No Wonder It Felt Off

Something felt off.

Startled, I bolted upright and swept my eyes around the room.

Timber walls. A space that felt like a private dormitory—or a guest room at an inn.

"W-where is this?"

"It's the Base Camp. After we finished the mission this time, the lodging changed."

Apparently the tutorial fairy had told them the Base Camp upgraded the higher the rank of missions you completed. Finishing a D-Rank mission must have been what turned that plague-pit of a barracks into private rooms.

But that still didn't explain why I was here.

Every time a mission ended, I'd always been sent back to reality.

I called up my status window.

Wanderer had been enhanced?

On top of that, the message about being summoned in a few days was gone.

I stared at the Wanderer skill, and a tooltip surfaced.

Huh?

What?

Did that mean I could move freely between reality and this place now?

Okay, not freely, exactly...

That twenty-four-hour cooldown. If I went back to reality, I probably wouldn't be able to return here for a full day.

Still. This isn't a bad situation.

The cooldown was a limitation, sure—but it meant I'd never again get dumped into the real world with no idea whether Aria and Kiki were even alive. And if it came down to it, I could always burn some leave back home and come straight back.

I gave Aria a rough version of what had changed. We talked a little longer after that.

"I clearly saw you escaping earlier. Why'd you come back?"

"The barrier broke, so I ran back as fast as I could."

"Don't get me wrong, you were a huge help. But that was way too dangerous. If Kiki hadn't gotten his barrier up in time..."

Aria folded her hands over mine before I could finish the sentence.

And on her face was a smile so pretty it almost hurt to look at.

"Kerek!"

Kiki shoved the door open a beat late. Thankfully, he didn't seem to have any serious injuries—probably thanks to the Guardian skill he'd newly awakened.

Anyway.

So there we were, the Soul Trio, strengthening the bonds of friendship, when—

"Ah! I just remembered. Garon asked us to meet him a little later."

"Garon? Why?"

"He said he wanted to buy us a meal to celebrate everyone making it back in one piece. He told me to contact him the moment you woke up, but..."

"But?"

"Honestly, I was worried about how I'd turn him down if you disappeared again..."

"Is there even a way to get ahold of them?"

From what she told me, the crystals allowed communication between Base Camps.

"Alright! Then let's all go."

A shitty salaryman skipping the company dinner? Unthinkable. I'd arrived here Friday evening, and time was supposed to crawl during missions, so there should still be plenty of room on the clock.

Aria sent word to Garon, and we headed for the restaurant at the Gathering Hall.

Every race imaginable sat packed around tables, tipping back their drinks. It was less a restaurant than a massive tavern.

"Oh? Our hero finally shows his face! Hahaha!"

Garon's party shot to their feet from where they'd claimed a table, waving us over. The odd part was that nobody else was sitting anywhere near them—like the other patrons were deliberately giving Garon's group a wide berth. Probably a courtesy thing, I figured, on account of him being a veteran.

"Garon. Are you holding up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all right?"

"Of course! Thanks to you, we made it out. You're really something, lad!"

We shook hands—and for some reason, he flinched.

I started to sit down beside him.

"A-ahem. Why don't you take a seat over there?"

What?

Why was he quietly trying to put distance between us? We'd fought our asses off together. This was kinda hurtful.

I sat a little ways off from him anyway. Rin started to slide into the seat beside me, but Aria beat her to it with a speed that frankly felt personal.

"Tch!"

Rin glared at me. I pretended not to notice.

"Come on, come on, you all earned this—let's have a drink! Beers over here!"

Garon's booming voice brought out wooden mugs the size of my face, each one filled to the brim.

"Cheers!!"

Mugs clacked together, and cold beer poured down my throat.

This tastes like shit...

I'd never been much of a drinker to begin with, but this was genuinely awful. People back home loved to bitch about watered-down beer, and even that didn't belong in the same conversation as this.

A whole roast that looked vaguely like turkey came out as a side, and that was even worse. Obscenely salty, and so devoid of fat it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dry as sawdust. I'd rather have been gnawing on chicken breast. That an orphaned gym-rat bastard with a cheap-ass palate like mine could find food this bad was almost impressive.

We talked about this and that, and the dinner slowly found its rhythm.

"But oppa~!"

"What?"

"Your party's that strong, so how come there's only three of you?"

Rin's question had everyone looking at us, curiosity plain on their faces.

"Ah... that's from the tutorial..."

I gave them the short version of what had happened. The skeleton, the werewolf, and that absurdly strong elf bastard. And how two humans had died along the way.

"Wait, what?? In the tutorial??"

Rin looked like she'd been slapped. Then Celine, the half-elf, cut in.

