Chapter 380: Side 3: Madness of the Bakumatsu Event 〜The Enemy of My Enemy is Still My Enemy〜

Author's Preface
The character count is low, so this is essentially a single chapter update.

◇

Perhaps it was inevitable that the news would eventually reach Kyougoku's ears.

"Matsuribayashi logged in...?"

"Y-Yeah! There's no mistake about it; you don't exactly see players wandering around with a Hannya mask and top-tier event rewards equipped every day!"

"I see, thanks for letting me know. Now then, Divine Punishment."

In the current event, 'Extreme Moonlight', players who die respawn as 'Wraiths' until the event ends.
Naturally, since they are set as the avatars of the dead, players who haven't died—the living—can only see the dead but cannot interfere with them, and the same goes for the dead.

In other words, what this ultimately leads to is players haunting the very players who killed them.

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

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

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

To put it simply, Kyougoku, who had been picking fights with every single person she came across, currently had a crowd of about a dozen wraiths loitering behind her, and now, there was one more.
Because she couldn't hear their voices, she had no idea what they were saying, making it rather quiet, but...

"Hey, you guys, could you go get excited about your out-of-body experiences somewhere else?"

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say their movements were loud. If they were just chatting, it would be one thing, but when over a dozen people simultaneously start breakdancing behind you going, 'Look, look! My body is so light I can breakdance!!', 'Whoa!', 'I'm gonna try it too!', it drains your concentration even without any sound.

But sadly, the only form of communication left between them was body language.

Sighing at the wraiths who were excitedly waving back at her with a 'Yaaay!', she figured she had no choice but to brace herself with the mindset of dragging a hundred of them around... when she looked up.

"I couldn't participate in last year's winter event, you see! That 'Ground Blizzard' (Jifubuki) you're holding, the reward for placing third in the winter event... I'd love to see you throw it!!"

"Kh, a troublesome one found me...!"

A rain of blades, regardless of weapon type, poured down onto the roof of the tenement house, aimed solely at one person. The fleeing Hannya Mask anticipated her escape route hidden amidst feints, deflecting the falling hatchets and sprinting across the rooftops with acrobatic, circus-like movements.
And chasing right behind him, continuously hurling weapons with terrifying precision, was a Restoration patriot wearing a cherry-blossom-patterned haori.

With the wraiths cheering (silently) behind her, Kyougoku's face twisted into an expression of utmost joy.

"Ah, finally... I finally found you here, Sunrakuuu!!"

"Guh!? You're Kyou-timate! Kh, can we do this later!?"

"Nooope, I'll be taking my Divine Punishment... including all the other stuff you owe me."

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

"Come on down, Sunra..."

"Impromptu Alliance!"

"Fisherman's Profit Divine Punishment!!"

In the very next instant, the two swordsmen who had just been predator and prey threw their swords at Kyougoku, as if they had been allies from the very beginning.

"Wha... !?"

"Hahahaha, you fool! In Bakumatsu, the third party aiming for the fisherman's profit is always targeted first!"

"Well, putting that aside, you left yourself wide open."

"Hey, stop with the iron club, the iron club!!"

"That's the 'Golden Demon' (Ougon-Oni), the max-score reward from the Black Ship event, and the 'Caucasus', the first-to-arrive reward! I see, I definitely can't let you get away now...!"

"Shut up and go home!"

"Is the festival venue around here!?"

"Geh! 'Go-Cart'!!"

In Bakumatsu, the concept of unity is surprisingly fragile, yet it can be built up in an instant.

The more people gather, the more dizzying the cycle of alliances and betrayals becomes. It's not uncommon at all for people to ally, only to simultaneously betray each other five seconds later.

This is the world of Bakumatsu. The only things you can trust are yourself, the weapon in your hands... and your own skill to deliver the executions handed down by the heavens.
That was exactly why Kyougoku couldn't understand.

"""Divine Punishment!!!"""

"───Wh,"

Why...

Was she being targeted by literally everyone other than herself?

Because, wasn't it obvious?

