Go East Kanami! Read online

  “Jesus,” Leonardo muttered. He was lying limply in the center of the ruined town of Tekeli.

  This town was his prison.

  Leonardo, who had come to this town through a chain of events, had learned that it had a temple. Temples were game-related buildings that functioned as resurrection points, and there was one in every player town.

  Adventurers who died in Elder Tales were revived at the last temple they’d visited. Even in this world, which had gone mad following the Catastrophe, that hadn’t changed.

  Temples were composed of the resurrection point—meaning the temple itself—and a wider “detection area.” In most cases, detection areas were the same size as the town that held the temple. In other words, the moment anyone entered the town, they were treated as if they’d visited the temple and “registered.” Afterward, if that Adventurer died, they were revived at the temple where they’d been registered.

  Raid zones and high-difficulty dungeons were equipped with these mechanisms as well. In other words, those entire zones were detection areas, and if you died in them, you revived at the resurrection point at the dungeon’s entrance.

  The temple in the ruins of Tekeli was no exception, and its detection area was the entire ruined town.

  At first, Leonardo had been psyched that this temple existed.

  After all, due to those certain circumstances, he’d been traveling through Central Asia, and this temple was a welcome save point. Journeys in this region were merciless and harsh. If he’d died, he would have had to restart his journey from a far-distant place.

  He’d even thought of this temple—which stood right smack in the middle of the wilderness, all by itself—as a divine favor.

  However, the reality was quite different.

  “Dammit… I can’t do a blasted thing like this.”

  Moving sluggishly, Leonardo looked toward the outskirts of town. There was something like a heat mirage there, undulating slowly.

  A Daylight Shade.

  It was a level-52 spirit monster.

  When Leonardo had entered the town and climbed the bell tower at its center, he’d accidentally touched a water mirror. That had probably been the trigger: An event had begun.

  At this point, guessing was all he could do, but it had to be a raid event for level-50 players. The ruins had been surrounded by countless Daylight Shades.

  Leonardo was level 90.

  Bragging aside, as an Assassin, he was top-notch. In close combat with two swords, he was near the top of the national rankings. He was a true New Yorker who lived on Avenue ABC, and as an über-geek who enjoyed Shake Shack burgers every week in Madison Square Park, he’d devoted all his enthusiasm to Elder Tales.

  …Put bluntly, he was a hopeless American fanboy, but his enthusiasm was the real thing. Battle after battle. Junk food and more junk food. Of course, that wasn’t all. He also had those constant companions to online games: trivial gossip and squabbles and cheap melodrama, bragging nonsense stories, the limitless competition to acquire rare items, and a few really important connections.

  Since he was that sort of guy, level-52 monsters weren’t enough to scare him. Not if there were only five or six of them, at any rate. Even if there had been thirty of them, at the worst, he probably would’ve been able to charge through them.

  However, the situation surrounding the ruins of Tekeli was different. Even at a low estimate, there were several thousand Daylight Shades encircling this town. Under the circumstances, no one person, not even a level-90 player, could escape.

  He hadn’t known that at the outset, of course.

  Leonardo had gotten the information by firing himself up to get out or die, plotting his escape, then losing, dying, and finally resurrecting. The town was completely sealed on all four sides.

  The situation couldn’t have been worse.

  Ordinarily, no matter how hairy things got, when a player resurrected, they were sent to a temple in a safe location. Moreover, even without dying, they could get back by using Call of Home.

  However, the ruins had apparently been registered as both a resurrection and a return point for Leonardo.

  As things stood, neither dying nor using Call of Home would get him out of here.

  “…I’m hungry. I want sushi…”

  Sushi was one of Leonardo’s favorite foods, and he wanted it so badly he couldn’t stand it.

  He missed Tasuda in Midtown and Ushiwaka in SoHo. He was partial to tuna with a generous dose of wasabi. No, he wouldn’t ask for that much. At this point, he’d even settle for a sketchy East Village California roll. That was how much he missed it.

  In this world, after the Catastrophe, hunger felt like actual, physical pain. Nonetheless, Leonardo was short on information, and he didn’t know whether starving to death was possible here. He hadn’t seen or heard of prolonged hunger lowering anyone’s hit points and leading to death.

  He still had some rations in his magic bag, but it seemed likely he’d get to run a personal experiment on starving to death in the not-so-distant future.

  “If this were the North American server, at least…”

  If this had been the North American server, Leonardo would have had friends and acquaintances here. His (lucky) friends who’d avoided getting caught up in the Catastrophe were probably still sitting pretty back in the real world, but still, Leonardo was a severe online game junkie, and he had a lot of acquaintances who were as unhinged as he was.

  However, the telechat function couldn’t be used across server boundaries.

  His friend list had still worked after the Catastrophe, but now it was just a dark gray block, without a single lit-up name. That was only natural: Most of his friends were on the North American server, and this was the Chinese server.

  “Holy shit… I can’t deal with this, man.”

  Things had been complete chaos on the North American server, as if somebody had thrown open the gates of hell. Fleeing the panic, thinking he’d find a place to lie low for a while, he’d jumped into a Fairy Ring…and now, Leonardo thought, he was paying for it.

