In order to get the wolves’ attention, I threw a rock as hard as I could—then the next, and the one after that.
“Huh?”
Every rock connected, and all three wolves collapsed, spraying blood. I hadn’t thought I would make a direct hit. Maybe this bear gear even had aim assist? I flapped the bear mouth open and closed.
It looked like the wolves were dead, so I approached the girl.
“Are you okay?” I called out to her. Her hair was dark; she looked to be about ten years old. I didn’t remember being able to pick that kind of character—she must have been an NPC.
“Th-thank you?” she said.
“Why was that a question?”
“Are you going to eat me?”
“I’m not.”
“Are you a bear?”
I remembered what I looked like and pulled off my hood.
“Feel better now?” I said.
“Oh, yes.”
I tried to pull up her status screen, but it wouldn’t come up. One of two things was going on: the UI that let me get at her stats was bugged, or she was real, and this was actually another world. When I looked at the wolves’ gory corpses, I knew which I’d risk money on.
For now, I decided to talk to the girl.
“Are you alone?”
“Oh, yes. My mom is sick, so I was looking for medicinal herbs.”
“A little girl like you?”
“We have no money, so I was gathering them in the forest because we couldn’t buy them in town. Then wolves attacked me.”
“A town, you say? Is it one that’s close by?”
There we go, I thought, just got some great intel.
“Did you come from another town, miss?” the girl asked me.
“Yeah. I got a little lost; could you lead me to the town?”
“Yes.”
I moved to go, but she stayed in place.
“Are you going to leave these wolves like this, miss?” she asked.
“I figured. It’s not like I can take them home.”
“But it’s such a waste. You could sell the meat and pelts. The mana gems don’t go for much, but they sell too. If we break them down here, they’ll be no great load to take home.”
“I don’t know how to butcher an animal, so that’s not possible.”
“I’d do it, miss. If you don’t mind.”
“You know how to do that?”
She nodded at my words.
“Then have at it. How about we split the profit fifty-fifty? That’d help me too.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yup.”
The girl pulled out a small knife and skillfully butchered the first wolf.
“You’re good,” I told her.
“Uh-huh. I do this for work sometimes.”
She cleanly disassembled the wolves into pelts, meat, and mana gems. We divided the load between the two of us to carry. Life without an inventory screen sure is tough, I thought. In the game I could have just touched the drops, and that would be it.
“Is the town close by?”
“Uh-huh, it is. That’s why I came here to pick herbs.”
“Did you find any?”
“Yeah, but then the wolves attacked on my way home.”
“Well, how about we head out, then…”
I meant to call her by her name, but I realized I hadn’t asked for it yet. She seemed to infer that, though.
“I’m Fina,” she said.
“I’m Yuna. So, how about we get going, Fina?”
After we walked for a while, I caught sight of town walls in the distance. They looked tall, even from far off—way bigger than I expected. They’d definitely be safe from monster attacks in there.
On the way down, I peppered Fina with all kinds of questions. This really wasn’t the game world that I knew. Nothing she had to tell me about the area matched the maps I knew from before the update. It could have just been a new continent introduced by the update, but the more I heard from her, the more likely it felt that this wasn’t the game. I could probably find out more once we got to town. If I didn’t run into another player there, then I would accept this was another world.
Apparently, on top of the toll (only a silver piece, thankfully) and background check, you needed a resident card or a guild card to get into town. When I told her I didn’t have either, Fina told me I could get a card from the adventurers’ guild.
I hadn’t been around long enough to pick up any kind of criminal history, so I would probably be okay. There was still a ways to go until we reached the town, so I checked my status. Huh, I leveled up?
Name: Yuna
Age: 15 Years
Level: 3
Skills: Fantasy World Language, Fantasy World Literacy, Bear Extradimensional Storage
EQUIPMENT
Right Hand: Black Bear Glove (Nontransferable)
Left Hand: White Bear Glove (Nontransferable)
Right Foot: Black Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)
Left Foot: White Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)
Clothing: Black and White Bear Clothes (Nontransferable)
I’d gotten a new skill, too. I checked the rules text.
Bear Extradimensional Storage
The white bear’s mouth opens into infinite space. It can hold (eat) anything.
However, it cannot hold (eat) living things.
Time will stop for objects that are inside of it.
Anything that is put into the extra-dimensional storage can be pulled out at any time.
I’d gotten something like WFO’s inventory. If I put food into my game inventory for long periods of time, the food wouldn’t go bad in there, either. Maybe I was in the game after all? But why’d that functionality come attached to a bear?
“Hm?”
I’d expected the inventory to be empty, but it had money in it. It also contained a piece of paper. I pulled the paper out of the white bear’s mouth and read it.
I brought you that money you held so dear in the real world.
Of course, you can’t use it here, so I’ve exchanged it for this world’s currency.
—God
I was thankful, but…
This tipped the scales from this being a game towards it being a fantasy world again. Still, if this really were another world, then this money would come
