To conclude, Chris did indeed have two bodies.
"Oh my goodness."
[Yin-Yang Master 'Christwo' (Online)]
-Rain, is it Palman's house? Wait a moment! Unnie will be there soon!
"What kind of nickname is this..."
I was disgusted by Chris's terrible naming sense.
Is it 'Christwo' because it's Chris unnie's sub-character?
Even the sub-character is a Yin-Yang Master?
"Wah!"
"Ah, sorry."
I started soothing Elaine who began whimpering in my arms.
Rock rock.
"Kyaha!"
The baby smiling constantly in my arms was too cute.
"What should I do..."
I looked at Elaine's face in a dazed state.
I love babies so much.
"Huhu, it seems our child likes Miss Rain."
"R-really? Haah... She's so cute."
"Miss Rain is cute too... Kukuk, right?"
"?"
The elf woman who was muttering to herself for a moment made an expression as if something was funny for some reason.
The elf woman who half-raised her body from the bed I was sitting on is Palman's wife. She said her name was Rachel.
"Since she's the child of Auntie Rachel and Uncle Palman, she'll surely grow up to be an incredible beauty."
The captain of the elf guards, Palman, seems to be busy these days. He was dealing with users in the meeting room, leaving his postpartum wife at home.
These days, users are carrying out missions to deal with surrounding demon remnants or protect the elf forest by receiving requests from Palman.
"It's a reputation work, huh."
It's work to fill the elf kingdom reputation, one of the entry conditions for the Tree of the Abyss. It's a path already passed by vanguard users, but now regular users have started to enter the elf forest in earnest.
After clearing the Tree of the Abyss, the elf forest was fully opened to users. Of course, there weren't none among the users who stood out, but they soon disappeared.
If you become hostile with elves, you can't even receive the Tree of the Abyss quest. But if you maintain good relations with elves, you can receive consumables that help with conquering the Tree of the Abyss or new part items like belts.
The initial conquest of 'Tree of the Abyss', Astria Online's first raid dungeon, has ended. The names of three raid parties were engraved in the glorious record of the initial conquest team's clear over a full 2 weeks.
No Name raid party, Red-White raid party, Scada raid party.
Strategies were established by members of all Named boss clear raid parties, and video lectures were uploaded on streaming sites.
But.
I smiled slightly.
"It's not easy, huh."
There still haven't been any additional clear raid parties.
In a way, excluding me who used a cheat key, and Red-White who went with my information and Chris as an outstanding raid leader, the 'Scada raid party' who achieved the third clear without receiving any information and without any strange users could be seen as a truly amazing raid party.
"Oh, the hero has come."
"Hello."
I bowed my head to the white-haired male elf who entered the house, brushing aside the leaves hanging on the door.
Palman smiled looking at me.
"It makes me feel good to see the hero and our princess getting along well."
I scratched my face.
Palman is the only one who calls me a hero in this world now. I felt strange every time I heard him call me hero.
I entrusted Elaine, who had started to fall asleep, to Rachel and stood up.
"It's about time my friend will arrive."
"You'll come often, right?"
"Yes. Probably at least once a week, I think."
Even if we start adventures in other regions when the next expansion pack opens, we need to come here once a week to clear the weekly raid dungeon 'Tree of the Abyss'.
I lightly touched Elaine's chubby cheeks as she slept in Rachel's arms.
"Little Elaine, you have to listen well to mom and dad, okay? Big sister Rain will go to work."
As I came out of Palman's house, footsteps were soon heard.
Tap tap.
"Hm?"
Cute little footsteps.
They soon approached my side.
Who is it?
I was supposed to meet Chris unnie.
I turned my head towards where the footsteps stopped.
Chris is tall at over 170cm, quite tall for a woman.
Me? I'm over 30cm shorter than Chris. I have to look up at her.
Usually, when I turn my head and look up, I can see Chris's face.
"Eh."
There was no one in the empty space I looked up at.
Instead, a strand of red hair was swaying in that position.
I lowered my head.
"Woah."
"Rain!"
A familiar voice.
A confident smile.
Brilliant red hair.
It's definitely Chris unnie.
And...
A petite figure...?
Slightly shorter than me?
A cute face?
"Ooh..."
I took a small step back.
Who are you?
"It's, it's me! Chris unnie!"
A familiar but slightly younger voice flows from the mouth of the girl who became flustered.
"...Chris unnie?"
"Sniff sniff, Rain didn't recognize me!"
The red-haired girl made a tearful face. It's the tearful face that Chris unnie usually makes.
But making that expression with that face.
Thump.
"Huh!?"
I clutched my chest.
So cute!
Of course, a cool unnie is good too.
But this is something.
Swish.
My hand started moving on its own.
And it grabbed a strand of red hair swaying above little Chris's head.
"Rain?"
