Chapter 157: Run Without a Shadow, Climb, and Make Some Noise

Normally, if you're going to change a monster's behavior patterns or thought routines, there's no bizarre underlying reason involved; you just tweak the programming to say, "Instead of the conventional Response B for Action A, handle it with the new Response C." But this game... I strongly suspect (my own personal impression) that it's equipped with AI not just for special monsters like Lycaon or Wethermon, but for standard mobs too. And the AI in this game actually thinks things through before acting.

If that's the case, a single question arises. Back when I was walking around Crystal Nest Cliff using the Teleportation Escape Travel Method via Inventoria, I experienced being turned into mincemeat thanks to the devs' remarkably swift hotfix. And right now, the Atlanticus Repnorca ambushed me after I vanished via teleportation, and if it weren't for Araba's intervention, it would have successfully chomped me to pieces.
So, here's the thing. What kind of "thought process" are these guys—who had an anti-teleport-escape countermeasure installed in them by the devs—using to ambush me? I believe that right there is the secret strategy for my current situation, and the exact method I'm going to use to dump Tabasco sauce all over the bitter hardships I previously swallowed and send them right back to the devs.

If we use the "fly extermination" analogy I mentioned earlier to describe the Killer Whale Bastard's mental state, the teleportation escape I pulled off equates to "the fly I was just tracking with my eyes completely vanished." When that happens, normally you'd look around and consider the possibility that you simply lost sight of it, and if you realize it's some paranormal phenomenon, you'd mark the spot where the fly disappeared. And if the thought pattern added to certain monsters is exactly that—"I lost sight of it, so I will guard the spot where it disappeared"—then...

"If it 'misidentifies' me, wouldn't that mean its ambush motion won't trigger...!?"

Vorpal Blade Arts [Fading Mirror] is, exactly as the name implies, a skill that conjures a phantom shadow in the eyes of the enemy like the moon reflected on the water's surface. It sounds cool and all, but to put it simply, it's a skill that leaves all the aggro you had at the time of activation behind at that specific location... If anything, it's a skill that should be called "Create a Decoy holding all Aggro up to Activation"; regardless of how the programming processes it, from the monster's perspective, it hasn't lost sight of the player, it's under the delusion that the player is right there.
Alright devs, I'm about to answer my own question right now. Will the Killer Whale Bastard actually realize that I—not just a decoy made of mere presence, but the genuine article—have disappeared? If it was just me I could manage somehow, but getting Araba wrapped up in this when he can't respawn is a bit of a cause for concern.

"Screw it, whether it goes well or poorly we won't get anywhere if I don't move! [Transfer: Storage Space (Enter Travel)]!!"

Having teleported into the storage space that I use more as a temporary evacuation shelter than an actual warehouse these days, I started counting down on the spot. The number I was counting was the time it takes for the aggro decoy left behind by Vorpal Blade Arts [Fading Mirror] to vanish, plus ten seconds. The plan is for Araba to harass the absolute hell out of the Killer Whale Bastard the exact moment my leftover aggro disappears, forcing it away from that location.
If my hypothesis is correct, the disappearance of my residual aggro should cause the Killer Whale Bastard's next target to shift to Araba; if I come back out and it's still waiting to ambush me despite all that... well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

"Three... Two... One... I'm counting on you, Araba... [Transfer: Reality Space (Exit Travel)]!"

The gravity my feet had just been bracing against worked to pull me down once more. Thrown out into mid-air, I resigned myself to a certain kind of death while looking around... and locked my eyes onto a dot swimming through the sky like a little fly about a hundred meters away, alongside a blazing speck.

"Hell yeah, bingo! You seeing this, devs! If you're gonna patch this, wait at least seven days!!"

I spun once in mid-air to fix my posture and mitigated the fall damage by combining it with a mid-air landing via Flit Float. Whether the Killer Whale Bastard went on a rampage while I was gone from this world or not, I landed on one of the relatively intact structures among the ruined buildings and broke into a run.
My knowledge of parkour is so pitiful that it basically amounts to having casually looked it up on the net, but I've watched plenty of videos of it. And in this virtual reality... as long as I have a body (Avatar) capable of making ideals a reality, I can recreate it.
In reality, the way you move your body and all that other stuff is probably completely different, making this purely superficial, but as long as the outward appearance is the same, the end result is the same too.

Step on the wall, kick off the roof, roll through the air, and sprint along the ledge. I need to signal Araba the exact moment I reach the top. And after that, all I can do is pray that the Killer Whale Bastard's thought routines pick the exact move I'm aiming for.
I kicked off a wall and grabbed the edge of a roof, hoisting myself up before gravity could snag me. I jumped off to the side instead of forward, using a crack running along the wall of another house as a foothold to kill my falling momentum before dropping down onto another house that was one story lower.
Because of the inherent premise that "the player themselves moves their body as a character in a virtual reality world," games from the dawn of Full-Dive VR had a tendency to demand outrageously acrobatic movements from players. In recent games that have gotten somewhat used to the concept of Full-Dive, they've started implementing countermeasures like motion assists or special animations that basically automate the process, but... well, when it comes to Full-Dive games from the era before such kindness was implemented, and a Trash Game at that, you can imagine how bad it got.

"Compared to the Crumbling Another-World Stepping-Stone Time Attack, this is basically a paved walkway with handrails...!"

