Chapter 398: Let's Expand the Circle of Friends

Author's Preface
I was a bit moved when some volunteers sent me messages saying "I'll help you tally the votes!" while simultaneously reaffirming my realization that a thousand votes is really just absurd in various ways.
I intend to reply to everyone individually later, but I'll say it here first.

Thank you very much! Some people even sent me already tallied results, which was incredibly helpful! Truly, thank you so very much!

Also, fan fiction for ShanFro is absolutely fine. As long as it doesn't violate Narou's Terms of Service, I have nothing to complain about. You can even write stories focusing entirely on trash games, you know?

As expected, no matter the era, there's a certain romance to a 'mighty power that even its wielder cannot fully control.' If there wasn't, cursed magic swords and demonic katanas wouldn't constantly appear in works of fiction. It's precisely because humans naturally avoid getting hurt that they harbor a sense of longing—or perhaps dread—towards those who press forward even if it means getting hurt.

And right now, I'm definitely on the side being dreaded... After all, I'm the one who thinks my current state is the most dangerous of all.

"I don't feel like I can control this at all."

My 18th total respawn. Due to the death penalties, my stats are currently in an atrocious state, but considering the benefits granted by that skill, even with Level 1 stats, I'd still have change left over. Or rather, that change would be enough to buy a car.

"That being said, the connections themselves require some thought..."

I see, this Skill is indeed tremendous. It's safe to say it's a balance breaker. Honestly, in PvP, this single skill possesses the potential to make someone invincible, and even if it gets nerfed, I could just laugh and accept it with a "Well, yeah, obviously."

However, this game is primarily focused on PvE against monsters. As long as the theme is "Pioneering the World," conflicts between players or with NPCs aren't exactly 'unnecessary,' but they aren't something the devs actively want to popularize either.

It has that level of performance, but... conversely, you could call it a battleship where absolutely everything went into upgrading the main cannon. If everything was decided purely by the cannons, fighter jets would be obsolete. Extreme min-max builds generally don't ever escape the realm of meme builds.
It is the providence of the world that sharpening one aspect dulls another. Having a multitude of adequately mastered skills is far superior in terms of sheer utility than a single, uncontrollable one.

From that perspective, you could say the connection skill discarded versatility in order to realize the absolute, ultimate singular power. Whether that's a brilliant move or a fatal mistake is entirely up to the user... Considering the cost, it's not exactly something I can just throw around casually, either. I plan to stick with this for a while, but I need to think carefully before disconnecting and reconnecting them.

"For now, its usage is extremely limited... but its performance as a suicide bullet feels like it's stepped into the absolute extreme realm...?"

Also, as a side note, it seems I actually have the potential to use one more "Secret Law."
The sight suggested by Elke, who looked completely exhausted, was the Supreme Sword Technique... I have endless interest in it, but since it seems to have a limit of once per day, I guess I'll save it for next time.

"Hey Emul, is my nose crooked?"

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

When I asked that through my mask, Emul stared at me with eyes usually reserved for looking at a rare beast. However, considering I've turned into a Stain on the Wall over a dozen times by now, even knowing that respawning resets my body, I'm still starting to feel anxious.

"Well whatever, the only way to learn is through practice... Emul, can I count on you to head to the New Continent?"

"Yesirrr, Sunraku-san has been leaving me to watch the house quite a bit lately desu wa..."

"Well, I am a pioneer, after all... This is basically just me joyfully committing suicide, plus..."

"Plus?"

"If you ride on my head, you'll probably get blown away."

"I don't want to become a stain on the wall desu wa."

I don't want to either, but since that's what ends up happening anyway, it can't be helped, right?

The forest. Within this demonic sea of trees where the scent of blood seems to drift through the air instead of negative ions, a fierce struggle for survival—including the newly arrived human species—unfolds today as well.

"Hey, this thing is way faster than what I heard!"

"Never mind a thoroughbred Triceratops, isn't that basically just a massively jacked deer!?"

"Eh, wait, bueh!?"

"H-Healer down!!"

Yup, watching other people play from the safety zone is really fun. I can just watch another monster approaching them from behind like it's a fire on the opposite bank of a river.

