Chapter 437: Dragons, O Dragons! Part Fourteen

[I've been busy with my part-time job... Polaris is fun.]

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Truth be told, Oikatzo and Argent Owl were taking part in the battle against Bryleinyego.

They were simply positioned on the exact opposite side from Sunraku's group. In the circular encirclement formed around Bryleinyego, if Sunraku's group was fighting on the eastern side, Oikatzo's group was fighting hard on the western side.

Oikatzo: "Some very familiar-sounding reports keep coming from the other side..."

A woman cutting down every lesser dragon she came across, armor shaped like a dragon that looked unmistakably like a robot, and a rabbit clinging to it... If the reports were accurate, that would mean there were two Sunrakus: one gender-swapped Sunraku and one Sunraku wearing Shoro.

Oikatzo: "Two Sunrakus... What a nightmare."

Oikatzo groaned as he imagined two duplicated perverts rapidly stepping toward him. Then he pulled himself together, deciding that even SLF's management wouldn't copy and paste a pervert, and punched away an approaching humanoid lesser dragon.

Oikatzo: "...Our party found something that looks unique, so I guess this counts as my achievement too... maybe?"

He looked ahead once more and sighed.

There, a giant woman was wielding a sword that looked huge even compared to her own enormous body—the Fury Blade Moralltach, if he remembered correctly—while arguing with Argent Owl in an openly hostile mood.

Oikatzo: "Instead of trying to get along, she immediately insists on having things her way... I guess that's what you'd expect from America's Number One (Zenichi)..."

Yet even as Argent Owl and the giant woman carried on their fierce war of words, both continued fighting with incredible force.

Argent Owl: "I keep telling you! I'm the one who fights! Even if I shattered my weapons, their spirit lives on in these fists!!"

???: "Don't be ridiculous! Shattering your own weapons is madness! A weapon stands together with its wielder, yet you...!!"

In short, to a giant who viewed a weapon as its wielder's partner, Argent Owl repeatedly destroying her weapons to strengthen herself must have looked like an act of madness.

Oikatzo's own opinion was that, "As long as it doesn't stray too far from normal social standards, whether you swing a weapon or smash it, what matters in the end is the DPS." But saying that would certainly turn their anger toward him.

Oikatzo wasn't a tank, so he chose to watch from the sidelines.

Oikatzo: "You two! Apparently some people are going wild on the other side! Bryleinyego's attention is spread thin!!"

???: "Hm, Fione...? No, that girl alone couldn't draw so much of Bryleinyego's attention..."

Argent Owl: "Oh, Big Lady? If you want to stand there watching, should I sell you a ticket?"

Oikatzo sighed as he watched the giant woman take the bait completely and run after Argent Owl.

Sylvia Goldberg had an idol-like knack for being pleasant toward the media and her fans, but at heart she was made of pure fighting spirit.

She was reasonably kind toward anyone clearly weaker than herself, but the moment someone approached her own level, she became utterly merciless. Even Oikatzo had never imagined that Sylvia would act that way toward an NPC instead of another player.

Oikatzo: "...No point standing around here. Time to go."

Emul: "Ah! Found you, wa! Um... the bottom!"

Oikatzo: "Hold on!"

That was spectacularly rude, but the voice was too high to be Sunraku's and lacked too much malice to be Pencilgon's.

When Oikatzo turned to see who it was, he found Special Powered Armor [Shoro] charging straight toward him with a huge lance leveled, sending masses of lesser dragons flying as it came—

Oikatzo: "Whaaaaaat?!"

Jump sideways?!

Too late. I'm going to be impa—

Saina: "Confirmation: Is this the specified next-generation primitive human?"

Emul: "That's right, wa! He's relatively normal, but categorically speaking, he's a crazy person, wa!"

Oikatzo: "No way... They've been completely infected by the Sunraku meme..."

Shoro.

Oikatzo had never used it himself, but it was the powered armor corresponding to Seiryu, which Sunraku had praised so highly.

As Oikatzo pulled the information from his memory, he suddenly noticed something strange.

Oikatzo: "Wait. How are you using that without the reactor?"

The four types of powered armor obtained by defeating Wethermon used an activated Tactical Machine Beast equipped with the reactor as their "power source."

In other words, Shoro shouldn't have been able to activate without Seiryu. More importantly, Oikatzo currently possessed the reactor.

And yet the Shoro in front of him was clearly powered on.

Could that bastard have finally succeeded in producing a reactor independently...?

A chill ran down Oikatzo's back, but then the question from earlier crossed his mind again.

If the information he had heard was truly accurate, then there would have to be two Sunrakus.

He had thought about it as a joke, but if he seriously considered why such reports had come in...

Maybe it simply meant that "another person" met the same conditions.

Saina: "—Registration complete. Following my contractor—my Master's—order, I will take the target into custody."

Oikatzo: "What?"

Besides, the person inside wasn't Sunraku. Even if that guy had used Ctarnidd's Holy Grail to become female, the voice itself was different.

Saina: "Please do not worry. Taking mechanical factors into account, I will transport you using the fastest, most stable, and extremely intelligent method."

Oikatzo: "...Wait, that's just slinging me over your shoulder like a sack of rice!"

Saina: "Please take care not to bite your tongue."

Oikatzo: "W-wait—ngh?!"

Emul: "K-Keii-tzo?!"

Stop shouting something that sounds like my real name.

Oikatzo couldn't even say that much, because he had bitten his tongue...

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Most human hobbies can be divided into two types: hobbies that take something from one hundred down to zero, and hobbies that build something from zero up to one hundred.

In other words, consumption and accumulation.

In that respect, this kind of one-man-army game was an exciting category that satisfied both at once: consuming enemies by wearing them down and accumulating score.

Which meant that, at this very moment, both my satisfaction and excitement were soaring.

Sunraku: "You're standing too damn tall! Lose those legs and crawl!!"

Memento Mori swung around with ease, yet the force of its blow matched its appearance as it swept the legs out from under a giant lesser dragon.

Once it fell, Areadbhair Rebuild finished it off with a two-layered attack of heat and steel.

With yet another death brought about by my hand, R.I.P. and Memento Mori granted further boosts for meeting their conditions, letting me rampage even harder...

Sunraku: "Hey, hey! You're going to break my combo! Send out more! Come on!!"

Bryleinyego: "Damn youuuu...!!"

The standard lesser dragons were no longer a threat.

I couldn't kill the humanoid lesser dragons in one hit, but Memento Mori could send them flying. The giant types usually went down in one hit if I drove Areadbhair straight into the top of their heads.

Was Areadbhair especially effective against them, or was the head simply their weak point...?

Whatever. If it was efficient, there was no need to worry about it.

Fione: "You're incredible! Areadbhair is one thing, but that sword must also be a famous blade!!"

Sunraku: "It's the Normie Sword Karukunarl..."

Fione: "The Normie Sword 'Karukunarl'..."

Sunraku: "No, its real name is Memento Mori."

Fione: "What?! You deceived me?!"

Sunraku: "Everyone makes mistakes, right? Sorry."

Fione: "Hm... My sister said that the courage to apologize and the courage to accept an apology are both important."

Oikatzo: "Right. Then you should apologize to me for abducting me out of nowhere."

Saina: "Hmph..."

Sunraku & Oikatzo: "Not enough intelligence."

Ah, sorry, Oikatzo. I was busy dealing with Bryleinyego, so I couldn't react even if you made the most outrageous face imaginable.