Chapter 869: December 20th: Dress Up!

Author's Preface

This is a countermeasure for the Ancient Battlefield. (Advanced tactics to make the reader skyfarers read this and get a late start on their opening dash.)

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To tell the truth, there is quite a gap between the "Sunraku he projects to those around him" and the "actual Sunraku."

The numerous weapons and armor that I appear to be mastering are, in reality, mostly just being swung around as is. To truly be said to have mastered something in ShanFro, you really need the skills to back it up.

I'm just glossing it over with flashy appearances and movements that do nothing but catch people off guard, but my actual depth is far shallower than I'm leading everyone to believe.

"No matter how many Unique Monsters you've defeated, and even assuming you've gone all-in on a pure physical build, a player's skill resources are finite! Tsuchinoko-san, you've already been thoroughly researched on the PvP BBS...!!"

Therefore, while it honestly creeps me out that they were researching me without my permission, I knew—or rather, I understood—that sooner or later someone would show up who had cut deeply into the depths of my hand.

"Researching me, I'm not some boss monster..."

"You're practically the same thing, aren't you?"

I wouldn't mind having this brawl out in a courtroom instead of here, you know.

That being said, PvP is a piece of content in this game that is just as, if not more, hyped up than PvE, and the player named "Akasha" declaring that they had formulated countermeasures based on that research and come here... from the looks of it... is a swordsman, maybe? They have unremarkable equipment. Since I just fought a completely disguised mage earlier, there's no guarantee that what's presented visually is what I'll actually get. Especially since they went out of their way to declare that they've prepared countermeasures against me...

It's better to be on guard. (The opponent changes their sex using the Blue Chalice).

I have to steel myself to reveal some of my hand too. (The opponent then changes into black clothes using R.I.P.).

Alriiiight, the direction of my caution shouldn't be towards a PvP player, it should be towards an "idiot"!! (The opponent readies what is unmistakably a chainsaw with a vroooom!)

"Hah-ha! Behold this Lamentation Dedicated to the Black DeathRequiescat in Pace!"

"......The design seems quite different from the one I know, though."

"Hehehe... It seems even Tsuchinoko-san didn't know... Lamentation Dedicated to the Black DeathRequiescat in Pace has rare patterns!"

Seriously? I thought mourning clothes were the only option... no, wait, they share the mourning clothes aspect, but there are differences in the specific design of the mourning clothes?

"By the way, the moment I pulled this, I redid my character creation to match it perfectly."

"You're way too decisive."

I see, so they've played enough to reach the point where they can redo character creation at the Leviathan or Behemoth... I see. The fact that they went out of their way to change their gender with the Blue Chalice means they've also cleared Ctarrnid. They call themselves a PvP player, but they're completely diving headfirst into the deep end of ShanFro's content.

A figure clad in jet-black clothes that are unmistakably Gothic Lolita, revving a chainsaw with a gyarun-gyarun—I can only say they've clearly wandered into the wrong game... I doubt you'd even find the 'fan' in 'fantasy' left in that image.

"Now then........."

Even so, a chainsaw... a chainsaw, huh......... I have absolutely no idea how a chainsaw behaves in this game......... well, it's not like I don't have experience fighting against chainsaws themselves, but in a world setting like ShanFro where pulling off inhuman movements with skills and spamming miracles with magic is the whole point, a chainsaw......... Even for this kind of non-fantasy weapon, if you dig deep enough in the Leviathan or something, you could probably find skills for it.........

At that moment, in the corner of my vision, I noticed a shadow making movements that could hardly be called those of a spectator. For some reason, people weren't gathering around that specific spot... or rather, it was as if a blank space had been created because everyone else was avoiding that one person............

"Ah..."

Over there, a handsome man with a perfectly proportioned, sculpted body clad in a maid outfit was frantically gesturing with bloodshot eyes............ If this were real life, the cops would have already been called.

That said, it was Elysion Haute-Couture. My relationship with him is business-like, but it's not like we're unrelated. And although I'm the client, I have to fulfill one of his requests.........

Namely.

『NOW IS THE ONLY TIME!!!!』

"Ah, yes, yes........."

Feeling a slight headache at the signboard that had only a timing instruction hastily scribbled on it, completely omitting the "what", I still understood what he wanted to say.

To conduct a performance test of that, and to advertise it. Gathering data from a raw combat situation, something you can't understand just by yelling "Ready, set, go!" and swinging a sword at each other. Since I also desire that data, it works out for me.

"I see. A rare pattern for R.I.P.......... you've shown me something good. Then I guess I should return the favor..."

"What...?"

"Just transforming is out of style, you know."

