Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 65

Reason to Fight

There was land and sky like in Pandora.

The space there didn’t look like that kind of environment at all. A large quantity of monsters gushed forth there.

The virus countermeasure that was going to remove the infiltrating  foreign substances looked like they had such form to the Selectors.

Normally such a sight would be impossible.

But the Selectors were perceiving them and dealing with them.

Ponsuke was wielding a weapon that looked like a large hatchet and eliminated one of them.

Lines were stretched around at the surrounding.

Where was up and where was down were unclear in this space. He wasn’t even sure where he was walking right now.

「Even if they tell us to go wild in this kind of place――woah!」

Countless monsters gushed out from the place that seemed like the  ground. Ponsuke kicked them away, and then he stood back to back with  Rook who was nearby to protect each other.

Rook was holding a firearm and slaughtered the small fries. Then he reloaded the magazine like in game.

「Just do what you can. You too are here because you have a reason to fight right?」

His friend was calm and reliable.

Ponsuke watched the players who were fighting around htem while gripping his weapon strongly.

(……That’s right. I have a reason to fight.)

The truth was he was unsure and didn’t want to get involved.

Not anybody would obediently agree to help when they were told that  the world was in danger and they were asked to help saving it.

The players who were participating in this each had their own reason for participating.

A boar monster that leaped out from a wall charged at Ponsuke.

He blocked with a large shield and planted his feet on the ground to stop the charge.

And then he stepped forward and pushed the monster back while  swinging down his large hatchet. The monster was turned into particles  of light.

That day.

Ponsuke recalled that day when he got a phone call from Riku.

◇

『Yo, did the information broker come to your place too?』

「……Riku.」

Akito took the smartphone in his hand and pressed his hand on his face while recalling.

(It was Riku who introduced the information broker to me. I see, so Riku is also a Selector.)

Thinking back, he could see how they were people who were searching for Selector.

They must have known about the government’s scheming since some time ago.

『You sound listless. Are you not going to join the battle to save the world?』

「The scale is too big I’m getting cold feet over here.」

Wouldn’t thing turn alright even if he didn’t join in?

Wouldn’t someone else do it in his place?

Akito thought that the operation wouldn’t be affected whether he joined it or not.

Riku understood how Akito was feeling and slowly talked to him.

『I want you to participate in this. No, both you and me are like related party to this case. We should be involved.』

He was talking slowly, but his tone was strong.

「Perhaps I have gotten dragged into this, but there’s no reason for us to――」

『If it’s reason than there is one. Both you and me, we have dragged our friends into this.』

Akito couldn’t understand Riku’s words.

「The guild members? We aren’t giving them any trouble about this.」

『No. From the sound of it, it looks like you haven’t finished reading  through all the information. Check the file that I’m going to mention  now. The file name is――』

Akito operated the tablet and opened the mentioned file.

Then, the truth that was written in there astonished him.

「T-this――」

『That’s right. Both you and me are already dragging our friends into this.』

Selectors were set so that they received the influence of Pandora earlier than the rest of the players.

The physical change, sense improvement, and then human relationship  that Akito had been feeling until now……Selectors were also influencing  their surrounding with these.

Akito’s hands were shaking as he was reading the data.

「I see. Of course it’s like this. I thought that it was strange.」

He wanted to cry.

It was the data about the experiment result that was affecting human  relationship. There it was mentioned that the friendship meter within  the game was affecting the players.

In other words, he was able to get along with the others until now was because of the game――Pandora’s influence.

『Both you and I have to take responsibility.』

Feeling of regret was oozing from Riku’s words.

Akito thought.

(Senpai and president, because they got involved with me……at that  time, was it also my fault that they suddenly started fighting?)

Ponsuke recalled about the two. His mind had been fully occupied with  the question of why the offline gathering failed and he reached the  conclusion that it was his fault.

『Do you plan to continue these fake relationships as they are? As for me I refuse.』

Akito smiled slightly.

「……I thought, that things are going too well. Beautiful girls showed  up at the offline gathering, and what’s more they’re people I know……but」

Akito wiped his tears.

(This kind of relationship isn’t right. I……)

◇

Inside the system.

「Out of my wayyyy!」

Ponsuke used his skill and blew away the monsters.

There were also clearers among the players with good movement.

The players with bad movement cheered at the appearance of the reliable orc.

Ponsuke was breathing hard.

