Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 106

Chapter 106: The Eastern Region Seems Like a Demon Realm

After safely completing the quest and obtaining the second jewel, Sora and her companions left the mine and headed toward the inn.

The outside was already completely dark, with one large moon and stars shining like jewels in the night sky.

The main street, which had been bustling during the day, grew quiet as the stalls closed, and there were only a few people passing by, some of whom smelled faintly of alcohol.

By the way, VR headgear is set up so that personal information restricts minors from drinking alcohol.

So, even if we entered a tavern, we wouldn’t be able to drink.

Well, even if we could, I wouldn’t want to anyway.

More importantly, it’s dangerous for young girls to be walking down such dark streets, so I wanted to quickly get back to the inn.

As I walked, I unleashed a strong killing intent toward any unsavory characters who tried to approach us, warding them off.

Then, Alice, who was walking beside me, carrying the exhausted Satanas on her back, murmured to Sora with a deep sigh.

“To take down two level-70 opponents in an instant all by yourself… Being with you really makes me feel like my sense of reality is falling apart.”

“I could never move like that…”

Kuro nodded in agreement with Alice’s words.

I glanced at the two of them, who were freely making me sound like some unreasonable freak.

Well, yeah, if you asked whether I was normal or not, I’d definitely fall into the ‘not normal’ category.

But as a multi-genre VR gamer, after witnessing other crazy skills, I’d like to say that there are still people out there who are on another level.

To be specific, I can name about three players who are undeniably beyond human.

One of them, of course, is my cousin and mentor, Shino, a PvP specialist who has never lost in any official tournament.

The second person is a pro gamer who discovered a love for “challenge runs” and enjoys clearing every game wearing only underwear and beginner equipment, with the initial weapon. Their player name is ?Anonymous?.

The third is an American pro gamer, ?Lemmings?, who is so obsessed with FPS games that they once wiped out the entire opposing team single-handedly in a world tournament.

Compared to these three, I’m still considered a reasonable person among pro gamers.

However, if I tried to explain that, they’d probably just tilt their heads in confusion.

So, Sora chose to give them a rational explanation, one that anyone could understand.

“Alice, just to clarify, the reason I could pull that off is because I had been ambushed before, so I expected they’d come at me the same way. If not for that, I wouldn’t have been able to counter so smoothly.”

“Hmm. Then how do you explain the second guy who approached from your blind spot? You would have needed to fill ten skill slots with defensive abilities to use an invincibility skill. You wouldn’t have had enough time to prepare in advance.”

“That’s thanks to my ?Perception? skill. No matter how much they tried to blind me, with my training as a *Shinobi* (I am talking about ?Mind’s Eye Ninja? game), I can clearly see even the slightest finger movements, even in complete darkness.”

“Shinobi… You mean, the legendary race that practices ninjutsu, rumored to exist in the eastern region? Have you really mastered something like that, Lord Sora?”

Alice looked at me in disbelief.

Under her piercing gaze, I was a little surprised to learn that not only do ogre tribes exist in the eastern part of this game, but apparently ninjas too.

In other words, if there are both ogres and ninjas, the eastern region might be a map based on Japan.

In fantasy settings, maps themed after Japan are often like Tengai Makyo (Far East of Eden), where the difficulty tends to be set quite high.

From what Alice has told me so far, the eastern region in ?Astral Online? is home to incredibly strong ogre tribes and a legendary race of ninjas.

Just hearing that lineup makes me feel like the difficulty is going to be insanely high.

Trembling at the thought of the yet unseen eastern map, I had to quickly come up with a good excuse for Alice, so after thinking for a moment, Sora said:

“Well, the place I live in up in the heavens kind of resembles the eastern region. I’m not sure if you can really call it ninjutsu, but the techniques I use are things I learned there.”

“I see, that makes sense,” Alice said, easily believing it.

Is the eastern map really that terrifying, if she’s so easily convinced?

Kuro seemed to have come to the same conclusion, making an expression that was hard to describe.

After that, we arrived at the inn.

When I tried to rent a separate room by myself, Alice and Kuro pressured me with an intensity greater than that of any boss monster.

I resisted, but in the end, we rented the same room, and when Satanas woke up, just like last time, the three of them forcibly dragged me along, despite my protests.

After finishing another swimsuit-onsen event, I finally logged out from the bed.

At that moment, the support system, ?Lucifel?, said:

?Master, I believe resistance is futile.?

And so I thought to myself:

If you give up, that’s where the game ends…

With a burned-out expression, I muttered these utterly unconvincing words in my heart.

………………………

When I woke up in the morning, I rubbed my bleary eyes and slowly sat up in bed.

Then, with unsteady steps, I walked over to the curtains blocking out the sunlight and slid them open with a swift motion.

What appeared outside the window was the enormous tree ?Yggdrasil?, reaching all the way to the sky, which had emerged in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Ever since it appeared in the real world, news agencies have been broadcasting live footage of the military monitoring and guarding it every day, but so far, no significant changes have occurred.

If this were a movie, the World Tree would transform into a giant monster and attack humanity, wouldn’t it?

Thinking about such things, which now seemed almost possible, Sora cracked open an energy drink first thing after waking up.

“Ahh!”

Gulping down the fruity carbonated beverage in one go, Sora, feeling the energy return to her tired body, let out a loud exhale.

If her mentor Shino saw her like this, she would probably scold her, but when her mood is down, nothing works better than this.

And the reason for her mood being down—there was only one possible answer for that right now.

…In the end, Ilya never showed up.

Glaring at the World Tree, Sora furrowed her brow slightly.

Even with ?Lucifel?’s support and keeping her ?Perception? skill at full use the whole time, there was no sign of anyone resembling her.

Since it was the same situation, she thought Ilya would appear just like the dragonkin who worship the Demon Dragon King, but that prediction was way off.

It seems things don’t go the same way for NPCs bound to a script and actual humans.

“Ilya…”

Even though I couldn’t protect her, I hadn’t thought at all about what I would say if I were to meet her now.

But I still want to see her.

She’s my disciple, and an important companion.

As I was thinking that, my smartphone suddenly started vibrating loudly with an incoming call.

I wondered who could be calling at this time, and hurriedly disconnected the phone from the charger sitting on the bed and picked it up.

The name displayed on the screen was that of a woman I had recently added to my contacts.

Without hesitation, I touched the screen and brought the phone to my ear.

“Good morning, Sora. Sorry to call you so early, but can you come to Kamisato High School right now?”

“Kirie-san, I’m available, but did something happen?”

“Well, something did happen, but it’s kind of hard for me to explain over the phone…”

It was unusual for Kirie, who is normally so sharp and clear, to sound this hesitant.

She has helped me out a lot in ?Astral Online?.

Turning her down wasn’t an option I had in mind from the start.

I had my morning routine, but I’ll have to convince Shino to let me off just for today (Though my little sister, Shiori, might boo me).

“Got it, I’ll be there right away.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

After ending the call, Sora began getting ready to head out.