Chapter 197: Sharing the Same Heaven - Part 3

There is a saying that "time flies like an arrow."
As for the meaning behind it... well, it refers to the fierce infighting between the Light/Dark Magic faction and the Fire Magic faction in a certain game. The former mocked the latter, saying, "Why are you using Fire Magic when Light and Dark Magic have faster cast times lol," and the latter responded with, "Alright, I'll kill you!" It's a metaphor for that conflict.
Sure, if you were using them like arrows, Light and Dark Magic were stronger, but Fire Magic exhibited downright atrocious performance when used as traps, so it was hard to say which was actually superior... Ultimately, everything was settled when the Earth Magic users buried everyone alive in a mass grave, but in exchange, the Earth Magic users got chased around for quite a while after that.
I maintained a policy of non-interference during that incident, but if the "Forbidden Art Users" had shown up, I might have intervened... That guy was way too dangerous, casually shrugging off countless divine punishments (Bans) with a straight face while constantly causing hazards in his surroundings... Whoops, anything more than this is irrelevant.

Jokes aside, "time flies like an arrow" essentially means time passes really fast!
Since we entered Ruluiath and started the EX Scenario in the morning, the time limit would naturally be the morning of the seventh day. And today is that very seventh day.
The time window we plan to launch our attack is from the night of the seventh day until the time limit hits zero on the morning of the eighth day... In other words, we plan to fight through the night. If you ask why we're doing it at such an hour, it's because there's always the possibility of sudden plans popping up—just like Rei, who ended up barely able to log in for five days due to personal matters that originally weren't supposed to take that much time. Because of that, we decided to do it at night, when (in theory) absolutely no urgent matters could possibly pop up.

But what I need to address right now is the cardboard box sitting in front of me.

"So it arrived... No, wait, why did it arrive...?"

The mysterious black-hooded person claiming to be an employee of Gatling Drum Corporation, the manufacturer of Riot Blood, who I met at the celebration party venue that day. Despite his appearance, he seemed like a perfectly polite, normal businessman. But this "Riot Blood Assortment" was sent to me as a token of gratitude for contributing to the promotion of Riot Blood at the GGC tournament.
I don't recall giving him my address, and timing-wise, it's impossible for Katzo to have leaked it. Yet, the fact that it properly arrived via mail sent a chill down my spine, making me shudder in the middle of summer, as if feeling the occult wind of a phenomenon practically eradicated in modern society.

"Original, Undead, Backdraft, Quantum, Tonight... Hmm?"

An orange can? I thought there were only five types of Riot Blood series including the original... Is it a prototype or something?

"Riot Blood - Revolve Lantern...?"

Revolve, rotating... lantern... light........ Revolving Lantern (Life flashing before your eyes)!? There is absolutely no way you should name an energy drink that! It's way too ominous!!
Moreover, looking closely, the logo—the character who usually holds a battering ram as is tradition for Riot Blood—is a pumpkin-head holding the battering ram in its right arm and a lantern in its left... No, no, it hasn't even been a week since GGC, so why... No, no, no, it has to be a pure coincidence. If there's a 1% chance, sometimes you just pull the RNG for it. Yeah.

"So it's a prototype, huh... Let's see."

"Riot Blood - Revolve Lantern is a product experimentally developed by our company aimed at 'customers who require a massive amount of concentration in a short period of time.' The duration of the effect is extremely short, lasting roughly thirty minutes to an hour, but we guarantee that for at least thirty minutes after consuming Revolve Lantern, you will receive enough caffeine to resist even the administration of sleeping pills... Just joking, of course."

Calm down, my left arm. It's too early to unconsciously make an appointment with the police.
Even if drinking this energy drink gives you a short burst of caffeine and its name literally means "life flashing before your eyes," that company is somehow completely legal. So calm down... Ah crap, I already typed out the "11" in "110"! [*1]

"As for the ingredient list... well, there are no illegal dosages or components listed, at least..."

You might be thinking, why are you being so cautious over a mere energy drink? But when it comes to Riot Blood, if you aren't cautious, terrible things happen. It's often said that mixing energy drinks with alcohol makes you get drunk faster, but there are actual rumors that mixing Riot Blood with alcohol knocked out veteran heavy drinkers in a single hit.
A prototype from that manufacturer... an item that isn't even listed on their official website. I'm probably the very first general user to get my hands on it. Ingestion must be handled with the utmost care.

"Well, there's no point in drinking it right now, so I'll save it for later."

Good luck, me from a few hours in the future. The best way to deal with troublesome things is to ship them off to the future.

Curse you, me from a few hours ago! You shipped a troublesome thing to me from the past!
It's about time to log into ShanFro, gather with the members, and storm the castle in the center of Ruluiath where Ctarrnid resides. If there was ever a time to chug an energy drink, it would be now. Because of that, I'm agonizing over which Riot Blood to use... and in the corner of my vision, Riot Blood - Revolve Lantern continues to emit a bizarre aura.

...I'm curious. I'm incredibly curious. Even as a dedicated Riot Blood user, I tried the Luminescent Hazardous Material (Quantum) relatively early on, even though comrades whose souls had been stolen by Riot Blood as much or more than mine hesitated to challenge it. But I only had the courage to do that because there were other challengers besides me. Do I truly have the courage to test this aura-emitting Revolving Lantern all alone in this solitude?

"...Listen, if we're going to invert life and death itself, then I should probably rely on a similar power... Yeah."

