Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 129

EXCITING!

It was a joint assault by six guilds.

Ponsuke was confidence with this strategy.

「Nuhn!」

Each of his hand was holding a huge great sword. Ponsuke was swinging them around as though there was a storm centered on him.

The monsters were blown away. They crashed on the walls and turned into red particles.

A conspicuously large black knight leaped out and swung down its halberd on Ponsuke.

Ponsuke crossed his great swords to block the attack. The impact made his feet sunk into the ground.

「――A minotaurus undead huh.」

The skeleton that was visible from the helmet belonged to a  minotaurus, so its size was larger than the avatar that players used and  made it looked even more monstrous.

Ponsuke forcefully deflected the halberd. The monster held its halberd in overhead stance with that.

It was staggered and unbalanced. Ponsuke’s great swords shined――and then flame enveloped them before he slashed with them.

He cut the monster violently several times. The monster turned into  red light and vanished, then several more monsters tried to surround  Ponsuke after that.

But――.

「Too naïve.」

Inside the fortress.

The snipers who had taken position on top of the buildings shot the monsters attacking Ponsuke.

Above a building, Alfie was peering into the scope of a large silver rifle.

「How is the paid item holy silver bullet taste? I still have a lot of them here!」

The price of a single bullet wasn’t much, but it was a different story when firing dozens or hundreds of them.

The amount of bullet that was used in one battle would be considerable for a single player.

Lily who had two guns style and using silver handguns were firing at the monsters who were circling behind Ponsuke.

「It’s really disgusting here. They are gloomy and annoying like this is a horror movie.」

Ponsuke laughed while resting his great sword on his shoulder.

「You saved me. Even so, as I thought it’s great that we invited reliable guilds to come with us.」

Enemies gathered around Ponsuke and co, even so their momentum was different.

There were six guilds entering the fortress.

Each guild went into rampage with their own members. It limited the  number of monsters that came attacking Ponsuke and His Happy-Go-Lucky  Friends.

The monsters surged out like a flood, but even their momentum had a limit.

The guild member Naia put her weapon on her back and took a crouching start. The other members moved away from her.

It was minotaurus race’s special skill――Horn Attack. It was a charge using their horn, but when it had been training as skill,

「Begoneeeee!」

When Naia broke into a sprint, the monsters in front of her turned into red light as she passed through them.

It was as though a path of light had been created on her wake.

Mariela who was standing by near Ponsuke looked put off seeing that sight.

「What’s that? Did something happen at “that side” with her?」

Lily reloaded her handguns with a practiced movement. Meanwhile she defeated a monster that approached her with a spinning kick.

「She said that she has divorce problem. Her stress must be piling up.」

It was an unthinkable topic to be brought up in the middle of a quest.

Ponsuke messaged his forehead with his fingers.

『Oi, Ponsuke. Answer me if you can reply.』

「Rook? Is there a problem?」

『There’s no problem. It’s even fun that the enemies are strong. But,  it looks like this side is a miss. There’s no path to enter the fortress  here.』

Even though it was called a fortress, it had an atmosphere like a castle town.

There was a castle with many buildings around it. There was a wall  that surrounded the whole place and waiting for the players who crossed  the wall were buildings that lined up like a labyrinth.

Originally just getting behind the wall would already be a pain, but  Ponsuke and co directly marched inside so they managed to start from the  middle of the labyrinth.

The place was divided into several districts. It seemed that Rook’s guild picked the wrong area.

Call came one after another.

『Ponsuke, it’s also no good over here. We’re pulling back. Tell us which district hasn’t been checked yet.』

Platina’s voice sounded disappointed in her call.

『This way is also a miss. Give us the next direction.』

It was also the same with Isami.

Ponsuke displayed his status screen and checked the map where the areas that they hadn’t explored were dyed black.

「There are two remaining districts. My guild is still not finished exploring our area.」

He informed the other guilds about the area that hadn’t been  investigated before cutting off the calls. Then a call from Lighter came  next.

