Chapter 76 - Arrival in a New Land
—A bell rings.
It was a great bell tower, a relic of a divine age that once slumbered in a deep forest.
Its solemn tone signifies the birth-cry of a new light being born into the world.
"Oh, for real?"
"It's been a month, right? We're lucky to be here for the festival!"
"Who are you betting on?"
"A guy." "A dude." "A man." "A man." "A long shot… nah, it's a guy."
"The odds are so skewed it's not even a bet, lmao."
The land where this great bell tower stood was covered in a sea of ancient trees until three years ago.
From the day the bell first rang, countless new lights—that is, players—were born. Through their hands, the former forest was cleared into a vast plain.
It had been a long time since the area was bustling with crude tents and mats. Now, with the great bell tower as its landmark, paths were paved, and the land was divided into districts lined with various buildings, a sight worthy of being called a city.
—Roughly the size of the entire Tokyo metropolitan area. Someone measured it at some point, and it wasn't a metaphor or a joke. It's said that hundreds of thousands of players reside permanently in this city… or rather, metropolis.
And all those countless players erupted in unison. Their attention was, of course, directed at the news of a newcomer's arrival, the first in a month.
It had become customary to hold a "festival" whenever a new player visiting Arcadia cleared the tutorial, the [Trial Spheres of Partition], and descended upon this land.
It was a kindness from the seniors to their juniors who were about to be thrown into this excessively vast world.
At the same time, for Arcadia, where new players were becoming a rarity, it was a form of collective doting on the precious newcomers.
Furthermore, it was a fierce, even brutal, scramble for new players—a battle to quickly assess their future potential and recruit them into one's own circle.
In other words, it was hell in more ways than one.
—And into that hell, a pair of rookies were unceremoniously delivered.
"What is this?"
"Eek…!"
The sound was so loud I couldn't even distinguish voices or words. The pressure was enough to blow my bangs back, and my heart instantly froze as I put on a blank expression.
And then there was Sora, clinging to me with a purity of terror that was clearly on a different vector from her earlier "space is scary."
This is amazing. What surprised me more than the fact that a real person would actually shriek "Eek!" was that even a silly sound like that comes out sounding undeniably cute from a beautiful girl's mouth.
But this is no time for that.
"Sora, this is—ah, I get it. It's okay, you can hide. There, there."
I thought Sora, with her knowledge of Arcadia trivia, might know something about this ruckus, but I gave up the moment I called out to her.
This girl is more genuinely terrified than I've ever seen her.
Well, I can't blame her. Just how many people are gathered here? Is this the legendary Comiket I've heard about? There's no merchandise here, so scram! My Sora-sama is scared, you hear me!?
There could easily be a sea of people in the four-digit range. With a crowd that large all talking at once, it was less a clamor and more just a simple explosion of sound.
Because of that, the people in the front row of the circle surrounding Sora and me were no longer speaking but screaming at us. Not like I can hear you, are you kidding me?
It's a level of noise that would piss off Prince Shotoku. If I were Prince Shotoku, I'd be swinging my scepter with murderous intent.
—Yeah, no, this is impossible.
For now, I'll focus on the guy in the front row who's most conspicuous, closest, and probably scaring Sora the most: a muscular, bald heavy warrior nearly two meters tall, wearing ridiculously ornate leg armor but for some reason bare-chested—a total pervert's style.
While shooting him a glare that said, "Don't come any closer, you bald bastard," I quickly opened up the message window, judging that a whisper would be drowned out.
Let's run. I'll give you the signal, so I'm counting on your legs.
The words I'd typed out at lightning speed seemed to reach Sora correctly, as she nodded frantically while still clinging to me.
…………Yeah, am I becoming overprotective? I'm just genuinely pissed off at this mysterious mob for scaring Sora this much.
Anyway, I have to swallow my righteous anger for now. My plan is to put on a little act and then make a break for it, but these guys are undoubtedly veterans. Old-timers.
A clumsy first move and we might not get away. I may have gotten Kagura-san's seal of approval on my legwork, but I'm still a rookie who doesn't know the world.
I have to trick them at least a little, even if it's through sheer force—so first, I'll start with a smile.
I scooped Sora up in my arms and leaped back to create some distance. But I wasn't escaping just yet. I just jumped onto a pedestal with some huge bell on it and struck a pose to draw attention to myself.
I set down the wide-eyed Sora and shielded her behind me, then smoothly activated 《Quick Change》—or rather, 《Blink Switch》.
With a light effect that was a bit flashier than before, what appeared in my hand was the grotesque form of my prized possession, gifted to me by my personal magic artisan: [An-ri Galta (Prologue: The Wedge-Fragment that Sings of Eternity)].
It was a combination of [An-ri Galta], which already radiated the presence of a Terror Armament even in its initial stage, and the instantaneous weapon summoning that was already certified as abnormal by veteran players.
I was hoping it would be enough to silence their damn chorus for even a second—and bingo, I'll press the advantage. You're all pumpkins!!!!
"LADIIIIIIIIES AND GENTLEMEEEEEEEENNNNN!!!"
