ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

Chapter 291: First City, the Best Hunter

There was once a certain Unique Monster.
Its name was Gravekeeper Wezaemon.

That Unique Monster was known from its ability to spam an Insta-death skill after Insta-death skill, often without break and without giving its opponents any room to breather in between those.
In the end, it was a freaking monster of a boss, one that you would not be able to beat if you were simply going to spam your own skills without any sort of a plan.
And with it being able to keep the Insta-death parade for as long as thirty minutes straight, battle with it was truly a grueling one.
But that being said, it was a good boss monster to train your memorization skills and the ability to dodge.

There was once a Professional Gamer called Silvia Goldberg.

A human-powered TAS machine.
And that’s putting it lightly, trust me.
Her playstyle is somewhat comparable to that of my own, but she tends to treat every single character she plays as if that character was herself without fail.

There was once a certain Secret Boss based on a technology called Trace AI, a technology which mapped the brain of a human being and converted it into the virtual reality…… That secret boss was known as Ryuuguin Fugaku.

That thing was a genuine monster in more ways than one.
Honestly, more than just a simple AI, fighting that thing was like trying to overcome someone very similar in concept to Silvia Goldberg, only slightly less tenacious.
But even though the fight itself was ridiculously sh*tty, the overall experience was quite fulfilling.

There was once a player in ShangriLa Frontier called Saiga-100.

Her strongest point was the fact that she was able to emerge on top of all of ShangriLa Frontier simply by the virtue of chasing after one peculiar dream of hers.
There was something similar in her to Silvia Goldberg, and it was the fact that if there was something that she was unable to do, she would try over and over again until she was able to do it.
It was kind of crazy, but because of that she was always able to maintain a high amount of tension.
Still, that did not help her much once she stood against me on the field of battle.

Which brings us to this guy right here, another TAS incarnate.

「…………」

’

「Then, how about this!?」

A blow that is performed as a spin attack, and in the reverse-clockwise direction at that.
Swift and sure, aiming right at the base of my neck.

There is a weapon coming straight for the middle of my chest.
I had to use every ounce of my strength to brandish the Duxaram sword in order to push that weapon away from me …… In order for me to escape from the blow by the strange kind of weapon that looked like a combination of both tonfa and a sword, I had to mobilize all of my mobility skills.
And then I have managed to dodge it by the skin of my teeth.

「…………」

「God damn it, I am concentrating here the best I can, and still……!」

Even though the imitation roleplay: Ryuuguin Fugaku is up and fully operational right now, I am still finding myself at an overwhelming disadvantage here.
A testament to that can be the fact that even though my current sword regenerates its Durability with every successful critical strike, more than a half of its Durability was now gone.

When things like that keep on happening to you, the only thing that keeps on raising is the feeling that you want to say “Screw it!” and just give up completely.
And by sh*t like that…… I mean being killed for no apparent reason whatsoever!

If you try to be more on the defensive side — you are going to die.
If you try to go on the offensive — you will also die.
And that is not mentioning that I do not have my usual caffeine boost with me right now! Oh well, please do your best, naturally produced adrenaline!

’

As for what was trying to kill me here…… It may very well be called a walking TAS machine.
It’s attacks are not the fastest out there, but the fact that each swing of the weapon is calculated to be the optimal one when it comes to trajectory and use of deadly force makes this all the more annoying to deal with!

Spin around, and then trying to get behind my back.
And since my opponent was using tonfas, his attacks are really versatile right now, allowing for some deadly and unexpected combination of blows.

However, this guy is limited by the range that the fisting weapon can provide…… And thankfully, I can work with that, as it was not all that eager to change its battle style for the moment.

「Reshape!」

「Uwah, that’s actually amazing!」

Now it’s noisy all around us.
Is that the change in the BGM? If so, I should pay a little more attention to it.
I would really like some rock music right about now…… Uwah, better not focus my hearing on that, I might actually die because of that!

「I mean…… I…… why do I feel like…… something bad…… about to happen……?」

I try to block the incoming barrage of attacks with my sword, but then my hand is blown away and I am left wide open for attacks.
In the face of that, I quickly operate the inventory window with one hand, trying to equip the replacement, while all the time dodging the incoming blows.

The speed at which the weapons change right now feel awfully slow for some reason.
And that slow speed is enough to make me feel angry about it.

’

I know that the seven days limit was yet to pass, so the Exess mechanism could not be used.
But I decided to block the incoming attacks with the help of my trusty mirror shield.
And now it’s time for the counteroffensive! Eat this! Phalanx!

「…………」

Its face is hidden under the hood and the muffler, so I cannot really read anything at all from its expression.
But for the moment out there, I could have sword that I have seen something akin to a frustration there.

This should only be an AI, so I have no idea why it would target me of all people out there.
However, after coming so far, it would just be too frustrating to say “I am too tired of this situation, so I just give up”.

And that is because it is the city in which most of the ShangriLa Frontier’s new players will start their adventure: Firstea.
So if I die here now, I will respawn in the completely different city.

Or maybe it’s just that I don’t want all of those beginning players to watch me get my ass kicked by this thing.

It doesn’t really matter what the origin of this feeling is.
Right about now, there is a burning desire deep inside of my heart: I don’t want to lose.

「Uoooooohhh!!! Ready or not, here we go! Don’t blink or you might miss it completely!」

’

It’s not anything all that unique, so there is literally no reason for me trying to hide it.
There is a brief pause in the battle, and in the next moment I push the thing back with brute force alone ever so slightly.
Then I squeeze my hand in to a fist and lodge it straight into that thing’s stomach!

「It’s time for a real fistfight! Mano-a-mano! And since kill penalty is not a problem with you, don’t be mad if I happen to blow you to shreds by accident!」

「…………!?」

While I wear this armor of black thunder, even the most optimal and fastest of attacks won’t be able to reach or harm me…… And from the way that the Bounty Hunter started to shake his head, I could see that this “Lutia” showed signs of being irritate for the first time.

As I said earlier, I have never committed any sort of PK here in ShanFro.
And the Bounty Hunters are the NPCs that hunt the players with an especially bad and nasty Karma…… To be more specific: NPCs that specialize in hunting down the PKers.

Well, that’s certainly strange.
Why am I the only one who is being targeted by the PK players? I can hear them going after me, and me EXCLUSIVELY here.