,” Kanade cut in. “You tweak your setup and do all sorts of things when you’re fishing, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

And you put on good equipment to fight. Same idea.

“It’s all the same. With fishing, you consider the tools and locations beforehand. There are similar factors involved in farming.”

“But you should at least get some hints if you raise your mastery level high enough.”

“Kizuna. Have you ever used skills to choose your rigging?”

No...never. It’s all trial and error. After a point, I got some tips from the aquarium and library too. I guess skills can only take you so far.

“Point taken,” I said. “But what exactly went wrong with the farming here?”

“The yields are far lower than expected. The crops won’t mature.”

“Well...farming in a desert like this is pretty hard to begin with.”

The terrain itself was against us. In fact, the location was so bad it was insane to ask for any yield at all.

“There’s more. First, could you look at the fields?” Emoji said as she led me out into the sand...

And somehow, there was actual farmland.

“How’s the growth rate here? On Cal Mira, we could harvest every few days.”

We did have some agriculture, for what it’s worth, although it wasn’t our main source of food and the Pekkles were doing most of the work.

“It is the same here. The garden at my player housing functions like that too.”

They were summer crops...mainly cucumbers, tomatoes, and eggplants.

I approached to take a closer look.

Most were shriveled. Definitely not a good sign.

The next field over—seemingly napa cabbage—was the same story. Growth was terrible, and the vegetables were in no state to harvest.

Ah, she does have sprinklers set up. That’s a convenient system you can’t do without in a farming game.

They seemed to fall under the trap category, and while I’d lost my Trapping Arts when it got fused into Hunting Gear, I could still craft them like crab traps.

The water source seemed to trace back to the oasis.

Looking at the cucumber field, the vines seemed too stunted to grow any vegetables at all.

“Who’d have thought they’d grow powdery mildew in the middle of a desert...”

It seemed like a good idea to discard all my fixed notions of what a desert should be.

“Did you figure anything out?” Emoji asked me.

“Nothing you wouldn’t have found out with your farming skill.”

The buffs from my Seven Tools of the Pioneer allowed me to judge agriculture to some degree. But it was mostly knowledge I’d brought in from other games and information I’d heard from other farmers.

“Despite how they look, a portion will still bear fruit without issue,” she explained.

Maybe the system’s a bit loose on deciding what crops will give yields and what won’t. Poor conditions just lower the probability.

Regardless, my impression of the fields was that they were a mess. It was like I was looking at the difference in what it meant to rear a field in a game and in real life. And not in a good way.

Come to think of it, there are diseases that don’t break out in real life outside of certain climates, locations, and circumstances, but they can happen in games without all of that.

I pulled up a cabbage to check... Wilted.

“Clubroot.”

Next, the tomatoes... I severed a withered stem... Oozing.

“Bacterial wilt.”

“You know your stuff,” said Emoji.

“This might be a stupid question, but...is farming actually considered main content in Dimension Wave? I’m feeling a huge gap from how they treat fishing.”

The farming system was so complex that I was beginning to grow anxious. The more I looked at it, the more fishing seemed like a sub content minigame. Honestly. Crop diseases? Soil pathogens? Why’d they have to put it all in? This was edging into actual farming sim territory.

“Is that how it is?” Emoji innocently asked back.

“Rather...why are all the fields wiped out? Low skill level?”

“I don’t quite know myself. I plant, they grow. But they all end up dying in the end. It was all going well at first, you know. No, let’s stick to the present.”

I was beginning to understand why my sister dragged me in... I was the guy who was most likely to know about farming.

That in itself wasn’t an issue, but...

“Seriously... I have to help out and hang with a guild that sees me as an enemy.”

I’d have to give up fishing for a while to clean up someone else’s mess.

“Relax,” said my sister. “We’re not demons or anything.”

“Aye.” Emoji nodded.

What’s that supposed to mean?

I mean, yeah, my sister does usually feel like a demon. Not that I can say that aloud.

“They are not here anymore,” said Emoji.

“Huh? Didn’t you say you summoned them?”

“They suddenly vanished one day.”

She went into the details.

As days passed in that tense, fractured atmosphere with farming creeping along...everyone tried to keep things together. But as the last Dimension Wave broke out, they were able to see the notice from the desert.

Emoji’s guildmates snapped again, railing at her for summoning them and dooming them to skip the event. She admitted that even her own spirit broke under their berating.

Before long, they were hurling abuse at one another day after day.

Even from a bare-bones outline of events, it sounded crushing.

“There was nothing I could do... This is a game where action means nothing when words fall on deaf ears. It’s better than having a bloodbath, I suppose. Since we can’t harm one another. But even so, it was starting to become unbearable.”

Was that...generosity on the system’s part?

Getting stabbed and beaten was still getting stabbed and beaten. It was only the system rendering the blows harmless.

She was pretty much saying they’d started swinging weapons at her.

She said her spirit gave out at that point, but maybe she had nerves of steel if she lasted that long in the first place.

“Then, the very next day, they were all gone. I should have been able to reach them through chat if they were in the settlement, but I can’t connect. It simply says, ‘Error. This fool is in an area without reception.’”

Yeah...I’d heard a similar canned message plenty of times myself.

Were they able to escape the desert somehow? It felt more like they were deemed unfit for the development. I didn’t know how the call was made, but maybe the devs or the system had a part.

“Right after that, my first Bunowny, the one in the Santa Hat, asked, ‘Is there anyone you want to see, bun?’ And not just once—he asked again and again. This time, I was careful in who I summoned.”

“And that led you to calling my sister...and me?”

“Exactly,” said Kanade. “And a few others too—you’ll recognize some of them. Bunowny was considerate enough to wait until the wave was over, and this time Lahal was choosy about who she brought. There were no fights this time.”

I guess this is a fail-safe in case the development fails. The problem players get released...and maybe that’s for the best. That’s a relief.

“But when we called for you, Santa Hat Bunowny reacted differently.”

“Hmm... How so?”

“He said, ‘If you meet that person, you might not be able to meet other people you want to meet, bun. Do you still want to meet them, bun?’”

By the sound of it, that was a warning that summoning me would reduce the total number of people she could call over. Maybe I had a higher “cost” than other people.

I was the island lord, after all...or maybe it was because of my Unique Skill.

“Sounds like calling me cost more than the other players. You sure you made the right choice?”

“Don’t worry about it. We took your skills into consideration.”

I guess manpower won’t be an issue if I can summon my Pekkles.

“Still, I’d have preferred it if you summoned Shouko with me.”

Otherwise, Shouko’s the type to get anxious...

After all, I’d be cut off from everyone else during a development event.

“There’s an order to these things,” Kanade insisted. “If we want to do it properly, it would be you first, then Tsumugi, and then Shouko, right?”

“Well, if we’re going off your friend list, yeah.”

“You never summoned me, by the way. Also, when we tried to summon your friends, it didn’t work. Bunowny just said, ‘You can’t meet this person, bun.’ Every name we tried failed, except yours.”

“Why’s that?”

“Our working theory’s that you can’t trigger the flag if you’ve already been summoned for a different cultivation event.”

Yeah...that tracks. Come to think of it, I was always the one summoning. I’ve never been summoned by anyone. And now I’m still summonable, even if I come at a higher cost.

Well, whatever. I think I have the gist of things now. Things should be safer with a fresh lineup and none of that strained atmosphere.

No. Wait. If that flag theory holds, then where did Alto go? I mean, I guess development events aren’t the only way to go missing. I’m sure that guy can manage no matter where he ends up.

“So anyway, do you know anyone else we can call up? Someone who’s never been summoned before.”

“Sis, what are you expecting from a loner like me?”

I wasn’t as bad as Yamikage, but come to think of it, I didn’t have many connections.

“Why are you like this? When even real farmers were wondering how you did it... Seriously, it’s a mystery how you always manage to excel in games like these.”

“Hey, I’m just as baffled as you are. It’s rare for me to do this well in a game that demands actual player skill.”

It was true. But coming from my sister—my unfortunate, homeless sister—it actually stung a bit.

“Anyway, just start farming. You’re the only one here who knows anything.”

“I only want fishing—ah...no! I hate vegetables! Farming is the devil’s work!”

“I should be the one getting sick of farming!” Emoji cried out.

I tried to make it clear I’d rather be fishing.

“What are you on about? You don’t actually hate it. You’re just fishing for a retort!”

She wasn’t wrong.

Fishing was my main, but I’d gone out hunting with my party plenty of times... If my farming prowess was in demand, then I wasn’t completely against it.

And really, farming was like my crab traps. I just had to set (plant) them—no need to hover over them constantly.

“Fishing for a retort...now, now, you don’t need to try so hard to be punny, Big Brave Pekkle.”

Ah, Emoji’s playing along. Teasing my sister instead of turning it on me.

Hmm...that’s the leader of a larger guild for you. I only meant to tease her a bit, but she snatched the joke right out from under me.

“Who are you calling Big Brave Pekkle?”

“Sis, don’t you mean ‘Cut it out, pen’?”

“You’re awfully in sync for two people who just met... Don’t go using me as your toy. Now enough chitchat—get to work! And you too, Lahal! Get Kizuna to teach you a thing or two!”

“Roger! I’ve been wanting to learn, so please teach me!”

“Once you’ve done your share, Kizuna, you can go and fish your heart out. You’ve got no rivals here anyway. Go see if you can fish up a lord or something.”

“Hooray!”

Well, if you put it like thaaat, I’ll at least drill the basics of farming into Emoji.

She seemed motivated enough, and since she ran a combat guild she was probably a fast learner. As an added bonus, since I didn’t have any fishing rivals, I could at least go for the lord of the oasis.

I already had a good grasp on how territory development worked, so it wouldn’t take that long either.

It wasn’t a bad offer, all things considered.

“I need to watch over our personnel carefully before calling more, otherwise I’ll be repeating the same mistake. It’s better to watch and wait for now.”

“Got it. Still, seeing nearly every crop pretty much wiped out is kind of impressive in its own way. First things first—we need to pin down the cause.”

I gave the fields a thorough inspection... It was kinda like I was dealing with some tech-illiterate person who’d fiddled with their PC until it broke, and I was left searching for what they’d messed up.

Emoji, despite her clear love for farming, didn’t seem to have any of the basic knowledge. Then again, that was pretty much the average person’s knowledge level when it came to farming in games.

Hmmm...still, how did the fields end up this bad? What happened?

It was like we were living in a post-disaster agricultural red zone, a complete mess wherever I looked. Powdery mildew, clubroot, bacterial wilt, stunted growth...not even the soybean fields were spared: Rhizoctonia root rot, black root rot.

Perhaps...these were just the game’s indicators of a general “disease” status and I only recognized the specific ailments because I knew too much.

“What’s with this settlement...a toxic wasteland set to max difficulty?”

“Is it that bad, Kizuna?”

“Bad doesn’t begin to describe it. The soybean fields alone... Honestly, it’d be faster to turn over the soil and burn the whole thing down. The place is riddled with infection.”

“Whoa...that’s intense.”

My sister clearly didn’t get it.

“Rather, you’re even more knowledgeable than I thought, Kizuna.”

“It just kinda stuck with me when I was digging into that game’s systems.”

“You know what? How about you major in agriculture at uni?”

“Don’t want to. We’re not a farming family.”

We don’t own land, for starters. And besides, everyone knows farming doesn’t pay well.

I was only a bit more knowledgeable than the average gamer, and that was simply from playing a realistic game. Nothing more. It would be idiotic for me to go into agriculture just for that.

“Anyway, we need to find out why the fields are this far gone... Emoji. What did you plant here before?”

“Hmm? I planted soybeans in the soybean field, of course. Each time I harvested, I planted the same crop again. Ah, but I did remember to fertilize them well.”

“Then did this game include continuous cropping hazard...? Also, from the look of things, you probably planted them too close together. Fertilizer’s good, but fertilizer alone won’t cut it.”

I mean, top-dressing’s still important.

There was apparently a skill called Fertilize on the farming tree. Fish were historically used as fertilizer, so perhaps I could offer some support by fishing at the oasis.

There were probably variables like how much fertilizer to add and how much water to give, depending on the crop.

The fact that this bothersome system is actually starting to look fun to me...is it because I’ve played too many of these sorts of games?

“The insect damage is pretty bad too. What about pesticides? I’m pretty sure the game has them.”

That was information about the game’s farming mechanics that even I was aware of.

“My fields are perfectly pesticide-free!” Emoji proudly declared.

Oh boy... I mean, I get where you’re coming from.

That was usually the right approach in a fun, easygoing farming sim. It was actually rare for a game to lean this far into it. In fact, I had to wonder about a game promoting pesticides, given the controversies about chemical safety we were having in real life.

Or maybe...the intent was to provide a challenge for farming players who wanted to create a perfect environment where they could grow the finest produce without pesticides. Sure, that did sound interesting in the long run—but right now, pesticides were definitely the answer.

“That only works in simplified ranch sims. In realistic games, pesticides are just as important as fertilizer.”

“Huh?! Are you for real?!”

And suddenly, her rigid way of speech was gone. Like she’d forgotten all about it. It was definitely just the character she was playing. Not that I hated that sort of thing.

She reminded me of Yamikage.

“Trying to grow crops without pesticides is like trying to beat the final boss with beginner’s gear at level one. It’s basically the same as telling you to die.”

From all the studying I had to do, I knew just how absurd and troublesome the organic, pesticide-free ideal really was. Real farmers worked themselves to the bone over that stuff...and being pesticide-free didn’t automatically mean better tasting either.

Obtaining safe produce was a lot harder than it seemed.

If I had to put it in RPG terms, if fertilizer was your weapon, then pesticides were your armor.

“I-Is it really that bad?”

“Yeah. This is something from real life, but just using over-the-counter bug spray on crops makes them count as chemically treated. It’s still a pesticide.”

“M-My word...”

“You can also spray diluted milk to kill pests, but that’s not a fundamental solution. If we’ve got safe pesticides around, we’d better use them. It’s the same as the combat teams putting on proper gear.”

Going pesticide-free was just that difficult.

“But I’ve heard that organic farming is much better. And I’ve heard that it works especially well with new fields.”

“That’s a well-known story, but the truth is it’s not completely pesticide-free. More importantly, pesticide-free farming just isn’t possible anymore. Not when the fields are this contaminated. Your crops thrive in new fields mostly because they aren’t suffering from the continuous crop hazard.”

There’s no way anything would grow here. Meaning the fields weren’t contaminated from the start; they were made this way.

“G-Got it.”

Did none of her former guild members notice just by looking at Emoji’s fields? Even if they thought that plants only needed to be watered, shouldn’t they have at least realized something was wrong?

“So we’re lifting the ban on pesticides?” asked Kanade. “Then there’s something I want to try.”

“What is it?”

“Well, you know all those safety measures they have in real life...or at least, the stuff they do to make people feel safe? Well, this is a game, so isn’t this the perfect place to try it?”

“Just get to the point, sis.”

I knew not to expect anything decent out of her, but I had to ask nonetheless.

“Let’s go all in and make some super genetically modified, pesticide-soaked crops and see how they taste.”

Well, yeah...we won’t get a chance in real life. Where would you even buy something like that? But is that the sort of thing you get hyped for even if it is a game?

“See...? This is the kind of family I’m stuck with...”

“Aye...what a cruel world we live in...”

“As for the pesticides, can we just sprinkle some potions around the fields?”

“We’ll have to figure that out. But first, we need to cleanse the fields and let them rest for a few days... Aight, you got the Compounding skill, right? I’m counting on you, sis.”

“Huh...well...fine, got it. If you’re that serious about it, it must be serious.”

“Do we have anyone else who can make potions? If we don’t, I’d like someone to learn it.”

“Yeah, we do. A few other people have Compounding too.”

Good, it all works out, then.

We seemed to have enough people capable of procuring recovery items. And that meant that securing medicines and pesticides was most likely possible too.

What we really needed was manpower.

Doctor Pekkle might be able to do it too, so let’s start with that.

“C’mon Pekkle.”

“Pennnn!”

Before picking out which Pekkles I’d summon, I first called on Chris.

“This is...an unreclaimed frontier, pen!”

Oh? He’s got some special lines.

