Chapter 794: December 15th: What Do You Think Upon Seeing the Slashing Blade?・1
Author's Preface
Dedicated to all Skyfarers-sama......... especially the opposing Crew who entered Assault Time right from the morning, I want you to drop all your other work for the day and read this...... [*1]
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"Hmm, I knew this would happen, but I don't feel like I'm contributing to the firepower at all."
Putting the rifle with its red-hot barrel into his storage space, Yashirobird sighed as he pulled out a different rifle.
From the moment he saw it was an entire body of super-vibrating metal, he had vaguely suspected it would have a fatal compatibility mismatch with firearms. Even bullets that would blow a human's head clean off in real life are something some humans can somewhat endure here depending on their VIT.
So does that mean the "gun" weapon category is completely worthless? Not at all. If that were the case, bows and arrows would be treated even more pitifully. Guns have their own strengths......... and now was the time to demonstrate them.
"Good grief... pulling off entertaining moves as always, hah!"
Witnessing the sight of Tomahawk's melted and severed arm-blade sticking out of the ground through his scope, Yashirobird took his eye off the lens and captured the Perpetrator flying straight up into the sky and the Victim letting out a roar mixed with a scream in his naked vision.
Intentionally allowing the heating to continue, and severing it the moment its hardness is slightly compromised. If it were just that, executing it wouldn't be too difficult for any experienced swordsman player. But a player who could tack on the condition of "accelerating and flying straight up into the sky from a standing position"... if he searched, there might be someone, but no one came to Yashirobird's mind right now.
"At this rate, people will think guns are useless..."
That absolutely must not happen. In reality, that wasn't a matter of swords being amazing or anything like that, but if he just kept acting as a mere blinder like this, no one else but Yashirobird himself would be unsatisfied.
In that case, he had to show his power. Against the True Dragon Species "Tomahawk," upon which most of the firearms Yashirobird brought were ineffective, he had to show the brilliance of the weapon known as a gun.
"Fufufufufu... Test firing aside, this will be its first actual combat deployment. Well, the opponent isn't lacking."
Chestoria is the budget version of Inventoria, and although the function to teleport the user into the storage space was removed, it was in no way inferior to Inventoria in terms of acting as a limitless item bag.
Yashirobird operated his Chestoria and summoned three objects into real space.
"SP Duty Execu-Device Type: Cowl Kenin... its name is 'One shot is everything'. And this is my trump card... a legacy of the Divine Age, the great magic bullet left behind by predecessors worthy of respect even within a game!!"
The first was a musket rifle that seemed to regress in time despite its sci-fi appearance. Born from a design brought about by research and trial-and-error so intense it felt bordering on madness, contrasting with its antiquated nature as a gun, its structure was specialized purely for deploying a certain type of bullet.
And the second, a grenade launcher that Yashirobird had also designed for a certain operation. This itself was meant to be used in the preparatory stage to fully utilize his trump card.
Finally, the third......... it was a magazine to be loaded into a firearm. But for that to exist independently... was a somewhat abnormal thing in the game known as Shangri-La Frontier.
The reason being, firearms in Shangri-La Frontier fundamentally do not have magazines existing as individual items. From handguns to rocket launchers, whether firing live rounds or energy blasts, the gun itself generates the bullets. This is precisely because of the highly convenient lore justification known as magic power... mana particles, even if a magazine visibly extends out as a visual gimmick, it is never physically detached from the gun
As an exception, there are indeed guns that equip external extended energy batteries and the like, but the thing Yashirobird pulled out was a genuine magazine. Which meant it was an item that produced bullets completely independent of any firearm... and this, above all else, was the greatest trump card Yashirobird possessed.
A rugged clump of metal the size of a palm. On its surface were the words "Lewis & Gilbert" alongside another, distinct engraving.
『SAMIEL Bullet-IV: Megrez』
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"Give me a break, seriously..."
Survival sighed as he stared at his sky-piercer halberd, its blade chipped after the heavy abuse of repeated clashes and defending against sturdy blades.
Not because it was broken, and not because his weapon had become useless......... no, the source of Survival's melancholy was the terrifying self-proclaimed ourc, the King Hound.
His performance was truly peerless in strength. An outer shell that excelled at protecting his flesh to a terrifying degree, even though one's eyes were drawn to its aggressive sharpness. The blows unleashed from his four limbs easily shattered boulders and made the dragon's massive frame tremble.
And despite all that, through some unknown principle, he supplemented his mobility by jetting magic power from his body.
—Ur Idim could not output speeds fast enough to lose sight of.
