Chapter 813: December ??th: Enhancing Your Equipment Means Enhancing Yourself

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"......【GrowGrowing-up】!"

In response to the young girl's voice echoing through the late-night sea of trees, the crystal bullet embedded in the ground rapidly began to grow.

"Wow, amazing, amazing! This really is a great weapon, isn't it? Right? You think so too, Isuna-chan, right?"

The young girl—or rather, Hiiragi—frolicked as she looked at the crystal pillar piercing the trunk of a massive tree that made up the sea of trees. Next to her, one of the Goldunines, "Isuna", watched her with half-closed eyes.

"I picked up a really good find〜, though it would have been better if it scattered things more flashily, right? Right?"

"weLl, as long as yoU get a littlE stroNger, aNything is fIne by mE, though."

For Isuna, a "cowardly" and "despicable" Goldunine, she couldn't care less about the origin of that power. As long as it didn't bare its fangs at her and contributed to her own safety, she would even team up with a homicidal maniac. That was Isuna's lifesnake's philosophy philosophy, and her conviction.

Ideally, she wished for an individual who stood out so badly that it would hide her own presence. This was the one point she wanted to demand improvement on from Hiiragi, whose primary focus was stealthy assassinations... but even subtracting that, Hiiragi, who was sharp-eyed toward any threats that could endanger her, was of top-tier quality as a partner.

"Ufufufufufu, secretly holding onto such a〜n amazing item without telling anyone, Sunraku is a coward, isn't he? Right? Right?"

"yoU aRe moStlY unfaIr yourself, areN't you?"

"Eh? How so?"

"……………"

Directed with clear eyes that practically screamed she had absolutely no idea what Isuna meant, even GoldunineIsuna, who possessed an aberrant true nature despite her humanoid form, could understand, "Ah, there's no reasoning with this one." That said, as previously mentioned, Isuna placed no importance on her partner's humanity. And without a doubt, the two items Hiiragi had obtained brought her power that could truly be called an "enhancement."

"When I first tripped and fell, I thought it was a bug, but to make movements excessive like this...... if his appearance is that of a pervert, the items he uses are also perverted, isn't it? Right?"

Levin Trigger: Hazard.

An accessory equipped with various benefits, at the demerit of enhancing the user's movements to an excessive degree... an excessiveness where merely taking a single step forward could mutate into a somersault kick. Hiiragi had already sold off some of the Spoils of WarItems, but she kept only the Brilliant Scorpion GauntletsGilta Brille and this one close at hand.

Hiiragi's style was one-hit absolute kills after approaching in stealth. The Brilliant Scorpion Gauntlets, capable of unleashing a devastating strike, contributed greatly when finishing off Tanks, which she had previously struggled against. And the Levin Trigger: Hazard, once she got used to the excessive movements, would become an all-purpose accessory useful in every situation—offense, defense, and escape.

That being said, while there were performance-based reasons, the real reason Hiiragi kept these two items was that she saw through them as "Only-One Equipment." The concept of "self-reflection" did not exist in Hiiragi's dictionary. She might sneer and call Sunraku a coward for possessing unique weapons, but she felt neither hesitation nor conflict about doing the exact same thing herself.

In all matters, she was the exception, she was special......... Though she exuded an arrogance that might otherwise get her ostracized from society, this woman named Hiiragi had managed to get by through her good looks and a mentality more flexible than slime and tougher than steel.

And this was Shangri-La Frontier. In the end, it was just a game. Even if she assassinated a hundred people and borrowed-slash-stole her victims' equipment a hundred times, it was still nothing more than a game.

Furthermore, PK was permitted by the system in Shangri-La Frontier, and if it was permitted, there was no reason she shouldn't do it. In that regard, she shared a mentality close to Arthur Pencilgon and Survival, who enjoyed PK itself, while also being close to Orcelott, whose goal was the profit gained from PK. Hiiragi was a player who concentrated every element used to categorize the players belonging to the Ashura-kai.

Hiiragi, the person in question, pondered something for a while before posing a question to Isuna with a dark smile.

"Say, Isuna-chan."

"WhAt is it."

"In the not-too-distant future...... that Goldunine? She's going to launch a massive offensive, right? Right?"

"yES, i feEl the preSence......... A daRk, daRk, presence Of murderous intenT......"

"I don't really care about your presences or chills, Isuna-chan, you know? Right?"

"………………"

"The people who were fighting that Goldunine back then...... are probably going to participate in that decisive battle too, right? Right?"

Seeing Hiiragi form a wicked grin, Isuna wore a puzzled expression for a few seconds......... before widening her eyes as she realized.

"aRE yoU seriouslY...... plAnning to target them again?"

"I mea〜n, he's definitely still holding onto a lot of items, right? If so, you'd want to poke at him a little more, wouldn't you? Right?"

Hiiragi's player build was a one-hit absolute kill type, and at the same time, it was an overly specialized PK construction designed as a survival type based on the premise of dying. This meant that until her trick was exposed, she could practically nullify the risks of PKing.

Isuna, however, did not rebuke the smile in Hiiragi's eyes, which looked as though the very word "Greed" was floating in them. In the end, Isuna was Isuna; as long as she herself remained safe and unharmed, she didn't care what happened to anything else.

"I have to start preparing right away, right, right! I'll secure an ambush point and a save point, a〜nd......... Ufufufufufu, with my Brilliant Scorpion Gauntlets, he'll be blown away in a single hit, right? Right? Since he'll probably still be an exhibitionist pervert anyway!"

Hiiragi laid out her re-assassination plan as if she were at the absolute peak of her life. Her face was as innocent as an elementary schooler planning their summer vacation.

……

…………

………………

By the way, are you familiar with the historical idiom "Saiou ga Uma" (The Old Man of the Frontier Lost His Horse)?

Just when you think an old man's horse has run away, that same horse brings back another truly magnificent horse. And just when you think his son fell off that magnificent horse and broke his leg, thanks to that injury, he didn't have to go to war............ In short, it's a phrase meaning that the fortunes and misfortunes of life are unpredictable. But looking at its origins, couldn't you also interpret it like this at the same time?

Good fortune doesn't last long.

"............Heeh?"

A third party's voice, belonging neither to Hiiragi nor Isuna. A person erasing their presence with a stealth art that slipped past Isuna's highly capable perimeter-detection, letting their haori flutter in the wind blowing through the sea of trees as they "pricked up" their ears──────

On their back, a fox's tail swayed merrily.

Author's Afterword

I mean, look, the heavens just...