by Sakon Kaidou
“Phantasmal Raing—”
Before she could go through with it, the DGP made its move.
Just like before, it moved at a speed great enough to leave afterimages and charged towards a Master a short distance away — in this case, Ray.
“Ray!” both Marie and Rook shouted as DGP quickly closed in on him.
In a sense, this turn of events was only obvious. Franklin wanted to crush Ray more than anyone else on the scene, so there was nothing surprising about DGP following its owner’s will.
“Wait— kh!” Marie tried to go after it, but she was then surrounded by a number of AGI-focused Suicide Series.
“Mh...”
Ray silently watched as DGP stormed towards him, and it was hard to tell whether it was because his mind was still hazy or because he knew exactly what he had to do.
He sighed.
“Ray...?” Nemesis spoke as he brandished her.
Ray was already aware that he had no means of escape. He wasn’t riding Silver, and even if he was, he still wouldn’t have the speed to avoid the upcoming attack.
Thus, he knew that he was about to experience his second death in Infinite Dendrogram.
However, he intended to do something before leaving the scene. Specifically, he wanted to land a counterattack at the same moment he was damaged.
Even if the attack instantly killed him, he thought he could hit it with a single Vengeance before dying, which could maybe help turn the situation around.
As such thoughts went through his mind, Nemesis read them and prepared for what was to come.
“Very well,” she said.
She would do all in her power to activate the skill at the right moment.
As the two readied themselves, DGP arrived at just a few metels away from him. It opened its maw, determined to erase the enemy of its creator.
“Bring it!” Ray shouted.
Everyone was watching that moment.
Marie watched it.
Rook watched it.
Kasumi, Io, and Fujinon watched it.
The ten surviving Masters watched it.
Liliana watched it.
Sir Lindos watched it.
The Royal Guard watched it.
The people of Gideon watched it.
The people of the capital watched it.
Figaro and Xunyu, now free from the barrier, watched it.
Franklin watched it.
Ray faced the deathly jaws opening before him, fully prepared to do what he needed to do before he died.
Nemesis, too, faced the enemy, ready to fulfill her Master’s wish, even if it would cost him his life.
Everyone watched it... and yet no one saw it.
No one saw the moment that man appeared before Ray.
“Save your desperate counters fur a cooler sceeene, goofus!” the man called.
“Eh?” Ray muttered a voice of confusion, and he certainly wasn’t alone in that regard.
As if some frames were skipped, the man appeared as though he had always been there.
He was clad in furs, which definitely made him look odd. The upper part of his head was covered by the pelt of a bear, which extended to his back and flowed like a cape. He was tall, and though he had no upper clothing, his exposed muscles looked much like pure steel. Black pants reminiscent of a hakama covered his legs, and their texture seemed to be the same as that of the fur on his head.
For reasons unknown, his right leg was raised towards the sky.
From the fact that he had no trouble keeping the pose up, it was safe to assume that he’d had his share of physical training.
“Bro, this is the kind of stuff you pull when you know you’ll survive and kill the enemy,” he said with his leg still raised to the sky. “Doing this only to damage them and die regardless of whether you succeed is just... beary lacking. All right, all right, I’ll drop the puns for now.”
The man’s appearance and words were strange enough, but there was something even more weird about the sight.
The dinosaur was gone.
DGP, the monster that had been about to consume Ray, had completely disappeared the moment the man in the furs had shown up.
“...Nooo wayyy,” muttered Marie.
She, along with a few other Masters, had noticed what was happening here. They were all looking towards the sky — towards DGP, hurtling off several hundred metels in the air. Those with good eyesight could see that its head was completely shattered and that it was slowly turning into particles of light.
From the dinosaur’s sorry state and the man’s right leg — still raised in a kicking position — the onlookers assumed two things.
The man had just kicked a monster weighing at least ten tons up into the sky, and he had destroyed the beast in just a single kick, ignoring the Dragon King Aura and its immense HP.
“Hmm, that lizard had some decent weight,” the man said.
“...Ah.”
Upon seeing the manner in which the man lowered his leg and looking at the lower, unhidden part of his face, Ray realized that it was someone he knew very well.
“Well, you went and overdid it, as usual, but you’re still alive, so it’s all good.” Upon saying that, the man gently patted Ray on the head. “Kept you waiting, huh?”
“...So you came,” Ray said.
“Hey, I told you I would, didn’t I?” After taking his hand away, the man in the furs reached into the bag at his side, his inventory, and took something out. It was a ring called “Voice Amplification Ring” — a name that said it all. “Uhh... Test, test. You hearing this, Franklin?”
“...Uh, Yeah, I am...” Franklin said.
“All right, that’s good. I’ll just make a little proclamation, then.”
“...A proclamation?”
“You made a really big mistake in this game of yours,” said the pelt-clad man before pausing for a second. “You messed with my little brother.”
Though only a few could understand what he was talking about, everyone on the scene and even those just watching the broadcast could feel the intensity of the fighting spirit in those words.
“So yeah... Franklin. Here’s how it’s gonna go,” the man said. “I — The King of Destruction — am gonna obliterate every single one of your precious monsters.”
