Chapter 419: Side 15: Behind-the-Scenes Standby

A future where everything is already determined down to the last detail has not a single shred of amusement. Therefore, even when suddenly notified that an event would occur in eight days, Arthur Pencilgon did not panic; she simply began to work on the tasks she could accomplish under the current circumstances.

"Momo-chaaan, lend me your strengthhh."

"...You're scheming something again, aren't you?"

"I want to go see Imron-chan, so let's head to the Bugman Village, yeah?"

"Alright, understood. I'd like two more people, though."

"Ah, I'm free. My clan members went out hunting before I have to go to work for the night shift, so... hahaha..."

"The Bugman Village? If that's the case, won't you let our Seto join you? I want her to map the area."

And so, with Arthur Pencilgon as the party leader, she formed quite the dream party consisting of Psyger-100, PT Overwerke, and Seto, and immediately began taking action.

"Ahー, wait just a sec."

She opened the BBS and selected the Shangri-La Frontier Cooking Information Exchange Board. She typed a concise message—"Does anyone remember the recipe for that salad I saw the other day?"—and closed the board.
Naturally, she hadn't suddenly awakened to an interest in cooking at this very moment. Those who enjoy roleplaying as informants in ShanFro tend to prefer using ciphers and codes.
The informant Zenith Guevara, who is involved in a certain 'plan' currently progressing behind the scenes, uses the act of writing specific messages on specific boards as a code.

The signal was sent. Having finished sending the request for Production to Zenith Guevara and the Super-Farmer, Pencilgon closed the BBS window and turned back to her temporary party members with a smile, acting as if nothing had happened.

"Alright then, let's take the shortest route!!"

The three of them had blatantly been shown an incredibly suspicious action right in front of their eyes, but understanding that pressing her on it would only lead to evasion, they set off without saying anything in particular.

Once the chore of babysitting her Boss (Baldy)—who entirely misunderstood the concept of health—was over, fun game time awaited.
In a train equipped with pantographs, which had drastically decreased in number recently, perhaps due to the changing times, a single career woman sat spaced out, looking as if her mind was elsewhere.

(A sword... a spear... no, it has to be a sword. Simple is best; true skill is found within the royal road.)

Her name was Sekiguchi Ryuka. It's often misunderstood, but it's not "Ruka," it's "Ryuka."

Also known as "Imron." She had surfaced from the rough waves of society and was currently on her way home.

"He said dual swords were his main, but he also mentioned he could use a straight sword... It's the star weapon type."

In Ryuka's mind, vague images floated and vanished one after another. She would knead and mold an 'idea' that had somewhat solidified among the bubble-like images for a while, only to smash it to pieces in her mind with a sigh.

"No good... It's too mediocre to beat that blacksmith."

Ryuka knew almost nothing about that existence. All she knew was that this existence was a Vorpal Bunny, and that she was the one who had created numerous weapons that severely shook Imron's pride.

The origin of this all started with a certain proposition from a half-naked player who had arrived with a face devoid of expression (he was wearing a mask, so maybe just the vibe?).

"Wh-What is this..."

"Materials from the Alexand Scorpion. Make something out of this for me..."

"A Crystal Scorpion... no, a subspecies? Holy crap, what are these resources..."

"Straight sword, one-handed sword, dual swords... well, make one of those. I'm counting on you..."

"Eh, eh? This Twin Core Treasure... No way, 500 Resources!? 500... Five hundreddd!?"

Imron was about to call out to the staggering, departing Sunraku, but the words Sunraku spoke as he turned around, as if remembering something, were terribly quiet—yet they unleashed a hellfire within Imron's heart.

"Ah, right. I'm going to give the exact same amount and the exact same type of materials... to the NPC who made this too..."

"...Oho?"

The weapon production system in Shangri-La Frontier is broadly divided into four important elements.

The first is the proficiency of the Blacksmith-exclusive magic 【Forge Rise】. No matter what you do, this is the grand prerequisite, and Imron, who had reached the highest-tier job 'Master Blacksmith,' had already raised 【Forge Rise】 to its maximum value.

Next is the quality of the facilities. This is surprisingly tricky; production players generally use shared workshops that exist as public facilities, or they forge weapons in their own workshops built using their own—or their clan's—funds.
However, simply preparing a furnace isn't enough. Just as Bilac sought a new furnace, better equipment relies on better facilities.

