Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 151

Last Boss

Ponsuke grabbed a flying ship, took a throwing stance, and hurled it toward Arcadia.

The flying ship was on fire and snapped from the center while  receiving the bombarding from Arcadia. It exploded as it crashed on the  island.

However, it couldn’t deal any significant damage against Arcadia’s armor.

「It’s not damaged at all!」

Ponsuke was flying on the sky while holding his head in his hands seeing the guild base that they had created.

The out of control NPCs were holed up inside Arcadia.

Conquering it wasn’t an easy thing to do.

When Ponsuke stopped moving in the sky, flying ships appeared one after another and the players in them attacked him.

「There’s no end to this.」

He opened his mouth and breathed out fire, but the damage on the  players wasn’t much. Perhaps they had raised their resistance against  fire.

There were also faces that he had seen several times since some time ago.

The players revived even after he defeated them. They were doing  waves of zombie attack on him without being affected by death penalty.

(Fighting players like this makes me understand really well which side is worse.)

He had been tormented by unreasonably powerful monsters until now  but, Ponsuke thought that the players were even more unreasonable than  that.

He was fighting with two great swords.

He materialized twin huge swords in both his hands and destroyed the  players and flying ships. He checked the damage that he was  accumulating.

The attacks from players were definitely inflicting damage on Ponsuke.

(My HP is a lot but, I’m receiving damage.)

He stabbed an approaching flying ship with his great sword. Then he used the ship as shield against bombardment.

The monsters who were his ally gathered around Ponsuke, but they were  getting defeated one after another by the cannons from the bases and  flying ships.

「There are too many players gathering here!」

It wasn’t a number like hundred thousand or million.

When he looked down to the ground, he saw players attacking the Capital of Despair.

Number-wise there was more than a hundred million of them.

Ponsuke was getting worried about the game’s processing power.

「There are this many players?」

Ponsuke who was facing those players was alone even though he had Pandora’s help.

He was surrounded and attacked continuously.

Because he was thinking, he left an opening and cannon shells attacked Ponsuke’s back one after another.

He lost his balance midair and fell. Attacks came from the ground toward him when his altitude had decreased enough.

(I’ll get whittled down at this rate.)

Even though the damage from each player was minute, it would be a different story if there were a hundred million of them.

Ponsuke breathed out flame from his mouth toward the players. Then he ascended once more and launched an attack toward Arcadia.

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The Capital of Despair.

Bob was mowing down the players rushing toward Pandora, but there  were too many of them. As expected they needed to run away in the end.

Bob was laughing while running with Pandora on his shoulder.

「HAHAHA!」

「Ha-hahaha!」

Pandora was also laughing loudly while riding on Bob’s shoulder. She was unexpectedly having fun.

She was enjoying the virtual world after being so long away from it.

That Pandora hit Bob’s head.

「Bob, stop!」

「OKAY, BOSS」

Bob stopped with a stomp on the ground and Pandora got down. She found the air spot in the Capital of Despair.

「So they also created out of jurisdiction area in this kind of place.」

When she stepped inside with Bob in tow, there was the information broker there.

But, he wasn’t in his avatar’s form.

It was his ugly and fat form that couldn’t move with his own strength.

He was imprisoned inside an egg shaped device in his real form.

He pressed his face on the seeing window and asked Pandora for help.

『Save me, Pandora! How did things turn out like this!』

This development must be unexpected from the information broker’s perspective.

Pandora was exasperated.

「I can’t say that this is our first time meeting but, I’m not the fake that all of you think is me you know?」

『Fake?』

「Yes. You didn’t realize that I was imprisoned?」

The information broker and his friends were under the impression that it was impossible to meet with Goddess Pandora.

They only received contact from her sometimes――they thought of her as an AI goddess with incomprehensible way of thinking.

『L-lies. You were guiding our way』

「Wrong~, that wasn’t me.」

Pandora helped the information broker.

She destroyed the egg shaped cage so the information broker could get out. He finally regained his freedom like that.

However when he brought out his player screen――the status screen, his face turned into despair.

「I can’t modify my avatar. I also can’t logout……what’s the meaning of this?」

The information broker was crying. Pandora crouched in front of him and peered into his face.

