Chapter 831: December 17th: THICK JAM(MING) BREAD GIRL
『Red, sleeping, swaying, red, awakening, playing, red, red, falling...... the red eyes without eyelids close, and fall asleep at the bottom of the red earth. However, be wary, for sleep is...... accompanied by an awakening.』
『Monster Surprise Attack...... Subjugated!』
『Subjugation Target: Smoldering Great Crimson Wings』
『Raid Battle has ended.』
『Participants: Players affiliated with the Thirdrema Faction』
『Next Raid Commences: 719:59:43......』
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"Eh, the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings was cleared...!?"
Eighthold. The city of crystal, located beyond the valley reeking of death, was currently the stage for a fierce turf war between the New King Faction and the Former King Faction. Pushing and being pushed back, even if one side claimed victory momentarily, the moment they let their guard down, the losing side would launch a surprise attack, returning the situation to a deadlock.
One would think repeating massive-scale PvP for several days would eventually cause fatigue and boredom, but during the Kingdom Turmoil, monsters barely spawned, and Raid Monsters were overwhelmingly powerful enemies that couldn't be dealt with by just five or six players charging in. And perhaps above all, because this was the first ultra-large-scale PvP event in Shangri-La Frontier, the daily turf wars maintained their intensity.
In Eighthold, one of those battlefields, the announcement that the Raid Monster "Smoldering Great Crimson Wings" attacking the Thirdrema Faction had been defeated reached the players of the New King Faction as well.
And one more thing.
The poison that had been secretly planted was now beginning to permeate the players of the New King Faction.
"Ehhhh...... What should I do, I wanted to try fighting the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings too......"
She was one of the members of the Streamer Frontline operating under the name All-Night Knight Karintou. In this struggle for Eighthold, alongside the players who were her fans, she was the central pillar supporting the equilibrium on the New King Faction's side.
"Mmmmm...... What should I do. But the guys on the other side have guts too, so even if we secure the base, we can't let our guard down......"
As her name suggested, Karintou had been fighting continuously, fully utilizing her real-life quirk of being a short sleeper. However, in this Kingdom Turmoil event, the struggle for bases also entailed the concept of defense.
In other words, Karintou, who had planned to completely exhaust and enjoy all the content of this large-scale event from top to bottom, was instead nailed down in Eighthold solely to defend the base.
And Karintou is a streamer. To help her, or perhaps just to play the game with her, her fans joined the same faction as Karintou, and it was they who sustained the daily struggle for Eighthold.
If Karintou moved, they would naturally follow. This meant that the military force maintaining the equilibrium in Eighthold would be hollowed out completely.
"Uuuu......... I wanted to fight a Raid Monster too......"
However, speaking honestly, Karintou felt deeply frustrated about continuing to stay in Eighthold. Her primary reason for specifically choosing this city—the intention to assault the Crystal Nest Cliff—had been interrupted after only ten attempts due to an attack by the Former King Faction, and since then, she had been too busy pushing and being pushed to even think about it. To add to that, the Tormenting Great Green Edge, which she had only attacked once—only once!—was still alive, but the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings, which she hadn't been able to engage with at all, had already been defeated.
Karintou enjoys completely immersing herself in a single thing. She loves struggling through hardship after grueling hardship with all the suffering that entails. In the context of games, she particularly loves "death games"—games where you simply die over and over until you learn the patterns. It isn't that she dislikes FPS-style PvP like this, but it is a fact that it slightly misses the mark of what truly plucks her heartstrings. For example, yes, if the enemy faction has a powerful individual that can be called a "boss," things might be different.
But for some reason, the players attacking Eighthold......... to put it bluntly, were entirely comprised of people whose strength didn't feel particularly outstanding. (Part of this was because the "outstanding strength" Karintou sought leaned closer to the level of monsters, and also because players who logged in continuously for as long as Karintou were in the minority.)
There was a possibility that the Former King Faction didn't view Eighthold as a crucial base, but from Karintou's perspective fighting on the front lines, it felt like she was just being forced to play along with endless stalling tactics.
"....................."
To get straight to the point, Karintou's patience was nearing its absolute limit......... Furthermore, separate from her personal desires, there was another problem: as a streamer, she wasn't fulfilling the demands of the listeners who had come to watch the broadcast of "All-Night Knight Karintou," who was supposed to relentlessly challenge bosses by dying and learning for three days and three nights straight in order to clear them (that was an exaggeration, but her longest continuous stream was indeed 39 hours).
───And because of that, Karintou had inadvertently exposed a massive opening.
It wasn't an opening that would reduce her HP. But it was definitely an ambushing poison that had been planted long ago, and its toxicity would be triggered by the "defeat of the Raid Monster attacking the Former King Faction."
"Hey, did you hear?"
"Eh, hear what?"
It happened when they had repelled the Former King Faction suspiciously easily, and Karintou and the others were preparing for the next assault.
"You know, the Former King Faction defeated that Raid...... Monster? thing, right?"
"Yup."
An exceedingly eye-catching beautiful girl was chatting with a player. Letting her pink hair—a color that would stand out somewhat negatively in real life—sway naturally in the wind, she spoke with an expression perfectly described as 'little devilish.' And the words she spoke reached Karintou's ears with suspicious clarity.
Actually, the mere fact that she could hear the conversation clearly despite being five meters away was already unnatural, but whether Karintou failed to notice, or noticed but was simply too distracted by the content of the conversation itself, she listened.
The girl, with a face perfectly proportioned like a "doll," spoke as if she were singing.
A story of a colossal infant that nearly turned Thirdrema into scorched earth.
Of the Pioneers who, amidst a torrential downpour and through countless deaths, united and severed its head.
That was exactly what Karintou desired. Battles between humans...... taking it to the extreme, if you strip away all moral rules, manners, societal ethics, and common sense, you can do that in real life. But battling threats beyond human comprehension, giant bodies surpassing human limitations, and above all, facing impossible, fantastical entities—that is something that can only be done in a game. And the fact that this ideal battle had taken place and concluded while she was left outside the mosquito net.
".....................Ugh."
Karintou's capacity had already reached its limit. And then, the girl delivered the final blow......... a single swing of a hammer cracking a dam filled to the brim.
"Come to think of it~, that player named OiKatzo who defeated the Smoldering Great Crimson Wings said, 'I'm going to go defeat the Tormenting Great Green Edge right after this.' It's amazing to fight continuously like that, isn't it~. He might actually defeat it too!"
".............................................................................................Alright, let's just go."
The dam broke.
Author's Afterword
If you have the Inventoria, you can make phone calls.
Conquista Dolls sync with the Inventoria.
From there, all that was needed was to use the Conquista Doll's built-in directional speaker to softly whisper directly to Karintou.........
That guy OiKatzo intends to hog all the Raid Monsters, so if you keep dawdling here, the Tormenting Great Green Edge will get eaten up too, you know?
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