Chapter 132: A Shooting Star Among Skyscrapers, a Grotesque in the Deep Sea
Resuming updates (abruptly).
◇
When I opened my eyes, I was in the middle of a metal jungle of skyscrapers. Packed so densely they filled the sky, the skyscrapers caught the sunlight and blazed with majesty, while at the same time casting shadows the light could never reach.
The spot where I now stood was in one of those dark corners, a dead-end alleyway connecting to nowhere, shunned by the uniform grid of the map.
Sunraku: "Alrighty… here we go."
I slipped out of the transport vehicle disguised as a truck — the kind with a rear section that could double as a street stall, even if its design was psychedelic to a fault by any layman’s eye. The moment I stepped out, the truck wobbled precariously, sparks scattering across the asphalt.
With a grinding screech, this sluggish body of mine set foot in Chaos City. The armor covering my ponderous form was fitted with restraints at every joint — the excessive power sealed away by “Galaxeus,” a god-like cosmic entity. The only way to free myself from this armor was to destroy it through the power of Galaxeus itself, or someone who had received its blessing.
And that was exactly why this body was fated to always be wherever the shooting star blazed — to face it head-on.
Sunraku: "Win condition: secure the Chaos Cube… or…"
Defeat the opposing hero.
I weighed which would be easier — taking down a single opponent who would come straight for me, or searching a vast city for a box no bigger than a basketball — and found myself grinning at the realization that, even in this situation, I still intended to win.
Sunraku: "Even though my opponent has a winning record against Oikatzo, I still can’t help but aim for the win… guess it’s just a gamer’s nature. Alright, let’s fuckin’ do this!"
By the rules, I had thirty seconds before she manifested in this world. Heroes always play catch-up to the villains who strike first with their schemes.
I thought for a moment, trying to remember what “this body” was supposed to say at times like this.
Sunraku: "Right, right, I remember now… Now, it’s time for the tyrant’s reign!"
I declared it to no one in particular and drove my fist with everything I had into the transport vehicle disguised as a truck.
◆
When I opened my eyes, I was in the middle of a blasphemous tidal surge. The super-ancient afterimages that filled the deep sea pulsed with abyssal malice, even as those who resisted them ran.
I kicked down a barnacle-encrusted zombie swinging a rusty saber while shrieking, and surveyed my surroundings.
Sunraku: "God-fuckin’-dammit! Is the encounter rate totally busted or what?!"
Araba: "What is this ‘encounter’ you speak of, Sunraku?! We must break through here if we’re to reach the Blocker!"
Sunraku: "I know! Oi, we’re climbing onto that roof over there!"
Araba: "W-Wait! I cannot leap and bound about as lightly as you can!"
Sunraku: "Guts. And. Willpower. Do it."
My partner’s mouth twisted at my words, but he understood this was no time to be picky with the horde of grotesques — nothing like him — swarming us. Wheezing and gasping, he grabbed a crack in a half-demolished building and scrambled up onto the roof. I’d already dashed up ahead; I grabbed his hand and hauled his body up with all my strength.
A few frames later, several tridents stabbed into the spot where he’d been dangling. Realizing he’d have ended up an ugly shish kebab if I hadn’t pulled him up, my partner’s face went pale.
Araba: "Oh, my friend… once again you’ve saved my life…! I swear on the pride of the Pescorians, this debt I will surely—!"
Sunraku: "Then repay me right now. Sorry to be so materialistic about it, but… run."
Araba: "Uwooooh!? They’re using their own comrades as stepping stones to climb up!!"
Sunraku: "That’s why I said run, goddammit!!"
When quantity carries mass, brute force can bulldoze through almost anything. I kicked down the vanguard of the grotesques scrambling up a horrifically primitive ladder of flesh — the ones ahead used as footholds by the ones behind, no trace of intelligence in it whatsoever — and my partner and I ran.
Sunraku: "Shit, I thought enemies lower-level than me were supposed to run away…"
Araba: "They are minions of the Overlord of the Abyss. However fearsome the opponent, if their master commands it, they’ll sink their teeth into even a divine beast. That is the pact they have sworn."
Sunraku: "Forcing respawn-zombie-like thought routines on them… what a bastard. Or maybe an octopus."
I slammed a spinning kick into the face of a mermaid swimming through the air toward us with an alluring smile, and sprinted toward our destination as she went flying, her cute face contorted.
Araba: "You’re rather… merciless."
Sunraku: "You can feed any mercy I’ve got to those fish-man wannabes behind us! I don’t have the time to spare any pity on human-faced fish!"
Unlike my partner — a humanoid shark who was somehow keeping pace with me — mermaids were full-fledged monsters. Their upper bodies, shaped like beautiful girls, were what you’d call mimicry; the real creature was the fish part below, the human portion nothing more than a lure, like an anglerfish’s lantern.
The staff who designed this monster had a seriously mean streak. Clinging to that conviction, I nailed a mermaid who was on the verge of bursting into song with a lariat.
Araba: "That’s the one! The Blocker is inside there!"
Sunraku: "Alriiiight… we’re bustin’ in!!"
◇
A storefront window lined with mannequins in fancy outfits burst apart in the blast. The shockwave of destruction dressed itself in glass and plastic shards, scattering upgraded lethal force across the area.
Sunraku: "Alright, you bastards! Flee in terror, civilians!! And don’t forget to call the police and fire department!"
The elaborately programmed NPCs screamed, their faces twisting as they fled from ground zero — and from me, the source of the explosion. A few mobs had cell phones pressed to their ears. Thanks to certain game mechanics, I had roughly thirty seconds until armored cars and fire trucks would come roaring in.