Chris waddled up to the Santa Hat Bunowny and began cycling through talking animations.

“Pen pen.”

“Bun bun.”

He came back to me.

“I talked it out with the local frontier fairy, pen. We Pekkles will help with the development too, pen. But here, we can’t use our powers to their full potential, pen. The stronger the Bunownies get, the more power we can draw out, pen.”

“Hmm...” said Emoji. “It looks like the Pekkles are linked to the growth of the Bunownies.”

Checking the Pekkles’ stats, I saw that all the development values had dropped significantly. It really seemed like they’d become nothing more than helpers.

Makes sense; otherwise, the folks who already have their own territories would have way too much of an advantage.

“Looks like it. So, I get that the Bunowny food supply’s run dry, but how bad are we talking here?”

“We can’t afford most of them. They have to stay on standby, or they’ll keep turning Karma.”

Ow...what a vicious cycle.

The devastation of the fields, coupled with a lack of manpower, had caused things to spiral bad.

“Beating them in battle after they went Karma would bring them back for a while, so everyone would exploit the Karma transformation. Defeating them would cause some crops to drop, you see. But with that method, the Bunownies never grew stronger.”

That was one way to keep a business going, albeit a cruel, exploitative way. Their only fun must have been to grind on the Karma-fied Bunownies.

There was no way that was what the devs intended.

“Though if you’re strong enough to beat them, I guess it kind of works.”

Meaning up until recently, this frontier had been an absolute hell for Bunownies.

Not that I was one to talk—not after I had the Pekkles run a crab cannery ship operation.

But I could see why their growth would stagnate like that.

It was a land that had been kept afloat by brute force. There was a fail-safe that let them manage to some degree while their necessary farming skills were less than sufficient. It wasn’t the proper method—rather, it was a boneheaded one. But they at least had the option.

Let’s check the Pekkles again... Yep, still the same. Their stats are down across the board. We’ll have to start by raising the Bunownies.

“Can I borrow the item you use to keep track of the Bunownies?”

“This one, yes? I heard the island master could control Pekkles without any special tools, though.”

Emoji handed me something called the Buno-no-meter, but as soon as I reached for it, it shot off like we were two opposing magnets and clattered to the ground.

“Penster can’t control Bunownies, pen,” Chris cautioned me.

So you’re saying I can only manage Pekkles? Penguins can’t be bunnies, pen?

“Well, whatever...even if the Pekkles’ abilities are down, at least I can control them...”

I pulled the Pekkle-o-meter out from my inventory and passed it over to my sister.

The Seven Tools of the Pioneer...still seem usable.

Unlike the Pekkles, my pioneering tools actually seemed to be getting buffed. But the buff was mostly boosting fishing; farming wasn’t seeing much benefit.

I guess it’s telling me to go fish my heart out.

“For the time being, I’ll summon the Pekkles we can actually use. I can’t bring too many, though—I don’t want to cause any issues with Cal Mira’s management.”

To start with, I called out Doctor Pekkle and Farmer Pekkle.

“Pennn!”

As for smithing... It doesn’t look like we have a smith here, so I’ll have to borrow the hammer-wielding Pekkle Romina uses. I’ll bet he’s got a high smithing skill.

I could almost feel the vein popping on Romina’s forehead.

If only there was some way to send her a message.

But right now, what mattered most was hammering the basics of agriculture into Emoji’s head and finishing the development. For what it’s worth, it seemed like I was able to return Pekkles if needed. That was a nice bit of leeway on the system’s part.

“We’ll need fish to feed the Pekkles... Do you have any stockpiled?”

“We do not...”

“That’s about what I expected. I have some fish on hand, enough to last until I can restock. For now, I’ll set some crab traps in the oasis and cover the rest with fishing.”

I already had some fish reserves. With the development zone modifiers on top of my personal skills and equipment, I’d be able to farm some good proficiency on my own.

“I take it we can leave the Pekkles to you?”

“Pretty much. On that note, I should summon Brave Pekkle too.”

“Pennnnn!”

Brave Pekkle rushed to the scene.

During the development phase, even if I didn’t give him any orders, Brave Pekkle’s presence alone boosted the abilities of all Pekkles—and boosted them even more if I assigned him to take command.

On top of that, beneath my ribbon overlay was the Santa Hat I was forced to wear all year round. Even with their current debuffs, they’d probably be able to work almost as effectively as the stagnated Bunownies.

“Next, for the oasis—”

Just as I was considering setting up my crab traps, a furious cloud of dust rolled in from the direction of the structures.

“Bunny-bun!”

Something burst from the dust and rammed straight into Brave Pekkle.

“P-Pen?!”

“Bun, y’know!”

Rub, rub, rub! A lone Bunowny, armed with a spear, was nuzzling its forehead against Brave Pekkle’s chest. He seemed a bit...overly friendly.

“S-Settle down, pen!”

Brave Pekkle shoved the Bunowny back with a flipper to the forehead.

“Got it, bun!”

Even then, the Bunowny tried to keep up the nuzzling a while longer, but Brave Pekkle’s resistance was too strong. It took a while before it relented.

“Pen, pen.”

“Bunny bun bun y’know.”

The two of them got into some dialogue animations.

“Hmm...those are unique animations. But...I feel this dialogue might be dangerous.”

What about it?

“With that said...the Buno-no-meter hasn’t detected anything abnormal. A relief, that.”

“That Bunowny’s awfully chummy with Brave Pekkle.”

Santa Hat Bunowny had a special interaction with Chris too, but nothing beyond that. And yet, this Bunowny was showing an extreme reaction to Brave Pekkle.

“That one’s Brave Bunowny,” Emoji explained.

“Ah...I see.”

Among the development zone’s creatures, this was a special Bunowny that held the “hero” position.

“Did you get him from the treasure chest at the bottom of the dungeon?”

“Aye. I dug into the dungeon’s floor and turned up a key.”

Wow, that’s some serious luck, Emoji. Or does she just dig everywhere? Should I press her on that? In my case, I only got my key when I tried reeling in a lord from the underground lake.

Regardless, having a special Bunowny already on the roster was bound to make development go a lot smoother.

“A Bunowny with a spear, huh? Mine was a Pekkle with a shield.”

“Right, Kizuna’s Pekkle has some insane defense. I practically became invincible after I put on the costume modeled after it.”

Brave Pekkle was a Pekkle min-maxed for defense, after all. He would automatically guard in a pinch, and it was never a waste to summon him in any important battle. He even unleashed a special move on occasion that dealt some nice chip damage.

Anyway, it seemed that some special interaction triggered whenever two hero-class development creatures came into contact.

“Brave Bunowny, huh... Judging by our Brave Pekkle, I bet it’s got a nasty quirk or two.”

With Brave Pekkle, his flaw was that his stress bar rose way too quickly, and once it crossed a certain threshold, he’d start to get toxic.

“Indeed. The island lord ought to know how to handle a Brave Bunowny as well.”

“How does it differ from Kizuna’s Pekkle?” Kanade asked.

“Just the fact it has a spear means it’s clearly meant to fill a different role.”

Emoji nodded at my supposition. “For starters, his first peculiarity...he would only ever take orders from female players.”

“Female players?”

“Aye.”

Silence fell over Emoji, sis, and I. A Bunowny that only listened to women... What kind of lech-hare-ous rabbit were we dealing with here?

“How would that work for me?”

As someone who was openly crossplaying, I wondered what category the Bunowny would lump me into.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have many open crossplayers, so it is hard to say. Most likely, it has to do with what you set your avatar as.”

Well, I would hate it if the game started peeking at who’s behind the screen.

Surely there were players using female avatars in this second life just to enjoy wearing pretty outfits. There were always at least a few guys playing girls in any online game, and most just did it because they preferred watching a girl character instead of a boy one. Thus, a lot of people ended up crossplaying whether they were into that sort of stuff or not.

“Like the Pekkle, Brave Bunowny’s stress gauge would rise exceptionally fast. But he did have the specs to match. The issue, however, was that once his stress rose above fifty percent, he would change completely. He would begin decrying all female players as ‘pigs’ and only listen to male players. When that happened, he would start adding ‘y’knows’ to his ‘-buns.’”

Hey now...that’s one dangerous Bunowny. Especially for all those folks sensitive about gender stuff.

“So he’s a real bother...” Kanade grumbled. “To summarize, the moment Lahal gave him a task that put him over fifty percent, he stopped listening to a single word she said.”

“What’s more, he had a troublesome habit of working on his own accord, regardless of orders.”

So, once his stress crossed fifty percent, he’d flat-out ignore commands, and he’d go off on his own to work and build up stress whether he was ordered to or not. If her pioneering team had been cooperative, she could’ve gotten a male player to take over, assigning Brave Bunowny to a different task or putting him back on standby. But if her story was to be taken at face value, no one was willing to help her.

“The previous members would deliberately push the Bunownies to Karma-fy to fight them, and unfortunately, he was the easiest to get to that point. I always tried to keep him below fifty percent so he was still within my control, but alas.”

Yeah... Brave Bunowny was pretty much a sitting duck. Day after day, he was pushed to his Karma form to be beaten and used.

Wait, hmm?

“So Brave Bunowny turns Karma if his stress gauge hits a hundred percent?”

That’s strange. Brave Pekkle turned into Wrath Pengu when he capped out.

“Nay, he turned into something else—a special boss through a special event. That’s why he was so often hunted down.”

What a tragic fate.

“But that was only until I triggered a different event. I heard it from the reports on the island lord’s development. You found a red-haired doll in the dungeon and used it on the Brave Pekkle, yes?”

“Oh...so they found one too.”

Of course they did. Those self-proclaimed frontliners were all battle maniacs, so surely they never slacked off on diving into that dungeon. They may not have cared for developing the land, but they were desperate to catch up to the other players with the dungeon... And that led them to finding the red-haired doll.

“Then problem solved, right? You beat that Bunowny’s special form, didn’t you?”

“Aye. We cut down a troublesome boss called Lust Rabbit—a frustrating foe that scattered the charm status like the plague. Worse were the countless Dark Filolials it summoned as its minions. Even our party was overwhelmed. They flipped out when we faced defeat on our first match.”

Oof... Status-spreading bosses are the worst. And that one had endless summons...that really sounds like hell.

“In our case, there was only one Dark Filolial.”

Charm status, huh? If that happened to us, we’d probably fall apart without a chance.

“So each one has its own gimmicks,” mused Kanade.

“Alto knew a lot about that stuff. He did a lot of digging at the library.”

Yeah, Alto was always the one who was the most knowledgeable about the flavor text.

“I think I understand it a little,” said Emoji. “It seems to tie into Brave Bunowny’s troublesome past. He seems to hold some deep grudge for the red-haired doll’s character.”

“Lore aside, the fact that he’s back means you beat him, right?”

“Aye, we did. After the battle, he dropped an item similar to the stuffed toy Brave Pekkle carries on his back. The item suppressed his Karma-fication and eased his stress buildup.”

Then it might be manageable. That means Brave Bunowny can aid in the development without posing too much of a risk. And with that in mind, I glanced at the accessory on Brave Bunowny’s back.

“It’s identical to the mount Brave Pekkle rides around on,” noted Kanade.

Exactly. The plush strapped to Brave Bunowny’s back captured Brave Pekkle’s mount down to nearly the smallest detail.

“It was called a Filo Plush. It seems to be very precious to him.”

“Brave Pekkle just uses it as a vehicle.”

I was starting to get a bit curious about the lore.

“Either way, that means we shouldn’t have too much of an issue...”

“Although his stress gauge rises slower now, he now flat-out refuses to listen to female players. If it’s any consolation, he does take a break if his stress ever reaches eighty, though.”

That wasn’t just a lack of improvement—he was even worse than when he’d started out. If he wasn’t going to listen no matter what, then even Brave Pekkle was easier to handle.

“I don’t know if it’s his way of making up for it, but he’s gotten a lot more active...and his y’knows have become permanent, it seems.”

He was a pain of a unit, even with his enhancement accessory.

And that same Brave Bunowny was having a conversation with Brave Pekkle.

“Do you get it now, pen? That’s why you have to listen to what penster tells you, pen.”

“Y’know, I think I get it now, bun! From now on, I’ll listen to bunster’s commands, bun!”

Brave Bunowny crisply saluted Brave Pekkle before lowering his head to Emoji.

“Oh? Oh-ho... It seems Brave Bunowny can accept commands now.”

Huh...so there’s synergy effects like that too.

By encountering Brave Pekkle, a once-difficult Brave Bunowny had learned to follow his own master’s orders.

“Problem solved.”

“Aye. Though truth be told, I’d already entrusted his command to one of my newly summoned development comrades, so the problem was already solved.”

Oh right...he still listens to male players. So if you’ve got someone willing to cooperate, he’s not that hard to work around.

With that matter gone and done with, I headed straight to the oasis to set my traps.

And maybe a little fishing when I’m done? I considered as I continued throwing them down. And that was when I was approached by a player who seemed to have followed Brave Bunowny.

“Hey! Loley! I think Brave Bunowny ran this way. Did you see him?”

Wait, it’s L’Arc. I should’ve known I’d find him here.

“Yo, L’Arc. Guess you got here ahead of me.”

“Hey, little lady. Sorry ’bout that. I tried to argue against it, saying we shouldn’t be troubling you, but Kanade insisted. She said you’re essential for farming.”

“No worries. I’m used to sis’s pushiness. In fact, I’m sorry for barging in on your event.”

He was hinting about getting involved in something special, after all.

“Then it’s all good.”

“Come to think of it, you two knew each other.”

“So, what happened to Brave Bunowny?”

“Well, after interacting with the Brave Pekkle summoned by the island lord, he is finally starting to listen to me.”

“For real?! Dang, I wish I was there to see it! I should’ve come sprinting!”

L’Arc seemed genuinely frustrated.

“So if I understand things right, the plan was to have L’Arc look after Brave Bunowny?”

“Nah, that’s... Well, kinda. The actual guy... Well, you know him too. My boss...”

His response was a bit incoherent as he scratched his head.

“L’Arc was summoned on his recommendation.”

“Just like how I put in a request for you.”

“So it was Mr. Aultcray, then. The guy who tried to talk to me only for Alto to step in and point me toward Kanade.”

But thinking back, Aultcray was the first one to hint about protecting sis.

“Yep, that’s the guy. Honestly, I’m glad he invited me over. It’s easier work here, compared to running around blind, at least. Since I didn’t know when I’d be called, I spent the meantime gathering as much intel as I could.”

Oh, that’s why he’s been so busy lately. Even during the wave, he was doing his own thing.

“Anyway, if Loley here can handle Brave Bunowny, then that’s that.”

“Indeed. It’ll be a great help.”

“So I’d say this is about a good time to introduce the little lady to the rest of the gang.”

“Aye. For all we know, there could be someone the island lord recognizes.”

“Who else? I mean, there’s Aultcray, and... Well, going by the flow, I’m guessing Therese’s here too.”

“She’s sure as heck here. But hey, don’t think about it and follow me. And little lady...keep your crab traps in moderation, okay?”

With L’Arc calling me out, I kept my crab traps at that. Didn’t want to ruffle any feathers—though I’d already managed to place a decent number by then.

I’ll need to put the rest out later. It’s essential for keeping the Pekkles fed.

“Got it.”

“You were dumping them like it was the most obvious thing in the world,” said my sister. “I was stunned.”

“Your efficiency is commendable,” Emoji remarked.

“How many more people are here?”

“Three. You don’t need to be so wary of them.”

Let’s see...there’s me, sis, Emoji, L’Arc...then Aultcray and Therese...that leaves one more. That means there are seven people in the settlement.

Whether that number would grow or not was still up in the air.

And with that in mind, I started assigning the Pekkles tasks as I trailed behind L’Arc.

Chapter 7: Tragic Surprise

The place I was led to was one of the settlement’s workshops—though unlike Romina’s smithy, this one seemed more designed for making medicine.

“Oh? If everyone’s coming together, that must mean Miss Kizuna has arrived.”

Aultcray noticed us and approached with a warm, refreshing smile.

