Chapter 71: Momentary Thoughts Part 18 Part 1

「Do you happen to know what the most important quality of the contemporary gamers is?」

「Hmm, hell if I know? Please enlighten us in that regard.」

「Well, it really depends from person to person, but I do believe it is the ability to be able to distinguish the game world from the real world.」

Saying those words, Pencilgton’s face takes on a frightening look. He then uses the Parry skill “Mail Speardom” to parry the fist attack that was coming his way.

「Are we really going to talk about things like that in a situation like this……?」

「No, no, no, I promise you that this won’t be like those old-fashioned PTA talks…… What I mean by that is that we need to realize that the game world is a thing that’s completely separate from our own world.」

「Well, I guess?」

A rope was wrapped around “KIRIN’s” armor. Not only the leg parts, but around other parts as well. These ropes were reaching out towards various places, but once you get down to it, they all converged at a single point.

While Pencilgton was drawing the Gravekeeper’s attention towards himself, Katsu continued to put new ropes all over it.

「Stretching limbs, impossible jumps, flying…… Sometimes the manipulation of avatar’s action causes it to not even resemble a human being anymore.」

「That’s right, some bugs tend to do just that to people.」

「Yup…… To sum up, even though we may both be humans in the game world, we are in reality just humans separated from other humans. …… That is why this whole operation was always slightly uncomfortable to me.」

「…… Sorry, but I don’t seem to follow. What are you getting at?」

「This is especially true for Professional Gamers across the world. They need the ability to distinguish from the in-game characters and their own self. What I’m getting at, is that to be human means to be aware of your own limitations.」

What was Katsu trying to do? Was it just a reckless charging forward? Or maybe he was trying to make “KIRIN” into his personal puppet? I heard that Katsu managed to obtain a whole lot of materials from Water Serpents as a by-product of his power-leveling, and the ropes that he was using right now were made out of those materials –– an item called “Reins of Life”.

Katsu managed to attach a whole lot of those reins onto the armored horse, but since its stats, especially Strength was a whole lot higher than his own, he had a relatively hard time controlling the movements of the horse on his own.

In fact, right now “KIRIN” was about to raise its right leg in order to stomp it down on Katsu and crush him, when……

「For example, when you are trying to walk, when you raise one leg to make a step and I pull on your other leg and make you lose balance that way!」

When he does exactly what he said he would do, “KIRIN” center of gravity shifts instantly and the huge armor falls to the ground easily.

「I can do the same when you are trying to get up, making it impossible for you to stand up even further.」

When the armor wanted to get up by supporting its weight with its hands, Katsu pulled on both of its legs, causing it to slip and fall down just like a clown would in a comedy skit. And while Katsu was waiting for his stamina to recover, Pencilgton rushed in to make some damage onto the fallen Gravekeeper.

「Combining two bodies into one…… That’s your number one weakness right there!」

Pencilgton’s spear…… This was a perfect situation for “Regulus Totem” –– a weapon made out of materials obtained from a legendary mythical beast and combining it with metal reinforcements and ornaments –– to demonstrate the full spectrum of its potential. Since it was so long and sturdy, instead of swords it managed to slip past Gravekeeper’s remaining armor and penetrate its body.

Coated with multiple buffs and positive effects, the spear was sure to hit its mark…… but instead it bounced right back with a nasty sound. It seems that it was not all that super effective as we thought it would be.

「Ugh, not very effective, huh? Next! Katsu-kun, I’m counting on you!」

「You don’t have to tell me that!」

Katsu’s falling, the damage caused by it, and on top of that the self-inflicted damage…… We were quite literally pulling this thing’s leg here. It’s a shame that the spear wasn’t all that effective, but at least with the strings attached, the aggro was not being shifted more towards Katsu.

「Want to stand up, huh? But you have no head…… Doesn’t matter, your back is totally wide open and inertia remains all the same…… Plus both of your arms and voila!」

The game system allowed an action like that: if the rope-type item could be used with one hand, it is entirely possible to use two such items at once, one for each hand. Pulling on both of its arms at the same time, Katsu caused the standing up armor to shake on its legs and fall down yet again, dragged down by its own inertia. But just before it hit the ground, the armor shifted the position of its left leg slightly, which allowed it to gain a foothold of sorts.

「Ahh, resisting, are we!?」

「Fall down, you bastard!」

Pencilgton rushed toward the Gravekeeper and jumped in the air, delivering a mighty powerful kick to its stomach, causing it to lose its balance again and this time fall on its back.

「Excuse me, but I would like to speak to your stomach…… Except not really!」

Although it was a huge demerit in the form of decreasing the weapon’s durability by a significant amount, Pencilgton uses a special item called 「Broken Shell」 to add a powerful armor penetrating effect to his spear. Like this, he uses it to destroy the Gravekeeper’s armor at the place where it is the thickest –– its stomach.

「This thing’s so thick that it’s hard to get all the way through it to the other side! Katsu-kun! Please, try to endure for twenty more seconds!」

「Impossible! Make it fifteen seconds!」

「Deal!」

Just like that, Pencilgton continuously keeps on striking the same place with both attack skills and basic attacks. At the same time Katsu was doing his best to prevent the Gravekeeper from standing up, allowing Pencilgton to attack unobstructed.