Ch.80 Helping People is a Beginning of a Story, And a Confusing Dragon-kin.

Talking Tsu-tan's POV

I should buy some new weapons, then some new armor...oh, I also need to replenish my potions.

Thinking while washing my hands.

On my way home from school, a friend invited me on a quest.

Apparently we'll decide what quest we'll do when we meet, so I'm not sure yet, but it will be some kind of subjugation mission. If so, I need to get ready for that.

"I messed up quite a bit yesterday..."

I went into my room, put on the VR headgear, lay down on the bed, and turned on the power switch located at my temples.

Yesterday I tried to defeat the area boss alone, but I was defeated miserably. It made me realize that I shouldn't underestimate it.

The boss of the Area 1 was a slug about half the height of a human. It was dozens or even hundreds of times larger than a normal slug, but it was so far removed from the image of a boss that I had in my mind, to the point that I wondered if it was actually a boss.

It wasn't intimidating and it's movements were slow, so it seemed like an opponent I could easily defeat. That's why I challenged it, but...

"That split was terrible."

There's no way that a simple monster could be called a boss and rise to the top of an area.

If it has the title of area boss, then it must have the strength to match that position. It's obvious without even thinking about it.

Yet, I attacked it because it looked weak.

The area boss on the first server was a giant turtle, the third server was a group of fairly large ants, the fourth server was a large praying mantis, and the fifth server was a giant slime.

Even though it was the very first area, an area with many beginners, it was filled with monsters that clearly had no intention of letting you win.

When I actually went there and saw it with my own eyes, the slugs on the second server looked the easiest, so I went to try to defeat it, but I was easily defeated.

Surprisingly, attacks using weapons were completely ineffective against the slugs.

Its body is protected by bodily fluids or something that won't allow weapons to hit it, so any sword that touches it becomes slippery and it's so troublesome. And what's worse, the blade would melt when it touches it.

And it also had the ability to split. Yeah, that's nasty. Not a good three-way combo.

The slugs split and increased in number, and then all of them, including the new individuals, fought back against me.

As a result, I got beaten up down to 0 HP.

My weapons melted and fell to pieces. My armor was also melted and full of holes. Everything was rendered useless. It was a terrible day.

◇◆◇

After a one-minute wait, my VR headgear starts up normally and the logo of the company that made the VR headgear is displayed.

The logo, written on a brown antique door leaning on its side, looks almost like a painting. In large letters it read: Torui Co., Ltd.

The word "Torui" comes from the word "trompe l'oeil" which means "optical illusion" in French.

Torui Co., Ltd., famous for the VR game series "Mystery of Life," apparently talked about the meaning and origin of their company name and logo in a past interview. I found out about this by looking at the company's website.

The company logo disappears and the home screen appears.

From the long list of games, I select the Mystery of Life 3 game icon.

I decide on the second server as the world I will land in, and I blink once.

The VR headgear sends radio waves to my brain that help the user to fall asleep, and as it's making me feel sleepy, I closw my eyes and before I know it, I'm asleep.

◇◆◇

"Hmmmm... fuu..."

I stretch and loosen up my body in the alleyway where I logged out yesterday.

When a player logs out, the avatar they were using will stay there when you reconnect. There's no muscle stiffness or anything inside the game, but I just feel like stretching.

It's like a transition from everyday life to something extraordinary.

"Well, first I need to buy some weapons."

I walk down a slightly dark road to get out of the back alley.

As it is a place with little foot traffic, there is garbage scattered around, rotten food lying around, and muddy water infested with insects.

"Wow... To be able to sleep in a place like this."

A male NPC with pretty red hair is lying on the ground.

He seems to be asleep... Is his money and valuables okay?

"Onii-san, are you okay?"

"..."

"Onii-san!"

"Ahh... Sho noishy... I'm shill no done dlinkin..." (Ahh... So noisy, I'm still not done drinking)

"..."

He's hopelessly drunk. Let's not get involved.

I leave him lying on the ground and go down the alley.

"...Samyu... Where did he go... Is he lost...?"

Just as I was about to reach the main street, where the sunlight is shining and brighter than the back alley, my ears picked up the sound of someone's soft voice.

