Chapter 115: Embracing Your Ambitions in the Light — Part One
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PN: Sunraku
LV: 99 Extend
JOB: Mercenary (Dual Blade User)
1,000 Mani
HP (Health): 80
MP (Magic): 50
STM (Stamina): 100
STR (Strength): 100
DEX (Dexterity): 100
AGI (Agility): 100
TEC (Technique): 80
VIT (Vitality): 901
LUC (Luck): 129
Skills:
· Unbroken Lightdance
· Mind Over Mountain
· Formula Drift Lv.1
· Moment Sight
· Agatram Lv.1
· Trial Traverse Lv.1
· Possessed by the Great Asura King
· Gravity Zero Lv.1
· Flit Float
· Mánagarmr Pride
· Fatal Secret Art: Hollow Mirror
· Burnout Lv.1
· Riot Axel Lv.1
· Blood Warfare
· Lethe Vanisher
· Dirty Sword Lv.1
· Sword Breaker’s Havoc
· Fatal Blade Art: Half-Moon Cleave, Third Form
· Sengoku Burai Lv.1
· Sword Dance: Spinning Blade
· Persistence
· Melostic Foot
Equipment:
L/R: Flame General's Executioner Sword
Head: Spiked Battlehelm 4A (VIT+500)
Body: Lycagon's Curse
Waist: Excavated Polished Waistband [Ancient Soldier] (VIT+400)
Legs: Lycagon's Curse
Accessory: Inventoria
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More than the organized skill list, the fact that my VIT has reached 900 shakes me to the core. Come to think of it, I just now realized I'd forgotten to equip a waist piece. I threw on a store-bought waist piece—and as expected of Eleventar, a late-game town... even though it's a weapon from a rare enemy, it rivals gear from just before the endgame. No—maybe it's just that the Spiked Battlehelm, which is still perfectly viable even now, is that amazing... Hmm. This clunky headgear's getting on my nerves, so I'll switch back to the bird mask. Even with just the waist piece—a surprisingly lightweight metal belt—I already meet the usage conditions for Gilta Brille.
Sunraku: "Fifteen minutes 'til the meet-up time, huh... Well, I'm the one who asked, so it's only natural for me to be waiting first."
The meeting spot's in front of the "Rusted Giant Sword Statue" on the main street, right? I can more or less guess what it is from the name. I'll head there while checking my reorganized skills.
...So, that's what I set out to do five minutes ago.
Sunraku: "That's strange. I hadn't heard anything about a 'Rusted Giant Sword and Holy Knight Statue'..."
Hahaha. I grab my thoughts by the shoulders—thoughts that were about to escape into denial of reality—and drag them back. I will not allow you to be the only one who gets to flee into a field of flowers. A player clad in radiant white full-plate armor—the exact opposite of an ominous greatsword... a Unique weapon, if I recall, called the "Divine-Demonic Sword Antinomy"—stands before a colossal sword so rusted throughout that its function as a weapon is almost entirely lost. The pressure emanating from her entire body is less that of a player and more akin to a boss monster. Specifically, the "gatekeeper-type enemy whose defense is absurdly tough and whose AI is so rock-solid that, if you're careless, it's a stronger foe than the boss that comes after it." Psyger-0 draws even more attention than the rusted giant sword behind her. Honestly... I really, really don't want to talk to her. If possible, I'd like to pretend to be a stranger and run away. But as a gamer, I can't overlook such rudeness. The one who did the inviting canceling at the last minute is beyond unconscionable—it's an act of folly that would get you slammed onto a blacklist along with a "noob" call, and you'd have no right to complain.
Sunraku: "Ah... how long did I make you wait?"
Psyger-0: "...I... just got here."
I gather my courage and speak. The surrounding gazes rapidly shift from Psyger-0 to me—I'm fully aware of it. I do my best not to think about the words of Psyger-0, whose aura of rooted presence clearly couldn't be achieved from merely waiting five or ten minutes.
