Redefining the META at VRMMO Academy 4

“Yeah, Ren! I’m the only person you can do that to!”

“It’s not like I can control what’s going on here!”

“Baaawk! Stop bitin’ me, you little scoundrel!”

“Chickeeen! Chomp, chomp.”

While we all screamed and hollered, the pressure exerted on us by the speed of our ship began to decrease.

Oh, is the nitro done? Whew.

“Aww, it’s already over? I want more!”

Maeda kept pulling and releasing the nitro lever over and over, but it only responded with clunks.

“Maeda, you’re gonna break it! It probably has a cooldown like our skills do, or something.”

“Oh... That’s a shame. How long do you think it’ll take before I can use it again?” She pouted like a child who’d had their toy taken away.

I almost expected her to start sucking her thumb.

“Who knows?”

“Then I guess we’d better test that!” Maeda gleefully opened the system window and checked the current time.

“One!”

Clunk! She pulled the lever.

“Two!”

Clunk!

“Three!”

Clunk!

The rest of us gawked at her in disbelief.

Is she seriously going to pull that thing every single second?

“Sorry to ruin your fun, but maybe we should just lay off it for a while.”

“Yeah. Let’s go outside! I wanna grab some screenshots.” Akira left the wheelhouse and stepped out onto the deck.

“Me too. We’re lookin’ for this Sky Fissure, right? What’s it look like?”

“I’ll go, too, bawk. Gotta get those level-ups going! Level is power, bawk!”

Well, Kokoru wasn’t exactly wrong; all the stats aside from his level were meaningless to him. On top of his already-bad growth rates, he had the Princess’ Skull Ring equipped, which cut his growths down to a third in exchange for multiplying his EXP gain by three.

His expected growth on level up was as follows:

[Growth Rates]

STR 0, VIT 1, DEX 0, AGI 0, INT 0, MND 0, CHR 0

No matter how much he leveled up, he would only gain some VIT and max HP. His fighting power was essentially that of a level 1 right now.

Even worse, his Cowardice trait made his stats go even lower in battle. As a result, Kokoru could hardly even hit the broad side of a barn, let alone a real enemy. Thus, we’d have to give up on making him fight fair.

But Kokoru did have something up his sleeve.

It was his new skill, Golden Sweets—the trademark of a shady merchant. With that, he could bribe monsters up to his level to fight for him.

This was another waste-of-money strategy that was useless if we were broke, but for now, we just needed to raise his level to be able to do it.

If his growths were gonna be trash either way, I figured we might as well abandon them, focus only on his level value, and bet it all on the dirty sales tactic.

Min-maxing like this was the weakling’s way of fighting. Even if we lost in general power, we could excel in one area: his level. So Kokoru was right; level was, in fact, power.

“All right, same. Let’s get going, Draco!”

“Chichirp!”

Now that even Kokoru was motivated, I had to do everything I could for him. After all, I was the one who had chosen him and decided on this path to success.

“Wow! There are a lot of other airships out, too! Cool!” Akira, having left for the deck earlier, was taking screenshots left and right.

Yano made a face. “Maybe we’ve got some competition.”

“Ooh, maybe, yeah! All the other farming spots are taken, so...”

“I get it. None of us have private dungeons, but anyone who can get their hands on an airship is looking for a Sky Fissure. Go in, and the place is all yours. I guess it’s a race to see who can get to the entrance first.” Still, that was probably much easier said than done. “First, I wanna figure out what this Sky Fissure actually looks like.”

“Same. Where even is it?”

“I got this. I’ll search using my camera’s zoom function!”

Thus, Yano, Akira, and I picked our own corners to survey from. However, we didn’t see anything that resembled the name.

“We should try going over to where all those airships are gathered,” I said, looking over the starboard side.

Maybe I’ll tell Maeda to steer us closer.

“But Ren, it looks like those ships are all coming this way. I can see it when I zoom in.”

“Uh, but there’s nothing here.”

“Oh! Everyone, look down, bawk!”

Leaning over the railing of the deck, Kokoru pointed downward.

Ahh, that’s the one place we didn’t try.

We leaned over the railing and looked down. Amid the blues of the sky and sea and the white of the clouds, there was something like a pitch-black vortex.

“Ohoho, that? It’s like a real-life black hole!”

“Wow, this is awesome! Gotta snap some pics!”

“Let’s jump right in!”

Still, it might’ve been difficult for an airship to go straight down.

Can it perform a vertical drop? Or do you have to go in circles while you slowly lower your altitude or something? Well, whatever. Time to go tell Maeda.

