Chapter Six: The Cat’s Tea Party
Noz Forest — Paladin Ray Starling.
After Rook and I bought Marie’s info and made a plan to meet up later, Nemesis and I went to the place that used to be Noz Forest.
“This is just...” I said.
Beyond the northern gate, there was a great wasteland as far as the eye could see. The forest had simply disappeared, leaving only felled trees reduced to nothing but charcoal.
Noz Forest could no longer be used as a hunting ground, nor was it deserving of the name “forest.” In a city-building sim, the wasteland before me would’ve been a great place for building.
Sadly, Infinite Dendrogram was an RPG.
But man, it’s hard to believe that a single player can change the map this much, I thought.
I saw bullet holes, explosion marks, and could even smell the lingering stench of gunpowder. I had no clue if the King’s Embryo really was a battleship, but there was little doubt that — just like my brother’s Baldr — it was either heavy weaponry or something greater in the same vein.
Another thing I noted was that — while the other three had targeted the player killers directly — the King of Destruction had, well... destroyed the map. Sure, he’d lived up to his name, but it didn’t make it less of a bother. It seemed as ludicrous as removing the whole arm in response to a diseased finger.
“...This is gonna have bad aftereffects — no doubt about it,” I said.
“People have already started leaving here at an even faster rate,” added Nemesis.
We were talking about the local tians.
Yesterday’s bombing had put the entire capital into a state of panic. Thinking that Dryfe’s army was launching a surprise attack, the knights had moved out through the northern gate. By that point, however, the bombing had already been over, leaving nothing but a burning Noz Forest.
Though it didn’t seem like the flames would spread to the capital, they couldn’t have just left them burning as they were, so the knights had spent the entire night putting them out, and were still taking care of the aftermath.
All of this had been told to me by Liliana.
We’d met by accident a short while ago, and she had palpable bags under her eyes. She’d even said, “If you became a Paladin, then come and help us out...” in a slightly whiny manner.
“I know we were underground when the bombing happened and all, but I’m still surprised we didn’t notice it,” I commented.
“I had other things to worry about back then,” said Nemesis. “You, on the other hand, were simply tired and had your senses dulled by fatigue.”
Anyway, the event that had reduced Noz Forest — a place the capital’s citizens took for granted — to ashes had been enough to make the already-tense populace go into panic mode. Since morning, the amount of people leaving the capital had been increasing by the hour.
Another reason for the increase was the fact that the four PK groups were taken care of. Though the player killers had been primarily targeting Masters, tians were also in danger of getting attacked if they weren’t lucky, which had made traffic around the capital grind to a complete halt. Today, the roads were opened again, making the people practically flood out of the city.
Now that I think about it, tians can’t differentiate between Masters and other tians, I thought. Though we Masters use Embryos and are basically immortal, both tians and Masters share the basis of being human. Therefore, to tians, player killers are nothing but murderers. That goes double for the player killers who also go for tians.
“Man, taking care of this PK business sure came at a cost,” I said.
“One of the hunting grounds became unusable, after all,” Nemesis agreed. “Also, the horror experience back in the Tomb Labyrinth was all for naught.”
Despite all the money we’d spent on it, the advantage we’d gained had lasted for only a single night. Though I did feel fortunate to have met Figaro.
“I’ve gotta say, though...” I spoke. “This ‘Superior Killer’ guy escaped from an attack that destroyed the entire forest.”
From what Marie had told me about the player killer in Noz Forest, the source of DIN’s information about him had been Marie herself. Though a bit late, she had gone to gather material about yesterday’s calamity right as it was happening. While doing so, she had happened to see the Superior Killer escape from the onslaught that was turning the forest to ash and run off into the distance.
In her own words, “He was using a skill with a concealment effect that hid his identity, but from the features of the Embryo he was using, I couldn’t be more sure that it was him!”
Once I asked for those features, she said that it was a handgun-shaped Embryo that shot bullet-like animals. The description matched the one who had killed me.
Apparently, the Superior Killer had been using those bullet-like animals to cancel out all the attacks coming his way. By doing that, he’d been able to safely reach the capital. Despite all he had already done up to that point, the King of Destruction couldn’t attack the capital, and had given up on pursuing the Superior Killer.
When all of that was considered, he had been successful where I hadn’t — in a battle with the sole goal of retreating from a stronger force.
I was glad to not have the target of my revenge get taken away from me by the King of Destruction, but that notion made me slightly vexed.
“...Let’s go back, then,” I said. “We have plans with Rook, after all.”
“True... hm?” Nemesis said.
As we were about to make our way back to the capital, Nemesis focused on a single point of the landscape as if she’d just noticed something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What do you make of that?” Nemesis pointed at something, but I couldn’t see anything there.
“What do you see?” I asked.
