Paying to Win in a VRMMO: Volume 2

by Blitz Kiva

  “This place has the most delicious mobs,” he said. “Wait here while I go looking for one.”

  To someone of Sir Kirschwasser’s level, the monsters in the Volcanoes were nothing to fear. Ichiro noticed small fire-breathing lizards here and there, but they must have been programmed to avoid high-level players, as they merely roared at them from afar.

  A dialogue box popped up in front of Ichiro. “You got Fireweed. Add it to your inventory?”

  It seemed it was an item that allowed him to breathe fire. Fantasy, indeed.

  He answered “Yes” to the dialogue box, which caused the Fireweed he had extracted to glow and disappear. He then selected “Item” from the menu and found the Fireweed mixed in with the consumables he had bought from the microtransaction menu.

  While Kirschwasser was searching for mobs, on a whim, Ichiro decided to pick up a small rock on the ground. He did not receive the prompt to add it to his inventory; perhaps it was too small to be of any use.

  Curiously, he brought it to his mouth. It had a strange, bitter taste and a gravelly texture. Right after he put it into his mouth, a message window appeared with a buzz of warning.

  “That is not a consumable item!”

  So he wasn’t allowed to swallow it, then. Even so, it was incredible that he could put it into his mouth and experience the taste and texture. His little experiment had left him even more impressed by the attention to detail put into the setting.

  Obviously, every little pebble on the roadside couldn’t have its own stats programmed into it. He wondered what possible program they could have written for it.

  “Master Ichiro, I found one,” Sir Kirschwasser said. “Let’s get moving.”

  Ichiro didn’t see anything that looked like a monster nearby, but Kirschwasser insisted. Perhaps the Skill he had employed earlier had been Far-Sight or Clairvoyance, or some kind of radar-like ability. Ichiro stood up and began to follow after.

  As explained earlier, the Volgund Volcanoes were an area designed for adventurers level 20 or higher. To a level 1 adventurer like Ichiro, with equipment not much better than the starter set and the poor defense stats that implied, even one hit from a minor monster would prove fatal. Nevertheless, he strode forward, unafraid. (Of course, much of that fearlessness stemmed from the understanding that this was only a game.)

  After walking for a while, Kirschwasser suddenly restrained Ichiro with one hand. They hid behind a boulder and peeked around it.

  “Sir Kirschwasser, you remind me of my local guide, Mario, who showed me around during to my trip to the Amazon last year,” Ichiro said.

  “Oh, did you find him reliable?”

  “Thanks to him, I was able to know the rare experience of being attacked by crocodiles and jaguars.”

  “He wasn’t useful at all, then!”

  Ichiro had been able to save Mario, and they had managed to survive none the worse for wear, but he might not be able to get them out so easily this time. Programs could be very inflexible, after all. For the moment, at least, he had to accept that the character Ichiro was much less capable than its real life counterpart.

  In which case, he might as well put his full trust in Kirschwasser.

  At his guide’s urging, Ichiro peeked past the rock to see what lay beyond. It was a monster, its appearance difficult to describe, patrolling the area cautiously. It was like a bipedal lizard with black and white stripes. It wore a helm and armor dulled by volcanic ash, but the blade it held in one hand still gleamed.

  “Lizardman Zebras,” Kirschwasser said, then offered a concise explanation. “They have by far the highest Technique Points offered by mobs in this level range.”

  In NaroFan, in addition to distributing the bonus points acquired by leveling up, a player could also increase their stats by hunting monsters and using Skills. Some characters spammed these methods to acquire higher stats relative to their level, while other players avoided it because it made things too easy. The Technique Points that these Lizardman Zebras had were a hidden attribute related to the advance of Skill and Arts levels.

  There were five kinds of Lizardmen in the Volgund Volcanoes, including the Zebra, and each was customized to a different stat, such as Strength or Dexterity. The location’s usefulness as a place to grind stats led heavy users to refer to it as the “Lizardman Dojo.”

  This had all come to light through voluntary player investigation. Ichiro would later learn that that “volunteer” who had figured all this out was a man named Matsunaga, the same one who ran the walkthrough wiki and aggregate blog. But setting that aside...

