Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: Event Cleared

Paladin, Ray Starling

As God Hunter vanished into the edge of the event barrier, it finally dawned on me that we’d actually won against him.

It was hard to call this a real victory, though. We couldn’t have done it without the event’s rules or Alto’s completely broken summon—Horobimaru.

Juliet had also been a major factor. If she hadn’t made it in time, it might’ve been over for us.

“Juliet...?” I said as I noticed her descend to the beach, halfway in free fall, and then drop to her knees. Worried, I ran up to her and realized that she was completely out of MP. “Are you okay...?!” I asked as I reached her and cast a healing spell—which for some reason did absolutely nothing.

The battle against Chelsea had done a number on her, sure, but there was clearly something else at play here.

“Wait...!” That was when I remembered who we’d fought before that—as well as the weapon the person used against her.

Jubei had hurt Juliet with her Death-Bearer, Kubigawara—the shortsword that prevented all healing. Even though Juliet had only been scratched in that battle, at least one of them must’ve been from that blade.

It hadn’t been a problem then, but as we could clearly see, Chelsea had left her covered in heavy wounds. That had suddenly made the sword’s healing prevention a serious problem.

Honestly, I was surprised that she’d even managed to make it to us in her current state.

“The Bleeding status seems to have made her consciousness hazy,” said Nemesis.

“I-I heard that Kubigawara’s effect lasts 100 minutes...but if she’s this hurt...” added Alto.

Only about half of that time had passed since we fought Jubei. The continuous damage from the injury-based debuffs would kill her before the effect expired, so to win at this event, she’d have to reach the goal and put in the correct answer during what little time she had left.

“...For now, Silver and I will dig out the hint in the shipwreck. You two gather up Carl’s plates.”

“Very well,” said Nemesis.

“R-Roger dodger!” said Alto. With that, we split up and went to get what we needed for the goal.

Despite having lost by going out of bounds, God Hunter had dropped his plates like anyone else who’d been defeated in this event. He’d had so many that we didn’t even have to count the plates Nemesis and Alto gathered to know it’d be enough for all three of us.

As for the monument in the shipwreck...it said, “Day of Anniversary.”

“...Hm?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Huh? Kind of a weird clue, isn’t it?” Alto said, done with the plate-gathering. We seemed to be thinking the exact same thing.

Nemesis, however, was more puzzled by our reaction than we had been to the hint.

“What’s so odd about this? That hint suggests the answer is an important anniversary for you, does it not? That means the answer must be either the day you began the game or the day your Embryo hatched, just like you said.”

My Embryo’s general knowledge was exactly one-to-one with mine or vice versa, but...

“Nemmy, it’s the specific way they wrote it. Just ‘anniversary’ by itself would tell us that—the ‘day of’ part is extra,’” said Alto.

“‘Day of Anniversary’ would mean something like...‘Day of Special Day.’ It’s redundant,” I added.

“I see...” Nemesis said thoughtfully.

I thought “Anniversary” here could be the name of this specific event, rather than just the general word. “Day of Anniversary” would make more sense in that case—and the answer would be today’s date.

But about the other hints? While the “YYYYMMDD” one would still apply, it would contradict the one that said that “The answer may differ for each person.”

That doesn’t add up, I thought. I mean, the event starts at the same time for every...one...

“...Oh,” I let out as I realized the true meaning behind the second hint.

“Ray?”

“Raayy?” The two looked at me with curious faces.

In response, I said, “I know the answer. Let’s hurry to the goal.”

◇

“First of all, you know the most obvious hint? The second one we found? That was a trap.”

“A trap?”

As we headed to the goal, I began explaining what I’d realized.

Juliet still wasn’t able to move much, so I was supporting her as we rode on Silver’s back. This meant Alto had to walk, but as a Nukenin with an AGI build, she was able to keep up as long as I didn’t go too fast.

