by Sakon Kaidou
“...Even if I can, I’d like to avoid boss battles for now,” I replied. Endlessly repeating events that intense would simply drain my life away. “I’ll hunt standard monsters until I reach level 20.”
“That’s a good idea.” said Nemesis. “I might’ve evolved into my second form by that point.”
“What will happen when you evolve, anyway?” I asked. “My brother said that Embryos don’t change too much.”
“I imagine it won’t go beyond new skills and changes to the weapon,” she answered. “Though, I do not know if the same can be said for the evolution between the third and fourth form.”
“High-rank evolution, was it?” I asked.
“Yes,” Nemesis confirmed. “First to third forms are low-rank, while fourth and above are high-rank. As far as I understand it, high-rank forms display a whole different level of uniqueness. There are even cases where the focus on certain skills leads to Embryos entering their own, unique categories.”
The fourth form of my brother’s Baldr was a tank, which was categorized as a “Chariot.” However, it had originally been an Arms-type gun, meaning that it had evolved into a different category.
“If high-rank forms display a lot of uniqueness, what about the seventh — Superior — form?” I asked.
“There are no details on that in the knowledge I was granted with my birth,” she replied. “We’re simply not given this kind of information, it seems.”
“I think I see how it is,” I said. It was top secret knowledge not meant to be seen by the average person. Not surprising that there were fewer than a hundred people who got there.
“However, I do know that Embryos of fourth or higher forms get called ‘high-rank’ not just for classification, but for power, as well,” Nemesis said, giving more details. “That’s why you must hurry and uplift me into the fourth form... and beyond, if you can.”
“Well, that’s the plan, anyway.”
The rankings were probably full of people with high-rank Embryos, so if I wanted to get there, I had no choice but to get on their level.
“For now, I have no choice but to do some honest leveling,” I said. “I’m gonna reach level 13 and move on to another hunting ground while it’s still today.”
The orange patches of sky I saw between the trees clearly showed that it was getting late, but I had no intention of ending the hunt just yet.
Hell, more monsters spawn at night, so it actually makes me excited.
“That’s the spirit,” said Nemesis.
“All right, then, let’s g—”
Suddenly, my vision slanted.
No — it wasn’t just my vision, but myself.
The numbness — the remnant of an impact — on my forehead was a sign that something had just hit my temporal region. My status display showed me that it had taken away a whole 80% of my HP.
“...The hell?” I’d been struck by sudden critical damage with no rhyme or reason behind it. Since it’d hit my head, I was left dizzy and unable to properly move my limbs.
“Master!” Nemesis raised her voice.
I thought she was simply worried about me, but I was wrong. It was a warning.
“Hh! Counter Absorption!” she cried. Twenty-four hours had passed since she’d used it yesterday, so Nemesis could use Counter Absorption again. Right as she did that, the newly-created wall of light was hit by something.
“Gyaghg, ghgee!”
It was a small monster that combined the aerodynamic shape of a bullet with the dreadful visage of a preta. It writhed — to no avail — as it tried to break through the wall of light. More likely than not, the damage I’d taken a second ago had been dealt by this thing.
“Is this a monster?” I asked.
...No way, I thought in disbelief. This monster’s offensive ability is way too great compared to the Teal Wolves I’ve been fighting. However, it didn’t seem like it was a boss monster like the Demi-Dragon Worm, either. I mean, it doesn’t even have the name pop-up that appears over every monster in sight. Could it be...
“Kh!” Counter Absorption’s wall of light vanished, and so did the monster that had hit it.
“A suicidal-type monster that dies right after its first attack,” Nemesis explained. “It’s both a monster and not at the same time... Master! This is a...!”
“...Guardian!” I completed her sentence.
Type Guardian... A monster-type Embryo. Unlike Babi, who was of the same type, this one was a real monster.
“Master, retreat! Someone is targeting you!” Nemesis exclaimed.
“Don’t have to tell me twice!” I cried.
With my dizziness gone, I dashed towards the North Gate while healing myself.
Soon enough, I became fully aware of the situation. Screams of players were echoing all over Noz Forest. It wasn’t just one or two people, either, but dozens of them. Since that monster was an Embryo, the one responsible was another player.
PK — Player Killing. Just as the name implied, it was the act of killing other players — a concept that had existed since the dawn of MMOs. The person who had attacked me was attacking other players, too, increasing his number of victims with every passing second.
With Nemesis’s buff and stat increase due to the high-rank job, my HP was significantly larger than that of most people close to my level, and yet a single attack had been enough to bring me to the verge of death. No player without similar circumstances could survive it.
It was no longer a “newbies’ hunting ground”... but a “newbie-hunting ground.” We had become the hunted.
“That Guardian died right then and there, so why are the victims increasing?!” I cried.
“They’re probably part of a high-rank Guardian categorization. Type Legion,” Nemesis answered. “It’s an Embryo that’s basically a colony. As far as I know, the quantity comes at a great cost to quality!”