“Okay, I’ll go let Maeda kno—”

I looked into the wheelhouse and saw Maeda yanking away at that nitro lever with childish delight. Maybe it was a bad idea to give her the wheel.

Bwooom!

In the next instant, an explosion shook the ship. The nitro had finished its cooldown. Having let our guard down, we couldn’t withstand the sudden acceleration and were thrown overboard.

“Whooooa?!”

I hadn’t expected to go skydiving today! Even in this video game, you could really feel the wind. But damn, it was scary! Even in the game!

“Wow! This is kind of a cool way to take in the sights!”

I turned toward Akira to learn that there was, in fact, a sight to be seen. With her right above me, I could see under her skirt!

Forget all that, though. She looked like she was having fun!

Good to know she’s not worried.

“Nooooo! I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna diiie!”

Yano’s teary-eyed screaming was a lot more normal.

“Baaawk! I can’t fly, bawk!” Kokoru screamed and clung to Draco, who was unable to support his weight and just fell with him.

As we hurtled through the air with all of our usual liveliness, the Sky Fissure waited below.

When we neared its black maw, we were sucked in, and everything went black.

◆◇◆

After a moment, the darkness obscuring my vision retreated, revealing what appeared to be the walls of a cave.

“Did we warp?! This must be the inside of the Sky Fissure.”

If so, we should be in a randomly generated dungeon right now. That means we’re free to farm the monsters in here without having to worry about any troublemakers.

“Ooh. The inside looks just like a normal cave.”

“Whew, that scared me! I thought I was dead.”

“For real, bawk. What would’ve happened if we hadn’t gotten sucked in here, bawk?”

“Chirp, chirp.”

Looks like Akira, Yano, Kokoru, and Draco all made it in, too.

But that was not all.

“Oh? Where are we?” Maeda appeared near us, utterly stupefied.

Was she forced in here because we came in?

“Hey, Maeda! Looks like the Sky Fissure was actually right beneath us.”

“We’re glad you made it, Kotomi!”

“Hey, Kotomi, that was just cruel of you to throw us off with that nitro. Do you know how scared I was?!”

“I’m sorry. But now I know.”

“Huh? Know what?”

“It’s two hundred and forty seconds!”

“Umm, what is?”

I understood right away. “Ohh. The nitro cooldown, right?”

“Yes. We need to know the effect duration, too! I wonder if there are talents and items out there that can add uses or decrease the cooldown. If so, maybe we could have the nitro on without ever having to cool down. This bears investigation, don’t you think?”

“Ahahaha. Ren, you’re such a bad influence on her.”

“Kotomi’s turning into a monster!”

As long as she’s having fun, more power to her. Everyone has their own way of enjoying themselves. There’s no reason to judge. I would prefer if she was more careful with the nitro, though.

“Anyway, let's look around, kill what we can, and start raising Kokoru’s level,” I said, eager to change the subject.

With everyone in agreement, we proceeded into the cavernous dungeon. The starting area was a curved passage; we could go either forward or backward.

For now, we decided to go forward.

I rubbed my hands together. “Time to see what kinds of enemies we’ve got.”

“It’s all random, right? Including the layout and monsters?”

“Is there treasure in here? I hope we can find some grub!”

Maeda looked around. “I don’t see an exit anywhere. There is an exit, right?”

“Probably,” I said. “If not, we wouldn't be able to leave."

We walked for some time, chatting as we went along.

“Still no monsters yet, huh?”

“Maybe you can pull duds without ’em?” Yano offered.

Suddenly, Maeda cried out, “Oh! I see something!”

I followed her gaze. “Mm... Hey, I know that monster!”

“Wow, an Island Bunny? It is a dud!” Akira lamented.

“Li’l bugger’s kinda shiny, though.”

Akira squinted. “I can’t see the name from here, but I don’t think that's a normal Island Bunny.”

“Oh, I think I know what this is!”

I read about this in the UW Guidebook! It’s a monster called a Golden Bunny. From tip to tail, it’s all gold and shiny.

Experience yield from monsters in this game is divided into two categories: normal EXP based on level difference and set EXP from rare monsters.

Golden Bunnies are rare monsters, famous for giving way more experience points than their strength would imply. The Guidebook calls them “bonus monsters.”

This little guy was the absolute king of monsters when it came to grinding experience. It was comparable to one of those gooey metal slimes you’d find in other games.

“It’s a Golden Bunny!”

“Oooh! Good job, Ren! We’re in luck today.”

“Yeah. Seems to me like you’re our lucky charm, Akira.”

Her natural-born luck always comes through for us.

Throughout my entire gaming career, stuff like this never happened to me when I played solo. But when I played with Akira? Happened all the time. Maybe people who had it in real life had it in games, too.

