by Blitz Kiva
Sand and rubble went flying. The showy explosion visual ate up the last of his remaining memory at once. The time it took for the system to send electric signals to the brain was fatally slowed. The frame rate of the scenery around him became choppy, and it became hard to precisely perceive his opponent.
The lag made his opponent appear to move in slow motion, but he knew that wasn’t really the case. The battle was continuing in real time, and since the environment was rendering perfectly on Ichiro’s side, it was probably King whose actions were being easily anticipated.
In other words, when he perceived Ichiro readying his sword for a Breaker after completing the spell Arts, that had probably happened a few milliseconds ago.
Even if he trusted in his quantum connection and tried to send image data, timing the Bash to hit his target just before impact detection would be close to impossible. All he could do was predict his opponent’s attack path based on his previous habits and send an image of dodging in that instant.
The image processor slowdown was still going. The question of when to evade was basically gambling.
But Kirihito took the bet. He imagined moving his immobile body. In his slowed-down time, he imagined dodging his opponent’s strike, then using Bash to break his opponent’s Monetary Blade.
Then suddenly, the world around him sped up, making up for the slowdown time as it caught up to the present. Electronic signals flooded into Kirihito’s brain.
A cloud of sand and a flash of light. Piercing through it was Ichiro, his new Monetary Blade in hand, unleashing another Breaker.
The slash scraped his cheek. The scenario Kirihito had imagined now played out in flesh.
Ichiro’s eyes narrowed.
Bash! The rising strike broke Ichiro’s sword and send it flying back. The timing of his experiences were catching up with reality. The broken tip went flying off into the sand cloud. Kirihito took a two-handed grip on his sword once more.
He had gambled... and won! Now, a counter with two Bashes in a row. A single overhead blow would—
But as he put his imagination into motion...
“...hrk!”
...Ichiro abruptly pivoted and thrust a fist straight at him.
It was a high-level Dragon Claw, the Dragonet bare fist converted into a lethal weapon. The hand reached his throat and then stopped short.
It was millimeters away. Ichiro could stab his windpipe and take off his remaining HP before Kirihito could even try to unleash another Bash. The dust cloud that had whipped up around them settled, revealing the tableau of the two of them, standing there as still as statues.
“Does this mean I lost?” Kirihito said before the eyes of all the onlookers who couldn’t quite tell what had just happened.
“Yes, you lost, and I won,” Ichiro said.
Why hadn’t he simply finished him off? It could have been compassion, drama, or perhaps simply a whim... but his other items aside, King was grateful he wouldn’t have to lose his weapon or armor.
With his usual cool expression, Ichiro withdrew his fist and began placing the items on the ground into his inventory.
I lost, huh?
Kirihito watched Ichiro from behind, quietly letting out the breath he had been holding. The loss brought with it no sense of humiliation or shame. The measures his opponent used had been rather cheap, but somehow, he didn’t find that it cheapened his loss. Next time, he would just have to train so that he could find a route to victory, even during slowdown.
Was this what was known as the exhilaration of loss? He’d never thought of himself as the sporting type...
The moods among the crowd ran the gamut.
The players who had lost a lot of money in the pool were grousing and ripping up their tickets in anger. It was hard to feel pity for them, though, and King didn’t feel sorry at all. The players who had bet on Ichiro were taking their winnings, looking quite pleased with themselves.
One girl was standing in the crowd, looking at King Kirihito. He turned towards the meddlesome girl and raised a hand to her in greeting. It was as if he was saying, silently, “Hey, I’m okay.”
“I was expecting that to be easier, though,” Ichiro murmured.
“Then you underestimated me, old man.” Kirihito shot back. But then, he’d still lost, so he couldn’t sound too high-and-mighty.
“Well, when shall we have the next round?” Ichiro asked.
“Hmm?” King asked.
Having finished recovering his items, Ichiro threw a large number of potions at King, one hand still in his pocket. King, having lost most of his HP, accepted the potions gladly.
