3 Leaving VR
Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/4/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA
There is a communication-impaired person at Souha Municipal High School.
Who else: me, Suzusaki Suzuhi.
“Ah, it’s the new-student representative.”
“Hih——”
“What’s her name again, Suzu…”
“Suzu……”
“Right, Suzumori-san.”
“Yeah, yeah, Suzumori-san!”
Pointed at by girls in my year, I flee into the classroom and sit in my seat—my territory—like I’m flinching.
Hello, it’s Suzusaki.
“Scary. Why are high school girls that scary? I have no idea what they’re thinking.”
No, not just high school girls—high school boys, middle school girls, middle school boys—actually all humans are scary.
Is it true that if you walk up the stairs below a high school girl she shakes you down with “you looked at my panties”?
I walked elementary and middle school as a lone wolf and dedicated everything to games and the training simulator, so I cannot understand how the girls and boys around me think, and it is way too scary.
Someone said, “People are built to fear what they cannot understand.”
Then for me, the humans around me are objects of terror.
I can talk that enjoyably with Ill-san, and I can’t even talk with girls of the same species.
How did it come to this.
I happen to look up and meet eyes with a handsome boy.
I look away in a hurry.
“Crap! That’s Takamori-kun! I heard on the wind that a whole lot of girls like Takamori-kun! The girls who like him will call me behind the school building, pin me down in a group, carve an X on my face with a razor, then carve slurs into my desk, throw my textbooks and gym clothes in the incinerator, put my shoes in the toilet, make me drink worm juice, and a lightbulb——!”
What do I do, what do I do, help!
“Wh-what’s wrong, um——what’s your name again…… right, Kanesaki-san. You’re white as a sheet?”
“——Eep.”
The gal-ish girl in the seat in front talks to me.
The name is a near-pin!
“Want me to take you to the nurse!?”
Gals are way too scary, so I spam the choice “No.”
“No, no, no!!”
Maybe she was being nice for a second, but memories flash back—throwing up on the way to the nurse’s office, making a weird laugh because the other girl smelled too good and getting a look of total rejection—and my voice goes up.
Besides, if a shade-type gets close to a sun-type, the shade-type gets wiped out!
And a shade-type can’t do anything to a sun-type.
See, darkness disappears when light shines on it, but darkness can’t shine on light. No matter what you do, darkness can’t affect light.
I am of the opinion that sun-types and shade-types have that kind of relationship.
And my school has nice scenery, so there are a lot of sun-types like her, and it hurts (why did I even take the exam).
——Well…… why I picked this school…… because it’s a sacred site of my favorite anime.
……This school has such nice scenery that a lot of anime are set here.
I’m sorry I sat the exam for an impure motive. This is surely punishment. But forgive meee!!
While I’m going Insanity, the girl in front looks confused, goes “R-right?” with a wry smile, and turns back around.
As I thought, Earth is not my place.
【Deathroad Papilio “Death Road” Difficulty: 〈Insanity〉 Clear Video】
Views 12
110 comments
taroimo 1 day ago
2nd place, gg
Good 10 bad 2
Z_Space 1 day ago
If you already knew the route, of course it’s easy lmao
Good 11 bad 1
pannacotta
yes yes, amazing, amazing
Good 12 bad 0
Jm
wait is this a normal Swallowtail?
Good 0 bad 15
▼3 replies
taroimo
well yeah they already knew the route
Good 0 bad 0
pannacotta
so it’s normal, and?
Good 0 bad 0
PeeMan
so you’re not allowed to clear it in a special model?
Good 3 bad 0
I come home from school and hole up in my room.
I look at the comments on the clear video I uploaded “for now” yesterday, and get a little teary.
If I read the rest there are plenty of comments that would dent me further.
“I hate the world!”
I punch the pillow.
Then an impact-sound comes from my stepsister’s room next door.
“Suzuhi, shut up!!”
“I-I’m thorry.”
I don’t have a house of my own. I’m in the care of relatives.
My stepsister and stepmother are very scary.
Views 12
Comments 110
Video rating Good 3 bad 105
“The comment count and the bads are both way over the view count, though. Why?”
Ah. They hit bad without even watching…… heh…… heheheh.
Mystery solved. There is only one truth.
“I knew it. I’m withdrawing into space.”
I head for the front door.
Then my sister opens her door, leans on the frame, and gives me a dead-eyed look.
“You getting on that airplane again?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t have to come back.”
“Yeah——I think I’ll probably come back, though……”
I get in the elevator, press the button like I’m stroking it, and let my fingers go slack.
I mutter things like, “I want a get-rich-quick and to attain liberation from studying and the workings of society, de gozaru.”