“What should we do? Just run after it? I think he’ll try to give us the slip.”

“The Guidebook did say they’re very speedy little critters.”

Yano and Maeda were right; these things were quick to flee, just like the metallic monsters they resembled. The Guidebook also said they were super fast, and they didn’t take much damage at all from attacks.

Dead End ignored defense and evasion, so maybe I could knock it down in one hit? Its HP looked pretty low, too.

Anyway, the Guidebook suggested chasing a Golden Bunny into a corner, then trying to take it down.

“Hold on a sec. There should be an exit somewhere, right? If we block that off, we should be able to trap it in with us.”

We should do that first before it notices us.

After that, we could take our time closing in on it.

“All right, girls, let’s go the other way for now. Once we find and seal the exit, it won’t be able to escape.”

“Ooh, gotcha. Okay, cool, let’s do it!” Akira said.

We turned and headed back the way we came in search of the way out.

Standing on one of the cave walls was a tall frame, but instead of a picture, it contained only undulating darkness. It was almost as if a black hole had been put on display.

“Oh! That must be the exit. Okay, someone’s gotta stand guard here.”

“Want me to do it, bawk? Not like I can attack anyway.”

True. We hadn't tested Golden Sweets yet, so Kokoru's current power in battle was zero. Might as well let him be a living barrier.

“Cool. We’re counting on you, Kokoru.”

“Bawk. Okay!”

With that settled, we walked back to where we’d found the Golden Bunny.

“There it is again.”

It was still sitting in the same spot. Kokoru had the entrance covered, but how would we actually finish the thing off?

“So, how do we kill the little guy? Maybe I should shoot it from far away?” Yano patted her gun lovingly.

“Mm... Not a bad idea, but if it doesn’t die in one shot, it’ll run off.” The area was essentially a wide cave. The tunnel ahead gently curved to the right and back around. “Let’s hide and have some of us sneak up behind it. Then we can do a pincer attack.”

“Do you want me to do the sneaking?”

Akira did have Vanishing Flip at her disposal. For the low cost of some AP, she could disappear and move in secrecy.

Vanishing Flip is mainly used to move without drawing aggro from monsters that attack on sight, but it’s also good for hidden potshots in PvP combat.

Since Akira had the talent Breath of Ares, she passively gained AP over time. As a result, her AP bar should already have been full.

“Sure, sounds good to me. Looks like it’s got good eyes and ears, so make sure you’re quiet.”

“Got it.”

“Once she’s on the other side of it, we'll have her attack. Meanwhile, we’ll wait around the corner so it can’t see us.”

“And then we jump it! Right?”

“Right. Soon as it passes by, wham! Dead End right to the face!”

“I’m gonna head over, then. Good luck!” Akira used Vanishing Flip and disappeared.

“All right. Let’s get in position to attack.”

I activated a magic circle, emptying my MP bar. Now I was ready to use Dead End any time.

Yano readied her gun and aimed at the faraway Golden Bunny while Maeda prepared to cast offensive magic.

After we waited for a while...

“Bweeee?!” the Golden Bunny cried, sounding uncharacteristically brazen and goofy for a bunny, as it leapt up in surprise and made a mad dash toward us.

“So fast!” everyone in the ambush squad blurted at once.

It’s ridiculously fast!

Yano tried to fire at the bunny, but she wasn’t even close. By the time Maeda finished casting her magic, it had already whizzed past us.

I reacted in time and readied my ultimate.

“Ultimate move: Dead—”

“Bweeee!”

However, the screaming Golden Bunny darted away so fast that I hit nothing but air. In the space of my swing, it had gotten through the cracks and run right by me.

“End! Holy crap, that was fast!”

That speed was beyond abnormal. This thing really was like those slippery, slimy fellas!

If I could just smack it with Dead End, it’d probably go down easy. Unfortunately, it was hard to actually make contact with the animation.

“I’ll go after it!”

Yano activated Sprint and chased after the Golden Bunny at max speed—but it was still faster than her!

Can we even kill this thing?!

“I’m gonna try, too!”

“That is some incredible speed!”

“Yeah, seriously!”

Akira, Maeda, and I chased after Yano and the Golden Bunny.

From afar, we heard a voice.

“Baaawk?! Why me?!”

“Bwee! Bwee!”

“Hey! Cut that out, you little rascal!”

“Bweeee!”

“He got away again! Ughhh!”

“Oww, bawk. I’m dying, bawk...”

“Hold up. I’ll heal you right quick.”

We soon caught up to Yano, who was using healing magic on one torn-up Kokoru. Thanks to the Nurse Ring she got recently, Yano was now able to use recovery magic. Her MP was on the lower side, though, since sky pirates couldn’t typically use magic.