“Yep, one little lady coming right up. So anyway, Brave Bunowny apparently kicked off a synergy effect with Brave Pekkle, and he listens to Loley’s orders now.”

“I see, I see. That’s a load off my back.”

In the midst of that back-and-forth, Emoji stepped in front of Aultcray, turned to me, and started gesturing at the man.

“This one is Cray. His full name is Aultcray, but if you shorten it the other way, he sounds too much like the other merchant you know. That’s why he’s been introducing himself as Cray these days.”

“Thanks again for the ribbon. It’s been a nice change of pace.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Allow me to properly introduce myself: I focus mainly on magic in combat and dabble broadly in mercantilism...alchemy, machinery, that sort of thing. I’ve cast a wide but shallow net, so to speak.”

“Looking forward to working with you. But won’t it be an issue if a merchant’s summoned to a sanctioned off place like this?”

“The trade is more of a hobby, or rather, a habit of mine. I have an eye for quality, and I end up naturally amassing money whether I like it or not.”

Unlike Alto, this guy seems to be practicing legitimate business. Alto seems to one-sidedly view him as an enemy, but...what is it? There’s something about him.

Something about him just gave off the air that he’d never been strapped for cash in his life. If Alto was an upstart nouveau riche, then this man felt like a real established name. Not greedy, not grasping. The sort who accumulated money without chasing after it.

“Oh, right,” Aultcray began. “There was something I was meaning to ask you back then, but would you mind if I asked you now? You seem to know a lot of people, so I thought you might have some insight.”

“My network’s a lot smaller than you’d think... L’Arc definitely knows way more people than I do,” I said.

Yeah, he was trying to ask me something before Alto got in the way. Still, while it’s not a new revelation, I really don’t have many connections.

Outside of that one event, I’d never formed a party with anyone outside of the usual gang, and I’d pretty much left all the territory management to Alto and Romina. Trade was handled by other people too and in the end, I just didn’t talk to anyone.

If I was ever short on hands, I’d just summon the Pekkles and make do.

“Seriously, how you managed to be this successful in this game is a mystery.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

Maybe I just happened to be on the same wavelength as the dev team, or maybe it was just dumb luck.

“So, what was it you wanted to ask me?”

“Yes, we should get to that. Millie...he’s here.”

“Coming,” a voice answered from the back of the workshop.

Then, out stepped an adult woman with long, purple hair—a player. Purple hair could look gaudy if overdone, but this person managed to not only avoid that but turn it into a touch of elegance. I had to wonder just how much work had been put into designing her.

She was pretty, of course—everyone was in this game. Going off her refined dress, I had to imagine she was more geared toward magic.

“This is my wife, Millie. Millie, this is Kanade’s infamous brother, Kizuna.”

So this is Cray’s IRL wife? We’ve got a lot of couples here.

Emoji had put some thought into this lineup.

Admittedly, this was my own prejudice, but people who were married or in serious relationships in real life tended to have decently high social skills and emotional intelligence. At least, that was how it seemed to me. Maybe she’d chosen them to avoid the kind of childish instabilities she’d faced with her guild members.

“I go by Millie in game,” said Millie. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Like Cray, I specialize in magic, while my secondary role is appraisal—archeology, to be precise.”

Clear and concise. It was the kind of self-introduction that told you right away how she could contribute. She gave the impression of someone who was used to temporary parties.

“Umm, Kizuna, was it?”

“Pleasure... So, what was it you wanted to ask me?”

From the sound of it, they’d been asking other people too. But what exactly did they want to know? If it was “how to succeed in this game,” I could maybe give a vague rundown, though the way Yamikage and the others reacted to these spiels of mine had begun to make me feel a little awkward when I talked about it.

“I’ve heard their story too,” said Emoji. “L’Arc and Therese were called here for their real-life ties as well.”

“Yeah. Just hear them out, will you, little lady?”

“Yeah, yeah, just what is it already?”

“The truth is, we have a young daughter. But with work keeping us busy day after day, it was rare for us to spend time together as a family...”

And so, the two of them began to explain the situation.

Just as L’Arc had told me before, Cray was a corporate executive in real life. Both he and his wife were constantly traveling, working for the company without rest.

They had a daughter they adored, and their relationship with her was good—or good enough. But the demands of their work left them with little time to spend together, with that time sometimes being nothing more than some minutes on the phone.

The child’s education was taken care of by private tutors and nannies... This is starting to sound like some overseas elite situation.

In any case, Cray and Millie yearned to create a way to spend more time with her. And just as they were grappling with that problem, the Second Life Project caught their attention. If they played with their daughter, they’d be able to spend years together in game. A whole new life full of the time they couldn’t spare in reality! The girl herself was overjoyed to hear it and would spend her time counting down the days until the game kicked off.

Well, of course, it was easy to get an entry ticket if you were rich. Sure, they were expensive, but that was only to the extent that ordinary folks could manage to afford it if they scraped by for a bit. I see... For a family too busy to share real time, this game is the perfect stage to strengthen the bonds of parent and child.

“I get where you’re coming from,” I said. “But why are you telling me this?”

“Yes, that’s what everyone wonders,” Millie admitted.

Look, I get that it takes courage for wealthy people to openly divulge the details of their lives in places like these. And come to think of it...where’s the daughter in question?

“Yes... It was fine up to that point,” Cray sighed. “But then our company’s event planner suggested that it would be more memorable if we added a little surprise.”

Millie pressed a hand to her face in lament.

The mood...just took a turn.

“My wife and I thought she would enjoy a happy little surprise. So we told her that an important event had come up, and since it would be a waste for her to waste her ticket, that she could play with some skilled bodyguards we’d hired. We planned to meet up right away in game to reveal the truth.”

“The characters we’re using, you see... Our daughter was the one who made them for us...”

Ah! My spider senses... I could already see what was coming.

“We confirmed she logged in. Millie was able to spot her from a nearby capsule.”

“But inside the game, her character...well... Her character ‘Mel’ was being piloted by someone else. According to the girl, she made a deal online—the new Mel would get a free participation ticket in exchange for logging in with the character she’d been provided.”

I see...she didn’t want to spend years in some corporate fairy tale with a bunch of hired babysitters, so she slipped through their fingers with a fresh character.

“Oh... The thought of our shy little girl wandering this world alone... It’s hurting my heart...”

“We just want to find her, explain the situation, and live out the plan we’d dreamed of together. That’s why we’re searching for our daughter.”

How should I put this... Should I call it a tragic misstep...? If only they’d been honest from the start without building this whole thing up as a surprise... And wait, this has nothing to do with business. There was no reason for Alto to butt in.

It had already been a few months since the game began... It wasn’t like she’d starve or physically die here. But still... It reminded me of our own household’s birthday disaster.

“It’s as I feared. Surprises only ever lead to tragedy,” I concluded.

“Exactly,” my sister agreed. “Nothing good ever comes of them.”

“Truly.”

We were both in complete agreement on that one.

The real incompetence in this story came from that event planner, who’d never stopped to think about what actions their jilted daughter might take. Surprises like these only worked when the one being surprised already half-suspected it.

“Was it just me, or did your words come out unusually heavy, little lady?”

“What on earth happened with the Exceed sisters?” mused Emoji. “Surprise events are nothing new—the industry holds them all the time.”

Well, of course, with my two sisters being thrill-seekers who loved their events, there was no way our household didn’t have its fair share of surprises.

But the end result? Unless you made preparations to tie down the guest of honor, the whole thing fell apart. Like a birthday celebration where the birthday girl was off celebrating with friends instead.

“So to summarize, you’re asking if I’ve seen your missing daughter anywhere?”

“That’s right,” Cray replied. “I thought a player with your level of renown might know something—and if not, I was hoping you could get the word out that there’s someone looking for her. She might catch wind of it somehow or other.”

If his corporate authority wouldn’t help him here, he’d have to turn to human connections to find her. It was the sort of work that seemed more suited to people like Alto or Romina...or even his subordinate L’Arc. No wonder they put him up to the search.

“But doesn’t it defeat the purpose of the search if you get summoned to a place like this?”

It would definitely prove harder to find a player—any player—in a cut-off event space. Wouldn’t they be prime candidates to get mad at the one who summoned them?

“We’ve already exhausted every means at our disposal. If nothing else works, then our best bet is to make our names known through an event like this. We need to conduct public relations. That’s why I was tracking down Ms. Loley’s party members. I wanted them to pass the message to her on the off chance they got summoned.”

The short of the matter was this. Even before they’d stepped in, they’d suspected that Emoji had been dragged into some sort of special event. It wasn’t a bad idea at all.

If the two of them emerged as VIPs of a new settlement, their names would be spread far and wide, and perhaps it would lead to the discovery of their daughter.

“Of course, my comrade did curse me when I first summoned them, but they did pass the message. Cray and Millie would be my next summons—I was waiting for Santa Hat Bunowny to give me the go-ahead.”

It was a transaction of sorts, working under the assumption that Cray would become the face of the settlement as its primary merchant once the event was cleared.

He’d be to the Prado Desert what Alto was to Cal Mira.

If only Alto would hear him out and help with the search... But he was a pragmatist who put his profits first. He wasn’t about to do charity work akin to...well, quite literally like finding a lost jewel in the desert.

“Well...I get the situation. So what are some key features I should be looking for? Appearance won’t get you anywhere in this game, so I’ll need some personality details to go off of.”

“We’ve been advised not to spread her real name for the search effort. But as for her character, she’s a very shy child,” Cray explained.

“She’s always loved books,” Millie added, “and she’s always done well in school. She often watches movies too. She has a vivid imagination, and we believe she has a bright future ahead of her.”

A shy girl who likes stories and movies.

“She also studied music,” Cray recalled, “well enough to perform at recitals.”

“And she was very good at games. She’d play the same title over and over again, trying out different challenge runs. I understood her passion—when I was young, I played too.”

“The characters we’re playing are actually our attempts at getting as close as possible to the designs she described to us before the game began. This Aultcray is supposed to be a brilliant tactician, master alchemist, inventor extraordinaire, and the strongest magician of all. The ultimate father...”

“She always said her mother should be a bewitching queen able to solve any diplomatic crisis in a flash, and who also happened to be well-versed in archaeology.”

Wow...she even has her perfect parent lore fleshed out.

It was heartwarming to see her parents faithfully adhering to those identities. Still, the sheer density of the stuff crammed into that character sheet...reeked of a bit of middle school cringe.

She seemed like a bit of a shut-in...did she devour light novels and manga too? I could imagine her being the sort who’d tumble headlong into the otaku abyss if she took a single wrong step on her way into middle school.

Whether she rotted or went awry... Going off my personal biases, she’d definitely be into vampires and that sort of stuff. She was a future Yamikage in the making.

“We might be able to find her if we can get closer to her ideals.”

“A competent queen. We know she always wanted a castle, and I’d love to help make that happen.”

I see, I see...they really do seem like good parents.

“How old is your daughter?”

“She’s still in elementary school.”

“Aah...to think that young child is wandering who knows where...”

Hmm...I feel like I might be getting somewhere, but maybe not, I thought with a sigh. First and foremost, most of the people playing Dimension Wave were otakus, so narrowing down by hobbies was pretty much impossible.

Cray was probably right. Unless he and Millie became big names, the girl would never step forward on her own.

Still, there are elementary schoolers playing this game?

When it came to elementary schoolers... I remembered how Tsumugi was cackling away before a match on some kid-friendly FPS, shouting, “Yeah, baby! Let’s beat up some kids today!”

In terms of mental age, she was probably on their level. That lovely little sister of mine.

In all likelihood, Cray’s daughter was more mature.

“I didn’t see either of you during the last Dimension Wave,” I said to Aultcray and Millie.

“We requested Lahal to summon us as soon as possible, and we didn’t want to start something we couldn’t finish,” Aultcray explained. “Thus, we did not participate in the event. Although we made some small contributions here and there, we did not do anything too conspicuous.”

“I only grew close to them after Cal Mira’s Dimension Wave,” Emoji added. “There, the island lord and his party were simply too capable for anyone else to make a name for themselves.”

Well, yeah... Shouko and Yamikage were both insanely skilled. And Tsumugi too—their innate player skills were just top tier.

It was tough to keep up with those names...especially for the frontliners, who were mostly specced solely for combat. Yamikage and I were mostly doing meme builds, and we’d just managed to make it work.

Still...it feels like something’s tugging at me. What is it?

“Yeah...”

The person they’re describing... Don’t I know someone like that?

It felt like something was stuck in the back of my throat.

They were someone shy, well-versed in stories and games, from a wealthy background, and academically gifted. And they were imaginative and enough of a hardcore gamer to do self-imposed challenge runs. Add to that a touch of middle school delusion and enough musical skill to hold recitals.

Yeah...no. There’s no way they exist. If a model student like that were around, they’d be a top player by now.

Sure, the Drain Ninja ticked a lot of boxes, but if it were her, L’Arc would have said something by now. She was close enough to L’Arc to actually be able to hold conversations with him, after all.

Really, if he was looking for someone like that, he could’ve just asked around our group. And most likely, he already had—and whoever it was must’ve turned out to be someone else entirely.

“An honor student like that would stand out among otaku,” I said. “If she’s a shut-in, there’s a chance she’s holed up in an inn or sticking to playing solo, and if that’s the case, I probably haven’t met her.”

“As I feared.” Millie nodded. “A girl like her would have trouble fitting in. I can see her playing on her own.”

“Then we should narrow our search down to solo players,” Cray concluded.

“We’ll have to scour the hunting grounds once we get out of here.”

“Yes, I hope you’ll continue to help with the search.”

“We’d be very grateful.”

I nodded, and with that, I’d gotten the gist of the story.

“Howdy, Kizzy. By the look of things, you’ve already gotten to know everyone.”

It was at that point that Therese sauntered over with a hand raised to greet me.

“Lahal, make sure you apologize before you ask for favors, okay? Kizzy’s kind, but you shouldn’t take advantage of him.”

“I know that!”

“With this lineup, I suppose Therese and I will handle the cooking,” Kanade noted. “Kizuna, you’ve got Culinary Arts too, so lend a hand.”

Yeah, yeah. With three Culinary Art skill holders cooperating, we were sure to produce something at least decent. Meanwhile, over on Shouko’s side...no one had any cooking skills to speak of. I was starting to grow a little anxious.

The work they did on the crab ship should have boosted their cooking proficiencies somewhat, so hopefully someone could fill in. It was a bit tragic that all of our party’s cooks had been drafted into a pioneering event. I’d even gone and borrowed the Pekkle Romina was attached to—I already owed her an apology for that.

“I think I get the picture now. Let’s do our best out there.”

They all nodded at my words.

“So what’s the plan for now? Cray—I’m guessing you’re in charge of compounding, so start brewing something we can use for the fields. My sister can work it into the soil for you.”

“Are you planning on planting something?” he asked me.

“Before any of that, we need to purify the land and let it rest. Honestly...I’ll need to examine each plot one by one, but we’d be better off giving up on anything that’s in the ground right now.”

“Hmm... I see. Then L’Arc, you’re handy with a scythe, right? Could you handle the weeding?”

“On it, boss.”

Man, IRL relationships seem like a pain, though I guess all this cooperation in game is going to help smooth out their relationship in real life.

“Emoji, could you show me the way?” I asked.

“Aye, sir. Does the island lord possess a mount?”

“Yeah. They handed them out to everyone, right? I’ve got mine with me.”

“Then we ride.”

Emoji stepped out of the workshop and summoned her mount. Then, with a puff of smoke and a wibbly-wobbly warping sound...a familiar face appeared. It was a Library Rabbit, almost exactly the same as my own.

“You’ve got one too, huh?” I asked as I called up my own mount to stand shoulder to shoulder with hers.

My Library Rabbit was a large, robed beastman with snowy white fur and blue eyes. Emoji’s, in contrast, had jet-black fur, crimson eyes, and the same priestly robes. It felt a bit overwhelming as they stood side by side...like a pair of long-lost siblings. It made for a pretty picture.

“The one I possess is Library Rabbit N,” she explained.

I checked my own summoning book and noticed mine was labeled with an S. Not W for white or something, it was marked S.

“I always thought it stood for Library Rabbit Noire, but perhaps that isn’t the case. Yours seems to have the polar opposite coloration.”

