Opportunity in the Game Becomes Reality Episode 225
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Opportunity in the Game Becomes Reality Episode 225
51. Opportunity Seeker (2)
Virtual Reality based on the Hollywood System has a set maximum daily connection time.
Normally, if you stay connected for over 15 hours, you get forcibly logged out, but whether it's because we're in the middle of a fateful encounter quest, we've been continuing the battle without a single logout as an exception.
The reason there's a time limit for Virtual Reality connection is simple.
It's for the user's health.
Since the system sends and receives signals directly through the brain, they judged that an overload could potentially cause abnormalities in the nerves.
Having used such a system nonstop for over 50 hours, at this point everything before my eyes feels hazy, as if it were a dream.
You can train your body, but there's no way to train your brain, so perhaps this is an inevitable result.
I'm just grateful that my judgment isn't being shaken.
-Kyaaaaaaah!
Whether it had some kind of mission or was simply flailing in desperation, the dragon fought us with everything it had.
The breath motion we'd faced hundreds of times over 50 hours began again, and flames that filled my entire vision shot forward in a straight line like a beam of light.
-Squeaaak!
But at the very moment the creature went into its breath attack motion, the black one began to plummet rapidly.
Because of that, the black dog was burned away and disappeared.
Thanks to that, the black one ended up burned away and gone.
Since it was a clone anyway, the black dog's main body wasn't hit, but one of our options for canceling out its attack vanished.
[Stop dying already!]
But without a trace of panic, I aimed my Magic Staff at the breath that had closed in right before my eyes in an instant.
"Hellfire."
Rather than a defensive spell, I used an offensive spell instead.
An attempt to cancel out an attack with an attack.
-BOOOOM!
The breath and Hellfire collided head-on.
No matter how strong Hellfire is as a top-tier 8th Circle spell, there's no way it can stand against a breath with top-tier attack power even among 9th-circle spells.
However, Hellfire didn't just cancel out a portion of the breath's flames.
-SHEEEEEK!
But then.
Four greatswords with the Great Dragon option flew in and filled the empty space where Hellfire had disappeared.
It was Arcia's Sword Aura (sword control).
-BOOOOM!
As the four Sword Aura swords and the breath collided head-on, a massive explosion occurred—not on Hellfire's level, but enough to cancel out part of the breath again.
"Hellfire."
My Hellfire immediately followed up.
-BOOOOOM!
Then Arcia's four Sword Aura swords again.
-BOOOOM!
Then Hellfire again.
-BOOOOM!
Then the Sword Aura again.
[Th-This is insane!]
Arcia and I kept canceling out the breath this way, and before we knew it, our attacks had reached right in front of its snout.
In the end, the breath was whittled down bit by bit and finally broken through by Arcia's Sword Aura.
[KIIIIIEEK!]
The dragon, its throat pierced through its gaping maw, thrashed about in agony.
'Attack timing!'
Having stood still and defended against the breath with ranged attacks alone, we dashed toward the disoriented dragon—so many times now I'd lost count.
At the same time, the black dog's main body, which had been staying back, began descending alongside its clones, and what followed was an all-out assault.
-BAM BAM BAM BOOM!
I manifested a spell through the black dog's clone that grazed past the dragon's cheek like a fighter jet, bursting its crimson eyeball.
Arcia's sword sliced through the dragon's unyieldingly hard horn.
And as if a wildfire had broken out, dozens of greatswords scattered across the ravaged field rose into the air all at once, as if mimicking the techniques of the demon worshiper Selin.
The greatswords glinting in the sunlight looked like a school of fish swimming through the sea.
Soon, those greatswords became a school of greedy sharks and began tearing into the dragon.
-THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD!
[HP: 55.7%]
[HP: 53.2%]
[HP: 51.4%]
[HP: 48.9%]
....
....
An attack of missiles flying in from all directions and striking home.
I launched the swords with magic, and Arcia precisely applied Aura Blade at the impact points using Sword Aura techniques.
The two of them had improvised a near-perfect reproduction of Selin's patented technique on the spot.