"Hold on. An elf and a werewolf—that's Isilid and Kruger, isn't it?? I heard they went out on a mission not long ago and got wiped. Don't tell me—"

"Come on. Why would those two show up as tutorial opponents?"

Garon's rebuttal made Vargo, the canine beastfolk, tilt his head.

"No, something's definitely off. The fact that they were an all-nonhuman party, for one. What were their skills like?"

"The werewolf was just stupidly strong... and the elf bastard exploded his own weapon. Elemental Burst, was it? That sound right?"

"Yes, that's right. I remember."

Aria answered my glance.

"......"

"......"

Everyone who'd heard us went quiet.

Celine was the one who broke the silence.

"Oh my god... that's them... What on earth is going on...?"

"And they weren't exactly weak as far as lower-tier Participants go... So why in a tutorial...? And a total wipe against a complete newbie..."

What?

So those bastards had been Participants like us?

Right. Celine was an elf too. Had she been close with that elf bastard? They might even have been family. Which would make me the guy who murdered her relative...

Don't tell me Celine's lifelong dream is to turn someone into a vegetable.

"Celine. Are you all right? If they were friends, or family..."

"What? Me? With those crazy bastards? Are you kidding?"

Celine snapped it out like I'd personally offended her.

"I'm a half. Not a pureblood elf. At this point, you can guess how that human-hating bastard would've treated me, right?"

"Ah. I see..."

I supposed that was a relief. Saying so out loud felt like it would have been rude, though, so I kept it to myself.

"But oppa! Why did they even show up in the tutorial?"

"That's what I want to ask. What was your tutorial like, then?"

"I hunted stray dogs?"

"Mine was killing five boars."

Ah. So that was it.

So that's how it was.

No wonder it'd felt off.

That's what a tutorial was supposed to look like. Of course it was. Which meant we'd been written off as a washed-up party that lost two people hunting animals.

Come to think of it, when we'd run our tutorial, the word Special had been attached to it.

So that's what it had meant.

But then—why only us?

Why had other Participants come bursting out of our tutorial?

Why had we been the only ones forced through a tutorial of that absurd difficulty?

And the tutorial fairy's reaction, the first time we were summoned.

She said she was sick of it, didn't she...?

Which meant people had kept being summoned to our zone before us. And they'd probably all died.

No point chewing on this any further right now.

I'd look into it later.

"Well. That's how it went, anyway. Does your party have plans going forward, Garon?"

I wrapped the conversation up loosely and steered us somewhere else.

"Us? Well... we'll start by reporting what happened yesterday, then keep focusing on investigation quests. We've piled up a decent amount of Points at this point. A few more years of this and we should be able to go home."

"Go home?"

"That's right. We have to. That's the one thought that's kept me going this whole time."

Garon clenched his fist.

A bitterness sat in his expression. Then his eyes met mine, and he flinched all over again.

"M-my wife is a woman, of course!"

Wasn't that obvious? Why was he staring me dead in the eyes to say that?

Garon had a weird streak, that was for sure. Maybe too many years grinding as a Participant had knocked a few screws loose.

"Is there actually a way to go back, though?"

"Ah... I suppose you haven't heard yet. If you pay five million Points to the crystal at the Base Camp, it sends you home on the spot."

"Five million Points?"

Fucking hell. How many lifetimes would it take to save that up?

"Well, the Points you get scale up exponentially as the mission ranks climb... and you're strong. If you keep growing, you'll be running B-Rank missions someday."

We talked about a lot of other things after that. My yellow mana came up, too. Apparently mana color normally followed the element: fire was red, lightning a luminous blue, water just blue, wind green. That sort of thing. But a yellow element didn't exist. Even light wasn't yellow—it was white. So of course everyone wanted to know what mine actually was, and of course I had nothing useful to tell them. I just shrugged it off as, eh, probably just the color of Primordial Power.

The rest of the drinking party turned out to be more fun than I'd expected. Every time I'd come here, it'd been a scramble just to stay alive. This kind of breathing room, spent with good people I could actually trust, wasn't half bad.

The gathering wound down. We said our goodbyes, stood up, and stepped out of the tavern.

"Oppa. You're not just going to walk off, are you?"

Rin came up alongside me and stuck close.

"You're really not going to tell me?"

Yeah... I probably couldn't dodge this forever.

"Look, I actually want to tell you. I do. But this is genuinely hard to talk about. If we were in the same zone I'd tell you, but we're in different ones no matter how you slice it."

"That's so cheap!! If I transfer to your zone, will you tell me then?"

"Wait. You'd transfer?"

"Hmm... well. If you still haven't changed your mind later...? Oh, and take me with you on the next mission!"

"Mm... yeah, alright."

