Chapter 5
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Translator: Xrecker
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Valendia (5)
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Lucadia Fantasm was what you could call a game that made its money off of its characters.
Whether it was the main story or an event story, they would showcase a character's charm to the fullest, then put that character up in the gacha, making you want to pull for them—it was the typical "You're still not going to pull after seeing this?" strategy common in subculture games.
And on top of that, there was an even more devious tactic.
It was releasing the character story quests for free.
The main and event stories mostly involved multiple characters coming together to resolve an incident.
Therefore, while it was fun to solve the case, it was impossible to bring out each individual character's charm to the maximum.
That's where they would release a character affinity story, with each gacha character as the protagonist, alongside their gacha banner.
These character affinity stories were designed so that, as you progressed, the respective character would show increasing favor toward the protagonist, the player's avatar. The community even nicknamed these quests "Lucadia Fantasm Dating Sim."
Or "Lu-dating Sim" for short.
For reference, the protagonist character could be chosen as male or female at the beginning, and whenever a Lu-dating Sim quest was released, it would often cause keyboard wars among the users.
[Yo, this new Lu-dating Sim is awesome.]
-This is why you play a male character. There aren't any castrated guys who picked the female MC, are there?
ㄴ Yeah~ Piss off, gay~ Yuri is the best~
ㄴ Isn't it common sense for a real man to pick the female MC?
ㄴ The last Lu-dating Sim was super gay~ Disgusting~
ㄴ Then I guess the guys who picked the female MC got turned into the girl in the relationship, huh?
ㄴ You... take that back...
These incredibly pathetic flame wars happened daily but would burn even brighter whenever a new Lu-dating Sim came out.
And the item I had been searching for so desperately.
The amulet named Shasha's Treasure was an important item that appeared in one of these Lu-dating Sim quests.
While walking down a road, the protagonist gets attacked by bandits.
The bandit who attacked the protagonist was a captain named Rubid.
The protagonist easily defeats the bandit captain and happens to pick up an item.
That item was the one known as Shasha's Treasure.
This item becomes the catalyst for the protagonist to form a deeper bond with Shasha, with whom he had become acquainted in a previous event story. He listens to her story, travels with her, and carries out quests together.
And the person I was now trying to form a connection with, the person who would become my cash cow, was this very Shasha.
In the Lu-dating Sim, the protagonist obtains Shasha's Treasure and then coincidentally meets Shasha while walking through Valendia.
The Shasha Lu-dating Sim officially begins when he asks her to appraise the amulet he found.
However, in the two weeks I had been in Valendia, I had never seen Shasha's face.
After my repetitive bandit hunting, I would just get my money and go back to the inn, but even so, aside from Deishee and the blacksmith, I had never personally seen Shasha or any other characters from Lu-Fan.
'Well, the entrance exam hasn't happened yet, so that might be why.'
According to the information I got from Deishee, the Lucadia Academy was about a two-day journey from Valendia.
The entrance exam was 14 days from today.
So, it was still too early for academy candidates coming from various regions to be passing through Valendia.
But Shasha was a merchant character who used Valendia as her base of operations.
She was the kind of character, a common trope in games, who helps the protagonist in the story and has a significant role but is never seen fighting directly.
'But when you pull her from the gacha and use her as a playable character, she fights incredibly well.'
In any case, at least according to the lore, it was certain that Shasha was in Valendia.
As a merchant, Shasha had her own information network.
And according to what was revealed in the Lu-dating Sim, Shasha had been gathering information about this amulet for a long time.
If I just kept walking around Valendia wearing this amulet... Shasha would surely approach me herself.
Then, I would make a deal with Shasha.
All to lay the groundwork for defeating the final boss after I entered the academy.
'If I had my way, I'd want to tear this city apart to find where Shasha is right now, but....'
If I did that, I would only end up raising suspicion.
A man who has the very item she wants suddenly starts looking for her.
How would he know that she was connected to that item?
Rather than inviting that kind of suspicion, it would be much smoother to let Shasha come to me, feigning coincidence.
Of course, it was uncertain whether I, who had absolutely no prior contact with Shasha unlike in the Lu-Fan story, could make a proper deal with her, but it was better than not trying at all.
'Besides, if I'm right... I might be able to force the issue a little.'
Wearing the amulet, I walked around Valendia.
Instead of feeling like I was doing a bleak, repetitive bandit-farming quest, I walked around with the mindset of sightseeing Valendia, which had become a reality, and it was quite enjoyable.
The reality that I had to defeat the impossibly difficult final boss, the Demon King of Chaos, was harsh, but nothing would get done if I just stayed gloomy.
A change of pace like this was necessary for things to go well.
