Chapter 198: Together Under Heaven — Part Four
Analysis. Yes, among the things this game demands of its players, analysis is one of them. Simply defeating the enemy in front of you, gaining experience points, and going "yay, I did it, level up!"—there exist mysteries that cannot be conquered through such simple hack-and-slash alone. No—not mysteries. If I had to put it into words, what exists is "the unknown." For example, take a situation like: "A suspension bridge exists. The ropes supporting this bridge across both banks are frayed and on the verge of snapping, and several of the wooden planks that serve as footing have rotted away, leaving gaps." If you tried to cross this bridge thoughtlessly at a full sprint, you'd reach at least three different falling-bad-ends just off the top of your head. To conquer this situation, approaches are necessary—a careful way of walking that won't snap the ropes, careful confirmation to judge which planks are missing.
And that is exactly what "analysis" is. Pulling clues from a situation where you understand nothing, and deducing what kind of picture a puzzle—most of whose pieces have been scattered—was originally meant to be. So, to the main point: in this Bonus Unique Scenario, "O Man, Gaze Up at the Abyssal Sky, the World Turns Over," what serves as material for analysis?
Sunraku: "...So, for the time being, it's not like something's going to happen the moment we step inside the castle."
Psyger-0: "...It... seems that way."
Aside from everything being blue, it's a fairly standard—well, maybe not standard, but at least not drastically deviating from what you'd expect of a "castle"—interior entrance hall. We'd been on high alert, watching carefully for any kind of change, but even after waiting several minutes, we haven't encountered a single enemy. Rei-shi and I both let some of the tension drain from our shoulders.
Sunraku: "Maybe this is more like a dungeon with another dungeon nested inside it."
Akitsu Akane: "Sunraku-san! I found stairs going up and stairs going down!!"
Whoa, as expected of a ninja—she's actually doing proper scout work on the sly. But from now on, before investigating, let's remember to report, contact, and consult. Still, stairs leading up and stairs leading down... It's safe to assume Ctarnidd is on either the top floor or the lowest level. Logically speaking, the owner of those giant tentacles couldn't be crammed into the top floor of a Western-style castle. It's natural to think it would be underground. But unfortunately, our opponent is a cheat monster capable of making gill-breathing and lung-breathing coexist in the same place. The possibility of encountering it on the top floor through some ability isn't zero.
Sunraku: "Anyway, let's investigate this entire first floor before deciding whether to go up or down."
Rust: "Split up?"
I think over Rust's words for a moment, then decide that as long as we don't reach either the uppermost or lowermost extremity, no dramatic changes are likely to occur. I split the party into two to investigate the interior of the floor. I can't shake the feeling that ever since we entered this castle, the game category has shifted to one where every single action seems like it'll demand a dice roll. But this is a Unique Scenario. In other words—a story.
Sunraku: "There might be clues to clearing this, so exploring is important."
Akitsu Akane: "Look! The candles are blue!!"
Sunraku: "Hmm, I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean anything beyond set dressing."
I mean, that's just an object, isn't it? Let's try to find something more... item-like. That said, I've heard that back when games existed before VR—in the era of giant cubes called CRT televisions—in RPGs so ancient they're practically fossils, the ultimate equipment would sometimes be found lying around in bizarre places. But as expected of SLF, riding the cutting edge of the era, it seems the first floor of the castle—which is, so to speak, nothing more than a dungeon entrance—hasn't been stocked with ultimate gear.
Sunraku: "Alright... it seems that octopus wants us to explore. So, up or down—which do we investigate first?"
By majority vote, we of Team Fugutaiten decided to investigate the underground first, and so we descended the stairs leading below, which Akitsu Akane had discovered...
And with that, having opened the underground door with absolutely no context whatsoever and laid eyes directly upon the giant octopus Ctarnidd, sitting enshrined within the vast space beyond, we are now conducting a SAN check.
Sunraku: "Wha—the hell—what?! Everyone, battle stations—!!"
No, no, no, after setting up a stage this elaborate, you just open a door and get an encounter?! What happened to—you sense an evil aura emanating from deeper within... Would you like to save? You cannot save once you proceed beyond this point. You know—the classic RPG final-dungeon system message kind of thing?!
Seeing Ctarnidd again, its form is... an octopus. Eight soft-bodied tentacles. A round, smooth, bald head—different from a squid. Although apparently that's actually the body, not the head. Its form has absolutely no twist on it whatsoever. It looks just like they took an octopus-type mob and simply scaled it up in size. If I had to point out a difference from a normal, realistic octopus—squinting past its size—it would be that its entire body is jet black. And one more thing: of its eight black tentacles, four are stitched to the ground by something resembling chains. A machine warrior wielding transcendent techniques. A black wolf that attacks when night falls. A golden Dragon King—known only through hearsay... Compared to those, this is... how do I put it... just too ordinary-looking. It's just a really big octopus. Vash—whom I increasingly suspect of being a Unique Monster—is, when you get down to it, nothing more than a human-sized, talking, bipedal rabbit. Yet from his form, you feel an overwhelming pressure, like a blast of hot wind hitting your brain directly.
But from this octopus, presumed to be Ctarnidd, I can't even feel that. To be blunt, Atlanticus Lepnorca had a far stronger boss-like presence. Is it because half its tentacles—which could serve as devastating mass-based weaponry—appear unusable for some reason? It looks like we could take it down in no time... wait, what?
Sunraku: "...Emul. What do you think when you look at that?"
Emul: "I think now's our chance, wa!"
Alright, got it. This is seriously bad.
Sunraku: "Everyone, fall back! We need a major overhaul of the plan."
