Accel World - Volume 10 - Chapter 2.04

4

The sea was green, with a shine tinged by gold. Rippling with countless rows of waves in the western wind, this, however, was not water. It was a tall, pliable grass. The sea of grass continued in all directions as far as the eye could see, on a scale that could not exist in the real Okinawa, Japan.

There was no trace of man-made buildings. In fact, there were basically no large trees or rocks to be seen anywhere. The only thing that broke up the unending flatland was gentle hills with a narrow stream flowing between them. The sole protrusion from this terrain so devoid of ups and downs was a half-spherical body in motion, popping up from the sea of grass.

Carving out a gentle ellipse, the major axis of the semisphere exceeded four meters. On its upper surface, regular hexagon-shaped panels—armor plating—were seamlessly arranged, colored a grayish green with a metallic luster and seemingly quite hard.

Set in the bottom of the semisphere were a total of six openings, and from four of these, short, thick, sturdy organs for support and movement—“legs”—stretched out. From the hole in the rear, a “tail” that tapered sharply at the end. And stretching out from the hole in front was a “head,” the form of which was somehow reminiscent of a dinosaur. With several massive cone-shaped fangs, it mowed down the grass before it and chewed loudly.

Viewed as a whole, the enormous creature was a turtle; perhaps a type of tortoise. But like the grassy plain itself, a turtle of this size could not possibly have existed in modern Japan. In fact, even Stupendemys geographicus, the largest turtle on earth, which went extinct five million years earlier, had a maximum shell length of only two and a half meters.

This grassland was not in the real main island of Okinawa in Japan, and this turtle was not a real creature. It was another Japan generated by the mysterious game program Brain Burst 2039 called the Accelerated World, a high-level hidden VR world layer. This endless sea of grass was known as the Unlimited Neutral Field, and the massive tortoise with a shell over four meters long was a moving object that lived in this field. The fixed species name was Wild class Enemy, Armor-Clad Tortoise.

Just as the common nickname “Enemy” indicated, the inhabitants of this world, including the massive turtle, were the enemies of the people who visited this world—the Burst Linkers. No matter how small or how harmless-seeming the individual Enemy, they would without exception start attacking unrelentingly if a Burst Linker entered their aggro range. And they were strong. Outrageously strong. For a level-four Linker who had only just gained the privilege of diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field, it was basically 99 percent impossible to defeat a Wild class or even a lesser-class Enemy solo. And the Beast and Legend classes above these were the equivalent of natural disasters, best evaded the second their shadow was spotted on the distant horizon.

These Enemies were indeed fearsome, but in the space-time where the Burst Linker intruders didn’t exist, they were nothing more than creatures who lived in the field, just like wildlife in the real world. Except, in a certain sense, they were far more peaceful than their counterparts in reality, because Enemies did not fight each other. Enemies of the same class each had their own particular territory, so they almost never came into contact, and they were uninterested in individuals above or below them. They walked around, slept, and ate as they pleased in the vast world. Just like the massive Armor-Clad Tortoise was lazily chewing grass at that moment.

—But…

A wind blew over the peaceful plain, carrying the scent of unrest. The tortoise absently lifted its head, stretched its long neck, and stared off toward the south for a while.

Suddenly, in a total change from its movement up to that point, it turned quickly to the north and started running. In the distance, turtles of the same species and larger Enemies with a form that resembled elephants all began to move at once in the same direction, almost as if they were fleeing something terrifying.

A few seconds later, it appeared on the horizon to the south.

The flowing lines of a silhouette that was easily over five times the total length of the giant turtle. Twisting the sharp form of its torso, like a kind of shell or blade, it charged forward at high speed, as if swimming through the sea of grass. The massive body was twenty meters long, propelled by four legs growing from the bottom of the torso. The legs were short, but the bulging, tough muscles indicated it was far stronger than the tortoise. Thick, sharp claws dug firmly into the earth and flew up again, sending the giant shooting forward. The long tail stretching out behind it barely seemed to touch the ground.

The snout tapered like a lance, with emotionless, lens-like eyes shining red on either side. Beneath these, an enormous mouth slowly opened and closed. Each time its jaw moved, countless white fangs—each one a large sword—came into view before being hidden again.

Although its general form was close to a crocodile, it was obviously different. This creature was better called a dinosaur. Naturally, it was an Enemy like the tortoises running around trying to escape, but its size and its sense of presence were orders of magnitude different. There was no doubt that this was one of the strongest despots in the Accelerated World, beyond even the Beast class: Legend class.

An armor of scales completely covered the massive frame, glittering blue-black as the dinosaur charged through the grassland with terrifying speed. In a flash, it drew in closer to the herd of desperately fleeing Armor-Clad Tortoises, and then leapt up high when it was on the verge of a rear-end collision. In the air, it opened wide its maw lined with sinister fangs and dived down at an extreme angle. When it landed, an incredible impact rang out through the stage, and from the middle of the dust that puffed up thick like smoke, its tapered muzzle appeared.

Trapped in its enormous mouth was a miserable tortoise, held fast by its shell, so that no matter how it kicked its legs, it couldn’t escape. The eyes of the dinosaur glittered a deep red, and the muscles around its jaw twisted. The fangs piercing the metallic shell of the turtle sent a waterfall of orange sparks flying.

Krrrk. A sharp, dry sound. At the same time, the tortoise’s movements stopped. One, then two fine cracks raced out over its thick shell. These immediately covered the turtle’s entire body, and a pale blue light spilled out from inside.

In the next instant, the Wild Enemy Armor-Clad Tortoise, in the maw of the predator, transformed into thousands of shards of glass, burst apart, and scattered into the void.

Its teeth came down with a klak, and the corners of the mouth of the enormous dinosaur twisted slightly before it started racing across the plain once more. The starved red eyes picked out its next prey from among the herd of lower-level Enemies fleeing in the grass. As it gradually gained speed, a dorsal fin like the sail of a yacht popped up high on its enormous back. In front of the fin, there was another, smaller projection.

This was not an original organ of the dinosaur. The foreign object was another species of moving object. However, it wasn’t another Enemy parasitizing it. The figure, a total of a meter and a couple dozen centimeters tall with only two legs, was clearly a person—in other words, a duel avatar. This rode on the head of the Enemy it should have clashed with, as the dinosaur swam through the sea of grass, not even attempting to shrug the small person off.

The duel avatar’s hands hung loosely, gripping a thin chain that stretched out for a few meters on both sides, linking the zone from the dinosaur’s jaw to the top of its head. The sight was almost that of a rider on a horse holding the reins. With the mysterious Burst Linker on its back, the enormous dinosaur charged forward toward the horizon in search of more slaughter.

A minute or so later, when the sea of grass returned once more to silence, a small figure slowly rose up from its depths. This was also a duel avatar. The design was simple, with a basic theme of straight lines, but the armor was a deep red. It should have been conspicuous in the green grass; there must have been a reason why the dinosaur missed seeing it.

The avatar stared for a while with fierce eyes in the direction the dinosaur had gone. But finally, it let out a small sigh and turned around. Once he or she walked off in the opposite direction from the dinosaur, the world was once again filled with only the quiet sound of the wind. Nothing further appeared to disturb it.