Chapter 2 (1/2)
SECT.2 - LLENN and Pitohui
“Hey! You ochibi-chan over there. You’re really a girl, right? I can tell from the way you walk.”
While enjoying window shopping, wondering which live-ammunition gun she should buy next, in a gorgeous shopping mall in ≪SBC Glocken≫, GGO’s central city,
“Care for some tea? It will be Onee-san’s treat.”
LLENN heard a feminine voice calling out to her from behind. She was being seduced.
Onee-san?
What LLENN, wearing a robe with a hood that hid her face, saw by turning around was――
A tall, though not as tall as herself IRL, black-haired, ponytailed, brown-skinned beauty with a brick-coloured tattoo on her face.
At this time, her garments were something just a hair’s breadth away from being a bikini, and with such excessive exposure that it wasn’t suited for battle no matter how one looked at it. The garments exposed her slender, firm, cyborg-like flesh to those in her surroundings.
While finding it odd that the tattoo only covered her face, and wanting to ask why this was so, and moreover, thinking that if that was her own character, she would probably have left GGO immediately――
LLENN lowered her guard a little, as the other party was obviously a woman.
In most of the current VR games, it was impossible for someone to get a character that was of a different gender from their RL one, aside from slight mistakes in judging the gender based on the player’s brain waves.
There were male players who tried speaking to LLENN out of curiosity, but it was unmistakably her first time conversing with a female player.
In the first place, GGO was a game with overwhelmingly few female players. Obviously, LLENN had seen female characters from afar, but she hadn’t dared to run up to them to hold a conversation.
The brown-skinned beauty smiled sweetly.
“I’m „Pitohui“. Everyone’s booing about how hard it was to say my name, so just call me „Pito“ for short. Ochibi-chan, what’s your name?”
“Good day…… I am…… „LLENN“.”
“LLENN-chan huh! What a cute name! Oh, and you don’t need to use keigo in the game! After all, bringing j.a.panese society-like hierarchical relations.h.i.+p here when you’re finally enjoying a different world is such a drag, right!”
This exchange with someone in GGO was LLENN’s first conversation.
LLENN went to a restaurant in the game where she sat down in a private room with Pitohui, and they had a conversation while having tea and cake as a snack. A VR girl meeting, so to speak.
Karen hadn’t conversed directly with anyone other than her professors and family for quite some time, but strangely, as LLENN, she became lively in this conversation, which was without keigo. Pitohui’s cheerful and frank character reminded her of her friend Miyu.
Firstly, the two carefreely shared their tales of amus.e.m.e.nt, as well as those of their hards.h.i.+ps, eventually culminating in talking about their difficulties due to the scarceness of female playersin GGO.
Pitohui informed LLENN that, having ended up as a s.e.xy character, Pitohui tattooed her face, greatly reducing the number of nanpa(1), and thus she recommended this method to LLENN.
LLENN answered by quickly shaking her head, and then,
“I don’t have one IRL either. Since I wouldn’t be able to go to the hot springs if I did!”
Pitohui remarked and showed a sweet smile.
In the first place getting a tattoo and removing it in GGO was instantaneous, so, as long as one had the credits, it was possible to attempt it as much as one liked.
Pitohui’s VR game history was much longer than LLENN’s, as she had been playing them even during the SAO death game turmoil.
And as for GGO, she had been playing it ever since the service started 8 months ago. She liked the scenery of a savage world that did not resemble any other VR games, so she currently only played this game. However, she had recently been busy IRL, so her play time considerably decreased.
Not only was Pitohui LLENN’s sempai as a gamer, she was also far superior in terms of playerability.
Due to the conversation, LLENN was able to open her heart, thus she listed Pitohui as a ≪friend≫. With this, they were able to exchange messages even if they weren’t in the game.
More than 3 months after starting to play GGO, LLENN was finally able to find an in-gameacquaintance. On that subject, after a long while, LLENN remembered that she wanted to resolve her feelings of anthropophobia caused by her height complex, which was the reason she decided to begin playing VR games in the first place.
Of course, LLENN had absolutely no idea what kind of person Pitohui was in the real world.
Miyu once told her this:
“Though we’re within a VR game, the characters are still controlled by real humans, so a person’s nature is still revealed through their speech and actions. There are no people who’d truly be able to act out a different personality.”
Pitohui’s att.i.tude did not fully give an impression of her being cheerful and wild.
Thus, LLENN arbitrarily tried profiling her as „A good-natured onee-san-type female in her twenties. Working adult. Single“ and things like that, but she didn’t know if she was right.