  He had more than five years of Elder Tales experience, and no matter how little he wanted to, he knew: With the amount of combat power he had personally, he couldn’t get through the surrounding Daylight Shades. That said, he had no way of calling for help, and he didn’t have a prayer of getting out of the situation by leveling up or getting an item.

  He’d long ago abandoned the hope that somebody would pass by.

  In the first place, he’d found these ruins by accident. They’d been all on their own, unmarked, in the middle of an immense wasteland, as if they were a prank somebody had pulled.

  Now that he thought about it, he probably should have suspected at that point that there was some sort of quest or event.

  This was checkmate.

  His luck had run out.

  In the center of Aorsoi’s—Kazakhstan’s—blue, blue wilderness, Leonardo had stumbled into a situation where his only hope of salvation was calling the game master.

  Of course, in this world, the GM gods didn’t exist.

  3

  “Hey. You. If you sleep out here, you’ll mess up your stomach.”

  All of this was why, when he heard those words, he thought it was some kind of joke.

  Plus she had a dynamite figure—something just short of a fantasy.

  A black-haired woman stood above him.

  In what had become an almost unconscious habit, Leonardo checked her status.

  Her name was… It looked like “Kanami.”

  Her class was Monk. Level 90.

  She had Asian features, and her hair was pulled back into a thick braid. Her eyes brimmed with curiosity, and her lips seemed vaguely amused; they made her look young, and he couldn’t immediately figure out her age. After all, people said Asians tended to look younger for their ages than Westerners like himself. Her equipment was light, as you’d expect in a game world, and her risqué outfit showcased her feminine charms with abandon.

  In DC, she might have gotten hauled in and admonished, but for the San Fran coast, she was probably still in the permissible range. When his thoughts had gone that far, Leonardo shook his head. That stuff was common sense from back on Earth.

  At any rate, she was a cute beauty with a great figure. All the women in this world were beautiful, but this girl also had an energetic, musical voice, and just from the few words she’d spoken, he sensed a charm that was more than skin-deep.

  “Hey!”

  Leonardo had been planning to introduce himself, but he yelled involuntarily.

  He’d intended to tell her about the temple but had realized he was too late.

  The temple’s detection area covered the entire ruined town.

  That meant this woman had already fallen into its clutches.

  “What?”

  “Uh, nothing. Sorry for yelling. I’m Leonardo. I’m an Adventurer from the North American server.”

  “Hmm. I’m Kanami.”

  Saying this, the woman shook Leonardo’s hand, and he got to his feet.

  Once their eyes were on roughly the same level, he realized that Kanami was about 170 centimeters tall—taller than Leonardo. He didn’t have much confidence in his height, and this sort of thing never made him happy.

  * * *

  “You came here from the North American server to take a nap? You’re pretty awesome.”

  “Uh, no. That wasn’t it…but… Come to think of it, how did you get into these ruins?” Leonardo asked.

  “Hmm? I just walked in.”

  Reflexively, he glanced at the distant end of the broad avenue.

  His eyesight had been enhanced through high-level correction, and he could make out a slight, wavering warp in the landscape of the boun
dary region on the outskirts of town. His expectations had been betrayed.

  In short, those Daylight Shades didn’t attack anyone who came in from the outside. They trapped Adventurers inside, then annihilated them.

  Apparently, it was that kind of event.

  “I want you to listen to what I’m about to say without getting too bummed out, or panicking, or taking it out on me.”

  “Hmm?”

  Braid swinging, Kanami turned her large black eyes on Leonardo. Having those mysterious Eastern eyes gazing at him disconcerted the man, but meeting this colleague had been a minor miracle, and he didn’t want to shock her, so he chose his words carefully as he went on.

  “Umm, see, from what I can tell, these ruins are currently caught up in an event.”

  “An event?”

  “Yeah. A raid event, at that.”

  “Ooooh!”

  Kanami’s eyes sparkled in obvious delight.

  Leonardo didn’t think it was anything to be happy about, and he lowered his voice and continued.

  “The situation’s hopeless. There’s a temple in this town. In other words, the moment you stepped in here, um, Miz Kanami, you also got…”

  “Registered?”

  “Yeah. And obviously…”

  “We can’t get away by resurrecting or using the Call of Home spell?”

  “Right. You catch on fast. That’s a huge help.”

  “Okay, great! I got it! I’m all fired up!!”

  Kanami’s naïve response bewildered Leonardo.

  Did the woman really understand?

  It looked as if she was just getting excited over the word raid.

  Was it possible she was a newbie?

  In Elder Tales, leveling up wasn’t that hard. Quests were as abundant as an enormous Manchu Han Imperial Feast and generously distributed across all level demographics, so if you chased after them, your level would practically rise on its own.

  The game itself boasted a long history, and that meant the difference between veteran players and new players was a serious problem. That difference was particularly noticeable in levels, and it was an element that kept gamers from playing together. Things such as the Coach System had been added with that in mind, but the quickest way to solve the fundamental problem was to eliminate the level difference between players.

  To that end, the Elder Tales administrators had set a policy of helping new players to level up.