Hydrogen engines are practical now——like, haul hydrogen from some planet and sell it.
Could I live like an oil king.
“Then I could prepare as much ‘friend fee’ as I wanted. ……I’d make proper friends too, right.”
Thinking that kind of thing, I call Swallow-san and withdraw into him.
I finish studying in the training simulator with Ill-san teaching me, then kill the one-room lights and gravity generator and hug my knees, slowly rotating in the air.
The headband hurts, so I take it off, and my natural curly hair, cut short, sways.
If it’s long the curls are a pain, so I keep it short.
I used to straighten it, but it wrecks the hair, so I haven’t lately. Do it too many times and the hair loses its gloss, and I got sick of that.
The ends go like dried flowers.
And what grows in is curly, so the roots go frizzy right away.
I remembered. Getting called “curly,” “curly” in elementary school is one of the reasons humans became scary.
“Ahh, I can’t get all dark like this.”
Since yesterday, only bad memories have been flashing back.
Maybe because I cleared 〈Insanity〉 Death Road and don’t have anything to throw myself at.
“Uuu——now my first love coming apart in midair is flashing back——or rather, it’s funny I’ve never fallen for a real-life human——no, he was real too.”
One “fuu” of a sigh.
“Ill-san.”
A hologram door appears in front of me as I swim through empty air, and a tiny butler comes out and bows.
“Yes, what is it, My Master?”
“Please give me a reason to live.”
“Please stop asking grand questions with no lead-in.”
“——Then is there a star with a lot of hydrogen or something?”
“There is plenty of hydrogen on Jupiter.”
“It’s on Jupiter, huh. Is anyone already mining it?”
The hologram butler pulls something like documents out of nowhere and starts looking them over.
“No one, it seems.”
“Then I want a tanker-like spaceship. Ill-san, any good quests for buying a spaceship?”
At my question the butler starts looking over different documents.
“Let me see. Administration is currently issuing a large request that earns a great many merit points.”
“A large request?”
“‘Heart-Pounding! Great Offensive From the Monsters · Spring in Full Bloom, Monster Cherry Blizzard!!’”
“Can nothing be done about the admins’ word sense?”
“If it could, someone would have done something already, I believe.”
The tiny butler shakes his head, give-me-a-break.
“What’s the reward like?”
“Yes. Union credits, or items.——A bit of a ‘discount,’ but you can also take precious metals and the like as reward. Separate from the usual reward, you also receive 〈merit points〉 you can exchange for spaceships, equipment, and so on, through a different channel.”
“Then maybe I’ll join that for now.”
“To participate in this quest you must register with the Galactic Union’s ‘Stratos Association’ and become a Strider. Or rather, My Master has not cleared the beginner quest.”
The tiny butler shakes his head, give-me-a-break, again.
“——Ngh.”
“This time you really must clear it, you know?”
The tiny butler cocks his little head, and I give in.
“Aye.”
And so I briskly clear the beginner quest.
The content is classroom study, then a practical explanation.
Except unarmed combat and survival, I already knew all of it.
At the end, a written test and a practical test, and done.
Well, I can’t call myself a beginner anymore, so it was easy.
I already have Swallow-san, so I don’t need a selected frame. I take the right to get resupply free for a while instead.
“Okay, done. Then Ill-san, I want to register as a Strider. Where do I do that?”
If I ask, apparently you can register on planet Highlane too, so we make for Highlane.
◆◇Sight: A Certain Galactic Union NCO◇◆
“This…… beginner, what even……”
He was shuddering.
For the beginner quest, there are humans who check beginners’ results so there are no oddities in the scoring AI’s judgment.
The NCO was looking at the numbers on the training results the computer spat out—that long, receipt-like paper—and trembling with a shudder.
“……What, what is this!? ——AI, don’t be absurd!! This is not a human reaction speed! ……Wait wait wait, this weapon is not meant to be used that way.——Why can they move like this in space with the engine stopped!? ——What kind of piloting is this!?”
The NCO had received a report that a beginner had cleared the beginner quest, which should normally take three days, in six hours, thought “the AI finally threw an error,” and come.
And yet——the beginner’s test results he was handed were like an answer sheet he could not understand at all.
The scoring side has to desperately understand what the answers mean. An abnormal situation——another dimension.
(They want me to understand these results and find whether the AI has an error!? Impossible. I don’t understand what this beginner is doing!! And the written test is answering at a level far beyond assumptions——what is this high-level answering, this is off the charts!? The scoring side ends up having to solve the answers!)
An AI from the computer asks the NCO.
“Corporal, were you able to find any odd parts?”
“Yeah. If it’s odd parts, I found them a long time ago……”
The NCO stares into the long receipt-like answer sheet and trembles.