The transport vehicle disguised as a truck that had carried this body was fitted with weapons clearly intended for something beyond transport. This body’s ability was “absorb destroyed objects and turn them into armor.” In my current state — what you’d call my starting equipment, wrapped in the truck — I had a Gatling gun in my right hand, a shotgun in my left. Tires were mounted on my legs to compensate for my sluggish mobility, and the truck engine strapped to my back roared, belching black smoke.
The wailing tires launched my massive frame forward at breakneck speed. A knee strike crashed into the hood of a compact car, sending the metal hunk tumbling like a soccer ball. The car plowed through a misalignment in the street grid, slammed into the entrance of a building at the end of the straightaway, and exploded.
???: "Huh. If you’re coming at me with that… I see this isn’t some half-assed disrespect play for show."
Sunraku: "The number one in all of America, huh…!"
I turned to see a lone figure standing with her arms crossed, backlit by flames. A white-toned suit accented with gold armor in places, a mask fitted with a distinctive pentagram-shaped visor. Even as a silhouette against the flickering firelight, she radiated brilliance — and she was staring me down with an unabashed, appraising gaze, as if sizing me up.
Well, no wonder. Until just before this, I hadn’t even been registered as a team member. Then at the last minute, a mysterious duo — not even pro gamers — got registered. And one half of that duo had gone and picked, of all things, the rival character to the one used by the top player in America… basically a provocation.
???: "Let me test the strength of the backup Kei brought along… This ‘me,’ the hero… Metius, will do just that!"
Sunraku: "Bring it on. Don’t think this’ll be a straightforward match… not against this ‘me,’ the villain… Cursed Prison!"
My opponent wielded Metius, literally the strongest in America. Me? Far from being any kind of expert, I’d only started using this character yesterday — a slapdash Cursed Prison user with all the finesse of a sword taped to my arm with cellophane. How far could I push this? But I’d come all the way here on obligation and favors. Whatever the result, I’d see the job through.
In a shitty matchup of 7:3 in Metius’s favor, I had to charge headlong at the number one player in America. The words that rose unbidden slipped out of my mouth.
Sunraku: "—Why…"
◆
In this place, “Ruluiath, the Abyssal Capital,” the laws of the world were inverted. Creatures of the water swam through the sky above the submerged city; creatures of the land walked as if on solid ground. My amphibious partner was currently aligning himself with “this side,” but if the mood struck him, he could apparently swim through the air as well. And if that was true, then the same principle applied to the four monsters stationed in each corner of this city.
Which was why my partner and I were locked in a ferocious battle against a celestial maiden monster that swam through the air.
Sunraku: "Araba! Drive it toward me!"
Araba: "You ask the impossible! One wrong step and I’ll be eaten head-first by that thing!"
Sunraku: "If you don’t wanna get eaten, then drive it this way, dumbass!"
The beautiful woman’s face split into eight segments from the crown — and eight tentacles, which had been mimicking a human head despite possessing far greater mass, lunged after Araba as he swam through the air at ferocious speed. He dodged some, sliced through others with the sword in his hand, but he couldn’t handle eight simultaneous attacks. Realizing he’d be caught at this rate, Araba changed direction and came charging straight toward me. I braced myself, twin swords at the ready.
Sunraku: "Good… overtake me!"
Araba: "Aye!"
The instant Araba shot past me at full speed, my light-infused twin blades flashed — a relentless barrage of slashes against the tentacles. Hitting each one individually would never be enough. I bought time with a backstep and cleaved two with one strike; twisted my hips for momentum and sliced four with two strikes; then spun without killing the momentum, cutting six with the third strike. One tentacle had already been severed, so that left one. Thanks to some pretty reckless movements, I couldn’t chain into one more hit… but I had nothing to worry about there.
Araba: "OOOOOOH!!"
He hadn’t just been running when we crossed paths. True to his boast — “I might not win in a straight line, but in close-quarters maneuvering I won’t lose to any common Pescorian” — the shark-man’s blade, which had kept accelerating with minimal motion, sliced through the last tentacle and cleaved off the arm of the clione-type Blocker.
Blocker: "—————————!!!"
Splattering bluish-black blood, the arm — graceful wing-like fins attached like a dress — fell to the ground. The celestial maiden let out a metallic shriek and plummeted after her severed limb as if she’d lost the power to stay aloft. When her head, restored by fearsome regenerative power, looked up, she saw a half-naked bird-head with twin swords, and a fully naked shark-head with a katana.
Sunraku: "We’ve still got three more of you and the big boss octopus to take down after this, so hurry up and die already."
Araba: "Apologies, minion of the Overlord — but as you can see, I’m a carnivore."
Sunraku: "You were just eating seaweed… Wait, are we eating this thing?"
Araba: "I meant I’m a meat-lover… No, I’m not eating it!?"
That face was nothing but mimicry. From a biological standpoint, my face as a plain human and my partner’s face as a clearly half-fish-but-technically-still-“human” were fundamentally different in composition. It was basically just a doodle on the palm of a hand — no real sight or hearing resided there. Yet, unmistakably, that face was frozen in terror.
Araba: "Sunraku, we’ve got trouble! They’re flooding in!!"
Sunraku: "So the boss fight’s over, and now this isn’t a boss area anymore…?! Shit—pull me up top!"
We grabbed the drop items without forgetting and scrambled to get the hell out of there. In the blink of an eye, the battlefield — which had been decently spacious — was completely buried under barnacle zombies and humanoid fish. Staring down at that sight, I couldn’t help but mutter.
Sunraku: "—Why…"
Sunraku: "HOW DID IT COME TO THIS?!"
I’ve taken precautions against data loss. Hang in there, backlog…!