Small World

We arrived at the town of Suriad.

"So we only managed to catch one cute bandit after all…"

"Tch, what a shame, yo. Plus she belongs to someone else, so we can't even do anything with her. Annoying, yo."

"Here's hoping the player behind her isn't a PKer, at least."

And so, we handed the captured bandit… San over at the town gate. Since we had no plans anyway, we split up from Merchant-kun for the time being and decided to wait for San's player to come pick her up.

I had Miitei-chan go with Merchant-kun… Did those two manage to get along, at least a little? If so, the bet was mine and Penpen's win…

"No way, that doesn't count, yo! I refuse to accept defeat, yo!"

"You're such a sore loser, Alto-shi!"

"Sure it counts! Her Affection definitely went up! From 0 to about 3 on a 10-point scale!"

She did throw herself in front of danger to protect Merchant-kun, after all! … Even if it was a calculated setup where I deliberately waited until the last second before stepping in!

Just then, a woman approached us.

She was quite the beauty. Sharp eyes, a tight skirt that suited her well, and a mature air about her. She just radiated competence.

"My, my. Quite the lively bunch. Would you happen to be the Spirit-Possessed who captured our San?"

"Hm, yo? Oh, Spirit-Possessed. A player for real this time, yo? Nice to meet you, yo!"

"Nice to meet you. Jiggle jiggle, I'm not a bad Slime."

"Nice to meetcha!"

"… Ah… You do seem like the real deal. Nice to meet you. I'm the president of 'Odd Jobs.' Name's Mahariku."

Mahariku gave a polite bow. Very well-mannered.

"To explain the situation, she was doing an undercover investigation into the bandit gang. Sorry for the trouble."

"Gotcha, understood, yo."

"All good. Can't be helped, then."

"San-chan told us the same thing on the way here, so we pretty much figured!"

"I appreciate how quick you all are on the uptake. Really."

San-chan hadn't put up any resistance in the first place, so I could tell she didn't want a fight. I mean, I wouldn't have minded trying a little PvP, though.

"This is my first time meeting other players. Come to think of it, this is an online game, huh…"

"You're Aruru-shi, right, yo? I've seen her on the Wiki, yo!"

"That distinctive, old-fashioned way you end your sentences… You must be Mazeru-san. I've seen your girl on the Wiki's 'Show Off Your Girl' page too."

"That's me, yo! Man, meeting someone you only know from the Wiki in person is such a weird feeling, yo!"

Alto shook Mahariku's hand, swinging her arm up and down enthusiastically.

In person… well, in-game, technically.

"… Great, the confusing names problem is rearing its head again. I can't keep track of everyone."

"For the record, we generally call each other by our first character's name, yo."

"Then Mahariku is fine for me. I mentioned it on the Wiki too, but it seems like she's not actually a 'second character' after all."

"Then I'm Tria. This body is my 'second character,' Miitei-chan."

"Penpen here. This body's my 'second character,' Gin-chan."

"All three of you are players, huh… Ichi, Nii, Yon, you can come out. They're the real deal."

When Mahariku called out to them, three people who'd been hiding stepped into the open. I'd already spotted them on the map, of course. I just couldn't tell whether they were with her or not, so I'd left them alone.

… Oh? Each of them was carrying a handgun. SP gear?

"One, Two, Four. And the missing one is Three… those are some seriously lazy names, yo!"

"You'll understand when you're older just how wonderful these names are… Names become impossible to remember, you know? I've already forgotten yours, by the way, so forgive me if I get them wrong!"

"Ahh, I feel that. When you're dealing with a lot of people, the sheer number of face-name combos gets overwhelming and stops matching up."

"Right? Once you've got Suzuki-san A, Suzuki-san B, and Suzuki-san C, it all starts blurring together."

Human memory has its limits.

If that's how it is in real life, who wants that same headache in a game? A perfectly reasonable naming convention.

"For the first time ever, I find myself wishing there were name displays."

"True, yo. By the way, Mahariku-shi, is there a story behind your name, yo? Easier to remember when you know the origin, yo. Is it from an ancient magical girl's spell, yo?"

"Oh, my real name is Kurihama… Ah, crap, that just slipped out. Well, whatever. It's just my real name read backwards."

"… That's the same name as someone I know, yo. Um, based on how you talk and all… we might know each other in real life. Mind if I ask through Friend Chat, yo?"

"Sure, go ahead… I've actually been wondering the same thing, so this might be it."

Digging into people's real identities is generally off-limits, but since they both wanted to check, it wasn't worth stepping in to stop them. Just barely within the bounds of etiquette.

Wait, didn't this game have some kind of mysterious filter with pretty strong identity protection?

In any case, the two of them started a private conversation over Friend Chat. Not a single word leaked through.

"…?"

"…, …?"

"!? !!"

"…!? …～～～!!"

Ah. Judging by their furrowed brows and grimacing faces, it was a boss-subordinate thing. Which meant she might be my boss too.

But the name Kurihama didn't ring a bell, so she was probably from the sales division? Not my direct superior, at least.

"… W-well, in this game we're equal players, yo! Pleased to work with you, yo!"

Alto said this while snapping into a crisp 90-degree bow.

"R-right. Yes, um… are you two also real-life acquaintances of mine, by any chance?"

"I don't think so."

"Probably a different department for me. There's maybe a slim chance I've seen your face before, but I'd rather keep pretending we don't know each other, if that's okay."

"That's for the best, yo! Definitely, absolutely do that, yo!"

What's with you, Alto? When you insist that strongly, it just makes me more curious.

Well, playing an online game alongside your boss is guaranteed to be nothing but awkward. I'll make damn sure never to look up the employee directory.