kscans

Chapter 79 - An Endorsement from the Pioneers

After watching Sora log out.

I got a summons from the only other person on my friends list and made my way to a vacant lot on the outskirts of town.

I say “made my way” like it was simple, but honestly, it was way more than just a short trip. Apparently, that plaza Sora and I had teleported to was the center of the city, and from there, it was nearly a twenty-minute run to the outer edge.

Even without Sora’s support, I can now hit triple-digit kilometers per hour while humming a tune. And by run, I mean… was it running? Or was it more like leaping? I took the most direct route, pulling off the kind of acrobatic roof-hopping you always see in anime and manga, but…

“Isn’t this place a little too big?”

“Who said you had to run…?”

As soon as I reached the designated lot, I voiced my thoughts, only to have Kagura-san look at me like I was an idiot.

Well, yeah. I noticed there were teleport gates set up here and there, just like the ones in Istia, but I got a little carried away with how good it felt to be dashing across the rooftops like a badass….

“...Well, setting aside the fact you’re always doing something weird…”

Her sigh-laden words gave me a painful glimpse into how she saw me.

That's strange… I always thought of myself as having a pretty normal, sensible mentality.

“This is the problem—you’ve gone and done it again, haven’t you?”

As I stood there, arms crossed and wondering how to restore my honor, a window was tossed my way along with a withering glare.

A translucent virtual pane flipped around and stopped in front of me.

On the familiar index of the player message boards, the first thing that caught my eye was the headline emblazoned in bold, massive letters at the very top.

[BREAKING NEWS] The Soaring Rookie (Freak) Flees His Own Welcome Mob! [AIR JUMPS IMPLEMENTED!?]

“Hey, who are you calling a freak?”

Unlike before, I wasn’t in my starting underwear, nor was I laughing maniacally or screeching, okay???

“That’s not the problem. It’s not just the air jump thing. You showed off way too much.”

She pressed a hand to her forehead, and I sensed a gap between our respective levels of tension… or rather, our grasp of the situation's severity. A beat too late, I shifted into a more serious listening posture.

“S-So, what part was so bad…?”

“What part? All of it.”

I averted my gaze as she mercilessly shot me down. She glared at me for a moment before letting out another sigh, her expression softening as if to say, “You’re hopeless.”

“First off, that [Prologue: Wedge Fragment Singing of Eternity (Angalta)]. I have no doubt people will figure out it’s a Terror Armament.”

“No way, just from seeing it for a few seconds?”

“You shouldn’t underestimate the discerning eye of veteran players. If it were one or two people, maybe not, but you unveiled it to a massive crowd like that. There’s bound to be someone who could tell.”

So, on top of having a mysterious air jump skill (?), I’m now the owner of one of the handful of existing Terror Armaments, creating a terrifying amount of buzz…

“And your Anima is a problem, too.”

“Wait, that too?”

“Activating a skill with an incantation instead of calling out its name is proof that the weapon itself holds the skill. While it’s not on the level of a Terror Armament, many of the sharper players will probably guess it’s either a special item or a promising Anima.”

So, just like a Terror Armament that evolves in stages, my intriguing Anima doubles down on the suspicion that I have a ton of future potential.

“Furthermore, that ‘Quick Change’ skill you’ve mysteriously mastered—that’s an anomaly anyone can see, regardless of their experience. If anyone who knew about the last time you caused a stir was there, they’ve probably connected you to ‘Haru’… and to players who didn’t know, you would have looked like a walking scoop, packing multiple unknown skills on top of the air jump.”

“I see… So, in other words?”

“You’ll almost certainly be hunted down—potentially by a mob of thousands.”

“My peaceful virtual world life…!!”

I dropped to my knees in despair, but Kagura-san just snorted. “A little late for that.”

“At this point, it might not be a bad idea to just get picked up by a powerful clan.”

“A clan… A clan, huh.”

Just as I’m paired up with Sora, I never intended to be a solo player anyway.

Though I was a lone wolf (read: weirdo) throughout all of high school, I don’t have any aversion or particular difficulty with belonging to a group.

If it would help me avoid trouble, joining a clan was worth considering—

“Personally, though, I’d rather you keep running wild as a free agent.”

“Oh?”

Just as I was about to go along with her suggestion, the one who proposed it voiced her dissent.

“I think you’ve realized it by now, since I’ve told you countless times, but… you—the two of you—are on a whole other level. Your growth rate, your clear speed, and on top of that, you’re equipped with unique skills. Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange if you joined the top ranks at any time.”

“That’s some high praise.”

As I reeled from the straightforward flattery, Kagura-san smiled. “I’ve been saying that from the start, haven’t I?”

Right, she was the one who offered to be my exclusive artisan.

“Well, that’s the kind of player you are. So, personally, I think it would be more interesting if you just kept pushing the limits and made a spectacular official debut.”

“An official debut, you mean…”

“The Four Pillar War, of course. To be more precise, its selection tournament.”

The Four Pillar War—the biggest festival in Arcadia, where the four factions, including my own Istia, clash in a massive free-for-all. I’d naturally set my sights on it as a future goal, but…

“Isn’t it a little too soon for that?”

Having literally just finished the tutorial today, I’m in what you might call the un-upgraded stage from an MMO perspective, having only just reached the starting line.

I’m still using store-bought gear, and my skill evolution and proficiency levels are probably a joke compared to veteran players.

I probably couldn't even beat Kagura-san, an artisan.

“Well, it’s true that you can’t easily catch up in terms of equipment or the number and quality of your skills. But in Arcadia’s PvP, the most important thing isn’t gear or skills—it’s pure player skill.”

With that, she gestured toward the empty lot behind her.

“Just do whatever. Hop around a little.”

“Huh?”

