by Blitz Kiva
As Sera had said, the monsters King Kirihito was beating were just mindless things created by the program.
“I was thinking of completing the Grand Quest myself,” Sera said, looking back at the screen. On the screen was the site vsoku@VRMMO Aggregate Blog, the affiliate site run by that Matsunaga guy. “But at the end of the day, this stupid thing isn’t going to make me strong. Not really.”
“Kiryu...” Asuha saw the self-loathing in Sera’s expression. She wanted to shout, “That’s not true!” but she bit her tongue. She knew that would be an irresponsible thing to say, a pathetic show of kindness to set her own heart at ease.
“Tsuwabuki.” Sera broke away from the screen again to look back at Asuha.
“Wh-What?”
“Um, the old man. Ichiro Tsuwabuki...”
“Yeah?”
“Is he your brother?” Sera asked.
Asuha was surprised by the question. She had never seen Sera Kiryu express interest in any particular individual before.
“Um, well... He’s my cousin. My second cousin, actually. My grandfather is Itchy’s grandfather’s younger brother.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who talks to their second cousin,” Sera said.
“I guess most people don’t.”
“Do you have a big family, Tsuwabuki?” Sera asked.
It was less a big family, Asuha thought, and more a strongly-connected one. She didn’t know how other families did things, but theirs met up at their great-grandfather’s house in Kyushu every year to celebrate the New Year. No matter how busy they were, even if they were halfway around the world, every one of them came together for a New Year’s banquet with about 50 people. Her friends never failed to be surprised when she told them about that.
“He seemed like a pretty amazing guy,” Sera commented.
“Yeah, Itchy’s really amazing.” Hearing what felt like praise for her beloved second cousin raised Asuha’s spirits a bit, and she immediately launched into a paean for him.
She began with Ichiro being the heir to the Tsuwabuki Concern, how handsome he was even in real life, and how he was so smart he’d graduated from college at a foreign university by the time he’d been their age. She described how he was a genius at sports, and how he ranked as a top artist in the fields of both art and music.
As she rambled on and on, most people would usually shout, “You’re exaggerating!” But it was all the truth, and Sera listened with great interest.
“I see.” Sera smiled for the first time as Asuha completed her bragging. “Do you love him? Your ‘Itchy’...”
“Huh?” The question so took Asuha by surprise that she couldn’t help but stammer. She knew that it was absurd for her to play dumb. She knew that. He was Ichiro Tsuwabuki.
If it came to love or hate, of course she’d say she loved him, with pride... but for some reason, she was hesitant to admit to it right here and now.
“W-W-Well, um... That’s none of your business, Kiryu!” To hide her sudden and inexplicable reticence, Asuha turned the question back on her friend. “I-I could ask the same of you, anyway! Why are you so interested in Itchy?”
“Hmm...” Sera sat thoughtfully, knees pulled to chest, and finally murmured a soft, “I was just curious,” followed by silence.
It was such a loaded silence that Asuha couldn’t find it in herself to press further. But her friend’s next words were even more unexpected.
“I want to beat him.”
Asuha was stunned. “Kiryu?”
“I think that beating a guy like him would give me a lot of confidence in myself.”
“Even just in the game?” Asuha asked with trepidation. Sera nodded.
“Even just in the game. Maybe all the more because it’s a game...”
Asuha was baffled. She knew how talented and amazing Ichiro was. Even in the game, Ichiro was strong. On top of his quick grasp of game fundamentals, he had his naturally quick reflexes and his pay-to-play resources.
Ichiro had seen King Kirihito’s strength, and still felt certain that he could rise above it. If Asuha were to be completely honest, she couldn’t imagine anyone beating her second cousin, ever. Thus, to say “You can beat him,” would be irresponsible.
But to say “You can’t beat him,” would be cruel. Asuha couldn’t say either.
In the end, she could only say one thing. “Itchy will be at the Grand Quest, too.”
Sera Kiryu’s eyes narrowed in the darkness. “He will?”
