Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 50

High Elf

At the real world.

Akito was watching the news through the monitor in his room.

『Then for the news today. While the envoy from the moon returned――ah,  the image doesn’t appear. Can you turn it on? Eh, you can’t? Eee~, then  let’s continue.』

The female announcer who was reading the news read it out even while the situation around her was a mess.

The moderator and the commentator also laughed. The news program was continuing in such situation.

But, the guest who was apparently a professor with a serious look was  sitting with a displeased look. It seemed he disliked such atmosphere.

Before this the news program always seemed professional, but recently  it was becoming a mess like this. It looked unnatural to Akito.

『It’s said that the probability of traffic accident occurring is on the rise lately, but is there a reason behind that?』

The moderator said that before turning toward the guest for a comment.

The professor started with 「It’s still unclear but」 before continuing.

『I get the impression that the number of people whose head is  disconnected from reality is increasing. Based on the opinion from the  scenes, apparently there are many players who are playing VR game  everyday――』

The professor gave such comment. In respond the commentator spoke jokingly.

『Now now, I think it’s not good to blame everything on game. Isn’t  that no different than giving up thinking in favor of looking for the  easy explanation? There should be other reason.』

The professor seemed to look offended because he was interrupted in  the middle of his speech, but then the news program suddenly switched to  another topic.

「……What’s this? I think before this it was more…」

Akito thought.

The atmosphere was a complete reversal from before when the news talked about regulating game and the like.

And then the news entered commercial time. His eyes widened in surprise.

『A famously popular store in Pandora will expand into the real world!  And can you believe it? They will sell juice and alcohol that you could  only taste inside the game before――』

A shop that was popular in Pandora’s Box Garden would be reproduced in the real world.

That in itself wasn’t something that strange, but in the news it was  shown that the inside of the shop was created with thorough adherence to  its appearance inside the game.

As though……the restaurant was truly reproduced from inside the game  to the real world. Akito couldn’t hide his surprise about that.

「……I wonder if this alright?」

Akito was bewildered. He was assaulted with a feeling as though the real world was being encroached.

.

.

.

「You’re just over thinking it.」

Akito discussed it with Riku in the classroom.

Riku was the one who invited Akito into Pandora. He was also always giving him advice as a friend.

「I wonder. I think the atmosphere everywhere feel strange recently though.」

Riku was sitting on a chair. He listened to Akito’s words while playing a video in his tablet.

It was a video of a Pandora player going wild.

「You’re really exaggerating just from hearing of a restaurant from  game getting reproduced. Do you think there is human in real life who  can do something like this?」

The player in the video was moving in a way that seemed inhuman while beating a powerful monster.

「Certainly that’s impossible.」

Akito felt a bit relieved after Riku laughed at him and called him  being overthinking. He looked at the list of videos and found a title  that caught his attention.

「Eh, wait a second. This is?」

Riku played that video and his eyes widened.

「Oi oi, seriously?」

The video showed players who seemed to be clearers. They were shooting video to left behind record about themselves.

They were in a place that had thick rain clouds covering the sky. Thunder and rain were pouring down fiercely.

One of the clearers had the appearance of a boy.

『Umm~, we’re going to challenge the lightning dragon that is  considered as a troublesome enemy in the World of Arrogance. Everyone,  record the video properly~』

The video began with such light mood, but the monster that came out appeared from the rain cloud.

It looked more like a long and slender snake rather than a dragon.  The Chinese dragon that ruled over lightning attacked the players.

But, the boy who was using half-fairy avatar was unperturbed even after he got struck by lightning.

『I’m using various countermeasures here like increasing my lightning  resistance and the like, but even with those, this still shows that  half-fairy that’s being treated as a joke is actually strong. That’s  what I want to show you today. Well, with this we’ve been defeating this  boss more than a hundred times.』

Any player could see it. The boss was so strong it was bullshit. But  the half-fairy avatar was taking a stroll under the lightning strikes  while explaining casually.

『This boss is basically set up to mainly fight with magic. But for half-fairy it’s not a boss but just a prey.』

The half-fairy kept slinging magic that the lightning dragon was weak  against while being under attack himself. Even so he wasn’t getting  damaged at all because the dragon only attacked using magic.

Sometimes the lightning dragon would get close to the ground and  attacked, but the half-fairy boy was safe because of his comrades’  support.

Then after a while, the lightning dragon fell from the sky and became wrapped in red light before vanishing.

『Err, and that’s a wrap. I’m planning to do my best hunting lightning  dragon for a while more to gather materials but……all of you who treated  half-fairy like a joke race, too bad! I think the dev will balance it  soon but, half-fairy is actually useful you know~』

The video ended there.

