kscans

Chapter 43 - The Goddess and Sadaharu

A space where everything was pure white, with no walls or ceiling.

This was a space created by the Goddess who had made dungeons appear all over the world.

In such a place, a lone man was watching a monitor floating in the air. The screen he stared at so intently showed Hayate fighting the Fake Hayate.

‘You’re trying too hard to keep your center of gravity at the center of your body. Sure, you can rotate more cleanly that way. But your attacks won’t have any power.’

"I see. He used to rotate cleanly, but now he’s offsetting it to prioritize power."

Listening to Hayate’s explanation, the man typed something on a keyboard that had appeared at his fingertips.

‘Standing still won’t let you block my attacks.’

"I always had the image that rotation was for attacking. It certainly should be used for defense too. And when you defend, you use the enemy’s power to connect to your next attack. Right. Let’s correct the behavior pattern. Eccentric rotation makes the physics calculations more complex, but I can probably manage. Still, Hayate-kun, you’ve gotten way too strong in just over a year."

Though he grumbled, a smile played on his lips.

A new monitor appeared, separate from the one the man was watching, displaying something like a 3D model of the Fake Hayate. When the man input what looked like a program on the keyboard, the Fake Hayate on the screen began to move. Its movements seemed to perfectly replicate Hayate’s attack that had sliced through the Fake Hayate, guard and all, using eccentric rotation.

"Saaadaaaharuuu!"

A busty blonde beauty hugged the man from behind while he was engrossed in his work.

"Hey, Sadaharu. What are you doing?"

"Goddess-sama… You’re heavy."

"Snap! Calling a lady heavy is rude! Besides, I’m not that heavy at all!!"

The beauty said as she pulled away from the man. This blonde beauty was the Goddess who had made the dungeons appear in the world. And the man called Sadaharu was her collaborator, a former human.

He was the one who adjusted all the movements and strengths of the monsters that appeared in the dungeons, which the Goddess then reflected into the real world.

"See, see! I’m floating, so there’s no way I’m heavy!"

The Goddess’s body floated slightly off the ground, just enough so that her long hair, which reached her feet, didn’t touch the floor.

"Your weight might be light, but there was still an impact when you crashed into me."

"That’s different from being heavy!"

"Yes, yes, you’re right. By the way, Goddess-sama, did you need something? I’m a little busy right now."

Sadaharu turned back to the monitor and resumed his work.

"Technically, I am your superior, you know, Sadaharu. So I came to check on your work progress. And I don’t have anything else to do right now."

"…Basically, you were bored and came to hang out."

"Yup!"

Just when he wanted to concentrate, she would come to bother him, saying she was ‘bored.’ The fact that she could say it with a beaming smile was slightly irritating, but it had always been like this, so Sadaharu was used to it. He gave up and decided to handle her while continuing his work.

"I’m currently upgrading the mid-boss of the Spring Dungeon."

"Oh, really? But that thing is already pretty strong, isn’t it?"

"I set that mid-boss up as a lose-event. But it’s already been beaten, and now dozens of parties are clearing the Spring Dungeon. To be honest, I’m not satisfied."

"You’re a sore loser too, aren’t you, Sadaharu. But how are you going to make it stronger? Weren’t you tracing the movements of the kid you originally thought was the strongest?"

Back when FWO was just a game, under the pretext of improving the feel of the manipulator controls, Sadaharu had been allowed to scan Hayate’s movements. From that data, he had established the Fake Hayate’s combat style.

"Yes. His original strength was overwhelming. A little while ago, Hayate-kun fought the mid-boss again, but he and the archer girl defeated it instantly with their teamwork. So I didn’t know how to make it any stronger. But."

Sadaharu pointed at the monitor.

‘Getting blown away means you’re wasting the power the enemy gave you.’

On it, the scene of Hayate instructing the Fake Hayate was playing on a loop.

"Ah, that kid! The monster who beat me to a pulp!!"

"He just re-challenged a dungeon in Thailand a little while ago and taught the mid-boss how to fight."

"What? Wha, why would he do that?"

"I don’t really know why, but that doesn’t matter. What’s important is that I was able to learn the key points of how he moves."

Sadaharu’s eyes were shining.

"It was a simple thing. But I think actually doing it with a human body would be extremely difficult. Hayate-kun really is amazing."

"You know, Sadaharu, you look like you’re having more fun than I’ve ever seen."

"It’s like that feeling when you finally grasp something you’ve been struggling with, all thanks to a small hint. I want to update the mid-boss right away. Can you implement it?"

On the monitor Sadaharu showed the Goddess, a simulation was playing, showing the Fake Hayate using eccentric rotation to cleave a thick metal plate in two.