by Sakon Kaidou
“It just hit me that I asked to see your skills, but didn’t ask for your level. What is it now?” I asked Rook, looking at him. He hasn’t been able to grind much these past few days, so if our last meeting was anything to go by, he should be at about level 5.
“I’m level 25,” he said.
“25?!” I couldn’t hold my shock. That’s more than double my level! “How?! Where did you raise your level? The hunting grounds weren’t an option, so—”
Hell, I don’t think he could get that many levels even if he could use the hunting grounds! I thought.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I couldn’t go hunting, but I got lots of XP for completing a Pimp guild quest.”
“A Pimp guild quest?” I repeated, dumbfounded.
I hadn’t been aware of it, but taking a job unlocked quests from the guild of that particular job grouping, and clearing them rewarded the player with experience. However, with the exception of those given to non-battle jobs, most of the quests in guilds required the player to defeat or defend something, so newbies like myself couldn’t do much there.
Hell, I’m a Paladin — a high-rank job — so it’s probably even worse for me, I thought.
“I see... but...” There was something I was curious about. “...A job that only a Pimp can do?” I asked.
Is there anything in that vein that isn’t R-18?
“The one I cleared was a quest to find a model for a painting,” Rook explained. “Here’s a copy.”
“Let’s see here...” I said and looked at it.
Maestro Grantzian Valleno is looking for a model, difficulty level 6.
One of the Kingdom of Altar’s greatest artists — Grantzian — is looking for a model for a new painting.
Please bring someone that he would be satisfied with.
Depending on the model, they might be asked to pose nude.
Be advised that Grantzian is a fastidious sort and that his standards are sky-high.
I had no words. The difficulty of this quest was actually a level higher than the one where I’d had to help Milianne.
“So, you went and cleared it by showing Babi to him, right?” I asked.
“No. Well, that was my original intention, but...”
◇◇◇
“Pardon the intrusion. I am Rook from the Pimp guild, and I came here with a model.”
“Hmph, another one of you useless cretins who are only good at handling your crotches. All you wretches ever bring to me are atrocious hags. So, where is the...”
“Umm, is anything the matter?”
“You’re hired!”
◇◇◇
“For some reason, I had to be the model,” said Rook. “Well, it got me some levels and it made Mr. Grantzian happy, so I didn’t mind it at all.”
“...I see. Good for you,” I said.
Man, this world is really kind to handsome people...
◇
By the time we’d finished our lunch, my exchange with Rook was nearing its end.
I’d thought I’d had some strange experiences since I’d started the game, but his adventures had been quite something, too. I had no idea if we were unique in that regard or if getting entangled in unusual events was the norm in this world.
“By the way, Ray,” Rook addressed me.
“Hm? What?” I responded.
“We just talked about the player killers, and there’s something that I can’t get out of my head,” he said.
...It’s probably the same thing that I’m interested in, I thought.
“When you met Figaro, he said he would do something about the player killers in the south, right?” he asked.
“Yeah, he said something about the hunting ground there being the passage to the city of duels,” I answered.
“But the player killing is over in all the hunting grounds, isn’t it?” he asked.
Exactly, I thought. That had been the question on my mind before I’d met up with Rook.
There would’ve been no surprise if Figaro — the top of the duel rankings — had ended the player killing in the hunting grounds. In fact, if he’d simply given them all the death penalty, the player killing wouldn’t be happening for a whole three days. However, Figaro had only mentioned the Sauda Mountain Pass in the south. Therefore, it was strange that the player killings in the other places were over, too.
“I have three possible scenarios in mind,” I said.
“Do tell,” Rook said, looking interested.
“Scenario number one: Figaro did something about the other three, as well,” I said.
This scenario is quite unlikely, though, I thought. He’d probably taken care of the southern player killers to secure the means of travel between the capital and the city of duels — his main haunt. However, he’d had no reason to take care of the problems in the other areas.
“Scenario number two: upon finding out that someone took care of the player killers in the south, the others ceased their activity, as well.”
This one seems a bit questionable, I thought. Sure, getting killed would disable the player killers’ activity for a whole three days here, but this particular event was organized terrorism meant to prevent Kingdom of Altar’s players from growing stronger.
From the way they’d sealed all four sides of the kingdom, it was obvious that they were acting as one. Due to that, it was hard to believe that they’d stop just because one side got neutralized. In fact, I would expect them to make up for the loss by sending over some of their killers from the other areas.
Suddenly, another possibility came to mind.
What if the countermeasures Figaro took aren’t as small-scale and haphazard as I think they are? I thought. What if he actually negotiated with the player killers?
If that was the case, it was no surprise that all the player killing had stopped.
However, that’s quite a questionable assumption, too, I thought. Figaro was a good guy, but he didn’t seem like the type to act like that. I didn’t talk to him for long, but the impression he gave me didn’t seem to fit that scenario. After all, he almost killed me just because he couldn’t see what I was. That brings him closer to “musclehead” territory... or just makes him seem like a person who is rough in the way he operates.
