Chapter 58: Dedicated to a Moment, Part 6

"Nice, a Unique, nice."

"That's all you say."

After I introduced Emul, and OiKatzo learned that she came from a Unique Scenario, he was stuck in this mode until we reached the Iron Ruins of the Age of Gods. As for Emul, she's currently saving energy by clinging to my head. At this rate, maybe my Job on the status screen will change from Mercenary to "Rabbit's Chair"?

"Nice, a Unique, nice. I wanna fluff a rabbit too."

"You haven't forgotten we're power-leveling for a Unique right now, have you?"

"Finding one yourself and piggybacking on one someone else found are different things... Oh, isn't that it?"

While we were bickering about the difference between "self-discovery and assistance," OiKatzo pointed to a spot. When I looked, there stood a "Door." Although weathered and deteriorated, it drifted with a sci-fi atmosphere completely different from the areas and civilizations we had seen so far. For a moment, I wondered, "What happens if we keep going without entering this door?" and looked further down the path. However, perhaps within the developers' expectations, a massive fissure in the earth made it impossible to ignore the Iron Ruins of the Age of Gods and cross to the other side. I wonder what this fissure is? It feels different from a canyon formed over long years... Even if the setting says it was formed by an earthquake, it feels somewhat unnatural.

"Let's go already."

"Hm? Ah, right..."

"It opens in a novel way. Is that what they call an automatic door?"

"If twisting off and distorting open counts, then I guess so. Anyway, once inside, apparently we have to go down to the second basement floor first?"

"Then let's go."

Me & Emul, and OiKatzo passed through the door that had abandoned its role due to the passage of time, stepping into the Iron Ruins of the Age of Gods.

"Woah, amazing. This place alone looks like a different game."

"Black boards are moving whoosh! desu wa!"

"I feel like I've seen a sight similar to this somewhere... Ah, right. It's the final boss stage of Brave Galaxy Fighter."

"That's a game I don't know..."

"It's a monumental sci-fi fighting game praised worldwide, though."

Isn't that a God Game? There's no way I'd know that, give it a rest! Actually, aside from trash games, I don't exclusively play specific categories, let alone know about a specific stage in a specific game of a specific category.

"But still, we were doing fantasy just a moment ago, and suddenly this?"

Watching the floating black plate—what looked like a metal slab—pass before our eyes, OiKatzo muttered, and I nodded in agreement. If the Iron Ruins of the Age of Gods area was derived from the fantasy we've seen so far, this place is derived completely from science fantasy.

Passing through the completely weathered door and descending the gap-toothed stairs—which were likely originally escalators, now broken in places—what awaited us was exactly as the prior info stated: a vast underground facility where "black plates float in the sky." Not just metal, but metal plates glowing while tracing cybernetic tree diagrams floated in the air, sometimes landing in other places, sometimes endlessly bumping into walls. That alone would be a passing grade for a game area, but whoever made this apparently added elements of ruin to it. In this place that should have been composed solely of metal, sunlight streamed in from cracks in the ceiling caused by weathering. While civilization barely maintained itself, conquest-hungry plants were extending their roots even into this sci-fi space.

"Personally, I like these kinds of ruined areas."

"Those moving objects behave interestingly when they bug out, don't they?"

"Go wash your eyeballs once and scrub off that Trash Game Filter."

"S-Sunraku-san! Something is coming this way, desu wa!"

Oh, seems I got too carried away with the party play I haven't done in a while. My attention to the surroundings was a bit scattered.

"If the area is like this, the enemies must be too. Security drones or something...?"

Flying toward us at exactly head-height was a metal enemy shaped like an equilateral triangle, floating on principles I couldn't quite grasp. How should I describe this... a triangular version of a UFO?

"What do we do, OiKatzo?"

"Ah, for now, I'll try punching it. I want the XP."

Saying that, OiKatzo leaped out bare-handed. Perhaps recognizing the charging OiKatzo as an enemy, the Triangular UFO spun like a frisbee and charged at him.

