Chapter 205: Reaching the Heavens Part 11 Part 1

「Uwoah!?」

The night sky turns white all of a sudden.

The coliseum changes its color to red in an instant.

The figure of Kutanid now looks strangely white as well.

Looking at my own hands, they were now strangely pale as well, looking as though they did not belong to human being.

「Wh, what, is, is this…… What’s the meaning of this……?」

「Please calm down, Rei. It looks to me like the colors everywhere around us got inverted with that flash of light…… At least I think so.」

「Inversion of colors…… T-That it, that’s right, you’re absolutely right……」

The impact of this ability may be tremendously distracting at first, since the color palette that you are used to suddenly is no longer there, but when you get down to it, it is that one particular thing that gets changed: colors. There is also a possibility that it is just a bug in the system, but in that case so sort of contact with the admins would be required. But the one responsible for that is most probably that green-tipped tentacle just now.

「Wah, wa, wah! The hell is that supposed to mean!?」

「Calm down, calm down, I’m telling you…… Ahh, geez! Why won’t you listen to what everyone is telling you!?」

Perhaps it is because my avatar got change into a female one, but my throat starts to hurt after yelling loud like that just now. This is not good. We cannot allow ourselves to panic. That’s exactly what Kutanid wants us to do. The only way for us to ever hope to defeat it is to overwhelm it with so much force that it will blow away all traces of panic and fear.

「Akitsu Akane, it’s dangerous to panic like that in the middle of the battlefield, so try to calm down, god damn it! On the other hand, Rust and Mold! Don’t be so stiff! Play with your equipment and adjust it if you must, and you will be just fine! There’s no need to feel upset about it! Those are just colors!」

Ahh, guess I have no other choice but to take the matters into my own hands! Like a true bearer of the Vorpal Soul! And since I have no idea what those guys will be trying to pull off in this state, I must bring them all back to reality right here and right now. So I jump towards Akitsu Akane and smack his right across the head. Then I just switch towards Rust and Mold, and I flick both of their foreheads with the amount of force that may have very well been overly excessive. After that was done, I took Rei’s hand and we rushed towards the edge of the arena, where all of the NPCs were safely relocated.

「Ah, awawa! Sanraku-san! Sanraku-san!」

「Oh my fucking God, this is such a drag! Why did everyone had to go crazy all at once here!?」

Why do I have to act like a fucking kindergarten teacher while there is a huge-ass monster casually rampaging all over the place? But calm down, me, calm down. Remember, this is not a single player game, this is an MMO. It takes team effort do clear this fight, I am not alone in here. But as the only one with my head on my shoulders right about now, all the decision-making is on me.

「Listen to me, all of you. You must all try to calm down, alright? Calm down. I know that you must be afraid, but I need you all to try to calm down and take it easy. Take a deep breath…… Inhale and then exhale. Now close your eyes and think this to yourself: ‘The sky is white, my skin is pale.’ Alright? Think you can all do that for me? If you understood me, you can say yes. You can say no. You can shake your head. Or you can do whatever you want. Or even better. Say: ‘Yes, Ma’am’!」

「…… I think that you’re the one who should calm down first, Sanraku.」

「On the other hand, do you have any other idea how to calm them all down? If someone thinks that they can do a better job than me right now, then please, by all means, step right up! Let’s see how it goes!」

Alright, that seemed to have done the trick. Everyone, including the NPCs, seems to be calm enough to be able to listen to my explanation without throwing that much of a fit. There was also Straude to take care of, but here all it took for the stupid sh*thead to calm down was a good old karate chop to the head. But maybe it was too hard, because for a moment out there his eyes seemed to have rolled inside of his skull.

「I don’t know the exact details, but I think I’m starting to get what the hell is going on here.」

When it comes to bugs, it’s not that simple of a matter. Sometimes the bugs are bad, but sometimes they can be really helpful to the players, even possessing the power to defeat the last boss easily. But more often than not you just get a bug that one shots you out of nowhere, even though there were no enemies nearby. Incidentally, bugs like that tend to occur because of a very simple, and also very stupid reason. You see, sometimes the developers get to change some things around the maps at the very last possible moment, and during adjustments like that they tend to “forget” to remove mobs that were in the places that were being changed. This results in a strange state where the “invisible” mob from the previous map overlays with the new textures and can attack the players without them even realizing what is going on. You hear about things like that being discovered in games all the time.

Normally it’s all good if things like that keep on happening in the areas you are yet to discover, but it can be pretty annoying when you accidentally raise an event flag or need some items and materials that can only be obtained from those bug-ridden locations. The fear and anxiety the trips to such places can induce is something else entirely.

「Okay, so here’s the thing: for now the only thing I know for sure is that something tends to happen each time of Kutanid’s tentacles glows.」

「Blue light reverses the gender, and the green light reverses the color palette of everything within your field of view.」

「Umm…… You’re Rust, right?」

「…… My eyes are finally starting to get used to all this.」

Apparently Rust and Mold got turned into characters taken straight out of the pages of a shoujo manga. Rust was a handsome guy who was rubbing the pace in between his brows for some reason and Mold got turned into a well-proportioned girl who was mumbling to herself all this time.

「…… Are we going to wait and see what Kutanid does next?」