If an ordinary Burst Linker had been in Kojiro’s position just now, then even if they managed to block one beast’s attack, they would have suffered heavy damage from the other two that came charging in after it.
But Kojiro was no ordinary Burst Linker.
Kojiro first swung his sword at the beast leader positioned directly in front of him among the pack of beasts charging in from three directions at once. The leader beast blocked the blade flying straight toward it with a forepaw.
Clang! Sparks flew as metal struck metal, and Kojiro’s sword did not stop. It accelerated again. The blade that had been facing forward was suddenly behind him, knocking away another beast’s attack aimed precisely at his back. Then, accelerating sideways once more, he carved a long sword wound across the eye of the last beast, which had been waiting for an opening.
In a single breath, he had landed three consecutive strikes, each aimed in a completely different direction.
If someone had been able to watch the scene calmly from a third-person perspective, they would have noticed that the second swing was faster than the first, and the third faster than the second.
In other words, each of the three consecutive strikes accelerated as it was unleashed.
This was one of the secret techniques Kojiro had used since his previous life.
[Wind Threefold]
Just as the name suggested, Kojiro had nullified the attacks of three beasts in a single instant, like three gusts of wind blowing in succession. He moved first to finish off the one-eyed beast, whose vision was unstable after losing an eye. The one-eyed beast leaped back to flee, but Kojiro’s sword did not miss.
Before the other two could interfere, Kojiro’s blade severed the beast’s neck. Green fluid sprayed from the cross-section of the severed neck. The other two beasts then let out ferocious roars and attacked again. Their sharp carnivore fangs gleamed.
"Since they’re beasts, their movements are pretty simple."
Kojiro first pulled the scabbard from his back and shoved it into the larger of the two beasts’ palate. Then he swung his sword with all his strength at the smaller one.
Kojiro’s precise diagonal slash tore into the beast’s flank. The familiar sensation of cutting living flesh passed clearly through Kojiro’s grip—the feel of slicing flesh, muscle, and bone—while the beast split cleanly in two.
Just as Kojiro was drawing his sword, now slick with green fluid, and preparing to finish off the last remaining leader beast, his instincts sounded an alarm. Instinct honed through a lifetime of training, almost to the level of precognition. Kojiro immediately hurled his body sideways.
Boom!!!
At that very moment, a crimson blaze erupted where Kojiro had been standing just seconds earlier. Like a hungry snake flicking out its tongue, the flames incinerated everything in that spot.
Kojiro slowly turned around. There stood the beast leader, apparently, staring silently at Kojiro with a small flame held in its mouth.
"That kind of flame is rare even among red long-range Burst Linkers."
Of course, the beast did not answer Kojiro. Kojiro hadn’t expected one, either, so he quickly reset his stance and tightened his grip on the sword in his hand.
With an attack that powerful, the reason it had not been used from the start was surely because it had been waiting for a sure opening. That beast had cleverly used its companions as bait. Kojiro was reminded once again of how terrifying the Accelerated World was.
"All right, then. Shall we finish this?"
Kojiro said that as he took his stance. An attack with that much power would make repeated use difficult. The fact that it had resorted to bait was proof enough. With that judgment, Kojiro charged straight at the beast.
As the distance closed to around ten meters, another fireball erupted from the beast’s mouth. Even seeing the fireball flying toward him, Kojiro did not slow down. Instead, he used it as a springboard, leaping high into the air.
Just as Kojiro thought, This ends it if I bring the sword down here, another fireball shot up from the beast’s mouth as if it had read his mind. It was almost as if the beast was saying, You can’t dodge in midair, can you?
And even though it was a beast’s face, incapable of showing emotion, it looked like it was mocking Kojiro. But in that desperate situation, Kojiro instead smiled.
[Mirage]
Kojiro’s body, falling through the air, wavered. Then, like a mirage in the middle of a desert, his figure flickered strangely and vanished. It was Kojiro’s only evasive technique, one that twisted and shook his body at high speed to disappear from the opponent’s sight.
The beast, having wasted its finishing move on empty air, was startled and immediately scanned its surroundings, preparing for the next attack. But the enemy was nowhere to be seen.
At that moment, the beast sensed something behind it. It was just about to bare its fangs toward the rear when it realized its field of vision had dropped. No, it was more than that. The beast’s head was already rolling across the ground. Then a faint voice reached its ears, as if whispering from far away.
"Not bad for a beast."
With those words, the enemy [Hell Hound]’s vision went dark.
**
After dealing with the last remaining beast, Kojiro picked up his scabbard from the ground.
