Chapter 9: I Didn’t Know That (2)

Boom!

The blade leaking streams of pitch-black energy was truly ominous and razor-sharp. But knowing that it was a Demon Knight skill, I couldn’t think of a more fitting effect.

“Urgh!”

“Cowering behind that shield like a little turtle…!”

“You bastard…!”

At my taunt, the Priest ground her teeth and raised her Mace.

“God is with me!”

Suddenly, radiance scattered throughout the forest swallowed by night. The Mace glowed brilliantly with white light, as if it were a light source itself.

I couldn’t remember the skill’s name. Was that roughly an attack power increase buff? Or was it a defense increase?

Either way, it didn’t change the fact that getting hit by it hurt just as much as before. Because of our unfavorable matchup, the Priest’s attacks dealt 1.3 times more damage to me.

So I immediately stepped back. I had no idea how many levels separated us, but if I wasn’t careful, I might lose more than half my HP in one blow. Better to be cautious from the beginning.

Thump. Thump.

Rather than attacking me, the Priest lightly tapped her Shield with her Mace, causing the light to spread onto it.

What a scam.

In the original game, you could at least only apply the buff to your weapon.

“Hup!”

Then, the opponent slammed down her large rectangular Shield, advanced, and swung her Mace.

It wasn’t a particularly difficult attack to dodge. The Priest class focused on Strength rather than Agility, so her speed was painfully slow.

But just because the opponent couldn’t hit me didn’t necessarily mean I had the advantage.

My attacks simply wouldn’t go through.

All because of that enormous Shield.

“You cowardly bastard…!”

Wasn’t the person hiding behind a large Shield with a 100% guard rate the more cowardly one? Unless I Deflected the Shield or attacked from behind, I couldn’t deal any damage at all!

And even when I tried to go for her back, she would spin around in circles while holding up the Shield and follow my movements.

The bastard was wearing plate armor underneath, giving her absurd defense, yet she wouldn’t even allow me a single attack from behind.

What a disgusting Priest.

‘What if I aim for her head instead?’

I stared at the ultimate embodiment of annoyance and considered my options.

She wasn’t wearing a helmet, so if I struck her head with a targeted Part Destruction attack, I should at least land a critical hit.

But how was I supposed to get past that massive Shield?

I couldn’t. Absolutely not.

‘Unless I crush her with overwhelming force.’

A skill…

Maybe if I used a skill?

Even if her guard rate was 100%, the Shield could still be knocked aside if I built her stagger meter to the maximum.

“...Tch.”

Ah, whatever.

A prolonged standoff was exhausting too.

So rather than dragging this out any longer, I decided to gamble.

“I will cut off your neck and offer it to those you have harmed!”

“Huu…”

I gripped my sword tightly.

My goal was to attack by going over the Shield.

Something only possible because this was Virtual Reality rather than a regular PC game.

Of course, it required enough skill to pull off.

Still, as far as I could tell, I wasn’t particularly unskilled, nor was I the type lacking the desire to take on a challenge.

No matter how many times I reconsidered it, it seemed worth trying.

And even if I failed, it was a game. I could just start again.

With that in mind, I took a breath and kicked the Two-Handed Sword that I had tilted toward the ground as though it were resting against it.

The rebounding blade spun smoothly through the air before landing perfectly in my grip.

Thunk!

Then I smashed the upper portion of the Shield.

The Shield tilted slightly, and a groan escaped through the opponent’s clenched teeth.

The attack hadn’t even dealt damage, yet her reactions were impressive.

“Do you think you can defeat me?!”

The opponent charged at me with the Shield leading the way.

It felt like a bull charging straight at me, but since I was prepared to accept at least one death, I wasn’t particularly afraid.

Instead, I mechanically repositioned the Two-Handed Sword.

Of the two hands gripping the handle, I moved one up to the Ricasso and raised the sword above my head.

Thump!

At the same time, I launched myself upward as if jumping.

Like running up a wall, the sole of my foot stepped onto the slanted surface of the Shield.

“...!”

Realizing what was happening, the opponent tried to shove me away together with the Shield.

But I didn’t go flying through the air like something out of a cartoon.

Instead, during the brief instant my body practically adhered to the Shield, I spun the blade I had raised over my head.

Using the hand gripping the Ricasso as a pivot, I rotated the sword and extended the blade downward.

That way, after rotating it into position, the blade could strike beyond the Shield.

The pale blade came crashing down over the Shield.

“Kh!”

Crunch!

I had aimed for her head, but the blade ultimately struck her shoulder.

The armor protecting her shoulder prevented it from even scratching or cutting her skin.

What a shame.

I wanted to continue attacking, but gravity was beginning to pull me down.

As I felt my body sliding off the Shield, I quickly thought things through.

Hmm. If I fall like this, I’m probably going to get hit by the Mace coming from the left.

Just in case, I activated the skill Survival Instinct.

A translucent arrow pointed toward the right side of the Shield.

It was an area where I could avoid the Mace even if it was swung.

So I shifted my weight sideways.

An extremely wise decision.

Thanks to falling to the side, I avoided the Mace’s downward strike that immediately followed.

