Make Effective Use of a Just Cause
Sunraku: "Ohh, some clearly stronger-looking bees just showed up."
Emul: "...Ah, those are the Queen's Royal Guard, the Empire Bee Knights, wa."
Sunraku: "I wonder if there's a General or a Minister too?"
Emul: "...You're really going to do this, wa?"
She looks blatantly reluctant... Well, anyone would hate being told "let's jump into that scene right in front of us"... Though I do have a few acquaintances who'd dive in with enthusiasm, so it's not that weird. Yeah.
Sunraku: "I've got three plans. Which one we pick depends on the outcome."
First: if the Empire Bees win against the Quad Beetle. In that case, Plan 1: "Operation Hyena." Grab all the drop items at full speed and bolt. After all, they're unlikely to abandon their nest—which has already taken serious damage—to chase after me.
Second: if the Quad Beetle wins against the Empire Bees. In that case, Plan 2: "Operation Fisherman's Gain." Depending on how battered the Quad Beetle is, if it's near death, I'll finish it off. If that seems impossible, I'll just grab whatever bee drop items I can and bolt. At the very least, it'll have no reason to prioritize me over the Empire Bee hive—a colossal nectar stockpile.
And finally, third: if they take each other out and both go down. In that case, Plan 3: "Operation Last Stand." Take my sweet time and swipe everything. That's it.
Sunraku: "So, personally, I'd like the Empire Bees to put up enough of a fight to get themselves wiped out."
Emul: "Y-You're a devil, wa...!"
Come to think of it, this game seems to have "gods," but I wonder if angels and devils exist too?
Sunraku: "Alright, go go! Get 'em! Oi oi, hang in there a little longer, King of Beetles!"
For the Quad Beetle to fully convert its weight into attack power, flight is essential. And to fly, it must open its sturdy shell, exposing its defenseless wings and body. Every time the Quad Beetle commits to a charge, a dozen or more bees are crushed to pieces. But the Empire Bees refuse to back down, launching their stingers like missiles. Most are deflected by the Quad Beetle's rapidly beating wings, yet several manage to pierce into its body. The battle between the giant, mighty individual and the small but elite swarm feels like watching players take on a raid. Even as they're bathed in a blizzard of polygons from their shattered comrades, the bees press the Quad Beetle relentlessly, never flinching.
But the Quad Beetle is no mere prey to be hunted. It is designed as a superior being—unfazed, unsinking, even with countless stingers lodged in its body. If you had to compare it to something, it's a raging tempest, a furious thunderbolt. Every single move is lethal, capable of killing the weak. Its mandibles, its horns—finally, they crush the one above even the bees' command tower... the Minister, who had been issuing orders to the bees from a strategic vantage.
Sunraku: "Ooh, look, Emul. The Queen's finally stepped out in person."
Emul: "Hawaa...!"
The Empire Bees, whose chain of command had been on the verge of collapse, regain their discipline. They recall their loyalty. The half-destroyed Empire Bee Knights form ranks as if to protect her. The Hunters, the Guards, the Workers—they surround the Quad Beetle as if they were elite soldiers. The Quad Beetle, too, fixes its gaze on the leader of the weaker creatures defying it and clacks its mandibles. That faint light covering its entire body—could that be magic?
Sunraku: "Now then, which side will the goddess of victory smile upon? Emul-san, our commentator, what are your thoughts?"
Emul: "C-Commentator!? I'm not that knowledgeable, wa!"
You're supposed to just say something like, "Well, it's beyond even our ability to fathom at this point"... Guess that was too much to ask. The Empire Bee Queen and the Quad Beetle face off—a showdown that makes me want to break into live commentary... And then, they clash.
The outcome was.
Cracked, shattered shell. The left mandible snapped off halfway. A giant stinger piercing its right eye. But... with a rough shake of its head, the Quad Beetle tears off the Empire Bee Queen—the queen bee of the kingdom, impaled on its horn and dead. The bees, already having lost their apex, scatter in all directions, unmistakably revealing who the victor is.