Maybe it had to do with South and North poles on a magnet, but no one was stopping us from calling them whatever we wanted.

“I’m guessing you ride it the same way.”

I never thought I’d run into the same kind of mount... Since my Library Rabbit took on this form out of some sort of synergy with the Pekkle Pipe, I’m guessing Emoji found something like a Bunowny Pipe.

“Hey, Kizuna, Lahal. Set your mounts to allow touch this instant.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong, sis?”

“Aye?”

Before I could ask any further, we found ourselves turning toward my sister’s voice.

“Yes, yes, right there! Don’t you see that fluff?!”

Just like that, she dove in between the two rabbits and began fluffing them up. Sure, you could let other players touch them if you fiddled with the settings, but for her to flag us down just to do it... I understood where she was coming from. They were indeed very fluffy.

“Ah, no fair, Kana! I want in!”

And in no time at all, Therese was fluffing up the rabbits too.

“Aaah, that was fun.”

Once she was finally satisfied, Therese stepped back, prompting Kanade to reluctantly pull away.

“Aight, sis, I’m gonna go check on all the fields. Could you start weeding and purifying?”

“Got it. It’s only the beginning, but we have to start somewhere.”

“All right, then, Emoji. Let’s head out.”

“Aye aye, sir!”

With Emoji leading the way, we made a full circuit of all the farmland in the settlement. The results weren’t great, to say the least—only around twenty percent of the fields seemed usable, while the rest would need some serious purification.

At least our mounts made it easy to cover ground quickly.

The Prado Desert region seemed to be centered on the oasis, with sparse stone formations dotting the land here and there. Compared to Cal Mira, it gave off more of this sort of “long-lost ruins” feeling.

“Most of the facilities are the same as Cal Mira’s, though.”

They had the equivalent of our lumberyard and hunting area; although their lumberyard was instead a quarry, as the desert seemed to have stone instead of wood as its base construction material.

As for the buildings themselves, though there were a decent number of important facilities built, they were scattered and spaced out. It made the place come off as a lot more desolate.

Back on Cal Mira, Alto and Sheryl had gotten to work decorating and livening the place up. Setting up streetlights and cobbling the roads, for instance.

“Hmm...” Emoji muttered. “So the fields are even worse than I thought...”

“For what it’s worth, crops grow unnaturally fast in game, so it’s a simplified system compared to real-world farming.”

That was the only reason I could treat the purification process so lightly and push it onto my sister.

So, while Kanade and L’Arc took care of the weeding and the cleansing, the rest of us gathered in Cray’s workshop to solidify our plans for the farmland.

“At the very least, we’ll need to purify the fields, fertilize, and till them regularly... I’d reckon the Pekkles are our best bet for that.”

They were designed to be helpers; it was pretty much a built-in function for them. In our present state, a good chunk of the Bunownies were dormant due to a lack of resources.

First, we’d have to secure enough food so that the Bunownies could function without starving.

“Man, if only we had a tractor. Do you think we could substitute a mount?”

“It’s presumably possible,” said Cray. “An actual tractor would require high-level Machinery skills.”

It wouldn’t be impossible to take care of it with the hoe from the Seven Tools of the Pioneer, but before tractors, there were plows. Plows drawn by horses or oxen to turn the soil. If we lacked tractors, then maybe a mount or a large Bunowny—at least, that was what I was presuming would pop out if Emoji blew her Bunowny Pipe—could take on the role.

“In any case, we need to efficiently get the fields up to working condition... But what do we do in the meantime? Farming alone won’t be enough to push the settlement forward... We’ll need to start working on other stuff too.”

It wasn’t wrong to have everyone pitch in with the farmwork, but feeding the Bunownies wasn’t the only pressing matter at hand. On Cal Mira, I’d single-handedly handled the fish procurement until we got to the point where the Pekkles could take care of it themselves on fishing boats. It was only when we reached that point that we began making huge strides in the island’s development.

“Ultimately, we’re aiming for castle construction. Emoji, has Santa Hat Bunowny said anything about that?”

“Nay! Not a peep!”

So...that probably means they haven’t gotten far enough for a castle to even be in consideration.

Based on the data Cray read out from the Buno-no-meter, the Bunownies weren’t just low on food, but on numbers as well. They’d only just found the entrance to the human-sized dungeon, cleared it quickly, and unlocked Brave Bunowny. That was where progress seemed to have stalled.

In my case...calling on Romina as our third member had probably been the right choice.

“Right now, we need to secure more Bunownies and set up a farming system to put them to work.”

That said...I couldn’t see any dramatic solutions to any of the issues at hand.

All the supplies left behind at the settlement were pretty much scraps that were deemed worthless and abandoned in the storehouses by those so-called frontliners. You could’ve at least stored some of your drops and materials before you disappeared...

Even Shouko and Tsumugi would put all their drops in storage after their dungeon expeditions.

The human factors are making this way harder than it has to be.

“I’m guessing your Bunowny population grows if you till the soil?”

“They pop up when you get a good harvest—like they’re lured in by the vibes,” Emoji explained. “We haven’t had any show up lately.”

Up to a point, I only had to fish for more Pekkles to show up. Then one day, they just stopped biting. I guess you need to try new things, take on new challenges to get their numbers up.

“Ultimately, we won’t get anywhere if we can’t secure a good harvest...”

“As for our other options... Aye, if you want a field you could use right away, you’ll have to turn to the one in the dungeon.”

“A field in the dungeon...?”

That reminds me of the fishing area in Cal Mira’s dungeon.

“Did you just start tilling in the dungeon or something?”

Come to think of it, I’d never actually tried digging up the dungeon floor on Cal Mira. By the sound of things, Emoji got Brave Bunowny from randomly digging around, so maybe this was a part of that.

“In most areas of the dungeon, the ground reverts as soon as you dig into it. But there are certain floors where you are allowed to farm.”

“Time still flows differently in there, I take it?”

“Of course. Oh, and I managed to barely repair the elevator, you know. They wouldn’t stop pestering me otherwise.”

As it turned out, Emoji even dabbled in a bit of Machinery.

Hmm...just like how I managed to nab a huge haul of fish at the lake, you can use certain dungeon floors as fields.

“Also, it seems each floor has its own season,” Emoji went on. “Island lord, as you seem to love fishing, I would recommend the Crystal Lake on floor fifty. The crystals glow and dim with the hours, so it’s easy to tell the passage of time. It is a beautiful place. Should you leave the dungeon, you cannot tend to the crops, you see... The harvest period slips away before you realize, and they are left to wither and die.”

On Cal Mira, five days would pass in the dungeon for every day outside.

“Hmm... So if we do some thorough planting in the dungeon fields, we can raise enough crops to get the Bunownies working?”

And I’d be able to fish while we waited. It sounded like a perfect way to fill the time while the failing aboveground fields were being purified.

“There isn’t so much space for fields, mind you.”

I should think of the dungeon floors as greenhouses, then. In farming sims, they’re convenient places where you can grow crops year-round regardless of season.

“Still better than nothing.”

It felt like we’d found a place that met our needs. And more than anything...I was incredibly curious to see what sort of lord was lurking in that Crystal Lake.

“All righty, then! We’re running a boot camp to get some resources!” I boldly declared once everyone had gathered up.

“Sure.”

“Aye.”

Reactions were mixed. L’Arc stayed silent, and the one giving me the sourest look was definitely my sister.

“Now who’s with me? You’ll dive in for around fifteen days, tend to the fields, and keep me company while I fish. It’ll be a super fun escape from all the hustle and bustle.”

Kanade turned away silently. It was almost like she was waiting for the storm to pass.

With all the nagging she’d been doing lately, I thought she’d at least get in a retort, but clearly she didn’t want to have anything to do with this boot camp.

“I’ve got the purification work you requested from me!” she suddenly proclaimed. “We’ll need to do another dungeon run for other supplies later, so I’ll step down from this one.”

“Ah, no fair, Kanade! I’m with her on this one!”

So sis and L’Arc are out. I hadn’t been counting on either of them anyway. It’d be safer if I handled most of it myself.

“Me! Me! I’ll go with!”

Emoji’s hand shot straight up.

Ooh...so someone’s actually willing to live the dungeon life with me? Then I should definitely teach her some proper farming. It feels like she’s really motivated.

“I think I’ll have to pass. I have to focus on compounding pesticides and coordinating the Bunownies and Pekkles.”

“Yes...and I’d like to prioritize developing the settlement. There are a few facilities I’d like to build.”

Cray and Millie opted for constructing and maintaining our base of operations—it was pretty much what Alto had been handling back on the island.

“I’ll meet you halfway! I want to do some mining in the dungeon, and I sooo want to see the Crystal Lake!”

And Therese is in too? You don’t get these development events every day. Whoever enjoys it the most is the winner.

“Got it. Then it’s me, Emoji, and Therese heading down to Crystal Lake.”

“I’ll do my best!”

“Let’s do this!”

It was a slightly concerning pair, but I planned to stick with them until they hit their limits.

“By the way,” said Emoji, “the season for the Crystal Lake is spring.”

“Then we’ll need some spring crops... What do you have?”

“Aye, well...we’ve secured strawberry, potato, and carrot seeds. Also, the hoe comes with turnip seeds by default.”

“Secured...from where?”

“Bunownies sometimes bring things back when you send them out to explore. Apart from that, monsters drop them in the dungeon—they grow there naturally too.”

Huh... So even stuff like that is set to drop.

“The workshop came preinstalled with something called a Seed Maker,” Cray added. “If you insert a ripe crop, it will churn out the seeds for it.”

So harvested produce still has plenty of uses... That’s actually kind of interesting.

With farming this fleshed out, she could’ve likely accomplished some amazing things if she’d had proper coordination with her comrades. Too bad Emoji’s former combat-focused allies didn’t get it.

“There are even Machinery recipes that can only be learned here. I’ll use whatever materials we have here to raise my skills.”

Yeah, it’s better to leave that to Cray. If Sheryl were here, we’d be blessed with her expertise, but...she’s not. Not much we can do about that.

“Anyway, grab every usable seed you can, and head out.”

“Aye aye!”

“Yay! I’ll bring back loads of goodies to craft with!”

And with two merry comrades in tow, I set off for the dungeon’s Crystal Lake.

Chapter 8: Crystal Lake

“Oooh...”

We hopped aboard the elevator, carrying us deeper and deeper down into the depths of the dungeon by the desert oasis. Though it resembled the underground lake in Cal Mira, here the water shimmered and glowed from the countless fluorescent crystals that sprouted from within it.

The glow of the crystals provided a decent view of the floor in its entirety.

This was quite the fantastical place—not half bad.

And near the lake’s shore, the ground was dotted with patches of soft soil, clearly meant for farming.

“Wow, so pretty! Can I use Excavation on the crystals to take them home?” Therese asked Emoji, her eyes sparkling just as brightly as the crystals themselves.

“Most are indestructible, but a few can be excavated.”

“I see, I see! Thanks, Lahal!”

“A boss spawned when I tried approaching Cal Mira’s underground lake. How is it here?”

“The old members took care of them before they vanished. They do respawn, but the respawn timer still has a ways to go.”

So they’re already down, huh? That’s a bit of a shame.

“Now then... It looks like we’ll be staying here for a while...”

“A tent, aye! Or maybe we could be a bit more extravagant, use a bit more of the timber I brought to make a cottage?”

Emoji’s proposal was a bit more ambitious than I’d expected.

You brought that much timber? I thought it was pretty rare in the desert. Granted, that mysterious grove by the oasis regrows itself every so often, and you can harvest it. But still...

Emoji even knew a bit of carpentry... Despite being part of the combat crowd, she’d picked up quite a few sub skills.

“There’s no need for that. I came prepared.”

With an exaggerated ta-daaa! I pulled out my reward from the last Dimension Wave event: the Pekkle House. It looked like nothing more than a dollhouse at first glance.

“What’s that now?”

“Oh, I heard about that from Shouko. It’s your new interesting item, right, Kizzy?”

Therese already knew about it.

“I just do this and this...”

As soon as I found a good spot to be our base of operations, I set the Pekkle House down. Then up and up, it grew and grew. All I had to do was jam the Pekkle Pipe into the door like a key and... Done.

My party members could now enter it and do as they pleased.

The Pekkle House—a mobile shelter, and just what we needed.

“Ooh... That’s incredible. One could live here more comfortably than in most houses on the surface.”

“Yaaay! I knew it was going to be fun!”

“It might be an island lord perk... I got it as a reward in the newest wave.”

“I see. So you’re saying that I, too, might acquire an item to rival it one day.”

She wasn’t wrong. Given the conditions, there was a high chance she’d find herself owning one too.

“Try entering it, just in case. It might reject you like the Buno-no-meter rejected me.”

“Aye aye!”

Emoji stepped inside and started rifling through this and that. No rejection, it seemed.

“This is... Why, it’s overflowing with Pekkle merchandise!”

Every single furnishing was modeled after the humble Pekkle. Stylish? Maybe not. But it was definitely fancy and expensive-looking. The place was stocked well enough for a handful of people to live comfortably. There were beds, and even a fully equipped kitchen.

“There’s even running water! Honestly, this may be more luxurious than my personal player housing,” Therese said.

“It’s not too spacious, but it looks like there’s a shower and bath,” I said.

“Hmm. At this point, I have to agree with Therese. It’s better than mine too.”

“It’s amazing! Even more lavish than I imagined. I can’t help but feel excited!”

As for fuel... A device in one corner of the house could convert fish into power. You just needed to feed it a steady supply.

It really was an item tailor-made for me.

Although it was probably designed to let players camp out in relatively safe maps with fishing areas, it was nice that we could use it in dungeons too.

And thus...we were ready for fifteen days of laid-back fishing and farming.

“Everyone pick whatever room you want. This’ll be our base of operations.”

“Aye aye!”

“Yay!”

I’m glad these two are so enthusiastic.

“Oh, there’s a diary on the bookshelf. It looks like it’s separate from system memos.”

“Then why don’t we do a camp exchange diary? It will help nurture our bonds.”

Exchange diaries... I’ve only ever seen them in manga and anime. Never in real life. No, I get the feeling I might have done a bit of it in elementary school, but that was more like writing logs back and forth with the teacher.

“Sounds fun. How about it, Kizzy?”

“I don’t see why not? It is a bit embarrassing, though.”

“Oh, don’t worry. Just think of it like tweeting online or something.”

“Indeed. And if you would note down anything that catches your attention, it could prove beneficial to us.”

“Got it. I’d appreciate it if you could jot down some things you could only learn here in the desert.”

I’d only just met Emoji, and the idea of an exchange diary felt like a pretty high bar. But we were fellow pioneers, so maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.

“Of course.”

“Then that’s settled... So let’s get to the fishing! Or, before that, maybe we should check on the fields first.”

“Leave the tilling to me.”

“I’m going to go check to see if there are any good excavation sites!”

“Break a leg.”

Emoji and I got straight to investigating the potential farmland. Though...calling it farmland was generous. It was soil that could be tilled, but far from ideal. Still, that was leagues better than the contaminated patches aboveground.

“First, we dig! Am I doing anything wrong yet?”

“Hmm... Let’s work the soil so we can get some air in. You know about forming rows, right?”

“Obviously! You divide the soil so there are softer fields and then harder parts that are easier to walk across!”

“Yep.”

Even in farming sims, that was usually the first step. Emoji was well aware of it.

“Next is soil improvement. Mixing in compost or fertilizer.”

The ground here wasn’t poisoned, but there was nothing wrong with doing a bit of proper prep.

“I don’t have very much fertilizer... It might not cover it.”

“Well... I’ll do some fishing. I can try to convert that into fertilizer.”

Fish meal was a classic fertilizer in the real world. It existed in game too, and I knew that because I could craft it myself with bait, fishing, and cooking skills.

“I unlocked the recipe by leveling farming!”

“That’ll do it. I guess that covers the basics... Next, we should check the soil acidity.”

“Soil...acidity? That’s a thing?”

“For real life, yeah. It’s not just about adding fertilizer—we need to achieve an appropriate pH level for each crop.”