“Yeah. It’s a really obvious hint that basically anyone with eyes can find. That’s exactly why there’s a trick to it.”

The stone monument could be seen from basically anywhere in the southern half of the island. I didn’t see one myself, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one just like it in the north, as well.

Such an obvious hint was no doubt the best way to mislead the participants.

“Though, it being a trick doesn’t make it a lie,” I continued.

“Whaddya mean?” Alto asked.

“Well, consider the fact that Dendro runs on a single worldwide server.” No matter where they were in the real world, any players who logged in to Dendro would be in the same world as every other player. Even in my clan we had Rook and Figaro, who both lived in the UK.

“It does, but what about it... Oh.”

“Exactly. Although we can all be here at the exact same time...our times in reality may be different.” The Earth was a sphere, obviously, and the distance between different countries had spurred people to develop a particular concept to deal with it. “Our time zones may be different depending on where we are logging in from.”

In our time zone, JST, the event started at midnight of April 20th. But for someone in the UK or the US—Chelsea, for example—the starting time was actually April 19th. This meant that...

“So that’s the trick. The second hint is actually about the date the event starts for you,” Alto said with a nod.

“Yeah. That’s gotta be it.” If we hadn’t found that hint at the shipwreck and figured out the trick, we might’ve been wasting our time giving personal anniversaries—all of which would have been wrong.

For all I knew, that might have been the exact mistake that had teleported God Hunter directly to us.

Anyway, we now had the solution.

“So yeah, the correct answer for all three of us should be ‘20450420.’”

“Doesn’t this seem a bit...I dunno...malicious? And kind of a weird solution?”

“Well, from what I heard, this wouldn’t be the first event that seemed kinda weird.” A good example was last year’s Valentine’s event that led to Figaro and Hannya meeting for the first time. Apparently, it had been an event where only couples could participate, and the enemies were succubi that threw chocolate at you and healed for 3x the damage dealt. If that wasn’t weird, I didn’t know what was.

I still couldn’t be sure if that was all there was to this “anniversary,” though. Maybe it wasn’t just the name of the event and it actually was a special day for someone?

“Anyway, we know the answer and got all the plates we need!” said Alto in a cheerful, carefree tone, distracting me from my thoughts. “Now we just gotta clear the event! I wonder what we’re gonna get! This whole thing was a heap of trouble, so I hope it’s somethin’ super nice!”

“Same,” I said. “I hope it’s worth the effort we put in.”

Juliet had fought so hard she’d been left in this awful state, while Alto had been forced to reveal her secret weapon just so our team could win. I really wanted them both to be properly rewarded for this.

“...By the way, your, uh...friend disappeared. You sure that’s all right?” I silently asked Alto as I remembered the suit of samurai armor that had vanished while we were fighting God Hunter.

“It should be fine,” she replied. “Maybe he’ll come back once the event ends... But what if he doesn’t...? Wait—that might actually make my life easier...”

She folded her arms and tilted her head in thought.

“...Things aren’t as easy as they seem for you, are they?” I asked.

“...Ever since getting Horo— him, I haven’t had a single chance to party up with someone and go on quests together. In Tenchi, there’s no telling when somethin’ could happen to reveal the secret, and even if I let him go I might be attacked by people angry at me for stealin’ their chance to beat him,” she said as she gazed back at the barrier where Horobimaru had vanished. “You’re all from another country, so I got to play with you without worryin’ about things like that. It was so much fun...”

“We’ll play again someday. Here and there,” I said.

We met in real life basically every day, but as for Dendro...maybe I could go to Tenchi after all those problems with Dryfe were taken care of.

“...Eh heh heh. Well, that makes me happy. Ah! Oh yeah! We should go to the beach in the summer! And bring the rest of the Dendro freshmen!”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Wait until you see me in my swimsuit! Hee hee!” she said, all smiles. The anxiety was completely gone from her face.

◇

After ten more minutes, we were running up the mountain path leading to the goal.

