I had reached the point where I could hunt Young Turtles on Auto Mode.
Even better, Tria was triggering skills I hadn't even assigned. It was likely that Inspiration System. I’d have to remember to tell my colleague that such a thing was possible.
"Well, while she handles things on Auto Mode, I might as well check out the strategy Wiki."
Mazel had said it was brand new and lacked content, but it couldn't hurt to look. It would be helpful to find someone playing a scenario similar to mine. I typed "Kite a Lise Wiki" into a search engine, and the link popped up immediately.
The site was basic—a plain white background with a menu on the left and the main display on the right. Usually, the sidebar would be neatly categorized, but as my colleague had mentioned, the organization was a mess. It had bizarre headings like "Discovered Items," "Important Points," and "Mysteries."
A note explained that the "Story" section had been removed because the plots seemed to be unique to each player. I was a bit curious about how other people’s games were playing out, though.
The "Discovered Items" page was almost entirely comments. It was a jumble of vague reports about finding medicinal herbs, swords, or horses—and even one about someone being eaten by a dragon. Names and effects were all over the place.
I checked "Important Points" next, which was mostly filled with death reports. Apparently, dying meant your character was Lost forever, and you were slapped with a twelve-hour lockout penalty.
Losing a character you'd spent hours building was a brutal penalty. I was glad to learn that early on. It was a relief to know my cautious approach to exploration hadn't been a mistake. Some users were venting about dying unfairly right at the start, only to be hit with the twelve-hour lockout regardless. I suppose I was lucky to start with Young Turtles I could actually beat.
In the "Mysteries" section, I found the screenshot of the Gun of Ancient Ruins my colleague had shown me at work. There was no doubt it was him. The page hinted at the existence of Ancient Ruins and a lost Magical Science Civilization. Well, I'd already heard all that, so I didn't need to dwell on it.
There weren't any place names or maps, either. Not that they would have helped; I still didn't know where Tria was currently located.
The only real takeaway from the Wiki was that prioritizing safety was the right move. The site was still far from comprehensive. I decided to comb through the comments anyway. A few players seemed particularly active, like one named Takuro who had clearly lost several characters.
'I died in some nonsensical place right after starting! This has to be a bug! And Character Lost is way too cruel...'
'Plus, the 12-hour lockout penalty is too heavy. At least make it 3 hours...!'
'My second girl, I'll treasure her! Live!'
'Another 12 hours? This difficulty is too Lunatic.'
It seemed he had lost his character multiple times.
Then there was Nekura, who posted frequently on the items page.
'Found a Medicinal Herb. Seems like it healed me when I ate it.'
'This is a Poisonous Mushroom, so you'd better not eat it. It failed the Patch Test.'
'How is it even possible to do a patch test on items in this game? It's a lifesaver to be able to identify poison without eating it, though.'
'Found Rock Salt. Might sell for a high price? By the way, where’s the town?'
'I might as well just build a base in this forest... I'll try to have them cultivate the land using survival manga as a reference. The degree of freedom is too high.'
A Patch Test—that was the method of putting something on your skin to see if it reacted, right? Maybe I should try that with the Turtle Meat. It seemed this player hadn't found a town yet, either.
Finally, there was the player who was definitely my colleague in the "Mysteries" section, using the handle Mazel.
'Check out my kid's SP equipment-o! It’s so cool-o!'
'Look, look! The flavor text! It says Ancient Civilization-da-o!!'
'Everyone should use guns-o! They're so strong-o!'
'Huh? You think they're only good for the early game? Shut up, I’m gonna upgrade it-o!! I’m getting the Gunsmith Skill, just you wait!! It’s not in the game? I’ll find it-o!! This game lets you do pretty much anything-o!! It’s definitely out there-o!!'
There was no mistake—it was him. The screenshot was an exact match, and he used that same bouncy suffix even on the internet.
Wait, was there nothing about SP? Right as the thought crossed my mind, I refreshed the page, and an "SP" category appeared on the sidebar. It was proof that the Wiki was being built in real-time. I clicked it immediately, but it was basically empty. There were headings for "How to Obtain SP" and "What to Spend SP On," but the tables were blank.
A single sentence was written at the bottom: "Seeking SP-related information in the comments."
Well, I’ll contribute. I posted a comment mentioning that I got 3 SP from a level up. I also added that SP could be used to restore lost limbs. I was taking info from the Wiki, so it was only fair to give some back.
Oh, someone else commented that they also got 3 SP from a level up. Looks like that’s standard. A list of SP conversions should be ready in no time.
Auto Mode probably deserved its own section, too. I usually only lurked on Wikis and didn't know how to edit them, so I just left a comment: "We should probably have a section for Auto Mode too."
I decided to keep the bit about exercising strengthening parameters to myself for now, since I was still verifying it.
"Right, I have to tell Tria-chan 'Safety first.' It would be heartbreaking if she was Lost, so I’ll increase our safety margin even further."
I closed the Wiki and tabbed back into the game.
"Wait... what the hell? There are way too many Young Turtle Corpses here!"
The game screen showed a massive number of carcasses scattered around Tria. What on earth had happened?
I checked the log, but it was just a wall of "Defeated Young Turtle" notifications. Looking at the timestamps, the intervals were incredibly short. Since no items had been looted, I could take a guess.
She had been swarmed by a Young Turtle Swarm and slaughtered them all.
Man, she’d really grown strong.