—Ur Idim could not unleash a hail of gunfire from long range.
—Ur Idim could not use magic to manipulate fire or lightning.
—However, Ur Idim could rely entirely on his physical durability to hold the frontline indefinitely.
And that meant he heavily overlapped with Survival's role... and though he didn't want to admit it, was practically a superior upgrade.
"Dammit... Can't they just let me use that avatar...?"
Ur Idim's specs—focusing heavily on hand-to-hand combat where every single strike was a lethal, sure-kill blow—were the exact pinnacle Survival had aimed for when he first started ShanFro... yet, it was the culmination of a dream he had tearfully given up on.
"But still... what should I do?"
He wasn't talking about comparing himself to Ur Idim, but about how to deal with Tomahawk.
In the first place, against an enemy that was essentially full-body metal like Tomahawk, Survival's physical strength was barely producing any effective hits. Strictly speaking, "attacks where he simply swings his weapon are almost entirely ineffective" would be the correct phrasing, but even so, compared to Ur Idim whose every single strike reliably shook Tomahawk to its core, it was a fact that he paled in comparison.
"...Hah. I'd love a life where I could get whatever I begged for, but if it's useless, it's just a waste of time. In that case, as long as I land even one more hit, a path to victory will start showing itself!!"
That was how he had walked through life; that was how he had survived on isolated islands. In that case, even in Shangri-La Frontier, this grand principle would not waver. If this was a game as close to reality as possible... then his way of living in Reality and his way of living in this other Dream couldn't possibly be wrong.
"I hate settling for being a hyena, but......... Ur Idim!!"
"Did You Call?"
"Anything's fine! Can you make a wound for me!? I'm gonna pry it open!!"
"Understood."
Survival's attacks could barely serve as effective hits against Tomahawk, but as previously mentioned, that was "if he simply swung his weapon." In other words, what if he didn't just swing, but added an extra step?
The strongest strike he had once dreamed of; what he gave up on was merely one of the paths to it.
"This is party play. Competing ain't bad, but I gotta cooperate too."
The answer Survival had arrived at after endless trial and error—it was choosing not to make his current main job a brawler-type, but rather acquiring the highest-tier warrior job, "War King."
The War King is a king of battle who masters all weapons and draws out their true value. Through "Martial Might Unleashed," which boosts the output of skills corresponding to the equipped weapon, it becomes possible to wield any weapon with an output equivalent to a specialized class. (Though, since one must distribute skills and magic across each weapon, it falls short of a job truly hyper-focused on a single art.)
"I don't care what your whole body is made of, classification-wise you're a living creature, right? Then this thing's effect should work on you too, right?"
Blood-Soaked Champion's Belt. It was the championship prize for a certain PvP content existing within ShanFro, and the proof of Survival's "Ashura-Kai Clean Sweep," which proved that the Ashura-Kai's rankings were based on kill counts and not necessarily an indicator of pure strength.
Wrapping the cestus—stained a dark reddish-black by the ingrained blood of his victims—around his fist and taking a stance, the target of his glare was the Blade Dragon.
"I'm gonna smash ya... 'Juuhou Toukaken'!!"
Even if he had a special anti-dragon effect, even if he could move faster than him. There was no logic that said a half-naked guy with lower STR than him could do it while he couldn't.
The power to pin down and crush any enemy was, right now, undeniably gripped tightly within Survival's hand.
Author's Afterword
・Blood-Soaked Champion's Belt
Championship prize of the underground fighting tournament in the Old Continent's underworld. A round-robin tournament is held under the restriction where everyone can only equip unbranded cestuses, and upon winning the championship, the champion's cestus is completed, dyed red with the blood of the defeated.
It possesses an ability where its power increases the more the opponent is injured. The way it drives opponents to their deaths with inexhaustible violence is truly the embodiment of a blood-drunk, cruel champion.
The Ashura-Kai had all its members participate in this underground tournament, and as a result, Survival beat down almost everyone to take the championship. (Pencilgon withdrew, saying "Eh? There's no way I'm doing a legit fistfight with Survival-kun," so it wasn't everyone.) (Your back is wide open, Orcelott!!)
I originally intended to fit this all into one chapter, but describing these guys took too long so I'm splitting it into a first and second half.
Translator's Notes
- [1] Skyfarers / Assault Time: A reference to the mobile game Granblue Fantasy, where players are called Skyfarers. "Assault Time" (AT) is a daily period providing massive buffs, especially critical during the highly competitive Guild Wars (Unite and Fight) event.
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