Chapter 48: Defining a Labyrinth on a Straight Path, People Call That Thinking
This feeling, I've experienced something similar somewhere before... Ah, right. The sensation resembles what I felt when an alien monster—one that I can only describe as a humanoid slime with a mass of tentacles growing from its face—requested cooperation in an absurdly cute loli voice. This was in Universe Storm, a hyper-chaotic battle MMO where the catchphrase was "Struggle for Survival Against Aliens in the Great Cosmos," yet once you opened the lid, it was a game that forced a hard-boiled playstyle upon you: sudden factional infighting among your own NPC allies, the enemy aliens also engaged in their own infighting, cosmic monsters that seemed to drain your sanity just by looking at them appeared, a mysterious race created by the will of the Earth attacked humanity... and the only things you could trust were yourself and your weapon.
That game eventually turned into a true apocalypse, with a player-run festival of nuclear suicide strikes that left nobody standing. At the time, I piloted a spacecraft alongside that loli-voiced inhuman creature to transport the nuke-carrying player into enemy lines—Attention Please.
Sunraku: "...Wha—!?"
This is bad. My mind was about to be carried away by the loli-voiced face-tentacle creature. What I'm playing right now isn't a game where everything except yourself is an enemy, in a different direction from United Rounds. This is Shangri-La Frontier. I drag my psyche, which was on the verge of receiving some kind of cosmic revelation, back to the divine game and reconsider the move the armored knight, Psyger-0, has just made.
The friend system. It's safe to say that nearly every game has this feature. Sometimes it's proof of having grown close in-game, sometimes it's a factor for boosting your stats. And in this game, a friend request is a visualized form of friendly relations. Between players who are friends, you get priority when forming parties, the needlessly cumbersome mail function becomes somewhat easier to use, and there are various other non-essential but convenient features... But what's the intent behind choosing a friend request in this situation? Is it a technique to create an opening in PvP? No, if that were the case, I'd already be sliced in two by now. Is it a peaceful move aimed at building friendly relations to encourage me to voluntarily disclose my Unique? If so, is the friend request an even stronger sign of intent to talk than simply not drawing a weapon?
Sunraku: "...I don't get it."
To make me agonize this much—Psyger-0 is truly fearsome. To completely seal my movements with a single move... However, I too am a gamer who has experienced countless PvP encounters. I'm not going to just say, "I surrender, here’s my Unique." I'll take this challenge head-on! I accept the friend request. But this isn't a surrender—a "let's get along, Psyger-0-san!"—it's a declaration of resistance: I'll ride your move and surpass it.
Sunraku: "............"
Psyger-0: "............"
Both of us are silent. This silence carries a tension akin to a duel between gunslingers in a Western. The only difference is that this confrontation has no three-count. The first move doesn't guarantee victory. With disadvantages in level, experience, and overall ability as a gamer, how do I handle Psyger-0's action? Damn it, I'm bad at this kind of maneuvering. How many times do I think I've been played by Pencilgon? In the end, if you can't settle it through sheer force, there's nothing you can do—but if I choose that option, I'll be carved up in an instant. Or maybe even filleted into three pieces?
Psyger-0: "...Um."
Sunraku: "!!"
Kh, she's seized the initiative! No, going second isn't a bad move. Read her action, deal with it. Now, how will you come at me, Psyger-0...!
Psyger-0: "If you like, um... I could help... with your questing... you know?"
Thought stops for a few moments. No, rather than stopping, it's more like loading—trying to parse her intent. The thought briefly crosses my mind: Maybe I'm the one overcomplicating things, and to a third party this situation is extremely simple. But I caution myself that judging it so would be premature.
Sunraku: "Ah, well, I'm not too fond of easily clearing things with level-based power, so... while I appreciate the offer, I'll have to decline..."
Psyger-0: "I-I see... my apologies for overstepping..."
Sunraku: "No, not at all..."
Silence. But this silence is different from the earlier tension, which might have been entirely one-sided on my part, with me being overly wary. What is this... awkwardness? It's like that feeling in a dating sim when your affection level is too low and you fail to trigger a flag on your first playthrough.
Psyger-0: "Ah, um, I've been getting in the way of your strategy, and..."
Sunraku: "No, ah... earlier, I used you as a stepping stone, so I should be the one apologizing..."
Psyger-0: "No, no, not at all..."
Just then, I sense a commotion behind us. The players searching for me in the white hood have come this way too. This is bad...
Psyger-0: "...Ah, um, good luck... with your strategy. And, if there's another opportunity..."
Sunraku: "Huh? Ah... well then."
Surprisingly easily, Psyger-0 withdrew from the gate. Part of me suspects it might be a trap, but defaulting to suspecting all goodwill is just an Apocalyptic Round Table thing. In any case, she apparently has no intention of stopping me. I still can't fully grasp her true intent, but right now the priority is to get out of Thirdrema as quickly as possible. I give a light bow, then dash out of the gate and beyond Thirdrema.
...Come to think of it, I was so lost in overthinking everything that I only just now realized: Psyger-0 sounded female, based on her voice. Male players using female avatars are common, but female players using male avatars are rare... Actually, in this day and age, male-to-female crossplayers are practically an endangered species. After all, your voice gives it away. On the flip side, there are people who just own it, like barytoned little girls. But a male avatar—and not a slender, eight- or nine-heads-tall one, but a bulky, rugged one—that's the mark of a truly serious gamer, in my assessment.
She had attempted to use the games he gleefully purchased as stepping stones for interaction—a fighting game where people split apart or burst into explosions, a cooperative MMO where you get spawn-killed the instant you log in, an agriculture and dairy farming simulation game where you cower in fear of giant creatures that effortlessly reduce your lovingly raised plants and livestock to barren land... And she failed at every single one. At the recommendation of the game shop's proprietress—"Before you challenge extreme toxicity, you should first acquire some basic skills"—she started Shangri-La Frontier. She had thought her older sister was serious and somewhat rigid, but that sister turned out to be a heavy user of Shangri-La Frontier. At the same time, she used family privilege to join Schwarz Vulf and plunged forward toward her goal. The result is the Psyger-0 of today, though she continues to gnash her teeth at how she's drifting further and further from her original objective. Then, one day, she learned that he was going to start playing a major blockbuster game—Shangri-La Frontier, of all things—which was an extremely rare occurrence (according to the proprietress). The joy she felt then. The fact that those days of missing and passing each other by had finally borne fruit. The four characters displayed most recently in her friend list: "Sunraku."
Psyger-0: "Nnnnnnn... I DID IIIIIIIIT!!"
Some time later, players in Thirdrema reported seeing an armored knight in an exceedingly—yes, exceedingly—good mood.