“If you want me to name the odd part of this data, it’s this beginner.”
The NCO finally finished proving, over several days, that the AI had no error.
◆◇Sight: Suzusaki Suzuhi◇◆
I land on planet Highlane for the first time and have my mind blown by the grandeur.
“What is this……”
Cumulonimbus clouds stretch maybe twice as high as what you can see on Earth.
The zenith is a deep lapis. In the richly blue-spreading sky, any number of white-floating moons.
On the ground, ocean filling the view. It should be quite deep, but you can see the bottom, turquoise and lapis. A jewel of a sea.
Over white-shining Greek-style buildings, something like Battleship Yamato flies, and beside it a witch on a broom runs parallel with an assault rifle.
“If I could see a ridiculous view like this, I should’ve come down sooner. It really is like being inside a game. The center of the galaxy was a game world——!!”
Ill-san’s voice comes from a drone that looks like a sphere with butterfly wings.
Swallow-san only appears in butler form inside the Versus Frame.
Outside, a spherical drone floats at my side as his split self.
This look, by the way, is one I chose.
“The Stratos Association building: climb the stairs in front of you, go straight for a while, and when you see the station entrance, head left.”
“Rog.”
My outfit, by the way——is gothic-lolita-ish.
I have a pilot suit on underneath.
The “-ish” is because I want to wear gothic lolita but I don’t want to stand out.
So I don’t go full gothic lolita, but I wear something in that direction.
First the skirt is the kind with straps to the shoulders, what they call a jumper skirt. Cloth that comes down under the chest covers the stomach too, cinched with the straps, frills loaded on.
Add a blouse, served with a spring breeze.
Only, my chest is big, so it gets emphasized and I’m a little embarrassed.
The headband “Dekosuke” is the charm point.
But a lot of player-looking people are walking in just a pilot suit.
Is wearing clothes over a pilot suit like I do maybe rude?
True, in zero-G soft fabric gets in the way…… and skirts are truly the worst.
——Or rather, there are a lot of people.
Thinking (am I standing out?) in a place this crowded, I start feeling like I might hyperventilate.
Thinking they think I’m a weirdo, my vision goes white from the edges, I get dizzy, I feel like I might sit down.
Scary. Being thought of as a weirdo is the one thing I absolutely hate.
And the people who live on this planet are apparently NPC-like beings, but they look no different from humans, so for a communication-impaired person like me it is really hard.
“Master. Detecting abnormalities in heart rate and autonomic nervous system.”
“I-I know. I-I can’t really tell which people are players either, so it’s a problem.”
Ordinary-citizen-type NPCs are called NPP, apparently.
NPC is non-player character? I don’t know what NPP stands for, but non-player person?
“I can transfer information to Master’s vision through VR.”
“Eh, you can do that too? Try it!”
“Yes.”
Letters float over the heads of the people in my vision.
Something like ranks, something like names. Some people have Newbie written.
“Ah, I have Newbie and a sprout mark over my head too.”
“My Master has only just cleared the beginner quest.”
“I see. But what about personal information?”
“Almost everything displayed is Strider information and is required to be shown. Player names display in white text; it is not your real name, it is your Strider ID. Blue text is NPP, and that is their real name.”
“Huh…… Is this vision info bad for the eyes?”
Eyes are important.
When I get rich I think I’ll eat a lot of blueberries.
“Of course it is safe.”
“Ah, right…… can I understand these people’s language?”
“You will be fine. The VR auto-translates. Further, the translated content is heard in the other party’s voice.”
“Thank goodness.”
I walk, eased by Ill-san’s answer, and eventually arrive at the Stratos Association building.
The material is something old-looking, like limestone, but as architecture it has a lot of curves and a futuristic look.
“Stratos Association Highlane Branch” displays on my retina.
I push through the swing door at a place where the entrance is like a station ticket gate, and
“Welcome to the Stratos Association Highlane Branch!”
I get a smiling welcome from a kemonomimi beauty with mouse-like ears.
People with kemonomimi are Animanoids, right—beastfolk, basically.
This world has a setting that humanity was destroyed and there are no ordinary humans.
There are also fully mechanical Humanoids, and among Humanoids a race called Datanoids who inherited the memories of former humanity.
Even so, those cute kemonomimi…… I, the Emperor, wouldst fluff them.
The receptionist’s name, by the way, was displaying in green text.
People with green text like her are apparently NPCs.
There are lots of players too.
Suddenly I catch their conversation.
A male player is talking with the female player next to him.
“Look at this video. They finally cleared the training simulator’s highest-difficulty quest.——Some guy called Akakiba!”
“Eh, 〈Insanity〉 Death Road, the one they said you can’t clear unless you graduate from being human?”
