kscans

Chapter 330 - Players and NPCs

In the middle of the battle with Shuten Doji, Noat had wandered off to where the major clan Kiss of Death was spreading support effects with their singing, dancing, and music.

Noat had made a comment to their leader, Alvie, to the effect of "you’re not putting your heart into it, so it’s not worth listening to," creating a tense situation, and now a contest was about to begin.

Hayato wondered if it was him or everyone else who was failing to read the room.

This was a virtual reality, after all. They had registered their voices when they started the game, but singing here was just a pseudo-experience controlled by brainwaves.

Preparations were underway on the stage, so it seemed they would be settling things by singing to each other, but he didn't know specifically how they would decide who was better.

"Noat-san, what do you do in a singing contest?"

"We both sing and then decide."

"Will you be able to tell who’s better? Will you decide based on who gets the loudest applause?"

Deciding a singing contest by the volume of applause afterward was a common practice. Other methods included having about ten judges give scores out of ten.

By that evaluation method, Noat was at a clear disadvantage. Almost everyone here was a fan of Alvie. He was about to point that out, but Noat shook her head before he could.

"If that person is a true performer, she should know the result of the match. If she boasts of victory even when she’s lost, then that’s all she amounts to, and there’s no need to bother with her."

Hayato was surprised by Noat’s confidence. It was hard to imagine from her usual self, but it seemed Noat had absolute confidence as a performer.

"You seem pretty cool right now, Noat-san."

"There’s nothing cool about competing with songs. Whether it’s singing, playing music, or dancing, there is no up or down. There is only the performer’s feelings. That girl doesn’t understand that."

"…Oh?"

A sound he hadn’t intended to make escaped Hayato’s lips. He stared at Noat with a very surprised expression.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I just never thought I’d hear words like that from you… Do you have a cold?"

"I’ve decided tonight’s dinner will be a Donut Big Bang. Make all kinds, endlessly. With lots of strawberry."

"That much is fine, but… if she wasn’t singing with her heart, won’t she be coming at you with everything she has now?"

"I didn’t think you’d actually make it for me, but if she sings with her heart, then she can have the win."

Hayato tilted his head.

It seemed Noat wasn’t concerned with the contest itself. She was the one who had made the provocative statement, but she seemed more concerned with whether Alvie was singing with her heart than with who was more skillful.

Hayato had felt that Alvie’s singing was good, but if that wasn’t her at her best, he wondered what her true best would be like.

"Thank you for waiting. Shall we begin our contest?"

Alvie spoke to Noat from the stage.

She continued, still smiling.

"Will you sing first? Or after?"

"You go first. But if you don’t sing with your heart, I’ll hold back too."

Alvie’s expression twitched. But she immediately smiled and said, "Then I shall sing first," and moved to the center of the stage.

Alvie wasn't holding her violin; it seemed she intended to compete with just her voice.

Hayato and the others decided to listen from the front row where they had a good view of the stage.

This wasn’t what they should be doing, but he decided that getting troublesome things out of the way first was the right course of action.

This might even be one of the attempts to harass him. Since he couldn't deal with multiple things at once, he thought positively, considering it important to crush them one by one.

After a moment of silence, the members of the clan Kiss of Death began to play.

Hayato knew what kind of song it was from the accompaniment alone.

At Mist’s suggestion, he had recently started playing music in his cafe. He usually played classical or jazz at a barely audible volume, but he had listened to a variety of genres to see what kind of music would be most effective.

This song was quite old but renowned as a masterpiece. He had heard it even before deciding on the music for the cafe. It was a slow-paced love song, a true classic.

Next to Hayato, Noat let out a sigh. Even though it was still just the accompaniment and Alvie hadn't started singing yet.

He thought it best not to speak to her until the song was over, so he remained silent, but he wondered why Noat was so disappointed before she even started singing. After Alvie began to sing, Noat just looked sleepy as usual.

Hayato thought it was a good song. The people around him were listening to it, entranced. Esha was drinking her Melon Juice as usual, and her expression gave no clue as to what she was thinking.

When the song ended, the cheers and applause were unending, and the atmosphere was electric. So much so that the people seriously fighting Shuten Doji were looking over to see what was going on.

Alvie walked across the stage and looked down at Noat.

"How was it?"

"You were skillful."

Not ‘good,’ but ‘skillful.’ She said it in a way you would praise a child, saying "good job," and though her physical position was lower, Noat’s tone came from a much higher place.

