Distortions were beginning to occur in the “world.”
As Balmung said, is my bracelet the cause of this trouble?
Aura called it “a great power that can destroy and save.”
Which direction should I be going in now?
To begin with, it was troublesome to be entrusted with such a thing. I was just an unremarkable junior high school boy.
When I started up my computer as I thought about this, I received an email from Aura.
I knew it was her without even looking at the name which was characteristically garbled.
Subject: Ple@se C()me
Sender: A*r@
Message:
You @re m# l@5t hope.
Only y()u c-n h!lp me.
C0me to +he dunge#n in
ΔDelta Server Merciless Grieving Furnace
R#turn my 5%gment to m^.
W_tch o+t f0r Cubia.
Was Aura still alive? It was another matter altogether whether it was correct to say that she was ‘alive,’ but in any case she had sent me an email.
I had to meet her.
But what did she mean by “my 5%gment” I didn’t know.
Anyway, I contacted BlackRose and we met up in Carmina Gadelica.
Before we went to the area, we talked about preparing our equipment, and we went around to the equipment shops and magic shop.
As usual, the town remained uninhabited… or so I thought. I saw a few people logged in here and there. It seemed that ordinary users had returned to The World.
However, their appearance was strange. There was a small group of three or four people and when they would talk with each other, there was a gloomy atmosphere.
Their eyes were hollow and they didn’t seem to notice me or BlackRose.
I casually approached one of them and tried to listen in…
“I can’t say anything clever. I wasn’t hired for this…”
“I’m opposed to service overtime.”
“I’m sleepy… I want to go home…”
“Damn. It seems that the chief was grateful.”
“It’s true… that guy… what was it, Lios, the King of Light…”
An unexpected name came up, so I suddenly stopped.
Some of the people we were listening to looked back and saw BlackRose and me.
One called out.
“Hey, Bracelet Kite!”
I stopped on a dime as soon as my name was called.
“…Are you by chance subordinates of Lios?”
They were the subordinates who came along when Lios threatened to delete me, but they looked totally different from that time.
“Oh, what is it? The Tonkotsu Squad?” said BlackRose.
“No, it’s the Pig Racing (Tonsou) Squad.”
The PC that called my name corrected the word, but the word had no power.
“What are you guys doing?”
“I am pretending that the problem is not that big.”
“I’m an employee, but I pretend to be a generic PC.”
“I’m not doing anything. This is all overtime.”
Their attitudes and manner of speaking was completely different from when I first met them. I got the feeling that they were not careless, just playing dumb. Why would that be?
“Don’t you roleplay?”
I said, recalling Lio’s explanation.
“Let me tell you something neat. When the month‘s overtime exceeds 40 hours, people want to cling to anything with a role. It’s to inspire ourselves,” The other guy said in a vague voice.
“But after 80 hours, it doesn’t matter what the role is.”
Suddenly I noticed that the PCs, except the one talking to me, were stuck. From their mouths, I could hear something like gentle snoring.
I asked him what he was interested in.
“Um… what do you mean by Pig Racing?”
There was no reply. He also stood still like the others.
I had accidentally run into some strange people which suddenly took the wind out of my sails, but BlackRose and I reconsidered and decided to go to the area designated by Aura. Something happened when we were diving into the dungeon and walking the deepest part.
Suddenly, Aura appeared in front of me.
To be precise, it was a shadow of Aura. A holographic image was projected in front of us. She was exhausted and looked lifeless.
She asked me for help. But what should I do?
A ray of light radiated from the bracelet on my right wrist.
As the light wrapped around Aura, her face came to life.
Aura may be revived. Suddenly, a noise surrounded me.
What was it, this feeling? The sound kept going.
Aura disappeared as if she were disturbed by the noise.
The next moment, we were being transferred to a mysterious space of data sequences.
It was the same one as when I fought against the Reaper and the Mural Monsters
“Kite, something is coming again…,” BlackRose exclaimed.
“It’s okay, we will win.”
I encouraged her by saying that.
“The mural monster was easy to defeat, right? I don’t know what’s coming, but we’re getting stronger. So…”
My words stopped halfway. I was speechless.
The huge monster that was born when we killed the Reaper was now in front of us.
We were in a place like a tower in the void.
The monster looked at us with a huge face. It slowly rose up above us. First the head, which resembles a skeleton, then the torso appeared. It had a design like ivy entwined with a big tree, but it was too big to see the whole picture.
Would we have to fight with this monster that blew us away in the past?
