Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 101

City Assault

The World of Lust.

Several hundred guilds gathered there――just the number of players was more than ten thousand.

There were guilds that only participated just for the experience, and  there were also guilds that were seriously planning to capture the  city.

Among them, the guild “Ponsuke and His Happy-Go-Lucky Friends” were positioned halfway between those two types of guild.

Unlike the guilds who participated just for the hell of it, they had a  lot of guild members with excellent quality and they also prepared  quite thoroughly.

But, they were also not as serious at it as the hardcore clearing group.

That half-baked guild was getting severely denounced in the meeting of the guild masters.

Two guilds with both quality and quantity were the center of the meeting.

Those two guilds’ guild masters were at the center of the meeting.

Originally there were a lot more clearing groups, but many of them  weren’t logging in because they were playing in different time slot.

The guild master of the guild “Hundred”, [Teito] had an angry look with pulsing vein on his forehead in front of Ponsuke.

He had short red hair with high human avatar. His job was mainly managing the guild and his strength as a player was mid-ranked.

However, he was a guild master with excellent organizational management skill.

「Ponsuke-kun, the wall has gotten whittled down far more than planned in the first day thanks to you.」

Those were words of praise, but Ponsuke understood that the person before him wasn’t happy at the slightest.

「……My deepest apologies.」

An orc who was more than two meter tall was kneeling on the ground to apologize.

The woman beside Teito, [Platina] was using the avatar of a high elf with golden eyes.

She was the guild master of “Golden Eye” and she herself was a hardcore player who had remade her avatar for the sake of today.

「But, our force also got whittled down far faster than planned. Many  players got hit with death penalty which caused our strength to be  shaky. Do you understand? Hey, do you understand our situation?」

Death penalty was when player’s level lowered slightly from dying.  Hardcore player could recover from something like that in just several  days, but they were in the middle of a momentous battle right now.

The decrease in player’s level also meant the decrease in their combat strength by that much.

Ponsuke and his guild had contributed greatly in destroying the wall,  but they had also damaged their own allies and drastically whittled  down their own side’s combat strength.

「I’m extremely sorry!」

The guild master Ponsuke apologized for the misconduct of his guild  members, but inside he was just a student in his second year of high  school.

While the people around him were looking irritated, the one who  extended a helping hand was Riku――Rook who was leading the guild “Silver  Wing” and also his friend even in real life.

Rook patched things up for Ponsuke in that meeting where more than a hundred players were gathering.

「My friend is truly sorry. But, can we forgive him with just this for  now? You know, this guy is a beginner in city assault, and it’s also a  fact that he contributed in destroying the wall.」

Teito reluctantly acknowledged that.

「If you’re going that far for him then, fine. You’re the one in  charge of coordinating the mid-ranked guilds. It’ll be troubling if you  get in a bad mood over this.」

There was thorn in his words.

Platina was also the same.

「It will be troublesome if we don’t have Rook’s support so I’ll let  him off this time, but it’ll be troubling if he hinder us any further  than this.」

Rook wasn’t in the clearing group, but he was coordinating the  mid-ranked guilds. Because of that his voice carried some weight even in  meeting like this.

In other words, Ponsuke would have to continue groveling for some time yet if not for Rook’s follow up.

Teito told Ponsuke.

「I’ll hand you item and material list. We will forgive you for this  time if you bring us the things in that list. Just so you know, those  items will be for compensation to the guilds that got harmed by you  guys, so if you disagree then just go home.」

Ponsuke accepted the list.

It was normal to gather as much item as possible during clearing  battle because the necessity and usage for them increased through the  roof.

The demand’s amount was reasonable, but it still would hurt them.

(……As expected I can’t possibly say no here.)

He would become unable to participate in the clearing battle if he refused here.

That would be troubling, so Ponsuke agreed to hand over the items.

「I’ll prepare them right away.」

Platina looked slightly impressed at Ponsuke’s respond.

「My, you are quite prepared.」

It seemed she didn’t think that Ponsuke’s guild would be able to  fulfill the demand, so her evaluation over them rose slightly seeing  that she was wrong.

Rook shrugged.

「Ponsuke, how about I help you out a bit with that?」

Ponsuke shook his head.

