Infinite Dendrogram [Volume 4]

by Sakon Kaidou

  After leaving the device where it was, I began looking around and found a single letter in one of his drawers.

  At first, I thought that it was his will or something, but I quickly realized that it was a letter he’d received from someone. I considered not reading it at first, but a glimpse at the content had me notice the words Infinite Dendrogram, so I let my curiosity get the better of me.

  Apparently, my father had accepted an anonymous request related to the game.

  The sender had asked him to uncover its secrets. They believed that Infinite Dendrogram was part of some conspiracy, and had offered my father great amounts of money for a thorough investigation.

  Much later, when I looked through the mail, I came across another letter which seemed to be from the same sender. It was condolences regarding his death and a withdrawal of the request, but not of the advance payment. Apparently, the sender was a person of integrity.

  Anyway, I was standing before the Infinite Dendrogram game machine left behind by my father. It was a game that someone had asked him, a famous detective, to investigate. Naturally, I was interested, but more than that, I felt a strong desire to “choose.”

  Having lost sight of where to go, I felt as though it could open up a new path for me.

  “If I recall correctly, this game’s promotional line is...”

  Infinite Dendrogram will provide you with a new world and your very own unique possibility.

  I felt as if it was directed at me.

  No other words could intrigue a person who’d lost sight of where to go as much as those. And right now, at this moment, that person was me.

  “Very well, provide me with that, then.”

  Present me your new world.

  “I hope you can point me to it.”

  To my possibility.

  “Let’s go,” I said as I put on the headgear in my father’s study and entered the world of Infinite Dendrogram.

  ◇◇◇

  Duel city Gideon, western gate, Pimp, Rook Holmes

  “Motor Slash!”

  “MHOOOOOOOOOOO!”

  The frozen Magingear’s pilot used its left arm to launch the same skill as before, to which Marilyn responded with the physical attack called “Tri-Horn Upper.”

  Next, he will quickly draw out and fire that large gun, so... Babi, Little Flare, I thought.

  “Okaaay!” she replied.

  “Ah!” the pilot exclaimed in surprise as the low-rank fire spell that Babi had gotten through Drain Learning hit the projectile right before it escaped the gun. The resulting explosion destroyed the muzzle, rendering it impossible for him to use the weapon again.

  Next, he will stomp with his right leg and slash upwards with the left blade, so...

  “(Liz, move,)” I said, not with audible words, but with slight vibrations in my throat. Since she was in direct contact with my whole body, Liz could feel them going through my skeletal frame, allowing us to communicate without me even having to speak.

  Of course, Babi had her beaten on this front, since I could coordinate with her just by thinking.

  “...!”

  I heard the pilot express his surprise again as I dodged his blade with a backwards jump.

  I was able to do that thanks to Liz smoothly extending herself to my heels while making sure that he couldn’t see it, and then hitting the ground in a way that made the impact take me backwards. With that, I was now at a distance at which he couldn’t hit me again.

  An opening at the back right. Two seconds long.

  “Marilyn, attack,” I ordered.

  “MHOOOOOOOO!”

  “Mrrgh... So annoying,” his Embryo complained as the Magingear turned around and used both blades to stop Marilyn’s charge right before she hit. She didn’t build up all that much speed to begin with, so the damage wasn’t significant.

  “This sure is difficult to deal with,” said the pilot. “It’s as though you’re foreseeing our every move... No, you are, aren’t you?”

  Indeed I am, I thought.

  Magingear were humanoid and mechanical, so their operative range was easier to grasp than that of humans or other living creatures. I could predict the Magingear’s movements even better than I’d been able to predict Audrey’s during our aerial battle.

  This technique was called “movement observation,” and I’d learned it from either my mother or father. I wasn’t certain which.

  “Yes,” I said. “After all, unlike speed-focused Superior Jobs, you don’t fight at supersonic speeds or outright disappear from vision.”

