Chapter 572: The Destination of the Soft-Bodied Invasive Lifeform Possessing Metallic Properties

Author's Preface

Hei

sei

I got a bit too caught up basking in the aftermath, so the update ended up late. My apologies...

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The "One-Short" Yokai. [*1]

The terrifying thing about this bastard is that it rears its ugly head in absolutely every single field imaginable. Casting its shadow over both real life and video games alike, it gently taps its victims on the shoulder and showers them with absolute despair with a grin on its face... calling it a demonic brute is too soft—it's an executioner acting on behalf of providence and fate itself, a master in the art of human suffering... damn it all...!!

"LF recruit: The 'One-Short' Yokai Subjugation Raid. Need high DPS."

"I feel like we wouldn't stand a chance in that fight..."

God damn it, this is exactly why anything less than a hundred percent is completely untrustworthy, you absolute freak who sold your soul to the goddess of RNG!!

『Near-one! Player: Sunraku-sama's current save data has been awarded a "Blind Dragon"!』

Huh?

"......Well, pursuing the absolute best outcome for everything isn't always the way to go—sometimes it's only through a "better-but-not-best" outcome that you can truly see the bigger picture, you know?"

"Blind Dragon... dragon, eyes... Ah, *Garyo Tensei*." [*2]

So the dragon is stuck on paper forever? Wait, aren't they mocking me in an incredibly roundabout way here?

S-Still, that silent yet fierce battle among the milestone hunters was merely the opening act. Naturally, the real deal only began once we stepped inside the booth itself.

Leaving behind the other milestone hunters—or rather, the premium ticket-holding gentlemen who were hyping each other up with the cozy vibe of close friends—we made our way into Supernova's booth.

Just because the ShanFro booth was a hellish logjam didn't mean the other booths were empty. We navigated a crowd dense enough that you had to weave around people, keeping my pace aligned with Rei-san so we wouldn't get separated as we looked around the displays.

"Whoa, are you serious? Someone actually completed the map for the Third Galaxy? I can't believe they endured that torture... Oh, to explain: in Gal-Tra, mapping progress doesn't actually register until you physically carry your mapped data all the way back to the starting point, Earth."

Which basically meant going out to suffer, and then suffering all the way back—you'd need a seriously resilient psyche to pull that off... and on top of NPC ambushes and space disasters, you also had to worry about super-whales who wanted to maintain a monopoly on sector maps hunting you down. Mapping in Gal-Tra was basically a dish of pure suffering, slow-cooked in suffering, with a generous helping of extra suffering sprinkled on top.

In the past, there was even a three-way fleet war between mega-whales fighting over map data for a certain stellar system. They say you should take your hobbies seriously, but the sheer "seriousness" in Gal-Tra is completely different from your average gamer's; just watching their resources dry up gives me goosebumps, even if it's none of my business. Let's not even ask "how much"...

"Especially since the Third Galaxy had like three black holes back when I was playing, so I've heard it was incredibly common to get an instant game over the second you let your guard down."

"It sounds... incredibly brutal, doesn't it?"

"But that's all pre-patch info, so I don't really know what the current state is."

"At the very least, whether you have ship-mounted cannons that can pierce an enemy vessel in a single shot changes the difficulty entirely; before the update, the strongest tactics in fleet battles were fire shipsself-destruction and ramming attacks. Spain itself would've been absolutely flabbergasted; it's like civilization progressed so far that it looped right back into regression."

"Wow, this is amazing... It actually costs two hundred and fifty thousand yen..."

"Not again, Supernova... seriously, what is your deal? Why are you guys so obsessed with bundling a personal planetarium machine as a game bonus? What is the source of this bizarre planetarium passion? And most of all, why have thirty of them already sold out when they only made a limited run of a hundred...?!"

Dragging my eyes away from a middle-aged gentleman who happily grabbed one of the remaining seventy planetariums, I scanned the area to see what we should check next... and suddenly noticed Rei-san staring at something.

"See something interesting?"

"Ah, no..."

"The 'Galaxy Lottery'?"

I see, a five-hundred-yen-per-draw raffle... so it's probably slightly more luxurious than the lottery cards you see at convenience stores. First prize was, of course, the planetarium machine—do they just have too much surplus stock? No, wait, that's actually the latest model...

"Want to try your luck? Dropping some cash on things like this is the best part of a convention anyway."

"Y-Yes, let's!"

Now, I'm the kind of guy who doesn't hoard tokens for these things—if you're pulling a raffle, buying in bulk is the only way to go! Especially when it comes to the RNG! Go forth, my two thousand yen!!

"Come on, big winner!!"

• Badugamosu-kun Doll (Invasive Lifeform)

• Legendary Gold Badugamosu-kun Doll

• Mysterious Silver Badugamosu-kun Doll

• 1/1,500 Scale Replica "Badugamosu Meteor"

"Badugamosu...!!!"

Who the hell asked for a Badugamosu jackpot...?! This is weird, I feel like I've been pulling some seriously bizarre RNG luck since I got here.

