“Oh, right. Here’s your present.”

“Hmm?”

Merlin was relieved that he was only late by a day. He thought he had been late by nearly two weeks, so he had prepared quite a few things.

“Tada!”

“W-what?”

Miho recoiled at the sight of the mysterious object in Merlin’s hand. But soon, she started sniffing the air.

“Do you want to have a try?”

“W-what is it? Do you really think all it will take is some food… ah.”

As Merlin moved the skewer closer to her, Miho’s eyes naturally followed it.

‘Oh, sad instincts of animals.’

It was a beef skewer that Merlin had purchased from users at a food market who were training to become chefs. Based on Merlin’s experience, felines and foxes were crazy about beef. However, he had never seen a cow underneath the Noise Belt. The monsters here only ate the meat of other monsters who lived in the area, or fruit. Unfortunately, monster meat was tough when cooked, and since Miho was used to eating such tough meat all her life, she couldn’t resist the allure of the skewers, especially since they had been cooked with various techniques from the real world.

“Oh, doesn’t this look delicious?”

“Well, uhm, well, uhm… Oh, no, what am I saying, are you trying to seduce me with food? Do you think I’ll be swayed so easily…?”

“If you don’t want it, I’ll just eat it myself.”

“What?!”

When Merlin brought the grilled skewers up to his mouth, Miho quickly bounded towards the skewer and took a rough bite. She tore into the meat hurriedly.

“Hahaha.”

“Ugh…”

“Hahaha. Sorry for messing with you. Go ahead and eat.”

“Ack, I’m so angry… but it tastes so good.”

Miho used telekinesis to make the grilled skewers hover in mid-air as she took bites from it. Every time she chewed off a chunk of meat, the fragrant juices leaked out and lingered around her mouth. The skewer was so delicious that she couldn’t help but feel a sense of defeat.

“Ugh! If you think I’ll forgive you just because of this…”

“There's more, so feel free to eat.”

“…”

Miho’s six tails flickered as Merlin took out another five skewers out of his inventory. Her tail movement was a de facto declaration of surrender.

“Oh, you’re so cute!” Merlin shouted as he went in for a bear hug.

“Ack! Don’t hug me!”

Though Miho was being hugged and tossed around on the ground, she couldn’t muster a proper defense against Merlin because she was too focused on keeping the skewers in the air.

Chomp. Chomp.

Soon, Miho was finally given time to eat her meal in peace. Having escaped Merlin’s arms, she chewed on the beef skewers in a reverent manner. Merlin searched his inventory and brought out some more.

“I think I’ll have some chicken skewers.”

Miho’s ears shot up, reacting sensitively to Merlin’s words.

“Chicken skewers? Do you mean skewers made of chicken?”

“Yes, the meat you’re currently having is from a four-legged animal, but a chicken is a bird.”

“Bird meat…”

Miho’s golden eyes sparkled as she looked at the skewers in Merlin’s hand. Her eyes were filled with so much anticipation and interest that Merlin had no choice but to hand them over.

“Hmm. This is enough to forgive you.”

“Thank you, miss.”

“Hmpf.”

Satisfied, Miho grinned as she bit into the chicken. She looked so happy that Merlin felt a bit guilty about not bringing her food earlier.

“Ah, that was a good meal.”

“Yeah, it was.”

Sitting side by side, both looked up at the night sky. Unlike the real world, there was no pollution that blocked this virtual world’s sky. The Milky Way was splendidly clear and vibrant, and spread across the night sky.

“Come to think of it, there’s only one moon.” Merlin thought out loud.

“What do you mean? Of course, there’s only one moon.”

Merlin laughed.

“Well, in some novels, when the main character goes to another world and looks up at the sky, there are two moons. The existence of two moons is probably an effective symbol of showing how different a place is from the real world.”

When Merlin muttered ‘how different a place is from the real world’, Miho tilted her head.

“Novel? Another world?”

“Nothing. I’m just talking to myself.”

“…??”

Merlin glanced at Miho, who looked puzzled. He knew that she was just a character constructed by the program. However, when Merlin observed how she lived without the knowledge that she was an NPC and that this whole world of DIO was fake, Merlin wondered if this place was as real for her as the real world was for him.

