Your Commander-in-Chief – Chapter 188

“Helena…”

Helena glared at the empty spot where the GM had just disappeared, her eyes filled with fury.

It seemed she was more enraged by the fact that someone had taken what was originally hers than by the revelation that most of her Transcendence Stones were duplicated items.

Sure, she did get back a massive amount of Gold she had used, but…

“Why were you carrying so much with you?”

“Alt characters…”

“Alt characters?”

“I was saving it for you and me to use when we level up our alt characters… just in case we needed more, I thought I could lend you some…”

Goodness… where could I find such a sweet person like her?

To hoard that massive stash of Transcendence Stones for a character that might never even get created…

I moved next to Helena and hugged her tightly around the waist.

“Thank you…!”

“Hmph…”

I could feel the soft belly beneath her red robe.

I stayed snuggled in Helena’s embrace for a good while.

But then I started to worry. The dungeon might be blocked for now, but fixing the bugs would require shutting down the server for a patch.

Yet, the Announcement didn’t mention when the patch would take place.

“Hmm…”

“U-Um, over there…”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Did I hold her for too long?

That soft belly felt so nice that I must have unconsciously rubbed my cheek against it.

I pulled away from Helena and chuckled lightly.

This kind of skinship between friends wasn’t a big deal, right?

Right?

Helena was rubbing her lower belly and mumbling to herself.

It seemed the feeling was quite strange for her.

Leaving her to her mumbling, I climbed up to sit on a half-collapsed marble pillar.

I wanted to re-read the letter I had set aside in storage.

An invitation from the pros…

There wasn’t much time left to respond to this invitation.

Applications for the Event Battle had to be in by tomorrow.

In other words, I had to reply to this letter by tomorrow as well.

If today’s raid hadn’t gone so smoothly, I wouldn’t even give it a second thought.

“What are you so deep in thought about?”

“Oh, I got a letter.”

“What kind of letter…?”

Helena approached me, asking.

I lifted my head slightly and looked up at Helena.

Because of her large chest, her face was partly hidden from view.

I could only see her forehead since we were too close.

“I got a letter from Deron.”

With that as a lead-in, I shared the contents of the letter with Helena.

“Are you thinking of going out?”

“I’m pondering it right now. If the raid had gone smoothly, I would have just given up…”

“Why not go and check it out? It’s only on the weekend anyway.”

“I just wanted to focus more on the raid.”

“But it’s not like our raid party is gunning for a perfect clear, right? The other party members will understand.”

“Really…?”

“Yep.”

Helena’s words made my ears perk up.

Could it really be true?

“I’ll check with the other party members first.”

“They’ll all say to go for it.”

“But if the raid check finishes quickly, I will give up.”

“Then do that.”

I nodded at Helena’s suggestion.

Now that the topic was brought up, it was time to ask directly.

I typed a message in the group chat where the party members were gathered.

I asked if it would be okay for me to join the VRS Event Battle happening over the weekend.

I added that if I participated, we wouldn’t be able to continue the raid during the event.

The reactions weren’t bad.

Some said that if the Party Leader wanted it, that was all that mattered, while others said they would order chicken and enjoy the event from home.

I swallowed a small groan as I read those messages.

While they might say that, they could be thinking differently deep down.

What if our Party Leader just up and left for another game without focusing on Deron…

I too had entertained similar thoughts in the past.

When was that again…? In my previous life. So when I was Harang.

There was an incident when the leader of our raid party suddenly decided to enter an FPS tournament, effectively leaving the raid half-abandoned.

That situation had sparked an uncontrollable rage in me, leading to the creation of a new raid party with those who chose to follow me.

The now “former” party leader had loudly proclaimed that I had stolen his members, but once the trust was broken, a party leader loses their voice.

In the end, I took over the raid party he had once led.

This raid party has Harang too.

Even if we live in different worlds, he is Harang. He was me.

He might steal my current party members just like I did back then.

I bit my lip.

What should I do? Go out and confront Harang?

No, if he truly intended to retaliate, I would be defenseless as a powerless girl and would probably get beaten up badly.

I would get thoroughly thrashed. Harang wouldn’t show any mercy just because I was a girl.

In that moment, I thought of a good idea.

If I conducted an anonymous vote, I could get a grasp on the party members’ feelings.

If even one person disagreed, I wouldn’t participate in the event.

With that thought in mind, I initiated an anonymous vote in the chat.