“Yeah, yeah. World-first.”
“Wow.”
Hmph…… I’m second anyway. I’m the reheated leftovers.
No, no, I didn’t come here to sulk.
Pull myself together and register!
I turn to the beauty receptionist.
“U-um——I-I’d like to become a S-Strider?”
And my voice goes up beautifully.
Also, why is it a question?
“Master. Detecting abnormalities in heart rate and autonomic nervous system.”
“I know, so.”
The beauty, without breaking her smile, guides clearly suspicious-looking me.
“Then, on this monitor,”
The beauty moves her fingers in an L, and something like an OS window floats in the air.
She makes a gesture of pushing the window with her palm.
Then the window slowly flies toward me.
“Please enter the required information. Also, information from your Versus Frame terminal——”
I was listening to the beauty’s explanation.
A loud announcement flows from speakers inside the building.
“Emergency alert issued! An emergency alert has been issued for the entire planet! Multiple transfer reactions detected from the black hole at the galactic center. They are transferring into this star system! Citizens are advised to evacuate to shelters.——Emergency alert issued! ——”
The beauty’s face turns grim.
The surrounding white text—that is, the players—all move their fingers like the beauty and open windows.
Then one tough-faced player mutters.
“This is the event the admins were talking about—”
He starts to say it, then his expression, looking at the window, suddenly goes blank, and he yells.
“——Hah!? You’ve gotta be kidding! Difficulty 〈Delirium〉!? You join this and your frame is definitely getting wrecked!”
The slim woman next to him goes “hmm” and answers the tough-faced man.
“But if you clear this, Union credits and merit points explode, you know?”
“No, Onee-chan, 〈Delirium〉 is impossible. Merit points are already almost on the bottom. If my current frame breaks I can’t buy the next one. Worst case I break gear I borrowed from the Galactic Union and I’m in debt.”
“Well, yeah. I’d join up to 〈Chaos〉, but if you join 〈Delirium〉 you’re an idiot.”
Difficulties come in seven ranks, by the way:
Peaceful = Very Easy
Safe = Easy
Stable = Normal
Chaos = Hard
Delirium = Very Hard
Frenzy = Extra Hard
Insanity = ——and that last one is what, exactly?
Apparently that’s how it goes.
Other players are saying “this event is impossible” and so on.
I think I might take it.
The merit points I got from the early “handout event” are untouched at 200,000, so I should be able to cover Swallow-san’s repair costs.
Swallow-san himself can be bought for 100,000 merit points.
“U-um, Beauty-san——I mean! Receptionist——!!”
“Oh my, calling me a beauty, thank you.”
I call her Beauty-san in my head, so I said “Beauty-san”……
The beauty puts a hand to her mouth and laughs, rolling.
“C-can I take the quest from that broadcast?”
“For a newbie who has only just finished the beginner quest, the front line would be——hn?”
The beauty’s fingers, looking at my data, stop.
“Eh, what is this simulator history——”
From farther in, a slim woman player who’d been looking at me says, “Does that newbie get what 〈Delirium〉 means?”
The rebooted beauty starts moving her fingers and eyeballs violently up and down.
“Th-this is wrong, no way——eh, tw——24,000 hours!? I-it’s insane……”
In…… insane?
When I meet the beauty’s eyes, they’re completely the eyes you use to look at a pervert’s record.
S-stop? Don’t pull that face——.
“Master. Abnormality occurring in the amygdala and hypothalamus. Heart rate showing abnormal values. I recommend regulating your breathing.”
“I don’t get the details, but I know, so——”
Then, maybe she scrolled to the end, the beauty’s fingers and eyes freeze.
“He……? ———〈Insanity〉 Death Road, a, ‘clear’?”
The receptionist lifts her face, looks at me, and her mouth falls open, blank.
“……——Re, really……?”
“Eh, ah, yes.”
“I-I’ll confirm your title and sealstone skill!! That’s all right——!!”
Declared with incredible force, if anything scary.
“Ha——haihii!”
In front of me, flinching like I’m being scolded by a teacher, the beauty works the window violently.
Then eventually her eyes gradually widen.
And she starts trembling——. A kind of hair-standing-up feeling.
“You really have it! ——And it’s not 〖Luck〗, it’s 〖Miracle〗!? ——A career with this means——no way…… no way, a solo clearer!? ———And no way, ……you cleared it in a mass-production Swallowtail!? Wait, what is this beginner-quest result…… what’s going on, I can’t understand the content!! ……H-how do you even——move like this—!”
I wonder…… 〖Luck〗 and other words I don’t really get have started coming out.
The receptionist suddenly starts moving fast. She’s contacting somewhere.
