Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 81

True・Protagonist

Inaho was walking through the sightseeing area listlessly. She looked up to the sky.

A pretty river was flowing nearby. There were also players having fun moving through it on a boat.

The players were only wearing cloth equipments. They weren’t carrying  weapon or the like because such things were unnecessary for the  sightseeing area’s players.

They were cold toward Inaho who was dressed like a beginner, or rather they were taking distance from her.

Even though the virtual world itself was charming, the players inside there were cold.

She was walking while looking at the river, so before long she crashed on someone.

「I-I’m sorry.」

Then the person she collided with smiled to her.

「It’s fine. Are you yourself alright?」

Even though she was the one who wasn’t watching where she was going, it was the other person who was showing concern for Inaho.

(This person, he might be a good person.)

「E-err, I’m alright.」

「That’s great. Are you sightseeing?」

Inaho thought that she finally ran into a kind player, but she could hear the surrounding chuckling.

The imitation faces were looking at her and laughing.

It was a sight that made her felt a small fear.

But, this was also a common sight in the sightseeing area.

「Eh? Eh!?」

A player spoke to the bewildered Inaho.

「That guy is an NPC you know? Yet you’re talking to him like he’s a person.」

The player ridiculed her with a laugh before leaving.

Inaho was surprised when she was told that she was talking to NPC.

She was also surprised that the NPC could hold a conversation but,  she didn’t feel anything off from the NPC’s reply and expression.

The NPC talked to her with a smile.

「How about getting on the boat? I’ll show you around the sightseeing area.」

「……E-err, maybe next time.」

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「……Haa, I never thought that this place is like this.」

She wasn’t used with the mechanism of the game and her senses became haywire no matter what.

Even though she was trying to leave the sightseeing area, she felt like she was lost inside a labyrinth.

She was unable to leave from the area.

She sat on a bench in dejection. Then someone called out to her.

「You there, you’ve been looking down since some time ago.」

When she lifted up her face, she found a blond haired and blue eyed beauty standing there.

She had seen her face from somewhere, though it wasn’t an unusual thing in this sightseeing area.

(Is she imitating a foreign actress? Her avatar’s balance is really great.)

Her difference from others was that there was no distortion in her avatar.

Inaho thought that this person’s avatar was very well made, but she  hung her head down in front of this woman who had different atmosphere  from the surrounding and spoke her feeling.

「This is my first time logging in but, various things happened……it made me think, this place isn’t as fun as I thought.」

She thought that it was also her fault for wandering into the  sightseeing area, even so the reactions of the players there were just  bad.

It wasn’t like they breached the manner of online game, but there was still no denying that they had bad attitude.

The woman sat beside Inaho.

She was tall and had long legs.

Her soft and fluffy blond hair was wavy and looked shiny.

「I get you. If it’s in my country than many of the people’s behavior  here will be completely out. But, this place is still fun despite that.」

The woman talked in delight.

「After all there are only the faces of famous people here no matter  where you look. Nobody ever called out to me here. It’s great how I can  relax here.」

The woman was enjoying the sightseeing area greatly. Then she introduced herself.

「My name is [Lily]. You?」

「It’s Inaho.」

「I see. Nice to meet you, Inaho.」

They shook hand, then friend request’s screen popped out.

Inaho was surprised. The woman――Lily chuckled seeing that.

Then they registered each other as friend before Lily stood up and guided Inaho out of the sightseeing area.

Looking carefully, it was a place that she had passed by several times.

Lily waved her hand.

「I’ll show you around the sightseeing area next time. You should have fun more here.」

Inaho bowed her head.

「Thank you very much! See you later Lily-san!」

Lily had taught Inaho how to read the map and the basics. She  immediately headed toward the plaza. It was to head to the adventurer  guild from there.

She went through the path that she had passed before and the plaza immediately came into view.

The big fountain and the scenery of the city that was also filled with greenery looked wondrous――or that was how it should be.

But, a strange group was playing around at a part of that big fountain.

「……What’s that?」

It couldn’t be helped that Inaho was surprised.

There were large――muscular orcs there in addition of a lot of other players.

One player threw a weapon into the fountain. Then an orc wearing white toga came out from inside the water.

「Is the weapon you dropped here this golden whip with paralyzing effect? Or is it this silver whip with poison attack?」

The orc who threw the weapon was enraged.

