After a while, Felicia seemed to work through her internal conflict, though her breathing was still irregular and her shoulders were heaving. He hoped it wouldn’t have any adverse effects on her out in the real world. It wasn’t good to get oneself so worked up.

“W-Well, anyway! Itchy, you’ve been playing the game for a week, right?”

“Yes. The graphics are as lovely as you made them out to be. It’s been a novel experience. The truth of it is, I’m enjoying myself.”

Felicia smirked, and for some reason, she puffed up her chest. (Her chest was flat — it seemed that was one area she wasn’t willing to exaggerate.)

“Itchy, what level are you?”

“92.”

“You freaking idiot!”

“Nonsense. If I were an idiot, that would make everyone on Earth idiots by comparison. You mustn’t insult yourself that way.” Ichiro Tsuwabuki had an unparalleled way of doing something outrageous to get you mad at him, only to counter any anger with something even more outrageous. “By the way, why did you call me an idiot?”

“W-Well...” Felicia stammered.

“A-ha,” Kirschwasser observed with a knowing nod. “I believe I understand.. Lady Felicia was hoping to help you level up.”

“Ugh...” she groaned.

He was right on the mark, it seemed. Kirschwasser’s sense of observation was sharp.

This, too, was only natural, Ichiro had to admit. Several years ago, Asuha Tsuwabuki had stopped clinging to him as much as she used to (though sometimes she looked like she wanted to), and since entering middle school, had grown very preoccupied with insisting that she was an adult. According to his cousin once removed, Asuha’s father, she’d throw a fiery tantrum if he didn’t buy her an adult ticket at the Toyama Zoo. That’s the kind of person she was. She had probably wanted to earn his respect by showing him how to level up.

Thinking about it that way, perhaps he had acted rather thoughtlessly. Perhaps.

“How did you even get to such a high level, Itchy? I’ve been playing for three months, and I’m only level 40!”

Judging from her friend information, technically, she was 38.

“Are you quite certain you want to ask that?” Kirschwasser asked, his expression grave.

“Huh? Wh-What? Did you do something bad, Itchy?”

“Nonsense. It was all perfectly legal. Anyone can just break rules, after all. I dislike that practice.” The way Ichiro saw it, he had merely found the most efficient way of leveling up permitted by the rules. He couldn’t understand why this invited backbiting.

Kirschwasser ignored Ichiro’s expression and continued in somber tones.

“All right. Then I shall explain. The repulsive trick that Master Ichiro used to achieve the ridiculous level 92 in just one week...”

“Sir Kirschwasser, you appear to be enjoying this.”

“You can tell? Ah, incidentally, I’ve been logging in consistently between my working hours since the service began, and I’m currently level 68. I’ve been doing this for almost a year, so getting to 40 in three months is an excellent pace.” Kirschwasser’s solicitousness in praising Felicia’s hard work was proof that he was a grown woman... Well, a grown man, at the moment.

“U-Um. Mr. Kirschwasser.”

“Just call me Kirsch.”

“Mr. Kirsch. Well, er, how exactly did Itchy level up?”

“The power of money,” Kirschwasser murmured, gazing off into the distance.

Narrow Fantasy Online was a game packed with paid content options. Though even the base subscription fee of 980 yen a month was hard on the wallet for school-aged gamers like Felicia...

In addition to that basic fee, there was the “Extra Course,” which increased the wares available in NPC shops and lowered their cost, and the “Royal Course,” which slightly increased the money and EXP you got from defeating monsters (by 10%). There was also the “Starter Course,” which thankfully could only be used during the first month of play, that gave you extra bonuses for things like income and EXP.

There were other options besides these as well, but suffice it to say for now that there was a wealth of paid content.

The “Basic Item Pack” let you buy packs of potions and other consumables with real money, and “Booster Pack” gave you significant boosts to the money or EXP you earned for 24 hours. Some might say there were almost too many options, but for working adults who didn’t have a lot of time, they were useful methods for catching up with the heavy users.

Ichiro couldn’t be bothered to explore them thoroughly, so he had just bought them all, and that had transformed him into a boost bonus demon.

That wasn’t all.

He had also indulged himself in every kind of microtransaction available, and tried every equip item they offered. If he had found out something wouldn’t be useful, he had sold it without hesitation. Microtransaction-only items had a low resell cost to prevent a technique known as “alchemy,” but Ichiro never hesitated.

In this regard, Ichiro had been lucky to be accompanied by a heavy gamer like Kirschwasser. Kirschwasser had taken him to a region full of monsters that would be hard to beat at his early levels and walked him through some highly efficient power-leveling.

And so his level rose. It rose ridiculously fast. It rose faster than Japan’s economy during the bubble.

It wasn’t just his level, either. Because he was getting double or triple the money and skill points he would normally acquire, he was even stronger than his hard numbers would indicate. Skill points were especially valuable, since passive skills had a tremendous influence on your stats. As the points came rolling in, Ichiro invested them in powerful skills, propelling even his “garbage class” Magi-Fencer into a force to be reckoned with.

