Wrecking the Database 8 (Log Horizon/Oreigaru)

Wrecking the Database 8 (Log Horizon/Oreigaru)

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Commissioned by: Weise

Wordcount: 2535

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Is this some sort of curse? The day and moment I get to exist in an alternate world with cheat abilities… and money is apparently the biggest superpower a person can have!?

“It makes sense. Controlling funds is the means to controlling the population, especially without government regulation.” Oi, oi, oi. You’re supposed to insult my gripes about human nature, Yukinoshita, not praise an evil overlord who has a whole city under his thumb because he decided to take control of a service that everyone needs. “Hmmm, Hikigaya-kun, why do I feel the need to claw your face? Are you perhaps thinking of something uncouth? Or, is it just your natural disposition to elicit such a reaction?”

“Please don’t say violence is the instant answer to my face, I might cry.” Really, I just might. However, that’s not important right now. The big issue is that Akihabara is now under control of the Round Table. A boring name for sure, but it gave the illusion of equality amongst all the members, which were all heads of various guilds, and such equality was required by the masses to ensure that they were still equal with everyone else. Not that that was true in the slightest. One person controlling literally all the money has literally all the power. No ifs, ands, or, buts about it. Some tyrant has made their play and now rules over a whole city. Man, I was glad that I kept all my gold in chests. Even if they could be broken into, at least I owned them, and that they were safe inside my property. “Anyway, Yukinoshita, is there anything we can do about this?”

“According to the rumors, the man who bought the bank is an individual who took a multitude of loans to gain the funds necessary to buy the bank. That debt is the public reason as to why his council exists. However, it is undoubtedly a farce, since you’ve told me there’s no way to enforce a debt being fulfilled.” That’s right the Guard NPCs of the city governed over the city very simply. There was no violence in the city, between Player and NPCS. That was about the extent of their guardianship over the people. If you lent a person money, they were free to run away with it if they wished with a stuck-out tongue and an “lol, teehee.” Huh, maybe I should’ve brought Iroha along? “The man who bought the bank has also locked out the ability of others to purchase the other services, keeping them free to the public, but essentially not allowing them to fall into the hands of others. He has crushed all his opposition, whilst simultaneously securing his power. The Round Table has power only because he allows them to have power. This city is in the hands of a tyrant, nothing more and nothing less.”

“And, it’s the city where we come back to anytime we die.” It was a terrible thing indeed. One moment I was living my life thinking that I’d never have to work for another person, and the next I was slapped in the face with the fact that a person controlled literally all the money in my chosen, home city, and he blocked the means to purchase other buildings/services, too. Now I can’t take over the entire city for myself! Oh, I guess the fact that someone controls the place where I can respawn is an issue to. “Hmmm, I think our next move will need to be to secure a city for ourselves, then. The closest one here should be—

A clawed finger pushed into my forehead.

It did no damage, but it was the principle of the thing.

Or, rather, Yukinoshita’s words following them.

“Idiot. Nincompoop. Hachiman.” Oi, that last one’s not an insult! Yukinshita, dammit, I’ve told you that time and time again! Get that smug, all-knowing look off your face too. You’re not cute. Your appeal is more on the terrifying and dominatrix side. Though, only for those who like the appeal of corsets slimming down rather than propping up. I’m sorry, Yukinoshita, but we all know your current bust size is a lie in real life. “That would involve our group into a conflict we can’t win. If this has happened here, then it must have occurred elsewhere too. Human beings are resourceful, greedy creatures. You should know.”

“Right. That’s a lost cause then.” I agreed with ease on Yukinoshita’s point of view for a simple reason: she was right. If a human being found themselves in another world, they did one of three things: run away, breakdown, or secure themselves. I chose mostly the first and some of the last, while the clear majority broke down. What I was seeing now was the results of someone who risked everything, didn’t run away, and secured their immediate surroundings as forcibly as possible. In short, while I was running away to a safe spot, some crazy people rushed and rushed until they secured a greater victory than my own plan could give me. Without a doubt, if I headed into that battle, even in another city that miraculously isn’t owned yet, I was going to be going up against people who were ready to fight for it. In short, right now, that plan was just a way to make enemies, because I didn’t commit to it at my earliest possible opportunity? “So, what should we do?”