“And I think he wants to see you, Kiryu.”
“I see...” A smile appeared on Sera’s face, full of meaning Asuha couldn’t understand.
I don’t get it... Asuha thought frustratedly. Was a fundamental distrust of the game standing in the way of her ability to understand? All she could tell was that Ichiro and King Kirihito were bound up in some mutual agreement.
“I’m gonna go,” Sera announced.
“...Okay,” Asuha muttered, trying not to sound too petulant. But before she left, there was one thing she had to say. The one thing that honestly reflected her true feelings. “When you do come to school, I’ll be waiting.”
“Sure.”
Asuha started for the door, but Sera spoke again, giving her pause.
“Tsuwabuki.”
“What?”
“Thanks for coming. It was good to see you.”
“Sure.” The words lightened Asuha’s heart, even if only a bit.
Kiryu’s mother, who had apparently been waiting outside with her ear pressed to the door, must have realized Asuha was coming and quickly straightened out her appearance.
Asuha bowed to her politely, asked to be excused, and then left Sera Kiryu’s house behind.
“Ichiro-sama, what are you looking at?”
Ichiro was enjoying his post-breakfast leisure time on the sofa with his tablet in hand when Sakurako brought him coffee. He placed the tablet on the table to take up the cup.
“Matsunaga’s blog,” he responded.
“Ohhh...” Sakurako bent over to have a look at the screen.
It was vsoku@VRMMO Aggregate Blog, the affiliate site run by Matsunaga of the Dual Serpents. The blog amassed threads from message boards within the VRMMO and other social networks, and Matsunaga himself wrote articles on his own investigations and in-game events. The most popular posts were the event articles.
Matsunaga had feelers everywhere in the game, and he wrote not just about official developer-sponsored events, but also interplayer scuffles and drama, in interesting and funny ways.
The United Guild was no exception.
Any dedicated player would be interested in an event that featured multiple guilds working with top players to complete a Grand Quest, but on top of the event’s innate interest, Matsunaga was a master of fanning the flames. The outline alone sounded like a plotline straight out of a manga, even if it was Matsunaga himself who had arranged it that way.
“He’s got real talent as a producer,” Ichiro said, sounding rather impressed.
“I agree,” Sakurako said. “Given the way he seized control of the atmosphere at the conference yesterday and guided it to go just the way he wanted.”
“Though it appears that one was just a kagemusha,” Ichiro added. “A political decoy.”
“Really?!” Sakurako asked, startled.
The article Ichiro was reading described the results of the conference. There was no mention of the friction between the players; it just explained how the teams had been divided roughly between an above-ground boss-slaying team and an underground event-triggering team. It seemed most of the Knights’ forces would be focused above-ground, which meant that Stroganoff must have put up quite a fight.
At the end of the article, Matsunaga made a brief mention of King Kirihito, writing that he hadn’t come to the conference, but his words implied a sense of certainty that he would show up at some point during the Grand Quest.
“I hadn’t noticed before, but he’s written quite a lot ab
out King Kirihito in the past, hasn’t he?” Sakurako noted.
She was right: Matsunaga occasionally wrote articles about various legends of King that had sprung up within NaroFan. One story talked about him beating an earlier Grand Boss solo; another about how he had acquired one of the game’s legendary unique weapons.
“Considering the influence that Matsunaga’s blog has, he may even be the originator of King’s ‘legendary’ status,” Ichiro said as he clicked a link to another article about King.
“Do you think there’s a connection between King and Matsunaga?” Sakurako asked.
“I don’t believe so. But Matsunaga seems to want to make sure that people know about King,” Ichiro said.
“Well, he is playing solo in NaroFan,” Sakurako said. “That’s a topic ripe for interest...”
Ichiro had suspected some ulterior motives to Matsunaga’s actions when he had been invited to join the United Guild. Of course, Ichiro didn’t care about those motives — he had taken the invitation because he’d wanted to — but they did seem to have something to do with King Kirihito. It was as if Matsunaga was trying to author a storyline for the world of the VRMMO.
