Chapter 96: A Dancing Conference, Circling Schemes, and Zombies

Running away has long since ceased to be an option, so I've resigned myself. For now, after returning to Eighthold, Bilac and Arameese transferred to Rabituza, but for some reason I was told to keep Emul here with me.

Pencilgon: "If we want to stop a rampaging Animalia-chan, we probably need Emul-chan here or it'll turn into a hazard."

Sunraku: "This isn't some zombie movie... Why are you staring off into the distance and going silent, Oikatzo?"

Is it really that bad? Has that person really become that much of a disaster?!

Pencilgon: "I already sent the mail, so I think they'll be here soon..."

I really don't want to do this. I want to go home. I've been grumbling like that for about ten minutes at the NPC cafe Pencilgon designated as the meeting spot. Just as I'm taking a little bit of pleasure in the sight of Oikatzo scowling at a bland piece of cake, I sense something deeply wrong. I turn around, and there—despite being a digital avatar—is a female player shambling toward us like a zombie.

Pencilgon: "Let's go, scapegoat."

Oikatzo: "Drop dead, you No-Unique bastard... Ha, haha. It's been a while, hasn't it? Since Thirdrema?"

She's swaying, inching closer... Uwaaah, there's a whole crowd of players in a similar state behind her!? This is terrifying. What is that? Did they implement a zombie virus? Is it a status condition called "Zombie Hazard"? Animalia's eyes are fixed straight on me... no, that's not it. Perhaps sensing instinctive danger, her gaze is locked onto a single point: Emul, who's pretending to be a scarf around my neck.

Sunraku: "Emul, it's time to show your Vorpal spirit."

Emul: "Jumping out here wouldn't be Vorpal spirit—it'd be a gleeful suicide... wa!"

At last, Animalia stands before me. Amazing, this game even renders bloodshot eyes. Hahaha. Where's my shotgun?

[You have received a friend request from Animalia. "For now, let's start with a screenshot and a handshake, please."]

Smoothly (I quietly offer up Emul.)

Flash (Emul looks back at me with despair in her eyes.)

Sunraku: "Sorry, Emul. The customer isn't looking for me, so, well..."

Emul: "Apyahhhhhhhh!"

The instant Animalia scoops Emul up, the players who'd been waiting behind her swarm around Animalia and Emul all at once. They're a monster-loving clan, so they probably won't do anything terrible to her... probably.

Oikatzo: "It's kinda like zombies swarming fresh meat..."

Pencilgon: "Shh! Katzo-kun, there are some words in this world that are better kept locked in your heart!"

Aren't you basically laying your heart completely bare by saying that out loud? As I'm thinking that, players keep gathering one after another.

???: "This is quite an abrupt summons, Pencilgon."

Pencilgon: "Yahoo, Momo-chan. Your avatar's still wildly misleading, as always."

???: "Oh, shut up!"

A player whose avatar has such a massive frame that you could almost mistake each step for the ground shaking. Yet she's clad in divine, radiant armor that doesn't give off even a fragment of the wickedness from that other time. That's Psyger-0. And beside her is a female player in a long coat with armor guarding her vital points, a sword with a design very similar to the Sacred Spear Caledfwlch that Pencilgon carries hanging at her waist, her red hair worn long and straight. Apparently, she's acquainted with Pencilgon; the conversation they're exchanging definitely isn't one between strangers. I return the nod that Psyger-0 gives me, all the while feeling my "I want to go home" meter skyrocketing.

Sunraku: "...H-Hello."

Psyger-0: "Ah... hello."

Talking to this person makes me feel like a gunslinger in a Western. A conversational quick-draw—do I take the first shot, or wait and brace for it...

???: "What are you two doing, staring each other down like it's a duel... I suppose this is our first meeting. I'm Psyger-100, the leader of the clan 'Schwarz Vulf.'"

Sunraku: "Ah, pleased to meet you."

Psyger-100: "I've heard the rumors about you. I very much wanted to speak with the player who took two 'curses' from Lycagon."

Thanks to that, the half-naked lifestyle's really grown on me. Damn you, Lycagon. As I'm shaking hands with Psyger-100, for some reason, Psyger-0 is staring at me intensely, and my "I want to go home" meter is about to slam past its limit.

???: "Oh dear, am I the last one?"

