Chapter 291: The First Town, The Optimal Hunter

There was a Unique Monster known as Wethermon the Tombguard.
An instant-death attack followed by an instant-death attack, taking a breath and then unleashing another instant-death attack. Ultimately, it was an undeniable trash-tier monster that endlessly spammed a string of instant-death attacks for thirty straight minutes—a bullshit gimmick that could only be described as CPU violence. But thanks to the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, it kinda feels like it was a good monster after all.

There was a pro gamer known as Sylvia Goldberg.
A woman who played a style that could practically be called a strict superior version of my own. With zero exaggeration, she treated her in-game character as her own flesh and blood, an existence that could undeniably be called a human TAS.

There was a hidden boss known as... the Trace AI of Ryuguin Fugaku.
That was just, how should I put it, awful in so many ways. Forcing the player to fight an opponent on par with Sylvia Goldberg using a character with stats practically identical to a regular human body was just a total trash game... Well, it was educational software, so there's no point calling it trash, but it was still an incredibly grueling battle.

There was a ShanFro hardcore addict known as Psyger-100.
Her prowess, honed by devoting herself to the singular point of Shangri-La Frontier, could only be described with one word: horrifying. The way she perfectly grasped what she could and couldn't do, and then adapted to any opponent based on that, shared similarities with Sylvia Goldberg... but the only reason I managed to pull things off relatively in my favor back then was because I was able to constantly maintain a hyper-elevated tension.

In that case, the only thing I have over this TAS bastard in front of me is exactly that experience.

"........."

"Kuh, damn it!"

Kururi, a strike with the blade's direction completely Reversed, accurately and reliably aimed for my neck.
I forcefully swung my Aspiring Blades of the Hero (Duxram) like I was slamming them down, parrying the blade meant to kill me. Treating even that as a mere decoy, she thrust that directly toward the center of my chest... forcing me to use every evasion skill at my disposal to dodge the bizarre weapon, which looked like a tonfa turned into a slashing weapon.

"........."

"Shit, and it's already hard enough to concentrate as it is...!"

Roleplay (Roleplay): Ryuguin Fugaku operating at absolute maximum output. Even when using the Aspiring Blades of the Hero—which render the user practically invincible as long as they land critical hits—to the point of Half-Destroying them, I was still overwhelmingly at a disadvantage.
Even the players jeering from the sidelines had a mood of resignation drifting about them. Bullshit, like hell I'm going to let myself get killed for such an... an incomprehensible reason!

If I switch to defending, I die. I have to parry while attacking. Damn it, I'm lacking caffeine, so you better work overtime, adrenaline!
She's not outstandingly fast. But the way she constantly traces the absolute optimal ideal solution for her weapon is exactly the kind of demonic behavior you'd call a TAS, her flashes dancing as she attempts to finish me off.

Kururi, the blade flips backward. By returning to the tonfa-style, she added punches to her options, making her attacks even more diverse.
But her range is practically just a fist's length... Thank god, my path to survival hasn't been completely cut off just yet.

"He recovered!"

"Uwaa, awesome."

Shut the hell up, you're all too loud! If you're going to act as BGM, pay more attention to the melody! I want to listen to something with a rock vibe right now... Ah, no good, if I seal off my hearing, I'll definitely die.

"More importantly... Did I... do something... bad or what!?"

My Aspiring Blades of the Hero were deflected and blown away. I forced open a window with my newly freed hand, dealing with the wild dance of blades coming to reap my life with only one hand.
The deployment speed of the weapon, which I normally didn't even pay attention to, felt so agonizingly slow right now it actually pissed me off.
Since seven days hadn't passed, I couldn't use the Exceed Charge, but I stepped forward while intercepting the tonfa-edge attacks with the highly capable Mirror Shield of the Nether-King. Eat this, One-Man Phalanx!

"........."

A muffler covering her mouth and a hood pulled down low over her eyes. I couldn't see her expression, but even after I held out for this long, there wasn't a shred of emotion like impatience in her movements.
So you're literally an AI, huh. I'm struggling more and more to understand why I'm being specifically targeted, but having held out this long, I just feel weirdly frustrated at the thought of giving up and going, 'Well, it can't be helped, guess I'll just lose'.

Was it because this was the town almost all the players who started ShanFro landed in first... Firstia, and if I died here, I'd respawn in a completely different town?
Or was it because I just hated the idea of losing while a massive crowd of new players in this beginner town were watching me as an audience?

It didn't matter how this started. Regardless of the reason, the impulse currently burning inside me was screaming, "I don't want to lose."

"Uoooo, even if I have to force it, I'm buying myself five seconds!"

It wasn't a Unique to begin with, and there was no longer any reason to hide it! The moment I forced back the situation—which had been entirely one-sided—using sheer brute force while fully prepared to die, creating a single blank moment... I tightly clenched my glove-covered right hand and slammed my fist into my chest.

"You're the one who picked this fight first, so don't you dare stick a kill penalty on me if you get your ass beat, ora!!"

"............!"

Cloaked in black lightning, my movements surpassing even the optimal, fastest attacks... caused the enemy, the Bounty Hunter "Lutia," to tremble, seemingly shaken for the very first time.

Let me state this clearly first: I have never once committed PK in ShanFro. And Bounty Hunters are NPCs specifically designed to hunt players who have raised their Karma value... in other words, PKers.

............

.........

......

It's strange, isn't it? So why exactly am I the one being targeted while the actual PKer rolling around on the ground over there is being completely ignored? I'm the one who wants to know the answer the most.

Author's Afterword

• Bounty Hunter Lutia
  One of the several Bounty Hunters confirmed after the "Tias-chan Dress-Up Squad" began their full-scale activities.
  Equipped with an unconfirmed weapon type, the Tonfa Blade, she is a close-range NPC who switches battle styles by altering the direction of her blades. Because she is equipped with an AI equivalent to Tias's, she boasts extraordinary strength.
  Initially, she was shoved into the "You're not the one we want, go home" category, but because her name sounded unusually feminine, the top brass belonging to the "Dress-Up Squad" conducted a desperate investigation and confirmed she was indeed female. For a time, this caused so much chaos it nearly split the Dress-Up Squad perfectly in two.
  Currently, a sub-division known as the "Somehow Strip Lutia-san Squad" has been formed within the "Dress-Up Squad".