Chapter 616: The Box Falling to the Sky

Because of the time limit, my bunny girl equipment literally burst and vanished into thin air, so while changing my clothes, I began pleading my case to Rust, who was staring intensely at me with an absolutely terrifying "force" in her eyes.

"───I mean, if you *can* buy it, you're gonna want to buy it, right?"

"...I suppose I can understand that."

Oh, is that a not-guilty verdict!?

"...But since you bought it on your own whim, you are guilty."

"Your Honor, I appeal the decision."

I attempted to appeal while continuing to put my clothes back on, but I suppose expecting Rei-shi to possess the same level of conversational adaptability as those fiends was a bit cruel. Watching the heavy armor panic and fluster about, I couldn't help but think so.

"I-I'm the judge...!?"

"No, no, you don't have to worry about it."

I mean, even as the person who actually bought it, if you were to ask me whether I absolutely needed it, the answer would probably be "not really"...

"Hey Isana, can I return this?"

『I can buy it back for thirty percent of the purchase price.』

"Uuuuggghhhh......"

"Sunraku, I'll buy it for half price."

"I don't really like the sound of that discount, so rejected. Besides, wasn't there still some left in stock?"

I'm pretty sure it said there were three left in stock. Since I bought one, there should be tw... wait, only one left?

『Psyger-0-sama, the Storage Key Inventoria you purchased is currently being prepared, so please wait a moment.』

"............"

"............"

"Eh, um, well, I figured... maybe I did need it after all..."

I should expect nothing less from Rei-shi... Heh, to execute a stealth purchase completely bypassing even my own awareness when I had already bought one myself. Out of all the countless games I've played and all the countless players I've encountered, she operates at a "peak" I've only ever seen in maybe two or three others.

"Look, look, it says there's only one left. You sure about this?"

"You bourgeois... bastards...!!"

I get it, I totally get that feeling. I guess communism was born from moments exactly like this... But This MeSunraku is a winner in capitalism! I'll laugh right in your face, commie-chan!!

"...Wait, do I have just enough to buy it?"

"Eh?"

『Well, there is a discount sale running right now〜』

Silent, yet with lightning-fast window navigation, Rust bought the final remaining Inventoria, slowly turned toward me, and...

"...Money resolves everything."

"It seems you have awakened to the ultimate truth of this world..."

"A-Ah, I don't think money is everything! Truly...!"

"For example?"

"Eh? No, um, well, that... l-love, maybe?"

Whether love can be bought with money is a question that perhaps no one will ever know the answer to...

---

◆

"Fufufu, too bad, Rust-kun... Thanks to bowing my head to Survival, I'm the one who laid hands on the Chestoria first—"

"......This? The Storage Key Inventoria. Compared to the Chestoria, the size of items it can store is nearly ten times larger, and the wearer can even physically enter the storage space themselves... To put it mildly, isn't it a straight-up superior upgrade?"

"......Hahhhhhh??? I-It's not like I'm jealous or anything, and besides, I don't even care about robots or vehicles in the first place, so as long as I can store my firearms, I've got no complaints!"

Even among military geeks, it's not like everyone can just hold hands and get along nicely. It was a sight that condensed the sheer ugliness of humanity, who cannot satisfy their raison d'être without consuming...

"Survival, don't you want something like that?"

"Ah? Well, I mean, I guess I'd want one if I could, but I'm not as desperately hard-pressed as those guys. Besides, until recently, my playstyle was basically to go completely broke on everything except the absolute bare minimum."

"So you could discard your material greed, but you couldn't discard your lolicon tendencies. Do you have to throw yourself off a cliff just to achieve true decluttering?"

"Wait a minute! Why am I being insulted that hard just for answering a question!?"

Because you're a lolicon, obviously. I'll even explain it to you in painstaking detail. Leaning forward slightly, looking up with a grin, and...

"Isn't it because you're a lolicon〜?"

"Nuuuugggghhhh!!!"

"Uh, what is that reaction?"

He suddenly started headbutting a machine gun on display nearby... That's terrifying...

"I am a lolicon. Preferably middle school age or younger."

"O-Oh. I don't think that's something you should declare so proudly, though."

Even Rei-shi is completely appalled. A nekama with an incredibly gruff male voice suddenly declaring himself a lolicon is not something anyone in their right mind would do. Yet, perhaps it had some sort of mental reset effect for him, as he stopped headbutting and struck a sharp, triumphant pose... No, seriously, what is wrong with you? What is driving you insane?

"...Anyway, just asking, but did you guys find some sort of clearance method?"

"No, listen to this, Sunraku! I had a really hard time giving it up in favor of the Chestoria, but there was this incredibly fascinating rifle that actually fabricates its own bullets on the fly—"

"While the abundance of expansion parts for tactical mechs was somewhat expected, I never imagined there would be support mechs specifically designed to assist them."

『Please make sure you actually buy them〜』

Seeing as the two idiots are completely out of the equation... Well, it's not like Rei-shi and I gathered any massive revelations either, so we can't exactly act high and mighty.

"On my end, I tried breaking a few things for testing purposes, but all it did was charge me repair fees. It didn't trigger any security enemies."

This is bad; our current contribution to the clearance is lower than Survival's. I suppose there was a possibility of security bots spawning as enemies, but based on what Survival tested, that doesn't seem to be the case... Does this mean deductive reasoning is critical from here on out? No, I can't really say we have enough clues yet. Just as I thought that—

"...Mold."

"Ah, everyone... I've been looking for you. I went over to that weird place located in the center of the map."

"Oho. So, did you find a boss or something?"

"No, how should I put it... Actually, you should probably see it for yourselves."

See it for ourselves?

......

............

"What on earth is this?"

"A box... with pillars protruding from it, maybe?"

I see. It was exactly as Rei-shi described. And because it was so literally that, its purpose was completely incomprehensible. This bizarre object, which stood out even on the overview map of the Fourth Shell Layer, might look small compared to the scale of the entire layer, but from a human's perspective, it was a glass-walled cube about the size of a luxury mansion with a private yard.

"This, well... you should probably watch what happens. Just keep your eyes on me, okay?"

The glass cube was equipped with an automatic door (which slid open in some bizarre, overly stylized way that a middle schooler would think up as 'futuristic'), and it opened as Mold approached. He took a single step inside... and his figure instantly vanished.

"...He vanished?"

"No, wait, he launched upward!!"

"Launched? No, perhaps we should say... he fell."

Fell upward? No, that's... Formulating a hypothesis based on the phenomenon that just occurred to Mold and the surrounding conversation, I threw my body backward into the space inside the cube without a second thought.

And the exact instant my entire body entered the cube, a force pushed me upward from below... No, that's wrong. This is, without a doubt, falling "downward"!!

"A simple gravity reversal's got nothing on meeee!!"

Twisting mid-air, I landed feet-first onto the approaching ceilingground at terminal velocity. I figured a fall from this height would cause damage even with a perfect landing, but it seems the system is configured to negate fall damage within this area from the start.

"So gravity is inverted only inside this box... By the way, Isana, care to give us an explanation?"

『There is none.』

Okay, the key is clearly this cube. Why go out of the way to invert gravity? What is the reason for this isolated physical law within the Fourth Shell Layer? And how do we reach the Fifth Shell Layer?

The time is already approaching midnight, and I have school tomorrow... If possible, I'd like to head to school with a clear, accomplished mind.

---

Author's Afterword

Sunraku (female avatar) is currently wearing a bunny girl outfit, albeit a relatively low-exposure one.

- There is no "boss" in this area.

- To clear this area, you must defeat the "boss".

In other words?