Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 39

Before Update

The Capital of Temperance.

In the game’s setting, this place was the verdant hometown of the elves.

But, the existence that those elves hated the most――were the orcs.

Almost all of the NPC were elves when they entered the adventurer guild.

The party leader Ponsuke headed to the receptionist to take care of  the procedure for accepting a quest, but the male NPC there was showing  his dislike to Ponsuke out in the open.

Ponsuke watched that unpleasant face while putting his hand on his chin in admiration.

「That’s one hell of a disgusted face. I’m impressed with how honest they are with their fixation. The dev must really hate orc.」

Alfie placed her hand on her waist in exasperation even while putting her other hand on her forehead and looked around.

Each NPC reacted in their own way, but all of them had strong  tendency to look down on other races. However, they treated their fellow  elf and their superior race the high elf with a nice smile and  earnestness.

「It feels like they are too obsessive. This is why orc race is getting treated as joke race even now.」

Orc was misfortune.

That was the shared opinion of Pandora’s players.

Ponsuke chose a quest before heading outside immediately.

The adventurer guild’s building was filled with growing vines and leaves.

Good looking elves were strumming musical instruments and playing music.

「It really makes me want to remake my avatar.」

Ponsuke casually said, though he wasn’t saying it seriously. But  Mariela thought that he was being serious and hurriedly argued against  it.

「You don’t need to. Orc is strong and reliable. B-besides……」

Besides, Mariela couldn’t continue past that, but Alfie joined the conversation.

「Feeling-wise having an orc as a vanguard really give us the sense of reliability.」

That was the difference between the normal game where player looked at the screen and VR game.

Both games were similar but ultimately different.

Ponsuke liked the orc race quiet much and he didn’t really think of remaking it.

「No, I’m not serious. I don’t feel like going through the trouble to change it.」

Besides, Ponsuke understood that orc race wasn’t as bad as everyone else thought.

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The three left the Capital of Temperance and came to a plain.

Mariela held her bow and fired an arrow. It pierced a mushroom monster and it vanished as red light.

She took out the next arrow from her quiver. Meanwhile Alfie dashed  forward with her red dress fluttering behind her and slashed a monster  with her extravagantly decorated sword.

「Tsk! The paid item isn’t just for show.」

Mariela watched Alfie’s movement while turning her gaze to Ponsuke.

What the two were doing was thinning the herd so to speak.

Ponsuke was dealing with the boss at the middle of the swarm by himself.

Mariela fired her arrow. Another monster was transformed into red light by that.

All the arrows that she had were expensive arrows.

Those were arrows that were created by craftsman player. They had  excellent attack power and other attributes, but every single one was  extremely expensive.

She would immediately run out of them if she didn’t use them alternately with normal arrows.

She drew out a normal arrow, jumped, and fired the arrow to a  mushroom monster that assaulted her. But the monster wasn’t turned into  light this time.

「It’s hard as I thought.」

She immediately fired again, but Alfie kept cutting down monsters one after another while she was doing that.

「Fuhahaha, with this the match today will end with my victory again!」

Alfie said that while cutting down monsters one after another as  though she was dancing. Mariela thought that she looked beautiful.

Mariela shook her head.

(It’s a bit frustrating. I need to watch Ponsuke at this kind of time――)

Ponsuke was an orc.

To be more accurate, he was using an orc avatar.

It was an unpopular race in Pandora’s Box. A race that was treated like a joke.

Few players used orc as their avatar, even so Mariela was one of the players that had seen Ponsuke from close by until now.

Although her history of playing game wasn’t long, there was one thing that she understood clearly.

Orc was……Ponsuke was strong.

「Oraa, mushroom bastards! Come at meee! ――Ah, don’t use the abnormal status attack!」

Ponsuke whined. It didn’t suit his outer appearance that looked like a savage.

However, his left hand held up a large shield and his right hand was holding a large sword.

His huge body that was easily taller than two meters was fighting  against a mushroom monster that was more than four meter tall. He was  defending against the enemy’s whip attacks while cutting with his sword.

It was an extremely plain way of fighting. Even so the damage that he  was piling up on the enemy rivaled the damage that several average  players could deal when they were using their attack skill.

And then Ponsuke drew back his left hand. His left arm and shield  started shining before they slammed on the monster that was the  subjugation target of the quest this time. The boss was sent flying.

Alfie who finished defeating the monsters protecting the boss whistled while tapping her sword on her shoulder.

「He’s reliable like usual. Even so, why is orc so hated like that?  Just from watching this you can see that they can be relied on.」

Ponsuke wasn’t weak as could be seen from how he was fighting boss monster one on one.

There was a need to think about compatibility and countermeasure  because this was a game, but orc was a race that could fight well as  long as the player didn’t slack off in that regard.

