| Author: Starving Wind | Original Source: Joara | Word Count: 2930 characters |
| Translator: Anonymouss | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1744 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
Be-be-beep!
Hearing the alarm clock ringing loudly, I woke up reflexively and just sat by the corner of the bed, eyes closed in a daze.
My desire to continue basking in the warmth underneath the covers was strong, so I kept delaying getting up even though I had to immediately.
Smack.
I still disliked noisy things, so I turned off the alarm clock in annoyance.
“Nnngh!”
Making a weird sound, I stretched out my arms.
At this rate, I would simply lay down and fall asleep again.
Considering that Esther would be half-asleep by now in the game, I shouldn’t be like this.
As I would definitely need to shower as soon as I stepped inside the capsule anyway, I decided to give my face a quick wash with cold water. As the chilly water splashed on my face, I regained my consciousness right away.
Because I found my hand reaching out for a razor unconsciously.
“Looks like I’m still not fully adapted yet.”
The beautiful lady reflected in the mirror gave a bitter smile back at me.
Though quite a long time had passed since my body changed, there was no way that the habit that I had developed as a man for several decades would go away so easily.
I was just about to leave the room when…
“Ah…”
Feeling an excruciating pain in my stomach, I held onto the door for a moment and waited for the pain to go away1.
“Did I eat something rotten?”
I didn’t particularly remember overeating or eating rotten food. Though the fact that I ate a bit later than usual worried me a little, to think that it was enough to upset my stomach like this…
I grumbled to myself as I sat on the toilet.
I relieved myself, but the pain wouldn’t go away. I felt everything become annoying, bothersome and even felt helpless on top of that.
But with pure willpower, I frowned as I went inside of the capsule.
As soon as I logged into the home office, I still felt a lingering sensation but I was able to handle it better than in real life.
It seemed that the rumor that when you felt a lot of pain, logging into the game alleviated it a bit was true.
Though it could be an effect of being in a trance-like state, I wasn’t particularly interested in the details so I didn’t think too much about it. I should just be thankful it had eased my pain, right?
“Oh… You’re here early.”
Looking half-dead, Esther was in a wilted state inside the palace. She replied, sounding like she was dying. As I had plenty of experience back in the army of the pain you suffered from staying up all night, I understood what she was going through.
“Yeah. You’re probably tired, so log out and have some sleep. I’ll take care of the situation from here.”
“Thanks, sis. Oh yes, Sister Katalina is still sleeping, right?”
“Yep.”
“Aw!”
She was responding appreciatively to my kindness, but after changing the topic to Katalina, Esther pouted and looked discontent.
“I’m sure she must be more tired than me because of all the damage she received yesterday.”
I wasn’t exactly making an excuse for Katalina, as there was an intriguing fact about Blue Sky in that if you logged in and received a high amount of damage, the more mentally fatigued you felt afterward in real life. They said that it was a natural phenomenon as the muscles were tense due to experiencing pain, but it was a bit dubious to say that tense muscles was the only factor that made one feel tired.
Of course, this was just my personal opinion.
“But still, I have thought about it carefully. If I were to sleep in the afternoon today, I’ll end up being on duty all through the night again won’t I?”
Tsk, looks like she figured it out. Even though we had just baited her perfectly…
“Probably…”
“Ahh… I was properly had. I’m crazy for even accepting it in the first place.”
She must have realized the truth from my reaction and started blaming herself, which made me pity her.
“Ugh. There’s no one else to blame but my stupid self. I’ve been had by Sister Katalina again. Anyway, I’ll be going to sleep now.”
In the end, I watched Esther with pity as she shuffled away with a resigned expression.
‘Sorry, I need to have a life as well.’
In the end, I made some excuses for myself and didn’t ask to help her. I realized that in some ways, I was pretty selfish.
“Ngh, this is kinda bothering me.”
But still, if I were in a normal state without feeling this pain in my stomach, I may have decided to help her in the end.
I should have been feeling energized and ready to go seeing the fatigue level for my character at 0, but it was the first time I had logged into Artoria so low in mood and health.
“This would be the best time for me to request a siege war against another guild, honestly.”
