Defense specialization and beneath the cliff.
As Maple wandered through the town, what caught her eye was once again the machines said to have been crafted by the Second.
There was nothing else worth noticing.
“Hmm… I’ll go explore the field too.”
The field had steep elevation changes. Cliffs and mountains stretching up to the clouds dotted the landscape.
Exploration rights were denied to those who could not fly.
“Shiroppu! Let’s go!”
Maple flew through the air as she always did.
What was different this time was the presence of others flying through the sky.
“Walking around? Second layer, then. Yeah.”
Those already eager to explore had already found a dungeon. Many players were heading toward it.
Maple followed behind, unaware the dungeon had been discovered.
“Is something there?”
Yes. Maple knew nothing.
The reason for heading toward the mountain beyond the deep, fog-choked cliff.
The fact that crosswinds lash the cliffside.
“Uwah!? Ahh!?”
Maple, with STR 0, could not cling to Shiroppu.
While the other players used machines pressed tightly against their bodies, Maple merely rode atop Shiroppu.
Only Maple lost balance in the wind and tumbled headfirst toward the cliff.
“Uuuuuaaaah!? S-Shiroppu! Shiroppu!!”
The ground was invisible. No, Maple could not even tell if the ground existed at all.
At this height, even Maple would not survive unscathed.
She called desperately to Shiroppu, but Shiroppu could not reach her.
“[Cruelty]!”
Maple’s only fortune was that the thick fog concealed even the most erratic movements.
No matter the extent of the damage, it does not affect Maple’s core.
Far below, within the thick fog, Maple begins to move. Her form remains that of a monster.
“Ah… that? Not damaged.”
It was not because Maple’s defense was high that she took no damage.
The design never intended for her to suffer damage simply by falling here.
Returning to her original form, Maple walks through the impenetrable fog, unable to see a meter ahead.
“Hmm… this…”
She picks up something that taps her toes.
It is a broken machine.
Remnants of something once assembled from various parts.
Maple checks the name of her current area on a blue panel.
“This place… [Dream Graveyard]? Connected to the old man’s story?”
Numerous hard-to-find clues.
Hard-to-find parts, two levels deep.
Special conditions required to reach this place.
Maple arrived here, skipping every step by chance.
"Good... proceed carefully."
Maple inches forward, navigating the gaps between piled wreckage, finding a path to walk straight.
"The mist... is thinning?"
Maple walks toward the thinner mist, finally reaching the farthest point.
A place surrounded by wreckage mountains, where blue lights flutter like fireflies.
And seated against the wreckage, deep within, is a single man.
His body is made of machinery.
Yet too close to human.
Too far from human.
No light in his eyes. One arm missing halfway. A large hole in his chest.
"Uwah!?"
From Maple’s inventory, the gear she had found by accident flies out on its own.
It floated gently toward the man, drawn into the hollow of his chest.
After a long silence, Maple cautiously approached.
"Is... are you alright?"
"G-Ga..."
At the moment Maple relaxed, the man began speaking. She flinched, reacting sharply, and hid behind her large shield.
"I am the King... the King of Machines... the crystallized wisdom and distant dream..."
"............"
"I am... the King... the King of the Forgotten... the discarded..."
Maple listened quietly.
"I am... what... I am..."
The man's words grew smaller, fractured, then ceased entirely.
"Is... is he broken?"
Before Maple's eyes, a blue light hovered and wrapped around the man.
It entered the hole in his chest, filling the emptiness with light.
"Gh..."
"Y-yes... thank goodness... it wasn't broken."
Maple smiled, but noticed something odd about the man’s demeanor.
I am... the king of junk... the king sleeping amidst garbage... dreams and miracles... all are junk.
The man’s body shifts.
She draws the wreckage around her into the hole in her chest, shaping weapons that wrap around her body.
Guns, swords, armor—unfold one after another.
"You're going to be nothing but trash."
—Return to your senses, I will!
Maple raises the large shield and draws the short blade.
Maple knew the cause of her unraveling.
That blue light—the light of the machine known as the Second.
Attack only that part!
The instant Maple made her decision.
The field of view was filled with bluish-white bullets.