That Slap

"Uh... well..."

Hades looked at the man standing before him. Bare-chested and solidly muscled, he stared at Hades warily, as though he might jab him with his pitchfork at any moment.

If this man was an NPC, his expressions were far too vivid. The uncanny valley effect existed in games, too, and to avoid it, YGGDRASIL kept NPC expressions from becoming overly lifelike.

But in Hades's eyes, everything about the man before him—from his hair to the tiniest twitch of his muscles—looked utterly real. A chill ran through him.

"Could you tell me where I am?" Hades asked. In the game, NPCs responded to players' questions with preset lines and actions.

So after exchanging a few words, Hades would have a rough idea whether he was still in a virtual world or had somehow ended up in reality.

"Who are you?" Emmet asked again, his voice growing stern despite himself. His eyes flicked discreetly around the area. Though it was nighttime, the land around them was flat, with nowhere to hide, so he figured the boy had come alone.

That didn't mean he could let his guard down. He needed to judge from the boy's answer whether he was a bandit.

"Tch... So it really is a virtual world." Hearing the man repeat the same question, Hades clicked his tongue. He'd already decided he would sue the manufacturer of his nanotech device.

YGGDRASIL couldn't possibly have ignored the laws on the books and secretly activated its realistic sensory function, which was meant for medical use. So the most likely explanation was that his device had malfunctioned. Maybe it had happened just as the game's shutdown was delayed, or perhaps this was some sort of prank beta test for the second installment. He'd have to investigate further.

"Damn, this is so unlucky. I only logged in to say goodbye to the naïve but hard-earned days of my youth, and now I've run into a device malfunction and some new game experience event the developers are running."

But the man's next words left Hades stunned.

"Game? What's that? I don't know what you're talking about, but can you leave? You're not welcome here. If you don't go, I'll have to deal with you!"

Emmet had no idea what the boy meant. To him, the boy seemed like an idiot, rambling about things he couldn't understand. But that didn't matter. He just had to send him away.

"Huh?" Hades stared at the man. A sense of dread suddenly welled up inside him. The NPC's reaction was not what he'd expected.

"If you don't want to get hurt, leave. Otherwise, I'll show you what this pitchfork can do!" Emmet brandished the pitchfork a couple of times.

Judging by the boy's build, he was scrawny and weak, no match for Emmet. He didn't seem like a bandit, but having a fool pester him would still be a pain.

"Who's there?"

Just then, a woman's voice came from behind Emmet. Hades saw a young girl in light clothing peeking out from behind him.

She had golden hair and brown eyes. In the dim light, Hades could make out her wheat-colored skin. She looked young.

She watched Hades curiously, blinking her eyes. She seemed very lively.

"Why did you come out, Enri? Get back inside. This fellow might be crazy." Emmet kept his eyes on Hades as he lowered his voice and spoke to his daughter, Enri.

Though Emmet had deliberately lowered his voice, in the quiet of the night, even the faintest sound carried. Perhaps he didn't care if Hades heard him.

"Huh?" Enri looked at Hades in surprise, then timidly withdrew her head.

Hades stared blankly at the two of them. Then, without warning, he slapped himself hard across the face. The sharp crack made Emmet and Enri look at each other in bewilderment.

"Not an NPC?" Hades muttered, rubbing his cheek. He'd hit himself with nearly all his strength, and it had almost brought tears to his eyes. That pain had definitely exceeded the thirty-percent realism limit on his nanotech device.

"Listen, kid. Let's make one thing clear: I don't want trouble, and I hope you don't either. Just leave, and I won't bother you." Emmet nudged his daughter farther into the house with his body, his words carrying a warning.

Carne Village had no defenses and no patrols. Though it was far from the city, it lay close to the Great Forest of Tob. The village sat on the edge of the Wise King of the Forest's territory, so monsters didn't come to attack it.

As for bandits and thieves, they were even less likely to show up. There was nothing here worth taking, and even bandits had to consider whether a job was worth the effort.

Emmet had almost never faced a situation like this, so he was nowhere near as calm as he appeared. If he'd known how to handle it, he wouldn't have come outside to investigate in the first place.

Seeing that the man seemed about to retreat inside, Hades hurriedly called out in the blink of an eye, "Wait! I'm a traveler from a very faraway place."

"A traveler?" Emmet stopped his slow retreat toward the house. "Can you prove it?"

"Prove it?" Hades thought for a moment. "Doesn't the nonsense you thought I was spouting just now prove it? Those are greetings from my hometown."

"Hmm? Even slapping yourself?" Emmet asked, eyeing Hades suspiciously.

"Uh... well... don't mind that. It's just... a personal habit." Hades awkwardly rubbed his nose. It would be far too strange to claim that something like that was a greeting from his hometown.

But as soon as Hades finished speaking, Emmet and his daughter Enri both took a step back, their eyes filled with fear and pity.

"Wait, I mean, it's not... it's not... Uh... I don't do that all the time... so... please don't get the wrong idea. I'm a normal person," Hades hurriedly explained.

Though it was hard to believe and seemed almost unreal, that slap had convinced Hades that even his top-of-the-line nanotech virtual device couldn't simulate pain like that.

And Emmet and his daughter's reactions had been nearly flawless, nothing like the stiffness of NPCs. Their expressions, mannerisms, words, and actions were just like real people's.

YGGDRASIL absolutely couldn't have NPCs like that.

So... he really had ended up in reality. But... where was this place? It didn't seem to be in YGGDRASIL, and it certainly couldn't be Earth. If there were places like this on Earth, capitalists would have seized and developed them long ago.