  “Knowing you, Master Ichiro, you’ve bought a number of pay-to-download bonuses, haven’t you?” Sir Kirschwasser asked.

  “You make me sound like an unpleasant rich fool who spends money indiscriminately.”

  “So, you did buy them?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “If you’ll pardon me, Master, from an objective point of view, that would make you an unpleasant rich fool...” Kirschwasser cleared his throat, then said...

  “I brought you here to use those bonuses more efficiently. Let’s raise all your Skill levels so that you can have an exhilarating, enjoyable NaroFan life.”

  “Setting aside the question of whether raising Skill levels will give me an exhilarating life, I am willing to try,” Ichiro said.

  The Lizardman Zebra, wielding a scimitar, cautiously approached them. Ichiro readied his Magi-Fencer’s starting weapon, the Mage Saber, and Kirschwasser stood in front of him protectively.

  It was rare for Ichiro Tsuwabuki to feel reassured by the sight of someone else’s back. Of course, that balance of power would be overturned a week later... but at the time, they didn’t know that.

  The battle that followed was extremely mechanical. In fact, that was the intent.

  Kirschwasser was a Knight/Fighter/Acolyte, so he specialized in protecting his comrades. Over and over again, he protected Ichiro from the Lizardman Zebra’s slashes, then stunned it with Shield Bash. Ichiro then fervently slashed at the now-defenseless Zebra, and once its health bar got low, Kirschwasser healed it and returned it to normal.

  The Zebras had a low spawn rate, so they had to use a single Zebra as much as possible. There was something almost inspiring about how it sprang back up vigorously every time, without a trace of dejection.

  “Sir Kirschwasser, did you build your character primarily for support?” Ichiro asked.

  “Not especially. The Knight has an Art known as ‘Pain Charge,’ so the damage I take doesn’t go to waste.”

  Ichiro kept attacking and attacking, making the utmost use of all the Arts and Skills he learned, and each time his fatigue bar built up over 60, he drank a Fatigue Restorer from his inventory and resumed attacking. His Skill and Art levels skyrocketed, and the increase in his damage was obvious.

  “That was your third Fatigue Restorer,” Sir Kirschwasser said. “Shall I give you one?”

  “No, that’s fine. I get them for free, anyway.” Ichiro selected the microtransaction menu from Config. Kirschwasser looked horrified.

  “You do not get them for free! You’re spending real money on them!”

  “Nonsense, nonsense. In terms of time-to-earnings ratio, game currency is more expensive than yen. Thus, this way is more efficient.”

  During this bourgeoisie comedy routine, the Lizardman Zebra attacked a few more times, but Kirschwasser blocked with his shield, knocked it back, stunned it, then healed it. It was, indeed, “delicious.”

  How many times had he attacked at that point?

  The high-speed swordplay weaving together Skill Level 21 “Sword Technique” and Arts Level 36 “Bash” allowed him to unleash damage digits unthinkable from a Level 1 player, which began to take gouges out of the Lizardman Zebra’s HP gauge. Even taking into account that the “Staggered” status ailment was reducing its defense, the 272 damage was still impressive.

  Letting out a baleful cry at the one-sided slaughter, the Lizardman Zebra fell prost
rate on the ground of the Volgund Volcanoes. The painstakingly detailed 3D model then disappeared into points of light.

  “Splendidly done,” Sir Kirschwasser said.

  “Yeah.” Ichiro had no trouble fully accepting the praise.

  A light fanfare rang out, and a window listing his rewards for defeating the mob appeared on the screen. His many boosts led to an unbelievable amount of experience points and gold obtained. His level skyrocketed to 17 at once.

  “Master Ichiro, for your first kill to be a Lizardman Zebra is truly impressive,” Sir Kirschwasser said.

  “Well... ah, it was a bit of nonsense. I only did it because you prevented him from attacking.” He could deal with the allocation of bonus points from his leveling up later. If he dumped it all into strength, he could get “Break Object” immediately, but there were a great number of attractive Skills with prerequisites in other stats.

  “Shall I search for another Zebra?” Sir Kirschwasser said. “Or if you want to increase your strength, there’s one called a Lizardman Big Body, as well.”