『Ponsuke-kun, I’m watching from above but I can’t see the entrance.  Even with me giving instruction to the other players like this, it feels  like it will take time until we find it.』

「Please continue what you’re doing. Also keep throwing down the supplies.」

『Leave it to me. Yosh, next is you.』

Lighter called out to the next player at the other side of the call.

『I-I’m not good with high place.』

『Is that so? It’s alright……today is a good day to try conquering your fear. Fly!』

『Noooooooo!』

One of the craftsmen got kicked by Lighter and fell toward Ponsuke’s location.

He was wearing a backpack that was filled with a lot of supplies. The base was storing a lot of items that they had created.

The kicked guild member wiped his tear.

「That wretched……I’ll have my revenge one day.」

The guild members gathered around him.

「Give me healing item!」

「Bullet! I want bullet!」

「My weapon broke so please give me a replacement.」

They stuffed their hands into the backpack that the crying guild member was carrying and took out the items inside.

Ponsuke cautioned them.

「Everyone wait! Our friend is crying!」

There was a group that was looking at the crying player with irritation in respond to Ponsuke’s words. It was the orcs.

「This guy, why is he crying?」

「This is where he should rejoice or cry in happiness.」

「Aa~aa, this lowly one should pick the supply transport role.」

He was exasperated by the members who were too carefree. Then Inaho  and Anri who were running on the buildings returned to Ponsuke and  others’ location.

「W-we found it!」

「The fortress’s entrance is in this district!」

Ponsuke immediately pressed two fingers on his forehead and contacted the others.

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The players gathered in front of the castle gate. Then the buildings around it were blown away.

Coming out from the destroyed gate was a monster with one eye and four arms leading the monster army.

The monster’s name was Titan――its undead version. It was clad in black armor.

Ponsuke sent the orcs to the front and prepared to fight.

「It’s horrible that the monsters keep coming out. Just conquering a fortress is already this troublesome.」

The number of the monsters was outrageous.

As expected from a fortress with such high difficulty level.

SOLOLY was observing the situation from behind Ponsuke.

「Difficulty level 12 might be the highest difficulty setting. Rather  I’ll snap if I’m told there is something even more difficult than this.」

「Exactly.」

The monsters roared and charged forward. Prey and others also roared.

「Chargeeeee!」

「This is the life!」

「Beat me uppppp!」

The orcs charged while letting out bizarre cries. The monsters couldn’t break through them and got successfully stopped.

The middle school group――Sierra, Nanako, Guruguru.

The three of them was preparing magic.

Sierra and Guruguru were chanting magic, so Nanako stepped forward to buy them time.

The other guild members were also making preparation to fire magic――.

「Mister orcs, please withdraw quickly!」

Nanako told Prey and the others to withdraw.

But, Prey was holding back an enemy with his great shield while looking back with a small smile.

「We can’t obey even if it’s Nanako-chan――no, princess’s order. The monsters will pass through if we withdraw from here.」

「Don’t mind us, shoot!」

「Do it! Make it painful with one blow――」

Nanako was emotionally moved seeing the self-sacrificing mentality of  the orcs who were acting like usual, but Ponsuke calmly lifted up his  hand before swinging it down.

「Yes, fire.」

The guild members fired their magic altogether with Ponsuke’s order.

「Blow up all you pervertsssss!」

It looked like Sierra was aiming at the allies rather than the  enemies with her highly powerful magic, but Ponsuke pretended to not see  anything.

The other members were also the same.

「You problem childrennnnnn!」

「Our reputation hit rock bottom because of you guys!」

「I’ll blow you up just like you wanted!」

The orcs facing those attacks from their comrades were――

「Nooooo! They’re coming from the front and the back……aaaaahhh!」

They were blown away and scorched black before falling flat on the ground.

Their status was uselessly high that even the full powered attack of the magicians didn’t finish them off.

Ponsuke thought.

(Everyone is also horrible with how they attack mercilessly like that toward their own allies.)

