by Sakon Kaidou
Sure, the trees and the night’s darkness made it hard to see, but there was absolutely no sign of him.
As I continued intently looking at the crystal ball and searching for him, the screen suddenly turned red as the footage ended.
It quickly changed to a recording from another camera, but just like the last one, it quickly got cut off, as well.
The next recording wasn’t a clip of the inside of the forest, but an overhead view of the whole area. The camera was probably placed on the capital’s outer walls.
Anyway, it showed with great clarity what was happening in the forest.
The forest was being bombarded by artillery shells and set aflame by a rain of incendiary bombs.
Not showing a single person, the clip ended with just that — a flaming forest, making it feel like a scene cut from some war movie.
“Um... what is this?” Rook’s question made Marie smile awkwardly.
“Ahaha... This is, uh... the battle between King of Destruction the Unknown and the unidentified player killer widely known as the ‘Superior Killer’...” The tone of her explanation made it seem like she had no confidence about what she was saying.
I can see why, I thought. The clip shows neither the player killer nor the King of Destruction eliminating him. It’s nothing but a display of environmental destruction.
“...If it doesn’t show the King of Destruction, how can you be sure that he was the one who did it?” I asked Marie. “Hell, we don’t even see the player killer, so it might not be this ‘Superior Killer,’ either.”
“Good point,” she replied. “From what we know about him, it’s all but confirmed that the PK is the Superior Killer, but we don’t have any conclusive proof about the one who attacked him being the King of Destruction. This is only an assumption based on the extent of the destruction displayed here. But you see, the King of Destruction has always been an enigmatic figure that doesn’t let anyone know much about him...”
Oh yeah, I thought. His reason for not participating in the war was that he “didn’t want to stand out.” Though that’s not very convincing when coming from someone who just turned an entire forest to cinders.
“Oh, but there are rumors that the King’s Embryo is a battleship! Take a closer look here!” Marie pointed her finger at a certain spot on the crystal ball.
Beyond the burning forest, shrouded by the darkness of night, there was a large, black silhouette. Its outline was too acute to be the ridgeline of a mountain, and indeed, many would assume it to be a battleship.
“So battleship Embryos exist, huh?” I said, not particularly surprised. My brother’s was a tank, so this wasn’t outside the realm of expectation.
In fact, I’d been more startled by Tsukuyo Fuso’s Embryo. I had a feeling that it was the “night” itself.
“But wait, wouldn’t such a large-scale attack harm more than just the Superior Killer?” I asked. What if it actually killed some tians...?
“I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Marie answered. “With all the player killing, almost no one dared to go through there. In fact, I think the King of Destruction only took such a flashy approach because he was certain that no one else would get caught up in it.”
“I see.” I nodded. Or maybe he’d turned the whole forest to ash simply because he couldn’t find anyone. From what I had read on the Internet, no one besides me had even seen the Superior Killer.
Now that I think about it, how did DIN get ahold of information that led them to believe that the player killer was the Superior Killer? I wondered.
“Do you know the reason why the King of Destruction attacked the Superior Killer?” I asked.
“We have no clue whatsoever.” Marie raised her hands up in resignation. “Despite being a player that gets strongly involved in many events across all countries, his identity and most of the reasons for his involvement are completely unknown.”
“And that’s why he’s called ‘The Unknown,’ right?” I asked.
“Yes,” she nodded. “We are completely clueless as to what drove him to cause such large-scale destruction...”
...I wonder if something pissed him off, I thought.
“Wait, aren’t there too many holes in the information about the north? Isn’t this intel a bit too vague?” Rook asked.
I couldn’t help but agree with Rook. The price had been 600 lir per area, but the information for Noz Forest seemed worth a lot less than that.
“Oh...?! Now that you mention it...” Marie muttered. “Ah! But wait! There’s some extra info that comes with this!”
“Extra info?” I asked.
“Indeed! It’s this: the Superior Killer left these flames alive!”
In response to Marie’s words...
“Oh?”
...Nemesis — who, up until that point, had been eating with Babi while barely looking at the crystal ball — finally showed some interest.
I could somewhat understand why this was the only piece of info that had gotten a reaction out of her.
In fact, I’d finally realized why Nemesis was behaving the way she was. She was frustrated that the player killers had all been eliminated. She didn’t like having the one she’d promised to get revenge on be taken away by someone else. I could relate to that, as well.
However...
“That’s great news,” said Nemesis.
...he was still alive.
Chapter Six: The Cat’s Tea Party
Noz Forest — Paladin Ray Starling.
After Rook and I bought Marie’s info and made a plan to meet up later, Nemesis and I went to the place that used to be Noz Forest.
“This is just...” I said.
Beyond the northern gate, there was a great wasteland as far as the eye could see. The forest had simply disappeared, leaving only felled trees reduced to nothing but charcoal.
Noz Forest could no longer be used as a hunting ground, nor was it deserving of the name “forest.” In a city-building sim, the wasteland before me would’ve been a great place for building.