“Umm, Ray,” Rook said, “what’s the third scenario?”
Whoa, I got lost in thought, I realized.
After a short process of elimination, I voiced the third possibility.
“Scenario number three: at the same time as Figaro was doing his thing in the south, the other places were taken care of by other people,” I said.
If Figaro wasn’t the one who’d taken care of them all and if the others hadn’t just backed down, it could only mean that someone else had gone to the other hunting grounds at the same time as him. After all, they were player killers, so there must’ve been many people who wanted them gone. Therefore, it was fair to assume that someone had gone to take care of them at about the same time as Figaro.
I felt it reasonable to believe that the single cause led to a coincidence in timing — a synchronicity, of sorts.
“And you are completely right!” an unfamiliar voice broke in.
It was way too sudden. Before I realized it, a woman I didn’t know was sitting down at our round table — on a chair between myself and Rook.
Despite her being right next to me, I hadn’t noticed her at all until she began speaking. Which was odd, because her appearance was strange and unique, making it nigh impossible to ignore her presence.
Her hair was black and long enough to cover her neck, while her face was that of someone around my age, but neither of those points were what made her seem strange. All of her oddity was in her apparel. However, the reasons were completely different from Figaro’s.
That guy had had clothes befitting a fantasy setting, but there had been no uniformity in his overall appearance. This woman’s clothing, however, was completely uniform. It just happened to be a men’s business suit that didn�
�t fit the fantasy setting at all.
Not only that, but her eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses. I wouldn’t have found her appearance the least bit weird if we’d been in reality, instead of the game. Though, even in reality, it would be pretty strange to wear sunglasses indoors.
“Umm... You are...?” Rook asked as I examined the woman.
“Oh, do forgive me,” she said. “I found your conversation so interesting that I couldn’t help but join in. This is who I am.”
As I noticed that she was talking in a slightly tomboy-ish way, she took out a business card... which was actually just a status window with her name, job, et cetera, but whatever.
Name: Marie Adler.
Job: Journalist belonging to the company known as “DIN.”
The existence of the job “Pimp” is surprising enough, and now I run into a Journalist, I thought. This game sure has great job variety.
“What’s DIN?” I asked.
“Short for Dendrogram Information Network,” Marie answered. “Some call us newspaper reporters. However, when we want to sound cool, we like to go for ‘intelligence agency without borders.’ We gather information from countries all over and sell it to other countries.”
“...Is that a safe thing to do in the current environment?” I asked. The kingdom was at war with a neighboring country. People who could leak info to the enemy seemed like prime candidates for arrest.
“Well, we have many DIN fans in the upper echelons of every country,” she answered. “Though I’m just an underling, so I specialize in info for citizens and Masters.”
“Any examples?” I asked.
“For the citizens, we recently took photos of and wrote about the pandas that were breeding so much they covered an entire mountain in Huang He.”
...Oh yeah, I saw that in the message boards, I thought.
“As for Masters, we recently gathered info about the player killers that were terrorizing the Kingdom of Altar’s surroundings,” she continued.
“...Hmm,” I pondered. If she handled info like that, she might know how it all played out and ended.
“You said that he was completely right. Do you know the truth behind the event?” asked Nemesis.
“Do you want to know? 600 lir per area, please,” Marie said. “You can also buy the info on all four of the places at once for 2,000.”
I see. So she only appeared before us to sell some info, I thought. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m interested in what happened, so...
“...I’ll pay,” I said.
“Ah! Ray, let me pay half of the money!” Rook joined in.
We both gave 1,000 lir each.
“Thank you for your business,” she said. “I’ll start with the conclusion: the player killers who occupied the hunting grounds around the capital city of Altea have been completely annihilated.”
Now that’s a rough word, I thought.
“Annihilated?” I asked.
“Almost all the player killers in the hunting grounds are on their death penalty now,” she answered. “With something so extreme happening, I don’t think they’re gonna do this dirty work again. Some of the relevant clans might even split up.”
Work? Clan?
“Umm...” I expressed my confusion.
“Oh, forgive me,” she said. “The player killer group responsible for this event was actually a union between several player killer clans.”
“A union...?” I raised an eyebrow. I was told it wasn’t a solo effort, but an actual union between player killer clans? I thought. ...Wait, our country actually has enough player killer clans to create a union?
“Yes,” she answered. “Easter Plains at the east was occupied by K&R. Sauda Mountain Pass to the south was occupied by Mad Castle. Wez Sea Route to the west was occupied by Goblin Street. These three clans were responsible for the recent player killing.”
Two of those clan names sound really villainous, I thought. They’d probably chosen them on purpose. What about the north, though? That one’s the most important to me.
“As for their motives... Apparently, they did it because someone hired them to do the player killing,” Marie added.
“Was it Dryfe?” Rook asked.
