Estimated reading time: 10–12 minutes
Chapter 24
「Hm, you’re back again. Welcome.」
「Because last time, I get caught up all the way until the 8 hour forced logout…」
The next day when I log in again, my body is covered in flesh once more. Looking up, I see Reina with a satisfied look on her face as she tries to lock me up again.
Yesterday was really awful. I almost piss myself in my room. That’s how bad it was. The VR gear I’m using now blocks out external information and force logs you out if discomfort goes above a certain level. Like if you feel like you’re about to piss yourself or get really thirsty. So it’s manners to go to the bathroom and stuff before playing games like you’re at the movie theater.
But if she keeps doing this over and over I’ll eventually piss myself. I don’t want Reina to come into my house saying “You stink!” to me. So it’s time to execute my plan.
「Yo Reina.」
「What’s up? Got something you wanna ask?」
「Nah, it’s not that. Just was wondering if you wanna go hunt some Machine Beasts together?」
My so-called plan is actually pretty simple. This shitty overly realistic game recreates people’s preferences, so I just need to ask the real person I’m with now how to deal with this. When I called Reina about this, she apologizes and tells me what to do. The fact that things went as I expected means the login restrictions were related to this incident.
When I invite Reina to go hunt some Machine Beasts, she hesitates for a moment before releasing her hold on my body with a smile. Just like she says, all she wants is to make up for the lost time having fun. She was just holding me there because she was worried I might run off, but if we play together then she doesn’t care.
「I see, you’re right that at this point in time you hadn’t even fought Machine Beasts yet.」
「Yeah, the only things I’ve beaten are players and Moon UYK.」
「Well that’s questionable but… anyway, sure. A picnic where we can flirt doesn’t sound too bad.」
「Got any recommended spots?」
「I wanna say no but… there are some interesting places around here.」
As Reina says this, she lifts me up and leaps down from the hammock. This is my first time seeing the unpaved ground of this world, but I can only describe it as stone. In the real world there’s dirt under the concrete but here the very earth itself had turned into ashen rock.
Clawing into that ground with her nails, Reina shows me what’s around here. To the:
West: Old Osaka City
East: Infinite Horizon
South: Crystal Tree Grove
North: Mechanical Lake
「First, to the west is where you were. And if you go east from there, it connects to the Infinite Horizon.」
「Infinite Horizon?」
「Wanna climb the tree again to take a look?」
Reina lifts me up again, this time leaping all the way to the top of the tree. From here we have an extremely good view, as well as a look at the devastated world that makes it feel like this is the end. To the left I can see a familiar dome, and looking east like she said—the land stretched on endlessly upward.
That’s weird. In this world, there should be a horizon. Since the Earth is a sphere, there’s a limit to how far you can see from any one spot. That’s why you can watch the sun rise and set from atop tall buildings.
But the horizon before my eyes is completely different. Despite the land continuing on straight in that direction, it’s as if there’s a massive mountain range blocking the end of the horizon from view. Compared to the other directions, the horizon here is distorted.
「The Earth isn’t a sphere anymore. Only in this direction does the land stretch on forever like a flat plane. I was never able to figure out what part of the planet that is, but Strains seem to appear from that area more often. That’s why the Horizon Ventures and GullyZone Industries were created to traverse this land, remember? Two of the four companies that make Apollyons.」
「Oh yeah, so that’s where the horizon name comes from.」
「And to the south is the Crystal Tree Zone. Same metal-bark plants grow there with Machine Beasts that eat the crystal leaves and Machine Beasts that eat those Machine Beasts.」
「Calling them Machine Beasts over and over is confusing.」
「You’re right. We classify them as carnivorous Machine Beasts and so on, though it’s not like they actually eat meat. And finally to the north is the Mechanical Lake.」
「There’s water there?」
「Nope. More like a pooling ground for the black contaminated fluids that are Machine Beast bodily fluids. The pollution there is too intense, honestly I don’t recommend it. It can damage Apollyons.」
「OK, definitely not going there. So out of those, any you’d recommend?」
「Hmm…I’d say the Infinite Horizon. Not too many or too few Machine Beasts, plus there might be spare Apollyon parts lying around.」
「That’s it!」
Did we really need all that extra explanation? The conversation moves forward with a sort of “anyway” vibe. She was probably starving for someone to talk to — her eyes lit up eagerly whenever I asked her anything. After all, she’s 38.
The city locations I’ll figure out eventually, so explaining all that was unnecessary. Yet she told me anyway… probably because she has combat ability to spare, but also simply because she wants to chat with me… I assume. Though the Mechanical Lake, geographically it’s probably Lake Biwa, sounds beyond saving from invasive species at this point. The south is maybe Nara? Would be funny if they had metal-eating robot deer eating the tree bark there.
