On TV

Somewhere on a beach in Iberia...

"Stare..."

Vane faced off against a powerful enemy with a grave expression, while his opponent looked utterly calm.

"...What a powerful aura! With that art style, could you be the legendary Scribbled War God?!"

"..."

The enemy twitched its tentacles. Vane tensed, but it merely drifted in another direction.

"Damn it! Even for a Seaborn, isn't looking down on me like this a bit too much?!"

The Seaborn twitched its tentacles and drifted even farther away.

Vane put away his scythe and curled his lip.

"That's weird... Why isn't anything attacking me?"

He scanned the surroundings. The beach, which had been dry land just moments ago, had been swallowed by the tide.

Quite a few miniature Seaborn and Dreadfish flopped about on the shore, yet they showed no reaction whatsoever to Vane's arrival.

Not only that, some of the Seaborn even shifted aside, making room for him.

Curiously, Vane crouched down and poked the Seaborn beside him. It still showed no response.

"Hiss—"

Vane straightened up with a headache.

He had arrived with Immortal Body active, fully expecting to go on a killing spree the moment he was attacked.

Yet after waiting for ages, apart from the initial commotion, they had not reacted at all.

"Friend~ Move a little, will you? You're making this difficult for me."

Bored out of his mind, Vane poked the Seaborn he had been bothering for ages once more.

It still had no intention of attacking. It shifted a few more inches away, as though silently urging him, If you're going to sit, then sit. Stop disturbing my sunbathing.

"Tch, boring."

Vane stood and looked around. More and more miniature Seaborn and Dreadfish were washed ashore by the tide, flopping and wriggling around his feet.

Yet toward him, an outsider who had suddenly appeared here, they displayed an almost indifferent... tolerance?

The feeling was far too bizarre. It made his skin crawl.

"Something's wrong... Don't tell me all the Seaborn suddenly went vegetarian?"

Muttering, Vane held out his index finger. Several bright red drops of blood fell into the shallow water at his feet.

The next instant, the Seaborn that had been ignoring him all froze, turning in unison toward where the blood had fallen.

Even the Seaborn that had drifted away came floating back, its tentacles reaching toward the blood.

Without showing it, Vane activated his skill, ready at any moment for a possible attack.

However, the battle he expected never came.

The Seaborn did not attack. Only the small Seaborn at his feet—the one he had been poking—extended its tentacles and collected the blood.

Vane's expression turned rather strange.

These Seaborn... why did they look so much like pets waiting to be fed?

After hesitating for a moment, he deepened the cut on his fingertip, letting more blood well up and drip down.

This time, the Seaborn around him slowly gathered, carefully using their tentacles or mouthparts to draw in the blood mingling with the water.

There was no fighting, no chaos. Their orderliness was enough to make his skin crawl...

"So it really is..."

Watching the absurd scene, Vane muttered to himself.

"Are these Seaborn being raised by someone?"

Even he found the thought ridiculous.

What normal person would keep Seaborn as pets? Those traitors from the Church of the Deep, maybe...

Seeing more and more Seaborn gathering around him, Vane immediately stopped supplying blood.

The Seaborn stopped as well, quietly remaining where they were as they waited for the next feeding.

After quite a while, once they confirmed no more blood would fall, some of the Seaborn slowly approached Vane. Their bodies wriggled, and they actually spat out chunks of flesh from inside themselves.

"Hm?"

Vane picked up a slick chunk of meat, cold and slimy against his fingertips.

Seeing that he had accepted their offering, the Seaborn that had presented it returned with the others to their indifferent state of drifting along with the waves.

That eerie, almost "transactional" behavior suddenly reminded Vane of a plotline he had seen in the game—Saltwind City.

That place had been infiltrated by the Church of the Deep. Its ignorant residents offered "sacrifices" to the sea, and the sea... returned "food" that sustained their lives.

A disturbing suspicion surfaced in his mind.

"No way..."

Vane's expression darkened as he looked over the beach.

Soon, he noticed a thick wooden stake standing conspicuously at the boundary between the shallows and the sand.

Blackened from years of soaking in seawater, the stake still bore dark brown stains that had long since dried and hardened.

At its base lay several frayed lengths of hemp rope.

"..."

Vane controlled his bat swarm to lift him into the air and flew toward the stake.

However, the moment he came within a certain distance of it...

The previously quiet Seaborn all became restless. They turned and locked onto Vane, radiating a danger completely different from before.

Vane immediately stopped and looked down—

Centered on the stake, a huge circular mark was faintly outlined across the sea and sand within a radius of about ten meters.

Some kind of boundary...

Vane cautiously flew forward a short distance. The instant his body crossed that invisible circular boundary—

"Splash—!"

All the Seaborn surged at him like a tidal wave!

Vane immediately retreated, leaving the circle.

Every Seaborn froze in place and returned to that indifferent, vacant state, as though their aggression just now had been an illusion.

