by Nikita Thorn
Seiki looked at his friends. “It just got me thinking that the best thing I could do for this world, this game, is to choose to be part of it because I want to, not because I have nowhere else to be.” His friends also deserved better. He wanted to spend time with them because he made time to do so, not because he needed an escape from something else.
Ippei and Mairin stared at him, apparently at a loss as to how to respond to such a statement.
Luckily, just then, Kentaro shouted from within the room. “Anyone want to try this bottle of Level 26 Imo Shochu I’ve been keeping?”
“Yes, please,” they shouted back in relief, almost in unison.
The Social Guild guests had left, and Kentaro joined them on the outdoor deck with his prized bottle. At several percent more drunk, Seiki got the rest of his friends caught up with what he had discussed with Ippei.
“It’s coming together!” cried Mairin in excitement. “I don’t know what exactly, but it is. The uniques, the Keys to the demonic realm, all these secret treasures… maybe… you have to collect all the Keys and combine them into a master key and it will open your way somewhere, and then you need all the uniques to fight the Demon Lord.”
Kentaro nodded. “And maybe the Red Headband and the Insignia are also part of that. Does anyone feel like you’re about to discover King Tut’s Tomb?”
Everyone looked at him.
“Not the specific part about King Tut, but, yeah,” Ippei finally said.
“So… I’m guessing that the demonic realm is some kind of a secret objective,” said Seiki. “These people know about it, and they’re trying not to let anyone in on it, which is why they’re derailing everyone by pitting clans against each other, get everyone occupied with PVP, while they try to solve the mystery.”
“How can they be so powerful, though?” Mairin wondered. “Like, the Rogami guy was the first to reach Level 30. How can these people be so rich without even reaching Level 30?”
Seiki paused for a moment. “I’m sure they’re max level. They just don’t register anywhere, so they didn’t trigger the Festival Event. It makes sense, right? If you’re Level 30, just holding a blunt sword against standard armor should be enough to cut through it.”
His friends gave him slightly worried looks as they might have guessed what he was referring to, but they did not press for an explanation.
Ippei let out a deep breath. “I agree with Seiki.”
“That these people are max level?” asked Mairin.
“Yeah, and I think I understand what’s going on now. I’ll show you something.” The samurai leapt to his feet. “I can use this personal box, right?”
“Yeah,” said Kentaro.
Ippei walked to the storage chest, before returning with a thick pile of documents. Most of them were loose sheets of paper, all labeled Untitled Parchment. Crafted by Ippei.
He dropped them all onto the floor in the middle of the group, and they moved the rest of the floor lamps scattered around the deck closer for more light. Seiki picked up one of the documents and saw a list of actions by someone called Yumiko [Level 11] against a few different people.
Mairin cocked her head. “These are… uh, random people’s combat logs?”
“You only need to look at this one.” Ippei rummaged around the pile of his handwritten notes, before isolating a single piece of parchment from the stack. The document was long enough to be a scroll, and was labeled Final Log Newest Final. Crafted by Ippei. Its content turned out to be a gigantic list of player names, attacks, damage and levels.
Unknown [8] – Sweeping Blade (22) – Kumika [12]
Unknown [8] – Sweeping Blade (16) – Ichido [18]
Unknown [8] – Sweeping Blade (14) – Omi [6]
Kumika [12] – Trap (0) – unknown [8]
Seiki looked at his friend in confusion.
“I consolidated everything,” said Ippei.
That explanation did not help, and Seiki glanced down toward the bottom of the document. The list continued in the same manner, listing unfamiliar names, player levels, abilities and damage numbers. His eyes finally caught one of the last lines:
Maki of the Honor Warriors [Level 16] loots vase from Teruo [Level 13].
“Vase… vase?” Seiki searched his memory. “Oh, this is the brawl from back then, the one Kentaro used to convince the Fuoka Army not to attack the White Cranes.”