“There’s a heat haze despite it not being hot,” she said. “Wait, is that... distorted space?”
Nemesis walked over to where she was pointing... and simply disappeared.
“...Huh?! Nemesis!” I called out, ran over to where she’d vanished, and passed through an invisible curtain.
I described it as a “curtain” simply because — even though there was some sort of resistance — it was extremely weak. Once I’d walked through the invisible curtain...
“...Huh?!”
...I was in a mysterious space that was neither dark nor bright, and didn’t even seem to have the concept of up and down.
The space was littered with countless blue, permeable windows and was already occupied by two familiar faces.
Once of them was Nemesis, who looked back at me as I confirmed that she was completely unharmed. “Master, this place is...”
The other person — no, the word “person” didn’t apply here.
“...Ohh? Why are you heere?”
The creature skillfully operating the windows was Cheshire — the control AI I’d met when I had begun playing Infinite Dendrogram.
A few minutes had passed since we’d found ourselves in the mysterious space beyond the invisible curtain.
Nemesis and I were sitting in chairs and drinking the tea Cheshire had prepared for us.
As we had turned perplexed, Cheshire had said, “I’ll explain it all, but just standing around while I do that isn’t fun, riight?” and made the tea for us.
At first, this space had had nothing besides the windows — there hadn’t even been a floor — but Cheshire had reached into a pocket and taken out chairs and a table as if it was nothing.
It reminded me of that cartoon about a cat robot I had been watching since I was a child. Though, unlike that cat robot, Cheshire had a set of ears.
“So, what is a control AI doing here?” I asked.
“Preliminary arrangements for environmental maintenaance,” it answered. “The real work here will be done by control AIs numbers 3 and 5 — the ones responsible for monsters and the environmeent. This space is basically an impromptu operating rooom.”
Like a prefab used in construction sites, huh? I thought.
“Though, only we can see and enter these placees,” said Cheshire. “But the Embryo girl here seems to be a Maiden-type, and I guess things like this can happen with theem. She basically dragged you in here, didn’t she, Raay?”
“What’s so different about Maidens?” I asked.
“They’re closer to us in some waays,” Cheshire answered. “They even keep the *** functionalityy.”
Hm?
“What did you say just now?” I was perplexed.
“Oh, sorryy,” it apologized. “That’s information I can’t verbaliize. It’s nothing big, though, so don’t mind iit.”
That answer only left me with more questions, but the AI probably had some developer-set duty of confidentiality it had to protect. We were already behind the scenes, anyway.
I also had other things I wanted to ask, so I decided not to push it.
“So you’re gonna fix this area?” I inquired.
Infinite Dendrogram prioritized realism. That was the reason why places such as the Old Orchard could be invaded by bug monsters, but beginners’ hunting grounds such as the Noz Forest could be an exception.
However, Cheshire shook its head.
“Noo. We will not directly recreate the now-lost Noz Forest. However, we can arrange some factors that would allow it to take the form of a similar environment. My job is to prepare for thaat.”
Cheshire stopped speaking for a moment and took a sip of the black tea before continuing.
Not that it matters, but you’d think a cat wouldn’t be able to handle such a hot drink, I thought.
“This is a free world, after aall. We — the control AIs — will never undo the effects a creature’s autonomous actions have on this world — be they player, tian or monsteer. The results of freedom are none of our conceern. However, there are some exceptions. After all, we have a control AI meant for punishmeents.”
“Punishments?” I asked. “If PK is perfectly fine, then what is actually deserving of that?”
“Hmm... Getting on a country’s wanted list, I gueess,” Cheshire answered. “You know how this world has laws, right? However, when arrested, players easily can escape jail by simply logging out or killing themseelves. Neither the police nor the knights have any means of preventing thaat. That’s why we have a control AI operating a jail for players, nicknamed the ‘gaol.’ The AI also processes the player’s inability to use save points when on a wanted list.”
That makes sense, I thought. If getting arrested or receiving the death penalty were the only demerits to committing crimes, some would just go about repeating them.
“That’s part of the setting, tooo,” Cheshire continued. “‘A Master who has sinned and cannot return to a save point shall be transferred to the gaol,’ and all thaat. That’s why you should register on save points in as many countries as you caan.”
“...I have absolutely no intention of doing something that’d get me on wanted lists, though,” I commented.
“That’s good, tooo,” said Cheshire. “Well, even if you get on one, you won’t be sent to the gaol as long as you don’t diee.”
...This system sure is lenient on strong criminals, I thought.
“Hmm... If there are control AIs responsible for punishments... what are you responsible for, cat?” asked Nemesis.
“I’m the control AI handling choores,” Cheshire answered.
Chores? I thought.
“We AIs also have things we’re good and bad aat,” Cheshire explained. “For example, I’m horrible at management functioons. Especially when it’s related to environment managemeent.”
