Chapter 95: Until Revealed, the Unknown Conceals Wisdom, Folly, Good, and Evil

That golem was probably, under normal circumstances, the type of monster that would've kept players at bay by wildly firing lasers, shields, and whatnot from those four arms.

Sunraku: "But its misfortune was that we were a full-on attacker party."

Pencilgon: "Normally, that'd be a drawback, though."

Kill them before they kill you. It's the strongest tactic that works in just about any game. Maybe because it was an event-boss-type monster, there aren't any drop items in particular. I watch as Pencilgon picks up her spear.

Sunraku: "So that's your main weapon?"

Pencilgon: "Yep. I went through a whole lot of trouble to get my hands on this. I mean..."

Sunraku: "Keep it short, please."

Pencilgon: "Solo against a squad, fifteen kills, zero deaths."

No way. That's MVP material. Pencilgon deftly spins the spear—which, now that I think about it, I feel like I caught a glimpse of during that power-leveling session—stops it with pinpoint precision, and strikes a pose.

Pencilgon: "The Sacred Spear Caledfwlch. It's one of only five 'Wished Weapons' that exist in this game."

Apparently, there's only one each across five categories—sword, spear, bow, hammer, and staff—and owning one lets you acquire a special job class: "Hero." Mulling that over, I arrive at a highly implausible and amusing conclusion.

Sunraku: "...Which means... you're a Hero?"

Pencilgon: "Just a sub-job, though. My main is Magic Lancer."

Oikatzo: "If this thing qualifies as a Hero, SLF is finished."

Pencilgon: "Huh? A Hero is basically synonymous with an assassin, no?"

Right this moment, the rankings for "Lines a Hero Absolutely Must Not Say" have just been updated. For the record, the line that held the number-one spot until just now was: "For your sake, I would kill every human being in the world (and then he actually did)." This is exactly why trash games are so fascinating—the canon happy ending is this. It's amazing, really. Up until the final boss, it was a mediocre, bright, orthodox-fantasy story with slightly clunky controls. Then suddenly, right at the end, it turns into a musou game against innocent civilians, and on top of that, you're forced to personally cut down every single NPC you'd been involved with up to that point, one by one. The ending alone turned it into a trash game in one fell swoop... no, rather, in the sense of being a masterpiece with utterly unhinged evil, maybe I should call it an evil god-tier game. That said, depending on your perspective, it is a god-tier game. The biggest reason it gets slammed as a trash game is that "the heroine you've painstakingly built a bond with until the late game is the very first one you kill, and the suddenly-introduced heroine to whom you must then devote your betrayed love is exquisitely un-cute." The character modeling was phoned in—or rather, compared to the other characters' models, it was clearly a rush job. Having to devote your love to a "side-glancing gorilla" sent players screaming, and those screams are what dragged that evil god straight into the trash.

Pencilgon: "No, but honestly, the 'Hero' is insanely strong in terms of performance. It's basically like having a default extra life."

Sunraku: "What? Is it a broken job class?"

Pencilgon: "Well, it's only while you have a Wished Weapon equipped, so it's not that versatile... Anyway, how do we open this thing? Should I try chanting 'Open Sesame' or something?"

If it opened that easily, we wouldn't be having such a hard time. Even setting aside the gatekeeper that was the Four-Armed Golem, this firmly shut door isn't built to be opened by muscle-headed lock-picking like just banging on it. Possible approaches: find a key somewhere, fulfill some condition, hacking, C4, Limpet... Wait, in the end, is forcing it open the only option?

Oikatzo: "Ah... maybe this is the kind of thing you use this for?"

Sunraku: "What's up, Oikatzo? This probably isn't Unique-related, you know?"

Oikatzo: "That joke's getting really old, you know."

Sunraku: "I plan to drag it to the grave."

Oikatzo: "Alright, then I'll just put you in that grave right now."

Anyway.

Oikatzo: "So, among the magic that treasure hunter—or rather, archaeologist-type jobs—can learn in common, there's one called Legacy Sense. But when I job-changed to Treasure Hunter, I also picked up one called Ruins Sense."

Ruins Sense... I see, so it's magic usable in these kinds of ruin settings. Oikatzo touches the door and activates the magic. From his hand, light runs across the door's surface like tree roots... and gets repelled.

Oikatzo: "This magic's success rate increases the higher your level is. Incidentally, I'm at level one right now, meaning..."

Sunraku: "In other words?"

Oikatzo: "It's time for your natural enemy, Sunraku: an RNG challenge."

According to Oikatzo, the success rate at level one is roughly around fifteen percent. So over roughly ten attempts, you can expect something like eight failures.

Sunraku: "Haaaaaah..."

Emul: "Th-That was a sigh packed with an incredible amount of real emotion... wa!?"

Pencilgon: "Well, Sunraku-kun has some trauma from failing RNG rolls for three straight weeks back in the day..."

"The Minakoro War Chronicles." To cure the heroine's illness in that game, you needed an item called the "Peach of Immortality." And it just wouldn't drop. I kept at it for three solid weeks, giving up my days off and pulling three all-nighters. By the time I finally got it, I'd lost even the will to continue the story. If it's a game like Unite Rounds, where you don't expect anything from the RNG from the start, that's still fine. But when it's just normal RNG and you keep missing endlessly, it's truly brutal. And when that element is absolutely mandatory to advance the story... well, yeah. Making something so essential subject to RNG is a hallmark of brain-dead trash games. What I'm trying to say is, why, in the middle of a battle to save the world, did I have to endlessly grow peaches in an orchard? To the point where, every time I see a peach, I develop a headache, stomachache, nausea, and chills. Peaches, peaches, peaches—peach peach peach peach peach peach peach peach... For the record, as the finishing blow to shatter your sanity, in this game's ending, the protagonist suddenly falls in love with the side-glancing gorilla final boss and proceeds to cut down all his own comrades.