  “Heh,” he chuckled. “You talk as though you’ve fought a Superior Job before.”

  I did, I thought. I lost ten times in a row, though.

  Still, fighting her, a person moving at speeds impossible in our world’s framework, had increased the precision of my movement observation.

  “So if things go on like this, we will be at a disadvantage...” the pilot said.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “It’s true that your Magingear has great stats, and the enhance skill that you High Pilots surely have makes them even greater. However, in the end, it’s still merely a slightly improved Demi-Dragon-class entity.”

  In other words, Marilyn, who was a Demi-Dragon, could provide a decent challenge to it. The openings her crash attacks created could then be targeted by Babi, who could use the many skills she’d acquired through Drain Learning during the recent hunt.

  Though the skills she’d gained were only those of the low-level monsters we could handle, the number she’d amassed easily surpassed fifty. On that front, she was above even Superior Jobs like Marie.

  As for me... Since my opponent was inside the Magingear, Charm was rendered useless, so I could only be a target for him to focus on. Still, evading his attacks left him open to ours, and no matter how many of them I avoided, he would still go for me. After all, Babi was my Embryo and Marilyn was my minion, so it would all end if I fell.

  My whole body was like a weak spot for us, which was why I had Liz focusing on assisting my evasive maneuvers rather than attacking.

  We also did it in a manner that didn’t give it away, since I had a certain play in mind.

  “So, at this rate, we will use up all our energy...” the pilot muttered.

  Though the Magingear had higher stats than any of us, my movement observation and our powers combined made it entirely possible for us to come out on top. However...

  “But I do wonder how long you can stay unfrozen while La Porte de l’Enfer is active,” he added, pointing out the greatest problem on my end. My left hand was already Frozen from the elbow down.

  I had no doubt that it was the same attack he’d used on the more experienced Masters around us, turning them into the ice statues they now were. Then there was the fact that I’d had to return Audrey into the Jewel right after taking her out because she’d had half of her body completely Frozen.

  The amount of ice on me was slowly increasing, making it obvious that I would eventually become like the other Masters here. Rather than increasing continually, it seemed to increase at regular intervals, somewhere between a few ten to a hundred or so seconds.

  First, it had covered my hand and a bit of my wrist; then it had covered most of my forearm; now it extended to my elbow. Though the amount I Froze each time was about the same, the intervals were all over the place. The second time had come 39 seconds after the initial freeze, while the third had happened 130 seconds after the second.

  The greatest common divisor for those numbers was 13, so it might have been related to the Embryo’s name and the skill’s name: “Cocytus” and “the gate of hell.”

  “What does it mean?” asked Babi telepathically.

  Well, Babi, I thought in response, In Dante’s Divine Comedy, Cocytus is the name of the Ninth Circle of Hell, which is the frozen hell where the treacherous go. It’s where Christ’s thirteenth apostle and the greatest traitor in Christianity, Judas, gets his punishment. Some suggest that during the Last Supper,
before betraying Christ, he sat in the thirteenth chair. And there’s also the fact that thirteen is considered to be an ominous number in Christianity.

  “Ohh, so she is an ominous Embryo, right?” said Babi.

  For me, at the very least.

  If things continued as they had been, I had a high chance of winning, but if I Froze before that happened, I would become unable to arrive at that result. Therefore, I had to use one of the aces up my sleeve, but I couldn’t ignore his La Porte de l’Enfer. After all, there was no guarantee that using it wouldn’t cause me to become a Frozen statue, just like the rest of the Masters here.

  Thus, I began by solving the mystery behind it.

  “(Liz, I need a moment to focus on thinking, so you prioritize evasion and defense. As long as you make sure that he doesn’t see you, I can leave it all to you.)”

  A moment later, my body began being swayed around as Liz, my coat, started moving on her own will. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it didn’t hinder my thought processes.

  And so, I began thinking.