“Did he beat you up, bud?”

“Are you okay?”

“What happened, Yuuna?”

“Man, that stupid shiny rabbit came over and front-kicked Kokoru right in the face! Then when I attacked it, it ran away!"

“Sniffle... Why does it hate me so much?”

“Maybe it’s because you were blocking the exit? But, well, it could’ve just kept running.”

“That bunny’s just bullying Kokoru because he’s weak. How cruel!” Akira puffed out her cheeks.

“I mean, Kokoru’s level thirty now.”

We were talking about an enemy monster, so there should have been some logical sequence that made it do that. It wasn’t like it randomly decided it didn’t like Kokoru.

If we could break down the problem, we ought to be able to figure out the reason. That might tell us how to take it down, too.

“For now, how about you and Maeda trade places? We’ll see if the bunny attacks her when she blocks the exit.”

“Bawk, gotcha.”

“Yes, sir.”

We left Maeda at the exit and took Kokoru in pursuit of the Golden Bunny. After proceeding for a short while, there it was, in all its golden glory.

“Okay. I’m gonna close in on it.” I casually approached the bunny.

“Bweeeeee!”

He immediately noticed me, screamed, and fled.

You find it, it runs. That’s a start.

“Okay. You’re up, Kokoru. Try to get closer.”

We went in even farther to find it again, this time siccing Kokoru on it.

“Got it, bawk.”

Kokoru waddled over and stepped into the rabbit’s perception range.

“Bwee! Bwee!”

Whoa, it just went in for a kick!

“Bawk?! Bawk, cut it out!”

“Aaah! It’s just Kokoru!” Akria cried.

“Let’s stop it!"

“I got this!” Yano shouted, taking a shot at the Golden Bunny.

Yuuna attacked.

Dealt 1 damage to Golden Bunny!

Ooh, she landed a hit! Only 1 damage, though. Again, this fella’s a metal mob in every way, shape, and form. Its HP ought to be low, so all we need is a few more—

“Bweeee?!”

But of course, after being hit once, it ran off like a coward.

“It really does only attack Kokoru. I wonder if that’s because he has Cowardice?”

“What makes you say that, Ren?”

“Well, y’know how characters with Cowardice can’t hit enemies with their attacks? Maybe it just attacks Kokoru because it knows there won’t be any backlash.”

“Huh. Man, that’s scummy.”

“But I bet we can use this to our advantage. Let’s lock it down and clock it.”

“Oh, okay. We use Kokoru to draw it in so I can shoot it.”

“Akira can also hide and stay next to Kokoru, then jump out to attack along with you.”

“Neat! Then we can take it down twice as fast.”

“Yup, we’ve got this! Good job, Kokoru. Thanks to you, we're having rabbit for dinner tonight.”

“Forgive me if I’m not proud of it, bawk.”

“C’mon, man. Just think of it as tanking. You’re our shield! This is gonna make leveling a cinch.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just get it over with, bawk.”

With our flawless new strategy in hand, we once again went to find the Golden Bunny.

“Ah, there it is! I’m glad it’s so easy to find. Good thing there aren’t any branching paths here.”

“Huh. Is that Kotomi back there?”

“Bawk, yeah, I see her!”

“I see! This cave is actually round, like a donut.”

And that means...

“I’ll go around and block its escape path. Use Kokoru to draw it in on this side while you girls wait in ambush. When it tries to get away from you, it’ll run into me. Then, it’ll run back to you, and we just keep looping like that. Akira, if you use Vanishing Flip again right after you attack, it should forget you’re there and go back to attacking Kokoru.”

“Yeah, I get it. I think this’ll work!”

“A’ight! All I have to do is hang back and shoot it when he smacks Kokoru, right?”

“Exactly. Thanks! Let's go, Draco.”

Thus, Draco and I ran the opposite way. I passed by Maeda and got into position.

“Awesome.” I opened the system menu and sent a message to Akira that said “Ready.”

As soon as she received it, they sprang into action.

Kokoru waddled over to the Golden Bunny with his ever-comical, exaggerated steps. Once he was within range, the rabbit reacted and charged straight toward Kokoru, hitting him with a front kick.

“Bwee! Bwee!”

Even I found the kick strangely ferocious. Maybe it really wanted to attack for once since it had been running all this time.

This bunny was the kind of monster who’d go out of its way to find someone weaker and really wallop them. If this were real life, it’d be such a piece of trash.

Anyway, good job, Kokoru! Who knew Cowardice had an upside?

