Chapter 21: I Thought God Had Saved Us.

I leapt back down into the street, blasted apart one of the young galum attacking an adventurer player who had been barely holding the line nearby, and flipped on the voice changer in my helmet as I issued orders. With it active, my voice echoing into the open should sound like that of a cool, rugged adult man.

"Head for the temple! Gather there and defend the gate!"

"W-Who the hell are you!? You’re not a character from S Sword B Blaze O Online, are you!?"

"I’m just a passing alien from the 28th planetary system of the Cassiopeia constellation! You can forget about me!"

If I stayed too close, they might see my status, so I said only that and immediately left the area.

After helping town residents and low-level adventurer players at several other locations and checking for anyone left behind, I ran into Rick, who was leading a small group.

"So that’s the last of them?"

"That voice of yours… no, never mind. All the players should already be heading for the temple, but apparently a unit of soldiers under the prince’s command got isolated in front of the castle. You going to help them?"

"I don’t really have a choice."

So the prince is out here too.

I wasn’t thrilled about it, but if royalty died, it could turn into a real mess—and I wouldn’t sleep well afterward either.

Using the power assist of my ground combat armor, I sprinted toward the royal castle.

Just as Rick said, in front of the castle a handful of soldiers and the prince—clutching a thin, overly decorative sword that looked utterly useless—were surrounded and cornered by young galum.

Without breaking stride, I delivered a flying kick that smashed one galum into the castle wall, crushing it between stone and steel. Still in that posture, I spun around and blew away another with my shotgun. Using the empty barrel, I smashed a third aside, then switched to my handgun and took aim.

"The streets are too dangerous! Barricade yourselves in the castle and protect your lives!"

"How can I hide while my people are in danger!? My sister is fighting as well!"

"Save lines like that for after you can at least protect yourself!"

As I lectured the prince, I let out a bitter smile inside my helmet.

I just happen to be able to use these weapons thanks to coincidence—or cheats. I can’t really do anything with my own strength either. I don’t have the right to say things like this.

But there’s no point dwelling on that now.

I shot a young galum straight through the head with my handgun and spoke without turning around.

"Don’t worry. This battle will be over soon. Your job comes after the fighting—calming the chaos and restoring everyday life as quickly as possible. That’s a difficult mission where no powerful weapon or magic will help you. It won’t be easy."

I killed several more young galum with my handgun, then punched the remaining ones away with my power-assisted, layered special-alloy fists.

With an escape route opened, the prince finally resigned himself and was led back toward the castle by the surrounding soldiers.

"Clarice! We’re completely out of ammo here!"

"Our plasma sword’s out of energy too—it snapped, nya!"

They were at their limit as well.

I jumped up onto the castle wall and looked out. Around the temple, two Crusaders were brawling hand-to-hand with the young galum while protecting the gathered people.

One of them—probably the one Natsumi was piloting—had an anime-robot-style head added by a mod. It unfolded open, revealing a gun barrel that fired a laser.

It absolutely ruined the cool anime robot face.

Apparently, Erika had carried out what she called an “improvement,” which was really more like a magical overhaul. Seeing a Crusader equipped with weapons that didn’t exist in the original game, I gave another wry smile. If I ever made it back to the original world and returned to the game, online matches would be impossible now.

"You two, hang in there just a bit longer. Do your best."

"We’re doing it, nya!"

"We are doing our best! You shouldn’t tell people who are already trying hard to try harder!"

Following Ririka and Natsumi’s voices, Erika’s report came in.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Master. Bahamut-class space combat vessel Asterisk has arrived at the firing point. Firing the bow railgun requires the operation of the captain or a fleet commander, so we will form the Master’s body in VR on the Asterisk’s bridge."

"Got it. Do it."

"Roger. Armor lock. Initiating neural connection with the Asterisk’s bridge."

The joints of my armor locked, the internal gel layer solidified, and my body was fixed in a one-knee-down position. My field of vision switched to the battleship’s bridge.

Just like Erika inside the ship, my body was reproduced as a semi-transparent hologram, yellow light coursing through various parts of it. Through the neural connection, I could feel sensations as if I were truly standing there.

I stood at the captain’s position of the unmanned battleship, which had no chair. The target appeared on the forward screen, and the control panel in front of me opened as a grip with a trigger for firing the main gun slid out.

Silhouetted against the eastern sky, which was beginning to pale behind it, the target looked exactly as I’d expected—like a giant version of a young galum.

So they reused the model and textures, huh.

"Internal mass-driver barrel fixed. Coil power connection within the barrel complete. At this distance, no trajectory correction is necessary. You may fire at any time, Master."

At Erika’s voice, I grasped the grip. The target was already centered in the reticle displayed on the monitor.

In the W War F Fire U Universe game, you could fire with a single click, so why did they make it like this?

Whatever. Let’s end this quickly.

I pulled the trigger.

Why did things turn out like this?

He was panicking.

After coming to this world and being reborn as an MMORPG character—one unlike the others, with a body that possessed three powerful abilities—everything was supposed to go smoothly.

When he first became a resident of this world, he had felt ecstatic.

He should have been able to start over, freed from all the shackles of reality.

Up until now, he had played the role of a trusted guild master. And yet, shortly after arriving in this world, several members announced that they were going to search for a way back to the original world and left.