Shu Starling made his will known.
Thus began the night’s final battle.
The wielder of the imperium’s most numerous force — Mr. Franklin.
The wielder of the kingdom’s most powerful force — Shu Starling.
Quantity vs quality.
Giga Professor vs. King of Destruction.
Superior vs. Superior.
In a great act of irony, that evening’s main event had been replaced by something fundamentally identical.
The Clash of the Superiors.
Chapter Four: King of Destruction, Shu Starling
???
Shu Starling, the King of Destruction, was one of the kingdom’s four Superiors, and he’d reigned at the top of the country’s kill rankings for over two years of Infinite Dendrogram time.
His name was known to few, but his many deeds were spoken of far and wide.
These were such things as the defeat of the Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria; the Corpse Stronghold incident in the Southern Sea; the Kim-un-kamuy incident in Tenchi; the disappearance of an entire mountain range in Caldina, attributed to his battle against The Earth; and the crashing of the Unidentified Flying Stronghold, Laputa, which was one of Huang He’s Superior Embryos.
Though he’d gained a reputation as the central figure in those and countless other such events, there was next to no information about him.
His appearance was as much of a mystery as his name, and many argued that his avatar wasn’t actually human. Witnesses described him as “white,” “black,” “always looking different,” or “soft and fluffy,” and though it turned out those rumors weren’t wrong, there was no denying the vagueness of them.
However, there
were two specific pieces of info most thought to be highly accurate.
One was the idea that he held a Superior Job from the crasher grouping. Its stat growth focused entirely on STR, and its specialty was the breaking of material defenses in events such as castle sieges. Alas, that job grouping’s AGI and END was very low, making it unsuitable for vanguard roles.
But the King of Destruction, Shu Starling, was...
◇◆◇
Jeand Grasslands
The sight was much like a scene from a decade-old action manga.
The man kicked a monster. The sad creature was pulverized and sent flying towards other monsters, all of which shattered upon impact.
Another monster came from behind the man.
Before the monster realized it, the man had placed his fist right below its neck and thrown it upwards for an uppercut, launching the unfortunate creature to the stars.
In less than a minute, more than 300 monsters had been completely shattered — no, destroyed.
And it was all done by one man: the King of Destruction.
“You’ve gotta be shittin’ me...” Franklin muttered in disbelief, and he was fully justified in doing so.
After all, the hundreds of monsters the man was sweeping up definitely weren’t just cannon fodder. They were all Demi-Dragon-tier, and therefore monsters strong enough to match battle-focused high-rank jobs. In fact, their relentless nature and lack of concern for their own lives made them even stronger than a usual Demi-Dragon.
And yet, they could do nothing to stop this man.
The man began to run, pulverizing a monster.
He casually swung an arm, making another monster explode.
Another monster dropped dead by simply grazing one of his fingers.
Countless monsters were destroyed as though they were more frail than papier-mâché.
Now, Franklin would have been fully willing to accept and understand the scene if the man had been using a skill that did something along the lines of “Destroys what you touch.”
But there was simply no such thing.
The man wasn’t using a single skill.
The King of Destruction was able to create the scene simply because he was strong.
“Hhhhh...” Franklin sighed, impressed to the point of speechless shock. After all, he was the one who knew the reasons behind the ridiculous feats better than anyone else on the scene. Franklin’s right eye was shining blue, emitting an aura of knowledge and understanding.
All high-rank and Superior Jobs had ultimate and unique skills, and Franklin’s Giga Professor was no exception. One such skill was “The Analyzing Eye of Wisdom.”
It allowed him to find out the target’s stats, skills, growth, status effects, and materials dropped by simply looking at them long enough. Even skills such as Conceal or Disguise meant little against that skill.
Skill explanations would be shrouded in a mist that slowly faded, while stat points would start at 0 and gradually rise at a pace of about 2,000 per second until they arrived at the correct number.
For example, he had seen all the stats of Marie — the stealth-focused Death Shadow — in only about 10 seconds of looking.
Franklin was now using it on that man, and he just didn’t know what to make of what he saw.
The King of Destruction job level was 1,080, while his STR had already exceeded 100,000 and still continued to rise.
“Man, what the actual fuck?” he burst out.
The stats seen by The Analyzing Eye of Wisdom stopped rising upon reaching the right number, meaning that the man’s STR easily surpassed 100,000. Considering that some stat-focused Superior Jobs had a hard time breaking 10,000, that number was nothing if not ludicrous. Sure, the number included Embryo and equipment bonuses, but that did little to soften his astonishment.
The Analyzing Eye of Wisdom also displayed any skills the target used.
They appeared as momentary, flashing pop-ups, and Franklin had yet to see any of them since the King of Destruction had entered the scene, effectively proving that the man was merely destroying the monsters with nothing but pure power.
All the destruction here was caused by simple standard attacks.
“When it comes to STR alone, he might be a match for the King of Beasts,” Franklin muttered, comparing the man to the strongest Master he knew.
The King of Destruction might actually be the Master with the greatest STR.