「No, it was my guild that was a bother, so we’ll do it ourselves.」

Like this the disturbance of the first day’s battle closed its curtain.

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A camping site for the guilds was prepared in a location slightly far away from the Capital of Lust.

「Hang the shitty pigssssss!」

Under Alfie’s command, the orcs were tied on some pillars and got fire lit under their feet.

All twelve of the orcs were sentenced to burning at the stakes by the other guild members.

The guild members tossed the torches one after another.

The sight could be called as insane, but the madness of Ponsuke and  his happy-go-lucky friends still accelerated further from there.

「Hot! But this is exciting!」

「If possible I prefer torture but, burning at stake is also great!」

「Oi, the fire here is weak.」

The burned orcs were rejoicing happily.

Mariela picked up her bow and nocked an arrow.

「I’ll make you guys into pincushions!」

Arrows stabbed the orcs. Screams echoed to the surrounding.

「Hyuuuu!」

「This is the greatest!」

「Please give me more –ssu!」

Far from reflecting on their act, the orcs were only cheering in great delight. The guild members rained down abuse on them.

In addition there were also players that kept attacking them.

It really wasn’t an act that should be done to their comrades.

Other guilds that were watching such scene from around them came running in panic.

「Oi, what are you guys doing!」

「This is scary. You are bothering everyone else so stop it!」

「It’s you guys again!」

The players from other guilds rescued the orcs in great hurry.

However, the rescued orcs were looking sour.

Prey’s shoulders dropped in disappointment.

「To rescue us like this……you guys should learn to read the mood.」

The players who rescued them could only look dumbfounded in respond to that.

The players who knew about Ponsuke and his happy-go-lucky friends were pressing their hands on their face.

「I can’t take it anymore. Just what the hell is with these guys.」

Lighter who was commanding the craftsmen yelled amidst that chaotic situation.

「Hurry! Hurry! Even inferior good is fine, for now let’s just make up the number!」

The craftsman group was preparing in great hurry in order to gather the items after Ponsuke messaged them.

「Lighter-san, mine turn out quite good!」

「Mine also look good!」

「Mine too!」

One of them finished a healing potion nicely. Lighter grinned seeing that.

「Exchange them with the inferior goods in our inventory. We will use the good quality items!」

The healing potions that they called as inferior goods didn’t have  any problem function-wise, but Lighter who was frustrated from being  told to hand over items acted to mass produce healing potions with  effect that would just barely pass evaluation in great number.

Blaze who had good personality was handling the bewildered players from other guilds.

「We are really sorry for the ruckus. I’ll stop them right away.」

「Just keep your guild members in control!」

「Yes, I’ll tell them to stop right away.」

The players from other guilds returned back to their own camp. Inaho who was in the newcomer group of the guild saw them off.

「……You have it hard right from the first day, Blaze-san.」

Blaze was using an avatar with the appearance of an agreeable youth.

He smiled wryly and said.

「I’m already used to it. More importantly, it looks like Ponsuke-kun  himself is being scolded severely in the meeting. He also has it hard.」

Alfie who was stomping on Prey turned toward Blaze.

「Yes, it’s Ponsuke! Because of these guys Ponsuke is-! Ponsuke is-!」

Alfie stomped down with her heel repeatedly, but Prey only took it on the ground while blushing.

「I-I have no regret in my life.」

Inaho thought.

(It’ll be better if you feel regret a little. Or rather, it’ll be absolutely better if you guys reflect on yourselves.)

Then Lily came out from inside a tent. There were dark circles under her eyes.

She was fundamentally a casual player. She wasn’t enthused with the clearing battle that was like a battlefield.

「Be quiet for a bit. Living in tent without even any bed is really worsening my mood.」

Inside the tent, the middle school group――Nanako, Sierra, Guruguru, and other young players were sleeping soundly.

Inaho glanced at the noisy group outside the tent and then she looked inside the tent again.

(Thank god it’s peaceful inside the tent.)

Ponsuke returned with heavy footsteps into that chaotic situation.

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They held a meeting with the important members.

Mariela was surprised when Ponsuke spoke of their plan tomorrow.

