Sky World Vol 1 Chapter 3.06

VOLUME 1

Chapter 3: Team Battle
Part 6

Junichiro Mikimori was used to being treated negatively in games.

Having been through so many MMOs, he would sometimes meet people who badmouthed him. Petty disagreements in a guild and getting stuck in the affairs and feelings of other people often gave birth to misunderstandings that spread around like ripples in water, resulting in him being hated for almost nothing.

He was fed up with getting attached to things.

It was easy to deal with that in games. He could completely end such situations by just uninstalling the game or leaving the group. That’s what Jun had done thus far. After all, interpersonal relations.h.i.+ps made in games were just weak connections. They would not become true relations.h.i.+ps.

Aside from Kai. They were in contact through emails and text messages.

He thought that was fine. Jun believed that the possibility of making a single close friend was always more valuable than the danger of making a hundred enemies.

Jun ignored his enemies.

PK (player killing) was a term used to describe when somebody kills a player character. It took on the meaning of a player character killing another player character.

In MMORPGs, there were usually a few people in the same area.

Some starting-up MMOs advertised ‘You can kill people you don’t like!’ Players were attracted by that sales pitch.

However, before long, the management started thinking of PKing without limits as a bad practice.

They were, basically, weak people who were no more than bullies.

Cla.s.s, level, equipment, player skill. It was the differences in these things that determined the outcome of battles between players.

Players who were very well-accustomed to games had been able one-sidedly exploit the inexperienced. That could not be shown publicly. It would cause fewer players to join, and in turn, the game itself to fade into obscurity. A constant influx of new players was vital for games to sustain themselves.

Aside from that, there were also other reasons for which PKing was gradually regulated more and more.

However, since players could not fight in hand-to-hand combat, some thought to fight with indirect means.

There were some loopholes in the system. Players could get the attention of a strong monster, bring it to a player that they did not like, and then allow the monster to attack that player when the monster, upon losing enmity with one player, naturally went for the next closest player. That became the technique known as MPK.

That technique was prohibited in most games, as it was cowardly and unfair. In many MMOs, when somebody was caught performing an MPK, that perpetrator would be punished. If was such an atrocious deed that people had their characters deleted and whole accounts banned for it.

But now, in Sky World, it was up to individual players to maintain ethical standards.

There were no GMs (Game Masters) to stop inconsiderate players.

Because there were few disadvantages in running away exploiting unscrupulous behavior, people continued to do so.

Deep in the forest, from a cave shrine, there were mummies dispersing evil magic into the nearby town. Jun, by killing these mummies, completed yet another quest without much effort. Though the quest reward item was not all that valuable, with that quest completion, his quest completion rate for Gazar pa.s.sed 90%.

Although it took a little more time than planned, it was while Kasumi and Eri were training, so Jun thought it would be all right.

Leaving the cave in high spirits, Jun was attacked by a monster whose name turned red. It was a ferocious bear, a Hug Bear. Its. .h.i.tpoints had already been already depleted.

“&h.e.l.lip; Was this the work of somebody else?”

The Hug Bear collapsed onto the ground , supporting Jun’s guess. Around the same time, two more monsters ambushed him.

(Even if I deal with those monsters, more monsters would come and attack.)

He had already killed a lot of them. Jun thought about it hazily. He was getting worn out by the successive fights, and so his judgment started to falter.

Since he didn’t have any time to use any recovery items, his HP bar was already down to 50%.

“&h.e.l.lip; This is testing how long I can hold out.”

Some time ago, by chance, Jun had seen somebody in the middle of pulling monsters to him. It was a female magic swordsman who had been flattering the Crimson Scarf Knight a.s.sociation’s leader.

It felt awkward, so Jun turned away, and she turned around and ran off. Jun remembered that, from her manner of walking, she seemed a bit shaky and uncertain.

It did not seem like all of the members of the Crimson Scarf Knight a.s.sociation were like that. At most it could only be four or five people .

That was before Alice agreed to collect information.

Sneaking into their guild hall a couple times was able to yield information on the irregular nature of the girls’ guild. According to that information the leader was quite the tyrant in the guild. The subject of Kasumi and Eri’s expulsion served as an impetus for factions to pop up. It appeared they were now on the verge of a schism.

The disagreements led to more disagreements, and the leader, feeling isolated, lost her temper more and more often. Now, the leader did not let anybody near her aside from a few of her followers.

(You reap what you sow.)

Refusal. Denial. Resistance. Distrust.

Simply put, those created a spiral of negativity .

Jun had seen guilds break down like that a lot.

It was lonely. However, when the people of the guild continue a.s.sembling past their limit, no matter what happens, trouble would soon follow . Because that group, just yesterday very close-knit and functional, was able to collapse over the course of one night, Jun wanted to know about it.

For this reason , it seemed the leader of the Crimson Scarf Knight a.s.sociation, with her built up unease and distrust, was able to focus it all towards Jun.

“Jun, you were the one that caused this, d.a.m.n it!”

Jun mustered his whatever remaining strength he had and turned around to see even more monsters appear in front of him.