Using the damn courage I'd forged running through countless workplaces as a high schooler and the hidden "lung capacity" stat that for some reason is linked to AGI, I summoned [An-ri Galta] with my arm raised and slammed it into the ground with a soul-filled shout.
"""""—…"""""
How's that? Scared?
Feel free to think I'm a crazy person. Now shut up. You shut up? Good. Stay quiet while I play the fool with all my might!!
Thanks to the majority of them being stunned into silence, the explosive noise that had drowned out my voice settled into, at most, a damn loud clamor.
Now, as long as I can successfully lure away the ones in the front who are likely to be a direct obstacle to our escape, that'll be good enough.
So listen up, you gaping morons.
"Thank you all for gathering here today to celebrate our new beginning, I'm deeply honored, et cetera, et cetera! Cut the chatter and look at this, you fools!!!"
Mobilizing my excessive AGI and DEX, I used flashy, high-speed, though not particularly refined, gestures to capture their attention while using 《Blink Switch》 to switch from [An-ri Galta] to the [White-Flawed Straight Sword].
"'The White Eye Awakens'—…!"
The change in the sword's appearance from its unique skill's activation phrase was a minor detail. The reaction was likely to the second use of 《Blink Switch》.
A stir went through the crowd, and the explosive sound field that drowned out my voice was back—but I'll manage the rest with body language.
"'—Unite the boundless sky'!!"
At the end of the incantation, I deliberately looked up at the crowd with an exaggerated gesture, then dramatically threw my head back and pointed to the sky with my free hand.
"SHAORAAA!!—《Éclair》!!!"
Pointing to the sky and throwing a glowing sword—naturally, they would think something was going to happen to the sword in mid-air. Just as I planned, I caught most of them looking up eagerly out of the corner of my eye…
""…!—""
I scooped Sora up in my arms again, and our eyes met. The signal was understood.
The activation of 《Scareless》—the thirty levels' worth of stats transferred from Sora were piled onto my AGI and DEX, pushing my already excessive agility to a state of super-excess.
Then I slammed down all my mobility-boosting cards—《Floating Leaf》, 《Idaten》, 《Swallow Flight》, 《Fataless Jumper》, and for good measure, 《Guardian's Cradle》—and leaped without mercy.
"Hee—eeeuuuughh…!!?"
"HAH HAAA!!! Later, senpais! Please don't follow me, I'm serious, please stop, this isn't a joke!!!!"
I'll be honest. I jumped more than three times farther at nearly twice the speed I expected, and it scared the crap out of me.
I mean, sure, this was the first time I'd done a full-power jump after raising my AGI to its current level, with my skills evolved, and with Sora's support fully dedicated to agility.
But come on, I didn't think I'd launch myself nearly forty meters into the air when I wasn't even jumping straight up, you know?
"Ha-Haru, Haru-sa, it's so high…—!!?"
"Sorry, but you'll bite your tongue, so hang on a sec!"
While securely holding Sora, who was clinging to me desperately with tears in her eyes, with one hand, I used the other to repeatedly activate Blink Switch for my usual perverted mid-air jumping maneuver.
My evolved 《Quick Change》, 《Blink Switch》, had gained the god-tier ability of progressively reduced cooldowns on consecutive uses without other skills in between.
Thanks to the synergy with 《Combo Accelerate》, the evolution of 《Axel Tempo》 which had a similar effect, I could now activate it repeatedly at a speed incomparable to before.
Thanks to that, I've gained a mobility that wouldn't be a lie to call "I can fly." However, when doing that while carrying someone—
"—!!—————!!"
Sora was being jolted around at high altitude with every jump, and it was surely unbearable for her… Whether it was a protest or just sheer panic, she wrapped her arms around my neck as if to choke me out and buried her face in my shoulder—or rather, my neck—as if to say, "if I look down, I die," and—
"—W-wait, h-hold on, Sora-san, your breath—I mean your mouth, it's on my neck…!"
I'm used to her clinging to me—which is its own problem—and I can somehow manage to ignore her breathing on me at close range.
But that is out of bounds. No young man can remain calm when a girl is nibbling on his neck.
It wasn't really biting, more like her mouth was pressed so hard against me that her lips were just kind of enveloping it, but—but what do you mean just? There's no way I can stay calm when a girl does that to me, the warmth is-is-is-is!!
Okay, let's land. Let's land now. We've covered a kilometer in just a few dozen seconds, and since you're not supposed to be able to jump in mid-air in this game, I probably don't have to worry about being pursued from here.
Man, this is bad. As I shift my focus to landing and look down, I'm belatedly amazed. What is this? It's not a town, it's a city.
I don't even know where I was teleported in the first place, but this cluster of buildings has a completely different feel from the pure fantasy townscape of Istia.
The exterior certainly has a fantasy vibe, but there's something about the architectural direction, a faint concept I can sense… a modern flavor, or rather, the reek of efficiency you'd get from an expert in sandbox or factory-building games.
Wait, no way, could this be player-made—ah, sorry, okay, landing now, I'm landing right now, so please hang on a little longer, Sora-san!
Let's get Chapter Two started!!