"It—it was too delicious! It was practically an assault on the senses!"
And just like that, all that remained was the aftermath of the feast.
Actually, the memory and the experience were still very much there. The taste had been identical to the steak I’d eaten in the game. No, it was natural meat. Wait, in the real world? For real? I actually ate natural meat in reality... It really was genuine, high-grade beef, wasn't it?
I didn't even want to brush my teeth, but I wasn't about to risk a cavity. I tearfully brushed them and decided to head to bed. I'd brag to my colleague about it at work tomorrow. Zzz...
"That’s a little bit like a horror story, isn’t it-o? Are you sure you didn’t just dream it-o?"
"I thought so too, but when I woke up this morning, the cardboard box and the empty paper bento box from the 'Delicious Steak' were still sitting in the trash."
"So it wasn't a dream-o!"
"I’ll admit, I almost wanted to lick the box clean, but you can't blame me for that."
"Seriously-o? Was it really that good-o?"
"It really was..."
It was well worth the SP. And the fact that you could eat it in the real world too... What a god-tier item.
"You should get one too, Colleague. Get the 'Delicious Steak.'"
"...I'll be able to afford a Home soon, so maybe after that-o. By the way, there was a 'Reward Pancake' too, right-o? Do you think that one would show up in the real world too-o?"
The possibility was definitely there... I swallowed hard.
"Still, isn't it kind of sketchy to have someone deliver frozen food as a doorstep drop-off in the middle of the night-o?"
"Well, maybe the game system just tracked my status and timed the delivery for when it knew I was awake..."
"What exactly does that even imply-o...?"
Now that he mentioned it, what did that even imply?
"Anyway, setting that aside, it’s clearly something special. It was a meal that far exceeded the value of five convenience store rice balls."
"Well, a single natural meat steak definitely costs more than five onigiri-o. What’s going on with this game-o? If every player ordered a steak right off the bat, the company would be in a massive deficit-o."
He had a point. The base price of this game was equivalent to five rice balls. Providing a single serving of natural meat would put them deep in the red.
"Does that mean... it wasn't actually natural meat?"
"Have you only ever eaten natural meat in the VR Mode of 'Kite a Lise,' Colleague-o? Maybe it was some new kind of substitute... No, but if it tasted that good, it might actually be more expensive than the real thing in the worst-case scenario-o."
"Y-yeah, you're right. But I want to believe that it was the real deal. I have to believe...!"
Even so, the fact remained that they had to be operating at a massive loss, which made me genuinely worried about the game’s longevity. I didn't want 'Kite a Lise' to shut down because of a deficit!
"In-game purchases... I have to spend more money...!"
"It really makes you want to throw money at them-o! It’s honestly painful that we can't make proper purchases yet-o."
"What would happen if the service ended? I can't go back to my old life anymore."
"It’s definitely worth every cent-o."
After all, this was a life where I could spend three whole days lounging around in-game between shifts at work. On my days off, that time increased to over a week. I really needed to find a way to bring anime and manga into the game...
"By the way, how is Mahariku-san doing? Did she ever get her restriction release code?"
"Doesn't look like it yet-o. If she had, she definitely would have bragged about it-o. Since I told her it exists, she’s probably staring at her inbox waiting for that email from the devs-o."
The restriction release code was something I’d received via an automated email. If they were sent out in waves, she might not get hers for a while.
...
Suddenly, I had a flash of inspiration!
"Wait! This game can be played on a fixed terminal too, right!?"
"Yeah, it can-o. In fact, that’s how I’m playing-o."
"And you can check your friend chat and logs while in the game, right?"
"You can-o."
"Then if it’s a novel, couldn't we just paste the text into the chat to read it while in VR!?"
"!! Colleague, please! Write a script for it-o!"
"You bet! Honestly, it would have been better if we could just use an in-game email system, but this works!"
Since there was a limit to how much text the chat log could hold, it would probably be a process of logging out of VR Mode after every chapter to resend the next batch.
"A genius has arrived-o! As expected of my colleague—the genius engineer-o!"
"Heh. Since ancient times, humanity has found ways to transmit information. We can send letters through Morse code. If we have a chat function, it’s only natural that we can bring a novel into the game...!"
If I developed this further, I might even be able to transmit image data pixel by pixel... probably! Though it would likely take an eternity to reconstruct it on the other side.
"Hmm, sending full images might be tough. Black-and-white dot art might work without taking too much time, though."
"Colleague. If you want to send pictures—have you heard of AA, as in ASCII Art-o?"
"What? AA... You mean the technique of using character glyphs to create illustrations... wait!?"
AA. It was a step beyond emoticons, using the shapes of characters to form complex images. And yes, characters could be sent through the chat. We would be the only ones who could see it, but it was possible!
"If we convert an illustration into AA and then trace the lines over there..."
"There are a lot of limitations, but we could actually bring real-world art into the game!? It’ll work... it can work!?"
This meant we could somehow smuggle both novels and art into the game. My otaku life inside the game was about to get a whole lot better! I could even have a local artist in the game use the AA as a reference to create a proper painting!
"I'll be getting my Home soon too, so I'm going to build an otaku room... I'll make it happen-o! We have plenty of time-o!"
"Ah, but we should check the Terms of Service first. If macros or scripts are forbidden, we’d be in violation."
"Oops, that’s important-o. If we got banned, it would be the end of the world-o. ...Checking the Terms of Service in the real world is going to take forever-o."
"I guess the first long text I send into the game will have to be the Terms of Service then...?"
Fortunately for us, there were no issues at all. Incredibly, this game had no rules prohibiting the use of macros or scripts. Usually, online games strictly ban that sort of thing, but... well, let's just call it a stroke of luck.
Besides, I could just use a text search on the website, so checking the Terms of Service in the real world was much faster anyway. Modern technology easily surpasses manual labor by more than ten times the speed.