Chapter 350: Dragons, O Dragons! Part Fifteen
———————————— PN: Sunraku LV:99 Extend JOB: Mercenary (Dual-Sword Wielder) 1,000 Mani
| STAT | Value | |------|-------| | HP | 80 | | MP | 50 | | STM (Stamina) | 100 | | STR | 100 | | DEX | 100 | | AGI | 100 | | TEC | 80 | | VIT | 1 (5320) | | LUC | 129 |
Skills · Unbroken Lightdance · Mind Over Mountain · Formula Drift Lv.1 · Moment Sight · Agatram Lv.1 · Trial Traverse Lv.1 · Possessed by the Great Asura King · Gravity Zero Lv.1 · Flit Float · Mánagarmr Pride · Lethal Secret Art 【Mirror of Fading】 · Burnout Lv.1 · Riot Axel Lv.1 · Bloody Ideology · Lethe Vanisher · Dirty Sword Lv.1 · Sword Breaker’s Havoc · Lethal Sword Art 【Half Moon Cut】 Third Form · Warrior’s Ultimate Manifestation Lv.1 · Sword Dance 【Spinning Blade】 · Persistence · Melostic Foot
Equipment · Right: Areadbhair Rebuild · Left: Dis Pater, Nether King’s Mirror Shield · Head: True Eye Bird Mask (VIT+20) · Body: Lycagon's Contusion · Waist: Lacedaemon Girdle (VIT+5300) · Legs: Lycagon's Contusion · Accessory: Storage Key Inventoria · Accessory: Levin Trigger: Hazard · Accessory: Lapistella's Star Mantle · Accessory: Goblin Doll (Minor HP regen) · Accessory: Skeleton Doll (Minor stamina recovery boost) ————————————
Apparently there's a novel in the VR game category where the status screen barely changes for about a hundred chapters.
I'm supposed to stand in the middle, but the base itself is off-center. That's a design flaw, right?
Sunraku: "Uh, so for now I stand in the middle... What was it again? I just stay still?"
Ah, something's happening! Cue the signature pose!!
Sunraku: "...Hmph."
Emul: "Hoaaa... Sunraku-san, you can even move things you've never seen before, wa?"
Sunraku: "Nah, it just activated when I happened to strike a pose."
As Emul falls over with a thud, the tips of the inwardly curved "claws" emit rays of light that shine onto me. "Laser" — that reminds me of the eye beams from that goddamn tail head. But as expected, a facility meant for players apparently doesn't come with that kind of first-timer trap.
Emul: "A-are you all right, wa!?"
Sunraku: "My pose game is flawless."
Emul: "I was worried about your head, wa!?"
How rude. My pose — giving it my all for a Saturday night — gets me blasted by light rays from every direction, and honestly, it feels a bit like being targeted by snipers on all sides. But the tilted disc's scrutiny of my existence seems to move to the next stage.
[---Project Two Subject Confirmed]
[---Commencing Flesh Scan]
Sunraku: "...I see. So either way, Project Two gets mentioned here."
If the players are No. 2, then who the hell is No. 1? They're clearly defined as something different from pioneer players, but Ctarnidd treated them as beings who receive rewards just like pioneers... Yeah. Nine times out of ten, it's NPCs. Humans, or something close to them.
[---Scan in Progress...]
[---Biological Mana Control Organ "Seal Organ" Confirmed]
[---Accumulated Mana Particles: Confirmed Exceeding Prescribed Value]
[---Program "Extend (Expansion)" Approved. Commencing Execution]
Sunraku: "Oh, oh, oh?"
Emul: "I-it's started spinning, wa..."
Not me. The "claws" on the outer edge of the disc. Apparently, this disc is made of separate inner and outer parts, and the claws on the outer edge are gradually picking up speed.
Holograms like system windows pop up all over the disc, strings of text flowing at high speed. It's in English, by the way, just so you know.
Sunraku: "I don't really feel... power welling up or anything."
I'm just watching the text scroll by, not really feeling any— what's wrong, Emul? Why are you looking at me like I just grew a second head?
Emul: "Sunraku-san! Sunraku-san!"
Sunraku: "What?"
Emul: "No no no! You're on fire, wa!!"
Sunraku: "What's on fire?"
Emul: "You are, waa—!!"
HAHAHA, what kind of nonsense—
Sunraku: "Whoa, I'm really on fire!"
My feet! The tips of my feet... wait, the tips of my hands too! You've gotta be kidding me, first-timer trap... That goddamn Deep Throater! And Kyotimate! Both of you need divine punishment... wait, hold on.
Sunraku: "...My HP isn't actually dropping."
Oh. Then it doesn't matter.
Sunraku: "Chicken wings and maple leaves."
Emul: "......?"
Tch. So even that reference doesn't land... The two degenerates would've been rolling on the floor.
[---Releasing Accumulated Particles]
[---Commencing Subject Flesh Modification Accordingly]
[---Error. Confirmed Some Obstructive Factor in Flesh]
[---------]
[---Scan Complete. Judged No Issue with Flesh Modification. Resuming Modification Process]
[---30 Seconds Remaining...]
Hold on, did it just say flesh modification? Flesh modification!? It said a bunch of ominous stuff before that too, right!?
Sunraku: "Please don't tell me I'm gonna wake up and be a tiger or something..."
