Chapter 185: Sightseeing in the Abyssal City Accompanied by a Rabbit

Time skipped forward two days from Day 2 of the GGC, making this my fourth day staying in Ruluiath.

I had mentally locked away everything that happened the day before yesterday, deciding to seal the memories completely until the job right in front of me was finished; if I was going to unpack all of that, it would probably be... after settling things with Ctarrnid.

And so, reverting from No Face back to Sunraku, I had returned to the reversed city of the abyss—not.

"To think the aftereffects would show up like this..."

The game I was currently playing was called VR Tutorial Athletic, a tutorial software pre-downloaded on all VR systems designed to help users get accustomed to participating in virtual reality.

There were no bullets or magic flying around, nor were there extremely realistic NPCs. But the mini-game included in it, "Virtual Zero-G," was something I personally found extremely useful.

Navigating a zero-gravity body as if swimming through a 3D labyrinth, you had to touch glowing spheres scattered across the area, with your score being the number of spheres you touched. It was a simple game, but it demanded a highly advanced level of "virtual body maneuverability." My personal best score in this game was sixty-five.

And the result of the run I had just finished... forty-one.

To put it bluntly, I was currently suffering from a massive, ongoing case of spec-drift.

It wasn't a rule exclusive to VR systems, but while the greater can serve for the lesser, it's incredibly rare for the lesser to serve for the greater.

The chair-type VR system—often mocked as a commercial-grade massage chair—was burdened with the massive drawbacks of bloated size and weight, but precisely because of that, its specs were several tiers above the standard headgear types.

If I gained benefits from using the chair type, then the reverse was equally true. Even though I had been using this exact headgear setup until just a week ago, I now felt this bizarre, lingering sense of friction—like my hair was being pulled back with every single action I took.

At the very least, trying to fight a Unique Monster said to be on par with Wethermon or Lycaon while carrying such a fundamental mechanical issue was way too much of a handicap.

I had been doing rehab since yesterday and had somehow started getting my sense of control back, but... maybe it really is more efficient to just jump into an actual game and readjust my senses in real combat.

"I heard the others did a bunch of investigating while I was gone, but..."

While I had been fighting as a pumpkin-headed ringer, it seemed the other EX Scenario participants had been steadily progressing their exploration in whatever spare moments they could find.

The fish that spawned at night could apparently be shot down with magic or bows, and the food problem could supposedly be solved with fish meat. I mean, those are probably the exact same fish that turn into rotten fish paste and Mermaids during the day, but is that really safe to eat?

"So the bosses located in the four corner towers each nullify a specific type of attack, huh..."

Thanks to Rust and Akitsu Akane daringly launching a few assault runs, they confirmed the existence of a boss that completely nullified magic, and a boss on the exact opposite side that completely nullified physical attacks.

As for the remaining two, they had no idea what the conditions were since their attacks kept randomly hitting or getting nullified.

"That Clionea nullifies magic, huh... then does that mean a pure physical build like me should be the one to step up?"

Mold, a pure mage, was completely out of the question; Akitsu Akane, whom everyone tended to forget was actually pretty heavily invested in magic-based classes, was also excluded, and we hadn't even been able to get in touch with Rei-shi in the first place.

Rust, a long-range class, might be able to pull it off if she strictly limited herself to her heavy bows or something, but honestly, it was Day 4 today, so she probably wasn't even logged in right now.

The moment even a sliver of magic was involved in an attack, that Clionea would activate its absolute defense. In other words, enchantments were an automatic out. That meant the only viable strategies were either beating it down using absolutely nothing but pure weapon skills, or—though there was no actual proof it would work—obliterating it completely with a magical attack of overwhelmingly extreme firepower.

Of course, the latter option was way too absurd, so the final conclusion was that a pure, magic-less, muscle-brained specialist like me was the perfect candidate for the job.

"Well then... guess it's time to log in."

Maybe I'll even be able to meet up with Rei-shi while I'm at it.

Close your eyes, wake up. When you think about it, it's a pretty bizarre experience; am I currently asleep or awake...? While pondering such pretentious thoughts, I opened my eyes on top of a hard bed inside a house in Ruluiath.

"Well, my brain is active, so I must be awake."

"Aaah! Sunraku-san is awake desu wa!"

"Oh, Emul. Man, it feels like it's been a super long time."

"Sunraku-san is way too much of a sleepyhead desu wa!!"

As Emul angrily hopped onto my lap, I scooped her up, moved her onto my head, and frowned slightly at a sudden, lingering sense of incongruity that crossed my mind.

I opened and closed my hands, did some squats, a few backflips, and some side-step shuttles, confirming that the feeling of friction had indeed lessened, but I still smiled bitterly to myself, realizing I still wasn't completely back to 100%.

What was that just now? I felt like something was seriously nagging at the back of my head.

"P-Please don't just suddenly start jumping around all over the place desu wa..."

"Hm? Ah, sorry 'bout that. By the way, where are Araba and the brat?"

"The fishy-smelling person said 'I'm going to find my beloved blade!' and went out exploring quite a while ago desu wa."

A beloved blade, huh... He'd been talking about that ever since we first met. I don't know if it's tied to an affection rating or if it's a flag specifically related to the EX Scenario, but seriously committing to searching for it might actually be a decent idea.

Regardless, Araba's combat capabilities seemed pretty high on their own, so I really didn't want to think he was just lying dead in a ditch somewhere. Wait, then where the hell is the brat?

"And as for the little brat... he's right over there desu wa."

"But that's the bed I was just sleeping in."

"He's underneath it desu wa."

Ehh...? I peeked under the bed, and from deep within the shadows, my eyes met a pair of terrified, dilated pupils. Ehh...

