After the Storm, and Before the Storm (Premium)

by Sakon Kaidou

  Logan’s actions in the war hadn’t been considered a crime because they’d happened in wartime. However, the incident at Quartierlatin had been clearly outside of it, and Logan was now among the kingdom’s wanted.

  That made him a Superior on a wanted list.

  “But what are you guys even planning?” he asked.

  That question was only natural. I.F. was infamous for being a clan made up of only wanted Superiors. Other than that, their nature and goals were a mystery.

  No matter how great the rewards were for joining, Logan couldn’t bring himself to accept without knowing that much.

  Zeta understood that, and so... “Explanation. We aim to...”

  ...she began telling him about their goal.

  ◆

  “That sounds great!” was the first thing Logan said ten minutes later.

  And for the first time in a while, he was genuinely excited.

  “Question. Do you like our goal?” asked Zeta.

  “Yeah. I want in on that, too. And if I’m also getting UBM info, then I have no complaints. Though, hold on a second...”

  Zeta tilted her head, wondering what he’d say.

  “This country has another Superior who’s on a wanted list.”

  Needless to say, that was Franklin. If the mad scientist would also be invited to Illegal Frontier, Logan couldn’t join it.

  However, Zeta shook her head. “Denied. We will not invite Mr. Franklin.”

  “Why? I know I shouldn’t say this, but...” Logan couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence with, “He’s stronger than me now.”

  “Unfit. The person in question could not exhibit his true power with I.F. And more importantly, he is not in gear with us.”

  “Hm...?” Logan couldn’t understand what Zeta meant, but he did understand that Franklin wouldn’t be invited by I.F.

  That left him with no reason to hesitate.

  “All right,” he said. “Then I’ll gladly join the clan... and take the payment, of course.”

  “Reception. Welcome, new member.” They exchanged a handshake.

  “So, when should I leave Dryfe?” Logan asked.

  “Hold. Stay with the country for now. I will contact you when the time is right.”

  “All right... I can’t wait.”

  “Training. Until then, I will provide you with a plan to make you stronger.”

  “All right. I’ll play along. Uhh... Don’t disappoint me.”

  “Certainly. You will have clear results.”

  And so, Logan and Zeta were now on the same side.

  This was the moment when a third faction began tangling itself in the intrigue of the Altarian-Dryfean war.

  Episode Three: Sister

  April 4th, 2045, Reiji Mukudori

  I returned home from college to find something in the mail: the foreign sweets I’d asked my sister to send me.

  It was pretty fast, considering she’d just called two days ago. It was also delivered by a company I never heard of, but that wasn’t that strange — my sister had connections.

  Just to be safe, I looked up the confectioner and product online, and sure enough, got a decent number of search results. After confirming it wasn’t weird in some way, I threw one in my mouth, and it was a proper, delicious sweet.

  Nothing weird happened even after a few minutes post-eating, so I was now completely sure it was safe. A part of me thought I was being too wary of my own sister, but this was necessary. She was the one who’d casually asked me if I wanted to go to the jungle, and then actually taken me there when I’d said yes.

  I still wondered how she’d taken me to South America when I hadn’t even had a passport. Honestly, it felt like I’d just... suddenly found myself flying over a jungle in a small plane, and then...

  “Gh... Thinking about it makes my head hurt.”

  The point was that I’d learned to exercise an appropriate amount of caution when dealing with her. However, I didn’t think that she bore any ill will. Whatever she did with me, she did out of kindness.

  Even that traumatizing trip had probably been nothing more than her taking advantage of her work trip to South America to show her little brother what jungles were like. She certainly hadn’t intended to endanger my life and chastity.

  I still didn’t really know why I had been chased around by Amazons or why the jungle had ended up on fire.

  It was probably a rude thing to think... but my sister was quite abnormal as a living being. That probably affected her standard for me. There was also the fact that her first little brother, Shu, was also quite the superhuman.

  Compared to them, I was pretty normal, so I knew I always had to be cautious with her. I felt that it was an inviolable rule necessary to my survival.

  Still, I wouldn’t forget to send a “thank you” email to her. She scared me like hell, but she was a dear part of my family and not a bad person.

  “I’ve gotta say, these are pretty good,” I muttered. Since they looked really safe so far, I began trying out the sweets for real.

  I’d just had some chou à la crèmes at the college’s café, but these were simple chocolates, so I still had plenty of room for them. College had exhausted my brain more than I’d expected, so my body needed the sugar, too.

  I also hadn’t rested at all in the café because of Miss Eldritch.

  “Speaking of chocolate... there’s Valentine’s Day in Dendro, right?” I murmured.

  Special as it was with its full-dive capabilities, Infinite Dendrogram had planned events, just like any common MMO. Most were based on real seasonal events, such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day. I’d started in the latter half of March, though, so I’d missed both Valentine’s and White Day.

  I had yet to experience any seasonal event, actually. There had been two Valentine’s Day events so far, and I had no idea what they were like.

  “Did Shu and the others participate?” I wondered.

  Shu, Figaro, and Miss Eldritch had been playing since launch, so they must’ve seen a whole bunch of events.

