The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

  “The real Magnum Colossus isn’t nearly as fragile,” B3 continued. Her tone had little emotion to it, making her give off the vibe of someone telling an apprentice cook about their mistake. “Although the appearance is good, you should have used a tougher metal.”

  In contrast to her mild mannerisms, her attack had left Barbaroy completely bewildered and barely able to breathe.

  “Next point. I checked your name using Reveal, and true, it’s ‘Barbaroy Bad Burn.’ However...” she stopped for a moment and cracked a faint grin. “On my screen, in my language... It’s written in katakana.”

  As Barbaroy, on his knees, groaned because of the punch, B3 placed her foot on his head and stepped down on it.

  Barbaroy’s helm sunk a bit into the ground, but it was unable to withstand the impact and shattered, revealing a feeble-looking man.

  “Th-The hell are you talking about...?” he asked. Losing his helmet made his voice lose its echo and with that, its power.

  “The real Barbaroy Bad Burn’s name isn’t written in Japanese katakana,” she explained with an emotionless voice. “I know it’s hard to tell when we have the translation feature, but it’s nothing you couldn’t find out with a little bit of research.”

  B3 opened a window and showed him her status summary.

  “The real one’s name uses the English alphabet,” she continued. “Like so...”

  The window displayed B3’s — B.B.B.’s — full name.

  Plain as day, written in clear English, was “Barbaroy Bad Burn.”

  “Huh?!”

  “Ahh... Thought as much,” B3 said.

  “Eh?”

  “Wh-What’s going on here?!”

  Some Sol Crisis members reacted with mere surprise, while others looked thoroughly confused. Barbaroy — or, rather, the one who claimed to be Barbaroy — and Dum-dum, along with a couple of others, were the ones who seemed merely surprised. The latter were far more numerous.

  “Oh, I see you haven’t told your entire clan that you’re a fake,” B3 commented.

  “N-No...!” said the armor man. “I’m Barbaroy and I’m wearing the Magnum Colossus! Reveal and Identification can prove it!”

  “Yes, and that makes the truth that much easier to see. You have an Embryo that lets you falsify names, don’t you?” She exposed his lie with a forced smile on her face. “Swindler and similar jobs have the ‘Falsify Name’ skill, but that can be exposed with a high level Reveal or Truth Discernment. Your Embryo has a skill that’s above those two. Simple as that. After all, an Embryo skill’s effect is much stronger when it’s more restricted.”

  Ultimate superior job skills like Franklin’s Analyzing Eye of Wisdom could probably expose the man, but luckily — or perhaps unluckily — the fake Barbaroy had never encountered anyone with such abilities.

  “I considered that it could be a skill from a special reward,” B3 continued, “but I cannot imagine someone wearing that fake armor ever becoming an MVP.”

  “Gnhh...!” The fake Barbaroy didn’t know how to respond.

  “It’s a great skill for tricking people, and pretending to be an influential player to make your clan more prestigious is definitely a good application of it. However, there is a limit to how many members you can gain before the truth comes out. From what I can see, many of them here did not know about this.”

  Indeed, about half of the members present had thought that their Barbaroy was the real one, and many of them had joined just because of the name’s reputation. Now that the truth had come out, they gave suspicious glares to the members who’d known about this.

  “That’s why you targeted Ray — you wanted the prestige.” B3 continued. “And when you were done with him and had an actual achievement to your name, you planned to make up a reason why Barbaroy had to leave and make him do exactly that. The prestige your clan would have then would be just enough to fool people and make them come to you even if you didn’t have him anymore.”

  “Y-You bi— Stop!” The fake Barbaroy tried to shut her up, but he couldn’t move because he was far too close to B3, giving him the full effects of Heaven’s Weight: ultra high gravity and the Binding debuff. He simply didn’t have the STR to break free.

