kscans

Chapter 416 - Sword, Gun, and a Nun's Habit

The black-haired girl in a nun's habit held the scabbard of a katana in her left hand.

She didn't draw the blade, merely turning her left side towards her opponent. It didn't look like she was in a stance. She appeared to be simply standing there, but her gaze remained fixed on the man she was facing.

A player-versus-player battle—a fight known as PvP—had begun in this virtual reality, but everyone in the crowd thought it would end with the man's one-sided victory.

The girl, who had been walking through the town with sparkling eyes, was clearly a beginner. Nevertheless, she had caught his eye because she was equipped with a highly valuable katana.

The man facing her had provoked her into a PvP match, and it had become a battle where they wagered their weapons.

Everyone thought a pitiful victim had just appeared.

That sympathy, or perhaps some sort of expectation, shifted slightly with the girl's next action.

There were two types of PvP battles.

They were Virtual and Real.

Virtual was a method of fighting under the game's rules. A duel where weapons, skills, magic, and everything else were reflected in combat.

The other was Real. A match that was as close to reality as possible. Weapons could be used, but skills and magic could not, and the fight was based solely on physical ability. Furthermore, the rules were changed so that the first person to land ten attacks would be the winner.

The one who accepted the PvP challenge had the right to choose, and the girl chose Real.

This gave the beginner girl a chance to win.

However, her opponent was a PvP ranker. A formidable player positioned within the top one hundred. He had an arrogant streak and wasn't well-liked by other players, but he had skill.

Even so, his strength was in the performance of his equipment and skills. Swinging a weapon and dodging attacks required one's own physical ability, but the man's strength was mainly something he had acquired by spending a lot of time in this virtual reality.

With the girl's choice, that advantage was instantly nullified.

And though the girl wasn't in a stance, she seemed calm and experienced.

In this virtual reality, battles were decided by real-world physical ability.

There were situations where one could move in virtual reality but not in the same way in the real world, but the reverse was rare. The players' understanding was that if you could move in the real world, you could also move in virtual reality.

That said, just because you could move didn't mean you could fight. Even if you had learned swordsmanship in the real world, it was a different matter whether you could actually cut a person in a realistic virtual reality. Also, fighting an opponent with a different weapon was not something that happened often in reality.

The weapon the man held was a giant axe. In the Real combat mode, there was no pain from attacks, but one could imagine it. Whether one could overcome that fear would affect the outcome of a duel.

The girl remained motionless, full of openings.

It was enough to make the onlookers think, "Is she frozen in fear?"

The man came to the same conclusion and flashed a vulgar smile.

She looks calm, but she can't move. She's barely managing to stand on what little courage she has.

Thinking this, the man closed the distance at a run. Then he swung the giant axe high over his head.

In the Real combat mode, damage didn't matter, and the first to land ten hits would win. So normally, this big swing was a bad move. But the man had the idea of striking fear into the girl.

But he realized that idea was a mistake.

The girl, without a change in her expression, effortlessly dodged the descending axe to the side.

The axe plunged into the ground.

Before the onlookers could register that she had dodged, the girl moved.

How many people could see that movement?

As the axe slammed into the ground with force, throwing the man off balance, she drew her sword as if to cut off his head. It was done in an instant, right after dodging the attack, and the impact sent the man falling to the ground.

Faster than the man could fall, a high-pitched sound rang out, and the girl had already returned her sword to its scabbard.

Then, as if nothing had happened, the girl walked away from the fallen man.

A moment later, cheers erupted.

Normally, beginners even hesitate to attack monsters.

It was so realistic that it took time to get used to the act of attacking something. A duel would be even more difficult. The act of attacking a person, even if you thought it was a virtual reality, was not something one could do easily.

However, the girl had not hesitated at all, and what's more, she had aimed for the neck and cut it for sure. The few players who had seen her movements were completely creeped out.

Amidst it all, the girl muttered in a small voice, "Is this all there is to it?"

It was a voice so quiet the crowd couldn't hear it, but the man's ears caught it.

The man quickly stood up, his face contorted in anger, and swung his axe around.

