Chapter 1.2

Since the following week consists of a long holiday weekend, I figured I might as well release this part early before I forget it . And since I also have to tend to some stuff at work, the last part of chapter one would probably be released the week after said holiday instead .

For the net game conversation bits, I decided to use ‘my bad self’ for Schwein like some sub in the anime (I forgot which one it was) and just made her appear to be more of a thug in chat . For Master, she gets the usage of pretty formal words that you wouldn’t often use ingame . And lastly, for Nekohime, I decided to go with cat puns instead of plain nyaa . Rusian and Ako do not seem to have any verbal tics that requires attention so I left that out of consideration (bottom line is, Ako just has to be cute) .

It’s a pretty short chapter so I’ve had a bit of time to look it over, though it might still contain errors which should be corrected once this is edited . And as mentioned before, I’m still awaiting feedback if people actually still need notes for the MMORPG terminologies (the later books have a newbie Ako corner but since this one doesn’t have it yet, I considered it) . Lastly, if you have any issues with the how the translation is (grammar, run-ons, etc . ) or if I, as always, missed any references that you might know, please do let me know via the Contact page or a comment . A Discord channel would be better for this, but I simply do not have the time to manage one (and there are no existing ones for NetogeYome) .

Chapter 1

Part 2

Translation: Yamaking

Rusian: So, are you guys going to farm today?

On the same old seat, at the same old cafe, in the same old town, my fully-geared character Rusian said that while checking on my guild members’ current states .

Schwein: Ah— My bad self will have to pass . After all, I’ve already played as hard as I can when we were at the club .

Ako: If I can take it easy while playing with Rusian then I’ll go—

I quickly moved to the side when Ako tried to languidly lean on me . This girl, who suddenly tumbled over, began to looked up towards me with a reproachful gaze . It’s only during moments like this that she unnecessarily perfects her control of her movements .

Rusian: Everyone’s slacking off .

Apricot: Well, I kind of understand what everyone’s thinking .

Master, who was pretty energetic compared to the rest, said that as she gave a wry smile .

Come to think of it, I wonder if this is one of harmful effects of proceeding with our club activities . After we’re done with our club and have gone home, our will to play would’ve just decreased . Up until now, whenever I was in school, I would think ‘I want to play more!’ . And then, when I’m finally home, that feeling of wanting to play would already be overflowing so much that I would be playing at max tension . ‘So that I can play net games, I would do my best in school’, it was that kind of thing .

But now, I’ve been recently burning out all that tension in the club before going home . Because of these extreme club activities, just like a sports-oriented student, I end burning myself out in club and when I get home I’m in full sage mode .

TL Note: Sage Mode is a state of mind reached when you’re able to think clearly and are completely free from desire (usually pertained to time after an orgasm)

As a result, when I login to the game, my mood is just something like ‘I guess I’ll just take it easy today’ .

Schwein: Aaah, damn it, I’m still missing 300K for today’s quota . But I don’t wanna go farm . Hm, mm, tch… Hey Rusian, go earn some gold for me in my place my man .

Rusian: Go earn it on your own, by yourself .

How do you even go about asking others to farm for you .

Asking others to farm for you is just the pinnacle of laziness .

Schwein: But bro, wasn’t there a time where you leveled Ako by having her lazily chatting away while you were farming?

Ako: Ah, I start drooling just remembering that . If we can, I’d like to do that again .

Rusian: How about you start taking this game seriously?

You shouldn’t get used to a situation in a net game where a partner would go ahead and powerlevel you while you sit still in a safe corner and wait .

Schwein: That’s settled then . This game is over for my bad self today .

Ako: There’s Schew-chan’s declaration of game over .

Apricot: Please look forward to Schwein-sama’s next adventure .

Schew looks like she’s really going to leave . Is this alright?

Schwein, who looked like she was being one-sidedly forced to leave, said with a big yawn .

Schwein: Speaking of game over, it’s almost time for tests, isn’t it?

That sounds more like a declaration of a game over in real life .

Apricot: Indeed . As we can’t lose face to our adviser, we have to make sure our grades don’t drop .

Rusian: A pretty real conversation just started up ingame .

Ako: Te, test…

Ah, someone froze up .

I know it’s a depressing topic but is it really enough to make you speechless?

Rusian: Come to think of it, how are your grades holding up Ako?

Ako: It’s bad you know? Did you think I was doing fine?

D, don’t ask me that .

It was such a swift answer that it even surprised me . And she even gave off the feeling of being mad despite being in the wrong . It’s at these times that I really feel like Ako is fundamentally dangerous .

Schwein: Specifically how bad are you talking here? If you want, I can even tutor you .

