A Basement-Dwelling Loser, the Inquisitor – Chapter 3

〔Death〕

“Ahhh!!! What the hell?!!”

Tuni’s scream echoed through the air.

In front of her was a system message announcing her death.

─Please don’t curse ㅠㅠ

─Wouldn’t it be better to just quickly go to another town?

─I’ve never seen someone do basic quests for three days straight, lol

─Was Tuni always this scary…?

─Return the pure-eyed Tuni ㅠㅠ Return the pure-eyed Tuni ㅠㅠ Return the pure-eyed Tuni ㅠㅠ

“Ugh… How can I not curse…?”

It was the third day since Tuni started in New Dimension.

She was still trapped in one of the starting towns, Barley Town.

The reason was needless to say, the self-proclaimed Inquisition Officer swinging a Warhammer at her every time they crossed paths.

While harvesting barley, she got smashed three times. Gathering herbs in the back mountain, four times. Wandering the streets, six times. Hunting wild boars, eleven times.

That was how many times Tuni’s head had been cracked during her New Dimension adventure.

“Honestly, come on… one of you must be behind this, right? Otherwise, it just doesn’t make sense! Huh?!”

Once you start, New Dimension gives you basic quests designed to help players adapt to the game.

And a beginner who just starts goes through these quests to adapt to the game’s basic system.

…In fact, considering New Dimension boasts a high degree of freedom, it wouldn’t really matter if you didn’t do the quests, but after having her head cracked twenty-four times over three days, Tuni was determined to persist with the basic quests out of sheer stubbornness.

─If that’s the case… I guess that’s love too…

─If it’s a sniper, then they’re pure evil, lol

─I heard that guy is famous in the New Dimension community for smashing priests’ heads first.

“Really? So it’s not just sniping; he does that to priests? …No, that’s even worse!”

─Looking at how Tuni keeps getting her head smashed, does that mean…?

─In times like these, just spam “lol” for real, lol

─For real, lol

─Couldn’t she just go to a different place?

Tuni pinched the bridge of her nose as she looked at the chat window, which was giving her a headache.

‘This isn’t a good trend…’

Of course, regular viewers enjoy watching streamers suffer.

Most of the chat being cheerful right now is for that reason.

But if the same pattern keeps repeating, naturally, it would start to become boring.

For someone like Tuni, who was already a bit of a hapless character, this was one of the situations she wanted to avoid.

Comments like “Couldn’t you just go to another town?” had begun to pop up, and now Tuni also wanted to slowly avoid repeating this situation.

Of course, if she followed that advice and went to another town, it would all be resolved… but the issue was that Tuni’s ridiculous pride wouldn’t allow her to flee.

However, the problem was that Tuni didn’t believe she could defeat that “Inquisition Officer.”

Clang, clang.

“…Ah.”

So, how was she supposed to overcome this situation?

What method was there to not get killed by the self-proclaimed Inquisition Officer without running away…?

As Tuni pondered such thoughts, once again, the ominous sound began to echo.

The heavy sound of full body armor that had engraved death into her body.

Running away was impossible.

Even though she wore full body armor, the disparity in levels made the opponent’s speed far greater, so even if she tried to run, she would be caught and her head would be smashed quickly.

“…Excuse me!!! Can we have a chat for a moment?!”

In the end, Tuni chose to talk.

She attempted to engage in conversation with the terrorist who had smashed her head twenty-four times.

〔The Inquisition Officer has requested a 1-on-1 conversation.〕

“…Huh?”

★

There was no particular reason behind it.

The other priest looked like a newbie who knew almost nothing about New Dimension, and she thought that if it was someone like that, there was still an opportunity for repentance.

“Um… hello?”

As the soft female voice rang in my ears, I quietly typed on my keyboard.

[Inquisition Officer: Hello]

“Ah, is my voice uncomfortable for you?”

[Inquisition Officer: Yes]

[Tuni: Then I’ll just communicate through the chat.]

Upon affirming the question, the opposing priest also switched the means of communication to chat, perhaps to accommodate her.

It seemed she was quite a kind person, trying to adjust to others even without needing to.

Why had someone like this become an Inquisition Officer…?

[Tuni: Could you tell me why you keep killing me?]

[Inquisition Officer: You’re a heretic.]

[Tuni: Huh?]

[Inquisition Officer: You’re a heretic.]

Why was she asking such an obvious question? She could tell just by looking at my nickname.

Well, considering the heretics I had seen until now, that could be a natural reaction.

Heretics hated acknowledging they were heretics to the death.

And regrettably, it seemed this person was no different.

[Tuni: Could you explain why I’m a heretic?]

[Inquisition Officer: Because you are a heretic.]

So I told her directly that she was a heretic.

Someone with a firm belief wouldn’t understand their mistakes, even if I spoke around it.

It was only possible to point out their mistakes honestly and clearly in order to open up any potential for understanding.

