Chapter 27: Forced March for Two
Following feedback from readers, the previous chapter's message-board section has been substantially revised. It is now almost an entirely different chapter, so I would appreciate it if you could go back and read from the previous chapter.
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NPC Name: Emul
LV: 56
JOB: Mage
Vorpal Bunny Traveler
HP: 125
MP: 655
STM: 80
STR: 30
DEX: 71
AGI: 50
TEC: 70
VIT: 35
LUC: 85
Skills
- Best Step
- Tap Step
- Critical Focus
Magic
- Teleport
- Teleport Gate
- Teleport "Triumphal Gate"
- Random Encounter Lv. 2
- Magic Edge Lv. 7
- Add Spell Lv. 5
Equipment
Weapon: Wise Gang of the Traveling Sage
Head: Observer's Monocle
Body: Rabbit-Style Ceremonial Attire
Waist: Rabbit-Style Ceremonial Attire
Legs: Rabbit-Style Ceremonial Attire
Accessory: Vorpal Rabbit Secret Ring
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It was hardly strange in a game, but realizing that this tiny rabbit beat me in almost every stat was still a little depressing. Whatever. I just have to overtake Emul soon. Yeah.
Even through my mask, Emul must have noticed the miserable look I was giving. Emul tilted their head in puzzlement. I waved a hand to show it was nothing, and apparently satisfied, Emul turned back to survey the sparsely populated marshland.
Emul: "But Sunraku-san, what are you going to do? That curse of yours drives the other monsters away, wa."
Sunraku: "I've already worked out a countermeasure for that."
Emul: "What kind? Oh, there's a Mud Frog over th—waaah!?"
Before the Mud Frog even noticed us—before I entered its detection range—I broke into a full sprint.
I charged straight into its detection range and closed the distance in one rush. The Mud Frog finally noticed me and tried to flee by burrowing into the mud, but... too slow. I didn't dump all those points into AGI for nothing!
Sunraku: "Ooooooohhh, yeeeeaaaahhh!!"
Mud Frog: "Gerooo!?"
The instant I stepped into the swamp, I would no longer be able to run. So I jumped from the bank and crossed the remaining distance to the Mud Frog in a single leap.
Its head was already halfway buried in the swamp when I drove a knee into its ass. My STR was lacking, so I forcibly made up the difference with the momentum from a full-speed run of more than ten meters. A game where the physics calculations work exactly the way they should is a god-tier game. Remember that.
Its escape forcibly interrupted and its rear smashed by my knee, the Mud Frog rolled and thrashed across the muddy surface. Before it could get back up, I rushed in again and drove the Marsh Daggers in both hands straight down into it.
Mud Frog: "Gweeeh!?"
A solid impact traveled through the hands gripping the daggers. The Mud Frog screamed its death cry, and after I hammered in one last finishing attack, it burst apart into polygons.
Sunraku: "Phew... So, yeah. For now, I've concluded that the best strategy available is 'catch them before they can run and beat the crap out of them.'"
Emul: "U-uwah... Sunraku-san, you looked like a real monster just now, wa..."
Sunraku: "Rude."
Fortunately—or unfortunately, no, overwhelmingly unfortunately—I do not have to worry about equipment weight slowing my movement at all. So I use raw AGI and stamina to stop enemies from escaping, then shave away their HP by precisely landing critical hits on their weak points.
That hunting style, like some wild carnivore, is my current optimal solution. The problem is that it is far more mentally exhausting than I expected.
Sunraku: "After sprinting flat-out, I still have to manage my stamina while aiming for critical hits..."
It feels like being told to do kendama immediately after crossing the finish line of a fifty-meter dash. If I let up even a little, my concentration is liable to snap. Still, at least I have proved that this strategy works against monsters with low AGI.
Sunraku: "And with that, I hereby announce our schedule from here on out!"
Emul: "Waaah, waaah! Yay, yay!"
Sunraku: "We blast straight through to the area boss. That's it!"
Emul: "That was way rougher than I expected, wa!?"
I told you. This is a forced march.
Sunraku: "We ignore every trash mob on the way unless it's obviously a rare enemy. It pains me deeply, but I want to get past Secondale, because that's probably where beginners are going to get stuck."
The biggest difference between full-dive games like this and old-fashioned display games is that you move your own body.
Your real-world athletic ability does not carry over directly, but there still are not that many natural-born VR gamers who can immediately adapt to the physical laws inside a game. That means most people who have only just started will pile up in the first town, or—if they barely make it through—at the next one.
A town being crowded with people might normally be welcome, but if nearly all of them share the same objective, what awaits is congestion around specific facilities. I wonder what countermeasures the developers have for that...? No, that does not matter right now. In any case, if I am going to seriously tackle a Unique Scenario, I want a place with a higher "capacity" as a town.
For example, Thirdrema, a major city several times the size of Secondale.
Sunraku: "So we're going nonstop to Thirdrema. Your AGI is about the same as mine, so don't fall behind, okay?"
Emul: "I'm not very good at running around, wa..."
Sunraku: "That's a strange thing for a rabbit to say."
And off we go. Beyond the area boss—onward to Thirdrema!!