Chapter 234: The Tale of an Underdog Who Struggled Unsightly

Author's Preface
I was thinking about Hellshake Yano, so the upload got delayed. (Excuse)

Like, when I watch mecha anime, it makes me want to write mecha stuff... Gaia is whispering to me to write NephiHolo 2 as a side story...!
Gaia, you bastard, the other day you were whispering, "Let's put a talking transformation belt in ShanFro!"

"Emul, ooi, Emul. You alive?"

"Numbu, nununumb, desuzuzyabababa..."

"Yeah, my bad, my bad. The description said 'Inflicts a debuff on the target upon attack,' so I figured just touching it would be safe... Open wide, I'm gonna feed you a status effect-cleansing potion... Ah."

"Abubububu... geho! Geho, goho!"

Sorry, my hand genuinely slipped.

"I don't understand the meaning of drowning at the bottom of the earth desu waaa!?"

"No, I'm genuinely sorry about that. It was way more thrilling than I expected, and even I broke into a cold sweat."

"Just... geez! Geez! Geeeeeeeez!!"

Ow, ow, don't hit my head, don't hit it. You're alive, so it's safe, it's safe. You're a rabbit, aren't you?

"No, honestly... gufuu, during the landing... gefuu, I also prepared myself for d-guguu... for death, but-guguu-babababa."

Don't shake my head, my lines are blurring.
We reached the absolute bottom of the elevator via maximum acceleration, but processing the inertia applied to our bodies was a nightmare.
Even for me, using Formula Drift against a wall was a first-time experience. I did have a preventative measure ready just in case, but yeah, I definitely would have died otherwise.

"So, Emul. How does it feel to sprint straight down from the top?"

"I never want to experience it again as long as I live desu wa!!!"

The Vorpal Bunny let out an impassioned scream of the soul...

Well, putting that aside.

"Emul, we're at the bottom."

"Hoaa..."

Towards us intruders, it seems this space chose 'welcome' rather than 'intercept.'
Lights operating on an unknown principle flared to life, illuminating the entire expanse at the end of the Fruitless Fallen Ancient Castle.

"What is this..."

"Ah, a hole desu wa! Another hole desu wa! I don't want to fall anymore desu wa!!"

"Emul, stay."

Even I don't want to do that again. But what is this scene...?

I don't know how far we fell, but it certainly wasn't a distance that could be summarized as a mere hundred meters or so.
Built deep underground, I had fully expected to find something like a command room, but what lay before us—despite already being hundreds of meters underground—was a hole that had been excavated even deeper, along with the tools and equipment used to dig it.
No, that's not all. Here and there, I can see pieces of equipment whose purposes I can't quite figure out.

"...How should I put it, I feel like we skipped about four steps in the process."

"S-Sunraku-san! Look at that desu wa!!"

"Nn...?"

Following the direction pointed out by Emul, who was lightly smacking my head, I saw a piece of equipment with an unknown purpose.
Actually, it kinda gives off a computer vibe, but...

"Not that! The thing sticking out of the top of it desu wa!"

Sticking out? Emul, the proper term for that is inserted.
It looks like separate pieces of equipment that were designed to be connected. The way you phrased it makes it sound like they were physically jammed together... Yeah, there's three of them. Or rather, it looks like they can combine.

"It's the Delta Devices!"

"We did it desu wa! We found them desu wa!"

So they really did hide the important stuff at the absolute deepest point. This is absolutely not the intended route, but forgive me, devs... It's your fault for lacking in the debugging department.
Charging in full of joy to immediately snatch the loot is the act of a third-rate player. A first-rate player investigates the surroundings first... Carelessly touching an item can trigger a trap or initiate a boss fight... Ugh, my head.

"Wait, wait, Emul. Before we grab them, let's check the surroundings."

"...? Yes sir!"

Well, first things first... it's this.
Being incredibly careful not to do something as idiotic as accidentally falling in, I peered into the bottom of the hole that had been dug even further into the deep underground.

"...Alley-oop."