“We need to make ourselves invaluable as fast as possible to the tyrant of this place, of course. As of this moment we are faceless, meaningless individuals with no worth, as you should be familiar. Our best course of action would be to gain reputation, fame, or infamy, so that we can have influence.” Yukinoshita spoke about politicking with ease born of experience. Given the kind of lifestyle that she led, and the family that she had, her choices in life was to lay down and die or become a bigger monster than those who were tormenting her. Needless to say, I was quite surprised to see her again after college, and I barely recognized her. Only some of the person I used to know remained… but, the fact that some of that person still existed was enough for me. “Hmmm, is there anyone within this city who likes you? Ah, I apologize for my mistake. Is there anyone within this city who hates you less than everyone else, Hikigaya-kun?”

Given the fact that I didn’t like hanging around in hubs more than I had to?

“Nope. We’re starting from zero.”

“A pity. It would’ve been so easy to make you notorious.”

Ah, another backhanded compliment.

Really, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

…

After our meeting regarding the information we gathered, Yukinoshita and I went out to gather more. Naturally, we had to work and get the basics first, before working on getting more relevant pieces of information. For example, we both knew that Round Table was a council of sorts that now governed Akihabara. However, the people on that Round Table were all unknown to us, let alone the man who arranged everything. Of course, such things could easily be solved by just asking around but asking around happens to lead to being asked around for.

Given our circumstances, we had to be careful about what we asked, and largely appear as just ordinary, regular people amidst all the other ordinary, regular people.

Doing such a thing was easy for me, given my Stealth Hikki skill, and the fact that I chose to be a regular human. 

Yukinoshita on the other hand…

“If you laugh at me any more tha you already have, I will skin you alive.” Though I was certainly intimidating in my getup in real life, I just looked like any normal magic user. It was a choice I made in order to keep the fact that I was a tank and healer a secret. Being plain, unnoticeable, and barely recognizable from afar was very good for ensuring that I didn’t get bogged down by worthless trash who scared away the regular tanks and healers. However, Yukinoshita happened to be an ebony-haired, leggy, ranger catgirl. While there were certainly a multitude of females going around in bodies that were very attractive and pretty, they didn’t carry themselves as one would expect, sending many, many mixed signals that scared of the average male. Yukinoshita, meanwhile, walked confidnately, assuredly, and without the slightest amount of shame. Thus, her arms were laden with gifts, and more were being piled on to them, as she could only smile at the crowd and whisper threats at me beneath her breath. “Hikigaya-kun… I would very much appreciate you getting rid of these fools.”

I was tempted to.

Not.

Not only was Yukinoshita being a good distraction, but she was also receiving information that we’d have to pay for otherwise. Cooking was apparently now a skill that needed to be cultivated, explaining how and why most of my companions couldn’t cook, while I could. My Househusband skill was kicking in there, apparently. And, of course, my decision not to use the shop for immersion after it gave me corrupted data to eat. 

But I digress.

I was getting information that was very, very important.

The Round Table was made up of eleven Guilds. Three were production guilds, four were small, and the rest were all battle guilds. However, that didn’t talk about their power. Obviously, what they really were was as follows: the meathead regular gamers, the nerds who liked crafting and farming, and the really, really strange people who commited way, way too much time into Elder Tales. The battle guilds would have the largest amount of population, since the average population cared only about beating raids and getting legendary drops, but it was the production guilds and the small guilds that had the brains.

How did I know that?

Well, production is the means to setting everything up. The various stalls and foodstuffs now in Akihabara that was no revitalizing the whole of the city was the production guild. They were probably managing the ecnomy too. They’re the very heart of society. They make things that regular people can’t make. People follow rules they set, because otherwise they won’t get what they want, and so even though we left Japan, our new world is tainted by greed and capitalism, because humanity has no clue how to function otherwise. Thanks, guys. You’re really all doing a good job.