At least, the other game my sister mentioned had it. Hopefully, this game simplified the process, but considering how they reproduced continuous cropping hazard, it was safer to assume Dimension Wave wasn’t going to be that easy on us.

“Mm... How do we measure it?”

“In real life, we’d use a meter. In games, there’s usually some sort of status screen...”

“I’ll try checking it with my farming skills... Ah, I found it. It says pH 6!”

“That’s in the safe zone for most things.”

Despite this and that, Emoji had completely devoted herself to farming while she was here, while I’d only dabbled a little. Her in-game Farming Skill levels were higher than mine. I had the real-world knowledge, but when stats carried more weight, it was better to let her take charge.

“There’s temperature and a couple of other factors, but let’s take it one thing at a time. Next, we’re prepping the soil!”

“Ooooh! Aye aye, sir!”

And so, Emoji and I began to work the Crystal Lake’s soil into a proper field; we aerated, organized, mixed in fertilizer, and planted seeds. We started small—just enough to get into the swing of things. Once Emoji had a good enough grasp, I left the rest of the tilling to her while I got ready to fish.

She’d even brought sprinklers to take care of the watering. Automating that kind of repetitive chore was one of the key joys of a farming sim.

“Now, we’ll regularly check on the temperature, airflow, and moisture. If anything looks off, we’ll just use pesticides in moderation.”

“If something looks off, I’m counting on your advice!”

“Count on it. In the meantime, I’ll set up some crab traps in the Crystal Lake and start fishing!”

I promptly dumped the traps...but it frustrated me that I couldn’t set more. My stock was finally running out. I’d need to craft some eventually, but for now, I’d just have to put up with it.

With that out of the way, it’s time to cast... Should I start with bait fishing? No, it won’t be too late to make the call after I’ve figured out what you can catch here.

For now, feeding the Pekkles came first. I needed to guarantee as many fish as possible.

“Fever Lure!”

In order to check the fish selection, I whipped out my Fever Lure that could catch anything and everything! Now what’s my powered-up Fever Lure going to get me?!

The lure plopped into the water. And immediately, I had a bite!

“Fish on!”

It latched on quickly, but...the pull’s strength was close to what I’d gotten used to on Cal Mira. It wasn’t a match for Mikakage’s fish.

With my Hunting Gear Skill on top of my freshly reacquired Fishing Mastery, I could keep pulling it in if I wanted to. A tug this weak wasn’t going to break the line; I could be a little forceful with it.

So, I gave a firm yank. The fish that came up...was a fish streaked in gold and green stripes.

“Yellow Perch.”

Huh, I got a fish you don’t often see in Japan. What was it again... I remember reading about it in the research I did before I got into the game. I get the feeling it’s fairly common overseas.

It seemed to be a freshwater fish. My Hunting Gear, Fishing Mastery, and Culinary Arts were warning me that we couldn’t eat it raw, but it was a white-fleshed fish perfect for frying.

Anyway, let’s keep it up.

I cast again.

The lure plopped. The rod bent. I had another bite.

This time, it clearly wasn’t a yellow perch...

“Lungfish.”

Just as the name suggested, it was a fish that breathed with lungs. A living fossil just like the coelacanth—though not quite related—and it could technically be eaten too.

“Next!”

I cast again to see if there was anything else I could catch.

The next bite...

“Congo Tetra...”

Now that one was completely outside of my research.

It’s kinda small...around ten centimeters. The vibrant colors make it look like an ornamental fish.

The next tug was a lot stronger. It was the strongest pull yet, but...not anywhere close to the level of a lord. I pulled it in without any real difficulty.

“Crystal Fish...”

Perhaps because I was at the Crystal Lake, I ended up with a fish that didn’t actually exist. It was hard, angular, and sharp, glistening like a crystal. This fish had a good enough edge to use as a throwing weapon.

I...can’t eat this. And I can’t dismantle it either. I might actually have to use Excavation if I want to take it apart.

After a bit more fishing, I’d gotten a general idea of the fish selection. The fish I’d identified so far: carp, catfish, yellow perch, Nile perch, lungfish, Congo tetra, and Crystal Fish.

I had to tip my hat to the sheer survivability and adaptability of the carp and the catfish for making a home even down here. There were also Vampyre Fish and Ghost Fish, both familiar faces from Cal Mira’s underground lake.

There was a fair variety overall.

The crab traps would take some time, so I’d have to wait on them.

“Bun!”

Occasionally, I’d fish up new Bunownies, just like I’d fished up Pekkles long ago.

Back on the island, you’d find the development creatures whenever you did any action related to developing the island, and it seemed it worked the same way here.

Eventually, I’d have to dive into the Crystal Lake to see if there were any hidden areas, but that about covered it for now. Now then... I can’t wait to see what kind of lord is hiding here.

Chapter 9: Exchange Diary—Kizuna, Emoji, Therese

Seeing as there happened to be an empty journal in the Pekkle House, Therese, Emoji, and I decided to keep an exchange diary. We planned to stay for fifteen days, and we’d only be exchanging logs for that period.

Once Therese returned, we’d all take turns documenting whatever we found. The order was going to be me, then Emoji, then Therese.

Day 1

Record Keeper: Kizuna

It looks like I’m in charge of documenting our first day of living by the Crystal Lake.

It’s my first time trying to write something like an exchange diary, so I’m a bit worried about whether I’m doing it right, but I think passing this sort of thing around could be fun in its own way.

So yeah, here I am. Jotting down my thoughts... But come to think of it, I was writing similar entries back on Cal Mira. That one turned into something like an elementary schooler’s summer homework journal, if I’m remembering right.

Well, anyway... I’ll just pretend I know what I’m doing. Let’s keep on writing for now.

Here’s a list of what you can catch here: carp, catfish, yellow perch, Nile perch, lungfish, Congo tetra, Crystal Fish, Vampyre Fish, and Ghost Fish. At least, that’s what I’ve caught so far.

That was just from a preliminary check with my Fever Lure Skill. There might be more, and the lord didn’t bite either. I don’t know anything about that one yet.

Anyway, when I showed Therese a yellow perch, she said it’d taste great if we fried it. We cooked it together, and it was nice, crisp, and delicious.

Most of the fish here seem to be freshwater, so we can’t eat them as sashimi, but at least we won’t have any issues securing food. It looks like we’re going to be cooking all sorts of things down here, but Therese has plenty of cooking skills, and fortunately, summoning Brave Pekkle is enough to trigger a Cooking Cooperation Combo.

Emoji, is there anything in particular you want to eat?

Day 2

Record Keeper: Yours Truly

’Tis my turn today.

I don’t really get it, but this seems rather fun. I never imagined that I would be keeping an exchange diary inside a game. Aye, I did exchange reports with the ones from the guild, but this feels different, somehow.

Now, as for your question, island lord—what are your thoughts on fish ball soup? Eating everything fried will get old sooner or later.

Incidentally, I have never heard about this “Fever Lure” skill before. Is it one of those rumored rare abilities accessible only to the island lord?

Oh, and I think we should make it a rule: Anything written here should be answered here. At the very least, I will stick to it and refrain from asking aloud.

I will be pleased if you could read through this and answer me later.

What a long preface this has been; getting to the meat and potatoes, I have made good progress in tilling the fields. Before, I did not quite understand soil acidity and just planted things as I pleased, but now I understand how important it is.

I always wanted to try farming, but it is deeper than I thought. There is much to learn.

By the way, Therese, the way you shout when you dig... Is it not a bit loud?

I heard quite a noisy “Take this, fricker!” the other day.

I thought it might be rude to bring it up directly, so I am mentioning it here.

Day 3

Record Keeper: Therese

Oh noooo! Silly me! So you hear that, Lahal-ey? I was giving it my all, swinging my pickaxe at a nice vein, and it must have slipped out.

How embarrassing!

So anyway, it’s day three, and Kizzy’s Pekkle House is insane.

We’ve got a full working shower, and that fantastical Crystal Lake right outside, right? And with all these ore veins, it’s the perfect place to do a bit of Craftwork.

You have a cleaning machine, don’t you, Kizzy? I wanna do some crafting with L’Arc, so lend it to me later.

Back to you, Lahal—right on, I’ll make fish ball soup tomorrow.

Honestly, you just need some fish meat to mince up, and voila, you’ve got fish balls. It’s a lot easier than it looks. Maybe sautéing some Nile perch would get us something heartier.

Yes, it’s settled. Breakfast tomorrow will be fish ball soup, and dinner will be Nile perch sauté!

There is something that I’ve been wondering about, though. When can we expect the crops to be ready for harvest?

I get it’s a game, so they grow quickly, but having a rough idea would help me plan out the menu.

Also...Crystal Fish? You need to give me one sometime, Kizzy. I’ve got my eye on them—I just know they’ll be useful for Craftwork.

I’d be so, so upset if they all end up as Pekkle feed!

Day 4

Record Keeper: Kizuna

That’s one full cycle, huh? I guess this is what an exchange diary is like. I can’t see what’s written until it’s my turn, and that means I’m always looking forward to what I’ll see.

I heard that “Fricker!” too, by the way. It’s nice and spacious here, but sound carries well in these underground dungeon floors.

So you’re part of the Pickaxe Faction, Therese? I like to do some good drilling myself. There’s just something satisfying about shouting the word “Drill!” as you bust through a rock face. You get me?

And for the cleaning machine, go right ahead. I use it sometimes, but everyone’s welcome.

That fish ball soup almost tasted like a completely different dish after that Cooperation Combo. It tasted more like meatballs than fish, so on the contrary, wouldn’t that be a failed dish? I’m not saying it was bad, but it’s like I got meat when I was looking to eat fish.

Let’s hope tonight’s fish sauté stays nice and fishy.

As for those Crystal Fish, sure thing. I don’t really think they’re edible in the first place, not even for Pekkles. I can’t even take them apart with dismantling weapons, you know... Maybe I have to crush them into ore with the cleaning machine?

It’s a little off from that rule Emoji set, but I’ll give you a Crystal Fish tomorrow.

A few more notes:

When I pulled up my crab traps, I mostly got an item called “Glass Shard,” though I was startled to find “Raw Amethyst” once too. Other than that, I pulled in yellow perch and snails.

I’ve been casting nets and diving to see what else the Crystal Lake has to offer, but... Though I did find one spot that looks like it leads somewhere, it’s blocked up by what looks like plant roots.

I tried breaking them, but they were set as indestructible. There’s probably some condition we need to hit to clear them.

On to crop harvest times. That really depends... The turnips and potatoes look like they’ll be ready soon. That growth speed is real gamelike, to say the least.

Once we pull up the turnips—going off my knowledge—some onions would be nice, but with the seasons here being fixed... I don’t know. After the onions, I’d recommend turnips again, or daikon. Cabbage could work too.

With potatoes, you usually follow them up with onions, corn, green beans, or maybe edamame.

Just avoid planting root veggies after other root veggies—keep it varied, and the rest comes with practice. Here, though, it really depends on the seeds we’ve got. We don’t have a huge selection to go with, and with a fixed season, I might bridge with strawberries after a one-day fallow... It’s a bit off from real farming, but if the seasons aren’t changing, we have to make do.

Blame my lack of knowledge on that other farming game. There, the seasons flew by way too fast.

Anyway, just keep an eye on how much water you give them and maintain the soil, and I’d say we’ll have turnips soon enough.

Our goal here is to get the Bunownies up and running, so we should stick to quick-harvest crops.

Ah, I almost forgot to bring it up. Fever Lure is a Secret Skill I got from Brave Pekkle after that Dimension Wave that broke out near the seas of Cal Mira. It causes a feeding frenzy for a fixed amount of time, and you can use it to pull monsters too.

Day 5

Record Keeper: Yours Truly

Understood! I must make a note of that.

I promptly harvested the turnips and, lo and behold—they came out as “High-Grade” quality!

As expected of our island lord. It is as though the crops were nurtured in the finest possible conditions under your supervision.

I did know about thinning, but having you choose which plants to cull made the whole process much easier than I had anticipated.

I’ve now tilled every arable plot in these crystal caverns and filled them with turnips, potatoes, and carrots. They should bear fruit in time.

But this you should know! When I grew such fine turnips, my hoe gained a great burst of experience and expanded its list of default seeds.

It does seem I can produce edamame now. Also—not tied to experience—producing such high-quality turnips seems to have unlocked radishes.

But radishes are akin to root vegetables, so they are not ideal, I take it.

The next step would be edamame, then. I already received your permission outside of this diary, but I am just making doubly sure.

In any case, we have secured 130 turnips from this harvest alone. Fortunately, the hoe can produce seeds at no cost, so we can grow as many as space allows.

Farming in the dungeon yields far less experience, but with such numbers and such quantity, the results are not bad at all.

Island lord, I followed your advice to the letter when organizing the rows. It is not that I doubted you, but the moment I finally harvested, I felt my heart moved to its core.

While I was gathering turnips, five Bunownies spawned and scampered off to the surface. And when I planted edamame in the wake of the turnips, the seeds were sparkling.

Perhaps—as you described, island lord—this is a bonus of good crop rotation compatibility. I am curious to see what effect it will have on the next yield.

Now, my thoughts on the sauté: It was delicious.

Having so many Culinary Art skill holders working together resulted in a delicious feast. The taste of the fish balls was so close to meatballs that it made me somewhat uneasy, but they were firm and satisfying to bite into.

By tomorrow, it looks like the carrots will be ready, and the potatoes the day after that.

But Fever Lure... To think such a skill exists. Once I finish development, there may be a Dimension Wave in the Prado Desert, and I may receive a skill from Brave Bunowny as well.

Day 6

Record Keeper: Therese

When I was processing all the ore I gathered, it suddenly hit me! I realized it had already been six days! Granted, I spent a large part of it analyzing those Crystal Fish, but anyway.

It’s one day outside for every five days here, right? Then, if we’re already on outerworld day two, it feels like such a waste to just leave. I think I’ll stay a little longer.

This is what I found out: If you smash the Crystal Fish, you can turn them into “Raw Crystals.”

Kizzy keeps bringing in so many ores from the crab traps every day, so I’m more than satisfied.

And Brave Pekkle can do Craftwork too, you know? It’s like he’s my teacher, and it’s super fun to watch him work.

We made vegetable soup and salad thanks to that huge haul of turnips and carrots.

Good ingredients really do make all the difference. If only we had some pork, then I could throw together some pot-au-feu, but we have to make do with what we have.

The beautiful shimmer of the Crystal Lake never gets old. I can’t stop staring out across it.

Personally, I think the crab traps do spoil the view a bit—but since they churn out those Crystal Shards, I can’t complain. That’s its own dilemma.

Oh, speaking of which, you know those geodes and fossils I traded you for the Crystal Fish, Kizzy? They’re what kicked off your interest in excavation, right?

Ah, that reminds me. With Craftwork, you can freehand the design to some extent, so do you think some rabbit-themed accessories would suit you, Lahal?

As for you, Kizzy, I think a penguin accessory would be perfect! What do you think?

I hope you get a Secret Skill too, Lahal! I’m always looking for those kinds of hidden things, just like L’Arc! I can’t wait to see it!

Day 7

Record Keeper: Kizuna

So, we’re on our third cycle, huh? I don’t hate trading information this way. At least, it’s easier and more fun than having to write every single day.

It looks like it’s your Farming Level—or rather, the level of the hoe from the Seven Tools of the Pioneer that increases seed variety. I was pretty haphazard with the hoe on Cal Mira, so I don’t really remember.

As a matter of fact...I was mostly fishing the whole time, with everyone else helping out with everything else.

The way the edamame seeds shimmered caught my eye, too, and I can’t shake the feeling they’re growing exceptionally fast. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s around one and a half times normal speed.

Just compared to this morning...they’ve shot right up like bamboo after the rain.

Maybe it’s a special system distinct from what they had in that other game. I mean, now that I’m thinking about it, this game is chock-full of those hidden mechanics... I went all in on fishing, but maybe if there was an aspiring farmer who started farming from day one, maybe they’d be in the same spot I’m in now.

So, I think it happened right after Emoji harvested the potatoes today. I dove back into the Crystal Lake and saw that the roots were gone.

