Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 60

Control Freak

Akito was on the way to school. The breath he exhaled became white in this weather.

He was holding a smartphone with one hand while reading a message.

He could exchange message with Mariela and Alfie in the real world  now. It made him felt a bit strange, but it also made him happy to  exchange message with them like this.

He sent his message and put back his phone into his pocket.

Akito arrived at school and headed toward his seat. He saw Riku  sitting on a chair while watching his tablet. The screen was playing a  video.

The other students were also watching video like him.

「Morning.」

「Ou. Hey, take a look at this.」

Riku lifted up one hand and then he showed to Akito the video in delight.

The video was showing an orc.

The view count of the video was reaching tens of thousands already.

「Orc?」

The screen was replaying the introduction screen for orc.

The player was introducing the orc in details, from its power, status, and also his impression when using it.

Several players surrounded the orc and they were seriously analyzing the experience of using the orc avatar.

「You guys had achived a lot with orc avatar, so some guys who are  seriously inspecting it appeared. Apparently the clearers are also  inspecting the possibility of using orc.」

Orc race was treated as a joke in Pandora’s Box Garden.

And now it looked like it was going to get out from the joke treatment soon.

「Finally everyone can also see orc’s true value instead of treating it as a joke――」

Akito thought happily while sitting down. Riku smiled and played the video.

The player who used the orc avatar said.

『Hmm, it’s strong but, not really. It’s not weak but, perhaps because  I can’t customize it on my own. It seems that you can make the avatar  stronger through events, but that’s no different than other races too.  Also, the NPCs’ eyes are cold! It’s too different when I’m just seeing  it through the screen and actually experiencing it for real. Those orc  bunch are absolutely masochist.』

There, the video was showing that the player who was using orc was evaluating it as doubtful.

「……What a horrible evaluation. Even though I’m normal.」

As expected it seemed that orc still couldn’t escape the fate of being treated as a joke.

Orc wasn’t weak with its powerful status and the strengthening from  the events. But, the other players could customize their own character  to make their own personal build.

Orc also had demerits like being unable to increase their status, conquer their weakness, or improve their strong point.

Riku shrugged.

「Well, each person has their own way to have fun after all. More importantly, how did the offline gathering talk go?」

Akito was thrilled.

「It’s tomorrow. We have also reserved the place for it.」

The place that they would use for the offline gathering was the  family restaurant in Pandora’s Box Garden that was intentionally  recreated in the real world.

A lot of players used that place for offline gathering.

Riku was smirking.

「You’ll be disappointed if your expectation is too high you know?」

「I’ll be careful.」

Akito continued talking with Riku, then Maya entered inside the  classroom. Her expression was somewhat softer unlike usual. She also  looked happy.

No, recently she looked like she was genuinely happy.

Maya’s atmosphere was changing. Even Riku noticed just from looking at her.

「President seems happy for some reason. Do you know anything about it?」

「She said something about going to offline gathering. Perhaps she  mean something like a gathering for the elites? You know, there’s no way  president is playing game like Pandora after all.」

Everyone around Maya had this bias on their own that she wouldn’t play something like Pandora.

「Hmmm. More importantly, how far you have gone at Discernment?」

「We finally started preparing to defeat the third robot. It’s  troubling that the craftsmen in our guild are absorbed with gathering  rare items. Even though they can just buy it from those who sell it.」

There were also groups that were selling rare items, so they could just buy from them if they wanted to.

But, as expected that kind of item was expensive, and the  compensation was also great. Lighter and the others had the policy of  not buying something like that from other player as much as possible.

「If the guild has just gotten formed then you won’t have that kind of  money for that. But, that time when you just started is also fun. You  want to do this, and do that, there’re many things you want to try out.」

It must be really fun.

Lighter and the others were being the most excited with the boss subjugations.

「But, it won’t take you long until you come to the Capital of Love next. We’ll go to the next stage if you don’t hurry up.」

It was Riku who invited Akito to play Pandora. It was difficult for him to catch up to Riku who was a senior player.

「You guys are advancing through the Capital of Diligence right? We need to step up our effort too.」

The teacher entered the classroom while they were having such talk.

.

.

.

At Akito’s part-time workplace.

The time was half past nine at night.

Akito was waiting for the university students who would relieve his  shift. They were late like usual. Akito glanced at Yakumo who seemed  different than normal.

Usually she would be irritated when the people for the next shift  were late, and yet today she seemed to be deep in thought with a very  serious look on her face.

Or rather, she looked like she was unable to focus.