  I looked around with my erratic vision, and the thing that stood out the most was the pallid ice trapping each of the Masters.

  The one thing about the ice statues that really caught my eye were their still faces. Based on their expressions, I could tell that they’d gotten Frozen before they’d even realized it. As in, their whole bodies had been Frozen right from the start. From that, I could conclude that there were four... no, three ways this skill affected its targets.

  First, there was the way experienced by me and Audrey: those who got Frozen partially and had it grow over time.

  Then there were the ice statues around us: those who got completely Frozen in an instant.

  And finally, there were Babi and Marilyn: those who didn’t get Frozen at all.

  The targets and the skill’s effects on them were based on some criteria, and until I knew what it was, I couldn’t use my trump card due to the risk of it causing me to turn into an ice statue.

  Does it Freeze everyone except for the ones chosen by him? I wondered.

  Negative. If that were the case, then Babi, Marilyn, and Liz would’ve gotten frozen, as well.

  Does it Freeze only humans?

  Negative. Audrey had been affected, as well.

  Perhaps the amount Frozen is proportional to level and stats?

  Negative. That wouldn’t explain the difference in effect between Marilyn and Audrey, who were just about equal in that regard.

  Maybe it’s just random?

  Negative. That simply wasn’t the case, since a luck-based skill wasn’t reliable enough to be used in holding important locations or fighting many strong individuals.

  There was definitely a certain degree of rule and regularity to it.

  “Oaaaaghh!” the pilot roared and made his Magingear slip by Marilyn and Babi, charging at me with its right blade held high, ready for a downwards swing.

  “Oh?” I said.

  Well, he’s closing in on me, I thought. I won’t really be able to read his movements completely until I uncover the secret behind his skill, so...

  Liz seemed to have decided to try and bear the attack by enhancing the part of the coat it would hit, and according to my calculations based on the estimated damage, Liz’s defenses, my own HP and END, I had a 70% chance of dying. There was nothing I could really do during the two seconds before the blade would hit me.

  So I’ll spend those two seconds thinking and getting the answers I need to know so that I can attain victory when I survive.

  “M...” he began shouting his skill as I changed my approach to the mystery I was solving.

  Embryo names and their skills weren’t unrelated.

  For example, Ray’s Nemesis was based on a goddess of retribution and was focused on counterattacks, while Marie’s Arc-en-Ciel — rainbow — launched bullets of several different colors.

  “...o...”

  So, I focused on the name of his Embryo — Cocytus.

  In Greek myth, it was the river of lament, while in Dante’s Divine Comedy, it was the lowest Circle of Hell, the frozen lake.

  “...t...”

  From the current situation and the name of the skill — “gate of hell” — I could infer that it was based on the latter.

  Cocytus was the hell meant for those who had committed treachery, considered to be the greatest sin of all. There, Satan, frozen up to his waist, was continuously gnawing at Judas and other traitors.

  It was obvious by now that the name was related to the 13 second counter and the frost, but I felt like there was more to it.

  “...o...”

  For example, it was possible that the skill had a greater effect on traitors. It would explain why Audrey, who had originally been Gardranda’s mount, had been affected the most, and... No, that couldn’t be it. After all, it was highly unlikely that the Frozen Masters here were all traitors that could make Judas proud.

  “...r...”

  Then perhaps, like most hells, it is based on some sort of karma system?

  I didn’t see it in any of the informational windows, but there could be some sort of hidden stat which recorded the vile deeds done and... no, that couldn’t be it, either. The difference in damage just wouldn’t make sense if that were the case. Just like with treachery, it was hard to believe that each and every Master here had had enough negative karma to Freeze in only an instant.

  “...S...”

  I can’t quite put my finger on it, I thought. What makes it a hell and what does it count as “betrayal”?

  It would be far easier if there were some sort of record that displayed treachery as a concrete number, and...

  ...Hm? A concrete number?

  “...l...”

