Chapter 198

Chapter 198 \nTranslator: Kurehashi Aiko\n

Editor: ryunakama

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 198: Reaching the Heavens Part 4 Part 1

 

Here’s something to consider: what is actually required of the players that are playing this game?

 

Yo go around the maps. You slash and kill everything that comes up to you and wants to kill you. You gain EXP points. Yay! Great! You level up as a result…… It may seem really simple, almost like your typical Hack’N’Slash games, but there is something more here…… It’s mystery. No, not quite mystery. There is a better word for it: it would be ‘unknown’.

 

Let us take a certain situation as an example here: we have a suspension bridge. This suspension bridge is not in the greatest condition, as the ropes tying it all together are worn out and snapped in various places, and the planks making the foothold are broken and moldy, with some of the planks hanging ominously on the ropes or downright missing. Now, even without thinking too hard about it, it does not take a genius to figure out that if you happen to sprint through the bridge you’ll end up dead in no time, falling to the valley below you. If you want to safely arrive on the other side you need to inspect the ropes to see if they are going to hold the construction together and see if the planks won’t just break under your weight or that you won’t slip off from them. 

 

This here is a ‘consideration’ that needs to be applied. You need to approach situations like this like you would approach the jigsaw puzzle. Sure, you can guess what the picture is even with some of the pieces still missing, but you won’t get the full picture that way and some crucial information could be omitted.

 

In that case, what is the main theme of this Unique Scenario EX: ‘Gazing at the Abyss, and the World Turns Around?’

 

「Don’t you think something is bound to happen once we enter the castle?」

 

「…… It would be wise, to assume that.」

 

The interior of the castle looked like your typical castle from various other games out there. The only exception here was the fact that it was all blue…… and calling it ‘typical’ was maybe not all that accurate, but it surely looked just like you would expect a castle to look like on the inside. Immiedietaly after entering we were all wary for traps or guards coming our way, but a few minutes have passed and the enemies were yet to be seen. Also, no alarm has been risen so far.

 

「Could it be that there is another dungeon inside of this place? And this is merely the entrance?」

 

「Sanraku-san! We have found a staircase! It goes both down and up!」

 

Oh wow, just what you would expect from a shinobi assigned to do some reconnaissance up ahead. But for now, instead of doing anything hasty, it would be best for us all to consider our options and deciding on a course of action before going anywhere further. However, the core dilemma remains here: bottom or the top of the stairs? Where is Kutanid of the Abyss lying in wait for us?

 

When it comes to common sense, it would be natural to think that it is literally impossible to jam-pack a huge octopus-like monster on top of a European-looking castle. It would only seem logical to think that the only place of hiding suitable for a monster like that would be underground. Then again, we have to remember that Kutanid is not a normal and simple monster, like any other. Its not even normal as far as Unique Monsters are concerned. It’s more like a cheat monster. So it may be entirely possible that it is waiting for us right at the top of the castle thanks to some sort of a cheat-like ability.

 

「For the time being, let’s check all the rooms on this floor before proceeding upwards or downwards.」\n

 

「Want us to, split up?」

 

It was always wise to listen to Rust’s words, and after some deliberation we have arrived at the following conclusion: it is highly unlikely that some drastic change is going to occur as long as we all remain on this floor, so as long as no one uses the stairs to go either up or down we should split up to cover more ground here. That way we should investigate the ground floor of the castle in no time. I have a strange feeling that upon entering this castle the type of the game that we play here has drastically changed. It feels as though every single action right about now will be like rolling a dice. But oh well, this is Unique Scenario EX we are talking about here. Unique Scenario Ex’s dungeon, Unique Scenario EX’s rules.

 

「It is important that we search every nook and cranny in here. There may be some clues as the Kutanid itself hidden somewhere in here.」

 

「Look at that! The candles are all blue in here as well!」

 

「Hmm, it seems as though this is nothing more but a flavor for this entire location.」

 

I mean, if there was really something of importance in here, that would be something that would stand out, right? Like an item or something else like that. However, from experience I can tell that in RPGs the placement of items and key items can be random at best, as the most important or powerful items or equipment would often be hidden away in places that you would never even think to look for them. I guess even though we are in the VR era of gaming, some things never change, huh? That is why I believe that ShanFro would not possibly take a shortcut like that and place the all-important items at the mere entrance to the dungeon. That would be too easy.