“Virtual reality…”

Merlin slowly began to understand why Dynamic Island’s NPCs and monsters were given knowledge of their status as programmed characters. The world of DIO was completely different from the games that Merlin had played so far, and its user experience was unlike any other. Merlin thought it likely that the game’s time difference was implemented by the developers just so users could still distinguish reality from fantasy.

“Anyway, you said you’ve been waiting for me?”

“Yeah. You said you were going to go to the main continent, right?”

Since Merlin had visited all six islands, all that was left was the main continent. If possible, Merlin wanted to visit Red Dragon Island, which was located in the center of the six islands, but he quickly gave up on this thought since he knew it’d be too dangerous.

“That’s what I was planning. Why?”

“I have to go to the main continent as well, so let’s go together.”

“Together?”

The first idea that popped into Merlin’s mind at that moment was if he was being given a quest. When the goblins and Miho had been poisoned, Merlin received quests, so he knew it was possible to get quests south of the Noise Belt. However, Merlin didn’t get any notification of a quest; all he saw was a small fox staring back at him.

“You don’t want to travel together?”

“No, nothing like that. Sure, let’s travel together.”

“Great! Then let’s leave tomorrow morning!”

After saying this, Miho turned around and ran into the cave. Miho seemed excited and happy, but Merlin felt slightly troubled.

“Traveling together would be nice, but if it takes long, my limited connection time on DIO will become a problem.”

With the new patch in effect now, twelve hours had to be spent daily in the real world. In terms of DIO time, a trip of six days was no longer possible. If the trip with Miho extended beyond six days, Merlin would be forced to be absent for a part of the trip.

“One possibility is to log off from time-to-time, right?”

Due to his playtime limitation, Merlin felt that the ideal way to play was to be active for twelve hours and to be logged out for twelve hours in DIO time. In real time, this meant repeatedly playing one hour and logging off for one hour.

“In terms of how it would feel for me, I’d be logged in for twelve DIO hours and then I would take a one hour break in reality.”

If one were told to play one hour and take a mandatory break for one hour, it would likely be too troublesome and annoying, but due to DIO’s accelerated time, this compromise was bearable.

“All right. It’s a bit of a waste to log off right now when I just logged in, but for tomorrow…”

Merlin stood up.

“[Logout].”

“Huh? What’s going on?”

When Merlin reconnected, Blue Forest Island was bustling. In the center of the island, at the main goblin village, a considerable number of goblins and foxes had gathered. In the middle of the crowd, a human girl who looked to be in her early to mid-teens stood carrying a bag the size of her body.

“Be careful during your travels.”

“The Mech-nation officials are known to have short tempers, so try to avoid them if you can. If you respond to those douchebags, it’ll only cause further headaches, you know?”

“Bring me back a present. I heard there’s something called tempura in Monster Island Kingdom.”

It was an unfamiliar sight to see goblins and foxes pretending to be close to a human girl that they had rarely, if ever, engaged with in the past. Moreover, Merlin had never seen any human other than himself in the Phantom Monster Magic Islands. Of course, the goblins, sirens, and water people had many human features, but as far as Merlin knew, actual humans rarely visited the islands. There were many goblins who had never even seen a human in their lives.

‘Who is that?’

The gathered monsters each cast spells and blessings on the girl, from the ones who seemed to know her to those that seemed to be meeting her for the first time. The girl approached each of them, bowing and thanking them.

“Take this with you.”

“Miss Heavenly Flower.”

The last monster the girl approached was Heavenly Flower, the current ruler of the Phantom Monster Magic Islands. Taking on the appearance of her eight-tailed fox self, she collected the surrounding light, gathered it into a lump, and hardened it into a gold-colored necklace.

“This is…”

“It’s a Guardian Stone. It’s important to me, so you have to return it.”

“Ah… of course! Thank you!”

With a bright expression, the girl grabbed the necklace. The overall atmosphere was very heartwarming, but Merlin still didn’t know who this girl was. At that moment, Heavenly Flower turned her head towards him.

“Oh, Merlin, you’ve come?”

“Yes. What were you doing?”

