by Nikita Thorn
“Friends should stop friends from doing something stupid, and she should have stopped Kojiro from doing something so foolish. But I hope her little cabal is over now,” said Mairin. “You know what? If I was Kojiro, I’d be done with the whole clan after something like that. Oh, actually, maybe he’ll be the next person to invite the Bandits in for their future invasions. Didn’t that happen with Rieko’s ex-friend who rage-quit?”
Ippei chuckled. “Hence the drama cycle continues.”
“Hopefully this will really be the end of it,” said Seiki. “What’s done is done, everyone can just move on.”
Kentaro was looking at him from across the table, a curious expression on his face. “You feel bad about Kojiro?”
Mairin blinked. “What? Hey, the guy had it coming. Don’t you remember what he did?”
“Yeah.”
“And you still feel bad?”
Seiki hesitated. “Well, Zengoro provoked him. I’m sure there was a way to avoid it, but Zengoro wanted it to happen that way. Like I said, these clans… I mean, you won’t believe how many birds the guy managed to kill with one stone... and I helped him do it.”
Kentaro’s gaze was on him, as if wondering whether Seiki felt he had been one of the birds, but ultimately he did not ask.
“He forced your hand,” said Mairin. “And it worked. Problem solved. So that was ultimately a good thing.”
Ippei nodded. “Look, with bullies, there’s no being the bigger person and letting it go, because if they operated on that logic they wouldn’t be bullies in the first place.”
Seiki heaved an uneasy sigh. “Yeah. I don’t regret that. But, I’m not sure if it’s ever okay to throw your clan mate under the bus for… I don’t know.”
Ippei started laughing. “For a recruitment attempt? Don’t worry about it. You’re good now, like really good.”
“You think?” Mairin sounded a little relieved.
“The game is only as interesting as the most interesting people playing it,” said Ippei. “If you’re smart, you actively try to keep people. From the sound of it, it seems like Zengoro wants you around.”
“Everyone knows where to go for top-grade entertainment,” said Kentaro. The houshi smiled innocently as Seiki looked at him.
Ippei chuckled. “Yeah, just ask your girlfriend. She knows.”
Seiki groaned. He had almost forgotten about the invitation from Fuyu. “No way I’m going to that thing.”
“What thing again?” asked Mairin.
“Oh, right. This thing.” Seiki only remembered he had not properly relayed the conversation with Hatsuo and he retrieved his latest invitation to show his friends. “Basically Hatsuo said there’s a group of people trying to influence the game a certain way, and they’re pulling the strings behind a lot of the major events.”
“Which could be Kano Castle?” said Ippei. “Did the worldbreakers just become the Kano Castle?”
“Hatsuo denied that. He said it was Fumiya, but it could have been just semantics. He said something else I didn’t understand. He said it would benefit me personally if things were to go as ‘they’ planned, and I can’t think how having Kano Castle take over the whole game is going to be good for anyone.”
“Maybe because it’s prophesized that one day you’ll join the Kano Castle,” said Mairin.
Seiki looked at her.
“Seiki of the Kano Castle,” continued the kitsune with a straight face.
Ippei smiled. “You go over there now and they’ll immediately make you an offer.”
“More like an offer to sit in their dungeon.” Seiki could not help laughing. “Okay, let’s think about this. So if Kano Castle is trying to take over all the East Gate territories and gather up all the uniques, and let’s say that Society invasion is an attempt to break up all the clans that would ally with each other over their relationship with the Society, then… uh, then what?”
“Then you need to go help the East Gate clans maintain their territories to stop the expansion,” said Ippei matter-of-factly.
“Or maybe Hatsuo thought you’d get into trouble with the Rogami, and if Kano Castle destroys the Rogami, that kinda benefits you,” said Mairin. “He could have been mistaken, you know.”
“Good point,” said Seiki.
“Or he’s just acting and the whole thing is a lie,” said Ippei.