  “I wonder what Valentine’s was like... I’ll have to ask them.”

  Valentine’s Day was associated with love, so it must’ve been a peaceful, sweet time.

  Side Story: Valentine’s Day of 2044

  February 14, 2044

  Figaro logged in to Infinite Dendrogram and was welcomed by his friend saying:

  “Figgy, let’s hop off and hunt for chocolate.”

  His friend was none other than Shu Starling, wearing a two meter-tall animal costume.

  The clumsy inclusion of “hop” was him making a pun, for he was wearing the “Hyper Costume Series, Cyclone Pocket” — a costume he’d gained from an UBM that looked much like a kangaroo.

  He also emphasized his “roo”s and even added them where they didn’t belong.

  Figaro silently looked at him, remembering some of Shu’s previous costumes. He made bear puns when wearing the bear costume, but when wearing the wolf costume, he just threw in the occasional “woof.” How does he decide between puns and animal sounds? he wondered.

  He chose not to ask, though, for there was something more important.

  “‘Hunt’ for chocolate? Not receive it?” Even Figaro understood where this talk about chocolate came from.

  In the real world, it was Valentine’s Day — a special occasion in both Christian and non-religious places. Figaro had already received chocolates in real life.

  Though his inborn heart disease had him bound to his house for medical reasons, he had still received chocolates from his mother, the maids working at his house, and his little brother Keith, for some reason.

  Figaro was sickly, and one of the symptoms of his disease was the spasms that happened every time his heart rate rose above a certain point. Because of it, he couldn’t exercise to lose calories, and the increase in heart rate from overeating could kill him, so he could only enjoy the chocolate he was gifted in small bites.

  Even so, he really a
ppreciated the love they had put into them.

  “Yeah. We’re v-roo-ming through the Valentine’s Event!” Shu shouted.

  “Oh... That’s a thing...?”

  At first, women handing men chocolate on Valentine’s Day had been a Japan-only thing. A certain confectioner had created the practice in the twentieth century.

  In the West, the go-to gifts were flowers and sweets of any kind, and the gender of the giving party was never a question.

  However, by the fourth decade of the twenty-first century, the constant flow of culture had led to the Japanese practice spreading to the West, and being a worldwide VRMMO, Infinite Dendrogram reflected this.

  There were also events for the more local occasions, such as the Japanese Setsubun.

  “This one’s like Halloween and Setsubun,” Shu explained. “Monsters that drop chocolate spawn on the map. You’re supposed to stuff your pouch full of them and exchange them for prizes.”

  “Ah. So it’s not the chocolate that’s the prize?”

  “Yep. You’ve gotta exchange it. Though I hear it’s so tasty, it makes you d-roo-l.”

  “Oh? So you have people who try to eat an exchange item, huh?”

  The event had begun twelve hours ago in real-life time. The seasonal events generally began when the real-life holiday began in the time zone furthest ahead, and ended when it ended in the time zone furthest behind, making it last a total of 48 real life hours.

  That translated to six days in Dendro, which was a standard amount of time for an event.

  Side note: the number of people online had dropped during the Christmas event.

  Those who were online, however, were extremely passionate about it... but it was best to not ask for the reason.

  “I get that it’s a hunt, but why are you asking me?” asked Figaro.

  You know I can’t handle myself properly when I’m not solo, he added silently, knowing that Shu would understand.

  “That’s ’cause this event’s special.”

  “It is?”

  Shu nodded and said, “Only couples can kill the monsters for this event. I’m roo-seless alone.”

  “Hm...?”

  According to Shu, this was an event where you had to make parties of two and kill the monsters the devs spawned.

  Those monsters couldn’t be harmed and couldn’t harm you if you weren’t in a party of two.

  This was surely done out of consideration for non-participants, tians, and monster ecosystems. The devs tended to think such things through.

  What made this a Valentine’s Day event was that a party of two was a couple swearing their love for each other. The devs were fine with homosexuality, so the gender composition of the party didn’t matter at all.

  They didn’t allow pairing up with monsters, though — both party members had to be humanoid creatures.

  “I haven’t found anyone else to pair with me, so I’m asking roo,” said Shu. “I’ll do all the fighting, and we can split the rewards evenly.”

  “I don’t mind. I didn’t have anything planned besides a trip down the Tomb Labyrinth,” Figaro replied. “But I find it odd that you didn’t find anyone to pair with yet.”

  Shu was an eccentric weirdo who constantly wore animal costumes, but he was pretty popular, so Figaro would have guessed he’d have no trouble finding someone to pair with.

  “Lei-Lei’s busy in real life, Darshan’s got the restaurant to take care of, and everyone else already has a pair. And those roo don’t, well...”

  “Well...?”

  “I quote... ‘it’d give me pain to be treated as a couple with a guy in an animal costume,’ ‘I’d feel like a lonely office lady who went to Disneyland,’ and, ‘Take it off. Please, take it off.’”

  “‘Take it off’? Now that’s asking for too much of you.”

  “Hell, this is all because of... Forget it, I won’t go too deep into it.”

  “Hm?”

  The actual reasons why the girls had refused had nothing to do with Shu’s costume and everything to do with their relationship situations in real life, but since Figaro had no love experience whatsoever, he wouldn’t understand that.

