Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: A Hint

Paladin, Ray Starling

“So the answer is a date on the Gregorian calendar,” I said.

“Yep,” Alto nodded. “That seemed likely since it was eight digits, so this just confirms it.”

“Yeah.” Having found our first hint, we were now walking along the shore looking for more of them.

On the one hand, we had nowhere to hide out here...but on the other, neither did anyone approaching us. I looked around and didn’t see any place our potential ambushers could be lurking. There were some trees growing around a nearby river, but not enough to act as cover for anyone waiting to attack us. On top of that, Juliet was flying right above us, looking out for any potential threats. I told her that those AA beams made it dangerous, but she insisted that she could evade them now that she knew about them.

“...The hint we were given before we were transported here was ‘Don’t forget the name of this event,’ wasn’t it?” I said as I remembered the event’s name—The Anniversary.

“Yeah,” said Alto. “If that’s a hint, then I guess the answer might be...Dendro’s release date?”

“Perhaps there is a hint that reveals exactly which anniversary they are referring to,” said Nemesis. “We need to gather more.”

Right now, it felt like we only had one point of a polygon. We couldn’t know the true shape without getting a couple more points.

“Mine eyes bore witness to a guidestone pale as death—one that may yet deliver us to glory.”

“You found the next hint, huh?”

Juliet just landed and said, “I saw a stone that looked as white as the rocky area from earlier. I think it’s a hint.”

Flying really was useful for looking out for enemies and searching for hints. Maybe there were other hints that could only be seen while on the ground?

Anyway, Juliet led us to the place she’d spotted—a sandy beach in the event area’s south.

However, it had already been destroyed.

Patches of sand had been melted by some kind of heat attack, and the resulting glass was still warm.

It was clear that someone had fought here, and I had an idea who it might have been...

“...The Master with the anti-air attacks,” I said. This damage had probably been done by the very same person who’d shot down one Master right before my very eyes and had later brought down Juliet.

He, or maybe she...they’d probably fought here and been defeated. If they’d won, Juliet would’ve obviously been shot at again.

The fact that we could safely take to the sky now was good news for us.

“And the hint you mentioned is...over there?”

We drew closer to the sea, where there stood a large stone monument. On it, there was text, just like there had been in that rocky area.

“‘Each person’s answer may differ,’ huh?”

“Well, then it can’t be the release date!” said Alto. “Dendro came out at the same time worldwide.”

“The feast marking one’s first breath,” said Juliet.

“Yeah. Most people have different birthdays, so it may be that. The fact that plates with ‘2’ or ‘0’ seem more common might’ve been because most of the playerbase was born in or after the year 2000.”

There were a few born in 1999 or earlier, of course, but talking overall proportion, players born after that were the majority.

However...

“The number ‘4’ also seems more common though. Taking that into consideration, maybe it’s not our birthdays, but the days we started playing Infinite Dendrogram?”

That could be anywhere between July 15th, 2043 and today—April 20th, 2045. All of the numbers in that range would have 2, 0, and 4 in them which would explain why they were more common.

“That is true,” said Nemesis. “What do you think, Alto?”

“Hm? Me? I’m combining those answers into one super answer.” ...A super answer? “Hey, Ray. You know how Embryos don’t always hatch on the day you start the game?”

“Oh.”

“It can be the same day, but there’re people who create their characters one day, then stop and return and hatch their Embryos some other day. That’s why my guess is...the answer is the participant’s Embryo’s birthday. Whaddya think?”

That...was actually pretty likely. Your own birthday, your starting day, and your Embryo’s birthday were all worthy of being “anniversaries,” though, so it was hard to be certain just yet.

“We can try out all of ’em if we want,” Alto continued. “We each put in a different answer and then just go by whoever passes.”

If one of these answers turned out to be right, that method would let at least one of us pass—and if it was the first one who tried, then the other two would pass, as well.

Wrong answers would mean getting teleported to some other part of the island, though.

More importantly...

“I’m not sure if we’ll have enough plates for that,” I said. “Since that’s personal info, I won’t ask for your birthdays, but what are your starting days and Embryo birthdays? Mine is March 16th for both.”

It had now been over a month since I started, but it really didn’t feel like that.

“The path I now walk began upon the day celebrating the world’s first full revolution, and upon that very day were my black-plumed wings bequeathed unto me.”

“...Pardon?” asked Alto.

“You mean you started on the one year anniversary event and your Embryo hatched on the same day. That’s July 17th, 2044, right?”

“Indeed.” Shu had told me that had been a good time to start, with tons of events to keep you occupied. Apparently, that was also when he’d gotten the King of Destruction job.

“I’m impressed you understand her... I started on February 14th, 2045. Same day for the Embryo hatchin’.”

“All right, that means that the plates we need are... Hm?”

