Ch.234[Episode 234] Bit Them All

[Unryu Hime: “By the way, isn’t the weather nice?” ▷▷]

When Sir Dominic showed interest in those strange symbols, Hime desperately tried to change the subject.

Her standing CG was sweating profusely and fluttering her fox ears.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “…I think I know what this is.” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “…!” ▷▷]

Hime’s eyes widened in surprise at Sir Dominic’s words.

Her pixelated body jumped up with a ‘!’ appearing above her head.

Could he have discovered that those were windows displaying affection levels?

Though not expressed in pixels, Hime bit her lip tightly and blamed her past self.

In the early days of Gacharland, anyone could check the affection level others had for them.

However, following citizens’ claims that this was too inhumane, System Industries patched all systems to allow turning off the affection display in the interface.

Hime knew this well, but at that time, she was so focused on her training that she paid no attention to customizing her interface.

Later, as graphics changed from 2D to 3D, the affection system was eventually removed for breaking immersion, but Hime had never turned it off.

Who would have thought that not turning off the affection system back then would come back to haunt her like this?

Hime frantically twitched her fox ears and blurted out an excuse to Sir Dominic.

[Unryu Hime: “T-this is…” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “It’s a health indicator, isn’t it?” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic confidently answered Hime.

In the past, when dealing with bugs, Sir Dominic had seen hearts like this in pixel form.

Sir Dominic recalled that memory and assumed this heart was the same.

Hime was momentarily stunned by Sir Dominic’s incorrect answer, but soon saw it as an opportunity and said to him:

[Unryu Hime: “Y-yes! It’s a health indicator. You know quite a lot, don’t you?” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: Hime hurriedly turned off the affection window and responded to Sir Dominic. And trying to change the subject-]

Ah.

A system window appeared before Hime’s eyes.

Hime looked at the system window and then covered her face in despair.

In her rush to take advantage of Sir Dominic’s misunderstanding, part of her inner thoughts had popped out as a dialogue window.

Hime desperately prayed that Sir Dominic hadn’t seen that system window.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Affection window?” ▷▷]

But Sir Dominic, who always read system messages carefully, couldn’t have missed that system window.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Didn’t you say it was a health indicator?” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic questioned Hime.

Hime fell into a state of panic at Sir Dominic’s interrogation.

Such severe panic was the first since she first saw Sir Dominic.

Back when the Pirate Reality Shock happened.

The personified emotions and thoughts that virtually existed in Hime’s mind pressed the emergency meeting button and entered into discussion.

But Hime, already in panic mode, was in no state to reach any conclusion.

[Unryu Hime: “W-well, um… No. H-how should I put this?” ▷▷]

Hime tried to respond to Sir Dominic’s words, but what came out of her mouth was a jumble of incomplete sentences.

That’s when it happened.

[Malicious Park Chunbae: “Well, well, who do we have here? Sir Dominic?” ▷▷]

[Vile Malei: “Draw a card. The Death. It seems to be your death.” ▷▷]

Had Hime’s desperate wish reached the heavens?

Two people with bad blood with Sir Dominic walked out from the alley.

Two executives of the Il-Sung Alliance and among the biggest beneficiaries of this regression.

They were Park Chunbae and Malei.

[Malicious Park Chunbae: “I never thought I’d run into Sir Dominic here.” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “How did you know it was me? It couldn’t have been easy to distinguish the pixels.” ▷▷]

[Malicious Park Chunbae: “That’s simple. You have your standing CG turned on. Anyone can see this image is Sir Dominic, right?” ▷▷]

Park Chunbae tapped Sir Dominic’s standing CG with what appeared to be a pixelated hand.

[Malicious Park Chunbae: “Of course, that’s not what’s important.” ▷▷]

[Vile Malei: “We can’t just walk past our rival, Sir Dominic, when we see him.” ▷▷]

[Malicious Park Chunbae: “Right. We can’t just walk past.” ▷▷]

Park Chunbae, who didn’t seem to have a standing CG, bent his pixel body about 3 pixels and then straightened up.

