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“You really saved my hide right there. I didn’t know the enemies here were that strong, err…”
“I’m Crim.”
“Crim, eh. You’re really strong too.”
“You think so..?”

The man was so excited that his arms gestured greatly as he spoke, which made Crim feel somewhat embarrassed and she tried to scratch her head to mask it.

Then he introduced himself as Ryunosuke. He had noticed some interesting bits of information in a quest he took, so he decided to travel all the way here as a form of sightseeing.

They continued talking until they were out of the forest and arrived at Nebel.

“Welcome to the Foggy Lakeside Town of Nebel. I’m pretty sure this is the place you were looking for, since it has some relation with the first emperor too.”
“Ohh…so this is it. It looks really rural but in a pretty way, I actually like how it looks.”
“I know, right? I also like this town a lot.”

There was a thin veil of mist over the lake, and the island with a castle stood out a little in the distance. Ryunosuke looked at all that in awe.

Crim was glad she had found someone who shared that impression, grinning widely which did not exactly fit with the cool appearance she tried to maintain. But soon after Ryunosuke noticed something, looking around puzzled trying to figure out what it was.

“…There’s no other players here?”
“No, you’re the only one who made it here so far.”

All the people who were visible in the town at that moment were NPCs. He had not seen any other players anywhere near there. That obviously made Ryunosuke ask a certain question.

“But Crim, how did you get to this place?”
“…My spawn point glitched out so I woke up alone in some weird place. I didn’t know what to do so I just ended up staying here.”

She did not feel like there was any reason to hide that, so she replied with the truth, sounding somewhat bothered by it.

“You didn’t know what to do? Isn’t that the perfect moment to contact support? The enemies around here are definitely not suitable for a starting area, so why would you do that to yourself…”
“Mm, I guess so. Though when I tried…I was told all my interactions so far would all be reset.”
“Sure, but is that really worth it to artificially inflate the difficulty for yourself and-”

Ryunosuke was unable to finish that sentence.

Something had been tailing Crim since the moment she entered the town, carefully stalking her in the shadows, and now that she was so engrossed in a conversation, it was the perfect opening.

Crim’s stomach was left unguarded, perfect for a direct tackle, and so the swift attack moved on and…

“Welcome back, Crim!”
“Woah! That’s a good tackle again, Juna.”

Crim embraced the small girl that charged at her, spinning around once with her to stop the tackle’s momentum, and then patted her head.

“But it can be dangerous to jump on people like that, so you shouldn’t do it so often.”
“I knowwww, I’m sorry.”
Hearing that, Crim just nodded with a “Good,” then turned to look at Ryunosuke again to resume their conversation.
“Well, as you can see, if I have to give up my interactions with NPCs to go back to the starting city…I think I’d rather stay.”

Crim scratched her cheek awkwardly as she said that, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“Hohh… I actually see what you mean now, giving this up wouldn’t be that easy.” Ryunosuke could only smile seeing how Crim and Juna interacted so happily.

Meanwhile Juna looked up from between Crim’s arms, noticing Crim and Ryunosuke were talking with each other.

“…Who is this man?”
“Oh, umm he’s my friend, I guess?”
“Oh, hello there. I’m Ryunosuke, and you’re..?”
“I’m Juna! Nice to meet you, Mr. Ryu!”

Juna seemed to be quite extroverted, not feeling shy in the least about talking to Ryunosuke.

Seeing how he patted her head with a kind smile, Crim also got the impression that Ryunosuke was used to dealing with children, and also a good person, which made her feel relieved.

That continued for a bit longer when…

“Heyyyy, I told you not to run off like that!”
“I’m sorry Georgie!”

Hearing George calling from afar, Juna turns around and hops over to him. Meanwhile Ryunosuke watched that unfold, then muttered something.

“That’s so nice… I wouldn’t be able to restart after this either.”
“I know, right?”
“Mhm, I actually have a daughter in real life too, so I can really relate with it. I wouldn’t want to leave this place after making friends with a girl like that.”

There was a pleasing and kind smile on his lips as he watched Juna running back to George’s side. For some reason that made Crim feel really proud of herself.

“Though I have to say, this is the first time I’ve seen an NPC act with such familiarity towards a player.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah…all the NPCs in Wyndham, even if I interacted with them often, would at most answer with a bit more friendliness over time, but that was it.”

He said that while scratching his stubbled chin in a pensive manner, seemingly deep in thought.

“Hmm…maybe it was because you’re the only player they’ve ever seen until now? There was no one else around to distract them, so they could get a lot closer to you?”
“Ahh…I see.”

Usually NPCs would have to interact with a large number of players, which would quickly dilute their memories of each individual player. But here in Nebel, Crim was the only Player they had met. And so the friendliness that usually would be spread across a large number of players had been focused entirely on Crim.

There was no way to know for sure, but it was a convincing theory.

“So there aren’t friendly NPCs like these in other places?”
“I don’t think so. Be a good older sister to them, alright?”
“Mhm…I know.”

She did not need to be told. Juna, George, Ludger, and all the other townsfolk had all been kind and friendly to her, so she felt a responsibility to be kind in return. And so she nodded with determination.