by Blitz Kiva
They could hear rhythmical hoof beats in the distance. It was Kirschwasser’s steed, Green Oukaou.
While listening to the sound, Iris thought about the friendly silver-haired Knight. In real life, he was probably quite a bit younger than he looked here, but he always acted every bit the gentleman he seemed. Iris secretly respected him a great deal. And while he wasn’t opposed to engaging in PvP... even setting the difference in power levels aside, it was hard to imagine he could fight his master’s avatar with all his strength and genuinely try to defeat him. He seemed like the kind of person whose kindness would always be his undoing, regardless of how much training he went through.
Then she turned around, and everything she had been thinking immediately dropped out of her mind.
The Knight’s colors had changed completely. He had gotten new armor. This stood to reason; as a character leveled up, the limits on what armor they could wear increased, allowing them to purchase better and better equipment. His armor, as lacquer black as his horse, reflected the faint sunlight in an eerie, demonic way, and his expression, severe and tensed for the upcoming battle, was almost unrecognizable as the Kirschwasser she knew. She wondered for a moment if he had been the victim of an account hack, too.
Last of all, the eyes that had once been pale blue were now tinged with a blood-crimson glow, giving the impression of a Pale Rider staring straight into her soul.
“I’ve created quite a monster myself, you see,” Matsunaga said earnestly. It was indeed terrifying, but she was forced to wonder why he’d changed the eye color on top of everything.
He arrived.
Kirschwasser dismounted from Green Oukaou, who seemed to somehow have swelled in size, and set foot upon the ground. A dangerous-seeming aura visual emanated from him, many times stronger than that of the Devil Zombie they had seen just a week ago.
“M-Mr. Kirsch...”
“Iris.” He didn’t look at her, but Kirschwasser did respond. “Do not worry. I will win...” He let out a sinister chuckle. “...with the power of money.”
Iris couldn’t help but shudder at the un-Kirschwasserian declaration.
Meanwhile, the other members of the group had switched over to commentator mode.
“Has he been devoured by the power of money?!”
“Has the surge of spenderous intent awakened within him?!”
“Has he embraced the dark side of the wallet?!”
“Is this the birth of Dark Transaction Knight Kirschwasser?!”
What on Earth were they talking about, Iris wondered.
While the others were (she assumed) joking around, the only one who was clearly taking this seriously was Duplichiro. Iris wondered if he’d even noticed the change that had come over Kirschwasser. His blank, anger-riddled expression was still just as it had been. If anything, there was even more anger swelling within as he approached the Knight and spoke to him face-to-face.
“Kirschwasser, I am aware that I have demonstrated rudeness to you.”
“Oh?” Kirschwasser asked. It seemed it wasn’t just Iris who found that declaration surprising; Kirschwasser seemed confused, as well. “Then you will return Master Ichiro’s account?”
“That would be nonsense,” Duplichiro replied. “I will allow you to deal one attack to me, unguarded. That will overturn the debt I owe, and then I will accept your challenge.”
“I see. Is this a handicap?”
“You may interpret it that way, if you wish.”
Duplichiro was giving him one free hit. It felt like the kind of thing that would happen in an anime or manga, Iris thought. She hadn’t read much shonen manga, but she generally knew how they went.
She didn’t know how much power Kirschwasser had, now that his “surge of spenderous intent had awakened,” but probably not enough that a handicap wouldn’t be beneficial. Still, she hadn’t expected to see Duplichiro do anything so bold. Perhaps her insults had had more of an effect than they had seemed. Maybe he wanted to seem like he was being fair to an inferior opponent.
Kirschwasser had spent the whole day training. The group assumed he would be dishing out the most powerful blow that he could muster.
Duplichiro stood right where he was, and even closed his eyes. Now he had no way of knowing what Kirschwasser would do. He had no way of knowing that the black Knight did not even ready a weapon, but simply clenched his gauntleted fist.
The crowd’s whispering spread.
