Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 67

Tame

At the graveyard behind the shrine.

Ponsuke was looking at Mariela and Alfie who wouldn’t listen to him and keep following him.

Their expression was serious, but what they were holding was a whip.  There was a golden whip and a silver whip that looked like it would feel  really painful if someone got hit with them.

They used up all the job and skill points that they had saved up with  much effort to become tamer. Ponsuke looked dejected in front of them.

「……I wanted to take care of this by myself if possible.」

Ponsuke spoke his true feeling. Alfie spread out her arms.

「What are you saying! We will be together forever. I don’t know what  Ponsuke is doing here, but if it’s because the world is in danger and  it’s something painful for you, then I’ll give you my help at the very  least.」

Mariela also folded her arms under her huge breasts.

「We didn’t manage to hear the detail about what’s going on here, but  if Ponsuke is doing this seriously then it’s not something bad isn’t it?  Then I’ll help out too.」

Ponsuke looked happy hearing that.

「President……senpai.」

But, Alfie and Mariela replied with a serious face.

「I still haven’t managed to come to term with that matter, so please call me Alfie.」

「Spare me from that. That’s a breach of manner right?」

The two’s reaction made Ponsuke apologized with his usual tune.

「S-sorry. Then let’s hurry to get inside. But, from here the pain will become like in real life so it’ll be really painful.」

Unlike with normal game where damage could just be healed, here they would feel pain if their limb get chopped off.

Even after the pain receded, the monster that dealt the pain would still exist.

Rather the more they fought the more painful it would become for them mentally.

Ponsuke too wouldn’t even think to participate in something like this if he didn’t find out about the Selector’s influence.

Alfie placed her hand on her chest.

「Bring it on.」

Mariela walked toward the gate.

「Come on, let’s go already.」

The two’s fearlessness gave Ponsuke courage.

Ponsuke too followed behind the two who dashed into the gate.

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The information broker saw off Ponsuke’s group.

He felt relieved seeing that particular matter had gotten settled.

「Thank god. The orc Selector is precious after all. Besides,  Ponsuke-kun is the only one who can break the deadlock of this  situation.」

Considering Ponsuke’s level and experience, he was inferior compared to the top players.

At best he was only at the upper level among the medium ranked players.

But, he was the valuable orc Selector.

Orc was unpopular among the other players, but that race wasn’t weak  by any meant. Rather that race even possessed cheat level skill like  Berserk.

Because of its special specification, the user of orc avatar couldn’t customize their own status which made the race unpopular.

However, that Ponsuke had caused miracle several times until now.

「There was that time with the cheat player and then the earth dragon……he’s really an interesting existence.」

The information broker was surrounded by screens that were projected on air to keep informed with the various situations.

There was a report from the real world that the operation would be successful as long as they could buy time here.

「……The rest will depend on the Selectors.」

The information broker looked at the players who were sitting on the graveyard and resting.

The support staffs were going around handing paid items to them.

He looked up to the sky.

「――A battle to protect the world huh.」

The information broker’s voice was drowned by the surrounding tumults.

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Inside the system.

Shining lines were laid out inside the blue dark space.

There was no floor or wall that could be seen.

Looking up, there were players fighting monsters while standing upside down.

Alfie immediately complained.

「It feels like I’ll get sick inside here.」

She switched from whip to sword and cut down the small fries one after another.

Mariela was also running while firing arrows to support Ponsuke and Alfie.

「It might be too late to ask this but, will the world get saved by doing this? Or rather, what is this danger to the world?」

Ponsuke was running while explaining about the situation in general to Alfie and Mariela.

「What we’re doing here is for support. The people who are doing the actual work are the people in the real world I guess?」

He didn’t know much about what those people were actually doing, but  he heard that they were infiltrating the underground colony and  connecting the new reactor’s system to Pandora.

There was even a possibility that they would be shot on sight if they got found out.

It was them who were in the most danger in the aspect of risking their life.

Ponsuke was blowing away monsters with his large shield and went forward in order to protect the two.

It was just like usual.

