Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~ - Chapter 133 – Bucket, are you wearing that!?

Chapter 133 – Bucket, are you wearing that!?

Sixth Arc

The first major update of Frontiers will occur on the 25th of December.

In other words, on Christmas.

Even though it’s a major update, it won’t have a long maintenance, and one will just need to restart the game to be able to play it once the update goes live.

That will be possible because the additional data for the update will already be downloaded in advance in the background, so there isn’t anything that we will need to do in order to play the updated content.

That said, even if some of the updates were announced to the public in advance, there are still many things we need to prepare ourselves for.

For example, the roads connecting to other countries will now become available.

When we create our character in Frontiers, we can choose what country to start at from the three available options.

Originally, most people thought that this was a server choice.

But with this update, we’ll be able to move freely in-between the countries.

In other words, we’ll be able to meet up in-game regardless of what starting country we chose.

At first, there was a growing anxiety amongst the playerbase once this announcement was released though.

Servers being merged is usually a sign of a dwindling playerbase and of a game being close to its death, so many people started worrying about a server merge happening this soon. It’s only been about half a year since Frontiers was released, after all.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case at all.

The development team never said anything about each starting country being located in a different server. It’s quite possible that their intention was to eventually connect all countries from the very beginning.

Since it’s the world’s first VRMMO, they probably decided to wait a bit to do this, in order to see how each country would develop first.

Also, up until now, you could only access the in-game forums of your country, but you’ll now be able to see the forums of the other countries too.

I also did some research on other countries during my mini-retirement, and apparently there are different names for the materials available in each country.

However, there is some sort of compatibility system too, apparently. So one should be able to make the same recipes that they are used to, even when using the materials from different countries.

Though of course, different countries found different Field Areas, so there is naturally some divergence on the types of materials available in each country.

And even without taking this into account, I’m still looking forward to experimenting with the compatible materials, as being compatible doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re exactly the same.

Maybe I’ll be able to create new items by using the alternate version of some of the materials that were available here so far.

That said, I don’t know if the highway to the other countries will be available as soon as the update is released.

I mean, the main theme of the game is Pioneering, so it would be a bit strange if the roads to other countries just opened up on their own.

People on the forums seem to think that we’ll need to do some woodcutting to unlock the path to the other countries.

Well, I plan on taking my time to go there, so this isn’t really a problem to me.

On the other hand, Mika and Hime seem eager to visit the new countries as soon as possible.

Even during my retirement, they kept on preparing various things and are planning to log-in as soon as the update goes live.

And well… It’s going live at midnight of December 25th.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to release an update on Christmas, but… To release it at midnight!? Just what are the devs thinking!?

Because of that, I won’t be able to log-in as soon as the update launch… My time limit has never bothered me as much as it is bothering me now.

But well, I’m still looking forward to it. This update is massive, after all.

Differently from how things usually work in Frontiers, we actually got quite a bit of information in advance for this update.

We usually need to do our own Pioneering and find it out on our own.

But of course, there is no way that everything was shared on the announcements.

It’s normal for this game to have unannounced information on the updates, so people will have to find out the details and share them on the forums.

And slowly, more people will surely find out the details of this update.

Since it’s the first major update, I’m sure many people will be posting new information on the forums.

It can’t be helped that I’ll start late, but it’s still a bit disappointing that I’ll have less time than everyone to search for the things that weren’t announced in advance.

“And that’s why you should send a message to me with all the information you find!” I told everyone.

“Okay, okay. Enjoy sleeping in the meanwhile.” Mika told me.

“I’ll do my best.” Hime told me.

“It’s alright. We’ll still be able to have a lot of fun during Christmas.” Lolita told me.

“I’m free, so I’ll log-in but… Don’t you have any plans, Lalalu?” Lulu asked her.

“If I had any, then I wouldn’t log-in!

“Or rather, isn’t it mean to throw a big update during Christmas!? We can usually try to save our pride by refraining from logging in on this kind of day, but it’s now impossible, isn’t it!?” Lolita exclaimed.

“Oh, sorry… I didn’t know this was troubling you…” Lulu replied.

