ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

In the blink of an eye, the world all around us starts to sway, change and shift with a deafening roaring sound. All of the strange skyscrapers-like structures around the theater that were created by invading and eroding the Orchestra-created world started to shatter all at once, constructing the fabric of this space all over again from scratch.

Wait a second, did the Conquest Dolls always had that kind of power on them? Because I don’t think that is the case here. And if they did, then why didn’t they used it before? That would have made things so much easier! Or could it be…… Is this the doing of that mysterious update package that Andrew managed to install in Sigma? I don’t really know the answer to that, but something is surely different when compared ot the time before meeting Doctor Andrew.

If we want to look at things from the meta perspective here, then meeting with the Doctor Andrew inside of his lab and getting your Conquest Doll that update of his must have been necessary events for the sake of capturing the Orchestra. However, if we want to look at things from the in-game perspective, this should not really be the case. Or rather, it surely would be helpful, but not essential for the story being presented here. And the reason for such phenomenon occurring here is…… The competition for the initiative within the Orchestra’s world. And I don’t strictly mean this by the “Diva” and “Sigma”. What was happening in here right now, was basically a collision of strong feelings. The feelings presented by someone from Sternbloom channeled through the Conquest Doll versus the feelings of Elise Jitter Doll channeled through the Orchestra itself.

「Eat this and die, you stupid shit!!!」

「……………」

Right about now, I am in a really peculiar spot. Thanks to the effect of Over-Transmission from the Levin Trigger / Disaster Hand I am able to outmaneuver the other “me”, but the price that I must pay for that is that my HP is being brought down to the value of “one”. So this means that from here on out I need to execute ever attack and move perfectly, I cannot allow myself to take even a single blow. But that’s okay, since I was not even intending to take a single hit in this battle from the very start! So I step on the ground with my feet in a firm movement, trying to forcefully dominate the effect of Over-Transmission. The runaway kinetic energy that creates the excessive propulsion can be used is so much more ways than just running about the place, and right now I use that to do a somersault backwards while staying in place. Thanks to that, I am able to regain my posture before that other “Sanraku” has any time and chance to get back up on its feet from the ground. All according to plan.

In the face of this peculiar situation, the way in which the other “Sanraku chose to act was to perform a revolver attack while getting up, but it was slow! Slow, slow, slow! Too slow!!! Because I saw it all coming, and there was no longer any weapon in my hands at the current moment! They were completely empty and ready for my next move! It’s time to unleash the wrath and full power of the new and mysterious Extraordinary Skill, “War Orphan”!!!

Landing back on my feet after performing that backwards somersault, I make a light step forward that would normally be nothing serious, but in my current state it caused my legs to be carried forward with a propulsion force that was similar to that of an explosion. Thanks to that I was able to avoid the revolver’s bullets that were being shot my way, by closing the gap between the two of us in an instant, right away followed by me diving down in order to get ready for what was to come next. Then, I finally put all of my current strength into my fist as I swung it out and released a perfect and textbook example of the uppercut. Honestly, I don’t think that anyone would have been able to perform that thing better than I did it right now.

However,

「Wha!? What the!?」

The chin of the other “Sanraku” that my uppercut was supposed to smash right into disappeared right from before of my eyes and vanished into nothingness. …… No, no! It was not that! I did not vanished at all! Could it be that…… It used the Over-Transmission state to change its position and get out of the harm’s way just before my uppercut was able to connect!? What an inhuman reaction time!

I mean, I should not really be all that surprised here. After all, that other “Sanraku” is still me, Sanraku. So it should be expected that the other “me” can also use some maneuvers that might be considered to be unreasonable or downright impossible, so aside from the backwards somersault there are myriad of other ways in which you can avoid any give attack that was thrown your way. And so the other “me” did just that, doing a backflip while having one of its hands still firmly lodged onto the ground. Even if I were to try and chase after it, I would just be asking to get myself kill without actually standing to gain anything from this. I mean, there is always a random chance that I would be able to gain something in the process, but I am not going to trust my fate into the hands of the Randomly Generated Numbers. Not here and not right now. Good luck is only worth believing in if you are absolutely certain that it is going to work in your favor, not the other way around.

In response to that particular action I lightly kick the ground and retreat about one meter backwards. By doing just that, I managed to increase the distance that separates me from the other “Sanraku” to about three meters total. Of course, while I was doing just that, the other “me” aptly used that time to stand up and arm itself once again. rom “Sanraku” who stood up while arming in the meantime is about 3 meters. So right now I really need to make a choice here: do I want to proceed with a close quarters weapon or maybe switch to the long-distance weapon instead? By the time I finally make up my mind about it, we are both holding the following weapons: I chose to wield the Duxaram Greatsword, while the other “Sanraku” seemed to have chosen the Scorpion Gauntlets as its weapons of choice for the current moment.

Now, the way in which the Orchestra was reproducing my weapons was always leaving them slightly altered in terms of the originals every time, but I am more than certain that their performance is exactly the same, without fail. Otherwise there would be no point in this battle being a mirror match in the first place. It is certainly annoying to have to figure out what’s reproduced with a rough outline and that altered shape, but on the other hand this is the greatest clue that the Unique Monster is always going to throw my way. I wouldn’t exactly call that a cheat-like ability, but I guess that this is cutting it pretty close.