Paying to Win in a VRMMO: Volume 2

by Blitz Kiva

  “Yes, let’s go make one,” Ichiro said. “There’s a branch of the Adventurers’ Guild in Glasgobara, after all.”

  “I believe all we have to do is bring a party of three to talk to the receptionist NPC,” Kirschwasser agreed.

  The Dragonet Magi-Fencer, the Human Knight, and the Elf Alchemist walked together down the alley. It was a curious combination for a party. Most people would raise an eyebrow at the suggestion that they were going to create a crafting guild. Fortunately, the receptionist NPC asked only the pre-programmed questions, which saved them a lot of trouble.

  The Adventurers’ Guild in Glasgobara sat at the end of the town’s main street, with the Akihabara Forging Guild in a seat of honor to its left. Aside from the inns, the guild was the only place on main street that didn’t have ironworking smoke pouring out of it.

  “By the way, will you be the guild leader, young heir?” Iris asked.

  “Hmm, I suppose so,” Ichiro considered. “Though if you especially want to do it, I’ll concede leadership to you.”

  “No, that’s okay,” Iris said.

  They bantered lightly back and forth at the reception desk while talking to the NPC.

  “What do you think we should name the guild?” Kirschwasser asked.

  “Does it matter?” Iris replied. “We’re going to break it up right after, right?”

  “Actually, I already know what our guild name will be,” Ichiro Tsuwabuki said, in a tone that — unusually, for him — suggested a double meaning to his words.

  Once he finished selecting their starting members and guild classification, the NPC formed the guild, and then asked for its name. A touch window appeared, and the young heir tapped a few key panels in it.

  Iris Brand.

  “Iris Brand?” Iris, whose character name was being used without permission, repeated in a dumbfounded tone. Surprisingly — well actually, not at all surprisingly — the young heir did not bat an eye at her objection.

  “That’s right,” he said. “You’re the one creating my armor, so shouldn’t the name be something along those lines?”

  “What’s your real game?” Iris demanded.

  “Nonsense. I don’t wish to say it right now.”

  “Then at least put more effort into the lie!” she shouted.

  Next, the NPC asked about what should happen to the guild’s funds if it ever broke up for some reason, and if they would like to put money into the guild’s account immediately. The young heir answered both without hesitation. It was as if he had planned it all out from the start.

  What are your Guild Skills?

  “What shall I choose?” he wondered. It was the only time he asked for input.

  A crafting guild would naturally choose “Ironworks” or “Laboratory,” to increase item production efficiency as much as possible, but it wouldn’t take that long for Iris to complete one set of armor, and she would be the only one receiving the benefit in the meantime.

  To create armor would also require the collection of ingredients, so there were also choices for “Searcher,” which would let members re-roll their drop items once, and “Explorer,” which let them encounter mobs that had a lower spawn rate. Increasing their guild’s favorability rating would also allow them to acquire more Guild Skills down the line, but that point was moot for them.

  In the end, they decided that the two guild skills they could acquire would be “Ironworks” and “Searcher.” Now all that remained was to choose their guild house. It wasn’t necessary to have one, but if they wanted one, Iris thought it would be best to choose her room in the back alley.

  To construct a house on main street will cost one million galt, the NPC said.

  “That should do it,” Ichiro said. There was a cha-ching sound, and the young heir’s cash on hand reduced by 1 million.

  “Why?!” Iris shouted. “You won’t have enough to pay me! Even if we’re in the same guild, creating armor is still a business!”

  “I still have nine million left,” he said. “Will that not be enough?”

  “Not at all! Not nearly enough!”

  This was how the conversation went every time. Iris one-sidedly attacked him, Ichiro remained unfazed, and as a result, Iris was left running recklessly on a treadmill. A sad sight. Iris was sick of it, but she had a feeling this wasn’t the last time they were going to have this dance.

  They finished the process and placed their guild house, causing part of the map of Glasgobara to be redrawn.

  Kirschwasser gazed at the new map, murmuring. “This is right across from the Forging Guild’s house...”