Sunraku: "Your reasons for defeat... if I had to name them, there are three."
The Empire Bee Queen's body converts into polygons. Even larger than the other bees, the queen scatters polygons in a grand, explosive burst befitting her stature.
Sunraku: "One: you didn't take the safe option. Two: you settled your fight with the bees without compromise..."
Through the falling, vanishing polygons, a shadow slowly approaches. And yet, the Quad Beetle still burns with the will to fight. That is likely its pride, its arrogance. But that very pride, it seems, caused this mob to overlook crucial data.
Sunraku: "And finally: you got so fixated on the nectar right in front of you that you let me slip."
If this had been a one-on-one duel in the arena, the Quad Beetle's choice would have been praised as a proud and noble one. But this is survival of the fittest—victory means survival, not merely defeating your opponent. The moment it chose to keep fighting despite being battered and broken, it made the worst possible move. Choosing to flee isn't shameful. An all-or-nothing, no-retreat play is nothing but waiting to respawn once you've messed up your HP management.
Sunraku: "It's Plan 2. Embrace your pride and become my EXP."
The Queen really did a great job. Thanks to her, I've got a handle on this thing's attack patterns, including its special moves when its HP is low. Now then... I'll be taking everything.
Quad Beetle’s Valiant Horn The valiant horn of a Quad Beetle, a creature that knows no retreat. Extremely durable, it is highly prized for use in weapons and armor. Naturally belligerent, their lifespans are short, and those that live long are strong.
Quad Beetle’s Mighty Mandible The fearsome mandible of a Quad Beetle, which smashes through any hardship standing in its path. The cutting power born of its monstrous strength is impossible for any human to fully wield. A long-lived individual—that is, one that has continued to win for a long time—abhors retreat more than death.
Quad Beetle’s Heavy Carapace The heavy shell that defines the Quad Beetle as a powerful being. Heavy and hard, it is not designed to be wielded by anyone other than a Quad Beetle. Since ancient times, arms and armor crafted from Quad Beetle materials have been regarded as symbols of an army that knows no retreat.
Quad Beetle’s Scale-Fan Wing The powerful wing that keeps the Quad Beetle aloft. Its secret lies in multiple "wing membranes" overlapping like scales to form a single wing. They simply fight, simply keep advancing; their place of death is nowhere but the battlefield.
Sunraku: "Whoa, what a haul! What a haul!"
Emul: "Mmm... it feels a bit like cheating, wa..."
Sunraku: "That's where you're wrong, Emul. That beet—no, the Quad Beetle could have run. I honestly wasn't planning to chase it down to finish it... But it didn't run. That's the whole answer."
Emul: "Then what about the Empire Bees?"
I gently avert my eyes and whistle. Collateral damage. Just collateral damage.
Sunraku: "Well, in a world of survival of the fittest, the ones who survive are the righteous ones."
Emul: "Mmh, when you put it that way, I can't argue back, wa..."
My pockets have gotten considerably heavier. Even though I’ve made my second inventory... ahem, I mean Emul, carry a fair share, my inventory is still heavy. It's vivid proof of just how much I raked in from the devastated Empire Bees and the Quad Beetle. As for EXP, I only got the Quad Beetle's share, and since it was near death, it wasn't much—but still, I'm just a bit short of leveling up. I'd like to level up somewhere before challenging the area boss.
Sunraku: "Speaking of which, this area's boss is a spider, right?"
Emul: "That's right, wa! The Clown Spider uses its thread to do all sorts of things, wa! Like bam! And boom! And stuff!"
Hoh, a spider, huh... A type that does acrobatics with thread, a type that uses spiderlings, a type that just straight-up attacks you... Spider-type monsters are pretty common, but I'm not letting my guard down anymore. I'll clear it perfectly—no damage, no continues! ...So what exactly are "bam!" and "boom!"?
Well, so much for all that enthusiasm. Right now, even though we're right near the boss area—just a little further—we're hiding up in a tree, watching what's happening below.
Sunraku: "Well, I guess it's not strange that there are players here. But this does kind of kill the mood."
