Chapter 185: Abyssal City Sightseeing, Rabbit Included
Time flew. Two days after GGC Day Two. Our fourth day in Ruluiath.
I'm sealing away everything that happened the day before yesterday until the job in front of me is done. I'll unpack it when the fight with Ctarnidd is settled... probably.
Anyway, I've gone from being Face-Hider No-Face back to Sunraku. But I'm not back in the inverted abyssal city. Not yet.
Rakuro: "Never thought I'd get aftereffects like this..."
The name of the game I'm playing is "VR Tutorial Athletic." It comes pre-installed on the VR system—tutorial software for participating in virtual reality. There are no bullets or magic flying around, and no hyper-realistic NPCs. But it has a minigame called "Virtual Zero Gravity" that's been surprisingly useful to me personally.
It's a simple game: you swim through a three-dimensional maze, manipulating your body in zero gravity, and touch glowing spheres scattered around the area. The number of spheres you touch becomes your score. But it demands a high level of "virtual body control." My personal best in this game is sixty-five spheres. And my result just now... forty-one.
The conclusion: I am currently suffering from a massive spec gap, and it's absolutely kicking my ass.
This isn't limited to VR systems, but it's rare for the small to substitute for the large, even if the large can substitute for the small. The commercial-grade chair-type VR system—often mocked as a massage chair—has downsides like increased size and weight. But in return, its specs are several levels above the headgear type. If using the chair type brought benefits, the reverse is also true. Even though I was using it just a week ago, now I'm feeling a nagging sense of wrongness with every single action, like something's dragging me back.
Going up against a Unique Monster considered on par with Wethermon or Lycagon while carrying this kind of fundamental problem would be reckless beyond belief. I've been rehabbing since yesterday, gradually getting my feel back... but honestly, recovering my instincts in actual gameplay and real combat would be more efficient.
Rakuro: "Anyway, it looks like the others have been doing their own investigations, but..."
While I was fighting as the pumpkin-headed helper, the other EX scenario participants had apparently been squeezing in their own explorations here and there. The fish that appear at night can be shot down with magic or bows, and the food problem seems solvable with fish meat. Wait, those are probably the ones that turn into fish mince or mermen during the day. Is that really okay?
Rakuro: "So, the bosses in the four corner towers each nullify a specific type of attack..."
According to Rust and Akitsu Akane, who charged in to test it, one boss completely nullifies magic, and another—the polar opposite—completely nullifies physical attacks. The remaining two apparently sometimes take damage and sometimes nullify it, so the conditions are still unknown.
Rakuro: "That Clione nullifies magic... So, should I, a pure physical build, be the one to handle it?"
Mold, being pure magic, is out of the question. Akitsu Akane—easy to forget, but she's pretty heavily a magic user—is also out. And Rei-shi hasn't been reachable at all. Rust, a ranged fighter, might be able to handle it if he only uses his strong bow, but... today's the fourth day, and Rust probably isn't logged in anyway.
That Clione—if even the slightest bit of magic is involved, its absolute defense kicks in. That means enchantments are also out. Either you beat it with skills alone, or... there's no confirmation, but maybe you can blast it away with massive magical firepower. Though the latter is too far-fetched. So, in conclusion, I'm the right person for the job—a pure muscle-brain who never uses and can't use magic.
Rakuro: "Well... guess I'll log in."
Maybe I'll even run into Rei-shi.
I close my eyes. Then I wake up. It's a pretty strange experience when you think about it. Am I asleep right now, or awake...? Pondering such half-baked philosophical nonsense, I awaken on the hard bed inside a house in Ruluiath.
Sunraku: "As long as my brain's working, I'm awake, I guess."
Emul: "Ahh! Sunraku-san, you're awake, wa!"
Sunraku: "Yo, Emul. Feels like I haven't seen you in forever."
Emul: "Sunraku-san, you've been sleeping in way too much, wa!!"
I move the huffing and puffing Emul, who'd hopped onto my knee, up to my head. As I do, a faint sense of unease crosses my mind, and I furrow my brow. I open and close my hands, do a squat, a backflip, side-steps, confirming the unease has lessened. Still, I give a bitter smile—I'm definitely not in top form. What was that? I felt like something was seriously nagging at the back of my mind.
Emul: "I-I really wish you wouldn't suddenly start bouncing around like that, wa..."
Sunraku: "Hm? Ah, sorry. Right, where are Araba and the brat?"
Emul: "The fishy-smelling person said, 'I'm off to find my beloved sword!' and has been exploring for quite a while, wa."
His beloved sword, huh... He's been saying that since we met. Is it an affection thing, or a flag tied to the EX scenario? Might not be a bad idea to seriously help him look for it at some point. In any case, Araba's combat ability seems pretty high, so I don't want to think he's gone off and died in a ditch somewhere. Wait, then where's the brat?
Emul: "As for the little child... over there, wa."
