Chapter 230: Uncontrolled Motion · Shangri-La Frontier

[Nnnnngggghhhhh, nngh, oooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!?!?

↑

The sound of someone writhing around after discovering an unbelievably stupid contradiction.

My first slot is occupied by Inventoria, and I haven't even gone to the accessory shop, so there's no way I could equip another accessory!

So I'm fixing it. More specifically, I'm inserting another chapter before this one. For now, please read the order as:

Went to the accessory shop and opened the slots
Tested the Trigger at the colosseum
Remembered to go to Bilac's weapon shop

...ooohhhhh...]

I have a lot to say about Lapistella Cloak's performance, but the first thing that's insane is: 300 MP. Three hundred MP. Even a monkey could become a wizard.

It probably uses the player's MP to recharge when it runs dry, like a bucket. But the ability to fire off magic in rapid succession for an extra 300 MP on top of what you already have is insane. Magic damage depends on your maximum MP, but there's more to rapid-fire magic than just attack spells. Besides, I won't know the details of storing magic until I try it, but it practically reeks of potential.

Even setting that aside, in a short fight, magic that doesn't have a recast time limit is incredibly strong. Sure, it has a different limit—MP—but in terms of sheer single-shot power, magic classes are superior. Of course, with auto-attacks factored in, physical classes might have the higher DPS overall.

Sunraku: "I need to test it, but this could make magic DPS completely insane..."

That is, if the spell I set ignores the power loss from casting it without an incantation... But more than that, the biggest advantage of this accessory is that you can record a spell with a single cast.

Take the Magic Scrolls that Rei-shi burned through during the Ctarnidd fight. The spells recorded on them are expensive, and their expense reflects their rarity.

You don't need to buy ludicrously expensive magic one by one if you record it in Lapistella Cloak. You can use it as much as you want. Yeah, even putting it lightly, it's ridiculous... I can already think of four ways to abuse it.

The real problem is this one.

Emul: "S-Sunraku-san... is it safe to use that, wa...?"

Sunraku: "That's what we're testing, right? Might be dangerous, so stand back, Emul."

Emul: "H-Hai na."

This is the Rabituza Colosseum, where I once fought things like packs of hunting dogs and mummy palms. I'm sure Akitsu Akane will fight here someday, but right now I'm using it to test the other accessory: "Levin Trigger: Hazard."

Reading the description, it seems like a buff item with a penalty attached. I'm curious about the "Overflow" effect. The Sealed Amber has five classes, and if "Hazard" is the one with the penalty, then it's unlikely that all three of the effects—increased motion sensitivity, correction to all motions, and damage over time—are penalties.

Sunraku: "There are some things you just won't know until you try..."

I unequipped everything except Levin Trigger: Hazard. Steeling myself, I struck the amber embedded in the glove's thumb against my chest, like I was punching myself, fulfilling the activation condition.

A tiny static-like shock shot from the struck amber through my entire body. The next moment, the shock that spread through my body turned into pitch-black lightning. It's not like it's covering my body like an enchantment. It's like it's overflowing from the inside of my avatar. It was like becoming the source of the ancient lightning sealed within the amber.

Sunraku: "This is...!"

Power surged through my body. An intense energy roared inside me, making me want to shout and run at full force.

I couldn't hold back and sprinted at full speed—into a wall.

Sunraku: "Gahb!?"

Emul: "S-Sunraku-saaaaaaan!!?"

I died.

Sunraku: "……Hah!?"

I respawned on a bed in the colosseum's waiting room—a humble bed compared to the one in my room at the Rabbit Palace. Huh? What just happened? Why am I dead?

Emul: "Sunraku-san, are you okay, wa!?"

Sunraku: "I'm sorry, Emul. Explain the cause of death."

Emul: "Sunraku-san suddenly ran into the wall at super-speed, wa!"

Into the... wall? That's ridiculous. I was standing twenty meters away from that wall. There's no way I could die just from hitting a wall...

Sunraku: "Wait. Is that what this is...?"

Emul: "Sunraku-san...?"

Sunraku: "Alright, Emul. I'm going to go die a bunch of times right now."