But most notable is the Infinite Horizon! A mysterious entity whose nature remains unclear. The other areas seem simple enough with the Machine Beasts, but this one location doesn’t make sense. Wait, why isn’t Earth a sphere anymore? And if it did change, wouldn’t gravity naturally pull it back into a round shape?
After Reina sets me back down on the ground, I excitedly open my system menu. Seeing that I clearly don’t intend to run away, she doesn’t try to stop me and just looks at me as if asking what I’m doing. I tell her:
「I’m gonna record a video. Got banned twice already y’know, it’s about time I get a permanent channel that doesn’t get deleted.」
I had several reasons for wanting to deliberately record footage. The main ones are to raise my notoriety and improve my image.
「Right now Orange is seen as nothing but a dangerous dude. Anyone can tell you’re a hazardous character. At least to other players, you gotta raise awareness and recognition so you don’t cause issues later when tryin’ to gather players together and stuff. It’d suck to gather 100 people and not be able to handle it right? Like Hiniru’s situation?」
These are Momiji’s words. So I don’t wanna be a confidential info leaking loser, but a hardcore gamer steadily clearing content. And that’s where this 38 year old Reina comes in. She’s surely familiar with exploring the outside regions and has plenty of ability herself. With a travel + combat guide style video composition I should be able to produce a high quality video.
And after releasing that video, ideally I’d like to put out a call to arms against the Strain… though since I dunno how Reina will respond I’m waiting and seeing. If I can get her on my side she’d make for quite the fighting force.
So we take my Apollyons eastward. You can see in the distance that the terrain has transformed into a scaly, stony texture. In places buildings surely used to stand, the scaly earth has half swallowed them leaving only the top floors visible. Though the way the buildings connect with the ground makes it seem like they’ve melted together rather than the ground literally swallowing them up.
Machine Beasts roam around on that terrain. But they don’t attack us even when spotting us. Reina says that as long as we don’t trespass into their nesting grounds, it’s surprisingly safe. These beasts whose bodies exceed 5 meters in length are feeding on the short crystal trees — or maybe crystal grass — growing out of the earth.
And hovering in the air are glowing train tracks, strangest of all.
「Since I’m second gen, my specs are different and better than my capabilities after diving in. I can use my original capabilities to the fullest.」
「Oh yeah? Hey think we could take a shortcut from that track?」
「Wouldn’t recommend it. I’m pretty sure there’s a train cannon Machine Beast that lives there. We could break the tracks to deal with it, but…」
「Why are the tracks floating?」
「They grew that way, naturally.」
「Naturally occurring train tracks?」
「Same kind of thing as the crystal trees. The train cannons hunt prey while the crystal tracks grow paths for them to travel on, converting the leftovers into energy.」
「A mobile artillery unit powered by and optimized for this environment sounds pretty dangerous no?」
「Very dangerous. That’s why there’s a good number of those Machine Beasts around.」
The ecology of the Machine Beasts is a pretty fascinating topic so I ask Reina some more questions about it. Turns out the Machine Beasts are ultimately just replacements of preexisting lifeforms rather than completely new organisms. While they may mimic various traits and functions of tools, fundamentally they originate from past creatures. So if their base was a carnivorous animal, they would still hunt prey and consume meat. Though since most Machine Beasts incorporate reptilian scale elements, she says they tend to be omnivorous.
I start recording footage on my camera. This game strongly encourages sharing content externally and has a broadcast mode on top of recording capabilities. Taking advantage of that, I record the surrounding area. Collapsed buildings. Crystal trees bearing fruit shaped like hangers. Gag Machine Beasts unable to move properly due to mimicking cars and vehicles. I felt kinda bad for that last one. And so Reina and I advance eastward.
The terrain is dyed a toxic looking ashen purple. Sunlight is woefully obstructed by rain clouds. Since the ground has poor water retention, moisture evaporates readily keeping humidity high. But thanks to that evaporative cooling effect, at least the temperature is comfortably moderate.
After walking a while, Reina smoothly dismounts from my Apollyon’s shoulder and points at some shadows in the distance beyond the horizonless eastern side.
「Those Machine Beasts…?」
「Yup, the ones with the weakest attacks. Perfect sandbags.」
I hesitate on whether to stop recording. Machine Beasts, I apologize in advance. She’s probably about to do terrible things to you.
『Crystal Trees』
They absorb ■■■ energy through their roots to sustain themselves. Due to this trait, their root systems are far more developed compared to ordinary plants. At one point Reina even used to uproot crystal trees and wield their roots as spears. Unlike Machine Beasts they tend to exist as individuals, but vestiges of scales can still be seen on their roots and stems.
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