After finis.h.i.+ng their tea and cake, Pitohui asked whether they should „drop out“, in other words, return to reality for the day, and LLENN responded to the question by stating that she was looking for a new live-ammunition gun.
“What! In that case, leave it so me! I’ll show you a nice shop!”
Pitohui took her to a small shop that she knew.
Just before the end of a narrow road, there was a bar in the outskirts-like, small and messy shop.
However, inside the shop, rare and high-powered guns that other players would get by exploring ruins and defeating powerful monsters were lined-up on display.
“Amazing…… So there are shops likes this too…… And there are guns like these……”
Facing LLENN, who had trouble choosing,
“LLENN-chan LLENN-chan! I recommend this! It arrived just yesterday! Come here! Look!”
Pitohui beckoned her as if she was recommending new cosmetics.
There was a small, high-powered, and reasonably rare gun――a P90 there.
The destructive power of the numbers on the accompanying price tag was considerably high, thus it was far over LLENN’s initially a.s.sumed budget and she wouldn’t be able to drink tea in thegame for awhile if she bought it, but…
“I’m buying it!”
She decided promptly, with just one glance. And then,
“What is this…… is this really a gun…… it’s cute…… It’s so very cute……”
Her inner voice leaked out from her mouth.
“Oh? LLENN-chan, you’re Hokkaido-born?(2)”
After finis.h.i.+ng her shopping session with a pleased expression, and getting a spare magazine and a pouch to carry it as freebies, LLENN hid the P90 under her black tea-coloured robe and continued walking around town while carrying it in her hands.
One could wave their hand, and operate the window that appears to place the gun into storage to not have to worry about it, but...
“I get it. You want to feel the gun that you’ve just bought for a while. You want to confirm its existence through touch.”
It was just as Pitohui, who was walking by her side, said. She was like a child who hugged a stuffed toy that she had just bought. Wanting to always have it by her side and constantly caress it.
“What are you going to do about its name? You are giving it one, right?”
“A-a name? For a gun?”
LLENN looked up at Pitohui.
“Of course!”
“I-I am―― giving it one!”
“Just as I thought. So, what name are you giving to this child?”
After several seconds of silence, LLENN answered in a firm tone.
“„P-chan“”
“Yeah, that’s a nice name. In your hands, LLENN-chan, P-chan will bleed a lot of enemies. Because a gun doesn’t betray anyone. It only grows greater with the number of kills.”
“Yeah, I’ll do my best to kill!”
If these words were said in the real world, they would probably appear in the news.
It was about time to return to the real world, and LLENN greatly bowed her head to Pitohui.
“Thank you very much, Pito-san. You have been a great help.”
“Yeah, no need for keigo. Don’t mention it, I’m also happy to make a female friend. I look forward to playing with you. The next time we meet, let’s go farming together. I haven’t seen the huge alligators in the desert area yet.”
“Sure.”
‘Ah, she’s such a nice person.’
While thinking this, LLENN was about to open the window to log out,
“Oh right, I forgot to say something.”
“Hm?”
“Before the next farming run, be sure to paint the P90 pink!”
“…………”
‘Ah, she’s the kind of person that you can’t let your guard down against.’
While thinking so, LLENN opened the window to log out.
Thus, LLENN and Pitohui formed a ≪Squadron≫.
This was a team formed with congenial partners that, in a fantasy genre game, would be called a ≪Guild≫. It allowed members to fight together, exchange items, and share a matching crest.
Naturally, banding together and fighting as a team in a game had various advantages.
For LLENN, who began playing the game to improve her social disposition, yet never grouped up with anyone, this was her first squadron. Though it was essentially a group consisting of only LLENN and Pitohui.
One month later―― whenever the two were on at the same time, LLENN would go on a farming session with Pitohui.
As opposed to LLENN, who would always be on at around the same time, Pitohui’s play time was really scattered. There were times when she would be playing on weekdays from morning, and also times when she would never come on during the weekend.
LLENN was curious about the kind of life she led IRL, but considered asking to be a violation ofmanners.
Eventually, LLENN realised that Pitohui was an extremely rich player.
She noticed this because of the number of guns that Pitohui had. Every time that they played together, the gun that Pitohui used was different.
“Pito-san, what are you using…… today?”
“Oh, it’s an ≪L86A2≫. It’s a version of the British army’s a.s.sault rifle L85 with an enhanced gun barrel and it’s a lengthened squad automatic weapon. It only uses a regular magazine, but as for differences from a rifle, well, its penetration isn’t as powerful as a normal gun, but its accuracy rating isn’t half bad. Although it’s heavy, I like it.”
“H-huh……”