That kind of reality held no value compared to this long-dreamed-of world of swords and magic—a world where power allowed you to act freely.

If you were dissatisfied with this world, then you should simply make it easier to live in. That was what knowledge was for.

He never wanted to be sent back to that reality.

The exhilaration he had felt upon arriving here quickly transformed into anxiety—how long he could remain in this world, and when he might be forced back to reality.

Once he secured his footing in this country, he would kill everyone who left, and everyone in other countries who attempted to return to the real world.

If defeating the Demon King meant going back to reality, then he would protect that Demon King.

If there was even the slightest chance of being sent back, he would never allow it. Never. Not under any circumstances.

He had obtained the bodies of three high-level characters.

If there were people he disliked, he could have killed them all—every other player—and ruled over the NPCs as a king, even founded a kingdom of his own.

And yet, Masato had been killed.

Shot dead with a gun he had never seen, not even inside the game.

And he hadn’t turned into light. He hadn’t vanished. He had simply died.

That finality struck him instantly. There would be no revival.

Even though this was supposed to be a game world, death had come exactly as it did in reality.

It felt as though reality itself was pressing in right behind him.

No. He didn’t want that.

He didn’t want to go back to reality.

His embezzlement of company funds had been exposed. The company collapsed. Shareholder claims, lawsuits, trials—everything was waiting for him there.

That woman… he had never even noticed her before. So plain she barely left an impression, aside from her oversized chest. Who would have imagined someone like that existed among the employees? And yet she had reported him, destroying his life.

He had believed that being transferred into the game world he had poured so much time into was God saving him.

Dawn was approaching.

Once the sun rose, someone might find him. He needed to flee somewhere.

Larentia, the Aste Empire—it didn’t matter where.

Losing Masato hurt, but it was his own fault. He had made the wrong choice, turning him into an alchemy mage that was practically unusable and leaving the character underleveled.

He still had Takumi and Marie—two level 200 characters remaining.

He would learn from this mistake. He would be more careful next time. Next time, he would succeed.

Against the sky, which was beginning to pale behind him, the Garmglyph reacted to something.

In the still-dark western sky, something—far, far away—was floating.

For an instant, it flashed.

My consciousness returned to my real body. The armor locks disengaged, and I was free to move as I looked around.

Blood and chunks of flesh from the great demonic beast Garmglyph were scattered across the entire city. It was a horrific sight.

With the main body gone, the remaining young galum lost whatever had been sustaining them and began dropping from the sky, their corpses littering the ground.

As I suspected, when Erika or I killed something using weapons that didn’t belong to this world, humans, monsters—probably even NPCs—didn’t dissolve into light and vanish.

Cleaning up the city was going to be a nightmare.

"Good work, Master. The projectile pierced the target and safely exited the atmosphere. We are beginning orbital redeployment of the Asterisk. We will dispatch another Dragoon transport from Triad Primus to retrieve Crusader IV Custom. Please allow us to disembark the native organisms."

"Understood. Drop the two of them somewhere outside the city where they won’t stand out, then retrieve them… and I’m coming too. I’d like you to recover my armor as well. There’s one more thing I want you to pick up."

As I said that, I looked down at the unconscious female warrior lying atop the fallen corpse of a young galum below.

"What is this place!? Where am I!? Hey! What are you planning to do!? Let me out of here!"

"After dying twice and ending up on your last remaining life, I do feel a little sorry for you. But after everything you did, letting you run free doesn’t sit right with me either. I gave it some thought, and killing the very last one felt like too much—even for me. So I decided this was the best option. I don’t plan on keeping you like this forever. Once we figure out how to return to reality, I’ll let you out. Until then, get some rest. Marie, was it?"

"Hey! What are you saying!? Let me out! What is this!? What are you—"

Gas filled the capsule. Marie’s voice cut off as sleep overtook her, her eyes closing against her will. After confirming that, I left the cold-sleep facility aboard the flagship Einferia.

"I never imagined Einferia’s facilities would be used for something like this."

"It’s an unmanned battleship, but there’s plenty of space. It’s fine."

Because I had obsessed over atmosphere when designing it, the interior of the flagship Einferia included extensive crew facilities, despite being an unmanned warship.

I hadn’t exactly planned on using cold-sleep capsules as prison cells, either.

Returning to Einferia’s hangar, I boarded the descent craft Hummingbird and spoke to Erika.

"Alright, we’re heading back to the planet’s surface. If anything happens, I’ll be counting on you again."

"What are you saying, Master? I’ve told you before—I am an AI. I am not located inside Einferia. You should think of me as always being with you."

"You ignored my call and let it go to voicemail…"

"Mmph… did you say something? The fault lies with the Master for wandering around an uncharted planet alone. Still… I think I understand why you’re attached to that planet. This anomaly that caused our fleet to drift into an unknown sector is probably connected to something on that world."

"That’s probably it. I’ve made some friends there too. Try not to start too many fights, alright?"

"That will depend on the native lifeforms, but based on their intelligence level, I judge it difficult to comply with that request."

"…Just do your best. Alright, let’s go, Erika."

"Roger. Hummingbird, launching."

Once again, we took to the skies—heading back to the world of the MMORPG Sword Blaze Online.