Chapter 418: United Light from the Abyss

[Wolfgang]

Oikatzo: "Sunrakuuu!"

Oikatzo: "Come on out. I’m not scary."

Oikatzo: "...Tch. Is he in one of his trash-game binge periods again...?"

Rust: "What’s that?"

Pencil Warrior: "Sunraku tends to clear story-heavy games all at once during his days off."

Pencil Warrior: "He barely responds to messages while he’s doing that."

Rust: "Hmm."

Psyger-0: "Did you have some business with him?"

Oikatzo: "Huh? No, not really?"

Pencil Warrior: "Doubt it."

Kyogoku: "I haven’t known you long, but I can tell that’s a lie."

Rust: "What you said before and after contradicts itself."

Oikatzo: "That kind of trust brings a tear to my eye."

Oikatzo: "Whatever. Pencilgon, you and Sunraku have a visitor looking for you."

Pencil Warrior: "A visit... wait, that person?"

Pencil Warrior: "Can we show them out?"

Pencil Warrior: "Sunraku, come on out! If I’m going down the path of carnage, you’re coming with me!!"

Mold: "Huh? What happened?"

Oikatzo: "There’s a bit of history there."

Pencil Warrior: "Seriously...? This is just a pain..."

Akitsu Akane: "What kind of person are they?"

Pencil Warrior: "Hmm... well, yeah. Katzo knows them better than I do."

Oikatzo: "You know. A friendly machine."

Rust: "...You can’t see any humanity in that description."

Oikatzo: "Don’t worry about it. As long as you don’t cross a certain line, they’re a normal person."

Pencil Warrior: "Changing the subject for a second, okay? Actually, there’s something I want to ask Akitsu Akane."

Akitsu Akane: "Yes!"

Pencil Warrior: "The Saint made that event announcement, right? I was wondering what Noirlind is doing."

Akitsu Akane: "Yes! Noirlind is all fired up, saying, ‘This time, I’m definitely going to defeat Siegwurm!’ We’re having strategy meetings together!!"

Pencil Warrior: "...?"

Akitsu Akane: "Was something strange?"

Oikatzo: "You’ve gotten as far as planning strategy together...?"

Kyogoku: "Noirlind is totally smitten."

Akitsu Akane: "Also, Noirlind said they’re bringing the Dragonfolk along too, since it’s going to be an all-out war."

Pencil Warrior: "Time out. Tell me more about these Dragonfolk."

Akitsu Akane: "They said, ‘We are the winged dragon people chosen by Lord Black Dragon!’"

Akitsu Akane: "They can really fly short distances and breathe fire, too. That’s amazing, right?"

Pencil Warrior: "Ah, sorry. I didn’t explain what I meant well enough."

Pencil Warrior: "I want the actual marching schedule."

Kyogoku: "Oh, that’s what you meant."

Oikatzo: "Honestly, I still don’t know which one we’re supposed to defeat in the end."

Rust: "Defeat five Color Dragons, or defeat Siegwurm?"

Mold: "That’s true, but won’t this turn into a massive raid involving every player?"

Rust: "Fight crammed together like sushi?"

Kyogoku: "First, we should cut down the players to clear the area..."

Oikatzo: "A red-name mass-production event. The complaints would be endless."

Pencil Warrior: "Hmm. Something smells fishy."

Pencil Warrior: "I get the feeling this Unique is supposed to be tackled after the New Land has been developed to a certain extent..."

Pencil Warrior: "From a game-design perspective, I don’t get why they would gather everything together just to have it all beaten in one go."

Oikatzo: "Could the gathering just be an event scene where we’re guaranteed to lose?"

Mold: "The Saint keeps talking about a ‘decisive battle,’ though. Doesn’t that make a guaranteed loss hard to imagine?"

Akitsu Akane: "Noirlind said, ‘Either they die or I do. There can be no retreat until the battle is decided!’"

Pencil Warrior: "There are things bothering me, but everyone—are you free seven days from now? One day has already passed since then."

Rust: "We’re fine."

Akitsu Akane: "I’m free!"

Oikatzo: "It would’ve been impossible two weeks from now, but I’m good."

Kyogoku: "Ah, mornings might be difficult for me."

Pencil Warrior: "I took leave."

Pencil Warrior: "Now all that’s left is our loose cannon and little Saiga."

Psyger-0: "I’m free, too."

Psyger-0: "Should I ask Sunraku myself?"

Pencil Warrior: "I see. Well, Sunraku will probably be fine, so there’s no need to ask right this instant—"

Pencil Warrior: "Hm?"

Pencil Warrior: "Wait a second."

Oikatzo: "What’s wrong?"

Rust: "...Sunraku isn’t responding to emails or messages right now."

Rust: "Everyone here should know that."

Oikatzo: "Ah."

Psyger-0: "Huh?"

Pencil Warrior: "Hmm, little Saiga... to hear from someone who isn’t responding to messages or anything, you’d have to—"

Oikatzo: "Meet them in real life, right?"

Psyger-0: "No."

Psyger-0: "Um..."

Psyger-0: "Telepathically, maybe..."

