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As anyone who's played games would know.
Quests played a critical role in RPGs.
They could yield experience boosts, of course, but also high-grade items, shifts in NPC relationships, and even skill acquisition—among many other things.
And beyond that, they served as a guide, carrying forward the story of the characters and the game.
That held just as true for the VR RPG, [Demon's Saga].
To put it bluntly, the game had no real storyline to speak of.
The only objective served up by the game as a whole was to defeat the demons sealed away across the world.
Players were tossed into this wide world without warning, carrying that single goal alone.
To make matters worse, in the half year since the game launched, not a single demon had shown its face.
And so, players ended up lost as to what they were supposed to do.
In that situation, the only thing that gave them any knowledge of the world and its setting was exactly this thing called quests.
Of course, since NPCs' AI changed in real time, no two quests were ever identical.
There were similar quests that appeared under the banner of repeatable quests, but... that was it.
Once one player took a quest, that quest was gone forever.
That was how rare a commodity quests were.
If that was the case, how were you supposed to learn the game's story through these limited quests?
No—where did you even get quests in the first place?
Fortunately, the game company answered that one directly.
+
[There are two ways to obtain quests.]
The first is to receive a task from the Adventurer's Guild bulletin board.
Since the guild always has countless troublesome matters piled up, you can get quests there almost all the time.
However, these tasks are mostly expendable, so they are rarely linked to the Main Storyline.
The second is to obtain them from NPCs.
NPCs occasionally hand out quests. Many are trivial, but the probability of them handing out a quest related to the Main Storyline is higher than with the guild.
If it is linked to the Main Storyline, it is classified into two types.
First, the case where the quest itself is linked to the Main Storyline.
Second, the case where the NPC themselves is linked to the Main Storyline.
This has been GM Gaia.
May you all enjoy your [Demon's Saga].
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No one knew exactly what the "Main Storyline" the developers talked about was.
The company was always one to keep many secrets. It might be something demon-related, or it might be a quest that exerted enormous influence on the game's worldview.
In any case, what mattered here was that quests given by NPCs were precious.
And so, it was only natural that Yoo Chae-rin shot to her feet and shouted:
"A qu-quest!"
That precious quest had come to her!
That was not all. Judging from how the quest's content was a simple errand, it obviously wasn't a quest belonging to the "Main Storyline." What kind of world-shaking impact could an errand possibly have?
Then only one possibility remained.
[Whoa lol a quest popped up here]
[What's that mean? So that guy's an important NPC?]
[Nah we still don't know, it's just a "probability" so could just be a trash quest]
[We've gotten our hopes up and been burned plenty of times, so don't expect much]
[But just based on face alone, he does look important lol]
"?"
The only one tilting his head here was Yor, who had not read the official notice.
He could tell a quest had popped up for her, thanks to the Player's Eye.
But so what? Was that really such a big deal?
Yor, for his part, didn't even know how he had given out the quest.
He'd just spoken, and a quest had come up.
"...A quest?"
"Ah, ah! It's nothing!"
Uncomfortable with them chattering over information he alone was missing, Yor changed the subject for now.
He'd get a chance to ask about that later.
"So, can you go and come back?"
"Oh, of course! I'll be right back!"
And so, Yor managed to foist his errand onto Chae-rin.
He felt a little sorry, but well. He'd make the reward solid, at least.
"Ah, turn off the broadcast when you go out."
"Oh, yes."
Yor did not forget to hide the route to his house, either.
*
"Let's see... tissues, soap, cloth, fabric... bread and Holy Water..."
After arriving in the city, Yoo Chae-rin turned her broadcast back on right away.
Perhaps because she'd given them a heads-up that she'd turn it on as soon as she left the forest, the viewers came in quickly.
The current viewer count was a staggering 4,300. Even separated from Yor, that was a huge number.
It seemed people had momentarily flocked in due to the fact that a quest had appeared.
The viewers looked at the list Yor had written and each threw in a word.
[She's basically moving house]
[Could set up a whole new place with that, damn]
[Why'd he ask for so much? You could live easy for months on just that]
[There was a reason a quest popped up lmao]
Yoo Chae-rin sympathized with the viewers' comments.
As they said, the list Yor had written out for her was quite long.