“That’s not what you’re doing right now?” I asked.
“This is just a preliminary arrangemeent,” it answered. “A proper environmental simulation would include management of the cloud particles’ entropyy.”
I was silent. Just thinking about the scale of it gave me a headache.
Though I guess being able to do that is part of being a proper control AI, I thought. Well, Cheshire said it’s not capable of that, though.
“My primary work is to be the tutorial guiide,” it continued. “It’s work given to control AIs with unallocated calculation resourcees. I welcome half of the players coming heere.”
That sounded like an impressive amount.
“I’m doing the tutorial work right now, in faact. Like soo.” Upon saying that, Cheshire split into five.
Five, differently-patterned cats spoke while handling the windows around them.
“Like soo,” said the first.
“But there’s no reason to split in heere,” said the second.
“Even if there’s five of me, it doesn’t affect my work speeed,” said the third.
“After all, the calculation volume I use doesn’t change at aall,” said the fourth.
“In fact, it slightly increases the calculation time and slows me down,” said the fifth. And thus, the five became one again.
I was silent again. All this talk about calculations had made me remember that we were in a game server. This might’ve the first time I’d been presented with a display of cyber technology.
“I get to handle the chores because I’m good at processing the splitting I just shoowed,” said Cheshire.
“I see,” I nodded. “So, if you take half of the newcomers, the other half is taken by other AIs, right?”
“Yees,” it answered. “There’s even an AI that doesn’t allow you to redo your character’s appearance after you set it once.”
“...Yeah, I really think it should allow that,” I said.
That might’ve been the control AI that my brother had been assigned to.
After an approximately twenty-minute-long chat with Cheshire, we chose to take our leave.
“Not counting the welcoming, it’s been so long since I met a person while being in this foorm,” said Cheshire. “I’d love to present you with some souveniir... but since I’m part of development, that would be favoritism — a big no-noo.”
“No need for that,” I said. “The tea and sweets are more than enough. Thanks.”
“Indeed,” Nemesis agreed. “They were delicious.”
...With how much she ate, a part of me feels like we’re already in the “no-no” territory, I thought.
“Oh, my. Having you say that makes me feel like making them was really worth iit,” said Cheshire.
Those cookies were handmade? I thought. That’s unexpected. ...Okay, hold on now. How the hell can those cat hands make cookies?
“You should consider selling them on the market.” said Nemesis.
“I’ll think about iit,” replied Cheshire. “Oh, right. You’re heading to Gideon soon, aren’t you, Ray?”
I’d talked a bit about that during the tea party.
“Yeah, I am,” I said.
“...Take care noow.” Cheshire’s words seemed ominous.
“Is there something I should know?” I asked.
“There is, buut...” It seemed apprehensive about saying it.
Is it something it can’t reveal? I thought.
“I’ll just keep it in the safe range, theen: ‘The demon’s heart lies in its stomach.’”
“Hm?” I raised an eyebrow.
“That’s aall,” said Cheshire. “Though, it’s not like you’re guaranteed to meet iit.”
Cheshire had given me a riddle... or a clue you’d find in a mystery novel. I couldn’t tell.
...Well, guess I’ll record it in my memo window, I thought and did exactly that.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever meet again, but if we do, then until next tiime,” Cheshire waved goodbye.
“Yeah, see ya,” I reciprocated.
We passed through the exit the cat had created and returned to the previous map. Beyond it was the same wasteland we’d been in before. When I asked Nemesis about it, she said that she could no longer see the entrance to Cheshire’s workplace.
I looked at the time and found out that it was a bit past three o’clock in the afternoon. We had planned to meet Rook at four, so we still had enough time.
Nemesis and I made our way to the meeting spot — the facility known only as the Adventurer’s Guild.
Infinite Dendrogram had three types of quests a player could accept.
The first type was like the first quest I’d ever gotten — “random event quests.”
The second type was like one Rook did for his job — “job quests.”
The third type was “guild quests.” In other words, the ones received at a facility known as the “Adventurers’ Guild.”
Due to the word “guild,” some could confuse it with job guilds, but the quests were different in nature. The Adventurers’ Guild was a service that managed many and varied requests, such as elimination, escorting, collection, or miscellaneous matters. Once registered, anyone could accept quests, regardless of their job or even if they were Masters or tians.
Of course, I was no exception.
My level was decent, so I decided to continue progressing through the game while making some coin from the requests there.
Difficulty Level Two, Delivery Request — The Guild in Gideon, City of Duels.
Reward: 30,000 lir.
Please complete a delivery from the capital’s Adventurers’ Guild to the Guild in Gideon.
There is much to be delivered, so it is recommended that only those with a storage bag accept this quest.