Whoa, that was close.

The moment I landed, I rolled once again.

My body completely escaped the Priest’s range.

“You Demon—”

Still, the result was fairly satisfying.

I hadn’t dealt any damage, but I had at least come right up to the point of successfully landing an attack, hadn’t I?

At the very least, I had captured one great scene.

Everything I did was being recorded, so I’d have to replay the footage later.

“You damn fanatic…!”

Suppressing the smile that threatened to curl my eyes, I shouted fiercely and rolled my body.

As a result, I took up a position diagonally behind the Priest.

And to make things even better, the Priest had planted her Shield against the ground and stabbed her Mace into the ground in front of it, making her movements sluggish.

“Pay the price for letting that tongue of yours run wild!”

An opportunity this good?

Ah, there was no way I could let it slip away.

This time, I was definitely going to land a proper hit—!

“O flames, burn my enemy to ashes!”

I was about to activate my skill and bring my sword straight down.

I would have, if not for the chant coming from the other side of the forest.

“There was another rat hiding out there?!”

Wow.

Another one?

At this timing?

The progression really had no mercy.

Was this even an event designed for players to clear?

Without bothering to hide my souring expression, I retreated.

A sphere of flame crashed into the spot where I had been standing, and a pillar of fire suddenly erupted.

It was unmistakably a skill from the Mage class.

What was I even supposed to say at this point?

Even a Casual Gamer like me would be a little flustered.

Was this really how a story or event was supposed to work?

Suddenly throwing a healer-tank and ranged damage dealer combination at the player as enemies?

And they were even higher level than the player?

Wasn’t that a little unfair?

It wasn’t like I had entered a high-level area early either. The quest progressing here was directly connected to the tutorial.

“Archmage!”

“Oh my. To think the Inquisitor would suffer such hardship.”

I frowned, but upon hearing those words, I almost unconsciously relaxed my expression.

That was because Archmage and Inquisitor had respectively been the names of the third class advancements for Mages and Priests.

“I may be late, but I shall assist you as well.”

Of course, since the game’s genre had changed, the concept of class advancement had disappeared. That much was certain, considering it had been mentioned in the Trailer.

For now, they were probably just titles.

“Archmage? Ha! So even a sage is nothing special! Seeing you mingle with lunatics and attack innocent passersby!”

So what if I had thrown caution to the wind?

Even if class advancements still existed, I would have said the same thing!

“Passersby? How dare trash who made a contract with a Demon pretend to be innocent!”

And the Priest had been spewing nothing but hardcore Roleplayer lines from the beginning.

I couldn’t tolerate that.

“A contract? Did you say a contract?”

Going purely by the dialogue, it was practically the same as being misunderstood as having made a contract with the person who killed my family.

After that incident, I had devoted my life to hunting Demons.

Being misunderstood like that was naturally enough to make me completely lose my temper.

“Ha! Have you devoted everything to the radiance of your god until you’ve blinded even your own eyes?!”

To convey those emotions, I let out a sharp laugh and deliberately roughened my voice as much as possible.

It sounded like self-praise, but I felt that the resentment welling up from the depths of my chest had been expressed quite convincingly.

It would have been even better if my facial expression had been perfect too.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see my own face, so I had no idea.

Though it was too dark for anyone to see it anyway.

“Even your god would have no use for a fool who spouts nothing but such nonsense! I’ll tear you to pieces and feed you to stray dogs!”

“How dare a traitor like you—!”

“...Huh? Wait…”

The Archmage seemed about to say something, but the Priest and I were faster to ready our weapons.

「A hostile target is present within a radius of 10 meters.」

Sssssss!

Furthermore, before either the Priest or I could take a step, a chilling metallic scraping sound pierced my ears.

My steps instinctively stopped at the notification window that appeared.

The Priest seemed to do the same.

The sparkling light surrounding her had stopped moving.

“Vile bastard, did you call in one of your companions?!”

Ignoring the Priest, I listened carefully to my surroundings.

Now that I knew an enemy was nearby, I heightened my senses.

I could hear numerous presences.

Some above the trees.

Others beneath the ground.

And dozens of those sounds converged in one place.

Even the darkness couldn’t hide its presence.

“...So that’s why this Demon was so difficult to see. Was it a Medusa?”

The Mage muttered.

Her voice was loud enough for me to hear.

Though even without her telling me, I already knew what it was.

「Medusa | A Demon formed from hundreds of snakes gathered around a single red snake. When it senses danger, it disperses.」

As the information window explained, Medusa was a collective mass of snakes.

Its appearance was naturally rather disgusting.

And if it was about to die, the snakes would scatter before gathering around the red snake again, effectively allowing it to revive.

A troublesome enemy.

“Ha.”

But was that important?

Not really.

As a mob that existed to be hunted, there was naturally a way to kill it.

So what mattered wasn’t its hunting method.

What mattered was its appearance.

And the simple fact that it was a Demon.

“A Demon…!”

I knew it!

This really was part of the story!

Otherwise, there was no way an enemy would appear at exactly this timing!

