"Is that... the bug?"
"First time I've seen one too... Looks genuinely disgusting."
At first glance, they thought it was a slime burned black.
But when they saw the strange noise and the pattern with code written on it, they knew instinctively what it was.
"Is it okay to just leave this?"
"Anyway, isn't there nothing we can do about it?"
After all, even if problems arise, isn't it this place that deals with them?
There was no particular reason to do anything for the newbie in the first place.
"I know, but... what is it? My eyes keep being drawn to it strangely."
Yet, the bug cluster kept catching Newbie's eye.
How to describe it... it looked exactly like a real reward.
"Hey, what are you doing?!"
"Just a sec."
Newbie slowly examined the bug cluster floating in the air.
Then, an item window popped up.
[!@#@!Item$!@%]
[Acquire?]
Except for the name, it was surprisingly a normal message about a reward item.
Gulp.
Newbie decided to take a chance.
"Acquire."
"Hey, hey!"
[!@#@!#Item!#@ Acquired!]
Then, that black, jelly-like, wiggling bug mass stuck right to Newbie's body!
After that, it slowly absorbed itself into Newbie's body.
Churrrrrrrr!
[An error has been detected]
[Automatic debugging mode is activating]
[Error resolved! If other issues occur later, please contact Seeker World support]
Along with this strange message window,
things quickly returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.
"Hey, you okay?!"
"Huh? Yeah? It's nothing, really."
"You'll get sick if you eat weird stuff like that!"
"You've seen this before?"
"No, but still!"
"Oh, come on! As long as I'm safe, right?"
Is it really nothing?
I felt a slight disappointment toward Newbie.
'Oh, I thought I had some kind of amazing power or something...'
Anyway, since he was safe, was that it?
The newbie checked the loot he'd gotten for now.
"Inventory."
[Slime Glue: 32]
[113 Silver]
"Hmm... this..."
The difficulty and bounty were impressive to begin with, but since slimes are just common mobs, they didn't drop much.
"But hey, I caught it anyway!"
"True, that's good enough... Huh?"
Then, something had settled at the bottom of his inventory.
[Elixir (Test Version): 3]
"Elixir? Looks like a potion. Do slimes drop potions too?"
"I wouldn't know."
"But a test item? Not released yet?"
"Huh?"
Below it was a separate item description.
[Elixir (Test Version)]
[Restores 25% of the user's HP upon use]
[After use, resting for a certain period will restore HP equal to the number of elixirs possessed.]
[Caution: As this is an unreleased test item, please ensure it is not leaked!]
[Conclusion: Following discussions between the development and balance teams, it was determined this item would devalue existing recovery items -(omitted)- Therefore, its release has been canceled.]
"Hmm... Now I see why this wasn't released."
It's literally an item that could collapse the game's balance itself.
But why is it in the inventory...
Ah!
'Could this have been the cause of the bug?'
Well, if an item that wasn't even supposed to be released was there, it's no wonder bugs appeared.
"Whatever. The important thing is... I got an infinite potion!"
"Infinite potion? What are you talking about, like juice that never runs out?"
"There is such a thing! Anyway, it's amazing!"
Unable to contain her curiosity, the fairy kept grilling Newbie about the elixir all the way back to the village.
"That's cheating!!!"
Hearing the explanation, the fairy was utterly shocked, realizing just how unprecedented this item truly was.
"Shh! Shh! You never know. If anyone finds out you have something like this, you're in big trouble."
"Ah... .! Shh!"
"From now on, this is our secret. Got it?"
"Yeah. Shh! Shh!"
The walk back to the village felt light.
At first, the village chief didn't believe Newbie.
But...
"Th-this... astrology... It definitely came from the slime... "
"See? Why would I go out of my way to scam you?"
"Hmph...! Guess I have no choice but to believe you. Huh..."
And so, a joyful reward time!
But, behind the room, the gold coin pouch brought by that old NPC was disappointingly thin.
"What is this?"
"What else? It's the promised payment."
'Item Appraisal'
[1,000 Gold]
He secretly decided to level up his Item Appraisal skill, and the number of gold coins inside appeared before the newbie's eyes.
It was a number that made him chuckle involuntarily.
"Even so, isn't removing one zero a bit much?"
The village chief, however, was unapologetic.
He tapped the item on the request form labeled 'Property tax, income tax not included' with his finger.
"Don't you know foreigners face a 300% tax rate to begin with? Add income tax on top of that... plus the hunting surcharge..."
He launched into a lengthy tax lecture while peering through his magnifying glasses.
He rattled off every single tax the kingdom imposed...
"So... the total comes to 1000 gold."
His words were complicated, but the meaning was simple.
Foreigners who didn't pay taxes regularly got hit with all kinds of special tax bombs.
This damn kingdom was a country that was thoroughly unlikable from top to bottom.
The fairy looked like she wanted to dropkick that old man right in the forehead.
Newbie felt the same way, but he held back.