It was the perfect way to stop a Golden Bunny so that we could feast on it. Seeing a crappy skill turned into something useful with just a change of perspective really tugged at my heartstrings.

Kokoru was shining like a star now! I loved stuff like this. If I was a drama cannon, Kokoru was the drama shell!

“Gblorfblorgh baaawk?!” Kokoru crouched to the ground after a swift kick to the gut.

The Golden Bunny went for another kick, but Akira jumped in from the side, ready to attack with both swords.

“No more bullying! Ultimate move: Cross Crescent!”

From the invisible Akira, two crescent-moon effects appeared next to each other. Her dual-wielding action didn’t end there, though; after a short beat, a third crescent moon appeared.

With one weapon, this attack was twofold. But now, it was powered up to be threefold.

In her right hand was her main weapon, Skyfall +1. In her left was the steel sword that Yano had painted for her as her subweapon.

Steel swords were made using steel ingots, the next step above iron ingots. It was pretty much the standard for our current level range.

To break down her ultimate in dual-wielding terms, it was basically a normal two-stage Cross Crescent with her main weapon and then another stage with her subweapon.

Tack all that on to Skyfall’s shockwaves, and it made for a total of five hits.

Akira activated Cross Crescent.

Dealt 2 damage to Golden Bunny!

Of the five strikes, only two landed. The other three all missed.

Oh, but the shockwaves count as magic damage, right? Maybe this bunny nullifies magic, then. If I imagine it as one of those slimes, it all makes sense! Though, back when my dad was a gamer, you could puff on one of those guys and kill them in one hit!

“Bweeee?!”

Yuuna attacked.

Dealt 1 damage to Golden Bunny!

Just as the bunny jumped up in panic, Yano landed a bull’s-eye. It made a mad dash toward me, but upon seeing me, it turned back around.

At that point, Akira had already used Vanishing Flip again, making it seem as though Kokoru was alone.

Once again, it charged over and front-kicked Kokoru.

“Bawk?!”

“Ultimate move: Cross Crescent!”

And another gunshot!

“Bweeee?!”

Again, it came to me! Again, it made a U-turn! Again, it was just Kokoru walking around alone.

“Bwee! Bwee!”

“Oww, bawk! This guy’s a freakin’ idiot!”

We went through this process several times until, finally, the Golden Bunny fell.

“Bweeeee!”

Then, we all leveled up at once. The level-up fanfare showered upon us.

“Nice, we got him! Ooooh, look at those levels rise!”

“Yay! That was good EXP!” Akira cheered.

Yano was in heaven. “Yes, yes, sooo good! I love you, Sky Fissure!”

Each of us had gained two levels. Kokoru was already a lower level than us and he had the Princess’ Skull Ring equipped, so he went up eight.

Now I was level 45, Akira 47, Maeda 47, and Yano 48! Kokoru was up to 38!

“Good thing Kotomi threw us off with that nitro boost, huh, bawk?”

“A lucky break. Sorry about that, though.”

“Don’t let her take all the credit, Kokoru! If you hadn’t been here to bait that rabbit, we would’ve had way more trouble with him. The faster we can kill these things, the quicker we can grind our levels.”

The Guidebook said it takes a lot of effort to take down Golden Bunnies, but that was relatively easy in spite of our small party. That was all thanks to us making use of it attacking Kokoru.

If we can get another Golden Bunny, this’ll be over in a flash!

But the huge EXP yield wasn’t all that the rascal had left behind.

“Hey, Ren! We got loot, too!”

“Oooh! Let's take a look.”

“Huh, Bunnygold. This is a rare material!”

“The Guidebook says that Golden Bunny item drops are very rare.”

“Wow! I bet it would sell for a good price!”

“See, Akira? When we have you around, we drown in rare loot. I bet we can make something good with this! Maybe, like, a liquid metal sword or something equally good!”

“I thought of that, too! The strongest weapon in the whole game, stronger than the legendary hero’s sword!”

“Heck yeah!”

“You guys are babblin’ about some real retro stuff, aren’tcha? So hey, since this is a crafting material, should we just leave it to Takashiro?”

“Sounds good to me!”

“Sure, I wouldn’t mind.”

Everyone agreed to let me take the Bunnygold for now. We’d have to see whether we should flip it for a profit, or if we should mold it into someone’s new weapon.

“Okay, gang. Let’s leave this place and find a new Sky Fissure!”

We were getting into gear now! Level, level, and level some more!

Leaving in high spirits, we stepped out onto the deck of our airship.

Guess that’s what happens when you leave a Sky Fissure.

Maeda gladly whipped out the nitro, sending us off in search of a new one.

