Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 3

Friendship Meter

The wind that was blowing through the grassland at night carried a bit of coldness with it.

The realism of the environment was unbelievable for a virtual world. Ponsuke was standing there with a feeling of shame.

(How did it turn out like this……)

Rook stabbed his great sword into the ground in front of Ponsuke, Alfie, and Mariela as he explained their plan going forward.

「Friendship meter. It’s influenced greatly by how much time the  players spends together with each other. Other than that there are also  other factors, like how complicated the teamwork that you have done  together.」

The beginner quest.

It was something really simple where the quest taker only needed to do some very basic things inside the game.

Go shopping, make preparation, go outside and fight monster.

Then return and rest at an inn, and last reporting to the guild about the quest’s completion.

There was no problem with resting at the inn.

But because Ponsuke was an orc which was a race that was hated by a  lot of other races, the important requirement of doing teamwork in  battle hadn’t been fulfilled.

The quest couldn’t be cleared until that was done.

Alfie tilted her head.

「We haven’t partied together for long, and we can’t use teamwork.  Does that mean we won’t be able to increase our friendship meter?」

In contrast Mariela was relaxed.

「I just want to clear the beginner quest, so I don’t mind even if it takes some times for it.」

Rook interrupted her.

「That’s no good. I can accompany Ponsuke in this world only for today  and tomorrow……in other words only for two hours in real world’s time.  I’ll have to join back with my friends starting from tomorrow of the  real world’s time.」

Rook also had his own friends inside the game.

He might not be a top player but, as expected he couldn’t just act separately from them all the time.

「If possible I want to get the item before joining up with them……it  was me who told them that the quota is for each person to bring one.」

Ponsuke said what was in his mind.

「So it’s just for your personal reason.」

But Rook completely ignored Ponsuke’s words.

「And so! We’re going to increase the friendship meter even if we need  to overdo it a little. Our target is 20! The teamwork will activate  just barely if you have that much.」

That was the minimum requirement so the teamwork would activate just barely, but we didn’t have much time to do that.

Alfie looked around.

「Rather than that shouldn’t we return back to the city? We’re going to rest at inn anyway. Let’s finish that up first.」

Usage of inn inside the game was often underestimated.

In fact among the top players there was also a group that hunted  monsters while also taking into account of the demerit that was caused  by not resting.

But other players than them didn’t want to fight while being inflicted with the demerit.

(Alfie-san is using paid items, so I thought she’s aiming to be a top player but, it looks like that’s not the case.)

Mariela was also eager for that option.

「Come to think of it, there won’t be any problem to gorge ourselves  when eating in virtual world right? Then let’s go to the inn already.」

Rook looked slightly troubled.

「No, but the monster’s appearance rate increase when it’s night……well, I guess we can just do it tomorrow.」

*

The inns inside the Capital of Hope had a lot of variation partly because this city had a lot of beginners.

Player could choose from something like a large room to a room for a party of four.

Naturally there was also an option of a single room, but Rook chose a room for four people.

Was it alright to choose a four people room even though half of them  were female(?)? There was such problem but, but this was inside a game  and an inappropriate contact would cause alarm to ring out.

In an ugly case it might get reported to the game master……GM and the offender’s account would be removed.

Rook chose an inn that he used when he was still a beginner and introduced it to the other three in front of the entrance.

「This inn only has four people room but, the first floor also  function as dining hall so we can eat even without going outside. The  place’s appearance look old but as an inn it’s a relatively good find――」

Alfie responded to Rook’s explanation with a sentence.

「A more luxurious inn will be better.」

「……Eh?」

Alfie continued.

「No, I’ll be able to get quite a lot of money if I sell my paid  items. And if we’re going to stay in an inn then I think a single room  will be more suitable. Even though this is just a game, not having  privacy is a little bit…」

Mariela also looked reluctant.

「This inn’s location is too secluded. How about going to cleaner inn near the main street?」

Ponsuke also had something that bothered him.

「To be honest, if possible I want to eat outside.」

Rook’s shoulders trembled from facing the opinions that were all over the place.

「Eh? Rook?」

The next moment, Rook’s fist slammed onto Ponsuke’s stomach.

「Just me!?」

They were in the city so it didn’t cause any damage. The punch only blown away Ponsuke a little.

Warning signs appeared around Rook because he attacked another player.

「Listen well. We need to increase the friendship meter until tomorrow  no matter what. For that the simplest way is to sleep and eat together!  Other than that Ponsuke also need to become the girls’ shield in  battle.」

Ponsuke slowly got back on his feet. He rubbed his stomach.