"He's been shivering down there this whole time desu wa. He clearly lacks Vorpal Spirit desu wa!"

"I mean, yeah, sure, you probably wouldn't find him there unless you completely tossed the place..."

Isn't he a little too terrified? Actually, no, maybe this is the most logical reaction. Getting thrown into a zombie panic right in the middle of a Unique Monster's territory... normal people would absolutely barricade themselves in.

Looking at it that way, Araba aggressively heading outside to explore might actually be the weird one. A player? Throw an event flag or the strongest weapon in the game in there, and they'd happily dive headfirst into a black hole.

"Well then... Alright, Emul! Let's go find this beloved blade of Araba's!"

"I totally thought Sunraku-san would say something more like, 'I'm taking all four of those Sealed Generals doooown! Guhahahaha!' desu wa."

That kinda pissed me off for some reason, so I pinched both of her cheeks and pulled. Oh, they stretch like crazy. So soft and fluffy. Fluffy fur-ball.

"Hyaereee, hyaeruhefuwaaa."

"Reckless courage isn't good for your Vorpal Spirit unless you strictly observe the proper dosage and usage, you know~? Do you understand~?"

Though, if you do observe the proper dosage and usage, it can sometimes yield results that completely transcend your parameters. At the very least, in my battle the other day, the only reason I was able to fight that far was exactly because I forced my way through all the unreasonableness.

"Alright then, I'm heading out for a bit, so lock the doors tight and stay huddled up in here, alright~?"

"Hehyuwaaa!"

Rust, the strongest player in a game called Nephilim Hollow, was by definition the player who had grinded and researched the game the most, and Mold, who always followed her, was no different.

That meant their fundamental nature as individuals was perfectly suited for "gaming."

Gamers can broadly be divided into two main categories: players who optimize the story, and players who optimize the systems.

To be completely honest, the former group doesn't really care about the game mechanics. They place all their importance on the scenarios, the characters, and the world-building. They're the type who create fan works outside the game, or delete their save data just to experience the story from the beginning all over again.

The latter group, on the other hand, places absolute importance on the game's mechanics and scores. Getting higher DPS, creating the most optimal build... to them, a character's parameters are far more important than their face or personality. That's the type they are.

It's not about which one is wrong or anything like that; both are perfectly valid ways to enjoy games. As long as you can find value equivalent to the full price you paid for the software, there's no right or wrong way to have fun. But if you were to ask which type continues playing the game itself for a longer period of time, it would definitely be the latter.

Which item affects which parameter in what specific way? Combining which action with which action yields an even stronger effect? It's the players who love accumulating that exact kind of data who end up fleshing out the strategy wikis.

And those two, Rust and Mold, being squarely in the latter category, had actually done a fair amount of research on the standard mob enemies outside of the Sealed Generals.

"Mermen primarily rely on sight and sound; if you manage to kill the Mermen you engaged within ten seconds of being spotted, reinforcements won't spawn."

Furthermore, while the drop rate was extremely low, they apparently occasionally dropped items corresponding to the fish they originally mutated from. Fish that completely dissolved into a single item upon death wouldn't drop anything, but fish whose specific body parts were set as individual drops actually had a chance to yield item drops.

"A Mermaid's song can be completely nullified if you physically plug your ears before hearing it."

Once you heard it, you would get hit with a debuff, but if you physically shut the sound out before hearing it, you could completely block the effect. Though honestly, regarding that one, I... no, Akitsuakane and I probably didn't even need to worry about it in the first place.

"Large monsters spawn at night, but during the day, it's basically just Mermen and Mermaids... I see, I see."

So it's basically a zombie panic where the boss never shows up. In that case, there are plenty of ways to handle this. Meaning the only reason the Arctus Regalecus showed up was because of an irregular trigger caused by Emul's magic, so it normally wouldn't happen.

"Too easy, way too easy... Don't you think so, Emul?"

"I really don't think you should be saying that right in Ctarrnid's backyard desu wa..."

We're just going to go barge into the landlord's house and beat him up on Day 7 anyway; compared to that, almost everything else is a cakewalk. Ah, but that killer whale was rough, the game genre shifted way too drastically on that one.

"Alright then... where should we start looking?"

"No plan!? You have no plan desu wa!?"

"There's a wonderful phrase called 'flying by the seat of your pants.' In times like this, you stand a branch up in the dirt and just go wherever it falls."

I didn't have a branch, so I stood the Aspiring Blades of the Hero—Duxram—up instead...

"It fell right toward the house we're using as a base desu wa."

"Does this mean I should go back to sleep...?"

To hell with that, the direction it falls is just RNG anyway. I refuse to yield to RNG! If it comes down to it, I'll completely roller-sweep the entire Ruluiath area... Hm.

".........Emul, did you hear that?"

"I heard it desu wa! It's the fishy-smelling person's voice desu wa!"

"Can you tell exactly what he's saying?"

"Umm, I think he said, 'I found ittttt!' desu wa."

Looks like the event just came straight to us. Not quite a duck bringing a green onion... more like a shark bringing an event?

Well, whatever. If it's just a zombie panic, it'll be the perfect warm-up for my rehab.

Author's Afterword
The BBS chapters, Gatling Drum Inc., the GH:C arc... actually, I still have a ton of stuff I want to write about the GGC arc, but if I don't get back to the main plot soon, I might literally forget what novel I'm even writing, so I'll probably write the side stories either after Inventoria or after this current chapter wraps up.

Stude-kun is suffering from what you'd call an indefinite bout of madness. Honestly, Araba and Emul are the weird ones for wandering straight into Ctarrnid's backyard and acting completely fine. Though in Emul's case, her senses are probably just completely paralyzed by this point.