Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 120

Conclusion

Prey and the other orcs were doing work in an air pocket――a place where the management couldn’t monitor them.

「Oi, how is it?」

They were watching the surrounding and appropriately dealt with any player who approached.

The orc who was the former executive was analyzing data from the air pocket.

「……Yosh!」

He obtained a lot of data.

A lot of them wouldn’t be useful, but a part of it was data that was related to the case this time.

Prey looked at the former executive’s hand.

He was extracting important data right now. It was about the  management thinking to erase the sightseeing area――especially the  sightseeing area at the Capital of Hope.

Prey’s hand rubbed his large jaw.

「I see, so they don’t need the crowd pulling panda anymore.」

Originally the sightseeing area’s objective was to obtain player from the segment that usually wouldn’t play game.

Just like Prey said, the management prepared a different type of  playing place in this virtual world so player could have experience like  they were going to a trip in order to gather more players.

But now Pandora had become the dominant player in the field of VR game. Those facilities were now becoming a hindrance.

The former executive spat out his words.

「Those guys, they don’t know just how much hard work we did to  complete this area! ……But, from this we now know just how much their  plan has progressed. I heard that they went through a lot of troubles  just to bring a device from the moon but, this game’s specs are too  different from before.」

The device that was brought here from the moon.

It was improving Pandora’s performance drastically.

Dume who was resting his great sword on his shoulder asked the former executive.

「What’s their purpose with destroying the sightseeing area?」

The former executive looked around.

「……Ultimately, they want to cut off the real world. They hate areas  that look like the real world or place where you can feel like you’re  going in a trip. In the first place, Pandora itself is like their  paradise.」

Prey watched the data that was getting absorbed while saying.

「And so they instigated this conflict?」

The former executive nodded.

「It looks like they have been doing it since some time ago. Those  seven going off the handle this time is nothing more than the trigger.」

The orcs clamored.

「……Them acting like that, is just a trigger? Really?」

How could something like that end up being just a trigger?

The orcs were doubtful about that.

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There was a player called Holy Knight Rubin.

His jobs and skills setting was a combination that shocked even the  clearing group. He was a player that embodied a truly useless build.

「Here I go, eat thissssss!」

Rubin blew away the surrounding with a flashy magic. But the players  whose level was only at the single digit were still alive. The buildings  weren’t damaged.

The magic was only flashy without any strength at all.

However, the players of the sightseeing area were having a tough fight against such Rubin.

「What’s with this guy-!」

「Our attacks aren’t working at all!」

「Shouldn’t the damage become extremely small in a fight between players!?」

The sightseeing area players had no interest with the game system.

Damage to HP in battle between players became extremely small.

But, that too would be meaningless when the gap in level was overwhelming.

Rather, it was amazing just how weak Rubin was that he couldn’t kill any of them despite the wide gap in level.

Rubin rested his sword on his shoulder.

His equipments only prioritized look without caring about attack power or special effect at all.

「You guys are quite gutsy. Well, it won’t be fun otherwise――right?」

Rubin broke into a run toward the sightseeing area players who were  backing away from him fearfully, but then he was turning into red  particles when they noticed.

「Eh?」

Rubin had gotten slashed without noticing it.

A player with level above 100 was defeated in one attack.

Naturally the opponent was someone with even higher level than that.

The sightseeing area players were dumbfounded.

「Tsk, it’s just a small fry.」

Mariela had arrived there without anyone noticing. Her equipments were tattered.

Her wounds were also standing out. She was using recovery item.

She acted like she cut down Rubin just because he was in the way.

The other players didn’t even enter her sight.

She changed her equipment from short sword to bow while keeping an eye to the surrounding. Then she suddenly jumped back.

While the sightseeing area players were looking dumbfounded――.

「Got youuuuu!」

A large steel ball fell on that place.

The ground was smashed and rubbles got scattered to the surrounding. Dust cloud rose up.

Noin was swinging around a steel ball that destroyed the surrounding players and buildings. Her equipments were also tattered.

Mariela was stronger than her when it came to player skill.

However behind Noin――.

「Move!」

Fran rushed forward with a speed that blew away the dust cloud.

Fran joined Noin just when she was about to lose and then the two of them were driving Mariela to a corner.

The sightseeing area players were vanishing from the shockwave of the  steel balls, rubbles, and also the fight of Mariela and the two……they  were simply powerless.

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Ponsuke and Naia were facing Anri.

It was an extremely dangerous situation――the agitated Anri had bloodshot eyes that looked simply scary.

It even felt like her status parameters were shooting up to match her agitation.

Naia looked at her favorite battle axe that became cracked and chipped.

「Shit……it was a pain gathering the rare drop to make this!」

She was complaining.

Just why in the world things became like this?

Ponsuke kept asking that question to himself.

