“Now, starting from me. I’m Zaria. Since my abnormalities was 3 to begin with, I normally look like this anyways. I guess that’s it for my introduction. No one’s required to hand out any more information than necessary. I’m sure everyone will be participating in the event after this.”
“Of course.”
The first introduction went to Zaria.
Aside from her hair resembling succulents and a couple of thorns sprouting from her left shoulder, she seemingly wasn’t very cursed.
Her weapon… was the sword on her waist and the small buckler, I assume.

“Then, my turn right? The name’s Blakuro. Usually, I’m a proper dark wolf from the bottom up, but right now, I’ve just got dog ears and a tail.”
“You’re really Blakuro? The one that’s our teammate?”
“Yep, that’s me.”
The second person was a black-haired man, Blakuro.
He appears to be a werewolf.
Supposedly, he’s around the same age as me, but he somehow seems frivolous.

“Next up is me, Shirowhi. I haven’t changed much either. Ah, I’m also Blakuro’s little sister in real life.”
“Oh, really?”
“I didn’t notice it myself before this morning though.”
“I realized but kept my mouth shut.”
The third person was a woman with white cat ears and a tail, Shirowhi.
Apparently, she was Blakuro’s younger sister.
She was most likely a high school student or somewhere around there.

“I’m Onga and well, I don’t really have any features that stand out? I usually look about the same too.”
“That’s true, Onga is kinda just as is.”
The fourth person was a muscular name named Onga.
He had horns growing from his head and his hands were wrapped in taping.
His age seemed to be… in his 30s?

“Same with me. My name is Octohead and by the way, this is with 2 abnormalities.”
“So your one curse is an octopus head? In a way, you could consider that an appearance fraud.”
“I’d have to agree.”
The fifth person was Octohead, a man with the head of an octopus.
Since he’s an octop-… cephalopod, maybe he doesn’t have any internal organs in his stomach?
Might want to put that into consideration when going up against him.

“… Rokkuo. My body is usually covered in stone.”
“Yes, Rokkuo, thank you for everything you usually do for us. Also, you seem a bit restless.”
“It feels so different from usual I can’t help it…”
“Ah, you have high abnormalities? I was startled when I first came here too.”
“If anything else, I’m glad you agree.”
The sixth person, Rokkuo, was a man that had crag layered over the skin of his arms.
I can relate with that feeling of restlessness.
I’m also experiencing a sense of uneasiness since my field of vision was limited.

“People call me Noumaki and I play as a peddler. I look about the same as usual. Ah, I’m also not participating in the PvP event.”
“I think you picked up the wrong merchant.”
“You’re a swindler, aren’t you.”
“How horrible~, I’m a paying customer.”
The seventh person was a tall man with lizard-like limbs, Noumaki.
His tone had a unique intonation to it but it didn’t seem natural, so perhaps it was a part of his roleplay.
Speaking of peddlers, were they a little… separate from production-based jobs? Like a middleman or wholesaler?

“Last one’s me then, I’m Taru, a real life acquaintance of Zaria and my abnormalities is 19 so I look… actually, I guess it’s not too different currently. Normally, from an outsider’s perspective, I’m pretty sure I look similar to a fairy of sorts.”
“Chuuuu… Chua!?”
I introduced myself last.
At any rate, Zarichu, who let out a strange cry, was punished and silenced when I gave the rim of my hat a strong pinch.
I get that you have a lot to say regarding how different I’m acting compared to how I would usually act, but there’s still things I can and can’t say.
Immediately after I introduced myself…

“””19 abnormalities!?”””
“!?”
“Well, I figured it’d turn out like this.”
Aside from Zaria, everyone was shocked.
So, I went through the same discussion I had with Zaria before all this.
Come to think of it, everyone else in this room was a ordinary player with 5 abnormalities or less.
Having 16 abnormalities or more really makes you stick out like a sore thumb… Ah, it’s suddenly gotten harder to interact with them.

“Alright alright, let’s just leave it at that. No matter how rare Taru is, I have no intentions of allowing anyone to be rude to my acquaintance.”
“O-oh. My bad, Zaria.”
“S-sorry, I couldn’t help it.”
Zaria went ahead and stopped them for me.
Well, even though I said stop, the only two that were aggressively approaching me were the juvenile-looking Blakuro and Noumaki while the rest seemed to have taken a step back.
Even Rokkuo was surprised for a bit before he settled down and began looking at the equipment in the room.

“Sorry Taru, we didn’t mean to startle you or anything.”
“N-not at all. I mean, compared to the guys I encountered right after I logged in here, it’s not really a big deal…”
“What do you mean?”
Ah, while I’m at it, let’s bring up what happened before I linked up with Zaria.
Since that stuff could involve not only me, but Zaria and Shirowhi too as well.
With that in mind, I spoke about it.

“I see, so we should be mindful of it just in case.”
“Yeah, better to play it safe.”
“Those guys are beyond help. This isn’t the place for that kind of thing.”
“Seriously. Taru, was it? You weren’t in the wrong at all, it’s usually the initial response that matters with this stuff.”
“That really rubs me the wrong way.”
“Y-yeah for sure.
“Makes sense…”
Anyhow, I received support from the women in the group and those who seemed older were understanding too.
For some reason, Blakuro was the only one who was averting his eyes from me… Well, whatever. I have a feeling he’s able to get away with it because of how he is.
He’s probably the type to stop after a warning or two.

“Welp, I’ve gotta excuse myself. People are meeting up with each other and looking to supply up before the event so it’s a pretty good time to make some money.”
“Alrighty then, I’ll make it so you can re-enter the room at any time, so put it to good use.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
At this point, Noumaki exits the room.
Apparently, he’s going out to make money, befitting of a peddler.

“So what should we do? All of us here are participating in the event, but there’s still 3 hours left before it actually start.”
“Good point… we could gather some more information on the bulletin board to double-check the rules, and there’s supposedly some sort of prelude or opening ceremony that management has planned…”
“Ohh me me! Since it’s a festival, how about we head out to the front. I heard there were gonna be mock battles there that we could watch so why not take a look?”
“Hoh…”
“Heh…”
Mock battles, huh.
I wouldn’t want to expose my cards beforehand so I wouldn’t join in, but I might wanna sneak a peek at other players fighting.
I have little to no knowledge of what the average player’s like, or how skillful they usually are after all.
So I shot a look of approval towards Zaria, who was gauging our interest.

“Alright then, let’s head down there. Keep in mind though, if any trouble pops off, we should immediately disperse. I’d rather not have any negative occurrences happen right before the actual event.”
“Ah, I’ll lend you my mantle since it seems like you’d stand out with the way you look, Taru.”
“Thanks Shirowhi.”
“No problem.”
On that account, we’ve ended up deciding to make our way towards the square where the mock battles were held.
I guess at least with Shirowhi’s hooded mantle, my eye won’t attract much attention and I’ll be able to look over my surroundings more calmly compared to before.

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