“Phew...”

Erika took off the Vocean helmet and rose from the bed. Her body felt stiff for a short while, but she was more than used to this sensation by now. It didn’t alert her in the slightest.

It was already lunch time, so Erika and Mina took a break from VR. Thanks to the meals Erika brought over, Mina had a decent lunch for the first time in ages.

“Oooooh!! This shit is great!”

Mina absorbed the rice and meat like a black hole. Instant noodles were alright as far Mina was concerned, but they couldn’t begin to compare to the godly taste of “homemade food”.

“Ya a great cook, Titan! As expected from a honor student!”

“Haha...”

Erika smiled wryly and averted her eyes. Mina had no idea this food was prepared by the SmartCook. Erika decided to not correct this misunderstanding and accepted the undeserved praise.

Once the “luxurious” lunch was over, Erika and Mina returned to their gaming center. Now, that Erika had reached the first city, many new options would open up for her. As an RPG veteran, she knew she could spend a whole week exploring a city this big.

Alas, her time was limited. The free trial of God Vessel Online lasted for only two weeks. The amount of messing around she could do was limited.

“How far is Trilz City from Zelin City?”

“Umm... don’t remember. Ya need to pass like five more areas I think.”

As expected, the brainless beastie wasn’t very helpful. Erika googled up the game's world map on her cellphone and examined the first few regions. Even though Death’s Rift was considered “too hard” for beginners, on many maps it was still included in the first region along with Trilz City itself.

There were two relevant paths stretching from Zelin City. Erika could either venture south or east. Either way, relying on her RPG instincts, she deduced that she should pass through Rezer, the second city of the first region. Visiting all the major cities was extremely important in most RPGs.

Since Erika wasn’t familiar with any of the roads leading to Rezer City, she decided to consult with Mina. But...

“Hey, Titan! Let’s play some SoulClay!”

Mina grinned and waved a controller. The fighting game, Soul Claymore, was already booted and waited on the “character selection” screen.

“Eh? Ah, sure...”

Erika was surprised by this unexpected development. She planned to keep playing GoVe, but she had no reason to decline Mina’s offer. It was her first time playing face-to-face with a fellow gamer, hence the alien situation excited her.

She grabbed the controller and sat down on the bed. Playing like this, side by side with another gamer, was trilling. She leveled up from a “Closet Gamer” to a “Full-fledged Gamer”.

In fact, the outdated game console made her feel even superior than that. She was a “Hardcore Gamer” right now. Game consoles pretty much went extinct many years ago, and had nearly no support these days. Most modern gamers had never even seen a game console.

“So... how do I use this?”

Erika looked at the controller with a dumb face. She sorta knew the theory behind it: the cross pad on her left was for movement inputs, whereas the four buttons on her right were for other actions. However, she had no idea how to handle this artifact.

Hmm... this isn’t very comfortable.

Erika placed four fingers on top of four buttons. Such an arrangement made sense for keyboard, where each key would be optimally assigned to a single finger. However, the same logic didn’t apply to this relic called “console controller”. Her long fingers stretched awkwardly to cover all the buttons and her hand ached.

“Pwahahaha! Whatcha doin’, Titan!? Pwahaha!”

Mina held her stomach as she laughed, rolling on the floor.

“Teach me how to use this thing instead of laughing!”

Erika was embarrassed by her ignorance. Luckily, her dark skin did a great job hiding her blush. She felt like an old fart, who couldn’t handle modern gadgets. Only, this situation was the exact opposite. It’s the controller that was outdated. That’s right, Erika was just too advanced for it...!

“Pwhaha. Here, this is how ya hold it.”

Mina wrapped her small hands around the controller and layered her thumbs on the buttons. Much to Erika’s surprise, the controller was handled much more like a smartphone’s touchscreen than a PC’s keyboard.

I suppose this works...?

It was a queer arrangement. The controller didn’t have many buttons, and all of them were spaced from each other. Nonetheless, Erika was expected to make use of all these spaced buttons with just one thumb on each side. It was similar to a smartphone, yet completely different.

“Um, so how do I play this game?”

“Ya just press buttons and ya fight!”

Of course, Mina wasn’t going to provide any coherent instructions.

It was Erika’s first time trying out a fighting game. On a historic console. With an artifact in hand. And she wasn’t going to get any directions. Splendid.

This is going to be so much fun...

Erika could already sense her losing streak approaching. She chose a random small girl as her character and challenged the almighty “Magnum 99”, Mina Park.

“Haaa!”

Mina unleashed her skill without mercy. She used her main fighter, Reeyne, in full force. The red-haired amazon swung her axes with unparalleled mastery and trashed Erika like there was no tomorrow.

“Ah! Wah!”

Erika gasped over and again, as her cute character got pummeled into the floor, bounced into the air, slammed against the ceiling and finally crashed on the floor again... with zero HP.

“H-how do you play so well?! Wasn’t your arm paralyzed?!”

Erika grew frustrated with the one-sided matches. Mina’s left hand should had been sealed, yet it skillfully operated the arrows on the d-pad.

“Huuuh? T-this shit? T-this ain’t even my final form, hah!”

Mina exhibited the skill difference between her two hands. Her right thumb danced on the buttons at supersonic speed. On the other hand, her cursed left thumb rapidly skipped from button to button, in a speed that resembled a three-legged turtle in comparison.

T-this is some deep stuff going on here. Mini literally became one with her controller. The controller is like the extension of her arm...!

Erika couldn’t hold a candle to this level of expertise. She was overjoyed with merely pulling off a special move once in a decade. Even after she thoroughly studied the moves of her character, she couldn’t help but feel that the game developers were trolling.

Do a quarter-circle, a zig-say and then press forward+X+Circle... Just how many hands do they think I have, exactly? Why can’t I just press a button or two to pull off an important move? Sigh.

The world of fighting games was too alien for Erika. Needless to say, she couldn’t win a single match. A fair share of the battles ended with a perfect victory for Mina, with her amazon, Reeyne, standing unscratched.

“Pwahaha! You suck so hard at this shit!”

“Haha, really now? I didn’t notice.”

Erika wore a thin smile. She was losing left and right, but mashing buttons wasn’t that bad. She normally didn’t play such fast-paced and tense games, so it was a breath of fresh air.

“Hey, Titan! Wanna play this next?”

Mina got bored with beating Erika to a pulp so easily. Hence, she suggested a VR kart racing game instead.

“Alright.”

Erika nodded in response. She came here today in order to make great progress in GoVe, but she was curious about other VR games as well. It was a rare opportunity, therefore she went along with the flow.

At first, Erika considered forbidding Mina to play VR games. The little beastie’s Vireco still persisted and there was no telling what effects a VR game would have on it. However, she ultimately decided to take a risk and see how things would go.

Turned out Mina could properly move her paralyzed arm inside other VR games. She wheeled her kart without any trouble. It was unclear what sort of sorcery was at work here.

Maybe she’ll recover faster if she moves her hand around in other games. If VIreco can paralyze an arm, then another Vireco just may heal it.

With that hope in mind, Erika allowed herself to be dragged into various VR games. She fared much better in many of the games, especially in the ones which utilized her brain. She even gave Mina a run for her money a couple of times.

As they were having fun, the hour had already approached evening. Most of the day had gone by, without any additional progress in GoVe. Nonetheless, the girls paid little heed to that fact and kept playing other games.

They took a break at dinner time and ate some more of “Erika’s marvelous homemade cooking”. Afterwards, Erika dived into the world of GoVe again.

【God Vessel Online】

【Please wait for your awakening...】