Chapter 384: Side 6: The Ace of Spades Bearing a Handicap

In short, before the day the woman in mourning attire dramatically skipped across the water and scattered, back when the route to the Forest-folk village was unconfirmed and players were getting hunted down by monsters while lost, the player base had fallen into a sort of stagnation.

With that issue resolved, to put it simply, an unprecedented Tearplaten day-trip tour boom had swept through the player base.

The cause of this was, naturally, "Sunraku" and "Tottori the Shimane."
The woman in mourning attire, who had casually brushed aside Julian, the Commander of the Third Knight Order, with a single blow, displayed a series of hyper-mobility feats. Sprinting through the air, standing on the edge of blades, and unleashing hundreds of flashes in a single strike—those actions had left an overwhelmingly powerful impact.

According to rumors on the wind (Tottori leaking info), those were the so-called "Triple-Digit Skills" acquired by unlocking the level cap.

The live demonstration of skills that theoretically any player could obtain—as they unlocked purely through level progression, not via Unique Scenarios—combined with the map Tottori the Shimane provided that confirmed the exact route to Tearplaten, provided more than enough justification for a considerable number of players... or rather, the vast majority of players, to completely flood Tearplaten.

And in the current environment, where the voice of crafter classes had skyrocketed following the rise of Emi-Lia, who had basically become a Master Builder instead of a President, it was completely natural for players to step up and take over for the Forest-folk, who possessed such a pathetic level of civilization that they insisted on repairing walls with a single leaf.

"Th-This is..."

According to what Psyger-0 had heard from Sunraku, Tearplaten was supposed to be a location left untouched by human hands for a long time, half-decayed and blending back into nature.
But right now, hundreds—if not over a thousand—players were noisily wandering around, and the bustle of the crowd spread throughout the entire village, with the figures of NPCs visible here and there.

"Honestly, I'm an amateur when it comes to construction, but insisting on repairing a wall with a single leaf is just pushing it..."

"Heeey! Anyone got any wood items!? We're short on pillars!"

"I'll sell you some for 20,000 Mani."

"That's way too much of a rip-off!!"

"For some reason, lately holding a hammer has become more fun than holding a sword."

"If you start making chairs in real life, you'll officially join the Sunday Carpenter club. We'll welcome you with open arms."

"Anyone need bone-type items? I stocked up quite a bit."

"Eh, are we building Skull Azuchi Two?"

"If we're doing that, let's use a different castle name."

"Skull Neuschwanstein."

"Too long, just abbreviate it to Sukanov─── bugeh!?"

"Ah, sorry!"

"A log to the back of the head... that hurts."

While the majority of the players were aiming to unlock their level caps, the ones standing out even more were definitely the crafters, who were using wood and stone items to push forward with construction projects all over the village.

"...Diale-san."

"Leave it to me! When it comes to the art of mimicry, well, I am Emul's master after all!"

To be completely honest, Psyger-0 couldn't help but wonder why this rabbit was getting so competitive over something like this, but considering not just Emul but also Ceecrue—who was teamed up with Akitsu Akane—mimicked a cloak, the art of mimicry might simply be a required skill among the Vorpal Bunnies.

"My mimicry is a cut above Emul's. I can take the decorations of your equipment into account to create a mimicry that looks much more like actual clothing...!"

"O-Oooh?"

The short cloak (Diale) clinging to her back snorted proudly, the exhalation fogging the surface of her armor.
Currently, there were only three players who had officially partied with a Vorpal Bunny—meaning they possessed the right to enter the Rabituza Rabbit Palace—and having it discovered that she was one of them wouldn't be very convenient.

"For now, shall we head toward the Altar of Awakening..."

According to the information, the Altar of Awakening was located in the center of the residential district, meaning unless something completely unexpected happened, there was no way she could get lost. That was what Psyger-0 had assumed, but...

"Um, could this possibly be..."

"Whoa, Psyger-0!? The real one!?"

"Ah, yes."

"Well, if you're in the second wave, it's not weird for you to be here at the same time... Yeah, this is the line for the Altar of Awakening. Looks like about a twenty-minute wait, right?"