“I’m making sure to give a proper send off for our cutie. The journey to receive the prophecy from the main continent’s Holy Shrine is very important to us.”

“Holy Shrine? Prophecy?”

When Merlin looked puzzled after hearing such incomprehensible terms, the girl who was handed the necklace spoke up. Her rich silver hair, which was tied back and stretched into six branches, sparkled.

“Oh, Didn’t I tell you? I’ve been appointed to go to the Holy Shrine. The [Great Will], who resides in the Holy Shrine, makes a prophecy once a year. All the islands and all the great powers on the continent know of this and have an agreement in place.”

“Oh, was there such a thing? But…”

Merlin asked the girl who he thought was pretending to be close to him, “Who are you?”

“…”

The girl’s cheery expression suddenly hardened. Veins started to visibly pop up on her forehead.

“And you still call yourself an Enhanced Eyesight practitioner?”

“Huh?”

When a sudden fox-fire exploded towards Merlin, Merlin’s two spirits that hovered around him, Younghwi and Shining, created a spirit power shield. Up to this point, the spirits’ response was like the previous day’s response. In this instance, however, Merlin slightly adjusted Younghwi and Shining by making them rotate in a slight drill shape. This allowed him to take a step forward by riding the grain of the exploding fox-fire.

Whoosh!

The wind caused by the fox-fire swept across the area, but Merlin’s robe only fluttered vigorously; he didn’t lose his balance or posture.

“What?”

The girl was at a loss. The magic combo she had just used was a secret art that only she could execute. Using fox-fire as its base, which was a magic attack that was in-between fantasy and reality to begin with, she had superimposed various layers of wind magic to send the fox-fire forward. Though this type of attack didn’t cause much damage, it would at least push away the intended target. Even Heavenly Flower acknowledged the pushing force of this attack. The girl was perplexed as to why her attack had no effect on Merlin.

“Huh? This skill… are you Miho?”

“You only recognize me after I use a skill, huh? Besides that, how did you break through my attack on just your second exposure to it?”

Miho screamed out in amazement, but for Merlin, recognizing how to counter a previously encountered attack was just a given. The same attack technique didn’t work twice on Merlin, who was gifted in comprehension and analysis. Merlin might have had some trouble if an attack technique was overly powerful or incredibly fast; but a complicated attack on its own wasn’t a barrier for Merlin.

“Make the formula a little more complicated.”

“Y-you… want me to make the formula more complicated?”

Miho looked at him in amazement, but Merlin didn’t respond. Instead, he used Enhanced Eyesight on her.

“Very interesting. Your appearance has transformed even though your molecular structure hasn’t changed. So you’re still a fox, right?”

“It’s Shrouding Art. It’s one of our species’ specialties.”

The image of the girl talking with a slightly sulky expression was that of a human being, but her appearance under Enhanced Eyesight was that of a relatively small fox. Her body hadn’t grown or transformed into a human shape, and neither was she using some spiritual power to change her appearance. She still had the body of a fox, but at the same time she appeared like a human. It looked as though a type of magic was spread out and wrapped around her body, but the level of magic was substantial.

“Wait, can I touch your body?”

“What? Pervert! How can you say that?!”

“Huh? No, that’s not what I meant…”

Merlin, who wondered how the Shrouding Art technique was done, was taken aback by Miho’s unexpected reaction. When she was a fox, he would just hug her and roll around on the ground saying she was cute, but now that she had turned into a human figure, Merlin couldn’t imagine doing that now.

“Hahaha. If it’s Shrouding Technique, you’ve seen me use it a few times in the past,” Heavenly Flower stated.

“Oh, right. But when you used it, I didn’t see you as a fox, even with Enhanced Eyesight.”

“That’s because my ability levels are higher. Let me show you something to make it easier for you to understand.”

Whoosh.

A strange wavelength rippled across Heavenly Flower’s body. Soon, a huge fox appeared in Merlin’s Enhanced Eyesight view. Heavenly Flower became a tall, beautiful woman, a hundred-and-ninety centimeters tall in human form. However, her main body was impossibly huge, bigger than a modern convenience store. Compared to her huge main body, her human form was less than the size of her tail.