Mariela could see Ponsuke’s right shoulder and a part of his back  from behind him. She felt shivers running through her body seeing those  burly muscles.

(E-eh?)

Even she herself didn’t understand this feeling of excitement.

At first the three of them only formed this party as fellow beginner,  but recently she couldn’t imagine forming a party with anyone else than  these two.

Alfie muttered.

「Ah, it’s over.」

Ponsuke raised his sword, then he kicked on the ground and jumped. He  displayed an outrageous jumping strength before his sword shined and he  swung it down.

The damage went over the determined value. With that the quest boss vanished.

Red light particles scattered to the surrounding. Mariela felt the wind blowing and her hair fluttered.

The out of breath Ponsuke let out a war cry. Coupled with the setting sun as the background, he struck a powerful figure.

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Night.

The three had returned to the Capital of Temperance and reported the quest’s completion to the guild to receive their reward.

Ponsuke felt relieved.

「The quest’s difficulty level is low for our level, but the earning is good.」

It was a quest to defeat mushroom monsters at the grassland, but a boss also came out and it had a lot of subordinates.

They also dropped a lot of items that could be consumed or sold.

There were a lot of drop items, so they fetched for quite a price even though the selling price was low.

Currently Alfie’s level at 65 was a bit higher than the others, but both Ponsuke and Mariela had also reached over sixty.

This quest’s difficulty level was low for their level, but it was just right for the three of them right now.

After all the three of them were considered as casual players by  their surrounding――they were players who didn’t prioritize advancing  through the game quickly. Instead they were focusing on having fun as  could be seen from how their race, job, and skill composition weren’t  really optimized.

They shared the reward between the three of them. Then Ponsuke thought.

(Now then, I wonder when we’re going to catch up to the frontline where Rook is.)

Alfie hugged Ponsuke’s thick arm.

「Ponsuke, let’s go to the Capital of Hope quickly. You promised.」

It might look like she was intentionally pressing her chest on him, but Ponsuke was calm.

(Calm down, this is fake. In other words they’re fake breasts. You mustn’t be happy about it. But, soft……)

The case of female avatar being male player at the inside wasn’t rare.

In fact, in Ponsuke’s eyes these two were too beautiful. What if it  was the result of some obsessed players giving their all to create their  ideal woman……it was possible they might be male in actuality.

(Well, it’s fine even if it turn out that they’re male. The most important thing is that we can have fun playing together.)

Ponsuke tore away Alfie from his arm and shook his head.

「The Capital of Hope is for tomorrow. We already planned to eat at the Capital of Temperance today.」

Alfie puffed her cheeks and protested but, Mariela slightly looked up and fell into thought.

「But, where’ll we eat? The restaurant before this was a failure.」

They chose a restaurant of an inn but, the menu there only had things like bean soup or boiled potato.

The meal there couldn’t be called delicious even as flattery. It disappointed the three of them.

The disappointed Alfie recalled that time and grumbled.

「The dev sometimes do this kind of thing. There can be hit or miss  like this……as I thought, perhaps we should take a look at the  walkthrough?」

There were a lot of game guide sites for a game as popular as Pandora.

Even information magazine had articles about Pandora, so it would be simple to search for a good restaurant.

「But you know, it’s nice to search on your own like this even if  there is hit and miss. We investigated beforehand when it came to  fighting monster or the like, but it will be boring if we do that for  everything.」

Mariela suggested to search for restaurant on their own even if they would fail sometimes.

The biggest problem in immersive game like this was mental fatigue.

The players couldn’t keep doing nothing but fighting the whole time.  And even if they could, the only ones doing something like that were  just players who prioritized clearing the game.

Even in battle, when player chose to attack, the character wouldn’t  move on its own. The player had to make their own decision. Timing, the  constantly changing situation of the surrounding……it couldn’t be helped  that player would feel mental fatigue.

For now Ponsuke decided to head to a shop that they had never visited before this.

「How about we go to a restaurant that is being run by player?」

Alfie looked displeased by Ponsuke’s suggestion.

「It was a miss when we did that the last time, so I don’t want to.  Let’s go to a restaurant that is being run by NPC. They’re more  constant.」

It was possible for player to open their own shop.

But, the problem of player offering service inside the game was that  their customer would also be player who was enjoying the game.

There were players who were obsessed with providing the best service.

But there were also players with bad manner. There were also players  who would do something like giving a different thing than what the  customer ordered or doing something that was no different than fraud.

Ponsuke recalled the restaurant that they visited before.

「Yeah, that restaurant didn’t tell us that there was service charge  and ripped us off when it was time to pay. That was horrible.」

Mariela also agreed with Ponsuke’s words.

「That was a big miss. It made me wanted to ask him why he even bother  to open a restaurant. It’s not like I want to have a restaurant myself  but, that was irritating as a fellow cook.」

Alfie pointed at Mariela and laughed.

