Chapter 145: Because They're Aquatic – The Dragon King Fish Edition
To be honest, dealing with the monster parade chasing me wasn't all that difficult. With all the aggro focused on me alone, I could slip away safely just by shedding it. The whole point of becoming a noise source was to let the other players in this area know where I was. Once I found a player or NPC, I planned to use Fatal Secret Art [Mirror of Fading] to bail out.
But when I turned toward the voice that answered my call—Emul's voice, a seventy-thirty blend of scream and relief—I could practically hear every plan and strategy I'd built up crashing down from the foundation.
I'd once asked Emul a question.
Sunraku: "What's this 'Random Encounter' spell?"
Now, far too late, the effect she described came flooding back. It was a spell learned only by a select few among monster-kind, like Vorpal Bunnies and Cait Sith—a true "last resort." When a Vorpal Bunny, one of the weak, faces a crisis they cannot overcome by their own effort, the weak cry out. The weak sing.
Random Encounter Summons a single non-aggressive monster from the caster's surroundings whose level is higher than the caster's own. The summoned monster is chosen at random from those whose level is no higher than the caster’s current level multiplied by 1.[skill level] (so 1.1 times at skill level 1).
I recalled what Araba had told me. Why were mermaids flying through the air? Because Ctarnidd's power had twisted Ruluiath. A place that was "not underwater" had been further twisted into a place that was "also underwater," allowing mermaids to swim through the sky. Overthinking it just causes confusion. Put simply: the rules twisted to make "air with no water" were twisted again into "air with water." So to us, mermaids seemed to swim through the air; to them, we seemed to run through the water. Two negatives make a positive—but there's a limit to brute force, Ctarnidd.
And this ruined city existed in the deep sea. That meant it was directly connected to the ocean floor. I couldn't say how far the Random Encounter's area of effect extended, but the system would search for a monster with a higher level than Emul and summon it here.
In short… the thing summoned by Emul's spell considered this place an extension of the deep sea.
Emul: "HEEELP MEEEE, WAAA!!"
It looked nothing like any fish that might have inspired it. An iridescent body that resembled nothing so much as an eastern dragon smashed through houses as it chased the human-disguised Vorpal Bunny and the sobbing brat clinging to her back. Yes, you could call it… an Oarfish, Lv. 100.
Sunraku: "What the hell did you summon?!"
Emul: "I'm sorryyy! I'm sorryyy!"
Imagine an eight-car train, flattened vertically without losing any length, with a dragon's face stuck on the front. That should convey how bad this was. It was way past the level of "can I solo this." The Giga Oarfish, summoned by Emul's desperate Random Encounter when cornered by mermaids and fish-men, had probably first annihilated those threats with ease, then set its sights on the insolent rabbit and the brat who'd called it here.
Sunraku: "Dammit, hand him over! Then grab on!"
Emul: "Hai naaa!"
Emul could carry Stude faster in human form than in rabbit form. So I took Stude from the human-shifted Emul, and she changed back into a rabbit and I put her on my head.
Sunraku: "Good thing I’ve got this whole decoy horde on my tail—let’s smash them into each other!"
With a brat on my back and a rabbit on my head, I activated my skill. Outpacing the sluggish fish-men had been manageable with my base stats, but fleeing from that runaway freight train while hauling baggage meant I needed a STR boost to get away.
Sunraku: "Hold out until the last second… spin it, build the charge…"
The Giga Oarfish would be on me in seconds. As a white-smoke-like effect billowed from my feet, I kept meeting the skill's conditions.
The skill was Burnout: by spinning my tires in place—so to speak—and charging while stationary, I gained acceleration proportional to the seconds charged. Without leveling up, my skill level remained at 1, so I could only use it at Skill Level 1. That meant four seconds of charging and twenty seconds of acceleration. Just as the jaws of the Giga Oarfish—less fish now and more dragon—were about to snap me up, my body, layered with every acceleration skill I had, launched forward like a bullet.
Sunraku: "Hold on tight, Emul!"
Emul: "Piiiiii!!"
I took her shriek as agreement. Burnout's greatest advantage was its initial velocity. Normal acceleration takes time and distance to reach top speed, but Burnout let me start at near-maximum from the very first step.
Sunraku: "Oi, little shithead! No need to answer—just cling to me!!"
Whether it was his nature as a brat or he simply lacked the spirit to react to the situation, Stude was still in a daze, but he seemed to have just enough presence of mind to respond to my voice, because the grip of his arms and legs around me tightened.