“Yes, please look at this record!! That’s right! They’re a 〖Miracle〗 career!! And on a mass-production machine——!! And please look at this beginner-quest test result as well——!!”
Wh-who is she talking to.
Some of the other end’s voice leaks out and I can hear “gyan-gyan.”
When the call ends, the beauty turns back to me.
“Permission granted!! You have been given discretionary authority——!! As a Special-Authority Strider, please participate in this quest freely! Please go to the front freely; or rather, if the quest needs it, do anything freely!!”
O-oh——so clearing 〈Insanity〉 Death Road is that amazing?
“Th-thank you!”
For the Strider registration I set my “player ID name” to Suu, and receive something called a Strider card.
On the back of the Strider card my ability values were written.
ID: Suu
STR: 24
INT: 53
AGI: 310
Stat increases:
None
Title: 〖Legend〗
Skill: 〖Miracle〗
Clan: None
Owned frame: ST-81 Swallowtail
Isn’t INT and STR kind of low? AGI is high? No——even so, STR is low.
When I finish all the registration, a window appears.
“Start event quest ‘Monster Cherry Blizzard!!’?
⇨ Yes
No”
It displays.
I select ⇨ Yes and leave the Stratos Association building.
As I do, a voice catches my back.
“That beginner actually took the quest.”
“‘Oi oi oi oi.’”
“Going out in Swallowtail, the weakest frame. ‘That newbie is dead.’”
I mean, apparently you don’t die.
I put on the fighter VR gear in Swallow-san’s ears and take a deep breath.
Then a hologram door opens and butler-form Ill-san comes out.
“Commencing VR connection——vitals slightly high but within normal range. All senses all green. Neural connection start. Sensory expansion. Thought acceleration——”
Ill-san is raising my abilities.
They don’t do this in the training simulator, so it’s my first time.
When I focus, Ill-san’s voice becomes sluggish.
Amazing——time is flowing slowly.
Then Ill-san matches his speech speed to me.
I see. Then we can talk with no problem.
When preparations are complete, the lamp in front goes from red to green.
“All right, launch!”
Ill-san calls up a window panel and switches on.
“Model ST-81 Swallowtail, launching.”
Kicked out by the catapult, I feel a faint gravity, and we fly out of the hangar.
The outside scenery streams downward at an incredible rate.
Sparkle like jewel-dust scattered on a mint-blue sea stretches long.
I punch a big hole in the belly of a cumulonimbus, draw a ring of cloud, and the blue of the sky gets deeper and deeper.
It isn’t much G, so I grab a Crisp Sparkling soda I got fond of because of a certain commercial from the one-room fridge, sit in the cockpit’s gaming-chair-like seat, and take a sip.
Eventually the star’s light gets bigger, and I’m thrown out into a sea of stars.
Then, further, we arrive at the operation space on sublight travel.
——But we were near the operation space so we got there pretty fast, and there are no ships.
“This is the operation space?”
The tiny butler opens a window panel and checks.
“No mistake.”
Even so, there’s so no one here that I’m thinking (is this really it?) when huge ripple-like things start floating around us one after another.
I watch a huge ripple born on the left, and a prow matching the ripple stretches out.
“H-huge!”
A giant space battleship appears, hundreds of times Swallow-san.
The battleship is throwing a lot of searchlight-like things into space.
“Battleship” in this world means a giant space vessel that can even contain space carriers, and they really are big.
I look around and ten space battleships so huge I doubt my eyes have appeared around us.
From those battleships, space carriers and space fighters fly out and start forming ranks.
The battleships have the Galactic Union Forces crest: planet marks arranged in a pentagram.
Which means these aren’t players’, I think. Regular-army ships.
While I’m thinking that, variously customized space battleships start appearing.
Ships with no uniformity are probably players’. Eight ships appear.
Buying a space battleship apparently takes a ridiculous amount of merit points, so I think they’re ships clan members of major clans pooled points to buy.
Solo-player-looking fighters appear too, and fighters come out of space carriers that seem to be in parties and start formation flight.
“How many people are in this space, including NPP? FateLege carriers and battleships are heavily automated, and Galactic Union carriers are about half the size of Earth’s, so they get by with way fewer people, but the people here still look like they’d go over 8,000.”
While I’m estimating the participant count, a male voice that isn’t Ill-san comes from the speakers.
“A briefing by the three admirals will now be conducted. All personnel, attend.”
“They have this too? Ill-san, volume up.”
“Understood, My Master.”
The tiny butler makes a gesture of turning a knob. Then a figure with blond hair down to the waist is projected as a hologram in space.
The figure’s voice leaks from the speakers.
