kscans

Chapter 101 - Key Item

Hayato immediately asked Diite to confirm the situation.

Diite explained that a simultaneous Stampede in three locations had never happened before. And that the Underworld Dragon Onyx Rod and the Illusion Dragon Suien Mikazuki were from the hardline faction, while the Thunder Dragon Od Base was from the moderate faction.

In other words, the Thunder Dragon Od Base had defected to the hardline faction.

"Diite-chan, is this part of the plan? Was this part of the event's original design?"

Diite had been in charge of the event's settings. She couldn't do that now, but it was possible she had originally set things up to turn out this way.

Judging by the surprised look on Diite's face, that possibility seemed slim, but he checked just in case.

"There's no such setting. The moderate faction dragons were scheduled to appear as reinforcements when the hardline faction dragons went on a rampage. But that hasn't happened at all in the past six months, so I just assumed that setting had been removed. I never thought they would defect to the hardline faction."

"You know, is it possible for Ash and Ren-chan to defect too?"

With this development, that was Hayato's biggest worry.

"I can't say for sure that it won't happen. However, Ash-kun is set up to dislike his father, Veru-kun, who is the leader of the hardline faction. The possibility of him defecting is low. Ren-kun is a bit more uncertain. She doesn't have any particular animosity towards her father. That said, those two are close. I don't think they would defect."

It was nothing more than wishful thinking. The dragons, known as Genesis Dragons, had their own free will. They were bound by their settings to some extent, but if they had a reason, they could do anything. This defection was likely one such instance.

Now what should we do, he thought, when Esha stood up from her chair.

"In any case, we need to defend. I will go defend the Royal Capital with everyone from the Maid Guild."

Hayato nodded at her words.

"You're right. I can't fight, so I'm counting on you."

"There are a decent number of NPCs in the Royal Capital, so we should be able to manage. Besides, I don't think it will be a problem even if we lose. The Royal Capital's fragment has already been taken, so even if all the facilities are destroyed and we lose, nothing will really change."

"Esha-kun is right. This Stampede is likely aimed at splitting up the players. By attacking three locations at once, they're reducing the number of people who can fight in any one place. That's why I think they're attacking the Royal Capital, which is meaningless to the hardline faction."

"That's a nasty way to fight."

"I suppose it means we've made Veru-kun get serious."

"It's also possible that this is a scheme to keep you busy, Master, since you're also working on facility reconstruction."

Hayato was a production player and couldn't participate in battles, but he was exceptionally skilled when it came to reconstruction aid. Furthermore, he was creating many items to support combat.

Since the hardline dragons considered him a dangerous person, it was no mistake that they were aiming to put pressure on him.

"Aren't they being a little too cautious with just me?"

"The Fire Dragon was defeated as soon as you returned, Master. If they weren't cautious about that, they'd be incompetent. It would have been easier if they were, though. Well then, I'm off. By the way, I'll be taking a large amount of melon juice."

"Take as much as you want."

Esha immediately headed to the storage and then left the base.

Only Hayato and Diite remained.

Hayato looked at Diite. The Stampede was a concern, but there was something he wanted to confirm first.

"Could you tell me everything about this event? I know it's a spoiler, but this isn't the time to be worrying about that, right? I want to know what the original story, or setting, was."

"I suppose I should tell you. It's not moving according to my settings anymore, so it wouldn't even be a spoiler."

"In that case, first of all, what's with this treasured artifact?"

Hayato took out the fragment of the artifact from his item bag. It was the item he had obtained when they defeated the Fire Dragon. According to what he had heard before, the Dragon Soul's treasured artifact was an item in which the soul of Ash's mother, Kilika Brandle, was sealed.

"The setting itself is as I told you before. However, there's another setting. If you use the crafting skill with all four fragments, it becomes an item called the Dragon Soul's treasured artifact."

Even though it required the crafting skill, it could be made with a skill level of 0, making it an item anyone who participated in a Stampede and defeated a dragon could obtain. It was an accessory treated as a necklace that increased maximum HP, but it had another use.

It served as a key to enter a certain place.

"A key to enter the Dragon's Grave?"

"That's right. Originally, Veru-kun was not supposed to attack in a Stampede. The setting was that he was holed up in the Dragon's Grave, and this was an event item needed to fight him. When you defeated Veru-kun there, you would hear Kirika-kun's voice from the artifact, and Veru-kun would have a change of heart. Then the artifact would release its true power and become a piece of equipment with considerable performance. It was a moving story. I came up with it myself, of course."