"Simple movements. Is it an enemy for practicing counters?"

The moment I heard that mutter, the Triangular UFO was knocked away as if it had hit an invisible wall. Was that a Repel Counter? First time seeing someone else use it.

"Red!"

Whatever that is—magic or something—OiKatzo's fist was wrapped in a red aura. Then, OiKatzo closed in on the Triangular UFO, which was wobbling in the air from knockback, diving directly beneath it, and swung his fist up as if defying gravity head-on.

"Crash Upper!"

"Ooh."

"O-One hit, desu wa!?"

That wasn't just a bare-handed uppercut. It's clear that red aura provided some kind of buff, but to deplete its entire health bar in one hit? Without fully understanding what it was, the Triangular UFO turned into polygons, and the red aura vanished from OiKatzo's fist as he basked in the afterglow, maintaining his uppercut pose.

"What's your Job?"

"Monk (Kenki-tsukai / Chi User)... well, a Monk. A job that can't equip weapons but buffs bare hands like crazy to punch stuff. By the way, that just now was a magic called [Fist Chi "Red Impact" (Sekishou)] that buffs STR and VIT."

"So the official game supports Magic Classes (Physical)..."

Maybe I should have researched a bit more before choosing my job. Fighting with fists wrapped in aura is pretty cool. And being able to fight bare-handed without relying on weapons is quite attractive. Plus, magic that activates with a short word like "Red" is compatible with OiKatzo himself—in the sense that the startup is fast.

"But not getting weapon stats hurts quite a bit, and against really hard enemies, you can take damage yourself, so it's kinda for advanced players."

"I see... By the way, how's your stat distribution?"

"Light Warrior build... but the points for AGI went into HP and VIT. Since I take chip damage often, I boosted toughness."

That's a fighting gamer's thinking right there. OiKatzo's playstyle is fundamentally based on the premise of taking damage—in summary, "Kill before you get killed." By the way, mine is "If it doesn't hit, it doesn't matter." There's a danger of realizing you're near death from chip damage, but being able to allocate the time and cost used for evasion skills into attacks is quite significant.

"Sunraku is... Ah, you don't need to say it. You're definitely a paper-armor STR/AGI specialist, right?"

"Too bad! I'm a Luck Warrior specialized in AGI/LUC!"

"Vorpal Soul full throttle, desu wa!"

"Ehh... wait, what's a Vorpal Soul?"

I'd like to know that too. After that, OiKatzo talked about the magnificence of the Luck stat, got cocky saying he could handle the enemies to the destination alone, got surrounded by three Triangular UFOs—apparently called Delta Unit Drone T1s—and nearly died. Then when I taunted him about it, he muttered, "Possessing tenacity that makes them hard to kill and being unnecessarily fast... that's a Cockro..." which nearly escalated into PvP. But eventually, we reached our tentative destination, the second basement floor, in perfect condition stat-wise.

"The ruin level is getting worse. I thought it would be the type where the facilities are more intact the deeper you go."

"Maybe it collapsed from the bottom? Like a pot with the bottom falling out."

"That metaphor is subtly confusing..."

I looked around once to confirm there were no other players. Just in case, I had Emul, who likely has good hearing, scout the surroundings, then took out the map Pencilgon gave me from my inventory.

"Apparently, we can go to a hidden area from this floor."

"Hidden area, huh... I feel like I'm constantly being provided with elements I should be finding myself."

"In this day and age, it's not rare for people to check walkthrough sites before playing. It's a waste to worry about it."

Honestly, my personal opinion is that as long as you don't step on story spoilers, looking at walkthrough sites isn't that nonsensical. Even in God Games and Good Games, you can get stuck in a rut and be unable to progress forever. Trash Games? Looking at a walkthrough site won't help you understand the meaning, and often there isn't a site to begin with, or if there is, the info is extremely sparse. End of story.

"I wanna find a Unique on my own too~."

