VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～

Chapter 1: The reckless one and the worrywart

So, here’s the first chapter. There’s 4 more for now and they’ll be up as I edit them. Hope you enjoy it.

As I mentioned before, since I lack the skills to make a footnote I’ll proceed to add them after the text and signal them with a number like this (1).

I know it doesn’t look good and it might take you out from the reading experience but it’s the only thing that came to mind for now and I apologize. I’ll try to use them as little as possible.

「Ahh! I’m going to die! Hind heal me!」

「Unfortunately, both my items and spells are on cooldown. Try to do something by yourself.」

「Eh!? Ah! The sword brok-」

「Oh…she died.」

Yumir’s HP reached 0 points.

As I saw that, I took some distance from the goblin-like monster.

Since the target went out of its range of action, the monster left.

That’s why I told you to use the infinite beginner hp items…

Saying that it’s uncool or whatever, you care too much about appearances.

I approached the gray corpse of the defeated Yumir and poured the beginner revival item with infinite uses on her.

Its full name was 「Beginner holy water」, it can’t be used mid-battle.

What does this name even mean? Are you telling me that God cuts corners when making them?

「Re・vi・ved!」

「…Yeah yeah, good morning」

Color returned to Yumir’s body and she vigorously stood up.

By the way, apparently, if you don’t get revived within 1 minute after the battle ends, on top of the death penalty you’ll get sent back to the last town you’ve passed through.

Playing solo is quite harsh.

I wonder if there’s any sort of auto-revive consumables for solo players?

「It was impossible after all! Let’s continue after we have leveled up in the forest at the beginning!」

「You are saying that because I’m a beginner right? Right!?」

「But, don’t you want to rush through the beginning?! It’s launch day after all!」

Apparently this game launched today at 10 am.

The time right now is 2pm.

Anyway, I don’t think we can compare to those people that take the day off to play all day long…but some things are better off unsaid.

I didn’t want to pour cold water on Miyu’s…I mean Yumir’s motivation.

However, this is too inefficient.

I wonder if there’s any way to find a suitable hunting ground?

Just now we were the ones being hunted instead of being the hunters.

Is what I thought as I kept casting healing magic on the near-death Yumir.

「Once we get back, why don’t we investigate a bit? Stuff like the levels of the monsters or how much experience you get in parties」

「Investigate? That kind of stuff, just leave it to the people that make walk-through sites! Until then, we should just use our instincts to find a way to proceed!」

「You are going to leave the hard work to others!? It’s still launch day, I don’t think that kind of information will be out yet. Don’t you think that investigating by ourselves is another way to enjoy the game?」

Yumir stood there, her long eyelashes made a *pachi pachi* sound as she blinked repeatedly.

I…Did I say something that weird?

「O-Oh…」

「What?」

「That thought never crossed my mind…Like I thought, when I’m with you, I find new ways to have fun! I’m glad I invited you to play the game!」

「…」

Seriously, her way of conveying her feelings is too direct…I find it hard to react sometimes.

For some reason, I didn’t want her to see my face so I turned my back to her and started walking.

「Anyway, let’s return. Dondery Forest…was it? I’ll tag along until our level is high enough that we can’t use beginner gear anymore.」

「Really!? Let’s go right away!」

We started walking back.

On the way back, we passed by a group full of guys.

I feel bad for Yumir but..let’s try getting some distance from her and pass by them.

As we passed by them, I could hear whispers.

「Oh, Isn’t she quite pretty?」

「Hey, try talking to her! Let’s get her to take a screenshot with us!」

「For someone like me, talking to a beautiful girl of that caliber is too high of a hurdle…」

Just like I thought, Yumir was getting stares from the guys.

…Just now…did someone just talk in a really old fashioned otaku way? Was it my imagination? (1) (The last person ends his sentences with -degozaru)

Anyways…act like you don’t know her…It just so happens that you are walking the same way as her.

It was an evasive skill to naturally get away from my childhood friend who had a pointlessly pretty face.