「This is more painful than the virtual world.」

Fatigue was also reproduced inside Pandora. But, inside the game that fatigue would immediately vanish.

But, here inside the system, the fatigue was accumulating in the same rate like in reality.

The convenience here was different compared to Pandora.

「Uwaaa!」

While Ponsuke and others were continuing to fight hard, the players  who were rarely logging in got wrapped in red light before they burst  and vanished.

The Selectors had been holding out just barely until now, but with a  section crumbling like that, the burden on everyone began to increase  rapidly.

「I’m going. Ponsuke, hang in there no matter what.」

Rook led his comrades to immediately give reinforcement to that section. Ponsuke lifted up his shield.

「Leave it to――」

Leave it to me. Before he could finish saying that, the ground broke and the players were blown away.

Ponsuke rolled on the ground. When he stood up, a dragon that looked  to be made from machine was slowly appearing from the ground.

The players tried to attack it, but the dragon opened its mouth and exposed a large lens to the players.

Right after that, light was diffused from there to become beams that attacked the players.

「H-help――」

A player that was near Ponsuke was hit by the light and burst into nothing.

Ponsuke was luckily not hit. He looked at the dragon that was slowly spreading its wings and floated up.

「So it won’t let us end this easily.」

It turned out that saving the world was extremely difficult.

Ponsuke thought that while lifting up his shield and kicked on the ground to challenge the dragon.

.

.

.

The Capital of Discernment.

Mariela and Alfie both were trying to contact Ponsuke even while they were both looking awkward.

Alfie tilted her head.

「Strange. He should be logged in, but the call isn’t connecting.」

Mariela scratch her head.

「Perhaps he’s angry and taking a quest with someone else?」

Ponsuke was unusually absent from school and work.

If he was inside the game, they were thinking to apologize to him  about the offline gathering but they were unable to contact him.

The two of them had been repeatedly trying to call him since some  time ago. But the clock kept ticking while they wouldn’t talk to each  other.

Both of them were feeling awkward with each other. If possible they wanted to leave this place.

However, they were wary that in case one of them managed to contact  Ponsuke, that person would be alone with him, so they needed to keep an  eye to the other.

It was while the two of them were in such a fix that Blaze came running.

「You two, check your message!」

Blaze asked the two why they weren’t answering his call. Both Mariela  and Alfie checked their log and confirmed that Blaze had tried  messaging them and calling them with various methods until now.

Mariela hurriedly apologized.

「S-sorry. More importantly, what’s with the emergency?」

Alfi also apologized.

「My apologies. More importantly, have you heard from Ponsuke?」

Blaze was feeling exasperated with the two, even so he told them the reason why he was trying to contact them.

「This is about that Ponsuke-kun. It seems he has gotten dragged into  something, or perhaps he’s leading it, we still don’t know anything  but……it’s becoming something really bad.」

Blaze was serious. The two who were curious about Ponsuke’s whereabouts were listening to his story quietly.

「There were players who saw Ponsuke-kun at the Capital of Hope. He’s still famous over there so he gathered attention.」

The eyewitness information was posted online and then it seemed there were players who tailed him.

Blaze played the video.

There, the video was recording how Ponsuke and other players were  gathering at the graveyard behind the shrine while doing something.

But, when the players who tailed Ponsuke approached, they only found a normal empty graveyard.

Mariela was puzzled.

「This is?」

「I don’t know. But, it seems that it’s a fact that they’re doing  something there. The scenery will strangely get filled with noises when  you go to the graveyard, so the players there are clamoring about it.」

Blaze judged that Ponsuke had gotten involved into some kind of incident and tried to contact him, but he failed.

And so he tried to contact Mariela and Alfie.

「Even Sololy-san answered my message, but it’s only the orcs who won’t answer the message.」

Blaze told the two of the information that he obtained from Sololy.

「Many guilds are also involved with this, famous and not famous ones.  It looks like guilds like Shinsengumi are also fully involved with all  their members into this “something” that Ponsuke-kun is in.」

Alfie became uneasy when she heard the word “something”.

It seemed that the orcs who were usually would poke their nose into this something were simply not logged into the game today.

「You say something……so Ponsuke is in the Capital of Hope?」

Blaze shook his head.

「I don’t know. I already headed there, but I felt something like  horrible noise when I was there. Something felt wrong over there, but I  couldn’t get near.」

The other players could only see something like small noises running through the virtual world there.