Emul: "Swordsmen, swordsmen, swordsmen... how should I put it, they're pretty lopsided, wa."
Sunraku: "It's probably better than an entire squad of medics."
There was this one FPS where, due to a balancing mistake, you could keep moving your body for a few seconds after dying. Medics could revive themselves, becoming immortal like zombies, and the conflict zone turned into a muddy tug-of-war—truly the perfect picture of futility. And having an all-vanguard party isn't necessarily a bad move. If you're going to overwhelm the enemy with firepower, it's often faster to stack one or the other rather than splitting between vanguard and rear guard. Even outside of kusoge, it's pretty common to see parties of all magic-users aiming for an ultra-high-firepower short decisive battle. Anyway, we're hiding because there are players already challenging this area's boss. A three-person party, all swordsmen—a lopsided composition, but at least they aren't nearly naked like me, and the lack of visible damage suggests they're at a fairly high level.
Sunraku: "...Sometimes I feel unbearably envious of people who can just wear normal clothes."
Emul: "That's not normally something to be envious about, wa..."
So she's indirectly saying I'm not normal... Well, I'm not normal, yeah. At least a typical rookie player doesn't have their equipment slots blocked.
Confirming that they've entered a hollow in a large tree, I jump down from the tree. Chewing a medicinal herb to heal the minuscule fall damage, I walk toward the hollow they entered. Now, while another player (or party) is attempting a challenge, other players can't enter, but you can peek inside. Partly it's for information gathering, but honestly, I just want to see how other players fight. Without putting up any resistance to the temptation—something you might call the "sneaking a peek at someone else's game screen" phenomenon—I proceed through the hollow with Emul perched on my head and peer into the area boss's field.
Sunraku: "Ohh, just like you said, Emul."
A spider with an unusually flashy pattern... Ah, I see. Not a crown, but a clown spider—a Clown Spider. It darts around a vertically elongated cylindrical area, which looks as though the inside of the tree has been hollowed out. Sometimes it uses its thread like a rope, sometimes it scuttles across threads strung across the sky like a tightrope walker. Ah, it's gone somewhere I can't see from here. Sadly for the three players, their lack of ranged options is being mercilessly exposed. Only one player seems capable of using magic, lobbing small fireballs bit by bit, but from what I can see, it's nowhere near an effective hit.
Sunraku: "There's no point wasting shots there—you should be waiting for it to come down...!"
Emul: "Ahh, that's dangerous, wa...!"
This is the kind of thing that makes me want popcorn and cola. And a chair. Ignoring me and Emul, who have fully slipped into spectator mode, the three swordsmen finally seem to have thought of lying in wait. But at that very moment, what drops from above isn't the Clown Spider, but a massive ball of thread about the size of a balance ball a person would sit on. The thread ball scores a perfect hit on the one who'd been using magic. Despite its appearance, it's surprisingly soft and sticky, immobilizing the magic swordsman like birdlime.
Sunraku: "Whoa, that's nasty. It drops stuff from above..."
As the two players try to help their immobilized companion, they suddenly glance up, panic, and start scrambling away. Wondering what's going on, I watch—and in the next instant, a log falls from above and crushes the magic swordsman. ...Ah, he's dead.
After that, there's nothing to be done. Having lost their only ranged attack option, the two remaining swordsmen are slowly cornered. In the end, unable to move, the last one is wrapped in thread by the Clown Spider, kicked repeatedly by its legs—thwack, thwack—until he finally turns into polygons and vanishes. At one point, the last surviving player noticed me, but the best I could do was offer a silent prayer of thanks to those who demonstrated what to expect through their noble sacrifice... Rest in peace, rest in peace.
Sunraku: "Alright. Thanks to their noble sacrifice, I've got a pretty good grasp of things."
Emul: "You switch gears fast, wa!?"
They've respawned in Thirdrema anyway. I'm grateful, but I'm not going to hold a memorial service. Thanks to them, I understand most of the boss's traits. Just as I declared—no damage, no continues. Let's do this.
Whoops, but first—leveling, leveling.
Author's Note: