ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

Oh wow, that’s really bad, Sigma! At this rate, your Intelligence is going to lose to those guys without even putting that much of a fight in the first place! I’m still able to manage on my own in here somehow, but what if those guys decide to stop pulling their Intelligence punches? I’m going to be royally screwed, that’s what’s going to happen!

Oh well, I can still see that Sigma is here but is not really here at the same time, but as long as she’s not going to help me, I guess that there is literally no need to concern myself with her. Now then, let’s try to see if the “Library” has a little bit of a competitive spark in them, and if they indeed does have that, if we will be able to take advantage of it.

「Hey, Bansai-san? How about a little competition, huh?」

「Ohh, nice, I like the sound of that. It certain beats trying to use a normal cheat sheet by a long run!」

I could almost hear it, the crack forming in the mental armor of this dude! Could it be that he was never in a competition like that and was all fired up to go? Fine by me! At least I am not going to be disappointed in here!

I wonder if Mirei, who I met at the Orchestra’s place, was even smarter than those guys? But from all that I could tell this Bansai fellow might actually be able to steal that spot from her. But why is it so? Is it because every move of this guy seems to be built on educational background? No, what it simply the way in which highly educated people carry themselves?

「But with three hundred questions to go through, it would be a real hassle to settle it that way……」

「Ah, who about the first letter of the question sentence in the order of the Japanese syllabary? That might be better suited for a competition.」

Too thick …! Way too thick for our own good, let me tell you that……!! It’s that kind of thing that is not convenient at all and it makes solo playing way too much of a hassle!

While there were other people who started to appear on the second layer, we decided to postpone our little competition for later, and worked together to get out of here as fast as possible. Some players did good. Some players did poorly. We? We all managed to attain perfect score and moved on.

And while the first team of Behemoth Capture advanced towards the third layer, we have left some members of the “Library” behind, as they declared that they are going to live in here form here on out, in their paradise of knowledge.

* * *

「THIS HERE IS THE THIRD LAYER. YOU CAN CALL IT MY “HOBBY” LEVEL…… ALTHOUGH I AM ASHAMED TO ADMIT IT, ONCE I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT HE NATURAL ENVIORNMENT THAT THE “BRAVE FISH” MANAGED TO CREATE, I WANTED TO HAVE A SHOT AT DOING PRECISELY THAT AS WELL…… OR AT THE VERY LEAST, THAT WAS THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT.」

「I think that there is nothing bad with feeling ashamed.」

「Yeah, I don’t really agree with that, But I can already see that this is not the whole story in here. And don’t you try to avert your gaze, because it will only make you even more suspicious, you know?」

「WELL, YOU SEE, AS A RESULT…… I ENDED UP CREATING AN ECOSYSTEM THAT COULDN’T BE POSSIBLY RELEASED TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD NO MATTER WHAT.」

So? I do not see what does that have to do with any one of us and this third layer in partic……

「USING ANY NUMBER OF PEOPLE, I WANT YOU TO SUBDUE THE ARTIFICIAL ENVIRNMENT CREATURES THAT ARE ACTIVE IN THIS PARTICULAR HIERARCHY.」

To make a long story short, it was going to be a simple and straightforward monster hunting.

But no one was happy about that fact, because……

「Umm, can I have a question, please?」

「YES? WHAT IS IT, MY DEAR REIJI?」

「If it wouldn’t be too much trouble…… What exactly are the Environmental Monsters……?」

Apparently Reiji-san was also curious about it. I’m happy that others take interest in matters like that, but the thing that he seemed to have indicated with his finger was…… Hmm, I wonder? It looked kind of like a strongest dragon out there, but if it was designed by an Elementary Schooler. To be more precise, it looked like a Cerberus with wings and covered in thick armor plating. A thing just like that was sitting right there in the middle of a grassy meadow, really similar to the second layer of the Leviathan. And it was clearly something that could be classified as a walking tank or a biological weapon of mass destruction.

「I AM REALLY ASHAMED TO HAVE TO ADMIT THAT, BUT…… THIS CREATURE IS THE RESULT OF A FAILED EXPERIMENT. AN EXPERIMENT THAT WANTED TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU WERE REPEAT THE FOOD CHAIN OVER AND OVER AGAIN WITH ONLY THE MOST BASIC OF PROVIDENCE. AND THAT THING OVER THERE IS THE RESULT.」

Was it the matter of ethics going out the window? Or maybe it was something else entirely in here?

With no one saying a word, we gathered around and immediately begun our strategy meeting.

「Nah, this shit is impossible, right?」

「This thing looks like something that could certainly be considered a last boss in some other games out there alright.」

「No, but I mean, throwing something like that at us right from the get go!? I don’t think that a monster like that will have a small HP pool…… And those muscles certainly does not look fragile to me! Like, not at all……!!」

And it was then that someone muttered THOSE words.

「Hmm, I wonder what kind of rare items this thing is going to drop?」

「「「「……………」」」」

Those words are exactly the devil’s whisper to every player’s ego out there. Their effect is similar to that if you were to sprinkle fresh water over a barren soil of a wasteland. It’s only a matter of course that a strong monster is going to drop strong items. And even though we were at first determined to ditch that request of “Ivory” whatsoever…… That determination of ours was quickly waning away.

「Maybe if we all go together, we will actually have a chance at beating this thing?」

「No, but if we do that, the distribution of the drop items is going to be pretty much garbage. And it would still be really inefficient, even if we were to attempt this more than a few times.」

「But since we have so many people in our squad, how about trying to divide ourselves into smaller teams?」

「And if we can’t defeat it, we will just leave it behind, so it will be a whole lot better to just go forward and hope that something even better is going to be waiting for us in the next layer. But that being said, maybe prioritizing this layer might prove to be way more beneficial to us.」

「No, I think that we might have this whole thing backwards. If we want to the items, just leave them be. Maybe going forward is actually optional?」

「Incidentally, what do you think about all that, Saiga-0-san……?」

「………… Hierarchy, of priorities.」

「I’m of the similar opinion. We should make a mad dash towards the eight layer as soon as possible.」

「I also want to go ahead and have a look around!」

In the end, everyone started to voice more or less the same opinion! God, I love democracy so much!