「We’ll go to the front? Seriously? Because, usually only the clearing  group or the strong guys even among the mid-rankers go to the front  right?」

The work for players who just wanted to participate casually was to use siege weapon to whittle down the wall from the rear.

Everyone was surprised that they were suddenly told to go to the front.

「The capture will go faster if we climb up the wall and can somehow  get inside after all. Well, this is you know……they want us to learn  about their hardship from this I guess?」

They were told to do this to learn about the scariness of getting hit by friendly fire from behind.

Lighter made a reluctant expression.

「This is that right? A revenge, this is simply them getting payback  at us right? They’ll definitely shot us on the back. I don’t wanna do  this.」

Ponsuke looked at Lighter.

「What’s with that cute tone. Please try saying whose bomb it was that hit all those players, Lighter-san.」

「I-it was Prey-san and other orcs who used it!」

Prey looked disinterested.

「No, because it was sitting right there. We were only told to load up the items and pull the lever.」

Lighter and Prey claimed that they weren’t at fault.

Blaze shrugged in exasperation and looked at Ponsuke.

「It’s fine if we’re going to do this, but we’ll only get pincered by  our allies and enemies if we just go in without a plan. I don’t want to  go through something like that for my first clearing battle.」

Even Ponsuke didn’t want to get thrown into that kind of situation.

Then Alfie’s expression brightened. She seemed to have gotten a good idea.

「Then, let’s do that! You know, the thing that we did in the event battle.」

Mariela also realized.

She looked at Ponsuke and Prey while saying.

「That’s certainly a good idea but, Ponsuke and others won’t be able  to participate in the clearing battle later on if we use that.」

Noin and Fran who were participating in the discussion tilted their heads hearing the two’s conversation.

They talked to Inaho who was nearby.

「Inaho-chan, what do they mean by that? What is event battle?」

「We don’t know what are they talking about.」

Inaho waved her hands to the side.

「No, I also don’t know.」

Alfie put her hands on her waist.

「As expected that is our trump card, but we should use it now rather  than getting beaten up at the second day. If we’re lucky we will be able  to enter inside the city and go wild there. We might be able to destroy  the gate and enter inside.」

Blaze put his hand on his chin and nodded.

「That huh. I wanted to wait and see for a bit more but……in that case, it might be better to do it with everyone.」

The newcomers looked uncomprehending.

Ponsuke worried for a bit.

(That huh. I don’t really want to use that. It has a lot of demerits,  and after using that I won’t be able to participate in the clearing  battle anymore.)

However, there was no way they could just do nothing while knowing that their allies would shot them from the back.

In the first place, this was a problem that they caused.

Lighter hit his hand.

「Ah, then I have that thing that we used in the pirate event. I have several of them, want to use them?」

That, this, that. Such conversation continued and caused the newcomers unable to keep up.

Ponsuke made the decision.

「……At this rate things will be over without us being able to even use our trump card. Let’s do it.」

Mariela raised her hand.

「I’ll ride on Ponsuke!」

Alfie grabbed at Mariela.

「I’m the one who are going to ride on Ponsuke’s back! Mariela should just ride on other orc’s back!」

Mariela grabbed Alfie’s head.

「You go do that! I’m the one who are going with Ponsuke!」

*Gyaa gyaa* The two were getting noisy. Ponsuke ignored them and continued the discussion for the time being.

The others were also ignoring the unsightly quarrel.

It was a sight that they had gotten used to see, for good and bad.

「Then, we’re going to search for people who have tamer job. Do we have thirteen tamers?」

Blaze seemed to count the number of players in their guild who had tamer job.

But, it seemed that it wouldn’t be enough no matter what.

「As expected I don’t think we have that many. We have more members  now but, tamer isn’t a popular job after all. As expected I think only a  few players have gotten and trained with it.」

Lighter was smirking.

「Yosh, I’ll prepare my special bomb in drove so they can  self-detonate when it look like they’re going to lose. With this we can  gain point from damaging the city. We will be rewarded based on our  achievement after all, so we gotta work hard here.」

Inaho and others couldn’t understand the discussion until the end.

Like this, Ponsuke and co joined the city assault battle for real.

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