Alvie froze for a moment at those words, but her smile didn't break. The muscle in her temple twitched slightly.

"Then, will you let me hear your skillful song, Noat-san?"

Not to be outdone, Alvie also returned the word "skillful."

"Fine. I’ll teach you what a song is. You should study it."

(She’s really provoking her. Is Noat-san that competitive when it comes to singing? But it doesn’t feel like she’s trying to compete.)

As he was thinking this, Noat said, "Lift me onto the stage," and looked at Hayato with her arms outstretched. She probably wanted him to carry her.

The stage was about one and a half meters high, close to Noat’s height. It would be awkward to refuse here, but carrying her was a bit embarrassing. Hayato knelt on one knee on the spot. Then he offered his cupped hands. He meant for her to use them as a step.

Noat said, "Thank you," and placed her right foot in Hayato’s hands. From that position, Hayato stood up, lifting her, and Noat climbed onto the stage.

Afterward, Noat went over to the musicians and said something to them. It was probably not Hayato’s imagination that the musicians looked displeased.

Alvie stared at Noat on the stage for a few seconds, then jumped off. For some reason, she stood where Noat had been, right next to Hayato.

"Um…?"

"I will listen from here."

Alvie said this and smiled. Hayato was so stunned by her smile that he almost swooned, but for some reason, Esha’s gaze had been piercing him, so he acted as if nothing was wrong.

Just as he was about to say something to distract himself, Alvie spoke first.

"I’ll say this first, but neither I nor my clan have any connection to Shooting Star. We are not interested in whether a clan is on top or on the bottom, so please be assured."

"Huh? But…"

She hadn’t harassed Hayato directly, but she had challenged Noat to a contest upon seeing her. He couldn’t believe her when she said they had no connection.

"I am merely personally interested in Noat-san."

"Come to think of it, you knew about Noat-san and her orchestra."

"I heard Brunhilde perform at a theater in the Imperial Capital. I thought we could create even better music if we could perform with your clan, so I negotiated to perform together."

"…In a virtual reality?"

Hayato knew the situation with the NPCs, so he understood, but players thought of NPCs as AI, as programs. He was a little surprised that she had approached them to perform together despite that.

"Even if the NPCs are just AI, I was moved by the music they played. Anyone can play a piece of music as written on the score with practice. It would be easy for a program. But music is meaningless if it is only played correctly. In the performance of Brunhilde, which is nothing more than a collection of programs, I felt a soul. You may think it’s a foolish story."

"…No, I don’t think so at all."

Hayato was surprised. The NPCs were people from a hundred years ago. And they were a gathering of the most talented people of that time. It was highly likely that the members of Brunhilde were also a group of talented performers from that era. It was possible that Alvie, standing before him, had sensed that.

Music is not heard with the ears, but felt with the heart. Hayato had heard such a saying before, and he was impressed that this might be exactly that.

"However, I was rejected. They said they wanted to hear me sing as a test, and I sang, but it seems it was a unanimous no. And then they told me I should listen to Noat-san’s singing once."

"So that’s what happened…"

"I was looking for Noat-san, but I couldn’t find her. That was when Ronios-san from Shooting Star gave me some information. That she was at your base."

"Did you receive an invitation to join them in return for that?"

"I was invited, but I refused. For some reason, I still received the information, though. But in the end, I did end up harassing you. I apologize."

"Nothing has happened so far, so it’s fine, but if you just wanted to hear Noat-san’s singing, was there a need for a contest?"

"I may not look it, but I’m very competitive. And if singing is involved, I can’t just treat it as a mere quest."

Game quests included monster subjugation and errands where you take a specific item to a designated place. There were also quests where you compete against NPCs. Most of those were through combat, but Alvie probably thought this was a quest to compete through singing.

Since she said she felt a soul in Brunhilde’s performance, it was possible she was expecting the same from Noat’s singing, but Hayato didn't know much about that. However, if there were a coffee taste competition, he was sure he wouldn't want to lose, even if his opponent was an AI.

It seemed Noat’s preparations were complete.

For some reason, she was wearing a black hooded robe, and only her mouth was visible.

Hayato, and the people around him, tilted their heads. Only Alvie had an expression of surprise.

Then, an eerie, or rather, unsettling, low-pitched song began to play.

"Listen."

