Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 11 - Chapter 4

Act Four: Figaro’s Choice 
Gideon the Duel City, Central Arena 
The Central Arena. A lone man sat on top of the building that looked much like the Roman Colosseum. 
Not saying a word, he — the kingdom’s duel champion, Over Gladiator, Figaro — was looking towards the northwest. Caressed by the wind, he wore a sorrowful expression — one unlike those he usually displayed. 
In his mind, he held the image of the powerful monster beyond the horizon, which would soon attack the capital. 
But at the same time, he was looking back at the past — specifically, a certain meeting that had occurred over three years ago. 
 
The real Figaro... Vincent Myers... was born with a rare, unusual, and painful heart condition. Its most obvious symptoms were the life-threatening spasms that occurred whenever his heart rate climbed too high. 
He was born to a wealthy household and received the best treatment possible from infancy onward, but the disease stayed with him all the way to adulthood. Not even a heart transplant could relieve the symptoms of his condition. 
But although he was born into an unfortunate body, he was blessed with a wonderful family. 
“Live your life to the fullest,” his father said once. “We’ll do whatever we can to help you with that.” 
“We’re your parents, after all,” his mother added. “We love you, Vince.” 
It had been years since he heard those words, but he could still remember them clearly. 
His younger brother, Keith, was supportive as well. “I’ll do my best in your stead,” he resolutely said once. 
Vincent appreciated his wonderful family. But at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel that he wasn’t truly happy. 
He could never feel the rush of running through open fields. Excessive activity put a strain on his heart, limiting his movement to short walks. The simple act of running was life-threatening to him. 
His heart would never race in satisfaction. An accelerated heartbeat could be deadly to him, so he couldn’t even allow himself to be moved. 
He once couldn’t even finish watching an opera he attended with his family, as he was overcome by a sudden spasm. 
Despite this, his life was comfortable. He was provided for, but had no real reason to hope for the future, either. For as long as he could remember, he would only read relaxing books, watch the scenery, eat, think, sleep, and just... coast through life. 
His life was more like a plant’s than a human, and he had never truly felt the vitality within him. He never had the opportunity to go all-out. He never felt the flame of excitement or the lively throbbing of his heart. 
Vincent Myers’ life was gentle, but extremely isolated. 
All that changed when Keith gifted him Infinite Dendrogram. 
“This is a VRMMO! The real deal!” he said, handing the hardware to Vincent. Keith explained that it transported the mind to the virtual world, leaving the flesh unaffected, which meant that Vincent wouldn’t have to worry about heart spasms due to over-excitement. 
At first, Vincent doubted that such a thing could really exist. It seemed like something straight out of science fiction. He also thought that even if the game’s promises were true, it was still a game — even if he could move around freely, it would all be fake. 
“Hm...” But even if it was all just a game, he believed that it might be better than the reality with his limited body. With that in mind, he began Infinite Dendrogram and found a realm that was as close to real as you could get. 
It wasn’t just an extremely realistic game, but a world where he could actually live his life to the fullest. It was here that he could experience excitement for the first time in his life. 
After naming himself “Figaro” — from the opera he couldn’t finish watching with his family — he descended upon Infinite Dendrogram and quickly discovered how he would spend his life in it. 
What enchanted him the most were the duels. 
In reality, his disease made him unable to even watch sports; but as an avatar, he had no issue with it. 
The first duel he saw was shortly after Infinite Dendrogram’s release, so there were no Master participants, but the scene of tian gladiators fighting still moved him greatly. The all-out clash between lives thrilled his virtual heart far beyond the capacity of his real one. He was looking at something that he couldn’t even hope to have in the real world. Following the duel, he quickly went through the process to become a Gladiator. 
Thus, Figaro the Gladiator was born. 
His first month within Infinite Dendrogram was certainly an eventful one. 
He’d encountered Shu, fought his first UBM, switched his country from Legendaria to Altar, and arrived at Gideon’s Central Arena for the first time. 
It was there that he was first able to participate in duels. 
Maxing out Gladiator — a low-rank job — put him at level 50, giving him the right to become a duelist, and he quickly went to the Central Arena’s reception to register. 
The fact that he’d finally be able to actually participate in the duels that had so moved him when he’d first entered this world was immensely exciting to him. So much, in fact, that he signed up for a match on the very same day. 
His goal was to join the top 30 duel rankers, among all the thousands of combatants. Figaro clenched his fist in anticipation for the many days of dueling to come. 
At that moment, he noticed that the person next to him was making a similar motion. 
The two looked at each other. The other person was a Swordsman with a red-haired girl at his side. 
Figaro looked at the papers the receptionist was handling and realized that he, too, had just signed up. They both just went to their own waiting rooms without saying a word to each other. 
But when it was their turn to go to the stage, they both realized that they would be facing the man they had just run into at reception. This wasn’t quite as much of a coincidence as it seemed. They both had just registered, they both wanted their first duel, and their level was about the same. In fact, since matchmaking preferred opponents of the same level, this was an obvious outcome. 
