Games Are Different from Reality (2)
Games Are Different from Reality (2)
Games are different from reality.
Turn-based RPGs, in particular, are different to the point where they share almost nothing in common with reality.
In reality, when people fight for their lives, they do not take turns hitting each other. They do not waste dozens of seconds preparing a powerful attack while standing still, and they do not see "Miss" pop up when attacking an enemy right in front of them.
So, to put it another way.......
When someone uses magic, they do not simply stand there spacing out and willingly take every enemy attack.
In Aetherna Chronicles, there were types of attacks that could cancel an enemy's big attack before it executed, wasting their turn. If a skill ability included the phrase "Action Cancel," it had a set probability of canceling a large attack the enemy had queued up.
Unless it was an ultimate skill that fired instantly without warning, every spell displayed its name the moment execution began, and the turn on which the spell would be used was determined by the monster or character's agility. In that situation, if the caster was hit with an Action Cancel skill, the spell was canceled. Then, on the turn when the spell was supposed to execute, instead of casting the spell, the character would have their action gauge reset and would wait for a new command.
The best way to raise the Action Cancel probability was to select a faster spell or an instant skill whose attribute was the opposite of the spell scheduled to execute—provided, of course, that the spell or skill had "Action Cancel" attached to it.
At first glance, it was fairly logical.
Using water to block a fire-attribute spell sounded plausible enough, did it not? Being struck by a large volume of water suddenly pouring down from overhead would make it quite difficult to continue the action one had been performing.
The problem was that such reasoning only worked in theory.
...... If an enemy knew full well that a large volume of water falling from overhead put them at a disadvantage, why would they not simply dodge it?
An Elemental Bear was a "bear." And a bear, though it might look lumbering at a glance, was in truth a terrifying beast whose body was mostly composed of muscle.
And the Elemental Bear before us was far larger than any bear I knew.
Its muscle mass, naturally, would be far greater too.
"Ah—!"
The bullet did not inflict a fatal wound on the Elemental Bear. I pulled the trigger at the same moment Mia Crowfield's spell activated and water poured down from overhead. The bullet grazed the bear's cheek as it began moving almost simultaneously, but it did not die.
In truth, the reason I had asked Mia Crowfield for that spell was because I was worried that the fire-attribute Elemental Bear's attacks might set the forest ablaze. Flames had indeed flared wherever its claws touched, and there were places where small fires had already caught.
But that was something that could be dealt with after the attack was over.
The Elemental Bear's position was not where I had last seen it.
The time it took to lower the recoil-raised gun was not especially long, but it was enough time for the bear to move and shift its stance.
By the time I brought the gun down, the bear had already completely vacated the soaking-wet spot, planted both forepaws on the ground, and flattened itself low against the earth.
...... Its mouth was still wide open.
The spell had not been canceled.
The bear was staring at Mia Crowfield.
"Again!"
I shouted urgently.
*
"Hah!"
I drew a sharp breath and hurriedly raised my body.
The room was still pitch-black.
......I had returned to the time when I woke up this morning. Just before Claire came to wake me, right before I would have gotten up first and started cleaning my firearms.
"......."
Ah.
I must have turned the dial back too far in my haste and ended up going excessively far back.
...... Actually, thinking it through properly, it might have been better to rewind only a short span, the way I did during training and sparring, and put a bullet squarely into its skull. The bear had been about to execute its spell, but I had been watching it too.
I wiped my face with both hands.
But.......
Yes, but my own shortsightedness had played a large part as well.
The name "Aetherna Empire."
And the names of the countless characters I had seen inside the game.
For reasons like those, I unconsciously came to perceive this world as being inside a game.
But...... it was different. It was unmistakably different.
Inside a game, taking a swipe from a bear's swinging arm only meant losing a little HP. Casting a spell or drinking a potion was all it took to refill that HP.
In fact, even losing HP did not matter much.
For some reason, cutscenes featured scenes of characters being shot and assassinated or killed by bombs, but during combat, no matter how many bullets or bombs hit you and reduced your HP to zero, as long as the party was not wiped out and a game over did not occur, the only status applied was "Fainted."
After the battle ended, you simply restored your HP with magic, potions, or the recovery devices stationed at every checkpoint, and that was that.
But reality did not work that way.
The forest had no convenient devices like HP recovery stations. There were no auto-save points either.
If a bear's forepaw struck you, before you could even think about restoring HP, your bones and flesh would already be separated and your internal organs would be spilling out.
...... If you were hit by the straight-line fire-attribute laser that came out of its mouth, even if healing magic somehow saved your life, your fingers might be fused together, or your face might melt...... At any rate, you might end up carrying a horrific injury for the rest of your life.
"In the original......."
The phrase "in the original" was a statement that only held true when it came to the story and the appearance of the towns.
Thinking back on it, under the assumption that I had not been there, I doubted Leo and his party could have broken through the fake trench either. Even if they had asked Mia Crowfield for help...... Could they have leaped into a trench without a pre-loaded shotgun and eliminated an opponent before the enemy could act first?
"Is it because of me?"
Were these things happening because I, someone who had never existed in the original, had suddenly inserted myself into the party?
I furrowed my brow and sank into thought, but I could not reach a proper conclusion.
Would my presence or absence really make that much difference in that kind of combat? When fighting an enemy armed with a gun or an enemy armed with a sword, the danger of sustaining a fatal wound that led to death from a single hit was extremely high. So to proceed according to the story...... they would have to keep fighting without ever allowing an attack worse than a scratch.
