ONLINE GAMERS {ARC 1 CHAOS IN ASTRAL CITY} CHAPTER 9

Takashi arrived at the village Percival told him about.

Percival had explained to Hime that it would be too dangerous for her to be in Astral city given the current state of affairs. Instead, he recommends she stay in a small, remote village north of the city.

“...I'm here.”

Hime saw countless rice-fields spreading out in every direction across the landscape. There were several rivers joining together, becoming one. Little houses and farmers were also within eyesight.

It was an incredibly peaceful looking place.

Of the ten thousand players on the Astral continent Hime was the only one to have come to this small village.

That was mainly due to the fact there was nothing to be gained by coming here. And the monsters between the city and other places like this village would also pose a problem for lower levelled players.

The place looked so quiet and peaceful.

At its entrance a large wooden sign that read 'Welcome to Enshu village' could be seen. There was a lone boy standing firm beside it holding a stick he most certainly picked off the ground.

The boy seemed to be fiddling with something.

Takashi came to stand beside the boy. He had been playing, drawing pictures on the ground with a stick. Takashi watched with wide eyes as he did.

Takashi watched intently as he drew. Despite it just being a silly drawing on the ground, one that would no doubt be erased the boy meticulously edged every detail possible onto his drawing.

After a good three minutes,”Oooh it’s done!” The boy said.

“It is.” Hime replied.

Her face was in its usual expressionless state, but there was a tinge of excitement in her tone.

For a moment Hime and the small boy stood side by side in mutual silence without uttering a single word. The young boy then turned to face the blonde samurai.

The boy's languid eyes met with an equally tired-looking gaze from Hime. They exchanged stares in silence for another few or so seconds.

““...”“

“...Gahaa!”

“What's wrong?”

“Who are you!”

“Ta...Tsurugi Hime.”

“Oh.”

“...Gahaa!”

“What's wrong?” Hime asked again, tilting her head to the side.

The boy quickly composed himself. His eyes and face appeared just as deadpan as the emotionless Tsurugi Hime yet his voice carried enthusiasm unlike hers.

“Umm...nice to meet you! I'm Shota kobayakawa! Welcome to our village! Enshu village! Would you like to partake in a quest!”

Quest?

“....”

As the small boy—Shota—nodded happily to himself at not having flubbed the introduction he'd practiced, Hime stared with vacant eyes.

Hime could see the boy eagerly awaiting a reply.

“Mm.” she nodded and repeated the name she hadn’t yet mastered, “I'm Tsurugi Hime, nice to meet you.”

The small boy who looked roughly seven to six years old by Takashi's estimation, lead him into the village. He was taking Takashi to complete the quest, whatever that meant. After which Takashi planned to find a place to stay.

As they walked around Takashi was awestruck. What he saw was truly beautiful. This was the first time he had ever seen a place outside of his city.

Golden fields of wheat as far as the eye could see.

It was afternoon. And yet—

No crowds of people, no afternoon rush, just silence? Not even a single car drove past them, it was pure tranquility. All that could be heard was; the buzzing sound of cicadas, the chirping of birds, the whistling of the wind and the flowing water.

Shota and Hime walked the tar paved road together as she looked around.

They were few cracks in the asphalt but this was likely due to the road being old rather than being poorly maintained—it was pretty clean—there was no litter to be seen.

It was for sure a peaceful place, she thought looking at the distant wheat fields being tended to by farmers. An old man driving a tractor was approaching them.

...! A tractor!?

A look of pure awe found itself on the face of the level nine samurai.

Never before had Takashi come across a tractor on the road.

◆◆◆

The boy led Takashi to the biggest house he'd seen here.

Just outside the house there was a girl about Takashi's age, she was working on the fields when she noticed Takashi and the boy.

She walked over to the two of them.

The girl had black hair and languid eyes just like the boy. If Takashi had to guess they were related.

Cousins maybe? He thought.

“Hello, my name is Miyu Kobayakwa… you can just call me Miyu.” She smiled as she introduced herself to Takashi.

“I see… my little brother brought you here, to complete the quest, miss player...”

Takashi blinked and looked down at the beautiful figure in front of him.

He was slightly taller than her.

She had light brown hair and fair white skin.

Her face was drowsy, she spoke as if she could fall asleep at any moment, from the height and the sound of her voice she was his age.

Takashi peered down at her. “What kind of quest? What do I have to do?” he asked, as he followed her.

“Nothing much really.”

“Oh.”