  “The reason why you chose Barbaroy is simple — it’s because you cannot change appearances. Be it a battle or a public place, Barbaroy is known to always wear full armor, and that made him an easy choice, correct?” She momentarily stopped and looked down on the fake. “Your other options weren’t nearly as good. The Superior Killer was decent, but no one knows his name, so it would’ve been difficult to prove you were the real thing. The Unsheath and King of Burglary’s faces are too well-known for your plan to work, while the King of Crimes is in the gaol, so he is not even an option. You ended up choosing Barbaroy through simple elimination.”

  “N-No! Don’t believe her! I’m the real deal!” shouted the fake.

  “Well, let’s see you prove it, then,” B3 said as she freed him from the effects of Heaven’s Weight.

  Being able to move again, the fake slowly stood up, then gasped as he realized what she meant.

  “If you’re truly the real Barbaroy, defeat me all by yourself and turn this situation around. Of course, I won’t be holding back, either.”

  “Ghnhh...”

  The fake couldn’t even bring himself to nod to that, and that was more than enough to show how unauthentic he was.

  “I’m a fake...” he gave in and admitted.

  The members who’d been fooled began jeering at him.

  “You tricked us!”

  “Fuck! I can’t believe I let this faker act like hot shit!”

  “S-Screw you! Don’t act like you didn’t use Barbaroy’s name to extort tons of money from people!”

  The ones who were in on the plan retaliated, splitting Sol Crisis into two sides. Their relentless arguing resulted in lots of noise.

  “Shut up.” But all of it stopped with just those silent, yet extremely menacing, words.

  Needless to say, the one who spoke them was B3 — the most infuriated person on the scene.

  “Excuse me, but there’s no need for you to quarrel. Regardless of anything you say, I’m about to kill you all.”

  The ones who were tricked argued against that.

  “W-We were cheated!”

  “It’s not my fault! I don’t have anything to do with this!”

  “But you did use Barbaroy’s name to rob people, didn’t you?” B3 pointed out. “The fee for that will be your life. In fact, I am a player killer, so I do not need such excuses. Someone opposes me? I merely kill them all.”

  Her words made all of Sol Crisis, torn apart by the lie, unwittingly become one again. The gravity field made it impossible for them to escape, so they all were aware now that they were about to be massacred.

  “Anyway, I suppose this isn’t something you say so deep into a conversation, but I am quite upset right now,” B3 continued.

  Yeah, we can tell, they thought in response. The way she’d treated the fake was more than enough to see that she was furious.

  “Do you understand why am I so angry?”

  “B-Because we used Barbaroy’s name...?” asked the fake.

  “No. I actually don’t mind that you chose Barbaroy as the imitation. Well, it’s true that the low armor strength, low stats, and general lack of research somewhat vexes me, but the fact that someone used the name means that it holds enough weight to be used, so it’s definitely not the focus of my anger.”

  “Th-Then why...?”

  “There are two reasons,” she said in an ominously gentle tone. “The first one is the fact that you used the name of the leader of Mad Castle on the sub-leader of your third-rate clan.”

  The members of Sol Crisis needed a moment to process what she’d just said, but they instantly understood just how mad she was. Her ferocious expression and fiery eyes spoke volumes about her rage.

  “Th-Third rate?!” howled the fake. “You makin’ light
of us?”

  “Heh heh heh. Yours is a clan that acts all big and tough when all you have is borrowed fame. If that isn’t third-rate, I have no idea what is.” B3 chuckled. “And despite being so lowly, you had the gall to disgrace both Barbaroy and Mad Castle, effectively putting that clan below your third-rate Sol Crisis.”

  Indeed, the true reason for her anger was her feelings for the now-gone clan. She had nothing against someone else using her name, but bringing it down was simply unacceptable in her eyes.

  “Barbaroy Bad Burn isn’t forgiving enough to ignore this.”

  B3’s tone was composed, but the pressure she was emitting was immeasurable, making Sol Crisis realize what just kind of beast they’d been dancing with.

  “As for the other reason why I’m upset...” she continued as she raised another finger on her giant gauntlets. “You stood in his way and ridiculed him when he earnestly struggled to stop this tragedy.”

