(Author's note: Tables are such a pain. So...many...tables....)

“That’s strange. I’ve killed all the rats I’ve come across and been everywhere in here. But I still can’t find the last egg for Mrs. Pearl.” I scratched my head, puzzled. And all the fluffies I save just end up running away after I’m finished! My heart seems to be bleeding from internal damage. It’s a good thing that this sort of thing doesn’t really take away hp, otherwise, I think I’d have died a few hundred times over.

I had already leveled up to level 7 with all the rats in this place, and my new skill [Overkill] was now beginner level 3. As things were, we were standing in the exact center of the hay bale maze-I mean the barn.

“Perhaps there is something we’ve missed? Why don’t we take another look?” Ryuu asked.

“No, I’m pretty sure we’ve covered all the ground here. The map is filled in completely after all.” I frowned. Looking at the hay bales piled almost up to the rafters. The rafters? I thought. Then an idea hit me.

I walked over to a lone hay bale. It’s top measured roughly up to my waist. I tried placing my hand on it.The prickly sensation of hay was super realistic. If it’s this way for hay, then I wonder how good it would feel to stroke the fur of real fluffies? Ah. No no, I have to stick with my original goal.

I jumped onto the hay bale, testing for the invisible wall symptom usually found in games. While the ground was a bit softer than usual, considering that it was made of straw, it held up well.

I didn’t slip off or magically get thrown to the ground, so that means…I glanced at the hay bales rising up to the rafters. And took off up the golden staircase. The last part has to be up here!

Ryuu didn’t say anything, but I could hear him following behind me. When I arrived at the top of the stack, I realized my gamers’ instincts were right on the mark. Taking care not to look in a certain ‘direction’ at a certain ‘something’, I paused to revel in my small moment of enlightenment.

Usually, with the non-virtual reality games, the background items couldn’t be stepped on or interacted with. While certain games tried to fix that factor, there always seemed to be a certain ‘off-limits’ part of the game. With Virtual reality, however, it seems that nothing was off limits anymore. Everything was possible to be interacted with.

Heh! This is freaking awesome! I thought to myself. At that moment, I honestly admired and enjoyed my first taste of virtual reality.

“Wow. I never thought such a size was possible for a rodent!” Ryuu said admiringly. “It’s almost the size of a cougar? No, a bear is more appropriate.”

I turned towards Ryuu, who had ruined the moment, feeling tears begin to form at the corners of my eye.“Ryuu! Why are you doing this to me! Don’t you know how I feel about R.A.T’s!”

“Sorry. This is the honest admiration of a general towards a foe. I mean, just look at the size of that thing!” he pointed in the ‘direction’ that I had been avoiding to look at.

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you!” I began to get upset. “I-I’m trying not to look, darnit!” If I look, then I might lose all common sense and launch myself over the edge of the hay bales and fall to my death below. THERE’S NO FREAKIN WAY I’M DYING SUCH AN EMBARRASING DEATH! NOT A SECOND TIME!!

“Well, in all fairness, you can probably still look then. He doesn’t seem to have a tail, and he looks more like a gorilla than a rat.” Ryuu replied.

“What do you mean!? There’s no way that a rat can look like a gorilla!” I rejected. They’re two completely different animals!”

“Just look!” Ryuu grabbed my head and turned it in the R.A.T. K.I.N.G’s direction. What I saw made me pause in shock to the point where I was at a loss for words. To be honest, it was the buffest rat I’d ever seen. Imagine taking a buff gorilla, then placing a rat’s head on it, instead, and sharp claws at the fingertips and you have the Rat King.

Even so….I could honestly feel the disgust building inside me to the point where I might explode. IT WAS SO NOT CUTE! I ended up seeing red after that.

----------------------------

When I came to, I was at a loss for words as for what I had done. I was holding on for dear life onto a wooden pillar, looking down at the corpse of the rat king, impaled upon a broken wooden beam down on the ground. Although he wasn’t yet dead, he was steadily losing HP as he was suspended there upside down between rafters and hay.

…WHAT THE FRACK IS GOING ON HERE!!! I wanted to scream, as I held for dear life onto the remains of the platform that had been built around this beam. As I began to wonder how long it would be before I faced my untimely death, I heard Ryuu call out to me.

“Idiot! The rope! The Rope!!” I turned just in time to feel the full brunt of a knotted rope whack me in the face. Luckily I caught it before I fell to my untimely death.

What! That seriously knocked off 2 HP!? This rope is lethal!

I glared at Ryuu. “Ah. It seems I overestimated your reactions based upon your battle just now. I must have known you’re virtually useless, otherwise.” He propped up his chin elegantly, placing a few fingers over his lips.

“I wonder how you’re going to get back without any momentum in that rope now?” He grinned maliciously.

I tried using my skill [Substitution] by designating myself and a rat tooth as the switching targets before throwing the rat tooth over to the top of the haybales, but when I tried to activate the skill, a blue box popped up.

Skill [Substitution] is not high enough to switch living beings. Please designate something else.

"I'm sorry, I do not understand what you were trying to accomplish with that." Ryuu smirked.

This guy seriously pisses me off! I took a moment to calm myself and regain my usual noh mask poker face. Then I grabbed the rope with both hands and kicked off from the pillar, but the momentum wasn’t enough, so I swung back and forth three more times before finally reaching the top of the hay bales again.

I let go, while aiming seriously for Ryuu’s head. But the sly b****d somehow maneuvered himself so that he’d catch me in a princess hold.

“Ho, your reactions may be slow, but your puzzle solving skills are at the least minimum requirement.” Ryuu grinned wickedly.

I stared up at him with my noh mask face. “Is that so? Please put me down, now.” I’m not going to let him get to me. I am not going to let him get to me. I am not going to let him get to me. I chanted in my heart as I bottled up the growing volcano of rage just waiting to burst out of me.

At that point, the rat king finally chose to disintegrate into a mass of disappearing pixels, because I was inundated with a burst of blue boxes.

You have leveled up You have leveled up You have leveled up Congratulations! Overkill has leveled up 3>4 Congratulations! Overkill has leveled up 4>5 Unfortunately, Mrs. Pearl’s pitchfork did not make it. But I’m sure she won’t be too angry at you, if you explain it really quickly. Ne~?

Somehow that one box was not comforting at all.

Congratulations, you have reached level ten! Due to that, you have now lost the skill [Beginner’s Luck]. Have fun~!

And this one was even less comforting. Now it seems that I’m fair game for PKers and guild mobbings. What luck. (T__T)

Congratulations, you have earned the title: Rat’s Nightmare +15 attack +2 charm at local businesses

Well, I dunno about that title, but maybe the extra charm will get me discounts, or help me haggle more successfully.

And, with that, I now had 20 un-distributed bonus stats to deal with. Having one-mindedly chased after the rats, I had forgotten to distribute any of my stats. Now that I can rest easy, why wait any longer?

Thinking about it, I put four in strength, because it’s only going to get more difficult here; four into wisdom- because more mana means more uses of [Overkill]; six into dexterity—I’m sure that ba****d’s method of evading my drop kick had something to do with this stat; and six into intelligence, because I’m tired of Ryuu’s nagging.