  “I’m sorry, Sakurako-san, but it’s 6:00.” Ichiro looked at the clock display at the corner of the window, then shrugged.

  When he said something like that, the middle-aged Knight, Sir Kirschwasser, had no choice but to revert to Ichiro Tsuwabuki’s personal servant, Sakurako Ogi, once more. Her avatar wore a hangdog expression not befitting a dignified middle-aged man. When the 3D models rendered overreactions like that, it was a sign that the player had gotten overly emotional.

  “Ichiro-sama, why don’t we have cup ramen tonight?” she asked hopefully.

  “Nonsense. You must work for your paycheck.”

  Kirschwasser slumped deeply. “Very well... I understand... I’ll go on ahead and get things ready... Is 8:00 acceptable for dinner?”

  “That sounds best,” he said. “I’ll let you pick the menu, but I would prefer to have fish today. It’s possible to send messages to the player in the Drive directly using the Cocoon’s exterior terminal, so when things are ready, use that to let me know.”

  “Okaaay.” Sir Kirschwasser cheerfully began preparations to log out, then suddenly seemed to remember something. “Master Ichiro, there’s an item that will take you back to Starter Town. Let me give it to you. I’ll be logging out now, and while your Skill levels are high, it’s too dangerous for you to be out in the volcanoes alone.”

  Kirschwasser moved to open his item window, but Ichiro held out a hand to stop him.

  “No, that’s all right. I’d like to go exploring on my own for a while.” He continued, “The death penalty in this game is to lose your inventory and equip items, yes?”

  “You’re left with only your starter equipment. It’s extremely unfair to the players, isn’t it? Well, I’ll be going now!” With those last words, Kirschwasser reflected Sakurako Ogi’s usual excitement.

  Now, what should I do until dinner? Ichiro wondered after Kirschwasser was gone.

  Perhaps he should head back to town, exploring on the way, then take one of the beginner quests to gain class-exclusive Arts. He wanted to do a bit more scrutinizing of potential stat distributions, though...

  While Ichiro was thinking, he heard a low growl from behind him. He turned back around and saw the mob he had just defeated — more precisely, another of the same type — flitting out its tongue as it walked towards him. A second Lizardman Zebra.

  Seeing it up close, he felt once again inspired by the craftsmanship that had gone into these monsters’ creation. The texture of their skin was so realistic, and gazing upon it through his character’s eyes made it even more awe-inspiring. He often went out to observe unusual insects in great detail, and this reminded him of the reverence he felt during those times; towards the mysteries of living things and to their maker.

  Ichiro was struck by an idea, and approached the Lizardman Zebra fearlessly. The Zebra seemed excited by the approach of such defenseless prey.

  “Graaaah!” A second later, it slashed at Ichiro with an eerie cry.

  Ichiro simply watched with the cool gaze of a scientist waiting for the results of an experiment. The scimitar collided with Ichiro’s head, taking his HP immediately down to zero.

  The world around him went black. Then an unsympathetic message window popped up, reading, “You are dead.”

  When he woke up, he was in Starter Town. That stood to reason; where else was he going to respawn?

  He opened his item inventory from the menu window, and saw that, indeed, all the consumables he had bought earlier were now gone. His equipment had also reverted to the starting leathers. Since their design was not to his taste, he quickly went through the microtransaction menu once more.

  He then checked the status screen and confirmed that one of his Skills had received a slight bonus. It was the Dragonet race-exclusive Skill, Dragon Scales. He opened his browser and checked the wiki, which explained that it was a Skill that reduced damage based on its level. It also said it wasn’t very useful in practice. For one thing, it was hard to raise levels of defensive Skills if you weren’t a defense-oriented character like a Knight, and it wasn’t useful enough to spend a Skill slot on either way.

  Well, that was nonsense. Ichiro would figure out his own way of doing things.

  Certainly, he could imagine that it would be difficult to raise defensive Skill levels. Skill levels typically increased when they were triggered during combat, relative to the Technique Points of the opponent they were used against. In order to grind defensive skills, then, the only choice was to get hit, again and again. It would be boring work, and it would come at a cost.

  “Hmm...” Ichiro rubbed at his chin thoughtfully.