Alto was a bit out of breath, but not enough for it to be a problem. Juliet had less than 20% of her HP left, but she was still alive. It seemed like we were going to make it to the goal.

...But I was certain that it couldn’t possibly be this easy.

“Ah! Ray! Look! I see the goal!” Alto said as she pointed ahead.

I could see it as well. At the heart of the mountain, there was a gate as tall as a three-story building. On it there were three lamp-like devices, and none of them were lit up. If they represented the number of people who had cleared the event, that meant that nobody had done it yet.

“Yay! This means that all three of us can clear...it...” said Alto before falling silent as she caught sight of what else lay ahead of us.

“I have been waiting for you.”

To be specific, the embodiment of strife itself was standing right in front of the gate.

“...Jubei.” I said her name. Once again, we were face-to-face with the many-armed Master who commanded six floating weapons—King of Asuras, Jubei Kaga.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised that she was waiting for us here. I knew that if Carl hadn’t taken her out of the event, she would obviously go to where everyone else would be heading.

And, of course, there was no chance that she would just try clearing the event before we got here. When we left her in the forest to fight Carl, she’d said that she wanted to fight me again, and I had no doubt that she was serious about that.

Her goal for this event had already shifted from winning to fighting me.

“Haven’t seen you in about an hour,” I said. “And it looks like that time’s been...pretty hard on you.”

One of her prosthetic arms was gone, while her left eye was covered with a bandage.

Juliet had fought Chelsea, Alto and I went up against Carl, and it seemed that Jubei got into some fights herself.

“It doesn’t exactly seem to have been easy for you either,” she replied. “Though all three of you survived and gathered enough plates in spite of that. The Nukenin accompanying you does not seem strong enough, however... Does she perhaps hide something interesting I am not aware of?”

It was unlikely that she’d somehow found out about Horobimaru, but the way Jubei sized up Alto as she spoke made my friend turn pale.

“The final...trial...”

“Juliet...!” Juliet had come to, dismounted Silver, and brandished her sword. However, there was no power in her arms, her wings were gone, she was bleeding all over—she was barely even standing.

Needless to say, she was in no state to fight.

“I would have preferred to fight Ray Starling and Ray Starling alone, but I suppose I have no choice,” said Jubei. “I will fight all three of you instead.”

She seemed to completely disregard the state Juliet was in. Perhaps this Tenchi-dwelling manifestation of strife simply saw such injuries far too often to care by this point.

For a moment, I said nothing and simply pondered Jubei’s words until an idea came to mind.

“You wanna fight just me?” I asked her.

“Well, of course. I enjoy fighting many people at once every now and again, but nothing brings out the real flavor of a fighter like single combat.”

“That so...?” I said with a nod before giving my proposal. “Let’s do that, then. One-on-one, with me.”

I offered to do exactly what she wanted.

“Huh?” Jubei, Alto, and Juliet all simultaneously voiced their shock.

Nemesis, however, didn’t seem that surprised. The only thing I could sense from her in her blade form was a sigh.

“Before we do, though, I want you to let these two put in their answers.”

“Ray?!” Juliet and Alto voiced their surprise again.

Juliet was in no state to fight; Alto wasn’t a combat build to begin with and her Horobimaru had vanished at the barrier, though she probably wouldn’t use him against Jubei even if she had him.

I was the only one who could still fight. My Grudge-Soaked Greaves were depleted, and my Black Warcoat wasn’t charged, but I could still do something.

There was another reason behind my proposal too.

“I certainly would not mind,” said Jubei. “In fact, it is a very, very welcome proposition.”

Well, someone was happy with my suggestion, at least. Jubei seemed to be a fan of mine and she just plain enjoyed fighting, so it came as no surprise that she’d be interested.

Juliet, however, didn’t seem to agree. She moved to stand in my way.

“Ray...! I...I can still fight...too!” she said with desperation. “You can’t...fight her alone...! We’re a team...!”