Even if events proceeded according to the story, was it truly possible for the protagonist's party to reach the ending without ever being injured "even once"?
To begin with, if that were possible, was there not no reason for me to be here? Did a goddess said to exist in this world, or a god of some other religion, or at the very least something like the System, exist and create an entity like me?
"......."
I did not know. No one had yet told me the reason I existed here, so constructing such reasons was something I could only do through my own thoughts.
Becoming a character suited to the game, so that I would not be abandoned by anyone. That was what I had chosen.
"Hoo......."
Still, well. At least, maybe because I knew of a future startling enough to jolt me wide awake, my drowsiness had thoroughly fled.
I rose from my bed.
It was almost time for Claire to fling the door open, after all.
*
"Is there a blacksmith nearby?"
When I abruptly asked that question to the receptionist who had just finished a rough explanation and was trying to rest, the receptionist immediately glared at me.
"At this hour? You planning to wake someone up and ask them to make you a weapon?"
"That is correct."
"Huh?"
The receptionist made a blatantly thuggish noise once again, but when I held her gaze without looking away, she blinked as if slightly flustered.
"Sylvia?"
At my attitude, Claire, who had been standing nearby, called my name sounding a little surprised herself.
"I have money. Having a weapon thrown together at this hour must be tiring work. If you wake the craftsman for us, I will provide a tip as well."
"......."
When I spoke that way with an attitude that seemed full of some kind of conviction, the receptionist stared at me in silence for a long moment.
She probably already knew who I was. She would have heard from Jennifer.
The receptionist who had been here yesterday when we were introduced to this place was a different person. That was only natural. One person could not keep working through the night indefinitely.
Even with a shift change, she would have received a handover.
"...... Fine. I don't need a tip."
Honestly, I had no idea what she had sensed, but the receptionist picked up the receiver of the telephone on the table.
"Put me through to the blacksmith."
She spoke in a voice that was markedly different from the demeanor she had shown us, then fell silent again. And as if she meant to size me up, her gaze swept over me from top to bottom.
In the game, tempering equipment took almost no time at all, roughly on the level of slotting in and pulling out toy parts, but reality was different. Still, since a magic staff had a socket for inserting Marmaros, even if it would not be seriously time-consuming, properly fitting it and adjusting its condition would take at least several dozen minutes to an hour.
Fortunately, we were not departing to take on the request immediately at this hour. There was still a little time, so if we left the weapon with them in the meantime, things would work out somehow.
"Are you feeling sure about something?"
Alice asked that, and I nodded. Seeing my expression, Alice asked no further.
"Ah, sorry for the late hour. This is Frida from the request office, but—"
The receptionist, who had been holding the receiver for a while, opened her mouth.
*
"......."
While we were on our way back to where the Elemental Bear was, Mia Crowfield wore an expression that suggested she was deep in thought.
She was still panting, but her face suggested that something had come up that required more serious consideration than what it showed on the surface.
At the tip of the staff in her hand, a blue gemstone glinted.
It was the Marmaros I had obtained in the underground waterway.
...... Honestly, it was a little frightening. If the magic she worked with that were directed at me, I would die without being able to make a sound.
But more than that, I did not want the protagonist's party to get hurt.
There might have been a way to prevent us from accepting this request in the first place. But I disliked that option in its own way too.
In that case, well. Even if I had to take risks, I would have to search for another path.
"...... Let us rest for a moment."
Because Mia Crowfield did not openly vocalize her panting, the party had not realized someone was exhausted until they heard me say that, turned to look behind them, and wore slightly startled expressions.
After all, there was Mia Crowfield, sweat beading heavily on her forehead.
"If you were struggling, you should have said something."
Claire said that, and we decided to sit down and rest for a while.
Just as I had done earlier, I wordlessly handed a water bottle to Mia Crowfield.
She took the bottle without a word, held it, and carefully drank the water.
Even as she did so, she stared at me with confused eyes.
That was only natural, since I had simply given her a Marmaros that was extremely precious at this point in time.
If it were me, I would have been intensely suspicious too.
But I felt no particular desire to explain that I had seen the future.
All I could do, I thought as I accepted the warm canteen that Mia Crowfield handed back, was hope that this method would work this time.
*
The more Marmaros of a specific attribute you equipped, the more the "execution time" of spells decreased.
Translated into reality, it meant that even without lengthy concentration, the Marmaros's own magical power provided assistance.
The number of usable spells increased, and the time required to cast those spells grew much shorter as well.
...... Reality was not a game, but the game's setting itself had still been designed with reality in mind.
"Spiritus Glacies!"
Spirit of ice.
That was what Mia's shout sounded like.
A massive spike of ice rammed into the mouth of the Elemental Bear, which lay flattened against the ground with its jaws wide open.
The glowing interior of the Elemental Bear's mouth was instantly dyed red. A crack split across the solid ice lodged deep inside its maw, and red blood seeped through the fissures as though soaking into them.
But the bear did not die.
Bang!
Well, its head was blown through immediately afterward, though.
When I fired another round into the right eye where a bullet had already embedded itself once before, the skull on that side collapsed inward as if caving in, the hide sinking deep into the cavity.
With ice lodged in its throat, its hide shredded by sword slashes, and one side of its head caved in, the gruesomely wounded bear slumped to the ground.
Though it was slightly puffed up, its posture itself resembled a carpet made by skinning a bear and stretching the pelt flat.
"...... Hm."
Looking at the Elemental Bear, Jake spoke up.
"Getting full price for this one seems unlikely."
No one laughed at the joke.