Sadly, Infinite Dendrogram was an RPG.
But man, it’s hard to believe that a single player can change the map this much, I thought.
I saw bullet holes, explosion marks, and could even smell the lingering stench of gunpowder. I had no clue if the King’s Embryo really was a battleship, but there was little doubt that — just like my brother’s Baldr — it was either heavy weaponry or something greater in the same vein.
Another thing I noted was that — while the other three had targeted the player killers directly — the King of Destruction had, well... destroyed the map. Sure, he’d lived up to his name, but it didn’t make it less of a bother. It seemed as ludicrous as removing the whole arm in response to a diseased finger.
“...This is gonna have bad aftereffects — no doubt about it,” I said.
“People have already started leaving here at an even faster rate,” added Nemesis.
We were talking about the local tians.
Yesterday’s bombing had put the entire capital into a state of panic. Thinking that Dryfe’s army was launching a surprise attack, the knights had moved out through the northern gate. By that point, however, the bombing had already been over, leaving nothing but a burning Noz Forest.
Though it didn’t seem like the flames would spread to the capital, they couldn’t have just left them burning as they were, so the knights had spent the entire night putting them out, and were still taking care of the aftermath.
All of this had been told to me by Liliana.
We’d met by accident a short while ago, and she had palpable bags under her eyes. She’d even said, “If you became a Paladin, then come and help us out...” in a slightly whiny manner.
“I know we were underground when the bombing happened and all, but I’m still surprised we didn’t notice it,” I commented.
“I had other things to worry about back then,” said Nemesis. “You, on the other hand, were simply tired and had
your senses dulled by fatigue.”
Anyway, the event that had reduced Noz Forest — a place the capital’s citizens took for granted — to ashes had been enough to make the already-tense populace go into panic mode. Since morning, the amount of people leaving the capital had been increasing by the hour.
Another reason for the increase was the fact that the four PK groups were taken care of. Though the player killers had been primarily targeting Masters, tians were also in danger of getting attacked if they weren’t lucky, which had made traffic around the capital grind to a complete halt. Today, the roads were opened again, making the people practically flood out of the city.
Now that I think about it, tians can’t differentiate between Masters and other tians, I thought. Though we Masters use Embryos and are basically immortal, both tians and Masters share the basis of being human. Therefore, to tians, player killers are nothing but murderers. That goes double for the player killers who also go for tians.
“Man, taking care of this PK business sure came at a cost,” I said.
“One of the hunting grounds became unusable, after all,” Nemesis agreed. “Also, the horror experience back in the Tomb Labyrinth was all for naught.”
Despite all the money we’d spent on it, the advantage we’d gained had lasted for only a single night. Though I did feel fortunate to have met Figaro.
“I’ve gotta say, though...” I spoke. “This ‘Superior Killer’ guy escaped from an attack that destroyed the entire forest.”
From what Marie had told me about the player killer in Noz Forest, the source of DIN’s information about him had been Marie herself. Though a bit late, she had gone to gather material about yesterday’s calamity right as it was happening. While doing so, she had happened to see the Superior Killer escape from the onslaught that was turning the forest to ash and run off into the distance.
In her own words, “He was using a skill with a concealment effect that hid his identity, but from the features of the Embryo he was using, I couldn’t be more sure that it was him!”
Once I asked for those features, she said that it was a handgun-shaped Embryo that shot bullet-like animals. The description matched the one who had killed me.
Apparently, the Superior Killer had been using those bullet-like animals to cancel out all the attacks coming his way. By doing that, he’d been able to safely reach the capital. Despite all he had already done up to that point, the King of Destruction couldn’t attack the capital, and had given up on pursuing the Superior Killer.
When all of that was considered, he had been successful where I hadn’t — in a battle with the sole goal of retreating from a stronger force.
I was glad to not have the target of my revenge get taken away from me by the King of Destruction, but that notion made me slightly vexed.
“...Let’s go back, then,” I said. “We have plans with Rook, after all.”
“True... hm?” Nemesis said.
As we were about to make our way back to the capital, Nemesis focused on a single point of the landscape as if she’d just noticed something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What do you make of that?” Nemesis pointed at something, but I couldn’t see anything there.
“What do you see?” I asked.
“There’s a heat haze despite it not being hot,” she said. “Wait, is that... distorted space?”
Nemesis walked over to where she was pointing... and simply disappeared.
“...Huh?! Nemesis!” I called out, ran over to where she’d vanished, and passed through an invisible curtain.
I described it as a “curtain” simply because — even though there was some sort of resistance — it was extremely weak. Once I’d walked through the invisible curtain...
“...Huh?!”
...I was in a mysterious space that was neither dark nor bright, and didn’t even seem to have the concept of up and down.
The space was littered with countless blue, permeable windows and was already occupied by two familiar faces.
Once of them was Nemesis, who looked back at me as I confirmed that she was completely unharmed. “Master, this place is...”
The other person — no, the word “person” didn’t apply here.
