Ch.53Enjoyed It, So I’m Caught as an NPC Again (1)

“…What is that?”

A man drinking in the distance doubts his own eyes.

Usually, he spends every day in this casino’s VIP room, the [Game Room], drinking and staring at the pretty female employees’ behinds. But suddenly, his attention was completely stolen by a man.

“…Did I just miss something?”

The man’s movements, his fist, weren’t visible to his eyes.

Of course, if he wanted to make excuses, he could say he was watching the pretty blonde woman in front from the beginning and wasn’t looking at the man until the moment he clenched his fist.

But this excuse wouldn’t work even on himself.

Because he felt the air in that direction being slightly compressed when the man clenched his fist, so he had turned his eyes ‘before’ the punch was thrown.

And when he turned to look, the gray-haired man had already delivered the punch and returned to his original position.

“…Who is that kid?”

He had thought the boy was a bodyguard.

He looked decent enough, dressed ordinarily, but must have come up here because he had money. Even the woman beside him, that elegantly pretty blue-haired woman, was wearing an Imperial [Collar of Subjugation] around her neck. He had assumed some rich young master had come to play with women.

“Huh. I misjudged someone.”

Usually, he could gauge someone’s strength or skill with just one look, but he had completely misjudged this man’s abilities. No, this was…

“Was I deceived? Is he hiding his true abilities?”

The man returned to his companions without unclenching his fist or even looking at the score display.

When the woman had punched, everyone was startled by the sound, dropping glasses or letting out shrill screams. But when this man punched, the air completely froze.

Of course it would. Until just now, everyone there had been dismissing him just like I had.

“…I need to check this out.”

The man drained his half-full glass in one go and stood up, watching the gray-haired man—no, boy—who was smiling with his snow-white teeth at his companions.

Then he slowly followed them, careful not to be noticed.

As he followed, he passed by the punching machine.

“Was that the score it showed?”

“Is-is the machine broken?”

“Getting hit by a punch like that would do more than just knock your teeth out!”

“Wait, didn’t the building just shake…?”

“Wh-what? What are you saying? This casino building has multiple layers of protective magic…”

In a situation where even the announcer was left speechless, the man swallowed hard as he saw the score displayed on the machine after they had left, while the onlookers started chattering. He himself had never exceeded 140 points on the punching machine.

[200 points]

“…When I first hit it, I accused them of rigging the score, but I guess that wasn’t the case.”

As the employees busily moved to retrieve the top prize, and people moved to check the vibration that had just resonated through the building, the man slipped through the crowd and began following the gray-haired group.

*

“My turn now. Can I try this? Looks like two can play, what do you think, Jack?”

“Hmm. I’ll pass. How about Ray tries it?”

“Huh? Me? I don’t know what this is. Is this a weapon?”

While Ray and Ragni were paying and listening to the employee’s explanation in front of an unfamiliar game machine, he thinks.

That was close. If I hadn’t noticed at the moment my fist made contact, it would have been a real disaster.

‘That punching machine. It absolutely couldn’t have handled my full strength.’

The moment his fist touched the machine, he felt it about to burst rather than just being pushed back. If he had struck with his full power, the machine would have bent like a bow or even broken.

Even now, he can see people checking if the machine is still functioning properly from a distance.

It’s fortunate that he pulled back his punch before going all out!

‘…Even though that’s what the machine is made for, I would’ve been charged for repairs if I broke it, right?’

It was dangerous to let out his true strength in that slightly tipsy state. Hm? Tipsy?

‘Ah. Am I a bit drunk?’

Looking back at how he reacted somewhat intensely to the dismissive glances, he realized he had been thinking like a bipolar middle-aged man going through menopause in that moment.

Well, I should stop drinking now. Drink, but don’t get drunk, as they say.

“Shall we start?”

“Yes!”

“Let’s go.”

Ray and Ragni stood ready at the game machine after hearing all the instructions. This time it was a gun shooting game.

Honestly, at this point, it’s impossible not to notice. Aigram probably has a connection to the city [Magical Engineering City Aiti] from ep. 6. The game didn’t explicitly show these connections, but these game machines, these devices—as far as I know, they could only be made in that magical engineering city.

Well, even if they’re connected, it’s not important, and I don’t particularly plan to go there, so I can just acknowledge it and move on.

Honestly, what’s more important right now is…

-Bang bang bang! Bang!! Ratatatatat!!

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Ray! Shoot faster! On the left!!”

“Eh, eh?! W-wait! Which one is my marker?!”

“Yours is the red one!! It’s right there in the upper right!!”

“Eeeeh?!! Ah!! Goblin!! Kyaaa!!”

“Ah! Really!! Reload the magazine! Didn’t you listen to the explanation?!”