「Senpai, are you okay?」

Yakumo looked taken aback from getting talked to, then she waved her hand with a wry smile to cover it up.

「I-it’s nothing. Nothing……」

She also often fell into thought like that during the work. This whole day Yakumo was unlike her usual diligent self.

(It doesn’t look like nothing at  all though.)

Akito called out to her in worry, but he could somehow sense that  Yakumo considered it bothersome. Besides, it also didn’t look like it  was caused by something like a relative entering hospital or getting  caught in an accident.

Akito too couldn’t say anything if she said that it was because of personal reason.

The company employee Kurita came out from the back office. He looked at the clock and got fidgety.

「Eh? They’re still not here? How troublesome~」

Kurita didn’t look like it was something troublesome at all. He  talked to Yakumo, but Yakumo didn’t even pay any attention to him.

Akito played interference several times, which made Kurita found him bothersome.

(It’s like this the whole day huh.)

While he was thinking that, the university students who were in charge of the night shift arrived.

「Sorry. We’re late.」

The university students didn’t look apologetic at all.

Previously they would come running if it looked like they were going  to be late, but recently it was becoming their habit to come late.

Yakumo sighed while handing over the shift to them.

「Please be earlier. You two are always late recently.」

The university students smiled wryly.

「My bad.」

Akito felt puzzled.

(Strange. They were stricter before. The store too, they only give them warning but without doing anything else.)

In this era, student doing part-time work was mainly a part of the social education.

It was a chance for student to really experience earning money on  their own while giving contribution to society. And so a lot of  companies dealt with lateness or absent without permission harshly.

The store where Akito was working was also the same.

(Is there other part-time work I can switch into?)

The shift relieve was finished and Akito switched gear.

(Well, tomorrow will be the offline gathering. I shouldn’t be gloomy like this when going there.)

He finished changing in the changing room and left the store. There  he saw Yakumo holding her smartphone in one hand with a serious  expression.

He thought about calling out to her, but as expected he stopped because he knew that she would only respond unkindly to him.

Akito simply said farewell to Yakumo, and then he took out his smartphone and checked his message.

「There is no mail from Mariela or Alfie. Guess I’ll write one for them.」

He typed in a message.

『I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll login like usual before that though.』

Then he heard Yakumo’s smartphone playing its ringtone from behind him.

Akito turned around. He saw Yakumo looking happy there and though.

(No way right?)

◇

Capital of Discernmnt.

The capital of steam possessed a lot of guild base.

The players’ objective was to build a base and strengthen the  solidarity of the guild after reaching the middle stage. Other than that  some also built a base here in order to obtain the guild’s blessing.  The number of such player started to increase from here.

Large guilds also had a base here. There were a lot of strange group among them.

Akito――Ponsuke stepped into the base of such large guild, the Shinsengumi guild.

The players in this guild all wore uniform outfit.

There were always more than fifty people in the guild. At peak time that number could surpass several hundred.

Their matching outfit was the reproduction of a military uniform in  the past. On top of that they were wearing the haori of Shinsengumi.

Alfie looked around and she looked like she had difficulty breathing.

「These people look rigid like usual. What’s more their name, Shinsengumi……」

Ponsuke understood what Alfie wanted to say, but he held her back.

「Alfie, I’m begging you please shut up. Look, the people around us are looking here coldly.」

The reason why Ponsuke and others entered this historical looking  building……that was because their guild members were apprehended by  Shinsengumi.

Based on their rule, the guild master had to come here if a guild member was captured in order to free them.

A vein throbbed on Mariela’s forehead.

「Good grief, those guys are really troublesome.」

It was the orcs who were captured. Yes, the problem children.

Ponsuke finished the procedure to have a meeting and headed to the underground where the jails were located.

There a lot of players were being jailed.

「Don’t screw with me, let me out!」

「You guys are insane!」

「Don’t get carried away just because you guys are a big guild!」

Shinsengumi was cracking down on the players with bad manner.

It was also the guild that established the method to restrain player  and threw them into jail by making use of the hole in the game  programming.

But, their act was very troublesome and doing that also didn’t give them any merit at all game-wise.

Rather, it was the players who did the restraining that were categorized as malicious player by the game.

But, even then Shinsengumi wouldn’t stop what they were doing.

To put it simply, they were control freak.

The orcs were captured by such bunch.

When they arrived at the specially made jail, the player who guided  them until this point looked at Ponsuke with an irked expression before  looking at the jail.

The Shinsengumi guild member spoke to Ponsuke.