Games normally had quests. Though Takashi didn’t play many games he knew that much was commonplace.

He had no idea what kind of quest it was, or what kind of obstacle was in store for him but he didn’t care going with the flow and accepting life as it was, was easier for him, regardless of what faced him.

“I need your help planting these.”

“Oh”

The quest, or rather the job simply entailed helping Miyu Kobayakawa plant all sorts of vegetables around her garden. It was by no means easy; her garden was huge and it took the two of them roughly two hours.

“Hime-chan did you know rice, is a grain high in starch?” The girl—NPC Miyu said.

She’s calling me Hime-chan!?

“U-Um no…” Hime replied, with a slight blush.

“Rice makes up the source of the diets of about half of the world’s population. No other crop cultivation is as crucial to human feed, the agricultural economy, and the planet’s ecosystem as rice growing. “

“You sure know a lot about rice Kobayakawa-san.”

“Call me Miyu. And of course, my family is a rice farming family you know.”

“I see.” Hime replied.

It was no easy job but it was nice to learn so much, he thought.

“Thank you.”

“…Mhmm.”

QUEST COMPLETE

REWARD 20 UNITS

There was a cute little bing! And a notification window popped up right before Takashi’s eyes. He had cleared the quest and gotten 20 units.

20 units?

“Units is the term for universal money for players.” Miyu Kobayakawa explained, as she watched, the confusion on Tsurugi Hime’s face grow.

“O-oh?”

Takashi was still more than a little confused, fortunately Miyu offered a more in-depth explanation.

“You’re…hopeless.” Miyu teased, before explaining it a little more. “The currency we use in my village is a bit different from other places, the game makes up for this by paying, players such as yourself in units that can be used to pay in any currency, around the world, rewards for quests are usually given to players in units.”

“Oh…”

It made more sense now but he still didn’t get it, regardless, he had earned himself a little money, but would it be enough to buy a place? Or rent a hotel in this village? Takashi doubted it would be that convenient to find lodging.

He had found a house.

He had been living in said house for a month.

He could easily envision, sleeping out in the wild as he had done before but instead, he had a roof over his head.

Well, it was all thanks to the NPC quest girl—Miyu Kobayakawa—when she heard about his lack of a place to stay, she quickly offered up her own (Come stay at my place, you seem like a chill dude”). She lived in a massive classic wood style house with her mother, father and little brother, Takashi had been offered a spare room.

The family members of the Kobayakawa residence each left the house every day at approximately 6am in the morning, the parents of the house had work, and the children had school.

This left Takashi all by himself.

He could hardly believe what was happening. It was like he had become a part of their family overnight. Takashi was intent on paying back their kindness.

He would clean the entire house.

He would play with Shota, the youngest child of the Kobayakawa residence.

And when Miyu got back from school, He would do her homework.

“Hime-chan help me…” Miyu would say before dumping her work on Takashi.

She would come back home with her two friends; Takashi never really spoke to them but they seemed nice.

◆◆◆

Miyu Kobayakawa was an NPC.

Not a real human but a digital entity created to act like one. She was self aware.

She had been aware of this fact from the age of six, while this knowledge might seem troubling to most it didn’t really bother her much, mostly because she was dumb, but also because to her, her friends and family were real and nothing could change that.

Miyu and her two friends walked leisurely through the peaceful going-home traffic of other students. Actually, it was more like Miyu was the one walking leisurely and her two friends simply matched her pace causing them to lag behind the rest of the student body.

Her flimsy hands swayed to and fro without energy.

“Oh, she’s totally amazing, she cleans the house, cooks’ dinner, plays with Shota and even does my homework. There’re barely any chores for me to do.”

“No way! I want a player to come live at my place too!”

“It sounds to me like you’re just using her to do your work…”

Her two friends each had different views on Miyu’s treatment of the guest staying at her place.

“Players don’t get hungry or tired as much as we do. And she likes doing my homework.” Miyu insisted lazily nodding her head with a smug grin.

She had a laid-back way of talking and frequently paused mid-sentence.

“Argh! At least do your own homework you bum!” Sayuri the only reasonable one between the three girls was starting to lose her patience.

“You think she would agree to do my homework too?” Mimiko the girl in the middle said, sounding extremely jealous.

Miyu replied confidently, “Hohoho! Knowing Hime-chan, probably.”

Their lack of empathy for the Player got Sayuri angry, but she wouldn’t be able to cure their stupidity. Feeling worn out now, Sayuri sighed “You guys are the hopeless…”

Tsurugi Hime was her name, she had been staying with the Kobayakawa’s for weeks.