The combat style that the three of them had been doing every time was going really smoothly.

While they were going around obliterating the monsters, the space cracked and dispersed beams showered them like a rain.

Ponsuke lifted up his shield to protect the two. Then his shield started to turn red from blocking the beams.

The players who were facing the dragon could be seen from the tear that was formed in the space.

「Aren’t those Rook and his friends?」

Rook using his great sword and his friends were attacking the dragon.

From the tear in space, players who were centered around Selectors appeared to challenge the dragon.

They fired magic and made the dragon flinch. Then Isami of Shinsengumi slashed at it.

「Don’t falter! Keep going no matter how many times!」

Isami encouraged his comrades while attacking. As a player he could  also be categorized as the skilled type. It seemed that he had polished  his player skill. He dodged the dragon’s attack and slashed with his  katana.

However, the mechanized dragon had skin like armor plate. His attack was unable to inflict much damage.

Mariela shot the surrounding monsters with her arrows before putting away her bow. She turned her gaze at Ponsuke.

「Ponsuke……it’s your turn.」

Alfie also put away her sword and took out her golden whip.

「It’s finally time.」

In front of the two who looked motivated, Ponsuke looked like he was  going to have a second thought for a moment but he endured it. Right now  wasn’t the time to think why the two of them chose whip.

「Y-yeah」

Ponsuke took a deep breath and let go of his equipments. He also stored the items he was wearing into his item box.

The orc’s huge body was now only wearing a loincloth and muscle armor.

He opened the menu screen at his side and activated the Berserk skill.

「Berserk……100%.」

It would put him into an uncontrollable state, but he could only believe in his comrades who had become tamer for his sake.

Ponsuke’s skin became dyed red.

Thick and sturdy horns grew above his ears. His nose and chin lengthened.

His body became larger, especially his arms and legs.

He grabbed the ground with his hands, his back became hunched, and he growled painfully while his body was growing larger.

His hair grew longer. Ponsuke was turning into monster――.

「I’m getting on!」

「Ah, I’m first!」

Alfie jumped on his shoulder, while Mariela climbed up the opposite shoulder.

Two beautiful girls got on his shoulders. Ponsuke then howled. Both Mariela and Alfie covered up their ears.

The surrounding players complained seeing Ponsuke using his skill.

「That guy, he’s using that again!」

「It’s bothersome so stop it!」

「H-hey……isn’t there someone on his shoulder?」

The growling Ponsuke turned his gaze toward the direction of the voices.

It seemed he was choosing the players as his target.

Alfie raised her whip and then she swung it down toward Ponsuke’s chest without reservation.

「Gyann!」

The berserk Ponsuke screamed. At the same time Alfie also raised her voice.

「Ponsuke, stay!」

Alfie too wasn’t swinging her whip because of her hobby. When a tamer  used whip, the monster they attacked got put under their control.

Ponsuke stopped his preparation to attack other players, but this  time the dragon turned toward Ponsuke and opened its mouth wide.

This time it was Mariela who swung down her whip on Ponsuke’s back.

「Ponsuke, gooo!」

Mariela whipped Ponsuke’s back without holding back, but the strong  lashing caused the status of a fierce monster like Ponsuke to rise.

She didn’t lash at him strongly because of her hobby.

Ponsuke quickly reacted from the whipping and dodged the dragon’s beam.

The way he was sprinting on the ground on both hands and legs looked  like a large ferocious monster who was being controlled by two beautiful  girls.

That was what actually happening, but someone muttered.

「It feels like something is different isn’t it?」

Alfie and Mariela had no leeway to listen to such opinion. They were swinging their whip alternately.

That was because monster like Ponsuke wasn’t suitable to be tamed. He  would run wild and attack other players if he didn’t get constantly  controlled.

Ponsuke who became able to control his body somewhat sent his voice to the two.

『Alfie! Don’t hit my nipple! That really hurt!』

Rain of beams was raining down. Alfie was swinging down her whip to raise Ponsuke’s status and made him sprinted through it.

While sprinting on the ground, Ponsuke made handles to appear from the ground and then his hands pulled out a great sword each.