Ako: To make it easier to understand, it’s bad enough that I can start calling Rusian my senpai .

Rusian: Isn’t that extremely bad…

Still, repeating the year is terrible . The thought I had that we would get used to school together and go together on that field trip would all end up in us experiencing it separately .

Ako: But it was kind of a dream of mine to call Rusian senpai . What do you think, senpai?

Rusian: That’s, you…

If you ask me, just imagining Ako with upturned eyes calling me ‘Senpai ♡’…

Rusian: …That sounds kind of nice .

Ako: I understand! Just leave it to me!

Apricot: Hey now, I’m not going to permit my club member to repeat a year .

I, it’s fine, it’s fine . I wasn’t being serious .

Even I wouldn’t allow that sort of thing .

Schwein: Not to brag but, I’m not even below the average for our year .

Schew proudly boasted . Hey, hold on . Why don’t you explain just what part of that was something worth bragging about .

Apricot: Since we’re doing that, I don’t mean mean to brag as well but I’ve never fallen below the single digit rankings for my year .

Ako:

Ako:

Ako:

Ako:

Ako:

Ako:

Ako:

Rusian: Calm down Ako . It’s annoying so stop moving up the chat with blank spaces!

You’re going to get shouted at by the passersby!

Ako: But they’re the elite you know? Members of the elite are here, you know? If I get rid of them won’t I rise in rank? Shouldn’t I just eliminate them all?

Rusian: Your rank won’t change if you start counting from below so just stop it .

Ako: Uu…

Ako dejectedly gave up .

Apricot: You guys still have it better, you can hold a study meeting since you’re all in the same year . I’m all alone you know, all alone . I study for the tests, alone . And when the test results are given back, the whole class is all livened up while I’m looking at my results, alone . While all my other classmates are busy having fun comparing their scores, I’m just there computing my average, grinning to myself, alone . Do you know how empty that feels? And you still say I won over you?

H, how miserable!

The student council president is undoubtedly respected by everyone, but in response to Master’s story, who in reality did not have a single close friend, Ako answered with a single statement .

Ako: I took the last test in the infirmary alone .

Apricot: Sorry, it’s my loss .

Rusian: Just what…

Schwein: That’s just cruel…

That decisive statement had way too much power .

Ako, that statement was a force surpassing the ultimate weapon . It’s a lethal weapon that you shouldn’t be carelessly throwing around .

That also reminds me, the subject matter of tests are just too trivial . Like, make the test contents actually more suited for students .

Rusian: Ah, it would be great if the tests just asked questions about the game . A lizard wolf’s race and element is? That sort of thing .

Schwein: Its race is Animal and the element is Fire Level 2 .

Rusian: Correct . Schew gets 5 points .

Schwein: This question too easy for my bad self .

As expected of an elite, their standards are just way different .

Even if it was an easy question, the way she answered right away was wonderful .

Ako: Uhm, what’s race and element?

And here you have someone really pitiful .

She my wife, so she’s my responsibility . Is that it?

Rusian: I guess we’ll have to add another year to your experience here too .

Ako: Eeeehh!?

Ako’s repeat in LA was already decided ahead of time . It’s another one year course .

Rusian: Rather, why don’t you already know this? I was sure you’d already made elemental armors and racial equipment .

Ako: Err no, uhm, I really thought to myself that I had to learn it someday, you know? I really felt like learning about it once .

But you still proceeded without doing anything, I understand .

After all, even I’m someone who also waits things out often until it turns into something awful . I’ll do it tomorrow . Tomorrow, I said .

Apricot: If you upgraded your equipment to the maximum limit, those things usually don’t have much of an effect though . No matter where you go, you can already reasonably perform well .

Rusian: Equipment upgrades have a safe limit though . If upgrade past that point and fail, your equipment will break and then it’s lost forever .

Apricot: Rusian, may I present to you, the cash item that doesn’t break your equipment even if you fail .

Even if you recommend it to me, I’m not going to buy it .

Else, there be no end to when I start buying other upgrade materials .

Apricot: In addition to that, you can also use another cash item to increase the rate of successfully upgrading your equipment . If you buy them as a set, it would look like it’s somewhat cheaper but in actuality, it doesn’t make much of a difference . That’s because it’s very expensive in the first place .

Rusian: I did not need all that info . Give me something that’ll actually help me out instead .

Apricot: The tests are being safekept in a safe in the faculty room . The password to the safe is 3528894 .

TL Note: This is probably goroawase (japanese number wordplay), 3528894 could also read as san-ko-ni-ya-ya-ko-shi which I roughly understood as ‘I find it hard if you consult me’ as in (私を参考にすればややこしい) . I might be wrong with the interpretation of the goroawase here but this seems to fit the best here .