She probably thought that I was sacrificing myself to let her and Alto win. The tears in her eyes told me as much.

I hopped off Silver and laid my hand on her shoulder.

“Juliet, I suggested that because I want all three of us to reach the goal,” I explained.

We’d made it this far together, so the best outcome would be for us all to clear this thing together too. If we all fought together, Juliet would be taken out right away and that would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

However, that wasn’t my only reason for suggesting single combat.

“Most importantly...I wanna do this because it’s her,” I said.

“...Huh?” I looked over Juliet, right into Jubei’s eyes, staring straight at me with both glee and longing.

“She said she was my fan and she wants to fight me directly.” It had manifested in a disturbing way, but this was no doubt a kind of fondness on her part. “Not giving her what she wants wouldn’t sit right with me either.”

And so, I had resolved to fight her with all I had and try to defeat her fair and square.

She was much stronger than me and I probably had only the tiniest fraction of a percent chance of winning, but I’d give her the one-on-one battle she wanted.

“...Okay,” Juliet said, understanding my point.

She then looked me in the eyes...

“Meet up with me later.”

...and said the same thing I had said to her.

Just as I had believed that she’d win against Chelsea, so too did she believe that I would win against Jubei.

“Sure,” I said with a nod. “You go on ahead and wait for me.”

With that, the promise was sealed.

Juliet smiled, approached the gate, and put in the correct set of numbers—today’s date.

Then, one of the three lights on the gate lit up and a fanfare resounded as she vanished.

Looks like I was right about the answer, I thought.

“Imagine how embarrassing it would have been if you were not,” Nemesis said telepathically.

“Seriously.” That would’ve been pretty damn bad, yeah.

Anyway, Juliet had cleared the event and now it was Alto’s turn, but...I was suddenly struck with an idea.

“Jubei,” I said. “I know I offered a one-on-one fight, but is it okay if I get someone to buff me?”

“Why, certainly,” she replied. “I will enhance myself with my curseblades as well.”

All right—so there’s no problem if I do this, I thought as I looked at Alto.

“Alto,” I said. “Hit me with a Gifted Quiz.”

“Huh? But...”

“I wanna make sure I’ve got the best possible chance of winning. There’s a risk I won’t be able to answer the question, but doubling my stats is worth the gamble.”

“...Oh,” she said, apparently realizing something. “You...haven’t given up?”

“Like I said, I want all three of us to clear this thing.”

No matter how strong Jubei was, as long as I didn’t give up, my chance of victory was never zero.

I had absolutely no intention of just giving her the win. That would be rude to my teammates as well as Jubei herself, who had so kindly accepted my proposition.

“So I’ll fight as hard as I can... That’s all there is to it.”

“...You’re so optimistic... I’m kinda jealous,” Alto said with a wry smile before activating her Gifted Quiz.

“Question: Recite the digits of π up to ten decimal places.”

“3.1415926535.” I gave the correct answer, and my stats were instantly doubled. Good thing I’d gotten an easy one.

“There. Do your best! If all goes well, I’m treatin’ ya to a helluva lunch at school tomorrow!”

“I’ll hold you to that.” Following that exchange, Alto headed to the gate, put in her answer, and vanished.

With that, only Jubei and I were left.

The silence stretched out between us. It felt as though we were the only participants left on the island.

“Sorry for the delay, Jubei,” I said, finally breaking the silence.

“You did not keep me waiting too long,” she replied. “Also...some things are better the longer you have to wait for them, no?”

“Maybe.” I’d been studying for my exams while yearning to play Infinite Dendrogram, and though the wait was excruciating at times, I was really happy when I finally got a chance to do it.

The world was full of such things, and for Jubei, this was one of them.

“Let’s get started, then,” I said.

“Yes. Let us have some fun.”

This would be my final battle in The Anniversary.

My opponent was King of Asuras, Jubei Kaga, and our fight would now begin.