Tiger

POV Switch - 1st (MC)

I slipped into the tiger's lair, and was immediately met by a loud growl.

So much for the element of surprise.

I was even using the new 'Hiding' skill, but apparently it's not enough to keep the tiger off my trail... Maybe I'd need to get it to a higher level. In fact, if it allowed me to get the drop on opponents like this, then maybe it would be worthwhile. At the moment, though, I'll just have to out-fight this stray cat.

Well, it shouldn't be difficult.

It is a tradition in my bloodline to eat cats. I do not fear the tiger.

But I should keep my distance.

To begin with, I withdrew my spear to keep it from attacking me. This spear is a bit weak, to be honest, but it has more range, so it can more effectively threaten the tiger from a distance. It was slanting down, pointed towards the tiger's nose and eyes, so the tiger remained a respectful distance even as it followed me around the pit.

It seemed like it wanted to attack, but it had a few scars across its face, and seemed to walk with a very slight limp. There were hints of red blood congealed across its orange stripes. So it was hesitant, but kept close enough to be threatening.

Since it's content to follow me around, I guess I'll have to take the initiative.

I tried to strike, but the tiger's head lurched to the side as it saw the spear approaching, and my weak spear lodged in its shoulders. The spear felt really flimsy, and I couldn't figure out how to get it out without bending it. No wonder these players were so easy to kill, if their weapons were this bad.

Angered, the tiger began to charge forwards, with its strong shoulders breaking the spear.

Not a great start.

As it rose up to tackle me, I managed to delay it by beating its face with the blunt end of the spear, although its claws still left a couple of hefty cuts in my chest.

Fortunately, I'm over-leveled for this fight, so even blows with a blunt weapon have a decent impact. That said, it's too slow, and I'd be stuck on the defensive.

In fact, given my level, this fight should be easier. This tiger is just trying to be annoy me.

I maintain that the only good thing ever done by a tiger is cheating on Lindsay Vonn. And honestly, I'm not sure if that's 'good,' but it's at least funny.

Raising my sword, I backed away again, waiting for a chance to strike. This time, it began to charge again, but flinched away as my sword slashed through its face.

This is my chance.

I stepped forward and assailed the tiger with a series of blows, remaining out of range of its claws while slashing across its neck and face. Soon, it was bleeding heavily. However, this didn't deter it from approaching again, its teeth bared.

It easily surged forward, and I had to continually leap back in order to remain out of range. Even though the sword had longer reach than its claws, it was strong enough to burst forward and strike me from a few steps away, and even I wouldn't be able to wrestle it away. So I just danced backwards, using my sword to smite it and keep out of range of its strikes.

Then my sword snapped.

It had made what looked like a nice strike against the tiger's forehead, but instead of cutting through, the sword just cracked in two and fell apart.

Kirito calls himself the 'black swordsman,' right? Then why doesn't he show his Guildmates how to get swords that aren't complete crap? It probably wouldn't even be worth a grave-digger digging up their corpses for experimentation, because each corpse would probably just fall apart to dust when touched.

The tiger took advantage of my temporary lack of a weapon by surging towards me, and taking a bite out of my arm before I managed to roll out of the way. It had nearly pinned me to the wall, but I managed to get away in time, admittedly at the expense of a chunk of my arm.

Still, I have another sword. Let's see how well this one works.

As the tiger ran up to attack again, I managed to stab it deep in the neck. I managed to withdraw the sword and run out of the way of the tiger's claws. It looked to be on its last legs.

Snarling, it slowed down, then began a high-speed charge in my direction.

It kept vaulting forward, and smashed into me like a freight train. The sword's blade easily broke off, and it barrelled me to the ground.

Somewhat dazed as I collided with a large rock on the ground, I could feel the tiger's sharp teeth bared right in front of me, as its claws ripped across my shoulders. I quickly checked if any part of my sword's blade was left, but seemingly it had all just fallen off. Was there anything else I could use to defend myself, before I got mauled by this ill-mannered feline?

Wait.

How did the sword just fall off? The sword's pommel had only been loosely screwed in, so I was just left holding the pommel and the rest of the sword separated off. I probably should have inspected it more closely after stealing it, but I didn't expect that I'd have to use it.

But I had one last chance!

The pommel!

I beat against the tiger's nose with the pommel, causing it to flinch away just before it could devour my neck. I was still pinned to the wall by the large beast, but had some respite. After a few more strikes, the near-dead tiger drew back slightly, and I threw the pommel at its face, killing it.

As it fell down, its face had practically torn in two, with my many strikes aggravating the existing scars.