That freed up both hands. As a dual-wielding build, I couldn't use my skills without weapons. I flashed a full-faced grin at the mermaids and fish-men chasing me and activated Fatal Secret Art [Mirror of Fading]—leaving my aggro behind and propelling my body forward.
Sunraku: "Right, have fun with that."
At the head of the monster parade, right at the fish-men's noses, I made a 90-degree turn. I sprinted up a wall, dashed across the rooftops at max speed—and the next instant, the Giga Oarfish plowed headfirst into the monster parade, turning everything into a mixed-up pile of mincemeat.
Sunraku: "Run, run, ruuun!"
Emul: "I wanna go hoooome, waaa!"
With the cataclysm of mass destruction at my back, I somehow made it back to our temporary base and finally let the tension drain from my body.
Sunraku: "………So yeah, this rabbit is Emul, and the one trembling over there is the little shithead."
Araba: "I-Is that so… More importantly, what is that terrible noise I've been hearing…?"
Sunraku: "Close your eyes and cover your ears. That way the world stays peaceful."
Araba: "Ehh…"
Ignoring Araba's question, I introduced him to Emul and the others.
Sunraku: "This is Araba. He's a different species from those rotten fish bastards, so no need to be scared."
Emul: "He's like a fish person, wa…"
Stude remained frozen in terror. Not much of a conversation to be had there… No, well—asking NPCs to be as unflappable as us players, who've long since accepted all kinds of insanity, might be cruel.
Sunraku: "For now, this is our temporary base until we meet up with the others who got scattered. As long as we're not seen or heard, the fish bastards won't notice us. Just sit tight."
Right then…
Sunraku: "I'm gonna head out one more time."
Araba: "…Even the word 'reckless' doesn't suffice anymore. Do you have no sense of fear?"
Sunraku: "I've got a normal amount. I just don't feel any fear in this particular situation."
Stude: "………Then, why…"
Sunraku: "Hm?"
I stood up, thinking I'd at least pass on the save mechanics in this area to the other players—and maybe try a suicide charge at that Giga Oarfish. That's when Stude, who'd done nothing but tremble at everything until now, finally threw words at me.
Stude: "Why aren't you scared…? In a place like this… that makes no sense… how can you laugh…?!"
Oho. This had the distinct whiff of something that could affect affection levels and all sorts of things. Now, how to give a dramatic reply… Hmm.
Sunraku: "It's the joy of exploring the unknown. The pioneer's spirit. That's how we've always moved forward… That's all."
(And the joy of grinding the known, too. RNG can be beaten with sheer attempts. Kill your brain cells and grind.)
Objectively, it was an incredibly cheesy line. I was glad Oikatzo and Pencilgon weren't here—I'd never hear the end of it for years. I know because I'd do the same to them.
Sunraku: "Completely wiped out every single fish-man there… It's on par with the Golden Scorpion, or maybe even stronger. In raw specs alone, this thing's in the Unique Monster class…"
It seemed "Unique Monster" didn't necessarily mean stronger than every other monster. Just like that gold scorpion wreathed in moonlight, there were monsters whose strength approached the Uniques. The Giga Oarfish, swimming slowly through the air as it registered my presence, was clearly the same type of monster as the Golden Scorpion. With a boss like Ctarnidd waiting ahead, there was even less reason to fight it than the fish-men.
Sunraku: "But, y'know…"
Because it's a game, you push the switch that looks dangerous. You abandon the world-ending crisis to take a detour. And you charge headlong at enemies you clearly can't beat.
Sunraku: "It's just like the Crystal Scorpions. I'll at least scrape off a scale or two."
I declared war on the colossal oarfish—the creature that shattered houses simply by swimming through the air, twisting its long body.
Sunraku: "Don't think I'm just bait. It's always the bird that eats the fish."
Watching the polygons shatter and dissolve, scattering into nothing, I found myself thinking:
Sunraku: "I got way more fired up than I planned."
My bad habit: my tension rises the more I move my body. I'd meant to land a few light hits, then flee or die, but before I knew it I'd fought seriously.
In this hyper-realistic virtual reality, the dice-shaped polygons—proof that all of this was zeros and ones born of cyber—felt fantastical precisely because they didn't match the world. The scattering polygons gradually turned transparent, then vanished. Ah… I'd really done it now.
Sunraku: "I won…"
As its massive body vanished from this world, I stared at the mountain of drop items and accidentally said what I was thinking out loud.