Those who turn surprised eyes toward my decision are Akitsu Akane, Emul, Ceecrue, Araba, Nereis, Stude... with about one exception, they're almost all NPCs. And the fact that the shitty brat is on that side seems to have convinced Rust and Mold of this intense sense of wrongness. Half-dragging the NPCs along, we hurriedly retreat through the door leading into that vast space, back to the entrance hall. Staying behind as the rearguard just in case, I stare at Ctarnidd, standing motionless at the far end of the underground chamber—an area easily the size of a baseball dome, clearly impossible to form without warping space itself.
Sunraku: "...So, that's what you'd call a 'passing grade,' huh."
I spit the words out, but the corner of my lips twists upward—at the fact that we've broken through the "fundamental premise" it set for us. As I withdraw from the underground space, just at the moment before the Ctarnidd reflected in my turned-back gaze disappears from view, my eyes definitely perceive it. The characteristically octopus-like horizontal slit-pupil. It forms a downward crescent arc—likely from joy. Yes. It was, without a doubt, looking at us... and laughing.
Sunraku: "I'll be blunt. In our current state, if we challenge Ctarnidd, there's a 100% certainty we absolutely cannot win."
Stude: "Why the hell not?! If everyone fights together, we can—"
Sunraku: "Shitty brat, shut up."
A pretty solid THUD rings out from Stude’s head as he writhes in agony. I give him a single glance, and Rust picks up where I left off.
Rust: "The opponent is a Unique Monster. In other words, a final boss not bound by the story... It’s far larger than us, and the very fact that it looks beatable to us is what’s wrong."
Akitsu Akane: "Ah! Now that you mention it, that's true!"
Akitsu Akane... were you seriously thinking we could win just like that? In a way, I envy her ability to immerse herself that deeply. But what's required here is the perspective of a player—no, that's not right. The third-party perspective, precisely because we are not beings of this world.
In the first place, humans are creatures that will regard even an insect—far smaller, far more fragile than themselves—as a threat, just because it possesses two simple elements: a "stinger" and "venom." The wariness humans possess is proportional to their knowledge and common sense. If something possesses even a single element that surpasses the baseline specs of the shared concept known as "human," they will feel a sense of caution toward that target. And just from what we currently know, Ctarnidd possesses the advantages of "a gigantic body far surpassing humans" and "the inversion of reality that transcends human comprehension"—advantages that are on an entirely different scale from humans.
So why would we ever think we "can win" against such an opponent? Even the Vorpal Bunny—a being that possesses the trait of standing up against the strong specifically because it is weak—felt that way. If you think about it calmly, the answer is obvious. The Unique Monster "Ctarnidd of the Abyss," at this very first stage—to put it in the setting's terms—"is inverting the feeling of threat that others have toward it." And it would be incredibly foolish to think that this effect stops at mere impression.
Mold: "But to even affect players... is that technically possible?"
Sunraku: "Mold, you know the argument that the people running opposition movements against full-dive VR systems have been shouting nonstop, from the dawn of full-dive right up to the present day?"
Full-dive VR is widely accepted by the masses now, but that doesn't mean all of humanity has raised their hands and welcomed it as part of everyday life. It's also a fact that there are humans who reject virtual reality and insist that true reality is the only correct one—self-proclaimed "Realists" who harbor a powerful rejection of the full-dive VR system itself. Most of their arguments make you want to say, "Before you scream about the dangers of full-dive, how about you go to a hospital first and do some rehab to learn the difference between fiction and non-fiction?" They're practically copy-pasted straight from the settings of outdated sci-fi novels. But well, not all Realists are idiots. It's also a fact that among them are those who, based on genuine knowledge, assert that the act of sending your consciousness into virtual reality is harmful.
Sunraku: "Their claim is, and I quote, 'Full-dive VR is nothing more than an electric chair in a different form. The act of sending electric currents into the brain and freely scattering noise in the name of dreams cannot possibly be healthy for a living organism.' Something like that."
Rust: "You're... surprisingly knowledgeable."
Sunraku: "You know the saying, 'Know thy enemy and know thyself, and you shall not fear a hundred battles,' right? Words have no meaning unless you understand the other side's argument before you refute it."
Well, none of that really matters. What's important is the mechanism of the VR system, which the relatively intelligent Realists describe as "sending electric currents into the head."
Sunraku: "What we’re seeing, what we’re feeling... none of it is the truth. We perceive those things because electrical currents sent into the brain make it misfire. Basically, if it’s inside a dream, nothing that happens is especially strange... Ah, no good. I’m getting tangled up in my own explanation. Forget about eighty percent of what I just said."
Rust and Mold are both giving me half-lidded stares, but it can't be helped. It's not like I'm trying to give a philosophical lecture on VR here.
Sunraku: "What I'm trying to say is, technically speaking, making a player 'misinterpret' something isn't actually that difficult."
Rust: "Sunraku, in this case, real-world circumstances don’t matter. What matters is that if things stay like this, we’ll have no choice but to charge straight at Ctarnidd before it has even revealed its true form..."
Sunraku: "An extremely concise conclusion. Thank you, Rust. In other words—hey, you, shitty brat over there. The fact that someone who was trembling under his bed until just recently could look at THAT and think 'We can win!' is, in itself, already completely wrong."
They say it's no use crying over spilled milk... but if he was going to bake in a gimmick this goddamn troublesome, we should've just stormed the castle from Day One! Damn it all!
Analysis. Yes. Among the things this Bonus Unique Scenario demands of its players, analysis is one of them. It means we have to think, verify, correctly perceive Ctarnidd, and defeat him—all within the remaining time limit of just over ten hours.