He had used it a little roughly while defending against the beasts’ attacks during the fight, and the tip of the scabbard was covered in scratches. Still, fortunately, it was not beyond use, so Kojiro strapped it back onto his back and looked around.
The shops and roads around him were a complete mess from the battle. In particular, the road was covered in scorch marks from the flames, giving the place the look of an [End of the Century] field. Fortunately, it did not seem like any other monsters would appear after hearing the noise from the battle.
Kojiro then checked his own condition. His health gauge had barely decreased, and he did not feel especially fatigued. Objectively speaking, the beasts he had just fought were not much of a threat to him.
But that did not mean he could afford to be careless. The fact that he had used two secret techniques he had never once used in a duel before was proof enough. At that level, even the top Burst Linkers would have trouble.
Kojiro figured that maybe only the elite known as the [Pure Colors], if they formed a tag team and fought together, would have even a chance. But even that would not be enough to push him. That was not arrogance. It was confidence.
Kojiro brought up a system window and checked his current Burst Points. There were fewer than he had hoped for, but they had definitely gone up. Just as he had expected, defeating monsters roaming the field seemed to earn points.
Kojiro briefly entertained the light thought of, Since I’m here, maybe I should try farming points. That thought lasted only until just now.
Thud, thud!
A massive rumbling reached Kojiro’s ears.
The sound of a heavy object striking the ground. And from the vibration in the earth, it was not far away.
Since the sound keeps going without stopping, it sounds like footsteps.
The sound was drawing closer to Kojiro with each passing moment. He immediately ran into a nearby commercial building and climbed to the roof. What appeared before Kojiro’s eyes once he reached the rooftop could only be described as an aberration.
It had the shape of a quadruped, but its body was flat like a stingray’s. Where its head should have been, countless tentacles sprouted and dangled toward the ground. At the ends of its long, sturdy legs were two vicious, razor-sharp claws like those of an insect. And above all else, its size was about that of an entire three-story building. The monster was completely occupying the three-lane road below as it slowly moved in Kojiro’s direction. Every time its massive legs touched the ground, Kojiro could feel a deep, heavy thud shake the air.
"...No, that’s way too big."
Kojiro couldn’t help muttering at the sheer scale of the monster. The creature suddenly let out a bizarre cry—"Gwooooooong—"—and thrust its head toward the building Kojiro was standing on. Then it swept its forelegs through the air once and began charging with a ground-shaking roar.
But just before the giant body slammed into the building, Kojiro leaped from the roof, used the momentum to spring forward, and landed on the monster’s head. Only then did Kojiro regain his senses and draw the sword strapped to his back.
"Fine. Since it’s come to this, let’s really go at it!"
Kojiro shouted that and swung his sword downward, slicing through the red glow that seemed to be the monster’s eye.
Kwoooooong!
Unlike before, the monster let out a pained cry and shook its head, trying to throw off the enemy on top of it. When Kojiro still did not fall, it began attacking him with the tentacles on its head.
But Kojiro cut through the monster’s tentacles with a few sword strokes, kept his balance, and started slashing at the monster’s head and body. Screaming in agony, the monster eventually began rolling over to shake Kojiro off.
Kojiro naturally rode the tail end of the monster’s body down to the ground. As the monster rolled across the ground, the sheer force of its body was collapsing the surrounding buildings one after another.
Aside from the opening strike aimed at the eye, there had been almost no real hits.
That was only natural. The monster Kojiro was fighting now was a giant-class entity even within the Unlimited Neutral Field. In the first place, even the creator of Brain Burst had designed it as a monster meant to be raided by a party of twenty or more.
But Kojiro had no way of knowing that, so he started analyzing the monster’s weak points.
First, the legs and lower abdomen were protected by something like an insect’s carapace, so those were out. That meant the face and back were probably the weak points. In particular, the fact that the entire front of its face was protected by tentacles was actually proof that it was the weaker area. With that judgment, Kojiro began relentlessly attacking the face and back while evading the monster’s attacks.
What followed was a repetition of the same pattern.
Kojiro narrowly dodged the monster’s charge and landed a slight amount of damage at the moment they crossed paths. He drove the monster into the building behind him, then repositioned while it turned around. Whenever an opening appeared, he jumped onto its back and unleashed a barrage of attacks.
Of course, he could not remain untouched every time. Contact with the tentacles and scales chipped away at Kojiro’s health gauge little by little. His pace was slower than the enemy’s, but the total amount of health they had was completely different.