Kyogoku: "That’s a bit of a stretch."

Kyogoku: "More importantly... huh. You live close enough to casually meet in person."

Pencil Warrior: "As I recall, that girl doesn’t use a stage name or anything..."

Pencil Warrior: "Oh my. Checkmate."

Psyger-0: "No—wait—"

Oikatzo: "It’s fine, it’s fine. We’re not exposing anyone’s personal information."

Pencil Warrior: "We’re only going to use it to tease you!!"

Kyogoku: "That’s horribly malicious..."

Pencil Warrior: "A first-rate person knows where the line is for a joke."

Rust: "A first-rate scumbag?"

Mold: "Quit trying to make me laugh..."

Akitsu Akane: "???"

◆

Sunraku: "All right! Cleared it blind on my first try, you bastard!!"

Taking on a scorpion-like form in your final phase was your bad luck, Dark General! Underestimating my experience fighting scorpions was definitely your downfall... hm?

Sunraku: "Did the back of my neck just tingle...?"

The intuition system belongs to Bakumatsu. There was no way it would be implemented in Fuuun Prejiden... and they were not even made by the same company. Was it just my imagination?

Whatever. More importantly, that took forever...

Even though I got stubborn and pushed through after Mr. Takeda reported that he had cleared it, I had a hell of a hard time.

Who the hell waits until late in the game to tell you that your allied army’s proficiency becomes important? It tricks you into thinking everything will be easy if the President does all the work, then pulls this crap.

The final boss, the Demon Emperor, ate the Emperor and gained some ridiculous power called “Imperial Power.” I was forced into a scripted defeat, and the Demon Emperor made off with both the secretary character and the holy relic, the “Unity Flag.”

The United States was now little more than a disorganized mob.

Gameplay-wise, the flag was an item that boosted the army’s stats. In the story, though, it was an object that unified everyone’s will. Without it, the army could not hold together.

Basically, your entire army’s stats were cut in half. Failing to earn at least an A-rank result did not quite softlock you, but it made the road to clearing the game a whole lot longer.

Mr. Takeda had already cleared the game and had entered that particular Fuuun Prejiden-cleared state where he said very little. Still, from the fragments of information I got from him, he seemed to have built up his score against weaker enemies and raised his army’s proficiency.

Sunraku: "But I’m deliberately not taking that route...!!"

Manpower was the strongest force. I would show the world what one warrior worth a thousand truly meant...!

In other words, an army-proficiency challenge run.

In this game, the army’s results and the President player’s difficulty were linked. The higher the army’s score, the fewer and weaker the enemies the player had to fight.

There seemed to be enemies you could not beat without doing that... but I was not going to chicken out here.

During the army phase, deploy only the guard corps with high combat power and survivability! Secure the threshold for a guaranteed B+ result with the all-survive bonus! Earn every remaining point through the President’s solo play!!

Sunraku: "The Purgatory General is dead, and I just took care of the Dark General... which General is left again?"

Anyway, the story was about defeating the former Imperial generals who had been corrupted into evil by demons, gathering the items, and opening the way to the Demon Emperor Capital... was that right?

???: "Mr. President! Enemy reinforcements!"

Sunraku: "The reinforcement system is absolutely garbage! This is the fifth time in one encounter!!"

• Let’s go! I’ll show them the President’s might!!
• Retreat! We cannot defeat them as we are now!!
• The sky... butterflies...

With Rice-chan kidnapped by that purple-muscle thing called the Demon Emperor, my only companion was the guy in the lower-left panel. You still make joke choices every time, huh...

Sunraku: "Deploy! Don’t underestimate the President, damn it!!"

We’re rescuing Rice-chan, who has way more intelligence than some broken-down wreck! Follow me, Purgatory Legion!!

Mr. Takeda: A straightforward strategy: steadily raise the army’s level and clear the game in a balanced way.

Protagonist: Active Thermopylae. If the strongest three hundred each defeat one hundred people, we can handle thirty thousand! It’s fine—I’ll defeat a thousand myself!

Dragonfolk

Frankly, they are just Lizardmen.

Generally, species infected by the “factors” dragons scatter around them become Dragon Blood Demons after passing through several stages.

Lizardmen, however, undergo an exceptionally different transformation. That is what makes them Dragonfolk.

Therefore, you cannot Convert directly into Dragonfolk. You must Convert into a Lizardman first, then meet the necessary conditions.

Their appearance changes depending on the nature of the “factors” that infected them. The ones Akitsu Akane encountered were former Lizardmen who had received the “factors” of Noirlind the Black Dragon.

Their only rule is that they are forbidden from using any of the letters in “Noirlind” in their names. Bow your head a little, and things stay peaceful. The red dragon’s group is especially bad.

Well, only the black and red dragons have Dragonfolk under them. The green dragon is an old nuisance, the white dragon is crazy, and the blue dragon is dead.

Dragonfolk basically look down on Lizardmen, but that is because the traits—or rather, the spirit—of Lizardmen remain within them.

They are a species that loves freedom above all else. The power they gained came at the price of subordination.

Which is happier: a free weakling, or an unfree strong one?