“...Ohh? Why are you heere?”
The creature skillfully operating the windows was Cheshire — the control AI I’d met when I had begun playing Infinite Dendrogram.
◇
A few minutes had passed since we’d found ourselves in the mysterious space beyond the invisible curtain.
Nemesis and I were sitting in chairs and drinking the tea Cheshire had prepared for us.
As we had turned perplexed, Cheshire had said, “I’ll explain it all, but just standing around while I do that isn’t fun, riight?” and made the tea for us.
At first, this space had had nothing besides the windows — there hadn’t even been a floor — but Cheshire had reached into a pocket and taken out chairs and a table as if it was nothing.
It reminded me of that cartoon about a cat robot I had been watching since I was a child. Though, unlike that cat robot, Cheshire had a set of ears.
“So, what is a control AI doing here?” I asked.
“Preliminary arrangements for environmental maintenaance,” it answered. “The real work here will be done by control AIs numbers 3 and 5 — the ones responsible for monsters and the environmeent. This space is basically an impromptu operating rooom.”
Like a prefab used in construction sites, huh? I thought.
“Though, only we can see and enter these placees,” said Cheshire. “But the Embryo girl here seems to be a Maiden-type, and I guess things like this can happen with theem. She basically dragged you in here, didn’t she, Raay?”
“What’s so different about Maidens?” I asked.
“They’re closer to us in some waays,” Cheshire answered. “They even keep the *** functionalityy.”
Hm?
“What did you say just now?” I was perplexed.
“Oh, sorryy,” it apologized. “That’s information I can’t verbaliize. It’s nothing big, though, so don’t mind iit.”
That answer only left me with more questions, but the AI probably had some developer-set duty of confidentiality it had to protect. We were already behind the scenes, anyway.
I also had other things I wanted to ask, so I decided not to push it.
“So you’re gonna fix this area?” I inquired.
Infinite Dendrogram prioritized realism. That was the reason why places such as the Old Orchard could be invaded by bug monsters, but beginners’ hunting grounds such as the Noz Forest could be an exception.
However, Cheshire shook its head.
“Noo. We will not directly recreate the now-lost Noz Forest. However, we can arrange some factors that would allow it to take the form of a similar environment. My job is to prepare for thaat.”
Cheshire stopped speaking for a moment and took a sip of the black tea before continuing.
Not that it matters, but you’d think a cat wouldn’t be able to handle such a hot drink, I thought.
“This is a free world, after aall. We — the control AIs — will never undo the effects a creature’s autonomous actions have on this world — be they player, tian or monsteer. The results of freedom are none of our conceern. However, there are some exceptions. After all, we have a control AI meant for punishmeents.”
“Punishments?” I asked. “If PK is perfectly fine, then what is actually deserving of that?”
“Hmm... Getting on a country’s wanted list, I gueess,” Cheshire answered. “You know how this world has laws, right? However, when arrested, players easily can escape jail by simply logging out or killing themseelves. Neither the police nor the knights have any means of preventing thaat. That’s why we have a control AI operating a jail for players, nicknamed the ‘gaol.’ The AI also processes the player’s inability to use save points when on a wanted list.”
That makes sense, I t
hought. If getting arrested or receiving the death penalty were the only demerits to committing crimes, some would just go about repeating them.
“That’s part of the setting, tooo,” Cheshire continued. “‘A Master who has sinned and cannot return to a save point shall be transferred to the gaol,’ and all thaat. That’s why you should register on save points in as many countries as you caan.”
“...I have absolutely no intention of doing something that’d get me on wanted lists, though,” I commented.
“That’s good, tooo,” said Cheshire. “Well, even if you get on one, you won’t be sent to the gaol as long as you don’t diee.”
...This system sure is lenient on strong criminals, I thought.
“Hmm... If there are control AIs responsible for punishments... what are you responsible for, cat?” asked Nemesis.
“I’m the control AI handling choores,” Cheshire answered.
Chores? I thought.
“We AIs also have things we’re good and bad aat,” Cheshire explained. “For example, I’m horrible at management functioons. Especially when it’s related to environment managemeent.”
“That’s not what you’re doing right now?” I asked.
“This is just a preliminary arrangemeent,” it answered. “A proper environmental simulation would include management of the cloud particles’ entropyy.”
I was silent. Just thinking about the scale of it gave me a headache.
Though I guess being able to do that is part of being a proper control AI, I thought. Well, Cheshire said it’s not capable of that, though.
“My primary work is to be the tutorial guiide,” it continued. “It’s work given to control AIs with unallocated calculation resourcees. I welcome half of the players coming heere.”
That sounded like an impressive amount.
“I’m doing the tutorial work right now, in faact. Like soo.” Upon saying that, Cheshire split into five.
Five, differently-patterned cats spoke while handling the windows around them.
“Like soo,” said the first.
“But there’s no reason to split in heere,” said the second.
“Even if there’s five of me, it doesn’t affect my work speeed,” said the third.