Chapter 236: Not a Scarecrow, Every Minute and Second Becomes History

Three Trunks and Seven Branches. No such phrase actually exists.
But something bearing the exact meaning of those words does.

People fail to notice it precisely because they accept it as a matter of course.
Both life and death are washed away like pebbles swallowed by the main current; an absolutely unchanging tide called 'time' that adds the irreversible vector of "aging" to all things.

As long as this is a sandbox where an unspecified number of people play simultaneously, time will never stop for any one person. It's an obvious truth... but that's exactly why it gets overlooked.

This world is indeed cybernetic, and the beings residing within it possess no life. However, the Three Trunks and Seven Branches they inhabit do not consider the presence or absence of life, nor the presence or absence of human rights. Without defying an even greater current, time flows, and it advances.

Therefore.

Right now, the Seven Supreme Species in this world... those whose origins are rooted in the Divine Age. No matter what the person closest to them is doing, the world advances.

Heavenly Sanctuary of High Aspirations.
An area consisting of a massive plateau situated in the center and the slopes leading up to it, heavily populated with monsters. The higher you go, the more powerful the monsters that spawn, but its defining characteristic is that no monsters spawn at its very summit.

Why is that? While it is a fact known among players... it's because this area is the resting place of a certain monster.

"Siegwurm! If I defeat you, I can also...!"

『My apologies, but I am currently expecting a guest, and thus cannot afford to entertain the likes of you.』

Was their motive the impatience born from a single player defeating two Unique Monsters, or the runaway train of their own desire for self-display? The HP of the players who attempted to challenge Siegwurm in gear clearly lacking the necessary capabilities was whittled down to zero in a single strike.
Glancing with slight apology at the residual traces of the players—who were literally erased in a single hit by a true breath attack that, in terms of sheer power, was an entirely different beast from the one mimicked by a certain masked ninja—the Heavenly Sovereign of Dragons (Siegwurm) turned his gaze toward it.

"As dutiful as ever, ain'tcha..."

『Those who stand before me with weapons in hand, fearing not my majesty, are all heroes... Meeting them with my full strength is a matter of courtesy.』

"So that goes fer... the ones made in yer likeness as well?"

『Hmm... Those ones are fundamentally different from me, so directing my hostility towards them would be missing the mark.』

Fighting with his full strength to a degree bordering on fierce; Siegwurm would welcome even a fledgling ninja over 100 levels below him as an enemy. But even so, he was not an equal to his challengers.
The anti-matter of this world, the ultimate counter to this world that encompasses both fortune and misfortune. Siegwurm is, in the end, solitary, and he has no equals. If he did, it would only be his peers who share the same origin.

『However, it is rare for you to come visit me, my friend.』

"Well, true... but ya already noticed, haven't ya? It's about time."

『.........I suppose it is.』

The world advances. For whatever reason, two of the seven wedges have been removed. And whose defeat will pull out the third wedge?

"The Dragon Calamity... Those 'fungi' bastards are targetin' ya. The Number Two humans will probably hop on that bandwagon, too. Don't even need to ask, but answer me anyway... What're ya gonna do?"

『Kukuku... As if you need to ask.』

The Golden Dragon King laughed. Since the day he was born as the being known as Siegwurm, he had constantly pondered the meaning of his own existence.
And the conclusion he arrived at was his way of being: a "trial standing in the path of humanity's future." Neither hatred, nor reverence, nor love... but expectation, and the fundamental principle of the Dragon King rooted in trust. If humanity were to face him alongside the Calamity Dragons, he would actually welcome it.

Be strong, humanity. Try to surpass me.

『My purpose remains unshaken, my convictions unchanged since that day. I am the mountain, I am the wall, I am the gate... Surpass me, humanity, and advance into the future... that is all.』

"Is that so, is that so... In that case, my little freeloaders might just point their blades at yer throat, ya know?"

『The humans who slaughtered the Tombguard you spoke of before, and surpassed the Octopus-bastard of the Abyss... And the human who once pierced my reverse scale! Amusing. Truly amusing.』

The Dragon King laughed as if he found it enjoyable from the very bottom of his heart. And his friend... let the wind sway his long ears, possessing a coat of fur that was once gray, but now white.