He seemed to be nodding.

[Malicious Park Chunbae: “Obviously, battle!” ▷▷]

■■■■■■■■■■■

With Park Chunbae’s declaration, Sir Dominic’s vision suddenly flashed, then went dark momentarily.

When Sir Dominic regained his sight, the surroundings had changed—against a pastel-toned background of Gacharland city, Malicious Park Chunbae stood in a malicious pose and Vile Malei in a vile pose.

Above Park Chunbae’s head was a large arrow, under which was written [★ Malicious Park Chunbae A].

[Unryu Hime: “It looks like we’ve entered combat.” ▷▷]

Hime, who was beside Sir Dominic, spoke to him with a troubled expression.

It seemed she had been caught up in the battle judgment against Sir Dominic.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “I’m confident in battle. First, I’ll attack—” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic tried to raise his shield as usual, but his body wouldn’t respond.

He could speak freely, but for some reason, he was in a state of immobility.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “I can’t move my body…?” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “Ah, that’s right. This is a turn-based system, so it’s natural that you can’t move freely.” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “Do you remember what happened when we were heading to the Executive branch? When we fought in the 2D world.” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Ah. I understand.” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic immediately grasped the current situation from Hime’s words.

He quickly understood that turns were determined by each person’s speed, and actions were taken according to those turns.

[Unryu Hime: “But there’s a difference from last time. Last time, everyone acted once in a single phase, but this time, this gauge represents your action power.” ▷▷]

Hime pointed with her standing CG’s finger at a gauge bar located in the lower right corner of the view.

Currently, Hime’s gauge bar was almost full, while Sir Dominic’s gauge bar was only about 20% filled.

[Unryu Hime: “How quickly this gauge fills determines how quickly you can act. It seems Sir Dominic’s speed is slow, so your gauge fills slowly too.” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “I see.” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic nodded at Hime’s explanation.

[Unryu Hime: “Of course, this combat system isn’t necessarily disadvantageous to you. One of its features is that distance has no meaning.” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Distance has no meaning?” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “Like this.” ▷▷]

Hime, as if to show rather than tell, began to move by consuming her action power.

Hime selected [Attack] from the options in the left corner: [Attack], [Defend], [Skill], [Magic], [Item], [Flee].

Then the arrow above Malicious Park Chunbae’s head began to move up and down slightly.

When Hime made another command, the arrow moved above Vile Malei’s head.

With another command, Hime’s body—the pixelated part—moved and ‘swung’ a kunai toward Vile Malei.

[Unryu Hime’s attack!]

[Critical hit! Vile Malei A took 277 damage!]

Despite being quite far from Hime, Malei grimaced in pain as if hit by Hime’s kunai.

With an impressive impact effect, the text [Crit 277!] appeared above his head, along with the system window shown above.

[Unryu Hime: “As you just saw, even though I used a melee attack, I could damage the opponent regardless of distance. Here, regardless of distance, it’s a battle between my accuracy and the opponent’s evasion rate.” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Indeed.” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic responded to Hime as if he understood.

Sir Dominic believed that every combat system had its advantages and disadvantages.

And he considered the pros and cons of this combat system.

The advantage was that attacks could be made regardless of distance, which favored Sir Dominic over ranged dealers like Park Chunbae and Malei. The disadvantage was that Sir Dominic’s extremely slow speed meant he had fewer chances to attack than usual.

Quite an interesting system. Sir Dominic thought as he grinned.

[Malicious Park Chunbae A’s skill, Sunset Gunman!]

[Sir Dominic took 12 damage!]

[Sir Dominic resisted the status ailment Disarm!]

Sir Dominic received Malei’s attack, whose action gauge had filled before his own.

He thought it was interesting, but not really a combat system that suited him.