Chapter 587: Just Like a Meteor That, Though Eroding, Infallibly Delivers Its Might to the Earth
Author's Preface
I pulled two Nibirus, can I call myself a natural-born winner starting today? [*1]
I haven't found a single Tsuchinoko, does that mean I can't?
I bought 3 copies as singles, so I'm an artificial winner. Blessing update.
There are human NPCs mixed in among the androids, but there's no way we could individually distinguish them and pick and choose who to kill. A not-insignificant number of humans have already sunk into pools of blood......... And as for the ones who laid hands on them, meaning us...
"Oh, my level went up."
"Close-Quarters Combat Skill is the only choice."
"No wait wait, you're deciding too fast."
"...Don't you guys feel the urge to, I dunno, allocate at least a little more of your resources towards spaceship management?"
"Since the update made it so you don't get a game over as long as the player is alive, obviously ya just..."
""Board the enemy ship with your full forces and hijack it, right?""
"............Hey Gazelle, Rhino, we're still gonna be friends after this fight is over, right?"
"Whether that happens or not depends on you. Show us some sincerity."
"You guys have both saved my life like five times already, haven't you?!"
"We can use the excuse of forcing favors on each other under extreme conditions, so it doesn't count."
"Wait, by that logic, shouldn't I be the one receivin' the most sincerity around here?!"
"I wouldn't mind some sincerity for my navigating, you know?"
"""Thanks a ton!"""
"Who asked for vague sincerity?"
Well, there's no way a bunch of guys who willingly choose to board an enemy battleship would have any aversion to fighting things, be it PvP or PvE. Furthermore, the entire infiltration team here is well-versed in Musou games and the like, so no matter what kind of faces they charge at us with, they're nothing more than enemies, score points, and experience. If anything, the weapons we can loot from them are meant for humans, meaning we can use them too, so we consider ourselves lucky.
".........We're basically space pirates at this point."
"Hey Fox, you finally said what everyone else was thinking..."
"I think bein' space pirates is fine, though."
『I also think it's fine.』
"Ah, good work out there, Cutting Board-shi. How's the war situation lookin'?"
『To be honest, I've been pushed back to a slight disadvantage, but looking at the big picture, I'm the one who holds the advantage. Having two ships taken down—including the Hexagon Palace—hurts, but we've also taken down two of theirs, including the capture of the Hexagon Palace. And while the Great Wall will finish reloading on the final day, their reload will not be completed before this war ends.』
I see, so that opening blast actually had a proper calculation behind it. Even if it meant accepting the demerit of turning an entire Teraton-Class ship into little more than a lump of metal paperweight right from the start, he chose the merit of being able to fire a strategic weapon twice during the war. And that is a stunt that can only be pulled off by Cutting Board-shi, whose remaining Teraton-Class ships possess enough firepower to cover the hole left by that paperweight.
Furthermore, the loss of the Hexagon Palace counts as a minus 1 for both sides. Actually, since the damage was done to a Teraton-Class he didn't originally own, you could say Cutting Board-shi only lost a single Teraton-Class from his own fleet. Because of this, as of the sixth day, he's managed to create a miraculous situation of total equilibrium.
On the flip side, the progress of our infiltration squad... couldn't exactly be called good. Or rather, it was in a state that could only be called terrible.
"It changed againnnn............"
"Dammit......... I guess the fact that the enemies seem just as lost as us is our one saving grace..."
That's right, after infiltrating the Queen's Throne, we were aiming to take down Deer Horn, but halfway through, their approach shifted from repelling us to delaying us, and as a result, we were struggling against teleportation portals that led to completely different places every time we used them.
According to Cutting Board-shi, teleportation portals aren't supposed to have an interference function like that... but if that's the case, there's only one possibility. A manual shuffle. Deer Horn herself is likely manually changing the destination of the portals one by one to keep us away from the core. This was practically confirmed by the movements of the Queen's Throne, which had reduced its counterattacks against Cutting Board-shi's assaults to almost purely mechanical responses... but even so, the employer couldn't just sink the Queen's Throne along with the hired players inside it.
Honestly, if I were Cutting Board-shi and I had sent Pencil or Katzo to infiltrate, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to sink it, but for someone like Cutting Board-shi, who sits near the summit of capitalism, betraying trust is apparently completely out of the question......... Ah, so that's how it is.