I tried kicking a random, unidentifiable piece of equipment into the hole, but this time, no matter how many seconds I waited, there was no sound of impact... The probability of this being a death-box rather than a fall-damage zone is extremely high.
For now, we'll leave the hole alone. Without a drone, there's no way to investigate it.

"...A drone, huh."

SF stands for Science Fiction. Or Science Fantasy... but its foundation lies in the motif of a "future beyond the modern era."
In other words, whether you're performing interstellar warps or deploying humanoid decisive battle robots in space, the roots of that technology trace back to modern advancements.

"Besides, ShanFro is essentially an exploration game in a way, so even without skills... Is it this?"

ShanFro's Divine Age civilization wasn't built by aliens. Given that their Divine Age tactical mecha beasts are named "Suzaku," "Seiryu," "Genbu," "Byakko," and "Kirin," their roots probably lie with humanity from Earth.
Which means their fundamental values are likely similar to ours in the real world. So if I just look for something that looks like the power button for these machines... Fufufu, bingo.

"Did it turn on? AR holographic..."

AR, Augmented Reality. Unlike VR, which uses equipment to feed information directly into the brain, AR is a technology that outputs cybernetic information into the real world using holograms and the like.
It seems to be used occasionally for major corporate advertisements or live concerts by popular artists, but my impression of it is that it's a technology that hasn't successfully trickled down into personal entertainment.

Between building an amusement park in cyberspace using VR, or a real-world amusement park using AR... the fact that the former survived is probably the answer.

My thoughts wandered off in an unnecessary direction.
On the holographic screen that floated up, after undergoing some unknown startup process, it politely allowed me to select from several video files.

"Wawa! You can operate it, Sunraku-san!?"

"Listen up, Emul. Things never just break 'without doing anything.' Conversely, if you don't do anything, situations will never progress."

A touch-panel keyboard. It looks incredibly futuristic, but the fundamental key layout hasn't changed all that much.
This is probably the Enter key... Judging by the layout, this should be the 'select' key, right? No, I need to move my hand over this... Wait, two of the three files are corrupted? So there's practically only one left?

"For someone like me, who has navigated through countless sci-fi settings—from the edges of the universe to alternate dimensions—something like this is a piece of cake."

Obviously, I have no idea how to perform sci-fi-style file restoration, so I guess I'll just watch the last remaining video.

『We did it! We did it! I've finally reached the root!』

Oh, wow. A face that screams 'terrible personality,' a frail body that looks completely devoid of physical strength, and a way of rejoicing that implies he's up to no good.
He's a textbook "Mad Scientist (It's probably this guy's fault)."

I don't know what happened in the two corrupted videos before this, but it seems that, at the very least, this mad scientist who recorded the video achieved a result he could call a success.

『The rabble on the surface are probably still being consumed around now... Fu, kukuku... I suppose I can praise them, seeing as they became the foundation for my magnificent achievement...!』

"...Sunraku-san, I hate this person desu wa."

"Now, now, calm down."

You shouldn't judge people solely by their appearance and speech. While I feel like that determines 80% of your impression of them, the final evaluation should be based on what they actually did.
If their appearance is good but their speech and deeds are garbage, you end up with someone like Faer-kuso, after all.

『What do you mean, "Inheritance"? What do you mean, "Next Generation"!? I'm willing to acknowledge Amatsuki Setsuna's theories, but... only those guys, only those guys!』

Oh, what's this? Don't tell me... No, let's just keep watching.

『How utterly ridiculous! If we, the ones living in this very moment, die, it's all meaningless! Alice Frontier! Julius Shangri-La! They're all insane!』

『That's right... That's exactly right. The savior of humanity is me...』

Wait, wait, wait, wait! Stop dumping massive lore reveals when you reek of underdog-villain energy!
Uh, hold on, I think I bought a recording item since I had some Mani to spare... No, it's a recorded video, so I can just play it again later.

『We came from the sky. The sky is our domain... God does not reside in the heavens. God is below...!』

Oh, I actually really like that phrasing.
'Because we came from the sky, we know that God isn't there.' I mean, you look like a total underdog, but are you actually a pretty important character?

