Those Who Bind the Possibilities

by Sakon Kaidou

  Clearly, losing an arm wasn’t enough to lose the sign that I was a Master.

  “Still, holding you with one arm will make it pretty hard to fight while riding Silver,” I said.

  I mean, I can’t really hold Silver’s reins with my teeth.

  “Mhm,” Nemesis agreed. “But I believe it’s a good thing here.”

  “Because... why?”

  “We’re about to battle her again, and I want us to face her like last time — with just the two of us.”

  “Oh my, aren’t you enthusiastic,” the “her” she was referring to, Marie, said jokingly.

  Just like during our encounter in Noz Forest, she was shrouded in the same black mist and held her gun-like Embryo, Arc-en-Ciel, in her right hand. She and I were in this arena to have the rematch duel we’d promised to have when fighting Franklin’s monster army.

  We were facing one another in a block shielded by an impermeable barrier.

  Besides us, the barrier contained a few spectators — Rook, Babi, Shu, Figaro, and one more person.

  On an unrelated note, Rook had already known that Marie was the Superior Killer. Hell, Shu had known it, as well.

  In hindsight, Shu... the King of Destruction... had tried to kill the Superior Killer even if it took burning down the entire Noz Forest, so him knowing her identity wasn’t all that surprising.

  Speaking of that incident, apparently he’d done it to avenge me.

  I had lots of things to say about that, including but not limited to, “Dude, what the hell,” “No one asked for this,” and “You scorched a goddamn forest,” but I chose to tell him off later.

  After all, we were accompanied by someone far more troublesome than Shu.

  “Marie, do your very best!”

  For reasons unknown, the princess that we’d all worked so hard to save was among the spectators.

  “...Might I finally know why you’re here, princess?” I asked.

  “Hm? Very well,” she said.

  Apparently, she had awoken right before my battle at the top of Pandemonium. Because of this, she clearly recalled how I’d faced Franklin and how Marie had rescued her.

  Wanting to thank us, she’d snuck out the count’s residence again and walked around searching for us.

  During her search, she’d found Shu and Figaro, both of whom were in suits that really stood out from the crowd. Thinking that she could find me by following my brother, she’d done exactly that and eventually came here.

  Apparently, she had the whole day off, but that wasn’t the problem here...

  “Liliana!” I shouted, unable to hold it in. “You really need to do something about your security!”

  “That’s more or less how I feel. ‘What? Again?’ and all that,” said Marie. “Still, rather than poor security, I’m starting to think that it’s Ellie who’s just really good at sneaking out. It’s the second time she’d done this, after all.”

  “The princess might have a talent for it,” added Rook. “She might make a good thief.”

  A princess who’s a thief...? What?

  “Anyway,” said Marie. “Ellie’s watching, so victory’s as good as mine! Don’t expect any consideration or mercy!”

  “Well, I wouldn’t have it any other way, but...”

  This is nothing like the revenge match I’d imagined, I thought.

  After Marie had given me my first death penalty, I’d pictured a desperate rematch between two enemies. But now, right as we were about to fight, we were surrounded by a peaceful air of friendship.

  “...And that’s fine, really,” I said.

  “Indeed,” Nemesis agreed.

  Though Marie had once killed us, she was now nothing but a friend, and that was in no way a bad thing.

  “Still, I want my rematch,” I continued.

  “Heh heh,” Marie chuckled. “Such vigor and drive... But do you really think you can win?”

  Well, that’s the question...

  “Let’s see... you’re way above me in both level and stats,” I said.

  Her total level was over the cap for low and high-rank jobs, while her AGI was at least several dozens of times greater than mine.

  “My technique is just incomparable to yours.”

  She’d been fighting in Infinite Dendrogram for far longer than me. Her experience was on a whole different plane.

  “And I’m here without my left arm — quite a handicap. It’s pretty clear that I have nearly no chance of winning.”

  This battle would’ve been hard even if I was in top shape, so this definitely didn’t help my chances.

  “Still... I won’t say that I can’t win.”