[Tuni: Is it because my job is a priest?]

[Inquisition Officer: Yes.]

I was right; my path was not wrong.

The last priest player I met had refused to acknowledge until the end that he was wrong, which had made things difficult.

[Tuni: But isn’t it rude to kill someone just for playing the priest class made for the game?]

[Tuni: More than that, there is a separate job for Inquisition Officers, so it seems like you’ve misjudged your concept as a traveler…]

Ah, it wasn’t that simple.

This person was clearly someone who had been firmly misled by falsehoods.

[Inquisition Officer: Be quiet.]

[Tuni: Huh?]

I immediately ended the 1-on-1 conversation and swung my long-time friend, the Warhammer.

Kkang!

Someday, I hoped this person would recognize my goodwill…

★

If someone asked why I started New Dimension, I wouldn’t have a good answer.

I had been captivated at first glance seeing the scenes presented in the New Dimension PV, so what more explanation was needed?

Still, that simple reason brought thoughts of living expenses to the forefront of my mind, so if I were to add another reason…

Hmm. As someone who was always holed up at home, some level of going out was necessary, so I decided that method would be New Dimension.

The purpose of going out is usually to see new sights you’ve never encountered before, right?

So, just being able to travel in this vast world meant going out.

Moreover, since this was virtual reality, just connecting to New Dimension meant I could get the effect of going out directly in reality.

What a perfect logic.

In my past life, in that other world, and even now.

As someone who had always lived as a reclusive hikikomori with bad health, this allowed me to take care of my health.

Yeah. If it’s for my health, spending as much as this is acceptable, right?

Well, to be honest, this body is blessed by the goddess, so I’m always healthy without having to manage it… but let’s say this has fully resolved my mental health.

In other words, now I am invincible.

〔I hope this world is the world you dreamed of….〕

After finishing character creation and choosing the starting town, a flash of light shot through, and a new world unfolded.

The vast plains and the refreshing wind, the golden barley swaying in the breeze, embodied the phrase “A sky high and horses fat.”

This was Barley Town, the place that signaled the start of my fantasy life.

“…What should I do first?”

With such questions, as I looked around, an arrow appeared above my head.

Was this arrow indicating the direction I should go?

First, I decided to follow the arrow without a plan and looked around.

The golden scenery was truly beautiful, enough to captivate me once again into this world.

But… why were there so few people around?

It wasn’t like there were no people at all.

There were NPCs managing the barley in the fields, and I could occasionally see other players.

However, no matter how I thought about it, the number of players was way too low.

Could it be because the servers were split by country?

But that couldn’t be, since I heard that over a million pre-registrations were already surpassed just in Korea last time I checked.

…Who knows?

I’ll have to look for information in some gallery later.

Anyway, following the arrow, I arrived at my destination… in front of an old man.

〔Talk to the Village Head!〕

“…Huh?”

What the hell.

Am I supposed to talk? Me? To the old man… the Village Head right in front of me?

Why not just hunt a dragon instead…?

The company that made this game clearly didn’t understand human emotions.

There could be people struggling to converse with others. They need to consider that too!

What should I do with this?

“Ah, seriously…”

…There’s no choice.

After all, that’s not a real person; it’s an NPC, so I shouldn’t worry about it.

Taking a deep breath. Slowly and steadily. Yes. I can do this.

“Um, um, ah…. ”

[Oh, you must be the one here to help!]

“Ah, yes…”

[If you could go to the field behind and harvest a bit of barley, that would be great!]

“Okay…”

After that, the only thing I could do was nod my head in understanding while keeping my gaze down.

★

I can’t talk to people.

It’s not that I don’t talk; it’s that I can’t.

It’s not a matter of personality or past life influence or anything.

Well, maybe a little, but that’s definitely not the biggest contributor to my declining communication skills.

This was all because of my job in that other world.

In that world, I was an Inquisition Officer.

What I did… simply put, I hunted heretics down and smashed their heads after capturing them.

Then I would send them to the priest for healing, and if they didn’t repent, I’d smash their heads again…

After repeating such deeds, I became uncomfortable looking at other people’s faces, leading me to avoid eye contact.

Adding to that, other priests avoided hanging out with me because of my unusual hair color, and with such habits forming, the opportunities for me to talk to someone diminished more and more.

Ultimately, I became the perfect picture of a reclusive hikikomori Inquisition Officer, unable to even make eye contact or talk with anyone.

Worse still, continuing that lifestyle led to bad habits forming…

In the end, all I could do well was smashing heads.

Even those heretics who had their heads smashed acknowledged it. They claimed it didn’t hurt at all when they were shattered.

…But thinking about it like this, aren’t I someone who shouldn’t be on Earth?

I mean, I’m not exactly wishing to return to that other world.

Anyway, it means I can’t talk to people, and that applies to NPCs in this virtual reality world as well.

Virtual reality is indeed reality…