Sunraku: "I-Is that so... ahem. Thank you for going out of your way today. I'm sorry for the unreasonable request."
Psyger-0: "...No... it happened to be... yes, happened to be... a time when I was free. So..."
Why emphasize "happened to be"? Is this one of those things? An implicit message—"I made time for you, so be grateful"? No—this is one of SLF's top players. I should consider the possibility that there's some other intent behind it. After all, since a member of Wolfgang is borrowing the power of Schwarz Vulf's mightiest combat asset, some form of recompense is necessary... She's probably going to demand something Unique-related. No—she definitely will.
Sunraku: "Ah, right. About thanks for coming all this way..."
Psyger-0: "...Please, think nothing of it. Um... we're... fr-friends, after all...!"
......
(Terrifying! Wait, this is super terrifying! Unconditional goodwill is insanely terrifying!?)
I've never been more grateful for equipping a mask than I am today. Surely, right now, I must be flashing a stiff grin with my eyes rolled back.
Psyger-0: "This area—the Ruins of Lost Glories—is, like the Fortress Ruins of Past Glories, an area that strongly evokes the civilization of the Divine Era... I mean, it does. However... unlike the Fortress Ruins of Past Glories, which was a factory site... this area is... a battlefield site."
Sunraku: "I see... Looks like it was a pretty intense battle."
Psyger-0: "According to the people of Library... 'It's uncertain whether this was the decisive blow, but it is confirmed that a battle fierce enough to push them to the very doorstep of a weapons factory took place'... they said."
There probably aren't many sights that visually convey what happened quite like this. The Ruins of Lost Glories... as the name "ruins" of an ancient castle suggests, the castle is dead. And that death is not due to weathering, or deterioration over time—it's not old age.
...An arm. Apart from that, it's a grassy plain dotted with decaying mystery vehicles here and there, or trees that have grown wrapped around giant swords like the giant sword statue back in Eleventar. But what draws the eye most is that. It's not a fantastical Western-style castle, nor a Japanese-style one. If I had to describe it with the closest real-world comparison... "a battleship and an aircraft carrier crudely fused together." A colossal structure, clearly designed as a defensive stronghold for battle, and an arm is impaled through it. And its size is abnormal. The ratio of a sandcastle to the arm of the child who made it—that exact ratio, scaled up to true fortress proportions. If there were an elbow and beyond—something that doesn't exist—just how enormous would it be?
Psyger-0: "...At the very least... monsters of that size don't appear in Shangri-La Frontier... So... the players investigating what happened in the past... created Library."
Sunraku: "Omega, then..."
Psyger-0: "Huh?"
Sunraku: "Nothing. Just talking to myself. Just connected my thoughts to the Idea and escaped Lethe's curse."
Psyger-0: "Oh..."
While bullshitting my way through, my lore-analysis brain pulls related information from memory. The colossal mechanical skeleton that symbolizes the Fortress Ruins of Past Glories—it's almost certainly connected to this "arm." And the form of that "Ω" I saw in the underground lab... Was the civilization of the Divine Era building something with that mechanical skeleton to oppose the owner of this arm? Is the owner of the arm Ω? Or is the completed form of that skeleton Ω? And more than anything... a single word that has suddenly begun to radiate immense presence within me: "Bahamut." But I don't even have enough information to turn speculation into hypothesis. With no thread to connect the remaining results to the words, the Bonus Unique Scenario truly is the key to approaching the world's mysteries.
Psyger-0: "...Um, Sunraku... san?"
Sunraku: "Hm? Ah—sorry. My Idea was a little Lethe'd."
Psyger-0: "Oh... Um... Sunraku... san... breaking through the area was... the top priority... right?"
Sunraku: "Ah, yeah. I'm meeting up with some people... need to get to Fifticia by tomorrow."
I can't exactly say it's Unique Monster-related, so I'll keep the info vague here.
Psyger-0: "A meet-up... is it?"
