My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 13 - Chapter 22

Chapter 22 — Interlude: I Believe It’s Reasonable to Assume My Master’s Wishes Did Have an Influence on It

In Cavern Quest, there was a function to allow players to switch channels. It was part of the game’s system, but actually realizing it existed was surprisingly challenging.

First of all, playing the game normally, you would never realize there were multiple starting towns with different channel numbers. Each city had been provided with sufficient facilities and staff, and the city only really existed to connect the players to the field maps, so there wasn’t much to suggest there was more than one.

However, the existence of other channels was only trivial to lower-level players—those struggling to survive each day. Stronger players would find the quests they were taking to be more and more difficult to complete as a single party. To continue progressing, they would need to join forces with other parties of powerful players, but that wasn’t always possible in a single town. So when a player began taking higher-level quests, they were given new information. It included knowledge of how to travel between channels and communicate between them.

But for Shigeto Mitadera, getting that kind of information was easy. When he had joined Cavern Quest, he had been given the class of Master Oracle like before. It gave him the ability to create a book that told him how to achieve his goals as if it were a strategy guide for a video game. So inside of Cavern Quest, which was almost a video game itself, getting information on how best to proceed was easy for him.

“It didn’t really bother me at first, but it’s interesting that you started as a human this time.” Shigeto was facing a young girl across the table from him in the adventurer’s guild’s bar. Though he was wearing armor he had obtained in the game, she didn’t seem dressed for combat at all.

“I have no desire to be a mere book anymore.” Her name was Navi. Back in what Sion called ‘part one,’ Shigeto had been pressed into a corner and his power had been awakened, transforming his power from that of a book into a girl.

“But didn’t Cavern Quest reset my level of the Gift to 1? Isn’t it strange for you to be here?”

“Not at all. I also retained my memories of the previous world, and my experience of having obtained this form. It is more natural for me to appear in this form now.”

“Speaking of levels, what happens if I level you up?” Shigeto asked, the thought occurring to him what felt like far later than it should have. His class gave him the ability to obtain information about achieving his goals, but it didn’t feel like leveling it up would improve the information he’d obtain.

“The book becomes harder.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Navi pulled out a thick book and placed it on the table. “It gets more solid. The attack power goes up.”

“Huh? It’s a weapon?”

“There are games like that, where scholars use books as weapons.”

“I mean, sure, but... So, the prophecy ability isn’t affected by level at all?”

“No. That is why I’ve been able to get this much information for you.”

Shigeto had leveled up somewhat within Cavern Quest, but he was still a beginner, far from being a veteran.

“You can actually fight with that?”

“I suppose if I got close enough to hit them with it, it would do some amount of damage.”

“So no, then.”

Navi hadn’t done much of anything during their quests. The quests he had been taking hadn’t put much pressure on Shigeto yet, so there was no need for Navi, who he assumed had no fighting ability, to get involved.

“What are you expecting of a frail little girl like me?”

“There was that one time you dragged me across the city. And you stomped my face in once too.” Though she appeared to be a young girl, she still packed considerable power.

“Do you think they’ll come?” Shigeto asked.

“I wonder. It seems there isn’t much to talk about at this point.”

“Even I know that we won’t all get along at this point. But I’m curious about Takatou. I want to know what everyone thinks of him.”

The majority of the class had likely joined Cavern Quest, but Shigeto had yet to meet anyone he recognized in the city. If they were all just doing their own thing, that was fine, but recently the Great Sage had made information about Yogiri public. He’d told them the world had been reset, said that those Yogiri killed hadn’t come back, and explained exactly who those people were. Finally, he’d told them that if they killed Yogiri, everyone Yogiri had killed would be brought back to life. A number of their classmates had died, so Shigeto was interested to some degree. But there was a limit to what he could accomplish by thinking on his own. So he had contacted his classmates.

That would normally be impossible within the system of Cavern Quest, but with Shigeto’s power—Navi’s power—it was possible. It had taught him how to find players in other cities and communicate with them. Finding all of his classmates, he’d sent a message through the adventurer’s guild to them. The staff should have delivered his messages. The message said that he wanted to talk about Yogiri, and included his channel number, an explanation of how to switch channels, and a meeting time.