  No matter how severe the situation, I would never quit without even trying.

  “If there’s a possibility I want, I’ll never give up reaching for it.”

  That was what my brother had taught me.

  “That’s what seizing the possibility is all about.”

  My words made Shu laugh out loud and give me a thumbs-up.

  “And that’s why I’m in it to win it,” I concluded my speech.

  “And also why you’re Ray the ‘Unbreakable.’”

  “Unbre... Huh?” What?

  “Oh? You’re unaware?” she said. “That’s your nickname.”

  “I have a nickname?”

  “Indeed you do. ‘The King of Destruction’s little brother, the one who didn’t break before a Superior.’”

  “Well, that sure is something...”

  What an awkward nickname to have, I thought.

  “There’s also ‘Dark Paladin,’ ‘Prince on the Silver Steed,’ and ‘The Light and Dark-Wielding Hero Clad in Violet and Crimson.’ Any preferences?”

  “Unbreakable, please.”

  It’s not even a damn choice with those other options.

  “I’m quite fond ‘Prince,’ though,” Nemesis commented.

  “...No, thank you.”

  Anyway, “Unbreakable,” eh...? I actually kinda like it.

  “Okay then,” said Marie. “Here I go, Unbreakable!”

  “Yeah! Bring it on, Superior Killer!”

  We prepared for battle.

  Marie instantly pulled Arc-en-Ciel’s trigger, making it fire bullets as numerous as they were during the first time she’d killed me. It was a repeat of that day.

  Time for a quest, then, I thought.

  My target was the strongest PK, the Superior Killer.

  My destination was beyond the familiar veil of bullets.

  And my goal... was victory.

  “Let the quest...”

  “...begin!” Nemesis finished for me.

  I kicked the ground beneath me and dashed forward.

  To be continued in the next episode...

  Midword

  Cat: “Greetings, dear readers, I’m the Cat you all know well by now, Cheshiiire.”

  Xun: “I’m Xun, for XunYu.”

  Bear: “And I’m the one and only Bear... the King of Destruction, Shu Starling!”

  Cat: “We knew, and so did the sharper readers. Maybe even since volume 1.”

  Bear: “You’re cold! I’ve been prebearing for this for five volumes!”

  Cat: “That aside, this concludes the Franklin arc and ends the first part of Infinite Dendrogram as a whole.”

  Bear: “What a good finale.”

  Cat: “Hey! The part is done, but the product is still going on! Don’t jinx it!”

  Xun: “But the lAst scene was somEwhat like the last chApter of a manga. Honestly, it woUld work pretty well if it just endED here.”

  Cat: “Stop! Nothing’s ending! We’re still going on!”

  Bear: “Anyway, jokes aside, the beary presence of a midword means that there’s something more, right?”

  Cat: “Yes. There will now be two everyday life stories set after the Franklin arc.”

  Bear/Xun: “...”

  Cat: “You two look like you want to say something.”

  Bear: “Who puts everyday life storie
s after final scenes like the one we just had?”

  Xun: “...Wouldn’t tHE volume leave a bettEr impression if it ended hEre?”

  Cat: “Silence. Anyway, the latter of the two stories is completely new.”

  Bear: “...Did the author need to fill some pages?”

  Cat: “He tried to write something new into the main story, but he couldn’t think of anything besides expanding on The Earth and the DOA worm.”

  Xun: “Hey, don’t cAll it DOA. I had to be realLY careful with the bomb whEN killing that thiNg.”

  Bear: “He could’ve expanded on me and my ursine greatness.”

  Cat: “You’re saying you want more scenes?! I want some, too, you know?! I didn’t show up in volumes 4, 5, and won’t show up in the story that comes next, either! When’s my turn?!”

  Xun: This has been bOthering me for a while... Why is Cheshire so nAive when it comes to appEArance in the story?

  Bear: “Anyway, enough of the sad cat without any scenes. Please enjoy the stories that come next. Thank you beary much.”

  Cat: “Give me a turn!”