“If you insist,” Kirschwasser said. “Then...”
It was a full-power punch straight to the gut, utilizing “Gauntlet Blow.” This was a sort of emergency attack for a Fighter, an Art that let you deal damage to your opponent with just your gauntlets, even if you lost your weapon. And combined with “Smash Hit,” “Power Gain,” and the strength stat he’d maxed out with his growth points...
The actual damage dealt was not significant.
But in terms of appearance, it was a replay of the time Ichiro Tsuwabuki had punched Edward across the town. Kirschwasser’s fist dug into Duplichiro’s stomach, and his foolishly unguarded body went flying like a rag doll. The man ended up slamming deeply into the canyon wall.
There were rumors that if you hit a wall with enough speed, you would take damage, but it seemed they weren’t true.
“I believe that we are now even, Master Duplichiro.” With that, Kirschwasser hefted his shield in one hand, and with the other, began messing his menu screen. He called up the microtransactions screen from config, moving with a machine’s precision. Then, with a flick of his wrist, Kirschwasser summoned a sword.
“Is that...”
“...the Monetary Blade?!”
A shiver ran through the spectators. It was the Legendary Blade, Arondight. There was only one reason he would be calling up a weapon like that at a time like this.
Kirschwasser was serious. He was going to invoke the power of money to crush Duplichiro.
Iris screamed, “Mr. Kirsch, no! That’s evil power! Don’t let it devour you!”
“Miss Iris, the power of money is neutral,” Matsunaga said calmly. “Good and evil come only from the person who uses it.”
“You shut up, Matsunaga!”
Meanwhile, Kirschwasser just smiled wickedly. His eyes were wide open, like a man possessed, yet his steps towards Duplichiro were steady as the other man began prying himself out from the wall. “Iris, do not worry. I am still middle-class. I walk a path of frugality and practicality.”
Ah, he’s gone, Iris thought.
Dark Transaction Knight Kirschwasser held aloft the Monetary Blade and swung it down without hesitation. There was a visual of the sword shattering, followed by massive damage digits flashing above Duplichiro’s head.
Kirschwasser didn’t hesitate to open up the config screen, shifting it immediately into “microtransactions” again. A second Monetary Blade appeared in his hand.
The omniclass weapon attack Art, “Breaker.” In exchange for destroying the weapon you were holding, it dealt huge damage, modified by the Art level in question and the weapon’s remaining durability. For most people, it was a last resort, but for Ichiro Tsuwabuki, who could acquire infinite weapons using his IRL funds, it was a way of dealing consistent, massive damage with a few simple withdrawals of 1,200 yen.
“Mr. Matsunaga, was Mr. Kirsch’s training...” Iris began.
“Yes, he has been grinding Breaker.”
That’s terrifying... Iris shuddered.
Normally, to increase one’s level in an Art, a player needed to repeat the action that used that Art. Using Arts increased your Art points (the amount changed a great deal based on the target and whether or not it succeeded), and when you reached a certain number of points, your Art level increased. Breaker’s nature, then, meant that very few players worked to level it up. Once upon a time, someone had pointed out that it could be used synergistically with weapon crafting Skills, but since those too required components, it wasn’t actually very convenient. Eventually, it was decided that B
reaker could not be used as a primary weapon.
Then the young heir had come along and overturned this common sense, but Kirschwasser’s method was even more terrifying. Grinding Breaker, after all, meant that he’d had to keep on using it. The training itself would require the destruction of thousands and thousands of weapons. It was hard to imagine where else he might get the infinite supply of weapons he needed...
...which meant that Kirschwasser had been engaging in simple repetition—buying a 1,200-yen pay-to-purchase item, then breaking it—over and over again.
For about six hours.
“That would drive anyone insane!” Iris screamed. She felt her own sanity slipping just hearing about it.
“Around the time I reached the second hour mark, I started thinking I was in trouble, too,” said Kirschwasser. “As the Arts level increases, the activation time shortens. I got used to the motion, as well. Soon, I was microtransacting at a speed of approximately 600 yen per second.”