“Don’t you want to schedule a rematch?” Ichiro asked.
“Oh, that?”
Was he already thinking about that? The old man certainly worked fast...
“I do want revenge, but I don’t know about agreeing to something like that. Why don’t we just see how we both feel the next time we meet?” Kirihito asked. That was how he really felt.
Ichiro just nodded in understanding, and didn’t say any more on the subject.
With an empty potion bottle in hand, Kirihito looked up at the sky. It had been a long time since he’d admitted to losing. For so long, the game had been nothing but a tool to help him face the real world. The feeling of not wanting to lose again spurred him on to true strength. That motive hadn’t changed, he was sure.
He had assumed that defeat would just be a pathetic end, but for some reason, he didn’t feel that way now. It was indeed frustrating, and he wanted to pound the Dragonet into the ground the next chance he had... but there was none of that emotion, like black smoky flame, that Kirihito had previously felt towards “the enemy.”
Perhaps it was a sign of maturation.
The miasma had lifted, and the sky above the Necrolands was clear and blue.
6 - Epilogue
Just to stand in front of the school gate took considerable courage. Sera stood there, fists clenched, with just enough courage to make it there and, surprisingly, much less trembling than expected.
Sera, King Kirihito, had been unquestionably the strongest player in all of NaroFan, a strength earned through the relentless hunting of monsters. Sera had never felt any doubt about this being the proper course of action. It had all been in the interest of becoming stronger.
Everybody loses sometimes.
Those were the words of the person who had taught Sera about how gaming worked, and learning that one loss wasn’t the end of the world was somehow a relief in itself.
To someone like Sera, who had learned a bit earlier than other children how cruel reality could be, how spiteful people could be... that person had offered a way to escape. To that person, Sera felt gratitude and — despite the embarrassment of showing it outwardly — no small amount of filial piety. Of course, that person suffered from severe virtual sickness, and so had not been able to accompany Sera into NaroFan. As a result, in a very real way, that world had belonged to Kirihito alone.
If you can fight alone and lose, and still not feel pathetic, then maybe it’s time to stand and face reality. That was what Sera’s self-styled master had said.
The only thing left to do was to try it.
“Yoo-hoo, Kiryu!”
Sera turned to face the cheerful voice. “Tsuwabuki.”
“Wow, I still can’t get used to the sight of you in a uniform!” Asuha cried.
“Hey, knock it off...” Sera squirmed as Asuha tugged on her friend’s uniform sleeve, grinning.
“Hey Kiryu, are you mad Itchy beat you that way?” Asuha asked as Sera smoothed out the wrinkles she had made.
“Well, from the first time I saw him in the dungeon, I realized he was that kind of person...”
The lag attack had been unexpected, but it was a time-honored old MMO PvP technique, according to Sera’s master. Back in the days when everyone’s connection had been slow, MMO players whose houses happened to be closest to a relay station would get deep into PKing, apparently.
> If you whined over losing to a technique like that, it was just a sign that you needed more training.
Sera clenched a fist. Next time, I will win. Next time, I won’t lose. I will pound Asuha’s “big brother” into the ground.
“Kiryu, you...” Asuha gazed at her friend’s profile, murmuring. “You look like you’re really interested in Itchy now.”
“Oh, you could tell?”
“No, I just said it to tease you.”
“...Hey!”
“So you finished it off with a lag attack, huh?” Sakurako asked.
It was several days later. Sakurako had been disappointed when she’d heard the details.
“No, I just finally invoked my full power,” Ichiro said.
“You call that your full power? Spending tons of money, overloading the server to cause lag and beat your opponent... you can’t really want that to be your ‘full power’!”
“Nonsense. Money is a reflection of my genius, so using a lot of it is using my full power,” he said calmly.
As the two talked around each other, they were sorting out their Bon Festival gifts.