 

「Now then…… It seems that our dear octopus wants us to go on a search for it. The question is: up or down? Where should we look first?」

 

Of course, being a team it was cast to a vote. And just like that, the majority of the team decided that we should first go down to the basement, and eventually work our way up floor by floor. We then moved towards the staircase that Akitsu Akane had discovered……

 

 

 

Yup, and here we go with a SAN check right from the get go. When we opened the door leading to a spacious chamber, there was a huge octopus-like creature waiting for us there, looking about ready to do battle.

 

「Eh, wait just a moment! Say what!? A battle right from the get-go!?」

 

No, no, no! If you are going to set up such a grand stage and place such grand door in here, then the least you can do is to allow us to properly enjoy it, take it all in! And it might be just my imagination, but is that an evil aura pouring from the chambers that are further ahead? Would you be so kind as to give us a save point here? This is totally like all those messages in the old RPGs, the ones telling you that you should save your game right about now, because you will not be able to do that later.

 

Translator: Kurehashi Aiko

Editor: ryunakama

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 198: Reaching the Heavens Part 4 Part 2\n 

 

This monster…… It was an octopus as well, so it felt like meeting Kutanid all over again. It had a bald head…… or more like a head-torso, surrounded by eight muscular and agile tentacles. It does not look twisted or menacing at all, it’s just…… It’s just a normal octopus, albeit much larger.

 

The difference between the two is that Kutanid was jet-black all over, while this thing only has black tentacle. Also, four of the eight tentacles of this monster are being chained to the ground with thick chains. What’s up with that?

 

A machine warrior stylized after a samurai, a black wolf that only attacks people in the dead of night, a golden dragon king (although that’s just a speculation)…… In comparison to all of the above, this thing looked rather…… normal. It was just an oversized octopus. Compared to that, even Weissash, a potential Unique Monster is more complex than this. I feel that this thing is trying to act intimidating, but it was not doing all that great of a job at it.

 

But no matter how hard I try, I cannot really feel even the slightest Kutanid vibe from this thing. Even Reaperorca from the city held much more boss potential than this thing. Is it because four of its tentacles were now shackled to the ground, pretty much unusable? At this rate it looks like we would be able to defeat this thing immediately…… So why?

 

「…… Hey, Emul? What’s your take on this guy?」

 

「I’d say that’s our opportunity to strike!」

 

Right, I see, I get it. But that’s a terrible idea.

 

「Everyone, listen up! For now we’re retreating. We need to revise our strategy for now.」

 

Hearing me say that, Akitsu Akane, Emul, Sickle, Alva, Nereis and Straude looked at me as though I just said something crazy. With that one exception, all of them were NPCs, imagine that. They may not be convinced, but I was sure that Rust and Mold felt it too…… That something in here was really not right.

 

With the NPCs somewhat dragging behind, we slowly exited the large chamber through the same door we entered. I was Making sure that nothing would jump at us at any last moment, and I was looking at the strange, Kutanid-resembling creature. It was dead in the center of a huge open space that looked like a baseball stadium, a creation that surely could not be natural. I was sure that an ability of some sort was used to create that space here.

 

「…… For now I would say that this get a ‘passing grade’.」

 

It might look as though we were running away, but I would like to call it more of a tactical retreat for now. And just before we left the chamber and the doors closed behind us, I thought that I saw something truly unnerving.

 

I could see it in its eyes with a horizontally shaped pupil. If that thing had a mouth, its corners would most probably be arching upwards right about now…… Yes, that’s right. This thing was looking down on us and laughing.

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「I’ll be honest with you all: if we go in and challenge Kutanid right now, I don’t think we would have a one hundred percent chance ofwinning.」

 

「But why!? If we all go together, surely we can……!」

 

「Shut the fuck up, stupid shithead.」

 

BONK! With a pretty nice sound effect Straude kneels down while holding his head with his hands, and Rusts takes over the conversation.

 

「Our opponent here is a Unique Monster, meaning a monster that is bound by the shackles of the story related to it…… And although it is bigger than us by a huge margin, I think we might have a chance at beating it…… If it was not for that strange feeling.」

 

「Ah! Now that you mention it, there was surely something strange about it!」

 

Akitsu Akane, if nothing else I expected at least you to notice it as well…… It is quite enviable to be able to immerse yourself with your character so much, but immersion is not what we currently need here. Or maybe not, it might actually be good, since we have someone who thinks a little bit outside of the box here.

