kscans

Chapter 96 - Father

After serving Ash and the others a simple meal, Hayato returned to his room and contacted Diite via voice chat.

He wanted to ask for information regarding the Fire Dragon Eddy Owl. This dragon was a monster, but its thought process was human. It wasn't controlled by the simple, generic AI used for common monsters. It could change its fighting style at will.

The Fire Dragon was a non-flying type, but if it were capable of flying to a great height, it could potentially attack unopposed from outside a player's range.

Various restrictions were likely in place to prevent such a scenario, but Diite, who could adjust those settings, was currently unable to interfere with the event's content.

Ash's plan was to defeat the dragon before it entered its Flame Form, which Hayato thought was a good idea. However, even if it succeeded the first time, if there were subsequent battles, they would be doomed if it started the fight in its Flame Form from the get-go. As things stood, if it used its Flame Form, they had almost no chance of winning.

For that reason, Hayato was trying to get information about the Fire Dragon Eddy Owl from Diite. He also wanted to consult with her about whether it was alright to use such a strategy.

It was like asking the virtual reality's administrator for spoilers, but given the circumstances, he felt he couldn't afford to be picky. With that in mind, Hayato waited for Diite's reply.

Diite responded almost immediately.

"Hello, Hayato-kun. It seems you've been working hard on the reconstruction of the Royal and Imperial Capitals."

"The contribution points for reconstruction are pretty high, so it's been a big help. Even though I'm closing the cafe in the mornings, I'm probably earning about a thousand G an hour."

It was a sad truth that he sometimes earned more than his cafe's total daily sales, but Hayato swore to himself he would never say that aloud for the sake of his honor.

"That's wonderful. Why don't you just open a cafe in the virtual reality? I, for one, would welcome you at any time."

"You say you won't be pushy, but you keep bringing it up, don't you? You still haven't given up?"

"Being turned down once or twice is no reason to give up. I won't force you to be trapped in the virtual reality, but if you were to come willingly, I would have no reason to refuse. Of course, if you're not interested, then that's that, but should you change your mind, just let me know anytime."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, about something a little more serious..."

Hayato told Diite about the strategy for dealing with the Fire Dragon.

It was simply to confirm whether there would be any problems with using such a method. In particular, he wanted to avoid a disastrous situation in any subsequent battles.

Furthermore, this strategy was something only Cecil could pull off. In other words, it was a method that players alone could not achieve. While things like equipping multiple weapons were being considered for early implementation, an event that could only be cleared by an NPC might cause backlash from the players.

He consulted Diite, including these concerns in his explanation.

Diite listened to Hayato with simple nods, and after Hayato finished his explanation, she replied, "I see."

"First, there is no problem with defeating the Fire Dragon using that strategy. Even if you defeat it once, it will reappear after a certain period, but it will not start the second battle in its Flame Form."

"May I ask why?"

"To put it simply, it cannot be activated unless its HP is at one-third or less. So, even if the person controlling it wants to use it, they can't. You can rest assured. They may come up with some other countermeasure, but starting in Flame Form is impossible."

"So that's how it works? But isn't this event's difficulty a little high? You have to use attribute attacks after getting its HP down to one-third, but if normal firepower can't push through, isn't that an incredible level of difficulty?"

Hayato had recently heard that no one had yet succeeded in defending against this Stampede event. In other words, they had never once repelled a hardline dragon.

Since players received contribution points even without defeating them, there didn't seem to be many complaints, but after nearly half a year of being unable to win, it was rumored to be an impossible event.

"The difficulty is certainly high. However, the Fire Dragon Eddy Owl was never supposed to be a dragon that attacked the Imperial Capital in the first place."

"Eh?"

"The dragon that was supposed to cause a Stampede in the Imperial Capital was the Tyrant Dragon Agres Berion. He is immune to all attribute attacks but weak to physical attacks. And in the Imperial Capital, you have Cecil-kun and other powerful NPCs, most of whom are physical attackers. It shouldn't have been difficult to defeat him by cooperating with the NPCs. Or so it should have been."

"Is this because the dragons are ignoring the affiliation regions you mentioned before, raising the difficulty?"

"Exactly. The countries the dragons were scheduled to rampage in were designed so that the NPCs of those countries would have an advantage. There was a story where they were able to repel the dragons because of that. But since that's being ignored, the difficulty has risen."

"Could it be that the other Stampedes are in a similar situation?"

"You catch on quick. In the current situation, if the dragons were to use their true power, the NPCs of that country would be almost useless. That means the players have to defeat them on their own. However, Stampedes don't happen on a set day like Clan Wars. Originally, it was completely random, but now, you could say they're targeting times when there are fewer players."

"Huh? I know the dragons are controlled by humans, but is it really possible for them to target times when there are fewer players?"

The people inside the hardline dragons were indeed human, but their reality was only this virtual reality. It seemed impossible to Hayato that they could target times when there were fewer players logging in from the real world.

"It is possible, I suppose."

For some reason, Diite's response was hesitant. Hayato felt as if she were hiding something.

"Are you hiding something? Is it something you can't even tell me?"