Noat’s beautiful voice echoed around them. It wasn’t a loud voice, but it was a beautiful voice that lingered in the ear. He couldn’t tell if the song was good or bad, but in terms of voice alone, Hayato’s impression was that she was on par with Alvie.

"Today, you have obtained good fortune."

"What is she talking about?"

"Master, please be quiet. That’s something like a preamble to a song."

"Oh, I see. But she doesn’t usually do that, right?"

"You should cover your ears."

Esha said this and covered her ears with both hands.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Tonight, the light has fallen, and the darkness was born. I shall grant you words of blessing…"

As Noat said this, the music stopped. The surroundings became quiet, and only the sound of the battle with Shuten Doji could be heard in the distance.

Noat threw off her black robe. Underneath, she wore a black gothic-style dress reminiscent of Rosalie and the others. And on her skirt was an embroidery of what looked like a skull.

"DEEEAAAATH!"

Noat screamed. At the same time, the music began at an explosive volume. Despite the situation, Noat’s screaming voice was far louder than the music.

Hayato, who was in the front row, instantly covered his ears. But even so, he could still hear the loud voice and music. Noat’s singing was a gravelly voice, unlike her preamble, and the content of her song was nothing but blasphemy.

The first word was death. The same meaning as the ‘death’ in Kiss of Death.

Hayato didn't know this genre of music well, but he judged it to be what was called death metal or heavy metal.

His understanding was that this kind of music was mainly played with guitars, but those didn't exist in this virtual reality. He was impressed that they could play such a fast-paced piece of music with only instruments used in an orchestra.

But more than that, he didn't understand why Noat had chosen this song.

If it was just a contest with Alvie, a normal song should have been fine. Besides, the audience was different. He didn't know what would determine who was better, but at the very least, the audience’s reception was poor.

Some of the audience members were headbanging, nodding their heads up and down to the rhythm, so into it, but most of them were covering their ears and frowning.

At this rate, it wouldn't be surprising if people thought she had thrown the match. Thinking this, Hayato looked to his side.

"Hey, what are you doing!?"

Alvie, like some of the audience members, was headbanging, her beautiful blonde hair whipping around. It was as if she were possessed by an evil spirit rather than a fairy.

Noticing that Hayato and the others were watching her, Alvie gasped and stopped her actions. She covered her mouth with both hands and looked at Noat with tears in her eyes.

"In real life… I love this kind of music…"

The surroundings were noisy, and Hayato had covered his ears, but he could clearly hear Alvie’s crystal-clear voice.

When he asked for details, Alvie explained that whenever she said she wanted to sing this kind of music, people would ask her to stop. She thought she might be able to do it in a virtual reality, but her appearance came first, and she couldn't sing it here either.

(So the gap between what she wants to do and how she looks is too big… and Noat-san understood that?)

Her telling Alvie to sing with her heart, losing interest at the accompaniment stage, and choosing this song were all things she couldn't have done without understanding Alvie's situation.

That led to the question of how Noat had noticed. They had just met, and it should have been the first time Noat had heard Alvie sing. He wondered how she could have noticed in such a situation.

"She must have seen the regret and conflict in my singing. And even when I was singing normally, there might have been a part of me that couldn’t let go of this kind of song…"

Hayato’s questions deepened, wondering if such a thing was possible, but he decided to accept it, as Noat was exceptional when it came to singing.

And then Noat’s song ended.

At the end, Noat covered her left eye with the palm of her right hand, placed her left hand on her right hip, and with a slight twist of her body, struck a pose at a forty-five-degree angle to Alvie.

"It’s important to entertain everyone with your song, but to challenge me with a song you don’t enjoy yourself is as unthinkable as a donut without a hole."

There are donuts without holes, Hayato thought, but decided not to say it.

Alvie fell to her knees.

"I… lose…"

A small but clear and beautiful voice. And so, the singing contest came to a close.

"What was that, I wonder."

Esha said this with a somewhat exasperated tone. Hayato felt the same, but he decided to think of it as a small price to pay if it meant the harassment from Alvie would stop.

"Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? Oh, can you fire Destroy soon?"

"The timing is just right. Thanks to this, I’m full of support effects, so I’ll go fire it off. Tonight, I’d like a Chocolate Parfait Big Bang for myself as well."

Making endless chocolate parfaits was impossible, but Hayato thought he could splurge a little.

Afterward, Alvie came out to the crowd about her love for this kind of music and sang with Noat. Because of her appearance, it was said that Alvie had become a fallen angel.