Seiki sighed. “Yeah. And he told me not to go to the fifth floor room but to go talk to Ichikeya instead.”
“And why should we believe him?” said Mairin.
“I don’t know,” said Seiki. “I guess there’s time to think about it during the Banquet event. It’s going to last for a few hours, right?”
If he were to be honest, after all the excitement of the Festival Week and the latest development with the Rogami Clan, Seiki thought he deserved some down time away from potential drama. As if reading his mind, a city-wide notification flashed just then:
The Night of the White Dragon Event is starting in 15 minutes. You will be directly teleported to the Banquet Tower at the beginning of the event. Festival Quests not completed by then will be considered abandoned. Reward booths, however, will remain in the City for the next 48 hours after the end of the Pacchi Festival.
“Yes!” cried Mairin. “This is almost it.”
“Fifteen minutes,” Seiki read from the notification. The whole Festival would finally culminate in this last event. Suddenly it was not difficult to put everything else aside and concentrate on what lay right ahead.
“So after fifteen minutes, we get teleported into the party building for a few hours and, at the end, we come out and kill the White Dragon?” asked Mairin.
“Challenge the White Dragon,” Kentaro corrected her.
Seiki had been so preoccupied with a million other things that he had not spared this particular activity any real thought. “So how are we doing this again?” he asked Ippei.
During his absence, the group had put together seven bamboo rockets, which were now sitting in a row on the table. The closest one was labeled: Red Pokamono Rocket. 8% chance to attract the attention of the White Dragon. 20% extra standard damage. 120-foot range, which Seiki was pretty sure was similar to the one he had launched before during a recent Wilderness escape. Next to the rockets was a small pile of unused ingredients.
“We ran out of bamboo tubes,” said Ippei. “I think Yamura might have some more and he said he would drop by later during the Banquet.”
The samurai picked up another rocket, this one labeled a Green Warimono Rocket, which seemed to have a higher chance to attract the Dragon’s attention but half the range. Seiki was sure the different names meant something, although he was not sure he had time to learn them all right now.
“You just run outside and shoot these at the dragon,” the samurai explained, mimicking the movement.
“And if you successfully attract his attention and you get an instanced version?” said Mairin.
“I asked around, and it seems that to get the instanced version you pretty much need a full raid group. So at least fifteen people. I think we can safely go for the world boss version. The City’s not going to be large enough to accommodate everybody at once. I’m sure it’s going to secretly split people into public instances anyway, so as long as we’re in a group we should be phased together.”
“Didn’t Yamura say we could do it with the Honor Warriors?”
Ippei laughed. “That’s basically the same thing as doing the world version. And allegedly it’s not going to be better rewards. To get the raid group version, your group members need to accumulate close to 100% attention from the dragon, which is going to take a lot of fireworks. I’ve heard you also have to keep competing with other groups. Like, if you do 8% and someone else from a different group shoots at it, your effort is reduced and you have to get it back up, so unless you have stockpiled a real lot of rockets, I’m not sure you can even trigger the instanced version.”
“And this problem can actually be easily solved by every group taking turns in an orderly manner?” said Kentaro.
“Which you know no one will.” Ippei chuckled. “It will be absolute chaos.”
Seiki picked up another rocket to look at. This one was fatter and had all around better stats. “Okay, so you just run out at the end and launch this thing at the dragon in the sky?” As simple as it sounded, there was something incredibly satisfying about the way the firework rockets exploded, and Seiki was excited to imagine hundreds of colorful fireworks bursting against a gigantic white dragon in the night sky over Shinshioka. “I would love to see that.”
“From what I could wrangle out of Katsumasa, once the crowd gets enough hits in, the dragon lands and you fight him on the ground for a little, and it goes in phases until you finally beat the event.”
“Maybe a bit like the Corrupted Festival Beasts?” asked Seiki.
Ippei nodded. “Probably.”
“Should we have worked harder on the rockets to get the raid version?” asked Mairin. “Like, I’m sure the Social Guild has open groups.”