Alto was a fellow newbie, yet she’d started on February 14th, which was...

“...You got into the game right after the UTokyo secondary exams?”

“Yyyep! When the exams were done, I got all hyped and bought the gear for it!”

“You didn’t even wait to hear the results...?” I only got my set after I found out I’d made it in and moved to a new place, I thought.

“You speak of...the Palace of Knowledge?!” cried Juliet in shock, surprised that both of us were UTokyo students.

...Crrrap.

“Wooow, look at Ray, revealin’ personal info in an MMO! You baaad, baaad booooy.”

“...Sorry,” I said. “I’m really, seriously sorry.”

“Buy me lunch next time!”

...It feels like you always settle debts with lunch, I thought.

“Keep it a secret, will ya, Julie?”

“V-Very well...”

“Hm? What’s wrong? You look kinda tense... You okay? Wanna play some cat’s cradle?”

“Umm, I-I’m fine, thank you.” Juliet was acting strange again. It started when I mentioned UTokyo... Did she have some real life circumstances related to our college? Would I be overstepping any boundaries if I asked?

...Well, for now, I would just count our plates and see if we had enough for all our dates.

Keeping in mind our starting dates and Embryo birthdays, we looked over the plates...and realized that we didn’t even have half of the amount we needed. Only one of us would be able to finish the event with these, and that only barely.

“Not enough, but...” I said.

“Hm? If there’s not enough, we just gotta beat the monsters and get more, right?” Alto asked.

“...How long has it been since we last ran into a monster?”

I had a pretty bad feeling about this.

“This event is a survival-battle royale... So, honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if there were a limited number of monsters on this island.”

The frequency of our monster encounters had dropped significantly, which supported this theory.

If I was right, the plate-gathering part of this event was really about gathering up the “right to give your answer.” Even if we wanted to test one of our potential solutions, the plate limit made it difficult.

“This means that the number of times all participants can input an answer is limited. Those who defeated a lot of other people can do it many times, while those who haven’t can barely do it once...”

This event was designed to eventually funnel participants into battles against each other. I had no idea why they’d felt it necessary to include these quiz elements and hadn’t just made it a regular battle royale, but...

“We need to beat other Masters to clear this,” I concluded. “And the ones who will make it to the end will be the strongest...which will be the likes of Jubei and GH.”

“Hmmm...” Alto let out a sigh like she lost all hope, and I couldn’t blame her.

Honestly, though, I felt like those two were better targets than most other participants.

First of all, they’d probably have an obscene number of plates. No matter which one of the two managed to win the event, all of those plates were still in the hands of a single Master. If that Master went on to give a correct answer, all of the extra plates they were carrying would vanish—which meant we would never be able to get them.

That suggested actually fighting them would give us higher chances of clearing the event.

“...Hey, Nemmy, what’s with all the resolve on Ray’s face?” Alto asked.

“That is how his face looks when he is preparing to fight against the odds. He makes it all the time.”

“All the time, huh...? Well, putting Jubei Kaga aside for now... Carl Lourlou is so invincible that you hear about him all the time even in Tenchi... How do you plan on beatin’ him?”

I was also aware of the “Multifariously Invincible.”

And that was exactly why I could say this with certainty.

“We can win against him this time.”

“Huh?” Juliet and Alto both said at the same time. No one would blame them for being surprised.

I went on to tell them something I’d once heard from Shu, as well as providing some conjecture of my own.

Three minutes later, after listening to everything I’d said, they were thinking deeply about God Hunter’s powers and counters.

“I see... That is one way to do it...” said Alto.

“A rule hardly familiar to most...”

“But, Ray, would that actually work...?”

“Well, it depends on how it goes, but...I think that Juliet and I could pull it off.”

If the situation called for it, I could maybe do it by myself too.

“That sooo...? Ummm... Will I just drag you down, then?” Alto said with a sad look, pointing at herself.

“Hey, we’re just dividing roles,” I said. “You’re a great help while we’re moving around, and it’s thanks to you that we were able to get out of that situation so smoothly. If we’re up against some big shot, though, Juliet and I are better for the job. That’s all there is to it.”

“I see... But I... Umm... Yeah... Never mind.”

She was deep in thought about something. Was it something to do with her Embryo she’d told me about? “I see... Well, in that case, let’s leave it at that and go looking for more hints.”

If we’re gonna fight them, it won’t hurt to lower the chances of getting wrong answers... Huh?! As I was thinking about all of that, I felt a presence. I turned towards it, away from the sea. Juliet had noticed it before me, while Nemesis and Alto followed my lead.

It was a river about a hundred metels away from us.

On the bank of the river flowing into the sea, there stood a familiar-looking girl wearing a pirate hat.

“Chelsea...” Juliet had found the very person she’d promised to fight, and Chelsea was staring back right at her.