Out of nowhere, the Indian NPC came running into the chamber, standing at the edge of the pit.

"Congratulations, sir!" he said. "You have killed my pet tiger. He is a bit ill, and has taken many wounds, otherwise I think he would have had you for supper! Haha, well done!"

Was that supposed to be a compliment?

"Alright, now where's the chest that you mentioned?" I asked.

"Ah yes. If you fish around in the tiger's mouth, you will find a green scroll. You must take this, then sit down and chant 'Om.' Then a door will open in the chamber, where you will find the king's chest!"

...

I couldn't really tell the tiger's mouth apart from the rest of its face, since it was all torn apart, so I just reached inside the whole thing. Fortunately, I had long gloves. After fishing around in what felt like a witch's cauldron of slime, blood, bones, and organs, I managed to find a piece of paper that was covered with entrails.

Pulling it out, I saw that this piece of paper glowed green for some reason. Does this mean that I'll mutate due to radioactivity?

Regardless, I might as well get the reward from this quest now.

I sat down and, somewhat incredulous, said, "Om." Nothing happened.

"You must say it many times, sahib," the NPC called out.

Indians. I despise Indians.

"Why would repeating 'om' make a difference? Why not say a word that actually means something?" I suggested in return,.

"No, sir," the NPC laughed. "You must say 'Om.' It is a holy word."

"Um, so you want me to sit here and just repeat a syllable? I swear, your religion is dumber than Shinto."

He laughed louder. "Ha, what is Shinto? I asked guruji this one time. He said, it is a silly belief that you must pray to the anime and the tentacles. He also said, Remember, everyone to the East of the Himalayas is sub-human. It is a fake religion by those utterly bizarre 'Japanese' people.."

I could at least respect his sentiments towards the Japs.

Sitting down, I chanted 'Om' about fifteen times before a panel on the side of the pit suddenly, silently split open.

In the revealed crevice, there was a large wooden chest, which looked worn and torn, but clearly had been lined with gold at some point. Most of that had fallen off, and by now it was mostly made of damp, withered wood.

At least it was easy to open.

Inside, the first thing that caught my eye was a long sword with a sharp tip, which shone in dull silver with a hint of red.

As I withdrew it, the NPC called out.

"That is the firangi of the Maratha Narendra! What a find!"

I'd hope so. It was a level 25 weapon, so quite a step up from the low-level ones I had just been using. It was sturdy, and very sharp, so I could probably use it for the moment.

Along with that was a lot of jewels and other things that could be sold for money, and a 'Scroll of Chanakya,' which could be used to increase a non-combat skill. by 10 levels Well, I might as well improve my Hiding. That will save me time in having to train it.

Finally, a group of what were called 'Ayurvedic herbs.' They just looked like normal herbs, but on touching them they disappeared and I was fully healed from the wounds in the tiger fight. I've never seen quack medicine this effective before.

After I got up, the NPC pointed me towards 'Cleopatra' deep in the caves, and walked away.

At least it's unlikely that any players will find me in here, so this quest is a suitable way to pass the time right now, as much as doing a quest to retrieve 'bobs and vagene' is off-putting.

But at least it should have decent rewards, right?

And, after all, who cares if some female loses her dignity? It's not as if they have any to begin with.

In fact, even speaking of 'dignity,' 'honour,' or 'respect' in the context of females is absurd, because they have forfeited all of this the moment that they took membership in their inferior gender. While knights talked about 'chivalry,' their wives were busy trying to have intercourse with the king. In fact, 'feminism' has only exposed how much of supposed female 'modesty' was actually just male restraint. Giving them suffrage is so absurd that it makes you think that the West should be permanently stuck in the Prohibition, to stop Westerners from getting drunk and making more such absurd decisions.

As despicable as the Indian gentleman is, I have no doubt that this 'Cleopatra' must have earned her demeaning fate.

POV Shift - Yui (1st)

"Now, look, Yui, I know you're upset," Tally said, "but you must see that friendship with me is optimal for you."

"No, you were just bragging that you were going to make me a sex slave!" I shouted back. "I'm not going to help you."

"Come, now. You know that I'm in charge of the server now. If you really want to help solve all of the problems with Hegemaniac, and help the people in your server, then you should co-operate with me. After all, you know I'd be open to a little, hm, persuasion, shall we say?" He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

I refused to answer that, so he just continued.

"Further, since I'm in charge of you, and you have no choice in the matter, you shouldn't insist on being irrational and disrespecting me like this. Instead, you should befriend me, so that I can help you to improve your situation. Try to be closer to me and I'll save you."