『Originally, I wanted to conduct the experiment further west, but... fine. There are no problems with the connection. I'm not a pessimist like them... I will... with my own hands... eliminate the root of this calamity...!』

At this point, static interrupts the video. Ah. (I see)
The video, projected as a 3D hologram, cuts out. But the audio seems to have survived, and I can hear what sounds like a scream, the noise of metal being destroyed, and a roar that clearly belongs to something inhuman... Ah. (I see)

『N-No! Nooo! I! I'm...! No, I didn't mean to, damn it...!!』

"W-What! What's happening desu wa!?"

"I wonder... I have a pretty good guess, though."

Now then, what will happen to our underdog? Is this where he drops his dying words? Or perhaps...

『Damn it! Damn it! Daaamn itttt! You think I'll die for nothing, you bastard!? A record... Ah, right, a record! Listen well, anyone will do! Listen, everything is below! Even if you look up at the sky, there's nothing but the same unchanging space. It's nothing but a waste of time!!』

『M-My arm...! This monster... is it trying to drag me in...!? Damn it, activate the excavation arm! Buy me some time!!』

『I don't want to die... Damn it, uguu... Listen, it's below! The Ziz is... useless. If it's Leviathan and Behemoth, then... alright... alright... ga, ugaaaaaaaa!!?』

Clang, crash. Only the sound of flesh and metal colliding echoes out. Perhaps something exploded a short distance away, as a deafening boom resounds... and the video feed recovers.

"Piii!?"

It's no wonder Emul screamed. After all, the man who was exuding underdog energy just moments ago is currently having half of his body actively devoured by "Something."

It moves like an earthworm, like a tentacle, with a squelching motion that sits somewhere between rotting decay and writhing life, eroding the left half of the man's body.
It's painfully obvious that this isn't bringing him any pleasure, judging by his face, which is twisted in agony as tears and snot stream down it.

But even so, the eyes of the man I had deemed an underdog were not dead. In the deepest depths of those pupils, painted over with despair, a fire was certainly still burning.

『At this point, it doesn't matter if it's Julius or Alice! Listen up, what you guys are trying to do is nothing more than spraying air freshener on a pile of shit! It's not a fundamental solution! I've inserted my program into the Delta. It pisses me off, but I'm leaving it to you!』

『It hurts, it hurts, it hurts...! Damn it! You useless piece of junk! You can't even play tug-of-war properly!? Not yet... not yet...!』

『Ah, damn it... I can't possibly let something like this out into the world...! Damn it, why did it have to turn out like this...! But, even so, I...!』

『Activation Code: "The Antimatter's Curtain Call (Anihcam Xe Sued)"! I need to get as close to that thing as possible... Hii!』

『Muguo!? O, go, gogegi! Gu, oooooaaaaaaah!!』

After some thoroughly unrequested tentacle play (R-18G), the underdog... no, the nameless scientist was dragged down into the hole.
A squelching, dragging sound echoed for a while, gradually fading into the distance, followed by a flash of light and static... The video ended.

"How should I put it..."

My overall evaluation is "A spectacular self-destruction," but even so, that scientist took responsibility and settled the mess he created with his own hands.

"Isn't this actually kind of insane?"

Information-wise, isn't this the kind of stuff you get right before the final dungeon?

Author's Afterword

• Edward Oldcling
  Receiving no praise, his actions—clinging to the old ways—did nothing but hinder the saviors attempting to pave the way for a new inheritance.
  However, even so, he was undeniably a savior of "Humanity."

An underdog, but a person whose quality and quantity of lore drops are absolutely insane. He has the kind of petty personality where he'd specifically disguise the smell of a Max Coffee and hand it to someone who hates sweet things.

By the way, the thing he activated at the end was a portable antimatter bomb. Cleaner than a nuke! After all, all matter within the blast radius simply ceases to exist!
For a certain reason, he parted ways with the two other scientists, screwed up spectacularly, but resolved it himself.
He's not a bad person... Even if he is an underdog.