Chapter 1457 December 13th: Minimum Participation Needed Is Pulling An All-Nighter Part 1

「Anyways, that is why I think it will be a good idea to try and personally recruit more people. You should try to do that as well, see how it goes.]

「Umm, Sanraku? We are still members of society, first and foremost, remember? We each have our own obligations to uphold?]

「You say that, but aren’t you on vacation at the current moment? Or a payed leave? It’s written all over your face.]

「Oh well, I guess that the cat is out of the bag, huh……? Think I’ll be able to hide it? I don’t exactly want to parade with that expression in front of people if I can help it.]

「An expression that mixes like oil and water? Good luck with that.]

The New Continent, the Branch Office of the “Snake’s Apple” café. Even though the café would normally be filled with hustle and bustle of its patrons coming and going, none of that was to be found here at the current moment. As it turns out, at the current moment there were only five patrons inside of the café, all of which were Players, and there was no other costumers because we were all currently right in the middle of a strategy meeting…… For that reason, we were currently gathered around the table, with yours truly serving as the main lead for this meeting. I then cleared my throat and said:

「Ahh, but for the time being…… How about you try to go on and introduce yourself?]

「Don’t you think it’s a little bit too late for introductions now?]

No, I think it is something that is really necessary here, first and foremost. I mean, when you gather someone like myself, lolicon Survivor, the firearms nut Yashiro Bird and that Perverted Psycho Deepslaughter, you are running the risk of the conversation getting derailed faster than you might even expect it to happen. So that would allow us to stay on track while also allow for an easy transition onto the main subject at hand……

And there was also one other person in here with us. Someone who, for the time being, was focusing the attention of all other Players present. …… Karoshis UQ, who apparently came here after being invited by Yashiro Bird. As for why he was here, the only explanation given to us was that “It seems that he’s free until the end of the year, so he can help us fight”.

「I have heard the basic story from Yashiro Bird-san over here. And I seriously hope that he wasn’t actually trying to pull my leg with that one, for his own sake. And besides……]

「And besides what?]

「–––––– Being in a Full Dive state, it’s something that is way easier on the body when you consider longer gaming sessions. At least it’s WAY easier than those old helmet types of VR devices, those were putting a whole lot of strain on the body.]

Even though his face was rather serious when he said that, the words that came out of his mouth were really sad. Huh? What the hell is this? What’s his deal? Is that what we would call a standard company slave, a common occurrence here in Japan, so tired of his work that he would do anything just so that he could escape his current circumstances somewhere far away, even if it was going abroad or into the virtual world……?

Karoshis UQ, the leader of the Guild known as 10 P.M. Army, a guild comprising mostly of the working members of society who can only play games after 10 p.m. each day. It is also a guild to which Yashiro Bird seems to belong for some reason. I have met that guy before on several occasions, but we never really got to properly talk to one another…… Hmm, and I wonder. It’s not like his avatar changed or anything like that, but for some reason there was this mysterious freshness that could be felt emanating from him, as if his soul has been revived or something like that.

「If you want someone to make sure that things are always going smoothly all the time or to do laps, you can leave that to me. When push comes to shove I can play for about twenty four hours non-stop without any problems. So rest assured.]

「Dude, I don’t know if its something that corporate slaving does to you, but that’s some confidence dripping out of you right about now……]

「Actually, Karoshis-san here is really strong and competent when it comes to battle and giving orders. I can personally vouch for that.]

The Mystic Sword Retzel, as far as I can tell, seems like something that is really specific and would not do all that great of a job when it comes to everyday use, but…… I think that it is alright to think of Karoshis as a Magic Caster who can also perform the role of a carry of physical avant-garde that does not lose in the firepower department by discarding the default chanting sequence. The person who can handle the Mystic Sword as perfectly as a swordfighter handles its normal sword. It could even be said that a Mystic Sword is not inferior to the Holy Sword in any regard.

「Okay, so what now? You said that you won’t tell anyone what we are specifically going to do until all of us assemble together…… So now that we are all here, we are all listening, Sanraku-kun.]

「Yes, that’s right…… Well, to put it simply, at the current moment Goldunine is way too much for us to handle. So in order to make that gap even slightly smaller, it’s going to take completing all the side quests that we possibly can do.]

「Oh wow, who would have thought? He really switched onto the main subject at hand, huh? Unbelievable……]

However, this topic is actually so huge and so vast that trying to talk about it exclusively would take us forever and then some more. So let’s focus on the things that are truly important here: building an army capable of stopping and fighting against Goldunine. Because as we could have seen during our recent skirmish with her, she’s a kind of a Super Raid Boss capable of advanced tactics and complex attack patterns, not to mention generating up to a hundred cohorts at any given time. So with all that facts in mind, it should be obvious to assume that we would need to have a tremendous force of our own to counteract all that. And mere ten or twenty people here might not actually be enough to do the trick.

「It might initially seem kind of like Kutanid battle, but that’s not the case here. This is more like the battle against Siegwurm, a kind of a final confrontation between the Unique Monster and the Players. Now, if we want to involve too many people in this fight, there will be some obvious logistics problems, But the way we are now should be entirely manageable. But then again, we cannot possibly hope to win this if we are all not at the level one hundred fifty. This is the minimum requirement that must be met for this fight.]