The pirate girl waved at us before running closer. She wasn’t doing this at combat speed, but the speed of someone hurrying to greet a friend.

It seemed like she was trying to suggest she didn’t want to fight...but that wasn’t it at all.

“Heyoo. So you formed a trio too,” she said.

“‘Too?’” I asked.

“I teamed up with Shion and Max. We agreed to meet here, but I don’t see either of them, so...didja beat ’em?”

So our group of six became two parties of three, huh? I thought.

“No. There was no one here when we showed up... There were signs of fighting, though.”

“Hmm. Really? I guess they fought someone, anyway, and either lost or the battle went to a standstill. Shame.”

To me, she didn’t seem too upset about her companions’ fates. Well, unlike the peace talks, this was an event where nobody risked anything, so maybe it was fair to not feel too strongly about losing a teammate.

Or maybe there was something she wanted more than victory.

“Anyway, there’s somethin’ I’d like to ask you three.”

“Wha—?! You wanna join this team?! As in, you want me to leave?!” Alto said with a fearful voice.

“...Why would you think that?” I asked.

“I mean, in Dendro, you’ve spent more time with them than with me! I’m basically an outsider here! I’m also not a ranker! I don’t eat devils for breakfast like you do! And I haven’t dated you IRL either!”

“Huh? Are you two a thing?” Chelsea asked.

“No. We’re just friends,” I answered. And what does “eating devils” have to do with anything? Let go of that already, I thought.

“You’re gonna make me leave to take in somebody you like better! ‘Sorry, Alto, this event can only be cleared by three people.’ That’s what you’re about to say, right?!”

“No, damn it. Who do you take me for?”

This event was really making me realize that, despite normally being a cheerful cat’s cradle fan, Natsume became a real downer when she was at her wits’ end.

In a way, her thought patterns were like...cat’s cradle, actually—all tangled up.

“If I’m left alone, I’ll be taken out of the event in secooonds!” Alto cried, flinging herself onto the ground to roll in the sand.

“Ah ha ha! Your friend’s funnier than I thought,” laughed Chelsea. “Don’t worry, though. That’s not what I want.” Her smile then vanished in an instant. “Sorry for messin’ up your trio, but...”

She fixed her gaze on Juliet.

“...Can ya let me fight Julie one-on-one?”

“Let’s go all-out and fight each other with everything we’ve got.”

“...Yeah!”

“Oh...” The words they’d exchanged in the event’s lobby came rushing back to me. Chelsea was here to try and have that promised fight.

However, Chelsea wasn’t smiling, and even Juliet was hesitant for some reason.

“I planned to have Shion and Max keep everyone else from gettin’ in the way, but neither of them are here and Julie ain’t alone either, so asking nicely is about the only thing I can do.”

If a team wanted to win this event, it was best to fight as a team instead of letting one of your members fight one-on-one. Chelsea had probably considered that when she made her request.

“Hey hey hey, that would be a bit too much,” said Alto. “I mean, Juliet is our heavy hitte—”

“Why not?” I said, cutting her off.

“Whoa... Mr. Ray?”

Don’t “Mr.” me, I thought.

“I knew that they wanted to fight before we teamed up. Also, do you really wanna make your teammate focus on victory when there’s obviously something she wants even more than that? Wouldn’t it leave a bad taste in your mouth?”

“...I guess it would,” Alto said with a nod, covering her face with both hands.

I didn’t know if she was ashamed of what she’d said or if she was grieving what she thought was the inevitable end of our team up.

“You wanna fight her too—right, Juliet?”

“...Yeah!” she said. She’d clearly only hesitated because she was being considerate of me and Alto. But now that we’d given her the go-ahead, she was all smiles—a way more fitting expression for her, if you asked me.

“Heh. I was actually plannin’ on negotiatin’ with ya, offerin’ this and that for the privilege of a fight. I guess you’re just too much like us duelists, Ray,” Chelsea said with a grin.

“Well, I’ve sparred with a whole lot of you.”

“Ah ha ha ha. When things cool down, try joining the duel rankings too, will ya?”

“I’ll think about it. Anyway, we’ll head off to the west so we don’t get in the way.”

I’d seen them duel before and knew that their fights could cause lots of collateral damage, so it was best to keep a distance.

I turned away from them and walked towards the west, with Nemesis and Alto following after me.

“So yeah, Juliet...”

But there was still one last thing I had to say to my teammate before I left.

“...Meet up with us later.”

I believe that you’ll win, I added silently.

It wasn’t because her rank was greater or because Juliet had won in the duels I’d seen. Even I could tell that Chelsea now wasn’t the same Chelsea I’d seen at the arenas. She had some powerful ace up her sleeve, and she was now gonna use it against her dear friend and rival.

