NOVEL NEXT chapter 79
Chapter 79
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“We never intended to turn to crime in the first place…” said the apparent leader of the Night Demon Burners as he removed his mohawk wig and began to speak.
So that mohawk was a wig, or rather, an equipment item? I thought it was their real hair.
Come to think of it, Fake-moto seems to have disappeared, probably having fled in the confusion earlier.
I hope he doesn’t go around impersonating Yamamoto and causing trouble again…
Well, never mind Fake-moto. Let’s focus back on the Night Demon Burners.
“Originally, we planned to be traveling merchants on the human side in LIA. Even if it was impossible in real life, we wanted to try making money through business in the game, to become wealthy, to rise up… We were playing LIA with those hopes.”
“Why did such hopeful folk fall to being bandits?” Tsuna asked.
Yeah, that’s what I want to know too.
The leader hung his head in frustration.
Huh? Was there some heavy reason behind it?
“Our business didn’t go well, and we ended up in debt…!”
What a reasonable explanation!
Or rather, it’s entirely their own fault!
There’s no way to defend becoming bandits… or rather, a rampaging group, because of that!
“To begin with, the Kingdom of Farland is peaceful, so there wasn’t much need for supplies from mere traveling merchants…”
“Even if we brought local crafts to the royal capital or Second, they didn’t sell well…”
“And when we tried to sell modern cuisine using knowledge cheats, those dishes were already commonly available in LIA…”
“We couldn’t find any way to make money…”
Your research skills are utterly lacking!
You should have investigated more thoroughly before becoming merchants!
Being a merchant isn’t something you just start on a whim!
“Why did you use [Yamamoto Style] for evil deeds?” Tsuna inquired.
“As we aimed to be traveling merchants, we first bought a carriage to look the part.”
Starting with appearances!?
That seems fundamentally wrong from the start!
“But now we’re in the midst of a death game. We were looking for self-defense methods in case we were attacked by PKers or monsters. That’s when we found [Yamamoto Style] while searching through the skill list.”
Ah, yeah.
You did well to find it among the vast number of skills.
I suppose that’s impressive?
“[Yamamoto Style] stood out for its unique ability to attack with vehicles from level 1. To us traveling merchants with carriages, it seemed like a godsend…!”
Well, I suppose if you’ve bought an expensive carriage and realize it can be used for both transportation and physical attacks, it might seem like killing two birds with one stone?
But wouldn’t using a carriage for attacks rapidly decrease its durability?
My carriage doesn’t have a durability value, perhaps due to my racial trait, but normal weapons and armor have durability, right?
“We acquired [Yamamoto Style] and got carried away using [Hit-and-Run Attack] repeatedly… until we totaled our carriage! As a result, we were left with nothing but debt!”
Come on, you should have realized that!
You should have checked if the carriage would break or how much the durability would decrease before trying it!
“We shared information on the traveling merchants’ bulletin board, so there were a few others in similar situations. We put our heads together and came up with the idea of monopolizing Rapoo materials. We decided to ride Rapoos and use [Hit-and-Run Attack] as a group to drive out adventurers and monopolize Rapoo materials. In the process, we might have extorted money and goods from adventurers…”
Yeah, that’s obviously what happened.
Or rather, since there are victims, it’s a certainty, right? Why are you trying to gloss over it a bit?
“You guys are the worst,” Tsuna cut in mercilessly.
He’s as blunt as Benkei’s great slash.
Though Tsuna’s not exactly a paragon of virtue either, you know? Being criticized by someone like Tsuna means you’ve really messed up.
“T-the worst…”
“W-what do you know! How could someone like you who’s never been in debt understand how we feel!”
Hey, the fact that you’re getting angry about this shows you don’t understand!
Shouldn’t you normally find a business opportunity before starting a full-fledged business?
Instead, you started with appearances by buying a carriage, had no real ideas about what to sell, and on top of that, destroyed the carriage without even checking its durability…
I really don’t understand at all!
If this is meant to be an attack that destroys my brain, it’s quite effective!
My head is in total confusion!
“I guess it was too much for complete amateurs to try walking a new path in life through LIA…”
The Night Demon Burners slumped in dejection.
Hm? Could it be…
“I just realized… Are you all VRMMO beginners by any chance?”
“Eh, ah… S-so what if we are!”
“Is there something wrong with being beginners?!”
“Everyone has to start somewhere!”
Ah, yeah.
I think I’m starting to understand why they’re so hopeless.
LIA had become a social phenomenon as a game that could let you experience a new world.
I remember the news about how even people who don’t usually play games had applied for the initial lottery.
So, without knowing the ropes, they just jumped in and started playing… is that it?