Third is the quality of the materials themselves. Materials that can be used for weapon crafting have a parameter called "Resource." The higher this is, the higher the degree of freedom and reproducibility of the "Abilities" granted to the crafted weapon. Furthermore, depending on the material, effects unintended even by the crafter can sometimes be added.
Granted, there are also "Cursed Materials" that grant detrimental effects to equipment in exchange for high resources, so striking a balance is necessary, but... the Resource points of the Alexand Scorpion's Twin Core Treasure that Sunraku handed over was 500. For comparison, the material with the highest Resource points among the items dropped by the Usurper Dragon is 120, the Illuminating Mirror Bone of the Atlanticus Repnorca is 450, and the Ancient Radiant Scale of the "Scar-red" is 750.
As a side note, the Resource points of the highest rare drop from the "Scar-red" is an astonishing 1000.

And lastly... the real-life skill of the crafter themselves.
In weapon creation mode, there are several methods to determine the shape, or appearance, of the weapon (this only applies when making an 'Only One' custom weapon; weapons designed by the system have their appearances determined automatically).

The simplest pattern is to use the appearance prepared by the devs... strictly speaking, the system, exactly as it is, or with slight modifications.
The other method is complete manual creation. The player can determine the design through their thoughts and actual hand movements. Imron frequently used this method.

Imron was naturally highly imaginative, and ShanFro's weapon production system served as the absolute ideal content for her.

"Hmm... Ah, I've arrived... Hm?"

Brought back to her senses by the announcement that she had arrived at a station far from the city center, where much of the plant life's greenery still remained... in short, a relatively rural station, Ryuka stood up... and suddenly turned her gaze to something dangling from her bag.

"Theatrical Superman Actorman............ That's it!!"

The moment Ryuka stared at the keychain related to a classic Tokusatsu show, an image surfaced in her mind like a flash of lightning and completed itself.

"This is iiiiittt!!"

Ryuka shouted in the otherwise empty train car. In ShanFro, players can configure not only the appearance of a weapon but also its effects.
However, the cost required for those configurations is also Resource points, meaning that blacksmithing in ShanFro is, in essence, a battle against Resource points.

If you prioritize appearance, performance is sacrificed; if you prioritize performance, the appearance becomes mediocre.
Perhaps due to Psyger-100's own position and the sheer flashiness of it, many players had seen or heard of the Holy Sword Excalibur she possessed, and at the same time, many Replicas (Fakes) were in circulation.
However, because they poured all their Resource points into appearance, they were usually nothing more than normal swords that just looked flashy...

With the materials from the Alexand Scorpion, possessing overwhelming Resource points, even if she didn't call it the strongest sword, she could achieve a balance between the image Ryuka (Imron) envisioned and the performance fitting of it.

『The doors are closing.』

"Heh? Ah, wait... wait, wait, wai, hebuh!!"

In a panic, Career Woman Sekiguchi Ryuka, 27 years old, tried to rush out of the train, only to have her face caught between the doors from both sides...

Hobby: Watching Tokusatsu shows.

Author's Afterword
There's no way someone would put Tokusatsu homages into their own creations, HAHAHA!!

ShanFro's manual blacksmithing is like kneading clay, as the effects of the blacksmithing magic allow you to touch the heated iron directly (it's also possible to change the shape through thought).

Flavor Text Lore Dump Corner

• Fake Excalibur

A counterfeit weapon made by players that only mimics the appearance of Excalibur.
Since the words "Holy Sword" and "Excalibur" are locked by the system, they are usually disguised to look similar, like "Wall Sword E-xcalibur." [*1]
That being said, even fake ones require a decent amount of cost, so the ones being sold for cheap actually took quite a bit of effort to make. Psyger-100 came up with a "Cloned Holy Sword Attack" by madly swinging six swords that looked exactly like Excalibur along with the real one, but she ended up not knowing which one was which herself and gave up.

• Theatrical Superman Actorman

A Tokusatsu show that aired in the past in the ShanFro world (Real World). A work featuring a hero who uses a "Script Chip" to change forms by "Acting" as various things to fight the evil organization "Radisher." It is fairly well-regarded because the acting of the lead actor and the suit actor is way too serious.

Translator's Note

• [1] In Japanese, the word for Holy (聖) looks very similar to Wall (壁). The Katakana for "E" (エ) looks identical to the Kanji for "Construction/Craft" (工). So, 聖剣エクスカリバー (Holy Sword Excalibur) becomes 壁剣工クスカリバー (Wall Sword [Kou]xcalibur)