(Calm down, me. First, there are seven people rampaging……Mariela,  Alfie, Noin-san, Fran-san, and then Inaho-chan, Anri-san……and last  Lily-san. Still, isn’t something strange? I can imagine Mariela and  Alfie getting angry, but I never even dreamed the other five going into a  rampage like this!)

Ponsuke ――Akito had low opinion about himself.

It was the effect from his family environment ever since he was  small, but the fact that there were seven people harboring affection to  him also played a large part in the shock that he felt.

It would be easier to accept if he was told that all of these were just a prank.

Anri before him was putting up a good fight against Ponsuke and Naia, but she was on her last legs.

「Ponsuke……why……all this time I……」

In her state she couldn’t even hold a proper talk anymore.

Naia was feeling taken aback, or rather she was cringing.

「Oi, Ponsuke-kun. How can you marry someone else inside game when you  have actual girlfriend IRL. That’s just questionable you know?」

「No, I don’t have any girlfriend.」

「Eh? Then what’s with this girl――a stalker?」

Anri was enraged when she got called stalker. The bird girl’s hair  was designed to look like wings. When she leaped, her hair would spread  out like flapping wings.

But, perhaps because of her fury, her hair spread out widely like they were thorns standing on its ends.

It made her looked even scarier.

「You damn cowwwwww!」

Her angry roar reverberated. Players who heard Anri’s voice gathered  there. They were approaching while destroying the surrounding buildings.  The ground was shaking.

「W-what!?」

When Ponsuke noticed, six more female players had surrounded him.

Naia muttered.

「Unbelievable……I don’t know whether it’s okay to call this a bloodbath when we’re just inside a game.」

Ponsuke thought.

(Naia-san, she’s unexpectedly composed.)

They were his friends who were usually reliable and fun.

But, right now they only looked like actual fully armed assassins who were dipped in madness.

Alfie who was holding a gatling gun with rotating barrel was smiling  to Ponsuke while talking to him. But the tears that were flowing from  her eyes invoked fear.

「Ponsuke……why? You know my feeling aren’t you? And yet, why!」

Her avatar had a pretty face.

In addition, she was using her real self’s data to make it, so it was  like Maya’s face was crying. Ponsuke felt flustered seeing that.

But――.

「Hey, just wait for a second. Could it be, all of you are really  angry because I’m marrying? This is just, a marriage to increase my  status though.」

――He couldn’t understand.

In the first place, with how the marriage system worked in this game,  the merit to status was more important than marrying someone you liked.

It would be fine even if he married someone who was close to him, but in that case he wouldn’t know who to choose.

That was why he chose to prioritize status merit for the marriage.

Mariela was drawing her bow with shaking hands. She was aiming at Naia.

「You’re right. All these are because that bull woman exists. Because  Ponsuke love big breasts! It’s alright. I’ll recreate my avatar with  bigger breasts after this, and I’ll also do breast surgery in real life  too!」

Ponsuke cringed. In the first place he wasn’t someone who would feel happy even if he got told something like that.

(No, I think natural breast is better, so if possible don’t do that.)

「N-no! It’s not anything like that!」

Ponsuke panicked.

Naia looked at her breasts.

Her avatar was female so it also had breasts, but in the first place  their size wasn’t big. The cup size was simply becoming huge because  around the breasts was the minotaurus’s thick body and muscle.

「This avatar’s breasts aren’t really huge or anything though.」

Rather big breasts would just hinder the movement, or perhaps  not……but it was still unpleasant somehow. Her arm would touch it when  swinging her axe and she would imagine that it would be painful if that  happened in real life.

Inaho was holding her sinister short swords with trembling hands.

「Ponsuke-san……no matter what this is just outrageous……I would still  be able to bear with it if it’s with a guild member, and yet-!」

Inside his heart Ponsuke was thinking that it would become  troublesome anyway if he chose to marry a fellow guild member wouldn’t  it?

Facing this situation Ponsuke――.

「Everyone, let’s just lower down our weapon for now. Like this, the  dev will absolutely give us heavy punishment after doing something like  this. This is already a serious incident!」

The sightseeing area was sinking in sea of flame.

This would definitely become a day that got engraved in the history of Pandora.

Ponsuke also noticed that everyone was in a strange state. He  believed in his heart that these girls weren’t people who would do  something like this.

「Let’s go apologize together. Come on, put away your weapon――」

But, nobody put away their weapon.

Their weapons were pointed――toward Naia.

Mariela spoke with a cold voice. Her voice was penetratingly cold.

「I’ll do that, after finishing off that woman. She won’t die easily.  When she revive at the shrine, I’ll be waiting there and kill her  again――and again and again and again!」

Everyone’s eyes turned terrifying. As expected even Naia got scared by that.

Ponsuke was furious and stepped in front of Naia to protect her.