“You’re saying that the attack that almost killed me was ‘low quality?’ Nice joke,” I said.
Wait, if the Embryo is a high-rank, the Master must be high-rank, too, I realized.
“We’re at a disadvantage!” cried Nemesis.
We have to hurry back to the capital, I agreed. This player-killing asshole shouldn’t follow us there.
However, before I could act out my thoughts...
“Gyaghghghghghghgh!” I heard it behind me — a monster flying towards me like a meteor.
“Mast—!”
It’s going to kill m—
“Like hell!” Turning around, I swung my black greatsword at the bullet monster.
“Ghh...ghghghgh.” The impact made the bullet monster blast away into the trees, ending its life and role.
“...I did it!”
“Well done, Master!” Nemesis cried. “Now, you just have to—”
—run to the city. Nemesis didn’t get to finish her sentence. In her greatsword form, Nemesis didn’t have a face. However, I could easily tell what she was looking at.
Someone was standing there beyond the trees, lightly veiled by a dark haze. I couldn’t tell whether it was a man or a woman, young or old, or even if it was actually human or not. Though light, the haze distorted the silhouette to the point of making me unable to see such basic things. All I could tell was that the figure held a gun-like object in its right hand...
...and that an Embryo crest was shining on its left.
At that point, it couldn’t have been more obvious.
It was this person. This person was the one trying to kill me.
“Run away! Master!” Nemesis exclaimed.
Before I could even respond, I began dashing with all I had. The distance was twenty meters. It was much smaller than the distance I had to run when escaping the orchard, and the city was right beyond it.
I kept on running.
However, I suddenly heard a gunshot. At the same moment, I felt a dreadful, daunting sensation.
I had to keep running.
But the terrible chills running down my spine ma
de me turn around. The sight that awaited my eyes was beyond anything I could expect.
Nemesis and I had been able to fend off a mere two of those bullet monsters, and still only barely. And, upon turning around, I was greeted by a hellish swarm of the very same creatures, numbering so many that they blocked out the view behind them.
A moment later, before I could even blink, the monsters charged at me and pulverized my body.
[Fatal Damage]
[Party Eliminated]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Death Penalty: 24 Hour Login Ban]
◇◇◇
Reiji Mukudori.
“...Ghh!”
Right after they destroyed me, my consciousness was ejected to reality as if I had been only dreaming. Unlike how people felt when waking up after a good night’s sleep, my mind was completely clear. However, I wasn’t sure if I could properly process and accept what had just happened.
Sure, I’d heard the final message loud and clear. And I was fully aware that the penalty for dying was now in effect. But I still couldn’t wrap my head around what had actually happened back there.
“Let’s just test it and...” Sure enough, I wasn’t able to log in to Infinite Dendrogram.
As I made my attempt, I noticed the message on the display fixed to the side of the device. It said “Penalty Active. 23h:55m:16s remaining.”
“...Well, damn,” I said.
I looked outside and realized that dawn had yet to break. The clock said that it wasn’t even five in the morning. There wasn’t much I could do at this time of day.
“...Guess I’ll sleep for now.” I spread myself out on the bed and tried to pass out. However, when I closed my eyes, I couldn’t help but picture the moment I’d been killed. That led to me trying to imagine what I could’ve done to survive.
It was a case of Tetris Syndrome. Just like people would imagine what block placement would get them to a higher score, I ran my head through various survival strategies.
As such thoughts dominated my head, I realized just how shoddy my movements had been. With the regrets and considerations of what I could’ve, should’ve, and would’ve done spinning in my mind, I eventually fell asleep.
◇
I woke up at about eight in the morning and had my breakfast while watching the morning news. They were discussing something about the entertainment industry and the world tour of that famous singer — Rachel Raymuse. It wasn’t anything I could bring myself to care for.
“...Man, this is dull.” I was referring to the taste of the food I was eating.
Since I had all the time in the world right now, I’d decided to make something myself, but the result had been far below the fancy meals I’d had in the game. I had a feeling that continuing to live like this would quickly drain away my excitement for real food.
After I finished eating and took care of the dishes, I went to an online message board and looked for info. It didn’t take long for me to find something on the incident I’d been involved in.
The tragedy at Noz Forest was actually big news in the message board dedicated to Infinite Dendrogram.
Normally, simple player killing would never get this much attention, but this was a special case. That was because players were still being hunted in all the beginners’ hunting grounds. However, this was only happening in the Kingdom of Altar.
Simultaneously and continuously, the kingdom’s newbies were being killed off. It was clear that it was an operation executed by multiple members of an organized force. The only question left was: Who was behind it?
Most people on the message board suspected the Dryfe Imperium, which was rumored to be planning to attack Altar soon. The reasoning behind the suspicion was the idea that Dryfe was trying to keep Altar’s war potential low for when they decided to make their move. Since it was only happening in the kingdom, the possibility of that being true was high.
