ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 299: Brynhildr Baskerville III (Fourteen Years Old) Part 2

「I don’t know much about Sanraku-san before we met, but I can certainly imagine it. Especially seeing on how after we have met it was one dangerous thing after another.」

「What can I say here? It was all Pencilgton’s fault most of the times…… No, seriously. It really was.」

At least when we take the encounter with the Ashura-Kai and the battle against the Gravekeeper Wezaemon into account……

「Alright, MOST of the dangerous situations were Pencilgton’s fault. I admit, some of the trouble were clearly on me here.」

「You know what, Sanraku-san? I have been thinking for a while now, and isn’t that all those situations are entirely on you? Because you are the way you are?」

「What? Nah, that can’t be…… There’s no way that…… Now you’re just talking nonsense!」

Well, that being said, whenever I am in trouble, I have one universal excuse to cover for me: “It was Arthur Pencilgton who told me to do it!”.

All the time we proceed forward, we sometimes stumble upon other players who can’t hide their shock and disbelief upon seeing me. Some of them thought I was a monster, while others thought I was simply too poor to buy decent equipment…… I honestly don’t know which was worse here. Look, it’s not that I am half-naked because I want to be that way, alright!? It’s being forced onto me! At first it was really like that, since I wanted to save up some money, but now I have a whole lot of it and I can buy whatever the hell I want! So hooray to capitalism!

「Alright, we should be more or less at our destination now.」

「You’re right! I can see it!」

I’m sure that not that many players have seen this view from this perspective.

Normally, people tend to go from point “A” to point “B” through this forest, not the other way around. Beyond the thinning tree line you can see the silhouette of the very first town that the Pioneers descend to, a place that becomes the foothold for many adventures and challenges yet unknown. The city that is so plain and unexciting as every first town in any other video game, the town of Firstia.

「It looks that its size is slightly bigger than Secandil, but smaller than Thirdrema. Should we call this is a Sub-Thirdrema class?」

「It may feel so spacious because there are so many open spaces in between each building.」

Now, visiting the very first town for the first time ever since you are about to venture to the new continent…… Talk about a twisted feeling.

Unlike Fifthsia, this is not a port city. It does not flourish thanks to the Pioneers going to the new continent. It is also not the plateau city like Thirdrema, which flourishes mostly because of the people being presented there with various options where to go from there on.

The place looks spacious, there are plenty of buildings here, but all of them have a rather rustic feeling to them. This seems like those “City of Departures”, the ones you grow up in and leave one you come of age, going into the vast world beyond to find your place in it.

「Uwah, but I must say, for a quiet place like that, it surely feels lively over there……」

「You know what they say. Appearances can be very deceiving.」

I heard that the saturation of players was always high here, and that it was especially crowded during the summer vacation season. However, if you started around the beginning of summer break, it is highly unlikely that you would stay there for more than a month, so by the end of the summer break you should be able to reach Secandil or even Thirdrema quite easily.

In other words, even though it is crowded here, the vast majority of the crowd are newcomers. Even though it was midnight right now, the place was as lively and busy as during the day, so that was calling for a certain fear: what if the new influx of players causes this place to become a shitty game in the long run?

「…… Emul, for the sake of keeping a low profile, you should remain quiet for now, ok?」

「Roger that.」

Thrill seeking is all good and that, but you need to be very careful about what you are doing and where you are doing those things. One false move and you can give a start to events that can quickly spiral out of control, or be disastrous in results! …… But more than anything else, it is important to be aware of the rule of the “Right person at the right place!”.

Now then, if only I can get registered with the Mercenary Guild and get some recommendations out of them, then I can get it done quickly and…… Wait, where is the Mercenary Guild, again?

This is my first visit ever to this city, so it should go without saying that I have no idea where is around here. So for now, let us do some sightseeing and get acquainted with the area, shall we?

「Hmm, I see…… So assuming that the vast majority of players coming here are newbies, the shops are run as stalls, huh?」

And in order to accommodate all of the players and their needs, every stall was equipped with extra amounts of essential items for the beginners, with some extra staff working behind the counter in order for business to go in a smooth and ruly way.

And the speed at which those aunties here were handling the customers that were crowding the stalls….. Isn’t that the kind of speed that Silvia Goldberg exhibited!? What is with their stats, I wonder? Could that be the reason why they were able to handle everything here in an orderly fashion, without major incidents or attempts at theft?

「…… the rabbit is.」

「…… The snake is……」

「By the poison……」

Hmm, all of a sudden, I can hear a whole lot of familiar sounding words being spoken all over the place. Apparently those are the people who have become familiar with the monsters around here and experienced death from their hands.

I think that in this game, the tutorial is a little bit harsh on the new players. At the very least, the tutorial area seems to have a rather high mortality rate. And then I remember that I was the victim of this area as well. But seeing as I am now, maybe it would be a good idea to go and bully that stupid snake? Just so that I can make myself feel better? Especially since it must be related to Goldunine in some way?

「Kuh, no matter where you look, there are people with familiar looking equipment everywhere……」

I mean, of course there would be people like that, it is a starting area, after all. Most people never come back here, and once they start the game they only have the starting equipment that they have decided on during the character creation.

In other words, there is little to be had in terms of variety when it comes to the starting equipment. The only thing that would be kind of similar to that is the change of color scheme. Thinking about it, the people that are here seem much like chicks the moment after they just got born into the world. I cannot help but chuckle at the thought like that.

「In other words, you say that being half-naked is not something that should be scoffed at, but is a sign of the highest grade rarity?」

Ohh, won’t you look at that? A bird mask for your starting equipment?

Be strong there, my little rookie! Even if it means dragging your own body through mud, as long as you specialize in agility and avoidance, there is nothing in this world that can stand in your way……

It was then that I picked up a kind of noise that was clearly different from anything else around here.

「Hm? And what’s this? What is that supposed to be?」

Taking advantage of the height of my own avatar, I could see a group of players gathered around in a circle. And let me tell you, they did not look as newbies or innocent little gamers who just started. They looked like people who already had some experience here. And in the middle of the circle, two of them were facing one another.

「Winning or losing is irrelevant!」

「But the thing that counts is the school swimsuit!」

「Naturally!」

「Now, let the battle……」

「「「…… Begin!」」」

No, seriously, what the hell are you even doing, guys?