Paying to Win in a VRMMO: Volume 2

by Blitz Kiva

  The location often played host to events for crafting class players, and items freely circulated there. As a result, many of the crafting class players had adopted Glasgobara as their home base.

  Smoke rose from the buildings, and the shrill sound of steel hitting steel rang out all around. It reminded her of a place called Irontown that she’d seen in an anime movie a long time ago. Incidentally, that movie had actually come out a little while before Asuha was born.

  “Wow...” she murmured.

  Nearly all of the buildings in the town were crafting guild houses. Most of the equip items lined up in front of their stores were suits of armor and helmets, as well. They weren’t all metallic, of course. There was a smattering of items that appeared to be made from powerful monster hide or scales.

  It was a flea market atmosphere.

  An interesting town, she thought, and it was fun to walk around in. It was fun, but...

  “I don’t see any cute equipment...”

  Most of the wares on display were bulky armor or dreary robes. There was nothing that looked cool, let alone cute. If this was the best they had, she might have to stick with her current weak equipment.

  Wait, she thought. It was too early to make up her mind. She remembered what Mr. Kirsch had told her.

  When Itchy’s attendant, the veteran gamer Kirschwasser, had first showed Felicia to Glasgobara, he had said this:

  “Listen to me, Lady Felicia. Even if they are located on main street, the guilds that display their wares in open-air booths aren’t usually the largest guilds. They sell their wares cheap, and you get what you pay for. A wise gamer may buy the potions and such that they sell, but they buy their equipment somewhere better.”

  Felicia had asked how you found “somewhere better.”

  “Go to the large guild houses,” Kirschwasser had said. “They have a high standard for their member players across the board, so they can make high-quality equipment. They have a wealth of both knowhow and component items.”

  In other words, what Felicia was looking at now was not the true heart of Glasgobara. The more merchant-like part of the merchant town was further in. Though she enjoyed the chaotic atmosphere of the town’s main street, she continued to press forward.

  She continued for a while until the open-air booths turned to buildings. The stores had signs out in front of them, and they looked like they had customers going in and out frequently. These must be the “somewhere better” that Kirschwasser had mentioned.

  One large shop in particular caught Felicia’s eye. Its sign read “Akihabara Forging Guild.” She felt like she had heard that name somewhere before. Then she remembered: it was one of the top guilds they had seen in the Delve Necrolands during the Grand Quest. She wondered if they could make some good armor for her there, but something made her hesitate. This was the kind of place that Sera Kiryuhito might come, not a level 40 nothing like her.

  Her eyes wandered, timidly. Then she saw it.

  Catercorner from the guild house, on the other side of main street, was another building of the same size. It was a stylish black building, very different from the stone guild houses that surrounded it. Although there was no forge smoke rising from it, she wondered if it might be another crafting guild house.

  Let’s go in, Felicia thought, making up her mind. After all, the building was so cool. Very different from all those smelly old workhouses. If they really were a crafting guild, they would surely carry very fashionable armor.

  Whether it would be within her reach, of course, was another question.

  Written on the guild house, in gold letters, were the words “Iris Brand.”

  2 - Noble Son, Recall

  Airi Kakitsubata was a 17-year-old girl attending a design trade school.

  She wanted to be a fashion designer when she grew up. The bus home from school rattled around her as she thought back to the events of two weeks ago.

  In the VRMMO Narrow Fantasy Online, Airi played the Elf Alchemist, Iris. Her avatar’s name was a play on her real one. Her surname, “Kakitsubata,” was the name of a flower that was called “rabbit ear iris” in English. She had been amazed when she’d learned that.

  Rabbit-ear iris. That was very cute in its own way.

  Yes, Iris was a girl. She liked cute things. She had a no-nonsense personality, and had often served leadership roles in her groups in middle school, but she still liked girlish, cute things. Back then, she had styled herself a competent fashion advisor, and her path in life had extended from there.

  But along that path, she had faced a few setbacks and frustrations, and ended up retreating into the VRMMO. She had won the game hardware, which usually cost 70,000 or 80,000 yen, at a bingo tournament in town.

  Iris was a girl.

  She had fussed around with accessories to make designs she liked, and set them out in her booth for people to buy. It was a small thing, but it delighted her. To further that end, she had bought various Miraive Gear proprietary software, including 3D modeling software. But there weren’t many players who wanted to buy accessories or tools that brought little statistical benefit just because they were a bit unusual looking.

  Even so, she had to make money somehow.

  It was a game, so she didn’t have to worry about living costs for the most part. But to create items using the “Craft” Skill, she needed some kind of income. Iris’s daily in-game cycle was to log in, travel to Vispiagna Meadow, collect ingredients, make potions, “Craft” some unique accessories to her taste, put them out on display, and then log out.

  To be honest, she wanted to try making weapons and armor, too. She had that 3D modeling software, after all. She wanted to make armor that reflected her own bold design sense, then watch a first-rate avatar beautifully stomping on mobs while wearing it.

