When I wake up, all that I can see in front of me is the sea of metal. The skyscrapers all glow majesticly, reflecting the rays of the morning sun, at the same time casting long shadows at places where the sunshine was unable to reach.
The place that I currently am right now is such a dark sector created by those skyscrapers, a blind spot not connected to anywhere in particular on a grid map.
「Alright……」
From a layperson’s point of view the design of this town could sure pass as psychodelic. Just then, the door opens before me and a truck I was currently riding in pulled up at the side of the asphalt road, coming to a stop.
My wobbly legs step outside and land on the ground of the ‘Chaos City’. My body, clad in a metal armor makes a dull sound with every single step, having the power of ‘Galaxeus’ sealed inside of it. And the only way to get myself rid of it, is to destroy the one who graced me with it or to force him to remove it.
That is why this body of mine is always here, where the sun doesn’t shine, destined to clash with a certain Meteor.
「The victory condition is to secure the Chaos Cube, or……」
To defeat the opposing Hero……
Either destroy your enemy or try to find an object as small as a basketball in this vast city…… I weight my options here and then smile to myself upon finding the optimal solution.
「Even if your opponents are way ahead of you, it is the nature of every gamer to try and claim victory…… Alright, let’s do this!」
According to the rules of the games, Heroes arrive about thirty seconds after the villains spawn in on the map. That is because evil always takes the initiative and Heroes always need to catch up to it.
Certainly, when I think about it at the times like these, I keep reminding myself what this body of mine currently is.
「That’s right, now I remember…… Time to act like a tyrant I am!」
Saying that more to myself than to anyone else in particular, I punch a hole in the truck that got me here as to motivate myself.
When I open my eyes, it all feels like a bad dream. The deep sea ruins we were currently in were filled with the ominous and evil aura of the Abyss, and were filled with those who wished to stop us right in our tracks.
I look around while kicking away the barnacle zombies that were rushing towards me with rusty sabers in their hands, and then scream at the top of my lungs:
「Dah! God damn it! What the fuck is wrong with encounter rate in this place!?」
「And what is encounter rate, Sanraku!? Besides, we need to break through here if we want to get to the “seal”!」
「I know, I know! Hey, I think we might be able to climb the roof from here!」
「W, wait just a moment! I’m not nearly as agile as you, you know!?」
「IMPROVISE, ADAPT, OVERCOME!」
With those words being pulled right off my mouth, I could however understand why haste was advised in here. After all, it’s not everyday that you are being chased by monsters that look like humans but are not them at the same time, looking as if they took a sip in a bath for WAY too long. And so we continue to climb onto the roof of the building, supporting our hands and feet with many cracks in the structure. And since I was already on the roof, I took my partners hand and pulled them up with all of my might.
Then at least several rusty tridents hit the place where they’ve been mere seconds ago and my face goes pale thinking what would have happened if I didn’t help him with their climb.
「My friend…… You’ve saved me once more…… By the pride of the fish people, by the pride of Maman, I swear that I’ll……」
「You know what, you can thank me right now by getting the hell out of here…… This is going to get really ugly very soon……」
「Uoooh!? They use their own brethren as the stepping stones to climb up!?」
「That why I said we need to haul ass, and we need to haul ass right now!」
Even if those guys are weak, sheer difference in numbers can make it so that they will destroy us by brute force alone. And who would have thought that mindless zombies would be clever enough to form a flesh ladder like that?
「Sh*t, weren’t the enemies of level lower than mine supposed to run away from me……?」
「They are the servants of the Lords of the Abyss. Their contracts abide them to fight anything and anyone their masters order them to, no matter the difference in strength.」
「And the way these zombies respawn endlessly…… Are they oni? Or maybe octopuses?」
We start to run, at the same time slashing away at the mermaids that were swimming in the air and trying to approach us, turning them into fish fillets and pieces of sushi.
「You are kind of…… How should I put it? Merciless.」
「This is mercy, actually. Now those stupid zombies can eat as much sushi as they want. Besides, we don’t have time to play around with mermaids!」
Unlike the normal vision of a mermaid, half-human and half-fish, these mermaids looked like only slightly anthropomorphized sharks, doing their best to try and take a bite out of us. They could make themselves look more like humans thanks to their ability called “Mimicry”, but when they were ready to strike they would shed their appearances and reveal their true forms.
Not to mention that those monstrous mermaids were also singing all the time. The design team for this game surely knows how to come up with a scary model for their monsters.
「There it is! This is the place! The captain should be inside!」
「Alright…… Now the real fun starts!」