Golden Experience

Chapter 88: “Before the Final Battle”

Wayne never imagined that he could ever visit the royal castle. Of course, other games also had places like this, but in this game, the level of craftsmanship was on a completely different level. Just from seeing the outside, he already thought that it was majestic, but the inside was just as magnificent.

Wayne followed behind the knight, steadily going up and further into the castle. The hallways were vast and winding; he didn’t think he would be able to find his way back out on his own. During this event, it might even just be faster for him to die and revive outside. If he had known this might happen, he would have gone to an inn in the castle town to log out momentarily first, but if he were to die now, he’d just be playing roulette again.

At some point, he started suffering the piercing stares of the people they passed. Sellswords probably weren’t supposed to come into this area, he speculated. Wayne didn’t know why he was being brought all this way, but whoever called for him must have thought that a single knight would be able to keep him under control. As far as he could tell from the way the knight carried himself, that idea wasn’t wrong. The knights from the capital certainly were powerful.

“Pardon the interruption! I have brought one safeholder with me!”

They had finally arrived at a massive door. The knight knocked on it, received permission to enter, and opened it to step inside. Wayne came in after him.

“Hello there…”

“Ohh, I’m glad you’re here, Lawson! You were only able to find one safeholder?”

“Yes sir. It appears that none of them have shown up at the guild since yesterday.”

“I see. I have heard that many more safeholder sellswords are helping to defend the border than usual. Perhaps they had already started heading out that way yesterday. The capital is currently peaceful, after all.”

This appeared to be a reception room. Wayne was shown to a soft-looking sofa. As he sat down, he was immediately offered some tea. It must be awkward for there to be a reception room this deep in the castle; he wondered when exactly they got to use it. The attendant-looking person who served the tea bowed politely then exited the room.

“First off, thank you for coming. My name is Douglas O’Connell, and I have been appointed the prime minister of the Kingdom of Hiers by His Majesty. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”

He was the prime minister. A huge VIP. Not someone who would meet directly with a lowly sellsword. Why did he want Wayne—players to be brought to him?

“—Ah, umm, I’m Wayne. I don’t have a family name. I’m a sellsword. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Indeed. Mister Wayne, I’m sure you think it strange that you’ve been brought all this way.”

“……I do.”

“Currently, monsters are assaulting cities all across the kingdom. We are struggling to come up with a response; I myself have been working all night.”

The “I didn’t get any sleep” excuse! Wayne often made the same complaint to his VR coworkers, but he never would have expected it in a game world as well. He felt a strange sense of affinity with the prime minister. The cities under assault definitely referred to the current event. Wayne nodded.

“However, we actually believe that this incident truly began about ten days ago.”

What was he talking about? This was news to Wayne. The event should have only started yesterday. Maybe the admins started preparing the event ten days ago? That was probably about when they announced the event details, or maybe that happened a bit later.

“Ten days ago, the patriarch of the Holy Church of Hiers declared that he had received an oracle.”

“You mean like a message from God…?”

“That is correct. Oracles are mysterious divine words from God delivered to the patriarch and his bishops that provide insight about the world.”

Insight about the world. It felt like that referred to system messages. Since Wayne didn’t remember getting any system messages himself, maybe this was a way to specifically warn NPCs about events.

“In this last oracle, we were informed of the birth of a new threat to humanity.”

A threat to humanity. Since Wayne didn’t appear to know what that meant, the prime minister explained in detail. The threats to humanity were the six special monsters scattered across the world, each one possessing enough power to destroy entire continents. Since it was impossible to fight against them with the meager might that humans had, they became known as “catastrophes.” Their number included things like a true vampire and an archdemon, but this kingdom had only ever had to deal with the archangel. That said, the archangel never showed itself, only the angels would come down to randomly attack the capital and the larger cities.

And now a seventh catastrophe had been born.

“We believe that this event triggered the monsters’ indiscriminate invasion.”

That made sense. So the oracle really was in preparation for the event. This seventh catastrophe or whatever was the true villain, and the oracle was the flag signifying that the event was coming.

“The true invasion thus began yesterday. The reason the safeholders all disappeared yesterday was likely because they went to provide assistance to the border cities, am I wrong?”

Wayne nodded. His guess was more or less correct. Wayne was only in the capital himself by happenstance. His inn had been destroyed, so he had wandered around until he got here.

“So that’s what happened. You were at Erfahren… I see.”

From those words, it seemed the prime minister already knew that Erfahren had been lost. It had now been one day since that had happened. Wayne had no clue where Erfahren and the capital were in relation to one another, but if they used something like messenger birds, then it made sense that they’d be able to receive information about faraway places.

However, that was unrelated to why Wayne had been summoned here. The only places under attack were at the border, so it was out of the question for the capital to come under fire. Since he had been told it was an emergency, he thought they might know something about the safety of the city, but why now?

“This makes the explanation easier. The seventh catastrophe was actually born near Erfahren, in the Great Liebe Forest.”