  He understood affection between family members, but he knew absolutely nothing about the more passionate kind of love. If he had been just a bit more sensitive to subtleties of that kind, this incident might’ve gone differently.

  ◇

  Regardless, Figaro agreed to form a party with Shu and participate in the event, even if as just an observer.

  “Let’s v-roo-m off northwest!” Shu shouted.

  There were event monsters spawning around the capital, too, but Shu didn’t hunt there, since their strength and the value of chocolate dropped was adjusted to fit the local level ranges.

  Also, since they’d been part of the first wave of players, they were already in their fifth forms, and it would be immature for veterans like them to steal kills from the newbies.

  Thus, they were now riding Shu’s Baldr’s fourth form, the tank, northwest of the capital, where he could find monsters of his level.

  “Not using the battleship?” asked Figaro.

  “Not for simple traveling. Roo have no idea how much it stands out.”

  Baldr’s fifth form was a land battleship only as big as a light cruiser.

  “Also, the ammo costs are roodiculous,” he added, sighing at just how expensive his Embryo had become. “I’ll use the fourth and my fists this time.”

  Standing on the tank’s cupola, he did a check on his weapons and items. In its tank form, Baldr could be remote-controlled or put on autopilot. He could use it as one of the self-driving vehicles that had become popular in real life and make it drive him to his destination without him lifting a finger.

  Baldr would automatically attack the occasional monsters popping up on the way, and all their drops would go to Shu’s Cyclone Pocket’s “pouch.” This was the item’s unique skill, High-Speed Auto-Retrieve, which, true to its name, automatically retrieved all items he had a right to.

  While a UBM, “Whirlwind Beast of Ill-Omen, Cyclone Pocket” had been a frustrating monster that automatically retrieved the items people held in their hands and even projectiles flying at it, so you could say that the MVP special reward skill was a big downgrade.

  As for how Shu had beaten it... he’d simply made Baldr go into fifth form and fire its proximity shells at it. Cyclone Pocket had absorbed them all, and the explosions right before they were stored away had made short work of its HP.

  It was probably the easiest UBM kill Shu’d had so far. The proximity shells had cost a lot, though, so getting back the money lost had taken some effort.

  “By the way, what kind of monsters do we have this time?” Figaro asked.

  Events generally had monsters related to the events.

  Setsubun had featured oni and bean bag monsters, while New Year’s had featured rat monsters, since that was the Chinese zodiac for the year.

  Because of this, Figaro thought Valentine’s Day monsters would be chocolate monsters, but...

  “Girls,” Shu said.

  “...Huh?”

  “Pretty girl monsters. Crooture type: devil.”

  Figaro had no words.

  Though he was a musclehead battle junkie, he was still Christian, so he wondered why a celebration of love involved devils or why there’d even be an event focused on stealing chocolate from girls.

  Then he realized that he was about to watch a kangaroo riding a tank massacre girls for their chocolate.

  Instead of questioning any of it, he just said one thing. “What are the devs thinking?”

  “I’m pretty sure the control AI in charge of events doesn’t actually know what Valentine’s Day is,” said Shu. “Those devils also throw chocolate and absorb three times the damage they deal.”

  That’s not what it means to return it three-fold!

  A few hours later, the two arrived at their destination.

  With monsters of level 51 and abo
ve lurking about, it was the perfect hunting ground for a high-rank like Shu.

  He’d intended to start hunting the event monsters right away, but...

  “That’s not an event monster, is it?” Figaro asked.

  “I don’t see a name above it,” Shu agreed.

  In the area, they were facing a strange entity.

  It wasn’t an event monster, nor a Master hunting them.

  It looked like two towering, metal legs that skipped around with lightness you wouldn’t expect from their size and earthquake-causing weight.

  Additionally, there were Master-like people where it was heading, and you could see them being crushed and turned to light.

  The most bizarre thing about this place, however...

  “AHAHAHAHHA! CRUSH! I’LL CRUSH YOU ALL! IT’S WHAT ALL BOYFRIENDS AND HOMEWRECKERS DESERVE!”

  ...was the feminine roar echoing from the top of the legs.

  The two watched the scene, not saying a word. They were skilled Masters who’d already faced many foes, so they were able to make a quick, calm analysis of the situation.

  The shouting woman was a Master.

  The large metal legs were her Embryo.

  The fact that she was crushing Masters in this high-level area meant that she was really strong.

  Her legs were making them scatter with next to no effort on her part.

  However, anything that came from such analysis meant nothing compared to the searing hatred in her voice.

  Shu instantly understood that, She’s the type you shouldn’t get involved with.

  Figaro, on the other hand, thought, She looks strong. I wanna fight her.

  That might’ve been the reason why there was such a gap in the amount of danger they felt. Figaro knew nothing of love, so he couldn’t understand just how deadly the grudge in that voice really was.

  “We’re hoppin’ away from that,” said Shu as he turned Baldr 180 degrees, determined to leave as soon as possible.

  “Eh...? Ah. Okay,” Figaro replied, slightly disappointed. But then... the hellish voice rang out above them.