You have three days to complete it.
P.S. If you take the delivery and run, we will send an assassin after you.
“This request is from the guild itself,” Marie explained. “We only have to take the delivery to the other guild, so it’s nothing complicated. The reward is good, too, so it’s a really nice deal overall.”
...The P.S. is a bit questionable, but I guess there’s no need to worry about it if we play it fair, I thought.
“I’m up for this quest. What about you, Rook?” I asked.
“Yes, it seems agreeable,” he answered.
“Then it’s decided,” said Nemesis.
“Already? I didn’t get to eat my pudding yet,” Babi complained.
Everyone replied in their own way.
Whatever the case, we had chosen the first quest we would do as a party.
“With that settled, you go on and accept it, Ray.” said Marie.
“Hm? But you’re the one found it, so shouldn’t you be the one to do it?” I asked.
“When several people accept the same quest, the proper procedure is to create a party and have a representative go through the acceptance process,” she explained. “That involves the representative writing down his main job.”
“Which means...?” I raised an eyebrow.
“The guild’s receptionist wouldn’t be too keen on giving the quest to a Journalist or a Pimp, right?” Marie elaborated.
She wasn’t wrong. The request had come directly from the guild, so there was a chance that they wouldn’t give it to anyone who was questionable in terms of ability. However, that would never apply to Paladins such as myself.
...But wait, my level is the lowest out of us three. Won’t that be a problem? I thought.
“The first thing that comes up is your label, after all,” said Rook. “I also think that you should be the one to do this, Ray.”
First Marie, now Rook. They were both fine with it, so there was no reason for me not to do it.
I took the catalog to the guild’s receptionist and showed her the page of the request we’d decided upon.
“Understood,” she said. “Please give us your card and fill in this form.”
I gave her my freshly-made Adventurers’ Guild member card and filled in all the fields I had to.
“We have processed your acceptance of this quest,” said the receptionist. “Please go to that counter and retrieve the items.”
Doing as I was told, I went to take the delivery and placed it into my storage bag.
With that, the preparations were done and we officially had a guild quest — a new step in our Dendro career.
Difficulty Level Two, Delivery Request — The Guild in Gideon, City of Duels.
Our destination was obvious.
And so, we began the quest.
Kingdom of Altar, ???
Cheering.
Cheering as far as you could hear.
It represented nothing but delight.
Countless goblins were fiercely expressing their overwhelming joy.
It was all because they had seen some creatures. Though four-limbed — just like the goblins — they were different from them... for they were human.
The goblins hungered. These past few days, no humans had passed through their territory.
Thus, the goblins — with their love for human flesh and the things they hauled — had become hungry beyond words.
They survived by eating other monsters, but compared to the taste of humans and their food, those were simply unsatisfying.
Thus, the goblins were overjoyed.
The human traffic through this area used to be stopped by something at the mountain, and they couldn’t be more pleased that it was revived. For, once again, they had access to the food they loved.
The strangely-dressed human that had recently gone through their territory was too scary for them, so they could have only waited for him to pass. However, the humans passing before them now weren’t scary at all.
Thus, the humans themselves and the food they carried were nothing but a feast for them.
“Ghgheeeee!”
“Geghyaaaaahhh!”
Letting out their war cries, the goblins began running towards the carriage before them.
“Goblins?! Why are there so many...?!” shouted a human.
“Sir, this is too much for us to handle! Make the horses go as fast as they can!” roared another.
“A-All right!”
“We have to run, too!”
The merchant man increased the carriage’s speed as the tian adventurers responsible for guarding him and his goods ran after it, trying not to fall behind.
They were fleet of foot, so it was obvious that the goblins wouldn’t catch up.
Thus, the goblins roared. They roared out their cheer and delight.
“What are they doing?! Are they trying to threaten us?!” asked a human.
“Ignore them! Just keep on running away!” howled another.
The goblins weren’t threatening them. They might’ve done that before an enemy, but when faced with food, such acts were meaningless. They were simply calling.
“Ha ha, looks like we escaped... Huh?”
A moment later, the merchant — along with his carriage — was crushed by something that fell from the sky.
As the something trampled on the corpse — now reduced to fruit-like mush — it faced the nearby adventurers.
“Wh-Wha?!”
“I-Is this actually... the UBM... Gar—”
They weren’t even given the time to say anything coherent.
The something before them and the goblins that had caught up quickly overwhelmed them all.
“GOOOAAAAAHHHHH!”
And so, after a satiating feast, the something and the horde of goblins returned to their den.
All of them were full of excitement for the next time they’d become hungry and have another feast pass their territory.
The area’s name was “Nex Plains.”
It was south of Sauda Mountain Pass and north of Gideon, city of duels.
...And anyone making their way to Gideon would simply have to pass through it.
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