A surprise attack!

Suddenly, a figure leapt out of nowhere towards them. Nepgear was barely able to register what it was before it lunged at her. She was able to tell it was a girl, but nothing else before Uni shot it in the head. It fell, grabbing onto Nepgear's sock, which vanished with the NPC right before her eyes.

"Um...what?" Nepgear said.

"What...happened to your sock?" Ram asked.

"It's just...gone!" Rom said.

"Oh yeah, I should probably mention." Vert suddenly spoke up. "If the NPCs touch your clothes, they disappear." That statement left all of them in silence for a bit, before-

"WHAAAAAAAT?!" Uni and Nepgear said in unison.

"Yeah, your clothes are basically your armor. If you lose all your armor, you lose. The NPCs can remove your clothes by touching them." Vert explained, as if what she was saying wasn't at all very lewd. "The same goes for them. If you shoot them directly, they vanish. If you shoot their clothes, their 'armor', they disappear, which makes them easier to get the less they have."

"This...this is crazy!" Uni said. "Why didn't you tell us before?!"

"Because then you wouldn't have done it." Vert answered.

"WELL NO SHIT!" Uni yelled.

"Uni, language!" Nepgear said as she gestured to Rom and Ram, the former covering her mouth in shock, the latter laughing.

"S-sorry." Uni apologized. "Vert, let us out!"

"Sorry, but you have to beat the game first." Vert said, and Uni stood there, anger on her face. "You can do it! I believe in you!" And with that, Vert stopped talking.

"Hey!!" Uni yelled. She glared angrily at the sky. Nepgear stood in thought for a while.

"Alright, it seems we need to take this more seriously than I thought. We need to beat this game as quickly as possible." Nepgear said. "What we should do first is get an idea of our surroundings. We need to stick together." The others nodded. "And don't let them touch you!" They nodded again. "Uni, you should lead, since you're the best with a gun." Nepgear said, and Uni nodded. She looked between the others. "Rom, Ram, you stay between us, and I'll watch our back."

"Spoken like a leader." Uni said. She held up her gun and smiled. "Let's go!" And with that, they set out to look around the virtual city, all while Vert watched from the real world.