Once my mini-retirement was over and I logged in, I immediately received many messages and calls from members of Works and other friends who were congratulating me on my return.

And, after finishing the ‘Party to celebrate Bucket’s return’, in which many of my acquaintances participated, I was now in the middle of the first girls-only-gathering in a long while.

A lot of people welcomed me back with warm voices, and I almost cried a bit.

I guess I’m needed here… I’m very grateful for that.

The members of Works even gave me gifts to celebrate my return.

Lulu gave me a huge cake that could easily be mistaken for a wedding cake.

We all ate it together, and it was absolutely delicious. Seems like the results of her research on the sweets of the last event paid off.

As expected of Lulu!

Mukaida gave me a special anvil. It’s not useful to me during crafting, but it looks great as a decoration.

It would be very useful if I ever tried doing realistic crafting though, but since I don’t, it’s just decoration to me.

Mukaida, on the other hand, works only with realistic crafting, so it’s extremely useful to him.

I’d like to try it out at one point though.

Mii and Muu gave me a large amount of Magic Silver and other alchemic materials.

Seems like the two of them want to make a Magic Doll together again, so they already prepared all that in advance and told me to call them whenever I’m ready to make a new one.

… That’s a bit of a specific demand, but it’s still a nice gift.

As for Lolita, she gave me an incredibly frilly work apron.

It’s very cute and shows off Lolita’s preference in full power.

There are also seven different colors available for it, so I can change them every day depending on my mood.

You’re way too enthusiastic about it, Lolita…

A super frilly work apron would be totally useless in real life, as it would get dirty and lose its cuteness in no time, but that’s not a problem in Frontiers.

However, there is still a problem… Namely, am I the one supposed to put this on…?

It’s hard to complain when I look at the extremely satisfied expression that Lolita is making…

And then, the elementary schooler twins who couldn’t read the mood intervened.

“Wow!” Mii exclaimed.

“Woah!” Muu exclaimed.

“Bucket, are you wearing that!?” They asked me at the same time.

The expression on Lolita’s face was indescribable at this moment.

And now I was being pressured by Mii and Muu…

What do I even do with this…? Maybe I can use it as a decoration for my Room?

******

I safely returned from my mini-retirement and the major update was right around the corner.

Like, it’s tomorrow.

I had a lot of fun at the party and at the girls-only-gathering that was celebrating my return.

I was planning on spending the rest of my available time collecting more information about what happened during my retirement, but there wasn’t much that was worth note to me, so I didn’t spend that long on the forums.

So instead, I spent most of the time crafting.

It’s been a while, but my body still remembered how to do it, so I was able to complete steel items with two Options without any issues.

However, it felt a bit weird… I think it’s gonna take some time for me to fully regain my intuition.

I have to get back on track soon, as the update will surely add lots of new stuff that I’ll want to work with.

It will start tomorrow at midnight, but won’t require any maintenance time and all the update data will be downloaded in the background.

It’s quite amazing that even an update as major as this one won’t require maintenance time.

Well, I’ll go to bed as usual regardless, but everyone else seems to be planning on pulling an all-nighter to experiment the update.

I’m jealous of them, but nothing will change even if I complain, so let’s just accept it as it is.

On another note, since tomorrow is Christmas, today is, naturally, Christmas Eve.

In real life, I was even able to eat a cake that were specifically tailored for my food needs.

I was also able to meet my parents for the first time in a while, and it was quite fun.

Next time we meet will be around summer, but I’m old enough to be able to handle that.

If I could go to school, I’d be a high schooler already, after all.

So, I don’t feel lonely just because I can’t see my parents often.

I mean, in Frontiers I can see Mika, Hime, everyone in Works and many other friends! How could I possibly be lonely like this!?

And above all, I can keep on doing my favorite crafting activities…

The production of Magical Formations, that I did for the first time in a long while truly felt wonderful to me.

It was just so much fun!

So let’s draw a bit more… I still have a bit more time before my logout, so…

Just for a bit longer… Just for a bit… Let’s keep at it for a bit more…