Chapter 236: Not a Scarecrow, but Every Minute and Second Becomes History

Three Trunks, Seven Branches—no such phrase exists.

But something that carries exactly that meaning does exist.

No one notices it because everyone takes it for granted.

Life and death alike are swept along like pebbles swallowed by the main current. Time is an absolute, immutable tide, adding “aging” as an irreversible vector.

As long as it's a sandbox where countless people play simultaneously, time doesn't stop for any single person. That's obvious. But that's precisely why it's overlooked.

This world is indeed a digital realm, and those who inhabit it have no life. But the Three Trunks, Seven Branches they inhabit take no account of whether life exists, nor whether human rights exist. Without resisting the still-greater current, time flows—and moves forward.

So.

Now, the seven Colossi of this world—those whose roots of origin lie in the Divine Era. No matter what those closest to them may be doing, the world moves forward.

The Magnanimous Sanctuary.

A massive plateau sits at its center, with many monsters inhabiting the slopes that lead up to it. The higher you go, the stronger the monsters appear, but the summit itself is notable for having no monster spawns at all.

Why? The reason is well known among players: this area is the resting place of a certain monster.

Player: "Siegwurm! If I defeat you, then even I...!"

Siegwurm: "Sorry, but I'm entertaining a guest right now. I don't have time for the likes of you."

Was their motivation frustration that a single player had defeated two Unique Monsters? Or a rampage of self-aggrandizement? These players, clearly under-equipped for the fight, charged at Siegwurm. In a single blow, their HP was reduced to zero.

With a true breath attack, completely different in power from the imitation performed by a certain masked ninja, the players were blown away in a literal single hit. The Golden Dragon King, Siegwurm, watched their fading remnants with a hint of apology before turning his gaze toward him.

???: "Still as dutiful as ever, aren’t you...?"

Siegwurm: "All who raise their weapons without fearing my might are heroes... Facing them with all my strength is only proper courtesy."

???: "Is that so...? Even those things made in your image?"

Siegwurm: "Hmm... They and I differ at the very root. Even the category by which I regard them as enemies is different."

Siegwurm answers every challenge with ferocious full force, even from a rookie ninja a hundred or more levels below him. Yet he is not equal to his challengers. Siegwurm is this world’s antimatter—one of the greatest counters to a world that contains every fortune and misfortune. In the end he is solitary, without an equal. If any equals exist, they are only his peers who share the same origin.

Siegwurm: "But this is a rare occasion, my friend. You came to see me."

???: "Yeah, well... You've noticed it too, haven't you? It's about time."

Siegwurm: "...So it would seem."

The world moves forward. No matter the reason, two of the seven wedges have been removed. And whose defeat will pull out the third wedge?

???: "The Dragon Calamity... Those ‘fungi’ are after you. The Project Two humans will probably jump on board too. I don’t even need to ask, but answer me anyway... What are you gonna do?"

Siegwurm: "Heh heh heh... Isn't it obvious?"

The Golden Dragon King laughed. Ever since the day the being that would become Siegwurm was born, he had pondered the meaning of his own existence. The conclusion he reached was his role as "a trial standing in the way of humanity's future." Not hatred, not respect, not adoration... but expectation and trust. Those are the principles at the Dragon King’s core. If humanity were to come at him alongside the Calamity Dragons, he might even welcome it.

Be strong, humans. Surpass me.

Siegwurm: "My purpose is unwavering. My beliefs remain unchanged since that day. I am the mountain. I am the wall. I am the gate... Humans, step over me and advance into the future."

???: "I see, I see... Then the guests staying with me might point their blades at your throat."

Siegwurm: "The humans who slew that Tombguard, surpassed that abyssal octopus... and the human who once pierced my reverse scale! Fascinating—truly fascinating!"

The Dragon King laughed as if genuinely amused. And his friend—whose once-gray fur was now white, his long ears swaying in the wind—stood beside him.