“Gentlemen, it’s been a while. For the Striders this may be the first time——Galactic Union Forces Vice Admiral, Admiral of the 3rd Division, Sinclair Celestia.”
I get confused by the hologram figure’s hair length and sheer beauty.
“Eh, man? Woman? Which……?”
“Male, My Master.”
“Hieh, an outrageous pretty-face.”
“That one is a Humanoid——that is to say, the appearance is an artifact.”
“Still too pretty, no?”
I explained a bit earlier, but to explain Humanoids in more detail: a race made entirely of artifacts.
The condition for such a complete artifact to count as human is having not only AI but AE, and abilities identical to a human’s.
If they only have AI and a humanoid shape, they’re called androids.
Admiral Sinclair Celestia, appearing before me as a hologram, is wearing something like a black Prussian military uniform without a hat——and with the beauty on top of that, I could sigh at how pretty it is.
“This operation: the enemy’s scale is extremely large. We may be hard-pressed——however, if you follow our command, we will win without fail. Everyone, I ask for your best. That is all from me.”
The beautiful man’s hologram vanishes.
Next in the hologram is a black-haired man with bedhead all over.
His uniform is sloppily undone, and he’s scratching his head like he has no motivation.
“H-he seems…… kind of sloppy.”
“That one is a Datanoid, and was apparently an excellent genius admiral in life, but lack of motivation is the flaw in the jewel.”
To explain Datanoids in more detail too: a mechanical race transplanted with the memories and thoughts of destroyed humanity.
Humanoids with the contents of old humanity’s brains transplanted, apparently.
The bedhead figure starts talking while yawning.
“Aah, Union Forces Vice Admiral, Admiral of the 55th Division. Ronrail Utah. I’ve got nothing to say from me…… Just, you know. Let’s not die, and go home.”
He raises his left hand like he wants to say “anyway,” and his hologram vanishes.
“It’s already over.”
Last in the hologram is a blue-haired woman.
“I am Galactic Union Forces Admiral, commanding the 105th Division, Ivy Admiller!”
The design of Ivy Admiller-san’s uniform is 18th-century Prussian-ish too. She makes it blue-based in a way that feels clean, with white lines running here and there.
Also, an incredible miniskirt. Riding a bicycle would be a disaster.
She’s dignified, but a little loli-cute.
Child-faced Ivy-san’s chest is decorated with any number of medals.
The ears are drooping fennec, so that person is an Animanoid.
Cute——I want to touch the kemonomimi.
Animanoids, by the way, are the same as the beauty receptionist: a race that remodeled animal genes to be identical to humans.
Old Animanoids apparently didn’t even have animal traits, were completely human in form, and genetically not a hair different from humans.
“Valiant Union soldiers and Striders gathered in this space! What assails this star system is the hated enemy that destroyed our beloved humanity: the ‘MoB’! There is not a shred of need for mercy. Annihilate them thoroughly!”
I ask Ill-san.
“Ill-san. So what is MoB, actually? Like MOB in an MMO?”
The tiny butler puts a hand to his chest and nods.
“Largely correct. Misanthrope of Boundless——meaning, those who despaired of humanity. Abbreviated, MoB. Among monsters, it is a designation aimed at those who come from Sagittarius A*, and at the threat lurking in Sagittarius Alpha. Or rather, My Master, you have been playing Fate Link until now without knowing about MoB?”
“Eh…… y-yeah.”
The tiny butler shrugs, give-me-a-break.
“It is in the game manual as well, but the objective of this game is to defeat these MoB, reach Floor 100, and defeat the Mother MoB that produces MoB. The reason we have Earth’s people playing this game is that we want these MoB defeated.”
“I-is that so?”
The tiny butler shrugs even more.
While I’m questioning Ill-san like that, the speech ends, and maybe they’re soldiers of Ivy-san’s fleet: I hear big applause.
“Amazing morale.”
“Of course, My Master. The MoB that destroyed our beloved humanity are the one thing we will absolutely not forgive.”
“No, not destroyed, not destroyed.”
I point at myself with a wry smile.
Well, maybe some aliens somewhere got destroyed. But the NPP who show up look exactly like Earth humans.
While I’m denying the mystery admins’ mystery setting, the first male voice from the speakers:
“Striders as well, follow our instructions, and never act independently and throw the battlefield into chaos.”
That caution comes in, and the speeches end.
I go “I see” and nod, and a warning comes from Ill-san.
At the same time, countless ripples float in front of us.
“Spacetime tremor detected. Hostile weapons incoming.”
“Y-yes!”
This is my first real battle. I’m getting a little nervous.
The regular army’s large fighters head toward the hostile weapons.
When the regular-army fighters reach engagement range they go humanoid and deploy giant shields.