「Why are you bringing up whips when it was axe that I threw in! This is different from the script!」

The orc who came out from the water was unwavering.

Rather he was smiling.

「What an honest orc. I shall present these two whips to you. Remember  to use them properly with other players. A player who use them to beat  orc will be prefereab ――UBARAH!」

Someone hit the orc in the fountain with a flying kick. It was a  blonde haired and blue eyed girl. Unlike the woman from before, this  girl was wearing a dress that looked retro.

The sightseeing area was filled with players that were dressed with  modern style, while the players here were dressed like game characters.

As expected, she could strongly felt that she was really inside a game when she left the sightseeing area but…….

「Follow the damn script you pig!」

The voice was threatening and abusive.

The sight of a girl with violent eyes punching an orc inside the  fountain was giving off a scariness that differed from the sightseeing  area before this.

「My queen, wait. Wait for a second with the water drowning!」

The orc looked joyful despite asking the girl to stop.

The girl grabbed the orc’s head and drowned the orc’s head into the  water before pulling it up again with a ghastly expression――she was  doing it over and over.

(He called her queen……what does it mean?)

Inaho who wasn’t someone that innocent came to hate herself for trying to understand the meaning of their words.

All the other orcs except one were watching with envy.

「Drowning huh……nice.」

「That was a blindspot.」

「Attacking using the thing around her. The queen’s talent is infinite! ……Or rather, let’s switch place already.」

She didn’t understand what the orc meant by nice, or rather, she didn’t want to understand this situation.

Inaho ran away from that place.

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Adventurer guild.

And then the shrine. After visiting those places, Inaho went outside in order to search for comrades.

「Finally I’m doing game-like thing.」

She chased away the sight from before to the corner of her mind and renewed her feeling.

Then someone called out to her. It was a male player with showy appearance and wearing sunglasses.

「You, are you perhaps a beginner? Then how about we form a party? I  can’t find anyone to party with me today that I can’t do anything.」

The person had the atmosphere of someone familiar with the game.

「Is that okay? Umm, this is my first time logging in.」

Inaho got a favorable impression for this player who didn’t look down on her.

The person smiled.

「It’s no problem. Everything will be alright with me here. More  importantly let’s introduce ourselves. I’m the holy knight [Rubin].」

「I’m Inaho! Umm, you don’t have any comrade Rubin-san?」

Rubin looked a bit troubled with how to reply at Inaho’s simple question.

「H~mm, I have some but I’m usually going solo. Well, I often get  invited by other people too but, I normally focused on polishing myself.  How should I say it, I often get invited by other parties to help out.  But today I feel like taking it easy.」

Online game was created with the assumption that players would play it in a group.

Inaho also knew about that, so she was surprised that solo player like in manga, novel, or anime actually existed.

She looked at Rubin with admiration.

(Perhaps, this person is actually someone amazing……things were hard  before this but, it feels like I’ll be able to have fun for real from  here.)

「Please take care of me!」

「Alright~. Come with me.」

She followed Rubin.

The other players at the surrounding were whispering behind them.

「There it goes, Rubin magic.」

「That guy only has his atmosphere going for him after all.」

「Poor kid. Someone tell her the truth.」

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At the outskirt of the Capital of Hope.

Rubin faced the monsters that kept coming one after another. He swung  the sword in his right hand and fired flashy magic from his left hand.

「Oraaaaa!」

The monsters were getting defeated one after another.

The monsters were reduced into red particles in one blow. The way they were blown away like that was exhilarating.

(This person, is amazing!)

Rubin was displaying overwhelming might. His sword was something that couldn’t be obtained in the Capital of Hope.

When she asked him, he said that it was a rare equipment that he obtained from clearing a special event.

「Rubin-san, I’ll back you up!」

Inaho also moved so she could back up Rubin from behind, but before  she could do anything, Rubin shot the monsters with a gun in his left  hand.

Overwhelming strength that was coupled with numerous equipments that couldn’t be obtained in the Capital of Hope.

In Inaho’s eyes, Rubin looked like an amazing player.

After all, there was more than a hundred level difference between Inaho and Rubin.

Yes, there was a level difference of “100” between them.

「It’s dangerous, so don’t get too close.」

Rubin made a pose. Rubin who was using both sword and magic ――certainly looked amazing in that place.