“Fight!” Following the call, their duel commenced. 
Compared to duels between top rankers, theirs was surely unimpressive. Both were low level and their Embryos were still low-rank, so there was no way their duel would ever be one for the history books. 
However, they both fought with intense zeal. During the entire duel, it was never once clear which one would win and how. Both of them were giving it their all and using whatever they had to achieve victory over their opponent. 
But in the end, they were both scarred all over, and it still wasn’t clear which one of them had emerged victorious. 
However, they both felt that this had been the most fun duel they ever had. 
“I’m Foltesla, and this is Næ?ling,” the opponent introduced himself right after, extending his right hand. 
“I’m Figaro... That was a good match, wasn’t it?” Figaro said as he took the hand. 
“Let’s fight again!” they both insisted simultaneously. 
It was obvious that this match made them both feel the exact same way. 
Thus, the two became the closest of friends... and rivals. 
Their first duel against one another was far from the last. They continued rising up the ranks, piling wins and losses against each other, and their rivalry continued after both entered the top 30 rankers. 
Eventually, Figaro defeated Tom Cat — the wall to every Altarian duelist — and became the best out of thousands of duel participants... the duel champion. 
Even so, he didn’t believe that this was the end of his and Foltesla’s rivalry. 
The top three could only be fought in order, so Foltesla couldn’t face Figaro in a ranked match until he defeated Tom. 
However, Figaro believed that Foltesla would do it someday, and they would face each other in the arena again. 
He was completely certain that the rematch was close. 
But now, Figaro could no longer tell just how imminent — or distant — it really was. 
 
“Yoo. You don’t look too good todaay.” 
The voice he heard cut off Figaro’s reminiscence. 
“...Tom.” It was a fellow duel ranker: specifically, the previous champion and the current second in the rankings — The Lynx, Tom Cat. 

“What’s wroong...? Wait, don’t tell mee. It’s obviouus...” Figaro didn’t say a word in return. 
Not minding it, Tom continued, “Gloria, riight? You’re wondering how to fight it, aren’t youu?” 
“...That’s not it,” said Figaro. “And... I can’t fight it even if I wanted to.” 
“Hm?” Tom tilted his head. 
He thought about it for a second, then found an answer by simply remembering Figaro’s nature. 
It wasn’t clear whether Figaro realized this or not, but he continued. “Gloria is... very strong. I know that better than ever now that I’ve looked at the data leaked by the Babylonian Battlegroup.” 
After their defeat at Claymill, the Babylonian Battlegroup revealed all that they’d learned about Gloria on their website. The members who couldn’t participate in the battle went online the very same day and gave the info to informants like DIN and other media companies. This, of course, was met with a lot of anger from the rankers who were hiding such information. The Babylonian Battlegroup could have also kept it to themselves and gone for a rematch with a greater chance of emerging victorious and becoming MVPs. However, instead, they spread the info as far as possible with the hopes that someone would defeat Gloria as quickly as possible... that might’ve been their leader’s last wish. 
“No offense to you, Tom, but Gloria is immeasurably stronger than anything or anyone I’ve fought so far.” 
“Hey, you’re not wrong. I know way too well that I have no chance against it as I am now. That monster is probably meant to be fought by several Superiors at once. If you wanna beat it, you need to team up with other Superiors... or people like Foltesla.” 
“But...” 
“Yep. That’s impossible for you.” 
Figaro nodded in response. 
This was another face of the disease he had been born with. 
Because of his illness, he’d spent his entire life doing nothing, and with nobody. This left him without the most basic of social skills. 
He had never played with other children when he was young, nor had he ever teamed up with someone for a sport in class. Until he’d entered Infinite Dendrogram, he’d never actually done anything significant with someone else. 
He knew what cooperation was, but that was the extent of it. 
When it came to actually cooperating with someone — to fighting as a party — his brain would instantly shut down because he was so unused to the experience. His reactions would become considerably worse, and he even once failed a quest because of it. 
Figaro himself knew this too well. 
He didn’t have the fundamental skills necessary to actually cooperate with anyone. The nearly twenty years of stagnant, solitary life he’d lived had become shackles that bound his movements. Removing them would take a long time. Not even the few years he’d spent in Infinite Dendrogram were quite enough yet. 
That was the reason why he explored the Tomb Labyrinth solo. 
“Fighting alongside others makes you useless. If a Superior like yourself was defeated, the frontline would be likely to collapse, and that’s probably why Foltesla refused your help. Is that what’s troubling you?” 
“It’s not about my inability to cooperate...” 
“Really? What’s bothering you, then?” 
Figaro fell silent for a good moment before slowly speaking up, “Foltesla... sent me a message.” 
“...He did, huh?” As rivals and friends, the two were in contact in real life, as well. 
However, they rarely communicated in that world. Anything they wanted to say, they’d say here in Infinite Dendrogram. 
But he couldn’t do that this time, because Foltesla hadn’t come back even after his death penalty expired. 
The reason was laid out in the message he’d sent to Figaro. 