  But every time she logged in, she found that the only items she sold were potions, never the accessories she had worked so hard on. The sight depressed her and made her feel talentless.

  Maybe it was time, she thought.

  The rush that she had felt when she first logged in was beginning to wane.

  The reality of the scenery and the towns...

  The lively animation of the monsters...

  There was an incredible level of skill on display, which was especially clear to someone like herself who had used 3D modeling software. Ever since Iris had learned that it was possible to craft equipment items with your own designs in this world, she had chosen her path. But that decision was now wavering.

  If she was going to pursue her dreams, she really needed to do it in the real world. Perhaps using this cyber world as practice for the real one had been a futile gesture from the start.

  Okay, she decided. Today would be her final day. The Miraive Gear had come at a high cost, but she would just write it off as a lesson fee at the school of hard knocks. With all that in mind, she had logged in that day to put an end to it. But...

  “Huh? It sold...” She opened her item window, then checked her shop tab. The inventory was empty.

  She left her home and came out to the front, where a copy of her avatar was operating her booth. This was known as a “Seller Avatar,” and it could answer simple questions and sell things to characters as an NPC while you were logged out. You needed the “Seller” Skill to use it, of course.

  “Oh, hello, there. I’ve been waiting so long for you to log in.” Standing in front of her store was a young man of the rare Dragonet race. He was dressed extravagantly, head to toe, in pay-to-download items, and the smell of the devoted whale drifted out from his every pore. The mere fact that he was a Dragonet meant he had bought the premium pack, as well.

  Iris was a penniless student in the real world. Hostility and caution rose up in her.

  “Who are you?” she demanded.

  “Nonsense. My name is displayed above my head. But that hardly matters right now...” This Dragonet man, Ichiro Tsuwabuki, continued, seeming a man of truly grating self-confidence. “Yes, indeed... I like y
our face.”

  “Huh?” Iris asked.

  Those words would change Iris’s life in Narrow Fantasy Online forever.

  Thinking back on it now... Airi Kakitsubata thought, bringing her recollections to an end as the bus swayed around her.

  Thinking back now, her first encounter with the young heir had not been romantic in the least.

  Insolence. Audacity. Unrestrained depravity. When it came to describing him, even the relatively unacademic Airi could conjure up advanced vocabulary words with ease. To be perfectly frank, she found his extremely poor taste when it came to all things money-related and his utterly self-centered disregard for other people’s feelings absolutely galling.

  “Just who is that guy?” Airi muttered aloud to herself once the bus was less populated.

  A premium pack-exclusive race, pay-to-download items in every equipment slot... That was how he had been when they’d first met. His copious eccentricities suggested that he must be a wealthy man in the real world. The Knight, Kirschwasser, who always accompanied him had mentioned being the young heir’s servant in the real world, too. His butler, maybe?

  Airi’s thinking took a brief tangent to mull over the question of whether people really still had butlers in 21st century Japan.

  The young heir was bizarre. How had she gotten mixed up with a person like that? She still couldn’t fully explain it. Once again, it hadn’t been a romantic first meeting in the slightest. He had needled her terribly, and there was little to love about that smirking, above-it-all attitude of his.

  And yet that same young heir had bought the original accessories that had gone so long without selling. And he had also asked her that question...

  Would you like to try making armor for me?

  Weren’t those the words that she had been waiting so long to hear?

  Yes, she acknowledged. They were. She was embarrassed with herself.

  Just how much of a pushover are you? she found herself thinking. Grow a spine, Airi Kakitsubata!

  The bus that Airi was riding finally reached the stop near her house. She got down off the bus and tried steeling her nerve once again.

  She was grateful to the young heir. In part. But that was all. From now on, she would be resolute with him. If she gave him one single inch, he would walk all over her. She had to be on guard against any such manipulation.

  Her long exam period was finally over. Starting today, Airi would return to NaroFan as the Elf Alchemist Iris. She renewed her resolve once more.

  Both of her parents worked, which meant the house she came home to was an empty one. She washed up hurriedly, then dashed to her room, threw her bag to the side, and pulled out the Miraive Gear box that had been sealed deep in her closet.

  Then, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.

  She found herself pausing. It was a file folder containing a collection of design drafts. It held a blue and black formal suit jacket and trousers, designed to resemble the wings of a butterfly in the game called the Radiant Morpho. After much trial and error, she had produced... well, it was an accomplishment as far as her designs went; a shining masterpiece in her personal history as a designer.

  Oh, no... Airi thought.

  As she had looked at the design, she had ended up smiling. Her nerve was growing un-steeled. She couldn’t help but remember the hateful heir’s reaction to it.

  No, oh no...

  Yes, he had given it a rave review. Airi didn’t have much experience with getting compliments on her apparel design, and since she had been starting to think she had no talent, she couldn’t help but feel elated over the praise.

  But don’t forget... she said.

  Don’t forget the hateful things he had said, even in the midst of all the praise. Don’t forget all of the trouble he had caused to people around him with his eccentric behavior, and the humiliation it had brought here.