Wayne was stunned. But at the same time, he also felt that it made sense. The ants that surged out of the great forest and descended on the city were extraordinarily powerful. They shouldn’t have come from an overworld dungeon with tons of beginners that had earned the nickname “the Great Learning Forest” on the forums. The only monsters that appeared in that forest were weak ants and goblins, and for some odd reason players always got killed if they farmed more than a certain number of enemies. That’s why it was very popular lately with new players as a tutorial dungeon for developing a sense of when to quit, and for learning the basics of combat.

All of the above led to Erfahren housing a lot of newbies. There was also the rumor that Wayne had spread, that Rare, the winner of the last event, farmed in this forest, which occasionally attracted top-tier players and stalkerish people like Wayne. Well, not that he was a stalker himself, of course not.

And a giant army of bloodthirsty ants overran such a laid-back location. The city was leveled in the blink of an eye, and all the players and NPCs were probably killed. The players probably respawned all across the kingdom.

“I’m sure you already know, but Erfahren was decimated in an extremely short amount of time. At the same time, the city of Lourdes, which was a relatively short distance away, was swallowed whole by plant-type monsters and has now disappeared. Even though the two cities were attacked by completely different types of monsters, they both fell at nearly the same time, so while there may be no direct link, it’s also difficult to conclude that there was absolutely no connection.”

The prime minister’s conjecture made sense. Because of the event, monsters were hitting various cities along the border, but the reason for that, the key, was the event boss monster, which was this catastrophe.

“And so, that was yesterday, and here we are today. The city of La Colline, one of our important trade hubs that is quite far from the border, was besieged by a large army of giant wasps. Apparently each wasp carried an ant, and those ants fired unknown projectiles from the sky, thus felling La Colline.”

It was those ants. The wasps had carried those cannoneer ants to conduct a siege. In this world, people didn’t think about flying in the air, so air bombing was a completely alien concept to them. He didn’t know how big this city was, but no matter how big it was, it was lost.

“…I think those were the same ants that were at Erfahren.”

“So they really were… If those ant-type monsters that attacked Erfahren came at the behest of the disaster, then this is now evidence that its hand has stretched all the way to La Colline…”

“Uh, this ‘La Colline’ place, is it near here? If it only fell today, then it hasn’t been that long since it did, right?”

Even if that wasn’t the case, getting information via bird meant that unless the wasps were a lot slower than the birds were, the capital could have been attacked while they were only just receiving the latest news. However, he couldn’t see any signs of the capital being attacked from the road, so perhaps the catastrophe’s forces had gone in a different direction.

“No, it takes about eight days to get there on foot, nine for an army on the march. On a fast horse, it would still take at least two days.”

“Then did you get this information via messenger bird…?”

“No. We did send a pigeon, but we didn’t know about the destruction at that point in time, and we never received a reply. We learned about the attack via another method.” The prime minister paused. “Actually, about nine days ago, we formed a catastrophe subjugation force, and they were headed for the Great Liebe Forest.”

Nine days ago, that was likely the day after the patriarch had received the oracle. Meaning as soon as they heard the oracle, they immediately put together this army. The leadership of this country must have been either incredibly decisive or horribly cornered to have made such a swift decision. Catastrophes must just be that terrifying to the NPCs of this world.

“That army was just wiped out. With La Colline.”

“Wha—”

“The last message I received from the army commander came this morning via pigeon. In it, he said that the wasps were spreading out all over La Colline and asked if he should prioritize the subjugation of the catastrophe or the defense of La Colline.”

So that’s how he found out about it. But that meant that this morning, all he knew was that the wasps might begin attacking La Colline. He had no proof that the city had been destroyed.

“I was distressed over how to respond, and decided to tell him to hurry to the Great Liebe Forest, even if he had to abandon La Colline, in order to defeat the catastrophe. At that point in time, I believed that there were only wasps, and that the catastrophe itself was still in its nest.”

“I’m… not sure I would agree. Isn’t it possible that it came to lead its troops in battle…?”

“You’re right, of course. However, there is a rule of thumb. I spoke of the other catastrophes earlier, correct? Of the six, our kingdom has only fought against the angels. The catastrophe that controls those angels is the archangel, but it never leaves its sky castle under any circumstances. Since anyone who has ever seen it is dead, there are rumors that it has never been sighted, but at the very least I know of no records in any country of the archangel ever setting one foot outside the sky castle. Our seventh catastrophe has only just been born. Wouldn’t it follow that it likely wouldn’t make the decision to needlessly leave its own castle?”

That made a certain amount of sense. But from a game event perspective, Wayne wasn’t sure if that would necessarily be true. Since all the players were scattered across the continent, he questioned whether it would make sense for the event boss to hole up in some remote backwater forest.

“I understand… But still, all you know is that the subjugation army has, um, abandoned the city of La Colline, right? You don’t actually know if the city was destroyed.”

“Mmm… As a safeholder, you may already know about this, but we of noble rank are able to have what are known as ‘followers’ in our employ.”

“Yes, I’ve heard.”

“Then I shall eschew the detailed explanation. When followers die, they will revive in the last place they awoke from sleep after one hour has passed. You know this?”

“Right.”

If he remembered correctly, this was written in the official FAQ. However, the conversation topic just jumped again. Wayne wondered how this was relevant to La Colline being destroyed.

