Chapter 254: Complete Transfer of Momentum by Taking It Dead Center, and Flight Powered by Someone Else's Kinetic Energy
Thinking back on it, all those strangely frequent run-ins with Rei were probably part of some setup that assumed our real identities would eventually get exposed through SLF.
Still, from now on I can bring things up with her on the assumption that she knows I'm an SLF no-lifer. That's a load off my mind.
Rakuro: "Oh, right."
Rei: "Y-Yes! What is it?!"
Rakuro: "I just realized—if it's pretty much decided that you're joining Wolfgang, I should probably give you the address for the social media group the clan members use."
Rei: "The addre... ss...!?"
Rakuro: "Yeah. I'll send you my personal address first, then I'll add you from my side."
Whoa. She's making an incredible face.
Like some cat reacting to Bremen—or cold noodles, or whatever...
Rei: "Ex... ex... exchange...!"
Rakuro: "Uh... yeah. Exchange."
Moving as though every joint in her body had rusted solid, Rei pulled her phone out of her bag and slowly held it toward me...
Rei: "I-I may be unworthy, but please take care of me!"
Rakuro: "Uh... I mean this app. Do you have it installed?"
I've been starting to wonder lately... Is Rei actually a much more interesting life-form than I thought? No, no, that's a terrible way to put it. "Life-form" is the kind of word you use for those degenerates.
Rakuro: "Goddammit, what an infuriating life-form...!"
Now that's the correct usage.
After school, after losing twelve straight matches to A.I. Ultimate Master, I found myself doing something spectacularly nonsensical: playing SLF as a break from VR Kendo Class: Extreme, which I'd started as a break from SLF.
And what am I doing right now?
Sunraku: "Hff... nngh..."
Rock climbing in the Canyon of the Ancient Souls.
If I dig up too many more Uniques, I'm seriously going to have so much on my plate I won't know what to do with myself, and the player-to-player events are still a little ways off.
So, with a fair amount of free time, I chose to entertain myself by visiting the home of our dear Crystal Scorpions. It should only have been fairly recent, but somehow it already feels like ages ago.
That said, the cliff-drop exploit and Inventoria Escape have probably both been countered by now.
Which brings me to option three, something I'd wanted to try for a while—climb along the cliff wall and make up the distance that way.
I do nothing but cling to the rock face and move sideways, sideways, sideways. When my stamina starts getting dangerous, I recover in Inventoria.
Repeating that over and over has an impressively high emptiness score, but it tickles my trash-game-loving soul, so in its own way it's pretty fun.
Sunraku: "........."
I gently hook a hand over the cliff's edge and raise only my head above it. Since it's nighttime, there shouldn't at least be any active Crystal Scorpions around... Yep. The crystal plain looks peaceful, if nothing else...
Sunraku: "...!"
I jerk my head back down and flatten myself against the rock wall, holding my breath. An instant later, something massive passes directly above me with a crash-crash-crash, crushing crystal underfoot.
The flash of gold I caught out of the corner of my eye apparently didn't notice me clinging to the ledge, and it just kept walking...
Well, duh. It's been days since then. Of course it respawned. I'm not saying its materials aren't tempting, but today's main objective is ore-type items.
Not just in SLF but in hack-and-slash games generally, weapons tend to fall into one of two groups: "made from monster materials" or "made from ore materials." There are exceptions, like wooden weapons, but we'll ignore those.
The important part is that Crystal Nest Cliff is a treasure trove of gem-type items. If I can just deal with those damn scorpions, what's left behind is a mountain of treasure.
Sunraku: "Now then..."
If I climb up carelessly, they'll notice the vibrations. No, more fundamentally, to reach anywhere I can actually mine, I need the Crystal Scorpions to notice me and then somehow not kill me... Maybe I could use the Golden Scorpion... No. I'd end up playing with that thing until morning.
Sunraku: "Plan C, then."
Plan A, "Inventoria Escape," got hard-countered by the devs, so that's out.
Plan B, "Scorpions Can't Stop on a Dime," was something I personally sent the devs a smug feedback email about, so that's probably out too.
Which leaves Plan C: modified Inventoria Escape... "Spectrum Inventoria"!
If I die, I die. I'll just go back to the drawing board and work out another countermeasure. Here goes nothing!
Sunraku: "Gooood morniiiiing!!"
Just like the last time I came here, I charge toward the mining point at full speed, without a shred of hesitation or quiet.
Naturally, the Crystal Scorpions activate the moment I stomp straight through their detection range, turning their aggro toward me like they're saying, "You again?"
Sorry. It's me again.
Sunraku: "Timing, coordinates, and the guts not to screw up what matters!"
Lethal Secret Art: Mirror of Fading—activate. Like a multistage booster, it peels the aggro away from me!
A crystal tidal wave bears down on me. I get as close to the mining point as I possibly can. Three, two, one...
Sunraku: "[Transfer: Storage Space (Enter Travel)]!"
