Chapter 48.1 : A Real Game of Tag Starting From Six

The scene that I saw as I hurriedly ran to Yukihime-tachi after receiving an SOS-like chat from her was…

―― A Nightmare――

「――EH?」

There, I saw them lying exhausted on the beach. Though Yukihime-san had her eyes barely opened, Aoi-san wasn't even twitching.

「BLUE! YUKIHIME-SAN!」

I rushed toward them while shouting out their names.

「What happened!? No, let me heal you before that!」

I took a healing item from my item box and sprinkled it over the two of them. Fortunately, their HP gauge had yet to hit empty and my healing item came in time.

But I was still shaken to the core by this development. Though Yukihime-san managed to raise her body, Aoi-san's consciousness had yet to return. WHAT THE h.e.l.l HAPPENED HERE?!

「Healing items won't be enough for status effects.」

Yukihime-san approached me unsteadily and gave me a bottle with some liquid inside.

「Use this. Luu-chan isn't moving because she's inflicted with an abnormal condition called “Stupor”, she won't wake up unless you use that potion.」

I quickly sprinkled the liquid without listening properly to Yukihime-san's explanation.

「Sorry… Sou-kun…」

「BLUE! It's okay…」

After waiting for them to get better, I spoke up.

「What in the world happened here Yukihime-san?」

「Uhm… Those PK'ers were here before you came.」

「PK'ers…」

But then, a question suddenly appeared in my head.

「Didn't you guys deactivate the PK setting?」

In this game, one won't get PKed in exchange for not being able to start PK themself. Though not many use this setting, I heard that most female players activate this setting.

「Because every member of the party wasn't using the setting, I deactivated it too.」

「Sorry, to think that even I forgot about this kind of setting.」

But it's not like I can blame Aoi-san since even I have no knowledge about that setting.

「But then, why did they leave you with a bit of your HP?」

Yukihime-san replied the question with a red face.

「It seems that they didn't attack us with the intention to get our items, they just wanted to toy with us!」

「Though, they made sure that our HP bars weren't zero before leaving while laughing, making us unable to move due to abnormal conditions.」

The thing that appeared in her eyes was a ma.s.s of regret.

「They left me in the paralyzed status and Luu-chan with stupor until you came to save us.」

Paralysis status is an abnormal status that can be inflicted to the target with magic or by using an item, and the target won't be able to move for a while. While stupor is an abnormal condition that can be inflicted with extremely low possibilities as long as the target's HP bar is below 10% and it makes them unable to do anything.

「Such vile acts must be reported to the management of operation.」

「But you better not do so. The act of PK itself is allowed inside this game, and it's hard to determine whether our case is included as s.e.xual hara.s.sment or not. Their accounts will be banned if they had tried to strip our clothes though. Moreover it also means that it's fine to leave us with abnormal conditions since it'll be healed as time pa.s.sess.」

「But… So that's how they want to play huh?」

I'm almost unable to endure the whirpool of emotions inside of me.

――Yosh.

「In which direction did those guys go?」

「Eh, they're in that forest over there.」

「Hmm, I'll be going for a walk then.」

Yukihime-san instantly reacted to my poor acting skills.

「NO! The ones who a.s.saulted us were 4 people, but that's not all of them since they have a full party! No matter how strong you are, 8 vs 1 is way too reckless!」

Even Aoi-san who was guessing that I was about to do something to them agreed with Yukihime-san.

「T-That's right Sou-kun! I-I'm already safe and sound you know? Please don't mind it. It's my fault for not activating the setting. That's why…」

A single teardrop dripped down upon her left cheek. At that time, it felt like something had snapped in me.

「I'll be back.」

「Ah, Sou-kun! Sou-kun!」

I ignored Aoi-san who desperately called my name.

I know… This is completely for the sake of my own self-satisfaction. There's almost no merit for me to do this and it's not like they're wis.h.i.+ng for me to avenge them either. But then, I can't go back anymore.

A woman's tears is plenty enough reason for a man to start a slaughter.

There are two ways to differentiate between a player and an NPC in this world. The first is by looking at the status screen of the terminal. The status of the person shown on my status screen will enable me to see whether that person is an NPC or not. Despite saying so, the things that I can read there are just their gender, name, HP and status, and seeing those parameters is enough to tell me – that person is a player.

The second way is by asking the person in question. NPCs won't lie like players. In short, when a player says that they're a player, then they're 100% a player. But if a player decided to make their setting similar to that of an NPC then no one but the person and the company will know about it.

「Hahaha, the face of the last girl was a masterpiece!」

「Yeah, but that twin tailed girl who had dyed hair was super strong. Didn't we almost lose to her in a 4vs1 fight?」

「That was so close. One wrong move and we would've died.」

「Even so, those two are so cute, I wanted to get along with them.」

「Stop it already, you'll be BANNED if you s.e.xually hara.s.s them you know.」

「He's right, we're PK players through and through. Even so, weren't we too kind to show mercy to them back there?」