  If only Iris had then seen those words as the foreboding sign they were.

  ◆　◆　◆

  “Itchy, even in the game, you’re bourgeoisie!” Felicia exclaimed.

  “I just had nothing else to spend it on,” Ichiro responded coolly. “I’m sure there are top players in the game with ten million or more.”

  Iris was starting to enjoy having Felicia around to say everything she wanted to say to the young heir for her. She wondered if Kirschwasser, who was with Ichiro as his servant all the time, felt the same way.

  Felicia had looked troubled as she’d listened to Iris’s talk about how the guild house was created. If the tactless way the young heir had talked about her back at Iris Brand was true, then maybe she really had wanted to form a guild with him.

  “So you created the guild to have your equipment made?” Felicia asked.

  “Well, that was the original intent,” Ichiro said.

  “Hrmmm...” Felicia scowled. She was likely fighting with the urge to say, “Why don’t you close it now, then?” But apparently not even she could be that selfish.

  “I know how you feel, Lady Felicia.” Sir Kirschwasser sipped his tea with a placid expression. “I felt the same way. When I asked about the circumstances behind his desire to create a guild, the answer shocked me beyond the capacity for words.”

  “If you were beyond the capacity for words, you wouldn’t be able to talk,” Ichiro said.

  “As you can see, this is the kind of person Master Ichiro is.”

  As his real-life servant, Kirschwasser was likely used to this sort of thing. Even so, anyone would be struck dumb by the news that he’d requested armor from a girl he’d just met, who had a low Create Armor level; and moreover, that he had formed a guild to shoulder the unknown, likely-to-balloon cost burden for it.

  “I had been hoping to form my own guild with Master Ichiro... but well, this is fun in its own way.” Sir Kirschwasser, ever the considerate adult, cast a wink her way as he spoke. “And it means we have Iris with us.”

  He really was considerate. He really was completely unlike the young heir in that regard.

  “Hmmm...” Felicia screwed up her face, working hard to process all this.

  As the conversation threatened to come to a standstill, Ichiro quickly cut to the chase. “And that was more or less the way we founded the guild. Afterwards, all we had to do was get Iris to work creating my armor. I wanted to be meticulous with the components, so we had a great deal of discussion as to what armor should be used as the base.”

  “Components?” Felicia asked.

  “For instance, the underlying data for the jacket I’m wearing is that of the Radiant Armor, and to make Radiant Armor, you need a Radiant Morpho Wing. The jacket itself has a butterfly wing motif, so I wanted components that evoked that image. Hence, the use of Radiant Armor as the base.”

  Incidentally, some of the pieces of Ichiro’s armor used pay-to-download blueprints to make, and every time Iris failed, Ichiro had had to buy new blueprints with real money. But Iris opted not to mention that. Even without that, she didn’t want to think about how much real money the young heir had been forced to spend because of her.

  She didn’t want to, but...

  ...if the success rate was 1%, and each graphics change cost 800 yen, then to create the entire suit of equipment had likely cost somewhere between 400,000 and 600,000 y
en.

  Narrow Fantasy Online was an MMORPG. Iris didn’t know much about games, but she knew that in this genre of game, the object was to make oneself stronger to defeat more powerful enemies. She also knew that there were people known as “whales” who threw vast quantities of money down the drain to accomplish this.

  She had heard incredible stories of whales to whom 400,000 or 600,000 yen was mere pocket change. But even then, the money would be going to more efficient ways of making their characters more powerful. To spend that much money simply for the sake of “appearance” — which had nothing to do with the game’s authoritative barometer of “strength” — was simply absurd. And on top of all that, he was even paying for the blueprints.

  Although she was grateful for the young heir’s proposal, this was all beyond Iris’s understanding.

  No, it wasn’t beyond her understanding. She had a feeling that she did have a hint as to why he was doing this. She thought back to a journey she had taken to the deepest part of the volcanoes with the young heir, searching for ingredients for the belt...