Almost all of the monsters were blown away by Ponsuke’s guild except the monster who seemed to be the gate’s guard.

Ponsuke drew out his great sword and raised the great shield in his left hand before rushing toward the gate’s guard.

Its black armor was turning crimson. It seemed that its status was skyrocketing.

Blaze took command after Ponsuke rushed forward.

「Start attacking without hitting your own allies!」

The magicians and gunners and archers attacked. The gate’s guard advanced under that barrage.

Ponsuke stood alone in front of it and…….

「――Everyone is in position.」

The eight wives――the game wives had taken position to surround the gate’s guard.

Alfie was using attack skill to fire her rifle consecutively, landing  three shots in an instant. Naia charged forward and unbalanced the  gate’s guard.

A combo was chained with that. Then Mariela and Lily continued the combo using bow and handguns.

The requirement to chain combo wasn’t strict, but the difficulty  would shot up the longer it continued. The longer a combo continued, the  more extra damage was calculated so clearers always aimed for that  proactively.

But, partner――comrade was needed to do that. It was something that a single person could do no matter what.

「Got you!」

Anri jumped up and thrust with her spear, while Inaho sprinted below  and slashed repeatedly at the monster’s feet with her knives.

The combo count kept increasing above the gate guard’s head. Then Ponsuke jumped and blew it away with his great shield.

A steel ball from Noin swung down at the toppled gate guard.

Fran also slashed and breathed fire from her mouth when the gate guard tried to stand up, dealing additional damages.

Combo could be formed by members of the same party……and players who  were connected through the system as husband and wife. Because of that  even clearers were giving great importance to the marriage system.

However realistically marrying more than two people was very difficult to do.

There were also very few players who could chain a combo with nine people.

The nine continued to deal damage to the gate guard that was still  trying to stand up before Ponsuke stepped into its bosom. He smashed his  great shield on the gate guard’s stomach while it was crouching. The  gate guard’s huge body floated.

「Even combo is free for all when the target is midair!」

Mariela laughed while switching weapon and jumping up. She was  dealing damages to the gate guard. Alfie too rained down slashes with  one-handed sword before firing bullet at its head, dealing critical  hit――.

「――It’s over.」

Ponsuke switched weapon and aimed an orc-exclusive cannon at the falling gate guard and fired.

The gate guard was blown away. And with the combo count, the boss class enemy was immediately defeated from the damage amount.

「Whoohoo~!」

「We did it!」

Anri and Inaho hugged each other in happiness.

Blaze also ran toward Ponsuke.

「Amazing combo count as usual.」

「It went well somehow. Is it perhaps because we are always partying together?」

「Even so that combo count is still absurd.」

Ponsuke’s group defeated the powerful gate guard. Then Rook’s group  arrived while they were still deciding whether to enter inside the  castle or not.

They were looking terribly disappointed.

「Oi, you should wait for us!」

Few player would go Luckyy! When finding out that other group had defeated the boss. That was because defeating a boss would give them a lot of rewards.

Any player would want to get in the action if possible.

A muscular player, Dandy admonished Rook.

「Calm down. The main event is inside the castle. We are still right in time, think of it like that.」

「R-right. Ponsuke, I’m begging you don’t rush ahead next time.」

Ponsuke scratched his head.

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The six guilds gathered and charged into the castle.

However, the inside of the castle was far more extensive than it looked at the outside. It was a labyrinth inside.

The silver lining was that there were few monsters.

「Labyrinth again? This is really tiring.」

「The hunger and sleepy bad statuses are appearing.」

「Me too.」

「Oi, let’s get back and rest.」

It was great that they could get inside but, a day had passed since the battle began.

Even if their bodies were just avatars, they would get bad status if  they skipped meal and sleep, which lowered their overall status.

Because it was a labyrinth inside the castle, Ponsuke declared that they would rest when they found a suitable room.

「We’ll rest here. Please take turn eating and sleeping.」

The inside of the castle was made from stone.

The room that they entered had long tables and chairs lined up.

