Sparks
"Are you saying you can truly stop the Second Apocalypse… all by yourself?"
Sunken Eyes asked again, as if he couldn't believe it.
I answered with a languid smile at the corner of my mouth.
"Still doubting me?"
"N-no, it isn't that! I just didn't know it was possible… So the All-Area Conqueror privilege can actually prevent the Second Apocalypse?"
Of course, my All-Area Conqueror privilege was nothing more than the inheritance of a title. I had no idea how to stop the Second Apocalypse.
But there was no chance the objects holding a divine revelation — the meteor items — would all fall into my hands right this second, which meant there was also no way to prove my words were a lie. For the time being, no one but me knew what All-Area Conqueror privilege I had actually received.
Even a player who had opened the system could only confirm a single title through my status window: Friend of Luna Moon.
So if I claimed that my All-Area Conqueror privilege was "the right to stop the Second Apocalypse by gathering nine meteor items," whether that was true or false was something only I would ever know.
Even Love Area's "Shin," who had used other players' ignorance to pass the system off as a "divine revelation," probably never imagined the same trick would be turned on him. As long as he had no way to check my privilege, he would not be able to discard the possibility that I was telling the truth.
Besides, every one of us had to survive the Second Apocalypse. To ordinary players, the claim that I could stop it would sound sweet indeed.
Players who already held meteor items would find it less charming.
I eased off the high-handed posture a little and spoke more gently.
"Believe me or don't — that's up to you. Either way, I'm not refusing to cooperate. I have a mission given to me, and I'm simply moving for that."
"Ahh… a mission…!"
The word seemed to leave a deep impression on him. The hope that had been lighting his face at the thought of an easy solution to the Second Apocalypse soon gave way to a look of concern.
"B-but… what exactly is this object that holds a divine revelation?"
"You're a player. You should know. I need meteor items."
"Meteor items? Then that would be the earring Manshin has. He said he uses it to communicate with the god…"
Sunken Eyes fell quiet, his face clouded with the problem of how to report all this to Manshin. Watching him for a moment, I tossed out a question as if it were nothing.
"So why were you pretending to be hurt?"
"What?"
He looked up, baffled, as if the question had come out of nowhere.
"Before you got caught. You were faking an injury, weren't you."
"Ah… that is…"
"It's fine. Just tell me the truth."
"I was trying to capture an NPC and learn about Dopamine Addict. I failed, though…"
"With that body of yours, you were going to take on two of them?"
"W-well, I was going to kill one and cripple the other so he couldn't walk."
If I hadn't trained those two early, someone would have bled.
"But those NPCs had insanely sharp instincts! Like they'd been expecting exactly that kind of situation…"
He trailed off, then looked at me with the face of someone who had just put it together.
"Thinking about it now… you already knew I was coming, didn't you?!"
I answered without so much as a change of expression.
"I did."
"No wonder they seemed too smart for Cola Area NPCs…!"
"Lucky for you. If you'd harmed them, I wouldn't have been able to simply send you back."
At that, the tension returned to his pale face — as if he had only just remembered he had stepped into another player's territory.
"I… I should probably head back now to deliver this to Manshin…"
"Why? You came a long way. Not staying a little longer?"
"No. I have to get this enormous news through as soon as possible, so we can stop the Second Apocalypse in time."
So he's worried I might not let him leave cleanly.
I could have interrogated him and flipped the situation for information on Love Area… but keeping him around only increased the risk of my being exposed as a player. If he started babbling about divine revelations in front of my zone's NPCs, it would get messy. Better to play the generous host and send him off quickly.
I opened my inventory and pulled out some surplus old-style combat rations. When I produced them from empty air, Sunken Eyes made a small sound of admiration. That he was impressed but not shocked suggested Shin had already shown off his inventory to prove how special he was.
I tossed the rations in front of him. They were the old model that tasted like boot leather, not the new Star Candy, but since none of us could taste anything anyway, it hardly mattered.
"Take them. Should be enough to recover on the way back."
"Th-thank you…!"
I left him scrambling to gather the rations for a moment, then asked in a casual voice,
"In exchange, there's one thing I'd like to ask…"
"Are you sure it's all right to let him go like that?"
Meursault asked, watching Sunken Eyes's dazed retreating back.
"For someone who was simply lost, he was far too composed when we captured him. It bothers me."
"Come on. He's a kid."