I swam down that passage and popped up in another lake with what looked like a bit more farmland—as you already know. I made sure to report on that one ASAP. Anyway, I found some seed bags in a wooden crate over there... They were for something called Magic Onions. I assume they’re onions, judging by the name...but other than that, I can’t really say too much about a plant unique to the game.

I planted them anyway, though I’m not that confident in what’s going to happen. If they grow, we should take some topside and run them through the Seed Maker to get more seeds.

By the way, it’s bothering me that the lord hasn’t bitten yet.

I’m worried that its spawn might be tied to the overall level of the settlement. If so, it might be hard to nab it this time around.

To think I’d run into a wall after coming so far... Fishing’s my main in this game, and I’ve got a strong foundation. The fish here aren’t too tough either, so I don’t think it’s a matter of skill.

I don’t really have anything else to say, so I guess I’ll record today’s haul.

I got 45 carp, 30 catfish, 152 yellow perch, 18 Nile perch, 15 lungfish, 40 Congo tetra, 16 Crystal Fish, 40 Vampyre Fish, 20 Ghost Fish, 30 snails, plus assorted raw gemstones, glass, and Crystal Shards.

That wraps up the total, counting crab traps.

I’ve got a rough idea of the right rigging for this place—for the most part. But though I’d love to reel in more Crystal Fish like you want, Therese, I can’t figure out what’s getting them to bite. Whenever I’ve hooked them, it’s always been with Fever Lure.

There sure are a lot of yellow perch... The ones we can’t eat will probably end up as fertilizer.

Day 8

Record Keeper: Yours Truly

Aren’t those numbers a little absurd? I did see you pulling them in left and right, but...something doesn’t feel right about landing that many in a single day.

Nay... My mindset is the problem. Those are the numbers I should be aiming for! Very well, I’ll plant as much as I can to trigger a produce frenzy in kind!

It is good that you found new farmland when space was getting tight. Perhaps there are similar field expansions on the other safe floors!

We need to test this, but there may be some crops you can only cultivate within the dungeon. Take Dungeon Carrots, for instance—I thought they only dropped from monsters, but maybe not! There may be more dungeon crops out there.

I am excited about the Magic Onions too.

Now, let me contest your fish with today’s harvest! I managed to nab three hundred edamame pods! What’s more, some were even “Highest-Grade”! As I was harvesting them, I obtained a few “Gold Bean” seeds! A mutation, surely! Unfortunately, they are few in number.

On another note, if we leave a few edamame plants, we will have soybeans, right? We should be able to collect some by tomorrow.

“Hmm... Island lord. Do you have a moment?”

Emoji called out to me over the exchange diary she was writing in.

“What’s up?”

“Do you know how to grow rice? I had some white rice on hand when I was summoned here, but my supply is running low.”

Yeah, rice.

As one of the party’s cooks, I’d bought a decent amount from the NPCs, so even cut off from the outside world, I had enough supply to last a while.

“The Pekkles started selling rice when we were around mid-development on Cal Mira.”

We’d been staving off our hunger with fish up to that point. Once the Pekkles started selling grain, food stopped being that much of an issue.

“Do you think the Bunownies will sell it to me?” Emoji asked.

Given the half-baked state of the Prado Desert’s development, it seemed unlikely.

“It’ll be tough to secure a staple without rice or wheat,” Therese chimed in. “I’ve been thinking about it too.”

I nodded. “Here, where farming’s encouraged, they might not sell them at all. We’ll have soybeans once the edamame mature, but...”

“We can probably make tofu,” Therese agreed. “Maybe even okara while we’re at it—I’ll be able to add quite a bit to our repertoire.”

Therese and I both had the Culinary Art skill, so we’d be able to expand the menu by a decent amount the moment we got soybeans. Tofu usually needed bittern or some other coagulant, but in this game, it could be made through a minigame.

“I’d love to make some homemade natto too,” said Therese. “All the more reason to restock on rice.”

“White rice comes from milling brown rice, right? Do we...even have brown rice?”

“I picked some up from an NPC. Can we use it?”

Therese handed over a small sack of brown rice, which I passed to Emoji. She was the one who’d raised her Farming Skill.

“It seems it can be planted.”

“I guess there’s nothing wrong with planting it, then... Rice is a spring crop, after all.”

“Do you know the method? It’s different from an ordinary field, right?”

Emoji was looking to me for guidance, but in Dimension Wave...I wasn’t sure how far my knowledge would get us.

“One nice thing is that rice won’t have the same continuous cropping hazard problem that’s been holding you back...”

Rice was so fussy that even my sisters gave up on it in that game.

“Is it impossible?”

“Well, you have to watch the temperature and water level, and you’ll need to be even more mindful of pests, see? I don’t know if a beginner like you can handle it just yet... Plus, you’ll need a paddy field, not a dry field.”

During our dungeon camp, I’d kept an eye out for pests and warned Emoji whenever I spotted them. She’d used some of the pesticide Cray gave us, and that was why our harvests had been going well thus far.

“There’s a lesser-known method called upland rice,” I explained. “But it suffers from those rotation problems, and the rice’ll take longer to mature.”

“Hmm? Rice isn’t only growable in paddies?”

“That’s news to me! You’re so knowledgeable, Kizzy. Why don’t you become a farmer?”

Therese hit me with the same question that sis had asked me before we left.

“I said it before, but we’re not a farming family and I’m not interested.”

“Rice is the heart of agriculture, right?” Emoji suddenly spoke up. “I want to do it in a real paddy.”

“Got it... Can we turn any of the crystal cavern’s fields into a paddy?”

I couldn’t bring myself to deny Emoji’s drive to tackle it precisely because it was challenging. Not when I was out there gunning for a lord I’d yet to see the slightest hint of.

“To put it simply, rice... Well, in Japan, we call the plant itself ine; rice is the product of the ine plant. It’s a wetland plant that thrives in marshy, water-soaked soil. Even though upland rice exists...”

I surveyed the farmland of the crystal cavern. I noticed on a slight terrace...a small flowing brook that fed into the lake and a patch of soil right beside it. It was almost like it had been made for us. The ridges were nice and neat.

Usually, we’d have to prep the place with fertilizers and such, but our supplies were limited. It would be best to keep it nice and simple.

“That looks like a good spot. Emoji, use the hoe to dig there and there. They’ll be the drains to turn the field into a paddy.”

“Aye aye!”

Emoji began digging as I’d instructed, allowing water to flood in and transform the dry field. Meanwhile, I set some stones along the brook as a temporary measure to direct the flow.

“The first step to growing ine is germinating the brown rice grain... We can skip that step here and jump straight to the saplings.”

I’d already had Emoji check to see which of the grains were high enough quality to be used. Even though I had the knowledge, Emoji could see things I simply couldn’t with her solid investment in farming skills.

“Now, we plant them at regular intervals. You must’ve seen a rice paddy before, right? That’s what we’re going for—I’ll help out too.”

“Aye aye!”

Hold the saplings like this, then press them into the mud... Yeah, just like that. You’ve got it.

“Oh... It’s actually impressive that this is all coming from game knowledge, island lord.”

Well, that game got me a little interested in farming, so I went and asked an actual farmer... They gave me a practical lesson, and I just remembered a bit of it.

“Ah, that looks kinda fun! Let me in!”

I continued my lecture as Emoji and Therese happily pushed the saplings into the mud.

“Hmm-hmm... Hmmm,” Emoji hummed as they worked, the tune clear and crisp even as just a hum.

It reminded me of how she sang by the campfire the other night, standing in front of the fields, swinging her hoe around like a mic. It was one of those popular songs I’d definitely heard playing when I was out shopping.

Now then, we hadn’t secured a terribly large area for the paddy field, so the job was done soon enough.

“All done! I didn’t think it would be that simple!”

“Well, it’s way harder in real life—this is the sort of simplification you’d only find in a game. There are quite a few things we need to keep an eye out for from here on out, though.”

“What, specifically?”

“Well, disease and insects go without saying. We’ll have to keep watch and get rid of them as they come. Birds can do a number on a rice field too...”

Did they really have to have all of that represented down here in the caverns, though? Bugs did appear as a sort of negative status effect on the crops, while birds could be driven away in a very gamelike manner by installing scarecrows.

“And we need to watch the water depth—keep the water high enough to protect the ine plants from the chill while they develop. Not that the Crystal Lake ever seems to change temperature.”

Temperature was more important than anything, and the brook we were leveraging seemed to run a bit warmer than the lake’s main body. It really did feel like it had been designed specifically for rice.

“There’s even an old saying: ‘Half of rice farming is watching the water.’ That’s how important it is.”

“Wow! What a hassle,” said Therese. “It’s so fussy, I can’t see how you’d do any of this if you didn’t love your work. If it were me, I’d be more than happy just buying the rice they have on sale.”

Honestly, me too, I concluded. Why would I come all the way out into Dimension Wave just to do some farmwork? It was way too complicated as far as I was concerned. Then again, fishing was the same, and maybe it was best to leave it to whoever wanted to do it.

Even if you didn’t get this deep into the nitty-gritty, you could probably still grow something decent. The system gave enough of a buff to ensure you’d at least be able to grow something.

“I see.” Emoji nodded.

“Make sure to use those pesticide potions well. If you spot any bugs, report and exterminate... Do that, and even if your skill levels aren’t that great, I reckon you’ll probably get a decent harvest.”

Rice was notoriously prone to insect pests. Pests that could be even scarier than continuous cropping hazards and disease. A farmer once told me that spotting planthoppers filled him with a loathing deeper than if he’d come face-to-face with his parents’ killer.

This was what repellents were for, and surely a potion would do the job in game.

And so, I continued explaining the basics of rice cultivation to Emoji.

“How exciting,” she exclaimed.

Checking the temperature and moisture became the bulk of her work as she diligently went around checking the fields. I passed the time fishing, while Therese wandered the cavern regularly, stopping by every excavation site she was aware of.

It...kinda seems like the walls are slowly changing shape wherever she mines. Don’t tell me diligent digging actually alters the terrain permanently?

Day 9

Record Keeper: Therese

Lahal started farming rice yesterday. At first, I wondered, Are we going to get any rice before we leave? But this morning, I saw that the shoots had grown quite a lot. It was shocking!

It’s good that we have more farmland, but having to swim to get there is a real pain.

Still, I practiced swimming to prepare for that Cal Mira event, so it’s no big deal for me.

After you leave the water, you just have to wait for a bit for your clothes to return to normal—that’s one of the perks of this being a game. Otherwise, we’d need to use a campfire just to keep dry.

Oh, right, Kizzy! I found some Orichal Ore and Starice Gems! Could you get Brave Pekkle to help me process them?

I think I can make something nice, but I’d rather do it with a Cooperation Skill. L’Arc’s only just started to learn Craftwork and all, so I’d appreciate the extra help.

So, should I start logging my mining too? Here you go: 200 rocks, 5 Orichal Ores, 2 Starfire Gems, 3 Starice Gems, 40 Miraka Ores, 16 copper ores, 6 iron ores, 4 fossils, 30 raw crystals, 4 raw rubies, 3 raw amethysts, 2 topaz, 3 raw sapphires, and 1 aquamarine.

As you can see, I dug some ores that seem unique to this settlement. They’re pretty numerous, but the raw gemstones you can find in normal mines are way rarer. I guess that’s because we’re in the dungeon.

Honestly, Kizzy, if I wasn’t getting your Crystal Fish, it wouldn’t feel worth all this effort.

When you break open a Crystal Fish, you can actually find a lot of raw gemstones mixed in among the debris. I’ve been hoarding them.

Since you’re catching them left and right, I think I’m going to stay put!

Those fish are like little loot boxes!

Day 10

Record Keeper: Kizuna

I finally figured out how to make the Crystal Fish bite. Well, you asked me to look into it, Therese, so I did a bit of trial and error and found out the trick.

The fact they weren’t going for the standard lure should’ve clued me in. Ultimately, what worked was bait fishing—in a sense... I just had to tie a Glass Shard to the fishing line to get a bite. With that said, I don’t think glass is their primary diet. They’re probably fish that grow by eating various ores and minerals.

I mostly fished them up for your request, but I’d like to get back to fishing for other stuff too...

Oh, I also took a page out of Sheryl’s book—she’s one of my comrades, by the way—and tried spearfishing with a harpoon. The fish I managed to snag that way were Nile perch, catfish, more Crystal Fish, and some Vampyre Fish.

I guess you could say it’s simpler to do it this way? Well, as long as you can see the silhouettes of the fish.

As for the rice paddies, I’ve been checking the water temperature regularly, and it’s less stable than expected. Since it’s part of the Crystal Lake, I thought it wouldn’t change too much, but it seems to shift between cool and warm based on the time of day.

Judging by their growth, I’d say harvest will be in about...let’s say six or seven days. The stalks will probably pause tomorrow and stay the same for another two days or so.

Emoji’s been diligent with the weeding and pest control, so we’re ready to drain as needed. Letting out some water should help the ine to root itself nice and deep.

We’re lucky the game speeds up the growth as much as it does.

There will be more pests from here on out. Keep a watchful eye, and don’t skimp out on those potions.

Day 11

Record Keeper: Yours Truly

We are finally halfway through the rice crop. The Magic Onions have grown quite splendidly too. And to think, this exchange diary has reached its eleventh day—what a surprise it is.

After eleven days together, I think I have begun to understand you, island lord.

There is no doubt that you surpass Kanade in persistence. With your determination to achieve anything, no matter how long it takes, perhaps you will become a big shot someday.

How was that? Did I sound like a wise loli kitsune just now?

Anyway, I have learned a great deal from you, but the seeds we brought are running low. We have nearly used up everything save for what the hoe produces. Still, it’s good to see that they have all borne proper fruit.

Oh, right, I should mention that the edamame ripened into soybeans, so I harvested them! Two hundred pods at that. The quality was maintained, and they were truly a delight!

Therese and the island lord made tofu and okara from them, and the result was superb.

They said that the natto would be done tomorrow, and I can hardly wait.

To taste such fine dishes from the soybeans I planted myself... There is nothing better in this world.

By the way, would you consider making some fried tofu? I wish to try some inari sushi.

Day 12

Record Keeper: Therese

Oh Lahal, what a glutton you are!

But soybeans are really handy, aren’t they? There’s all sorts of foods you can make with them.

The edamame were tasty too, and if L’Arc was here, I just know he’d ask for some drinks to go with them. It’s unfortunate that there’s no alcohol in this game besides cooking wine. I guess that’s to keep the age rating low.

Man, I’d have loved to have a beer with them too.

Back to soybeans, they’re making me want more of them. The more we have, the more stuff we can make.

I’m sure we can produce miso and soy sauce, and other seasonings too...though we might have to turn to Cray for that part. He’s been putting his effort into alchemy. Those seem to be a bit outside of the scope of cooking. The recipes just won’t pop up.

We get salt from rock salt here, right? In the Prado Desert, I mean.

Lahal, have you gotten the hang of farming yet? The ine plants are starting to look the part, and it’s amazing just watching them. I overheard you asking Kizzy about seasonal crops while he was fishing.

And speaking of Kizzy... It’s honestly impressive how you’ve basically stuck to nothing but fishing or fossil cleaning this whole time. That’s some serious concentration.

I could see you streaming for hours on end. I mean, you were able to talk to Lahal just fine while you fished, so maybe you have a talent for it?

Day 13

Record Keeper: Kizuna

I mourn for you, Emoji. It’s hard to do that wise kitsune loli bit when Therese just ignores it.

Streaming, huh... Well, I don’t really have the constitution for VR dive games, see? I’m only participating in Dimension Wave ’cause they put in countermeasures for that.

Retro games aren’t out of my ballpark, but the most popular ones these days are FPSs or fighting games, right? Even if I stream constantly, I just don’t see myself becoming a popular streamer. I’m not that good.

Being persistent just means I don’t mind repetitive stuff.

It looks like we’ll be able to harvest the rice tomorrow. Even though Emoji lacks the knowledge, her enthusiasm kept the ine plants growing well.

Still, as I suspected, the pests stormed in like crazy. Where did they all come from...and what would’ve happened if we didn’t have that pesticide potion?