The small guilds were important because they were probably all led by the man who created the Round Table Alliance in the first place: Shiroe.

Or, rather, the Devil In Glasses from the Debauchery Tea Party.

Yeah, it made sense that Shiroe would do that sort of thing. He was always the kind of person who looked for all the advantages in a situation, winning it, and then settling in for the long haul or looking for the next challenge to face. The guy was a freak who did everything seriously, but I guess now that Elder Tales is real, he’s going to be at the top of the game. Well, I suppose he already technically is. Since everything on the Round Table Alliance presumably had one vote each, Shiroe probably had all the Small Guilds under his thumb, so of eleven votes he had 4… and it’s laughable to think that the meatheads would respect the Production Guilds as much as Shiroe. He probably earned their trust and support just by having them join the Round Table Alliance in the first place.

Oh, and he blacklisted and sent out a whole guild into the wild for poaching and abusing newbies. 

Good for him.

Anyway, Yukinoshita was correct in her statement of trying to take over another city being stupid. That guy would see another city as a threat, unless he was sure that they were allies, and take them all one after another just because he could. Fighting a guy who’d solve a problem like poachers and abusers by literally stripping them of all their money, rights, and citizenship isn’t something I’d like to do. 

And, quite frankly, there were a lot of weirdos in Elder Tale like him who were probably doing the same all over the world.

Anyway, Shiroe is pretty much a Maou-sama and I had no intention of meeting with him.

“Oi, all of you, back away from the lady!”

Thankfully, he was a wimp around large crowds, so there was no way that he’d arrive after I tempted fate. 

Instead, I found my shoulder gripped by someone who I really didn’t want to ever meet again.

“Ne, Hachiman, don’t you think you should take better care of your friends? What do you think you’re doing just standing back and letting a lady do all the work?” Black Sword Isaac, or Araki Tafami, was the head the meatheads. The meathead amongst meatheads. The type of guy who says working and getting paid for work is the reason to life. I didn’t get along with him. Unfortunately, he was one of the few people who knew about my specialization. I wanted to run away, but the crowd around Yukinoshita dispersed, leaving the two of us alone with Tafami and his meatheads. “Don’t you think that you should put a little more effort in, and take care of your employees better?”

Ah, well.

Running away wasn’t an option.

So, the only thing to do was attack.

“Big words for a Guild leader who funded a slave ring.” Oh, wow, so being lifted by the neck doesn’t count as being attacked. That’s nice to know. Also, it seemed that mister Isaac was so caught up on getting to Level 100 that he didn’t care where the Exp Pots were coming from. Heh. Anyway, while he and his goods were angry at me, I sent a message to Yukinoshita. She hesitated but ran away. Good, now they’ll think I’m just a loner who used someone as bait. “Wow, you’ve gotten strong, huh? That’s very impressive. Are you still keeping a few newbies as slaves under the table?”

Isaac went past anger, went straight into his battle mode, and was about to draw his sword when a giraffe head hit his face.

Ah, Kirin-chan.

Why must you be present whenever I’ve managed to goad one of the few people able to kill me to do so?

“Isaac, Hikigaya-san’s getting the better of you again!” I hadn’t noticed her amongst the burly bodies of the other Level 85+s in Isaac’s retinue, but Kirin was a Dwarf Summoner with the Entertainer subclass for the extra agility, increased affinity for summons, and other min-maxing bullshit. She wore a giraffe head as a hat and used it to headbutt people. People laugh until they find out that it’s high-spec Summoner armor that’s just had a cosmetic change. “You even let the girl he was working with get away!”

Augh, with those words and his current, calm state, there was no way Isaac was going to do what I wanted him to.

I just wanted to die.

Now it looks like I’m going to have to socialize.

I really wanted to die…