Thanks to that, the dragon's HP rapidly dropped toward 0%.
[Heal, heal!]
In the end, the creature was forced to pour its mana into recovery.
As a result, the dragon fully recovered from all its wounds... but...
[HP: 100% MP: 0.6%]
Seeing that its MP had hit rock bottom, I was finally able to curl the corners of my mouth upward.
At last, the end of this battle was beginning to come into view.
"A dragon without mana is just a big sandbag."
[Damn you...]
The dragon's frustrated curse told us which way the battle was turning.
* * *
Fifty-two hours had passed since the battle with the dragon began.
[You two were truly terrible opponents.]
Red Dragon Kite stood upon the land where everything had turned to ash and said that while gazing up at the sun, blurred through the smoke.
"That's what I should be saying..."
I and Arcia slumped down onto the ground full of sparks and voiced our complaints to the dragon.
[But not bad. If you're the grand duke's disciple, you should be at least this capable.]
"What?"
[Don't think this is all over. There are battles that begin only after you gain power.]
-KUOOOONG!
And with that all-too-human line, the creature wobbled, and then its massive frame toppled to the ground.
Thanks to that, ashes and smoke spread in every direction, but I kept my eyes fixed on the fallen dragon without so much as a blink at that un-AI-like line.
[You have defeated Red Dragon Kite.]
[You have cleared Fateful Encounter Quest Stage 9.]
But as that message appeared before my eyes, the dragon's corpse soon scattered into shimmering polygons.
"Hah..."
A strange mix of deflation, curiosity, and relief.
I looked at Arcia with a face full of mixed emotions.
"You worked hard."
"You too."
Arcia, who looked utterly exhausted, rested her head on my shoulder just like that.
[The conditions for opening the next area of the Mage Tower have been met. Floor 10, the final floor of Manuel Lucas's Mage Tower, is now open.]
[Would you like to move to Floor 10 of Manuel Lucas's Mage Tower?]
The message I had been waiting for so eagerly appeared before my eyes.
No point in dragging it out.
I immediately tapped the button to head to Floor 10, and the scenery before my eyes changed.
-WHEEEENG!
I was teleported from a desolate forest where everything had turned to ash to a village with a fairly large fountain and various buildings.
The village seemed quite sizable, but its defining feature was that it was a ghost town with not a single person in sight.
And the ground was made of books instead of tiles or stone.
But since there was no awkward sensation of something catching at my feet, I reached down to touch it and felt a smooth, glass-like material.
[Would you like to take out the proposal for a new weapon, following Heaven-Piercing Fortress and Vanguard?]
That message appeared.
I had no intention of reading books right now, so I didn't take it out, but even the first book my casually extended hand touched had a title that was anything but ordinary.
'A proposal for a new weapon, huh.'
I struggled to my feet and looked toward the fountain.
Floating above the fountain in the center of the village was a massive sapphire-blue gem.
My guess was that that was the heart of Floor 10.
Perhaps because I had poured all my strength into the dragon raid, my body wouldn't move as I wanted, but I and Arcia supported each other and took step by step.
-POP!
[I'm impressed! Truly remarkable! I never imagined you'd clear the final gate in one go!]
And just as on the previous floors, a small light appeared along with Chester, the tiny old fairy grandfather.
I let out a snicker at his familiar sight and played up my exhaustion.
"I feel like I'm about to die from exhaustion."
[That's only natural. You fought a dragon for days... But did you know? No matter how much equipment stats are added, Red Dragon Kite had combat power exceeding that of a real dragon according to the data. That's why I speculated it could take over a year of time to fight Kite.]
And they put something like that out as the final trial?
Seems Grand Duke Lucas didn't want to just hand over the reward.
Pulling this kind of stunt after the fact.
"So you're saying that since we took that thing down, we're worthy of going toe-to-toe with a dragon?"
[Exactly. And once you secure the 'reward' this time, that process will be a bit easier. That's how far your focus and teamwork have surpassed every prediction in the data.]
Still, when the word "reward" came out of Opportunity Manager Chester's mouth, a smug grin spread across my face as if I had never complained at all.
