Chapter 145: Because They Are Aquatic: Dragon King Fish Edition

To be completely honest, dealing with the monster parade chasing me isn't actually that difficult. Since all the aggro is concentrated entirely on me, all I have to do is shed it, and I can escape safely.
That's why acting as a source of noise was purely to let the players in this area know I'm here. The moment I spotted a player or an NPC, my plan was to use Vorpal Secret Art [Fading Mirror] to disengage.
However, turning toward the voice that answered mine—a voice blended 70/30 with a scream and relief—which belonged to Emul... I felt like I heard the sound of all the plans and strategies I had built up until now crumbling to pieces from their very foundations.

I once asked Emul.

"What does this spell called 'Random Encounter' do?"

Only now did I recall the effects of the magic she explained to me in response. It's a "Final Trump Card" that only a select few existences among monsters like Vorpal Bunnies and Cat Siths can learn.
When the weak Vorpal Bunnies fall into a crisis they cannot overcome through their own efforts, the weak Sing (Cry out).

Random Encounter

• Summons one inactive monster whose level is higher than the caster's, pulled from the vicinity of the caster.

• The summoned monster is chosen randomly from among those whose level is less than or equal to [Caster's Level at the time of activation * 1.(Skill Level)].

I remembered the information I got from Araba. Why are the Mermaids flying through the air? It's because Ctarrnid's power twisted the logic of this Ruluiath, and by further twisting a place that is "Not Underwater" into a place that "Is Also Underwater," the Mermaids are able to swim through the sky.
Thinking about it too hard just makes your head hurt, but basically, by changing a rule bent as "Air without water" further into "Air with water," it looks to us like Mermaids are swimming in the air, while to the Mermaids, it looks like we're running underwater. They say the reverse of the reverse is the front, but forcing it this much is a bit much, Ctarrnid.
And this ruined city exists in the deep sea, meaning it connects directly to the bottom of the ocean. Since I haven't tested how far the range of Random Encounter extends, I can't say for sure, but at the very least, the system found a monster with a level higher than Emul's and summoned it right to this spot.
Well, what I'm trying to say is... for that thing summoned by Emul's magic, this place is just an extension of the deep sea.

"Save meeeeeeeee, desu waaaaa!!"

It looked absolutely nothing like the fish that was supposedly its motif. That thing, which looked exactly like an Eastern Dragon with a rainbow-colored body, was pulverizing houses as it chased after a human-transformed Vorpal Bunny carrying a crying, blubbering boy on her back. Yeah, if I had to name it... an Oarfish Lv.100.

"You... what the hell did you summon!?"

"B-but! Buuuuuuuuuut!!"

If you imagine an eight-car train, flattened vertically while keeping its length, and slapped a dragon's face on the front, you might understand how terrifying it is. This isn't on the level of something you can solo anymore. The Giga-Oarfish, likely summoned by Emul out of sheer desperation when she was cornered by the Mermaids and fish-men, probably wiped them out easily first, and then decided the insolent rabbit and the brat who summoned it were its next targets.

"Gah, hand him over! Then grab on!"

"Yes, siiiiiir!!"

Running while carrying Stude is faster in human form. Therefore, I took Stude from the human-transformed Emul, and put Emul—who reverted to her rabbit form—on my head.

"It's a good thing I brought along a massive decoy swarm. I'm going to crash them into each other!"

With a brat on my back and a rabbit on my head, I activated a skill. If I was just outrunning the sluggish fish-men, my base stats would have been enough, but if I'm trying to escape that runaway express train while carrying luggage, I have to buff my STR or I won't make it.

"Hold it... right up to the limit... spin out and charge up the acceleration..."

The Giga-Oarfish will be here in a matter of seconds. As smoke-like effects began to rise from my feet, I fulfilled the skill's conditions.
The skill's name is Burnout. By remaining stationary and charging it up—like a car spinning its tires and producing smoke—you gain acceleration power corresponding to the number of seconds you charged.
Since my level doesn't go up, my skill levels don't go up either, meaning I can only use it at Skill Level 1. But the acceleration power gained from Skill Level 1 gives me 20 seconds of acceleration for a 4-second charge. In the split second the jaws of the Giga-Oarfish—which was more dragon than fish at this point—locked onto me, my body, loaded with every acceleration skill I had, shot forward like a bullet.

"Hold on tight, Emul!"

"Piiiiiiiii!!"

I'll take that scream as an acknowledgment. The biggest advantage of Burnout is its initial velocity. Normal acceleration takes a certain amount of time and distance to reach top speed, but Burnout lets you burst forward at just below top speed right from the start.

"Hey, you little shit! No need to answer, just hold on tight!!"

Maybe because he's fundamentally a brat, or maybe he just didn't have the energy left to react to the situation, but Stude was in a daze. Still, he seemed to have just enough instinct left to react to my voice, and the grip of the arms and legs clinging to my body tightened.
With that, both of my hands were free. Since it's a dual-wielding skill, I can't activate it unless I'm holding my weapons. With a massive smile directed at the fish-men and Mermaids chasing me, I activated Vorpal Secret Art [Fading Mirror], leaving only my aggro right there as my Main Body (Me) launched further ahead.