I operate the Inventoria. Since this thing called the Storage Key Inventoria is packed with all the "It'd be nice to have a UI like this" features you could want in this game, things like Equipment Presets or Batch Equipping aren't just a matter of having them or not; the "quality" is completely different with or without Inventoria.

Strictly speaking, it's an upgraded feature installed into Inventoria by incorporating the functions of the Dressing Key Dresseria, but.........

"For something like this, it's basically mandatory to say it, right?"

"Say what..."

Isn't it obvious?

"───Henshin."

It's the wonderful wordmandatory trope for becoming a different you.

───To change the subject for a moment, what exactly is the Storage Key Inventoria in the first place?

In game terms, it's an infinite inventory. It has no upper limit on capacity, and for some crazy reason, the upper limit on the "size" of the objects that can be stored is absurdly large, making it a stupid item that lets you carry around even a ship. Well, obviously, things that are too massive take time to deploy (or rather, they've come to take time to deploy), so you have to use your head a bit to use them in actual combat, but...

Setting that aside. By what logic does this Storage Key Inventoria infinitely store items in the lore...? It seems it doesn't actually send the physical object itself into the storage space. I was curious about various things and asked the self-proclaimed intelligent Conquista DollSaina and the seemingly helpful but not really Ship GhostsIsana and Ivory... and the long and short of it is, it supposedly teleports the matter into the storage space as "information."

Even if I try to pick holes in sci-fi with modern knowledge, they'd just shoot me down with "Have you heard of fiction?", but converting matter into Magibytes instead of Gigabytes or Terabytes and uploading it to storage is a ridiculous setting. Or rather, biologically speaking, am I not dead while I'm inside the storage space?

That being said. No matter how absurd it may be in this world that the Storage Key Inventoria scientifically causes this ridiculous miracle of "materializing information," it's accepted as such. Furthermore, it seems there are numerous settings like "Imaginary Mass" or "Disguised Material Quantity" that 【Library】 members would probably talk passionately about for three days and three nights......... but by utilizing that, apparently, you can do things like this.

『DRESS-UP PROTOCOL：SET』

『REALITY-EXPANSION：START』

With a whoosh, a "cloth" emerged as if bubbling up from the Inventoria, spreading out as if it possessed its own will, enclosing and concealing me like a curtain.

"Using ARAugmented Reality inside VRVirtual Reality is a pretty confusing concept, but..."

Something that is there yet not there, a curtain of illusionsholograms that hides my figure even without physical substance. From the outside, it probably looks like only my silhouette is floating there... because that's how I set it up.

Within that silhouette illuminated by light, a shadow reflecting almost exactly the outline of a human due to my nearly unequipped state, the equipment set up for this sequence of events is automatically equipped. Personally, I find the ability to auto-equip accessories very convenient.

"The default transformation bank is already outdated."

My silhouette changes from a bland humanoid shape into a different form. The silhouette changing shape within the light is in itself similar to R.I.P.'s transformation sequence, but......... this one has a different level of "modesty," since I'm hiding my changing with a curtain.

"The cutting edge of this era is custom transformation banks."

The moment the silhouette's transformation was complete, the holographic curtain converted from cloth to flames. The curtain of fire became a vortex, flickered... and then opened. As if, even after turning into flames, it hadn't forgotten its role as a curtain. And it also fulfilled its other role... to unveil what was hidden inside.

"Let's do this, Gothic Lolita Chainsaw."

"A maid outfit...!?"

The curtain of fire opened and dissipated. As I, who was inside, took a step forward... the sound of my boots stepping firmly on the wasteland rang out, completely different from before.

Crafted by Elysion Haute-Couture, the Duelling-Grade Maid Outfit "Eternity". Armed with the Centipede Type 8-0.5Tausend, crafted by Vysache.

Resting what looked like a clumsy club on my shoulder, I pointed my index finger at Akasha and stated plainly.

"Let's wrap this up quickly."

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Author's Afterword

Q: But isn't what he's doing just a flashy bluff?

A: Because this is a world where bluffing turns into actual power, it might seem like a joke, but in terms of the lore, it's quite logical. There was an idea proposed where, when Wethermon sorties, displaying a massive Leviathan emblem and having him go on a rampage would apply a buff to humanity as they are of the "same faction." However, it was rejected because "Wait, wouldn't that mean if humanity was at a disadvantage, Wethermon could end up getting nerfed as collateral damage?"

To explain the principle extremely simply:

By making the opponent perceive the "presentation of being enveloped in flames and emerging from within," you plant the perception that "the opponent must be strong against fire," and based on the opponent's perception, a debuff is applied to them meaning "fire won't work on the opponent." That kind of thing.