ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

And just like that, we have arrived at the eighth layer. And I must say it here, you “Library” guys…… You done goofed. You done goofed big time.

The seventh layer is upward compatible with the second layer, that much is for sure…… Or at the very least that was what we have all thought upon entering the seventh layer. However, in reality, the correct recognition is that “Information about monster information” is upward compatible with two layers. Then what about eighth layer? The answer is simple: it is the place where “Information about the civilization and culture of the Gods” was gathered all in one place…… Only that and just that.

「THIS PLACE HOUSES THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM OF THE ERA OF THE GODS…… IT IS THE LARGEST RECORD-KEEPING FACILITY THAT IS ON BOARD OF THE BEHEMOTH, CREATED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE ERA OF THE GODS FOR THE SOLE PUPROSE OF NOT EVER LOSING ALL THAT KNOWLEDGE AND PASSING IT ON TO YOU NEXT GENERATION HUMAN BEINGS WHEN THE TIME WOULD BE FINALLY RIGHT. THIS IS THE LEGACY OF THE GODS, AS WELL AS THE TREASURE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN ENTRUSTED WITH.」

「Oh yeah? Then what about that huge field right in the center of this place? This is clearly a fighting arena if I have ever seen one in my life.」

「OH, YES, THAT. YOU SEE, THIS IS THE PLACE THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE CONTENTS OF THE TEST THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO UNDERGO ON THIS VERY LEVEL.」

I go towards one of the files in here and try to open it to see what kind of information I would find inside. Oh wow, it’s here! This particular file neatly summarizes the eating habits of humankind of the past. Hmm, it would seem that they would always eat better quality products when the end of the year was rolling around…… Hmm, I see? If the total number of people will go on a decline decreases, then the distribution of products per remaining people will automatically become more luxurious as well. But as a matter of fact, an information like that is still not enough for anyone to be able to deduce what brought the destruction of the Era of the Gods and made it possible for the current ShangriLa Frontier to take place.

Oh wow, and it turns out that this file is not only about the eating habits, but also about the farming culture that was common during the Era of the Gods…… Now, since this is a game, each file is composed in such a way that you can basically read them under a minute or two, bu the sheer number of those files is astounding!

「So? What are you going to do now? If my memory serves me correctly, you said that it wasn’t your goal to reach the ninth layer, is that correct?」

「YES, THAT’S RIGHT, I REMEMBER THAT CLEARLY AS WELL. AND JUST LIKE I SAID BFORE, THE LABORATORY OF ANDREW JITTER DOLL IS LOCATED HERE ON THIS VERY EIGHTH LAYER. BUT SHOWING YOU THE WAY THERE IS NOT ACTUALLY MY TASK TO PERFORM. THE ONE POSSESSING THAT INFORMATION…… ELMA=317, YOU SHOULD KNOW IT ALL TOO WELL, DON’T YOU NOW?」

「……………」

「GOING BACK TO THE SUBJECT AT HAND, THE MAIN OBJECTIVE IN THIS LAYER IS TO “DEFEAT THE PROTOTYPE CONQUEST DOLL THAT IS PRESENT IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS AREA USING ONLY SKILLS AQUIRED FROM THE FLASH MEMORY DRIVES THAT CAN BE FOUND SCATTERED AROUND THIS LAYER. SO IT IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU TO DECIDE WHICH FLASH MEMORY DRIVES TO USE IN COMBAT HERE…… AND FROM WHAT I GATHER, YOU SEEM TO HAVE SOME SORT OF AN EXPERIENCE WITH USING FLASH MEORY DRIVES ALREADY, DON’T YOU, SANRAKU?」

「Flash Memory Drive…… Ahh, you mean like the Sunny Weather one?」

So I guess in this setting the flash drives are used for the purposes of memorizing things in a very literal sense, huh?

…

………

……………

「What is this place? Did I die and went straight to Heaven?」

「Ahh, it seems that Bansai-san is here as well.」

「Ahh, yes, that’s right…… For some reason I was getting a feeling that the above layer was purposefully stripped of all information relegating to people, culture and other things like that, and so I went ahead to see if my theory was correct…… And it turns out that I was indeed correct in thinking that. So if you would excuse me for a moment, but I would need to log out for a moment.」

While Bansai-san prepared himself to log out, I was simply browsing through one file after another, looking for some useful information. It seems that there is an item in this area somewhere, where you can learn skills without leveling up, just like that Sunny Weather skill some time ago, but…… Yes, it’s not going to be as easy of a process as I thought it would be.

In the first place, there are simply way too many items in here to browse through them all by myself, but it seems that it is also not enough to simply look up through items related to battle itself. This can become really troublesome really fast.

Apparently, Flash Memory Drive skills were first used by a small number of Gods’ higher-ups, but as the time went on the techniques of strengthening one’s body via Magic Power stored in those Drives was made public and accessible to the general population as well.

Drives like that were able to hold a variety of different skills inside of them, so you could have battle oriented ones like wrestling or boxing skills, but you could also find the ones possessing everyday life skills such as cooking and cleaning and yoga…… So yeah, talk about a whole lot of variety and randomness to it all.

I would lie if I was to say that I was not even a little bit interested in those skills, but I could see that there was a whole lot of personal touches to them all. Like, it was very interesting, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time I was not here for that purpose at all. In this ShanFro world, most of the monsters seem to follow the equation big enemy equals strong enemy, but even the Slaughter Demon that was the size of a human was simply ridiculous to fight. So it would seem wise to aim at obtaining new and strong battle skills in anticipation of future battles to come.

And in that case, the ideal system for me would be a skill group that emphasizes mobility and power.

I also found the “Gerald-Style Improved Tai Chi Techniques” that Rei-san heralded to be undisputed best of the best, but as far as I can see from the materials, it doesn’t go so well with the Agility Warrior Type that I want to be. That is the type of skills that shine the most when a front-line firepower profession like Rei-san fights with her bare hands. The damage ratio seemed to be low, but isn’t the armor penetration dangerously high?

「Mobility, mobility … Where would we even start looking for skills groups that are related to mobility, huh……?」

The Gerald-Style Improved Tai Chi was in a recreational area for some reason, so that means that I must be vigilant at all times here. Now would be a good time to have those “Library” chumps with us so that they would help us search, but no! They had to spread themselves all over the layers here for God knows what reason!