(It doesn’t hurt but, it feels strange somehow.)

「But, I’ve been the tank already for this whole day you know? If the friendship meter can increase by doing that――」

Rook held his hand in front of Ponsuke’s face and stopped him from talking further.

「Simply put, it’s pointless if you only protect them from weak  monster. I’ll make you three fight high level monster that will be  slightly troublesome for this party’s current strength. The most  effective way is to fight a field boss and win though. It will raise  your friendship meter by 5 for sure. Or rather normally doing that will  increase the friendship meter until 30 if only Ponsuke isn’t an orc!」

Rook looked like he wanted to cry. Ponsuke scratched his head awkwardly.

「Umm, sorry.」

Rook calmed himself down and apologized to Ponsuke.

「No, I was also at fault. I never expected that you would choose a joke race……」

Seeing the two’s exchange seemed to make Alfie and Mariela to be exasperated and also resigned. They agreed to use this inn too.

*

The inn that Rook chose looked slightly old at the outside but that wasn’t the case at the inside.

A lamp was hanging from a wooden pillar. It illuminated the inside of the room brightly.

「Welcome~! Do you want room for……four people?」

The NPC poster girl’s expression twitched slightly when she saw Ponsuke.

An NPC was able to react with such detailed emotion. It made Ponsuke thought that he couldn’t make light of this game while…….

(Just what kind of beef the management has with orc?)

A manufacturing that was this detailed and realistic made him felt fed up instead.

Alfie looked outside the window and saw that it had become dark.

「Looks like it’s just the right time. How about we eat?」

Mariela saw the nearby round table and turned her gaze toward Ponsuke.

「All the tables and chairs here look too small for Ponsuke-san though?」

In respond Rook said that there was no problem and put his left hand  over the round table. Then the round table widened and in addition one  of the chairs grew bigger for Ponsuke’s use.

「The furniture can automatically adjust itself for you. It will react  right away when someone in the party touch it. Now then, leave the  ordering to me. I know the best menu here.」

Rook ordered food with full confidence. When the food he ordered was  brought to their table, Ponsuke gave the large sausage a try.

The sausage was only grilled, but the meat juice flooded out and the chewy texture was delicious.

「Ah, this is tasty.」

Rook looked pleased.

「Right? Apparently it has natural taste. If I remember right……I heard  that they reproduced the taste of the foreign country where it came  from.」

Mariela ate seafood salad while narrowing her eyes slightly.

「The taste that you can’t get from anywhere anymore huh. But it’s amazing that they can reproduce it.」

Alfie ate with an elegant manner that suited her outer appearance.

「Apparently the data of past food has been continuously passed down  until now in order to make synthesis food easier to eat. Perhaps this is  an application of that? But this is really amazing. Though it bothers  me that you order quite a lot of greasy food.」

It seemed that to Alfie a lot of the foods looked greasy.

Rook looked at the other players inside the dining hall while putting down his jockey. However its content was just juice.

He was restricted from taste of things like alcohol because he still wasn’t of age.

「This is why there are also a lot of elderly players here, because  they want to enjoy the nostalgic taste. But just going to a virtual  world that is specialized for eating is also wearisome. If they’re going  to virtual anyway they might as well go with Pandora’s Box. There are a  lot of people who are like that.」

VR game was a place where people regardless of gender and age were playing for their own reason.

Then Ponsuke saw the last food that was brought to their table and felt shocked.

「Amazing! It’s manga meat!」

It was manga meat, where meat was wrapped around a single large bone.

Ponsuke got very interested seeing it.

The portion of the meat was for several people, but Alfie went  through the trouble of cutting up the meat with knife before eating it.

「……I don’t think the taste is anything worth getting excited about though?」

Mariela watched Rook sinking his teeth into the meat while laughing a bit.

「Man really like this kind of thing huh. Even so……」

Ponsuke held the meat with both hands from the ends of the bone. He  then opened his mouth wide and bit into it. The food didn’t feel filling  in this virtual world, so he felt like he could keep eating forever.

The taste and scent of spices along with meat juice flooded inside his mouth when he bit into the meat.

Oil dripped down on the table, but it slowly vanished as it spilled  down from the edge. It made him realized once more that this world  wasn’t real, but the inside of his mouth was filled with the piping hot  meat.

(This is beyond my imagination)

Rook was also devouring his meat with gusto while speaking about his game knowledge.