In this game, your face doesn’t really change much…though it’s not like I want them to make the avatars plain looking.

Of course, if Yumir gets involved in anything I plan to help her out, but as someone that’s not her boyfriend, I’d find the gazes of jealousy annoying.

Moreover, it drains your stamina and there’s no easy way to deal with it.

Perfect…my camouflage is perfect!

「Why are you suddenly distancing yourself from me? That makes me lonely～」

「Don’t get close to me now!!」

Camouflage failed.

Stares of jealousy flooded from the male-only party towards me.

As for the reason I started playing this game, we’ll have to turn back the clock 2 hours.

Today, Sunday, I had the day off my part-time job so I was lazing around the house but…

In front of me, my female classmate was prostrating on the floor.

Her long black hair spread out on the carpet.

It was quite the awful sight…How did it end up like this?

「I beg you Wataru! with me…Play a VR game with me!」

「Why are you prostrating before me…isn’t your way of asking favors too manly?

I would hear you out even if you didn’t do something like this, but…I don’t have a VR headset.」

Taking my reply as a positive one the girl before me…Miyu vigorously raised her face.

As I had placed my hand on her shoulder to make her stand up, the sudden movement made her hair attack my chin and cheeks.

That tickles.

Plus it has the good fragrance of a girl.

「Is it okay!? Is it really OK!? Even though you are so busy everyday!」

「Well, as long as it’s only a couple hours every day I don’t think there will be any problems. Besides, I don’t have work every day and at the latest, I would end at 10pm.

But still, you know I can’t afford to buy a VR headset.」

My household doesn’t have a father.

My mom works every day until quite late and the money I get from my work goes toward the savings for household expenses.

Spending on games that aren’t too expensive would be 1 thing but I can’t really afford to spend the large sum that current VR headsets cost.

If it was an old game that supported old headset models it might have been possible, but contrary to her appearance Miyu is quite the gamer.

Most likely the game she’s inviting me to play is the latest game released.

「Fufufu…I thought you would say that.」

「Huh?」

Miyu started to look through her bag.

The strange thing she pulled from her bag was…

「Tadah! Its the latest headset VRX3500! I even got 2 of them!」

They were a pair of black goggles with a stylish design, if I remember correctly they appeared in commercials these days.

She thrust a pair of them towards me while holding the other one under her arm.

As she struck a pose, I started clapping.

「ooh…oh? Wait? I thought the news said that to prevent reselling them, they were only sold in physical stores and it was limited to 1 per person?」

「Ugh! I thought you didn’t usually watch the news…」

That’s right, I usually don’t watch the news.

But, even people like me know of this kind of social phenomenon, The VR headset that provides full virtual reality immersion that she’s holding.

With its launch, there’s already lots of games that launched covering multiple genres such as FPS, MMORPG, Sports…

The mysterious number 3500 apparently comes from the number of prototypes it had, though I don’t know if that’s true or not.

The release date was yesterday and on the way back home from work, I was astonished at the long queue in front of the store.

They take your ID when you buy one, so it was impossible to buy 2.

Given these circumstances, the question is how she managed to buy 2 of them…

「Eh…eh…To tell you the truth, I persuaded my father to buy one…」

「Uwah…You called uncle Akifumi on his way home from work?」

Making him wait on that long queue with his tired body…that’s so pitiful…

「He had to get his ticket on his way to work and we went together on the way back…Bu-but I also had to go through a lot you know!

I had to wait there early in the morning and in the evening I had to wait in that long queue! In the end, because there was a delay, I couldn’t get to Wataru’s birthday party in time…I passed by at 10 pm but no matter how many times I rang the bell no one came out…I was so lonely that I cried a bit you know!」

「That was you! It was an unusual time so I didn’t come out! Use your phone!」

「Ah…I forgot about that. I wanted to keep silent and give you a surprise so…I kind of forgot about it…」

「Good grief…being alone in the middle of the night is dangerous.」

「No, I was with my dad, you know?」

「Are you serious!? With uncle Akifumi!?」

「Because of that, today he’s sound asleep. When I left home, dad was still sleeping!」

He’s really pitiful…on top of having to work until Saturdays, this.