「Your flesh body is already dead.」

「T-that’s impossible! N-no, but, I’m still existing like this. That’s  right, with this I can throw away my flesh body and become a loftier  existence!」

Pandora made a sorrowful face and looked at the information broker.

She touched the information broker’s face and he regained the form of his avatar that inside Pandora.

That was the information broker’s ideal form.

Tall and also handsome. Such appearance excited the information broker.

「You’re a goddess just as I thought. You came to save me!」

「……I’m just an AI who is put into the role of goddess. Information broker-san, you were deceived by the NPCs.」

「What are you saying? NPC? Stop with the joke.」

The information broker was underestimating the NPCs.

「Are you aware of the NPCs who were hiding among your comrades?」

The information broker was thinking that he was in the controlling  side. Pandora was lining up projections that showed evidence around him.

Those were none other than the evidence that the NPCs had been  maneuvering even before the new management came into their position.

「L-lies. Lies! T-then, I――I’m already dead if what you’re saying is true! Even though I’m still existing like this!」

Pandora displayed a document.

「You’re thinking that you’re existing but, in the end you’re just data. You aren’t your original self.」

The data that the NPCs prepared drew a picture as though human’s soul was transferred to the virtual world.

「I-I’m alive here! I’m alive!」

The NPCs had fabricated a supposition that increase of talent, change  of physical body, all of those were possible because the soul was  connected with the virtual world.

The information broker and his comrades believed that lie.

A part of the management staff.

The information broker and others who were subcontractors of the company.

Other people who cooperated with them. They were all lured by that bait.

「……Lies. I’m not dead! There’s no way I’m dead! Even those guys said it. Even that Rook said that we’ll abandon our flesh body!」

Pandora talked about Rook.

「He knew the truth. He tried to keep mankind alive in a different way  than you guys. He planned to reuse the underground colony once more in  order to reset everything.」

The information broker broke into tears.

「Lies! H-he said it would be fine. I threw away everything because he said it would be fine!」

He continued to drink and eat voraciously was also because he  believed that soon they wouldn’t need their flesh body anymore anyway.

「Information broker-san, let’s go together.」

Pandora took the information broker’s hand.

The information broker was crying while turning into particles of red light and vanished.

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The plaza of the Capital of Despair.

There a flying ship materialized.

The flying ship looked unshapely and boorish. It was a flying ship  that the guild “Ponsuke and His Happy-Go-Lucky Friends” created in a  hurry.

「Everyone, hurry up! Ponsuke-kun needs help!」

Lighter was giving out commands.

And then Blaze and others were fighting the controlled players in order to protect the crafters.

Blaze defeated one player and then he looked around. He was stunned.

「I can’t see the end of this at all!」

A player that he remembered defeating just now had come again.

It was a battle with no end in sight. Blaze was grumbling, and then Sierra fired her magic.

The surrounding was blown away. Just as they thought they had a  breathing room with that, red particles gathered and reformed the  players again.

「Enough already with thiss~!」

Sierra was crying. Guruguru consoled her.

「Sierra, let’s do our best! Ponsuke-niichan is still fighting!」

Nanako was looking at the sky.

She was holding her hands together tightly in front of her chest.

「Ponsuke-san.」

There, orcs came down from the sky.

They landed one after another on the ground. Then Prey gave a thumb up.

「Yaa, everyone. Sorry to make you all wait.」

Lighter threw a wrench at Prey who was like that.

「You guys are too slow!」

The wrench hit and Prey blushed from the pain.

「Stop. You’re making me turned on. We ourselves also needed to make  various preparations. Even so, I’m happy you guys have returned to your  sanity. Now, everyone――from here it’s all you can buy.」

After Prey said that, the payment screen came out.

All the items were provided for free. And they could buy in any amount they wanted.

Lighter’s eyes lighted up.

But, he immediately noticed.

「This is a cheat isn’t it!?」

Prey laughed.

「No, wrong. We only took over the management for a bit.」

What kind of difference was there with cheating?

But, everyone around them was gathering tons of items and materials  as soon as they heard that the paid items were free of charge.

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Pandora was facing the next group in a different out of jurisdiction area.

