Estimated reading time: 9–12 minutes
Chapter 12: VS Hiniru
【Urgent quest】HAO Strategy Thread Part 132【Unwinnable Game】
23 Anonymous Player
Enemy Overview
・Thick armor
・Regeneration ability
・Ultra high firepower, high speed tentacle attacks
・Seems to have the ability to command machine beasts as well
24 Anonymous Player
The NPCs in town have given up on their roles and are laughing in despair. Can’t buy weapons from the RE Corp.
25 Anonymous Player
I thought we might be able to win, but there’s dozens of these things huh. What an awful world.
26 Anonymous Player
Can’t we use nukes?
27 Anonymous Player
＞＞26 It seems they can be defeated. However, they normally withstand attacks and regenerate, or get shot down by sniper fire. In the worst case they may absorb nuclear attacks.
28 Anonymous Player
Wait, so some of them can actually absorb weapons and armor upgrades too?
29 Anonymous Player
＞＞27 Normal machine beasts can’t, but Strains might be able to. So the ones in this video footage seem to be a plain small fry without any absorption abilities. Still an unwinnable game though.
30 Anonymous Player
How can we win against this thing?
31 Anonymous Player
Probably no chance. There’s no getting through that armor.
32 Anonymous Player
I woke up an old guy who used to be a soldier and asked him. His conclusion is that our only chances are a Apollyon Fusion, continuous nuclear missile barrage, or high-powered artillery barrage + players charging suicide attacks.
33 Anonymous Player
Isn’t most of the artillery in this city nearly non-functional anyway?
34 Anonymous Player
How exactly is an artillery barrage plan supposed to win?
35 Anonymous Player
＞＞34 Blasting holes in its armor with the artillery, then prying those holes open by hand to kill it. We’d have to get past those tentacles first though. Most realistic option, but we’re missing the necessary equipment.
36 Anonymous Player
How about the overseas servers?
37 Anonymous Player
＞＞36 They’re in different places than us so they don’t affect anything. The Washington and other overseas servers are talking about completely different locations. Sounds like their cities are more devastated as a result though.
38 Anonymous Player
The Japan server clearly had the lowest level of collapse up until now (NPCs were still functioning properly) so players on other servers were complaining, yet today’s emergency quest is a palm drill for them. They’re probably glad they’re not on the Japan server.
39 Anonymous Player
Can’t you let us escape into space or something…
40 Anonymous Player
Then our task should be to find equipment that can penetrate its armor. If we’ve got a few days we may be able to repair something in time.
41 Anonymous Player
Huh???????
I just got PK’ed out of nowhere in the city, what is this??????
42 Anonymous Player
＞＞41 Happens every so often in this game, get used to it.
43 Anonymous Player
No, I got killed too. Who are those guys?
44 Anonymous Player
It was in the factory district in the North Block. Maybe around 30 or 40 of them banding together.
45 Anonymous Player
Sh*theads!!!!
They were spawn camping with a group!!! F**kers!!!
46 Anonymous Player
I confirmed it too. It’s HINIRU.
『【Judgement】Sentencing Criminals Orange – Mass Hammer of Justice Stream!!!』
https■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
47 Anonymous Player
Wait, so why’d they get us caught up in this?
48 Anonymous Player
・Criminals Orange who leaked classified intel and caused social turmoil must be punished
・Supporting developer Hereafter Corporation is an accomplice
・Players enjoying criminals’ game are the same
・So we PK and restrict logins to ruin their big commemorative first quest. Especially thoroughly punishing Orange using R-18G.
Copy-paste from the stream summary. They’re viewer raiding for PKs.
49 Anonymous Player
Who the hell do they think they are? Scumbags.
50 Anonymous Player
Wasn’t this guy the one who doxxed and threatened minors?
How is “judgement” not painfully pathetic?
51 Anonymous Player
Judgement lol
52 Anonymous Player
From the stream footage their PKs look serious. 50+ gathered with standardized powered suits and machine guns, beehive formation. They were FPS gamers originally so pretty skilled with simple methods.
53 Anonymous Player
This is the worst. Hoping Orange crushes them.
54 Anonymous Player
＞＞53 That absolutely can’t happen. Because if Orange battles them the view count would explode, earning advertising revenue and a major Hiniru victory. The instant an Orange vs Hiniru matchup happens, Hiniru wins.
「……This is turning into something else.」
「Group PKs huh. At this timing they’ll definitely be troublesome. Unlike other games, the login restrictions in this one make the impact bigger.」
「So is PK hunting the priority, or should we focus on finding equipment to break its armor? Can’t decide…」
This Hiniru guy and his followers seem quite foolish to be taking lies seriously like this. There’s obviously no confidential intel in the game.
