Volume 6, Chapter 14: She burned down the elven forest. (5/8)
Yoko vomited her gastric juices and winced with a burning discomfort in her throat.
It was hard for her to believe that this was a game.
“Bastard!”
The bandits came close, slashing at her with their swords and stabbing her with their spears, but Yoko was unharmed.
There was too much of a difference in level between them and the bandits for any attacks to work.
But.
Yoko just shuddered and cowered.
The smell of blood, guts, and vomit made her dizzy.
She was intoxicated by the violence, frightened by the bandits who came at her with twisted faces, and terrified by the weapons that were slung at her with the intent to kill.
The maid beside her did nothing.
She seemed to be worried about Yoko throwing up and cowering, but she didn’t seem to care that she was at the mercy of the bandits’ attack.
She was convinced that her master won’t even get a scratch from this.
-No more!
I’m quitting this game.
When Yoko looked at the system window to log out, she noticed that TIPS was displayed.
【TIPS: If you are not a fan of grotesque expressions, increase the level of the cruelty filter. 】
The cruelty filter was a function that reduces the amount of bloodshed and deformities.
Yoko opened the filter settings screen and immediately set the cruelty filter to the maximum level.
Bloodshed off
Loss of life off.
Smell off
Pain sensation off
Damage pop-up on
Disappearing body on
Toon shade on
Blinking effect off
All of these settings were changed together.
Immediately, her vision changed.
Everything looked cartoony, with clear shadows and borders.
She no longer felt pain, and the numbers 0 and 1 popped up whenever an attack was made.
She could no longer smell it, and the discomfort was finally decreasing.
Yoko stood up.
The bandits who were attacking her had lost all sense of reality. The bandits who were attacking her were no longer realistic; they were just a bunch of mob characters, and she felt no fear whatsoever.
Yoko kicked away the bandits that came at her.
The bandit disappeared with a single blow. They disintegrated into a puff of light and disappeared, leaving the item behind.
That’s right. It was a game, this was how it’s supposed to be.
Yoko recovered.
The graphic expressions were gone, and she was able to recognize once again that this was a game.
“Whoa!”
Finally realizing the abnormality of who they were dealing with, the bandits ran away.
“We’re not letting them get away.”
She displayed the target window, selected the three fleeing bandits, and used the Ice Missile magic.
Once she locked on to them, they would automatically be tracked up to a certain distance, so there was no need to aim carefully.
A number of ice blobs were created in the midair.
They flew dexterously through the trees and struck the three fleeing heads.
The three disappeared in a flash of light.
The bandit who had been slayed first was also gone before she knew it. All that was left was the equipment they had been wearing.
“The bandit turned into light and disappeared. I thought Yosuke-sama was acting differently than usual, were you trying to do this?”
“I’m not sure. Does it look like that to you too?”
“Yes. The blood puddles and corpses that were there a while ago have suddenly disappeared, but Yosuke-sama did it, right?”
Apparently, the expression filter was not set to only restrict Yoko’s view.
“Isn’t the filter just for appearances?”
Yoko decided to experiment with it.
In the material search, she specified the bones of a beast and displayed the distance to the material on the compass.
“The compass shows the distance to the material. There’s a beast over there, go hunt it down.”
She ordered the maid to go.
The maid was strong enough to accompany Yoko on her journey, so she wouldn’t have to struggle with as much as a wild animal.
After a while, the maid came back and something in her hand emitted a white smoke.
“Kyaa~ What? What does that mean?
She looked at something the maid had dropped.
There was meat lying on the ground. If she looked closely, she could see a small bone that looked like a femur lying near it.
“Is this a rabbit?”
“Yes. A while ago, there was a whole body…”
Apparently, the filter was applied the moment it entered Yoko’s field of vision.
And once it activated, she couldn’t undo it even if she looked away.
I see.“
It was an environment where everything seemed to be real, but the game settings seemed to be very lax.
“Well, I’ll get around to verifying the settings later, but for now, here’s what we’re going to do do”
There were no specific instructions from the developers how to play the game.
The only requirement was to keep playing, as the game was an experiment to see the effects of prolonged VR experiences on the human body.