As one would expect, the kingdom’s players were responding to this. Some volunteered to act as vigilantes and hunt down the player killers. A number of bigger battles had happened between the two sides. However, the vigilantes had failed to get even a single victory. That made it quite obvious that the player killers were made up of highly proficient players. Just like the others, the one who had killed me at Noz Forest remained undefeated, but there was a slight difference. The vigilantes weren’t even able to find the player killer.
The beginner hunt showed no sign of stopping, but no one could even find the person responsible, let alone defeat them.
“...It had to be that person, right?” I said. Back then, I’d seen both the bullet monster Embryo and its Master. Due to the strange mist surrounding them, I hadn’t been able to tell if they were male or female, young or old. That might’ve had something to do with the vigilantes’ inability to find them.
I ran my eyes through the comments, which were many and varied. Some said, “Welp, the Kingdom is screwed,” others went “Dryfe players are such scumbags,” and some saw this as an opportunity and said, “If you’re thinking of deserting, I recommend Caldina. Noobs welcome.”
Among them, I saw complaints from unrelated people.
One said, “Man, I got killed while I was just passing by. My Embryo was this close to evolving and the death penalty messed it all up.”
Another replied with “Same here, and I was about to start living the high-rank dream...”
Were there more death penalties than the login ban? It got me curious, so I typed up and posted a message saying “Noob here. Just started and died for the first time. What’s this about death penalties?”
Replies came quickly.
One simply went “Get lost, noob.”
Another was fooling around and said, “Let me teach you my ways. Step one: You get naked...” but there were those who properly explained it to me.
Apparently, there were rumors that a high number of death penalties decreased the speed at which Embryos evolved. Most players believed this information and treated it as truth.
It was hard to gauge, considering that Embryos were unique to each player, but rough comparisons showed that Embryos belonging to players with many death penalties evolved slower than those with less. This demerit might’ve been one of the reasons why the kingdom’s players weren’t enthusiastic about participating in the war.
After giving my thanks for the info, I switched to another board.
I thought I’d be seeing grim posts about war and player killing everywhere I went, but Tenchi and Huang He were full of people talking about the tame events going on there.
Cherries were blooming in Tenchi, so people were talking about the cherry blossom viewing sponsored by the tian “Conquest General.”
In Huang He, panda-like monsters were breeding so much that a whole mountain had become black and white. It was possible to use a camera item to take photos or films and send the output to external media. Someone had posted a screenshot of the panda event, and the heartwarming sight made me smile.
The only battle-related event I found was in Legendaria. There was a great battle royale to compete for tickets to the concert where “everyone’s idol” — Fairy Queen Titania — was the main event. Though it was clearly PVP, everyone seemed to be having tons of fun.
“...Why is the Kingdom of Altar the only place that’s getting terrorized and reaching the verge of death?” I began to understand why some players would want to defect.
Reading it all was a real buzzkill, so I just turned the PC off.
All right, what now? I thought. My death penalty ends before dawn tomorrow. I guess it’s a good time to take care of some stuff.
I had to stock up on household supplies and food, not to mention that I’d yet to unpack all the things I had brought here upon moving. Plus I had to start getting ready for college, which would begin in just a month.
There were lots of things I had to do in reality.
◇
By the time I was done shopping, unpacking my stuff,
and finishing up dinner, it was already past ten o’clock. I checked the message boards, and sure enough, the player killers weren’t taken care of even after two days of in-game time. If the rumors were true and Dryfe Imperium players were really the ones responsible, they would likely try to keep the situation like this until right before the war started. That put me in a bit of a pickle, since I wouldn’t be able to use any of the standard places for leveling. All the hunting grounds close to the four gates of the capital were occupied by player killers. That meant that I couldn’t even leave the capital.
Even if I somehow broke through their blockade and got to another town, the only hunting grounds that fit my level were around the capital.
If there’s one place I can go to...
“Guess I have no other choice,” I said aloud.
...it’s that special beginner’s hunting ground that my brother told me about.
All of the hunting grounds he’d told me about were beyond the four gates of the capital, but there was one exception. I’d been told it was a place that the player killers couldn’t reach, and since I hadn’t seen anyone posting that it was affected, it was probably true. However, that hunting ground had problems of its own.
My brother had told me what those problems were, and I’d become averse to the idea of going there. However, since I couldn’t use the standard hunting grounds, that place was my only real option.
I went to sleep early, woke up at dawn, confirmed that the penalty was gone, and hastily logged in.
◇
Three days had passed in the game. The time of day was evening — just like when I’d died.
The place I’d spawned at wasn’t Noz Forest, but the large fountain where my brother had waited for me on the first day. While we had been walking around the town and shopping, he had told me that it was one of the capital’s save points, so I’d set it as the place where I’d revive.
All is as it should be, I thought. The death penalty ends and you automatically revive at your save point.
“...I see you’re back, Master.” Before I realized it, Nemesis was standing next to me in her human form. She’d left the crest without me noticing it.