Riku looked frustrated.

「……Come to think of it, I heard that there was suddenly a maintenance in Pandora.」

It seemed that the dev had taken countermeasure.

Because of that it seemed there were various alterations in order to balance the half-fairy.

Apparently the clearers posted the video after they knew that.

「The video is meaningless but, I wonder if the opinion on half-fairy will change with this?」

Riku nodded.

「Of course it will. Dammittt~. So those guys made a killing using this kind of method huh.」

Riku looked genuinely frustrated.

With that kind of method, even players who weren’t clearer would be able to do the same thing depending on how they did it.

That was how the clearers obtained a lot of experience points and materials.

Akito was honestly impressed.

「The clearers are amazing.」

They made a killing against a powerful enemy at the frontline……while  others hadn’t realized the true worth of half-fairy, they managed to  open a wide gap between them and the others.

They also understood that the advantage would soon be lost because  the management would fix it, so they worked hard to earn as much as  possible before that happened…….

(But, even that kind of people aren’t using orc race. Orc is really a joke race as I thought.)

Akito sighed and felt a bit dejected.

◇

Superior race.

That was one of the available methods inside the game in order to strengthen the avatar.

The Capital of Temperance was the capital of the elves. It was a world of nature and elf.

Because of that it also had the event for elf to become the superior version, high elf.

Inside the giant tree that towered  high in the middle of the Capital of Temperance.

The queen who was a high elf was waiting for the players in the audience hall.

The room was made by gouging out the inside of the tree. There the  high elf queen who was dressed in a white dress was holding a large  staff that was shining gold.

She was wearing a circlet on her head. Her cream colored hair was silky and smooth and so long that it almost touched the floor.

That was the inside of the audience hall, but actually the room was filled with a lot of players who were using elf avatar.

Because of that――.

「I wish our turn will come already.」

Alfie was sitting at the corridor while watching the line of parties that were forming a long queue.

Ponsuke was being glared by the elves who were wandering at the  corridor. Sometimes they would click their tongue at him. He endured  that treatment while closing his eyes and folding his arms.

Mariela was an elf, so the elves inside the castle were treating her very nicely.

The large door opened. A group of players came out from there.

One of them was an elf, but the rest of the players were using other races.

「Oh man, the queen was real pretty.」

「You can’t come here when it’s night, so it’s troublesome to wait for your turn.」

「Forget about that, let’s just clear the event quickly.」

The female elf who was being surrounded by the men was wearing equipments that clung tightly on her body.

Her body line was clearly visible. But there wasn’t any place that looked unnatural on her avatar.

Her long hair fluttered. The slender elf spoke to the men.

「You guys……why are you surrounding me?」

The elf’s voice was clearly belonging to a male.

Also, when looking at the equipments clearly, they were clearly  equipments for male that were simply modified to expose a lot of skin.

It looked like the avatar had no breasts. That was because it was a male elf.

The surrounding was startled and stared at that elf.

「Don’t be stupid. There’s no way we can allow our idol to be seen by other guys.」

The elf’s comrade who said that with seriousness was apparently his  friend from real life. He directed a smile toward the male elf.

「You will need to remake your equipments again after becoming a high elf huh.」

The elf’s second comrade looked pleased as he said that.

「Let’s pick a fight with the dev even more by making them even riskier next time.」

The third comrade said that while making an expression that could only be called as obscene.

The elf player looked a bit pale.

「Are you guys idiot? Or rather, aren’t you guys turning strange  recently? Perhaps it’ll be better if I seriously make my avatar  manlier?」

In respond to those words, his three friends, as well as others at  the surrounding let out a loud scream that echoed until the end of the  corridor.

「Don’t do that!」

Mariela was creeped out by the yells of those players.

She was stealing glances at Ponsuke to observe his reaction.

Ponsuke was crossing his arms. He noticed Mariela’s glances and said to her.

「……I don’t have that kind of taste.」

Mariela was relieved to hear that. She put her hands on her large  breasts with reassurance. At her side Alfie could also be seen looking  relieved.

(You two are actually thinking of me as that kind of guy all this  time? I wonder if this is also the fault of those deviant orcs.)

He was thinking as though he had no part at all in it. Meanwhile the  elf who was being surrounded by the male players were passing by in  front of Ponsuke’s group.

Then the elf youth saw Ponsuke who was crossing his arms.

「Uwaa……now that I look closer, orc is really muscular and manly. I’ll use orc avatar――」

His friends forcefully grabbed his arms and dragged him away.

「Don’t be stupid!」

「That’s right. How can you think about becoming orc!」

「You’re fine just as you are!」

Ponsuke and co watched those players leaving while thinking.