"Yes, yes. Let's see... this way?"

Pass to the left of the plate with a hole in the middle, jump over the fissure, get on the plate missing all four corners, move to the gap between the second and third basement floors, and from there...

"What a pain!"

Actually, the guy who found this is amazing! What kind of mental state do you need to find this? Or did Pencilgon find this?

"Wow, finding such an elaborate hidden element in a Full Dive game these days is rare."

"Like knocking on a wall in a specific rhythm to open a hidden passage..."

Anyway, what we have to do is proceed along this extremely troublesome route.

"...So, finally jump into this hole."

Following the route written on the map—which couldn't even be called a path—we arrived at this giant hole blocking our way as the final step to the hidden area. Being told to jump into a hole where the bottom is completely invisible, especially since we're already underground, is a bit terrifying due to the reality of Full Dive.

"Actually, isn't this a prank to assassinate us in a roundabout way?"

"If so, that Pencil Woman is a 'Kejime' (Yakuza punishment) case."

"Kejime! Fathe... The Boss also said Kejime is important, desu wa!"

That Yakuza Rabbit's Kejime... I feel like I want to know but am happier not knowing. No, surely it won't be max gore... Yeah, let's stop thinking about it.

"Now then......"

Honestly, I'm anxious. If it were just me and OiKatzo, I'd jump in doing a twisting backflip, but since Emul can't respawn, I have to be careful about dangers where I can't see the outcome.

"Hmm, then I'll drop down first. If I'm safe, you guys can come."

"...Thanks."

"Fukyu."

Perhaps sensing my caution, OiKatzo said that, patted Emul's head after she moved to my shoulder, and jumped into the giant hole without hesitation.

"Fuyaa... That's a cool woman, desu wa."

"True... No, that guy's a man, you know?"

".........?"

Ah right, with that appearance and voice, it can't be helped if she misunderstands. Especially since his ShanFro avatar is a blatantly cute female character.

"He has a feminine face, but he's a man."

"EHHHHHHHH!?"

Since his real appearance is naturally androgynous, he often uses characters with feminine faces or female characters in private games (......). He once told me with a distant look in his eyes that because he was the only boy in a family with two older sisters and one younger sister—a "black speck" instead of a "red speck" (beauty)—his hobbies before starting gaming were all feminine things...

"T-The mystery of life, desu wa..."

"Guys who are only female in appearance are common."

"That's a different kind of shock, desu wa!"

Is that so. Anyway, how do I judge if OiKatzo died or not? Ah, I didn't register him as a friend. Just as my thoughts started shifting from the question to unrelated things, a small echoing sound came from the depths of the hole.

"............weee............"

"Seems it wasn't Pencilgon's roundabout assassination (prank)."

Wait, what is he saying?

"Umm, he says 'Hurry up, you chicken', desu wa."

"Bring it on! I'm gonna kill that bastard!"

"Eh, wait, mental preparation... desu waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!?"

Without any hesitation—and incidentally, without waiting for Emul to be mentally prepared—I jumped into the hole while holding Emul down so she wouldn't peel off.

Author's Notes:

Katzo has a feminine face, or rather, a Kabuki Onnagata (female role actor) face. He is a normal guy, but if he cross-dresses, he looks more like a woman than you'd expect. That type of thing.

Translator's Remarks:

• Rabbit's Chair (Usagi no Koshikake): A pun. "Sarunokoshikake" is a type of bracket fungus (monkey's bench). Sunraku changes "Monkey" to "Rabbit" since Emul is sitting on him.
• Kejime: A ritualistic taking of responsibility in Yakuza culture (often involving cutting off a finger).
• Black speck vs Red speck: "Kouitten" (Scarlet speck in green foliage) is an idiom for the only woman in a group of men. Katzo reverses this to "Kuroitten" (Black speck) to mean the only male in a group of females.
• Onnagata: Male actors who play female roles in Kabuki theatre. They are known for idealized feminine beauty.