Teruo was the ninja who invaded the White Crane Hall, who had allegedly leveled Pottery to maximum level while he was only Level 13.
Ippei nodded. “Yeah, this is the master log. I tracked down every name, which led to more names.”
“You did what again?” said Mairin.
“I got all the combat logs from everyone involved and I put them all together in chronological order into a single master log.”
Seiki stared. There were more than a hundred lines, and since there was no way to correct mistakes on parchment, it seemed that this was a late version of the document. “How long did this take you?”
The samurai grinned. “Long enough to level Calligraphy from level three to thirteen.”
“Oh, I see. That’s how you got the skill up,” said Kentaro.
Mairin blinked. “Okay, and you did all this because…”
Ippei waited a moment to see if anyone would figure it out. “It doesn’t show you much, and, to be honest, the relative timestamps were a real pain to deal with, but if you look closely enough and crank some numbers you can get a picture about what happened. The point of this is, it started out of nowhere.” He pointed to the top of the list. “This person, who is now [unknown], who was around Level 8 at the time, does a Sweeping Blade, which hit a few people and started the brawl.”
“So they deleted their character?”
“Yes,” said Ippei. “Mind you, this wasn’t Teruo, who was a ninja. This first Level 8 unknown did a Sweeping Blade, so he was either a samurai or ronin. Anyone knows what I’m trying to say?”
They all shook their heads.
“I’ll venture to say that someone started this brawl on a throwaway character. Now, yeah, it could have been the case that this person just happened to delete the character afterward, and it’s just a coincidence.” Ippei pointed to the bottom of the document. “But more interesting is near the end. No one landed the killing blow on our friend Teruo. I went through everyone’s logs. Teruo was alive when the brawl started, he defended himself, did some damage, like, over here, and here, and then he also received some damage. Then he was dead and was looted by someone called Maki. The problem is… no one landed a killing blow on Teruo. The killing blow didn’t register on any of the combat logs of any of these twenty or so people who were in that brawl.”
Seiki started to realize where this was going. “So you’re saying the person who killed Teruo must have been one of these people who escape logs altogether. And you checked all these logs, which was why you…oh, I see. This was why you had need for Favors.”
Ippei nodded.
“And that’s why you had this theory of people who don’t show up on logs ready to go,” added Seiki.
The samurai nodded again. “I think the people who called themselves the worldbreakers didn’t disappear, didn’t get banned, didn’t leave. They just found a way to turn invisible. And, it’s most likely that they kept their Beta abilities, and maybe even their levels.”
“What do you know about the worldbreakers again?” asked Mairin.
“I knew some names. Back in Beta, everyone knew their names: Kei did this. Sora unlocked that. Riki. Tatsu. I think there are more. There were always rumors. My friend Ryuta knew some of them personally, but only in-game, and I did ask him and he doesn’t even remember much.”
Mairin frowned. “How could the devs allow this?”
Ippei shrugged. “That’s my best theory. It’s the simplest one that explains everything. Maybe they have a way to escape detection. Maybe it’s an inside job. Maybe it’s the de
vs’ god mode.”
“Well, that’s just not fair to use god mode to bully people,” said Mairin.
“They do play by some rules, though,” said Seiki. “I mean, they have to work loopholes, just like us. They’re just incredibly good at it.”
Ippei nodded. “And if some of them are helping Kano Castle, this log proves that there’s someone else working against that. Whoever started the brawl and then killed Teruo was working to thwart the Kano Castle plot.”
“Proxy wars?” said Kentaro.
“Most likely,” said Ippei. “Seiki’s encounter with them in the Himawari Room also seems to suggest they’re not a uniform group.”
“You’re right,” said Seiki. Now that he had time to recall the incident, the voice that had tried to help him in the Himawari Room might be the same one that had once also tried to help him get out of the City. His memory was vague, but tone, strangely, did come across somewhat through Whisper. “So you’re saying we’re caught in the middle of their war?”