It seems like someone is lost. I can hear a voice that sounds distressed, as if searching for that person.

"I wonder where Samyu went..."

Leaving aside that insolent drunk, I feel like it's not good to just walk past someone in trouble right in front of you.

So I turned my eyes in the direction of the voice, searching for the speaker, and discovered a small creature on top of a barrel placed on a corner of the road.

When I looked, I saw a winged humanoid...

"A-a fairy..."

She had fairly long black and brown hair, a white one-piece dress that exposed her shoulders, and wings on her back. She was a fairy girl.

It's rare to see fairies among the people inside the town, and the chances of meeting one are even rarer.

I've seen them flying in the distance before, but I've never met one. I never thought I'd see one in a place like this...

It looks even more fantastical and cute up close. It's like a fantasy.

"Wh-who?!"

She looks just like a doll and when she sees me, her body starts to tremble.

From her perspective, it looked like a suspicious person had emerged from a dimly lit space.

"Um... I'm not a scary person, okay...?"

I say that just in case, but naturally the fairy girl doesn't let her guard down.

"Well, I heard some voices earlier. It sounded like you were looking for someone, so I thought I might be able to help you."

"..."

"...I'm not scary. I'm a sincere Onii-san."

"...Fu..."

When I tried to convince her in broken Japanese that I'm not scary, there's a sound coming from her as if she's about to laugh.

"It's fine as long as you're okay. I was just worried that you might be in trouble. Sorry for calling out to you out of the blue. Well then, this Onii-san will be off."

I mean everything I just said. If someone is in trouble, I will lend a hand, but if they don't want to help, I'll just walk away.

Continuing to hang around here would be the height of suspicious behavior. If I scared her and the guards came over, it'd be troublesome.

I raised my hand and was about to leave when she started to speak.

"... Are you really not a scary person...?"

Although she looked a little anxious, she mustered up all her courage.

"Absolutely not. I just want to help you. You're looking for someone, right? If you're okay with me, I'll help you."

It's the kind of thing a suspicious person might say, but I'm not a suspicious person so I'm safe. ...Is it verbally wrong?

"... You will help me find him?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, sure. Can you tell me what kind of person you're looking for?"

"O-okay. Um, well, you see, I want to find Samyuu. Samyuu seems to have gotten lost."

"I see, so you're looking for someone named Samyuu."

"Mama calls Samyuu Samul-sama, but Ves calls Samyuu Samyuu. Samyuu told me to."

"I see. So, do you know what color of hair this Samul-sama have?"

"Yes, it's golden. It's bright when the sun shines on it."

"Blonde, huh? Hairstyle... What was the length of their hair? Was it short or long?"

"Hmm...about this size. It's like a horse's tail."

She uses her hands to tell me the length of their whair.

His hair is short in the front and in a ponytail or something at the back.

"Height... Is a bit hard to ask. Then... Ah, what clothes were they wearing?"

"It's an outfit with lots of sparkly buttons. It's white and black and cool."

Something cool, black and white with lots of sparkly buttons...maybe a two-tone shirt?

No, it could just be the color of their top and pants or something...

I can't tell what they were wearing.

"Is this Samul-sama a man or a woman?"

It might be inappropriate to ask the person directly which one they are, but they're not in front of me right now so it shouldn't be a problem.

"He's a cool man, you know?"

"He's a cool man. Got it."

I see. I asked about the gender, but when I think about it, it's hard to judge someone's clothes based on their gender.

However, it's true that knowing the sex will make it easier to find.

"Oh, that's right. Come to think of it, I haven't done self- introduction yet. Onii-san name is Talking Tsu-tan. Nice to meet you."

"Talking...? What is self-introduction?"

"It's about telling the other person your name. My name is Talking Tsu-tan. What's your name?"

"Ves's name is Vester. Nice to meet you, Onee-chan."

"Oh, you may think I'm an Onee-chan, but I'm an Onii-chan. Sorry if it's confusing."

Although I repeatedly call myself Onii-san, she seems to be judging me by appearance and believes that the person in front of her is an Onee-chan.

