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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 654: Light Before the Trillion Part 1

「Hey, yo!? What the fuck!? This equipment is exclusively for women!!!」

「Hmm, the Grudge of Black Death, huh……? Somehow, I think that the hardship of obtaining it and the effort put into that are not at all rewarding, don’t you think so too?」

「Scythe of the Dustless Sky “Noble Sickle”!! Attacking with Debuffs!? Are you seriously for real here!?」

This thing right here can be summarized as precisely the way in which the relationship between Happiness and Sadness should look like. As you would expect, bombarding the enemy in Recovery Potions and then drowning it in healing magic tended to do wanders here and the enemy fell to pieces before it was actually able to do anything to defend itself. It was somewhat anticlimactic, but what can you do, huh? And as the monster disappeared in the clouds of black smoke, spheres of drop items started to appear in everybody’s hand one after another.

One person managed to draw the Black Scythe from the Drop Item lottery and they seemed to feel pretty elated about that fact. Another player, a Heavy Armor-wearing male apparently managed to get the female-exclusive set of armor and fell onto his knees, about to be swallowed into the depths of pure despair. One other player apparently managed to drop the Tear of Black Death and let out a sigh, seemingly having no idea whatsoever what would they need to do with that particular item. I mean of course. There is no greatest feeling of despair than managing to obtain a rare item only to find out that you won’t be able to use it or that it is pretty much useless to you…… Incidentally, when it comes to Akitsu Akane, she managed to obtain the Black Scythe as a drop item, so I guess it’s good for her, huh?

「Well, I must say that I’m really sorry for you, “Ivory”! We have already managed to conquer about five layers of this place! How about that, huh?」

「…… OH MY, ARE YOU PERHAPS EXPECTING ME TO FEEL DISSAPPOINTED? OR MAYBE SCARED? QUITE THE CONTRARY, MY DEAR CHILD. AT THE CURRENT MOMENT THE ONLY EMOTION I AM FEELING IS THAT OF THE IMMENSE JOY! BET YOU DID NOT EXPECT THAT, HUH? SANRAKU?」

Huh? Joy? Well, that’s certainly unexpected, I’m not going to lie.

「YOU SEE, THIS GHOST OF BLACK DEATH THAT WAS HERE JUST A MOMENT AGO WAS AN INTERESTING OBSERVATION OBJECT THAT WAS BORN AS AN IRREGULAR EXISTANCE DURING THE TIME OF THE FIRST HUMAN RACE. IT IS CLOSER TO THE “MANA GHOST” IN TERMS OF ITS NATURE, BUT IT ALSO MANAGED TO RETAIN ITS HUMAN ATTRIBUTES AND SHAPE. HOWEVER, ITS VERY NATURE MAKES IT THE NATURAL ENEMY OF ALL FIGHTERS OUT THERE…… HOWEVER, THE RESULTS THAT YOU HAVE DISPLAYED DURING THIS BATTLE ARE MORE THAN MARVELOUS! FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO OVERCOME THE MANIFESTATION OF DEATH SO EASILY, SEEING YOU MAKE THAT HUGE STEP BRINGS ME NOTHING MORE BUT AN UNPRECEDENTED JOY!」

It’s long, long, long, but somehow I understand his feelings. Are you looking at us with the feeling of fighting monsters that you raised instead of yourself?

Long, long, SO LONG…… “Ivory” certainly took her sweet time with putting all of her feelings into words right here! But still, even though she was saying those things in a pretty roundabout way, I get the feeling that I understand what she was trying to say to me right here. It seems that seeing her “children” overcome various challenges was the source of joy for her, similarly to the way on which a parent would witness their offspring become independent. At least that’s my interpretation of that.

She loves us no matter what, but she loves us even more when we show that we can become even stronger and exceed her wildest expectations…… I mean, it’s not like we were conditioned to become strong or anything, or we are not doing that for her sake, but as long as she’s happy, then surely it’s not a bad thing, right?

「Ahh, I see, I get it now…… I honestly feel like I can understand you a little better now…… If that makes sense at all.」

「HEARING YOU SAY THAT REALLY MAKES ME HAPPY, SANRAKU…… BUT BE THAT AS IT MAY, THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU TO GO FORTH! SO, LET ME TRANSFER YOU ALL OF MY BELOVED CHILDRED DOWN TO THE SIXTH LAYER!」

* * *

So, this is supposed to be the sixth level, huh? I would say that we are finally getting somewhere. Or rather, we are starting to be way closer to our goal than we were at the beginning of our little descent.

Thinking about it logically now, from here on out things would only start to become tougher, wouldn’t they? I mean, previously we had about fifteen players with us, and now that number was reduced to ten. So this is really tough, seeing how we still have some floors to go before our designated target. We might actually be cutting it really close in here. But then, with enough information available to you, it is possible to break through the fifth layer solo, so that’s hardly even a problem here…… I also cannot shake off the feeling that “Ivory” is purposefully creating scenarios and situations in which sharing the information among us is crucial for us to push forward…… Or maybe that’s just her weird sense of doting on humanity? I mean, thinking about it now, the “Brave Fish” was also kind of like that, albeit in a somewhat different way. Information sharing is vital part of human civilization to flourish, so I get where they are all coming from, but I wish that they would relate this to us in a little bit less of a ham-fisted form.

「Alright, so now that we are down here in the sixth layer, what exactly do you want us to do here?」

「YOU SEE, FROM HERE ON OUT MY POLICY IS GOING TO CHANGE A LITTLE BIT. BECAUSE FROM HERE ON OUT…… WE ARE GOING TO SHIFT INTO A SOMEWHAT MORE “CIVILIZED” METHOD OF TESTING YOU ALL.」

Oh yeah? And what is it exactly that you mean by that, huh?

「IN ORDER TO PROGESS FURTHER DOWN INTO THE SEVENTH LAYER, THE ONLY CONDITION IS FOR EVERY SINLGE ONE OF YOU TO AMASS ABOUT ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MAGIBYTES OF INFORMATION. ONLY THEN SHALL THE PATH BECOME OPEN.」

「MagiBytes……? What the hell is that supposed to be? Professor, this seems like your kind of a thing, care to explain?」

「Well, unfortunately that concept is news to me as well, I’m afraid. However, I think that I can make a rough guess at what it is. Information mass, magic bytes, that is, certainly…… You mean the collective informational capacity of our inventory, is that correct?」

「YES, THAT IS ACTUALLY A SPLENDID REASONING RIGHT THERE, PROFESSOR. AND YOUR GUESS IS MOSTLY CORRECT, LET ME ASSURE YOU OF THAT. THE INFORMATION MASS THAT I’M TALKING ABOUT HERE IS THE EXTENDED SPACIAL TECHNOLOGY THAT HUMAN BEING HOLD WITHIN THEMELSVES BY DEFAULT. THINK OF IT AS A MATERIAL RECORD OF EVERYTHING THAT HAS EVER PASSED THROUGH THE INVENTORY OF EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE NEXT GENERATION HUMAN BEING.」