  Extra: A Change of Clothing

  Paladin, Ray Starling

  Ten days had passed in Dendro since the incident started by a certain bastard in a lab coat.

  Rook, Marie, and I were still staying here in Gideon, busy either sparring or fulfilling guild quests.

  The need for repairs in the city had created a demand for building materials, and Shu’s obliterating Jeand Grasslands had turned it into a habitat for strong monsters which needed to be culled. Such quests were so MMO-like that they reminded me that Dendro was, indeed, a VRMMO.

  As for the sparring... though I rarely came out as the victor, I’d learned quite a lot.

  My opponents had included Marie, Shu, Xunyu, Figaro, and even the other local duel rankers. Though they’d allowed me to use consumable warding accessories, my victories had still been few and far between, which was a clear testament to just how strong they were.

  Thankfully, all our duels had taken place within the arena barriers, so all the items used and accessories lost had come back to us once the battle was done. With the Lifesaving Brooch and the other stuff I’d used having a combined cost of about 10,000,000 lir, I’d never appreciated the restorative functions of the arenas as much as I did now.

  10,000,000 lir — in other words, ten times more than we’d received for killing Gardranda. It was a great fortune no matter how you looked at it, and it was in no way an amount I could have used when I’d started out. But the current state of my finances allowed me this luxury. After all, I’d recently had two great bursts of income.

  First, there was the money I’d won by betting the reward for the Gouz-Maise Gang on Figaro. The 60,000,000 I’d put in had been multiplied by 1.2, giving me 72,000,000. Cleaning up after the mess made by a certain bastard in a lab coat had made the reward come a few days late, but it had come nonetheless.

  Then there was the reward from Count Gideon.

  He’d presented great amounts of money to all the Masters that’d fought in Franklin’s game. The newbies who’d escaped the central arena and those who’d already been outside had received especially large portions.

  Sadly, Marie hadn’t been among the recipients, since only our inner circle knew that she was the Superior Killer, but she’d made her share of the Count’s money by doing other work for him.

  Naturally, Shu was rewarded with the greatest sum of us all.

  “With this and the drops from the Suicide Series, I made back enough fur a tenth of the ammo I used,” he told me.

  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the total cost.

  That aside, the subject of our rewards wouldn’t be complete without the story of how Rook used his, and my involvement in it.

  It had happened two days ago...

  ◇

  As I sat around, thinking of what to do with the copious amount of money I’d received from Count Gideon and through betting, Rook walked up to me.

  “Ray, can I ask for your help with something?” Rook asked.

  “Hm?” I said. “Well, this is unusual. It’s rare for you to ask for something.”

  “Perhaps,” he admitted. “But this is something I just can’t do by myself. It’s related to my job change...”

  For a while now, Rook had wanted to switch to being a Lost Heart — the pimp grouping’s high-rank job. It had three conditions: having reached level 50 as a Pimp, the sum total stats of all underlings being above a certain point, and at least 1,000,000 lir earned through Pimp work.

  Rook had already cleared the first two, but the third one was proving to be an issue. He probably could’ve gotten the money when he’d done the modeling quest, but he’d chosen Marilyn and her carriage instead of a monetary reward, so it didn’t count for the condition.

  Because of his inability to move on to Lost Heart, after he’d maxed out Pimp during Franklin’s Game, he’d switched to Tamer and leveled up his Monster Strengthening skill.

  And I guess he’s now found a way to solve the problem, I thought.

  “You have an idea for how to switch to Lost Heart?” I asked.

  “Yes.” He nodded as he reached into his inventory and took out a coin pouch. “Could you give me a job and use this money as my reward?”

  “...Ohh, I get it,” I said.

  Earning 1,000,000 lir through honest Pimp work would likely take lots of time and effort. But if you prepared the necessary money and had a third party give you the job, you’d clear the condition as if it were no big deal.

  I’m guessing this option became available thanks to Gideon’s reward, I thought.