“Three of my follower knights traveled with the subjugation army. All three of them were specially trained to constantly observe one another, and they were only chosen for this mission after completing that training. The three knights also carried a month’s supply of a special potion.”

Wayne still didn’t see where this was going.

“This potion has the effect of causing severe insomnia. No matter how long the march took, my knights would never fall asleep. So if they died during their travels, they would revive in the last place they awoke, which would be here in the capital.”

Wayne gawked; he had no words. They would go that far? No; of course they would. This was their world. This was the country that they lived in and protected.

“My knights just revived earlier and delivered their report to me. About the destruction of La Colline, and about the possibility of the catastrophe raiding the capital.”

So the source was as reliable as can be. It was just like how players used friend chat and forums to share information, except that since NPCs didn’t have access to those, they invented this unbelievable method of indirect long-range communication.

But then, if the knights had already returned from death and delivered this information, why did the prime minister need to find players? Wayne truly wondered what he wanted from him.

“So, Mister Wayne, this is my request to you. I would like you to gather as many of your comrades as you can here in the capital. There is a very high chance that this will be the catastrophe’s next target. And it will come itself.”

“Wha—! How… What is your basis for that belief?!”

“Yes…”

The prime minister signaled Lawson, the knight from before, with his eyes, who then brought over a large map. It appeared to be drawn on parchment; he spread it out on a low table, and the prime minister pointed at a certain spot.

“Here. This is the Great Liebe Forest. And over here is the city of Erfahren.”

It was Wayne’s first time seeing an actual map, so he didn’t know the country looked like this. After having it pointed out, he recognized the area. That was indeed what the city looked like. Then again, the city was now gone, so they would have to update this beautiful map.

“And this is where La Colline is. Given that the same monsters appeared at both La Colline and Erfahren, we can assume they’re the same force, in other words, all part of the catastrophe’s army. Look here, Erfahren is west of the Great Liebe Forest. And further west of it is La Colline. Meaning they’ve been marching west in almost a straight line.”

This was in fact the case. And speaking of, the capital was the next city on that line. That was what the prime minister wanted to show Wayne.

“Next, regarding the possibility of the catastrophe accompanying its forces this time. My knights did not perish along with La Colline; to be precise, they died afterward. La Colline was decimated by attacks from the wasps and ants, but those attacks ultimately only destroyed the city itself and, heartrending as it is, the townspeople and the inexperienced soldiers. The experienced soldiers from the army and the knights did not die in that offensive. Perhaps seeing that the insects were unable to defeat these survivors, after that, the wasps and ants suddenly disappeared. We don’t know where they disappeared to, but what’s certain is that they were indeed gone.”

Wayne nodded in understanding. The prime minister continued. “The problem is what comes next. Suddenly, in the sky above the knights, a group of undead materialized and fell down to the ground. These undead were terrifyingly powerful, and they immediately crossed swords with the men who withstood the attack on the city. I was told that they could not even leave a single scratch on them.”

Even Wayne had heard rumors of these monsters. Extremely overpowered undead knights could sometimes appear in the Great Liebe Forest. If the catastrophe was indeed born in Liebe, then the ants and the undead were both undeniably under its control.

After Wayne relayed this, the prime minister nodded.

“I see. Then they are unmistakably the catastrophe’s underlings.”

“But how does this lead to the catastrophe being there in person?”

“A fair question. But think: Normally, it would be impossible for undead to materialize in midair. If they came out of the ground, then there are other explanations, but midair? How else can you explain that phenomenon?”

The prime minister was right; it was incredibly unnatural.

“Instead of simply accepting that they materialized out of the ether, it’s much more convincing to believe that there is a creature that can hide itself from the naked eye, float in the air, and summon other monsters. In fact, monsters that can become invisible do exist. We have also confirmed the existence of monsters that can summon hordes of undead. And for the swarm of wasps that could travel from Erfahren to La Colline in less than a day, if the catastrophe accompanied them, then naturally it is equipped with the ability to fly. If it is indeed a catastrophe, then it is feasible for such a being to possess all of these abilities.”

On the whole, what the prime minister proposed sounded preposterous, but after hearing him explain every piece one by one, it actually became more and more believable. And that helped Wayne convince himself logically that it was possible for a catastrophe like this to exist.

“Because the wasps ended up leaving the battlefield, I’m uncertain if it intends to attack the capital with them. If it felt like it, it could summon those undead that even my knights cannot match. But at the very least, I believe that there is an exceedingly high chance that the catastrophe has vacated the Great Liebe Forest and traveled west toward here.”

The prime minister took a sip of his tea. Wayne noticed for the first time that his throat was incredibly dry and followed suit. The tea had long lost its heat.

“…So, you want to use the play— safeholders’ information network to gather a force here in the capital.”

“That is correct.”

Wayne contemplated whether it was possible to get a large number of skilled players here in the capital; he never even thought of refusing. He remembered that nameless town from last night. If Wayne had been stronger, maybe he could have saved it. His lack of power was the same now as it was then, but he had a chance to do something about it this time.

“I understand. I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do, but I’ll give it a shot.”

???

[Event Boss] Come To Hiers Capital ASAP! [Confirmed]

1: Wayne

There’s a really high chance that the event boss will attack the Hiers capital.

