Rimuru who had been restless ever since Kashi entered the restaurant finally walked towards him as soon as he saw the Daeben finished his meal. Yes walking, the guy had morphed to his human form. In the process, he surprised Kushina to the point her eyes went as wide as a saucer. Unfortunately, he was not the first customer to approach the Daeben's table. After all, the cats and the little invisible dragon were already playing with the wolf.
Intrigued, Ludwig focused on him. After all, having someone come to the restaurant through a world inside a game was new. Moreover, the term that Kashi spoke, VRMMORPG, was just something inside a novel or dreams back on his Earth. He was really looking forward to knowing more about it.
"Kashi, is it? My name is Rimuru." The blue-haired androgynous man opened as he offered his hand to the Daeben.
"Nice to meet you, Rimuru." The Daeben nodded and shook his hand.
"Will it be fine for you if I asked you some questions?" Rimuru asked.
"Of course, but only if you are also willing to answer some of my questions." Kashi answered.
"We can do that." Rimuru nodded before he sat on the chair across Kashi. "First of all, I'm really curious about your world. It's an MMORPG game is it? Can you tell me about it?"
The Daeben hummed, then he opened his mouth. "Live No Evil is a VRMMORPG game. A deep-dive game where players from the real world play it with their consciousness. But unlike any other MMORPG, the world inside Live No Evil is always developing. Any changes made by players will have consequences. To give you an example, hunting too many monsters in one place will reduce the population of monsters in that area.
"Moreover, unlike any other MMORPG, Live No Evil has no skill tree for each job. You can be a tanker with assassin skillsets as long as the system is concerned. To simplify it, as long as your body knows how to do something in the real world, you will get it as a skill in the game after doing it a few times."
Ludwig could see Rimuru shaking after hearing Kashi's explanation. To be honest, Ludwig wasn't faring better than him. He had thought that the game would be like SAO at best, still having a clear cut skilltree for each job while the world only offered some degree of freedom. But after hearing what Deaben said, he realized that the game was more similar to that game from a Korean webnovel he had read a long time ago.
But that was not the only surprising thing. The fact that the game could offer such a degree of freedom meant that it was governed by something with enormous processing power. Not only that, it also had to be smart. After all, who wants to play a game where they end up with a hut after spending their time building a mansion full of appliances from Earth?
At that moment, Rimuru's voice could be heard again. "I-It's not a game where your real body will die if your character dies, is it?"
Kashi looked at Rimuru for a fraction of a second with his red eyes before bursting into a laugh. "Of course not! I already made sure it's not that kind of game as soon as the game opened. However, this game is a game where every living being inside has only one life. The NPC—a term which was banned by the devs—will not respawn if they were killed. The player's characters also wouldn't revive, just like them."
"Huh? Then what if the character died?" Rimuru asked.
"The player has to restart from level 1. With a new character to boot." Kashi explained.
Ludwig couldn't help but chuckle at Rimuru's question. But after he heard the explanation from Kashi, he became more and more surprised. The devs of that game were surely a genius. With the freedom the game offered to the players, it simply didn't make sense if they limited the interaction between the players and the NPCs. But by implementing the rule everyone only had one life in the world of the game as well as making sure the players knew that every single action they took would have effects on the world, it would significantly put pressure on any players who were more adventurous against the NPCs.
But as his thoughts reached that point, another question appeared on his mind. Since a player could enter this restaurant, can NPC from that world enter too? However, it was a question that Ludwig would keep to himself for now. His friendship with the Daeben was nonexistent for now, so he couldn't just ask him to bring an NPC to the restaurant just because he was curious.
At that moment, Ludwig looked towards his left as he felt Kushina moved. As their eyes met, Kushina opened her mouth. "How much do I owe you, owner?"
Ludwig willed his system converter to open. After inputting 5 silver coins into the window and thinking about Kushina, the cost got converted to the currency of the Shinobi World: Ryo. "Your total came out at 58 Ryo."
Hearing the total, Kushina fished a purse from her pocket and took out 7 pieces of paper from it. As her hands moved towards Ludwig, she opened her mouth again. "Keep the change, Owner."
"Thank you for your generous tip." Ludwig smiled, which earned him a chuckle from Kushina. Before long, the long-haired woman said her goodbyes to everybody in the room. Of course Ludwig already looked through his restaurant wall towards Konoha. He could still feel the presence of so many observers across the street, but that was not what's important for him.
He was looking out for Kushina. After all, he knew that those observers were split into two factions. The first faction was the ANBU, a faction Ludwig didn't have any qualms against as their one and only task was to protect the Jinchuriki. But if the other faction dared to make a mess in front of his restaurant just because Kushina visited his restaurant, he wouldn't even think twice to step in. The village's politics be damned.
