Chapter 143: The World Inverts, Even Reason Itself

I cut down a fish-man standing at the corner, made sure I wasn't being pincered, and then called out to the mysterious fish-man as I ran.

"Why is a Birdian... wait, you don't have wings?"

"Sorry to disappoint, but this is a mask! There's a normal human inside!"

"A h-human, I see... My name is Araba. You have my thanks for saving me."

"I'm Sunraku! We're climbing onto the roof using that rubble!"

"R-right!"

The wall of a house had collapsed into a pile of rubble that formed a convenient ramp. We scrambled up it, and I carefully scanned the area.

"Alright, we're jumping to the roof over there..."

"Gu, mu, b-balance is..."

I turned around to find the mysterious fish-man—now known as the NPC Araba—scrambling up the rubble that should have been easy to run up, using all four limbs.

"You're too slow!!"

"Uwoah!?"

I grabbed an arm that was far thicker than my slender avatar's and forcibly hoisted him up. Just seconds later, the fish-men surged into the spot where Araba had been, and the ones behind immediately began trampling the ones in front to form a staircase of flesh.

"You look like you have way more STR than me, so don't dawdle while climbing!"

"E-even if you say that... And what on earth is an 'es-tee-ahr'?"

"No excuses! We're shaking them off!"

I was a little worried that he might not even be able to jump across the roofs, but I looked back and saw he wasn't that clumsy. He didn't look like the type to excel at acrobatics, but he wasn't bogged down in heavy armor that would sink like a stone like Rei-shi either, so he'd better be able to jump at least a meter or I'd be in trouble.

"Now, where should we run... Hup, ha. Alright, grab on."

"With those movements, are you certain you aren't a Birdian? No, but you lack wings or feathers..."

"Gah! I'm gonna tie a rope to that tail of yours and haul you out like a fresh catch!"

"M-my apologies!"

I don't actually have a rope, though. Anyway, the interrogation can wait. I didn't expect to pick up a new NPC, but this will surely be useful for conquering this area, and by extension, this EX Scenario. Just as I thought that...

"What is that? Singing?"

"This is bad... It's a Mermaid!!"

Mermaid, he said Mermaid. If he says Mermaid, he means that Mermaid. Why is he panicking like he just encountered a monster... Don't tell me.

"Araba, was it? Let me guess, Mermaids are... Monsters? Aren't they your relatives or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous! Those are fish mimicking the upper half of a human! Do not lump them together with the proud Mermans!"

That was a ton of new information, but at least it's confirmed that "Mermaids" in this game are monsters. There might be NPC-like Mobs among monsters, like Emul or Aramis, but if they're completely hostile, I have no qualms about attacking them, whether they're Vorpal Bunnies, Cait Siths, or Mermaids. I will show no merc... Hm?

Something suddenly bothered me. A Mermaid? No, since this is an underwater city, it's not strange for aquatic monsters like Mermaids to appear. In fact, those wildly expired, humanoid fish balls are chasing us right now. Damn it, if you're fish, act like fish and breathe through gills or something... Wait. That's it.

"Why is there a Mermaid on land!?"

Looking up, I saw the figure of a Mermaid swimming gracefully through the air. I see... if I hadn't been told beforehand that it was mimicry, I would never have thought that was a monster. A beautifully modeled woman—or rather, girl—opened her smiling lips.

"Ru──────"

"Ra, a──────"

"I wondered what I'd do if she suddenly started singing hip-hop, but I guess not."

"Gwaa, gaaaaaah!!?"

"Eh, wait, eh, what happened!?"

Araba suddenly clutched his ears and began writhing in agony. His body was visibly enveloped in a dark effect, clearly some kind of debuff. I don't have a head optimistic enough to assume this has nothing to do with the Mermaid's song. Without hesitation, I concluded the Mermaids were hostile and sprang into action.
But by some completely unreasonable logic, I have no attacks that can reach a Mermaid swimming through the air from here. So what should I do? This.

"Lacking height can be compensated for with a foothold..."

Skill activated. With movements like a Tengu, freed from the shackles of gravity via a wall run, I dashed up the side of a nearby three-story house. Then, kicking off the wall, I launched myself, invading the aerial advantage held by the Mermaid with a brute-force dive to the sky.