But, it seemed that Blaze and other guild members could see two sceneries overlapping together.

「There is a large hole opened up in the graveyard. There are a lot of players around it……but, we couldn’t get in.」

Mariela broke into a run. Alfie also headed toward the Capital of Hope.

They could hear Blaze calling to them, but the two of them only waved their hand to him.

.

.

.

Blaze saw off the two’s backs with a troubled face.

「……What will happen after this?」

Blaze’s friends gathered after he became alone.

「Blaze! We’ve checked with everyone. But, it looks like nobody have heard anything.」

Ponsuke was the guild master, but there was no real leadership going on in guild.

Everyone was free to do whatever they wanted, but as the result  everyone didn’t know what to do at this kind of time. It was extremely  troubling.

「Let’s ask everyone who has nothing to do to gather information. We might be able to learn something.」

They were only able to see something unclear at the site.

But, perhaps if it were those two then――.

Blaze held such hope, and then he sent present to those two.

He still had some paid items from the past remaining.

He sent them to those two, thinking that they might be useful. Then  Blaze started taking action to coordinate the guild in Ponsuke’s  absence.

「I have a bad premonition. For now, let’s try to gather information.」

Blaze and his friends rushed away from that place. They were heading  toward the location of Lighter who was coordinating the craftsmen group.

.

.

.

When Mariela and Alfie arrived at the back of the shrine, they found many players gathering there.

「Isn’t the noise getting worse?」

「Apparently there are also some guys who can see a strange scenery through this.」

「Ee~, that’s scary~」

The two pushed through the onlookers and saw the scenery of the  graveyard behind the shrine――not, but the sight of battered players  falling over in front of a large gate. This sight was overlapping with  the normal scenery.

Alfie opened her mouth.

「T-this is……」

Mariela stepped forward. Alfie also followed behind her.

The surrounding became noisy.

「Oi, the two just now――」

「T-they vanished?」

「As I thought we better report this to the dev――」

The two couldn’t hear the voices of the onlookers anymore. This time  the scenery that was unfolding before them was a gruesome one.

Various players were leaning on a gravestone or a wall while hugging their knees and trembling.

Some people were crying, while some came out from the shrine and  still heading toward the gate even though their footsteps were unsteady.

「This is……just what」

The two were standing dumbfounded. Then the information broker approached them with rapid footsteps.

「You two, why are you here?」

Mariela knew the information broker, so she felt slightly relieved and asked him about the situation.

「There is rumor spreading outside. Ponsuke is here isn’t he?」

The information broker looked hesitant to speak, but then Rook appeared from the shrine with his friends supporting him.

He saw Mariela and Alfie and smiled despite his tired look.

「What, that Ponsuke actually has some good friends isn’t he.」

Alfie reacted to Rook’s words and questioned him.

「Just what are you guys doing here? Is Ponsuke inside there?」

Rook looked inside the gate while telling the two about Ponsuke.

「……I think, he’ll come out soon.」

The information broker clenched his hands tightly, and then he muttered.

「At this rate the plan will――」

Both Mariela and Alfie moved to enter the gate, but Rook and the others held them back.

「Let go!」

「That’s right. Ponsuke is at the other side!」

Rook said to the two.

「It’s fine. ……He’ll be back soon.」

Rook was looking at the shrine’s entrance.

.

.

.

Inside the system.

Ponsuke had activated his berserk skill and roared in front of the dragon before jumping at it.

Ponsuke floated in the air. The dragon opened its mouth and fired  beams one after another. Ponsuke crossed his arms to block them.

He continued to swoop down on the dragon and constricted the dragon’s  neck with one arm while his other hand kept punching on it.

Ponsuke bit and rampaged while the dragon flew through the sky and struggled to shake him off.

But, when other players fired magic to back him up――.

「UUUUU……」

Ponsuke attacked those players next.

The berserk Ponsuke was in a state where he couldn’t control himself. He didn’t discriminate between players and monsters.

The players ran around like headless chicken. Then the dragon fired its beam at Ponsuke who was turning his back toward it.

The players were disintegrated.

The beam also pierced Ponsuke from his back to his chest. Red particles floated up from his body.

(At this kind of place……)

Ponsuke vanished. The dragon looked like it was narrowing its eyes in a smile after seeing that the threat had gone.

The other players put up their guard, but the beams that the dragon fired pierced them and they vanished one after another.

Prev Table of Content Next