Time Acceleration

Back to the wagon journey. Miitei-chan was at the driver's seat while Alto and Penpen rode inside.

"…'Restriction Release Code_v1.0,' huh, yo?"

"Yeah. Got an email from the devs. Dated yesterday."

"Oh, I got one too just a bit ago. Let's try entering it right away!"

"Let me check… oh, I got one too, yo. I already copied it to my clipboard, yo."

If it was called a "restriction release," it shouldn't reduce what you could do.

"Hold on, Penpen-shi. Maybe we shouldn't just enter it right away, yo? At least wait till we're done traveling and back at Home."

"Huh, I already entered it. If we're gonna use it anyway, sooner's better! Oh, so this is the code. Using it now."

A black card appeared in Penpen's hand, and she used it immediately.

Quick on the draw!! She'd been the first to jump in during the second character slot thing too.

"Whoa."

"Wh-what happened, Penpen-shi, yo?"

"What is it!?"

"… Just try it yourselves!"

I would've liked her to just tell us, but it didn't seem like anything bad had happened. Let's give it a try.

I navigated through the menu, punched in the code on the input screen, and got the card. A black card was stuck to one of my slime body's tentacles.

"… Ngh! Part of me wants to save it!"

"I'm using mine, yo! Maybe this'll remove the lewd restrictions!"

Alto said that and used hers.

"Grrr, f-fine, I'm using mine too!"

I selected the card and chose to use it. The card faded away softly, and then… nothing seemed to have changed.

Hm? What exactly changed?

"Ooh… ooh! So that's what it is, yo!"

"Penpen, Alto. I don't feel like anything changed…?"

"Heh, didn't notice, yo? … It's in the Config, yo!"

"Alto-shi and I predicted it and had the Config window open beforehand, so we noticed right away."

"D-don't tell me… did they add an Ethics Code removal option!?"

I opened the Config. There was a new option that hadn't been there before.

"Time Acceleration."

… THAT'S what it was!!

"Wait. But spacetime was already distorted before, wasn't it?"

"Meaning now you can set it yourself however you want, yo."

"This is insane. Looks like you can set it down to 0.1x real-world speed."

"… Meaning?"

"Ten days in here is just one day in real life!"

"Th-that's unreal!?"

Talk about an illegal multiplier.

At that rate of acceleration, you'd become a total no-lifer in no time——

"Well, even calling it a restriction release, this isn't the full extent, yo. When we did Nika-chan's scenario, half a year in-game was one real day."

"Oh right, that's how it was for you. That's over a hundred days… so that's why it's v1.0?"

"Still, even without going that far, at the max setting, roughly two and a half hours equals one day, yo!"

Two and a half hours for one day. Which meant…

"Hold on, you could get like three days of playtime after work every single day…!?"

"Even if you still need to sleep IRL so your body holds up, you could work your shift and then spend two days relaxing here, yo…"

"It's gonna be a lifestyle of 'clock out, jump into VR, go home to Home'… wait, that's exactly what it'll be."

Life was about to become "reality is garbage" tier.

… Well, I mean, there was still the Ethics Code and all! In this game. For now, I'd max it out at 0.1x real-world speed.

"Same here, probably… I'm gonna deck out my Home like crazy!"

"Same."

"I wanna get my own Home ASAP too, yo…!! Just about three more SP Quests to go, yo! Penpen, can you craft tapestries with anime characters on them!?"

Come to think of it, you could craft tapestries. So if you put anime characters on them, your Home would transform into a full-blown otaku room…!?

"I'm no good at drawing… You'd have to find a player who's an artist."

"Wouldn't an NPC work?"

"NPCs can't see stuff from our world."

Fair point. If you had an in-world artist draw something, the best you'd get would be a nude painting or something.

"… Heh, but check me out, yo!"

"Alto, you could draw this whole time?"

"Ooh, Alto-shi is an artist!?"

"No, I said look at me, yo. Just get someone to draw me, yo!"

Oh right, her appearance was…!

"Right, your appearance is…"

"Exactly. I look exactly like that character, yo!! So drawing me is basically fan art!"

"Plastering your room with portraits of yourself is peak narcissist energy."

"Portraits, huh. Never thought of that."

Well, decorating with your own character was fair game, all things considered.

"But what about the art style? I doubt NPCs could draw SD art or anything like that."

"…!! Y-you're right!?"

"Ahh, then we'd still need to find a player who can draw after all."

Guess so.

Hopefully there'd be a player in the new town we were heading to, ideally one who could draw.

"Spirit-sama～. A monster showed up～."

"Oops, got so caught up talking I forgot to check the map."

"Yeaah, let's get 'em, yo～."

"If it drops meat, we could have it for dinner!"

"Even if it doesn't, it's Miitei-chan's meal either way."

And with that, we arrived at the wagon campsite without further incident.

… Well then, time to deploy Home and head back for now!

… So it wasn't an Ethics Code removal after all. Dang.