I think I’ll make another list of characters after V4P1..

Aisha, who didn’t know what to do with her pouting sweetheart, decided to let Matagi calm down on her own. She fixatedly stared ahead without a care in the world, her mind and heart utterly empty; ‘The difference between me and a doll is thin.’ such a thought had suddenly sprung up in her now no-more-quiet mind. Time didn’t seem to matter anymore as Aisha decided to lose herself in her random train of thoughts, unconsciously closing her eyes.

‘If it wasn’t for mom, Abigail, my.. friends.. and for those people from Oblitus Mori, perhaps I really would be like a doll, an existence without emotions, purely controlled by external forces. And why wouldn’t I let them control me? If I didn’t, I would have to choose on my own. It’s not like it really matters. Right, none of the choices or their consequences interest me, so there’s no problem in letting the circumstances choose for me. Mother long ago told me that I must not live in such a manner, or at least not entirely. I have no problem with it, so I accepted her proposition: decide based on the profits and losses that would come my way by the result of my actions when it really matters.

Still.. when does it really matter at all?’

Aisha opened her eyes and stared downwards, she looked at Matagi who was currently busy kissing her neck. After they had spent the night together, Abigail had steadily increased their body contact time, both in game and in reality, though without escalating to events similar to fornicating in public. It was like she was trying to compensate their mental distance with their physical proximity. Matagi’s eyes sometimes would show a strange glint in them, an emotion Aisha couldn’t quite point out but that nonetheless would make her heart stir, even if a little bit. That said, Aisha hadn’t felt any new emotions since that time in Fuji’s Catacombs.

“Finally out of wonderland, uh?”

Matagi said after Aisha made her notice her awareness by gently stroking the back of Matagi’s head. With a “Yes” and a small nod, Aisha implicitly asked Matagi to tell her what was happening, why she had woken her up from her thoughts. Matagi turned around and started walking away, a simple “Lunch break” was able to make Aisha follow almost immediately. Checking her satiety level, Aisha had confirmed she actually needed to eat before she followed her companion.

As they went toward the only large enough room able to accomodate a third of the members of the ship, which was naturally situated below the deck, Aisha’s whole group came together. The members were her, Matagi, Gaea, Electra, Atlas, Conqueror, Rie, Ka’henya and Esraen. Actually, Rie’s username was Rie35, but who would call her that? She was a level 168 human priestess, and also a paid member of Harem. She wore a white sleeveless robe with simple golden embroidery and detached long sleeves with the same patterns that hid her hands, the colours were pretty much complementing her short white hair, her cyan coloured eyes and her rosy skin. With an height of around 170 cm and an ample chest, her form-fitting clothes were quite alluring. The most surprising thing was her vast knowledge of her class and the game in general, which Conqueror had admitted to be paying for.

Ka’henya was another paid member of Harem, but from the group’s conversations it seemed like she worked for Conqueror even in real life, perhaps as bodyguard, and her gaming knowledge came from the teachings of Conqueror and other Harem members. Her race was a rare choice between the players because of its appearance and restrictions. She was a wraith, and one of the restrictions was that they could not wear clothes, thus constantly having to be naked. Naturally the genitalia and nipples weren’t present, as a wraith was genderless, but the player’s body structure still remained.

A wraith’s body was entirely made out of black mist, at exception of the iris which was white, and as it moved around, strands of mist were left behind. The hair of a wraith were perhaps the most mesmerizing, especially if they were long, as they fluctuated in the air as gravity didn’t have any effect on them; Ka’henya ‘s hair was shoulder-length. Wraith were not able to fly as they were “beings bound to the earth,” but they were able to jump up to incredible heights and glide; while gliding, their body automatically moved in their desired direction, so it didn’t matter which position their body adopted. Their constitution also made physical attacks completely useless, but in exchange they suffered enormous damage from magical attacks.

Ka’henya was a level 150 hybrid assassin/mage as she used telekinesis to control four chakrams that she normally kept either in her inventory or inside her body. Her figure was incredibly lithe but, differently from Enyo, she had a big bust and a natural adult charm that only came from age and experience. Quite the eye-catching existence.

Lastly, Esraen was a solo player. He was a level 181 elf ranger and also leader of this group. Esraen was a dark-skinned elf with waist-long silvery hair but he was not a dark elf as he did not practice magic which went against nature. His green-tinted attire stood out on the boat and on this never-ending sea, but in a forest he would be hardly seen. Esraen had brown eyes, thin eyebrows and delicate lips. He was extremely androgynous but he never bragged about it, unlike Conqueror.

Aisha remained silent as she once again observed each and every one of her new companions during lunch. Being stared at by her cold, half-closed eyes was actually a little uncomfortable, but they didn’t say anything as they had already learned that they could do nothing about it.

Xin Jen had prepared four ships for this expedition, and now each ship kept a distance of at least a thousand meters while following the same direction. A few days after the last ship wasn’t in sight of the continent anymore, unknown ships began appearing at the horizon and on both sides, completely encircling them. By the estimates, in a day or a day a half Xin Jen’s ships would be in range of this unknown ships’ cannons and in another half a day they would make contact. With the use of magic or natural/racial abilities, it was possible to confirm that each unknown ship sported the flag of pirates, but the NPC admirals and their close subjects recognized the type of ships and also who possibly was controlling them behind the scenes.

“.. The ships are all galleons of at least four meters in width and ten meters in length, if they were built according to standard. Now, as for battle preparations and formation, I would like the groups to now patrol together with another group so that we’ll have as many people as possible defending the ship when the time comes. Since each group was made quite balanced, we won’t have to trouble ourselves with which group works with whom.

Secondly, I ask the people able to fly or at least able to move great distances to not do so until the enemy ships are near, unless you want to be forcefully brought down by them. While each mast can only endure 3 or 4 hits, to know how many are necessary to damage the port, the starboard, the bow or the stern, we’d need to know how powerful their cannonballs are. I ask each of you to do your utmost in either making the cannonballs explode before they reach us or to at least deviate their trajectory enough to make them miss.

Once the galleons are close enough, focus on destroying their masts before trying to fight all the pirates or to make a hole in their ship. In case we end up needing to escape, without their masts and sails they will have a hard time pursuing us. Of course, once they are close enough the enemy will try to do exactly the same to our ship, so now I’ll be sure to assign each group a general role so as to not create confusion during the fight and so you guys don’t end up either all attacking the enemies or all defending our ship. Now then, ..”

All the users and NPCs participating in this expedition were raptly listening to the admiral’s words. Some were nervous, some were excited, some were prepared for such a situation, some were not. Aisha calmly looked with half-closed eyes at the man who was giving them all instructions, not caring in the least about what was going to happen.