A producer, indeed... Perhaps that was why he had his guild play the role of the villain.
“Really, everyone does enjoy the game in their own way,” Ichiro said with a beaming smile.
“How do you enjoy it, Ichiro-sama?” Sakurako asked.
“Me?” Ichiro brought his coffee to his lips, breathed, and set the cup down. “I believe you know, don’t you?”
“Well, yes, I believe that I do,” she admitted, “but...”
Ichiro closed his eyes and replayed the elegant flow of King Kirihito’s swordplay in his mind. To be honest, he was shaken. Such a thing existing, even within the bounds of a game, completely exceeded his imagination. This was what kept the world interesting: the way it occasionally produced things that far exceeded his expectations.
When Ichiro saw something that moved him profoundly in this way, he had a bad habit of wanting to surpass it. Of course, this only applied when the act lined up with his own inclinations, but the “strength” that King possessed was a barometer that Ichiro found indispensable to his being.
Any accusations of immaturity he might receive for feeling this way were mere nonsense. If anyone thought it was petty for Ichiro to use everything he had against King Kirihito, they were merely underestimating King Kirihito’s capability. To Ichiro, King Kirihito — Sera Kiryu — was unquestionably worth fighting on equal terms. At least, within the world of the game.
“Sakurako-san, are you going to log in today?” he asked.
“Hmm. I’m not terribly interested in participating in the quest,” she answered. “Ichiro-sama, you’re in the dungeon-crawling team, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I could come accompany you if you want... Though my level may be a bit too low. I think I’ll wait until after all my housework is done to log in.”
“Hmmm... very well.” Ichiro stood up and headed for the Miraive Gear Cocoon he had set up in the game room.
“Are you preparing to log in?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Good travels, then,” Sakurako said, in the manner of one sending a warrior off to battle.
But Ichiro’s manner was as cool as ever. He merely held up a hand and said, “Mm.”
Members of the Dual Serpents made up the lion’s share of the dungeon crawl team that Ichiro would be joining, along with the Anthromorph Thief Amesho and the Mage Gorgonzola of the Knights.
Their destination, the Forgotten Catacombs, was swarming with Zombie Legions and many other powerful monsters, but Matsunaga had come up with a rather cheap trick to expedite their journey.
It was based on an exploit of the game’s AI. When the number of players on a map surpassed a certain limit, the AI would adjust the quality of the graphics and the frequency of mob spawns to keep the server from getting overloaded. Since the Forgotten Catacombs was a single map with no transitions, sending a large enough number of players into it at once would force the system to throttle their encounters.
Matsunaga had asked Amesho, who had a great many friends, to supply this large number of players, spamming the dungeon to further guarantee the success of the main team. It seemed the rumors of Amesho having 2,000 friends was not at all exaggerated, as nearly 500 of them, all of them elite players (and all of them male) flooded into the dungeon at the catgirl’s call. Having the monster spawn rate so decreased would greatly simplify their quest through the dungeon.
“I hate the choppiness...” Amesho said, waving her arm around.
Ichiro agreed. “I hear the Thistle Corporation’s servers and system-regulating supercomputer are quite excellent, but still...”
“It’s like an F5 attack... It’s not gonna take down the server, is it?” Amesho asked.
“I doubt it.” Ichiro had determined that the server load wasn’t that extreme just yet.
His Cocoon-type Miraive Gear’s 200 teraFLOP image processor was 25 times more powerful than that of the consumer-grade Miraive Gear X. It was on the level of supercomputers in the old days. Combined with the excellent network of Tsuwabuki Estates, it was keeping his movements as smooth as ever. He perceived almost no degradation in experience quality; the power of money at play once more.
“Oh, that’s right. I haven’t friended you yet.” Amesho opened her menu window and sent a friend request without hesitation.
“You really have no scruples, do you?” Ichiro asked.
