Team Assembly

"Ah, Alto. Here's the equipment."

"Yo, thanks Penpen! Time to change yo!"

Alto started changing into the clothes she'd just received.

"H-hey, don't strip here!?"

"…"

Alto glanced at me, then stripped without a care. Whoa!? Mysterious white light!!

Then she finished changing. Ah, keeping the belt though.

"Ooh, this is cool yo! And yet cute… Good work, Penpen!"

"Seriously. Don't just suddenly strip. You surprised me."

"Huh, I stripped yo…? Ah, consciousness skip again yo. Then that was Alto-chan yo."

"Ahh. So changing equipment triggers that too."

Meaning the one who started changing and glanced my way was Alto-chan, not my coworker. The auto-mode version.

"I'll have Tria-chan not change in public then. Normally."

"Yo yo yo. I'll tell Alto-chan the same yo."

"Hm? Did something happen?"

Penpen was in voxel display after all.

"Good equipment yo, Penpen! … By the way, what level are you now yo? I'll help you level if you want yo!"

"I'm 27! So you'll give me lots of rare material items?"

"That too, but yo… We're going to Wantos! There's a good hunting ground there yo!"

Wantos? Where's that town?

Hopefully it's close, since we've been using this town as our base.

"Let me show you my map yo. Guild maps aren't very accurate… There. I enabled map sharing, can you see it yo?"

"Oh. I can see it."

Alto displayed a map on the now-cleared table.

There's a function like that, huh. She really knows her way around.

"This is Tsudon, this town yo. I came from here, and Wantos is over here yo."

"Hmm… Oh wait, can I share mine too and overlay them?"

"Go ahead yo."

"How do you share? Oh, found it. I'll do it too."

So we overlaid all three maps.

Penpen and I had the area around Tsudon filled in and basically the same activity range. But I had a section crossing over the mountain.

"… Ahh, from my starting point, Wantos was actually closer than here."

"Possibly Tria was supposed to use that as her base town yo."

"Well, meeting me was because of that, so it's a plus!"

"True."

If I'd tried to meet up with Alto from the start, Tsudon would've been the opposite direction. High chance we never would've met.

Teaming up with a production class definitely boosted my growth rate… Hm? But Alto reached the same level solo.

"I'm used to these kinds of games yo? There are tricks to controls and leveling yo. I'm good at aiming too yo!"

"As expected of a gamer."

"Yo! Also, just between us yo? This world has insane fall damage… Big monsters especially — if you drop them from high places and they can't fly, they basically die yo. If they survive, I finish them off with the gun from above yo."

Wait, so even large flying monsters die if you shoot out their wings and drop them? Whoa, guns are powerful. Impressive.

"So Alto's equipment is a gun. I thought what you hit Tria with was just some blunt weapon."

"Yo. This gun is why I designed Alto-chan the way I did! It's basically the main body yo! Oh, can you upgrade it yo?"

Alto produced the gun to show Penpen.

"Hmm. That's SP equipment. I can't upgrade it. You'd need SP upgrade items at minimum to strengthen it, right? Like a laser sight for an accuracy boost?"

"Hmm, I only use the scope when sniping yo. Laser sights give away your position, so they're only good for blinding or intimidation yo. Probably better to enhance Alto-chan's eyes instead yo."

"Whoa, a hardcore player. We have a hardcore player here."

"My combat style is close to gun-kata, so I don't have time to line up sights yo. What I want is attack power yo. Elemental attacks or form changes yo."

"Can't you just insert cartridges in the empty slots?"

"Seriously yo? Changing performance with cartridges is so romantic yo! Wait, there were slots like that yo!?"

As a production class, Penpen had higher item appraisal ability and could spot features Alto had missed. Production classes really are handy for this kind of thing.

"Oh. Speaking of which, we just talked about the game normally. Hey Alto, we had something to ask Penpen."

"Right yo! That's right yo, Penpen! We have a request yo! We want to go to the pleasure district, so introduce us to the merchant yo!!"

"What!? You're going to do lewd work!? I mean, that's your personal freedom, but I'm not joining!"

"No yo, we're going to play yo! Oh right, we didn't tell Penpen about VR mode that unlocks at Lv 30 yo."

"VR mode?"

Penpen tilted her head.

"Oh right, we forgot. Penpen, right now we're… to put it simply, inside the game."

"What's that about? Oh right, it's VR… Ah, there are display modes besides voxel. I see, with our income, we could totally splurge at a hostess club!"

"That's not all, Penpen. We were eating meat earlier, right? … It had taste. And I actually feel full."

"… What?"

Penpen's eyes widened.

"That's a sick joke. If VR could manipulate satiation, people would starve to death in reality. It's technically impossible and illegal!"

"There's more illegal stuff yo. Actually, it seems like my consciousness got skipped yo. I changed equipment earlier but my consciousness was cut during it, and Tria witnessed it yo… And I don't remember connecting neurally yo?"

"Huh!? So consciousness was cut and connection memory was erased too!? That's super illegal!"

"And get this yo. Tria over there doesn't have VR gear, isn't on neural, just playing on her phone yo. Yet, same situation yo."

"… … … … … … … … … … Impossible."

Right. I think so too.

But it's actually happening. At least in my perception…

"Impossible. You're lying, right, Tria?"

"If I could eat this delicious natural meat every day until I'm stuffed, I'd be fine with it being a lie… Oh, sorry, every day might actually be rough. Rotate the menu, please. I've learned that vegetables and grains matter too."

I answered while rubbing my still-stuffed stomach.