“Graaaah... I surrender...”
Thud!
The man who had been sitting beside me until just now toppled straight backward.
Including him, the area around me was already filled with people sprawled all over the place.
“Phew...”
In the middle of it all, I sat perfectly fine and let out a small sigh.
All that remained in my hand was a beer mug I had emptied to the very bottom.
“This wasn’t what I had in mind...”
How had it ended up like this?
When the man first approached me, I had actually been looking forward to it.
A situation where someone openly picked a fight with me.
That was exactly the scene I had been aiming for.
It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say I had come straight to the guild because of this.
If word spread that Dante had acknowledged me, someone he had just met, how would people react?
Would they accept it at face value without suspicion?
‘No, there’s no way.’
And naturally, the doubts that would come spilling out.
It was a classic among classics, an obvious cliché.
Aiming for that, I deliberately brought up Dante in a loud voice.
As loudly as possible, to provoke people’s reactions.
And just as expected.
“This little runt received Lord Dante’s token?”
Reeking of alcohol, a large man came swaggering over.
‘Finally.’
I thought, finally, an event like this is happening to me too.
As someone who had never once gone through a beginner phase, it was something I had never experienced.
I couldn’t help feeling excited.
The chat seemed to feel the same way I did.
- Isn’t this a cliché? lololol
- Uh, uh, no way?
- Is he gonna say that line?
- Thump thump thump thump
The man came up in front of me and swept his gaze over me from head to toe, then back up again.
And then, when his eyes met mine.
“I don’t believe it.”
He said the line I had been waiting for.
‘Ah, there it is...’
- Kya!!!!
- lololololololol
- This is it
- There’s a reason people call clichés clichés
- They say familiar flavors are the scariest lololol
Hiding my excitement, I said the line I had prepared for the next scene.
“And if you don’t believe it? What are you going to do about it?”
At that, the man slightly leaned his head forward.
“...What am I going to do? Hic.”
After hiccuping, he continued.
“I don’t know about that. Prove it. Prove that Lord Dante really acknowledged you.”
“How am I supposed to prove it?”
“With our hunters’ time-honored traditional method, of course.”
“Traditional method? What’s that?”
Obviously, it had to be a duel.
In the world I came from, hunters had always repeated battles where they crossed the line between life and death.
Because of the tension caused by frequent combat, hunters often suffered from extreme fatigue and tended to be irritable.
Sometimes, a fight would break out over a single tiny slip of the tongue.
Thanks to that, it wasn’t uncommon to hear that disputes had broken out between hunters at the Association.
These people were hunters too. They probably wouldn’t be that different.
- Are they fighting?
- They’re totally gonna fight lolololol
- No!! Stop!! You’ll die if you do that!!!
- Oh Lord, one soul is coming up today lololol
- lolololololol I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing what happens
With my heart pounding, I slowly loosened the joints throughout my body and waited for the man’s next words.
“What is it, you ask?”
The atmosphere inside the guild gradually became tinged with tension.
Gulp.
In the silence, the sound of someone swallowing echoed.
‘Come on, hurry up and say it. We’re fighting, right?’
Just as I was meeting the man’s eyes in that tense space.
The man suddenly grinned.
And then.
Thud!
He placed a huge drinking mug, one I had no idea where he’d pulled it from, on top of the reception counter beside us.
“A drinking battle, obviously!!!!”
- ????
- A what battle??
- lololololololol
- Did I hear that wrong?
“Kya!!! It’s been ages!!!”
“Boss, more beer over here!!!!”
“What do you mean, boss! If you’re drunk, go quietly back to your room!!”
“Kahahahahaha!!”
In an instant, the whole place transformed into a festival.
And there I was, frozen still like a lone lost child left behind.
“Huh?”
You’re subverting the cliché here?
Flustered, I had no choice but to remain frozen as I stared at the man.
That was when he thrust his face toward me.
“Scared?”
The moment he finished speaking, I snatched up the beer mug on the reception counter.
“Bring it on.”
And now, back to the present.
After already drinking over a dozen men under the table, I could only rest my chin on my hand and grumble.
“Why on earth wasn’t it a duel...”
- For real lol
- Didn’t that totally feel like they were about to fight? lolololol
- The sudden drift into a drinking battle is hilarious lololol
- Actually, fighting inside the guild is legally illegal lololol
- Once again today, nothing but regulations...
- Regulations regulations
- Please obey the regulations
- Model citizen (forced) lolololol
“Please tell me that kind of thing in advance. I got my hopes up for nothing.”
- Sry sry;;
- But honestly we thought they were gonna fight too lolololol
- For real lol
- We thought it might be different since it’s a new route
- No, but why is the streamer so good at drinking? Is it because it’s a game?
- As far as I remember, if you drink alcohol, there’s supposed to be a status abnormality called tipsiness or something
- But why doesn’t the streamer get drunk?
- Dun?no
- lololololololol
“Ah, that?”
It wasn’t that difficult a method.
To explain it, you have to understand this first.
“How do you think we’re able to taste things even though this is a game?”
- Huh?
- No idea
- Because it’s realism mode?
- I don’t know!! Professor!!
It was something we normally overlooked without much thought.
Food and drinks alike were nothing but part of a game, so how could we taste them or feel full?
The answer had to do with the brain.