Newbie gave the fairy a look, and the fairy had to swallow her anger.
Then...
"Ah, and take this too."
Thud! Clatter!
A huge gold coin pouch, incomparable to the one before.
It openly stated 9,000 gold.
There were also pouches filled with the village's specialty honey bread and emergency travel rations.
"What's this?"
"While you were struggling for days hunting slimes, the villagers pooled their donations."
"Uh... what?"
"Well, anyway, thanks to you, the village survived. Taxes may be cold, but the warmth of our villagers' hearts is surprisingly warm."
"Uh, um... thank you."
At that, the village chief took off his magnifying glasses and grinned.
"The pleasure was ours. We wish you success on your journey from now on. And please, for heaven's sake, don't wear that bizarre outfit anywhere else."
Along with the village chief's warm(?) advice, he handed over the pouch he had prepared.
Inside was a set of ordinary traveler's clothes.
And so, the two successfully completed their first request.
*
As the newbie and the fairy departed, others arrived.
One large figure among them touched the blackened, crackling grass.
"Hmm..."
"What do you think, Captain? Is it a bug?"
The Devotees' primary mission was usually hunting outsiders—players.
But over the long span of a hundred years, their duties had gradually shifted.
"It's definitely a bug trace."
"We found the right place. But where the hell is that bug..."
Lately, their primary mission had become finding bugs and glitches that destabilized Seekerworld.
"But that guy who went to the tutorial forest shows no sign of coming back."
"That guy? He's got no interest in anything but hunting outsiders... Just leave him be. He'll come back on his own."
Of course, not everyone followed that line of thinking.
Most of the devotees were those who had suffered at the hands of players.
Because of that, most still harbored resentment toward players to this day.
Among them, those with particularly strong grudges would sometimes leave the team to hunt alone.
"What kind of outsider did he see in the forest... Is it okay? Isn't it a dangerous one? Should we join the pursuit?"
"Just leave it be. That's not our problem."
Anyway, things had gotten quite difficult for them too.
Usually, when a bug was found, it took days of purification work. But for the bug to vanish entirely?
"What about the info from the village chief?"
"Heard some traveler took care of it as a request. That traveler left quite a while ago."
"Any word on where they went?"
"Didn't really ask, did they?"
"Ugh..."
"What's wrong, Captain? Isn't it good the bug disappeared on its own?"
"Good? What are you talking about..."
The devotee called Captain grew irritated.
"Who knows what that traveler will do with the bug they took."
"You mean... they deliberately took a bug that was here?"
"That's the only conclusion I can draw."
"But bugs aren't something you can just take whenever you want, right? What would they even do with it?"
"The person who took it definitely knows a lot about bugs and is likely capable of using them."
Captain swallowed hard.
"And, you know, people like that never have clean hands."
"But what could a mere traveler possibly do with a bug? Try to duplicate emergency rations or something?"
Just... how long is this going to go on?
A guy who's clearly been doing this for decades can't be this short-sighted.
The captain sighed heavily and scratched his head.
"Didn't you even consider he might be hiding his identity as a traveler?"
At that, the female devotee beside him, with her orange ponytail, finally looked like she'd grasped something.
"Hot! This is bigger than I thought."
"Seriously... you're just figuring this out now? We need to chase after that guy immediately. Who knows what he'll do with that bug."
Well, it would be pretty unfair if the newbie and the fairy actually heard that.
Anyway, they ended up unknowingly increasing the number of pursuers.
*
They had some money now and had learned a little about the world, but one huge problem still remained for them.
"We're actually going there, but I'm not sure if this is the right way."
"Yeah..."
They knew they had to go to the guild.
But they didn't actually know where the guild was.
No, they didn't even know exactly where they were.
"Should we ask someone who looks decent?"
"Absolutely not."
They couldn't just ask anyone.
Asking about the location of their enemy players on the kingdom's land was essentially advertising, "I'm a player. Come get me."
"Hmm, then what should I do?
"I guess I should go to a somewhat plausible city... Do you know any famous cities or anything?"
The fairy pondered deeply at the newbie's question.
"Hmm... I've heard all sorts of stories. Like a city filled with only strange machines... and a city built on the Whirlpool Sea... Hmm, ah! Come to think of it, I have heard of one!"
With that, the fairy mimicked riding a horse.
"I heard there's a place in the kingdom with carriages that go to any city. A carriage station... or something like that? Not sure what it is though."
"A carriage station? Like taxis or buses? A transportation system... Is that okay?"
"Why wouldn't it be? Let's try it. It's better than wandering around for ages looking for a guild anyway!"
That was true.
Walking around gathering information this way and that also carried a high risk.
If it was going to be just as dangerous anyway, it was better to choose the method that was the fastest and most likely to yield proper information.
'Is this really okay... I feel uneasy. No. Whatever happens, we have to move. Staying still is the most dangerous thing.'
Anyway, once they had an answer, they had to go for it.
The two slowly began moving their feet, setting off to find this place called the carriage station.