Ippei shook his head. “The raid version is a lot more challenging and if you don’t manage to beat it, you end up with the same rewards as the world version.”
“Ah,” said Mairin. “And with fewer people it won’t be as much of a… spectacle.”
Ippei smiled. “Exactly, Foxy.”
Seiki found his friends looking at him.
“Unless you really want to do the raid version,” said Ippei.
“Oh, no. I don’t care what we do. I just can’t wait to shoot one of these.” Seiki grinned.
It seemed that having established some sort of a peace deal with the Rogami for the time being had lifted a tremendous weight off his shoulders, and now he realized he was free to move onto other things.
There was, for once, no struggle, no goals to reach, no deals to fulfill, no trying to prove something to the West Defenders, to the Rogami Clan, to himself. Now all he wanted was to go out and watch fireworks with the rest of the world, and he was in fact very much looking forward to it.
Ippei suggested a quick comfort break, which everyone agreed was a good idea. Mairin and Kentaro waved temporary goodbyes before logging off, with the kitsune saying something about how she might drop in on the White Crane’s party first before joining them.
The patrons in the shop were also starting to move to prepare for the upcoming event. Seiki took this chance to finish the half-melted sugary ice in his kakigouri bowl, which he had accidentally neglected, while Ippei stored away the rockets and the unused ingredients.
Glancing at the dwindling crowd around the kakigouri shop, Seiki became aware this was the last he would see of Shinshioka in its current state. As far as he knew, nothing major was going to change, but the feeling that it would be a new era somehow made him feel a little wistful.
“The fifth floor room…” said Ippei. “Are you gonna go?”
The samurai had finished packing up, and Seiki had a feeling his friend had waited until they were alone to bring up the matter.
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll think about it during the Banquet.”
“Yeah, but you’re not really going to think about it. You’re just gonna go.”
Seiki looked at his friend for a while. “You’re probably right.”
“I’m not going to stop you,” said Ippei. “You do what you have to. Just remember that the room threshold is a soft boundary. The corridor areas are your instance, okay? As long as you’re in it, you’re safe. But, best case scenario is it’s a prank and the door doesn’t open.”
“If I don’t like what I see, I’ll shut the door and go straight to the third floor,” Seiki promised.
Ippei nodded. “All right.” He smiled as he clapped Seiki on the shoulder. “See you on the other side.”
As the phasing effect showed Ippei leave the kakigouri shop, Seiki took one last look around at the last remnant of the Festival, the red, black and yellow flags all around the City, which would no longer be there after tonight. Then he logged off.
Five minutes later, he logged back in to the expected notification.
Welcome to the Shogun’s Banquet Tower. PVP status: disabled. Post status: disabled.
Gone were the lively kakigouri shop and the usual crowd of Market Street. Seiki now found himself in the unfamiliar front garden of a tall building, surrounded by well-trimmed low pine trees and decorative rock formations. He knew exactly where he was in Shinshioka, but was surprised by how much bigger the area looked from the inside than what appeared from beyond the locked gate. Ahead of him was the six-storied structure, the Shogun’s Banquet Tower, built in the style of a pagoda, with a graceful slanting roof on every level lined with shiny black tiles, now lit up by countless colorful paper lamps hanging from crisscrossing strings.
He was standing in the middle of a stone path, facing the front door of the building. At the entrance stood a single Banquet Guide [Level 35], dressed in dark blue.
The man was looking at him. His expression was friendly, but he said nothing as he waited for Seiki to approach.
Seiki knew this was a personal instance. Still, the illusion of it being in the middle of Shinshioka was decently convincing. Around were silhouettes of the buildings that made up the rest of the City in their usual locations, some of which were still lit up by dim lamps to suggest the existence of the world beyond this particular area. The main gate of the Banquet Tower that was supposed to open into Trade Street was, however, securely locked and was most likely going to remain that way until the instance reconnected to the updated version of the world.