It's true that the avatar I'm using is female. A dragon-kin girl. However, when I randomly selected the race, the dragon-kin was chosen, and since it's a race that doesn't come out very often, I just played around without changing it, and I only chose a female avatar because that's how I felt at the time.

The inside is just a normal high school boy. I'm not a high school girl, nor have I ever been a woman.

"...? Not Onee-chan? But Onii-chan?"

"Yes, it's Onii-sa- Onii-chan. Umm, this ... I do have breasts, but I'm an Onii-chan. Please call me that."

"Hmm, I see. I don't understand, but I get it."

From her perspective, she probably sees me as an Onee-chan who wanted to be called Onii-chan.

She tilted her head in confusion, but seemed to understand for the time being.

"Then I guess I'll go look for him."

"Ves is coming too!"

"Oh, are you going with me?"

"Yeah, Onii-chan might get lost too, right? Ves will come with you."

"R-Right. But didn't Samul-sama tell you to wait here?"

It seemed strange to ask her to wait in a back alley like this, but she was a fairly rare species, so it was possible that he chose this location to avoid attracting attention.

If that's the case, if he returns here while she's accompanying me searching, there could be a misunderstanding.

"No. I'm just here before I know it. Samyuu has not said anything to me."

Ah, this is the opposite. It's not that Samul-sama is lost, it's this child who is lost.

Well, it doesn't matter either way, since it's still a search.

"I see. Then let's go together so that this Onii-chan won't get lost."

[<Sub-Story Quest: Find the Lost Young Man> has been triggered. Would you like to accept the quest?]

"..."

Suddenly, in the middle of my conversation, I heard a clinking sound, and a translucent window appeared in front of me.

I was so surprised by the suddenness of it that I nearly shouted, but I managed to hold it in and looked at the words on the window.

Sub, story?

I think this is a quest from a character involved in the main story...

I look at Vester in surprise, and she stares back at me with a puzzled look on her face.

"What happened?"

"N-no, it's nothing. Well then, let's go together to look for Samul-sama. Follow me so that Onii-chan don't get lost."

I accepted the quest and spoke to her.

"Yeah, leave it to me!"

"Okay, let's go!"

"Let's go!"

Should I just search at random? At least it's definitely not in these back alleys.

I head towards the main street with Vester-chan.

I'll put aside today's plan for tomorrow.

I have plans to hang out with friends after this, so I need to find him quickly.

"Do you know where Samul-sama is likely to go?"

"No."

"Got it."

Finding someone became the top priority. The young fairy and I set out together in search of a certain young man.

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〘Server〙

The choices players can make when starting the game Mystery of Life.

Players can move between servers even while playing, and can switch to a different server at any time.

There are currently 5 servers available.

Each server has a set capacity, and when it is full, no one can move to that server until someone moves to another server or logs out.

Also, even if the world's progression and history are the same, the details differ from server to server.

For example, the color of the house roof, the personality and gender of NPCs, NPCs that do not exist on other servers, etc.

An NPC child born between a player and an NPC would only exists on th server that baby was born in.

Even if you become friends with an NPC on the first server, they will have no memory of it on the second server. They are similar but not the same, they are different people.

Different servers mean different worlds altogether.

〘Dragon-kin〙

A humanoid race with impressive horns, tails, wings, and vertical pupils.

This race is the offspring of a highly intelligent dragon monster and a human, or between two dragon-kins.

Their physical abilities are slightly lower than those of beastmen, but the scales that grow in key areas provide them with immense defensive power, making them resistant to even scratches from ordinary weapons.

They can still use magic, but their power is halved. In exchange, weapon attacks are 1.5 times stronger.

Relatively rare as an NPC.

〘Sub-story Quest: Find the Lost Young Man〙

Recommended Level: 15

A young fairy is searching for a certain young man.

Apparently, he said he was going to buy some food and got lost.

Apparently he is a handsome blonde called Samul-sama...

Let us go find the lost young man.

Rewards: A Title, A Fruit

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TL note :

This is the final chapter for this arc.

My next upload will be a new novel I've never translated before.

Hopefully it'll be a good read.