The skill Gravity Zero nullifies gravity calculations for actions like climbing walls or ceilings for a duration of [Skill Level x 10] seconds. With this skill—which literally allows you to move freely in all directions inside a room—my wall-jump gained significantly more distance and momentum than normal, sending me flying right at the Mermaid swimming in the air.

As for the Mermaid, her eyes widened in surprise as I moved despite the song, which seemed to be some kind of debuff magic. But perhaps noticing that my jump distance wasn't quite enough, she narrowed her eyes as if to mock me...

"Yo."

"!?"

Flit Float activated. A single step became the origin point for the jump distance; every skill I had reinforced that single step, even at the cost of shaving my HP, to extend the leap.

"Just so you know, I have zero hesitation in killing someone, whether they're a beautiful girl or a handsome guy."

"Ka, hyu...!?"

After all, seventy percent of player avatars are handsome guys, beautiful girls, or dashing older men. The remaining thirty percent are either robots or joke avatars.
Even setting that aside, there are countless games where the boss is a handsome guy or a beautiful girl. Landing a headshot on a beautiful girl is a daily occurrence, and if a handsome guy's face is his weak point, I'll beat it to a pulp. That's just how games work.

Catching the Mermaid off guard with the mid-air jump, my flashing blade sliced her throat. Polygons scattered, and the Mermaid, forced to stop singing, let out a sound like air leaking. Several other Mermaids nearby turned their attention to me—having started my descent after the song was interrupted by their kin losing her voice.

"Alright, who's next!"

I grabbed the wrist of the Mermaid whose throat I had slashed and, to prevent us from both falling to our deaths, used the frantically swimming Mermaid as a makeshift parachute while roaring at the others. Once I reached an altitude where fall damage wouldn't kill me, I let go of the Mermaid I was clinging to.

I'd prefer it if they retreated, but perhaps my direct attack had completely enraged them, because they showed no signs of pulling back. If they could just engage in close combat, that'd be a huge help, but as I was wondering what to do, an eerie crrrk sounded right nearby.

"Wh—"

"Nuaah!!"

A Mermaid with her neck bent at a clearly unnatural angle fell limply onto the roof I was standing on. Scattering massive amounts of polygons from her neck, the Mermaid vanished into light with an expression that said she had no idea what had just happened.

And from his mouth—or rather, from teeth that were distinctly sharper than a human's—Araba, his fangs imbued with the blue glow of a skill effect and his eyes bloodshot, glared at the Mermaids with bared fangs.

"Bring it on, you fish! If you wish to be crushed by Araba's fangs!!"

"Ehhh..."

Weren't you just writhing on the ground holding your ears a second ago... You looked exactly like a beached shark... Wait, this guy has ears?

The Mermaids glared at Araba and me as if on guard, and then swam away. Damn it, if only I had a long-range attack method.

"You have a much wilder fighting style than I thought."

"T-this is strictly a last resort... I lost my weapon, you see. Speaking of which, you haven't seen a single-edged sword about this long, have you!? It was a masterpiece forged by a master craftsman of the Dwarves..."

"Sorry, haven't seen it. I just started exploring this submarine city myself."

"Submarine city? What are you talking about?"

"Eh?"

The massive Merman tilted his head at my words with a blank expression.

"This is the 'Abyssal Capital Ruluiath,' right? An inverted city literally flipped upside down under the sea."

"............Ah. Hold on a second, let me organize my thoughts."

First, confirmation check number one. I pointed at the pitch-black sky—or rather, the snow-like things that, come to think of it, were falling straight up.

"That isn't the ceiling of a cave?"

"That is the ocean floor. You can see the marine snow falling, can't you?"

Confirmation check number two. I hopped in place and did a handstand to verify that the physics engine was working in the correct direction.

"Then shouldn't we be falling up?"

"It is the power of the Lord of the Abyss. This entire city is brimming with the Lord's power of 'Inversion'."

Finally, I took a deep breath, exhaled, confirmed that my breathing was completely unimpeded, and asked my last question.

"I can breathe perfectly fine, though."

"The Lord's power of 'Inversion' has rewritten a 'place without air' into a 'place with air.' The Lord's power can overturn even death."

"I see, I see... I see..."

Ctarrnid of the Abyss... Is this thing even beatable?

Author's Afterword

In short, an entire city is fixed in an upside-down state in the water, just slightly above the actual ocean floor.