Chapter 734: Dashing Through the Night, Dashing Through the Morning
Author's Preface
A terrifyingly difficult birth... A rare case where even the author writing it hasn't fully grasped this character's personality.
All-Night Knight Karintou has the toughness that makes continuous logins of over ten hours possible if she puts her mind to it.
And, All-Night Knight Karintou has the toughness that makes continuous logins spanning twenty hours possible if she puts her mind to it.
Of course, because there is an upper limit on continuous login time enforced by the Full-Dive VR system's safety mechanism, and because playing in Full-Dive for too long triggers windows recommending logout to a point she finds "annoying," she simply chooses not to.
"T-Then I'll be logging off..."
"Yes, thank you for your cooperation, Rombat-san."
"This person is completely fine... good work out there."
Because of this, among the players commonly referred to as the Streamer Alliance, she was the individual pouring the most time into Shangri-La Frontier.
"Is your real life okay?"—asking that is an unspoken taboo among her viewers. It has absolutely nothing to do with any alimony related to her ex-boyfriend.
Seeing off the last of the players who had accompanied her on her prolonged material-gathering session as they logged out, Karintou pondered what to do next.
There was a Karintou thinking she should probably log out soon as well, but there was also a Karintou thinking, "No, there are still materials I want, maybe just two more hours..."
If this were a stream, she could wrap it up when it was time for her viewers to return to their daily lives, but fortunately or unfortunately, Karintou was currently not streaming, but in the middle of a private "farming session."
"The New Continent〜... it would be great if I could go there, though."
The New Continent is currently in a state where it could be called the stronghold of the Former King faction. From a player's perspective, there is no reason to discriminate against demi-humans, and because the highly popular "Saint" NPC belongs to the Former King faction, it is a bit difficult for the New King faction to strut around openly.
Of course, there is also the harsh reality that, before even considering that problem, it simply takes way too many days physically to get there, making it impossible.
"It's really lucky that Behemoth was unlocked. Thank you so much, Tsuchinoko-san."
Leviathan is inaccessible due to physical distance, but Behemoth—which can be entered simply by reaching Firstia—is incredibly appreciated by Karintou, who can only utilize the facilities of the Old Continent.
In the Kingdom Turmoil scenario, areas before Thirdrema and after Nineshill are functionally unaligned, despite players belonging to either faction. At the very least, going to Behemoth is far easier than trying to sneak into the cities where the main headquarters of both factions are located.
The FPS enthusiasts who belonged to the same faction as Karintou were lamenting the fact that they couldn't utilize Leviathan for its abundance of Divine Age weaponry. But for Karintou, who preferred fighting with fantasy-style equipment, the only thing she ultimately demanded from a facility like Behemoth was unlocking the level cap.
"Hmm... well, I'll just recover my equipment durability for now and..."
It was at that moment.
"Die!!"
"!?"
An echoing voice, approaching shadows, and a bullet piercing into Karintou's flank as she reflexively turned around...
Karintou's HP decreased, and the knockback sent the petite frame of the female avatar collapsing to the ground.
"We got 'er!"
"Nice shot!"
"Surround her, surround her! We're splitting the dropped items evenly!!"
"If she's a streamer, she's gotta be hoarding a ton!"
(Ah, were they targeting me from somewhere, maybe?)
Karintou had imagined massive damage coming from a weapon like a gun, but apparently its power was lower than its appearance suggested; checking her HP as she fell, it hadn't even decreased by twenty percent. While listening to the clamoring voices, Karintou quickly assessed the situation.
Their Player Names were red, meaning they were Player Killers who had already killed someone. Moreover, they were premeditated attackers who ambushed her knowing she was "All-Night Knight Karintou." To tell the truth, Karintou's inventory—having just finished a farming session—contained nothing but near-broken equipment and massive amounts of raw items...
(Hmm... it's apparently fine to kill Player Killers, but will my equipment hold up?)
Her equipment, which had already endured hours upon hours of repeated bashing and striking, could shatter at any moment. While it wasn't her absolute best gear, the Amursidian Quartz equipment she had crafted with the cooperation of various connections for long marathon runs was far too precious to lose.
"Well then... I don't want to drop my items either, so I will be resisting, okay?"
"Ha! Like you can win against these numbers!!"
