ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

This is this, and that is that. Those are two completely separate things that should never be considered as one in the same context.

Sure, without even trying I have managed to achieve the really unpleasant feat of dragging every other player beside me onto the next floor thanks to my ridiculously high amount of Magibytes. This fact alone was sitting not all that well with me, but there was also something else in here. A whole other problem…… Yes, it was about Emul.

Emul is not a member of the Next Generation Human Race. Emul is not even human. He is a mere Vorpal Bunny, after all. So truth to be told…… Emul would always be recognized by the Behemoth as nothing more but a mere monster. I even think that the fact that he was allow to come this far together with me was only because he was in the same party as me. And if he was on his own and would just be wandering around together with me, he might not have been even allowed on board of the Behemoth in the first place. He might have been stopped right at the entrance.

Therefore, as someone who managed to obtain over a trillion of Magibytes of data, I started d to take advantage over that fact and utilizing it in the only way I knew how: by starting to feverishly negotiate with “Ivory”. Since I have managed to amass so much date, this must have meant that both my strength and wit were the real deal, and so I wanted some special treatment in light of my accomplishments. And I wanted Emul to be allowed to keep accompanying me further down we go into this place. It was a real gamble on my end, but it was the one I absolutely had to take. And just like that, the response of “Ivory” to all of my pleading was……

「AS LONG AS YOU KEEP THAT COMPANION OF YOURS AS YOUR PET WHILE YOU ARE HERE, I SHALL ALLOW IT TO ACCOMPANY YOU.」

It was by no account an exaggeration to say that the moment he heard those words, Emul let out a clearly audible sigh of pure relief. But also……

I am pretty sure that deep down inside Emul knows full well that he is quite different from us humans, and that he most certainly can never hope to become as strong as myself for example. We are simply in the different categories when it comes to our nature and abilities, and the ceiling for our two species is simply specified differently. However, he is by no means a mere pet! A pet of all things! Listen here, you stupid AI! Emul is a living, intelligent being! So in a sense that makes it my equal! So neither Emul nor I were going to try and hide the rage and displeasure that we have felt in our hearts upon hearing “Ivory’s” outrageous proposal. I mean, Emul did not need to voice that out loud, but I knew what was going on deep down inside of his soul…… There are times in life where you can throw all of the things that make “you” away, but you can never allow for someone to strip you of your dignity…… I am pretty sure that no amount of persuasion would be able to convince Emul to act otherwise right now.

And since there was nothing that could be done in here to resolve the situation peacefully, what followed was a rather long and unsightly shouting match between myself and the “Ivory”, which resulted in the following condition: I would be able to take Emul down to the next level with all the other players if I were able to make Emul achieve the same sort of data threshold as all of us Next Generation Human beings. It was also at that moment that I started to realize that some of the other players were looking at me with visible concern in their eyes, as if they were afraid that I was slowly starting to lose my mind over a mere Vorpal Bunny. However, I could seriously care less about what some other chumps might have been thinking about me, I was not going to abandon my friend just like that because some stupid AI demanded that from me! Either we all go, or I’m getting out of here, and they would lose all the possible options of breezing through this place with ease!

As unfortunate as that sounds, I was unable to meet the demanded data quota on Emul as a result of the very first measurement. That is why I decided to make a short side trip towards the “shopping mall” located right here on the sixth layer. I was sure that there would be items in here that would help Emul out in rejoining us, but also it would be a good idea to go there at least once and see what kind of items they would have in stock in here, just in case I would want to come back shopping sometimes in the future.

「Hmm, so basically, this place bares much similarity to the shops located on the fourth layer of the Leviathan, huh……?」

However, when it comes to the lineup of the items themselves, they can only be summarized as “shabby” at best. No, that’s actually not the best way to describe it, either. Sure, there was a wide selection of high caliber weapons of mass destruction, called the “Key” series, but compared to the Leviathan they were actually pretty bad and that was without even mentioning that their prices were set really high. Way too high for something quite like this. The sixth layer…… In Leviathan, it would be right about the third layer or so, so it’s really hard for me to imagine just what kind of thing and at what prices would await us when we would finally arrive at the eight layer that was our current destination.

「Say, Emul? What to do you say about this? How do you feel about it?」

「And what exactly is that, if I can ask?」

「Hmm, you know what? That’s actually a really good question, my dear friend. And to answer that, let’s use an example. Let’s put this part here…… Then that other part right here…… and that thing over there……」

「Yes, that’s right.」

「And because of that, those two parts can now be stretched together like a string of magical power.」

「Yes, alright, I can clearly see that.」

「And if you use this part right here to touch that thing over there, it will result in a magnificently powerful explosion!」

「All that build-up just for something so useless!? Are you being serious right now!?」