We would have to do it. To save Yasuhiko, to save Aura, we would have to defeat it.
The monster’s torso had something like a beating heart inside it. Perhaps that was its weak spot. It was at the edge of the tower, but it was probably reachable.
I signaled BlackRose and we ran towards the monster at the same time.
Just then, a black lump fell from above us. It was a small bulb-like monster.
We kept on attacking while avoiding the clutter of small monsters. The trouble was that the HP of the small monsters would gradually recover.
Our HP was drastically reduced. It was really good that we got new equipment in town just before.
BlackRose’s heavy sword struck a blow that deeply scooped out the weak point of the giant monster, who screamed in agony. Black smoke emitted from its mouth and it sunk into the void.
However, I thought I saw a light above us like we were in a cave, and the monster jumped suddenly and flew away. It had a tremendous momentum. The aftermath made a rumbling noise, and I felt uneasy. The giant monster no longer had a shadow or shape. It had run away.
“I guess you defeated Cubia. That was scary.”
There was a voice behind me. Before I saw the source, I knew who the owner of the voice was. They repeated the same thing over and over again and I read the name even if it was unpleasant. When I turned around, it was who I expected. It was Helba, Queen of Hackers.
“Cubia?” BlackRose asked back.
“It’s the name of the monster you guys drove away. That aside…”
Helba looked at me as I stood up.
“First thing you have to do is liberate Aura.”
“Liberate Aura?”
At Helba’s words, I remembered Aura’s appearance before Cubia showed up.
“Aura was divided into three segments and her power sealed. You have already regained one of them in your battle with Skeith.”
I was bothered by the word I didn’t understand. No, wait. That’s what was written in the character string when the data of the Reaper, called Skeith, was drained.
“That will save Orca. It’s just a matter of when. That’s all I can say for now.”
“Umm, Ms. Helba. Can I ask you something?”
“You don’t need to called me Ms. Just Helba is fine. What is your question?”
“What is Skeith or a segment?”
“Are you mistaking me for a teacher or something?”
Helba smiled coldly.
“I told you. I was helping out before. It’s not the other way around.”
Helba transferred and disappeared.
She said just what she needed to say, ignored questions that didn’t need to be answered, and walked away.
Distortions were beginning to occur in the “world.”
As Balmung said, is my bracelet the cause of this trouble?
Aura called it “a great power that can destroy and save.”
Which direction should I be going in now?
To begin with, it was troublesome to be entrusted with such a thing. I was just an unremarkable junior high school boy.
When I started up my computer as I thought about this, I received an email from Aura.
I knew it was her without even looking at the name which was characteristically garbled.
Subject: Ple@se C()me
Sender: A*r@
Message:
You @re m# l@5t hope.
Only y()u c-n h!lp me.
C0me to +he dunge#n in
ΔDelta Server Merciless Grieving Furnace
R#turn my 5%gment to m^.
W_tch o+t f0r Cubia.
Was Aura still alive? It was another matter altogether whether it was correct to say that she was ‘alive,’ but in any case she had sent me an email.
I had to meet her.
But what did she mean by “my 5%gment” I didn’t know.
Anyway, I contacted BlackRose and we met up in Carmina Gadelica.
Before we went to the area, we talked about preparing our equipment, and we went around to the equipment shops and magic shop.
As usual, the town remained uninhabited… or so I thought. I saw a few people logged in here and there. It seemed that ordinary users had returned to The World.
However, their appearance was strange. There was a small group of three or four people and when they would talk with each other, there was a gloomy atmosphere.
Their eyes were hollow and they didn’t seem to notice me or BlackRose.
I casually approached one of them and tried to listen in…
“I can’t say anything clever. I wasn’t hired for this…”
“I’m opposed to service overtime.”
“I’m sleepy… I want to go home…”
“Damn. It seems that the chief was grateful.”
“It’s true… that guy… what was it, Lios, the King of Light…”
An unexpected name came up, so I suddenly stopped.
Some of the people we were listening to looked back and saw BlackRose and me.
One called out.
“Hey, Bracelet Kite!”
I stopped on a dime as soon as my name was called.
“…Are you by chance subordinates of Lios?”
They were the subordinates who came along when Lios threatened to delete me, but they looked totally different from that time.
“Oh, what is it? The Tonkotsu Squad?” said BlackRose.
“No, it’s the Pig Racing (Tonsou) Squad.”
The PC that called my name corrected the word, but the word had no power.