  ◆　◆　◆

  A shadow large enough to block out the sky lurked between the ravines of burbling lava. Its skin was stained black from extended heat exposure, and unlike many of its species, it did not merely “contain” metal. It was pure Magi-Metal itself. This fearsome life form, with its unyielding armor and formidable magic resistance, was believed to exist only in legends.

  It was a Magi-Metal Dragon.

  The form of a man stepped impudently up to it.

  The dragon snorted hellfire from its nose. “Descendant mine... Why troddest thou upon this forbidden soil?”

  “Actually, I want one of your scales to make my new belt,” Ichiro said.

  No one, since the quest’s original release, had ever come before this dragon admitting to such a self-serving reason. The beast was unimaginably huge, its entire body rendered in meticulous graphic detail. Its two eyes, like drops of blood, were so lifelike that it was easy to forget it was just a game. It invoked such a primordial terror that even the terminology and walkthrough wikis warned it could send players into a panic at the sight of it.

  But the only thing on Ichiro’s mind was...

  “Did you hear that, Iris? It looks like its conversational patterns change when dealing with Dragonet players!”

  “I see! Great attention to detail, huh!” Iris shouted back. She was hiding behind a huge boulder, about 50 meters away from Ichiro.

  How had she gotten herself into this mess? What was she doing here? The sight of the enormous dragon had caused her knees to buckle. On a whim, she had asked to go with the heir to collect materials. How could she have been such a fool?

  Volcanic Dragon Volgund had been an earlier Grand Quest boss. The Magi-Metal Dragons were its kin. Dragons only spawned in this region if you accepted a quest from a nearby village to bring a “Dragon Gem” dropped by dragon-type mobs to the village elder. But even if you took that quest, there was no particular need to go hunting for the most ferocious of all dragons, the Magi-Metal, to complete it.

  Yet it was Iris who had boldly written “Magi-Metal Dragon Scale Belt” on the final draft of the young heir’s clothing design. Of course, she was regretting that now.

  “Impudent mortal... Meet thy end, wreathed in flame!” The dragon’s proclamation triggered the start of battle, which it kicked off with a stream of scorching fire from its mouth. Ichiro didn’t even flinch as the “Infernic Breath” flowed over him.

  Iris held her breath.

  A gallant-yet-tense melody began to play a few seconds later. But as the rousing BGM kicked in, Ichiro merely opened the menu window and began checking his own stats.

  His Dragon Scales and Fire Soul, raised to such high levels as they were, greatly reduced the fire-based damage that he took, so he had lost surprisingly little in the way of HP. Unbelievably, Ichiro seemed to be using this battle to fiddle with his stats. She wanted to yell at him, but couldn’t; crying out in the middle of battle stood a chance of drawing the monster’s aggro.

  Naturally, the game’s battle system was not turn-based. The enormous dragon stood up and followed through with a rending attack against Ichiro with its claws. Each one was as long as he was tall, with a wicked curve to it like a reaper’s scythe. Yet the merciless sickles failed to make contact.

  The young heir leaped, his body moving lithely through the air.

  He then let out a faint noise of effort as he unleashed a whirlpool that bound the Magi-Metal Dragon’s body. It was the water-attribute attack spell “Spiral Flood.” The great waves of damage stole the heat away from the lava and shaved away at the great rocks, causing a wave of steam to billow out through the room.

  He couldn’t keep the dragon bound for long — only two seconds, in real time — but that was more than enough time for Ichiro to land and ready himself. He drew his Mage Saber and took a stance.

  What other “Hero” would ever challenge such a dragon with starter equipment?

  The Magi-Metal Dragon was merely a program, and would not cry out no matter how close it was to death. Pattern changes at certain health levels would have had to be added by the devs out of consideration for players who couldn’t read boss HP. Still, the damage he dealt with that one hit had clearly been significant. Iris sweated bullets as she watched the scene.

  Ichiro took his Mage Saber in a reverse grip stance.

  In Narrow Fantasy Online, there was a hidden modifier known as “Stance.” The pose you struck just before activating certain Arts could change the speed of its execution, or the damage that it dealt. Sometimes it could even add additional effects. Many stances had already been discovered through voluntary investigation, and added to the walkthrough wiki.