"…Lately, children are what scare me the most."
And why are you looking at me when you say that?
"Anyway, I handled the talk. I untied him and spoke with him, and he never tried to hurt me. Isn't that enough? We didn't come out here for suspicious children — we came for monsters."
"That's true, but…"
Meursault still looked uneasy about my lenient decision, but Lucas and Bones, the ones who had actually caught the boy, seemed thoroughly relieved.
"Just a kid after all. That's a relief."
"What the hell was that dumb brat doing lurking around a place like this!"
If these two ever found out that same dumb brat nearly killed them, they'd faint on the spot.
"Nothing special left on this side besides that kid. Let's head back."
"No signal yet. Looks like the other teams still haven't found a target either."
Each team had agreed to fire a white flare the moment they spotted a large-class monster. But even after I finished my talk with the Love Area player and came back out, the sky held not a single spark.
In cases like this, either last winter had been too warm and the population had thinned, or the monsters had learned that warm weather meant a purge and had gone to ground. At least since my possession, winters had not been kind — so the monsters were more likely hiding. If so, they would eventually come out for food, and all we had to do was kill time and wait.
Even so…
"Not seeing a single one is still strange."
"Is it?"
"Not just large-class. We haven't run into a mid- or small-class either."
The only thing our search had turned up was one player pretending to be a child. That was clearly not normal. Meursault and the other new officers, though, only looked blank.
"…Never mind. What am I even saying, dragging rookies on their first purge."
"You're on your first one too…"
"What was that?"
"We'll tidy the perimeter!"
Lucas clamped a hand over Bones's grumbling mouth and hurried off to break down the temporary tent. Meursault watched them a moment, then turned his gaze back to me.
"Is the situation really that odd? I've rarely joined a purge myself, but I've read plenty of reports. They usually say mid- and small-class monsters get spooked and flee, so you don't see them. The teams that searched other directions reported footprints of monsters bolting as if terrified, too."
"I heard that. But there are only ten of us."
Ordinarily, mid- and small-class monsters vanishing made sense. Hundreds of armed humans setting out for a deliberate hunt — monsters with sharp senses would be stranger if they didn't run. But right now we numbered barely ten. Far too dainty a force to frighten mid- and small-class monsters with sheer numbers.
"And yet that many monsters fled in a panic, as if they were terrified. That bothers me."
"Hmm… aren't monsters sensitive?"
"They are. Why?"
"They sensed it from far away. Ah — something dangerous has left the Area…"
I lost my words for a second and just stared at him.
"Was that supposed to be a joke?"
"…Hey, over there! You mustn't carry it that way."
Meursault dodged the question with some thoroughly awkward acting. I watched him spout nonsense while pretending to help the soldiers, then let my expression harden a little.
Joke or not, a chill I couldn't name had settled over me.
It's too quiet…
This side had never been thick with monsters to begin with. So maybe the unease was baseless. My goal had been to check the barrier that should be near here, and having personally witnessed a Love Area player cross over, I had already achieved that. Even with the naked eye, there was no sign of the blue wall I remembered from the game.
A Unicorn Area player had crossed as well, and I had worried that maybe only that one could move between zones — so this was something of a relief.
But if that's the case…
Home Protector, who still hadn't made contact, was looking more and more like he had suffered something at the hands of Love Area's "Shin." Of course he might simply be busy clearing content, or keeping quiet because he found me suspicious. But my gut leaned toward something having happened to him.
Anyone who would send a player all the way into my zone would almost certainly have paid a personal visit to the nearest one — Tobacco Area.
Not that I had the slightest intention of going to rescue Home Protector. I was, however, interested in the meteor item he had been holding.
I need to see how that shaman reacts to the All-Area Conqueror privilege.
The most likely reaction was disbelief. But something about the Love Area player suggested he would play more boldly than expected. I was looking forward to it.
Then—
"Huh?"
One of the men hauling gear stared at the distant sky and made a vacant sound. Everyone with sharp senses, myself included, snapped their heads toward that stretch of sky.
And then our vision filled with them.
White sparks, scattering across the heavens.
"Beautiful…"
A few of the green officers, with no real combat experience, stood overwhelmed by the sight, faces full of wonder. Mine and Meursault's, by contrast, went cold and hard.
"Those are definitely…"
White flares, fired on discovery of a large-class monster.
And the direction they bloomed from was the center — where the Commander's Team One had gone to search.