  “This bag has 1,000,000 lir for my reward and 1,000,000 lir for the Pimp guild’s charges — a total of 2,000,000 lir. Use it to give me a job,” Rook said.

  “Yeah, sur— Wait, the Pimp guild takes half the money?!”

  Holy shit, what a kickback!

  “I can’t really fault them,” said Rook. “The Pimp guild must pay lots of taxes to continue being an official guild. There are some Pimps who don’t like that and do pimping on their own... but that’s a crime here in the kingdom.”

  ...So the Pimp job is a gray zone in and of itself, I thought.

  Apparently, the merchant grouping’s Slave Dealers were handled in a similar manner — work through a highly-taxed guild was legal, while freelance slave dealing wasn’t. The kingdom was somewhat... no, very strict about this.

  Anyway, I took the money, went to the Pimp guild, and gave Rook a job.

  It didn’t matter what I requested, but I’d remembered seeing an elephant stand on a ball while watching the morning news, so I’d nonchalantly written down that I wanted to see Marilyn do the same.

  It went without saying that I’d come to deeply regret not giving them an easier task.

  They had taken quite some time just finding a ball large enough for a triceratops-sized creature to stand on, and then they had to spend an entire day and night training her to be able to do it. Naturally, I was really sorry about all this.

  Still, her success had made her fulfill the request, and Rook had cleared the condition, letting him become a Lost Heart.

  Also, a short while after my request, a rumor had spread throughout the city that “some rich weirdo paid 1,000,000 lir to a guy just to see a monster step on a ball,” creating a sort-of “ball-stepping boom” among Gideon’s Pimps and Tamers.

  ◇

  Now, back to my circumstances.

  The money I’d won in the bet and the Count’s reward had given me some leeway in spending, allowing me to buy lots of various equipment. I’d started by giving Shu the accessories I’d broken during my first quest, and then bought myself a Lifesaving Brooch and other items, among which was a simple prosthetic arm.

  It could be best described as a hook that a generic pirate would wear. It didn’t connect to my nerves or anything, and it was much like a long glove that I wore on what remained of my lost arm. I could use MP to make th
e hook tighten, but I couldn’t fine-tune it, and the lack of fingers made it impossible to use as a normal hand.

  Some would question the tightening function’s usefulness, but the answer to that was simple: holding a horse’s reins. According to Alejandro, the man who’d sold it to me, these prosthetic arms had been developed for knights and nobles who’d lost their arms, but who still wanted to ride their horses. As the proud owner of Silver, I greatly appreciated that function’s existence.

  There was the problem in that it limited my left side to only being able to hold the reins, making it a blind spot in horseback battles. And its shape didn’t allow me to equip the left Miasmaflame Bracer, either. But there was no use in minding that right now.

  Apparently, Legendaria and Huang He had high-quality magic prosthetics, while Dryfe was highly advanced in the mechanical side of the spectrum. However, all such prosthetics were custom-made specifically for the customers, so you couldn’t find them anywhere on the market, which went doubly so here in the kingdom. I couldn’t waste time trying to get what wasn’t available here, so this prosthetic arm was more than enough, especially since I’d likely find a way to heal my arm sooner or later.

  Still, I couldn’t help but note that those surrounding me — mainly Nemesis — looked at me as if they had something to say.

  Well, the hook’s pretty pirate-like. It probably stands out, I thought.

  Anyway, with the leeway in my finances, I could allow myself to roll the gacha in Alejandro’s shop. Specifically, one 100,000 lir roll per day. Honestly, I had the money for it and was up for more rolls, but Nemesis just wouldn’t have it.

  “That’s all I will allow. Roll any more, and I’ll eat food that costs as much money as you spend,” she’d said, making me back down immediately. With how spacious her stomach was now, that threat sounded all too real.

  That aside, the gacha had yet to give me any capsules above C rank. Unsurprisingly, Bs and above were considerably rarer than the ones below, meaning that Rook and I had been very lucky to land an X and an S on the same day. Still, I felt that it was high time the gacha blessed me with a B or an A.