  There we go. Cooldown complete.

  She wouldn’t let herself begin to like the young heir again. Then hopefully, next time, she would present him with a super high-fashion design sheet that would really knock his socks off.

  “You just watch me, young heir!” Airi quietly boasted to herself as she fixed the Miraive Gear in place. After one week, Airi Kakitsubata, as the Elf Alchemist Iris, would return once more to her battleground.

  Incidentally, the crafting guild to which Airi belonged was named Iris Brand. The guild leader was that odious young heir. It had been supposed to be a temporary guild, to be disposed of after she had created his equipment. But then, for some reason, he had built a large, fancy guild house and given her all kinds of things she didn’t need, and at some point, it had been decided that the guild would remain.

  That big argument had been really bad, too. He had made an enemy out of one of the three great guilds of NaroFan. Of course, that had more or less calmed down by now, but Ichiro had still built that big fancy guild house just diagonally from them for no reason. He had been wrong to do that, too.

  The guild house was far grander than the open-air stall she had run before opening Iris Brand. It had a black, stylish exterior with the “Iris Brand” logo in gold lettering.

  It looked like a real high-fashion boutique. Naturally, since the young heir had built it to look that way. It was a big pain.

  Was it going too far to say that? No, it really was a big pain.

  Her avatar, Iris, manifested in her personal atelier on the guild house’s second floor. She checked her appearance in the full-length mirror.

  “Iris” was an Elf Alchemist with long red hair. Until very recently, she had worn the Alchemical Robe that was her class’s starting gear, but on the young heir’s recommendation, she had changed it to a completely original design. The designer for Iris Brand could hardly look cool in the proverbial “dyer’s whites,” wearing clothing that was still white because the dyer was too busy dyeing cloth for other people. The underlying data for her outfit was just standard Mage equipment, though.

  The young heir’s equipment was a modern-style suit, so Iris had had to design her own equipment with that in mind, but she had chosen to preserve a strong fantasy flavor. She had straddled the line. Certainly, she had pulled the coloring from the clothes she was wearing that day, and the design of her middle school uniform’s blazer, and various other references. But she couldn’t make a design that got too far away from the fantasy aesthetic.

  “Okay!” Iris clenched and opened her hands, checking the feeling of being her avatar again after so long.

  Iris Brand was opening in earnest today. The lobby of the guild house was lined with her experiments in making original design armor. (Of course, their underlying specs were mostly trash.) She wondered if a single one of them had sold in the week she had been away from the game, or if she had received any special orders for original design armor.

  She checked the menu window and noticed that neither of her fellow guild members were logged in at the moment. Iris threw the door open and left her atelier behind, running out onto the balcony that overlooked the atrium that made up the floor lobby. She leaned over the banister to see how things were looking.

  There was one customer.

  Well, what were you expecting? she told herself. Feelings of disappointment and dejection were beginning to rear their heads once more.

  “Welcome!” Iris descended the stairway and greeted the customer in a rather loud voice.

  “Oh, yes. Hello!” It was a girl with silver hair. She straightened up as she was addressed and turned to face her.

  On her feet were Leather Boots. Starter equipment. She also wore a Feather Ribbon that could be purchased in Starter Town. Her rarest equipment was a Healing Coat that required a composite recipe to make, but it was also something you could get relatively early in the game.

  This must be her first time in Glasgobara, Iris speculated.

  “You’ve got lots of unusual equipment here, huh?” the girl said as she rummaged through the armor on display.


  Ah, Iris thought, her smile straining, I messed up the modeling on that one. Please don’t look too close...

  “Yeah, they’re all my original designs!” Iris said. “Their stats aren’t much underneath, of course, so don’t get your hopes up in that regard, okay?”

  “Oh, really?” the girl asked. “But I mean more in how they look. You don’t see many people wearing cute clothes like these...”

  That was true. Iris felt a brief wash of shame over the thought.

  First, most of the game’s players prioritized stats when it came to armor. That stood to reason, since it was hard to achieve much without good stats.

  Second, as her guildmate Sir Kirschwasser had recently informed her, those players who did prioritize style over substance tended to come in two major groups: One was people who genuinely didn’t care about stats and just wanted to worry about fashion. The other was players who were so skilled, they didn’t need to worry about equipment specs. Players with specific play gimmicks usually fell into the latter category.

  Those who fell into the former category, then, typically just hung out enjoying life near Starter Town, and therefore never made it to Glasgobara. Iris, then, was advised to focus on the latter group. But players like these often had high standards, and even when they came all the way to a store, it was rare for them to put in an order and then leave. It was embarrassing.

  “Um... Felicia, is it? Did you make it here solo?” Iris said, checking the girl’s name as she asked.

  “No way!” Felicia said. “A friend brought me here. I’m not really that powerful...”

  “Oh-ho...” Iris said.

  “A friend brought me” implied that she hadn’t formed a party with players of the same level range and fought their way through under great hardship. She was being power leveled.