Interlude 3: Tokyo’s Dark Night
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The management of Dungeon Seekers was collecting player data while preparing for the upcoming, official release day inside a deserted, ordinary multi-tenant building in Tokyo. And right now the supervisors of Japan’s various regions were having a meeting in one of the conference rooms.
After finishing the report about the general developments and trends among the entire playerbase, the eight people sitting at the long table started their discussion.
“So is it alright to take it that the country is going to arm the national defense force against the Fold, Kuga-san?”
An elderly man with white hair, his arms folded, confirmed with the chief supervisor sitting at a place you could call the top of the table – Kuga.
Kuga corrected his glasses with a thin smile and answered, “Yes, firearms are also usable in our world. The higher-ups are already working on tactics and strategies to fight the occult… The power relationship between the Occult Slayers and the official side will likely reverse on the day the country understands how to handle Fold skills.”
“…I think it would be smart to keep your comment just now between these walls. The conservative…no, most of the Occult Slayers will become excited over this. And it’s yet too early for that.”
“You’re right. God damn it, just how long are we going to be afraid of what happened several hundred years ago…? The public will get largely influenced by DS, and yet…”
Kuga cleared his throat, readjusted his glasses once more, and surveyed the other seven.
“The release day at the beginning of spring is getting closer day by day. I would like all of you to continuously report the Dungeon Seekers data, limited to your own area.”
With those words as a signal, the chief supervisor for all areas began the preparations for the release announcement. Meanwhile the meeting resumed with the supervisor in charge of Kyushu, who sat closest to the projector, starting off. Everyone then presented the trends among their local players, the public order, and did an introduction of their high-ranking players.
“Okay, Tohoku Supervisor Amamiya, go ahead.”
“Yes.”
Nervously stiff, Amamiya Rei headed towards the projector with an unsteady gait. She adjusted the microphone’s volume, and after finishing the preparations and giving a greeting, she started to explain. As the presentation proceeded, her nervousness gradually faded and her voice regained its fluency.
“We have grasped the tendencies of Dungeon Seekers in Tohoku now that some time has passed since the beta release. Please take a look at this graph over here. As you can immediately tell, the average level is extremely high. But, completely different from Tokyo, this originates from a few outstanding, high-level players.”
She switched to the next slide. Kuga oohed at its content which had been summarized in a way that made the various aspects easy to understand.
Lastly she switched to the final slide with the rankers, the players with the highest potential.
“Tohoku doesn’t have many high-ranking players, but…just one of them plays in the top league countrywide.”
The next slide showed a mug shot of Kurase Hirotatsu who has been deemed to be one of the most promising players in Dungeon Seekers. In addition, the slide also listed the skills he acquired and his general combat tactics.
Seeing those, Chugoku’s supervisor spoke up.
“The magic sword user who defeated the loose mass murderer, huh? He’s awfully young. Besides, the number of vortex raids is hard to believe, considering the short amount of time he’s at it. Any ordinary person would definitely go crazy from this.”
‘Vortexes are military bases of the Inner World. You will naturally encounter environments closely resembling Earth, but it’s more common to be thrown into eerie places you definitely won’t find on Earth. On top of that, one will quickly get surrounded by occult beings which cause one to feel physically disgusted from just looking at them. Even skilled Occult Slayers are extremely tense inside vortexes, resulting in a heavy drain of stamina. Despite him getting a late start on DS, he’s been raiding vortexes at an unbelievable rate, and not only did he close the gap with other players in no time, but he also overtook many of them.’ Chugoku’s supervisor regarded Kurase Hirotatsu as an ominous anomaly.
Kuga soothed him, who appeared to fear something.
“Now, now, it has been DS’s objective to uncover personnel, which would have been overlooked if we used the traditional means of recruitment, right? He has a stunning potential among the promising talents. The same can be said for all the Top-5 players of the DS beta version, right?”
“Ugh…”
Rei intervened, adding a short explanation, “I know it’s presumptuous, but I don’t think you need to worry. My sister, a certified Occult Slayer, is with him. Amamiya Satoha has been accompanying him and he’s active while under her supervision.”
“Hmm. I wonder how the latest report of…that Occult Slayer looks like. I’d like to see it.”
“Eh? Ah, sure. Please give me a moment…”
Rei used her hands to operate the PC, trying to open the report from Satoha. When she returned from the presentation to the desktop, she made a mistake and showed the still open Talk program’s screen on the projector. Two messages were listed there.
『Onee-sama, how have you been faring most recently? Hiro vaguely realized that I haven’t been going out very much and took the opportunity to take me to various places over the last few days. Isn’t he kind? He’s kind, right? I’m having a lot of fun right now』
『Today we went to a weird store called sushi-go-round. The sushi literally rotated around. Onee-sama, I thought you should eat it by just grabbing the sushi off the plates like you do with flowing noodles, but watching me do that, Hiro spit out his tea in laughter and stopped me. It looks like sushi-go-round is about grabbing the sushi with the plate. Also, when I tried to wash my hand because of the faucet, Hiro clasped my hand with an incredible speed and prevented me from doing it. He said that the faucet provided hot water for tea and would be too hot for washing your hands. But, Hiro’s frantic face at that time was funny, so I laughed out loud. I have sent you several pictures of the sushi-go-round. Ah, the second one shows Hiro with a bright red face after putting too much wasabi on his sushi piece──』
That window was closed at a dazzling speed, just to be replaced by the work report which Rei opened quickly with smooth mouse movements.
“Please excuse me.”
“……Under her supervision?”
“Yes, under her supervision.”
Hearing that exchange, Kuga cackled a dry laughter and said, “Hahaha, isn’t it fine? That little princess deserves quite a bit of sympathy.”
He then continued with an artificial smile, “The path of that girl is way too miserable. I think we should look the other way while considering this to be her last remaining pieces of freedom.”
Rei unconsciously clamped down on the mouse in her hand. Originally she wasn’t someone who would take the lead. Yet, there was something she had to do no matter what.
“But apart from that, Rei, you are awfully cooperative as acting family head of the Amamiyas…what’s the deal with that?”
The supervisor of Chubu, who used to be an Occult Slayer told Kuga, who appeared to consider something, “There is no way they’d get in the way of the ambitious project for the sake of a girl. Right now it’s unnecessary to provoke Shirakawa and take them on.”
“You’re right. You Amamiyas won’t be of any help in the current situation. Amamiya Rei, if it’s you personally, we will warmly welcome you at any moment, but…”
Silence. She bowed deeply while sticking with her poker face.
“…Thank you kindly for your offer, but please allow me to refrain.”
“Is that so? So, what are the movements among the conservatives and extremists? Leaving that princess up in the north stems from you being vigilant of an attack, right?”
Without a shred of misgivings towards Kuga’s words, Rei answered with a voice as if it was very normal, “Yes, she will likely be able to defeat any enemy that might come her way.”
“I see. I guess my worries were unwarranted then.”
The presentation ended with Amamiya Rei being the final presenter. The one handling the odd jobs turned off the projector.
“Well then, everyone. As the official release draws closer, the vain struggle of the cornered conservatives will become fiercer, too. Make sure to stay on your guard.”
“Roger.”
“Okay, we are done here.”
With the meeting over, everyone streamed out of the room. Although it wasn’t as though there was a need to clean up, Amamiya Rei remained sitting on her chair inside the silent room all by herself. Inside the dark room with even the caretaker gone.
Trembling, Rei powerfully hit the wall so as to vent her anger.
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