The question made her slightly raise her arms and shake her head. “That’s the rumor, but we at DIN don’t have any conclusive proof of that, so I can only say that I don’t know,” she answered.
Well, as things are now, the only one who could be happy about Altar being damaged in such a way are Dryfe — the country we’re at war with — so it’s quite likely, I thought. Though it does seem a bit too direct.
“From their perspective, it was probably just an attractive scenario where they could get some extra rewards for their player killing by merely switching their hunting grounds, but the world wasn’t too kind to them,” she continued. “They were annihilated by a certain four Masters.”
“Four...” I repeated the number. Just four Masters had destroyed the player killers in all four areas.
Is that even possible? I wondered. Well, I guess the south made sense, considering Figaro was involved.
With that in mind, the other hunting grounds had been...
“Yes, it was made possible by the work of the four Superiors loyal to the Kingdom of Altar,” she said. “They were the ones who exterminated all the player killer clans.”
Superior.
That was the term used to describe the ones who had made their Embryos evolve to the final — seventh — form. They were the elite of the elite among players, and the total number of them didn’t even cross a hundred yet.
“King of Destruction the Unknown, Figaro the Endless Chain, Tsukuyo Fuso of the Lunar World, and Lei-Lei, the Prodigal of Feasts,” she said, naming the four. “They all went to a separate hunting ground and exterminated all the player killer clans occupying them. Oh, but Tsukuyo Fuso had her clan with her.”
“Oho...” I said, interested.
So Figaro’s nickname is “Endless Chain,” huh? Is it because he uses chains? I pondered. Also, is the King of Destruction’s nickname seriously just “Unknown?” What the hell? We don’t even know his name, so he could be a serious weirdo.
“Now, take a look here.” Marie took out a crystal ball and placed it on the table.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Well, it’s basically an item to display visual media,” she explained. “It shows what you record on magical cameras.”
Magical cameras? I raised an eyebrow. Well, it’s obviously a camera that works magically, but I can’t help but wonder if the devs think anything goes as long as you put “magic” next to it.
“Due to all the recent happenings here in the Kingdom of Altar, we at DIN increased the numbers of secret cam... I mean, information-gathering equipment we place here,” she said.
...Illegal spying, eh? I thought.
“Some of them happened to film the end of these terror events,” Marie continued as if it wasn’t a big deal. “This thing has it all in full detail.”
She activated the crystal ball.
“Since you two were talking about it, let’s begin with a look at the south, where Figaro the Endless Chain went...”
Chapter Five: Superior
Clan Leader of Mad Castle — Full Armor Giant Barbaroy Bad Burn.
In Dendro, there were two ways for players to fight amongst themselves.
The first one was dueling.
Players would gather in an arena, agree on a set of conditions and rules, decide what items the victor would get and begin fighting. Since no one would die even if their HP hit 0 and all the damage done would be reverted the moment the battle ended, duels were much like a casual pastime.
The other means was player killing.
Players would attack other players outside of an arena and give them the death penalty. Players who died this way would drop money and items at random... just like monsters.
One of the differences between losing a duel and dying from
player killing was that the former allowed you to choose what items you lost, while the latter randomized it. The other difference was in whether the defeated side died or not.
That was the reason why there were those who specialized in dueling...
...and those like us, who specialized in player killing.
I, leader of the clan ‘Mad Castle’ — Barbaroy Bad Burn — love player killing.
In fact, my clan and I are enjoying some wholesome player killing right at this very moment, I thought.
“Uaahhh! Waaahhh!” A newbie player who looked like — and probably was — an elementary schooler was crying as he attacked me with his starting gear. However, no matter how many times he tried, the damage he did was always 0.
“Khahah! Come on! Damage me for at least 1 HP and I’ll let ya go!” I laughed.
Not that that could ever happen. Mine was a high-rank job focused on endurance — Full Armor Giant.
Not only that, but I had Damage Decrease, which decreased all incoming damage by 20%, and Damage Reduction, which took away 500 damage from all attacks, so a newbie like him couldn’t damage me even if he landed a critical hit.
“Uohh! Uohhh!” Still crying, the newbie attacked me while making an attempt to run away. However, I quickly stood in his path before he could complete his escape.
Despite having a heavy, non-agile job, I was still much faster than a newbie, not to mention that I had my Embryo’s ability. I also made sure to prevent him from logging out.
To log out in this game, a player needed about thirty seconds of free time. No one could do it unless they were able to spend those thirty seconds without being touched or attacked by someone else. It was a fact of the game that was meant to prevent crime, but it could easily be used for crime.
Well, player killing wasn’t actually forbidden, so it wasn’t really a “crime” in any sense of the word.
Also, for one reason or another — likely as a means against harassment — players were able to commit suicide. Even if players were rendered unable to move even a single finger, they could give themselves the death penalty at will. However, by doing that, players dropped way more money and items than when killed by a player killer, so there weren’t many who used that function.