A puzzled look appears on Chris's face.
Fiddle fiddle.
After fiddling with Chris's hair for a while as she stood demurely, I grabbed her head and hugged her to my chest.
Hug.
"Ah!?"
Chris, who was flailing in confusion in my arms, soon calmed down.
I gently stroked little Chris's head with a dazed expression.
"Unnie, you're cute."
Chris muttered with her face turning bright red.
"...They said I could gain an advantage with this character customization, it was true."
Heading towards the Tree of the Abyss with Chris's sub-character named 'Christwo', little Chris, I asked what I was curious about.
Why did Chris unnie become little Chris?
"What about the synchronization rate?"
The synchronization rate would drop a lot if the body shape changes a lot.
Little Chris puffed out her chest.
"You know the new capsule we tried at the last offline meeting? It's part of the real-use synchronization rate test."
"Oh."
A capsule that can dramatically increase various sensations. If that is distributed in the market, users will be able to enjoy much more realistic games.
Currently, 'Astria Online' limits the synchronization rate to 20%. With that capsule, even if the synchronization rate decreases due to body shape, it's still around 20% anyway since it can raise the real-use synchronization rate.
The voice felt slightly younger, but it's still Chris's voice. No matter how much character customization you do, you can't change the voice of the base body. Is it sounding a bit younger because the throat is smaller with the young appearance customization?
"Obviously, this customization is based on my body too. Of course, it's my appearance from 10 years ago. It's Bae Merong's handiwork. Amazing, right?"
"Oh, really."
Pat pat.
"...More than that, why do you keep patting my head?"
"Ah, sorry."
I gently lowered my hand that had been unknowingly patting little Chris's head. Instead, I held little Chris's tiny hand.
Unnie was really cute when she was young.
I felt like I understood Chris's feelings when she kept patting me. Is this what they call putting yourself in someone else's shoes?
Tap tap.
Tap tap.
In front of the Tree of the Abyss where we arrived with Chris, familiar faces were seen.
"Oh, Chris-nim, Rain-nim. ...Gasp!"
"Heheh, how is it? I told you to look forward to it, right?"
"Chris senior, you're really amazing. You said you like cute things, but to think you'd become cute yourself."
"Hmph. I'll only log in with this when running weekly raids with Rain anyway."
The Elementalist with the face of Disappointing, the Red-White guild's Ranger, swallowed hard. The pink-haired Yin-Yang Master and the Swordsman who looked like Cherni openly giggled.
"Disappointing-nim's sub-character is an Elementalist. Uncle Cherni is a Swordsman, and Bae Merong unnie is... a Yin-Yang Master?"
"Yeah. How is it, pretty good right?"
Bae Merong twirled around in place with the yin-yang jade floating around her.
Even though it's a sub-character, her face wasn't much different. Of course, the same goes for Chris. She just became cute and small.
"Sub-characters."
I fell into thought for a moment.
You can run weekly raid dungeons, daily quests, etc. as many times as the number of sub-characters.
It's not that I haven't thought about it, but.
"Somehow it feels less realistic."
At this point, I fully understand that this world is a game, but still, the idea of me becoming two people felt somewhat repulsive. I don't know how my character's bug-like synchronization rate would work with a sub-character either.
Chris walked up proudly and glared at Disappointing while chattering.
"What are you looking at? I'm your always grumbling raid leader, you know?"
"Ah, um. Well... Ahem, you're cute."
"Do you want to get kicked out of the party!?"
"Kugh, I'm sorry!"
Disappointing, who had been looking at little Chris curiously, got scolded.
"Me, Rain, Bae Merong, Ko Seungwoo, Disappointing, Cherni. Okay, everyone's here. The other six will be people from other raid parties."
A total of six people from the Red-White raid party gathered in front of the Tree of the Abyss. It seemed not all raid members raised sub-characters.
"What about Uncle Deathly Death?"
"He's busy, you know. He is raising a sub-character, but the level is still low."
"What's the nickname?"
"DarkIsDark."
After briefly exchanging pointless conversation, we soon saw a group of parties approaching us.
At the center of that group was a tall beauty with light brown hair.
I let out an exclamation looking at her.
"Oh, a pretty unnie."
"Ugh."
The idiot hair on little Chris's head stood up. Guard mode?
The tall beauty who approached us introduced herself with a refreshing smile.
"Raid new team 2, please take care of us. Huhu, I'm Scada, the raid leader of the 'Scada raid party'."
"Oh."
So this person is Scada, the raid leader of the Scada raid party that cleared the 'Tree of the Abyss' third.
Scada looked alternately at me and Chris, her eyes shining.
"This is Rain-nim? As I heard, quite cute... And, Chris-nim's sub-character? Oh my, huhuh. Chris-nim, really."
Swish.
Little Chris blocked in front of me.
And she growled.
"Grrrr!"