In the end, we never did get to enter another Sky Fissure that day. There were just too many other guilds out there hunting for them, just as we were. These black holes were in short supply, and the demand was... well, sky high.

At this rate, we’d only end up with one fissure under our belt—pure beginner’s luck.

I’d better think of a way around this.

◆◇◆

The next day, I logged in an hour before class started.

Yesterday, we’d been lucky enough to get into a Sky Fissure and even kill a Golden Bunny, but after that, our luck had run out.

We just had way too much competition. Throngs of airships were clamoring over them like moths flocking around a lamp.

It was a mystery how many Sky Fissures could exist at once, but we needed a way to get into them efficiently or else we’d never be able to get Kokoru’s levels up.

With the big-name guilds camping in all the other good spots, Sky Fissures were our only way to grind. Today, I was determined to solve this problem.

“Huh, a system message. Let’s see... Oh, they’re gonna have a big meeting about the guild mission’s final battle.”

Ms. Nakada had accidentally told us it would be a battle royale. We didn’t know any details beyond that, though.

“Next week. All right, all right. It’ll be in the chapel at the royal palace. Each guild has to bring their rep, okay. So it’ll be kind of like an interim report sort of thing?”

Each guild would probably compare their heroes’ progress for clout.

I see, I see. Then I’d like to have some prospects for victory by the weekend.

“Morning, Ren. Bawk.”

I’d made my way from my log-in spot at the guildhouse to our guild shop, where Kokoru was running the store.

“Morning, Kokoru. Seen any of the girls yet?”

“Yeah, they all came through already. They went to the pier, bawk.”

Us guildies had planned to log in early and paint the airship.

Looks like I’m the last one.

Seeing as Maeda was so excited about the airship, she had probably logged in at six o’clock sharp.

“Cool. I’ll go catch up with them. Good luck with the shop!”

I made my way to the airship port, where the airship was parked in the same place as yesterday. Except, one thing was different.

“Hahaha... What a mess.”

Our airship looked nothing like it had yesterday.

It had been recolored pink all over with the logo of our guild plastered on the side. Lace and cute little ribbons now adorned it as well, making it look very fancy.

As a guy, I’ll feel a little embarrassed riding it, though.

Maybe this was just Maeda’s aesthetic. She was really fond of cute things.

Nevertheless, she was the one who’d procured us the airship in the first place, so she could decorate it however she pleased.

Our guild emblem was Yano’s design, though, so she had drawn that herself.

Hmm, doesn’t look like Akira got to add any personal touches.

You'd expect Akira to draw some macho man when given a brush, but there were no rippling muscles to be found.

“Oh, wait. There’s one.”

The airship had come with a goddess figurehead at the bow, but she was now equipped with Akira’s Macho Armor from the guild shop.

This little accent really shattered the airship’s elegant vibe.

“She just has to put that into everything she does, huh? It’s like a disease only she can spread.”

“Good morning, Ren! You’re so late that we almost finished without you.”

“Oh, hey. I’m fine, don't worry.”

Yano emerged, twirling Libra’s Brush between her fingers. “Since Kotomi earned this for us, we decided to go with what she wanted.”

“I think it turned out rather nicely!” Maeda seemed very satisfied. “By the way, the ship’s name is JS Peachy Thunder.”

“Uh, ‘Peachy Thunder’?”

I guess it is kinda pink.

Seeing as the figurehead was wearing macho armor, however, I would’ve dubbed it the “Peachy Muscle.”

“It’s supposed to express both speed and cuteness.”

With Maeda looking so happy, I figured I shouldn’t rain on her parade.

“Speed, huh? Yeah, I guess we will need to boost it a bit if we don’t want to get in scraps over Sky Fissures all day.”

“Agreed,” said Akira. “Our first try went well, but we didn’t get a single one after that.”

Maeda was especially annoyed by how often people overtook us. She was definitely the kind of person to be emotional behind the wheel.

“In other words, we have to soup up this airship to win the mission, right?! It would be my pleasure! Let’s improve the nitro function!”

“Kotomi’s breakin’ again!”

“Aw, c’mon, she’s having fun. I like it!”

Akira rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Ren. You don’t have the right to say that.”

“How do we power up the thing, though?” Yano asked.

“There are power-up items. But the parts wouldn’t be on the market, so we’ll probably have to either hunt monsters or trade MEP.”

Maeda had really done her research.

“Hm. Well, all the grind spots are taken, so we can’t farm items.”

I nodded. “Right. At this point, we’ll just have to trade MEP.”

“We’ve got some time until class starts. Wanna go over to the MEP exchange counter right now?”

“Yeah, let’s go. Early bird catches the worm, and all that. We’ve got to get to those Sky Fissures, or else we won’t even come close to winning.”