Still, once Kojiro figured out the pattern and began completely avoiding most of the attacks, the battle turned into a one-sided assault.
**
Kwoooooong...
After a long and grueling battle, the monster let out a weak death cry and vanished into polygonal particles. Only then did Kojiro use his sword like a cane and lean on it while catching his breath.
"Huff... huff... You stupid monster."
For the first time since entering the Accelerated World, Kojiro felt as if he had poured out every last bit of stamina he had. During the fight with the monster, Kojiro had avoided almost every attack and pressed the assault on his own.
Even so, because of the difference in size—or more precisely, the difference in specs—between Kojiro and the monster, it had taken an absurdly long time to bring it down.
The monster’s health gauge had four full bars. On top of that, most of its body was covered in carapace, limiting the places he could attack, and Kojiro’s attack power was very low compared to the monster’s health. So he had no choice but to pour out everything he had.
It had taken a full two hours and thirty minutes to defeat the monster. Even taking into account that the last thirty minutes had been harder because the monster had moved more defensively, it was still an enormous amount of time.
Kojiro sat down on a chunk of rubble that looked like part of a collapsed building. Then he checked the corner of his vision and saw a small message indicating that his Burst Points had increased considerably. It was only natural, considering he had soloed a target that was supposed to be hunted by a raid party of twenty or more.
But more than that, Kojiro was irritated that he had been held up for so long by something that had no intelligence and only a huge body.
Kojiro’s avatar, [Ultramarine Swallow], was a player-versus-player specialist type with all of its level-up bonuses poured into reinforced exterior and avatar stat enhancement.
On top of that, he was still only Level 4, so under normal circumstances it would have been impossible for Kojiro to defeat that monster alone. And yet Kojiro only muttered in annoyance.
"Looks like I’ll need some countermeasures."
After roughly recovering his stamina, Kojiro looked around. The aftermath of the battle—or more precisely, the monster’s rampage—had turned the entire area into ruins.
With that much commotion, more monsters should have come running, but perhaps because the one he had just defeated had been the local boss, no other monsters appeared to attack Kojiro.
After a short rest, Kojiro realized that walking around aimlessly without a destination was a waste of movement. So he decided to follow the railway crossing through central Tokyo and started walking toward the nearest station from the dormitory.
And as he got closer to the station, a familiar sound began reaching his ears.
Rattle, rattle! Rattle, rattle!
"That sound is...!"
Kojiro shouted without thinking and started running toward the station. What greeted him there was exactly what a station should have: a train. This kind of thing had not even been written in the manual, but apparently the Unlimited Neutral Field had all sorts of hidden gimmicks like this for Burst Linkers’ convenience.
After entering the station, Kojiro confirmed that he would need to pay Burst Points to board the train, then checked the route map. It seemed the subway map in the Unlimited Neutral Field was identical to the real-world subway map.
"Long live the wonders of civilization."
For Kojiro, who had originally intended to walk all the way around Tokyo, this was welcome news indeed. If he could use this subway, crossing the entire city would not be nearly so difficult.
Since he had quite a bit of Burst Points to spare after hunting the monster, Kojiro paid the fare lightly and boarded the subway.
From the glimpse he caught while boarding, it seemed the subway was not running automatically, but was being manually operated by someone who looked like an NPC. If the Brain Burst developer was the kind of person who paid attention to every tiny detail like this, then there was a high chance that other facilities for user convenience were hidden throughout the city as well.
Kojiro let his tired body rest in the swaying train and thought about how he should move next.
It might be a good idea to visit some landmarks in central Tokyo sometime.
If special gimmicks or events had been prepared in the Unlimited Neutral Field, then it was likely they had been placed in famous landmarks or places people would easily think of, rather than in ordinary locations. If he traveled around those places, maybe he could discover something special.
For example, if there was one landmark most symbolic of central Tokyo...
"Edo Castle, maybe?"
After muttering that, Kojiro lay back comfortably in the quiet subway car, as if he had rented the whole train for himself. A grin kept slipping out of him before he could stop it.
Only moments ago, Kojiro had been fighting a desperate battle against a giant monster with nothing but a single sword. And now he was riding a silent subway with not a single person aboard, unraveling the secrets of this vast world.
Thinking of it that way, he felt like an adventurer from a manga or movie, and he couldn’t help laughing.
After some time, other Burst Linkers who reached Level 4 and entered the Unlimited Neutral Field would surely begin to appear. Until then, Kojiro intended to savor this enormous Accelerated World all to himself.
Sasaki Kojiro, age ten.
He was still far too young to have lost his sense of wonder.
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