But that was with STR alone. The rest of the stats weren’t high. And it wasn’t like they merely seemed low because of the towering, six-digit STR. All of the other stats besides it and the five-digit HP were in the four-digit range.
In fact, his AGI was just barely over 1,000. There was simply no balance in these stats.
The go-to path for vanguard roles was to focus on either AGI, so that they could move at supersonic speeds, or END, in order to bear many attacks. A standard Superior Job like that would have at least 5,000 of one or the other, but the King of Destruction was different.
He had a pure STR build, focusing entirely on STR while discarding all the other stats.
Sure, that gave him a lot of attack power. With all the Embryo and equipment bonuses, he was now doing damage that made him seem more monstrous than the actual monsters.
However, he shouldn’t have been able to survive this fight.
Though the monsters were merely Demi-Dragon-tier, the ones focused on speed had five times more AGI than the King of Destruction did. A STR build like him should’ve been showered by attacks from the AGI monsters, and he should’ve lost his HP until it was all gone.
One such monster attempted to bite into the man’s neck from one of his blind spots, only to be shattered by a fist that was placed right before its eyes.
“This makes no sense,” muttered Franklin. The scene seemed to both match the stats and completely betray them.
Most of the onlookers likely thought that the King of Destruction was just strong. Franklin, however, could see the stats, notice the inconsistency, and realize that it wasn’t caused by some skill.
Thus, he came across the answer... but he couldn’t comprehend it at all.
There was no other possible explanation for the scene, but it seemed like a part of some joke.
After all...
“Am I seriously supposed to believe he’s using fighting skills he brought from reality?”
◇◇◇
Central arena, the stage
“‘If the enemy is ten times faster, you just read ten moves ahead,’” Figaro quoted.
“What thE hell?”
“Apparently, he reads their movements and places his attacks at points where they can’t change their trajectory.”
“Huhhh...? What tHe hELl?”
It was the central arena, the location of what was supposed to have been the night’s main event, the Clash of the Superiors. Two Masters were standing on its stage and watching the broadcast above.
One was the Over Gladiator, Figaro, while the other was the Master Jiangshi, Xunyu.
They were the stars of the Clash of the Superiors and the ones who Franklin had locked up in the time-stopping barrier. Now, after being released, the two were just standing and watching the second Clash.
Of course, the other Masters in the arena — especially those who’d tried to save them — wanted the two to join the battle outside. However, Figaro showed no interest in participating in an ongoing battle, while Xunyu seemed to have entered spectator mode. Getting them to fight was hopeless at this point.
Being the greatest players of all, Superiors were often the most troublesome and stubborn of eccentrics. Upon realizing that, the rest of the Masters reluctantly gave up on getting their help and headed out to battle themselves.
They assumed the Superiors would move the moment the arena or the tians inside it were endangered, and they weren’t wrong on that front. Still, there was no denying that the two Superiors’ casual chat didn’t seem to fit the situation.
“How
did yoU even get to knOW that?” asked Xunyu.
“We had a fight after he became King of Destruction,” said Figaro. “That was when I asked him how he could guard against my attacks when I have so much more AGI than him, and that was his answer.”
“Oh yeah, thE bear deflected my attAcks, too...” Xunyu remembered. “But is it even pOssible to read ten movES ahead?”
“It’s possible for him, it seems. He said he’s ‘dabbled’ in martial arts in the past.”
“Whoa, that’s prEtty cool. Maybe I should pick martiAL arts when I’m in juniOR high... Though, wAit, I think thAt was an oPTion for bOYs only.”
“Even if you can’t take classes, you can find gyms or dojos in most sufficiently civilized towns,” Figaro said.
“Or maybe I cAN find some crazy mArtial arts in some seclUded place or soMEthing. That’s hOw it goes here, anYway.”
“Oh, you mean that one Superior Job discovered in Huang He? ‘The Arts,’ was it? I always thought that the ‘The One’ series of jobs was limited to weapon types and magic elements, so I was pretty surprised to find out that there was one for bare fists.”
“Man, how did thAT guy even clear those cONditions?!” Xunyu added. “He’s not okAy in the head! The bEar gives him a run fOR his money, thOugh! They’re both MAdmen!”
“Shu’s a friend of mine, but I can’t deny that.”
Despite fighting each other in an intense, deadly battle just a mere hour ago, Figaro and Xunyu were now watching the show at Jeand Grasslands and talking like good friends.
Many delinquents of the past had believed that anyone who went all out against each other would become pals, and though that wasn’t quite true, duel rankers seemed to have something similar. After all, their current interaction made them look like the best of buddies.
“Anyway, wasn’t he in a beAR costume?” asked Xunyu. “What’s with that appEarance? He’s still a bear, bUT still.”
“It’s a convertible piece of equipment,” answered Figaro. “It’s presented as an Ancient Legendary ‘Suit,’ but it’s actually a Mythical ‘Godcloth.’ You know how there are bosses that basically go, ‘This isn’t even my final form’ and transform? They drop these convertibles every now and then.”
“...I’ve nevEr met any of these retrO RPG demon loRds.”
