Chapter 399: Legs at the Critical Point, Conquering the Sky

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?

Running through the forest is much harder than I expected.
It goes without saying that the trees themselves are simply in the way, but the real nuisance is the ground.
Humans aren't the only ones living with their feet on the ground; the roots of the trees are buried in the dirt. And trees aren't kind enough to neatly tuck every single one of their roots completely underground.

Roots poking their heads out, camouflaged by the dim ground, can serve as traps far more malicious than tied grass, and conversely, ground that is too soft will easily ensnare a human's foot.
In other words, a land perfectly suited for trees to grow thick and lush is a completely inappropriate place to engage in the action of running.

Therefore, I tried this.

Babababababa

With a deafening roar, the wind tries to block my body by forming a wall of atmosphere, but my body—carrying a ridiculous amount of propulsion—is flying, practically piercing and tearing through that wall of atmosphere like a driven stake... Yes, I am flying.

B-ba-bababababababad!

This is bad! Seriously bad! High Connection is bad!!
For a single skill, this is bad! It's bad, the situation is so seriously bad that my vocabulary is! My vocabulary is being eroded by 'bad'!! Bad!

Oooooooh!?

Rather than flying, it should probably be called being launched. If you push simple propulsion to the absolute critical point, even a sluggish body with no wings, poor chest muscles, and overly dense bones can fly through the sky.

Changing the subject slightly, about Loli (Tias) Sensei's "Tachyon"... Tachyon apparently refers to a faster-than-light speed that never drops below the speed of light. I see, no matter how much you hold back, there is absolutely no way to beat a skill in speed that simultaneously applies an acceleration buff to the user and a deceleration debuff to the target.
Because that's exactly it, right? It's like someone who is already running completely unopposed in first place attaching iron balls to the ankles of everyone behind them. That is precisely why Sensei is the strongest existence among Bounty Hunters, and the fastest NPC.

If so, then the name of this skill I've obtained must be the name of defeat indicating the absolute limit of a human, a player, and the name of honor that has reached the absolute extreme.

High Connection, a seven-connection specialized in mobility. The name of the skill that connected all the mobility Sunraku (I) have cultivated into a single point is the Seven-Connection: Critical Speed 【Bradyon】.

Shaaaah!!

Zudan! I kick the empty atmosphere to gain a third acceleration. The phenomenon itself is from the connected Hermes Boots incorporated into the build, but 【Bradyon】 is not such a soft skill. If it was, I wouldn't have become a stain on the wall.

【Bradyon】 is a skill that combines three effects.
First of all, the effect application window is from the activation of the skill until "five steps" have been taken. Strictly speaking, the effect applies for exactly five motions of stepping down with the soles of the feet.

Next is the self-damage effect: the instant it activates, 99.9% of your HP is blown away. In short, it drops to 1. I'm pretty sure you can heal it, but since I became a stain on the wall before I could try, it needed verification. I just tested it now; healing itself is indeed possible.

And finally, the buffs granted during activation... this is the bad part.
Maximum speed right out the gate, an extreme acceleration buff added—no, probably multiplicatively stacked—with every single step, mid-air jumping, wall running, ceiling running, recoil negation upon landing, and damage mitigation during acceleration. Well, if I had to list them, it's about that much? Basically, you could call it a pseudo-invincibility mode while the skill is active.

Writing it out like this makes it look like it just takes the best parts of all seven skills... but that's not the case.
Listen here, as long as humans rely on their legs for movement, they also rely on their legs for braking, you know? You gain maximum acceleration on the fifth step... so how exactly are you supposed to stop?

The sixth step is just a normal leg with zero corrections. It goes without saying what would happen if you stuck your bare foot out of a maglev train and touched the ground. You'd get grated into spicy radish paste.
Which means you have to apply the brakes on the fifth step while the skill correction is still active... Hahaha, are you telling me to stop while flooring the gas pedal?

Bitter memories of dyeing the walls of the Rabituza Colosseum in my colors flash through my mind...
Accelerated and smashed face-first into the wall because I reflexively stepped.
Lost my balance trying to stop and smashed face-first into the wall.
Got cocky, jumped in mid-air, didn't know how to land, accelerated straight sideways on a gamble, and smashed face-first into the wall.
Kicked the wall hoping to at least avoid smashing into it, but got blown away in the opposite direction, stumbled trying to regain my balance, and smashed face-first into the opposite wall at maximum speed.