(This is……I too can only resolve myself like this.)

His action enraged the girls excessively and their killing intent swelled up but――.

「Come back to your senses! This is already going too far. Doing  anymore than this will only make you all no different than malicious  players! It’s the same like what the guys who attacked Nanako-chan  before did. No, this is even worse than that.」

In the past, they once got chased around by malicious players when they accepted Nanako’s request.

Ponsuke was recalling that time.

「If you all keep causing trouble like this……I’ll disband the guild.  I’ll also remake my avatar and stop getting involved with you all.」

Ponsuke declared that with a firm resolve.

Fran trembled.

「Y-you will go that far to protect that woman!? So you’re choosing her over us!」

Noin was shedding tears.

「That’s cruel. You’re so cruel Ponsuke-kun!」

Everyone’s killing intent swelled up. They were looking at Naia  but――Ponsuke stood in front of her to protect her. The group hesitated  to point their weapons at Ponsuke.

「……Put away the weapons.」

Everyone realized that Ponsuke wouldn’t be moved and let go of their weapons.

They all fell on their knees while expressionlessly shedding tears.

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Naia was staring on Ponsuke’s back.

Her minotaurus avatar was slightly bigger that she had to look down on him.

But, even so Ponsuke’s back as he stood in front of her to protect her looked big.

The protective back that she was hoping for from her husband who wouldn’t protect her in the real world was right there.

Naia stopped herself from crying, but then around them robots that  were being controlled by management AI gathered around them one after  another.

『Warning. Your action is――』

『Forced logout will be enforced, and then investigation――』

『In accordance with the administrator’s authority――』

Robotic voice came from the sky.

The full armored legless robots were surrounding them and forcing them to logout one after another.

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It was a dark room.

It was the room that all players visited before starting the game.

There Ponsuke was making a meek face in front of the information broker’s avatar.

「Oh, you’re looking dissatisfied. Even this is already the best that I can do for you.」

The information broker had told him that they would be banned from  logging in for a period of time. Their guild activity would also get  suspended.

However, it would only be for a week.

The punishment was too light after they had rampaged that much.

「It’s because I’m thinking that the punishment is lighter than expected. I think it’s fine even if you punish us more harshly.」

The erasure of the avatars they were using.

Compulsory disbanding of their guild.

In the worst case, even login ban for indeterminate period might even be possible, Ponsuke thought.

「That’s because it’s not like it was just you guys who went wild  there. Besides, there was already friction between the general players  and sightseeing area players even from before.」

Ponsuke and the girls were undoubtedly the ones who triggered the whole thing.

No, it could even be said that it was Ponsuke’s marriage that became the trigger in the first place.

Ponsuke looked at the information broker with a serious face.

「……Could it be, that Selector’s influence is still working in  Pandora? I can’t believe that they could go out of control like that.」

Ponsuke recalled the seven who went out of control and noticed the abnormality.

The information broker rubbed his chin and slightly tilted his head.

「Perhaps there are also things that we missed. Certainly, I also got  the impression that those seven went out of control. I’ll try to  investigate it thoroughly. But setting that aside……Ponsuke-kun, why did  you marry another player instead of your fellow guild member? Hadn’t you  considered that it would cause conflict?」

Ponsuke’s gaze wandered.

「No, Riku――my friend recommended to me that it would be better if I  marry someone who isn’t a guild member. Besides, I prioritized merit to  my status.」

The information broker tilted his head.

「Eh, haven’t you heard?」

「What is it?」

「No, about the marriage system. We had reviewed it and made polygamy  possible. Though the requirements after the first marriage became  severe, and the merit also became smaller like that.」

It was easy to marry a single person.

But, marrying the second person and even more than that would require the player to fulfill some severe requirements.

There was designated quest prepared for each race. The players’ level  and friendship gauge also had to reach a certain number. They would  also need equipment that wasn’t so strong game-wise and yet required  rare drops to create.

There would be no problem to marry more than one person as long as they could fulfill the steep requirements.

「……Huh?」

「Eh? Strange……ah, sorry! That one is planned to be implemented at the  next update. Ahaha~, I’m so busy with the service resumption that I  forgot.」

The information broker laughed.

Ponsuke fell on his knees.

「……T-theen」

「Your problem will be resolved if you wait for a bit more. Even so, I  guess something need to be done about the sightseeing area. Perhaps  I’ll remove it from the Capital of Hope and prepare sightseeing area at  the other capitals. After all it’ll be bad if this problem still  continue even after this.」

Ponsuke felt down.

「What’s the point of all this」

「Yeah, I’m sorry for that. But, I hope you can also consider our  position as the ones who will be busy after this because of you guys.」

「Ah, I’m sorry.」

The incident ended with abruptness.

That was what Ponsuke thought…….

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