Ichiro didn’t need them, of course, but politicians and company presidents sent them to him as a formality. Ever since he had sent out a memo requesting non-perishable items, he had received many fine jellies, juices, and occasionally wines. They would take at least six months to go bad, and by that time, he’d be receiving New Year’s gifts. It ensured that the Tsuwabuki estate never lacked for such things.
Of course, dealing with Bon gifts was part of Sakurako’s job as a servant, but Ichiro had decided on a whim to help her. It was that kind of day.
“What if the way you chose to beat Sera has just twisted her even more?” Sakurako demanded. “Making her decide she needed to buy microtransactions to get stronger... Sending her into the dark side of microtransactions...”
Ichiro looked unbothered. “I don’t think King is that kind of person, personally... Oh, this gift is from Matsunaga.”
“Oh?”
Ichiro murmured as he checked the name on the latest gift. Sakurako turned back and peered at it. Indeed, it was an address she didn’t recognize, but the sender line contained the phrase “Leader of the Dual Serpents,” which seemed to remove all doubt.
“It would be easy enough for him to find out my identity, and I don’t exactly keep my residence a secret... A polite man, isn’t he?”
“Hisahide Matsunaga,” she said. “Is that his real name?”
“I don’t know. I wonder if it’s a tea kettle... Oh, it’s a ham.”
“If it were a tea kettle, I’d have to look out to make sure it didn’t explode,” she said.
It wasn’t a very expensive present, but pleasant enough. The accompanying letter thanked him for the chaos he had caused the other day. It didn’t sound like it was sarcastic.
The truth was, ever since Ichiro’s duel with King, Matsunaga’s blog had exploded with hits as Matsunaga had written articles casting Ichiro as a villain. Ichiro had anticipated something like that, so he didn’t mind. Perhaps that was part of what he was thanking him for.
“Even so...” Sakurako put the ham received from Matsunaga in the fridge and returned. “After you finally got into NaroFan, I thought we might be able to play together... but we’ve barely played together at all.”
“We hung out for the first week when I was leveling up. Afterward, I had Asuha’s request to attend to.”
“Hmm,” she said. “I kind of miss it. I don’t suppose we could keep playing NaroFan together?”
“No need to worry. I’m going to keep playing NaroFan,” Ichiro assured her.
Ichiro Tsuwabuki had truly enjoyed his time playing Narrow Fantasy Online. He had never known a more stimulating ten days in his entire life. He had encountered so many things he had never before imagined, and there were surely more things yet to be enjoyed.
But he had spent the past few days completely immersed in that fictional world, and he was beginning to feel a bit under-exercised. After spending the day working up a sweat in his indoor pool and indoor gym, he’d made up his mind.
“Iris will be back next week,” he added.
“Oh, that’s right. Iris’s tests will be over!” Sakurako’s expression lit up. “Iris Brand will open its doors once more! Shall we invite Felicia, as well?”
“That’s up to Felicia... ah, it’s from my uncle in Nagoya,” Ichiro murmured as he took up a new box.
“Oh?!” Sakurako lit up far more than she had for Matsunaga’s present. “From Asuha’s family?”
“Yes, there was a letter with it. Asuha is so polite, too, isn’t she? If she just wanted to catch up after all that, she could have just sent an e-mail.” As he spoke, he felt Sakurako’s gaze urging him on, so he opened the letter.
It was written in a big, looping, feminine hand. Asuha’s letter began with an apology to Ichiro (and also Sakurako) for asking them to indulge her selfishness. Sakurako looked a bit depressed over being treated as an add-on. But then, Asuha partly perceived Sakurako as a rival, so perhaps it was inevitable.
Then the letter talked about Sera Kiryu.
According to Asuha, Sera had brightened up considerably from before. Asuha often went to Sera’s house to hang out now, and despite the latter still refusing to come to school, they often played games together. The plan at the moment was for Sera to attend school the day of the term’s closing ceremony, then start coming seriously during second term.
“Sera’s going to declare war on the bullies, it says,” Ichiro finished.
