[Entrust Your Feelings, Kirika-chan!]

“Yuri-han, I shall defeat you in our next battle, mark my words…! Nom nom nom nom…!”

“Oh, hit me whenever, I’m always up for battle!”

After the art acquisition quest. A vexed Kirika and I were stuffing ourselves with Mapo Tofu at a Chinese restaurant in the ‘Beginning Town’.

It was Kirika who had invited me, saying, “BSO’s taste reproduction is so excellent it is almost annoying, and the food here is very delicious, but it is a bit embarrassing to eat at a restaurant alone…”

The sight of her in a courtesan dress gluttonously eating Mapo Tofu at a Chinese restaurant seemed quite out of place.

“Hmm~, the dishes in BSO truly are delicious…! There was nothing but rice balls in ‘Sengoku Rokudo Online’, and they tasted like dirt, too…”

“Haha, that, in a sense, is a faithful reproduction of the late Sengoku period. By the way, Kirika, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. Your avatar is specially made by the devs for the Assassins from Other Worlds event, right?”

“Yes, but what of it?”

“Well, you were trying to learn ‘Special Action Art’, weren’t you? I was wondering if you guys could acquire arts and skills like normal players.”

At my question, Kirika nodded, “We can. After all, our avatars are practically the same as yours. The only difference is, ours are high-leveled from the start and come with replicas of techniques from other games.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding…”

Kirika was nonchalant about it, but the truth she revealed was quite a shock to me. The devs sure were a nasty bunch.

I mean, think about it. The assassins might be strong, but as long as their abilities remained stagnant, we could definitely defeat them in due time.

With the right strat and a bit of luck, even those not good at fighting would have a good chance of beating them.

But if those already strong assassins could learn arts and skills and grow stronger…

“They’re… gonna be super difficult to take down…! Top-class players like the baldhead and Zansword aside, the majority of players with average battle sense but made it to level 50 with sheer hard work will only get slaughtered powerlessly during this event…!”

It wasn’t so long ago that I thought the devs had become a little more decent, but they quickly proved me wrong.

Why were they always playing with fire? If things went wrong, the players might quit en masse…

“Those guys are really beyond help…”

I was so exasperated that a sigh escaped from my lips without me knowing.

–But then, Kirika said with her cheeks full of Mapo Tofu, “That’s no cause for concern.”

“Kirika…?”

“No one will quit. –Because they have you here. You became the strongest with a trash job, weakest weapon, and rotten stat…!

“Regardless of how harsh an ordeal the developers brought upon you, you have always faced it with a smile on your face. You can enjoy the ‘impossible’ and make it ‘possible’, and that is enough to give hope to other players. No one will quit with you around…!”

Kirika’s tone as she spoke was filled with definite enthusiasm.

The first time we met, she ridiculed ‘Blade Skill Online’ as a warm and friendly game.

She had been invited to this game as an assassin. It shouldn’t matter to her if players quit this game, and yet…

“Haah… Yesterday, there was an official announcement that ‘Sengoku Rokudo Online’ will shut down. To think even that game with difficulty so extreme it has forced uncountable players to retire finally has to pay the piper.”

“H-hold on, are you being serious right now…?! Y-you’ll have nowhere to return…?!”

“Haha… it is what it is. It might be why I ended up saying such things I normally wouldn’t. I can’t help but think… ‘What if, what if we had someone like Yuri-han? Would have things gone differently?’”

With a mixed expression of loneliness and frustration, Kirika drank the cold water with one gulp.

She then put the glass on the table and continued with reddened eyes, “So, don’t lose…! Make sure you defeat me, the other assassins, and of course, that sly Pendragon with a smile on your face!”

She cheered me on even though we were enemies.

“Don’t worry,” I nodded to her, “I accepted your feelings. I am going to win, win, and keep winning. I’ll beat anyone standing in my path. So the next time we meet on the battlefield, don’t hold back and fight me with all you’ve got, okay?”

“Hmph… you don’t need to tell me! The day you lose shall be the day I stand at the top of this game!”

“Oh, that’s the spirit! I’m not gonna lose, though!”

We smiled at each other as we faced off with our fighting spirits.

–It was at that time. A window popped up in front of me…!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

・You received a message from your friend, Grimm.

[Great Demon King, your new set of equipment will be complete soon! Hurry and come back to the guild!]