Well, either way, the moment the healer they were completely dependent on for recovery went down, it was obvious how this would end. Thanks for your hard work.

"Hm?"

Oh? What are you looking at, you bastard, you wanna go? Oh? I'm over level 130, you know? Can't you see the scars? Ohnn?

Right at that exact moment, a dinosaur-type monster with an obviously hard-looking (in the literal sense) head, shining slickly and glaringly, charged in from the side like a bullet, utilizing its physical characteristics to the absolute maximum to blow away the two monsters glaring at me with a devastating headbutt.

"Fugororororo!!"

"O-Oh... You've got a good look on your face, don't you?"

This is the type that discarded its reason in exchange for pure power, right? I forget the name, but aren't those helmet-headed dinosaurs supposed to be herbivores? Well, wait, I'm protein. Dietarily speaking, we can understand each other, right?
However, the other party seemed to be a visitor looking strictly for a Fight, glaring at me with radiantly shining, reptilian eyes while scattering saliva from its mouth and taking a forward-leaning posture with the top of its head pointed squarely at me.

Its size was about that of a light car, and no matter how you looked at it, it was a physically-specialized headbutting type. If I take that charge head-on, my garbage armor will instantly shatter me into fine dust.

"Heh, bring it on."

I equipped the Regalecus Cestus (Cestus of the Crimson Lotus Sea) and took a fighting pose. Tough enemies are absolute sworn nemeses when you're just grinding, but on a first encounter, they're the spice that makes the game exciting.

"Round One. I'll beat you down before the gong even rings!"

I threw a jolting punch right into the charging head, driving in a counter. My fists are tough tooooo!!

Q: My attacks have absolutely no firepower, how am I supposed to win?
A: If you punch it until it dies, it will die.

"Hah, hah..."

I unleashed a relentless rush, completely exhausting my stamina and exposing a massive opening... but there was no counterattack.

"Bworo, rorororo..."

With a heavy thud, Mr. Ironhead collapsed, shaking the blood on the ground. Having completely negated the recoil by fully opening the gauge, I tried to crush its skull without holding back, but... I couldn't even put a single crack in it. That took way more effort than I thought it would.

"Harvest the materials... Sheesh, from the second time onwards, I'm definitely running away."

Not only did it have incredibly high toughness, but it was also a strangely versatile fighter, mixing in downward-swinging headbutts with quick steps and whatever else... Um? The Sturdy Skull of the Draculus Dinopachycephalu... Too long, 'Metal Baldy' is more than enough.

That ate up way too much unnecessary time. Let's pull myself together and... get going. The continental crossing that Akitsu Akane attempted; in her case, she had to abandon it precisely because she encountered a massive event flag called Noirlind... but maybe the current me can pull it off.

".........Alright."

Stamina management is one thing, but because of the scars, almost every encounter is guaranteed to be against a higher-leveled opponent. It won't even be a laughing matter if I'm already out of breath the moment an encounter triggers. Keeping all of that in mind... let's go, continental crossing marathon.

I've somewhat decided on my destination.
Akitsu Akane managed to pull off a Perfect Communication with Noirlind, and the fact that her target was a monster capable of flight brought about an unexpected benefit.

That's right: map information of the New Continent, courtesy of an existence with virtually zero movement restrictions—Noirlind.

Thanks to Akitsu Akane's light-attribute radiance, he let slip—albeit in a highly ambiguous manner based entirely on his personal subjectivity—the state of this New Continent.

First of all, as a major premise, the demi-human species on the New Continent are distributed primarily on the right side of the continent, meaning closer to the Old Continent.

Why, you ask? It's a simple matter: the further you progress, the more massive the monsters become.
Species the size of skyscrapers are only permissible because this is a game. Because I know that from Another Game (Calamity Beasts), I can roughly see the world-building of the New Continent.

In short, this world is balanced so that the monsters get progressively stronger and larger moving from Firstia on the absolute right edge of the Old Continent, all the way to the far left edge of the New Continent.
So... Therefore... Yeah, that's probably what it means.