[The final reward is contained here.]
With that, Chester pointed to the massive blue gem floating above the fountain.
Following his words, I stepped into the fountain and soon reached my hand toward the blue gem.
[You have become the administrator of the Hollywood System.]
[You have acquired 1,000 trillion Lute.]
[The Elisia Union bank account holding that amount will be disbursed to you.]
[A Union bank account has been additionally registered to your terminal.]
[You have acquired 3 summon-type Heaven-Piercing Fortresses, Icarus.]
[You have acquired 3 summon-type Heaven-Piercing Fortresses, Aegis.]
[You have acquired the summon-type Heaven-Piercing City, Gigant.]
[You have acquired 5 Master-class autonomous Vangas.]
[You have acquired the Magic Staff, Kite Rod (Dragon Heart).]
[You have acquired rare ownership rights to Red Dragon Kite.]
The list of rewards stretched on.
A thousand trillion was already a fortune, but as expected of the final reward, there were some extraordinary things mixed in.
First, I became not merely the administrator of the Hollywood System, but the administrator itself.
I obtained a large number of high-performance summon-type Heaven-Piercing Fortresses and Master-class autonomous-type Vangas.
Then there was the Heaven-Piercing City, which seemed to dwarf the fortresses in scale, and a new weapon presumed to have a Dragon Heart embedded inside.
Finally, there was the somewhat puzzling reward of a dragon's lair.
But above all, the most important reward was...
[9th-circle has been generated.]
This right here.
The leap to the 9th circle.
-Ding!
"Kuh!"
Circle generation, as always, came with intense pain.
Moreover, being the final 9th circle, it was incomparable to anything before.
Blood poured from my mouth and nose as if I had swallowed poison, but I endured it without letting out a single scream.
It felt like my organs were being severed and my whole body set ablaze, but compared to the benefits of reaching the 9th circle, this level of pain was practically nothing.
[72 hours remain until circle generation is complete.]
The only drawback was having to spend 72 hours straight without rest, following the previous 52.
They say to strike while the iron is hot, so I claimed the reward immediately, but I couldn't help thinking I should have rested a bit first.
* * *
"Your Highness the Queen!"
Before the bedchamber of the king of the Duchy of Lawrence.
As Arcia stepped out with a weary expression, a crowd of people rushed forward.
"What are you all doing here?"
Arcia had to ask them sharply, because the ones gathered were not the usual ladies-in-waiting, but the duchy's chief ministers, led by Prime Minister Marquis Walker.
Even the Foreign Minister of the Rhinehearts Empire was among them.
"They said they had matters that must be conveyed to His Highness the King, but I stopped them from entering."
Those who had never seen Arcia's sharp side—she was always so gentle—flinched and fell silent. In the end, Count Gregory, who could be called Adrian's right-hand man, stepped forward and answered her question.
At Count Gregory's report, Arcia nodded in approval.
"His Highness the King is currently attempting to overcome a critical wall. So everyone, please be quiet—I don't know what this is about, but for now, let's move elsewhere. I will hear the message."
The fact that Adrian was trying to overcome a critical wall made everyone's eyes go wide.
They weren't fools; they understood what that wall meant, so they obediently followed Arcia's instructions.
Soon they arrived at the queen's office, and there, Prime Minister Walker delivered shocking news.
"A s-summons has arrived in the name of the Emperor of the Bringham Empire, addressed to His Highness the King of Lawrence."
"A summons? What kind of summons?"
"A summons demanding he appear for an investigation to confirm whether or not he is a disciple of Grand Duke Manuel Lucas!"
As this was entirely unexpected, Arcia had to furrow her delicate brows.
"The summons arrived two days ago, and the deadline was three days from receipt... In other words, they demanded he appear by tomorrow."
No matter how powerful the Bringham Empire was, summoning the king of another nation for an investigation was an unheard-of demand.
Moreover, Adrian needed three days just to complete his 9th circle.
Appearing by tomorrow, as they demanded, was impossible from the start.
"Has the Emperor gone mad?"
Naturally, curses flew from Arcia's lips.