She said it was moving herself? Well, I guess you could call it a classic story.

"But the hardline faction is also collecting the artifact fragments, right? What happens if they're all taken?"

"In reality, nothing was supposed to happen even if the hardline dragons took the artifact. It would simply mean that you could no longer obtain the artifact fragments from Stampedes. Though it seems that's different now."

"In that case, doesn't that mean we can't clear this event? If we can't collect the artifact fragments, we can't enter the Dragon's Grave, right?"

"It just means you can't get them from Stampedes. The hardline dragons are placed as rare monsters in the first place. If a fragment is taken, you have to defeat them directly and take it back. I've confirmed that the fragment that should be obtainable in the Royal Capital is held by the Tyrant Dragon Agres Berion. The system is designed so that if you defeat him on Boboda Mountain, you can take the fragment back."

So the method of obtaining the fragments changes. I guess the Stampede is easier, though.

While the dragons' stats were boosted for Stampedes, making them stronger than usual, it would be easier to defeat them with a large number of players and NPCs. Though now the settings had changed, making it a situation where they were almost impossible to win without countermeasures, under the old settings, it should have been easy.

Furthermore, it was highly likely that the difficulty wasn't so high that the artifact fragments would be taken in a Stampede. Or if the difficulty was high, Diite would have changed the settings to lower it.

Though it was now a situation of the highest difficulty, it shouldn't be unwinnable. Hayato thought so as he considered what to do next.

It seems like it wouldn't be a problem to back off as Veru-san said. But I can't explain that to Ash and the others, and if they found out I was holding back, that would be a problem in itself. In that case, I should probably go all out to win the Stampede event. But what does he mean by 'something terrible will happen' to Ash and Ren-chan? It's possible that the administrator was also lying, but why did Veru-san believe them? I should have checked that too.

Hayato thought about various things, but couldn't come up with an answer. He posed a question to Diite.

"It's okay if Ash and the others win, right? You really don't know the secret of the artifact?"

"I swear, I really don't know. It's just a key item for the event, and in the setting, the soul of Ash-kun's mother is sealed within it. There's nothing else."

"He said something terrible would happen if Ash and Ren-chan obtained it, but can you guess what that might be?"

"It's difficult. In the first place, I don't understand what kind of situation would be 'something terrible happening' to those two. It might be because I'm an AI."

"No, even I don't understand that. The only thing I can think of is that the two of them would become hostile to each other."

At Hayato's words, Diite thought for a moment. But she soon shook her head.

"I don't think they would become hostile to each other. Their closeness dates back to their time in reality. I didn't alter their memories in that way."

"Since their time in reality... could it be that 'something terrible will happen' means they'll regain their real-world memories?"

It was something that had just popped into his head during the conversation. He didn't seriously think it was the case. But with each passing second, he started to feel that the possibility was high.

Diite also seemed to think it was a possibility, as she crossed her arms and began to think.

"But how would they be made to remember? I've made it so that AI protection doesn't work on Veru-kun, but it definitely works on Ash-kun and Ren-kun. Esha-kun's case is very special, and she remembered on her own. I've had Hayato-kun be careful, but it should be extremely difficult for a third party to make them remember reality."

There were many players in this game to begin with. In conversations between players, there was a lot of talk about reality. The characters considered to be NPCs would hear those words, but due to AI protection, they were in a state where they couldn't quite understand what was being said.

Even after that situation had continued for nearly three years, there were no cases of anyone regaining their memories. The only exception was Esha.

They thought about it for a while after that, but couldn't come up with anything conclusive.

"Hayato-kun, just as I originally requested, could you support Ash-kun and the others so that they win this event?"

"Is that really okay?"

"I think it's fine. I don't know what this other administrator is planning, but if they're trying to make Veru-kun win, then I want to make Ash-kun win. So I'm counting on you."

Hayato looked at Diite for a while, then nodded deeply.

"Alright. I also personally want to support Ash and Ren-chan. They helped me out during the Clan War. I'll do my best in that direction."

"Good, now that that's decided, let's think about countermeasures for the other dragons."

As Diite said that, she brought up three monitors in the dining hall. They displayed the Stampedes occurring in the Royal Capital, the Demon Capital, and the Spirit Country.

Ash and the others are in the Demon Capital, huh. In that case, I guess we'll target the Underworld Dragon next.

Hayato thought this as he stared intently at the monitors.