kscans

Chapter 462 - Cat War

A new event began within AFO.

The event was called "Cat War." The name might imply a war of cats, but it wasn't about cats fighting each other. It was an event where players took screenshots of cats that had escaped from the so-called "Cat Island," located south of the eastern country of Azuma, across the sea.

In game terms, the objective was to photograph the locations of the cats that had escaped the island and submit their ecological data to the Tamer Guild. However, the cats were not always in the same place. They were scattered all over the world, and players had to search for them.

Furthermore, the screenshots would be scored by staff from Colony "Zoo," and players would compete based on these scores. While the fact that the Sagittarius Foundation was sponsoring the event was surprising, an even more surprising piece of information was announced.

"The escaped cats are real cats, not AIs, so please handle them with care."

In response, Orion of the "Cats are God" clan and some other tamers were ecstatic. The chance to interact with real cats, even in virtual reality, caused a flurry of threads to pop up on the in-game forums.

Conversely, Parfait and her friends, who regularly met Maris's calico cat Siegfried in person, were not quite as thrilled, but they were still motivated, thinking it was an interesting event nonetheless.

Moreover, the score from the screenshots would become event points, which could be exchanged for items. Seeing the exchangeable items fired Parfait up. By accumulating points, one could obtain the "Melampus," an equipment piece that allowed communication with pets.

Since it was the top prize, she would have to take a considerable number of screenshots to earn enough points, but with her tests over and a school vacation starting, Parfait resolved herself to play almost every day.

On the first day of the event, Parfait wanted to go take screenshots of cats right away, but Rick stopped her. Anticipating this, Rick had logged in before Parfait and was waiting for her at their base.

"Rick-kun, stopping me means you don't value your life...?"

"Calm down. It won't hurt to confirm the rules first. Besides, you need Melampus to communicate with Trachiyo, right? Then you need to collect points efficiently."

"Well, that's true, but..."

As Parfait spoke, she stroked the chin of Trachiyo, who was perched on her shoulder. Despite being an AI, Trachiyo seemed to enjoy it, looking pleased.

"Listen up, I did some research. Melampus costs ten thousand exchange points. Frankly, that's tough to do solo."

"I'll manage it with love. I might not need to sleep for a while..."

"...Make sure you sleep. But you don't have to do it solo. Points are shared among clan members, so it's better to do it together."

"Eh? But don't the others have items they want to exchange too? I thought there were a lot of other useful-looking items besides Melampus."

Most of the items were related to tamers, but perhaps thinking that would be boring for non-tamer players, there were various other items available for exchange. Many of them were quite rare, and it seemed many players wanted them.

"The other items don't require as many points as Melampus, so if we all work together, everyone should be able to get what they want. That aside, let's talk about how to take high-scoring screenshots."

"There's a way to do that?"

"I knew you didn't read it. There was an event pamphlet at the Tamer Guild."

Rick spread the pamphlet on the table and explained it to Parfait.

Taking a screenshot wasn't just about snapping a picture. The score changed depending on the angle, pose, and situation. The judging would be done by the staff of Colony "Zoo," but the system was designed so that AI judgment would also be partially reflected. As such, the pamphlet included sample images of high-scoring screenshots.

It featured a diverse collection of cute cat screenshots, showing them tilting their heads, about to fall asleep, or fighting monsters, and even included a rough estimate of their scores.

"Based on this, photos of relaxing cats get high scores. Maybe it's the preference of the people at Zoo, but pictures of them lying down are worth a lot of points. It's better to take them without the cat noticing you."

The images in the pamphlet that Rick pointed to were indeed high-scoring. A cat lying down was worth over a hundred points on its own.

"They're cute, sure, but can't I just take a whole bunch of them?"

"Unfortunately, you only get points for each cat once."

"Eh? Is that so?"

"That's the rule. However, a higher-scoring photo of the same cat will overwrite the previous one, so taking a lot of pictures isn't wrong. Still, it's better to get a high score for each cat if possible. It seems the number of cats is limited to about a hundred, so if you only get low scores, you might not be able to afford Melampus. Besides, we don't even know if we can find all of them."

"That's important information...!"

Parfait, who was the type to do tutorials but not read instruction manuals, learned this information for the first time. Even with her best efforts, she could only get about five hundred points per cat, so the maximum possible score was only fifty thousand. Conversely, just taking normal pictures would only get about ten points each, so there was a possibility that even if she combined her points with her clan members, they might not reach ten thousand.

Rick's point about not knowing if they could find all the cats was especially important. They were apparently scattered all over, and just finding all of them would be a huge amount of work.

"When I open my cafe, I'll definitely want you to be my strategist, Rick-kun..."

"Strategist? I've told you I'm starting my own company. Well, I wouldn't mind taking on some consulting work."

Mixing in such realistic talk, Parfait listened intently to Rick's words.

"What's important here is that you can get information about the escaped cats at the Tamer Guild in Azuma. Things like where they are or what kind of food they like. Apparently, the higher your recognition at the Tamer Guild, especially the one in Azuma, the more detailed information you can get."

"Eh? Isn't that information way too important?"

Based on Rick's prediction that there would be a tamer-related event, they had been doing tamer quests since before their tests to raise their recognition. Parfait hadn't minded doing the quests since she also wanted tamer-related goods, but she hadn't thought it would actually be useful for the event.

"It's important, just as you say, Parfait. In game terms, it seems the queen of Cat Island requested that the Azuma Tamer Guild watch over the escaped cats."

"...Is that queen Sieg?"

"...Seems like it. When you do tamer quests, the names 'Nyanko Kingdom' and 'Siegfried' come up a lot. Apparently, Cat Island is that kingdom, and Sieg leaves the country incognito to take walks through various nations."

"Is that really a walk... Also, I heard he's super strong."

"Maris-san and Surya-san are apparently AFO players too. It wouldn't be strange if Sieg was logged in as a player... No, that would be strange, wouldn't it?"

"I've realized recently that we shouldn't think about the people around us in terms of common sense."

"True... Does 'the people around us' include the cats?"

Parfait had many thoughts on the matter, but she had come to the conclusion that life would be easier if she just thought of it as "that's just how it is."

"Oh, right. Among the things you can get with exchange points is a 'Cat Island Travel Pass.'"

"Does that mean you can't go to Cat Island without it?"

"Apparently so. It doesn't require that many points, but everyone should get one. It's supposed to be a pre-release item, so I think we'll be able to get the same item later, but if it means we can go to an untraversed territory early, we should get it. Well, it's an item I think everyone will try to get anyway."

Parfait nodded in understanding and checked the items for point exchange. There was indeed an item called "Cat Island Travel Pass," and it could be exchanged for a thousand points. However, there was also a note that it couldn't be shared and that each person would need one.

And so, after receiving a lecture on the event from Rick, Parfait nodded repeatedly, engraving his words into her brain.

Parfait suddenly took a screenshot of Trachiyo. The action took less than a second. It was a finger movement she had trained for taking pictures of fluffy things. She had memorized everything from opening the system menu to where the screenshot button was, to the point where she could do it blindfolded. It was a skill ingrained in her body, just like drawing a sword.

Rick looked at her with an exasperated expression, but Parfait was satisfied.

It could be called a waste of talent, but she seemed to be quite serious, with a determination not to miss a photo opportunity. She decided to practice taking pictures with Trachiyo until everyone else logged in.