By the way, Emoji... On break, you held up that inari sushi like it was radiating holy light before you ate it, but that gag only really works when you’ve got the sun out to backlight it. It doesn’t really land when we’ve got a ceiling over our heads.

Still, it’s thanks to your vigilant watch over the fields that we can notice issues and deal with them as soon as they crop up.

We harvested the Magic Onions too... They turned out to be onions with mandragora-like faces. After discussing it with Therese, we cooked a few, and the verdict was...onions with high mana-recovery effects.

So anyway, it’s already day thirteen of life by the lake. The lord still ain’t biting.

Our main goal was to secure vegetables to keep the Bunownies active, and that worked out just fine, so I guess this outing was a success.

We’ve got plenty of turnips, carrots, and potatoes. Considering our future food supplies, the edamame/soybeans seem like nice, easy crops to raise.

I’m honestly amazed that I’ve found two people willing to stick with me for this long.

Even Shouko didn’t want to tag along for fifteen days of fishing life with me.

I feel like I’ve really gotten to know you two during our dungeon stay, and it’s been a lot of fun.

The exchange diary was nice too, and I’d like to take this moment to say thanks. Thank you.

Even if you both turn out to be shut-in NEET, basement-dwelling middle-aged men pretending to be cute girls online, I still appreciate the time we spent together.

Chapter 10: The Lord of the Paddy Field

“Who are you calling a basement-dwelling middle-aged man?! Did you have to add that part?!” Emoji cried out on the fourteenth day as soon as she’d cracked open the exchange diary. She’d just finished harvesting the rice.

“Hey, what’s wrong, Lahal?” Therese asked, a little taken aback.

“Everything’s wrong!”

Emoji passed the diary over to Therese and had her read it. And then, Therese was frowning as well.

“You’re so mean, Kizzy. I already told you what my real-life situation was like, right?”

“Well, that’s all self-proclaimed, isn’t it?”

“And how are you rationalizing L’Arc, then? He’s my boyfriend.”

“I can’t rule out the possibility that you just got your stories straight. And on the contrary, L’Arc could be the woman in this relationship.”

Therese put a hand to her mouth and held in a laugh.

“Pffft! L’Arc a woman? No way, not happening! You come up with some funny conspiracies, Kizzy.”

“Just how resigned are you... Why do you assume we’re basement-dwelling middle-aged men in the first place?” Emoji pointed at the diary in protest.

It looks like I really do have to explain myself.

“I mean, that’s just how it is in online games. Some people want to live a second life as a cute girl, you know.”

“Surely...you don’t assume that of everyone you meet.”

Well...apart from Kanade and Tsumugi, I usually keep the possibility in the back of my head. The only people I’m pretty certain aren’t like that are Shouko and Yamikage.

Rather, I just wanted to have fun playing games with everyone. It wasn’t like I was looking for a relationship.

“That look speaks volumes. Island lord, just because you ended up like that, that doesn’t mean that everyone is like you.”

“I’m like this because of my sisters... I actually planned on playing a burly, hard-boiled fisherman.”

“Even so, assuming we are all basement-dwelling middle-aged men is hardly fair.”

“It’s not impossible for everyone here to be one...”

It was actually more realistic than not. Sure, I wasn’t a basement-dwelling middle-aged man, but I had no way of proving that to them.

“What kind of hellish picture is that...?” Emoji groaned.

Sure enough. It was laughable from a third-party perspective, but hell for those living it. Hmm, what an interesting development.

I laughed a bit to myself, causing my hand to slip and let the Fever Lure tumble into the post-harvest rice paddy field’s drainage channel.

“How should I put this... It’s been bothering me for a while, Kizzy, but the way you quietly fish while dishing out farming advice, and even this whole training camp... You’re like some wise old mountain hermit.”

“Indeed... The man behind your avatar is quite a withered one. I’ve not seen your type before.”

“And you too, Lahal. Once you start making a fuss, you start to look like a basement-dwelling middle-aged man yourself. How is it really?”

“I-I cannot speak about my real life. But I am neither basement-dwelling nor a middle-aged man.”

Sounds complicated. She has it rough.

Just as I flicked up the rod to get my lure back—thunk! I felt the strongest tug yet.

“Oh!”

I jerked the rod up and watched it bend like crazy. There’s no doubt about it! It’s a lord! So you’re telling me it didn’t matter how many times I cast into the Crystal Lake; if I didn’t find its hiding spot, it was pointless!

Who would’ve guessed it’d be lurking in the paddy field!

The water turned white as the lord thrashed around wildly.

“What?”

“I got a big one on the line—it’s got to be a lord. I was wondering why I couldn’t get a bite with Fever Lure II, but now I know! It was hiding out here!”

“Hmm... Do you think you can catch it?”

“We’ll have to see.”

“Lahal! Don’t underestimate Kizzy’s lord fishing! The members of his fan club would kill to see it!” Therese started making a ruckus.

I might lose it if I pay her too much attention. Let’s just ignore her.

The reel let off a grating, grinding sound as I wound it, swinging my rod to counter each and every one of the supposed lord’s twisty, turning motions. I should’ve expected it from a creature that spent its life swimming through mud, but the strength of its pull was startling.

What kind of lord would choose to lurk in a place like this? The thought began to nag at me.

As with the lords before it, I could feel it attacking the hook and the line, and the feedback I got gave me the impression of it being strange and slimy. But it had chosen the wrong foe to mess with.

My equipment wasn’t to be underestimated.

You’re dealing with the Munagi Bone Rod slotted into the Gear of the Great Blue Sea! That, on top of Cal Mira Fishing Line!

Judging by the power alone, I could tell it was on par with the Coelacanth Latimeria of Cal Mira island.

Then there’s absolutely no way I’m gonna lose!

I kicked the Motorized Reel into gear and activated my Electric Shock as I pulled up.

With a great, squelching splash, it leaped from the mud and finally showed the first glimpse of its true form, but its body was so caked in the sticky muck that I struggled to tell what it was.

“What is that?” asked Emoji.

“It looks like the meat would reek of mud,” Therese noted.

Emoji cocked her head. “Will it trigger a boss battle when you land it?”

“A battle? We haven’t had to do that since the kappa. But...I don’t think this one’s like that.”

This thing just keeps thrashing! C’mon! Settle down already!

It wasn’t bad enough that we had to start attacking it directly, but it was one rowdy catch.

“A kappa, you say... Where did you hook one of those? I’ve only heard rumors about kappa gear.”

“Oh, right, I had forgotten about that. Just when we’d gotten a hint about it, we’d called you and found out that you’d fished one already.”

Aight! Time to end this!

“Fish on!”

Squelching, more squelching and...finally, I hauled it out of the mud. The lord revealed itself as a lungfish, or rather, Protopterus Aethiopicus.

It was definitely a lord, around two and a half meters from head to tail. Compared to the other lungfish, which barely reached half a meter, this one was downright monstrous. Rather, it had to be a completely different species.

“As per usual, it’s way bigger than the shadow it was casting!”

“At that size, it’s hardly any different from a monster.”

“Aight! I finally fished it!”

With that, I could check off one of my main objectives.

But to think it was hiding in the paddy field all this time.

Still...it may be a lungfish, but that doesn’t mean it can only survive in mud...

“Having it be restricted to the mud... I’m starting to question the game design here, but...maybe it has to do with the Prado Desert being geared toward agriculture?”

I had no way of knowing for sure, but maybe dangling my line into the fields and paddies could result in other unexpected catches too. There was no law saying you couldn’t fish in paddies—they were bodies of water, after all.

Regardless, the reason it took so long to find the lord of the Crystal Lake was because he’d been hiding from me.

“Lungfish...they’re the ones that go into estivation, right?” said Therese. “It’s like hibernation, but for summer, so they can survive through the dry season.”

“You think they were trying to reproduce that? But the Crystal Lake’s temperature is set to spring...”

“Now that I’m taking a good look at him, he’s got a lovable face. Like that gross-cute sort of thing,” Therese squeed, pointing at the lord’s face. But honestly, at that size, it looked more ominous than anything else.

“That was quite the fight.”

“Hmm... It was about the same as the coelacanth on Cal Mira.”

To be honest, it wasn’t that strong. My gear was so powerful that the line was never at any risk of snapping, and I’d pretty much brute-forced it.

The lacking strength of the dungeon’s monsters had once driven Emoji’s comrades to despair, and the lord was the same. It was only maybe a hair stronger than the fish I knew.

Being stuck in a place like this, unable to venture off into any new hunting grounds, was harsh. I could understand it a bit—there were plenty of fish yet to be seen, and I wanted to catch them all.

“No key on this one, I guess.”

“You said that the other one had the key to enter Brave Pekkle’s chamber, aye?”

“And you found yours digging through the ground.”

I was a bit jealous that she’d found hers so easily. Was it designed to be easier to find here, or was it just a massive stroke of luck? Who’s to say?

“Aye.”

Let’s take a nice rubbing to commemorate the moment.

“I’d love it if you could show it to L’Arc. What do you think?” Therese asked me.

“Carrying it back would be a pain, and once we leave this development zone, you can see all the lords at the island aquarium. Can you wait until then?”

“Yeah, guess so. I’ll have to take him there and tell him about it.”

“An aquarium date, then!”

“Nah...if I’m going on a date, I’d way prefer a museum. The ones with ores and gemstones all over the place. Fish just make me hungry.”

Ah, I remember L’Arc mentioning that before. He really knows her well.

In any case, I’d managed to fish the Prado Desert’s lord before anyone else.

“I’ll get right to the dismantling.”

The parts that came out were all Ancient Fish So-And-So...as I thought, it was in the same category as the coelacanth. The drops were somewhat obsolete, to be honest. A bit of a shame.

“Now then...we’ve got the materials, but they’ll have to stay in storage until we meet back up with Romina...”

“Could they be worked into accessories?”

“I could ask Cray to see if they can be used in medicines.”

“Yeah, that works too. You can substitute fossils for ancient fish materials, so if you see any other way to use them, feel free.”

“I heard your gear mainly came from lords, island lord. So this is how you came upon them?”

I nodded at Emoji’s question. Most of what I was wearing had been forged from the fish I caught and shaped by Romina’s careful hand.

“Weapons might be difficult,” said Emoji, “but for armor, Brave Bunowny can forge some if you put in the order. You should check it out when you get the chance.”

“Huh. So Brave Bunowny can craft armor?”

Brave Pekkle had come with Craftwork and Enchantment, and it seemed Brave Bunowny had some crafting skills of his own.

“He is capable of Needlework. If you need any cloth armor, he is the bunny for you.”

“If we have him loiter around while we Craftwork, it might activate a Cooperation combo.”

It was worth testing out. If the system was lenient enough, then perhaps it could encompass Craftwork—Therese’s specialty. Brave Pekkle and Brave Bunowny seemed to get along more or less, so a combo wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“The downside is that the armors he can make are limited solely to cloth, though that does encompass a few cloth accessories too.”

So we’re limited on variety, but there’s no reason not to use his services.

“The Ancient Dress I’m wearing was made from this stuff, but I wonder what else we can make.”

“We’ll have to check later.”

“It’ll probably be from the same series...and if the specs are more or less the same, it’d be better to give it to someone else.”

Now who should we equip it to if we want to make the most out of it?

“As I recall, it comes with a Fishing Power effect, and the base stats are on the higher side.”

It was, admittedly, a bit behind the current meta, but still powerful. Its Balance Assist was a huge bonus to the less athletic side of the player base, and it allowed swimming too.

“We’re limited to cloth, right? Then it would have to be me, Lahal, Cray, or Millie...”

“But if we’re using it in battle, it would be most suited to whoever is taking the most hits.”

Shouko had recently started using a fishing rod as a weapon, so she could’ve been an option, but...even if she were around, she mainly wore kimono. It’d be difficult to work around that. L’Arc and sis...they tended to use armor in combat. Granted, sis’s strongest loadout was that mascot costume.

Will we be able to make a Bunowny Costume one of these days?

“If we’re looking at its bonus effects, it’s not that practical.”

“But base stats are important too. Sometimes you have to take what you can get,” Emoji assured me.

Unlike a certain subset of frontliners, Emoji was surprisingly lax about that stuff. Efficiency wasn’t everything; it was important to have fun too. I quite liked that stance of hers.

As expected of someone who really did stand at the top, once upon a time.

“In the first place, island lord, considering your accomplishments, we are beyond the realm of min-maxing equipment.”

“Right. Kizzy’s armor has high base defense, and if we’re considering damage, we might have to give this one to Lahal. It’s bothersome to lose a healer mid-fight.”

“We can decide after we have a proper discussion,” Emoji said.

Just like that, we finished up the topic of the lord’s materials. None of us seemed that concerned over who they ultimately went to.

“Now, island lord. As for your perception of us... I’ll try not to think about it,” Emoji sighed. “But what are our plans for tomorrow? The harvest is nearly behind us.”

Thanks to our training boot camp, we’d secured our crops to some extent. Just one more day, and we’d have cleared all the remaining fields of their crops and that would be the end of it. That left some freedom for what we planned to spend our last day on.

“We could just head out,” said Therese. “Do you have any other ideas?”

“I don’t mind leaving,” I agreed.

“We’re already here, so why don’t we defeat the last floor’s boss before we go? The elevator shall take us straight to it.”

“Huh? With these members?”

Could we beat the dungeon’s boss with just Emoji, Therese, and me? Well... Shouko and Tsumugi managed to take down Cal Mira Island’s Dungeon Boss—the Dragon Zombie—on their own, so maybe it wasn’t that hard of a boss.

“It will be fine,” Emoji insisted. “I will hold its attention. Therese, you use magic, and island lord, attack in moderation. That should be enough.”

“If you say so.”

“What sort of boss are we talking about?” asked Therese.

“It goes by Devil’s Dragon. It is like a variant of the Dragon Zombie.”

“Umm, so are the drops and mats similar too?”

“Aye.”

I see. It’s not especially dangerous, and we can bring home a nice souvenir while we’re at it.

“Aight, let’s go once we’ve finished up tomorrow’s harvest. We’ll head down, then head back, so... Emoji, you’ll write your entry today, and Therese can write the last one tomorrow morning before we head out. That’ll be the end of the diary.”

“Aye aye!”

“I didn’t think I’d stay this long, but it was so comfortable I didn’t want to leave. Plus I got plenty of Craftwork done. It was a worthwhile training camp.”

By the way, Craftwork and other crafting methods gave way less experience in the dungeon. It was actually the same with fishing, but you could make up for it with sheer numbers. The same could be said for Emoji’s farming skill levels, but her lack of progress meant her levels were lower than they should have been, and she actually managed to raise them quite a bit.

“I was just watching from the side, but farming seems real tough,” said Therese. “I should be more thankful to the farmers.”

Emoji nodded. “Indeed. In any case, I plan to keep working hard under the island lord’s guidance!”

And like that, we passed what little time we had left.

Day 14

Record Keeper: Yours Truly

I know I already lodged my complaint, but who are you calling a basement-dwelling middle-aged man?! Oh, island lord, you must learn to trust others more. I could complain for pages, but I will keep it at that and report that the ine plants have been harvested at last!

Once we return to the surface, we will thresh them and turn them into rice grains. I can’t wait. Truly, raising rice is no small feat.

Try as I might, my farming ventures never went as I’d hoped when I was on my own. But oh, how the crops have grown. With this, the Bunownies will have the power they need to move for some time longer.

The dungeon’s other layers each boast different seasons, and I must consider holding a training camp in the others as well. With that said...it would be best if I tackled those ones by myself, though I’ll wait until my knowledge has grown.

So far, our most important discoveries have been the growth speed and quality bonuses given when planting crops with good compatibility in succession. And, just as the island lord said, pesticides are indispensable. Testing fields with and without, I observed an overwhelming difference in yield.

They stabilized the resultant crops as well, resulting in many of fine quality.

Truly, a worthwhile camp indeed.

As payback for being derided as a basement-dwelling middle-aged man, I have decided to think of the island lord as a little girl who has merely deluded herself into believing she is a man.

Day 15

Record Keeper: Therese

Well look at that! The last day is all mine. I’m writing this while watching little old Lahal bring in the last harvest.

