Mail from the Devs

"Munch munch results! My farming skill went up!"

She munched on bandits, so why farming…? Well, I guess it wouldn't be weird for a bandit to moonlight as a farmer. We were doubling as adventurers and alchemists ourselves, after all.

"Yo yo yo, getting skill-ups from eating people really does make her a full-on horror movie monster, yo. The kind that learns and gets scarier, a real nightmare as an enemy, yo."

"Hey hey, don't say such awful-sounding things while praising her that much. You're gonna make me blush."

"Predation is a nice skill, yo."

Well, "went up" was still just a tiny amount. The skill wasn't that much of a balance breaker. It had gained a decent amount during the research facility scenario, but that was mainly because she was still in her early growth phase.

For example, say eating something let you memorize the multiplication table. Even if you ate a bunch more of the same thing, you still wouldn't learn anything beyond the multiplication table.

Similarly, eating someone whose skills overlapped with yours was a waste and yielded almost no growth. On top of that, using Predation didn't let you learn all of the target's skills in the first place.

It just gave a small amount of skill experience. And training on your own was overwhelmingly more efficient than eating people left and right.

That said, it wasn't just useful for early-game growth; the healing effect meant it stayed relevant in the mid-game and beyond too.

Munch munch, healed! I can still fight! That was the idea.

"No way I could have my girl learn that, yo. That's a bit much. Dunno about new characters, though."

"It's a skill you want early on, but eating humans is a bit… unless you're a Slime or something. Visually speaking."

"Wouldn't eating monsters work?"

"Monsters probably don't have much in the way of skills, yo. If any of 'em do, it'd be higher-tier Goblins or Red Caps… humanoid monsters you'd hesitate to eat, yo."

Either way, the visual would be straight-up man-eating ogre. Total horror.

… Come to think of it, she hadn't eaten many of those kinds of monsters. I'd have her try eating some if we found any.

Anyway, the bandit corpses were cleaned up, so time to get moving.

Miitei-chan was back by the driver's seat, and the rest of us inside the wagon. We set off again as if the ambush had never happened.

"How much longer till we get there, I wonder～"

"Isn't it about time for a scene skip, yo? Getting tired of all this wagon rocking, yo."

"Let's just take it easy. Ah, stepping away for a sec."

Penpen stepped away, leaving Gin-chan behind.

"Think I'll handle some real-life stuff too. Gonna hit the bath."

"Oh, me too. Alto-chan, handle any attacks while we're gone, yo. If there are any cuties, secure them."

And with that, we set our characters to Auto Mode and stepped away for a bit.

Being able to handle attacks through Auto Mode was really convenient… Though it'd be scary if something really strong showed up!

 

＊　＊　＊

 

I exited VR Mode and washed up.

While drying my hair, I picked up my phone to get back to the game… but first, I figured I'd check my email. I opened my personal mail app, which I rarely touched.

I only ever got junk mail and credit card notifications, so I barely opened it more than a few times a month…

"Hm? What's this, an email from an address I don't recognize… Work emails should be forwarded to my other account, though…"

Spam? I thought, but then I checked the subject line: "From the Kaito a Luise Development Team."

Come to think of it, this was the address I'd registered when buying the game. The sender's address matched the game's official one, no doubt about it.

The email had arrived yesterday.

Inside was a thank-you for playing, along with a serial code to redeem a bonus item.

"A bonus item… 'Restriction Release Code_v1.0'? What restriction does it release?"

And the redeemed item was just another code? What restriction was it even releasing? None of that was explained whatsoever.

Maybe if other people had gotten one too, there'd be some info online? I thought, and checked the Wiki. Though I wasn't getting my hopes up.

Given how the VR display feature had worked, there was a good chance this was a "bonus that can't be discussed online." At best, I'd probably just find out whether other people had received it too.

But if others had gotten it and posted comments afterward without any issues, then at least it wasn't something with immediate consequences. Waiting to confirm that before using the code wouldn't hurt.

"Oh, found it."

It seemed to have been sent to a select group of players. As expected, no details about what it did were posted, but there was a recommendation: "Just use it and you'll see."

… Yeah. Just like VR display, this was probably something incredible that you simply couldn't talk about.

I'd check whether Alto and Penpen had gotten one too, then maybe give it a try.

…

Could this restriction release be… an Ethics Code removal? If so, it was guaranteed to be all kinds of insane, and it'd make perfect sense why nobody could talk about it on the Wiki.

I was getting so hyped up…!!