Rubin was defeating the monsters around the Capital of Hope flashily.

Inaho was watching that scene with admiration for a while.

But――.

(E-eh?)

――She realized it.

When the battle was over, Rubin had the right of possession for all the dropped items.

In addition, she didn’t get any EXP at all.

Even though she had heard the explanation that EXP and items would be obtained as a party.

「Umm……Rubin-san, I don’t get any EXP at all here.」

Rubin stared at his beloved sword while answering her. He wasn’t looking at Inaho’s face at all.

「Is that so? Ah, sorry. Our level difference is too big that we aren’t recognized as party.」

Inaho tilted her head.

「Level difference?」

The party couldn’t be recognized if the level difference was too big.

In other words…….

Rubin was childishly showing off in a place for beginner to fight monster, that was what it meant.

「Eh, umm……I’ll be troubled in that case.」

The drop items in this place weren’t really worth it for Rubin who  was a high leveled player. The same with the EXP, he almost didn’t get  anything at all.

Not only that, his presence here was only getting in the way of Inaho.

「But I’m not troubled. Besides, as expected it feels better to have audience witnessing my gallant self.」

Looking carefully, his equipments somehow also looked mismatched.

Inaho covered her face with her hands.

(Kaa-san, I’m……attracting a no good man.)

Inaho wanted to cry because of her pathetic self.

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Inaho returned to the Capital of Hope and sat on the bench at the plaza.

The time was already evening, but to Inaho the time felt long.

「……Perhaps, I should just log out already.」

Even though not even one hour should have passed in the real world,  the first day was just going to finally be over inside the game.

But, it only felt painful to Inaho who couldn’t enjoy the game.

Even though she was feeling great joy when logging in, she had no  friend from the real world in here and this world was filled with a lot  of unknown things.

Inaho wasn’t having fun with the game.

Then a shadow covered up Inaho who was in such state.

She lifted up her face and found huge orcs standing in front of her.

A group of orc was surrounding her――it was a really scary situation.

「W-what!?」

She was surprised. Then one of the orcs talked to her.

「Are you perhaps a beginner?」

The orc with long silver hair talked with a relatively kind tone. Inaho could only reply with a fearful nod.

Looking closer, these orcs were the group that she saw making a ruckus in the plaza before this.

Each of the orcs talked.

「Ahaha~, sorry to scare you like that.」

「The other guild members are cleaning up or taking care of other business, so there’s no one else you see.」

「Aa, don’t be scared like that.」

It seemed that the other guild members than the orcs were currently somewhere else.

They knew that they would scare her, but she looked so down that they decided to call out to her.

It would be troublesome if she ran away, so they surrounded her first.

(This is scary so don’t do that! Ah, my heart feels like it will burst.)

The orcs introduced themselves.

「I’m Ponsuke.」

「……I’m Inaho.」

The orcs saw the dejected Inaho and guessed that she was unable to  acclimatize herself to this game, so they called out to her. But, Inaho  was already at the point where it was unsure whether she would ever  login again after this.

「Did you perhaps, meet a bad experience?」

「You can guess?」

Looking closer, the orcs had ugly look that differed from human.

But, they were gentle so she could also see them as cute a little.

「That’s because apparently there are a lot of people who goes through  a lot of bad things at their first day that they can’t enjoy the game.  Besides, there are also a lot of people who get bored and go to the  sightseeing area instead.」

A lot of people were playing Pandora. Sometimes there would be those with very bad luck who kept running into malicious players.

The reverse could also happen. Like a player encountering caring  veteran at the beginning and later on they would grow to become a famous  player.

Ponsuke invited Inaho.

「Our guild will hold an evaluation meeting that is also a party after  this. Do you want to join us? We welcome any new player who wants to  join.」

The orc’s smile should look eerie but, it looked like a kind smile to Inaho.

In the end, she thought that it would be alright to participate in this as her last try.

(Well, if it’s no good I’ll just logout in the middle.)

「If I’m not going to be a bother……I’ll come.」

Ponsuke shook his head.

「No, far from being a bother……rather, I want an outsider to also be present if possible. Our members, all of them are too free.」

Ponsuke sported a tired smile that seemed to hide a darkness behind it. Inaho tilted her head seeing that.

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