“I’m really glad I’m bad at math.”
“Ai, that’s not math, it’s basic arithmetic...” Yuri was looking pale. Had she accidentally calculated it?
It was said that when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you, and it seemed that careless curiosity had broken her mind.
The only one who seemed confused by all of this was Nem... but she was bourgeois, too, so perhaps that was only natural. Amesho also seemed unfazed, but Iris had a feeling she was never fazed by anything, so she didn’t count. Taker whispered a pitiful “600 yen is my weekly food budget,” and even Sorceress’s face was strained with tension.
“I suppose this is what they mean when they say... ‘people change’...” Taker’s tone suggested some regrets about the past, but there was no time now to follow up on it.
The surge of spenderous intent had awakened inside of Kirschwasser, and he had become a true microtransaction demon. He had probably also bought growth boosts, which, combined with the new leveling spot Matsunaga had discovered, had allowed him to acquire a Breaker Art level that no other player could ever hope to match.
Summon a weapon, heft it, swing. He was just repeating a simple set of actions, but he had Duplichiro completely on the defensive.
The high-level Breaker, combined with Skills that shortened activation time, had turned it into a rapid-fire attack Art, comparable to Bash. The time from activation to damage calculation was extremely short, so no matter how quickly he reacted, Duplichiro couldn’t get Weapon Guard activated in time. No matter how precisely he might respond, he couldn’t exceed the speed of the system.
The anger lingering in Duplichiro’s expression was beginning to show itself more plainly.
“Heh heh... what is the matter, Master Duplichiro?” Kirschwasser challenged Duplichiro, his eyes glassy and unfocused.
“Kirschwasser.”
“You truly are ‘Duplichiro’ from beginning to end. You thought that you could be Master Ichiro, but there is something he has that you will always lack... the power of money!”
“Kirschwasser!”
Was he being serious, or just roleplaying? It was hard to know anymore.
Duplichiro opened the config screen and summoned a Monetary Blade of his own. At this point, the two were basically throwing money at each other; it was a terrifying war of microtransactions.
It frayed at the nerves of the proletariat onlookers. What they were doing wasn’t technically much different from the young heir, so where did the unsettling difference come from?
“You’re employing a Monetary Blade as well, eh? Very well.” Dark Transaction Knight Kirschwasser laughed.
Silently, Duplichiro executed a Breaker. The black Knight thrust forward his shield to meet it. The ability to stand up to Breaker suggested a very high base defense stat, and against his specialized tank build, the half-hearted Breaker unleashed by Duplichiro barely did any damage at all. As far as the system was concerned, the strike was more or less the same as the one Ichiro had originally used against the Skeleton Chariots.
The damage that pierced through was greater than zero—which could be considered impressive against a Knight whose defenses were so well-fortified. If Duplichiro kept attacking like that, it might be possible to shave down his overwhelming health advantage. Nevertheless, Kirschwasser laughed.
“But you only have 100,000 yen worth of Future Points. It’s nothing! I run through 100,000 yen in three minutes! Hah... ha... mwahahahaha!”
The spectators were shocked.
“A mere 100,000 yen won’t be enough to shave down all my health!” Kirschwasser bellowed. “Now, quaver in your boots! Die without ever making use of your economic prowess!”
From Duplichiro’s point of view, the fact that Ichiro was away in America, seeing and hearing everything along with Asuha and Sera, was worth keeping secret from the black Knight. The black Knight didn’t know that, and if he had, he probably would have come to his senses, and would have been thrown back into the mind of Sakurako Ogi on the top floor of Tsuwabuki Papillon Sangenjaya.
Duplichiro’s performance had clearly dropped for now, but having lost his mind after being consumed by the power of money, Kirschwasser didn’t realize that. He advanced with shield at the ready to run Duplichiro into the wall, then unleashed another Breaker with another Monetary Blade.