Behind, fighters bigger than Swallow-san but much smaller than a carrier also go humanoid and start rapid-firing live rounds and energy shots.
“It’s started——”
Countless lasers stretch straight from the space battleships.
Then a countless barrage is released from the MoB as well.
The reason MoB don’t use lasers, by the way, is that Versus Frames are painted with “blackbody coating” that completely blocks the “heat-type” weapons the Galactic Union recently created. If the opponent uses heat attacks, it actually increases our energy. And with that energy you can recover shields and barriers.
Swallow-san has it applied too.
Because it absorbs all heat, if you measure surface temperature it’s absolute zero, apparently.
As expected of super-science. Amazing invention.
So far, MoB cannot make blackbody.
I hear if they become able to, it will be a serious problem.
The players start engaging the MoB too.
Frames go humanoid and rapid-fire various weapons.
In dark space, spherical shining explosions happen one after another and spread like a belt.
Everyone really does fight in humanoid form.
The streamers I’ve watched were like that too, but I didn’t expect everyone here to fight humanoid to this extent——surprising.
But it’s true there’s not much point fighting as a fighter.
Guided weapons, the kind Earth fighters are good at, apparently don’t work on that enemy——MoB?
The reason is that a MoB’s body absorbs almost everything radar-related.
For example, styrofoam, cloth——and “human bodies” absorb electromagnetic waves easily, apparently.
That said, not all of a MoB’s body is radar-proof; there are small lock-on points. Catch a lock-on point around 30 centimeters and you can lock on.
You can also lock on with heat-seeking and image analysis, but those are weak to optical camo, smoke, and so on. And space is dark, so if it’s too far a normal camera can’t see, apparently.
Also, compared to radar, heat-seeking and image analysis have shorter detection range; heat doesn’t travel well in space.
So generally you need visual-range combat, and they fight as robots.
The reason I fight as a fighter is, of course, to take fewer hits.
Lock-on against Versus Frames, by the way, completely absorbs radar because of the blackbody, but you can lock on by homing on the heat source from the engine, or by image.
“Ill-san, can you enlarge that combat?”
“Yes, My Master.”
The state of the battlefield is shown large.
Frames coming swarming out of a MoB carrier-type——but that’s……
“Isn’t that 〈Atlas〉?”
It was 〈Atlas〉, the first-stage enemy of “Death Road.”
“The barrage has a pattern, and the shot count is low. That kind of——wait, no, no.”
A Union Forces battleship going down with a roar.
“They’re getting dropped by 〈Atlas〉!?”
The people called NPP in this world—Animanoids, Humanoids, Datanoids—only have mentality, physical ability, and brains not that different from ours, to reproduce humans. Otherwise they don’t get human rights.
But they have assist devices, so their ability shouldn’t be that low……
Is it because the battleships are too big to dodge?
There are a lot of enemies too.
The 〈Atlas〉 bodies are just scattering shots, but enemy small craft 〈Harpy〉 are flying around them, and that creates randomness.
But I think if you used a more nimble frame you could dodge it all.
“Player battleships are struggling too——”
Players challenging 〈Atlas〉 are taking hits one after another.
No——I’ve never done it, but I guess that is the standard way of fighting in Fate Link: Legendia.
A high-defense frame blocks shots with a barrier (special tank-role gear) or a shield (equipped on every Versus Frame).
A recovery-role frame recovers the reduced barriers and shields.
And a high-firepower frame shoots the enemy down.
But it looks like the MoB firepower is winning.
A line some clan built is starting to collapse.
Can NPP-san come back if they die?
“Ill-san, is this really a game?”
“——”
The tiny butler only bows, silent.
“You really won’t answer, huh. Ill-san.”
“——”
The tiny butler doesn’t move, still bowing.
“I’m going to reinforce. I won’t let them take any more!”
“Please, My Master!”
The tiny butler lifts his face, eyes shining.
I emergency-launch Swallow-san.
I dive toward the front.
Then a comm comes in from the regular army. An angry voice, apparently a comms officer, leaks from the speaker.
“Swallowtail there, hold! That is an order! Do not break formation!”
“Eh——I’m sorry.”
I get scolded, get scared, and my eyes go teary.
Then Ill-san speaks to the comms officer in teary-eyed my place.
“Please wait, officer. Please hear my Master as well.”
“An AI, saying——however, it is rare for you lot to go that far. Speak, Swallowtail’s pilot.”
“Eh…… um, everyone is getting sunk by Atlas, so…… I think I can take it down, so……”
“What are you saying? A newbie who has only just cleared the beginner quest and is a ‘fresh’ Strider, what can you do to 〈Delirium Atlas〉 in one Swallowtail——”
There the comms officer stops.