「Do you know how many times this made it? We had warned them many times that they had gone too far.」

Ponsuke emotionlessly apologized. No, there was the feeling of guilt in it, but that guilt was for the NPC, not for Shinsengumi.

Yes, they concluded that the act of the orc group that wanted to be scorned by NPC was a breach of rule.

The orc leader Prey looked at Ponsuke.

「I’m innocent. Believe in me, Ponsuke-kun!」

Ponsuke was feeling exasperated and questioned Prey.

Of course he wasn’t innocent but, there was also no reason for him to  be jailed here. But, the orcs were looking strangely happy while  spending time inside the jail.

「Prey-san……aren’t you enjoying this situation?」

「You understand? That’s right. I’m thinking that this is a bit fun.」

The orcs possessed an unbelievable fetish.

They were happy even when imprisoned, but surely Shinsengumi players  only regarded them as annoyance. The guild member who led them here  kicked on the iron bar.

Alfie pressed her hand on her forehead.

「Don’t be angry like that.」

「Who can just stay quiet against this! Are you guys insane? Just what  are you thinking when doing that kind of deviant act toward NPC!」

Prey spoke brazenly from inside the jail.

「What’s so wrong with facing your own fetish.」

「Of course it’s wrong! Even virtual world has rule!」

Ponsuke apologized.

「I’m really sorry for these guys. Come on, get out everyone.」

He went out of his way until here in order to collect his guild members.

Mariela was irritated.

「You guys, what did you do this time that made you get caught?」

Shinsengumi was control freak, but they were an existence that  players who were having fun in a normal way would be uninvolved with.  The players that they caught were only players who had done an act that  was listed as malicious in their guild’s rulebook.

But, it seemed the orcs were evil from the perspective of Shinsengumi.

One of the orcs, the one wearing a headband said.

「We didn’t do anything particularly bad. But, we were just wondering  if the passing by NPCs would step on us if we lie spread-eagled on the  ground. Whoops, please don’t worry. We were lying face down so we  wouldn’t catch a peek of the passerby’s underwear.」

Are you guys insane? Ponsuke wanted to say that, but they were serious. It was because they were serious that made this nastier.

Ponsuke was feeling apologetic to Shinsengumi. He apologized to them while taking the orcs with him and left the guild.

◇

The real world.

Akito opened his eyes and began preparing.

He changed into the outfit he had prepared and took more time than usual to set up his appearance in front of the mirror.

The orcs had troubled him in the virtual world, but today was the day  for the offline gathering that he had been waiting impatiently for.  There would only be three people in the gathering, even so he was  looking forward to it.

「I wonder what kind of people Mariela and Alfie are.」

He kept reminding himself that he shouldn’t set his expectation too  high, even so they were his friends inside the game that he enjoyed  playing together with.

He checked the time and saw that there was still enough time.

「Let’s go ahead of time.」

His smartphone rang when he thought of departing early.

There were messages from Mariela and Alfie.

They were writing about the outfit that they would wear.

「So Mariela is going to wear black jacket while Alfie is white.」

Akito also looked at his own outfit.

It was grey, so he wrote that in his message and sent it.

.

.

.

Maya was preparing in great hurry.

She took a shower, set her hair, and put on a thin makeup.

Maya put so much effort into her preparation that even the servants  in the mansion were talking about it, but the next chance for this would  be during winter holiday if she missed this one.

A message arrived in her smartphone. Her face broke into a smile when she saw the content.

「I see. So Ponsuke is wearing grey jacket.」

Maya was making a face of anticipation. She looked at the clock and started doing her preparation in a hurry once more.

.

.

.

At the share house.

Yakumo was checking her own appearance many times over in front of the mirror.

She was wearing a black jacket. Underneath it she was wearing a sweater.

「I wonder if the skirt is too short?」

She was wearing thigh-high boots, but usually she would be wearing  pants and the like that would be easy to move in. She was wearing a  skirt now showed just how much she was putting her effort into this.

The seniors and juniors who were living together with Yakumo were  exasperated with her who was like that, but she paid them no mind.

She was making a face like a maiden in love.

She had been thinking about the offline gathering since yesterday. It made her to be absent-minded a lot.

「As expected I should go with a calmer look……but, that would make me look boyish.」

Time was passing as she brooded.

When she realized it, it was almost time for her to depart.

「C-crap. I need to go quickly.」

Like this, the three were going to meet with each other.

Sololy(*´Д｀) 「Haa……haa……I can’t believe my existence is forgotten so naturally」

Ponsuke(・∀・；) 「No, because you don’t come even when I called.」

Prev Table of Content Next