It was a relief he'd given her the funds for the purchases; she'd nearly had a significant amount of Gold cleaned out.
Looking over the list, Chae-rin could infer a lot of things.
Seeing him buy so much at once, it looked like he didn't leave the forest much.
Of course, it might just be that he found it bothersome... but at least to her, it felt like there was a reason he was reluctant to come to the city. Though she still didn't quite know what that reason was.
Among the goods on the list, bread was one of the items Yor had especially asked for.
It absolutely had to be pastry with strawberry jam. Then again, if he lived out there, he'd have few chances to eat something like bread, so she could understand him craving it.
'But what's with the Holy Water?'
The one item she couldn't understand was the Holy Water on the very last line.
Not only that, but the quantity was "as much as the money allows."
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't guess what he meant to use it for.
Holy Water was, as people commonly knew, an item made by priests.
Something created by priests pouring Holy Power into pure water.
It took an extended effort from priests ranked at least intermediate or higher to make, so the price was also fairly steep.
Meaning the quantity available on the market was just as low.
The way to use it was even more obscure.
It was said to weaken evil-attribute enemies and deal extra damage.
But evil-attribute enemies had barely ever appeared in [Demon's Saga] up to now.
When demons themselves had still not even shown their noses, what more could you expect?
And so, Holy Water was something of a white elephant item in the game.
It was bad enough that if you bought Holy Water, you'd get called a "gaming noob."
[So our boy Yor was a gaming noob too...]
[For that guy, this is reality, you moron]
[But fr why's he buying that much Holy Water?]
[Idk? Maybe there's a demon or something sealed nearby lol]
"...Hm."
She was slightly curious, but she didn't choose to dwell on it. What mattered now was clearing the quest. At the latest, she had to return to the Forbidden Forest before evening.
Thinking that, she continued on with her shopping.
*
I should use this delivery service again next time.
"Huff, huff... I've gotten everything here. Hah... hah..."
Several hours of waiting after I'd sent her on the errand.
I was finally able to obtain the goods from her.
She'd opened her Inventory and offloaded the goods for me.
I helped too, but the sheer number of items meant my stamina inevitably gave out.
I looked at her and thought.
'She really does have an Inventory.'
Well, that was standard for a game. I wasn't particularly surprised.
Subspace Pockets were already widespread even in this world, after all.
I could just consider it a variant of those.
[Streamer's about to die lol]
[Ah, I'm on loading duty tomorrow and now I'm watching loading duty here ffs]
[Dumbass lmaooo]
[Offloading now]
[You go do some loading and offloading too]
Since we were inside the cave, the broadcast was currently on.
I had already granted permission for the broadcast itself, as long as she didn't show the route leading to the cave.
Since I'd decided to expose my existence to a certain degree, I could allow for this much.
"Whoa, it's hot, so hot... I guess the heat really spikes because I kept moving."
As I was thinking that, she flung open the outer coat she'd been wearing on top.
What that revealed were the voluminous breasts that had been pressed down inside it.
For some reason, underneath her coat she only had on a brown tank top.
Because of that, the cleavage was in full view. It even seemed to have a faint sheen, probably from sweat.
I cleared my throat and asked her.
"Ahem, so... where's your armor, if you're in nothing but a coat and a tank top?"
"Huh? Ohh."
She looked down at her state for a second and scratched her head, as if embarrassed.
"Actually, when I come here I always unequip all my gear, in case I die. Hehe..."
"..."
So that was it.
Now it made sense, what I'd done earlier.
Back then, they must have felt something similar to what I'm feeling now.
The bigger problem, though, was that I was practically the only one feeling embarrassed right now.
[She's such an absolute coward lol]
[Look at that sweat lol]
[Cover up a little, no one wants to see that]
Because her chat window was as serene as ever.
Moments like this made me keenly aware, all over again, that the world had changed.
"...Wait. I'll go get your payment."
The sight was quite pleasant to behold, but not wanting to be caught with my face reddening, I quickly headed for the storage.
I might live in a forest and look like a beggar, but I had a fair bit of wealth.
This place was crawling with dangerous monsters, after all, and their corpses were worth money.
And I periodically cleared those bastards out.
'Tossing her a few should do.'
"Here, take it."
Thinking that, I tossed a few items to her.
"Huh? Huhh??"
Her eyes went wide.