「It was horrible at the beginning you know? There was also a time  when everything tasted flavorless no matter what you ate or drank. Then  there was the large scale update after the World of Gluttony was  cleared……ngu. After that everything related to food became greatly  improved.」

Ponsuke finished eating his manga meat, then he saw Alfie and Mariela staring fixedly at him.

「What?」

Mariela spoke with a tone that sounded a little creeped out.

「It scares me how orc-like you are.」

The way Ponsuke devoured his manga meat with his orc appearance  suited him too much and looked too realistic that it scared them.

「Ee~, aa~……I’ll watch myself next time.」

Then Alfie smiled a little.

「There’s no need. After all it’s a sight that you can’t see in real  life. Even so, I’m worried that the synthesis food cooking in the real  world will taste bland after eating the food here.」

Rook finished his meal and wiped his mouth.

「Actually I heard there are a lot of people who become like that.  But, recently the natural food product has increased. Even so as  expected we’re still relying a lot on synthesis food.」

The four finished eating and chatted for a while before going up to the second floor and entered the room that they rented.

*

The room had two bunk beds lined up. Ponsuke was sleeping on the bottom bed.

His body was big but the bed could accommodate him without trouble.

Rook was sleeping above him.

It was quiet.

Ponsuke and Rook were conversing with each other inside that  quietness. They weren’t chatting audibly but using the call function.

『Normally the inn just get ignored isn’t it? I heard that the top players doesn’t really use it.』

Rook pondered for a bit before answering.

『That’s because our style is to have fun while clearing the  frontline. Even if I’m hunting until late at night with my fellow guild  member, we’ll definitely make use of inn. Well, you’ll be considered  rested if you sleep for five hours. It will also remove the demerit  then.』

The demerit [lack of sleep] slowed the player’s stamina and mana  recovery rate. Other than that it also lengthened the recast time of  skill and weakening all of the player’s abilities.

Rook spoke to Ponsuke.

『This world is great. After all you will be rewarded for your hard  work. It doesn’t stifle you like reality. After all in the real world  we’re always told it’s pointless if you don’t have talent.』

『Talent……isn’t player skill also a kind of talent?』

Rook looked just a little uninterested when Ponsuke said that.

『Kind of, but anyone can learn it to some degree if they train. Ah,  that’s right. Do you know? The players who often move their body daily  find out that it also helps in the VR game.』

Ponsuke felt puzzled by Rook’s words.

『Even though it’s a game?』

『This is a virtual world after all. Those guys who understand how to  move their body can move really well here. There are even those among  the sickos who go as far as joining sports gym and train. As for me I’m  training by myself.』

(That’s unexpected. But, now that he mention it, it might be true.)

Rook laughed a little.

『But there are also those with the completely opposite pattern. Like  those guys who are late bloomer? They’re people who can move super well  only inside game. Well, it also depends on their play time though.』

It seemed that getting used to living inside the game was really important.

Ponsuke fell asleep without realizing it while they were having such talk.

*

The next day.

Rook led the party from early in the morning to a place that didn’t have any monster like slime.

「Give! I give up, give up!」

An orc was getting chased around by kobolds with club and goblins with bow.

Ponsuke was desperately running around even though he already looked beaten up at the outside.

「It’s fine! You’re level 3 now! You can endure most attack! Reduce  your HP until the red zone and then get the girls to heal you in turn!  Raise the friendship meter as much as you can!」

Rook was saying that from afar, but for Ponsuke it wasn’t any different from tossing him alone into a crowd of monster.

He turned around and raised his left hand, then he bashed the  approaching kobold with his shield. The shield and his left hand got  enveloped in a faint light. It notified him of his skill’s activation.

「Shield Bash!」

The kobold got blown away. It then turned into light particles and vanished……but.

「GYAAAAAA!! Arrows are comingggg!!」

A volley from the goblins caused Ponsuke’s body to be riddled with arrows.

The damage was simply painful.

Alfie was waving her hand from afar.

「Do your bee~st」

Ponsuke thought inside his heart.

(You actually don’t care at all about me right! You hate me just like your low friendship meter said!)

Alfie was smiling happily. To Ponsuke it looked like she was enjoying the current situation somewhat.

The orc Ponsuke kept running even with a lot of arrows sticking into his body.

Additionally the kobolds and goblins chasing after him were around  level 4 to 6. Ponsuke could fight them using orc’s high parameter, but  it didn’t change the fact that they were higher level than him.

Rook explained leisurely.