"I'm so sorry for constantly dragging you guys down..."
『No, you've fulfilled your role perfectly just by halving the functionality of the Queen's Throne... There's no need to worry.』
Even so............ No, let's stop keeping up appearances. Honestly, it's not even about whether we're contributing to Cutting Board-shi or not anymore. The fact that we are being made to wander through this trash game labyrinth by a single person's tear-inducing manual shuffling has all of us pretty heated up; our brain's lubricating oil has run dry, and the overall atmosphere is getting seriously toxic. Can't be helped, I guess I'll light a fire under 'em. I... Gazelle-sama, who somehow always ends up acting as a disposable pawn despite living such a pure and righteous life.
"Leader, I have a proposal."
"...Let's hear it."
"If we keep this up, we'll just wander around until the final day and that'll be the end of it. I think we should take a gamble right here, right now."
"What exactly do ya mean by that?"
"I mean, whether we go forward or back, it just shuffles, right? Sometimes we can even get back to where we started if their speed can't keep up... but remember how hellish it was when it connected us straight to a security guard station?"
"That's exactly why we discard all thought and hesitation."
"............?"
Basically, it means this.
◆
"Chaaaaaaarge!!!!!!!!"
"It's a dead end!"
"Shut up! Go back! Push forward!"
"Multiple hostiles spotted!"
"Shut up! Push forward! Push forward!!"
"Hey, you bastard! Gazelle, I ain't NEVER lettin' ya call me a muscle-brain again!!"
"Shut up! Push forward! Push forward! Push forwaaaaard!!"
Discard your ability to think! Rely on nothing but your instincts to guide your actions! A top-tier pawn doesn't think too deeply! Chaaaaaaarge!!!!!!!!
So what if it's a manual shuffle! That just means their reaction speed is only on the level of an average human, so we just have to run through faster than that and reach the inner citadel before they can shuffle us! Make haste, less speed? I'm making haste and hauling ass! If I take the shortest, fastest route, then even if it's a detour, I'll set a World Record!!
"Open up the greatest path of survival with the absolute minimum effort! Even if they put up a barrage, crushing one guy opens a path for one person!!"
"That path of survival is gonna get the four guys behind you killed!!"
"...But we have to go at least this far to break through!"
I take the lead, dive into the security guards, and cause chaos, followed immediately by Rhino crashing in with brute force. The rearguard mows down the broken formation as we keep pushing forward. Since we aren't aiming for total annihilation but rather a forced breakthrough, the amount of damage we can't completely ignore keeps piling up... but we ignore it and keep pushing! Stepped on a teleporter! Dud! Charge! Charge! Stepped on a teleporter!! Chaaarge!!!
"I'm almost out of ammo! Does anyone have any?!"
"Loot it from the corpses!"
"The specs don't match! Dammit, gimme that gun!!"
"Hey! I'm pretty sure I'm gonna drop soon...!"
"...Push through, with sheer guts!!"
"Sorry Fox! Don't lend us your guts, lend us your brains! It's a puzzle lock!!"
"...At a time like this? No, wait, did you say a puzzle lock?"
A brief silence, the only sound echoing being the *ping-ping* of bullets striking Rhino's Armor... and then, immediately after, a ray of light pierced through the path of survival like lightning in all of our minds.
"Fooooox! Crack it open ASAP!!!"
"Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes!!"
"...Don't pressure me! Don't rush me! My hands will slip!!"
I can see it, the inner citadel! Brace yourselves, 'cause we're raiding this joint!!
Author's Afterword
Manual Shuffle.
A minor trick utilizing the so-called interior remodeling of the ship. However, it's not as convenient as you might think. In order to remodel, players and NPCs cannot be present in the area before or after the teleportation. Therefore, Deer Horn had to constantly check two sectors ahead of where the players currently were and meticulously tweak the sectors one by one... for several days, continuously.
Gazelle and his crew aren't the only ones whose crazy-meters were filling up.
Translator's Notes
- [1] Nibiru / Tsuchinoko: A reference to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards "Nibiru, the Primal Being" and "Danger!? Tsuchinoko?".
Comments
Post a Comment