Source is the prime minister NPC

If anyone can come, pls meet in the capital.

2: Monkey Dive Sasuke

moron. only day 2.

3: healthyunpeelable

If it respawns a bunch of times, then its not weird for it to show up on the 2nd day, but…

4: Amatane

>>1

how did u meet w/ a bigshot like the prime minister?

5: Wayne

>>4

Right now, there’s barely any players in the capital. When I went to the sellsword guild, there was a knight looking for players, and since I happened to be the only one there he brought me to the castle.

That’s where I heard the details, probably a good chance a boss monster called a [Catastrophe] will be here

6: Monkey Dive Sasuke

ur story is so messy

THREAD OVER

7: nameless elf

>>5

Did you hear about this [Catastrophe] from His Excellency?

8: Wayne

>>7

Yea

Apparently there are six catastrophes across the world, and the event boss this time is the 7th one

It was born 10 days ago in the east part of the kingdom in the Liebe dungeon, then when the event started it marched straight west

Day 1 was Erfahren, this morning was La Colline, next is the capital

Probably today

9: MentaiList

>>8

i saw it in another thread

erfahren gettin zerged is true

lacolline gettin rekt is true

no official map so dunno if the capital is realy next but well hes convincing

10: nameless elf

Adding on that I can confirm the [Catastrophe] stuff

I’m in Portrie, and one of the big wigs in the church here did a speech in the capital city

I think there’s a thread about it somewhere

A lotta countries got the same spiel

And that happened 10 days ago I think

They said it was the east part of Hiers, so the place matches

11: healthyunpeelable

Srsly? Or maybe a buncha bored players are just trolling every1

12: Wayne

It’s not a lie

Seriously there’s no time

I need people to come pls

13: Orinki

>>9

i saw that thread too, but damn, it sounded like erfahren got seriously fucked up

erfahren’s that place in hiers with the beginner/newbie dungeon, but it totally got zerged by ants and trashed in just a few hours

at first people were all spamming “LETS GOOO”, but then it all changed to “SHIT”, then nothing for a while, then just “where am i”

their inns got bombed and they randomly respawned i guess

the city wall and the houses and everything got totally leveled

14: Monkey Dive Sasuke

>>13

o wait

wut u mean dungeon

dis game has shit like dat?

15: MentaiList

by newbie dungeon you mean the great liebe forest?

admins never made an announcement about it

according to the investigation team, no matter how many monsters are killed they always respawn, no many how many items you find there are always more, but get greedy and you get killed and sent back to town, so they figure its a stealth update beginner friendly content patch

even if you get sent back, you never have less xp than when you started, so its super fair

the balance is so ocd its godly, they must have a bunch of special ais running it

the entrance is easy to miss but the road to get there is nice and easy

16: Amatane

make a new thread if u jus chatting

>>12

if true then u in some srs shit, but the real problem is how we get to capital rn, theres no way rite?

17: CountryPop

>>1 If it’s all true, isn’t it at best only a possibility?

Even if we can somehow get there, the capital’s so far from the border what do we do after?

18: Wayne

Please

I’m serious, please

If the catastrophe comes then Hiers is toast

19: Wayne

Anyone

20: Gi1gamesh

Heeeeeeeeey?

WHY DIDNT U ASK ME

Im gonna cry DDDDDDDDDD:

21: Amatane

>>20

hey its gi1gamesh

yr u here

22: Orinki

>>21

who’s that?

23: MentaiList

>>22

best tank on the server currently

didnt you say you finished defense on first day of the event already? in another thread

24: Gi1gamesh

>>21

Cuz Wayne’s my friend

>>23

I sure did

Defense squad turtled while attack squad took out mobs, cake

25: CountryPop

Srsly? Still a week left what u gonna do now? Lol

26: Gi1gamesh

>>25

We gonna save the kingdom now, yeah?

27: healthyunpeelable

Amg hes so dreamy

28: Wayne

Gil, sorry I forgot

Can you come help

29: Gi1gamesh

>>28

We friends right?

You killjoy just leave it to me

30: Yoichi

Sounds fun

Gimme a couple shots too

31: Amatane

now its nurse yoichi huh

32: healthyunpeelable

At least he sounds cool lol

33: nameless elf

But he looks like shit lol

34: MentaiList

but his skills are THE shit (srsly)

35: CountryPop

More like when did all these top rankers take over this thread?

Everyone here made it to the championship last time right

>>1 Never heard of this guy though

36: Wayne

I’m just a regular player

Defense lost on the first day, inn got wrecked, random respawn. Another city got destroyed after that, random respawn again. Finally made it to the capital but there weren’t any other players here

I can’t do anything by myself

I need everyone’s help

37: healthyunpeelable

U seriously wiped on day 1

O wait were you in that city they talked about before?

Already surprising to lose 2 cities on day 1, but even more surprising that you ate random respawns at both of them

>>1 U got E rank luck man

38: Gi1gamesh

I wanna come help, but seriously how am I gonna get to Hiers capital

I ain’t used my event port yet today, but I’m outside the country rn

One port won’t get me to the capital

39: Gi1gamesh

j/k, I can make it to the capital

I just checked the list of neighboring cities and Hiers capital is there

Wasn’t there yesterday, wonder why?