From the moment we full-dive, our brains can already be considered connected to the capsule.
And when the game sends a signal, the capsule transmits that signal directly to our brain.
Then our brain accepts something that doesn’t actually exist as real and recognizes it as correct.
Of course, since there were risks to this method, they supposedly had a system that automatically shut down the capsule after a certain amount of time passed.
Anyway.
That was why we could feel as though we were actually eating food in the game just like in reality.
“So if you filter out only the ‘tipsiness’ among the signals going to the brain, you can avoid getting drunk like me.”
- ???
- ??
- What the fuck?
- Huh?
- Professor, you’re going too fast
- What did I just hear?
- lololololololol
- That’s something a human can do?
- As if that’s possible lololololol
- Why are you the only one acting like you’re from Cyberpunk? Why are you talking like you’ve got implants installed? lololololol
- ???: It’s a basic implant
- For real lolololololol
- Are you sure you’re the same species as us? lololololol
“Hmm...”
Is this difficult too?
The guys who came back to their senses later gave me a thumbs-up and left with refreshing smiles, saying, “As expected of a hunter Lord Dante acknowledged!”
“See you again later!!”
“Thanks to you, we had fun!!”
“If we get the chance, let’s go hunting together sometime!!”
“Hahaha!!!”
Seeing them like that made my head feel like it was starting to hurt, even though I had no hangover.
‘Seriously, what even is going on...’
I needed a change of mood too.
Leaving Reina behind at the guild—she had drunk with me to help me out and had passed out, still looking weak and unsteady—I took a simple request and headed out of the base.
I had naturally thought we would end up fighting.
But since that hadn’t happened, my body was itching all over again.
I planned to roughly hunt some monsters and relieve my stress.
“Come to think of it, does this game not have a story?”
Do we just have to hunt monsters?
For now, I was playing by going wherever my feet took me, but it didn’t really feel like anything major was progressing.
- Nah, it does
- There should be an overarching story
- But since this is a new route, we don’t know what’ll happen either
- We don’t know anything either lololol
- We’re all just in spectator mode together
“Oh, really?”
- Yeah
- We could tell you about the big picture, but that’d be spoilers;;
“Then it’s fine if you don’t tell me. I’ll find out myself. Anyone who gives separate spoilers will be banned.”
- Yes, sir!
- Zipping my mouth shut
- Everyone, hands off the keyboard!
After nodding, I followed the guide bug toward my destination, just like last time.
The request I had accepted this time was naturally a subjugation request as well.
The target was a pack of Dirty Mongas.
They were creatures that threw poop at passersby, cackled, and ran away.
Their temperament was vicious too, so the ones you thought would only run away would apparently rush at hunters in groups if a hunter approached.
Because of that, the best policy was usually to avoid them when encountered.
But during a caravan trip the other day, merchants who had been forced to throw away all their goods because of these bastards’ poop had flown into a rage and posted a request themselves.
Thanks to that, the reward was generous, and there seemed to be a lot of individuals, so I chose this request.
Anna, who gave me the request, did ask if I would be okay.
‘Unlike fighting one-on-one, fighting against many opponents has its own unique flavor.’
When I sensed attacks flying in from every direction and swiftly evaded an encirclement that closed in as though planned out in advance.
The thrill of dopamine surging up in that moment.
Since I had already tasted one-on-one combat with Dante, this time it was time to taste something different.
After walking endlessly like that, the guide bug eventually made a sound, informing me that we had reached the destination.
Chirrrrr.
The little thing circled round and round above a pile of poop.
Considering it was still warm, it seemed the pack had been here until just moments ago.
‘They said they were monkeys, right?’
True to the name Monga, they were said to have monkey-like habits, so the place they would be was probably—
‘Up above.’
When I raised my head, I saw them near the top of a huge tree.
Five Dirty Mongas were looking down at me.
Naturally, each of them was holding poop in one hand.
The moment they discovered me, they soon flashed vile smiles and began throwing poop at me.
“Oookikikiya.”
The poop came flying at high speed.
Seeing that, I understood why the viewers had told me it would be better to avoid Dirty Monga requests.
It was even more than I’d expected.
‘Disgusting.’
I quickly dodged the incoming poop with a backstep.
- Aaaagh!!!
- Hehe, poop launch!!
- Uwegh
- I feel like puking just watching this...
- Ah, I need to put on a filter...
Maybe they found the sight of me dodging as if fleeing funny.
The Dirty Mongas clutched their bellies and laughed from atop the tree.
“Ookkyaakyaakyaagya!!”
‘They seem to think I can’t attack them because they’re up in the tree...’
After hiding my body behind a tree for a moment, I grabbed a few small stones in my hand and moved swiftly between the trees.
As I continued approaching while using the trees as cover, the creatures must have gotten angry, because they began throwing even more poop.
Dodging everything that came flying and allowing not a single bit of filth to touch my body, I confirmed the moment they entered my range.
Whip!
I threw the stones in my hand toward them at high speed.
Crack!
The stone that flew forward shattered the eye of the one laughing at the very front.
And that creature—
Thud!!
Splat!!
Crashed straight into the pile of poop it had thrown.
The area above fell silent.
Looking up at the remaining ones, I smiled fiercely.
“First, one.”
- Wow
- Streamer, any chance you’d join our team? You’ve got ace potential
“No.”
- Aww...