So was the original scenario supposed to involve using this thing as an excuse to cooperate with those two?

“Perfect timing, you vermin!”

But I refused!

The Character Concept I had interpreted and established was that of an extremely antisocial and uncooperative madman.

And cooperating with someone I had been fighting viciously with until moments ago?

That was even more impossible.

“I shall grant you death!”

The reason I turned my blade toward the Demon instead was because, according to my character analysis, his hatred toward Demons would be even greater than his anger toward those two.

And with that, I immersed myself even deeper into the role and put on an expression filled with madness.

Naturally, I turned my body without hesitation, as though I had completely forgotten about the Priest and Mage.

They were now my second priority!

Bwahahaha!

“Victory to my sword, and glory to the heavens above!”

Unlike the glowing Priest, I had no confidence in fighting the snakes lurking in the darkness without any light.

So I shouted loudly and turned on my Lantern.

With Medusa, light was essential because distinguishing colors was especially important.

“What the…”

I thought I heard a dumbfounded voice behind me, but I didn’t care.

As long as they didn’t attack me from behind, that was enough.

Honestly, even if they did attack me…

Well, I was already prepared to die.

My reaction would probably just have been something like:

‘Priest, you really know how to fight. Everyone knows attacking from behind is the rule of combat.’

But would they really attack me?

That would derail the story.

Though even if nothing went wrong now, I had a feeling the version of me from a few minutes in the future was going to get absolutely destroyed anyway.

Sssssss!

Anyway, I drove the Two-Handed Sword straight into Medusa’s body first.

Dozens of snakes were sliced apart, their bodies splitting and falling away with soft thuds.

But more snakes immediately wriggled in to replace them.

The surviving snakes thrust out their tongues and bared their fangs.

I ignored them.

My pain sensitivity was set low, so it didn’t hurt much.

The displayed HP wasn’t dropping significantly either.

My Gauntleted hand plunged into the mass of snakes.

Sssit!

Ah, how much had I wished for this while playing the original game?

Getting bitten by a snake only dealt 2 damage or 5 damage anyway.

At that point, wasn’t it better to take a few hits and go straight for the main body?

In the original game, I had to lower its HP first, then search for the red one and attack it when the snakes scattered…

“There you are…!”

With snakes hanging from my neck, limbs, and nape, I finally found the red snake.

The red snake I pulled out struggled desperately, trying to escape my grasp.

But attacking while holding it like this was inconvenient.

So I threw the red snake in another direction as though slamming it away.

Then I grabbed the Two-Handed Sword that I had left embedded in the mass of snakes.

The long blade slid free from the writhing mass, dripping crimson blood and reflecting the light of the Lantern hanging from my waist.

Slash!

Before the red snake could escape, the blade came crashing down on its body.

Its long body split in two, spraying blood.

But just in case.

Since I had cut it closer to the tail, it might still be alive.

Thud!

I pulled the sword back and brought it down again.

The snake’s head, which continued twitching either from post-death spasms or the will to survive, was cleanly severed.

Smash!

I cut it horizontally.

Then vertically as well.

But my hatred toward Demons surely wouldn’t end with just that.

So I continued grinding the blade into it.

Seeing the crushed head filled me with satisfaction.

You had to pay attention to even these little details for proper Roleplaying.

「LEVEL UP!」

「※ Danger Lurking in the Northwestern Forest

■ Search for the Demon hidden in the Northwestern Forest

■ Eliminate the Demon 1/1

■ Recover Proof of the Hunt 0/1」

In the meantime, the quest updated.

With the core dead, the snakes that had formed Medusa’s body began scattering in every direction.

The sensation of snakes falling away from my body was cold and damp.

“Haa…”

I raised the corners of my mouth as I looked at the dead Medusa.

Without a mirror, I couldn’t know for sure, but it probably wasn’t a pleasant smile.

It was closer to a mad laugh than an expression born from genuine happiness.

Besides, I was covered in blood.

How could that possibly look good?

I would be lucky if I didn’t look completely insane.

Ah.

Come to think of it, when it came to Demons, I actually was insane.

So maybe looking that way would be a good thing.

Well, whatever.

The quest was finished.

Which meant all that remained were the Mage and the Priest…

I had just killed a Demon, so I was probably still excited.

And since those two had mistaken me for a Demon, the grudge I held against them meant my reaction should be even more intense than before.

Good.

Full immersion: ON!

Crack. Crack.

I lightly rolled my stiff neck and swung the sword onto my shoulder.

Then I erased my smile while leaving behind the hunger and madness directed toward Demons, staring at the two of them.

“I’ll commend you for not interfering while I killed those damned rats. Looks like even fanatics possess enough sense to recognize when they should stay quiet.”

To be honest, I knew this might interfere with the story a little.

But if the story got ruined because I decided to run my mouth, wouldn’t that be entertaining in its own way?

Besides, if the game offered this much freedom, the Development Team must have been confident they could handle whatever happened.

“Well then, it’s time to tear apart that mouth of yours, just as I promised.”

So I would do whatever I wanted.

I couldn’t abandon the Character Concept, even if it killed me.