This is the countermeasure I came up with in Ruluiath for escaping with post-patch Inventoria. If they're going to react to my residual aggro and camp the spot, I'll dump every bit of it onto a decoy.
At the very least, Atlanticus Lepnorca completely lost track of me after Mirror of Fading's effect ended.
I gulp down potions that turned into plain water thanks to my shitty RNG and wait for the moment the aggro decoy disappears.
Actually, just to be safe, I'll wait until Mirror of Fading comes off cooldown too... ...All right, done.
Sunraku: "[Transfer: Real Space (Exit Travel)]"
My coordinates switch, and I desperately stop myself from sliding off the crystal beneath me.
I clamp a hand over my mouth, half-convinced even breathing might trigger them, and look around... Damn it. Endure. Endure.
Sunraku: "............ (clench)"
The Crystal Scorpion materials scattered everywhere are tugging at my heart veeeeeery hard, but they say if you chase two rabbits, you'll catch neither, so I force myself to give them up with tears in my eyes.
In other words, if you try to capture Emul and Bilac at the same time, they'll team up and beat the crap out of you, so you should capture them one at a time. Yeah.
Right, back on track. If I leisurely mine like this, the Crystal Scorpions will just run me over again. This situation demands speed, but I never thought I'd end up using this for something like this...
A chunk of amber taps against my bare chest. The next instant, electricity runs through my entire body—not metaphorically. Literally.
Sunraku: "Haaa-ha-ha-ha! Behold my finishing move: Accelerated Mining!"
I've already proven that I can control the Overflow state with Moment Sight. So I'll repeat the cycle of slamming down the pickaxe and grabbing the dropped item at maximum speed!
The pickaxe slams down. A glittering piece of ore appears. I catch it before it can even hit the ground! And strike!
What the hell, this is amazing! I feel like I'm doing high-speed mochi pounding all by myself! Oh crap, this is hitting exactly the right part of my brain. All riiight, time to set a high score!
Sunraku: "Wahahahaha, this is insane! I wanna push the efficiency all the wa—bwegh?!"
A hit from the side. I look over and find the Golden Scorpion, apparently back before I even noticed. Its tail sweeps in a full crescent and sends me flying, straight into a bungee jump without the cord.
Ah. Yes. I got carried away. I got knocked clean out of Crystal Nest Cliff before I could knock out a high score...
Sunraku: "Mngh... Yeah, I'm never going to get used to dying from a fall..."
Emul: "Please don't start muttering something that ominous the moment you wake up..."
The thing about falling to your death is that the time you're still in the air before impact is scarier than the instant you actually hit. That stomach-dropping feeling—like every organ in your body is being lifted upward—is hard to describe.
Still, the results of my little time-killing raid were pretty good. I haven't checked exactly what I picked up, but I got at least twenty items or so.
Sunraku: "Ah! My pickaxe is gone!"
I was actually kind of attached to that thing!
Pretty sure it's just a consumable item anyway.
If I think of it as disappearing into the cycle of fate...
Clearly that means I should hurry up and buy another pickaxe.
Kinda sucks, though... I really was attached to it.
Whoa, hold on. The first letters of those thoughts spell P-I-C-K. This is a message from God.
Sunraku: "All right! Time for another raid!"
This is Vorpal Soul too! Probably!! I'm getting my pickaxe back—it's actually been with me longer than Duxram, Blade of Aspiration!
One hour later.
Sunraku: "Hey, Emul. Wanna hear how I died just now?"
Emul: "I'm a little curious."
Sunraku: "A Crystal Scorpion's tail smacked me flying, I did three and a half spins through the air, then the Golden Scorpion launched me upward, then I fell off the cliff, then I went headfirst into the mouth of an Undead Wyvern down below and died."
Emul: "...Pff-hyu."
Sunraku: "The hell are you laughing at?"
Emul: "Thith ith unfaaair!!"
Well, I did succeed in rescuing my pickaxe from where it had gotten stuck in the Golden Scorpion's head, so let's call it good. I'm absolutely coming back for revenge someday, though...!
I keep walking while squishing and stretching Emul's cheeks, and run into Akitsu Akane, who has an unusually refreshed look on her face.
Akitsu Akane: "Ah! Sunraku-san! Listen! I did it! I worked really hard!"
Sunraku: "What, you beat that multiplying spear guy?"
Akitsu Akane: "Yes! I did!"
Wait, seriously? Now I want to know how the hell she beat that thing.
Apparently that spear soldier was the type where damage dealt to its clones also shaved HP off the original, so in the end she gathered them together and burned them all down with her Apology Cannon.
She says it like it's nothing and I accept it like it's nothing, but "shooting a beam out of your mouth" is generally pretty damn insane... Well, she's a ninja, so I guess it can't be helped. Yeah.
Sunraku's Retry Count: 1 (He casually gathered materials while retrieving the pickaxe.)
Akitsu Akane's Retry Count: 54 (She struggled to sprint around the arena at full speed and gather all the multiplied spear soldiers into one place.)
Saiga Rei's Retry Count: 0 (You can't retry reality, you know.)