Frozen at the Counter

Launch shells at the enemy base! Whoooosh! Super Excitin'! … was the game we played.

Quest complete, and we raked in all the abandoned items. I stopped Miitei-chan from snacking, but since we had to deal with the corpses one way or another, I figured it was fine for her to eat whatever was lying around.

Letting food go to waste would be a shame. Or rather, leaving bodies around could breed disease and spiral into some annoying event.

"Baby Turtles back in inventory, area's cleaned up… Time to head home."

"… Hey, come to think of it, wouldn't it be better if I just got inside this Home thing?"

"Good point. You were slowing us down. We don't need a guide for the way back."

"I'll cling onto Tria-chan!"

… Smart thinking! So we had Valeria-san hop into the Home, stored it away, and Fast Traveled back.

Volunteering as a test subject for what happens to NPCs inside a stored Home… I'll count that as part of my reward.

 

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Safe and sound back home. Well, Fast Travel, so of course it was instantaneous.

Valeria-san reported it felt instantaneous on her end too.

If I used this cleverly, couldn't I shove monsters inside and keep them as pets? Miitei-chan was basically a pet already, but going full Tamer sounded nice too… Heheh.

As for the quest report, it was a pain to deal with, so I put them on Auto Mode and had them relay messages at a relaxed pace.

I dropped out of VR Mode for now. Time to tap away on my phone.

"… Ahem. And so, Your Highness, we have confirmed the destruction of the Canyon Fortress."

"… Th-th-thank you, Angel-sama. I never imagined you would achieve such a remarkable feat."

"Ah, Princess. They are not angels, but servants of Spirit-sama."

"Um, thank you, Servant-samas of Spirit-sama."

On screen, Tria-chan and Miitei-chan puffed out their chests proudly.

"You may do as you see fit!"

"Ehehe! For my little sis, I'll heave-ho all day～!"

The dialogue text really does reflect their characters, I thought. Glancing at the clock, it was almost time for bed.

… I'd been playing for quite a while, so I thought I was cutting into my sleep. But wrapping up right after the quest actually put me just on schedule.

They say time flies when you're having fun, so relatively speaking, wouldn't time outside the game feel slower?

Thinking about how thought acceleration actually works gives me a headache, so let's just go with that.

"Now then, time to collect our reward. Hand over all your clothes. They shall be offered to Spirit-sama."

"Clothes are collection items! Now strip～!"

"Given achievements of this magnitude… I suppose I have no choice…"

Huh!?

"H-hey, you two!? We called that off, didn't we!?"

"… It was a joke. You don't need to strip after all."

"… Aww, too bad～. But Spirit-sama says the original deal is enough. Aren't you two lucky!"

Phew. What I said was properly conveyed through their dialogue.

I almost cemented Spirit = pervert right there… Anyway, let's store the rewards. Actually, the Home's storage would be better than inventory. Once they stashed the rewards away…

I tapped "Quest Complete" and "Return" from the menu, the screen faded to black, and we were back at the Adventurers' Guild.

Oh, both of them came back together… Wait, did Tria-chan, who was over at Penpen's place, get pulled here too? For now, let me set the active character to Tria-chan…

Oh. I'm a bit thirsty. Let me go grab a drink… Given the hour, something caffeine-free would be smarter.

 

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Took a shower while I was at it, then hopped back into VR Mode, only to find Ms. Receptionist behind the counter on the verge of tears.

"Um, you've been standing in front of the counter in silence this whole time… Um… Please say something… Please…"

"Oh, sorry. I was spacing out."

"!! Oh, th-thank goodness. I thought I'd somehow offended you… Both of you just standing there motionless…!! Not moving a single inch…!"

All I did was step away for a bit… Leaving my phone on without touching it meant they'd just been standing there blankly. Well, obviously. I wasn't giving them any inputs.

Should've put them on Auto Mode. Sorry about that.

"Oh, by the way, we completed the quest, so could we get our SP reward?"

"… Um, yes, let me verify. Your guild card… Yes, yes. Hm? Verified. Here is your reward… the, um, S-P? Is it?"

With that, Ms. Receptionist handed over a white, glowing orb. An intangible effect, nothing more. It drifted smoothly into Miitei-chan, and a message popped up confirming we'd acquired 3 SP.

… Right, Miitei-chan was the one who accepted the quest. Well, SP was transferable, so it didn't matter who received it.

Incidentally, Alto still hadn't come back. As expected of a 10 SP quest, it was probably triple the hassle ours had been.

… Well, we did go and take on additional quests on our own.

"Let's head back to base."

"Okaaay, Spirit-sama!"

"… By the way, Miitei-chan, I heard you weren't moving either. What was that about?"

"Huh? Spirit-sama stopped moving, so I figured it was some kind of game."

Ah, I see. Like Red Light, Green Light?

That game's surprisingly fun, you know. You get to experience what having time-stop powers feels like.