Sayuri often visited the Kobayakawa residence but never got a chance to speak to her directly, actually there were plenty of chances to, Sayuri just couldn’t bring herself to talk to her, even Mimiko the most active person off the bunch couldn’t approach her, that player, she had an aura of beauty about her that made her seem unapproachable.

It would be no small truth to say Tsurugi Hime had the beauty of a goddess, Sayuri genuinely thought.

“Umm… hello I’d like to buy this please?”

Even her voice was angelic. She was a real beauty. A genuine princess. She was so beautiful that Sayuri might have forgotten to breathe.

A good amount of time had passed because of her surprise.

Sayuri had found herself staring at her for longer than normal. But she couldn’t help it, she was just that beautiful.

The village where they lived was small, and Sayuri’s family owned a tiny shop that sold groceries.

It wasn’t impossible but it was still a surprise to see her here, buying from her store.

Her current plan was to eventually introduce herself to Tsurugi when she visited Miyu’s house, but by some twist of fate Tsurugi had come to her!

“Nice to meet you, I’m Suzuki Sayuri, and you’re Tsurugi-san correct?” Sayuri introduced herself.

“Huh? Um...likewise. You’ve heard of me?”

‘Yes, from Miyu-chan.”

“Oh, y-yeah? From Kobayakawa-san…?”

Tsurugi looked down avoiding eye contact with Sayuri.

“…Y-you’re one of kobayakawa-san’s friends, the ones she comes home with from school every day?”

“Yes, that’s me. Miyu-chan tells us a lot about you. It’s great to finally meet you Tsurugi-san. And sorry you have to deal with Miyu-chan’s stupidity…”

“It’s nice to meet you too Suzuki-san. Thank you for always taking care of Kobayakawa-san, and yes, she can be a bit much sometimes…but I’m deeply indebted to her.” Hime replied honestly.

They both, let out a strained laugh, it was clear Miyu Kobayakawa was a force to be reckoned with, at her best Miyu was someone kind enough to give you the shirt off her back, but at her worst she was the type of idiot to force her homework on her guest. The two of them had found common ground regarding a certain idiot.

◆◆◆

“HUH--AC'TCHOO!!”

“Oh, someone’s probably talking aboutchu Miyu-chan!”

“Heh-heh looks like I’m pretty popular.” Miyu chuckled, as she whipped the snot from her nose.

Kobayakawa Miyu, Aoki Mimiko, and Suzuki Sayuri had been friends since they were children.

In a small village like there’s, it almost seemed like everyone knew everyone.

“I wonder what Sayuri-chan is up to, think she’d let me get a snack from the shop?” Mimiko mused as she strolled alongside Miyu.

“Hmm…” Miyu paused to give her question some thought. “Any shop that lets their friends get snacks for free is destined for destitution Mimiko-chan.”

“Deh-stuh-chooshn? What do you mean by that?”

Miyu weighed the option of explaining the word destitution to Mimiko and decided it wasn’t worth it.

“Hmm… It means she’d let you have all the snacks in the world.”

“Really! Let’s go there right now!”

◆◆◆

Making their way to the one of the very few shops in the village Mimiko and Miyu were surprised to see their longtime friend Sayuri and the only Player in their little village solving school work together.

“Huuh! How come Sayuri and Miyu get to use the Player to do their work!” Mimiko yelled out passionately as she charged at the pair.

“I’m not using her to do anything she is helping me! And her name isn’t Player it’s Tsurugi-san!”

The Tsurugi san in question was powerless against Mimiko’s grasp. Mimiko grabbed Hime, she squirmed and flailed around weakly unable to escape. Despite being a Player, she didn’t look very strong if anything she looked terrified of Mimiko.

“Hey you’ve been doing Sayuri and Miyu’s work so you’ll do mine too right!”

“O-okay.” Takashi squeaked.

Sayuri struggled to peel away the terrified Tsurugi Hime from the claws of a desperate Mimiko.

“She isn’t yours to use! Tell her Miyu!”

Miyu who had been silently watching the three girl’s struggle with her droopy gaze nodded at Sayuri.

“That’s right Hime-chan is mine. She’s does my work.”

“DAMN YOU BOTH!”

◆◆◆

In the end Takashi was made to help all three of them.

And so, Takashi ended up making friends with three NPC’s who had no idea he was a boy.