From what I'd seen on the last mission, Rin was far more skilled than she looked. Having someone of her caliber along would be a huge plus.

"Then... just tell me this one thing."

"What?"

"Can you bring anything from Earth? Like, whatever you want?"

Rin had still fought Isra with us. She'd earned that much. This much I could give her, right?

"Not anything. Nothing too expensive."

"Then can you bring me The Magical Girl Everyone Hates Has Clear Skies Today Too...?"

"What? What is that?"

"It's a manga! I've been dying to read it!"

What the hell kind of title was that?

"Yeah, alright. I'll look for it, and if I find it I'll bring it. Anything else?"

"Curry! I really want to eat curry."

"Curry? You mean the roux blocks? Like Golden Curry?"

"Yes, yes! That's it!"

"Got it. I'll track some down."

"Yay! Thanks, oppa! See you on the next mission~!"

Rin squeezed my arm tight, threw me a sly little wink, and walked off toward her own zone.

I glanced sideways. Aria was staring at Rin's back with an expression that could have stripped paint. Her hair was fanning out in every direction, maybe from static...

She's not about to fire off a lightning spell, is she?

Anyway.

Once we were back at the Base Camp, I showed Aria how to use the gas burner and how to heat up the various foods I'd left her.

"Then... when will you come back?"

"I'll be back in a week. Take care of yourselves until then."

"I understand. I'll wait..."

"Kerek!"

We said our goodbyes, and I returned to reality.

Same as always, I cycled through work and training, packing each day full.

And then.

Wednesday, after clocking out. I was waiting for her on the first floor of the building, our dinner plans for the evening sitting in my pocket.

Ding.

The elevator arrived. Yuna stepped out and waved at me.

"Let's go, Manager!"

We left the building and started toward the restaurant strip.

"What would you like to eat?"

"Hmm. Do you eat shabu-shabu, Manager?"

"I'll eat anything."

"Then let's go."

God, though.

Maybe it was because this was the first time I was seeing her outside the office, on our own. Yuna was genuinely beautiful. A short-sleeved top with sleeves that looked just a touch too short, and shorts that could almost pass for a skirt. And then there was that chest, which had some very strong opinions of its own.

"Why do you keep staring?"

"Ah—no, I wasn't..."

I'd barely glanced. How did she know? Did she have the Sharpshooter skill or something? They say women always know when you're sneaking a look. Turns out it's true? I was going to have to be a lot more careful with my eyes from now on.

We got to the shabu-shabu place, cracked a bottle of beer, and got down to eating. The restaurant was set up with private rooms, which made it look pretty upscale, but the prices weren't as brutal as I'd expected.

"Ahahaha, what is that?!"

We got along better than I'd expected. True to a pair of shitty salarymen, the main topics were trashing clients and gossiping about people in other departments. We bounced from one thing to another, and the time went by easily.

"Manager, you don't have a girlfriend?"

"Me? I don't really think about it."

"Why not? I'd think you'd be popular."

"I'm not. I'm old, I've got nothing to my name. Pretty much a lost cause."

"What, you think all women only date for money?"

"I'm sure some don't, but... my last relationship didn't end well either."

"Why? What was your ex like?"

I gave Yuna the condensed version of the ex.

"Wow, she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sounds like a real piece of work! How did you even end up with someone like that?"

"Well. Nothing she said was actually wrong. If I'm being realistic, I wouldn't date me either."

"Don't say stuff like that!! Want me to set you up on a blind date?"

"No. I don't have time."

"What are you even doing that you're always so busy?"

"I work out, and..."

"What kind of workout takes all day?"

The conversation rolled on like that for a while.

"Do you use community apps, Manager? Like Blind?"

"Nah. I just browse hot deals, mostly."

"What's a hot deal?"

"Ah, it's a board where people collect limited-time bargains and discount posts."

"There's something like that? You have to show me!"

"Ah, so it's like this..."

Yuna quietly scooted over into the seat beside me. A sweet scent drifted over—shampoo or perfume, I couldn't tell.

Ah... this is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dangerous. I need to stay sharp.

I pulled up the hot-deal board and we talked through it, one thing leading to another, until—

"Huh? Manager! Is this a scar?"

The wound on the back of my neck from fighting Isra. Yuna had spotted it. She lifted her arm and reached toward my neck.

And through the gap of that short sleeve, a glimpse of a white bra.

And a smooth underarm drawing closer and closer to my face.

No. No. A pheromone attack right now is dangerous...

This was bad.

The lightning of Primordial Power had touched her arm. The image of Eden and Isra being split apart in an instant flashed through my head.

This was really bad!!

What did I do?!

"Uh, um… M-Manager…"

Yuna's body gave a slight shudder, as if she'd been shocked.

And then.

Huh?

What?