Sunraku: "Y-Yeah... with some players I met in another game. So..."
Psyger-0: "I see. By any chance... that... um... f-female... or... something?"
Sunraku: "Well, one of them is, yeah."
The next instant—FWOOM! A greatsword, swung with such force that even I nearly missed it for a split second, tears sideways through the head of a four-winged dragon—no, a wyvern—that had been closing in on us.
Sunraku: "Hyeh!"
Psyger-0: "Sunraku-san! It's a Storm Wyvern! It's level 99, so I'll handle—"
Sunraku: "N-No, if that's the case, I can fight too... A lot's happened, and I'm level 99 with Extend, you see!"
Psyger-0: "Huh?!"
I activate my buff skills and bring the readied Flame General's Executioner Sword crashing down onto the neck of the reeling Storm Wyvern. The left half of its face crushed by Psyger-0's blow, the Storm Wyvern shrieks and struggles against the Zweihander embedded in its neck—but it's already too late.
Sunraku: "Psyger-0-san!"
Psyger-0: "Sword God Severing Supremacy...!"
The Storm Wyvern's fate was sealed the moment it turned its attention toward me and failed to retreat immediately. Wreathed in a skill effect that was clearly at its zenith, the greatsword's high stance slams down onto the Storm Wyvern's skull. From the point of impact, a visible slash effect runs along the Storm Wyvern's neck, down its back, and all the way to the tip of its tail. The pitiful Storm Wyvern isn't even granted a dying scream—the slash effect spreads from the path it traced, and the wyvern explodes into polygons.
Sunraku: "Uh... that's an incredible amount of power. As always."
Psyger-0: "Ah... well... Um... I have a... one request... a suggestion..."
Sunraku: "What is it?"
Psyger-0 returns the greatsword to her back and, after adjusting her posture somewhat, begins to speak about this suggestion.
Psyger-0: "Um... well... you see... um..."
Sunraku: "Yeah?"
Psyger-0: "...Well... 'Psyger-0-san'... that way of addressing me is... long, I'm sure... And just 'Psyger' would... um... overlap with my big sis— I mean, with Psyger-100. So..."
Sunraku: "That's true."
What can I say... As I encourage and rally my feet, which want to back away from the oppressive pressure that seems about to explode from inside her armor, I listen to what Psyger-0 has to say. I see. Certainly, they must have some real-life relationship. Since her player name is nearly identical to Psyger-100, the leader of Schwarz Vulf, it's reasonable to find it confusing.
Psyger-0: "S-S-So... um... if you could call me... Rei... I mean, 0, Rei... that would be... easier to understand, I suppose..."
Sunraku: "Ah, so the 0 in Psyger-0 is read Rei, not Zero. Then, Rei-shi... Hm?"
I feel like something tugged at the back of my mind, but what is it? There are too many things I need to run through my head, and too many things that could ring a bell. No, no—right now, clearing the area is the top priority. I can think about it later.
Psyger-0: "D-Do... d-do you have... a-anything in m-mind, if I may humbly b-be so bold as to asketh, please?"
Sunraku: "Ah, no, not really... Well then, Rei-shi from here on out—"
Psyger-0: "——!! ~~~~~~~~~~!"
Sunraku: "A-Are you okay? If you're feeling unwell, maybe log out for a bit..."
Psyger-0: "No! I'm in peak condition! I feel like I could even beat Lycagon right now!"
With this person, she might seriously be able to beat it, which is the problem. I mean, she's got the title of Maximum Firepower. I don't know how much support she's received from other players, but at the very least, she's not someone who relies entirely on allies.
Sunraku: "W-Well then, shall we go...?"
Psyger-0: "Yes! Whatever comes, I'll cut it down, without fail!"
With a bouncing voice, the menacing greatsword whooshes, slicing through the air. Hahaha... I want to go back to Rabituza...
Later on, there’s a pattern where she suddenly gets called “Rei” and writhes in agony.
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