novelraw Chapter 93
Chapter 93
Chapter 93
I'm currently in Ashia, the capital of Oceanus—at the Military Police HQ's Mother Base.
In the command room of Mother Base, I'm facing Six Sages and Ness-san. Six Sages is seated at a desk, Ness-san stands beside it.
"I'm sorry. The Triad was taken from us."
I first apologize for the theft of the Orb.
"How could we possibly blame you? We let it be stolen with absurd ease. We had that many people guarding it, too. It's downright embarrassing."
"Though the Triad was stolen, thanks to Shiki we managed to capture Labyrinth. We're grateful, not accusatory."
I'll keep quiet about how they almost let her slip away.
"Rabi-chan...... what will happen to Labyrinth now?"
"She'll be in the cell for a while. If she just tells us where all the treasure she's stolen is—where the treasure vault is—she might be released sooner."
Rabi-chan shielded me at the end.
Thanks to that, I learned of the existence of Tsukinami-san's copy. If I know about it, I can plan countermeasures. I'll have to thank her. Once things settle, I want to visit.
"That humanoid that attacked me......"
"It's a copy of White Meteor. Nasty, huh. If they ever start mass-producing that thing......"
"That's impossible-yawn."
A new visitor enters the room—Chacha-san.
Chacha-san walks over while typing on her PC.
"What do you mean?"
Ness-san asks.
"A body tough enough to withstand a copy of White Meteor can't be built so easily. I analyzed the materials from Shiki-kun's visual data, and every part uses rare components. The power-source core is probably something called Moon Light. It's a limited item with a cap of one. So aside from that single unit, there shouldn't be any other Shiroboshi copies."
To load a strong person's ability data, you need a body just as strong......
"Anyway, how did they even get White Meteor's ability data? You shouldn't be able to obtain that unless the owner submits it personally. Don't tell me White Meteor herself......"
"That possibility isn't zero, but probably not-nya."
I think the chance that Tsukinami-san handed over her ability data is zero,
"Then how......"
"Just feed it a huge amount of combat data."
"Combat data?"
"Normally, a humanoid has ability data input into its memory core. That lets it reproduce the original person's movements, right? But that thing was most likely an empty-memory humanoid shown massive amounts of White Meteor's combat data and made to learn and reproduce the movements."
"Uh-huh?"
"So like, if a humanoid built from ability data is a clone, then the Shiroboshi copy is an impressionist! If you've got tons of videos of the person, you can mimic them to a point—huh? Did that just make it more confusing?"
"You don't have to force the analogy. With enough combat data you can create ability data. That's all."
I see.
"But creating ability data this way requires a truly absurd amount of combat data. You'd need records from more than a thousand battles."
"Where would anyone get that much—"
Ah, right.
"People never stop challenging White Meteor......"
Six Sages gives a wry smile.
"I just realized it too. She fights day after day, and it's all captured by satellite cameras. Sometimes she faces armies of hundreds. Her combat data is everywhere. That said......"
"It's a bit hard to believe. Selecting, extracting, and combining only what's needed from that much combat data to create ability data requires considerable sense and knowledge."
"And on top of that, building a body that matches White Meteor's ability data? They're no small fry. You two have a suspect, don't you?"
Chacha-san looks at Six Sages and Ness-san with probing eyes.
"There aren't many terrorists with that level of technical skill."
"Yeah. We have a pretty good idea—Green Ice. A researcher who unites the terrorists within Oceanus. You could call her the worst terrorist. In game terms, the worst 'griefer,' maybe."
Green Ice—that person made Tsukinami-san's copy......
"Do you remember Nadra?"
"Y-yes."
She's the one who deceived Ms. Eve.
"The orders to her came from Green Ice too. She confessed. As expected, those two were connected......"
"From here on, we'll be moving seriously to crush Green Ice."
Six Sages looks at me with those green eyes.
"Shiki-kun. We'd really like your help as well."
"......"
Creating a copy of Tsukinami-san just to defeat me, huh.
I'll repay this humiliation without fail.
"Yes. I'll shoot Green Ice myself."
◆◆◆《Infinity Space Strongest Player Discussion Thread vol.〇〇〇〇》◆◆◆
《Rule 1. ∞Arts owners forbidden》
《Rule 2. Players inactive for over half a year forbidden》
《Rule 3. Discussion of other games forbidden》
《Rule 4. No slander or defamation》
"There's a crazy guy in Oceanus. The strongest."
"Green Ice?"
"Definitely a crazy dude lol."
"Wrong. A sniper named Shiki. Won a C-rank ranked match by defeating Tsubasa. Also apparently sniped a Green Ice exec. And rumor says he's the one who beat Labyrinth."
"Eh!? Tsubasa-chan lost...? But Tsubasa-chan is definitely the strongest Guardian."
"Guardians are weak theory."
"Guardians, huh... They were called the strongest in the early days, but after heavy armor got nerfed and the meta shifted to speed, they're struggling now (sorry for going off-topic)."
"Rumor says he wiped out nearly a hundred Gold Army troops. Buried so many players they nicknamed him 'Slayer Shiki.' Also rumored he takes assassination jobs from the Oceanus military."
"If he beat Tsubasa and Labyrinth, doesn't that make him the champ? Tsubasa's top-tier Guardian, Labyrinth's top-tier Scout."
"Matchups matter~. There are plenty of other strong kids too, like ex-Yggdrasil members."
"Heard the big e-sports training group 'Luminous' is putting effort into Infinity Space lately. Their members are worth checking out too."
"If we're talking snipers, my pick is Six Sages-sama. No one tops her in team fights."
"Read the rules~. ∞Arts owners are banned, y'know~."
"If all those rumors are true, he's definitely up there."
"Late to the party, but what's the benchmark for strength? Ranked matches? Anti-Arbiter beasts?"
"Previous thread roughly defined it as 'PvP strength.'"
"Just got a crazy request about that Shiki."
"What's that? kws k"
"Reposted from request thread. 《Reward: 300 million chips for defeating player 'Shiki'. Photo attached. Must film from start of battle to finish. No targeting while unresistant (logged-out, death-penalty weakened, etc). No ambushes. Must be captured alive. Unlimited entries. Reward paid for every takedown during posting.》"
"Whoa! What is this, a wanted poster?"
"It's a bounty."
"So we're to slay the Slayer, huh."
"Where's the location info? I wanna do this so bad!"
"Whew... for the first time in ages... I'm gonna get serious."
"Hey, the thread's derailed. Take it elsewhere. I'm broke too, so I'll just take the link."
"Perfect timing. We'll find out if he's really the strongest once we fight him."