Some people were so sad they cried at Alvie’s gravelly voice and blasphemous words, but some were overjoyed. After that, she also performed a normal song, a song that was far more free and unrestrained than before, so it didn't turn into a riot.

A faction was formed over which of Alvie’s voices was better, but at the same time, Noat also performed a normal song and made some fans. If Alvie’s voice was that of a fairy, then Noat’s was the voice of an angel. Furthermore, it was said she could also produce the voice of a demon, and she became quite popular.

Hayato had work at the cafe, so that was all he knew.

That night, after finishing his work, Hayato logged in again.

He headed to the great hall to check on what had happened with Noat and Shuten Doji.

Another card game tournament was being held in the great hall, but he couldn't see Noat.

"Where’s Noat-san?"

"If you’re looking for Noat, Alvie said she wanted to talk and took her with her," Ney answered while playing Old Maid.

"Huh? Is that okay?"

"I think it’s fine. Alvie seemed to worship Noat. She was calling her Sensei or Shishou."

"How did that happen…"

After that, Lunaria drew the joker from Ney’s hand and got teary-eyed. Then, after one round, Ney drew a card from Rosalie and won. It seemed the final showdown was between Lunaria and Benitsuru, but before he could see the result, Ney approached Hayato.

"I made sure to tell Alvie that Noat is an NPC, but she said she didn’t care. She said that even if she was a program, she learned something important thanks to Noat, so she wanted to treat her as a person. She said it quite excitedly. Personally, I was happy to hear that."

Ney had also once treated Rosalie, whom she thought was an NPC, as a person. Hayato guessed that she was happy because she thought Alvie was the same.

"Then I guess it’s okay."

Alvie had treated Noat normally that morning, so he thought there was no falsehood in her words.

"Their campsite is nearby, so it should be fine. The problem is with Shuten Doji."

"Did something happen?"

"Actually…"

According to Ney, they were having a hard time reducing Shuten Doji’s HP. They couldn't fight all day, of course, so they fought on and off, but in the end, they were only able to shave off about ten percent. At this rate, there was a possibility they wouldn't be able to defeat it before time ran out.

Major clans with considerable combat power in the game had gathered for the Shuten Doji subjugation. If those clans could only reduce its HP by about ten percent after fighting for almost a full day, it would become an unbeatable raid boss.

Diite had said it was a new event, so it was possible there was a balancing mistake, but that same Diite was fidgeting and looking like she wanted to say something to Hayato while playing cards, and she was acting a little strange.

"Could it be that there’s a gimmick to defeat it?"

A gimmick. In other words, a trick. It was highly likely that defeating Shuten Doji required not just brute force, but also disabling some kind of trick.

It seemed Ney and the other major clans had reached the same conclusion, and many clans would be exploring Onigashima tomorrow while fighting Shuten Doji. Keith and Rauxal had come all this way to tell Ney that.

"Also, Jolth from Bandit and Lutz from Starkest came by. Jolth said he’ll come tomorrow morning, and Lutz said he’ll come again today."

"Jolth aside, this is the second time for Lutz-san. I feel kind of bad."

"Well, it’s not like you did it on purpose, so it can’t be helped. Also, Rose and the others have arrived in Azuma. They’re staying at the mansion there tonight and will cross over to this island tomorrow morning."

"They were pretty fast. But that’s a help. We can never have enough materials for weapon and armor maintenance, and with Gil-san and the others here, our combat power will double."

The Ten Dark Knights led by Gil boasted a combat power that rivaled Rosalie’s Ten Black Rose Saints in the Demon Lord’s Army. Although all the clan members were the type to act as tanks, Hayato thought they would be a great asset in the fight against Shuten Doji.

"Also, Lunaria said something interesting about the Demon Lord’s Army."

"Something interesting?"

"Apparently, she called the Demonfolk. But what are the Demonfolk?"

For a moment, Hayato didn't understand what she was saying, but then he remembered. It was something Rosalie had told him when he went to rescue the imprisoned Lunaria in the Demon Lord’s Castle.

The Demonfolk were the members of Lunaria’s clan before she became the Demon Lord, Ambrosia. He had heard they were as strong as Lunaria herself.

"I don’t know the details either, but apparently they were the members of Lunaria-san’s clan. The people who were near Lunaria-san when she fought the dragon Agres during the Stampede event."