40: healthyunpeelable

Bug?

41: MentaiList

i dont think this game has bugs

42: nameless elf

Hold up

If it wasn’t there yesterday but it’s there today, doesn’t that mean cities that were there yesterday aren’t there today?

Isn’t it because some cities got destroyed so they’re not neighboring anymore, and the capital is the next closest?

43: Gi1gamesh

That means between where I am now and Hiers, there aren’t any cities between me and the capital

44: Wayne

The prime minister told me

Right now, Hiers has lost at least 5 cities

45: Monkey Dive Sasuke

wut is this the apocalypse?

46: Yoichi

If Gi1gamesh is good, what about everyone else?

47: Monkey Dive Sasuke

y u assuming every1 else going

but i mean sure ill go

48: MentaiList

>>46

i saw yesterday on the event megathread, anything a player is carrying counts as part of the player

there were reports that you can carry someone and port, then they can carry you and port back

so you have someone with a lotta str and vit carry a buncha people, then switch people in the next town…and keep doing that until you get to hiers

49: healthyunpeelable

So how many ppl u need 4 that

And once u finally get to the capital how many tanks u got left

50: Gi1gamesh

>>49

You got me

51: CountryPop

Ur seriously some kinda perfect husbando? lol

52: nameless elf

There are a bunch of threads gathering people now

53: MentaiList

people probably havent noticed so we should go tell them

no matter where you end up after all the ports, you can just die to return to your city

no death penalty right now

so even if the event boss doesnt show up, the only thing we lose is todays event port

if you mention that, you can get more people to help, right?

54: nameless elf

>>53

I didn’t think of that lol

Thx

55: Monkey Dive Sasuke

cn i link ppl to this thread?

56: Wayne

Thanks everyone

Thank you so much

57: Amatane

u wanna thank someone thank ur friend first

soon as he came everyone piled on

???

“…I somehow managed to convince some people to come here.”

Wayne had borrowed the sofa in the reception room while he jumped on the forums. He asked an attendant to let the prime minister know in his office next door.

“You have my most sincere gratitude… So, about how many people will be coming?”

“Umm… maybe twenty, no, about thirty people are coming. They’re all many times stronger than I am.”

“Goodness…”

The prime minister said nothing after that, his eyebrows wrinkling together in thought.

“…I apologize, but please wait here for a bit, if you would.”

“Uh, sure. I don’t mind, but… Um, what should we do with the pla— my acquaintances who’ll be arriving here?”

“Hm, let’s see. Lawson, please greet them. As for what to do once they have all gathered… I believe it best to take them to the inner courtyard. Mister Wayne, I apologize, but I would ask you to move to the inner courtyard as well. Lawson will take you there. I shall join you as soon as I speak with His Majesty.”

After going through that complex hallway again, Wayne was led to the inner courtyard. It had only been a short time, but even still, he felt more collected than when he had first set foot in the castle. He was able to make small talk with the knight guiding him, Lawson. Only because he couldn’t stand walking in silence, though.

“Uhh, Sir Lawson, was it? I wonder what His… Excellency is talking to His Majesty about.”

Lawson abruptly stopped in place, answering without turning around. “Mister Wayne… Seeing you do everything you possibly could right before our eyes, I believe His Excellency was greatly moved. You should have no reason to exhaust everything at your disposal for the sake of our kingdom, so we too cannot stand idly by. I suspect that is why he sought His Majesty.”

“Oh, is that how it is…? Thank you very much.”

Lawson clearly knew more about the situation, but he wasn’t allowed to share everything. Even still, from the deliberate way he spoke, Wayne was certain that Lawson was doing his best to give as many hints as he could.

They continued walking in silence and eventually came out into the inner courtyard.

“Mister Wayne, approximately when will your allies be arriving? And where will I be able to find them?”

“Umm, one of them is already in town. Everyone else will slowly trickle in, I believe. For the time being, should I tell them to meet in front of the castle?”

“Yes, if you could do that, it would be of great assistance. Well then, my apologies, but we ask that you please stand by. I shall wait before the castle then bring your allies here.”

Wayne had no way to remember how to get back to the reception room from here, nor did he have any idea how to leave the castle either. It went without saying that if left alone here, the only thing he could possibly do was wait.

“No problem. Thank you for your help.”

Wayne went back to that forum thread to post the meeting location, then pinged Gil via friend chat.

<—meet in front of the castle. A knight in fancy armor named Lawson is coming to pick you up.>

<Front of the castle, you got it.>

<…Gil, um, thank you.>

<Stop that. Let’s take out that boss.>

<…Yeah, let’s.>

He would just have to wait a bit longer before Gil would be here.

“They seriously let us into the castle… Sorry, I honestly only half believed it.”

“If we start spreading the word about this now, won’t we get more people?”

“But there’s a soft time limit, or like we dunno exactly when the attack’ll be coming. If they tried to come now, they might not make it, right?”

“As long as we say that up front, we might as well just put it out there anyway.”