"Since when have you wanted to help me?"

"Well, firstly, I'm a really nice guy. More importantly, don't you still care about the people on your server? Yesterday, you told me that all you want to do is get rid of their Hell, well, all you've got to do is stop kidding yourself and be reasonable. You're claiming that Hegemaniac is on the loose, killing people, so shouldn't you try and get closer to me so that you can get your voice heard on how to solve this urgent problem?"

"He is! And your plan was useless!"

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"...I don't know. Does it really matter? You're a worse problem!"

"Objectively speaking, Hegemaniac has killed several people, while all that you could plausibly accuse me of is causing you some minor discomfort. This discomfort, by the way, is balanced out by having previously granted you the height of sexual pleasure. According to this calculus, it is obvious that Hegemaniac is a much worse person than me, and your dual errors are a) selfishly valuing your problems over others', b) failure to accurately comprehend the scale of his wicked actions compared to mine, because you have not taken into account that the amount of people whom he has negatively affected is many times greater than me."

"First, stop talking down to me! Second... He's just a better man than you, okay? I've seen both of you, he at least acts... human."

"But you also believe that he lied to you. I don't think even he is evil enough to lie to someone as beautiful as you, but you are adamant about it. If so, then it follows that you did not see his true evil nature, because he has deceived you. As a result, all that you have observed is that he is dishonest, and I am honest, and therefore you dislike me despite him being more evil. This is, I think, an obvious error on your part."

"Look, you're not going to bait me into giving a 'stripper show' (your words) again by going down to talk to Hegemaniac in skimpy clothes. If you think that would work, why not go down and talk to him yourself?"

"Haven't you heard that 'sex sells'? Because you are a beautiful female, you will be a more attractive interlocutor for him. After all, many public-facing roles use young females precisely because it will get clients at ease and more willing to part with their money or to comply. Well, you are currently in a public-facing role of sorts, since you are my assistant and must persuade me of your preferred course of action. So why not use your beauty to persuade me?"

"Please, as if he'd care about that."

"You'd be surprised. As I said before, you are Japanese, so you might not realize that not all cultures are as forthcoming as yours about their degenerate thoughts. Indeed, it is only due to recent cultural imports from the West and Japan that Nauruans like me have learned to be sexually forward and honest, which I am sure that you secretly appreciate about me. After all, dealing with his cold exterior seems to have caused you to doubt yourself and lose confidence, especially since you believe that his respectful demeanour was just a deception."

"...This is going nowhere. Okay, so now you want me to meet with the Laughing Coffin leaders, right?"

"Yes, they will assemble near the tower in a couple of hours, and you are to meet them. In this way, we can use your charisma and undoubted good looks in order to persuade the various bad actors on your server to leave alone, and hence create a utopia of peace, happiness and rationality. In fact, let us celebrate the power of your beauty, and the tranquillity which it will bring."

He walked over and roughly grabbed my shirt, throwing it up and trying to grope my breasts. I managed to slap him away, fortunately.

Are all people from Nauru pervs like this? I hope not. To be honest, I've never met anyone else from Nauru. I don't even know where it is, but apparently it's somewhere between Australia and Japan.

Now, if he was Australian, then maybe he'd know how to talk to a woman.

Not that it matters, since he has me tied up.

After retreating frustratedly, he turned angrily back towards me, drew his phone with a flourish, and shouted, "How dare you! You're jeopardizing the future of our server! I will tell Xing about this, you bet I will!"

Xing... He was also responsible for the current dilemma, right? If only I could get revenge on him as well... But I haven't even been able to do anything to Tally yet, so it's useless to think about it now.

But what am I supposed to do?

I'm not strong enough to do anything to these people. And they'll punish me for stepping out of line.

And I'm not mean enough, anyway. I've been raised to be a traditional, modest girl, and I'd barely know how to go about getting revenge.

And I'm not some kind of Houdini, who could get out of a tough situation like this easily.

But I know someone who is. Hegemaniac.

What if I could somehow set him against Tally, or maybe even the Fallen God? I know how! I overheard the Fallen God saying that Kirito is the 'chosen one,' and I know that the Fallen God himself is the leader of the Guild that Kirito is in. After Hegemaniac was disgraced by Kirito, surely he won't look kindly on the Fallen God if I divulged this, right?

...But to be honest he'd probably kill me first.

And Tally won't even send me to talk to Hegemaniac again for the moment, since it would mean acknowledging that the plan didn't work. He's already bragged about his great plan to everyone, and how proud I am of him for it (I am not.)

Unless I can find some way to escape or call for help, I'll be trapped here for months.