Chapter 76
「My bad about my teammate. With this gel, it will fuse with your body and your wound should close up within 2 hours.」
「Technology sure is amazing…」
I was in the treatment room where the man had taken me. Having been protected by Apollyon until now, I had no idea how wounds were healed, so I watched the treatment process with interest. The flesh-colored substance, more solid than the gel implied by the name on the seal, was cut to fit the wound and adhered. The sensation of slender fingers and the cool gel was a little ticklish.
「Thank you… is that okay to say?」
「No need to worry about it, Kanji. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. The name’s Teo. And drop the formalities.」
The young man in front of me, who called himself Teo, laughed cheerfully. He looked to be in his early 20s, and to be honest, it was hard to tell if he was male or female until I heard his voice. He wore the same work clothes as us, but over it he had on a casual jacket and silver accessories everywhere. He was a little taller than me with masculine shoulders, but on the other hand, he had a slender build, well-defined features, unnecessarily long eyelashes, and long blue hair that invited confusion.
Seeing my gaze, he spoke up, 「It’s a color anomaly unique to Espers. My eyes are almost gold too, right?」 That’s not what I meant, but I guess that explains why Urairo’s character had red hair.
Obtaining this trivial knowledge, I replied, 「Nah, I was just confused because you’re cute.」 But some guys hate being called feminine, so maybe that was a mistake…? As I was thinking this, Teo’s cheeks relaxed a little.
「Right?! Man, after 2050, everyone’s become so desperate, you know? I’m like the only one left who enjoys fashion, so hearing those words is a relief!」
「But wouldn’t people’s desires MAX out in such a crazy situation and more people would say stuff like that?」
「The maid robots and butler robots solved everything.」
「What a waste of technology…」
「Well, even if they gave birth, they couldn’t raise the child, and with death in 2060 guaranteed, you know. That’s why everyone became obsessed with those kinds of robots, and there was no one left to compliment me. By the way, you tried to introduce them and got crushed by those two and fell into despair. The look on your face that day was priceless.」
「…Any salvation?」
「For a few days, your stepdaughter was looking at you with a smirking face, and it seemed really uncomfortable. She’s the one who ratted you out, though.」
I had been ignoring it, but this guy was calling Kanji and me by name, so there were many mysteries about him. In the game’s setting, we were probably acquaintances, but where did he stand? When I asked him that, he pondered for a moment with a troubled expression before answering.
「’Reformist’… might be confusing. I’m French. Before the artificial planet ‘Paris’ fell, I joined up here and now I’m here. You and I are like war buddies.」
「Artificial planet? Paris?」
「For now, I’ll explain, so follow me.」
Teo opened the door and climbed the stairs. I hadn’t noticed because the interior of the room was always made of concrete, but in the hallway, I could see the dull glow of gray material here and there. Crystal trees. So we were above ground? With that question in mind, I climbed the stairs. The last triple door closed as soon as I entered, sealing us in completely.
In what seemed to be an airtight room, I put on my usual mask again, and when I went outside, an unknown sight spread out before me. It was a view of the entire city, visible only from the rooftop of the six-story building.
「What do you think? This is the 13th zone of the Infinite Horizon Conquest base.」
It was a strange sight. The surroundings were a plain with crystal trees growing sparsely, but it was a space where gray, scaly earth stretched on, and a semicircular dome enclosed us. Inside, there were buildings probably made by cutting out crystal trees, and mass-produced Apollyons were deployed in various places, with players walking around curiously. The city spread out centered around three pillars, or rather towers, and players who had likely just logged in were walking around with interest.
What was particularly interesting was outside the city. In four quite distant places, one in each direction, huge objects were crucified. I thought they might be a Black Tortoise or a Qilin or something, so I squinted my eyes to take a closer look, and I could see metal bodies and dangling tentacles. …These were Strains.
「If you crucify them like scarecrows, the Machine Beasts won’t come near. So when there were Apollyon Fusions, we put one at each base like that. In the end, the other bases were destroyed and we transported and used them, though.」
「Strains are easier to defeat than I thought.」
「There’s no reason we can’t defeat what could be defeated in Ver1.08, and in the first place, there were Apollyon Fusions back then. And it helped a lot that we had plenty of time to prepare thanks to the ‘Scorch Wars’ ending in less than a year. Seriously, all hail the Prophet.」
Somehow it’s turning into my fault, but the devs might seriously intend to get Orange involved in the grand story of 「HAO」. Then they better not spawn-kill the NPCs. As I thought that, I looked further ahead and saw that thing. The endless earth with no horizon in sight. The earth stretches infinitely vertically, and beyond that, the only thing unchanged from 2040, the blue sky and clouds, obscure the view. And it was far closer than the last time I saw it.
「That’s the Infinite Horizon. When you say horizon, it refers to the horizontal line where the sun rises, so it’s not quite the same. That’s an abnormally high mountain range.」
「It’s hard to tell because it’s obscured by crystal trees and stuff, but it looks gentle? Doesn’t really look like a mountain range, but…」
「The space called the Infinite Horizon occupies 1/64 of the earth’s surface area. It’s only natural that it looks different from a normal mountain range, considering it reaches the height of the clouds at a distance more than three times the length of the Japanese archipelago.」
「If it’s that far, isn’t it impossible to conquer?」
The natural reaction slips out of my mouth. Walking thousands of kilometers in-game is an unreasonable game in itself. This shitty game would really make you walk that much, and who knows how many years it would take to clear it. I pat myself on the back for correctly identifying it as endgame content.
「We’re not gonna conquer it properly, dumbass. We’ll take a shortcut with missiles. That tower in the center is a missile.」
I take back what I said earlier; my perception was crap.
「But if it’s only about the size of one building… I see, NMM!」
「Yeah, we’ll activate NMM and launch a large amount of cargo and people tied to it. As long as we can deal with air resistance, it’s ours. That’s why there’s something I want to get my hands on before the operation begins.」
Teo grins.
「Discarded repair parts. We’ll use them to reactivate an Apollyon Fusion.」
Check out my Patreon for early access to upcoming updates. Patreon Link