  Incidentally — now, this is a total digression, of course — that day, from a little after 6:00 PM to about 8:00 PM, players claimed they had repeatedly sighted a mysterious Dragonet coming and going between Starter Town and the Volgund Volcanoes. He would walk deep into the volcanoes, “return by death” to Starter Town, somehow re-equip all the armor he should have lost, and then march triumphantly back to mountains. This mysterious, terrible zombie avatar, Ichiro Tsuwabuki, became the subject of a bit of speculation among new and intermediate adventurers.

  When Ichiro received Sakurako’s message that dinner was ready, he was gazing at the “Dragon Scales Lv 42” message in his skill window and feeling a strange sense of pride.

  “I’d like some new armor,” Ichiro announced from the dinner table. It was his third day of playing Narrow Fantasy Online.

  “Armor?” Sakurako asked, looking up as she set the dishes on the table. “Ah, but first, dinner is served.”

  “Thank you. Sakurako-san, you may join me.”

  “Okay! With your permission, I will join you.”

  He made this offer every day, of course. But the ritual was necessary to maintain the boundary between their oftentimes fuzzy master-servant relationship. Once, as a tease, he hadn’t said it, and so Sakurako had remained standing in her designated spot the entire time with tears in her eyes. Feeling bothered and guilty, Ichiro had lasted a mere five minutes before he’d given in. It was a bitter memory of defeat.

  “Now, you asked about armor?” Sakurako continued.

  Ichiro skillfully extracted a bit of horse mackerel from the plate with his chopsticks, and gave her a nod.

  “You’ve been grinding your basic stats the last few days, and your Dragon Scales Skill has grown quite advanced, hasn’t it?” she asked. “You probably wouldn’t need new armor to explore the higher-level areas...”

  The pay-to-download armor that Ichiro Tsuwabuki currently wore didn’t offer much in the way of defense, but it opened quite a number of skill slots. The past three days, to increase his Dragon Scales Skill level, he had thrown himself on the swords of Lizardman Zebras over and over again. He had lost that armor an absurd number of times to the game’s death penalty, and bought it just as many times. He must have bought it at least a thousand times.

  Since he knew that he would be
returning by death, most people would assume he would hold off on buying it again until his Skill level was where he wanted it to be. Indeed, that is what most people would do. But the young heir simply could not stand being clad in that most basic of leather equipment. So each time he died, tirelessly, he paid another 1,200 yen to buy himself a new microtransaction suit. It was extremely bourgeois.

  “But this is still tie-in equipment,” he said. “It wasn’t made just for me. It’s a bit unsatisfying, you know?”

  “Well, I understand what you mean...” Sakurako said, slurping her miso soup. “But Ichiro-sama, aren’t made-to-order items expensive?”

  “Nonsense; I have the money.”

  “Not yen, galt!”

  “I expect I can handle that, as well.” Ichiro had an extreme money booster just like his experience booster, and any time he got a rare drop item, he sold it without mercy. He had incredible negotiating skills provided by “Bartering Lv 38.” On top of that, he never bought items from NPCs, and, well, a life without spending tended to add up.

  “If you want armor made, you should go to Glasgobara Merchant Town, I suppose...” Sakurako mused.

  “That’s the large town beyond the volcanoes, yes?” Ichiro confirmed.

  “It hosts a lot of events for crafting class players, and it’s easy to get both components and recipes there,” she said. “Of course, given the name, the dev team likely intended it to be for them, I suppose. The name comes from Glasgow plus Akihabara.”

  “I’m not sure if that makes it easier to picture, or harder.”

  “In practice, it’s a bit like a big avenue lined with large crafting guilds,” she said.

  That, too, made it both easier and harder to picture.

  At any rate, Ichiro wanted his own unique armor. Though Ichiro wasn’t the type to fuss over how people saw him, he did care about his clothes acting as an extension of himself.

  His trademark outfit in the business world was a black suit with light purple necktie and handkerchief — all made-to-order, naturally. It was only natural that he would feel that way about his game avatar, too, and thus, he longed for a highly original, made-to-order costume. High-level crafting class players could take existing equip items, tweak their stats and special abilities, and create items that matched a person’s individual taste and style.