Infinite Dendrogram_Volume 1

by Sakon Kaidou

  Either by simply feeling it or by seeing that his chains’ Auto Enemy Detect weren’t picking up anyone but me, he’d concluded that I was the last. And with those words, it became obvious that he’d come here to kill us — the player killers near the capital.

  “So, can I assume that you’re this PK group’s leader?” he asked.

  “...What if I said ‘yes?’” I replied.

  “My only goal here is to secure the means of travel between the duel city and the capital,” he explained. “If you promise to leave this mountain pass, I’ll gladly let you go.”

  “...Is that something you say after killing every single one of my clan members?” I asked.

  “If I hadn’t done that, you wouldn’t even be willing to negotiate.”

  He’s not wrong, I thought.

  Until he’d eliminated us, we’d all considered him to be just another sucker for easy pickings, so we would’ve attacked him even if he’d had something to say. After all, we’d had no idea that there was such a huge gap in power between us and a Superior.

  However, that made me consider something.

  Just how much stronger is he compared to me — a Master with an Embryo in its sixth form? If I can land a perfect hit with my Embryo’s ultimate skill... I might be able to kill him. Sure, with him having a Superior job, his level is probably far greater than mine. My level is 500 — the maximum I can reach with low-rank and high-rank jobs — and his can easily be two times higher than that. However, the results of PvP battles aren’t decided by level or stats. What matters is how well you can prevent your opponent from using their powers effectively while attacking them with your own. The Superior Killer got his name for a reason. It shouldn’t be impossible for me to do it, too.

  “All right,” I said. “I’ll leave this place as soon as I can. We, Mad Castle, won’t be hunting any more newbies here.”

  That wasn’t a lie. With players of this caliber now coming after us, our little PK feast in this area was all but done.

  We’ll back away... right after I kill him, anyway.

  “I have a Contract here. Wanna use it?” I reached into my item pouch and took out a piece of parchment.

  It was a Contract — a type of item used in agreements between players. Anyone who went against the conditions would receive either a temporary loss of stats, some debuffs, or even the death penalty.

  “Well...” Figaro said. “I don’t see why not. Let’s do it.”

  “...Okay, I’m done filling it in,” I said. “Take a look at it.”

  Saying that, I began to bring the Contract to Figaro.

  Five meters.

  Four meters.

  Three meters.

  Two meters — he was now in range.

  A magic circle appeared below my feet and spread around me. It was my Embryo — Atlas.

  “Heaven’s Weight!” One of Atlas’ skills was the increase of weight.

  It was able to apply continuous damage to everything in the effective range by increasing the gravity of the surroundings.

  The effect was stronger based on distance, reaching its peak at two meters, where the gravity was 500 times greater than usual. At the same time, it applied the “Binding” debuff, rendering Figaro unable to move even a single finger.

  The chains automatically tried to attack me, but the overwhelming gravity forced them to the ground, where they could only crawl.

  So far, no one had ever been able to break out of this combo between Binding and super gravity.

  A standard high-ranking player would have already been crushed to death, but I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that the Superior before me would die as easily.

  It was time to use Atlas’s ultimate attack.

  “Astro Guard!”

  I used Astro Guard again to multiply my defense by five...

  “Emancipated Giant, Atlas!”

  ...followed by the skill named after Atlas itself.

  It converted my defense to offense and multiplied my attack power by ten for ten seconds. My attack power was now over 150,000. A clean hit from that should’ve been enough to instakill anyone — even a Superior.

  And as Figaro was still unable to move, I began barraging him with Atlas’ strongest attack.

  “Break and die!” I roared.

  The ground below me shattered, caved in, and became a large crater. But I didn’t give a damn.

  For all I knew, he could have multiple resurrection or related accessories. I had to spend each and every one of these ten seconds attacking him.

  Suddenly, a sound.

  As I continued my barrage, a chain wrapped around my neck. It shocked the words out of me.

  I looked down. What I saw was the ground I’d shattered with my barrage, but Figaro was nowhere to be seen.

  If he wasn’t before me, there was only one place he could be at. By that, I meant “at the other end of the chain tightening around my neck.”

  It was going upwards, so I looked up and saw Figaro hanging about ten meters up in the air.

  “H-How?!” I howled in shock. He’d been affected by five hundred times the normal gravity and had had the Binding debuff — there was no way he could’ve jumped that high.

  “...Ah,” I said.

  Suddenly, a realization.

  I had heard many things about Figaro. Among them was that, for the Over Gladiator, raiding a created dungeon solo was part of his daily life. The very idea of solo raiding was stupid, but any lunatics who attempted it had to make sure they met a certain condition.

  It wasn’t high stats.

  Nor was it the means of healing.

  It was all about countermeasures to debuffs.

  Paralysis, Sleep, Petrification, and, of course, Instant Death.

  When going solo, players didn’t have any allies that could help them with such debuffs, so getting one of them would be the equivalent of dying.

  Thus, anyone raiding solo would have to have a means of dealing with debuffs. Therefore, it was only obvious that this solo-focused Superior would have been prepared for that.