I want to believe that the single small crack in the rather sturdy Colosseum wall was not my fault.

To put the conclusion simply, if you use this skill in a narrow space, you will undoubtedly become a stain on the wall. Therefore, if you're going to use it, it has to be in a wide-open space with no restrictions.

Oo, oooooooh...!

Idiotic acceleration... Because the ass-celeration was mitigated by a natural air cushion, I am still flying forward and upward, but I've regained enough composure to at least observe the surrounding scenery.

A normal mask doesn't even serve as a guard, so I'm currently equipping the head machine shell of 【Rising Waterfall】. Even if it's a game, keeping your naked eyes open in this wind is rough, seriously.
I've already passed two-thirds of the Sea of Trees. That's strange... I'm certainly flying at an incredible speed, but could I really have crossed two-thirds of that unusually massive Sea of Trees already?

No, is that not it? Because this Sea of Trees is shaped like a crescent moon, is the distance itself not actually that great if you proceed through the shortest, fastest route? No, is that wrong too? Considering that the Old Continent areas could be cleared in a shorter time compared to their actual scale, does it mean that the distance perceived by the players is different from the actual distance?

...Why is it that human beings always avert their eyes from the things they should prioritize most, and instead allocate their thoughts to completely unrelated things?

"Time to start falling, I guess..."

Humans do not have wings, sad to say. That is precisely why we yearn for the sky... but if I just fall like this, I will become a stain on the ground.

If so, a reversal of thinking is required.

"Success rate is 75%... The most untrustworthy RNG in the world."

The number 75% success rate, often mocked as practically being 25%, lacks the courage one can muster when challenging a 50% gamble, yet fails to provide the peace of mind of 100%. It truly is the devil's number. 666 is the devil's number? 666% would be awesome, I'd worship it.

"Alright, let's gooo!"

I shift my body in mid-air, transitioning into an upside-down posture with my head pointing down and my feet to the heavens, and kick the atmosphere with the coiled fourth step. That is the visualization.

Boh! A massive volume of atmosphere is pierced by me, the bullet, and the body of a single human plummets toward the ground with terrifying momentum.
It's not like I'm unaccustomed to falling to my death, but... this is bad, it's scary!

"But!!"

I am fighting against myself; to do that, I must borrow the power of the great physics calculation engine!!
The wind tries to hold my body back like water, but I am not alone right now. Due to the absolute providence in this world called a game—the falling process calculated by the physics engine—I am dropping toward the ground with tremendous force.

Posture control! Feet to the ground, head to the sky! Gah, it's hard to move my face, switch to the 【True Gaze Bird Mask】! Spreading both arms to balance myself, I focus entirely on my single right leg to plant the all-important fifth step on the ground, bending my left knee and keeping it slightly raised... Impact, NOW!!

"Nuuun!!"

Normally, when a human is slammed into the ground, 9 times out of 10, they just become a stain on the ground. However, the right leg—kept perfectly straight yet also serving as a shock absorber—negates the impact of the fall damage thanks to the effect of 【Bradyon】.
However, aside from my main body, there is nothing that can be done about the impact on the ground itself. A deafening roar shakes the earth, and the single point of my right foot sinks deep into the dirt.
But here, the effect of the fifth step activates. Against the top-to-bottom kinetic energy, including the acceleration of falling due to gravity, the acceleration of the fifth step trying to bounce up from bottom-to-top clashes head-on.

"........."

The dust clears, revealing bird-headed me striking a majestic pose with my right foot planted firmly on the ground.
Hmph, my proudly spread arms look just like wings.

"Now then, shall we go?"

Should I try again once the cooldown is over? But it's 75%, man... It really is an untrustworthy number. If it was at least around 79% including fractions, I'd be able to trust it a little more.

Author's Afterword
The pose of a wild hawk descending to earth.

By the way, the connection limit for High Connection is eight. It's not like there are infinitely varied connection skills; rather, there are seven types of connection skills categorized into classes (Mobility type, Defense type, etc.), and when the various parameters of the connected skills meet the baseline requirements, the corresponding connection skill is unlocked.

Basically, it's Synchro Summoning. A connection skill that sets the total value of the connected skills as its quota is unlocked. So, if you really wanted to, there's a possibility of triggering 【Bradyon】 even with six connections or less.

Furthermore, Bradyon is Connection Rank 6. In other words, there is one more rank above it. The straight-line maniac that is even harder to use than Bradyon, Faster-Than-Light 【Luxion】...