Chapter 10

…Phew, I’ve finally gotten comfortable.

But honestly—Is this place actually real? I feel so disoriented, like I’m in a dream, but not in a good way—

That happens when you’re logged in for a long time. It’s a device that tricks the players’ senses into a dreamlike state, or something of the sort.

It seems that your senses become optimized for that isekai environment, and it makes you feel like reality is fake. We have some medicine that will suppress those symptoms, so go ahead and take it.

Hmph. I have no desire to put anything you give me into my mouth. I don’t know what you might have spiked it with.

There’s nothing weird in it~ If you still don’t trust me, do you want me to bite off half the pill to prove it’s safe?

Do you earnestly expect me to consume something you’ve put in your mouth?

You don’t appear to be susceptible to poison, so it wouldn’t prove anything anyway. Poisonous creatures are resistant to poison, themselves, after all.

Just what do you think I am, Shu-kun?

I once thought you to be a friend who shared my love for handicrafts, and now I think you a detestable traitor. You took my trust in you and trampled all over it, and you deserve to die for it.

Fufu. I suppose, then, you would hate me too, Nii-san. Because this time around, I launched a surprise attack against you.

But I can’t blame you, since I too betrayed your trust.

You’re fine, boy. Since you’re so cute.

Oh, so I’d be forgiven as long as I’m cute, then? It’s been written in lots of magazines that I’m really cute when I take off my glasses, you know~ Look, look ♪

Stop making such unpleasant motions. I’m not talking about your appearance; it’s about your way of life.

No one would ever wish to touch a poisonous creature, no matter how adorable he is.

But I’m not even poisonous~ Although, humans do have poison—that is, their intelligence, which is enough to destroy all other living things.

We may not inherently possess poison, but we can create it. We truly are fearsome beings.

But humans also have the intellect to create the antidote. …Is it okay that I’ve ordered us some drinks?

Do as you like. I’m sure you’re already well acquainted with our preferences.

Not at all. You’re a different matter, Nii-san, but no matter what Senpai eats or drinks, he only ever says that it’s delicious.

Fufu. If you believe it’s good, even food scraps can become a gourmet meal made by a three-star chef. Did you know that leather shoes can actually taste really good?

Senpai, that’s actually scary because I can’t tell if you’re joking, or if it’s a true story based on an experience you had.

Fufu. In any case, I know I’m being persistent, but—is Kagehira okay?

Yes, Sora is looking after him right now. It looks like Mika-kun is too sensitive, and the SSVRS made him sick.

He became so immersed in the world of SHINSEKAI that he was almost unable to return. It would have been bad if he had stayed any longer.

You shouldn’t force people to use such a dangerous device without their consent.

Theoretically, there should have been no problems. Mika-kun just happens to be too far from the average person. But it’s our mistake for not anticipating an exception to the standard.

We’ll keep making improvements to the system so that it can better handle special cases like Mika-kun.

Really, you could say we benefited from discovering such a hole before it was brought into the public consciousness.

So your aim is to earn the rights to this SSVRS?

Correct. I’ve had you and the others be my beta testers, and after making some minor improvements, we’ll release it into the world.

When that time comes, we’ll use your gameplay clips as promotional material.

So this whole chain of events was just to gather material for advertising?

Yes. Of course, if you don’t want us to use video clips of you, we won’t.

We did force you and Mika-kun into SHINSEKAI without your consent, after all.

We can’t force you to do something if you haven’t signed a contract. It’s not a live broadcast, and we have the ability to decide what makes the cut for the promotion.

Mhm. But we wagered that if we’d told you at the start, there was a high probability that you wouldn’t have stayed here and played SHINSEKAI.

Exactly. That’s why we tried every trick in the book to get you two to play SHINSEKAI.

And once we forced you into the game, we tried to get you worried, to make you feel like you’d meet misfortune if you didn’t play properly~

But in your case, trying to force the issue may have had the opposite effect.

Naturally. I loathe being made to do others’ bidding.

Even if you had come out and told me from the start that you wanted me to play so you could use it for advertising, I’m sure I would have refused.

It doesn’t suit us at all to go through highs and lows playing some silly game. Valkyrie is a much more stalwart, passionate, artistic unit.

Showing off some down-to-earth, easygoing image of us playing games would only diminish our value.