Ippei looked at him. “No,” he said seriously. “A more accurate way to put it would be that they deemed you worthy to join their elite club. At first I didn’t understand their obsession, but I think I do now. First they haze you a bit, then they let you in on the special game they’re playing.”
Seiki stared. “Because… I have the time, and the dedication… and maybe the correct motivation?”
He understood now. The Himawari Room had been a carefully crafted initiation ritual, perhaps one Fumika of the Kano Castle had gone through, perhaps one even Reiji of the Shinshioka Scientific Society had gone through, a formal acceptance into a game no one else in the world even knew existed.
“And I said no,” said Seiki. “That’s why they were so mad.”
Ippei nodded. “It’s gatekeeping. If you’re not one of us, you’re the enemy.”
“Unfortunately it’s been proven that people have an unhealthy level of energy to spend on this,” said Kentaro.
“What do we do then?” asked Mairin.
Seiki took a deep breath. It made sense now why they had threatened his friends and tried to make sure he would derive no more enjoyment out of the game. Tonight would be the first experience they would try to ruin, until his friends quit, or until he quit, or until he went back to beg them to take the Shadow Key off his hands. He secretly wondered if Reiji of the Shinshioka Society had once upon a time been given this option. After all, the man had been the last one to unlock the secret of the Fire Rat boss.
Seiki finally looked at his friends. “They invited us to play, so let’s play. The upcoming White Dragon event. We’ll have to instance it now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
As noble as it sounded in the heat of the moment, declaring a defiant battle against a powerful shadow organization that you only had minimal understanding of turned out to be much trickier in practice—especially with a total lack of advance preparations. Seiki grimaced as he studied the properties of the firework rockets laid out in a row on the floor of the Sumire Room. No matter how they approached it, the math was far from heartening.
“Tell me again why we’re not trying to join the Social Guild?” said Mairin. “They have over fifty people in one of their groups. I’m sure they’ll be happy to take a few more. Or even the Honor Warriors like Yamura said.”
“Same reason why you can’t take the cable car to the top of the mountain when a walking trail exists.” Ippei was sorting the firework rockets into five different piles in an attempt to work out how to maximize their chance.
Mairin frowned. “I’d say cable car is a good choice when there’s a crazy cult trying to murder you on the way.”
The samurai looked up from the ingredients and grinned. “More the reason to walk, right, Seiki?”
“Yeah.” Seiki could not help chuckling.
Mairin groaned, exchanged a look with Kentaro which Seiki could not quite interpret but which seemed to amuse the houshi, then gave a long sigh. “Okay, so we have to make do with just these?”
Yamura had earlier returned with some more bamboo tubes and rocket parts of his own, and between the five of them were fourteen rockets with a wide range of properties. The best one they possessed seemed to be a Golden Chrysanthemum Hanwarimono Rocket, which had a range of 60 feet with 16% chance to attract the attention of the White Dragon, plus a full energy return for those within a 60-foot radius of the burst.
After detailed explanations from Ippei, Seiki now had a good idea how the items actually worked. Each rocket required a bamboo tube, at least one packet of black powder, and a packet of stars. The type of stars determined what stats a rocket had. Warimono rockets seemed to be the standard. Pokamono had about twice the range, but a lower chance of attracting attention. Katamono gave very good buffs, but lacked range. Combining different firework stars resulted in Hanwarimono rockets, which took on the highest stats for every ingredients combined.
While this was definitely far from how real fireworks functioned, Seiki appreciated the simplicity. According to Kentaro, the different types exploded into different shapes, but aesthetics was the last thing on anyone’s mind at the moment.
“I suppose we could just fire them off at the same time?” Mairin scooted up to the pile to reshuffle the rockets in order of effectiveness. “Thirty-two percent here, plus this one with sixteen, plus eight and eight…”
“We don’t care about the buffs, right?” said Yamura. “Can’t we just redo everything? Kentaro has some more of the undo potions so we can load all the stars together to make one mother of all rockets.”
