The Sandbox Next Door

After escaping from the Great Turtle and traveling through the mountain forest, Tria seemed to have found a peculiar place.

"Spirit-sama, what is this place…?"

"Whoa? A settlement… no, that's not it? It does look like a house though."

Upon closer inspection, it was an open space in the forest… or rather, a private residence.

A cute little house with a medieval European feel, and a garden surrounded by a fence.

The garden was spacious and appeared to have a vegetable patch. There was even a somewhat comical scarecrow standing there. It was like a sandbox building game.

Put cutely, it was a "house in the forest". Maybe a witch lived there?

This obviously suspicious and out-of-place location. There was a fence, and I thought about climbing over, but my hand hit something with a bonk as if there was an invisible wall.

… Well, it's a fence. Can't be helped if you can't climb over. The gate was clearly visible anyway, so I headed around to it.

Maybe I could ask for directions if someone was there.

"Excuse meee!"

I called out but got no reply.

Worst case, would I have to walk in the direction the gate was facing? There was clearly no road, just forest spreading out.

"Excuse meee?"

"Oh, yeeees!"

When I called out again without giving up, I got a response.

With a clatter, a cute girl came out of the house. Denim overalls like a farmer, a straw hat, simple brown braids, a freckled face. Also, her chest was so big I wondered if she was part cow.

And floating behind her head was a yellow halo.

"Oh, could it be… you're a player!?"

"So are you!!"

Apparently she was a "Kaito a Luise" player too. Ah, was she also using voice input for chat?

"My Home is still just starting out, but isn't it cute? I'd love to see your Home too if you don't mind!"

"Home?"

I tilted my head. What's a Home? A house? I mean, yeah, looking at it, it was clearly a house.

"Sorry, I don't think I have one yet."

"Huh? 'Kaito a Luise' is a sandbox slow-life game, right? Isn't that the very first part of the tutorial? You haven't finished it?"

"… My tutorial was probably different."

"Whaaaat??"

Hmm? What's going on here? The farm girl tilted her head in confusion.

"This voxel look is definitely sandbox slow-life, I'd say."

"Voxel? Isn't it a beautiful 3D action game?"

"Haha. Well, I guess it's beautiful in a pixel remaster sort of way."

Hmm? Something felt like we weren't understanding each other. Or rather, the display was different…?

I wondered if I could switch display modes and searched through the config — oh, there it was. A toggle.

"Ooh. You're right, messing with the config made it look voxel-ish. Awesome."

"Huh? Whoa, whoa. So mine can look like beautiful 3D too? Let me see… Ohhhhh, wait. What's with these huge boobs? Pen-chan, are you some kind of cow beastkin?"

"Pen-chan?"

"Ah, that's my character name. Penpen."

"Ah, mine's Tria. Nice to meet you."

Penpen, huh. Sounds like she might like penguins. Anyway, I switched back to the familiar 3D mode.

"Um, would you like to come in? The interior's still totally bare, which is embarrassing though."

"Then I'll take you up on that."

I accepted Penpen's invitation and was let into her Home.

… Yeah, our game genres are completely different. Well, looking at her, she was clearly going the production class route, so I suppose that's just how it is.

Production class seems nice too. This kind of slow life surrounded by nature might be good.

"Oh, want some Baby Turtle corpses as a token of friendship?"

"Baby… turtle?"

"I hunted a bunch, so you can strip them for materials or eat the meat?"

"Ooh, monster materials! Baby turtle and meat are both things I haven't gotten yet! I'd be happy to take them!"

I could tell from the chat that she was happy.

Bringing gifts when visiting someone's home really is essential, huh.

 

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"Heeh. So Tria-san had the 'Sacrifice to the Great Turtle' scenario."

"And Penpen-san has the 'Massive Debt' scenario."

After exchanging information, it seemed Penpen was doing something like a farming game that was slow-life in name only, all to pay back her debt.

Apparently she was threatened by scary people but somehow got an extension — if she couldn't pay back the debt, she'd have to pay with her body.

… Well, with that body, she could probably pay it off, yeah.

After her tutorial of "Create a safe base". she used almost all her SP to purchase a "Home" and got to where she is now.

"Slow life with debt… that's harsh."

"Huh? Starting with debt repayment is pretty standard for slow-life games, you know? Haven't you seen that animal series island development one?"

"… Now that you mention it, I guess so?"

A tanuki forces debt on you, so you have to work first.

Slow life requires money to begin with…!

"But still, why'd you pick that scenario?"

"Well, it'd feel good to pay off debt smoothly in a game at least, wouldn't it?"

"Ah, yeah."

I picked up on the implication that reality was different, but let it slide.

"The debt collector was actually really nice, too. He said, 'I'll wait as long as possible. As long as you pay the money back properly, there's no problem. I'll buy items from you, so feel free to sell me anything. Oh, I'll waive the loose change as a service — do your best.' He even consolidated my multiple debts into one and said I didn't need to pay interest."

"I see, a very game-like debt collector."

"Right! I wish reality was like this. If there was a loose change service, they'd round it up! Round it up! Tch."

Penpen made a disgruntled motion. I was impressed that such animations existed.

Anyway, right after starting the game, the debt collector had sent her to this forest. Told her to work here.

He'd come to check on her once a week. It was only day two, so he hadn't come yet.

"Hm? So is the town close to here?"

"Yeah. I haven't gone yet since I came straight here at the start, though. I've been busy gathering seeds and stuff from the forest."

"Alright! Now I can register as an adventurer in town!"

"Ooh. Adventurer registration? So you can do stuff like that too. I wonder if it'd help with the debt repayment…"

Penpen put a finger to her lips and thought, "Hmmm."

If we could go together, that would be reassuring. After all, I was completely lost in the mountains…!