Chapter 45: In Summary, Those Who Are Interested
[Author's Note: Addendum: It looks like I messed up the scheduled post and published it as-is. Hiding it now would be awkward, so this wasn't planned, but I'm posting two chapters.]
Sunraku: "...Hey, Emul."
Emul: "Hai na?"
Sunraku: "Back at that item shop we stopped at, the shopkeeper looked at me like I was clearly some kind of dangerous freak. Are you really sure this is okay?"
Emul: "I-It'll definitely be fine, wa! And besides, once we leave town, you can just take it off, wa!"
Current time: 2:00 PM. It's a borderline window for player login rates, but I want to believe there are fewer people around than during nighttime hours. Thanks to Emul giving me a "family discount" and me selling off nearly all the material items I had on hand, I finally managed to buy it. In terms of disguising my appearance, it's a perfect score—but it's not exactly something I can walk down the middle of the street wearing. Still, to hide the curse markings, this is the only option available to me right now. Which means everything has to be a short, decisive battle.
Sunraku: "If I remember right, there are three areas up ahead, yeah?"
Emul: "Hai na. One is the Prismatic Forest Grotto leading to Fourfossier. Next is the Fellfate Caldera leading to Fivelle. And then the Iron Ruin of the Divinity leading to Sixenveldt... I recommend the Fellfate Caldera, wa."
The Prismatic Forest Grotto is an area where plants grow as thick as a sea of trees within a colossal labyrinthine cave, its floor blanketed in flowers of every color. The Fellfate Caldera is an area where water has accumulated in the crater of a long-extinct volcano, forming a lake. The Iron Ruin of the Divinity is a ruin from the Age of the Gods, and it's said the area got its name from the "iron plates floating in the sky."
Sunraku: "Listen up. This is a trap of extremely high difficulty—akin to the kind of advanced thinking you'd use in a strategy sim when deciding which faction to control, which faction to exploit, and which faction to suck up to."
Emul: "R-Right..."
First of all, which of these is the area I should absolutely NOT enter...? That's a no-brainer: the Iron Ruin of the Divinity. In a game that's, at this point, ninety percent safe to call pure fantasy, that single drop of nectar called "science" has been dripped in. Imagine: while everyone around you is swinging swords and spears in a fantasy civilization, what if you alone could stylishly BANG! BANG! monsters with a pistol...? That place is exactly like a single sawtooth oak tree standing in the middle of a wasteland, oozing sap—drawing in drone beetle newbies, rhinoceros beetle veterans, and depending on the situation, possibly even hardcore giraffe stag beetle players. It's a veritable poison jar...! Okay, no matter how you spin the metaphor, I doubt it's actually THAT cutthroat, but I should avoid the area with the highest probability of players I can't handle... Even if... even if I'm insanely interested in science-infused fantasy...!
Sunraku: "Which means I should pick either the Prismatic Forest Grotto or the Fellfate Caldera... but I can't deny both come with risks."
Emul: "Ri-risks..."
Right. Each of these two areas has its own advantages and disadvantages. First, the Prismatic Forest Grotto. This is what you'd call a "dungeon-type" area. Packed with dead ends and branching paths, this kind of map seems like it'd be fantastic for me, given that I need to hide and possibly flee... but that's actually wrong. A dungeon-type area only shows its true worth once the grind begins. That's my personal theory. Leveling? Material gathering? The reason doesn't matter. In the fundamental principle of a game player—start at the beginning and push toward the goal—a dungeon-type map serves as a classic, orthodox trial. And that's exactly why the moment you have a reason to run through it over and over, the dungeon-type map bares its fangs. Running laps should absolutely be easy—even better if it's a loop route that barely uses any brain cells. And on that point, dungeon-type maps add the annoyance of memorizing complex routes on top of your original objective... I got sidetracked.
Anyway, what I'm saying is: first-time players, for reasons I'll explain, are more likely to pick the Forest Grotto over the Fellfate Caldera. A forest inside a cave? A carpet of flowers everywhere? And it's a dungeon-type map? Whoa, hey—you get a feast for the eyes AND a labyrinth to explore? That's insanely exciting...! That's exactly how it goes.
Sunraku: "It's the very picture of a carnivorous plant... an enchanting garden of flowers that lures players in with the sweet bait of adventure and scenery—a sexy dynamite...!"
Emul: "S-Sexy dynamite..."
Then is the correct answer the Fellfate Caldera? No, that one has its own trap set. If the Forest Grotto is a dungeon-type map, then this one should be called an "open-world-type map." Well, every area in this game is open world, but that's not what I mean. Here, "open-world-type" is used to mean "damn huge." A dungeon-type map always has a "correct route"—an Ariadne's thread. An open-world-type map doesn't. Strictly speaking, an "optimal route" exists, but as for a "correct route"—if you reach the goal, every path is correct. "My heart and soul tremble at the shock; greasy sweat bursts from my entire body; I attempt to resist the alarm bells of instinct and the impulses that accompany them, yet all is like a castle built on sand" and "This is seriously bad, I'm perfectly freaked out so I'm escaping" ultimately mean the exact same thing. The strength of an open-world-type map is its freedom. Take detours if you like, beeline the optimal route if you like—absolute freedom, unrestricted by the broad currents of terrain.
Did you think I was going to say that the Fellfate Caldera is better if you want to get to the next town quickly? I'm not doing an RTA here. I mean, yeah, my stat build has turned into something RTA-ish, but that's different. I pursue efficiency for the sake of enjoyment—speed itself isn't the point. In the first place, the reason I left Rabituza wasn't because I want to reach the next town. It's because I want to enjoy playing the game. So the time-shortening advantage of the Fellfate Caldera's optimal route isn't a real benefit for me. And furthermore, a volcano area—which is obviously going to be sparse on cover—has a high probability of being spotted by other players.
Sunraku: "A masterful technician—presenting the merit of efficiency on the surface while concealing the fact that underneath, it's really just mountain climbing...!"
Emul: "Te-technician..."
Right. Taking all this information into account, what I should choose is...
Sunraku: "The Prismatic Forest Grotto."
Emul: "So in other words, Sunraku-san is a sexy dynamite, wa!?"
Sunraku: "Hah?"
Both before the disguise and now after, Mister Dangerous here—my getup is just seriously bad news, isn't it?