『Very well. If they struggle to surpass me, then trampling them underfoot and reigning supreme is the duty of a dragon. Let us teach the land of the Dragon Calamity what it truly means to be a True Dragon!』

From this moment onward, the third stage of the World Quest, "The Great War to Fell the Gold," changes its name.
A great war involving all of humanity, waged by the dragons living in the present and the Dragon King who has lived until the present... "The Great Dragon Calamity War."

"School... is a drag... No, but if you consider that this very drag brings about the realization that you are indeed going to school, you can almost feel a certain aesthetic something..."

Nope, impossible. I don't possess that kind of masochistic feeling.
The cicadas are noisy again today. It's September and they're still courting; I can't help but think they missed the boat quite a bit, but I should probably pay my respects to the spirit of fighting bravely until the very moment their lives run out.

"...A presence!"

I turn around, but there's no one there. Hmph... Has the Beast (Chuunibyou) I keep fed inside me decided to turn its fangs on me— "G-Good morning."

"Tsuoo!?"

In front!? Why did Saiga-san just spawn in the direction I was walking, which was perfectly within my line of sight until a few seconds ago!? Is this a fixed encounter that just isn't displayed as an object on the map!?

"G-Good morning, Saiga-san..."

While a new theory—the Saiga-san Fixed Encounter Theory—surfaced in my mind, I returned her greeting without letting it show on my face.
While thinking that my encounter rate with Saiga-san has been awfully high lately, our destinations are the same, so we ended up walking together once again.

"...Umm, well."

"Nn?"

"Well... I have, um, something I'd like to consult with you about, Hizutome-kun..."

"Consult?"

Why me? If it's something like your VR system acting up, I can handle simple repairs, but to be completely honest, it's safer to contact the manufacturer than leave it to an amateur.
No, she wouldn't consult me about something like that. Contacting the manufacturer is faster.

"Um... It's about a game, but..."

"Is it about ShanFro by any chance?"

"It is, but... it isn't, I suppose?"

That's strangely inarticulate. It's about ShanFro, but it isn't?

"Actually..."

To summarize what Saiga-san told me, it seems to go something like this:

Right now, Saiga-san has imposed a quota on herself in ShanFro. And to achieve that, she's repeating what you'd call a grind, but as expected, too much of anything is poison, and she's starting to get bored of it.
From what she's heard, Hizutome-shi has played a massive number of games, and wouldn't he be familiar with how to deal with this kind of grinding?
She would very much appreciate some guidance on how to efficiently progress through the grind...

Or so she says. It felt as though she was reading from a script, but whatever, it doesn't matter.

"A grind... A grind, huh..."

Truth be told, grinding in VR games... especially Full-Dive VR games, is quite the agonizing ordeal.

After all, you can't do the standard countermeasure against grinding: "playing while doing something else." If it's a collection of mini-games or a primarily virtual-reality experience with thin game elements, you might be able to import music or videos from outside.
But games that are strictly games, like ShanFro, don't allow that due to lore reasons and the like... Therefore, there are only two patterns for maintaining motivation during a Full-Dive grind.

Namely, "Increase the amount of things you're doing" or "Do it with multiple people."
In the case of the former, you might impose a time-attack element on yourself, or manually document the most efficient grinding route as if to say I'm the one who's going to flesh out the strategy wikis... People of that demographic actually see their motivation increase from doing that.

In the case of the latter, the burden simply decreases. You get someone to talk to. It's relaxing because you're achieving the "playing while doing something else" aspect through another person, but the downside is that schedule management has to account for two people instead of one.

"Let's see... Nn?"

An email from Pencilgon. Not using the SNS app must mean that, right? Let's see here...

Subject: Emergency
Sender: Pencil Warrior
To: Sunraku, Modoru Katzo
Body: Sorry, Kyougoku screwed up.
Things might get a little annoying.

Can I pretend I didn't see this? No, probably not... This coming weekend is going to be annoying.

Author's Afterword

The most insane thing about the ShanFro system is that the NPCs possess a concept of time, and that the NPCs themselves create the future.

Iwamaki: "Listen? Hizutome-kun is a true gamer who uses 70% of his brain's capacity for games anyway, so if you bring up a game-related topic, he'll bite instantly. So your quota this time is to expand on the topic and maneuver the situation into him playing a game 'with you' inside ShanFro."

Saiga: "What a difficult mission..."