I already said this outside of the diary, but my time down here was pretty cozy.

Getting to spend your days however you want down by the beautiful Crystal Lake isn’t a bad way to live your life. Taking on monsters and searching for quests? They’re not bad either, but sometimes, you just gotta kick back and enjoy the time you’ve got. That’s important too.

Once we’re back on the surface, I plan to do a lot more Craftwork...but what should I do after that?

I’ll probably have to help with the houses and all the other tasks they had to do on Cal Mira. At this rate, though, we might be done a lot sooner than expected.

Now then...we’re going to go beat up the dungeon’s boss before leaving for good, so how about I give my final impressions on the training camp?

I had fun! I learned a lot about Kizzy and Lahal.

And for being called a basement-dwelling middle-aged man, here’s my payback: Hey, Kizzy? Are you really a boy? Because spending so much time with you, you didn’t feel like a boy at all.

There, I got my jab in.

“Hmm...”

Therese handed the diary back after she’d finished writing in it, so I gave it a read-through. They’d both taken turns taking shots at me.

A little girl who thinks she’s a man...a funny angle. But I was a proper man IRL. And what part of me wasn’t boyish, exactly?

“Let’s head out.”

In order to stow the Pekkle House that had taken care of us for all this time, I removed the Pekkle Pipe and pressed the button. The house shrank until it was no bigger than a dollhouse, allowing me to place it in my inventory.

“Can we station it aboveground as well?”

“It’s not impossible, but did you really like it that much?”

It was just a simple cottage. Ultimately, the houses that’d be constructed would end up with better facilities. Though...the mascot-themed furniture did have a certain charm to it.

“I just thought it might be nice to stay there, now and then.”

“It pains me to think that I won’t be able to use it if I ever attempt a training camp without you, island lord.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Maybe one day she’d come across a cottage...a shelter just as convenient, but that day wasn’t today.

The fact it let us stay wherever we wanted made it quite a good pickup.

“In any case, let’s be off.”

“Time to smack down a boss!”

“Yeah!”

With that, we stepped into the elevator and rode it down to the hundredth floor.

Epilogue: Devil’s Dragon

Ding...the elevator doors slid open.

“Come to think of it,” I said, “what was the Limited Dimension Wave event to obtain the Prado Desert like?”

“We wandered endlessly through the Desert of the Lost until we stumbled upon a strange ruin,” Emoji explained. “Then, after braving trap upon trap, we defeated the Ancient Weapon Calderon to lay claim to it.”

“Hmm... Once development’s done here, it’ll probably open up as a Memorial Quest.”

Will it drop a powerful weapon like the cutlass?

“Quests are important, right? I’ll try to tackle it with L’Arc.”

“Should I take a crack at it too?”

“I’m sure you’ll clear it on your first try, island lord.”

I’m not so sure about that... With Cal Mira, I managed to get through by coincidence.

“And now, the boss.”

Emoji pointed ahead to a throne. In front of it lay the sad remains of a dragon. The large-scale boss had to be around fifteen meters in length.

Yep...she wasn’t wrong when she called it a variant of the Dragon Zombie.

I swapped my Hunting Gear to fishing rod mode, intending to use it as a projectile weapon.

Gear of the Great Blue Sea ☆

□ (Harpoon-Exclusive Slot) Lizardman’s Spear

■ Munagi Bone Rod

■ Blue Shark’s Ice Knife [Sinner of Thieves]

■ High-Density Enhanced Energy Blade Attachment V

Unique Effects: Water Attribute Boost, Harpoon Weapon Scaling Up, Guidance of the Great Blue Sea.

It’s been a while since my last battle.

I could switch out my Energy Blade for a proper bow. The issue with doing that was the arrows—since I was stuck in an environment without Romina, I’d have to make them on my own.

Hmm...yeah, I’m better off subbing in the rod and lures.

“I will start by taking aggro,” Emoji declared. “Once it’s locked onto me, you two attack at will.”

“Got it.”

“Understood. If we’re short on manpower, I can fill in our numbers with Pekkles. C’mon Pekkle.”

“Pen!”

I’d already dismissed Brave Pekkle to help out on the surface, but...surely it’d be fine. These boss battles were where he shined brightest.

“With Kizzy around, we can make up for any missing party members. It’s super convenient.”

“Island lord... Does that not mean you can solo any content you please?”

Yes, but it’s incredibly depressing to think about.

Sure, I had cleared Cal Mira’s lord quests almost completely on my own, but that didn’t mean it was a fun thing to do. During the demon lord’s invasion event, I’d also formed a Pekkle raid team with Yamikage.

“You’ll get there too, Emoji... Eventually.”

“I’d imagine so... Well, I was growing tired of dealing with those people anyway. Perhaps this is a good opportunity for a fresh start.”

“You’ll end up as loners if you lean too much on NPCs,” Therese cut in. “You both need to keep it in moderation.”

Well yeah...that was where we would end up if we took the idea of fighting alone too far.

“First, the buffs. Magic Up! Maximize Power! Speed Clock!”

Emoji began to cast support spells on me and Therese.

Ooh...so this is what buffing is like in this game.

Thinking back, Shouko and I were just powering through everything with our own abilities without any of this kind of support. Support? Coordination? Isn’t that supposed to be part of the fundamentals?

As Emoji closed in on the Devil’s Dragon, the corpse lurched upright with the same recycled animation from the Dragon Zombie.

“GAAAOOOOOO!”

Like that, the battle had begun.

I slipped into combat mode, the flow of time around me slowing to a crawl.

“Holy Ball!”

Emoji immediately chanted some form of light magic, striking the Devil’s Dragon with glowing blasts in rapid succession.

Then, the Devil’s Dragon turned its head toward her and loosed a torrent of blackened breath. She countered with a chant.

“Magic Shell, Heal Field.”

Deploying a magical membrane alongside a spell to heal herself over time, she managed to completely stave off the Devil’s Dragon’s powerful breath. Her gaze snapped to us, as if to say it was our turn to attack.

“Here I come!” shouted Therese. “Prism Magic into...Ruby Fire!”

The gemstone embedded in Therese’s Jewel body glistened, seemingly synergizing with the gemstones on her accessories, which flared to life as well. So many sparkles coalesced into a scarlet blazing flame that hurtled toward the Devil’s Dragon.

It was quite a show. Her Brave Pekkle-made bracelet was boosting the power of her magic.

Seeing as our resident Drain Ninja only ever used Drain and lightning magic, I rarely got the chance to see anything else, but Therese’s spells had some flashy effects.

There was a boom as the fire magic slammed into the Devil’s Dragon and singed its scales.

“GYAAAAOOO!”

Oh...solid hit.

Back when we fought the Dragon Zombie on Cal Mira, we didn’t have too many pieces of powerful equipment, so we had to strategize a bit. But Emoji and Therese were fully armed and equipped with the skills to match.

I could already see a clear path to victory.

Aight, my turn. But I might weird Emoji out if I start by smacking a lure into its face, and sticking to range can be pretty dull.

“GYAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

My senses were sharp. The world was slow.

The dragon had only just finished spewing its breath when it immediately launched a bite attack at Emoji, who blocked it to create an opening. I saw my chance to zoom in with the ice knife.

“Cleaver.”

I deftly closed the distance, ice knife in hand as I unleashed a Cleaver.

“Gyah!”

Oh? I staggered it? Then have another!

Slash, slash, I managed three hits in total.

“Gyaaah!”

Another stagger. There’s more where that came from!

“Hey... Hey, island lord!”

“Hmm?”

I turned my head to Emoji’s slow-mo voice.

“GYAAAAOOOOOOO!”

Ah, the Devil’s Dragon locked onto me.

I’d overdone it and drawn too much aggro. That had to be what she was warning me about. I’d been so focused on using the chance she’d given me that I’d gotten in a few attacks too many.

I should back off and let Emoji build up aggro again.

Predicting the incoming tail sweep and slam, I sprinted away and set a bear trap to stop it even if it gave chase.

Krchnk! The Devil’s Dragon’s leg set off the trap and immobilized it for a moment. As a boss, it immediately shook it off, but that was enough to buy me some distance.

Or so I thought...but despite all of my caution, one glance up and I realized the Devil’s Dragon’s HP had already dropped to one third... It was softer than expected. And slow too...

“GYAOOO!”

A billowing breath came my way, but with all the space in between us, I could easily dodge to one side.

I think we can finish this soon.

With Hiding Hunt, I attempted to swiftly return aggro to Emoji. I’d immediately vanished without a trace, but perhaps I’d racked up too much aggro as instead of turning to her, the dragon began to fretfully scan the area for me.

Yeah...the AI isn’t that dumb.

Even if it looked like it was attacking blindly, it still seemed to be making attempts at where I was. With that said, its movements were so dull that I could just maintain my distance and kite to make it easier for Emoji and Therese to attack.

Sticking to ice knife mode, I began to charge up Blood Flower as I ran.

The moment I started up another skill, the concealment was lifted and the Devil’s Dragon came barreling straight at me.

“Holy Ball!”

“Ruby Fire!”

Picking up on my intentions, Emoji and Therese tried to draw its attention with magic.

Charging, charging, it continued whirring in my hands until... Clink! Charge complete.

“Aight! Blood Flower!”

I dashed straight through the Devil’s Dragon, unleashing Blood Flower. There was that familiar, flashy effect... The monster’s HP plummeted to zero, and as I’d used Blood Flower to land the finishing blow, its body burst into an array of dismantling materials.

The difference was staggering.

It was like heaven and earth, compared to when I’d fought the Dragon Zombie alongside Shouko. Was this what they called growth?

Emoji’s buffs were probably doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

†

“Island lord, your attack is way too high,” Emoji pointed out as soon as the battle was over. Her voice was a mix of shock and exasperation.

“You’re definitely a lot stronger than the last time we fought together, Kizzy,” Therese muttered, eying my weapon. “I’ve been watching for a while, but...that definitely doesn’t look like a normal weapon. I mean, it’s got that gemstone and all. Did Romina give it some newly implemented weapon enchantment or something? No, that doesn’t sound right.”

“Indeed. There is clearly something wrong here. I may have been away from the front lines for some time, but there have to be limits.”

“Oh, right...”

Come to think of it, I never told them about my skill composition.

Everyone just assumed I was the island lord fisherman, the manager of the crab trap industry, and a dismantler. They went with the rumors and didn’t really ask for the details.

“It’s this weapon,” I said.

“There was practically no downtime when you were switching between weapons,” Emoji said. “No matter how fast you are, you’d still need to reequip, but you were changing mid-attack.”

“At a glance, that does look like Kizzy’s trusty ice knife, but...”

“Yeah, I forgot to explain. The weapon and skill I’m using are called Hunting Gear. It’s a special weapon that lets me quickly switch between the weapons I slot into it, and it boosts my attack along with a bunch of other stuff.”

I really hadn’t explained anything. The acceleration I got when combat started was also thanks to the skill. It hadn’t really done anything for me during the training camp—aside from stacking with my Fishing Mastery—so it was easy to miss.

Not to mention the fact that Emoji and Therese didn’t have any fishing experience, making it practically impossible for them to realize anything was off.

“That’s the Unique Skill that was announced across the server!” Emoji cried out. “I heard it here too! So you’re the one who obtained it, island lord?!”

“Heeey, couldn’t you have mentioned that sooner?”

“Sorry, sorry.”

I hadn’t gotten any questions while we were living by the Crystal Lake, so I never even realized I hadn’t explained it.

“If I ever met the one who obtained it, I wanted to ask. How do you acquire a Unique Skill?”

“Oh, that. After the update rolled in, I was scrolling through my skill list, and one of the entries was strangely sparkly. Since it’s first come, first served, I just grabbed it.”

I told them about the circumstances under which I obtained the skill. And of course, I mentioned the acquisition conditions too.

“Wow...those are some tedious requirements.”

“What’s more, it’s first come, first served, right? No wonder you had to claim it as soon as you could.”

Huh. They’re both pretty understanding. Is this what you should expect from frontliners?

“But it does seem incredibly powerful.”

“It’s less the skill itself and more that it stacks with everything,” I explained. “Come to think of it, just before I got summoned here, I was testing it out and one-shot a Red Iron Bear.”

“Red Iron Bears, huh? That takes me back. I remember fighting them with Shouko and the others.”

“I have never met one myself,” said Emoji. “But I have heard of them.”

Right, Emoji got stuck here before she could’ve met them.

“When you say one-shot, do you mean with a skill?”

“Nah. Normal attack.”

“The heck is up with that, Kizzy?”

“Well... The Hunting Gear I’m using right now was forged from Four Heavenly King materials... Gear of the Great Blue Sea.”

The materials were—at least, for now—incredibly hard to obtain, so of course they were powerful.

After the fight against the Devil’s Dragon, I was certain I would’ve been able to solo it in no time, no skill required. To be honest...if I was looking for a real fight, then the Prado Desert just wasn’t the place for me.

Going all over the map with Shouko had brought my Energy on par with the others, and the proper path for me would probably have been heading deeper into Mikakage or finding some other place the update unlocked.

“Regardless, you are quite the warrior, island lord.”

“I should’ve seen it coming.”

“It’s just the stuff I do in between fishing. It doesn’t really feel real to me...”

For what it’s worth, I was indeed the lord of Cal Mira Island, so it was fitting... Whether I liked it or not, I was considered a top player.

“To think you’d even nab yourself a trump card without anyone knowing.”

“Let me remind you that I was summoned to the Prado Desert only two days after the update.”

I’d come as soon as I’d obtained the Hunting Gear Skill, so there was no way anyone would know. But even then, there was no way I could really hide it; the skill was just that powerful.

“But even if it is strong, I don’t see it doing too much for us in Prado. It also limits the content I can participate in, and I apparently get a negative ninety-nine percent damage modifier when fighting humans.”

If the dungeon boss went down that easily, it was just overkill. Sure, it was great if I wanted to regularly dive into the dungeon for supplies, but...yeah, maybe it was made for someone like me.

“You’ve taught me the essence of farming, and you can summon Pekkles. You’ve already done more than enough, island lord.”

“Let’s get through this development lickety-split.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“But we must meet up with everyone and share this information,” said Emoji. “Of course, swearing never to breathe a word of it once we make it out.”

“You wouldn’t want any unnecessary trouble, after all.”

It was nice how they were so quick on the uptake. And reasonable too.

There was definitely a chance I’d get harassed over it. Most people just saw me as a guy who fished all day, and since Cal Mira was such an important base, there weren’t many people who tried to mess with me.

“Do you think we will ever catch up to the island lord?”

“I just picked up a new skill, is all. I’m sure you’ll both catch up soon enough.”

“I think those Unique Skill conditions are way too convoluted,” Therese sighed. “I can’t even imagine what the others are like.”

“Aye. Whatever they are, it seems we’ll need to diversify if we want to find them.”

That was where the conversation ended. Emoji started off toward the next chamber.

Weren’t we going to take the elevator back?

“Island lord. Brave Bunowny came from a treasure chest in that room,” she said...gesturing toward what looked to be the same room where I’d obtained Brave Pekkle on Cal Mira.

“Same for me.”

“Yeah, if a normal player goes there, they just find a chest with a reward,” said Therese. “I guess it’s different during the development period.”

“Hmm.”

So even that changes.

“Now that I’m thinking about it, one of the updates said that you could dive deeper into Cal Mira’s dungeon or something. Did that happen in Prado too?” I asked.

“That’s what I came to check,” Emoji replied.

So that’s what she brought us here for. Or maybe she just wants to check while she’s here.

She tested out the once-sealed door, which swung open with a click.

“Looks like we can keep going.”

“So it seems.”

“Judging by the lantern, we’ve got a bit more time before we have to return to a safe zone. What do you think, Lahal?”

“The island lord turned out to be a powerhouse. Perhaps we could take a quick peek.”

I couldn’t help but think, Don’t rely on me too much. But it was on the way, so I gave a nod.

“Got it. If things get dicey, we just have to retreat.”

“Now, into the unknown.”

“Honestly, I bet L’Arc and Kana already checked it out ahead of us.”

And what a laugh that would be.

We chatted back and forth like that as we descended deeper into the dungeon.