The atmosphere was like a castle in horror movie, and the room was very eerie. It looked realistic in this virtual world.

The smell and sound could also be felt.

「It’ll be hard to sleep here.」

「I’m fine with it though.」

「You were trembling in fear just now.」

Perhaps it wouldn’t be scary if it was just a normal game, but this  was a fully immersive game. This kind of realistic experience was its  true charm.

Ponsuke looked around while giving directions.

Blaze approached him.

「Ponsuke-kun, we can’t make contact with outside. Looks like it’s a restricted area where call and message can’t go through.」

「That’s troublesome. Let’s send someone back to notify Lighter and the others.」

Blaze nodded.

「Then I’ll go. Take a rest first Ponsuke-kun. After all there are  also people who can’t calm down seeing the guild master still awake.」

「Is that so? Then I’ll take a sleep first.」

Meal and sleep were indispensable even inside the virtual world.

Ponsuke took out food from his item box, ate, then he lied down.

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Ponsuke was sleeping spread-eagled inside the room.

Around him there were the girls――and the middle school group using his arms and legs as pillow to sleep.

But, there were also players who were still awake.

That was because they would become defenseless if everyone was asleep.

Mariela and Alfie were staying awake. The guild members who were standing guard were sending glances at the two.

「Oi, they’re at it again.」

「Guild master, wake up quickly.」

「Don’t meet their eyes! We are air. Become air.」

The guild members didn’t want to get involved because the atmosphere  of the two――it felt like they would draw out their weapon and get into a  duel anytime soon.

Amidst that dangerous atmosphere.

「The combo wasn’t as long as usual because of your miss!」

「Please don’t make it my fault, you show off!」

「Before this you also――」

「You say that but even you Mariela-!」

The guild members blocked their ears because they didn’t want to listen.

Then Anri who got the first turn sleeping opened her eyes.

「So noisy. Be quiet.」

「Haa? You wake up and take our place already. Also, why are you using  Ponsuke’s arm as your pillow huh! That’s my designated place.」

Anri laughed ridiculingly in respond to Mariela’s words.

「There isn’t any sign here that say it’s your designated place. Can’t  you please stop acting as the legal wife already? A woman like you who  couldn’t deepen your relationship no matter how much time passed despite  working at the same part-time work is just at that level in the end.」

Mariela wordlessly drew out her short sword swiftly. Anri also drew out her weapon.

「You’re just a woman that Ponsuke married because of pity」

「That’s you two isn’t it?」

Alfie also joined the two’s argument.

「You “two”? I can’t pretend to not hear that. You said that I got wedded just because of pity? You should know your place.」

Alfie picked up her gun. As expected even the guild members panicked seeing that.

As for the other girls in the guild.

「It’s bloodbath. A bloodbath is going to start.」

「Awesome, keep it up.」

「I wonder if guild master is aware that he has a harem.」

The other girls were enjoying it.

The men were looking at Ponsuke with dejection.

「That kind of harem is just out.」

「Yeah. As expected the best harem is in anime or light novel.」

「Just from the appearance, this only look like an orc making a lot of women serving him though.」

「I can only feel pity for guild master. I don’t feel jealous at the slightest.」

「Hey, anyone want to play card game?」

「Ah, I’m in! I just rearranged my deck not long ago.」

「I’m in too.」

「There are new cards coming out? I hadn’t checked.」

The men ran away from reality――they started playing card game that  was getting popular inside Pandora. The card game was created in order  for players to have fun during break time. There was even tournament  that got held by the players themselves.

If asked what was amazing about it, monsters would get projected like hologram and fought when the cards were placed down.

The animation was impressive, and there were also a lot of players who liked collecting the cards themselves.

Mariela and others were glaring at each others. Ponsuke was sleeping.

There were players who were watching that scene fearfully, but there were also players who were watching it with amusement.

And there were also players who were playing game.

――Blaze and others saw that scene when they returned and it made them held their heads in their hands at their wits’ end.

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