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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 382 Part 2

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 382: Fishbowl Shark Part 2

One of the ghosts behind that player’s back thumbs me up, to which I reply with a thumbs down of my own. I can already tell that this ghost must have been one of those “Warmonger” types who are satisfied as long as they can see blood being spilled.

And then Shogun’s Sincerity noticed us and responded with a huge and bright smile that bloomed on his lips.

I don’t know why, but I get a feeling that this guys is bad news. Like, really bad news.

「Alright, KyoTimate! It’s time to haul ass out of heeeeeerrrrrreeeeee!!!」

「Eh? EEEHHH!?」

Bad news, like, REALLY bad news. Best to stay away from people like that if we can help it!

I get a feeling that it was one of those people who previously got a grudge or two going on against me for making them unable to score some valuable prizes during some of the past events! So if it is indeed like that, encountering those people right now would be really dangerous!

「Divine Punishment! Divine Punishment! Divine PUNISHMENT! DIVINE PUNISHMENT!!! HIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!」

「Holy shit! I knew it! This guy must have a screw or two lose in his head! And he’s chasing us!!!」

「Wha, and the hell is that supposed to be!?」

「That’s what the Bakumatsu Period does to you! You kill way too many souls, and you start to gradually lose your own humanity in the process! And the result is right there: a violent machine that only knows how to kill and destroy, going into action as soon as they find another player!」

「So you describe him like he’ no longer even human!?」

That being said we jump of of the teahouse we have been using for a quick strategy meeting, and even though the one chasing us most probably does not understand what is going on, he still jumps towards Kyo-Timate with the urge to kill.

「Strength bias is what have saved me on numerous occasions, but Agility bias lets me get in rage so quickly and easily……」

「Oho? So does that mean that you have been raising your Agility recently?」

「Eh? Seriously?」

Why do we even have that conversation while running side by side? Seriously…… We are going to die for real at this rate……

「Divine ––––」

「Uwoah! Secret Technique! “Fall Entirely on Your Own!」

「What!?」

Now, allow me to explain! The Secret Technique known as “Fall Entirely On Your Own” or “Self-Falling”. It is an advanced evasion technique which requires the user to stumble on his own legs! Abd the best thing about this particular technique is that even the user cannot possibly predict just how his or her body is going to behave when this technique will be used!

It’s a neat little technique when you need to evade some attack but you have no other way of dodging it.

「SHIIIIII!!!!!!」

「The tip of the nose!?」

Despite having no room to escape or evade, I managed to completely avoid the sword that was thrown right into my face by the skin of my teeth. This gave me the opportunity to draw my own weapons and ready for counterattack. We must resolve this thing quickly if we want to get out of here before the reinforcements arrive.

「Hoo…… is this the “Jifu Takeki”……? Seems to me that you have a death wish as well, buddy……」

「This may look bad, but my main principle is to not back down, even in the face of certain death.」

「Oh, how very much Japanese of you……」

So it seems like at least two other Rankers that were taking part in the Winter event last year were already out of the picture here. On one hand it’s really good, but on the other…..

「Oh well, I guess this is this, and that is that, huh? This is all the will of the Heavens, so please don’t think badly of me because of that, alright……?」

「This is just a cheap excuse that everyone around here throws around! As if that was enough to justify anything!!!」

Oh well, if this is truly the will of the Heavens, then I guess I have no other way but to accept it. No use fighting against the inevitable.

「S-Sanraku! I think I know who this guy is! He must be “Hyakki Yagyo”!」

「Wha…… No wait, what the fuck!? Isn’t that actually one of the guys who stays at the top of the rankings all the time!?」

「Eh? Umm……」

「CHEST!」

「Oi! Mother didn’t teach you to not interrupt the conversations of others, you Shinsengumi asshole!?」

Oi, don’t use freaking Jigen-ryu in here! This place here is way too small for that! It’s not the back alley-small, but small enough that fancy swordmanship is going to send you towards a wall no problem!

Not to mention that our opponent here is a true monster, someone who knows the workings of the battle system of this reality in and out! One wrong move here and it’s all over for us!

And while I was thinking that, Kyo-Timate was busy dodging like crazy, and shouted:

「This is hard to explain with just the words alone! The only kind of armor on the upper body is the helmet, and the lower body is just…… a loincloth!? Eh!? And what the hell is that supposed to be!? A mallet!?」

「Alright! Ready or not, here I come!」

Oh yeah, it is all coming together! There is only one person in this game who uses such perverted, weird avatar! So the identity of our opponent could not be clearer here, even if we were trying to pretend we don’t know the answer!

「I knew it! Even though you may have some event limited items and such, it seems that you have some truly remarkable abilities as a player as well……!」

「I hate……! This kind of……! Delays and faints……! They are really……! Pissing me off because……! I’m not used to them……!」

The difference in our Strength stats was as clear ad day here, and it is something that I needed to accept no matter what. So trying to brute force my way here is a no go. Just like with Wezaemon, the key to this fight is to use a whole lot of different evasion and avoidance techniques, dancing around the field and not giving you opponent any time to get used to them.

「Hello there, Mister “Jumonji Daifuku”. We have a delivery to you straight from the “Shogun’s Sincerity”.」

「I don’t really get what is going on DIVINE PUNISHMENT!!!」

「Guuuh! What the hell is this!? Why are they all boundled together like that!?」

As expected, this one was a Ranker as well. And wouldn’t you know it? As soon as he saw us he switched gears into “Divine Punishment” mode without any reasonable explanation.

But still, that works in our favor here…… As it turns out, “Jumonji Daifuku” is the Ranker with the ninth spot in the top ten. What’s more, he is a somewhat peculiar character, for he always goes into a fit of mad rage whenever he sees someone with the higher rank than his own, and he always wants to improve his own position.

「Alright, it’s Divine Punishment time, you assholeeeeeessssss!!!」

「Right, so with that being said and done, I will leave the rest to you.」

「Ahh! Wait! Kuh…… !!」

I could see that the ghosts started to silently get excited just now. Then I just turned around and started running, flowing in Kyo-Timate’s footsteps. And I managed to do that just at the right time, since there was a loud THUD! of the hammer going down right at the place where I stood just now. I don’t want to think what would that hammer do to me otherwise.

「…… And, now we are here. Oh well since most of the Ranker encounters lead to the certain death of anyone who got in their way, we should consider ourselves to be pretty lucky. But to keep it that way, let’s be extra careful from now on as to not encounter any more of those guys.」

「When talking about problems like that, is it not the case that about seventy percent of them are rooted somewhere in one’s past? Usually childhood?」

「I’m a man who tends to not dwell on the past all that much…… Christ on a stick! Won’t you look at that! This is the asshole that stabbed me in the back during the last year’s event! DIVINE PUNISHMENT ON YOUR ASS, YOU FUCKNUGGET!!!」

「Dude, the least you could do here would be to not contradict your words with your actions only after two seconds.」

Two seconds ago is still a present in my book, not the past.