But I still believed in Juliet’s victory, because...that’s what being a team was all about, right?

“...Acknowledged!” Hearing those words behind me, I left the beach that was about to become a battlefield.

◇

Since it was clear by now that the Master firing the anti-air beams was out of the game, we were riding Silver through the air over the shoreline. It only took us a few minutes to make it to the west shoreline of the event area. It was as beachy as the south had been, and the shallow water below was crystal clear.

“This would be a nice place for a resort,” I said.

“A resort, eh...? That does remind me of the time your plans to visit the seaside fell apart,” said Nemesis.

“Yeah. Back when Fuso kidnapped me... I’ll never forget the encounter at school afterwards...”

It was weird to think that had happened just a short time before I’d headed off to college. I felt like it was forever ago.

“‘Fuso?’ You mean Fuso Tsukuyo, the Superior? And what encounter in school?” Alto asked.

“...You’ll find out eventually.” Fuso’s name and face were the same here and in real life, so Natsume would run into her sooner or later.

I was currently wielding Nemesis in her greatsword form, and Alto was sitting behind me. I asked if Alto had any means of flying, and she said that the whole “flying on kites” thing was from a different job in the ninja grouping.

“It just hit me that there’s only one type of monster in this event,” I said. “None of them can fly, and wild monsters... Ohh, right, they can’t enter because of the barrier.”

While flying around the kingdom, you might have a hard time dealing with the occasional avian monster or dragon, but that wasn’t the case on this island. Looking outside it, beyond the barrier, I could see some bird and fish monsters, so I assumed that the local creatures had all been removed for the event.

“Oh yeah. Alto, what about your Jewel? Don’t you have a flying monster in there?” I asked, remembering Rook and his avian servant. Many Masters used tamed creatures for flight.

“Uhhh... Um, the monster inside can’t fly... Yeah. It just can’t.”

“I see. Hm? That’s...”

Looking down, I saw something that stood out from its surroundings—a “landmark,” as they were called in battle royales.

It was a wooden shipwreck—a ruined vessel wasting away on the sand.

It stood out on its own, but as I looked at it, I quickly noticed a familiar white color to the sea-facing side of it.

A stone monument much like the one in the south had been placed at its bow.

“That’s gotta be the third hint,” I said. I couldn’t read it from here, so I descended towards it.

When close enough, I jumped off Silver and approached the monument.

“I hope this helps find the right answer,” I said. Now, let’s see what’s written on... Ah!

“...RAY!” Nemesis called out right as I jumped to the side.

A moment later, something crashed into the shipwreck, breaking its bow and sending the white monument splashing into the water.

“Ahh?!” Alto cried out at the sight, but none of us could do anything about it.

After all...the one who targeted the monument—and us—was still attacking.

Jumping away had left me open to a follow-up attack, and the next projectile was already streaking towards me.

“Silver!” I called out, bringing my trusty steed to pick me up and help me evade the incoming attack.

As more of these attacks followed, I realized they were actually massive harpoons—spears whose tips exploded on impact, launched from a whaling gun.

Who was firing all of them?

The silence provided the answer...along with the polar bear standing on the deck of the wrecked ship.

“Eep...!” Alto yelped.

“God Hunter...!” I said. He’d appeared seemingly out of nowhere, but that wasn’t the most important thing to worry about right now.

This was the Superior that we’d left behind to fight Jubei.

I didn’t know if he’d won against her or if he’d simply run away, but I knew that we were now going to fight a Superior who was often described as “invincible.”

“...It’s happening here and now, huh?” I said.

A couple days ago, I’d fought one of the “Apices” of all Masters. The result there had pretty much been a draw even though I’d gone at her with my whole clan; without Fuso, it would’ve been a heavy defeat.

So what would happen if just Alto and I were to fight someone considered “invincible”?

Our chances of winning a direct fight were so low they might as well be at the bottom of the sea.

“...Sir, Mr. Ray-man Sir, is this sudden altercation in any way winnable without our heavy hitter?” Alto asked, clearly in a panic.

Well, I had told her that “Juliet and I could pull it off.” Perhaps Alto hadn’t expected us to encounter GH when it was just the two of us.

As for the answer...

“...It is now,” I said, boldly declaring that I could emerge victorious against an invincible opponent.

“Whuh?”

“...”

While Alto was shocked by my declaration, God Hunter didn’t say a word. However, I could practically feel his fighting spirit ramping up. It seemed he took my words as a taunt.

And maybe they were, but I certainly wasn’t bluffing. I was absolutely sure that at this moment, in this exact situation, I had a fighting chance against an invincible Superior. This wasn’t just unwarranted arrogance.

“Nemesis,” I said, transforming her into the Black Shield. “Let’s win this.”

“Certainly!”

Thus began yet another of my battles against a Superior.