Data.62 – Old Bowman, Libra Trial

“I see. This really does make me think of money.”

It was said that monsters became more active during the night.
And so I rushed into the town of Manimani Hills. To put it simply, it was a high-end residential area.
Compared to the first town, each building here was luxurious and on a different level.
Almost all of them were made with stone. And they were huge.
And together with the lights that started to appear with the setting of the sun, they created a wonderful night view.
If not a million dollar view, it was a million NS view.

“I guess this really is the town where the trial takes place…”

Players were running through the night town and gathering in one area and then scattering afterwards.
Charin was likely in the center of it.
Hmm… I wanted to at least know what the trial was, but if I found out, then I would want to start it.

So I would have to control the urge and log out for now.
I had already played a lot today, and needed to rest my mind and nerves.
A true gamer couldn’t go without sleep.
But, maybe if it was just a little… No, no, I can’t…!
Lo-log out…!

◆　◆　◆

The next morning, I logged in and appeared in Manimani Hills.
Even though it was early, the town was filled with wandering players.
As it was a popular game, there were lots of players, no matter the time of day.
And now I would join them.

I joined the flow of players and started to run. And we soon arrived in front of a brick building.
It…looks like a courthouse.
This trial was based on the Libra sign.
And when I think of scales, I think of lawyer badges…

Surely, this trial isn’t going to be a court battle…!?
It would make sense, since Hatake had said that going in larger numbers wasn’t going to make it any easier.
Perhaps you had to do it solo.

Charin’s costume also seemed to confirm this.
Her blonde hair was in a ponytail, and she wore glasses with a red frame and a tight skirt…
This time, she actually looked the part.
There was nothing fantastical about it, but it was a polished look.

‘Welcome to the Libra Trial-nyon! I’m just going to get this out of the way, but this isn’t about a turnabout trial-nyon!’

Well, of course.
They wouldn’t want to get sued.

‘There is another game for people who want to do that, so go and play that-nyon! Ah, now I’m advertising another company’s game!’

I could hear others muttering, ‘I love those games…’ in the back.
I felt the same.

‘This trial is…about guessing item prices-nyon!’

Question marks seemed to appear over everyone’s heads after hearing this.
Mine as well.

‘The rules are simple! When you sell items that monsters drop, you get money, don’t you-nyon? And the sell price is always the same-nyon. If it’s the same item, you can sell it for the same price no matter the time or location-nyon! Are you following me?’

Everyone nodded.

‘I’m going to set a certain price now-nyon. And all of you will then go out into the town and pick up items that, when added together, have a sell price that matches it-nyon! If you get it right, then you’ll win both the medal and the special reward! If the difference is within 500 NS, then you will only get the medal-nyon!’

Well, this wasn’t all that original either…!
As I thought of such things, she continued to explain the rules.
The only items you could use during this trial were items dropped from monsters in the area.
And there was a clear line that had been drawn on the field so you knew how big the ‘area’ was.
Furthermore, it had to be items picked up during the event.
So items you already had did not count.

‘The price I am setting…is 10,000 yen…not! 10,000 NS-nyon! Now, the trial begins-nyon!’

After hearing this, the players started to scatter.
But as this was not a competition with other players, there was no need to rush… Or that was what I thought until I went out into the field.

“There are so many people…”

It was no wonder. After all, you could only go out hunting in this area around the town.
Normally, it would not be considered a small area, but it sure felt that way during an event with so many players hunting at the same time.
Of course, this meant they had to fight over monsters.

In NSO, if a monster was defeated by multiple players, the drop items and money was distributed based on the amount that each player contributed.
In other words, someone couldn’t just come in and deal the final blow to a monster that was already weakened, and take the item drops.
So, unless you could deal a lot of damage quickly, it would be difficult to get any items at all.

However, if you could acquire a lot of items, then this event would be easy to beat.
Because you could look up the price of each item.
You could try selling them or just looking it up online.
And based on that information, you could choose items that have an exact total of 10,000 NS.

Of course, I’m sure that Charin was aware that could happen.
And so it had been made to be a little more difficult.
The real difficulty of this trial was not really about finding items with the exact price in order to perfectly balance the scale.
It was about being able to hunt monsters.

After all, Hatake and Peta had said that it was easy.
Hatake would just need to cast buffs on Peta, and she could use ‘sound’ to deal damage to monsters through wide area attacks.
Even if it wasn’t a lot of damage, as long as it was enough of a contribution, then they would receive drop items.
Like this, she just needed to walk around the hunting ground and blow her trumpet as the items came in.
Depending on the situation, this could result in fights with other players. However, it seemed that such behaviour was practically expected for this trial, so it was probably fine.

But I wasn’t capable of such sly hunting methods. However, hunting was a good match for someone with a bow and long range.
The two had told me that it should be easy for me. And I wasn’t about to prove them wrong…!

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