Amatane, Orinki, CountryPop, healthyunpeelable… They were top-tier players that even Wayne knew. They actually came. She didn’t post in the thread, but the famous player ThoseWarmHands was here too. She was one of the few healers in the game, having been the first person to discover healing magic skills. After that, more and more players filed into the castle. There must have been over thirty players here.

“Thank you all so much…”

“It’d be a kick in the balls if we actually lost an entire country or whatever. If this ends up being a scam then you’re a goddamn son of a bitch, but for now it doesn’t seem to be a lie.”

It was a ninja in full-body black tights. Wayne also recognized him from the championship.

“I never doubted him. He’s Gilgamesh’s friend, after all.”

This came from a gentleman in nurse clothes. It was Nurse Yoichi.

He was apparently partied with the black tights player now, Monkey Dive Sasuke. After both losing to the same person in the championship, they had somehow hit it off.

“Speaking of which, I thought I recognized the name ‘Wayne’ from somewhere, but weren’t you the one who leaked that the last champion, Rare, was in the Great Liebe Forest?”

“Right, were you able to get in touch with her? If she were here, I’m sure we’d have a better chance of beating it.”

Wayne looked down after hearing Yoichi and Amatane’s questions. “Rare… I don’t know. We’re not exactly friends. She’s a PKer, and… probably doing the event solo.”

The only reason she got close to Wayne in the first place was to PK him anyway. Not that he would reveal something lame like that.

“I getcha… If that’s how it is, not much we can do about it.”

“Goodness, you’ve gathered so many people… Mister Wayne, I am speechless.”

Prime Minister O’Connell had arrived, and behind him followed a number of knights carrying a large object. Since it was covered with a cloth, he couldn’t see what it was, but it appeared to be round. From its size, it didn’t seem like something that even that many people should have been able to carry, so it must have been quite light. Wait, no, it would make more sense to assume that the knights just had high STR. They were more powerful than Wayne was. If it were light, then one person might be able to carry it alone, but due to balance considerations, two would be sufficient.

“I’ve already spoken to Mister Wayne about this, but…” The prime minister explained what Wayne had heard previously to all the players in the inner courtyard.

“I see now; yeah, with all that info, it really does sound likely that it’ll show up at the capital.” After hearing the explanation, Amatane responded as the representative of all the players.

“Yes. So, with regards to that…”

The prime minister signaled with his eyes, and a knight pulled the cloth off the mystery object. What was underneath was an ominous-looking giant crystal egg that glittered with all the colors of the rainbow, like a prism.

“None of you are our kingdom’s knights, yet you are here selflessly pledging to do everything in your power to help with us. Given the situation, as a kingdom, we cannot simply sit by and watch while doing nothing. Of course, any knights and soldiers remaining in the capital will be joining you in battle, but that is a separate matter. We bureaucrats must also put forth everything at our disposal to be of assistance.”

The prime minister approached the crystal egg and continued speaking with his hand on it.

“This is an ancient relic known as an ‘artifact.’ It is one of our national treasures. You have been allowed to use it as a boon from His Majesty.”

“A national treasure…!”

“Did you say ‘artifact’?!”

“This is a new type of item…”

“Is it… really all right for us to use it?”

After Amatane asked, the prime minister looked back at the players and slowly nodded his head. He then randomly launched into an explanation about the mysterious item.

“This secret tool has the effect of cursing every creature within a designated area with weakness. Up to ten people can be excluded from its effects by being registered in advanced. The effect lasts for one hour after being activated. The weakness effect strengthens over time. At the start, it is nothing consequential, but as the target remains in the affected area, the effect steadily increases. And that’s not all. If the crystal is broken while the weakness effect is active, then the effect will remain for ten seconds beyond that point. However, depending on how much time was remaining when it was broken, the effect will increase severalfold in potency—the more time there was remaining, the stronger the curse becomes for those ten seconds. The curse is also unbiased; it will affect everything aside from the registered people. The effect will, at its strongest, halve all aspects of a creature. This includes lifeforce as well. Therefore, if the curse activates while one is wounded, it’s possible to cause instant death.”

This was an extraordinarily powerful item. No wonder it was a national treasure. Basically, against any boss, you could halve its stats for up to ten seconds. But, if the kingdom had something like this all along, why didn’t they give it to the subjugation army? If they had it with them, maybe the destruction of La Colline could have been avoided.

“…Why, are you only revealing this now? If the subjugation army had this, they might not have been wiped out…”

“An astute question. There is a condition to using this item. It can only be used in specific locations. One of those locations is here, our capital.”

“Oh, so that’s… But this is a national treasure, isn’t it? If it gets destroyed…”

Even if the country was in crisis, he thought it would be overkill to destroy a national treasure. Though if the country’s existence were at stake should Wayne’s group be defeated, then it would make more sense in that case.

“Mister Wayne, it’s all right. Either way, once this item has been activated, it loses its splendor and cannot be used again.”

“Are you absolutely sure? What you said earlier, about those angels who do raids periodically. Wouldn’t it be better to have this on hand if the archangel ever shows up…?”

“…Another good question. However, it doesn’t work very well on angels.”

“What do you mean?”