My irritation was nearing its limits, because I felt like cutting down everything in front of me whether we were currently at a war or not.
“Oh my- my lord. Good morning!”
One user who seemed to have some business within the royal palace stepped in, recognized me, and gave me a greeting.
“Good morning.”
It was the guild leader Lucas of the Shining guild, who had just joined the Camelot alliance yesterday.
“It seems that you’re in too much of a foul mood to say good morning to me. Are you hurt anywhere or haven’t recovered enough from fatigue?”
“Ah… Is it that obvious?”
It seemed that I must have looked quite awkward even though I thought I was doing my best to smile at him.
“As someone who has dealt with managing various people for the last five years as a guild leader, how could I call myself one if I wasn’t able to tell from your obvious expression that you’re troubled right now?”
“I see.”
Though I couldn’t agree 100% with his claim, he was definitely right in being able to easily tell a person’s condition just from their expression if you had practiced for at least five years. Though I’m sure it’s possible in even less time than that…
“To be honest, I’m experiencing quite a severe stomachache. Though I’m not feeling as much pain since I’m inside Blue Sky, I certainly think that I’m not in a good condition.”
“Perhaps you’ve eaten something bad?”
“I don’t think that’s the case.”
Thinking deeply on the possible cause, Lucas suddenly looked as if he figured it out and was about to say something.
“Is it perhaps… Ah, no, never mind.”
However, he quickly closed his mouth and cut himself off. I felt that pestering him about the reason why he stopped himself would be bad manners, so I didn’t.
“Anyway, thank you for worrying about me. I’ll be fine soon, I bet.”
“I’m sure you will. Oh yes, the reason I came here is because I’ve received some useful information. Would you like to hear about it now?’
As Lucas explained the reason why he had arrived here, I nodded my head at his request to hear him out.
“Of course.”
“Late at night yesterday while you were sleeping, we heard from a trustworthy informant from Chaos guild that a new raid dungeon had been found.”
A new raid dungeon huh? When a dungeon was discovered, it was likely that you’d receive a huge amount of experience as well as great profit. If it was a raid dungeon in particular and you were the first to subjugate the raid monster, not only would you receive a title, but you could also look forward to receiving an ancient tier item.
Of course, there was no probability that a legendary item could appear, but considering that it wasn’t only one but numerous ancient tier items that could appear, it certainly was a very profitable endeavor.
“Was the location of the dungeon also known?”
“They said it was located at Haslemere.”
I thought it was just a plain hill filled with standard field monsters, but it seemed like that wasn’t the case. As it was a very wide and expansive field, it wasn’t strange that no one had found the dungeon located there until now.
After all, it was common for standard dungeons to be found in unexplored locations even now. However, the value of the news changed a lot since it was a raid dungeon.
“Was that why there was no siege battle yesterday night?”
“Though we’re not sure, that was probably one of the biggest reason.”
Lucas was definitely right here. To give anyone else the chance to gain a new title was a foolish thing to do. And what if all three guilds were to get the information at the same time? There would certainly be arguments over the ownership of the location as well as numerous conflicts of interest.
“How trustworthy is that informant?”
As it could be disinformation instead, I asked Lucas.
“He’s practically my blood-related brother. Though he was in the Chaos guild right now due to circumstances, he’s an officer of high status there.”
“And of course, Wine doesn’t know that.”
He nodded instead of answering me. This certainly was very profitable information. If we were given enough time to conquer the raid dungeon, we could sneak in and properly land a strong blow against them with enough people who knew the full layout. I could say with certainty that users were able to kill each other inside of dungeons, and as both sides were currently at war with each other, this kind of sneaky attack was possible.
However, what if this was actually disinformation instead? Then we may actually receive heavy damage instead.
Though Lucas may have properly surrendered and pledged to the Camelot alliance, it hasn’t been that long since they joined and he may actually be scheming, so I couldn’t give a decision right away.
“For now, I don’t think I can give a certain answer on what to do with that information.”
“Understandable.”
Even though he would have felt offended by my doubts, it seemed that he understood his current situation very well as he accepted my decision without sounding or expressing any complaints.