Pencilgon: "Right after clearing 'Minagoroshi War Chronicles,' Sunraku-kun was just completely off the rails. He'd charge into an enemy squad with nothing but a handgun and a shovel and wipe them out, or shove dynamite into a tank and make ground meat with an explosive mixer... he was in a total berserker rage. Well, from a spectator's point of view, it was absolutely hilarious. Yep."

Sunraku: "I'd rather not hear that from someone who read the enemy team's respawn point in advance and spawn-killed them in a minefield."

The way she planted remote-controlled bombs inside the reactive mines was the pinnacle of nastiness. As we're going back and forth like that—vwoom. A low electronic tone sounds, and the door opens.

Oikatzo: "Well, I guess my luck is on a different level from a guy who spent three weeks as a peach farmer."

Sunraku: "You little... More importantly, Ruins Sense can also unlock doors?"

Oikatzo: "No, it's more of an appraisal-type magic specialized for ruins, used to figure out what kind of mechanism something is... I mean, this door apparently opens if you load an 'operational Legacy Weapon' into it."

That, right there, was the pinnacle of "grinding." I sweep the unpleasant memories into a corner of my mind and turn my attention to what lies beyond the door that Oikatzo opened by loading Inventoria into it.

Sunraku: "Whoa, amazing. It's exactly like a lab."

Pencilgon: "This is practically another game's level entirely."

Beyond the door that the Four-Armed Golem guarded and the gate separated, lies exactly what you'd call a sci-fi-meets-fantasy weapons development lab. Parts of it are damaged here and there, but the place is mostly in excellent condition. The aura drifting from this place—namely, "the scent of items"—is something even me and Pencilgon, who aren't Treasure Hunters, can easily pick up on.

Sunraku: "Alright, it's time to ransack the place! Search for the Magic Application Unit!"

Pencilgon: "Okay! Then, you animals over there, spread out too!"

Sunraku: "Hmm..."

What I'm looking at isn't the Magic Application Unit. It's something displayed holographically that suddenly activated when I absentmindedly touched what seemed like a touch-panel keyboard.

Sunraku: "What was this mark again...? I've completely forgotten..."

A symbol that looks like an octopus with all but the two outermost tentacles removed. Uh, let's see... ah, right—this is "Omega."

Sunraku: "Omega usually gets stuck on trump cards or boss-type things, but this..."

What the hologram is depicting doesn't seem to be anything beneficial to players, at the very least. How should I even describe this? The quickest way to sum it up would be: "kaiju." The upper body of a carnivorous dinosaur in a more human-like posture, the lower body of a spider—a bizarre form you'd have to call a kaiju version of Arachne. No matter how you look at it, that's not an ally. What suddenly comes to mind is the artificial spine and ribs that dominated the surface area above with their overwhelming presence. Were those meant to counter this thing? Or perhaps...

Sunraku: "I can't quite get a firm grasp on this world's lore."

I understand that sci-fi forms the foundation on which the fantasy is built, but what is what? As I tilt my head, staring at the phantom monster, Emul, who'd been rummaging around elsewhere, raises her voice.

Emul: "Big sis! Isn't this it... wa!?"

Bilac: "Hm? Lemme see that... Ohhh, this is it! This here's the Magic Application Unit!"

Bilac gazes at the clunky goggles that Emul handed her—they look like the goggle-type VR headsets from before full-dive systems were completed—and lets out a joyful cry. Looks like the item we were after has been secured.

Bilac: "With this, I'll be able to understand weapons from the Divine Era too!"

Sunraku: "So now we can finally repair the reactor."

Grip. Pencilgon and Oikatzo seize my shoulders. I shake them off with a smile, but they're undeterred and grab my shoulders again...

Sunraku: "Let go, damn it! Who'd willingly walk into a mess like that?!"

Pencilgon: "Shut it! Whether Sunraku-kun's there or not, you'd be useless anyway! We can just leave the reactor repair to that black rabbit girl over there!"

Oikatzo: "Besides, it's about time you gave up, Sunraku!"

Gah, you bastards! In that case, if I'm going down, I'm taking you all with me!

Sunraku: "Fine... I'll give up. BUT—I'm dragging in that lore-investigation clan, 'Library,' who just contacted me a little while ago."

Pencilgon: "Ah! The moment he realizes he can't escape, this guy instantly shifts to dragging everyone else down with him!"

Sunraku: "I shoved absolutely everything onto you, Pencilgon. So brace yourself...!"

Pencilgon: "Ugh, no way! That old man seriously asks you everything, right down to the roots and leaves! How could you?! HOW COULD YOU?!"

You could call this a game of catch limited exclusively to dead balls. A hideous struggle where, by the logic of cutting each other's flesh to break each other's bones, we each take on demerits while shoving different demerits onto someone else. Watching us, Emul and Bilac let out a sigh.

Arameese was writhing in agony, clutching his rear. No, seriously, what were you doing?

[For the record, Arameese tried to support Bilac when she stumbled, touched her rear, and got punched for it.]

[Q: How come a Player Killer still has possession of a Wished Weapon?] [A: A weapon that doesn't take lives isn't worthy of being called a weapon.]

[Hero-exclusive Skill: Unbroken] [When HP reaches 0, if the number of party members is either 0 or 3 or more, recover 10% of max HP and revive.]