「Keep fighting alone like that and increase the friendship meter!  Also it’s easier to increase your proficiency by fighting stronger  enemy. Well, it’s only a minute difference though.」

Mariela heard that.

「Eh? Then perhaps I should also tried sniping the monster from here?」

Rook stopped Mariela from attacking the monsters from afar.

「No, don’t. The aggro……the attention of the monsters will turn at us.  Right now it’s best for Ponsuke to fight as vanguard while protecting  us.」

Ponsuke yelled.

「You called it protecting, but this is just you throwing me to the middle of enemies! This is unforgivable!」

Someone who made others fight while they were just watching from afar  could easily become hated. Such play style would cause the person to be  treated as parasite.

But friendship meter increased very easily in such scenario.

Mariela checked her friendship meter and yelled.

「Amazing! It already reached 13!」

Ponsuke thought.

(The game’s friendship meter might rise, but the friendship meter  inside me is dropping to rock bottom! Ah! There’s warning cautioning me  of my HP entering red zone……)

Certainly this method proved effective to increase the friendship  meter inside the game, but it also brought the problem of making you get  hated in the real world.

*

「You did it Ponsuke-san. The friendship meter between Ponsuke-san and me is 22 now.」

Alfie reported happily, but Ponsuke was sitting down on the spot to take a break while healing his wound.

There was no problem with his HP and MP. But his mind was tired.

「I see.」

(The friendship meter for Alfie-san inside me is really low though.)

Ponsuke thought that he wouldn’t have a problem playing together with  her even if she was actually a middle-aged man in the inside. But now  he really wanted to disband the party quickly.

(Shit! But it became like this because I chose a joke race……a part of  me is feeling guilty, so I can’t really tell her my mind. Frustrating!)

Rook looked toward Mariela.

「How about you?」

Mariela shook her head.

「No good. The number won’t go up past 18 at all. Is this thing broken?」

It wasn’t a bug of the system or anything.

It was the setting that the relationship between orc and elf in the society here was especially bad.

「Orc and elf has bad affinity after all. Perhaps we can do something about it if we spend a bit more time but……」

Ponsuke hung his head.

「Do I have to get chased around again?」

Then Rook lifted his head and looked at far away.

He had a serious look. So serious that Ponsuke couldn’t make fun of him.

「What’s wrong?」

Rook unsheathed his great sword as Ponsuke stood up.

「……This is bad. It’s the area boss. If it’s just the field boss then ready yourself to fight.」

They could see a monster slowly approaching from afar.

Alfie also looked slightly flustered.

「Isn’t it a bit too big?」

Mariela was also surprised. She looked like she wanted to flee.

「It’s impact is a bit different from other monster.」

Area boss――it was higher ranked than even the field boss.

If the average level of the surrounding monster was 5, the field boss had the strength of around level 7 to 9.

But an area boss was even higher than that……they were as strong as level 12 to 15.

The monster that was slowly approaching had thick fur and walked on all four.

It had a long nose and large fangs growing from its mouth.

It was a monster that looked similar to mammoth in the real world.

「L-let’s run away.」

Ponsuke said that. But Rook shook his head.

「Impossible. The damn thing is targeting us. It will pursue even if  we run away, and it will break into a run if we are too far from it and  catch up. Dammit……spare me from death penalty. My original level will go  down.」

It seemed that Rook thought it was possible our party would get  annihilated. He looked frustrated that his original level might go down.

Ponsuke and others also readied their weapon.

「Even though I’ve finally reached level 4.」

Alfie also looked disappointed.

「Indeed. Well, I’m level 6 thanks to my paid items though.」

Mariela also readied her bow. And then she counted her arrow.

「You’re occasionally making snide comment or boasting aren’t you?」

Rook desperately thought.

「Two level 4 and one of them is orc……a level 6 with paid items might actually rival level 10……it might be possible.」

And then he yelled.

「Check the number of your healing item! Ponsuke, I have item that can  give buff. Go to the front and endure its attack no matter what.  Alfie-san and me will attack it from the sides.」

「Eh!?」

The orc Ponsuke looked at the approaching monster before them.

It was more than 6 meter no matter how he looked at it. It was twice the size of Ponsuke.

「……I don’t think I can do it.」

Rook smiled. But there was desperation somewhere in his eyes.

「It’s fine! You can do it! Or rather do it! I absolutely don’t wanna  to get hit with death penalty! Who knows what my teammates will say to  me if I get back like that!」

「That’s not my business!」

Everyone readied their weapon to challenge the area boss.

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