This event had various problems. Since Diite had asked for his help, Hayato intended to help her even if she was keeping secrets. But if he was being told that losing the event could mean he could no longer play in the virtual reality, he wanted to know as much information as possible.

He wouldn't pry into private matters, like what happened with Ash's mother, but if it concerned game settings or potential problems, he thought they should share that information.

"Diite-chan."

When Hayato called her name, Diite said, "Alright, I'll explain."

"You know that in the Clan War before last, I gave rewards powerful enough to alter the system to the top-ranking participants, correct?"

"Of course. You're talking about Esha's skill cap removal and Cecil's equipment, right? But what does that have to do with anything?"

"I'd like to explain in order, so please listen first. And I granted all of their requests. Of course, I gave them risks and demerits to match."

Hayato knew that too. He had just heard that Esha's and Cecil's rewards came with corresponding risks.

"Naturally, I also gave a reward to Ash-kun and the others. At the time, they belonged to a clan called 'Dragon Soul.' Their wish was to be able to transform into dragons. The demerit was that half of the clan members would become hostile to each other. That was because they would lose their real-world memories."

"So that's how it was? But how did Ash and the others agree to such a demerit? They were comrades, weren't they?"

"Becoming hostile doesn't mean they'd try to kill each other. It was just a conflict in the form of fighting over the clan name, Dragon Soul. It's not like they'd hate each other. You could call it more of a rivalry. Though, in the settings, I did divide them into a hardline faction and a moderate faction."

"For that, Ash seems to really hate his father, though."

"You've noticed a good point. Actually, besides the wish to become dragons, there is someone else whose wish I granted. I accepted that wish. He is being affected by that demerit."

"...May I ask who that is?"

"We should share information. The one whose wish I granted is Veru Brandle-kun. In exchange for that wish, he is now disliked by Ash-kun. In addition to that, there is a restriction that he cannot tell anyone about that wish."

"That's quite something... So, can I ask about that wish as well?"

"Of course. To put it simply, he retains his real-world memories."

"...Eh?"

"Veru-kun's wish was to not forget his real-world memories. You could say he is logged into this virtual reality while still possessing his real-world memories. Unlike Esha-kun, he cannot log out even with his memories."

At that time, it was an era of resource depletion. Hayato had heard that many people were in despair about their lives. That's why they chose to forget reality and live only in the virtual world. Those are the NPCs of today.

But Veru, Ash and Ren's father, is living only in the virtual reality without having lost his memories. Hayato couldn't understand the reason.

"What's the reason?"

"He was probably worried about Ash-kun and Ren-kun. The two of them, no, Ren-kun wanted to remain in this virtual reality, and Ash-kun agreed. I don't know what Veru-kun thought, but he probably couldn't bring himself to return to reality alone, leaving the two of them behind. Even if the settings made them hostile, he remained in this virtual reality with his real-world memories to continue protecting them. I haven't actually asked him, but that's what I believe."

"You know, I don't want to say this, but Diite-chan, isn't that cruel? He's such a good father, yet you not only made them hostile, but you also set it up so Ash would hate him. Couldn't you have used a different demerit?"

"That's a painful thing to hear, but at the time, my emotion program was still incomplete. Back then, Ash-kun and Veru-kun were in the same clan, but they fought quite frequently. Thinking back on it now, it wasn't a fight. Ash-kun was probably trying to light a fire under the listless Veru-kun. Without realizing that, I just thought there was some kind of discord between parent and child, so I figured, well, it should be fine."

"If you put it that way, I can't really say anything."

Diite's 'back then' was a hundred years ago. It could be inferred that Diite, being an AI, was also just born around that time and was still incomplete. Even humans cannot completely understand others. It could be said that it was impossible for the Diite of that time to see through such complex human relationships.

"Well, this has gotten long, but the reason the dragons can target times when there are fewer players is likely because of Veru-kun. The Stampede settings prevent them from occurring between 1:00 AM and 7:00 AM, but recently, they've been happening close to those times, or during the day when there are fewer working adults online. Furthermore, I checked the occurrence times of the Stampedes over the past six months, and it seems they've been spreading them out evenly across all time zones. They were probably investigating over the past six months to find out which time zones have the fewest players."

Hayato sighed inwardly. Veru possessed his real-world memories. He was using that knowledge to try and win the Stampede event. He would undoubtedly be a formidable enemy.

However, there was something Hayato found questionable.

"Why is Veru-san trying so hard to win this event? From what you've said, Diite-chan, even if Ash dislikes him, Veru-san still cares for them, right?"

"That's the issue. I'm currently investigating that myself. I'm reviewing all the past logs and everything else. I can't change the settings, but if I understand the circumstances, I might be able to negotiate. That's why I won't be able to help you and your friends for a while. However, I will provide you with as much information as you need, so if anything comes up, please ask me right away."

"I understand. In that case, if you find anything out, please let me know right away too."

After receiving an affirmative reply from Diite, the voice chat disconnected. She had probably resumed her investigation.

I was just going to ask about the Fire Dragon, but all sorts of information came out. I can't tell Ash or Ren-chan about Veru-san, so I guess I'll consult with Esha. Still, this event has turned into quite a complicated affair.

With that thought, Hayato left his room and headed for the dining hall.