“You don’t wanna be my friend, Tsuwabuki?” Amesho asked.
She was quite short. She had set her height just shorter than the lowest possible height allowed for male avatars so that there was no male avatar that she couldn’t look at with upturned eyes. She did this with Ichiro now.
So this is how she has so many friends, Ichiro thought, a piece clicking into place. Sakurako had told him about this. In online games, female players could use their gender as a weapon to more easily acquire items and experience.
“Well, I don’t mind.” Ichiro could see no reason to refuse, so he accepted the friend request.
“Yay! Tsuwabuki is my 3,000th friend!” she exclaimed.
“And you are my fourth.” Ichiro called up the in-game browser and opened Matsunaga’s blog.
The most recent update had been thirty minutes ago. It provided the number of players participating in the plan, a detailed timetable, and at the end, links to videos and past articles.
Matsunaga didn’t outright say that last-minute participants were welcome, but knowing him, he had probably done it to encourage rubberneckers.
“Oh, hello, everyone. How are you?” a flippant voice rang out. Matsunaga himself had just logged in.
“Matsunaga, there are way too many people!” Amesho exclaimed. “Is it all choppy for you, too?”
“I’ve overclocked my image card,” Matsunaga replied, “but even without that, the X’s double-precision floating point can run at eight teras. Unless your network connection is miserable, there should be no fatal drop in performance.”
“Hmm...” Amesho murmured.
Anyone who had bought a Miraive Gear would probably have at least a decent network connection, but those with an already strained network connection — perhaps a public setting — might see lag.
“If you’re really worried, open config and reduce your graphics quality,” Matsunaga said.
“Hmm... naw, thanks. I guess I’ve gotta just deal with it.”
“Would you prefer us to avoid attack magic with flashy visuals?” asked an Elf man clad in an all-concealing indigo robe, approaching them.
It was “Demon” Gorgonzola. He was the Knights’ greatest Mage, and in keeping with his celebrity reputation, he had many attack spell Arts with impressive visuals. Bringing out a series of those in their present environment would certainly put a major burden on the server.
“Ahh, good point,” Matsunaga said. “Per
haps we should let Mr. Tsuwabuki and Miss Amesho, who can deal with mobs in more mundane ways, handle most of it.”
Ichiro just shrugged. He had spells with flashy visuals and sword techniques like Strash, but he could also bulldoze enemies with his brute stats alone, and he also had the Monetary Blade Breaker skill he had worked out the day before. He certainly could fight in ways that wouldn’t burden the server.
Ichiro looked around. Nearly all of the main dungeon crawl force was in place. Most of them were from the Dual Serpents, but the Knights had sent some Scouts and a handful of front-line fighters. It was looking about time to head out.
“Um... Itchy, are you here?” a hesitant voice leaked out.
The group turned in unison to look at the source of it.
“Hey, Felicia,” Ichiro said.
“Ah, Itchy...”
“And Kirihito,” Ichiro added.
It wasn’t King; Kirihito (Leader) of the Kirihitters had accompanied Felicia. As an intermediate-level player, she would have needed him to escort her into a dungeon in the middle of the Necrolands.
When she had thanked him for walking her there, he merely said “We are friends, aren’t we?” and left. Of course, for friends, they weren’t even on each other’s friends lists, but she wasn’t about to comment on that.
“Um, Itchy. I went there today,” she began. She didn’t specify where she had been, but Ichiro understood immediately. She meant Sera Kiryu’s house.
“Hm, so? How did it go?” he asked.
“I don’t know...” she admitted, truthfully. “So I still don’t know what to do. And I know you’ll both just do whatever you want...”
As Felicia pouted, Matsunaga, who had been watching from afar, chose this moment to speak up. “Will you be joining us, Miss Felicia?” he asked.
The question came as a surprise to everyone present. Felicia was the lowest level of the assembled players by a wide margin. She wasn’t specialized for dungeon exploration, and it was clear that bringing her along would be nothing but a burden to them.