I stopped by a bookstore and read a history book as if it were a lore book, and when I got hungry, I went into a shop I normally wouldn't visit and tried the food I had only seen as game images in Lu-Fan.
The in-game dish, which I had thought had an unnecessarily long name, was surprisingly delicious.
And after just wandering the streets, I also set foot in a slightly dark back alley.
I thought that by stepping into a place like this, it would be easier for word to reach Shasha's ears, and I also wanted to see just how different this Lu-Fan world was from the game.
In the in-game Valendia, a back alley like this had no NPCs and was just one of the paths you could pass through.
But in a real Valendia... there might be beggars or thugs, like in the slightly unsafe back alleys you see in novels or movies.
And my prediction was correct.
As I went into a dark corner of the back alley, I saw beggars in dirty clothes and tough-looking thugs.
I was secretly excited, wondering if they would try to pick a fight with me.
It was a classic cliché scene from novels and manga, where thugs or a guy who was just put in his place for hitting on a heroine tries to pick a fight with the possessed or reincarnated protagonist.
It was a small thrill, wondering if that scene would happen to me.
Of course, I walked with my spear slung over my shoulder, ready in case a fight did break out.
'I took care of bandits with ease.'
Thugs in the city would be no match for me.
"That, that man... it's him, right?"
"Yeah. That spear, and the ponytail with the left side of his forehead showing...."
"The, the Bandit Hunter."
Bandit Hunter.
That was the title I had earned.
Could it be that even the city thugs knew my title?
"Eek! Why, why did he come here? We're not bandits."
"Maybe it's because he wiped out all the bandits? Now that he has no more prey, he's going to...!"
"W-what did we ever do wrong."
The thugs were trembling as they watched me from a distance.
It seemed I was more famous than I thought.
'Or is it because my Fame stat went up?'
I didn't know exactly what effect the Fame stat had.
But if I had to guess, it was probably a stat that made a stronger impression of me on people.
Indeed, the thugs recognized me by my features at first glance, recalled my title, and were now terrified.
'Looks like there won't be any fights.'
I had been looking forward to that kind of event a little.
Still.
'It's a bit of a shame to just pass by. Maybe I'll talk to them. There's something else I want to check, too.'
I walked toward the thugs who were scared of me.
"W-what. Why is he coming this way."
"I don't know! I-I'm outta here!"
"Where are you going, you disloyal bastard."
"Is loyalty gonna save my life! L-let go of me!"
"Hey."
""Eek!""
Just by approaching and speaking to them, the thugs were terrified.
Hmm... this was a little fun.
It was a new experience, as no one had ever been this scared of me before.
"I have something I want to ask."
"W-what is it!"
"We're not bandits!"
"I can see that."
Before the thugs could get any more scared and run away, I asked my question.
"Is there a black market in this city?"
A black market.
A place often appearing in fantasy subculture that sells expensive items and weapons through shady routes.
In Lu-Fan, the black market did make a brief appearance in the story.
However, the black market was mentioned when a story quest was progressing in a different country, not in Valendia.
'But there are thugs in this real-life Valendia that I never saw in the game. It's possible one exists here.'
"A-a black market?"
"There isn't one! No black market! Really! We're not hiding anything! Please spare us!"
Just how scared of me was this thug?
Did I have a scary face?
'I made him handsome during character creation.'
He looked handsome when I saw my reflection in a shop window, too.
'Then it must be because of the title and my Fame.'
The face I spent two hours creating was handsome, if anything; there was no way it was scary.
"Is that so? Understood."
Having seen the thug's overly frightened face, I turned to leave.
"Phew, pheew..."
"W-we're saved."
I wandered the back alleys for a while, but just as the thug said, I saw no signs of a black market or a merchant selling secret goods.
If anything, the more I walked around the back alleys, the more I saw beggars and thugs who were scared of me.
With no more business in the back alleys, I went back to wandering the streets, looking around various shops.
In the game, I could traverse the entire city in a short amount of time.
But the Valendia of this world was on a scale that was truly worthy of being called a city.
The general layout was as I knew it, but now that it was real, the streets were expanded, and there were many shops and buildings I didn't know, as if to fill in the gaps. There wasn't enough time to see the whole city in one day.
And on the third day of my Valendia city tour, waiting for Shasha to take the bait.
"Yoohoo, handsome mister over there~ Do you have a moment?"
A familiar voice accompanied the figure who finally appeared, blocking my path.
A cat-person with a black bob and blue eyes, dressed in a tuxedo.
A merchant of Valendia, wearing an outfit full of fan service, with the middle button of her shirt deliberately undone to emphasize her large cleavage.
"I've got a great story for you, mister. Want to hear it?"
A character who was also popular among Lu-Fan users.
I had encountered Shasha, nicknamed Yaong-pei.