Yano grimaced. “I dunno... Seems like all my hard-earned MEP’s gonna get stolen away by a certain somebody who’s always trying to get us to redefine the meta in some weird way.”

“It’s not weird! Speed is king! Now, let’s get going already!” Maeda started yanking on Yano's arm.

“Hahaha... Kotomi, I feel like I’ve seen a side of you that I shouldn’t have. Okay, okay, let's go.” Yano was complaining, but there was a little grin on her face. She was a surprisingly tolerant person.

Faced with a side of Maeda she’d never seen and a sudden change in plans, Yano easily surrendered. In truth, she was just happy to help.

The fact that she never got annoyed or anything about it showed she had a big heart, even her fashion sense was a little weird.

With that, we headed off to the Merit Point Exchange Counter.

When we arrived, we saw two familiar faces in line.

“Oh! Morning, Nozomi.”

It was Akabane and Kataoka. As ever, Kataoka was joined at the hip with his Hime-chan. In a way, I guess you could say he was a devoted guy. Not that I particularly cared about him.

“My, if it isn’t Akira. Good day to you.” Akabane smiled at Akira. Smiled!

Hey, whoa. Why aren’t things getting all tense?

“Huh, what happened to you two? Did you become besties behind my back?”

“Wh-What is that supposed to mean? I-I just—” Akabane stammered.

"That we did!” Akira interjected. “Let me tell you, fighting side by side on the battlefield really brings people together.”

“What the heck are you talking about?”

Did she mean the abduction quest with Princess Lieliz?

“Ahem! Well, err, if you’re being so frank, then I suppose I have to agree!”

As usual, Akabane could turn hot or cold in a flash. Still, I could tell she was doing her best to stifle a grin, as the ends of her mouth were twitching. She looked pretty happy to me; I just wished she’d show it.

“You here to exchange some MEP too, Kataoka?”

“Nah. Not me, anyway.”

“Huh, really?”

“Yep. I came to offer up my points to my lady!”

“Yeah, you would do that. Uh, as long as you’re cool with it, go you.”

He was incomprehensible to me, but if he was happy to do it, I might as well let him.

Maeda approached the NPC girl at the counter and said, “Excuse me. Would you be able to show me a list of the exchanges we can make with our Merit Points?”

“Of course. Here you are. Take all the time you need.” She opened a menu in midair, displaying the exchange list.

It consisted of talents, items, and much more.

“The airship filter is... there!” Maeda tapped the menu, restricting the list to only show airship-related exchanges.

We took a little peek.

“Ohoho, there’s a whole bunch here,” I observed. “Dang, they’re expensive.”

Even the cheapest airships didn’t drop below 3,000 MEP. As for the LHS-13 type airship that we had...

“Whoa, it’s over nine thousand?! That’s a lot!”

It really was the newest model.

Maeda had gotten the top score in our grade, though, so I guess the reward had to be incredible to match.

“Even if it is the newest model, that’s just crazy.”

Yano was right; it was by far the most expensive of the small-form, high-speed crafts. The second-most expensive one in the same category was only 4,000. But why?

We scanned the LHS-13’s specs.

“Hmm... The load capacity and max speed aren’t all that different,” Akira murmured.

According to the description, our ship’s load capacity was 250, while the max speed was 82. The second one had a load capacity of 245 and a max speed of 79.

How does that lead to such a price difference?

“Oh, maybe it’s the expansion slots?”

“Huh? Ren, they both have eight expansion slots.”

Yes, both had a maximum of eight slots, but there was also a limit on how many of each type of part you could use.

There were three categories of parts: offensive ones like cannon sets and rams, defensive ones like armor and barriers, and movement-related ones like cloaking and nitro. Only so many parts from each category could be equipped at once.

As for the Peachy Thunder, it could only have up to four offensive parts, four defensive parts, or eight parts for movement. With eight slots to fill, those maximums had to be considered.

The second-most expensive ship also had eight fillable slots, but its maximums were three for offensive, three for defensive, and four for movement.

“Look closely; the limit for movement slots is doubled. That means you can make all of your expansion slots movement-based.”

In other words, you could minmax your ship when it came to speed or stealth.

By the way, the Peachy Thunder had come equipped with a single Nitro Charger part, which increased nitro uses. That gave us a total of one nitro use, but we couldn’t take it off.

With one non-removable part, that meant one of our eight slots was essentially inaccessible.

“So, Maeda. Nitro’ cooldown time is four minutes, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“And how long does the effect last?”

“Thirty seconds. Oh! I get it!”

“Bingo. If we just throw on eight Nitro Chargers...”