(What’s so bad about orc)

.

.

.

Their turn to enter the audience hall arrived one hour later.

The queen was explaining about the event.

She was talking to Mariela with a slightly sad expression.

「There are several things required in order to become high elf. Of  course you have to overcome the trial but, the elves are being  exclusionary toward other races. I won’t ask you to love every other  race, but at the very least you have to befriend people from three other  races before offering the ceremonial item on the altar at the elf’s  holy land.」

Alfie took a look at the displayed screen while putting her hand on her chin.

「In other words, she’s telling to raise your friendship level with  players of other races. What, so Mariela has cleared this requirement  already isn’t she?」

Alfie was behaving rudely even though the queen was still talking. Mariela scolded her.

「I have been preparing beforehand unlike you. I’ve also obtained the item, so what’s left is just to head to the holy land now.」

Ponsuke also knew about how Mariela had been preparing. He had been helping her with that.

Alfie too had been accompanying her with gathering the item that she  wanted until it was dropped and doing quest. She was participating in  the battles though she wasn’t paying attention.

「Then let’s clear this event right away. But, she’s saying things  about building good relationship with other races, but after seeing how  those high elf knights were acting haughtily……she just sounds  contrived.」

Alfie said that. Mariela too was apparently thinking of the same thing.

Ponsuke hurried up these two who were speaking without any filter in their mouth to leave the audience hall.

「That’s just how the setting is in the game. Come on, let’s depart already.」

The queen was watching Ponsuke and co leaving from the audience hall with sad eyes.

.

.

.

――The elf’s holy land.

It was inside a ruin located at the middle of a forest with sublime atmosphere.

Mariela put the required item on the altar as offering. Then she made a praying gesture.

Ponsuke and Alfia were watching from behind her. They saw Mariela got enveloped in divine light.

Alfie voiced her puzzlement.

「What will change with her being a high elf?」

Ponsuke explained the differences.

「I guess there will be increase to her status, and perhaps  strengthening to her unique skill? She will also get strengthened in  various other ways. Anyway all races have their own strengthening event.  Only orc doesn’t have one.」

The management hadn’t prepared any event that could make orc evolve  into something like high orc. Orc also couldn’t do customizing to match  the avatar to the player’s playstyle which was the true charm of this  kind of game.

That was one of the reasons why orc got avoided.

The light died down and Mariela stood up.

But, the Mariela over there was different than before even though she still looked the same like usual.

「Eh, did you cut your hair?」

Alfie asked jokingly. Mariela stuck out her tongue at her.

「Stu~upid. There’s no way that’s the case. But, I’m feeling some kind of discomfort. Like my ears……and what else?」

Her ears had gotten slightly longer.

Other than that……even Ponsuke didn’t know.

「But, with this we have taken almost all of the events that can be  taken in the Capital of Temperance. We can also proceed to the next  capital. As for the earth dragon subjugation……what to do?」

Ponsuke and co had cleared all the required quests for proceeding to the next capital after the Capital of Temperance.

They could proceed to the next stage anytime they felt like it. But as expected the earth dragon was in his mind.

Both Mariela and Alfie also weren’t really bothered about proceeding to the next stage.

「Just do whatever you like Ponsuke.」

「I agree. If we want to proceed, it’s better to do it together with everyone else.」

There were Nanako, Sierra, and the orc group.

It would be better to increase the number of comrades if they planned  to continue proceeding ahead, but it also wasn’t bad to match their  pace with the others.

「Then, I’ll decide before we login next time.」

Ponsuke said that and ended the talk.

◇

That day.

After Yakumo arrived at her part-time workplace, she immediately  changed clothes at the changing room and checked her smartphone in the  break room.

She thought that she arrived a bit early. Then Akito entered.

「Eh, senpai is also early today.」

Yakumo smiled toward her junior who was always in the same shift with her.

「You’re also early. Well, let’s work hard too today. When today is over――」

Then she suddenly dropped her smartphone when she saw Akito’s face.

「Senpai?」

Akito picked up her smartphone and returned it to her.

Then Yakumo rubbed her eyes with her fingers.

(Eh, why just now……)

「Aa, sorry. I got distracted just now. Come on, you should go change already.」

She chased away Akito to the changing room before she pressed her hand on her face while muttering.

「……Why did Ponsuke’s face overlapped with that guy just now?」

It was unpleasant.

It made her deeply felt that something important to her had been dirtied.

But at the same time, she also didn’t hate it that much.

「Have I gamed too much?」

Yakumo became slightly worried. She put back her smartphone into her pocket and thought.

(Come to think of it, what kind of person Ponsuke is in RL……I wonder if I can meet him?)

Prev Table of Content Next