Golden Experience

“Oh, that’s right, Boss, that uh… ‘in-vin-tor-ee’ thing from before, tell us more about it.”

“Ah, yes, that’s right.”

Damn, she actually remembered. It’s probably because her INT went up. But what Rare had said before was just something random she concocted because she didn’t feel like explaining it.

“If we could use it too, then we coulda brought this thing back without damaging its hide.”

Now that she looked at it more closely, there were many little tears in the tanuki all running in the same direction. Since it was even larger than Hakuma, they probably had to drag it back here. True, if they had access to an inventory, that would solve this problem perfectly. If all the girls had an inventory, the convenience would be immeasurable. However, the inventory was part of the game system. Players could use it right from the start, but NPCs could not.

For the time being, she could just describe how it felt for her when she used her inventory. If they were unable to understand it, she could think about having them learn [Space Magic] sometime down the line. Not that [Space Magic] had been confirmed to have any particular relation; it was unclear if there was a skill that functioned similarly to the player inventory.

“Let me see… I think I said before, but it’s like there’s an invisible bag that’s either right next to me or kind of overlapping my body. I open the mouth of the bag in the palm of my hand, then I can put whatever I want into it. If it’s too big and I don’t think I can ‘put it in,’ then I can do this and ‘cover’ it with the bag.”

While explaining, Rare put the tanuki pelt into her inventory.

“And like so, it goes in. No need to use force. The bag’s mouth is very large, very flexible, and, well, it’s just a very convenient thing to have.”

It’s something that couldn’t possibly exist in real life; it could only be actualized in a game. Trying to be any more specific would be difficult. Rare felt that her own explanation became increasingly vague and useless the more she talked, but there was no real other way to explain it. She really had no idea what she was talking about anymore, but if she thought of it as deepening her bonds with her followers, then it didn’t feel so bad.

“Vowf!” All of a sudden, Hakuma barked.

Rare blinked in dumbfoundment. The meat that had been laid out right in front of him was gone.

“He didn’t… eat it… did he? Yeah, that’s not… Huh? What the hell? Did he really eat it all?”

Just as she was about to shout at him in anger, the meat appeared in front of Hakuma. She could scarcely believe her eyes, but it looked like he had just taken it out from his inventory.

An NPC—or actually, an ice wolf would probably be classified as a regular monster—had just figured out how to access its own inventory.

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“Hey look! I can do it too!”

Marion cried out next. The white cylindrical things she presumed were the tanuki’s bones were blinking in and out of existence. Rare was having trouble following the situation, but if she suppressed her common sense, then if Hakuma was able to do it, it would follow that Marion could too. The system didn’t discriminate between NPCs and monsters, after all.

She was still reeling in confusion, but Rare started to feel more excited than she ever had before.

It was common sense for only players to have access to an inventory.

However, no player had ever proven that to be an absolute fact.

Normally, one could not prove that something was “absolutely impossible.” This was the so-called Devil’s Proof. There was always the possibility that someone out there could do the impossible but pretended that they couldn’t. During the closed beta, whenever a player used their inventory, the NPCs always reacted in surprise, saying “I’ve never met someone who could do that.” That was why players always believed that only players were able to use that system. And truly, no one had ever met an NPC who could use their own inventory.

However, while no one had encountered an NPC who could use it, that didn’t preclude the existence of one who could.

The idea that only players had inventories was not only held by players, but by all the NPCs as well. It was just common sense. But the catkin girls were different. They had never been taught that “fact.” That’s why they expressed interest in Rare’s use of the inventory and asked to be shown how to use it themselves.

After arriving at this conclusion, Rare felt a shock akin to being smacked in the face. Words she had heard before suddenly came to mind. Those all-important words that the tutorial support AI had imparted:

“To the system, the only difference between PCs and NPCs is whether or not they can receive system messages.”

Rare thought those words were meant to encourage players to be ethical. But she was wrong. They meant exactly what they said.

Anything players could do, NPCs could also do, and even monsters could do.

While Rare was still frozen in shock, Marion and Hakuma were showing off their inventory skills while trying to explain it at the same time.

“Hmmm… I kinda get it… and I kinda don’t… So frustrating, man.”

“I totally don’t understand anything you’re saying. Can you start over one more time?”

As Rare collected herself and observed the others, she suddenly had an epiphany. Hakuma and Marion could use inventory. Since they were able to use it right after Rare explained, to them, her explanation shouldn’t have been that difficult to understand. So why couldn’t Riley or Kerry do it? And not just them, Ginka was being shown by Hakuma, but it was clear that she felt bewildered and a little bit irritated. The wolf pups had all just given up and were playing with the tanuki bones. They had licked all the little bits of meat clinging to them clean off.

Since Hakuma and Marion could use it, that at least proved that both monsters and NPCs were capable of accessing their own inventory. That didn’t necessarily mean that every character had the capability as well, but if not, then what was the difference? Even though neither of them could do it, as far as Rare could tell, she believed that Kerry and Riley probably had some variance in their comprehension.

Perhaps there was a condition that needed to be met. Rare checked her followers’ stats. This was probably it. If it was due to a lack of sufficient comprehension, then the ones who could use it and the ones who couldn’t should have a difference in stats. And that should be INT. Currently, the two with the most were Marion and Hakuma, who had the same INT value. Next was Rare, but her inclusion wasn’t necessary right now, so the next after that were Riley and Remy, then Ginka, followed by Sugaru.

“Kerry, a moment?”

“Sorry, Boss, even though you tried to teach us…”

“No, don’t worry about it. But I thought I would help you out a bit.”

Since Rare was a player, she couldn’t test it on herself, so for the time being she raised Kerry’s INT up to the same as her own.

“Now, can you try again? What do you think? Can you do it now?”

“Ah— …Compared to before, it’s… But, it still feels like I’m not there yet, like I just need a bit more…”

Looks like she had found the answer. Rare increased Kerry’s INT to be the same as Marion’s.

“Ah! I get it now! I need to do this! That’s what I needed! I got it, Boss!”

“Yes, well done! It was worth spending the time to teach you. Next is Riley and Ginka. Can you come here for a second?”

This was it. What allowed NPCs to use the inventory was a high INT stat. However, if that were the only condition, then a lot of NPCs would naturally have figured it out on their own. Since she hadn’t heard of that being the case, either all the ones who could use it were keeping their mouths shut, or there was another condition that needed to be met.

If it were the former, then any NPCs with high INT would try things out when they first encountered it; but if it were the latter, the possibilities she identified as most valid were either “they must be a player’s follower” or “someone who can use the inventory has to explain to them how to use it.” Or perhaps there was a condition of “after learning how to use it, you have to truly believe you yourself can do it too.” And when all the right conditions were met, then NPCs could also access their own inventories.

No matter what the specifics might be, at present, there was nothing left to investigate.

Once Sugaru was completely melted, Rare would have to meet up with her and Remy to raise their INT and teach them how to use the inventory.