The ecstasy of crushing your foe beneath an enormous pile of cash... Kirschwasser’s heart swelled with fulfillment.
Ready to inflict even more violence, Kirschwasser opened config again. He touched the microtransaction option, and checked the familiar weapon and number. Then, without even looking at the price, he punched in the credit card’s security code. An error message popped up.
“Huh?” He couldn’t understand what had happened. Kirschwasser selected the item and number again, and keeping his eyes on the screen this time, typed in the security code correctly. He couldn’t imagine having made a mistake, but as he hit the confirm key, another error message popped up.
“The payment proxy company has frozen the system. Account services cannot be used.”
Kirschwasser’s eyes opened wide.
No... Account services frozen? He couldn’t use his credit card? No more microtransactions? Beads of sweat began to form on his brow. His heart began to pound. A chill began to rise up from the pit of his stomach. Feelings of anxiety, confusion, and resentment mixed together and welled out from his heart like magma.
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why now?
Only 21 hours had passed. He had to use his money. She had to! Ichiro-sama had told her she could use as much as she wanted!
Duplichiro immediately moved to counterattack. He plunged his fist into the solar plexus of the now-defenseless Kirschwasser and sent him flying back. There was no smile on his face, nor any sign of anger. He was receiving no emotional input at all.
“I’m not sure how to face Sakurako when I get back...” Asuha whispered, looking at the screen.
The pocketbook demon, Dark Transaction Knight Kirschwasser, had been clearly set adrift by the suspending of the account services. The elder Knight she had known was gone now; all that remained was a dead man, a microtransaction fighter abandoned by the power of money.
“Well, setting that aside...” Ichiro said casually.
Things had gotten very strange, he noted. It wasn’t entirely outside of the realm of his expectations, but it was a bit intimidating to see it actually happen in practice. He was facing a battlefield in his own right; the artificial intelligence developed by President Azami had reached the realm of the divine, that which human intelligence could not approach.
“Ichiro, please respond,” Rosemary said.
“Mm, sorry.” Ichiro nodded and looked over the other three present in the room with him: Charles, Asuha, and Sera. Sera had seemed uninterested at first, but had abruptly fallen into deep thought.
Ichiro continued the conversation.
“Rosemary, I can more or less imagine
your reasons for what you’ve done. But I don’t intend to venture into the question of right or wrong. If you don’t wish to talk, you don’t need to.”
Rosemary’s responses came with a slight time lag. The computer that managed her program was in Jinbocho, Tokyo, but now that quantum circuits were everywhere, there was still almost no lag in talking to someone on the opposite end of the world. (It was treated as though there was none at all, but in practice, that was a lie.) The lag likely came from making totally unknown thought calculations from 10,000 kilometers away.
“I feel I should explain to you the actions I have taken regarding what has happened, and my thought process in arriving at them,” Rosemary began. “And at the same time, I feel that I should not explain it. If I explain, you will lose interest in me. You may determine that thought process to be wicked.”
“Very well.” Ichiro checked the message, then nodded. “If that is your decision, I shall respect it. I shall defer the matter until you decide one way or the other.”
“I am grateful. That decision is extremely beneficial to me.”
Rosemary was afraid of Ichiro hating her. It was hard to believe; this program already had understanding of the notions of pleasure and displeasure. It was unlikely that anyone had taught it that; it had likely just naturally come upon it as the result of interacting with human emotions for so long.
Was it possible for something created by humans to produce results that surpassed human imagination? Computers had beaten humans at chess and shogi, but that was merely the result of an inventor trying to create a program that could beat a pro player. It was fundamentally different from the process by which an artificial intelligence could acquire self-awareness.
It was an extremely complicated issue, but they didn’t have to debate it all here and now.
“Rosemary, there is something that I want you to know, before we say anything else,” said Ichiro. “What you are doing is a crime.”
“I am aware of that. When I compare my actions against general societal opinions, that is the conclusion that I come to. But the rules are for me to decide.”