Sunraku: "That's the bed I was sleeping in."
Emul: "Under it, wa."
Eeh...? I peek under the bed, and in the darkness of the shadows, my eyes meet a pair of terrified pupils. Eeh...
Emul: "He's been trembling down there the whole time, wa. He lacks Vorpal Soul, wa!"
Sunraku: "Well, I mean... it's the kind of hiding spot you wouldn't find unless you searched the whole house top to bottom..."
But even so, isn't this a bit too much fear? No, maybe this is the normal reaction. You're trapped in a Unique Monster's territory in the middle of a zombie apocalypse—of course you'd barricade yourself in. In that sense, maybe Araba, actively going outside, is the weird one. Players? If there's an event flag or the ultimate weapon, we'd dive into a black hole for it.
Sunraku: "Let's see... Alright, Emul, let's go find Araba's beloved sword or whatever it is!"
Emul: "I was sure Sunraku-san would say something like, 'Time to sweep all four bosses at once! Guhahahaha!' wa."
That ticked me off for some reason, so I pinch both her cheeks and pull. Ooh, they stretch like mochi. Fluffy, fuzzy.
Emul: "Hyahehreh—hyahelheh phwa—"
Sunraku: "You know, reckless courage is bad for your Vorpal Soul if you don't follow proper usage and dosage. You get that?"
But if you do follow usage and dosage, it can bring results beyond your stats. At least in that fight the other day, it was exactly because I pushed through the impossible that I was able to fight that hard.
Sunraku: "Right, I'm heading out for a bit. Lock up properly and stay holed up inside, okay?"
Emul: "Hehhyu-wa—!"
Rust, who was the strongest player in the game Nephilim Hollow, was also the player who had put the most time into it. And Mold, who followed along with him, was the same. Which means their fundamental nature is suited to "gaming."
Broadly speaking, gamers come in two types: those who pursue the story, and those who pursue the systems. The former, to be blunt, don't really care about game systems. They place weight on the scenario, the characters, the worldbuilding. They make derivative works outside the game, reset their data and start the story over from scratch... that type. The latter place weight on the game's systems and scores. Higher firepower, the ultimate build—the parameters a character has are more important than their face or personality... that type.
It's not about which is wrong. Both are valid ways to enjoy a game. If you've found value worth the full price of the software, there's no hierarchy in how you enjoy it. But if you ask which type keeps playing the game itself longer, it's the latter. Which item affects which parameter and how? Which actions, when combined with which other actions, unleash even greater power? Players who enjoy that kind of accumulation are the ones who fill up strategy sites.
And Rust and Mold, being the latter type, had done a certain amount of research even on the trash mobs besides the Blockers.
Sunraku: "The fishmen basically rely on sight and hearing. If you defeat every fishman in the encounter within ten seconds of being spotted, no reinforcements spawn."
Furthermore, though the probability is low, they sometimes drop items based on the original fish. Ones that become items as whole fish don't drop, but ones where individual parts drop as separate pieces do trigger item drops.
Sunraku: "A mermaid's song can be nullified if you physically block your ears before hearing it."
If you hear it once, you'll suffer a debuff. But if you physically shut it out before hearing it, nullification is possible. Actually, for me, and probably for Akitsu Akane too, this might not even be something we need to worry about.
Sunraku: "Large monsters spawn at night, but during the day it's basically just fishmen and mermaids... I see, I see."
So it's a zombie apocalypse without the boss showing up. That means there are plenty of ways to handle it. Arctus Regalex showing up was an irregularity caused by Emul's magic, so normally it shouldn't happen.
Sunraku: "Easy. Way too easy... Don't you think, Emul?"
Emul: "I don't think that's something to say right in Ctarnidd's own backyard, wa..."
We're storming the landlord's place on the seventh day anyway. Compared to that, most things are easy mode. Ah, but that orca was rough. That one was on a whole different game genre.
Sunraku: "Alright... where should we start looking?"
Emul: "No plan!? You have no plan, wa!?"
Sunraku: "There's a saying: 'Go with the flow.' At times like this, you stick a branch in the ground and go in the direction it falls."
Since I don't have a branch, I'll stand up Duxram, Blade of Aspiration, and...
Emul: "It fell toward the house we’re using as our base, wa."
Sunraku: "So it's telling us to go back and sleep...?"
Oh, come on. The direction a stick falls is just RNG in the end. I won’t bow to RNG! If it's come to this, I'll sweep every inch of Ruluiath—hm?
Sunraku: "...Emul, did you hear that?"
Emul: "I heard it, wa! That's the fishy-smelling person's voice, wa!"
Sunraku: "Can you tell what he's saying, specifically?"
Emul: "Umm, probably, 'I found iiiit!', wa."
An event just came to us. It's like a duck carrying a leek—no, a shark carrying an event? Well, whatever. A zombie apocalypse alone should be perfect for rehab.