  He had some equipment I couldn’t identify. One of them probably nullified all Binding effects.

  “No... There’s no way!” I shouted.

  I’d been about to accept that conclusion, but I simply couldn’t. The Binding from my Heaven’s Weight was a personal skill from a high-rank Embryo. There was no way it could’ve been nullified so easily.

  Suddenly, another realization.

  I thought that he wasn’t using his Embryo. But what if I’m wrong? What if his Superior Embryo is already active? What if it’s the reason why he was able to nullify my Binding and jump as if the 500 times greater gravity doesn’t matter at a—?

  Another sound. I instantly looked up at Figaro.

  Due to the light behind him, I couldn’t make out his expression.

  However, it gave me chills I couldn’t describe.

  When he landed, I got a good look at his face, which made the chills turn even worse.

  The sound again. His narrow eyes were open wide and shining red. His mouth was in a smile — sharp like a crescent moon and open wide enough to see his throat. The sounds coming from his throat were downright inhuman. It was reminiscent of growls that your average monster would sound — meaningless and thick with bloodlust.

  A short scream escaped my mouth. At that moment, he raised both of his chained hands up into the sky.

  That motion made the chains wrapped around my neck begin to pull upwards.

  My body — more than two meters worth of armored flesh — was separated from the surface and got distanced from the earth.

  My ears were overwhelmed by the sound of air grazing my whole body.

  Likely by using his chains’ Range Extend skill, he made them raise me up at incredible speeds and didn’t seem to know where to stop. Figaro was now but a dot on the surface. A moment later, I was higher than the mountain peak, reached the clouds and went beyond.

  Soon enough, I no longe
r had any air around me. I made my lungs work at full capacity, yet nothing was coming in. The word “suffocation” came to mind.

  Though Dendro allowed the player to reduce all pain to nothing but dull impacts, it didn’t do anything about the anguish of oxygen deprivation.

  However, there was no need for me to worry about suffocating, because something far scarier happened.

  As if it was only obvious, the chains began to get pulled back down to the ground.

  The sights I’d seen on my way up now went by me at an even faster speed, making me feel as if someone had rewinded my life.

  “HYAAAAAHHHHHH!” A scream of despair escaped my mouth.

  It didn’t matter that I was in a game. The fall I was experiencing was thick with fear of death.

  It didn’t matter that there was no pain. The shape of fear living beings feel when faced with imminent death was unrelated to that.

  The game’s realism conveyed the fear of death all too well.

  From sky high and at a ridiculously high speed, I was falling to my death.

  Still with a monstrous smile on his face, Figaro was waiting for me on the surface.

  Once again, he made that sinister, incomprehensible sound. One of his chains was replaced by another weapon — a chainsaw-like greatsword.

  He swung it straight at where I was falling.

  A moment later, a twisted, crunching sound ripped from my own body, and I...

  [Fatal Damage]

  [Party Eliminated]

  [Resurrection Period Expired]

  [Death Penalty: 24 Hour Login Ban]

  Rangyu Restaurant, Kingdom of Altar — Paladin Ray Starling.

  “...That was one brutal fight.” After watching the clip in Marie’s crystal ball, I was seriously taken aback. It was paused at the frame where the huge, armored guy — the PK leader — was getting split in half.

  According to Marie, the armor guy was an infamous player who had had high defense and a counterattack-like ultimate skill that dealt serious damage.

  Due to that description, I found him somewhat relatable and began to feel that his demise — that mangled corpse — was a glimpse of my future if I ever fought Figaro.

  “And that’s how everyone in Mad Castle met with a sad end,” said Marie. “Even if they recover from this, they’ll never return to player killing in that area.”

  Makes sense, considering that stopping the traffic there would make Figaro get involved again, I thought.

  “If I ever find myself in the duel city, I’ll have to remember to thank Figaro for this,” I said.

  “Indeed,” mumbled Nemesis.

  “Hm?” I looked at her.

  For some reason, she seemed a bit sulky. Instead of looking at the crystal ball, she was merely eating with Babi, who didn’t seem to care about any of this whatsoever.

  The amount Nemesis consumed was as great as always, but it almost seemed like she was stress eating.

  Why, though? I thought.

  “Okay, now let me show you the next one.” This time, Marie’s crystal displayed a familiar place. It was the first hunting ground I’d ever leveled at — Easter Plains.

  Sure enough, there was a group of player killers there. Though they were hiding from players and waiting for their next prey, they weren’t hidden from the camera.

  A few moments later, another group — and quite a strange one, at that — came from the direction of the capital.

  I couldn’t tell the exact number, but there were surely more than a hundred of them — all marching towards the player killers.

  Each and every single one of the group had an outfit with a crescent moon and a closed eye on it. The design seemed familiar, but I couldn’t recall where I’d seen it.

  In response to the group’s sudden appearance, the player killers became visibly perplexed and only continued hiding.

  Soon enough, a single lady walked out of the strange group.

  She had black hair that was reminiscent of nightly darkness and reached as far as the back of her knees, which were hidden by her ceremonial kimono. Her beauty made me feel as though I was looking at Princess Kaguya, straight out of the children’s tale.