He figured about half of the class wouldn’t show up. It cost a significant amount of DP to travel between channels. In other words, if you weren’t seriously trying to progress through the game, it would be difficult to afford. There was also the issue that any discussion about Yogiri would be futile. That was why Shigeto didn’t go to meet his classmates himself. He didn’t have the DP to switch channels that many times, and even if he did, they might not be interested in talking with him anyway.

So he had decided to send the message and wait. Some might consider that selfish on his part, but sending the message had cost DP in and of itself, so he had already paid quite a price to get this meeting together.

“What do you intend to do about him?” Navi asked.

“Not a lot I can do. He’s unstoppable, isn’t he?”

“Yes. Yogiri Takatou is an absolutely insurmountable obstacle if he appears in your path, but if you don’t involve yourself with him, he is not a threat.”

“Isn’t a strategy guide supposed to have secret strategies for beating otherwise impossible opponents?”

“How should I put this? He isn’t an obstacle to be conquered, but rather to be avoided. Think of him like a zone of lava, where falling in means certain death. Ah, that’s just an example though. It’s not like there are some sort of ice boots you can use to avoid dying.”

“I see. Well, if we stay away from him, there’s no problem. But there’s always a chance he comes for us. So your example isn’t that good, is it?”

“Shut up. As long as you understand, the example is fine.”

Seeing Navi start to pout, Shigeto decided to leave it at that.

“So you’re a lolicon, Mitadera?”

Turning to the newcomer, he saw a beautiful girl standing in front of him. She was wearing something that could hardly be called ordinary clothing, closer to something one would expect from an idol at a live show. She was Sora Akino, a girl who had actually been an idol before coming to this world.

“That’s... This is just my power... I’m not a lolicon...” Feeling attacked, Shigeto became flustered.

“My name is Navi. I had no choice in my form, so I believe it’s reasonable to assume my master’s wishes did have an influence on it.”

“Please, stop...”

“Either way, we’re not dating, so your tastes are no concern of mine.” As she spoke, Sora sat down at the table. “Ten minutes until we start, huh? There are a lot fewer people here than I expected.” There was no difference between the flow of time in Cavern Quest and the surface world. Anyone who had the Gift installed could see a clock in the Gift’s interface. “Maybe moving between channels was too much of a hurdle? I would expect some people to show up just to see their classmates.”

“Are you sure? Well...I guess if they were thrown in here alone,” Shigeto said.

“They may have cute little companions like you do,” Sora said, “so maybe they aren’t that lonely at all.”

“I guess based on your outfit that you got the Idol class again?” Ignoring her attempts at banter, Shigeto tried to push the conversation forward.

“Yes, I didn’t have any other good ideas. I’m pretty familiar with this class’s abilities too.” Back when they’d first arrived in this world before the reset, Shigeto had left the class almost immediately, so he didn’t know the details about Sora’s powers. But if she had gathered enough DP to move between channels, she must have been reasonably strong.

“So you were with Harufuji, then?”

“Yes. She made my clothes for me again.” Runa Harufuji had had the class of Dressmaker before the reset, so it seemed she’d also kept the same class as before. It allowed her to make any sort of clothing she wished as long as she had material to work with.

“I didn’t think many people would come, but I was expecting more than this.” Five minutes before the designated time, Haruto Ootori appeared. “I thought at least Yazaki would be here.”

Suguru Yazaki had had the class of General and had taken control of the class right after they’d arrived in this world. If he had the same class now, he should have been reasonably strong, so it was hard to think he was having difficulty with the game, but they didn’t know anything about him for sure. The player search function in Cavern Quest didn’t provide any information about the players concerning their Gift or other non-game information.

“I figured if too many people showed up, we’d move somewhere else,” Shigeto said, “but if this is all that’s coming, I guess this place is fine.”