Ako: Is that true!?

Apricot: It’s a lie .

Ako: Why did you lie! Why! Why would you betray my feelings like this—!

Rusian: To start with, don’t provide Ako with unneeded info!

If you heard about that and found and opened the safe, then what would you do? You’d be going past the whole repeating a year thing and get expelled instead!

Schwein: I know I’m the one who brought it up, but is this really something you need to talk about ingame?

Schew suddenly said that .

Ah, this is Segawa not Schwein . It’s not like I’m trying to differentiate them, but you can just tell from the expression she uses who’s who .

Apricot: I’m fine with installing either Skype, Teamspeak, or Mumble and we can switch over to that .

Rusian: Ah, voice chat is an option too—

We just talk to each other instead of chatting when in the clubroom after all . I guess just talking normally would be fine when we’re at home too . It’s easier, plus it feels like I’m talking with a girl over the phone— No, that’s no good . That way of thinking is no good . Net games and reality are different . Net games and reality are different .

As I was reflecting on my thoughts, Schew, as if completely disgusted, said,

Schwein: Haa? You want me to face the PC while talking alone at home? The people around me would think I’m sick in the head . I refuse .

Haaaa!?

What did you just say!? What kind of cruel thing did you just say, you bastard!

Rusian: You, apologize to me right now! In behalf of everyone else in the world, apologize to me!

Ako: Rusian, have you used voice chat before?

I have . I have . Is there something wrong with that?

I was having fun with everyone else . True, I was in my room talking by myself, but isn’t that the same as a phone call? In the first place, I wasn’t alone . I wasn’t talking to myself and I wasn’t playing alone either .

Rusian: I wasn’t alone…

Ako: I don’t understand . I don’t understand but, those words feel really sad!

Rusian: I’m not sad! I’m not sad at all!

While Rusian— my character ingame, was sobbing and crying, Master just shrugged her shoulders, Schwein was smirking and laughing, while Ako was petting me, saying ‘there, there’ all while sending out a heart mark flying .

Apricot: Many people would go to use net games as a superior chat tool that can capture those kind of motions . Even just talking by itself is no problem .

Rusian: But it’s been awhile since this game released too, so there’s not a lot of newbies anymore . Because of that, the player population keeps decreasing .

Ako: The number of people are decreasing?

Rusian: The way you don’t even think that’s happening just shows how great of a game it is .

When Ako started playing, the game had already been released for a few years . If you didn’t notice a decrease in players a year after that, it’s probably because all the players left are regulars . The game manages to somehow survive by the pattern of collaborations and advertisements, coupled with cunning ways of charging people to bleed them dry . This may sound bad but it’s actually a good thing . After all, there’s nothing sadder than hearing about the game’s end of service .

Rusian: Some net games are really unfortunate after all . There were talks of something like ‘We just had our scheduled maintenance but all our data disappeared so we have to end our service’ happening after all .

Schwein: Hey, isn’t that game a bit too half-assed? lol

TL note: Shoutout to the recent BDO RU news for actually making me believe this kind of idiocy is possible (even though it didn’t actually happen, they still implied it could) . Even Schwein thinks that that is half-assed lol .

Rusian: There was also an even unluckier one where when you went to install the game, your OS would break .

Apricot: They just broke through a wall that they really shouldn’t have…

They’ve already broken past the heavens even, so it can’t be helped . The fact that they couldn’t continue their service anymore couldn’t be helped .

Ako: Haa… I wonder if school would go under a temporary maintenance tomorrow .

Rusian: Don’t hope for something that has just no way of happening .

Ako: Uu, going to visit Rusian is my sole happiness .

Don’t come . Ah, no . It’s not like I’m telling you never to come over but at least try to get to know the people in your class .

Ako: Ah, I’ll make lunch and come visit . Do you have any requests? If it’s something we have in our fridge, I’ll make it .

Rusian: I’d rather you direct that energy to your studies and making friends in class .

Ako: I understand . I’ll put on lots of garlic so you’ll have lots of stamina .

Rusian: Are you trying to drive away my friends by making me reek of garlic?

What a white-collar crime! If such delicious food was placed in front of me, I wouldn’t be able to help myself from eating it, won’t I!

Schwein: Do what you want—, my bad self is going to sleep .

Apricot: I suppose I’ll farm solo or something .

Rusian: Are you guys just going to abandon me! I thought we were comrades!

My guild members are cold-hearted .

But well, this is probably some collaboration set up by them for me .

Like the whole thing about talking about real life ingame was just to confuse Ako so she can get used to real life .

“…I feel like I don’t really have to think that much about this . ”

Well, even if I don’t, it’s fun so I don’t really mind .