  This stance Ichiro assumed was a Magi-Fencer stance that he had discovered for himself. It gave a considerable modifier to his class-exclusive Art “Strash,” and it could be canceled after activation with many other arts and weapons.

  The Dragonet man watched the raging, fire-breathing dragon as if it were a thing a world away from him, and did not budge one inch. The dragon built up heat in its mouth and unleashed another Infernic Breath.

  The young heir took the second blast head-on. Iris wondered why he didn’t dodge. But she immediately knew what the answer would be if she asked.

  Nonsense. Even it’s only with 1 HP left, all that matters is whether you win.

  The instant the breath cut off, Ichiro sprang off the ground. He had the support Art “Dash Thrust” that increased his explosive speed, and it pushed his body to the limit. If the Magi-Metal Dragon had had a will of its own, would its eyes have registered shock at this? Or would it have been so blinded by rage that it couldn’t see anything?

  The reverse-gripped Mage Saber flashed.

  Strash! Sparks flew off the hide of the Magi-Metal Dragon, tougher than any metal in the world. But that blow was not enough to pierce it completely. Instead, Ichiro focused on his left hand, and grabbed the scar he’d left with his bare fingers. In an instant, he manifested his Dragon Claws, which then sliced the rest of the way through the armor.

  He used his claws to gouge deeper into its throat, then invoked “Cast Break” followed by “Hydro Press”; waves of physical and magical damage that only a Magi-Fencer could deal out. The dragon had zero defense in the spot where its armor was compromised. Ichiro continued pouring fatal damage into that spot, using attacks it was weakest against by combining the effects of “Weak Point Knowledge,” “Fervent Slashes,” “Water Soul,” and “Point Blank Magic” together.

  Then, to add insult to injury, he kicked it in the jaw as he flipped away from it through the air, and landed. It was the result of the neural scanner tracing Ichiro’s intentions faithfully, combined with his sky-high agility stat. Even his manner of sheathing his Magi-Saber was elegant.

  “I-Impossible...” the dragon groaned. “I... I, who have lived life eternal... to be vanquished by one so trivial...”

  “Nons
ense,” Ichiro said. “Enough of that. I could hardly be provoked by being called trivial by a program...”

  The Magi-Fencer spoke without even bothering to turn around, as the massive creature collapsed behind him. It was followed by a tremor and a cloud of dust. The detail put into the visual was indicative of the passion the designer put into this quest, but the emotion it inspired was immediately quashed by the cheery fanfare that played and the accompanying message window.

  “Hey, Iris. I won,” Ichiro said casually.

  “I... I can see that...”

  Since Ichiro and Iris were acting as a party, they shared some of the results. Iris first read the message window.

  Level up. That was good.

  Money acquired. That was good, too.

  She scrolled through the window and read the drop item list.

  “Acquired Magi-Metal Dragon Scale.

  Acquired Magi-Metal Dragon Scale.

  Acquired Magi-Metal Dragon Scale.

  Acquired Dragon Gem.

  Magimeta.”

  She closed the window. She needed three scales to make the belt, right?

  Then she had as many as she needed. He had HP and fatigue to spare, so he could probably fight another one if he had to. Unfortunately, they would’ve had to wait some time after the quest had been finished to try again.

  They descended to the foot of the volcano, gave the Dragon Gem to the NPC elder of the small village, and that was that.

  With this, she could make the belt. Technically, the belt was just a design, with the underlying data being that of a Magi-Metal Earring, but when you chose the design for an accessory, you could also change where it displayed. There was nothing unusual about changing an earring into a belt. Of course, like most accessories, it provided little in the way of stat modifiers. For all the difficulty of acquiring the components, all it gave you was a few extra skill slots.

  It was then that a thought occurred to her.

  The young heir was looking for unique, original armor. Naturally, that was why he was so obsessed with the design. But the underlying data would be no different from the utterly unremarkable Magi-Metal Fold armor, with the design being the only thing that had changed.