Ch.7Difference

# 7. Difference

[Raid team ‘Veritas’ has become the first to bring ‘Dimensional Lord Mensima’ to his knees!]

“Ha… already?”

– Wow… I guess when you gather only monsters in one place, the performance is definitely there.

– Even so, they’ve already cleared it? Their trial start was quite a bit later than ours, wasn’t it?

– A whole gate’s difference…? At this point, it’s beyond frustrating—it’s actually awe-inspiring.

– How many times is this now?

– You know what’s suddenly chilling? No one’s even getting angry anymore.

Indeed.

“Should be the 7th time.”

– Fuck.

– Our gear level isn’t even particularly behind theirs.

– Beyond not being behind, ours is actually slightly better, if anything.

– We don’t need to reconfirm that our piloting sucks. That’s team-killing right there.

“The people in that raid team are all quite skilled.”

– But their raid leader is really something else. They’re all famous, those raid members.

– Yeah. They’re all people who either got kicked out or left voluntarily because they absolutely refused to use voice chat during raids.

– Is there some kind of “voice refuser” set effect or something?

“Tsk…”

My mouth tasted bitter. We missed the first clear again. For top-tier raid teams, a “first clear” was the highest honor, a medal, and an achievement. And Veritas, a raid team without even reserve members, had swept it up 7 times in a row. I’m not inexperienced as a raid leader, and I thought I had some skill, but that team, which suddenly appeared about a year ago, has never once stepped down from the top position since their arrival.

Even though they’re famous for all raid members except the leader not using voice chat!

Raids are basically long battles and consecutive fights where just one person’s mistake can immediately overturn a try. How does it make sense for only the raid leader to talk? Everyone uses voice chat to reduce mistakes through smooth communication. Even in pickup groups, almost everyone uses voice chat.

As a gamer and a raid leader, I felt competitive… but the gap between us and that team was too overwhelming. At first, it was just a difference of a few minutes, but now it’s a whole gate’s difference. I don’t even feel like being jealous anymore. At this point, I just want to know how they manage to get seven first clears with a group of so-called problem children.

“I’m having an existential crisis.”

– Actually, wasn’t this just a competition for second place?

– Hey, second place is still good~

– Who knows about second place~ We might end up in third~

“Sigh… Still, we have to continue. Come on, everyone, focus again.”

The raid members stopped chatting.

Right. It’s disappointing to miss the first clear, but aren’t we gamers after all? We’re people who love this game. That’s why we can grumble lightly like that.

Anyway, we’ve come this far to see the end of this boss, so not completing it is out of the question.

“Entering.”

– Entering~

“Let’s go hard.”

We may have missed the first clear, but we can’t miss second place.

**

‘He said he was just an ordinary office worker who likes games.’

In what way is he an ordinary office worker?

When he put [Voice participation NOT required] in the raid recruitment post, and casually mentioned that everyone except himself doesn’t or can’t use voice chat, I already thought he wasn’t an ordinary raid leader.

And leading us to seven first clears isn’t ordinary either.

But I just thought, well, he’s just someone who loves games, is extremely good at them, and has a talent for giving orders—and that was that. We couldn’t ask each other about real-life information anyway, so my thoughts stopped there.

‘But he looks good, seems to speak well, and even his personality and behavior are nice?’

Of course, it might be a hasty judgment since I’ve only just met him in person.

I think I can understand a little why my male colleagues and seniors looked at me “that way.”

Being dropped in an unfamiliar place with only one person you know. And that one person is a man like him…

Hot.

‘What am I thinking? Now is not the time for such useless thoughts…’

Even so, I need to survive somehow. That’s my responsibility.

I must be crazy.

I’ll make sure you get out of here alive since you came in because of me.

I must be crazy!

This isn’t right. This is… Right. It’s because of the situation. It’s the delayed aftershock of pretending to be calm and unafraid at first. Yes, that’s it. If it’s not that, I wouldn’t be like this.

Stay calm and think rationally.

I’ll make sure you get out of here alive since you came in because of me.

‘Y-yes. The leader is just being responsible, that’s all. Don’t read into it. I can’t let the leader think I’m some weird woman.’

**

‘She must have been struggling a lot inside, even if she didn’t say it.’

Or perhaps it was the inhuman conversation between that mother and son that triggered it. Otherwise, how could I explain why KillCutCutKill, who remained calm even when first summoned to the Tower, was now frantically messing up her hair and shaking her head vigorously while walking?

It wasn’t difficult to give an awkward smile to the strange looks from passersby, but it’s a different story if it continues for long.

“Excuse me.”

“…”

“Ms. Sun Seyeon.”

“Ah? Ah? Aaaah. Oh, yes. Leader.”

“If you’re having a hard time, you can share it instead of suffering alone.”

“Aaaah. No. It’s nothing. I was just, momentarily confused, I guess. Suddenly, yes. I’m sorry. It’s nothing, so I’m fine. Really.”

Taking care of the mental state of raid members aiming for first clears—where multiple failures, wipes, and unfair mechanics are expected—is one of a raid leader’s virtues.

