Time Zone Mysteries

"Ohh, we're back, yo."

"That felt like an instant."

We'd returned to Wantos. It felt like five seconds, but travel time must have passed since it was already completely dark.

When I messaged Penpen via friend chat that we'd returned to Wantos, she suggested meeting up at the Adventurers' Guild. Of course it's the good old Adventurers' Guild.

"Welcome back! Man, I spent a whole day enjoying VR today!"

"We're back, Penpen-shi, yo!"

"We're back… huh?"

Wait, what did Penpen just say?

"I think I just heard 'a whole day.' We only fought for about an hour at most, right?"

"Yo? It was definitely a day in game time, yo."

"Huh? After you two left yesterday, I just played around normally in VR. Did some cooking practice too, and before I knew it a whole day passed, so I was thinking of logging out soon. Oh, I made cake. You'll eat some, right?"

… Hmmm?

"W-wait a sec, yo. I'll cancel VR real quick and check the time, yo."

"Yeah. I'll step away for a bit. Oh, but save the cake for me."

"Oh, sure."

And so I canceled the VR display… And the time was.

… Yep, it's still evening on my day off. Judging by how my stomach feels, maybe two hours at most. Not much different from how it felt. In fact, the hamburger steak is still sitting in my stomach, and I don't feel the need to use the bathroom.

When I looked at my mobile device, the three of us were gathered at the Adventurers' Guild tavern.

Oh. My delivery arrived… what is it… ah. The VR gear. I forgot to cancel it…

Since time wasn't an issue… I re-entered VR to eat cake.

"I'm back. Man, that was a scare."

"Phew. Good, only an hour passed since we left yesterday, yo. Looking forward to Penpen-shi's cake, yo! What kind is it, yo? Hurry up and bring it out, yo! Hurry hurry!"

"Welcome back… Ta-da! Strawberry shortcake! I made the whipped cream from scratch! I tried making it by hand without using recipe creation mode, and it was super hard!"

Penpen set a classic strawberry shortcake with whipped cream on the table, already cut into six pieces. She then placed the slices onto small plates and set one each in front of me and Alto.

"… Um? So Penpen, you played for a whole day after we left?"

"Yep! Man, today was fun. I wandered around and ended up buying all sorts of stuff at the general store! Then I found sugar, and there was milk, eggs, and strawberries too. At that point I just had to make cake."

Hmm. I cut a bite-sized piece from the cake in front of me and speared it with my fork. A fluffy texture. Then I brought the white cream and yellow sponge to my mouth.

"Wh-what is this smoothness?! Compared to this, real-life cake is like a hedgehog! I always thought cake's sweetness stabbed at your tongue. This one spreads smoothly and fluffily throughout your mouth!"

"Delish, this is delish, yo! I could eat this forever, yo!!"

"Hey, Alto. That's how the steak incident happened, so take it easy."

"Hehe, I'm happy you like it! Makes it worth making!"

… Phew. That was delicious. I want more, but I learned from the steak incident that it's best to stop at "wanting just a little more."

Now then.

"… Is this game not just cutting consciousness, but also accelerating it?"

"The strain on the brain… Wait a sec… Mm, I checked and there's no sign of that? Also, when I left VR, it was properly nighttime."

Hmmm??? Wait, so Penpen started during the day? Time zone difference?

"I want to ask something, answer if you can. Is there a time zone difference? Penpen, where do you live? Actually, what's today's date?"

"Ahh, auto-translation is really good in modern online games, huh. I'm from ■■, and the date is ■■■■."

"What?"

"The country is ■■■ and the date is ■■. Year ■■■■… There's static?"

"Why is there a filter on dates too? This makes no sense."

All I could hear was static-like audio, completely indecipherable.

"… This is way beyond illegal tech or whatever, yo! Spacetime is getting warped, yo! Is this special relativity or something, yo!?"

"I know, right. Well, it's a bit late for that…"

"It really is…"

"You guys have pretty thick skin, yo?"

Alto glared at us with half-lidded eyes, but it wasn't really worth arguing about.

"I'll just accept that's how it is. Analyzing the principles is the job of big-shot scholars, not mine. I just remembered that."

"… Mmm. I'll just think of it as a mysterious game made by gods, yo. Anything goes, yo…"

"God exists on the internet. People have been saying that forever, right?"

"That's a different meaning, yo. Well, that's fine, yo."

"Yeah. I decided to just enjoy things without looking too closely. I stopped thinking."

"You don't need to know how a mobile device works to use it."

Penpen said as she shrugged. Regardless of how it works, we're still going to play this game.

"Huh. That movement just now… Penpen-shi, are you using 3D display, yo?"

"Yep. I switched to it for realistic cooking and left it that way… This is basically a real body at this point."

"Right, yo. But the ethics filter won't let you touch girls, yo!"

"Shower scenes get cut too."

"Oh, I found a workaround for that. You can enter the bath if you keep your clothes on! It felt a bit weird though!"

Penpen, why would you even try that???

"Huh? In 3D creative games, isn't it common sense to feel like you're taking a bath without changing your skin?"

"That's true."

Like in block-building games where you make a pool, put furnaces underneath, and go "It's a bath, yay, splash!" I get it.

"But this is a major discovery, right? It means if we can equip swimsuits, we can have an even more realistic bath experience!!"

"!! Wow. I didn't think of that."

"As expected, Penpen-shi is a genius, yo…!"

"The problem is, right now swimsuits get classified as underwear or undergarments… needs more research."

"I'll fund the research. I expect a world-changing discovery."

"It won't be easy, yo."

Our next goal was decided then… oh, speaking of goals, that reminded me.

"Oh yeah, after beating the boss, we unlocked a second character. I wanted to work on that too."

"Same here, yo."

"Huh? Really? Congrats! Maybe I should have come along?"

"No, you made the right call not coming, Penpen. You would have died instantly."

"Was it that dangerous?"

"It was dangerous, yo."

But even though she wasn't at the scene, in terms of contribution, Penpen was probably the MVP. The potions, the bombs, the equipment.

"The debuff recovery potion saved us, yo. We would've lost without it, yo."

"Glad I could help! Oh, what about the Great Turtle materials?"

"The body turned into particles of light and disappeared. All that dropped was this."

I handed Penpen a deep blue crystal. Hmm, maybe I should just leave it with her. Penpen has a Home and all.

"Hmm, 'Water Element'… I don't know what it does. Maybe you can make an elemental weapon? Oh wait, it's marked as important, so I can't use it as crafting material."

"From the name, it sounds like we need to collect other elements too?"

"Probably? I think Tria should keep it."

I was thinking of leaving it with her, but she gave it back.

"Oh, I also picked up a stone like this at my starting point. Take a look while you're at it, it might be related?"

"Oh, this is just peridot ore. No special effects. It's not even that expensive as a gemstone."

"So it's vendor trash. Then it's just a collectible… I'll give it to you, Penpen. That's not enough to cover your payment this time, so I'll also give you the materials from the turtles we hunted along the way."

"Oh, nice! I haven't tried jewelry making yet, so this'll help me level up! Oh wait, if I add decorations, maybe it'll count as a swimsuit…!?"

"Oh, yo! If you need ore or gems, I'll go mine some, yo!"

And so, while many mysteries remained, we had our next goal.

… I wonder what the second character will be like? I'm looking forward to it!