There was no physical fatigue in virtual reality. If you didn't get tired, swinging a long weapon around could sometimes be advantageous. Even against swordsmanship, if it was too focused on form, a desperate, unpredictable attack had a higher chance of landing.

It wasn't that he had such a plan, but the man swung his axe.

But to a true master, such an attack looked full of openings. To begin with, a movement driven by anger was less like swinging an axe and more like being swung around by its weight.

The girl did not miss that opening. From her standing position, she countered, drawing her sword and slashing the man about three times.

She accurately cut his arm, so in reality, the opponent would have dropped his weapon and it would have been over.

That this didn't happen could be called the true pleasure of virtual reality. Since damage didn't accumulate and you didn't get tired, you could always move at your best, no matter the situation.

But that went for both of them.

For the first time, the girl lowered her stance slightly from her standing position, shifting from a counter-focused style to an attack-focused one.

This time, it was the man's turn to defend with his axe.

Her fierce, continuous slashes came from all directions, but they weren't unbearable. Once the attacks stop, I'll land a blow, the man thought.

But he was beginning to think that was a mistake.

The girl's attacks didn't stop. Repeatedly returning her sword to its scabbard was nothing but a useless action. But her draws were definitely getting faster.

Not only that, the girl was smiling.

"Ahaha, amazing, amazing!"

One could call it innocent, but what she was doing was a continuous barrage of slashes from her draw. What's more, she was aiming for vital points with every strike. She looked so happy, you wouldn't be wrong to call her a battle maniac or a psychopath.

Terrified by that smile, the man thought to land one blow and create some distance.

Ready to take a hit, he turned his axe sideways to sweep it across.

The girl must have been waiting for that big swing. Undaunted by the attack, she lowered her stance and stepped towards the man. From a low position, just scraping the ground, she aimed not at the man but at the axe, and with both hands, she swung upwards with all her might, sword still in its scabbard.

In the Real combat mode, stats like STR and DEX were equalized.

Physical phenomena were decided by the sum of speed, timing, and force vectors.

With an attack that struck the sweeping axe from directly below, the man was forced to let go of his weapon.

The axe flew into the air.

As everyone's eyes followed the axe, the girl's mouth uttered a voice.

"Azuma-ryu Battoujutsu Secret Art--!"

There was no such weapon skill in this virtual reality. And in the Real combat mode, weapon skills couldn't be used anyway.

But the girl said it as she drew her sword from its scabbard at high speed.

With a single draw, a super high-speed attack that aimed for both arms, both legs, and finally the neck. A technique that should absolutely never be done in reality.

After being slashed five times, the man rolled backward on the ground to create distance. Then he quickly picked up the axe that had just fallen to the ground.

"Y-you...!"

Before he knew it, the girl was standing there, looking at her sheathed sword.

It was as if she was saying the fight was over, but the man guessed that the girl had miscounted the number of attacks. He had been hit nine times so far. There was still one hit left.

So he would throw the throwing axe at his waist—the tomahawk—and then attack. The moment he thought that, the man's face twisted in surprise.

The katana had transformed into a rifle.

Then the girl dropped to her right knee, stabilized the gun with her left knee and arm, and looked through the scope.

A gunshot echoed.

The man, who had taken the tenth hit, collapsed on the spot with a look of astonishment.

After confirming this, the girl stood up and put the katana, which had returned to its original form before he knew it, on her left hip.

Then the dome-shaped space that had been deployed for the PvP was dispelled with an effect like shattering glass.

While everyone was stunned by the spectacle, the girl left the fallen man as he was and started to walk away.

The players who had surrounded them to watch the fight cleared a path so as not to obstruct her way.

The girl gave a small bow and then entered a nearby weapon shop.

That day, the in-game message board of Another Frontier Online was buzzing with activity.

A single girl had ranked in the upper echelons of the PvP rankings, which had not changed for the past few months.

That alone would not have caused a big stir.

What caused the uproar was the discovery that this girl was a player who had logged in for the first time today.

It was said that the girl wore a nun's habit and carried a katana with the inscription "Hayato" called "Beelzebub 666 Replica P Custom."

In the VRMMORPG "Another Frontier Online," which had been running for over twenty years, the story of Parfait—the girl whose parents were legendary players, raised by their friends—was just beginning.