“The chance doesn’t stack,” said Ippei. “The highest stars packet gives the base chance, and then you can top it up by black powder packets, but stars don’t add to other stars. Not to mention that our biggest bamboo tube only has five slots.”
“Well, how about we all just do it very quickly at the same time?” said Mairin. “If we add up all the so-called chance, it’s over a hundred percent.”
“I’m not sure if we’ll have time to fire them all off.” Seiki had no idea how the instancing worked, but he had a feeling the masked players would have a way to make good on their threat and greet them with a flying blade or some other fatal projectile as soon as they stepped out from the safety of the Banquet Tower.
“Yeah, and if someone else not in our group fires at the dragon, that reduces the chance we have built up. With these numbers, I think if you have twenty players and you all coordinate your shots, you’ll be able to instance it immediately. But just the five of us will never get close to 100%,” said Ippei.
“It says chance, so isn’t it actually chance?” Kentaro pointed out. “I mean, we don’t need 100%. A 50% chance is still pretty good.”
“It’s a bit weird, since it’s accumulated chance,” said Ippei. “I have a feeling that the real window will be around 70% or a bit higher.”
“What do you mean real window?” asked Yamura.
“Chance-based numbers are never true. There’s no way they’re going to let you instance the White Dragon with your first rocket. So my guess is that they’ll wait till your group gets the so-called chance up to about 70% before it really becomes chance-based.”
Mairin grimaced. “Right. So a straight lie on the numbers?”
“Chance-based.” Something jolted Seiki’s memory. “I might have a way to make sure it works.” He grimaced as he retrieved a piece of paper from his inventory.
Formal Invitation Letter [Fuyu of the Ichikeya] – [Seiki]: allows access to the host’s private reception room during the Night of the White Dragon at the end of the Pacchi Festival: Second Floor Tsubaki Reception Room. Crafted by Fuyu of Ichikeya.
“She promised a luck potion,” said Seiki. “We get the chance up to 100%, we definitely instance it, right?”
Yamura let out a curse. “Oh, man. I totally forgot about that. It’s the luck potion.”
Ippei thought for a moment, looking as if he was struggli
ng against physical pain. “That might actually work,” he admitted. “In any other case I would say save it for something else, since it’s Divine Luck we’re talking about. But now, yeah, I don’t see any other way.”
With his friends in agreement, a minute later, Seiki found himself standing in front of the second floor Tsubaki Reception Room. This time he had forced his brain to imagine all the horrible things that could be waiting behind the door in order to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
The mental exercise turned out to be unneeded. The door slid open without incident, revealing the Ichikeya ninja girl sitting primly at the back of the room. Fuyu of Ichikeya [Level 17] was alone in her private space, dressed in a black kimono with red, white and blue flowers, her hair done up and decorated with golden pins. She was facing the door as if expecting a guest.
Her bright red lips curved into a coy smile as she saw him. “Seiki-san! What a surprise!” She affected a very convincing gasp.
Fuyu was pouring tea from a steaming clay pot, her left hand holding her long sleeve out of the way. There were two cups in front of her. The guest’s cup was already full and she was now filling hers.
Seiki stepped in and shut the door. “I’m here for the potion,” he said simply. “You have five minutes.”
Fuyu looked at him with feigned surprise. “I didn’t realize you would take my letter so literally, Seiki-san. How heartless.” She paused to put the teapot down beside her, before placing two slender fingers on her lips as if pondering something. A smile returned to her lips as she glanced at him again. “But then again, Fuyu-chan does like a man who knows what he wants.”
Seiki remained by the door. “What’s the catch?”
“What do you mean, Seiki-san?”
“I don’t have time for this. Five minutes and I’ll take my potion, please.”
The ninja girl’s expression sobered. Slowly, she reached into her sleeve and produced a black ceramic bottle.