"Is... that so."

Even though the route to Tearplaten had been established, the threat of monsters hadn't vanished. A certain degree of stats was still absolutely necessary to reach the village, but if crafters could make it, then it was a piece of cake for combat classes to swarm the place in droves. Congestion was only natural, and the current situation with so many eyes watching was highly inconvenient for Psyger-0.

"............"

"Huh, you're not going to line up?"

"There were... more people than I expected, so..."

"I heard it's relatively empty on weekday afternoons, you know?"

"...I, see."

Due to her status as a student, skipping school was difficult, and judging that unlocking her level cap right at this very moment was impossible regardless, Psyger-0 quietly stepped away from the line and pondered what to do next.

"...You're not lining up?"

"This is just a guess... but if Diale-san goes in with me, we'll be exposed."

"Kh... To think it could see through my mimicry art, as expected of ruins from the Divine Age..."

She couldn't bring herself to say that it probably had absolutely nothing to do with that.

Psyger-0 categorized the person known as Arthur Pencilgon under "Hard to Deal With."
Part of it was her exquisite position as her older sister's classmate, making it impossible to act defiantly against her, but more than that, just talking to her for a few minutes sent a chill down Psyger-0's spine, as if Pencilgon could see straight through to her very core.

"My, my, my, what a coincidence running into you in a place like this, Saiga-Imouto-chan... No, really, what a coincidence."

"R-Right..."

"By the way, considering you were hunting monsters looking like you didn't have anywhere else to be, I'm guessing you couldn't get to the Altar of Awakening, right?"

She didn't ask How did you know that. According to experts well-versed in the ecology of Arthur Pencilgon, she was described as "A Demon Lord who knows absolutely nothing but completely finishes gathering information within five minutes and acts like she knew it all along" and "The most optimal countermeasure is to assassinate her without saying a word."
At the very least, deducing the general gist of the situation from a tiny amount of information was probably laughably easy for her.

"Nfufufufu, you can't exactly go through a precision scan with a little 'plus alpha' attached to your back, now can you... But don't worry, if you just surrender yourself to my plan, everything will work out perfectly, so... yeah?"

"Plan..."

"Exactly, I'm the type who meticulously nurtures the seeds I plant... Ah, thinking about it like that, do I have an aptitude for farming? No, no, I'm far too young to wither away playing in the dirt, yep! Alright, I've recovered..."

The way she spontaneously resolved her own internal monologues bore a striking resemblance to the person Psyger-0 held feelings for, who often got angry at himself while talking to himself, but setting that aside, Pencilgon brought the derailed conversation back on track. In the form of the man she had transformed into via the Chalice's power, she pushed up her glasses with a finger and floated a fearless smirk.

"To me, Sunraku-kun is a Joker in the 'Old Maid' sense, and Katzo-kun is a Joker in the 'Poker' sense, but you are undoubtedly an Ace... That's exactly why I'm going to utilize you in a way that makes you shine the absolute brightest. To do that, there's something I need your help with."

"...I will listen to what you have to say, for now."

Curling the edges of her lips into a grin, Pencilgon succinctly laid out the contents of her Quest (Request).

"I'm looking for a certain player... You're a Black Sword, or rather, a former Black Wolf, so you must have at least heard the name, right? The owner of the Holy Hammer Mjolnir, arguably the absolute highest peak of Blacksmiths (Crafters) among all players... I want to find Imron-chan no matter what it takes."

Author's Afterword
Imron's exact name is I-Mu-Ron (一目龍), meaning 'One-Eyed Dragon,' which by extension links to Ichimokuren, meaning their player name has a rather elaborate background derived from the Japanese God of Blacksmithing, Ame-no-Mahitotsu-no-Kami. However, no matter how much of a lore-rich gamer someone might be, there's no way everyone is going to pick up on such an obscure name (it's a play on a Japanese myth, but pronounced using Chinese phonetics). As a player who is normally just ignored/overlooked, what I'm trying to say is that they are a dyed-in-the-wool crafter class with a rather... unique set of sensibilities.