However, it would have been be a shame to spend her time in this world aimlessly.
The rewards for test-playing the game were considerable, but Yoko didn’t intend to stop there.
They were going to edit a video of her playing this game and post it on a video site.
This was the world’s first video of an FIVR game experience. It would surely be popular.
All of Yoko’s gameplay was recorded, and she had given them permission to publish the contents.
Simply playing FIVR on and on would be a great record to have.
But that was not enough.
Viewers were always looking for inspiration, and she needed to respond to that.
“Hmmm. I burned an elven forest. How about that?”
It was a common story, but Yoko thought it might be a popular one.
“What is an elf?”
“Ah. Are there no elves? What kind of non-human species are there?”
Yoko remembered that there was no race selection in character creation.
Therefore, she hadn’t really been aware of other races.
In addition to humans, there are beastmen who have the characteristics of various animals, demons who excel in magic, half-demons who have magic power but can’t use it well, and juveniles who remain in child form even after they grow up. But what I know about them is limited to this continent.
She guessed they were no different from humans, because she saw a fair amount of beastmen in town. They didn’t seem to have any particular villages.
The demons were in a demon country and were led by a demon king, so if someone messed with them, they might have to deal with the whole country. It would be nice to go that route eventually, but that would be like the main scenario. If she was going to do it, she might as well do it last.
The half demons seemed to have established a village in the forest, which was perfect for them, but they were being targeted by various forces. They were hiding tightly and their whereabouts were unknown.
Therefore, Yoko decided to attack the village of the juvenile tribe.
＊＊＊＊＊
“Oh, this is no good.”
The village was on fire.
The houses were small and pretty, like something out of a fairy tale, but they were on fire.
A young girl jumped out of the house and disappeared into the light after being attacked by a maid.
Then only the clothes were left on the spot.
Another maid dragged out a child that was hiding behind a barrel and killed it.
Such things were happening all over the village, and there were children’s clothes scattered around.
“They say this kind of thing is tough abroad.”
Even if the cruelty filter makes the corpse disappear, she was still attacking and killing a being that looked like a child.
She was going to jokingly say, “I killed a juvenile”. She was going to do something like that, but when she actually tried it, she didn’t think it would work as a story.
If she posted such a video, it would probably be criticized and flamed.
“Yes. Stop for a moment! Come back.”
She called out loudly, and ten maids with weapons in their hands gathered around Yoko.
“It seems there are still a few left.”
“You don’t have to do this anymore, it’s been rejected. Then, let’s move out. Thank you for your hard work.”
“What the …… hell are you…?”
Just as she was about to leave, a boy came staggering over.
The HP bar above his head was decreasing and turning red, so he seemed to have taken a lot of damage, but Yoko couldn’t tell what kind of injuries he had sustained.
“Oh! You found the surviving juvenile hero?
“What did we do… to deserve this?”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. I was wondering if I could take the place of the elves.”
“Elves…? Why would a minority group living in the Ents have anything to do with us…”
The juvenile was trying to find a rational reason from Yoko’s words.
She had gone to such lengths.
He seemed to be desperately thinking that there must be a good, convincing reason.
“I was going to say”I burned down an elven forest!” but there were no elves. So I did it with you guys instead, but it turned out to be more gruesome than I expected. I was just thinking, “I can’t use this. So, I’m done with the burning. If you want, I can help you put out the fire.”
“Fuck you…! What the hell is wrong with you?
The boy grabbed onto Yoko, and at that moment, the boy turned into light and disappeared.
The counterattack barrier that had surrounded Yoko put an end to the dying boy.
“Hero boy, you’ve survived so long.”
“They’re still children when they mature, so I’m not sure if they were boys.
“Damn, this is a pedophile-friendly setting.”
“Right, he said something earlier that caught my attention. He said the elves were in the Ent.”
“The Ent… is an island nation to the east. I’ve never been to that part of the world.”
Yoko had been to most of the interesting places around here, but she had never been over the ocean.
“There are elves there, I see. Then let’s go on a burning tour!”
She had no idea what kind of elves are here.
She didn`t know what kind of beings these elves are, but Yoko thought it would be a good story if we went there.