“You understand how the different elements of magic interact with each other? It is similar to that concept. This item’s name is [Heart of the Spirit Lord]; legends say that this land was once ruled by a spirit lord, and just before its death, it bequeathed its heart to the residents of the land. And angels’ attributes belong to a sphere of influence close to spirit lords, so they are resistant to the powers of spirit lords.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that…”

“Regarding the places it can be activated, there are six such places. Those locations have become the capital cities of the kingdoms that rule this continent. This also serves as proof that the royal families of these countries have the qualifications to succeed the spirit lord. We here in Hiers were only given information about our own treasure, but each kingdom should have a similar treasure.”

This meant that even when a catastrophe or other big threat attacked, each country’s capital at least had a special event item already prepared for its defense. It definitely made sense for there to be built-in safeguards against huge changes to the game’s setting like the destruction of entire countries. And the fact that it was nearly impossible to use it might be a deliberate configuration that prevented NPCs from going out and beating raid bosses before players could get a chance to fight them.

“So that, uh, catastrophe this time is undead, so it should work on it? We at least know it’s not an angel, right?”

“Exactly. The power of the spirit lord is strongest and most effective against its antitheses. While we don’t know what singular entities those are, we do know it at least works on the forces of evil and darkness. If this catastrophe is as deeply connected to undead as you say, Mister Wayne, then there is no better time to use it.”

“If those are Your Excellency’s thoughts, then we will protest no further. We would like to use the artifact,” Amatane declared, bowing his head. The other players all did the same.

“Well said. We are counting on you.”

“Okay then, Wayne, let’s talk strategy.”

“Huh…?”

Upon suddenly having his own name called out, Wayne felt perplexed by all the people looking at him. Among all the players here, he was undoubtedly the weakest. So then why…?

“Oh, come on, you’re the one who got us all together, right? We only came to give you a hand. Keep your head in the game, now.”

“Yeah, Gilgamesh is right. We responded to your call, Wayne. That makes you the raid leader.”

“But, that’s only because Gil spoke up…”

“Perhaps. But Gilgamesh wasn’t the one who gathered us.”

They were all good people; they were the top players. They had trusted Wayne and come all this way. And it wasn’t only them. There were all those tanks as well who got left behind in towns along the way with nothing to show for it. Despite the fact that they wouldn’t get anything for helping, they still chose to do so anyway.

In that case, Wayne couldn’t just keep hiding behind his weakness. He didn’t have all that much confidence in himself, but it was time to come up with a plan. No, he should be able to do it. After all, he was even able to see through Rare’s tricks. If he ran away now, he couldn’t bear to show his face in front of her again, even though she had acknowledged him, even if only for a brief minute. Not that he cared what Rare thought about him at all.

Having found his determination, Wayne looked around at all the players and nodded.

“Got it. I’ll come up with a plan.”

“First, let’s go over what we know. Our target is what we think is the boss of this event, a powerful monster known as a ‘catastrophe’ that came from the Great Liebe Forest. It used ants and wasps to destroy the city of Erfahren, then it went straight west and once again used ants and wasps to destroy the city of La Colline. After that, it summoned a bunch of undead in the sky and killed all the knights. Everyone follow?”

“Yeah, keep going.”

“Now, I’ll go over the catastrophe’s abilities that we know for sure. First, it can control ants, wasps, and undead. It can fly. It can somehow hide itself from view. It’s heading west—in other words, it’ll be approaching us from the east.”

“Yeah. This is already sounding like a bad time…”

“Next is unconfirmed information, but there were reports from La Colline that the wasps and ants pulled back temporarily. After that point, no one saw the bugs again, so there’s a possibility they won’t be coming to the capital.”

“Would be nice if that were true…”

“You’re right, but that’s not the problem. Beyond that possibility, it means if the catastrophe is coming to the capital by itself while invisible, then even finding it at all will be impossible.”

“Ah, yeah…”

“A moment, Sir Wayne?”

“Please, go ahead, Yoichi.”

“Don’t be so stiff. I’ve got a skill called [Truesight]. When I activate it, all living things in range… well, it includes undead and golems and stuff, but anyway, it lets me sense the LP of everything in range. I don’t get exact numbers or anything, but I see these colored lights. How bright the light is represents their LP remaining, while the color generally tells me their max LP.”

“By the way, I got that skill too.”

“That’s really good to know… All right, then first we’ll have you guys keep a lookout, or like you guys just need to find the enemy, but anyway, we’ll leave that role to Yoichi and Monkey Dive Sasuke.”

“Sasuke’s fine. Why you gotta use my full character name?”

“…Right, so it’ll be up to Sasuke. If it brings wasps with it, we’ll have to plan for that separately, so first let’s assume it’s coming alone. There’s a high chance it’ll be invisible, so our two scouts will be in charge of detection. And the most important thing is to lure it into the artifacts’s area of effect, the field debuff.”

“Makes sense. Normally speaking, if we were to wait for the catastrophe to get here first before getting it ready, then we’d already be too late. Just now, when I touched it, I knew how to use it. I guess you learn how to use artifacts just by touching them. So, when you activate it, you need to designate a target place, not a person or object. And about the effect time, breaking it when there’s at least thirty minutes left will produce the strongest effect.”