  The passion in her tone made it clear that this upset her as much as the insult to her clan — if not more.

  “And that’s why I’m gonna trash you all,” she changed her tone as a large set of armor covered her from neck to toe.

  It looked exactly like that of the fake Barbaroy’s, but the aura it exuded was incomparable, for it was the real Gunhammer Plate, Magnum Colossus.

  “Oh, right, I forgot to point out the third thing,” she said as all the bloodlust and anger vanished like mist.

  “Th-Thing?” the fake meekly repeated her.

  “Yes. I said that I have three things to point out, but I’ve only pointed out two so far.”

  She’d mentioned two of the mistakes the fake had made, namely the armor durability and name display, but she’d yet to tell him the third.

  “The third thing...” she said, still with a calm expression, as she took out the headpiece of the Gunhammer Plate from out of her inventory. “The third thing is that Barbaroy Bad Burn turns on his PK mode when he hides his face.”

  She then placed the helm over her head.

  “Oh, I just realized that I haven’t properly said it yet.”

  The moment the plate covered her whole face, she declared, “The big boy Barbaroy Bad Burn we’re all talkin’ about... is me.”

  Thus, one of the kingdom’s leading PKers, Barbaroy Bad Burn the Crushing Canopy, was reborn.

  ◆◆◆

  About Sol Crisis

  It all began with the Embryo of a Master known as “Vermin.” Its name was “Amanojaku,” and it had the ability to change the names of his items and himself.

  Unaware of the Urikohime folk tale, Vermin wondered why it was a name-changing Embryo, but he liked its ability a lot. He figured that Amanojaku could work wonders for him if he used it well.

  Infinite Dendrogram was a game where the system itself prevented name changes, so having the privilege of actually being able to do that gave him a great advantage.

  Vermin used that power to swindle countless Masters. He avoided targeting tians because he didn’t want to end up in the gaol, but that would never happen with his fellow players, so he went wild scamming them one after another.

  Eventually, he met up with a pair of other Masters who also went around doing bad deeds: Dum-dum, an ambusher PKer, and Blue Screen, a player who’d gotten on Dryfe’s wanted list for breaking too many machines.

  They all found each other to be kindred spirits — or, rather, people they could use — and went on to join forces.

  That was the start of the Sol Crisis clan.

  Later, the new partners in crime wanted to do something big, and they eventually got the idea to fake an infamous PKer.

  By using the name of someone feared and powerful, they could menace and coerce tons of other people, and if someone doubted the fake PKer’s identity, they could freely show them the name, which would be changed by Amanojaku.

  The stronger and more feared the PKer, the more it would frighten those who saw it.

  Though the Embryo didn’t allow appearance changes, they could still imitate PKers that didn’t show their faces. Not even MVP-exclusive special rewards would be a problem if they just made items that looked similar and changed the name to make them appear real.

  Additionally, upon reaching the sixth form, Amanojaku became able to fake not only names, but stats, as well.

  They definitely had the means to pull off the lie, and after a short investigation, Vermin found the perfect PKer to fake — Barbaroy Bad Burn.

  Before the Superior Killer settled in Altar, there were a total of five PKers who were particularly feared:

  The sole Superior was the King of Crimes, Sechs Würfel.

  K&R’s leader, The Unsheath, Kashimiya.

  K&R’s sub-leader, Nobushi Princess, Rosa.

  Goblin Street’s leader, King of Burglary, Eldridge.

  Mad Castle’s leader and the sole high-rank job among them, Full Armor Giant, Barbaroy Bad Burn.

  These PKers were greatly feared by Masters all across the kingdom. Of course, the KoC was dreaded by the tians, as well, and since he was quickly put on the country’s wanted list, it was hard to consider him a Master belonging to the kingdom.

  If Vermin wanted to pretend to be anyone in the kingdom, these five would be the most effective, as they were the most infamous PKers there.

  Kashimiya, Rosa, and Eldridge were still actively playing, so they were instantly excluded from the possible choices.