"I kind of remember them. I think they were wearing some strong-looking unique items. I see, so Lunaria called the Demonfolk. She was lamenting that only one of them would come when she called, though."

"Is that so… In that case, I’ll have to prepare a room. Is that person a man?"

"No, she said it was a woman. Her name is Xenobia Bayrot. She seems to fight in a martial arts style, like Relic or Agres. She said she’ll arrive tomorrow."

"Xenobia-san, huh. Understood, I’ll prepare a room for a woman. Is there anything else?"

There was no other new information, so Hayato parted with Ney and decided to repair some weapons and armor.

After about an hour, Lutz arrived as scheduled.

Lutz was a small man around Hayato’s age with black hair and black eyes. His equipment was light. He wore brown leather equipment with low defense that would surely get him defeated if he took a powerful hit. However, most of it had effects that increased movement speed.

The clan Starkest aimed to defeat boss monsters solo. Hayato judged that he had completely abandoned defense to specialize in evasion.

"Sorry about this, the timing was off and my greeting is late."

"No, no, I’m the one who should be sorry. Making you come all this way so many times. And thank you. Not just Keith and Rauxal-san, but you too, Lutz-san, are helping us."

"Lutz is fine. You can speak normally too. I’m not good with polite language either."

"Uh, got it. You can call me Hayato too."

Lutz’s mouth turned up slightly at the corners, and he nodded.

"And don’t worry about helping. It’s a request from Jolth, but I was also interested in you, Hayato, or rather, an acquaintance of yours."

"An acquaintance of mine?"

He had a bad feeling about this, but Lutz continued to speak.

"The Hero. Ivan Forcaro. I want to ask, is there any chance Ivan will come to this event?"

"No, I haven’t called him…"

"I see. That’s a shame."

Lutz was clearly disappointed. Hayato thought that perhaps, just as Alvie had been looking for Noat, Lutz was looking for Ivan.

He could contact him, whether he could come or not was another matter, but he thought he should confirm the circumstances first.

"What do you want to do if you meet Ivan?"

Lutz looked thoughtful for a moment, then opened his mouth.

"Are you familiar with the virtual reality fighting sport, Virtual Gladiator, Hayato?"

"Huh?"

Hayato was quite surprised. He hadn't expected the conversation to go from Ivan to Virtual Gladiator. Ivan had been the world champion of that virtual sport a hundred years ago.

Hayato became wary, wondering if he had realized that the NPCs were human. If it became public, there was no telling what people would say. Right now, Ney was acting as the public face of their backer. Even if she was a blood relative of the Foundation, there was a possibility that the same Foundation would do something to them.

Unaware of Hayato’s sense of crisis, Lutz continued.

"It’s been on the decline recently, but it was apparently very popular about a hundred years ago when entertainment was scarce due to resource depletion. It seems it was rare for people to go outside back then, and they mostly stayed at home."

"I learned about that in school, but I don’t know much about Virtual Gladiator itself. Does it have something to do with Ivan?"

"The name of the person who became the world champion during its golden age was Ivan Forcaro. I can’t believe it’s a coincidence that they have the same name."

Hayato’s wariness increased. He decided that Lutz knew and began to think about what he should do.

"I think the Hero is an NPC created based on Ivan’s combat patterns."

"…Huh?"

"I like fighting sports, and I often watch videos of old martial arts, but my favorite is Virtual Gladiator, with its flashy moves. I’ve watched it so many times I could burn a hole through the screen, and I’d say Ivan’s moves are my ideal."

"Oh, oh, I see."

"If the Hero was created in the image of the Ivan from that time, I would love to have a match with him. Even if he wasn’t, he’s still the Hero, so I want to fight him anyway."

Hayato was a little let down. It was true that you would need more information to come to the conclusion that he was the real person. He was relieved that Lutz’s guess was the most logical one, given the information he had.

"I understand the general situation."

"I’m not asking you to call him here. I just want you to contact me if he happens to be nearby. What do you think?"

Hayato thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Got it. I’ll contact you if he comes nearby."

"Really!?"

"But you’ll have to negotiate the match yourself, Lutz. I’ll tell Ivan that you have such a request, at least."

"That’s enough. If you need some kind of reward, I’ll prepare that too, so please let him know."

When Hayato agreed, Lutz thanked him and went home.

After Lutz was out of sight, Hayato returned to the mansion.

Thinking that players had their own feelings about NPCs, he headed to the great hall to share what he had learned with the members who knew the truth.