ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

Honestly, that’s not the kind of interactions that I am looking forward to when it comes to NPCs…… Oh well, if the escort target is still intact, it’s all fine and good in my book. This means that the escort mission can proceed without any problems. But god damn, because I was unable to have a rest right after the battle against that Fossil Miners’ Chrysalis, this means that right about now I am unable to do anything reckless or too unreasonable. …… It’s more likely that I would be destroyed, but should I make myself a makeshift save point, just in case something goes wrong?

「I’m going to catch a really quick nap now, okay?」

Well, it certainly took us quite a while to get here thanks to some of those nasty distractions that happened to get in our way alongside the way. But we have finally arrived at the boundary zone between the desert and the forest. From here on out, it would be an entirely different danger zone than the desert…… If you think about it that way, why is the forest area more dangerous than the desert in the first place?

「If we remain wary of nocturnal monsters that roam this place, we will reach our destination before the morning comes around. Then, we will go straight……」

「Hey, hey!」

「What? What is it?」

「Let’s do it…… tomorrow?」

…… Excuse me?

Wimps, who up until now was very cooperative in crossing the desert despite the fact that she was freshly robbed of her house and home, now was doing just the opposite of being cooperative. She was staring at the Sea of Trees, looking as though she wanted to just turn around and go back the way we came from.

「What was that just now? Care to repeat that?」

「I-I can feel it there…… A presence…… A presence that is me, but…… is also not me at the same time……」

「I see, I get it?」

And she was gently holding her head in her hands, as if it was going to explode any moment now, seriously……

「So? What does that even mean, Sanraku-san?」

「It seems that at the current moment there is a “Goldunine” other than the one that is here with us somewhere inside of this forest.」

「N-No way, this has to be a…… What are we going to do? Do we retreat?」

No, we are not going to do that. I don’t think that the four Naga dragons can move around so freely without being noticed by anyone, and the same rule applies to that Goldunine if she was travelling all alone. In other words, there is a chance that we might come across her in there, but as long as we move towards the place where other people are, it should be an extremely slim chance…… And judging from the nature of Goldunine’s Unique Scenario EX and my own experience of meeting her in person back in the tunnels underneath Rabbitz, only the “original” Goldunine should be a threat to us.

I’m sure that someone from the “Library” mentioned that they saw a woman with a lot of snakes walking around the forest, so that was the one, huh? I don’t want to take the option of turning back here if I can help it, and if the condition for this particular Unique Scenario EX to occur is for a Goldunine to form a party with the player, it is highly possible that the Goldunine has moved to a place where they can easily intercept the player while they are on their way towards their destination.

In other words, there is no option to turn back here, and I don’t think that Gordunine, who seems to be in this forest, will move out of our way no matter how long we decide to wait here. There is a possibility that some other player will generate that very same Unique Scenario EX and that Goldunine will move to intercept them, but that would also be bad, because it would create unnecessary commotion right in front of the frontline base. And we don’t want that to happen. We want to get to the frontline base as soon as possible, and without stirring trouble of any kind.

「…… Let’s get a move on.」

「Huh……」

「But if we end up running into another Goldunine in there, we are going to run away, no questions asked. We are going to throw you inside of Sammy-chan-san’s mouth so that she can shield you from danger, and then we are going to haul ass East as far as possible…… Oh, I mean, we are going to run as fast as possible towards the rising sun. Emul can leave via Teleportation Gate if we come across anything dangerous, preferably the frontline base or the Conquest Dolls’ base.」

「U-Understood.」

「Y-Yes, roger that……」

And there is also one more thing here. I think that I actually have a good idea how to traverse this seemingly snake-infested Sea of Trees area without anyone noticing us. …… Appearances are not everything, you know? But if there is one thing that depends on appearances, that would be the first impression.

* * *

How long as it been since I have last set foot in this forest? There is no natural source of light to correct the player’s vision, there are trees roots everywhere that make traversing through increasingly difficult, and depending on your senses for navigation is something that depending on the situation might actually end up rather poorly. Plus, for some reason we were yet to encounter any monster in our path. I then heard a quiet whisper.

「–––––– Enemy spotted.」

The furball on top of my head quivered slightly while saying those words, muttering them at a really low volume, but just loud enough for us to be able to hear them clearly.

I listened carefully, but I couldn’t hear anything in particular around us. But since our Goldunine was so sure that the other one was in here alright, it must mean that they can sense one another. Maybe it’s a sort of intuition that allows them to detect those of the same species.

「…… How many of them are there?」

「It’s really hard to say, but……」

It would be ideal if it was just one enemy, but it’s better to wait for the final verdict rather than getting one’s hopes up needlessly. Even though Wimp was doing relatively well up until now, we cannot be sure that something won’t just end up putting the rug right from under us in the next few minutes. Of course, it would be best if we could just slip past them and avoid fighting altogether, but…… It seems to me that we will be forced to put Plan B into motion in the end.

Using a predetermined hand sign, I notified the rest of my party that the operation was about to start. And while we all started to disperse, I recognized that Sammy-chan-san, who was near me, had moved to the immediate vicinity of Wimp, ready to put her part of Plan B into motion should things get really dicey in here. I then moved to open up the inventory window…… Huh? What’s this? A notification window? So, this game has the concept of traditional notifications, huh?

「This is…… a reward for participating in the battle against the Wandering Pandemic?」