The gun shooting game awards points based on the number of targets hit, with prizes given at certain score thresholds.

Ray is being overwhelmed by goblins, repeatedly crying “Hawawa! What do I do?!” as she struggles with the unfamiliar weapon and game.

This is as expected. It’s not like FPS games are common in this world, and it’s natural that Ray wouldn’t be good at them.

However.

-Bang!! Ratatang!! Bang! Tatang!! Click. Tatang!!

“Ra-Ragni, didn’t you say this was your first time too?! Why, why are you so good?! The monsters are just getting swept away!!”

“You’re just bad at it!! Ah!! Really! Give me that gun too!!”

After handling the weapon for just a few tries, Ragni quickly adapted and is now blasting enemies like a gamer with years of experience. Even while dual-wielding pistols.

‘As expected, I suppose?’

[Ragni Bluemoon Ottoman] in the game. During raid bosses, she fights using magical pistols.

She doesn’t fight directly but pushes her subordinates forward while she stays in the back with a ranged pattern.

She was a raid boss who focused on gun barrages, so she probably had that kind of talent from the beginning. Plus…

[Skill: Heaven-sent Talent.]

[Heaven-sent Talent Effect: Mimics actions and stats seen once. The talent bestowed by the world is not something that can be reached through effort alone. (Activation target: Shooting weapons.)]

The message that appears in the status window is beyond absurd.

The fact that the skill is activating with shooting weapons as the target means that she learned the method just by watching the people who were playing before we arrived.

But considering that the people who played before weren’t much different from Ray, her current movements don’t make sense. That’s where the problem lies, in that [Heaven-sent Talent.]

She, who embodies heaven-sent talent itself, has already mastered the shooting method, magazine reloading, and even figured out the attack timing of monsters appearing on screen and where to aim for higher scores, all after seeing it just once.

It’s somewhat amusing to see Ray, who suddenly had her gun taken away, and the female employee who was explaining and watching from behind with her mouth agape in surprise, as Ragni starts performing like she’s in the movie Equilibrium using just her talent and skill.

-Ratatatatatatat!! Tatang!! Click click!! Tatatang!!

“Ugh. The response is too slow!! Why does it fire 0.3 seconds after I press?!”

“…You can feel that?”

“It’s too slow! Don’t you feel it too?!”

“I-I don’t feel it at all.”

“I don’t feel it either. It looks like you’re shooting super fast?”

What’s this? Ms. Ragni, are you trying to become a pro gamer?

Frowning as she complains about the game’s response time, Ragni eventually defeats the third boss monster with dual pistols but runs out of energy and gets a game over in the next round. If she had a bit more stamina, she might have cleared it all the way through.

“Phew. This is really tiring. Having to shake my wrist every time I reload is too exhausting.”

“Th-that was amazing!! You almost got the highest score on just your first try!!”

“Huh? Is there someone better than me?”

“Ah, yes!! There is, but that person plays this a lot.”

Is there an FPS gamer in this other world? And they frequently play this game that costs 100,000 kan per round? Just how rich are they?

“Ra-Ragni, good job. Here’s something to drink.”

“Ah, thanks. And sorry for taking your gun. I’ll pay you back.”

“No, it’s fine! I got to see something interesting too!”

“Well, since I’ve had my turn, I’ll give you 100,000 kan. Don’t worry about it and let’s move on to the next game.”

“I’ll prepare your prize right away…”

“No need. They’re already preparing prizes over there, right? We’ll collect everything at once later.”

“Ah! Yes! Then, could you write your name here?”

Prizes worth 3 million kan are currently being prepared over there. We came here intending to spend money, but somehow we’re starting to earn more. This seems more fair and square than gambling, though.

So we moved on to several more games. Baseball batting, basketball, even bowling. We had an incredible time.

In baseball, Ray swung the bat like a sword and hit the target three times in a row. In basketball, I set a new record and won second place.

For bowling, Ragni started off well but complained her wrist hurt from earlier and eventually switched with me. I had never played before, so I just rolled with all my strength and kept landing in the gutter.

After enjoying ourselves sufficiently…

“Why are we earning more money here?”

“Because Jack won the top prize twice, right?”

“That’s rich coming from someone who hit three home runs in a row. Besides, Ragni, you’ve been winning second and third place prizes in shooting and bowling too.”

“True. By that logic, Ray is the real problem. Wherever we go, except for shooting, she wins at least third place or higher.”

“Huh? Wh-why is that a problem?! I-I’m just trying my best!!”

“…Pfft.”

At that point, we all looked at each other’s faces and burst out laughing.

Oh my, we had so much fun today. Now we just need to collect our prizes and head back…

“Hey there, boy and girls. Mind if we have a little chat?”

…Ah. We had fun, so can’t we just leave now?