"Alright, I'll leave the rest to you guys."

Right at the front of the monster parade, inches from the fish-men's noses, I made a 90-degree turn. I dashed up the wall right beside me and sprinted across the rooftops at maximum speed.
In the next moment, the Giga-Oarfish plowed head-on into the monster parade, turning absolutely everything into a chaotic, minced meat paste.

"Run, run, ruuuun!"

"I want to go hoooooooooome!!"

Having somehow made it back to the temporary base with a massive, destructive panic unfolding behind us, I finally exhaled the tension and let my body relax.

"............And so, the rabbit here is Emul, and the brat shivering over there is Stude."

"I-I see... More importantly, I've been hearing an incredibly terrifying noise outside for a while now..."

"Close your eyes and plug your ears. If you do that, the world remains peaceful."

"Ehhh..."

Ignoring Araba's confusion, I introduced him to Emul and Stude this time.

"This is Araba. For the record, he's a completely different species from those rotten fish, so there's no need to be scared."

"He looks like a fish person, desu wa..."

Stude just kept shivering. Useless... No, I suppose it's cruel to expect an NPC to have the same screwed-up resolve as us (Players), who are prepared for almost anything.

"For now, we'll use this place as a temporary base and try to meet up with the others who got separated. As long as we aren't seen or heard, the fish won't notice us. Stay quiet."

Now then...

"I'm gonna head back out for a bit."

"...To call that reckless bravery would be an understatement. Do you have no sense of fear?"

"I have as much as the next person. I just don't happen to feel any fear toward the current situation."

"...Wh, y...?"

"Hm?"

I was standing up, thinking I should probably try to inform the other players about how saving works in this area, and maybe try a suicide charge against that Giga-Oarfish while I was at it, when Stude—who had done nothing but shiver in fear of absolutely everything until now—threw those words at me.

"Why aren't you scared...? In a place this... this messed up... Why can you smile like that...!?"

Oho, this smells like an event that will affect my Affection Rating and a bunch of other things. Now, what's the most dramatic way to answer this... Yeah.

"It's about enjoying the unknown. The pioneer spirit. That's how we've always moved forward... That's all there is to it."

And incidentally, you're only a full-fledged gamer once you grind the 'known.' RNG can be overcome with enough attempts. Turn your brain off and get back to grinding.
Answering with a line that sounded incredibly cheesy from an objective standpoint, I stealthily slipped out of the base again. Thank god OiKatzo and Pencilgon weren't here. They would have laughed at me for years. And I know that, because I would have done the exact same thing to them.

"To think it devoured every single one of those fish-men... It's at least on par with the Golden Crystal Scorpion (Goldy Scorpion), if not stronger... Purely based on specs, it's easily Unique Monster class..."

It seems "Unique Monsters" aren't strictly stronger than every other monster in the game. Just like that golden scorpion bathed in moonlight, there are monsters with strength that approaches the Uniques. It was obvious that the Giga-Oarfish—which had noticed my presence and was slowly swimming through the air—belonged to that same tier. Considering the actual boss, Ctarrnid, was waiting for us, fighting this thing was even more pointless than fighting the fish-men.

"But that's just not how it works."

Because this is a game, if there's a switch that looks incredibly dangerous, you press it; you ignore the crisis threatening the world to go on side quests; and you charge headfirst into an enemy you obviously can't beat.

"Just like with the Crystal Scorpions. I'm taking at least one scale off you."

Swimming through the air, destroying houses just by twisting its massive, long body, I declared war on the colossal Oarfish.

"Don't think I'm just bait. The one who eats the fish is always the bird."

Watching the polygons shatter, dissolve, and scatter into the air, I had a thought.

"I got way more into that than I expected."

It's a bad habit of mine to get overly hyped once I start moving my body. I was only planning to land a few light hits and then either run away or die, but I ended up fighting it completely seriously.
In this realistic virtual reality, the cube-like polygons that indicate this is all just ones and zeros from cyber data look incredibly fantastical simply because they don't fit the world setting. The scattering polygons gradually turned transparent, and then vanished.
Ah, I did it.

"I actually won............"

As its massive body disappeared from this world, leaving behind a mountain of dropped items, my thoughts spilled out of my mouth without me realizing it.

Author's Afterword

Arctus Regalis
A fish-type monster dwelling in the deep sea that looks like an oarfish. Although it resembles a dragon, it is a completely different species from dragons. Since sea serpents are reptiles, it's a different species from them as well. It can breathe a breath attack from its mouth, but it is, fundamentally, a fish.
From a distance, it looks graceful as it swims through the water, but once you enter the "Attack Range" of an Arctus Regalis, you will be forcibly made to understand just how wrong that impression is.
Its scales shine in iridescent rainbow colors, and its mane-like dorsal fin is so beautiful it looks like flames flickering underwater.

By the way, in the ecological pyramid, it sits around the lower-upper tier. It is a predator that devours massive amounts of fish, and simultaneously a prey that is often served for dinner because of its relatively mild, delicate flavor.