With a heave-ho, the pink magical girl drags a chair over from another table and takes a seat with us. The way she sits down with a "here we go" and the voice that says it are utterly redolent of a middle-aged man, but her appearance is that of a magical girl. What a walking contradiction.

???: "Hello, Psyger-100-kun. Has my wife been causing you any trouble?"

Psyger-100: "...Massive Dynamite-san is part of the New Land expedition team. She was the most excited of all."

Judging from the flow of conversation, Professor's real-life wife's player name is Massive Dynamite. Is that a pro wrestler's ring name or something? Setting aside my questions, the magical girl—Professor—murmurs that his wife's heart is as young as ever, then turns his gaze toward me.

Professor: "My, my. I never imagined I'd receive an invitation the very same day I sent that friend request. Thanks to you, I ended up sprinting here at full speed, despite my age."

Sunraku: "Well, I figured leaving you out would be a bit of a dick move."

That's a lie. I called him here to drag Pencilgon down with me. Still, this is quite the lineup that's assembled. The number one and the insane-max-firepower monster from the front-line clan "Schwarz Vulf," Animalia and her crew who are all varying degrees of dangerous, the fake magical girl from the lore-investigation clan... Yeah, this is just a collection of eccentrics.

Pencilgon: "Right, then. Thank you all very much for making the trip here today. I, Arthur Pencilgon—who has, if I may be so bold, recently washed my hands clean and graduated entirely from PK—will be serving as the moderator for this meeting. Ah... and to the monster-loving clan over there—you have business here too, right? So please, reclaim your humanity."

Oikatzo: "'Please, reclaim your humanity'—that's not exactly a phrase you hear in everyday life."

Oikatzo: "Ah! Sunraku, you bastard! Let go!"

You really think I'd let you be the only one who escapes? You didn't think the scapegoat might bite the hand, huh? How naive. As I'm securing Oikatzo, who was trying to slip away unnoticed, Pencilgon points at me.

Pencilgon: "Anyway, since our very own human tsuchinoko, Sunraku, has finally been captured, I've gathered everyone here today so we can address the inquiries from all three of you at once."

Sunraku: "Who're you calling a tsuchinoko?!"

Pencilgon: "Sunraku-kun, are you aware there's a dedicated thread about you? There's even a search party, you know?"

Sunraku: "Wait, seriously?"

It's true that up until now, I've played in a way that avoids contact with other players as much as possible. But it seems that, without me knowing, the situation has been developing in places I'm completely unaware of.

Pencilgon: "Well, that's neither here nor there. At the very least, half of the inquiry from 'Schwarz Vulf' and the inquiry from 'SF-Zoo' can only be resolved by you, Sunraku-kun."

Sunraku: "..."

I quietly shift my gaze toward Psyger-100 and Animalia. I don't know what kind of relationship she has with Psyger-0, but Psyger-100 mentioned Lycagon earlier. It's probably related to that. And as for Animalia... that's an even simpler problem than guessing where an apple you throw up in the air is going to land, so there's no point even thinking about it.

Animalia: "Please, go ahead. SF-Zoo's inquiry can wait."

Psyger-100: "Are you sure?"

Animalia: "At the very least, I am deeply satisfied right now."

The zombie-like demeanor from earlier is gone. Animalia, now looking radiant, cheerfully cedes the first turn to Schwarz Vulf. I'm extremely uneasy about the fact that Emul's voice has gone silent, but... she's fine, right? She hasn't been torn apart inside that mass of people behind us, has she?

Psyger-100: "Then I'll be direct. Our clan, 'Schwarz Vulf,' wants information about Unique Monsters. Specifically, information on Lycagon the Nightslayer."

At Psyger-100's straightforward request, I fall into thought for a moment.

Psyger-100: "The ultimate goal of 'Schwarz Vulf' is the 'subjugation of Lycagon the Nightslayer.' But... it's embarrassing to admit, but up until this very moment, we've never properly fought a Unique Monster. Furthermore, even now, after you defeated the Unique Monster 'Wethermon the Tombguard,' we possess no information on Unique Monsters beyond the fact that they are strong."

Naturally, she concludes, they intend to pay compensation for the information. She looks at me directly. I see. Information about Lycagon the Nightslayer and the Unique Monster system as a whole. Certainly, when it comes to Lycagon, I'm the only one who can answer. But the other half is something Pencilgon could answer as well.