It's not like I have ambitions of being a poet. The system windows — or whatever they are — appear and vanish in greater and greater numbers, while the beams from the spinning claws blast every part of my burning body with harmless fire.
Then, with an effect like shattering chains... all the hologram windows burst apart.
[---Flesh Modification Complete]
[---Mana Particle Compatibility Limiter Released]
[-----]
[---]
[]
[---May Fortune Favor Your Pioneering]
......Is it over? I didn't expect the facility to give me a pep talk, but... right now, none of that matters.
Sunraku: "Heh heh heh..."
Emul: "S-Sunraku-san?"
Sunraku: "Fufufu... ahahahahaha!!!"
Emul: "Sunraku-san's gone crazy, waaa!"
That bastard... Deep Throater! I see, I see. This really does convert into motivation. Heh heh. There's no way I could see something like this and just bail in silence, is there!?
Sunraku: "Emul, get ready to rejoin the front line."
Emul: "Eh? Ah, y-yes, hai na!?"
Heh heh heh heh... Testing the performance of the new Sunraku — a raid monster is more than enough for that.
I'll say it now. This fight... is my win.
◼︎
Fire, wind, lightning, water, earth. For a player who has reached the highest-tier job "Sage," there is no longer any obstacle to learning magic other than MP capacity. "As long as you obtain the grimoire," any magic can be learned. It's no exaggeration to say that, including disposable Magic Scrolls, they can effectively wield every spell in existence.
That is precisely why the current Deep Throater is using every kind of magic — and half the reason she's managing to hold the front line all by herself for Tottori the Shimane and the elves.
(Right: Support two elves) (Hate toward Tottori in the rear) (Guide aggro toward "Scarred") (Appropriate means...) (Pre-cast [External Hate] with [Reserve Spell]) ([Ether Burst]) (Approach via Formula Drift)
Deep Throater calls this technique multitasking: parallel simultaneous processing. In the game Shangri-La Frontier, players have generally concluded that, in principle, it's "impossible" for a single player to activate multiple skills or spells at the exact same time.
The basic premise is that no matter how much you skip the chanting, you must at least speak the spell's name. And even with a system that responds to thoughts, like skills, it's difficult to intentionally separate thought from physical action.
But that conclusion was never proven as a "systemic impossibility," and that's precisely why Deep Throater established this technique. She was able to establish it.
The division of thought... and the simultaneous operation of those divided thoughts. This technique — the apex of Deep Throater's excessively high "full-dive aptitude," a kind of one-man multiple roles — analyzes the battlefield with computer-like efficiency, deriving optimal solutions.
By using [Reserve Spell] to set up delayed activations of other spells — in other words, the absurd approach of "just imagine the activation with enough focus for the system to register it" while speaking a different spell aloud — she simultaneously visualizes a skill in her mind.
The result is the circus trick — no, the utterly bizarre multitasking feat — of "two spells and skills perfectly activated at once."
Deep Throater: "[Ether Burst]!"
Slipping between the Great Red Devourer's legs with Formula Drift, she shoves every bit of surrounding aggro onto "Scarred." Before the processing even finishes, a flash of four-colored light pierces the Great Red Devourer's belly. Then, like a shield, she stands before the two young elves who narrowly escaped death because all the Devourer's heads focused on "Scarred."
Deep Throater: "Hey there, elves. It'd be a problem if you died carelessly — Tottori-kun might lose his motivation."
Elf: "Y-you have our thanks..."
To Deep Throater, NPCs are nothing more than mobs with slightly different graphics and system numbers. So no matter what face they make or what voice they use, she had every intention of ignoring it and firing back with a dirty joke.
But—
Elf: "B-but... where did that strange bird-headed man go?"
Elf: "D-don't tell me that coward got scared and ran aw— gah!?"
A flash. A swing of the magic sword — calibrated just enough to not be fatal, but enough to "ninety-percent kill" the already near-death elves — slashes them both. And then, with her thin hand, she grabs the neck of an elf whose eyes are screaming "why," and tightens with a grip strength that defies her appearance.
Deep Throater: "Hmm... Getting angry at mere strings of text data is pretty immature, buuut..."
A smile. A smile completely disconnected from the actions of her body below the neck, unnaturally so. Deep Throater — wearing a grin that would be more convincing as a collage — quietly speaks.
Deep Throater: "Don't talk about him, strings of text. I understand him far, far more than you do... Sunraku-kun won't run away. Never. Absolutely..."
Elf: "S... save..."
Elf: "H-h... kill... me..."
Deep Throater's beaming smile doesn't change, like a still image. Karma values will accumulate, but as long as a player doesn't land the finishing blow, their PN won't be stained red. And right now, Deep Throater — who controls eighty percent of the aggro management on this field — could, if she felt like it, legally erase these two...
Elf: "—!"
Elf: "...Ah."
Tottori isn't watching this spot, and neither are the other elves. That's why — only the two young elves being strangled witnessed Deep Throater's "change."
Deep Throater: "Ahh... that's it, Sunraku-kuun... That's what I wanted to see from you...!"
From a mechanical smile to a melting, ecstatic one. Deep within the data storage of the two elf youths, "terror" is etched ever deeper...
Deep Throater: "I knew it. My one and only kindred spirit... is you, Sunraku-kuun."
And then... she was back.