Thankfully, Kushina was able to walk away until Ludwig couldn't see him without any obstruction. But since he couldn't see through every corner of Konoha, he told himself he had to believe that the Hokage wouldn't do anything stupid against their own Jinchuriki.
Not long after Kushina left, Claire also bid her farewell. Then one by one, the customer left the restaurant. Even the Daeben left the restaurant because he was approaching the limit of his playtime. Just like that, the only people left inside the restaurant was Ludwig and Rimuru's party.
"Benimaru, Shuna, Shion, you guys should leave first. I have something important to talk about with Ludwig." After bidding his goodbye to the Daeben, Rimuru said so as he sat down in the bar chair.
"B-but Rimuru-sa–" Shion protested, but before she could finish, Shuna interjected.
"Understood, Rimuru-sama." She then dragged Shion towards the door with the help of her brother. Once the restaurant was empty and silent, Rimuru's face turned serious as he looked straight towards Ludwig's eyes.
"You know her." He spoke.
Ludwig sighed in his mind. He knew this question would come after he smirked at Rimuru after he looked at him when Kushina came to the restaurant. But, seriousness didn't fit Rimuru, so he tried to lighten the atmosphere "She's my customer. She came here a day faster than you." He shrugged.
"You know that's not what I mean." Rimuru scowled.
"Okay, fine. But stop being so serious."
"But this should be a serious conversation." Rimuru shot.
"I know." Ludwig scoffed. "And I'll answer your question. But don't be too serious, it'll only hurt you."
"Fine…" Rimuru relented, his shoulder relaxed. "Since you know Kushina, let me ask you this. What year did you die back on Earth?"
"2021." Ludwig answered. "No, not because of a truck or the isekai mumbo jumbo, I died because of the pandemic."
"Pandemic? What kind of pandemic?"
"It's called Covid-19. A widespread pandemic that supposedly came from China. But in my opinion, they are just scapegoats." Ludwig shrugged. "What about you, when did you die?"
"I died in 2013." Rimuru sighed. "I protect my colleague from being stabbed. That's probably why I got reincarnated."
"Well at least, you die a hero." Ludwig chuckled. "So, what do you want to ask me?"
"Before I ask you my main question, let me ask you something first. Does your world have that ridiculous movie called 2012?"
"It does. It also spreads panic around the world." Ludwig answered.
"I see." Rimuru nodded. "So, there's a chance we came from the same Earth."
"Who knows?" Ludwig shrugged. "I mean, have you read Marvel comics?"
"Oh yeah, forgot about them for a bit." Rimuru sighed. "But anyway… Have you also read a story about me before?"
Ludwig winced. Even though he had expected this question to come, it's still scary when he was asked about it. Of course he could just tell Rimuru he hadn't read any story with him as the character back in his own world here. But, that would only push the matter to a later date. After all, ever since he saw Rimuru walking into his restaurant, he had been thinking about lending a hand to Rimuru's city when they were attacked by the three otherworlders Falmuth kingdom had summoned as well as the royal knights to prevent the death of so many people.
Even though his meddling would change the story quite a bit, he expected Rimuru to still become a demon king after that. After all, the attack that killed Shion, Gobuta, and Hakurou was merely a probe before they declared war on Rimuru City.
"I have read a story about you in my original world. But not fully. It's still ongoing by the time I die." Ludwig told Rimuru the truth. By the time he finished speaking, only silence lingered inside the restaurant. At the same time, the blue-haired guy in front of him was just looking at him with a shocked face and mouth wide open.
But before he could organise his mind and say the thoughts he arrived at, Ludwig added. "Rimuru, identity crisis is Mewtwo's development plot not yours. I mean, what difference does it make knowing about us being created by someone we don't know? In the first place, humans were creatures that were made by God. So, just treat the knowledge that you are made by an author in my world like a theology lesson.
"Rimuru, even though you are just a character in a story back in my earth, know this: The current you are real. The relationship you have built with everybody in your city is real. They are also real. Moreover, this restaurant's door connects to your world. Meaning, the place you lived currently is deemed to be a living and breathing world. No matter who created you or who wrote the plot of your story, it didn't matter anymore. You are free; You are not bound by some fate or prophecy like Harry Potter.
"Moreover, there shouldn't be any restaurant that connects to other worlds in the original story involving you. You know what that means, aren't you?"
Rimuru nodded. "Butterfly Effect."
"Right." Ludwig nodded. "So stop thinking about any useless stuff like questioning your own existence. You have a city to build and a forest to conquer."
But rather than answering, Rimuru just sat there. But Ludwig just let him be. He had done his best, so the rest was up to Rimuru himself. But, he's not worried at all. That guy had the Unique Skill [Great Sage] to help him. He should be back to normal sooner rather than later.
Just like that, the night got deeper and deeper.