The samurai gathered here, all thoroughly polluted by Bakumatsu, laughed uniformly.

Don't tell me,
Don't tell me...

Did you really think the dead harbor no malice?

The players who had been watching from behind Kyougoku all simultaneously flashed teeth-baring grins.

"Kyou-timate... I'll teach you one thing as a souvenir for the afterlife."

"Kh!?"

A basic rule of this game. Namely, a player with a high score naturally drops a massively inflated amount of points when hunted.

"Hiding your score is a basic skill. A boss monster that doesn't yield much profit, or a sitting duck carrying a massive bounty... which one would you aim for?"

The act of hiding one's score serves as a certain type of deterrent. They might be in first place, or they might have zero points. 'Are you willing to fight a battle royale carrying nothing but risk?'

In an event, nicknames mean nothing. Unlike standard gameplay, an event focuses solely on the final net profit. Thus, some players hoard their strength until the end stages, while others conceal their ultimate moves precisely to assassinate those very players at the very last moment.

Heads or tails. Even if you flip a coin, when, who, where, how, and with what action... If Kyougoku was going to employ a front-running escape strategy like this, she should have, at the absolute bare minimum, bought off the players she killed.

Simply put, the wraiths were essentially a personification of a constantly displayed score; it was the equivalent of broadcasting to all directions, 'I am holding a massive amount of points!'
And Kyougoku hadn't realized it. By having wraiths already under the influence of other players cling to her, she was being used as a decoy, painted as a "Bonus Target" inflating her perceived value beyond her actual points.

"And with that... thanks for the meal!!"

However, no blades actually struck Kyougoku. As expected—or perhaps naturally—everyone other than Kyougoku, as if they had held a meeting beforehand, immediately betrayed each other and began clashing for the umpteenth time.

"There they are! It's the nicknamed players!"

"Surround them, surround them!"

"Divine Punishment! Execute them!!"

Furthermore, the gathering of wraiths attracted even more players, who formed an alliance to eradicate the high-threat players first. Then, a group aiming for that exact moment launched a surprise attack, while the surrounded nicknamed players went on a rampage as if to say the bait had come to them...

"Hey, Kyou-timate, we're making a run for it."

"Eh, ah, Sun..."

"Shhh, they're all gonna run away in a minute anyway, so we're taking the initiative before they do."

Sunraku, who had sneaked over to Kyougoku while crouching low, proposed their escape while exchanging bizarre hand signs with the wraiths.

He pointed at his own sword, made a circle with his thumb and index finger, formed numbers with his hands, pointed at the sun, formed numbers again... and it seemed they reached some sort of conclusion through body language, because all the wraith players gave a thumbs-up and scattered in their own directions.

"Eh, what? Eh?"

"...Given when I recommended the game to you, this is your first event, right? Come over here, I'll give you a little lecture."

"A-Alright..."

After this, Kyougoku would step even further into the abyss of Bakumatsu... but that is a story for another time.

Author's Afterword
Crossroads Killing Capriccio: Online Summer Event "Extreme Moonlight"

Hey there, Samurai! Are you all delivering Divine Punishments energetically today as well? In this event, players who die during the event period cannot respawn until the event ends—it's a pseudo-death game! But it's not like you can't log in; dead players respawn as 'Wraiths,' an avatar that cannot interfere with living players!

Rankings will be determined by the points gathered by the end of the event, and top-ranking rewards include the event-exclusive sword 'Firefly Trail' (Hotarubi Kiseki)! And for the top 5, an even more special sword awaits...!?

Bakumatsu Level 10%: "I can win if I just hide until the endgame!"
Bakumatsu Level 50%: "I'll cut down everyone who comes at me!"
Bakumatsu Level 80%: "Seems like I can use the wraiths for various things if I buy them off."
Bakumatsu Level 120%: "If I just Divine Punishment everyone left at the end, I'm guaranteed to win."
Bakumatsu Level 200%: "Au au ah (Body automatically executes the optimal Divine Punishment on its own)"