 

In the first place, we humans are a very fragile creatures. If you get down to it, even insects are far better than us, since all that it takes to take us down is some damage or poison for that example. Talk about fragile. But at the same time we have something that other creatures do not possess: the ability to learn and boundaries of common sense. And it is thanks to that ability to learn that humans can discern something as ‘within’ or ‘outside’ of the boundaries of common knowledge, and become wary of anything like that if need be.

 

But for all that we know, Kutanid has a way of surpassing even that. He can reverse anything, even reality itself. It is an ability that us mere humans cannot possibly hope to fight head-on just like that.

 

So why would you all even think that we has a chance against an opponent like that? Especially since we have a Vorpal Bunny here, a creature that is crazy strong, but should cower in fear of any creature that tops it when it comes to strength. Thinking about it calmly, the answer was more than clear here.

 

Apparently it was the power that the first form of Kutanid possessed. If I were to call it in any kind of way, it would be ‘Inversion of the Sense of Threat’. It sounds stupid, but it was too accurate to actually be just in my head. I was sure of it.

 

「But you do know that it is technically possible to influence the players in that way, don’t you?」

 

「Mold, do you happen to know about the people who were arguing against the implementation of the VR technology when it was first being introduced? Do you know what their arguments were?」

 

\nNowadays it is true that a Full Dive VR system has been widely accepted by the general public, but it is also true that not everyone was on the wagon with the idea. There are those who tend to oppose the idea of VR invading their daily lives. There are also those, calling themselves ‘Realists’ who downright detest not only VR but all the forms of reality enhancing technology, arguing that it twists the perception of reality and tries to sell it as being better than the reality itself.

 

And while some of their arguments make a decent amount of sense, the vast majority of them makes you want to go like: ‘Well, maybe before you start yelling about the dangers of virtual reality, you should first go the psychiatric ward at your local hospital and get treated for differentiating between reality and fiction?’ That being said, I do realize that not all realists are stupid. At least not completely.

 

Some of them also argue that it is harmful for the human mind to constantly distracting itself from reality and its problems with the problems and passions of the virtual reality. And I can certainly see that.

 

「Speaking oof which, some people argue that a VR technology is nothing more but a glorified ‘Electric chair, but in different shape. Sending electric shocks through the brain and stimulating it in various ways outside of dreaming state is certainly not the healthies thing that you can do.’」

 

「More details, if you please?」

 

「If you know your enemy well, and you know yourself just as well, even if you end up fighting a thousand battles you will always be okay. And if you can’t find it in yourself to listen to what others have to say, then that means words are pretty much meaningless, am I right?」

 

Welp, not that I care all that much about that. But what I do care about is the system of ‘electric signals flowing through the brain’. I do believe that a certain guy once summarized it in a really nice way.

 

「What you see, what you feel…… It does not necessarily has to be true. Those may very well be malfunctions of the electric waves that are being sent to our brains. You can even think of it as that kind of state that you experience when you are dreaming or…… Or you know what? Forget about eighty percent of what I just said right now. It’s too scary of a concept to think about it that way.」

 

Now that Rust and Mold seemed to be in this at least half-way, I cannot help it but to try and approach the VR technology from a more of a philosophical side.

 

「What I wanted to say here was that, it is technically not all that hard to ‘misunderstand’ the player. And the player to ‘misunderstand’ things as well.」

 

「Sanraku, in this particular case I think that our overall situation is pretty much irrelevant. What we must do right now is to simply charge at Kutanid, we don’t have any other choice. But the fact that we do not know his true form yet is not making it easier for us……」

 

「A very concise conclusion, I must say. Thank you, Rust. I mean, this stupid shithead here…… I mean, isn’t it weird that a guy who’s been hiding under a fucking bed for almost a weak is all ‘I can do this! I can win!’ all of a sudden like that!?」

 

Well now I’m just full of regrets about all sorts of things…… If I knew that such a crappy gimmick existed here in the first place, I would have set the goal of attacking the castle on the very first day!

 

Consideration…… Yes, in order for the players to clear any Unique Scenario EX, what is needed is a considerable amount of consideration.

 

We have less than ten hours to find Kutanid, recognize what it can do, conjure a strategy and finally defeat it.