Naturally, and out of habit, I approached KillCutCutKill with some mental care lines, but when she insisted she was fine to an excessive degree and even backed away… I wondered if I had done something inappropriate.

‘Right. There’s a difference between providing mental care over voice chat and talking face to face. She’s probably scared enough without a man she’s not particularly close with approaching her.’

I lacked consideration. I thoughtlessly thought of her as KillCutCutKill, the raid’s cockroach and NewAxe’s buddy.

In truth, the gap between that KillCutCutKill and the college student in front of me is still too large for me to adapt to. Is it an excuse to say so?

‘This is difficult, so difficult.’

Even though I’m a man who doesn’t avoid women but rather likes them normally, that’s a separate issue from this.

‘Time will solve it, I suppose. Just like I adapted to my silent raid members.’

At least outwardly, KillCutCutKill seemed to return to normal quickly. So I should treat her as if nothing happened.

“Alright. If you’re okay. Anyway, we’re almost at the plaza.”

“Ah, yes. Should we start by talking to the NPCs in the plaza and comparing? From what I can see, the plaza looks exactly the same as in the game.”

“Yeah. Oh, and from now on, let’s not call them NPCs, but rather natives or residents.”

“Huh?”

“Just in case.”

It was a matter of mindset.

Regardless of their actual nature, calling living, moving humans “NPCs”—mere data fragments—would make even me, who shares the same space with them, feel like such an entity.

And then I might start viewing the current situation simply as a game.

‘If I die, I can just retry~’

Thinking like that.

Another virtue of a raid leader:

Eliminate variables as much as possible.

Saying I wouldn’t call those who were mere extra NPCs in the game “NPCs” had that meaning. And KillCutCutKill seemed to understand my words immediately. Is it because we’ve been in sync for over a year? Being with someone who thinks similarly and is sensible is truly a blessing and luck.

…Really.

‘Huh? Why are tears…?’

Putting aside useless memories.

After glancing at KillCutCutKill’s back as she was already talking to residents, I approached a painter setting up an easel near the fountain.

“Hello, painter.”

“Welcome, tall and handsome visitor! How about a wonderful portrait?”

Painter Huen.

She was an Eden Guard painter NPC—no, a painter who would draw a character’s portrait for gold coins.

And her first words were exactly the same as when a “tall male character” spoke to her in the game.

‘Just like with the gatekeeper, at times like this, it’s exactly the same as the game…’

If that’s the case, what if I twist my response this time?

“Haha, I’d like to, but I don’t have the means right now.”

The male character’s line for rejecting the painter’s offer was “I’m sorry. I’m not interested at the moment.” And Huen’s response was “Then it can’t be helped! Drop by when you think of it!”

So, how would Huen respond now?

“Oh my… Then how about this? Become a model for my practice!”

“Pardon?”

“I draw female customers more often than male ones. I’d like to draw a handsome male customer for a change, and if you’d be my model, I’ll give you the portrait for free! No, I’ll even pay you a small fee. What do you say?”

[Quest ‘Painter’s Request’ has been updated.]

[Quest content – Become the painter’s practice model]

[Reward upon completion – 1 portrait of ‘JoanOfArcIsASaint’, 100 gold coins]

‘Huh…? Okay. So that’s how it works?’

“Painter, I have something to do right now, but is this only available today?”

“Oh… Of course not! Please drop by whenever you have time!”

[Quest has been canceled.]

Painter Huen (presumably) showed a bit of disappointment but soon went back to humming and painting.

I tried the same approach with other residents in the plaza and got the same results.

– In game terms, there are no markers like exclamation or question marks above NPCs, and no available quest notifications—a very unfriendly state. Messages are only output when there’s a hint of a quest after interaction. It’s as if the system isn’t assigning quests, but rather the favors or deals between me and the residents are shown as “quests.”

– Residents are basically the same or similar to their NPC counterparts in terms of appearance, occupation, activity range, and behavior, but that means they’re not completely identical. Whether it’s because of the Tower or because of my existence as someone from outside the Tower is still unknown.

– When asked about the Tower, they don’t seem to properly recognize “the Tower” as this world, not just the simple word “tower.” Conversations flow strangely. More investigation is needed, but the gatekeeper seems to be an exceptional allowance.

– The same applies when asking about Eden Guard’s history or Eden Guard itself. This part needs to be investigated again later. (I retreated for now because they seemed to be giving me looks for asking strange questions without any real business.)

I thought it would be as simple as building specs, avoiding traps, figuring out gimmicks, and defeating monsters to climb the Tower as quickly as possible, like in the game. But the Tower was unfriendly for that, so there was a lot to prepare. And… the scale was larger than I had anticipated.

“Leader.”

“Yeah?”

“I think we have a lot to talk about.”

“I think so too. And our topics probably overlap a lot. Let’s talk leisurely.”

“Ahaha… But leader.”

“Yeah?”

“How are we going to solve the sleeping issue? It looks like the sun will set soon.”

“…Huh?”

That’s right…?

The sunset was already coloring the western sky.