Chapter 486: Will It Clear Up Tomorrow, or Will I Clear My Gloom?

Author's Preface
From a corner of the Ancient Battlefield, with love.

I know, let's go clear the Leviathan.

Such words suddenly floated into my brain after stepping into the upper tiers only to suffer eight consecutive losses and get swiftly knocked back down to the mid-tiers.

"In the first place, diving into ranked for three hours straight was, yeah, not great for my mental health."

Haaah, I don't wanna see the face of that Trash TV for a while!!

"Araba, we're saying sayonara-ba to this place today."

"Wh-What are you spouting the moment you wake up..."

"Eeei, shut your trap! I'm going back to a medieval world without TVs!!"

"I have even less of a clue what you're talking about than usual!"

No need to force yourself to understand, just act on feeling.

"Saina!"

"Orders."

"Glad you're quick to catch on, we're going to see that guy!!"

I always thought it was weird that in an area as ridiculously wide as this, the only means of traversal were walking on foot or Gravity Jumps.
I searched around wondering if there was a vehicle or something... but there weren't any abandoned in the maze, nor were there any at the relay rest areas. Even when I asked Isana, she just directed a somewhat irritating smile at me... but now I get it.

"You really are a game that loves taking an approach from the worldbuilding side of things..."

There are two types of enemies that spawn in this First Shell Layer: the new-generation golems "Techno-Magi-Gelus" and the old-model golems... but when you can walk, fight, and hunt them to extinction and still only ever see Techno-Magi-Gelus spawn, you eventually realize something is weird.

The important thing here is that this game called ShanFro has a tendency to prioritize fleshing out its worldbuilding even if it means putting the fundamental premise of players playing the game comfortably on the backburner.
At any rate, this game has an absurd level of detail, to the point where even a mere flower has flavor text. If that's the case, then the reason those old-model golems aren't spawning isn't because they're rare enemies... but rather, it means I haven't fulfilled some kind of condition.

"Finding the Gravity Jump early on might have actually been a bad move in hindsight."

That literally allowed me to cover distance by leaps and bounds compared to walking, but because of that, I ended up overlooking the "condition" far, far behind me.

"Repair Dispatch Golem 'Ants'... the spawn condition is damage to the labyrinth...!!"

"Supplement: It is the only golem within this First Shell Layer possessing the means for wide-range traversal."

A strangely-shaped golem that flew in from god knows where lands in a corner of the maze where Saina and I had wreaked absolute havoc.
It was a golem with a bizarre form like a fusion between a large motorcycle and an ant... and due to the nature of that combination, it possessed a "cockpit," making it the key to clearing this area.

『You guessed correctly! "Ants" were originally golems meant for extravehicular activities in outer space, but their solid design meant that even upon migrating to this planet, their zero-gravity activity equipment was retrofitted for use within gravity, and they are still used for repairs to this day. However, they are currently in an unmanned operational state... you cannot pilot one just by hopping on, you know?』

"Sorry, but this kind of puzzle is my specialty...!!"

After all, equipped with the meta-knowledge of another world—a completely different game—all it takes is one look at a part radiating an overly obvious, aggressive "This is the control device!!" energy, and I instantly know exactly what to do.

"Wonder if I can snipe it from here..."

I ready my Aguacate, take aim............ and fire.

"Didn't you miss?"

"Proposal: Destruction of the corresponding device via melee attack."

"........."

I pull out the sniper rifle "Puerro" from my Inventoria—a gun barely small enough to move while holding with both hands—and take a stance to look through the scope.
The moment I do, a "magnified screen" is projected directly onto my retina, allowing me to take much more precise aim than relying on the naked eye... Snipe.

Bagya!

"Yup, easy-peasy."

...What's with that look! See! Two more consecutive hits! That means even factoring in the first miss, my accuracy is 75%... That accuracy rate isn't reliable in the slightest! What is this trash!!
W-Well, you see? I was just testing out the performance of the sniper rifle I bought as an extra? You could even say this was all part of the plan? It's just that I have this premonition my Vorpal Soul will drop if I don't fight head-on... Using cheap tactics visibly tanks your Vorpal Soul, after all. Trappers weeping.

"Are the controls... the same as a motorcycle? No, if it moves three-dimensionally, there should be up and down controls..."

"Dowaaaaaaahhh...!!?"

Ignoring the idiot fish-man who climbed onto an "Ants" on his own, played with the controls on his own, and got sent rocketing upwards on his own, Saina and I take about two minutes to get a general grasp of the controls before piloting our "Ants" safely.
We head off to rescue Araba, who is currently enjoying a dangerous rodeo (ant version) high up in the sky...

Eeei! Why the hell are you slamming the accelerator at full throttle when I'm telling you to let go!!

.........

......

...

"I see! This is actually quite fun!"

"Th-This guy...!"

"Recommendation: Educational Strike (You should punch him once)."

Well calm down, Saina, it actually is pretty fun so I can't exactly talk either.

I'll hit him once we land on the ground.

That aside, piloting "Ants"—which could best be described as a three-dimensional motorcycle—is pretty damn fun.
Instead of just tilting motorcycle-esque handlebars left and right, you apparently push and pull them forward and back to ascend and descend on this ant-bike, making it a highly-motivated overachiever of an ant that handles speed and repairs alike at Mach speeds. Given how it physically transports my consciousness to higher altitudes, I almost want to take it back outside the Leviathan with me... but sadly, it's classified as an enemy, so it seems taking it home as a souvenir is a no-go.

"Warning: Significant consumption of residual energy detected."

"Looks like we can't just ride these things around infinitely. But this is enough... Araba! Saina! We're landing on the wall-side gravity! Don't screw it up and fall!!"

The First Shell Layer is the underside of the Leviathan, which is to say, loosely speaking, it's like a massive box with the "ground" completely coating its entire interior surface.
Therefore, leaving aside walking, if you get caught in the gravity well of a "wall" or the "ceiling" while flying from the "bottom"...

But even so, the advantage of parking yourself in the "sky" is far greater than crawling on the ground.

"I see the boss area...!!"

A bird's-eye view really is something you can only get by taking a step back; seriously, where the hell did we even start? I couldn't see this at all from the ground...

『Would you care for a final rest area before challenging the First Shell Layer Command Trial Target (Boss Enemy)?』

"Sounds good. There aren't any saves, but let's drop by...!"

Alright, let's de—"Emergency! Emergency!!" Saina, you............

『Ah......... p-please be careful of sudden Gravity Rain......』

Even though it really couldn't be helped, I went to rescue Saina who was currently plummeting after taking a direct hit from a Techno-Magi-Gelus that came rocketing up from directly below, and then, onward to the boss!

Author's Afterword
The situation Sunraku fell into is what the author calls "the phenomenon where you get lucky and win with a weapon you don't normally use, think 'Wait, does this weapon actually suit me?', keep using it, and end up losing horribly and melting your rank."