ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

「Hey, Sigma, snap out of it, girl! I really need your help in here! I thought that she was only joking, but this blasted exam really IS pretty difficult! Some Intelligence assistance would really be appreciated!」

Yes, that’s right. I thought that “Ivory” was just messing with me out there, but with each and every question a grim reality was unveiling right in front of me: this exam was hellishly difficult. It was truly something that I would not be able to solve with my own knowledge, and I stopped even hoping for that scenario to be a valid one. The exam constituted of fifty question, and so far I was able to answer about two of them. Which means that I was having a really difficult struggle with the remaining forty eight of them. …… And to make matters even worse, Sigma was still sluggish and hung up in the corner, probably still upset about the fact that her feelings were called a “bug” just like that.

「Hey, Emul? Would you be so kind as to bring me the first three volumes of “Basic Shooting Theory” from over there? Yeah, that’s right, from over there! From that console that you just happened to pass by! Thank you very much!」

「Sir, yes sir!!」

Alright then……

「Hey, Sigma. About that thing that “Ivory” said to you…… I don’t really think that you need to concern yourself with that all that much.」

「…… I don’t understand. Please explain your reasoning.」

「Say, how long has it been since you were first manufactured? Or rather, how many years it’s been since you were born into this world?」

「…… Answer: It’s been exactly fifteen years and six month to date.」

「Hmm, I see. So, it means that you are way older than me. Now take a look at me. It’s been even less than a year since I was “born” into this world right here inside of this very Behemoth. I may look like an adult to you and all that, but if we follow the logic we are seeing in here, it could be said that about ninety percent of my entire existence was fabricated by this “Ivory” AI.」

Being born into this world…… Now that we know that the entirety of the current humanity’s existence is nothing more but a tool for the sake of seeing the “Plan B” to fruition, it is not at all a humorous origin story about which you can crack jokes about. Not to mention that this setting is just way too brutal. Realistically speaking, those guys are basically ejecting the babies from this mechanical elephant a few seconds after they are born into the open world, ordering them to take up weapons and explore the world and fight. Even if it was meant to be a gag of some sort, I fail to see the funny part of it. And it would probably take years before I would be able to actually consider it as such.

「However, be that as it may, you Next Generation Human Beings happen to possess something that we, the Conquest Dolls, will never be able to have: your “self”, your “individuality”. We don’t have that. As far as the Conquest Dolls are concerned, our perception of “self” might actually be nothing more but a reproduction of the personality of someone who just happened to live in the past all those years ago.

「…… No, I don’t think that’s the case here. You see, Sigma, you may have this whole “self” and “personality” thing backwards. And this is precisely where all of your worries are coming from.」

「…… What do you mean?」

As far as I am concerned, I am simply tired of seeing robots undergo identity crisis or existential crisis every now and then. Look, if you machines managed to become so technologically advance that you can develop your own identity and sense of self, you have to own it with all of its aspects, not only gracefully accept the parts of it that are convenient to you! And if you cannot do that, then you’d be better of rotting away than continuing to exist and cause all sorts of trouble for everyone else around you all the time!

If this was your normal and typical game, the party suffering for an identity or values crisis would eventually arrive at their answer after a series of turbulent events, setbacks and conflicts, but…… This is ShangriLa Frontier that we are talking about here. This is not your normal or typical game, and it certainly does not have to follow standards set by older titles. At least when it comes to conversations with various NPCs, it’s a league of its own in every sense of the word. And it is precisely because of that fact that trying to talk the NPCs out of certain things and maneuvering them into certain things can be successful, but you certainly would have your work cut out for you.

「I do not know much about that whole Sakishima Elma chick, or form when exactly she came from, but it is safe to assume that she never even tried to oppose Siegwurm with her own power, wouldn’t you agree? Isn’t that also the reason why you crash-landed inside of Sigmonia Battlefront Valley? If you never tried to do that, we never would have met one another, yes?」

「This is……」

「Okay, now listen to me, Sigma, and listen well. Right about now you are worried that your personality is nothing more but a copy of the personality of the one who was the basis for all of you Conquest Dolls guys, right? But did you know? When it comes to the concept of “personality”, there are only twenty five of them or so out there in the world, if we are to believe the scientists researching this particular subject. So if we take that logic and apply it to one hundred people, only twenty five of them would actually be unique, and the rest would just be copies of said twenty five. And don’t even get me started on the idea of sexual identity, or else we would never reach a meaningful conclusion……」

「………」

「However, even though we may look awfully like someone else and our personalities might seem similar at the very first glance, there are no two beings in this world that can be considered fully identical. Do you know why that is?」

I let those words sink into Sigma’s “brain” for a moment before I eventually pick up my speech and continue with it, trying to influence the Conquest Doll as much as humanly possible.

「Memories, my dear Sigma, that’s what counts and makes us all unique. Memories and experiences. The accumulated amount of those two factors create the thing that we know as “personality”, and it will never be the same for anyone, because no one can ever experience exactly the same things and take the exact same actions. That is why, my dear Sigma, even if a slave and the aristocrat might look the same and have the same personalities, they will never be the same. Do you understand what Im trying to say here?」

「B-But……」