  In other words, even for newbies, it wasn’t very difficult to grow to level 90, the maximum level. Ordinary players could reach level 90 in less than a hundred hours.

  On the other hand, it wasn’t easy to get a complete set of equipment suitable for a level-90 player. It took ages to improve all your special skills to esoteric-class and to acquire a full array of treasure-class items.

  Kanami’s equipment was nothing for a level-90 player to be embarrassed about, but unlike Leonardo’s, its specs weren’t hard-core. From the look of her gear, Kanami probably hadn’t been playing for very long.

  “Do you really get it? This town is surrounded, and we’re probably not gonna be able to get away.”

  “Huh? Why not?”

  Kanami asked the question as if the idea completely mystified her. As she tilted her head, the word blank suited her expression perfectly.

  “Well, I mean, it’s a raid… Oh! I see. You’re Chinese?”

  Catching on, Leonardo felt relieved.

  He was from the North American server, and he couldn’t contact his friends, but if Kanami was from the Chinese server, it was very likely that she’d be able to get in touch with hers. The post-Catastrophe world was filled with chaos and malice, so there was no telling whether any of her friends would come to a place this remote to rescue her, but even so, it was much better than not being able to contact them at all.

  If this was level-50 full raid content, meant for twenty-four players, then ten level-90 Adventurers with ordinary equipment would probably be able to break through it. Even Leonardo thought that, if there’d been five or six of him, they’d at least have managed to run away.

  “What are you talking about? I’m Japanese. I live in Rome. On the Western European server!”

  However, Kanami’s words shattered Leonardo’s hopes. The automatic translation system was too good, and because it translated everything perfectly, he’d completely failed to notice.

  “Then…”

  “Never mind. Why are you wearing that?”

  Leonardo shook his head a few times before answering Kanami’s question.

  “No skin off your nose, is it? It’s a hobby.”

  As a matter of fact, he was very used to hearing that question.

  “What is it?”

  “A frog.”

  For that reason, Leonardo was able to answer even rude questions with the slickest attitude imaginable: What are you dressed as? A frog. What does it stand for? It stands for a frog. Why is it wearing a red mask that only hides the area around its eyes? Because it’s a ninja.

  Why a frog? Why a ninja?

  Don’t be ridiculous.

  Because it’s cooler that way. Obviously.

  “Wow, you… You’re fantastic! Fantastic!”

  However, although ordinary people were usually completely disgusted by his responses, Kanami’s reaction was different.

  “That’s part of the costume headgear series, isn’t it?! It’s less a frog than a fuhrahhg, huh!!”

  He looked funny dressed as a comic book character, possibly even absurd, but as Kanami took several more good looks at him, smiling brightly, she seemed delighted. Getting laughed at this much should have made him feel insulted, but although Leonardo was taken aback, he felt no anger.

  This was probably because, as Kanami grinned, there was absolutely no derision or contempt in what she said. The sense that she was simply intrigued and entertained came through loud and clear. For that reason, although Leonardo’s twin swords had routed many PKs and insolent individuals he didn’t like, for once, they kept their silence.

  “What I look like shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Well, but I mean— It’s just awesome!”

  “Lemme alone.”

  “C’mon, c’mon! Pose with your sword! Show me, show me!”

  “I’ll fillet you.”

  “S-so cooool! That’s super-cute!! I want to pet you!”

  Laughing brightly, Kanami hugged him. On top of Leonardo’s leather armor—which he’d coordinated in green—and his exclusive Assassin’s tunic, he found a soft body that smelled like young grass clinging to him.

  “Uh, a little modesty?! Control yourself, would you?!”

  “Wow! You’re kinda great!”

  “What’s ‘great’?!”

  “Come with us!”

  Huh?

  “We’re headed for Japan. It’s a long way, you know? We’re getting pretty bored. So, listen, want to come with? Besides, if you nap in a place like this, you’ll just mess up your tum-tum.”

  Why Japan?

  Wait, no, I wasn’t napping.

  Never mind that, didn’t she get the part about not being able to get out of here?

  That’s not it.

  Leonardo’s thoughts were on the verge of overloading, and he pulled them together.

  Us. This lovely girl, who was probably about the same age as Leonardo, had just said us.

  “You’ve got friends here?!”

  “Yep. Oh, right. Since you’re coming with us, I’ll introduce you.”

  In the end, Leonardo’s objection—No, hold it, I didn’t say I’d go with you yet—disappeared without so much as a murmur.

  Although it probably wasn’t because they’d heard what Kanami said, a man and woman had come over the rubble of the ruins, and the man at least was so famous that even Leonardo recognized him.

  “Mistress Kanami. I see you’ve found a survivor. Hmm… Your appearance is quite bizarre, but you look like a seasoned Adventurer. I’m glad to make your acquaintance.”

  This young man, whose lips were curved up in a charming smile, and who was so handsome it made you want to crack a joke on reflex, was Elias Hackblade.

  “Elias Hackblade…”

  “Ah. You know me? My thanks, Sir Adventurer.”

  Elias didn’t seem to have any qualms about Leonardo’s cosplay gear. He smiled good-naturedly and held out his hand for a handshake.