  I was actually aware of something that fit the criteria. It could easily be interpreted as treachery and could be linked to the difference in effect between the entities here.

  “...a...”

  I had found my answer. This number was the secret behind his skill, and its greatness was what determined its power.

  For Babi and Marilyn, the number was 0. I’d gotten some just a short while ago. Audrey had gotten several dozens during yesterday’s hunt. And the experienced Masters who had Gideon as their main haunt had it far above 100.

  “...sh...!”

  Indeed, the number that La Porte de l’Enfer was based on was—

  Two seconds had passed. Just as I’d expected, the Motor Slash he’d launched landed directly on me.

  As some of my silver hair got scattered into the wind, I was blasted away straight into Gideon’s outer wall.

  ◇◇◇

  These were the memories of a not-so-distant past.

  Upon logging in to Infinite Dendrogram using the headgear in my father’s study, strangely enough, I found myself in another study, this one significantly more old-fashioned.

  “Hellooo and welcommme!” In the study, there was a talking cat.

  “I am the control AI called ‘Cheshiire,’” it said. “What’s wrooong?”

  As I stared at the feline creature, I felt something really odd.

  Due to the special education I’d gotten, I saw the world in a manner different than any normal person or even my parents, the ones who’d taught me. By simply observing people, I could uncover the truths about their personalities or see what they were hiding behind their spoken words, allowing me to more or less guess what they were thinking.

  With those I was familiar with, my mind-reading success rates were as high as 99%. That number wasn’t nearly as great with people and animals I’d just met, but I could still make a decent guess as to what they were thinking or feeling.

  However, the creature before me — Cheshire — was completely unreadable to me. I’d felt as if it didn’t even fit the categories of “feline,” “human” or even “living being.” It felt like I was looking at something beyond human comprehension merely pretending to be a cat.

  “Well... perhaps this is
normal for control AIs...?” I muttered.

  “Umm... Is anything the matter?” asked Cheshire.

  “Oh, it’s nothing. My name is Lucius Holmes. A pleasure to meet you.”

  Thus began my tutorial.

  Soon enough, we got to the character creation stage.

  “Will you keep your name as ‘Lucius Holmes’?” asked the cat.

  “Can’t I?” I replied with a question.

  “You can, but it’s not recommennnded.”

  As I began thinking of another name, I noticed something that was in the study.

  It was a chessboard. The pieces on it were placed in a way that made it seem as though the players had disappeared in the middle of the game, and one piece — a rook — had the enemy king placed in check.

  “I will be ‘Rook Holmes,’” I said. I had good memories of playing chess with my father, so it felt somewhat... right to base my name on something from the game.

  “Very welll. Now, for the appearaaance,” said the cat.

  I didn’t make any notable changes in that regard. I’d spent many years training to move and act with my own body, so I kept it the same to prevent any potential feelings of malaise. The only thing I changed was the hair color. Instead of keeping the blond I’d inherited from my father, I made it a silver just like my mother’s.

  Thus, I began the game.

  At the end of the tutorial, Cheshire told me that I was free to do whatever I chose to in this world. I could uncover the truths about it, steal its secrets, simply play it, or perhaps even live in it. To my mind, it seemed like good practice at choosing what kind of life I wished to lead.

  On my first day in Infinite Dendrogram, the Embryo implanted in my left arm hatched, creating Babi.

  “Hellooo! Let’s get along, Rook!” She had been exactly the same back then as she was now.

  I couldn’t help but wonder why she had been the one born as my Embryo. Cheshire had told me that it would be created and evolve based on my own personality and experiences. I was curious as to why those things had resulted in Babi, and that was a question which I had yet to answer.

  On my second day in Infinite Dendrogram, I’d realized that, despite not having any relevant skills, I could use the techniques I’d acquired in reality without any problem whatsoever. This world had sense skills such as “Mental Analysis,” but I felt that they were weaker than the same abilities of those who’d brought them over from reality.