  As for King of Crimes... right before the war against Dryfe, he’d fought against someone unknown. They’d both ended up defeated, and KoC had been sent to the gaol, so he wasn’t even an option.

  Besides, even if he had still been here, taking up his name would just be far too dangerous, since the slightest mention of him would make the kingdom’s officials instantly jump into action.

  The kidnapping of the third princess, the massacre at Count Friebel’s mansion, the deprivation of The Saint, et cetera... The many crimes committed by KoC had turned his name into a sort-of taboo word in the kingdom.

  Because of all that, Barbaroy was the only real choice, and as luck would have it, his current situation was just perfect for Sol Crisis’s plan.

  After being defeated by the Over Gladiator, Figaro, Barbaroy’s clan was dissolved, and he himself seemed to have disappeared.

  There were rumors that he’d quit because of the shock from the defeat, making him the perfect person for Vermin to fake.

  So Vermin did just that, becoming a Barbaroy Bad Burn that couldn’t be exposed by any Reveal or Identification, letting them pressure other Masters like never before.

  It didn’t take long for the fake Barbaroy to uplift Sol Crisis and make it a relatively well-known PK clan. The fame attracted many new members, making it a highly popular underground option.

  With that, however, came a certain problem.

  There were now far too many members who didn’t know that their Barbaroy was a fake. If he was somehow exposed, the entire clan would be at risk of collapsing.

  So their countermeasure to that was to get fame from something other than Barbaroy.

  Specifically, they decided to PK Ray Starling the Unbreakable — the famous Master who, despite being a newbie, hadn’t broken before a Superior.

  Achieving that would be proof that their Barbaroy was more than just for show, and the clan would no longer be in danger of collapsing. In fact, it would only grow bigger.

  However, Ray Starling was almost always surrounded by duel rankers, his weird comrades, and even the King of Destruction, making him a scary target to attack.

  There were probably many other PKers who wanted to take out the Unbreakable, but were giving up for that very reason.

  But then Vermin saw Ray Starling at the capital’s fountain. He was accompanied solely by Nemesis, so they figured it was a golden opportunity for them to take him.

  Dum-dum used his trailing-specialized Embryo to track where he was going, then gathered the members and went after him, looking for a chance to PK him.


  They planned on attacking him when he was at the Fadl Mountain Pass, but then their attack coincided with K&R’s hunt.

  Two of their members ended up getting the death penalty, but they figured that K&R’s interference was actually worth it, since now the Unbreakable would also be known as the one who not even K&R could defeat.

  If Sol Crisis managed to succeed where they’d failed, they would become an even bigger name than K&R.

  With that positive, yet misguided mentality, they used Monochrome’s attack to assault Ray Starling. Since next to no other Masters would interfere, they figured this was a perfect opportunity for them. The incident was working in their favor, and things couldn’t be going any smoother for them.

  However, they neglected to consider three things:

  One — no matter how many tricks they used to make Sol Crisis appear strong, it would never be representative of their own strength.

  Two — the one they thought had quit the game was still very active.

  And three — they never pictured just how badly the real one would snap when their actions were uncovered.

  Those were Sol Crisis’s fatal mistakes, and retribution was dealt back to them in the form of an enraged juggernaut — the third strongest PKer in the kingdom.

  ◇◇◇

  Torne Village

  Sol Crisis was now looking at the real Barbaroy Bad Burn, clad in gigantic armor and donning a full helm that covered her entire face.

  Putting on that helmet was what made Barbaroy “turn on” to her PKer mode.

  Scared as they were, upon being told that, the members of Sol Crisis had wanted to laugh at her manga-like roleplaying. But once she actually equipped the helm and became the renowned PKer, all their amusement was blown away.

  Even though she looked exactly the same as their fake had, the intimidating air she emanated and the ferocity leaking out from her armor were on a completely different level. Her presence was so intense that anyone who knew what it felt like would have easily been able to tell the fake from the real one, even if the fake wore her name.