So basically, that's what I mean, it took me three damn days to clear that Trash Stage... those randomly teleporting platforms were way too sadistic. Thanks to a platform appearing right in front of me only to teleport right in front of the goal two seconds later, I had to wait for the RNG to spawn a platform within a distance I could actually reach with a jump... the RNG, R, N, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G... Whoops, let's forget that nightmare, I've arrived at my destination.

"There's plenty of uneven spots, but what the heck... is this made of a different material than the other houses? It's awfully smooth and looks like a pain to climb..."

If I had to describe it, looking up at this bizarrely designed structure, it felt more appropriate to call it a decorative object rather than a tower. I casually shifted my gaze into the open interior of the tower, which completely lacked doors. In there, perhaps due to the effects of that "domain where you can't tell if you're underwater or in the air," there was a humanoid figure floating off the ground like a celestial maiden—yet clearly something not human.
I see, the parts that looked like a dress or a heavenly robe, along with an appearance resembling an elegant noblewoman, made it incredibly obvious that the creature it was modeled after was a Clione.
This Sealed General entity—looking as if a human form had been sculpted out of transparent, jelly-like agar—seemed to notice me peering inside and floated a soft smile...

Gubaaaaaah

"............Seems like there'd be a high demand for this among the monster-girl enthusiasts."

The Clione Sealed General's head split open from the crown like an apple being sliced, causing the tentacles[*1] that had apparently been mimicking a human head to writhe around in a way that, well, could probably make her an idol in a very specific niche genre... Yeah, if I could somehow expertly thread the Killer Whale Bastard's laser right through the doorway, wouldn't she just explode into pieces?

"No, no, he who chases two rabbits and all that.[*2]"

I think the hunter who chases two rabbits without setting up a meticulous Chart is also somewhat to blame; if it's a dual-target quest, keeping stealth in mind and picking them off one by one is just common sense.
I tore my eyes away from the Clione Sealed General, who was desperately trying to appeal to me with something, and scanned the outer wall of the tower to find a decent-looking route.

"Put my foot on that protrusion over there, grab onto that ledge... alright."

It was just basic climbing, but if you threw in some skill assists, it looked like a tower that even someone other than me could climb relatively easily. Layering stat buff skills onto the golden combo of Gravity Zero, Shana-oh Possession, and Flit Float—which I'm now overworking far more than my actual attack skills—I enabled myself to pull off bizarre, Tengu-tier movements and began my tower climb.
In all honesty, abusing walls and cliffs to brute-force a clear is pretty standard practice, so (inside a game at least) I'm actually quite good at this kind of climbing. If I tried this in real life, the punchline would probably be me missing a step and shattering my lower back.

"Adjusting my height... it's almost the 'Time' I told Araba about."

The first phase of this strategy started with transferring aggro to Araba, and the next phase transitioned into Araba kiting the Killer Whale Bastard while I scaled the tower.
And then Phase Three: after holding aggro for roughly a minute, Araba would head toward the tower at top speed the moment he received my signal. In all likelihood, the Killer Whale Bastard uses physical attacks like bites or crystal-wing strikes against opponents at close and mid-range, uses its electrical discharge attacks within a fifty-meter radius, and if you get any farther away than that, it fires that laser.
Put another way, you could absolutely consider it a Trash Enemy since the combat state doesn't end even if you run more than fifty meters away, but the guy seems to suck at hide-and-seek, so as long as you can hide properly, escaping combat itself isn't actually that hard.

"Which means, when he's an estimated fifty meters away from the Killer Whale Bastard, that guy will bust out the laser attack... Arabaaa!! Get your ass over here with everything you've got!!!"

That said, if you want to put distance between yourself and the Killer Whale Bastard—a monster that swims through the air and is practically capable of flight—there is only one opportunity.
A sphere of azure lightning—so blindingly obvious you'd have to be crazy not to notice it from afar—deployed alongside a bright flash and a roaring boom.
Thirty seconds to charge, a two-second window before the hitbox activates, and five seconds while the hitbox is active... Since it can move freely while charging, you effectively have seven seconds to clear a distance of over fifty meters... Even if there are very few people capable of pulling that off in the real world, it really isn't all that difficult in here.

"Sunraku! I leave the rest to you!!"

"You got it!!"

Clinging to the outer wall near the very top of the tower by using the top of a glassless window as a foothold, I flashed a fearless grin at Araba as he swam toward me at breakneck speed, and then I locked eyes with the Killer Whale Bastard, who had just finished its electrical discharge and was currently searching for Araba.

"Sorry for going AFK[*3], I'll be your opponent now, you pseudo-fish bastard...!"

Little Fly Number One, Returns. Recognizing that fact, the Killer Whale Bastard hesitated for not even a second, flaring the flames and lightning on its body with even greater intensity. Bring it on, Atlanticus Repnorca. From here on out, it's a game of chicken between you and me.

Author's Afterword
Clionea Ctila: "Why! Won't any of you! Just come inside!!"

Translator's Notes

• *[1] Tentacles: The raw text uses the furigana reading "Buccal Cones" (バッカルコーン), which are the actual biological feeding tentacles of a Clione (Sea Angel) that violently extrude from its head to grab prey.

• *[2] He who chases two rabbits: A reference to the Japanese proverb "He who chases two rabbits catches neither" (二兎を追う者は一兎をも得ず).

• *[3] AFK: The raw text uses "Riseki" (離席), literal translation "leaving one's seat." It is the Japanese MMO equivalent of going AFK (Away From Keyboard).