By the way, the "Invasive Lifeform Badugamosu" is an event enemy that appears in GalaTra, and it is one of the few events that can trigger a special game over in a game where you normally only fail if your captain dies or your ship sinks. Well, you can probably guess from the name, but players sunk by Badugamosu turn into a "Badugamosu Infestation" and can attack other players... basically, a zombie plague.

However, the moment a Badugamosu Infestation spawns, a warning broadcast goes out to all players in the surrounding sector, so they usually just get dogpiled and wiped out instantly... yet, for some insane reason, this metallic jellyfish bypassed actually desirable alien races or AI navigators to rise to the status of GalaTra's official mascot, and a glittering lineup of them was now sitting right in front of me. Plus a pretty hefty Badugamosu Meteor... hehehe, I bet countless GalaTra players have met an abrupt end by getting hit by one of these meteors packed with Badugamosu... since I was one of them, twice.

"What did you get, Rei-san?"

"It says... '100% Replica, Second Galaxy AR Observation'."

"Oh, that's third prize."

Whoa, if you connect this to your VR system, it actually auto-updates the data. That's surprisingly high-tech...

"Um... since it's not really much use to me anyway... would you like to have it?"

"No, no, just watch, Rei-san—I'll pull the grand prize with this single extra draw..."

• Phantom Platinum Badugamosu-kun Doll

"...Rei-san, do you want this?"

"Eh, ah, um, are you sure?"

"Well, you know, I've got plenty of Badugamosu-kuns already..."

"Ah, er, thank you so much!"

I actually feel a bit guilty seeing her get so happy over a Badugamosu-kun... oh well, if you squint, it's actually got a somewhat charming face. Though I have no idea what a jellyfish's face is supposed to look like.

"Shall we head to another booth?"

"Ah, yes. Let's... keep looking around, there's still so much to see."

...Just one last roll.

• Reissue Diamond Badugamosu-kun Doll

"What is with this absolute Badugamosu festival..."

"T-That is...?!"

"Eh?"

Suddenly, an old man standing behind me shouted, his eyes wide as he stared at the Diamond Badugamosu-kun striking an indescribably squishy, soft-bodied pose in my palm.

"The Diamond Badugamosu-kun Doll... and the exact same mold as the first production run...?! Impossible, that molddata was supposed to have been destroyed... Did they replicate it perfectly?! So the secret prize wasn't the Platinum Badugamosu-kun after all...? Y-Young man! I know this is highly inappropriate, but would you be willing to sell that to me?!"

"Huh?"

Badugamosu... what on earth are you...?!

The sparkling Diamond Badugamosu-kun in my palm said nothing. Yet, under the venue lights, its tentacles cast a mysterious glow that seemed capable of ensnaring the very souls of men...

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Author's Afterword

• Regarding the Badugamosu-kun Doll

The belief that Badugamosu in Gal-Tra was merely an obstacle-style enemy meant to disrupt play is already ancient history.

A certain player who managed to "capture" a Gold Badugamosu—the core of a Badugamosu Meteor—discovered the secret of the Badugamosu.

That player... the chairman of a major automotive manufacturer, unfortunately passed away in real life from a myocardial infarction, but the final words he left right before his death possessed enough power to shake the Gal-Tra player base, which was just beginning to feel a sense of monotony.

"The unique Badugamosu is leading us somewhere. Find it."

This incident served as the catalyst for the founding of the Badugamosu Research Society. Time passed, and a second incident occurred when a certain player's planetarium machine accidentally scanned a physical Silver Badugamosu-kun Doll that was sold in real life.

Indeed, the planetarium machine linked to Gal-Tra scanned the microchip embedded within the Silver Badugamosu-kun Doll, displaying a locator that pointed toward an uncharted map.

And so, the fire of enthusiasm was rekindled among Gal-Tra players as they searched for the "something" indicated by the Badugamosu. However, due to an unfortunate accident, the molddata for the Diamond Badugamosu-kun was lost, preventing it from ever entering the market, and the in-game spawn conditions for the Diamond Badugamosu remained a complete mystery... but when the sparkle of diamond was reborn at the JGE venue, the history of Galaxy Traveler was about to enter a turbulent phase.

What even is a Badugamosu anyway? (Even the author doesn't know, maybe only the bat knows) [*3].

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Translator's Notes

• [1] The "One-Short" Yokai: (妖怪1足りない, Yōkai Ichi Tarinai): A popular Japanese gaming meme personifying the frustrating phenomenon of being exactly one point, one coin, or one EXP short of a goal as a mischievous spirit.
• [2] Garyo Tensei / Blind Dragon: Garyo Tensei (画竜点睛) is a well-known idiom meaning "putting the finishing touches on something," which literally translates to "painting a dragon and dotting its eyes." Since Sunraku missed the final 50,000th slot by exactly one (landing at 49,999), he failed to "dot the eye" of the dragon, resulting in the joke reward "Blind Dragon" (盲目竜, Mōmokuryū).
• [3] "Only the bat knows" (コウモリだけが知っている) is a famous line from the theme song of the classic 1967 superhero anime Ōgon Bat (Golden Bat).