"..."

Vane narrowed his crimson eyes and stepped forward again, placing one foot inside the circle.

The Seaborn erupted!

He swiftly pulled his foot back out.

The Seaborn went still.

"Oh, I'm inside~"

Vane said lightly, swinging one foot back and forth across the boundary.

"And now I'm out again~"

"..."

The Seaborn collectively entered a state of confused lag, their bodies beginning to twitch and shake uncontrollably.

Some even collided with one another because they could not process the rapidly changing signals, plunging the scene into utter chaos for a moment...

A prankster's smile appeared on Vane's face, but the gravity in his eyes did not lessen in the slightest.

Damn it... Could it really be what I think it is?

As Vane hovered in the air, deep in thought, Gregor's furious shout suddenly rang out in his mind.

[Gregor: Third, Fourth, get home now! I found something incredible!]

[Vane: Boss... even if you put it that way, there's no way I can go back right now! It's enough for you alone to bear Second's affection!]

[Gorth: Boss... you might not believe it, but I really am busy right now.]

[Boss: Image]

Vane froze. The image showed—

A small blue tablet TV. Where its screen should have displayed an image, it instead showed the electronic emoticon "QAQ."

"Hiss—"

Vane sucked in a sharp breath.

[Vane: Isn't that Ten Percent Off? Boss, where did you find it?!]

(Its pet name really was Ten Percent Off.)

[Gregor: It got stuck in the gap between the couch cushions...]

[Vane: I'm coming back right now! What about you, Third?]

[Gorth: I really am busy over here...]

[Vane: Once upon a time, there was a person who had a friend...]

[Gregor: Get back here already!]

Vane cast one final glance at the stake below, silently committing it to memory.

"Forget it. I'll go see Ten Percent Off first and come back tonight..."

With a flash of light, his figure vanished completely from the skies above Iberia's beach.

As his vision recovered from the blur of spatial teleportation, something hard slammed into Vane's chest before he could make out the safehouse.

"Beep! Beep beep!"

"Wow! Boss, look! It can even jump!"

Vane instinctively reached out and caught the unknown object in his arms. It felt cold and smooth, like metal.

Looking down, he met an electronic screen displaying a simple "(＞﹏＜)" made of glowing dots. Two metal supports below it were still wobbling uneasily.

"So it really is you..."

"Beep!"

At the sound of Vane's voice, Ten Percent Off's screen instantly changed to an excited "(☆▽☆)."

Its two little metal legs kicked wildly through the air as its entire body rubbed itself against Vane's chest.

[This thing... is your pet?]

After thinking for a moment, Vane nodded.

"I remember specifically bringing it along while farming red weapons during a sale event. After that... I guess I just never took it off."

Vane set Ten Percent Off on the ground. The moment it landed, the little thing ran behind him and cautiously peeked out with half its screen, staring at Gregor and Ifrit.

"Why haven't we ever seen it come out before?"

Vane asked curiously. He truly did not remember Ten Percent Off appearing after they had crossed over.

Gregor pointed at the couch by the wall.

"I bent down and saw something glowing inside. When I looked, I found this little guy stuck in the gap between the couch and the wall."

Vane looked down at his feet. Ten Percent Off's screen promptly switched to a teary-eyed "QAQ."

"So you've been stuck there this entire time?!"

"Beep! Beep beep!"

The "QAQ" on Ten Percent Off's screen rapidly shook from side to side, as though it were shaking its head.

Vane asked tentatively, "You didn't get stuck there yourself?"

Ten Percent Off's screen immediately bobbed up and down.

"Then why haven't you come out?"

"Beep!"

Ten Percent Off suddenly ran toward the couch on its skinny little legs and tried to squeeze back into the gap.

Gregor simply moved the whole couch aside.

There was nothing behind it but a bare wall and a poster.

Ten Percent Off jumped furiously beneath the wall, its screen changing to an upward arrow, "↑."

The three watched its strange behavior in confusion.

The next second, beneath their astonished gazes, Ten Percent Off's body flickered abruptly before vanishing!

[It disappeared?!]

Gregor hurried closer to inspect it. Ifrit stepped forward and waved her hand through the spot where Ten Percent Off had vanished, but touched nothing.

Vane, however, stroked his chin with a thoughtful expression.

"Wait... this spot... I think I remember there being an Easter egg here in the game..."

He walked up to the wall and carefully examined it.

The wall was completely bare, save for an electronic poster for Cool House.

He reached out and carefully touched it...

"Buzz!"

Vane's figure flashed and instantly disappeared.

"!!!" x2

Gregor immediately stepped forward and pressed his palm against the spot on the wall where Vane had vanished.

"Buzz!"

Ifrit likewise went over and pressed her hand against it, but nothing happened...

In the empty hall, only Ifrit remained, standing there in disarray.

"You didn't even let me play with you!"