“Thank you, Amatane. Which means the ideal scenario is to lead the catastrophe to the right place, have the rearguard activate the artifact, get its LP into the red within thirty minutes, break the artifact, then beat it while it’s super weakened. In order to do this, we’ll—”

?

“—so we’ll go with this general outline. We actually don’t know what kind of monster this thing will be. We can try to predict what might happen outside our expectations, but the most important point is the final debuff from breaking the artifact. I can’t say that pulling off the timing means we will win, but if we don’t get the timing right then we probably can’t possibly win.”

“So first I’ll shoot it with an arrow, which will let everyone know where it is.”

“The lynchpin really is making sure it can’t move during the final debuff.”

“Yup. It’s a huge responsibility. Just leave it to me.”

“And until then, if possible, I want you to do everything you can to shave off as much LP from the catastrophe as possible.”

“It’ll be a coinflip if my [Fear] can get through, but if it’s undead then [Soul Stones] should make sure the cast is successful, at least. Then it’s just a question of whether it resists it…”

“If someone can distract it, Sasuke can chuck a Squid Ink Ball to inflict Darkness, which’ll raise the success rate.”

“So like, can you seriously Blind it by hitting it in the back of the head? How is that logical?”

“That’s just what the item does, so whatever. I got all the deets from the alchemist who made them. They couldn’t come to the battle, so they gave me them in a town on the way.”

The strategy had been more or less decided. All that was left was to execute it.

“…But, this plan assumes that everyone on the front line will definitely die.”

“Nah, I think this is the only plan that’ll work. Fortunately, the death penalty isn’t bad right now. You never know, maybe they purposely removed the XP loss so that we could use the artifact and go with a sacrifice strat.”

“The game admins here only give broad, systematic explanations.”

“Anyway, since there’s no XP loss you don’t gotta worry about it. I bet the XP we get will be split based on contribution anyway.”

“If you die, don’t respawn so that we do everything possible to slow down the catastrophe. All the bodies at its feet will definitely be in the way.”

“I’ll do everything I can to stick to it and hold it back on the final debuff, so sorry but, if you ever don’t know who to heal, then heal me. I’m the hardest to kill, so it should be a little more useful to give ’em to me.”

“Sure, you got it Gil.”

“All right, let’s get into position. Though honestly, we have no idea when it could show up.”

“Let’s do it!”

This was the beginning of Wayne’s party’s raid boss battle, the fight against a catastrophe. It would also be the first time in this continent’s history that a threat to humanity was defeated.

However…

Author’s notes

“This land was once ruled by”…? Now where did these words come up before?

PythagosomethingSwitch

When Rare destroyed Erfahren, she flicked the pinball (a.k.a. Wayne)

?

Lands at the next town, Alto Riva, which Blanc destroyed, tossing the ball

?

Lands in the cup for the capital

La Colline was demolished, the bottom of the cup falls out, knocking over a domino (he was called by the prime minister to post on the forums)

?

The fallen domino causes a new ball to enter the course (Gil)

?

The three stoppers in the ball’s way are removed (Verde Sud, Alto Riva, La Colline), so the new ball rolls all the way to the capital

?

The new ball reaches the capital, causing the flag to go up

Or something.

Regarding the NPCs’ long-distance communication method, when I came up with how followers worked, I thought to myself “some reader will definitely think up a crazy exploit like this,” so thank you to those who realized it could be used this way but didn’t say anything.

This is, at its heart, a story told from multiple perspectives. What’s written is the truth from each person’s eyes as they see it. The only exception was in Blanc’s fixed XP session, but there was no need for me to force it into there, so I might move it later on.

Thus, when NPCs say “the six catastrophes,” that doesn’t necessarily correspond to the number of special disaster-level creatures that exist in the world. It’s simply what they believe to be true based on their own legends passed down through history. Perhaps there are more, or perhaps there are fewer (maybe not a special disaster-level creature, per se, but something really strong that opposes humanity), that mystery skill just tells people in real time when something has awoken, so they think “this thing sounds like bad news, so it’s probably the same as the other existing pieces of bad news, even though I’ve never heard of it before. I might have missed something, though, so I’ll just call it the same thing just in case.” Someone must have done this a long time ago, and that’s how we got the legends that exist today.

Point being, NPCs might not intend to purposely mislead players, but that’s how misinformation can get propagated. Between this misinformation and a difference in how the world is perceived, this sets the stage for a game that seeks be as much like an entirely different world as it can.

With regards to this story, or rather with regards to the game, the only absolutely true information comes from system messages. More information might get mixed in at certain points like with Blanc again, but when I have time I’ll go back and fix things.

If I had my way, it would have been better to leave hints within the story itself, so I apologize for lacking the writing ability to do so.

TL notes

With regards to the author’s note, the author did end up going back and updating almost every chapter, so I don’t know that this note is applicable to readers following the English translation. “Blanc’s fixed XP session” might refer to chapter 18 when she found out she wouldn’t get hit with the XP penalty once she died too many times, but otherwise no event in the story so far really matches what was said here, therefore I honestly don’t know where that reference goes.