And the next thing they knew...

By the time a week had passed, Ichiro’s level had far surpassed Kirschwasser’s.

“I’m speechless!” Felicia cried.

“If you’re speechless, how are you talking?” Ichiro replied, a slightly twisted answer to her cry of the soul.

“Oh, but it was a terrifying sight...” Kirschwasser continued in serious tones.

“Using money to level up is cheating!” Felicia complained.

“Nonsense. I’m using money that I earned myself. In other words, it’s an extension of my personal ability. Using that to buy abilities in the game is the opposite of cheating.” The capacity for saying insane things with perfect sincerity was one of Ichiro Tsuwabuki’s most terrifying talents.

Perhaps it was the fault of the developer for pushing the Premium Pack and giving such preference to paid content users. But Thistle Corporation was a small business, after all. Considering the huge server costs, the quantum connection network fees, the development fees, and other maintenance costs to keep the service going, maybe that was necessary.

“Ugh... Adults don’t play fair. Mr. Kirsch...”

“Well, I’m an adult, too... But please don’t cry, Lady Felicia. Someday you’ll be able to not play fair, too.” Kirschwasser’s words were not terribly comforting.

“So, Felicia.” Perhaps he thought it was about time to get down to the real business, because Ichiro changed the subject. “Why don’t you tell me the real reason you invited me to play the game?”

“Oh, okay... You noticed, huh? I guess it figures...” Felicia wiped away tears as she spoke. Even then, it required a few seconds before she could speak. She wasn’t sure if she was considering her words, or if she was just a little hesitant to say them. “The truth is, Itchy, I want you to help me find a friend.”

“A friend?”

“Of yours, Lady Felicia?”

Felicia nodded to their questions.

This was her story:

Asuha Tsuwabuki had a friend she had been close to since their last years in elementary school. That friend’s name was Sera Kiryu. They’d gone to the same middle school, but had been in different classes in their first and second years and had grown rather estranged as a result. Asuha had joined the girls’ softball club, and she hadn’t asked what club Sera had joined. Even so, she had assumed they were still friends.

This had resulted in a rude awakening exactly three months ago.

On a whim, Asuha had decided to visit her friend’s class to catch up. It was then, for the first time, that she learned what middle school had really been like for Sera Kiryu.

Sera had effectively dropped out of school and hadn’t been seen there for all of six months. The cause? Bullying.

“I feel kind of... responsible,” Felicia explained.

“For not realizing?” Ichiro asked.

“Yeah...”

Certainly, it was possible that Sera Kiryu had tried to reach out to Asuha for aid in some subtle way. But even if that had been the case, it wouldn’t have been Asuha’s fault for not noticing. It would have been simple for Ichiro to say something like that, but he didn’t.

“So when I learned that Kiryu was playing this game, I thought the best way to make contact would be to sign up myself.”

“But you hit a wall?”

“Well, it really is a big game...”

Certainly, the continent of Asgard, as depicted in Narrow Fantasy Online, was vast. The highly detailed lighting technology earned rave reviews, but it wasn’t cut out for finding people. And Sera Kiryu’s avatar wouldn’t necessarily have the same name or appearance as the person Asuha knew.

“So I thought maybe you might help me, Itchy...” Felicia looked up at him with a gaze that contained a complicated mixture of emotions.

“Certainly,” he said.

“For real?!”

“I can’t believe you agreed so easily...” Kirschwasser muttered.

From the start, he had known she would want to ask him for something. He hadn’t imagined it would be about finding someone, but he couldn’t just turn down a request from his dear second cousin. And he was rather pleased to see the girl who had once clung to him so tightly now trying to help someone else.

“Do you know your friend’s avatar name?” Kirschwasser asked.

“Yeah, but nothing else,” Felicia answered.

Which meant that was the only clue they had. It was better than nothing, but it wouldn’t be easy.

“It’s Kirihito.”

“Oh-ho!” Felicia’s answer elicited a pleased response from Kirschwasser. “That’s the protagonist of a famous novel about a VRMMO. My, your friend has such good taste. They recently made an anime out of it, too.”

“I’ve never read it, myself.”

“Well, it is a light novel. He dresses all in black, and carries a single sword.”

As he listened, Ichiro began to feel a faint sense of unease. “If that’s Kirihito, I think I’ve seen him before.”

“Oh, what a coincidence. I believe I have, too.”

Felicia did not light up at their exchange. To the contrary, a pained expression appeared on her face. “Yeah, I have, too...”

Just then, the avatar of a young man passed between them, dressed in a black coat. Above his head shone the name “Kirihito.” There was no missing it. But it didn’t light her up at all.

Ichiro, Felicia, and Kirschwasser turned back to the fountain plaza of Starter Town.

A black coat and a single sword. There was a huge throng of such players crowding around the fountain. Some were beginners, some were intermediate players. And the avatar name for every one of them was “Kirihito.”