“That’s very extreme,” Sakurako commented. “The closing ceremony is today, isn’t it?”
Reading the letter, Ichiro realized for the first time that Sera was trying to become stronger. Sera had thought that acquiring the power of King Kirihito, the strongest player in the game, would be enough to face real life again. Not even Sera was sure if that had happened or not, but according to Asuha, her friend was grateful for the chance to fight with Ichiro. Also, she said, the rematch was still on the table.
Ichiro was thrilled by the prospect.
He turned over the letter to find a picture on the back. It was apparently Asuha and Sera, standing there in their uniforms. The person who must have been Sera was facing the camera with a rather awkward smile. Very different from King Kirihito’s cocky indifference.
“Ichiro-sama, that picture... is that Sera Kiryu?!” Sakurako burst out.
“I suppose,” he said.
“So... is it a boy... or a girl?!”
Why is Sakurako so obsessed with that question? Ichiro wondered with slight bewilderment. And then he replied:
“Nonsense.”
Afterword
Hello, everyone. It’s a pleasure to meet you.
I’m Blitz/Kiba, your crummy writer. First off, thanks a lot for reading my book. The register is that way.
I believe some of you know this, but this novel, Paying to Win in a VRMMO, is a rewrite of a story I originally wrote for the fiction website, Shosetsuka ni Narou (I Want to Be a Novelist). This is my literary debut. It’s the realization of a long-standing dream, so I don’t know what to do with my life now.
Kane no Chikara (Paying to Win; I’ll use the nickname it’s called on the internet) was serialized beginning in July, and I’m here writing this afterword at the end of January, which means that the work I began writing six months ago will soon be on store shelves.
Looking back on it, it’s been a very eventful six months. I had discussions with Hobby Japan, received plot ideas, did revisions, and called to ask for deadline extensions... all kinds of professional stuff. But sitting here writing the afterword gives me the greatest realization of all that something I wrote is about to appear in stores.
“Here are the people I want to thank” and “I’m running out of space” must be the two things every wannabe dreams of writing.
Now, the novel version of the story is fun in a different way from the web version. Of course, the ch
aracters themselves are pretty much the same.
Those who liked this story online, I urge you to have a look at the other version. This version is the complete one.
For those who have already read the web version, and think, “Hey, that person isn’t here!” don’t worry. You’ll see them soon enough. Maybe they’ll appear in the next volume? I avoided having that character interact with Asuha in the web version, so you can look forward to that now.
Now, there are two points I want to touch on with regard to the novel version.
First, Rein Kuwashima’s illustrations! They’re magnificent. Truly beautiful. They captured the young heir’s coolness, Asuha’s liveliness, Sakurako-san’s buoyancy, and Kirihito’s... well, I won’t comment on Kirihito because I might get in trouble, but it’s as if the images were wrung out directly from my brain. I’m really glad I got this artist!
Now, the other point! It’s about Sera Kiryu, a.k.a. King Kirihito! I avoided declaring Sera’s gender in the web version, too, but refusing to determine the gender for the novel made it impossible to do an illustration of the character. But... okay. It’s not just that I didn’t want to decide, okay? I really racked my brain over which one would be better. But... okay. I ended up deciding, “I like both!”
That’s why there’s a postcard in this book. I want you to write in the comment column whether you’d rather Sera be a boy or a girl. You guys get to decide if Sera is a loli or a shota. I’ll send out a letter of thanks to three readers from the side I select.
Now, I’m running out of space, so here are the people I want to thank.
Hey, I said it!
Um, to my editor who contacted me at the beginning of September, Mr. K (what a hottie!). Sorry for that weird aside, but I really do think you’re hot, both inside and out. I made a lot of trouble for you, but I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me.
And Rein Kuwashima! Thank you for being such a wonderful character designer. And thank you for reading the web version, too. I’m going to write more and more so you can see more of Kuwashima’s brilliant illustrations.
