Chapter 195: Reaching the Heavens Part 1 Part 1

Let me tell you this right now, to not keep you all in the dark: nothing of particular notice end up happening.

Apparently there is no such thing in this game as automatic boss rush or anything remotely similar to that. That is why for the time being our team ended up disbanding, promising to meet up on the last, promised day…… Until then we would all do our own preparations. Of course, those would be fairly limited as well, since because of Kutanid we were basically unable to get out of the underwater city as long as the clock was ticking away. Damn that stupid octopus.

It also seems that the place of the final battle would the blue palace right in the middle of the city. We all agreed that for the sake of caution none of us would dare to enter it before the last day. Surely I would like to test it, but since we had no information whatsoever, we decided it would be best for us all to enter that place at once. And that was that: one castle siege on the seventh day, made by the team composing of both players and NPCs. Our goal: to make the giant octopus into seafood.

「Ufuuh…… ‘Let’s do our best on the seventh day, you all!’ I know that I said that, but what exactly am I supposed to do until then? It’s not like I can really progress with the game or anything.」

If I was already an adult, this would be considered to be a smoke break. But I’m not, so that analogy does not really fit in here. But on the other hand, one of the biggest advantages of the VR games is that no matter how much alcohol you pour into yourself or how many cigarettes you smoke, they would literally have no effect on your body in real life. /by the way, cigarettes are available in this game, but surprisingly enough they are considered to be healing items, one that restores your HP bit by bit as long as you keep smoking it. So if push came to shove, everyone in this game would turn into chain smokers.

Well, it’s all good that both alcohol and cigarettes can heal you in this game, but that comes with a problem of its own: people’s avatars in this game can wary in age from old people to little children. And we all know that the images of children drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes are really bad PR.

「Hey, as long as no one is going to get sent to jail for drinking or smoking or gambling inside of the game……」

My point of view on this is as follows: the smoke coming from my mouth feels weird. The cigarettes in my fingers feels weirdly thin. By fingers holding onto it feel strangely numb. Not that I would know how would smoking feel in real life.

In a sense, I think that sh*tty games sometimes better nail that feeling than godly games. For example: a survival game called ‘Survival Gunman’. It was a sh*tty game where you were stranded on a deserted island with other people who were out there to get you. But even so, you’d always have a gun on you, with precisely one bullet loaded into it. Not for anyone else, but for yourself.

And for some reason, even though the online environment of the game was already closed, one could still access it online. It was a sh*tty game, but it was also quite expensive and because of that it was hard for me to actually get rid of it…… By the way, I managed to get my hands on it when I was in the second year of Junior High School.

「How should I put it? It’s been a whole since I have last breathed in that air.」

Right about now all of my memories of sh*tty games are being dominated by Sh*t Chronicles Online, but I was not going to let that fact stop me from jumping to other games without hesitation. Especially this one, since it was kind of life changing for me back then.

Welp, that does not really matter all that much right now. The only thing that matters is that I have come here in anticipation of our battle against Kutanid. Just like I did with ‘Crap’ before confronting Gravekeeper Wezaemon.

The main feature of this game is that humans are stranded on the deserted island, a place where they are at the very bottom of the food chain. You start with almost nothing, and you must scavenge and search for tools that would ensure your survival. Here, even insects can be of dual nature: some of them can restore your HP, but some of them can be poisonous. And if the whole flock attacks you at once, then you can be sure that you’re going to end up dead on the spot. You are never the hunter here. You are always the one being hunted.

But that being said, even if you have to compete against other humans, they are not the ones you should be worried about. The ones that are the real danger here…… Oho, it looks like it has come a little bit earlier than expected.

「Hmm, Mutton, is it……? It is fairly strong, but I’d say that it is more than a fair opponent for a warm-up.」

This thing was huge. It had long fangs sticking out of its mouth, a muscular tail that was sweeping the ground, and a body that was all muscle with very little skin to it. It was causing trees to break and sway to the sides, and no ordinary weapon could hope to damage it in the least…… A pig. Or in other words: Demonic Pig Mutton.

By the way, there is no magic in this game. The only thing that can sound slightly magical or demonic are the names of the monsters you encounter here.

I wonder what exactly is this monster? A pig? Or maybe a boar? Oh well, since this is only a sh*tty game, it shouldn’t matter all that much.

「It’s only for a little bit, buddy, but keep me company, why don’t you?」

A handgun with a suppressor attached to the barrel. It’s not nearly as powerful as let’s say magnum, but this little guy has saved my life when I was in a pinch more times than I could possibly count.

「Now then, let’s see what you’ve got! But you can blame only yourself when I cut you to pieces and burn you over a bonfire until you turn into a well-done meat!」

In this game, basically anything can happen. A single enemy. A small number of enemies. Mild number of enemies. A horde of enemies. And that is exactly what I want from here. This situation, this constant scenario of ‘Monster VS Human’ is what is going to prepare me for the upcoming battle with Kutanid. Or at least I hope it will. At the very least, I should get some know-how.

「Now be a good beastie and drop dead!」

Let us have some delicious cutlets for lunch!

「Ouch, ouch, ouch…… I wonder if that new version will do something about muscle stiffness? Not that I would be able to afford it.」

As I got up from my bed I started to move my right shoulder around, trying to make the blood circulate through it again. After I done that, I went down to the first floor.

After I managed to deal with the pig, I went on to fight oversized owls and tigers in the island’s forest. The size of each monster was gigantic, and with each consecutive fight I could feel that my instinct of the predator was slowly starting to get back to me.

Yes, it was all coming back. Soon, I won’t perceive those monsters as monsters any longer, they shall become nothing more but moving target practice. Ahh, this takes me back to the good old days when I was active in ‘SuvaGun’.

「Pork cutlets deliver…… Oh, there it is.」

Moderna day Japan where you can order anything and have it delivered to your house with just one click of a button from your phone is simply the best. I place my order……

DING DONG!

「It took them one second to actually deliver it!?」

If so, that would be setting a new world record for food delivery time attack…… As if something like that would even exist, what the hell is going on here?

Dad has gone off-shore fishing with a fishing buddy that he met recently. And Mom went to the World’s Insect Exhibition to witness some kind of a rare species of beetle there.

As for Rumi…… Rumi was currently going through some setbacks with one of her modeling jobs, and asking her about it would be like sprinkling gasoline all over a raging fire. So whatever it was, she needed to deal with it on her own.