Emul: "Whaaaat!?"

I haven't even shaken off the death penalty yet, but that's beside the point. The number of things I need to check has exploded.

I rushed back to the colosseum and struck the Trigger against my chest again.

Sunraku: "Motion correction... sensitivity increase..."

Say I want to "lift my arm and touch my chin." What would happen if I sped up the arm-lifting motion to the absolute limit, and put the force of a punch into the chin-touching motion?

People—living things—can't live their lives always using 100% of their power. There are reasons like physical limits, but you can't live life with enough grip strength to crush an apple and enough arm strength to break a roof tile in everything you do.

In other words:

Sunraku: "Hngh."

I attempted a backflip. But with the excessive energy and uncontrollable movements, I did a double backflip and landed face-first on the ground. I died. My neck was definitely twisted in a bad direction just now.

Sunraku: "This is... sort of dangerous."

Emul: "Sunraku-san, you're also pretty dangerous, getting up like nothing happened after snapping your neck, wa..."

Sunraku: "It's way better than getting grabbed and crushed by giant claws."

A death where you're squashed like folded origami is shocking even without pain, and with pain it's even worse. Though, I mean, my mind goes blank before I can even feel pain or anything.

Anyway, I figured it out from this excessive kinetic energy. In the "Overflow" state, all movements become incredibly rough and full-powered. And because it applies correction to the motion itself, like Possessed by the Great Asura King, when I tried to backflip, I had too much momentum and did a double. When I tried to run, I hit the wall at full speed. It's like a robot with miscalibrated output. The type that lifts its legs to the absolute limit just to walk.

And on top of that, for a certain reason, even a scratch would kill me in this state.

Sunraku: "So this is where Arcanum comes into play..."

Arcanum: The Fool's effect halves skill recast times. In exchange, healing becomes RNG-based, and damage-over-time effects are doubled.

And as part of Levin Trigger: Hazard's effect, I take "damage equal to 50% of my current HP every ten seconds." Doubled, that means I take 100% of my HP every ten seconds.

That I didn't die instantly means it probably doesn't reduce my HP to zero, unlike poison. So I take 100% damage, but hang on with 1 HP.

Still, I'm at death's door with 1 HP, half-naked because of Lycagon’s Contusion, and my movements are hard to control. All these together mean: hit a wall, you die. Trip, you die. Land wrong, you die. Obviously, grazed by an attack, you die. Actually, if I try any close-quarters combat, the recoil from my own punches might... No, maybe Luck will let me hang on through it? I think self-damage and recoil can be endured with 50+ Luck. But can that trigger repeatedly? Hmm...

Sunraku: "It's a one-hit-kill character from a retro game..."

And on top of that, my in-game speed is about three times faster. Stop killing me with the environment instead of the game itself.

In pre-full-dive games, you could mess with the hardware to play at double speed. But doing that in full-dive would create lag between the virtual reality and your consciousness, so it's regulated by law. Lately, there's research into tech that accelerates your consciousness as well. Since Levin Trigger: Hazard only accelerates your body, it's like being asked to do stunts in a drag car. And drag cars can't turn. What am I supposed to do?

Sunraku: "So one becomes ten. The smallest unit on the ruler jumps from one millimeter to one centimeter. Divide the assumptions—no, multiply the result...?"

Emul: "Here he goes again, wa..."

Sorry, Emul. I'm the type who gets more fired up when I run into a systemic absurdity. Usually, when something's unfair, the developers can't control it either, and you can get an advantage from bugs or imbalanced elements. Like buying an item with a random discount for 100 yen and selling it for 150 yen. This kind of thing happens a lot when discount values are set carelessly.

Sunraku: "Alright! I'm going to practice basic movement today... I mean, something tells me some scumbag idiot's going to do something stupid, so by tomorrow!"

Emul: "Before that!"

Hmph.

Emul: "Sunraku-san, you forgot something, wa!"

Sunraku: "Forgot what?"

Emul: "You said yourself you were going to see big sister Bilac, wa!"

Sunraku: "Ah."

I legitimately forgot about that. Anyway, I need to get these miscellaneous tasks done first. Con-ja-ction.