He switched to running on two legs midway and swung his great swords wildly to attack the dragon.

Deep wound was inflicted on the dragon. It caused the surrounding players to cheer.

A huge body that could oppose the dragon.

And then status that allowed him to exchange blows with it.

Ponsuke who managed to put those factors under his control was  gaining advantage in his battle against the dragon that was giving the  top players a hard fight.

However――.

「Ponsuke, attack rapidly!」

――Mariela swung down her whip on his back, or rather around his side. *Bashii!* It made such a painful sound.

Next she also lashed his butt meaninglessly.

『Ouch! That feels absurdly hurt! Why are you hitting my butt too when it doesn’t do anything!』

Mariela gave an excuse.

「S-sorry! I got the feeling that you might get stronger if I hit there.」

It couldn’t be helped if Mariela made a blunder because she still wasn’t used to being a tamer.

Alfie too didn’t understand where to hit that would be the most effective.

The player was unable to draw out the full ability of the job and skill.

But it was enough with just that right now.

『But, as long as I can control it――ORAAAAAA!!』

The berserk Ponsuke jumped and swung down his two great swords on the  dragon. The dragon fell to the ground and Ponsuke kept swinging down  his great swords on the dragon to pin it down.

Rather than cutting, it was more like he was bashing it.

The current Ponsuke still found it difficult to control his avatar delicately.

The dragon opened its mouth to fire its beams, but Mariela and Alfie whipped Ponsuke at the same time.

They made a painful sounding sound. Ponsuke roared and thrust the great swords in his hands into the dragon’s mouth.

Its head exploded.

Isami who was watching the battle yelled.

「Did that do it!?」

――However, Ponsuke narrowed his eyes and jumped backward.

He was growling with wariness. The berserk state apparently strengthening his instinct too.

「What’s wrong Ponsuke?」

Alfie looked puzzled.

After all the dragon had gotten enveloped in red light and vanishing.

Ponsuke bared his teeth and howled.

Right after that, an unbelievable sight entered their sight.

Rook and his friends who were healing their injuries were dumbfounded by the sight that was unfolding before their eyes.

「No way」

They thought that they had finally overcome a critical moment with  the defeat of the mechanized dragon――but another mechanized dragon  showed up by bursting through the space.

It wasn’t just one.

Two, three, four……five dragons.

Five dragons were flying in circle at the sky. Their presences gave the players deep despair.

They had lost count of how many times they had died just to face a single dragon.

Such powerful dragon had quintupled.

There were even players whose weapon fell from their hand.

◇

At the real world.

The information broker’s comrades at the server’s control room managed to obtain “one” of the information that they wanted.

「I did it! The operation is almost a success with this!」

It seemed to be a very precious data. The one holding a gun told his greatly rejoicing comrade to calm down.

Unlike the man in worker attire, the one dressed as guard was still nervous.

「It’s still not over. The Selectors are also doing their best in the  virtual world, but we don’t know how long they can buy us time. Is it  still not over yet?」

The others operated their devices and checked the remaining time.

「Five more minutes……no, if we can get just three more minutes」

Three minutes at the real world would become 48 times longer in the virtual world.

「So at least three hours at the other side huh?」

The flow of time in the virtual world was very slow.

Three minutes in real life was very long for Ponsuke and others.

「If we don’t make this a success no matter what……it’ll be over for our world.」

The man with gun said that. It made his comrades around him to look at the timer too.

It felt like one second was passing very slowly.

Amidst that,

「Crap. We got found!」

The one in charge of inserting fake image in the security camera yelled that the security had seen through it.

From the camera they could see security staffs running around with weapon in hands.

The man with gun soothed down everyone.

「We’ll make our stand here no matter what. We only need two more minutes. After that……it doesn’t matter what happen to us.」

He was speaking as though the thought of escaping from here didn’t even enter consideration.

Everyone nodded and continued with their work.

Danger was approaching even in the real world.

The fate of the world could go “either way” depending on whether the  timer hit zero first or whether they got stopped before it reached zero.

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