Well, leaving that aside, our countermeasures are clear. The enemy currently lacks any special abilities and is at its weakest. Meaning if we can simply penetrate its armor, our numbers may somehow prevail. As I was wondering what to do next, the system clock entered my vision. Current time – 10:30 PM.
「Time to sleep then.」
「「Huh?」」
What’s with the surprised reactions? Sleep is important everyone, let’s turn in.
The next day. It’s 10 AM and I’m standing outside Reina’s house to return the manga I borrowed before. The game stuff has me worried but AP repairs will take 3 days anyway, so no need to rush until then.
Additionally, there are NPC sleep routines to consider. Adventurers hunt machine beasts during the day, then taverns fill up from evening into night. They empty out again by morning. So if we’d kept going I’d likely get kicked out soon without achieving anything, and risk getting PKed in the meantime. One of my goals – defeating the Strain with a mass-produced Apollyon – is still a dream I’m pursuing.
「It’s Mishima.」
I press the intercom buzzer and call out at the camera. The small house next door to my apartment complex on the right is Reina’s home. No matter how you look at it, just an ordinary white-walled house. The neat flooring and entranceway show the owner’s cleanly habits.
「Come on in Kanji dear, Reina’s up in her room.」
「Pardon the intrusion, Mrs. Shiroinu.」
「Anna is fine you know.」
「I’m afraid I can’t call you that.」
The one who came out wasn’t Reina, but rather her mother – Shiroinu Anna. She looks exactly like an adult version of Reina, but with the opposite slender physique. Anna has on a parka, and I notice some bandages peeking out from underneath. Noticing my gaze, she slips a hand into her clothes.
As I react with confusion to the stained black bandages she’s produced, Anna smiles gently and says:
「It’s alright, it’s healed now.」
「But wasn’t it an intense coloration?」
「The bleeding wouldn’t stop you see, gave this old lady quite some trouble.」
Anna, who looks far too young to be Reina’s mother, winks at me. Just like Reina, she’s wearing a hat on her head too. I wonder if the matching headgear is also genetic – certainly a mysterious family.
As we chat, a voice calls out from upstairs.
「Mama, don’t do anything weird.」
「Yees yees, come on up Kanji dear.」
「I see, so if I ask Mrs. Shiroinu she’ll tell me all Reina’s embarrassing episodes!」
Prompted by a sharply fired eraser to the head, I enter the house. What’s with your homing eraser skill, huh!?
Going up the stairs just past the entrance, there are two rooms, with Reina’s being the closest. Still seated on her bed, Reina assumes eraser launch position to threaten me into a surrender pose as I step into the room.
「Boo!」
「Blacklist!?」
「Quite traumatized by the warning buzz huh. So, what’d you think about that manga I lent you, ‘Bububoob BooBub’?」
「Blacklist!? Blacklist!? Blacklist!? Blacklist!? Blacklist!?」
「Don’t react to every ‘boo’, come on.」
「Blacklist!?」
「Even reacting to that!? Need a hospital!?」
Jokes aside, I place the incomprehensible borrowed manga “Bububoob BooBub” down on Reina’s desk. My head still hurts just remembering trying to read that mess. Too many question marks popping up before the punchline, leaving my mind blank. Truly a bizarre experience.
As I say that, Reina returns “Bububoob BooBub” to her shelf with a slightly annoyed look. Other than the bed, piles of books, and desk with a VR dive chair attached, there’s nothing else in Reina’s room. Though her crazy manga selection does have a strong presence I guess.
「Wanna play something?」
「Sure, but do you actually get what’s going on right now?」
I casually suggest playing together, only for Reina to point exasperatedly at her PC monitor. Hiniru’s stream is running muted in the background. Over 13 hours since he started and with no hint of achieving his goal, viewers and streamer alike seem to be losing patience.
「What, Hiniru is going for an all-nighter?」
「Yeah, running around town all night looking for you. Cause it won’t start until you show up right?」
「…Uh, sorry ’bout that.」
『Machine Beasts and Armaments』
Machine beasts are capable of absorbing and integrating specific tools and facilities into themselves. Most famously, a turtle-type that absorbed a lettuce processing plant and grew huge lettuce-shaped crystals from its back. While some non-combat machinery gets absorbed, machine beasts that incorporate tanks, rifles and other weapons to power themselves up are also very numerous. Therefore machine beasts are rank-classified, though I will explain that another time.
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