Chapter 61

"So that's what the outside looked like, huh~"

After finishing my business and leaving the base, I was taking in the exterior.

It's a white conical tower. Sky-blue ramparts surround it. On top of the walls are masses of gun turrets; inside the walls, besides the tower, are tons of antennas and anti-air guns.

(They're pretty heavily armed inside the walls too... Makes sense, but something about the layout bugs me.)

From the very top of the tower, a transparent cylinder stretches toward the sky. An orbital elevator—the route we took to get here.

"That's just for show," says Chacha-san.

"If you peeled off one wall panel you'd see a crazy-complex mechanism inside. I'm sure."

I more or less get what Chacha-san's trying to say.

That tower—no, this whole area—has something hidden. I can feel it.

"Well then, let's buck up and go check out the property!"

"Yes!"

"Let me confirm Shiki-ccho's conditions one more time, okay?"

"Of course."

"First: the place must have a workshop for maintaining and developing weapons. Second: it must have an armory. Third: it must be quiet. Fourth: it must have strong security. Fifth: it has to cost only 1,000,000 chips. And if possible, it'd be nice to have a space for test-firing guns. Is that all correct?"

"Yes. Sorry for so many conditions..."

Honestly, meeting all those for just a million chips seems impossible. Clearing two or three would already be great.

"No problem at all. My search turned up exactly one property that meets every single one."

"Really!?"

"Yep. But anything near the capital was way too expensive. The place is in a mid-sized city called 'Jolly Roger'. It's a port town, and the public order is terrible!"

"It's bad!?"

"Pirates and mafia hang out there. You'll hear every language under the sun. Keep your auto-translate on at all times."

Auto-translate is a feature in every full-dive game; it automatically renders foreign languages into Japanese.

Thirty percent of Infinite Space players are Japanese, but seventy percent are from overseas. Your Majesty Rikusen and Nesu-san trigger the auto-translate, so those two must be foreign players.

Japan did get the game a year early, and because it's a Japanese-made title Japanese players have an edge, but the majority of players are still foreigners.

"So the bad areas are cheaper, huh?"

"Exactly. That's part of it."

Kinda scary.

Maybe I should save up more instead of living in a rough neighborhood.

"Don't worry so much. Even if the law's shaky, it's a good town. Being a port, trade is brisk, the rules aren't too tight, so there's lots of freedom. Information control is lax, so news flows in easily. If Shiki-ccho wants to move 'up', that city isn't a bad choice."

"I see..."

Outlaws can sometimes roll in a good direction, huh.

The capital, 'Asia', where we're walking now, is immaculate; everyone we pass is polite and friendly. Cameras are everywhere, and security bots pass every twenty seconds. Fire a gun here and you'd be surrounded and cuffed instantly. You never know who's watching, so you can't even speak carelessly. For a game, it feels restrictive—stifling.

"Besides, most problems there can be settled with force. With your skill, Shiki-ccho, you can solve any trouble that way♪"

Chacha-san sure thinks highly of me...

I'm not strong enough to subdue every opponent, you know.

"Oh, and there's a desert nearby."

"In this tropical colony?"

"Yep. I think they deliberately tweaked rainfall to make it. Some stuff only spawns in deserts."

They can do that, huh.

"How do we get to Jolly Roger?"

"Ship or undersea train."

"Undersea train!? Wh-what's that!?"

"There's a tunnel on the ocean floor, and the train runs through it!"

"I-I want to ride that!"

"Sure, but it's actually pretty boring. You're not cruising under the sea, you're just inside a tube under the seabed—basically a subway."

"I still wanna try it!"

"Okay then, I'll show you!"

And so, spirits high, we took the elevator underground and boarded the undersea train.

(Really isn't much different from a subway...)

The train looked like a shinkansen inside and out. Mostly four-seat booths. While hunting for seats,

"Wha—!?"

"What's up, Shiki-ccho?"

"Um, in the luggage rack..."

There's a person sleeping in the overhead rack.

A Space Girl in a sleeping bag and eye mask.

"...I guess she's headed for Roger too..."

"Looks like it."

"Sure seems like a fun town..."

I'm getting nervous about what's ahead.

Chacha-san and I sit next to each other. The train races through a dark steel tunnel.

"Still, it's a crazy free game if players can create whole worlds and nations..."

"You can feel the dev's almost-mad obsession, huh~"

The developer... Seika Tsukigami's father.

He built this incredible game just for his daughter. That's not just obsession—it's incredible love.

(Come to think of it, why does Seika always stay on the Moon? Her dad made this amazing world and she never leaves the Moon—what a waste.)

—BANG!! A gunshot echoed from far away.

"Oh my, madness detected here too. Shiki-ccho, can you tell where?"

"...About three cars ahead."

More shots rang out, getting steadily closer. From the muffled bursts, it's a submachine gun.

"I'll go check," says Chacha-san.

"No need. The player icons around the gunfire are vanishing one after another, and the last remaining icon is headed this way."

The door between cars was kicked in, and a Space Girl in a gas mask burst into our car. We're seated far away.

"Hello, passengers on the Jolly Roger express! Too bad—this train has just changed course!!"

The masked Space Girl raises her submachine gun.

The barrel is engraved like a goddess.

("Your next stop is heaven!"... Nah, too cliché.)

"Your destination is heaven!!"

"...Ahaha, she actually said it."

I pick up my G-AGE.

"Behold my newest work—become the rust on my Crazy Venus!!"

The masked woman sprays bullets. Chacha-san and I duck to evade.

"Rust? It's a gun, not a sword."

"Exactly. Sigh... talk about bad luck, running into a trigger-happy bug in a place like this... Well, I guess their luck's just as bad."

Chacha-san grins at me.

"Shiki-ccho. May I ask a favor?"

Trigger-happy... a pervert who thrills at pulling the trigger, or a noob so focused on shooting they lose track of everything else. She's both.

A perfect way to kill time till we arrive. Honestly, I'm itching to pull the trigger myself.

"Sure. I'll exterminate her."

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