Siegwurm: "Very well! If they struggle to surpass me, then trampling those efforts and reigning above them is a dragon’s duty. In the land of the Dragon Calamity, I shall teach them what a true dragon is!"

At that very moment, World Quest Stage Three, “The Great War to Bring Down Gold,” changed its name. A great war between the dragons living in the present and the Dragon King who had lived through everything leading to the present, drawing all humanity into it... the Dragon Calamity War.

Rakuro: "School... what a drag... No, wait, if I think of this dragging feeling as what makes going to school feel real, maybe I can sense some kind of atmospheric something..."

Nah, I don't have that kind of masochistic feeling.

The cicadas are loud again today. It's already September and they're still trying to mate. I can't help but think they're a bit late to the party, but I should probably respect their spirit of fighting until their last breath.

Rakuro: "...Presence!"

I turned around, but no one was there. Hmph... did the chuunibyou beast I keep inside me just turn traitor—

Rei: "G-good morning."

Rakuro: "WHOA!?"

In front of me!? Why did Saiga-san appear in the direction I was looking just a few seconds ago!? Is she a fixed encounter that simply doesn’t display as an object on the map!?

Rakuro: "G-good morning, Saiga-san..."

The new theory of "Saiga-san as a stationary encounter" came to mind, but I didn't voice it. I just returned the greeting. I've been running into Saiga-san a lot lately, I thought, but since we were headed the same way, we ended up walking together again.

Rei: "Um, well..."

Rakuro: "Hmm?"

Rei: "I have... something I wanted to talk to you about, Hizutome-kun..."

Rakuro: "Talk?"

Why me? If your VR system is acting up, I can handle basic repairs, but honestly, it's more reliable to contact the manufacturer than leave it to an amateur. No, she probably wouldn't ask me about that. Contacting the manufacturer would be faster.

Rei: "It's about... a game..."

Rakuro: "You mean SLF?"

Rei: "Yes, but... also not exactly, I suppose."

She was being strangely vague. Something about SLF, but not exactly?

Rei: "The truth is..."

To summarize what Rei told me, it went like this.

Right now, Rei has imposed a quota on herself in SLF. To meet it, she's been doing what you'd call "grinding." But as they say, too much of anything is poison. She's starting to get bored. She heard that Hizutome plays a lot of games and might be knowledgeable about how to deal with this kind of grinding. She'd like to ask for advice on how to grind more efficiently...

Something along those lines. It felt like she was reading from a script, but that didn't matter.

Rakuro: "Grinding... grinding, huh..."

Truth be told, grinding in a VR game—especially a full-dive one—is quite a trial.

The usual "do something else while playing" trick doesn't work. In some games that are more like mini-game collections or focus on virtual reality with thin game elements, you can import music or movies from outside. But in games that are actually games, like SLF, worldbuilding and related constraints prevent that. So maintaining motivation in a full-dive game comes down to one of two patterns.

Either "increase what you do" or "do it with multiple people."

In the former case, you impose time-attack challenges on yourself, or you practically declare that you will be the one to improve the strategy sites and turn the grind into an efficient manual. Those types actually get more motivated.

In the latter case, the burden simply decreases. You have someone to talk to. It's easier because you're effectively "doing something else" through other people, but now you have to manage both your own schedule and someone else's.

Rakuro: "Well..."

Just then, a message from Pencilgon. If she isn’t using SNS for this, that probably means exactly what I think it means. Let’s see...

Subject: Emergency From: Pencil Warrior To: Sunraku, Modor Katzo

Sorry, Kyogoku screwed up. This might get a little troublesome.

Can I pretend I didn’t see that? No, I can’t... This weekend is going to be a pain.

The most dangerous thing about SLF’s system is that NPCs have a concept of time—that the NPCs themselves create the future.

Mana: "Listen, okay? Hizutome-kun is a genuine gamer who uses seventy percent of his brain space on games, so if you bring up games he’ll bite immediately. Your mission this time is to keep expanding the topic until you create a situation where, inside SLF, he plays a game with you."

Rei: "What an impossibly difficult mission..."