The game’s catchphrase about walking a new path in life was prominently displayed, and believing in that, they started playing as traveling merchants without doing any research—leading to their current situation.
Hmm.
Honestly, I don’t think their current situation deserves even a millimeter of sympathy, but if their failure is due to being unfamiliar with VRMMORPGs, I feel like maybe it’s not entirely their fault?
You know, because the environment turned into a death game, it became difficult to trust people casually, and the death game situation has also slowed down the update of in-game strategy information.
I think there’s been a loss of opportunities to access accurate information.
Moreover, they probably don’t even know the basic useful skills for VRMMORPGs, and someone kind should have taught them those things from the start, right?
But it seems they weren’t fortunate enough to have such opportunities.
That’s probably because they didn’t actively seek out information themselves, but it might also be due to the poor quality of human players in general…
Though I wonder why I have to think about this.
Or is this also some kind of fate?
Sigh…
“Well, I understand the situation now that I’ve heard your story. [Yamamoto Style] is not suitable for you. Therefore, I hereby expel you from the school right now.”
▶ [Expulsion] has been registered to [Yamamoto Style].
▶ The skill [Yamamoto Style] has been deleted from the target players.
The affected players will have 4 SP returned to them.
From now on, it will be impossible to acquire [Yamamoto Style].
“T-the [Yamamoto Style] disappeared!?”
“I was just about to reach level 3!”
“Hey, what’s the deal with this expulsion!?”
Hold on, I’m the one who wants to ask questions here!
And I feel like [Yamamoto Style] has gained another useless skill…
For now, I’ll change the skill name from [Expulsion] to [Student Expulsion] since [Expulsion] might be mistaken for an attack skill.
“Alright, alright, calm down everyone.”
I try to soothe the agitated Night Demon Burners while drawing their attention.
Come to think of it, for a group calling themselves a rampaging gang, they’re surprisingly obedient. Maybe they were just putting on an act to look intimidating?
Now that I think about it, they weren’t really that scary… were they?
“From now on, I’d like to teach you all the basic knowledge of VRMMORPGs. I’ll explain useful skills, ways to make money, how to gain experience, and other things that people who have played VRMMORPGs before would typically know.”
“W-what good will that do?!”
“It’ll help you live honestly. You don’t really want to keep living as criminals, do you? The mohawks were probably just props to disguise your identities, right?”
“Ugh! That’s…”
“So, for now, learn how to play VRMMORPGs properly, and if you find a business opportunity after that, you can become traveling merchants or whatever you want. Anyway, please learn how to live without causing trouble for others at the very least… That’s what Yamamoto-san is saying too!”
As I say this, everyone’s gaze turns to Tsuna at once.
“Indeed,” Tsuna nods magnanimously, unfazed by their stares.
Tsuna can be surprisingly broad-minded at times.
And so, Tsuna and I team up to explain the common knowledge of VRMMORPGs to the Night Demon Burners.
We start with explaining convenient skills like [Storage] and [Appraisal], then advise them to take weapon assist skills if they’re confident in their physical abilities, or to learn magic if they’re not athletic. We inform them that items obtained through [Gathering] or [Mining] can be sold at the Commerce Guild or on the World Market, and that processing materials with [Compounding] or [Alchemy] can increase their value… We cover these basic topics.
The Night Demon Burners listen to our explanation as if scales are falling from their eyes.
Well, they might have been dreaming of playing as traveling merchants by exploiting regional differences in goods distribution in a real fantasy world. But in the early stages of the game, the Kingdom of Farland has enjoyed a long period of peace, so goods are relatively well-distributed, and there’s little demand for traveling merchants.
So we clearly explain that if they want to do that kind of thing, they need to progress in the game and cross continents, or if they just want to get rich, they should either accumulate wealth by buying and selling goods as merchants or become producers of rare items.
We also repeatedly emphasize that since they’ve definitely committed crimes, they should perform good deeds to atone for their sins if they have the opportunity.
I also made sure to tell them, “If you commit crimes again, I’ll turn you into [Splinters] the moment I find you,” and demonstrated by pulverizing a nearby bamboo. I hope this will deter them from returning to crime.
In the end, the meeting lasted about four hours before concluding.
By the end, they had started calling me God, but I’ll ignore that since it’s too late to correct them now…
The rest depends on how they think and act from here on out…
Well, judging from their facial expressions, they seem to have a glimmer of hope, so I’d like to think they’ll be okay.
All that’s left is to pray that [Splinter] won’t need to make an appearance.
…
Maybe I should prepare some [Resurrection Potion], just in case there’s a slight possibility it might be needed…