But that person does dote on his daughter to a frightening degree…

Like Miyu said, yesterday was my 17th birthday.

We were planning to have a modest celebration with: my mom, my little sister, Miyu and me but…

Because she didn’t come in the end, the leftovers of my handmade cake are inside the fridge.

「A-anyway. It’s a day late but…Happy birthday, Wataru.」

With a bashful smile, Miyu handed me a big present box.

I gratefully accepted her present.

I haven’t played any games lately but I was really happy with her honest feelings.

「Thanks. But is it really OK? To give me something this expensive.」

「Umu, it’s fine! That’s why now that you have accepted it, You’ll have to play the game I want to play with me!」

「Of course, I don’t mind doing that. So? What game are you planning to play?」

As long as I have the headset I can just download the game from the net.

I connected the VR headset to the PC, then I proceeded to register the headset.

Let’s see…acquisition method…gift.

It seems like I needed the purchaser’s personal information too.

Looks like they went this far to prevent reselling.

After finishing that, while the headset was charging, Miyu started to explain a lot of technical terminologies that I didn’t really understand.

Just so you know, the only experience I had with games was while I was an elementary student.

I do have some basic knowledge so I thought I would be able to keep up with her to a certain extent.

While having Miyu leaning on my back, I headed to the download page of the game.

「This one! 「Trailblazer」!」

「Trail…oh the pioneer one.」

It seems like the official site abbreviates it to TB.

While not giving much information about the world’s setting, the homepage had quotes like 「Find out with your own eyes!」 and 「You are a pioneer!」.

I find that kind of stuff a bit annoying.

It seems to be your usual middle ages MMO with a sword and magic fantasy setting, apparently, the NPCs are equipped with the latest AI.

From the looks of it, the NPCs will give you quests on their own under certain circumstances.

Player’s actions will affect stuff like the economy of the game and the goods circulation routes. The balance between countries can also be affected.

At that moment, a *pipi* electronic sound signaling that the headset had finished charging reverberated.

As if it was confirming that the headset had finished charging, the game also finished downloading at the exact same moment.

As she saw that, Miyu who had been waiting impatiently urged me on.

「Ok, let’s go!」

「Eh, already? At least let me go to the toile-」

「You can leave that for later!」

「At least let me bring some water and food. We are probably going to be playing for a long time.」

「You can leave that for la-eh? Is it OK if we play for long!? Then I want some water too.」

「Got it. Wait here for a bit.」

After making the preparations we lie horizontally.

It’s not like we are going to sleep, so it kind of feels weird.

I let Miyu use the bed, while I used a cushion and lie on the carpet.

It’s a bit hard, my body will probably hurt all over after this but it can’t be helped.

It seems like while you are playing, a part of your brain becomes isolated and is used to move an artificial body inside the game.

Obviously, your body will still breathe and continue doing the actions necessary to stay alive.

Then I put the VR headset on my head…Uwah, the bit that hits my temple has an electrode connected to it, this…

This is scary, is it really safe? I’m starting to get a bit anxious.

I do want to believe it is since in this day and age virtual reality has made medical progress but…

「Hey Miyu. As I put this on I-」

「zzZZ….zzZZ」

「Started to feel sleepy…sigh」

Like always, she’s always fast to take action.

Lying on the bed while facing upwards, her well-developed breasts were regularly going up and down.

She’s too defenseless…wait, isn’t her belly showing!

After putting a blanket over her, I lowered the AC so that we don’t catch a cold.

I also went to check that all the doors were locked.

…The crime prevention system is also working.

With all that done…Well then, I should start too.

I headed back to my room, put on the headset and touched the power button on the side of the headset.

After hearing an electronic message, my consciousness began its journey through the digital world.