Haruto sat down at the table. The designated time passed with no other classmates appearing. Shigeto was disappointed that Akinobu Marufuji and Rei Kushima, his companions from before the reset, hadn’t come, but maybe that was to be expected. There was a huge difference in their state of mind before the reset and after it. Before the reset, the installation of the Gift had altered their personalities to be more aggressive and assertive. He had no idea if they would still be interested in dealing with Shigeto now.

“To start off, I have no intention of dealing with Takatou anymore,” Haruto said.

“So why are you here, then?” Shigeto sighed.

“Curiosity, I guess. One of our classmates turned out to be a mass murderer. I was curious how everyone would react to that.”

“Well, that’s too bad. It looks like the sample will be too small to be useful,” Navi said, seeming not the least bit sympathetic.

“Did you have some run-in with Takatou before, Ootori?” Sora asked.

“Sage Sion tasked me with killing him before, so I did what I could against him. That experience was enough to teach me that no one can beat him. Nothing good can come from dealing with him further.” Haruto sounded like he was fed up with it all, but it sounded genuine to Shigeto.

“I called everyone here because I wanted to ask what people thought about the current situation,” Shigeto said. “I have no delusions about us being able to fight him.”

“But he still killed many of our classmates. We can’t just ignore that,” Sora interjected.

“That’s...true. It’s certainly different than thinking he killed some people we didn’t know in a place we’ve never been.”

“How many ended up dying because of him?”

“Ryousuke Higashida, Yoshiaki Fukuhara, Yuuki Tachibana, Yukimasa Aihara, Romiko Jougasaki, and Ayaka Shinozaki. Six in all,” Navi said.

“I’m surprised you remember them all. Did you get the message from the Great Sage too?”

“No, but I can retrieve it as useful information for making forward progress. That is likely because the Great Sage made the names of everyone Yogiri Takatou killed public knowledge.”

“Six people... The number isn’t really important, but the fact he killed them is still a problem,” Sora said. “If there’s a chance of bringing those six back to life, we can’t just do nothing.”

“Just so you know, there actually is no way you can beat him.” Haruto’s class was Consultant, giving him a similar power to Shigeto’s Master Oracle. He had the power to collect information and put it together into a plan of action. It seemed his power had drawn the same conclusion as Shigeto’s own.

“Yeah. Takatou isn’t someone we can even consider beating. He’s like an obstacle that’s harmless as long as we avoid it. There’s nothing we can do but leave him be.” Shigeto wasn’t particularly interested in bringing those six back to life. As classmates, he knew their names and faces, but that was as far as their relationships went. He had no reason to risk his life to fight for them.

“Don’t you think it’s better to say beating him isn’t necessary?”

“Oh?” Haruto turned to Sora, intrigued.

“He took six lives from our class. The fact that he’s able to keep living as if nothing happened means he must not understand the weight of his actions. In that case, we just need to teach him. If he comes to understand the value of human life, he may regret what he’s done. If he truly understands, he may make an effort to bring those six back to life himself. Even if, for example, that means discarding his own life.”

“I see... I hadn’t thought of that,” Haruto said. “How do you kill someone who’s invincible? Getting them to kill themselves is a pretty simple solution. But have you ever had a normal conversation with Takatou before?”

“Now that you mention it, I suppose not,” Sora admitted.

“If you talk to him even briefly, you’ll get it. He’s not a proper human being. After all, he killed six percent of this world’s entire population and didn’t feel the least bit of guilt.”

Shigeto felt the same way. He didn’t see Yogiri as someone who would agonize over the deaths he had caused. He felt it was better to characterize him as a natural disaster that happened to look like a human being.

“I see,” Sora said. “But don’t you think that could just be your own preconception? Are you sure you just haven’t given up on understanding him?”

“Feel free to try and convince him. I’m certainly not going to stop you.”

“Okay. Everything ends when you give up on communication. I believe that as human beings, we can come to understand each other through dialogue.”

Taking Sora’s words as complete nonsense, Shigeto looked to Navi. She was deep in thought. At the very least, it didn’t seem she could deny Sora’s conjecture outright.

Truly believing in what she’d said, Sora wore a smile brimming with confidence.