“Hey everyone, I’m starting an anonymous secret vote. If any of you are against this, please vote X!”

With 39 others in the chat, I set the voting window to a short five minutes.

And so the countdown began.

Until the voting was over, nobody would know how many votes were cast in either direction.

“Do we really need to vote for this?”

“Yep, something scary might happen.”

“Hmm…”

I smiled softly at Helena, who tilted her head in confusion.

People’s hearts are fickle, and many can change their minds as easily as flipping a palm over.

There’s no such thing as unchangeable relationships. Even the closest of friends can drift apart over insignificant troubles.

Five minutes later, the voting results were revealed.

To my surprise, all 39 other members had voted O.

Unanimous. My participation in the Event Battle was settled.

“Whoa…”

“Everyone’s trusting you.”

“I-I’m a little moved…”

I never thought the party members would think of me like this.

Even the new recruits were considering me.

Looks like I truly am blessed with good relationships this life.

“Are you just going to keep sitting here?”

“Huh?”

“You need to reply saying you’ll participate in the Event and go check out VRS.”

“Oh, right!”

I hurriedly began writing my reply to the letter.

[I’ll participate in the event!]

As I wrote the letter, I thought about how the GMs in Deron were busy running around this vast world, recovering duplicate items.

Wasn’t the GM who had sent me the letter too busy to even see this mail?

But contrary to my worries, a quick response from the GM came back.

It was filled with gratitude for my participation in the event, along with a special code to use in VRS, as well as the date and time for the event.

*

I received everything I needed to start the game.

I asked Helena for her understanding, and promptly logged out of Deron.

With nothing to do until the patch was finished, I planned to dive into the game called VRS for a little taste.

Virtual Reality Swordsman

Shortened to VRS

As the title suggests, it was a game of clashing swords against swords in battle.

No need for easily accessible information from review videos or guides.

The true essence of the game is something you learn through direct experience.

I immediately began installing the game.

It took just over a minute for the installation to complete.

Truly, we lived in a fantastically advanced world of computer science.

As soon as I started the game, a large text appeared before my eyes.

[Virtual Reality Swordsman]

Against a slightly dark-toned background, crossed swords produced a lively sound.

In stark contrast to Deron’s bright and cheerful backgrounds, this project had a darker and weighty vibe.

Upon starting the game, the first task was predetermined.

Choosing a nickname.

Naturally, I moved my hands to enter the nickname I always used in Deron, Yeo.

[Duplicate nickname.]

What, this isn’t allowed? Seems a single-character nickname isn’t allowed after all.

Then how about yeon?

But once again, the same message popped up.

I frowned.

yeon11111

In a fit of frustration, I rapidly pounded the number 1 behind my nickname.

And just like that, the nickname was successfully approved.

It was a rather lame nickname, but since this was an event-driven experience, I wouldn’t be logging back in after this.

Nicknames aren’t that important.

With that done, it was time to create a character.

I carefully examined the characters that appeared before me.

Knight.


Viking.


Samurai.


Assassin.


Butcher.


Paladin.


Gladiator.

Seven characters shimmered in front of me.

From the videos I had seen, it seemed like you could switch characters mid-game, indicating that the game likely involves unlocking other characters by fulfilling certain conditions later on.

There was a short description of each character’s advantages, along with their default skills and equipment at the bottom.

What caught my attention was the Samurai character.

As the name suggests, the Samurai wields a katana, making it a quintessential Japanese character.

The armor they wore was a fit representation of what Japanese warriors donned in historical times.

A middle school girl Samurai?

A middle school girl wielding a katana, how could I resist?

I didn’t hesitate and picked that character.

Suddenly, a system popped up allowing me to set the character’s physique and stats.

The default setup was that of an adult female.

The basic stats for the Samurai were as follows:


Strength: 10


Agility: 10


Stamina: 10

With plus and minus buttons next to the stats, it seemed like I could distribute the total of 30 stats as I wished.

Yeo had mentioned that the most important stat in VRS was Strength.

I redistributed one point each from Agility and Stamina and added it to the Strength stat.

[Warning! The maximum allowed Strength for this physique is 12.]

It seemed there were limitations on the Strength stat based on the physique selected.

With a frown, I adjusted the character’s appearance to match reality.

The defined height was now set to 145cm.

From an initial height of 177cm, it had dramatically shrunk.

[Warning! The maximum allowed Strength for this physique is 6.]

“Whoa…”