I wondered what this was all about, but there was no reason to refuse, so I nodded and lightly pushed off the ground. I haven’t allocated my new status points yet, nor have I acquired any new mobility skills, so there’s no need to warm up.

Without much of a run-up, I can’t hit top speed, but if a hundred kilometers per hour is good enough, two steps are all I need.

Using the bouncing stride that had become second nature, I built up speed and, on the third step, launched into the air to fulfill her ‘hop around’ request. If I were to follow proper laws of physics, my body would now be flying in an arc, but—Blink Switch activated.

I summoned a store-bought [Steel Dagger] just in front of my outstretched palm. Having already controlled my posture a moment before activation, I bent my body into a ‘V’ shape, like a swimmer doing a flip turn, and placed one foot on the platform I had just created.

Again, if I were following proper laws of physics, using a dagger weighing less than a kilogram as a floating foothold would be utterly impossible—but by exploiting a characteristic of the Quick Change skill line where ‘a summoned item is fixed in its coordinates for a brief moment’…

“Hup.”

The dagger, pinned in mid-air, perfectly served its purpose as a platform without so much as a tremor. After escaping freefall through this exploit-like skill usage…

“Hup, yah, ho, hah!”

Blink Switch, Blink Switch, Blink Switch—thanks to the cooldown reduction from consecutive use, my avatar, now capable of more frequent and stable three-dimensional movement than ever before, could practically dance through the air at will.

You ask if I get dizzy? The truth is, while I’m doing this, I can barely keep track of my vision or anything else, which paradoxically means I take no damage from it!

The trick is to map out a route in my head before I start, then devote all my mental resources to controlling the avatar to follow that path during the high-speed maneuvers.

It’s a feeling similar to unconsciously executing memorized commands in an action game based on the situation.

In other words, if I mess up, recovery is impossible, and I become a stain on the ground. So I just have to not mess up!

“Right, that should be enough, I guess?”

Deciding that was probably good, I applied the brakes and turned back to Kagura-san. She was watching me with her arms crossed, a faint, resigned smile on her face that seemed to say, “I’m beyond amazed.”

“How many players do you think can actually keep up with that?”

“I dunno, there are thought acceleration skills, right? I figured most of the veterans could handle it…”

The standard strategy against a speed-focused opponent is pretty much the same in any game.

You either crush them from above with even greater speed, riddle them with guaranteed-hit or homing long-range attacks that make speed irrelevant, or you lie in wait and cut them down with a counter.

Whatever method you choose, the key is to accurately track your skittering opponent’s movements and not miss your timing—but this game provides a cheat-like optimal solution in the form of a thought acceleration skill, courtesy of the system itself…

“I don’t know what you’re misunderstanding, but the only ones with thought acceleration skills are the top-tier players among the veterans. And even then, it’s limited to warrior types, especially light warriors who focus on speed like you.”

Oh, really?

I knew from the strategy guides that the requirements to get it were incredibly difficult, but given its performance, I just assumed all the veterans would have forced their way into acquiring it.

“Sure, a light warrior ranker with thought acceleration could probably keep up with you—but what about everyone else? How many people do you think can react to your movements when they’re so fast they’re hard to even follow with the naked eye at close range?”

“Well…”

Maybe I can hold my own even now? Nah, but still…

“It seems you’re already used to gaming, so I get how you feel. I understand that for a new player to catch up to a veteran in an online game is a monumental task.”

“But,” Kagura-san said with a smile.

“In any world, there are always geniuses who shatter conventional wisdom—and I’m telling you now. You, without a doubt, are one of those geniuses.”

“Whoa…”

Genius. In my eighteen-plus years of life, that was a compliment so far removed from my reality that I was certain I’d never receive it. I never imagined a day would come when such a word would be directed at me… especially from a beautiful woman in a kimono (the important part).

“What, blushing? That’s not like you.”

“Even I get flustered when you praise me that directly, you know?”

I instinctively looked away and got teased for it—okay, stop. If you smile gently like that, my embarrassment is just going to accelerate, so that’s an NG.

“Well, even with all the flattery, it’s ultimately just my selfish desire to see something interesting. In the end, you should do what you want.”

“What I want, huh.”

Honestly, I don’t mind either way, whether I maintain the status quo or jump into a group.

Since I ended up formally asking Sora to be my partner on a whim, I’ll need to get her opinion too… I guess I’ll put it on hold for now.

“After being hyped up like that, I’m leaning toward keeping things as they are—but I’ll decide later. I need to hear my partner’s opinion, too.”

“That’s true. Well, take all the time you need to think. And while you’re at it, find a chance to introduce me to this partner of yours already.”

She’s been asking me to let her meet Sora for a while now, saying she seems interesting too, but… well, it’s not like I have any ulterior motives. The timing just hasn’t worked out.

“It seems her real life is about to get busy for a bit, so whenever the timing works out… Oh, by the way, my login frequency will probably drop starting next week, too.”

“Ah… well, given the time of year, I guess it’s the same for everyone.”

For students like me, it’s naturally the season for starting school or moving up a grade. And for working adults, it’s a new season that brings its own busyness.

“Yeah, that’s the thing. Things are about to get hectic… but I don’t actually know the schedule or the details of any of these events.”

“What do you know?”

Well, as long as it’s something directly related to my current situation and doesn’t involve spoilers… How strange. Even though I’ve unlocked the vast fountain of knowledge that is the internet, I’m still as clueless as ever.

Come to think of it, I still haven’t used the guild hall or the market that Kagura-san told me about before.

It’s become a routine for me to just log in, head out to the field on a whim, and then spend the entire session just grinding until I log out…

Seeing me turn my head away in obvious awkwardness, Kagura-san let out a familiar, exasperated laugh.

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