“I’m not coming back,” he wrote. “I don’t want to see it with my own eyes. I don’t want confirmation that Erica is gone... It’s all my fault.” His wife and everyone else in the city had vanished without a trace. 
There wasn’t even the faintest hope that they had escaped the calamity. 
People with jobs specialized in investigation had tried to find survivors, only to conclude that everyone in the city was dead. They had all been evaporated by the breath of light. 
Foltesla learned this during his death penalty. The cruel reality broke him to the point that he wasn’t even able to log in and face it. 
That was just how important Erica was to him. 
In the message he received, Figaro couldn’t find even a hint of his rival, the seasoned duel ranker and clan leader. 
And one part at the end hit him harder than anything else. 
“‘I can’t keep my promise. I’m sorry, Figaro,’” Figaro quoted it to Tom. 
Those words clearly meant that he would never see his rival and friend again. 
The man who claimed that he’d defeat Gloria and take Figaro’s throne was now forever lost to this world. He just wasn’t coming back. 
Figaro had the toughest heart in all of Infinite Dendrogram, but this truth was so heavy that even that had begun to ache. 
“I... I want to keep our promise,” muttered Figaro, voice faltering ever so slightly. Their promised duel could simply never happen now. It was impossible to keep it, but Figaro didn’t want to abandon it entirely, even if the other party was no longer in this world. 
But there was one way that didn’t require Foltesla’s presence. “Maybe I could fulfill this promise by fighting Gloria,” said Figaro. 
“...A time attack, huh?” Tom nodded. A time attack was a type of duel where the duelists fought the same kind of monster, and victory was decided based on how fast they defeated theirs, or how much damage they dealt to it. Besides their standard duels, Figaro and Foltesla engaged in these, as well. 
In a way, fighting Gloria, whom Foltesla couldn’t beat, could be considered their last duel. 
Whether he won, joined Foltesla in defeat, or even reached a stalemate, this would be Figaro’s last duel against Foltesla. The promise between them would be fulfilled, and that was ultimately why Figaro wanted to fight. 
“But... I can’t.” Gloria had to be defeated using all the kingdom’s remaining power. If Figaro wanted to have his duel and fulfill the promise, he had to go to the battlefield ahead of anyone else and fight it alone. 
However, Gloria had already been revealed to be a creature without compare, and it was likely that it was still hiding something. It was fair to assume that it would cause some sort of unexpected disaster during the next battle. 
It had unleashed new powers at Claymill, and it was possible that another battle would uncover yet more calamities hiding within the dragon. 
It would be too much for an exclusively solo player like Figaro. While a well-coordinated group could perhaps handle it, a lone player likely had no chance. And then the newly-empowered Gloria could become an immeasurably powerful threat to those who would face it next, potentially making it impossible to avenge those Foltesla and his Babylonian Battlegroup tried to protect. 
“And if that would make it impossible to put their suffering to rest, then I should just...” Figaro voiced his worries and explained why he tried to keep his desire hidden. 
In response... “Hahahah. I see, I see.” ...Tom laughed and slapped Figaro’s shoulder before continuing. “Don’t be stupid, Altar’s strongest. I mean...” He rejected Figaro’s words... 
“...YOU’RE NOT THE KIND OF GUY WHO FIGHTS WHILE THINKING ABOUT NONSENSE LIKE THAT!” ...Then topped it off with an all-out punch to the face. 
“...Tom?” Figaro mouthed, feeling pain on his cheek and looking back at the ex-champion. 
There was anger on his face, along with some other intense emotion. 
“You’re the one who beat me,” Tom said. “You’re the one who beat Tom Cat, the biggest barrier the kingdom’s Masters had to overcome. And you did it before you were a Superior, or called the Over Gladiator! You are one who exceeded our expectations!” 
Figaro couldn’t tell just how much emotion he was putting into those words, but he could feel the passion behind them. 
“And now you’re even stronger than you were back then! Why would you even say something so... weak?! Act like yourself! You’re a meathead berserker! Don’t think, and just go fight the damn thing! Fight it alone and maybe even die, but lop off one of its heads on your way out! Go at it solo and destroy the head that beat your rival! Don’t just give up on that duel! On your promise!” He then fell silent for a moment before continuing. “Does that promise mean so little to you that you’re gonna give up on it after just a little bit of thinking?!” Those were the most important words Tom wanted to say. 
Figaro opened his eyes wide, as though he was done hesitating, and found his answer. 
“...Thanks, Tom,” he said as he looked up. “I’ll go and fulfill our promise.” 
The very next moment, Figaro vanished. Tom Cat shifted his gaze and saw him rush towards the capital at supersonic speeds. 
“Go get ’em, champion.” Tom watched him disappear in satisfaction. 
And now that he was all alone, he muttered something to himself. 
“Jabberwock, Mad Hatter... This will probably undermine your plans, but I choose to respect their freedom... And their feelings. To me, that’s more important than creating more Superior Embryos.” 
He cracked a smile... “That’s the kind of person my Master was, after all.” ...And spoke those words with nothing but nostalgia and heart.