Chapter 896: December 20th: Bone and Blood
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A second death.
(What, what happened!? What did he do!!?)
However, the black smoke constructing Garunose's current body rejected that death once again; until he met his true death, Garunose still had one revival remaining—no, even if he refused, the revival was compulsory.
(My torso... something hit the center of my chest. There's no doubt I was attacked... the problem is, "What was I attacked with"...)
Garunose checked his status while praying, simultaneously scrutinizing his memories of the last few seconds in finer detail.
(A strike after a flashbang-like blinder... was the light itself only a "Nekodamashi"? No, the light was too weak for that. Most likely... I only saw a skill effect from point-blank range.)[*1]
That was the correct answer. The "thing" Sunraku used had no blinding effect. However, because he saw that dazzling golden radiance from ultra-close range, Garunose missed seeing "what was done" to him.
But,
(No... it was a "kick." A front kick, or a Kenka Kick... Ah, he baited me too, huh.)
Astonishingly, every one of Garunose's deductions was correct—the flash had been a skill effect, and from the sensation of the impact, he saw through Sunraku's plan to use the golden sword as a decoy from the very beginning and drive a kick into him.
Looking only at the results, it was a disgrace where he fell for a bluff, exposed his hand, and got an extra life shaved off. The fact that he revived meant the demerits of "Beautiful Memory Form Loss" could not be ignored.
(This is bad......... As expected, losing two-thirds is naturally going to cause malfunctions, huh.)
The price of revival, a demerit where one-third of his "total number" of skills and magic became unusable in combat with every revive.
For the first time earlier, he was lucky enough that low-priority skills were selected, but by the second time, it inevitably hindered his movements.
(I can't swing the enlarged Supreme Trampling Dragon Hoof anymore, huh... though it looks like I can at least support it.)
Most of his STR-reinforcing skills had become unusable, and every attack skill for the mace had been disabled as well.
That meant his high-multiplier damage corrections were practically sealed.
(......I'm getting fired up.)
Even so, Garunose concluded his own state and the combat situation as "minor damage."
(No-healing restriction, skill restriction, what's next? A first-encounter restriction? It's nothing much, just the usual.)
The streamer known as "Garunose" originally operated solo even before forming the "PayaGaru Channel" (though the same was true for Payabusa).
Even within Full-Dive VR, Garunose streamed a wide variety of action games. His career was long, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a veteran streamer.
For such a Garunose, there was one type of stream regarded as a staple, even as his fans teased him with comments like "The usual scheduled stream," "A seizure," and "The day has finally come when we can say, 'Again this year, huh?'"
That was naturally, of course, and without a doubt, his "Lone Wolf" series streams.
Normal playthroughs, weapon-restricted runs, no-healing runs, boss time attacks, Any% RTA, 100% RTA, and even all games back-to-back RTAs. From the base game to DLC, and though he didn't do it on stream, even mods.
For Garunose, who had tasted and sucked the marrow out of every conceivable form of "Lone Wolf," the fact that an enemy reminding him of Lone Wolf was strong was nothing but a joy.
(Giving it my absolute all right here isn't a bad thing...!!)
That passion was soaked into his very bones.
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That skill has the absolute worst compatibility with me......... but at the same time, you could say it has the best compatibility with me.
Just as "Warphan" fluctuates its effect based on the force of the punch, this skill fluctuates its effect based on the "number of party members."
The more party members there are, the shorter the flash emitted by this skill lasts, but the more blindingly brilliant it becomes.
The Exordinary Skill "Imperial Gold Era," the kick that received its super-enhancement modifier was the trick behind the attack that shaved away Garunose's HP in a single blow. Unfortunately, I have no intention of revealing the trick behind it.
The maximum modifier for "Golden Age" requires fourteen party members other than myself. Right now, my party members are Saina, DeepSlo, Imron............ and the eleven 【Library】 members who slipped in as plants.
"Fighting completely alone" while possessing a military force of fifteen people capable of beating the crap out of most monsters; that is the condition for drawing out the maximum power of "Golden Age".
You could say it's a skill very fitting for that scorpion, who unified its retainers and hoisted their holy sword.
"That being said, huh........."
That just now was undoubtedly a finishing blow on Garunose. He had turned into black smoke and reconstructed himself after I kicked him away, after all... the problem is, that "reconstruction" was the second time.
They say "what happens twice will happen thrice," but reviving twice is already way too much of a cheat. If he tells me he can still revive even more after this, even I might just incite 【Library】 to spam the devs with angry inquiry tickets.
However, judging only by the superficial phenomena, I could hardly criticize him—you lose the moment you perceive the torso of a nonexistent giant beast in the threat display of a moth with eyespots on its wings.
In that case, I need to figure out the shortcomings of that multiple-revival, not its strong points.
There's absolutely no way it doesn't have a demerit—or rather, I'll be damned if it doesn't have a demerit. He's hiding something and putting on a brave front, pretending that his strength hasn't waned at all.
The first possibility is that he can't recover HP; that seems the most suspicious. In this game, effects resembling miasma or evil energy are generally incompatible with healing and church-type magic.
Besides, even with the "Golden Age" modifier, someone with an obviously long lifeline shouldn't have fallen so easily to one kick unless his HP had failed to recover to a survivable level... that seems quite plausible.
However, this is strictly assuming it's "some sort of gimmick that revives you once." If he can revive twice, no, even more than that, even if he revives with his HP locked at 1, it's so absurdly broken that I'd suspect it of being a fraud.
In other words, the demerits are either increasing in number or growing larger every time he revives. The moment he can no longer make the "payment" known as a demerit, is the moment I truly corner him.
"In that case, I really need to start unloading all my strongest cards too...!"
I don't possess any Dragon Destroyer Gear. Because what I held back then... had already been created as a weapon for destroying dragons.
I don't possess any Dragon Destroyer Gear. Because that weapon had been born for that purpose and had already fulfilled it exactly as intended.
If you're talking about a weapon that slays dragons, I already had one even before challenging that terrifying Blade Dragon.
"Let's show him the difference in class, Areadbhair!!"
Garunose, whatever he throws at me, I'll conquer all of it. I'm a shitty-boss killer with a thousand years in the sea and a thousand in the mountains behind me; the experience of overcoming absurdity for every set of end credits I've seen has become flesh and blood and flows through my veins.
And it's dragging caffeine along just like red blood cells carrying oxygen...!
Author's Afterword
Sunraku is the one who fights with the blood named experience.
Garunose is the one who stands on the bones named standards.
One side has resolved to use up every strong card because they cannot see the bottom of the opponent's hand and this is getting nowhere; the other has resolved to use up every strong card because, although they still have strong cards left, they are rapidly weakening as time passes.
And finally, we have finally arrived...... at the prologue chapter.........
The manga version of Shangri-La Frontier went on sale October 17th! Which means it's currently on sale to great acclaim.
The anime is currently airing every Sunday at 5:00 PM! The original author missed episode 3 live because he was at another event—wait, for real?
Translator's Notes
- [1] Nekodamashi: A sumo wrestling technique where a wrestler suddenly claps their hands in front of the opponent's face at the grand charge to startle them and cause them to close their eyes. Used here to describe a feint meant to blind and distract.
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