“Eternal nitro! How dreamy!” Maeda looked at me with stars in her eyes. She was leaning forward so intently that I had to take a step back.

“Uh, yeah... This is probably the only model that can use eight movement parts. That’s why it’s so expensive.”

It’d be a hell of a bumpy ride, but speed is speed, I say. Even if it is gonna heave us passengers all over the place...

“Wow, yeah. None of the other ones have eight,” Yano muttered as she scrolled through the list.

“Mhm. Looks like this is the first model that could constantly run on nitro,” Akira added.

“Yeah. I bet nobody’s even tried that loadout yet. At least, we didn’t see any like that yesterday.”

As I said that, I wondered if this could be something that would break the balance of the game. Hardcore minmaxing was a thrill, so of course I wanted to try it out.

“If we minmax that much, chasing down Sky Fissures oughta be easy.”

“Let’s do it! With my eight-nitro dream, we’ll conquer the skies!" Maeda declared, a fist raised high in the air. Her eyes were alight with ambition. Such enthusiasm!

With regards to the competitive guild mission, this would be an extreme boon for us.

“Has she always been like that? Or has she eaten something strange?” Akabane asked, shaking her head in disapproval.

“Nope. She just started doing this recently,” I replied.

No reason for me to stop her, though! In fact, I was excited to go along for the ride.

“All right. Girls, let’s combine our MEP and buy seven Nitro Chargers.”

There were some talents I really wanted to buy, but I had to prioritize the greater good.

“Thank you all!”

“Ahahaha! We all owe you one anyway, Kotomi.”

“Yep. Might as well letcha have some fun once in a while.”

That’s all well and good, but how much do those Nitro Chargers cost, anyway?

We checked the Nitro Charger item on the request list. They were 500 points each.

Hmm. Let’s see...

Our Merit Points had been pretty close to zilch before, but the most recent test had replenished them a little.

Maeda had 784 MEP, Akira had 704, I had 567, and Yano had 271. In total, we had just over 2,300.

At 500 each, seven Nitro Chargers would be 3,500. Ouch!

“We don’t have enough! Man, these prices are sky-high!”

“Aww. I was so excited...” Maeda’s shoulders drooped.

“Oh, dear. Would you like to use some of my Merit Points, then?” Akabane suddenly cut in.

“What?!” we all blurted at once.

Oh, heavenly fortune! Thank you, thank you!

“Are you sure about that, Nozomi?!”

“I don’t mind, but I do have a condition. Will you let our NPC participate in your level-grinding? We don’t have a private dungeon, so we've been at our wit’s end.”

Oh, yeah. Akabane's guild wasn’t that large either.

Seeing as her brother was a guildmaster, she was even less likely to be a big player. I mean, who would want to affiliate with that?

In her case, though, I assumed she just wanted to keep playing with Akira more than she wanted to train her NPC. She couldn’t bring herself to say it, so she was just coming up with a pretense to hang out.

“So you say, but half of your reason is just to game with Akira, right?”

“Ye—no, don’t be silly!”

Aw, she blushed!

The act she was putting on just made me want to mess with her more.

“So, what’s it going to be?! Do you want the points or not?!”

“Yes, please! Everyone who agrees, show of hands!”

Urged by Akira, I raised my hand. “Yeah, let’s do it!”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes!” Maeda would never refuse this.

“Sure, but I’ve got one thing to say!” Yano was the only one whose agreement came with strings attached.

“Hm? What is it?”

“We can grind together, but... uh, I'd really like it if you didn’t bring your brother. I kinda can't stand him.”

Yano did seem the most terrified out of all of us.

“Oh, yes, of course. That won’t be a problem.”

“Then I’m all in!”

Great, now our grinding should go smoothly.

Still, there was something bugging me; Kataoka had been quiet all this time.

I leaned in and whispered, “Everything all right, man? You chipped in some MEP too, didn’t you?”

Akabane’s condition for giving us MEP was that we’d help level her guild’s NPC, but Kataoka was in Fountain of Knowledge—a completely different guild.

Their NPC, Peater, was probably off training in their private dungeon.

He didn’t have anything to gain from this, did he?

“Hah. What’s mine is Lady Nozomi’s. What’s Lady Nozomi's is Lady Nozomi’s. My desires are hardly important.”

“Uh, as long as it's cool with you, I guess...”

There’s no point in even trying with him! Forget it!

We pooled our MEP together and successfully bought seven Nitro Chargers!

With that, our dream of eight consecutive nitros became a reality.

I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

I turned to everyone and declared, “All right. After school, it’s time to start leveling together!”

Once we’d all promised, we made our way to class.