"So ultimately, players will be able to cross swords with monsters the size of actual buildings?"

It's not exactly unexpected. Even against the strongest class of Calamity Beasts in Thrilling Farm, if you prepare to the point of basically abandoning the goal of actually clearing the game, you can bring one to a half-dead state and repel it solo. I've yet to hear a single report of someone actually killing one completely, though. It's said that if you had three more of the nuclear bombs that you can only craft once per playthrough, you might be able to kill it... By the way, if you use a nuke, your farm gets irradiated and it's an automatic Game Over.

So, I'm not surprised that we can defeat massive monsters. The hesitation lies in whether it's actually possible to defeat them within ShanFro's system.

"No... I see."

Tactical Mecha Beasts.
The existence of 'Non-Standard' implies the existence of 'Standard' tactical mechas. Even if it's just infantry equipment, if a player is equipped with a powered suit, I feel like there might be a chance. Besides, it's not like these things are designed to be hunted en masse anyway.

Whoops, my internal monologue got derailed. Among the information brought by Noirlind via Akitsu Akane, there was one thing that caught my interest.

Near the center of this land, there lies a crown of crystal that changes color bathed in the light of the sun and the moon. While the bugs crawling on the ground are crushed beneath the feet of insolent centipedes and spiders, the elegance of enjoying that radiance is my privilege...

In short, it means, 'There's a crystal area emitting two colors of light guarded by bullshit-strong monsters. I'm so AWESOME for being able to leisurely sightsee from above!!' But crystals... yes, crystals.

"My yet-unseen Brother is there...!!"

My sworn ally, the Crystal Scorpion. My worthy rival, the Golden Scorpion. And the parent, the Elder Crystal Scorpion.
The Golden Scorpion is still a formidable enemy even at my current level bracket. Well, since I haven't grown in terms of armor whatsoever, I'll die in one hit no matter who I fight anyway, and its encounter rate is extremely low to begin with, but it still remains a Lycaon-class formidable enemy in my mind.

However, they are... incredibly excellent cash cows. Having recently acquired materials from the Elder Crystal Scorpion, I've become bizarrely knowledgeable about their ecology, and precisely because of that, there's something I understand.

Those guys were originally marine life. They probably advanced onto land, but were on the verge of extinction due to their diet. Through evolution, they devised a method to become entirely self-sufficient, and that's how the Crystal Nest Cliff was created.
I see, it's quite similar to Bakumatsu. They can only survive in that specific place. They can't eat meat, they can't eat plants, and mineral resources are finite. If so, that crystal plain is their one and only living sphere, and it makes perfect sense why they wouldn't allow intruders.

But precisely because of that, I can see a possibility. Did all the Crystal Scorpions migrate to the Old Continent? Did all of their ancestors evolve into Crystal Scorpions? I don't think so.

A land crowned with crystals that radiate azure in the day and crimson at night... I'm absolutely certain that Crystal Scorpions, or a species closely related to them, reside there. And that means the scent of a brand-new cash cow!!

That's why I run. It's not a Unique, and no one else has reached it yet, which is exactly why I can monopolize it.
Besides, I think I've actually seen that radiance before. On that day when I was nearly carried away by the two-headed pterosaur while searching for Tearplaten.

Because of that, my legs can advance without hesitation.

"The advantage is miiiiiine!!"

Oh, isn't it my comrade-in-arms, 'Scar-red'-kun? Hiii, how's it going? Eh? The next time we meet, we'll be enemies? No no, our friendship is eternal, right? Well then, I have some business to attend to, so... Uooooo, like hell I'm gonna dieeeee!!

Author's Afterword
Draculus Dinopachycephalu.
The fiercest warrior of the Sea of Trees, second only to the three-headed T-Rex. I've heard there's a theory that real-life Pachycephalosaurus didn't actually use their heads for fighting, but rather just as a display feature, making them 'Show-Baldies.' However, this guy is a complete 'Battle-Baldy.'
It charges at you, focusing an impact equivalent to a car crash into a single point on its head, so if ShanFro were R-18, a human body would undoubtedly shatter into pieces like a biscuit.