“What are you guys doing?”
“I am pretending that the problem is not that big.”
“I’m an employee, but I pretend to be a generic PC.”
“I’m not doing anything. This is all overtime.”
Their attitudes and manner of speaking was completely different from when I first met them. I got the feeling that they were not careless, just playing dumb. Why would that be?
“Don’t you roleplay?”
I said, recalling Lio’s explanation.
“Let me tell you something neat. When the month‘s overtime exceeds 40 hours, people want to cling to anything with a role. It’s to inspire ourselves,” The other guy said in a vague voice.
“But after 80 hours, it doesn’t matter what the role is.”
Suddenly I noticed that the PCs, except the one talking to me, were stuck. From their mouths, I could hear something like gentle snoring.
I asked him what he was interested in.
“Um… what do you mean by Pig Racing?”
There was no reply. He also stood still like the others.
I had accidentally run into some strange people which suddenly took the wind out of my sails, but BlackRose and I reconsidered and decided to go to the area designated by Aura. Something happened when we were diving into the dungeon and walking the deepest part.
Suddenly, Aura appeared in front of me.
To be precise, it was a shadow of Aura. A holographic image was projected in front of us. She was exhausted and looked lifeless.
She asked me for help. But what should I do?
A ray of light radiated from the bracelet on my right wrist.
As the light wrapped around Aura, her face came to life.
Aura may be revived. Suddenly, a noise surrounded me.
What was it, this feeling? The sound kept going.
Aura disappeared as if she were disturbed by the noise.
The next moment, we were being transferred to a mysterious space of data sequences.
It was the same one as when I fought against the Reaper and the Mural Monsters
“Kite, something is coming again…,” BlackRose exclaimed.
“It’s okay, we will win.”
I encouraged her by saying that.
“The mural monster was easy to defeat, right? I don’t know what’s coming, but we’re getting stronger. So…”
My words stopped halfway. I was speechless.
The huge monster that was born when we killed the Reaper was now in front of us.
We were in a place like a tower in the void.
The monster looked at us with a huge face. It slowly rose up above us. First the head, which resembles a skeleton, then the torso appeared. It had a design like ivy entwined with a big tree, but it was too big to see the whole picture.
Would we have to fight with this monster that blew us away in the past?
We would have to do it. To save Yasuhiko, to save Aura, we would have to defeat it.
The monster’s torso had something like a beating heart inside it. Perhaps that was its weak spot. It was at the edge of the tower, but it was probably reachable.
I signaled BlackRose and we ran towards the monster at the same time.
Just then, a black lump fell from above us. It was a small bulb-like monster.
We kept on attacking while avoiding the clutter of small monsters. The trouble was that the HP of the small monsters would gradually recover.
Our HP was drastically reduced. It was really good that we got new equipment in town just before.
BlackRose’s heavy sword struck a blow that deeply scooped out the weak point of the giant monster, who screamed in agony. Black smoke emitted from its mouth and it sunk into the void.
However, I thought I saw a light above us like we were in a cave, and the monster jumped suddenly and flew away. It had a tremendous momentum. The aftermath made a rumbling noise, and I felt uneasy. The giant monster no longer had a shadow or shape. It had run away.
“I guess you defeated Cubia. That was scary.”
There was a voice behind me. Before I saw the source, I knew who the owner of the voice was. They repeated the same thing over and over again and I read the name even if it was unpleasant. When I turned around, it was who I expected. It was Helba, Queen of Hackers.
“Cubia?” BlackRose asked back.
“It’s the name of the monster you guys drove away. That aside…”
Helba looked at me as I stood up.
“First thing you have to do is liberate Aura.”
“Liberate Aura?”
At Helba’s words, I remembered Aura’s appearance before Cubia showed up.
“Aura was divided into three segments and her power sealed. You have already regained one of them in your battle with Skeith.”
I was bothered by the word I didn’t understand. No, wait. That’s what was written in the character string when the data of the Reaper, called Skeith, was drained.
“That will save Orca. It’s just a matter of when. That’s all I can say for now.”
“Umm, Ms. Helba. Can I ask you something?”
“You don’t need to called me Ms. Just Helba is fine. What is your question?”
“What is Skeith or a segment?”
“Are you mistaking me for a teacher or something?”
Helba smiled coldly.
“I told you. I was helping out before. It’s not the other way around.”
Helba transferred and disappeared.
She said just what she needed to say, ignored questions that didn’t need to be answered, and walked away.