  Suddenly, the beauty raised her hand, making the world go through what seemed like a theatrical blackout.

  Mere moments ago, it had been daytime and the sun had been shining, but she’d somehow brought forth a “night.” It was complete with a blue moon that was downright impossible in reality and perhaps even the game.

  A moment later, the player killers who were bathed in the blue moonlight grabbed hold of their throats and began to writhe in pain, which rendered them unable to move properly.

  As if they had been waiting for this, the strange group split up and began systematically killing the writhing player killers. With their victims unable to move in any capacity, it seemed less like a battle and more like a tedious job.

  However, there was an exception.

  A certain player killer — a Beastman type female player with wolf-like ears and tail — could still move even when exposed to the moonlight.

  According to Marie, that was one of K&R’s two leaders.

  Using her claws and fangs, she savagely clawed her way through the enemies surrounding her and closed in on Princess Kaguya.

  However, it was all in vain.

  The hundreds surrounding her were too much for her to handle, so she ended up dying at the edge of a spear.

  The sight made the beauty reminiscent of Princess Kaguya cackle in a discomforting manner.

  “That’s Tsukuyo Fuso of the Lunar World,” Marie explained. “She is the owner of the clan known as The Lunar Society... though I guess the term ‘founder’ or ‘spiritual leader’ is more appropriate.”

  “Spiritual leader?” I raised an eyebrow. It was a strange title, but it reminded me that her job was “High Priestess.”

  Nevertheless, I found it to be somewhat questionable...

  “Um, is this Lunar Society related to the Japanese cult of the same name?” asked Rook.

  “...Oh.” His words reminded me of where I’d heard that before. “The Lunar Society” was the name of a cult that existed in reality.

  “Yes,” answered Marie. “The clan ‘The Lunar Society’ is a part — or, rather, the headquarters — of the cult of the same name.”

  “...Why are they advancing their religion in a game, of all places?” I asked.

  “The Lunar Society’s first teaching is ‘Escape the shackles of flesh and betake yourself to the true world of souls,’” she explained. “I guess they consider Dendro to be that world.”

  ...I’m fully aware of this world’s realism, I thought. Our five senses and the tians we interact with can’t be distinguished from the real thing. But... is that really enough reason to take it that far?

  “If their goal is to ‘betake themselves to the true world of souls’ and they accomplished it by getting here... what are they doing now?” I inquired.

  “Oh, yes. Their second teaching is the main one,” Marie said. “It goes something like, ‘Embrace this free world and celebrate your liberty to your soul’s content.’”

  ...Sounds like the dogma of some dark god, I thought.

  “The Lunar Society is quite feared among the players,” she continued. “Not only are they more than a thousand strong, they also have roots in reality, so many players are afraid that getting on the cult’s bad side might get something done to them in real life.”

  Well, that’s a scary thought, I thought. If there’s the possibility of them abducting me or something, I’d rather not get involved with them, either.

  “By the way, as far as we know, their reason for going after the player killers was the fact that one of their followers was killed by them,” Marie added. “It’s scary that such a thing can get the entire clan to go after you, isn’t it?”

  ...Would I be wrong to assume that — right next to the war — the cult is another reason why people are leaving the kingdom? I thought.<
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  Next, Marie displayed what had happened in the west.

  What I saw first was Lei-Lei — the girl that had participated in the party we’d had on my first day. Just like that time, she was wearing a Chinese dress despite having a northern European face. From what my brother had told me, she was from there in real life, too.

  Lei-Lei’s fighting style as I saw it in the crystal ball was simple. She didn’t bring them up to the sky just to have them fall on a chainsaw, nor did she make them writhe just to have a group come up and impale them.

  She simply walked up to the hiding player killers and punched them. That was all. However, the results were downright ridiculous.

  Figaro’s chains basically turned his opponents into mincemeat, but this was on another level.

  The player killers were completely liquefied. They were bursting so easily, it almost made me think that they weren’t people, but people-shaped water balloons. The moment Lei-Lei touched them, their flesh simply collapsed, leaving only a blood and entrail-colored liquid and the skin that released it.

  Speaking of skin, it was flying around everywhere, decorating just about every surrounding tree. Because they instantly died, it would quickly disappear, but the sight itself wouldn’t leave my mind as easily.

  I think I can see why she’s called the Prodigal of Feasts, I thought. No proper feast is complete without meat and drink, and she provided both. ...What a grim thought, though.

  Despite seeming like a really jovial character in the party, Lei-Lei had a seriously scary fighting style.

  Marie didn’t know why Lei-Lei had decided to eliminate the player killers.

  With what happened in the south, east, and west now being clear, all that was left was the north — Noz Forest.

  It was the place I was the most curious about. After all, I had died there once.

  “Now, about the north...” Marie seemed somewhat reluctant.

  Just what is she about to show us? I thought.

  “Well, I’ll just play it, then.” Marie controlled the crystal ball and made it show the forest.

  It had been filmed during nighttime, when I’d still been raiding the Tomb Labyrinth. Apparently, this was the earliest of the four eliminations.

  However, I couldn’t see the player killer anywhere.