Chapter 78
Nakamoto is my senior at university and a fellow gamer. But seeing an acquaintance becoming an NPC still makes me exasperated at the devs. I mean, how do they even make NPCs this realistic? It’s too natural to just call it a simulation, and this technology that makes you convinced they’re the same person as your acquaintance is definitely strange.
While I ponder these doubts again, the two of them start talking like old friends, ignoring me.
「Nakamoto, I brought Orange.」
「Thanks. Seeing his face again after 5 years puts me a bit at ease. Our actions are definitely leading to the next step.」
「This is just the beginning. The real start is after we conquer the Infinite Horizon.」
Calling them acquaintances doesn’t quite fit. The sense of trust between them is exactly what Teo meant by 「comrades-in-arms」. Wait, which faction does the glasses guy belong to anyway? As I wonder this, a familiar figure pops out from the door behind him. A woman with white hair and beast-like ears, wearing a bodysuit. A Beastkin.
「Welcome, Father. It’s been a while.」
I see, so Nakamoto is part of the Order. That’s why he came out of this building. The mischievous girl has a refined air about her, but I haven’t forgotten about the video uploading incident earlier that got me scolded by Momiji with ambiguous words. And the spicy fried chicken Russian roulette incident.
But with this, it seems like there could be 2-3 more people here. Nakamoto looks a bit lonely as he sees me glancing around.
「Kōmitsu, Shiroinu, and you died in the 2055 operation. The only ones left here as forces for 2060 are Kana, Aika, and myself. Aika is currently at Base 7.」
「Got it. So it’s just the 4 of us here heading out? Or are we recruiting players?」
「You’re way too interested in the Apollyon Fusion, just like before. The conclusion is other players would just get in the way, and Nakamoto needs to command this city for a while. Since there will probably be people who say it’s just an NPC and try to kill him.」
「So I want Kana, Teo, and Orange to go retrieve it. You have the retrieval device, right?」
「No problem.」
Teo takes out a stick-like object from his waist. It has a pale blue body with a display attached. He calls it the key.
The Apollyon Fusion repair parts are heavy, both in terms of mass and confidentiality. So each part is coated in armor mixed with Strain parts to prevent Machine Beasts from eating them, then dropped to the ground. When it receives the key’s signal, it uses NMM to resurface and make its way to those waiting for the parts. However, this was apparently the setup only until 2055.
Radio waves don’t actually reach that far. Especially now that the world is covered in metal scales. And the relay stations scattered everywhere to enable communication between cities and summon parts with a single key have mostly stopped working in the past 5 years. They couldn’t withstand the erosion of the earth. So we need to head to a location within the radio wave’s range and press the key to call the parts.
「Wait, if the parts fly to where the key is, can’t we just take the key, do some stretches there, and be done with it?」
「There’s no way it’d be that easy. The places you can move to are where the key and each base are. So if you designate a base, there’s no problem.」
「Makes sense. Like in a game, if you overwrite the save point, you fail to warp when you die and respawn.」
Teo makes a vague expression like he kind of gets it but not really. Well, as long as that doesn’t happen, it’s fine. So we retrieve the parts, recover the rocket… Wait, where is the Apollyon Fusion in the first place? Apparently it’s near the missile impact site. I see, so the plan is to somehow manage by sending an army of parts and players to where the abandoned Apollyon Fusion from the 2055 operation is.
Well, I generally understand the plan. It seems sufficient as a prelude before the main conquest battle. I’m sure there will be mid-bosses and such. To prepare for that, there’s something we need to do!
「So first, we need to maintenance my Apollyon!」
「Huh?」
「Why is that?」
「Why? Well…」
But everyone’s reaction is lukewarm. I don’t get it, I thought I made an extremely rational suggestion. Nakamoto nods like he figured it out and prefaces with 「You might have forgotten, but」 before explaining.
「Machine Beasts seek electricity. For example, they sometimes eat things like oil or artificial metal to power their generator organs, or even batteries and electricity itself.」
「Meaning?」
「Don’t show your Apollyons to Machine Beasts.」
What a disaster, I drop to my knees. Give it back, my Falschblau. My yet unseen Apollyon. Wait, we can’t fight barehanded, are you telling us to die?
And so, we unexpectedly set off to explore the earth in the flesh.
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