“——Wait…… fresh? You…… why can a newbie come to the front…… sublight travel into this space should not be permitted——. W——wait!! AI, send that side’s information!!”
“Understood. Transmitting.”
Ill-san bows in a completely wrong direction.
After a pause, a window opens on my left.
Beyond the window, a man in uniform is standing at attention, saluting.
“I-I beg your pardon!! I did not know you were a ‘Special-Authority Strider’!! Please move with full discretion!! And I would be most grateful if this confirmation lapse of mine could be overlooked……”
I don’t really get it…… what is he saying?
“I-I don’t really understand what you’re saying. ——But it seems you understand on your end, so that’s good.”
“Wha——”
I only understand about “anyway I can move with discretion, right?” but it seems they understand various other things on that side.
“Th-then I can go?”
“W-wait please! Does this mean I have been made to understand by you!? To impede you, a Special-Authority Stri——” “My Master, MoB have approached. Cutting the comm.”
“Eh?”
Ill-san makes a gesture of pressing some button, and the terribly flustered officer’s face vanishes and the comm cuts.
“I-Ill-san, is that person okay?”
“Who knows? This aircraft has no interest in someone who made Master cry unreasonably.”
Eh, what is that…… is Ill-san a little angry?
There is no change in the tiny butler’s expression.
“A-anyway it seems I can dive in?”
“Of course. Master is a Special-Authority Strider. Let us hurry.”
We accelerate, blue flash bursting, and arrive in the combat space all at once.
Then this time a “whisper chat” comes in from a player.
“Hey, you’re too far forward, sprout-mark newbie!! You just finished the beginner quest! And you picked Swallowtail at initial selection, you don’t know anything!! Swallowtail is a paper frame—you go forward and you’ll get one-shot! Transfer units are loans, so worst case you end up drowning in debt!!”
He was a kind man.
“Ah, thank you.”
“You’re a girl!! ——Dummy, stop!! You don’t know because you’re a beginner, but don’t you underestimate 〈Delirium Atlas〉! Even we in a large-scale clan, in a party, lose sometimes!!”
Does everyone fear 〈Atlas〉 that much.
“I-it’s okay. I’m used to 〈Atlas〉.”
“Haa——?”
When the difficulty drops from 〈Insanity〉 to 〈Delirium〉, it seems like the shots just decrease.
Then I already understand the dodge routes.
I start combat. I dodge 〈Atlas〉’s barrage, using Swallowtail’s small size.
Occasionally barrage from “other 〈Atlas〉” and shots from small craft reach me, but the barrage is according to pattern, and the small-craft shots just fly straight at me, so control is easy.
On top of that I have the body enhancement I didn’t have in Deathroad Papilio, so I have a lot of room.
I find a safe-zone route fast and dive into its pocket.
Difficulty-wise, about dodging other people on a crosswalk.
I’ve only been to “Shibutani” once because I’m scared, but I think someone used to the scramble crossing would have room to spare.
“Ill-san, deploy 〈Excitation Wings〉.”
“Understood. Swallowtail 〈Excitation Wings〉 deploying.”
The tiny butler’s tiny wings start glowing blue.
I fly so as to graze 〈Atlas〉’s surface with the frame’s wings, which have started glowing blue the same way.
Then from the man who spoke to me, I hear a recoiling voice.
“She flew like she was stroking 〈Atlas〉’s body!? Gross!!”
Ill-san becomes a doctor.
“Master, detecting an abnormality in vitals.”
“P-please stop with the gross.”
At my teary voice, the comm partner apologizes: “Sorry, the trajectory was so maniac I…… said it without thinking.”
I’ll have you know maniacs get hurt too.
“All right, one down!”
Way softer than 〈Insanity Atlas〉. I don’t even need to use live ammo.
Live weapons have low power and are expensive——compared to that, energy weapons using the photodisintegration engine, which can produce enormous heat, are wallet-eco.
Even so you need live weapons.
Energy weapons come as a set with the engine, so if you only fire energy weapons the engine stops.
Well, resupply is free right now, but I still have to save.
“Then to another 〈Atlas〉.”
I was about to head for the next enemy.
A big window opens in front of my eyes.
“Wah.”
What I see, having pulled back on the seat without meaning to, is Admiral Ivy Admiller’s face.
“You, what are you! When this combat ends, come to me at once!”
“M-m-m-move! I can’t see the shots!”
At my intensity, Admiral Ivy Admiller makes a this-is-bad face, goes “I-I’m sorry,” and immediately cuts the comm.
I really broke a cold sweat on that one.
Heart jumping, hands going wrong, I can’t see ahead—I really thought I was going to get shot down.