「A cook!? Say that after you can make better food.」

「You want to have a go, aaaa!」

The three were laughing and quarreling while walking through the  Capital of Temperance that was enveloped in fantastical light at night.

◇

A girl opened her eyes.

She slowly opened her eyelids inside her dark room.

The temperature of the room was adjusted so her body wouldn’t sweat.

But, she felt somewhat excited. It was as though the fun atmosphere was still lingering inside herself.

She took off the VR machine’s headset. Her long brown hair rustled.

The girl with a similar look like Alfie got out of bed and stretched.

「It was fun too today.」

She took a deep breath and recalled her experience in the virtual world.

Her name was [Ichinose Maya].

A young lady who went to the same school with Akito.

Unlike Alfie’s unfettered personality, here she was giving off a calm  atmosphere. She took off her pajama and changed into her uniform.

She checked her uniformed appearance on the mirror before she touched the mirror.

She touched the place where her face was reflected, and then she sighed.

「……I want to play more.」

Maya’s standing at school was a bit unique. She felt her mood sinking.

The more she enjoyed her time at the virtual world……her time with her  friends there, the more painful the real world became for her.

Nevertheless she couldn’t become a shut-in because of that.

After all she could only login for two hours per day.

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At school.

Each class was made up from a few boys and girls.

The students who came to school exchanged greeting and talked with their friends.

Among them, Akito too was talking with Rook……[Aoba Riku]. They both were watching a tablet.

Riku had his hair dyed and wore his uniform sloppily like a delinquent, but to Akito he was a kind friend.

Riku was a sportsman in the past, but he couldn’t continue playing  baseball because he had no talent and gave it up. That was the boy  called Riku.

Perhaps that influenced him to dye his hair and dress sloppily, Akito thought although he didn’t say it out loud.

Right now these two were watching a video of a recording that was taken inside Pandora.

The player inside the video was showing a movement that made it hard to believe that avatar was being moved by a human.

「I can’t believe he countered from that position.」

The player was repeatedly doing inhuman feat against a powerful  monster. There was the Counter skill that Akito also used among the  feats.

That technique was hard to use, but the player in the video was using it in succession as though it was the easiest thing to do.

Riku explained proudly.

「How’s that. You can’t underestimate casual players because even they  have someone like this. You should polish your player skill too. After  all you’re using disadvantaged race like that.」

Player skill referred to the player’s own ability, separate from the avatar’s level, jobs, skill setting and equipments.

In immersive game, gap between players could widen from this.

No matter how optimal the avatar’s setting was, it would be pointless if the player couldn’t handle it.

「No, but I can only finally succeed sixty or seventy percent of the  time when I’m on the defensive. It’s practically impossible for me to  move like this.」

Akito was doubting whether the player in the video was really human like him.

Riku stopped the video and put the tablet inside his desk.

「Well, we won’t be able to play the game for a while so we have free  time. Even my workplace will close shop and do major cleanup and machine  maintenance.」

Riku was working part-time at a VR cafe――a facility that had VR machines for rent where customers could play game.

Quite a lot of people used such place, but apparently the customer  traffic would get affected by Pandora’s Box Garden stopping service  temporarily because of the large scale update.

「You will get busy when the service restart.」

「Yeah. That’s why……during the summer holiday, can you help out there?  It’ll be just for several days. The manager also said that he will pay  extra.」

Akito thought about what he should do about this request. It was then  Maya entered the classroom. Her dignified atmosphere and the way she  walked were really pretty.

She was the board chairman’s daughter, an elite who originally should be enrolled to a better school.

But, because of that there was a wall formed between her and the rest of the students inside the classroom.

The boys and girls tried to not get involved with Maya too much. No, they couldn’t.

Riku laughed a little.

「It’s hard for the president too huh. Come to think of it, recently you sometimes talked with her right?」

Akito recently got into a talking relationship with such Maya, even so he often felt the wall between Maya and him.

「Well, a little bit……」

As he worried whether he should call to her or not, the homeroom teacher entered the classroom.

Akito watched Maya from behind. He felt a vague familiarity from her figure. But he didn’t understand why he felt that.

He wasn’t particularly close with her. He simply talked a bit more often with her compared to the other classmates.

(……Is it because I’m talking with her more often?)

Akito didn’t find any answer for his puzzlement.

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Ponsuke(｀・ω・´) 「Orc is treated like a joke, but it’s actually amazing!」

Other orc(*´ω｀) 「Yeah……orc is amazing. It’s strong against strike, so you can get whipped as many times as you want.」

Other orc(*´ω｀*) 「The NPCs are also scorning them, so it’s the best avatar for hardcore M.」

Ponsuke(´・ω・｀) 「……No, that’s not what I mean by amazing, it’s plainly strong and stuffs. I’m serious. Please believe me.」

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