(That said...)

In this situation, there's one more hidden card that only I know about. The Unique Scenario EX: "Epic of Vorpal Bunny" — a Unique Scenario concerning the Unique Monster "Vysache." To be perfectly honest, I have no intention of revealing this to other players. However, there are ways to use it without revealing it. Even merely hinting at the existence of information is an advantage. In Shangri-La Frontier, I hold essentially three of the seven jokers, putting me in an extremely advantageous position. But...

Pencilgon: "Hm? What? Did you fall for my beauty?"

Sunraku: "...Haah."

Pencilgon: "You know, sometimes a single action speaks louder than a thousand words. I'll blow you away."

The problem is this one—Pencilgon. If even a single fragment of information slips out of my hands, she'll sniff out everything I'm holding like a police dog. No, she might already have caught the scent. I can't imagine that Unique Scenarios granting connections to multiple Vorpal Bunnies and Cait Sith are just lying around everywhere. And given how blatantly the technology of the Divine Era is involved, it's safe to assume she's already deduced something, even if she hasn't asked.

Sunraku: "...First of all, I believe it's likely impossible to defeat a Unique Monster just by fighting it."

I'll keep the trump card of Vysache in reserve for now. Deciding to start by playing the card of Wethermon, which has already lost its value, I begin parceling out information to the three factions present.

Sunraku: "In all likelihood, every Unique Monster has a dedicated scenario. For example, the Unique Monster that our clan, Wolfgang, defeated—'Wethermon the Tombguard.' In order to challenge him, we had to accept something called a 'Unique Scenario EX' as a prerequisite."

Pencilgon: "I'll take over from here, since I'm more knowledgeable on that front, Sunraku-kun. Unique Monsters are special monsters that form the core of EX Scenarios. It seems Schwarz Vulf has been desperately chasing Lycagon, but unless you raise the scenario flag somewhere, you probably won't be able to defeat it forever... Well, at best, you might manage to repel it?"

Furthermore, the fact that we were able to raise the scenario flags for Wethermon and Vash on this continent doesn't necessarily mean the same applies to the other Unique Monsters. There's more than enough chance that the New Land—of which not even ten percent of its full scope has been revealed—is where the flags for the other Unique Monsters originate.

Pencilgon: "That said, if you want to know what kind of monster Wethermon the Tombguard was... how about I give this 'Tome of Truth: Tombguard Edition' to whoever shoulders the largest portion of my debts?"

Oikatzo: "You really are shameless, Pencilgon..."

With the most natural flow imaginable, Pencilgon is trying to sell off a truth tome that's practically worthless once you've read it two or three times, and for a high price at that. Oikatzo and I both sigh. As the leader of the lore-investigation clan Library's eyes glitter, the briefing from a small clan to the clans pushing the front line continues.

[The current image of Unique Monsters that players have grasped... AKA, a lore dump.

• Lycagon the Nightslayer A random-encounter black wolf. The clan Schwarz Vulf is chasing it, but apparently with little success. Actually female.

• Ctarnidd of the Abyss Seems to be an octopus-shaped Unique Monster that appears in the ocean. Looking at the NPCs who've gone insane, this is undoubtedly a Cthu— Ah! The window! The window! Actually capable of operating on land.

• Siegwurm the Sky Ruler A random-encounter golden dragon. Can occasionally be spotted by looking up at the sky. Apparently you can fight it in the area "Magnanimous Sanctuary"...? A hero fanatic, and thus quite talkative.

• Orchestra of the Doom Echo A Unique Monster whose name alone was discovered by an informant player who infiltrated the royal castle of "Einvarus," the only human kingdom currently confirmed in Shangri-La Frontier. The only things written about it are ominous: it commands tsunamis, wreathes itself in flames, calls down lightning, and leads monsters... Actually the protagonist's natural enemy.

Wethermon the Tombguard Before anyone realized it, it had been defeated. What is even going on...? Rumor has it it was a humanoid monster. Actually a pretty amazing person.

?? of ???????? Though its name is unknown, there is one person who knows its true form and appearance. Actually the oldest being in the world.

?? of ??????? Unknown. Its name, its form, its true nature—all unknown. Actually a cute girl with a stripping habit~ (playing dumb)]