Something was different about the atmosphere: the stark silence of the night. After a whole week of nonstop activities, the Banquet Tower was unbelievably quiet, with the only sounds being the soft rustling of the occasional wind in the trees and the sporadic cicadas. Seiki realized there was no one else in this particular world except for him and the NPC guide, and that he had never been in such complete solitude in the game before. It was somehow a little unsettling, but also strangely peaceful.
He took a step forward, and the Banquet Guide gave an unexpectedly low bow. “Unit Chief Seiki, welcome to Lord Shogun’s Banquet Tower. Do you know how this works?”
“I wouldn’t mind a quick reminder.”
“Tonight is when the White Dragon visits Shinshioka to grant a blessing to our City and celebrate the end of the Festival. You won’t be able to see him from here until very near the end of the night, but he will be visible from every Reception Room. His scales glow brighter the longer he is in the sky, slowly starting from his head to his tail, and when the transformation is complete, he offers citizens of Shinshioka a chance to challenge him in exchange for a reward.”
Seiki blinked. “Oh, so he works like a status bar and you can tell if the update is almost done?”
An amused smile lit up on the Guide’s face but he said nothing.
“Is it better to do the event in a raid group?” Seiki asked.
“That’s a misconception,” said the man. “If you go for a personal challenge, it gives you a better chance to choose the type of rewards. For example, a clan may choose to place gold as the offering to the White Dragon, and he will reward more gold in return. Or War Clans can choose to place tokens, and he will reward tokens.”
“I see,” said Seiki. “To be honest I wouldn’t mind some more War Tokens.”
Zengoro had said something about asking for a specific reward from the Shogun for being the first person to reach maximum level. Seiki wondered if this was the chance for the rest of the world to do the same, but perhaps to a more limited extent.
The man smiled. “The White Dragon is known to be generous, regardless of what you do. Many people have been concerned about what will happen after the visit of the White Dragon, but rest assured that nothing you currently have will be taken away from you, and there will be no changes to your abi
lities and the properties of your belongings.”
Seiki had not been worrying about this particular point at all, but he welcomed the confirmation.
“So it’s like what Ippei said and it’s going to add more quests and maybe end game content?”
The man smiled but did not answer. “May I also remind you of the available Reception Rooms in the building?” He gestured towards a wooden floor sign that listed the names of the reception rooms in order:
Fifth Floor: Himawari
Fourth Floor: Shobu
Third Floor: Sumire
Second Floor: Tsubaki
Ground Floor: Asagao
Each had a carved motif of the corresponding flower. Seiki could only identify with certainty the sunflower that represented the Himawari Room.
“I see that you have not claimed your invitation from Lord Shogun yet.” With another bow, the man held out a piece of paper.
Formal Invitation Letter [Lord Shogun] – [Seiki]: allows access to the official private reception room during the Night of the White Dragon at the end of the Pacchi Festival: Ground Floor Asagao Reception Room. Crafted by the Palace Scribes.
“Oh, from the Shogun himself.” Seiki was a little amused.
“If you are entitled to reception rooms on higher floors, there will be subsequent invitations in your reward box. You may also invite other people to any reception room you are entitled to. The post service has been disabled, but there is an invitation box in every room, which you can use to send and receive invitations.”
One thing caught Seiki’s attention. “You said reward box?”
“That is correct. Our generous Lord Shogun gives out rewards as well as a multi-course dinner to all citizens to enjoy during the Night of the White Dragon.”
“Sounds great,” said Seiki. Ippei had mentioned something about Festival rewards. The fact that they would come in a box was promising.
The Banquet Guide smiled and continued. “If you only hold one invitation for a particular floor, the Reception Room can be directly accessed, but if you have more than one, the door takes you to the room specified by the invitation in your top inventory slot. To switch between Reception Rooms on the same floor, please step outside and close the door, rearrange the order of your invitations in your inventory, and open the door again.”