"Feel free to stream it! Though it's just gonna be a video of you losing!!"
"Hyahha!"
There were three of them. One of them seemed like a roleplayer who had abandoned all shame, but the remaining two gave off a genuine vibe. In reality, this ambush was carried out by a villain roleplayer formerly of the Ashura-kai and two others he had instigated to team up with him.
The main culprit was likely the one making movements oddly accustomed to anti-player combat; compared to the other two who seemed somewhat flighty, his wariness toward Karintou's movements was clearly ingrained.
(But the one holding the gun is this person... Ah, could it be that his villain role is leaning towards pro-wrestling?)
Rather than a serious ambush, he was the type of heel wrestler villain who gives the person being attacked a chance... or rather, a moment in the spotlight. Simply being a Player Killer was an absolute nuisance, but since she could counterattack thanks to that, it was an appreciated consideration from Karintou's perspective.
"Now then..."
Two spear users and one gun user. Surely he wouldn't fight using only a gun, but he didn't show any signs of pulling out another weapon, and there was even a chance he might strictly refuse to use anything else unless pushed into a corner.
Karintou temporarily lowered the priority of the gun user, keeping the two spear users in her line of sight as she drew her weapon.
"Eh..."
"A hammer...?"
"You might know this if you've seen my archives, but I really love bludgeoning things, you know?"
The two-handed large mallet gripped in both her arms was massive and heavy, even compared to standard ones. Closer in size to a mochi-pounding pestle, the heavy, jet-black surface of the hammer gleamed brightly in the morning sun.
"S-Somehow, that's really intimidating..."
"Isn't that bad news?"
That black hammer was not a Hero Weapon, nor a Champion's Weapon, nor a Unique Weapon. It was crafted by a player's hands, yet it was merely a preset-type hammer that had a name automatically assigned to it the moment it was completed as a weapon.
But the time that black hammer had spent experiencing combat was long and dense. Simply put, it was nothing more than a mass-produced sledgehammer, yet it radiated an intimidating aura that did not fall short of weapons wielded by heroes.
"There's nothing to be afraid of! It can't hurt more than a monster's charge!!"
The two spear users had been overwhelmed by the battered sledgehammer, but spurred on by the gun user, they pulled themselves together and—
"Ei."
"Hah? Oboah!?"
"She threw it!?"
One of them caught the very black hammer Karintou had hurled with a full swing square in the face, blowing him away.
"Hmm... the durability is pretty much near zero, so I'm going to make each and every hit count, alright? Do your best!"
Without missing a beat, Karintou pulled out a second sledgehammer from her inventory—bearing the same name and radiating the exact same intimidating aura as the one she just threw: "Sturdy Impact Hammer of the Courageous Black". Out of the twelve sledgehammers whose durability was almost completely depleted from grinding relentlessly for over six hours, she hurled them, sometimes gripping them to swing them around wildly.
"...This is bad. Can't afford to act like we've got leeway here."
Just ahead of the gun user pulling out his true weapon, a massive machete, Karintou was bringing the black hammer down on the crown of a player's head with a smile on her face.
All-Night Knight Karintou has the toughness that makes continuous logins of over ten hours possible if she puts her mind to it.
And, All-Night Knight Karintou is a strike-specialized power player who excels in fierce assaults utilizing mass and quantity, making the absolute most out of her personal capabilities.
Author's Afterword
・Sturdy Impact Hammer of the Courageous Black
In terms of weapon properties, it doesn't possess any special abilities, but has an absurdly high durability stat that barely decreases—a type similar to the Iron Katana 【Swirling Vortex White Waves】. Including the ones broken during her runs, Karintou was carrying close to 20 sledgehammers while grinding (she stuffed dropped items into the slots freed up as weapons and items were consumed mid-combat).
As for how she acquired such a massive amount of Amursidian Quartz, she gathered about 100 players and, under the condition of "no hard feelings if you die", repeatedly charged the Crystal Nest Cliff en masse in an ultra-power play for three days straight (total sleep time: 4 hours).
Therefore, although she hasn't actually defeated the Crystal Scorpions (since everyone just runs around scattered), she has an absurd amount of outer shell drop items, making her the second richest scorpion-material owner right behind Sunraku. And she's the type of woman who becomes extremely dangerous if given an infinite inventory.
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