To jump straight to the conclusion: I could not find the courage to test Revolve Lantern right before the Ctarrnid fight. The one I chose instead was Riot Blood - Undead, an energy drink with a weirdly refreshing taste and the catchphrase "Even corpses will rise!" I wonder why they specifically emphasized not to let it come into contact with actual corpses...

"Hmm, tastes like toothpaste."

If I said this to all the mint lovers around the world, I feel like I'd get punched in the face. Apparently, extremist mint lovers claim that in situations where they can't get mint-flavored food, they survive by consuming mint toothpaste. I wonder what goes through the mind of someone who gets mad when you say it tastes like toothpaste, but actively consumes toothpaste themselves. Is this a new type of tsundere?

"Alright! Caffeine intake complete!!"

Too bad, Ctarrnid. Even if you turn me into a corpse now, the caffeine coursing through my veins will probably keep my body moving.

"Alright, the only one not here yet is Rei-shi... Ah, she's here."

"Ah, I'm sorry... It seems I've kept you waiting again."

"No, no, everyone else just gathered right now too, so it's fine, it's fine."

Akitsu Akane and Mold seemingly arrived early and were gathering materials from the Fishmen, and I was busy recovering the mechs that fell to the bottom of the shipwreck debris while continuing to scavenge the ship itself. But that was just individual ways to kill time, so you couldn't really say we arrived at the meetup spot early.
Rust is acting like she arrived right on time, but we all know she almost ended up being late if Mold hadn't logged out and physically woken her up.
All the NPCs are already gathered here, and surprisingly, Stude is here as well. The eyes of the shitty brat holding his father's cutlass no longer waver with fear; instead, they burn with a firm light, as if he has resolved himself to something. I wonder if some kind of event happened while I was away.

"Alright, with this, everyone is gathered. From here on out, we'll be storming the inner citadel of this city, but..."

"Sunraku, a proposal."

"Yes, Rust?"

"At times like this, it's good... to have a team name and an operation name to boost solidarity..."

That literally doesn't matter at all, but it's a good idea. Neither the team name nor the operation name have any effect on our parameters, but they do provide a buff to our motivation. We are already in the same group, but giving it a name increases our solidarity; that is a pure, unadulterated fact. "Victory to Team Whatever" sounds much cooler than just "Victory to this party," and it makes you much more self-aware that you are part of a collective.
Ctarrnid isn't going to run away just because we mess around for a minute or two. And so, an impromptu brainstorming session for the team name and operation name began.

"...For the team name: 'Ikiyouyou (Triumphant)'. [*2] For the operation name: 'Operation Sunrise'... Sounds good."

"Rust, that team name only makes sense if you write it down so people can see the kanji... Umm, for the team name: 'Octopus Hunters'. And the operation name: 'Operation Defeat Ctarrnid'... Is that too simple?"

"Yes, yes! How about 'Ruluiath Exploration Team' for the team name, and 'Approaching the Mysteries of Ruluiath!' for the operation name!!"

"U-Umm... The team name... umm... I'm sorry, I can't really think of anything, so I'll pass..."

"Sunraku-san, Sunraku-san, how about something like 'Vorpal Assault' for the team name desu wa?"

"That sounds like we're going to get wiped out in a banzai charge, so no."

Even if you go puu-puu at me, no means no. Fufufu, then allow me to show you the combat power of my Chuunibyou spirit.

"How about 'Fugutaiten (Cannot Share the Same Heaven)' for the team name, and 'Astronomical Observation' for the operation name?"

In this inverted city, Ctarrnid treats the seabed as the heavens, while we treat the sky above the surface as the heavens. We look up at different skies; hence the team name "Fugutaiten" (Those who cannot share the same heaven). And since we're going to see the true sky, the operation name is "Astronomical Observation"... Yeah, I totally won this.

"I think the team name is good, but the operation name is lame."

"Astronomical observation? But isn't that just marine snow?"

"Akitsu Akane, no, that's not it, this has a hidden meaning about fighting to see the true sky..."

Ultimately, the team name and operation name were decided by majority vote.

".........Then allow me to reiterate! Team 'Fugutaiten', commence Operation 'Defeat Ctarrnid'!"

Humans, a Fishman, a Spirit, and a Vorpal Bunny. It was an incredibly chaotic mishmash of a group, but their powerful, unified response was undeniable proof that everyone was acting as one.

Author's Afterword
While the players were away, there was apparently an event where Araba encouraged Stude, but since the players weren't there to see it, it got skipped over descriptively.

Riot Blood lore is 80% jokes, so Sci-Fi physics laws are completely ignored. It probably has a high Hume level [*3] or something.

Translator's Notes

• *[1] 110: The emergency telephone number for the police in Japan.

• *[2] Ikiyouyou (依気陽々) / Triumphant: When Rust suggests her team name, Sunraku notes that it "only makes sense if you write it down." The standard Japanese word for triumphant/in high spirits is Ikiyouyou (意気揚々). However, Rust cleverly swapped the kanji to 依気陽々, specifically using the kanji for "Sun" (陽) so that the team's written name would visually match her suggested mission name: "Operation Sunrise."

• *[3] Hume Level: In the author's afterword, they joke that Riot Blood energy drinks ignore the laws of physics because they have a high "Hume level." This is a direct reference to the SCP Foundation collaborative fiction project. In the SCP universe, a "Hume" is a unit used to measure the strength and baseline reality of a given area. The author is essentially joking that Riot Blood functions like an anomalous, reality-bending SCP object.