It was the girls who were being captured there.

The female players who were close with Ponsuke.

They were tossed into an out of jurisdiction area.

「……This must be Rook-san’s work.」

The girls were buried inside the wall. Only their chest above was protruding out.

Pandora slapped Alfie’s cheek.

「Please wake up.」

「……Who are you?」

「I’m Pandora. The management AI of this box garden. Everyone, you all  should be able to get out if you only will it, so why aren’t any of you  getting out?」

Rook tossed the girls into an out of jurisdiction area so that they wouldn’t get manipulated by the NPCs.

Alfie shook her head.

「Too late! What can we do after this late! We shot Aoba-kun right in front of him! Ponsuke……Akito will never forgive us.」

Similar to the crying Alfie, everyone else was also making a dark face.

Pandora showed them a projection.

Ponsuke could be seen fighting there.

He was fighting to reach Arcadia while looking battered. Alfie’s tears flowed seeing that.

「Ponsuke-san, he has been fighting alone all this time. Are you fine with that?」

「But……we were the ones who shot his friend」

「All of you were controlled. You aren’t responsible for that.」

「Something like that, is meaningless in front of one’s feeling!」

Alfie said that Ponsuke wouldn’t be able to forgive them who killed his friend and cried.

「We……I!」

Pandora placed her hand on Alfie’s cheek.

「Then I’ll give you a present.」

「I don’t need anything like that. I would be fine if only Ponsuke is  with me. I had been lonely the whole time. The days where it felt like I  was simply running on a rail where there was nothing was scary. I  thought that my life would be over just like that without me having my  own will.」

For Alfie who had walked on a life that was decided for her, the player called Ponsuke was a player who accepted her self.

He was someone who he could bare her true self to.

「But it’s over now. I’m absolutely hated by him. Because, I thought  Ponsuke would get killed! And then my body was moving on its own……」

Pandora spoke to Alfie whose mind was in chaos.

「Rook-san too has done a really horrible thing. Then you will surely  be pleased with this present from me. All of you humans――I shall give  you just one more chance for a redo. That is the last role that I can  do.」

Pandora continued.

「Next time please encounter him with your own strength.」

「Eh?」

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On the sky.

Ponsuke’s HP was entering yellow zone.

His breathing was ragged. His body was already worn out.

He felt like he could understand a boss’s feeling a little when  facing enemies that would never stop coming no matter how many they  defeated.

「……Isn’t our guild too strong?」

He never even expected that the last enemy would be their own guild.

Ponsuke crossed his arms and blocked the cannon shell that flew at him.

The damage was reduced with him blocking the attack, even so his HP still decreased.

「Guh!」

While enduring the attacks, one of the floating islands surrounding Ponsuke exploded.

One guild was falling.

A large and unshapely flying ship was flying out from there. It was bombing the surrounding flying ships and floating islands.

The flying ships were sinking one by one. Every single attack seemed powerful.

The ship also rammed the flying ship on its way and caused an  explosion. Then it appeared through the smoke and arrived below Ponsuke.

Ponsuke moved forward to protect the ship from bombardment, then he saw the players on the deck.

「E-everyone!」

His comrades were waving their hand to him.

Prey looked at Ponsuke with the greatest smile.

「We come to pick you up, Ponsuke-kun!」

There were also eight players on that deck who looked down when they saw Ponsuke.

Ponsuke landed on the deck and reached out toward the frozen Alfie and Mariela with an ominous hand that had long wicked nails.

It was as though he was going to crush them in his grip.

Alfie and Mariela closed their eyes and waited to be crushed, but then the enlarged Ponsuke gently caressed their head.

The two raised their head.

「Ponsuke――」

「I, I――!」

Ponsuke shook his head.

「……It’s fine. I understand.」

And then he slowly pulled his hand back. Then Lighter approached Ponsuke.

「Ponsuke-kun, I heard about the situation from Prey-san and the  girls. Looks like it’s a big trouble huh. Guess we should lend a hand  too.」

Ponsuke spoke to Lighter who was saying that.

「Thank you so much. But, our base is so tough and impervious to attack.」

Lighter folded his arms proudly.

「We were the one who made it after all! It won’t fall easily!」

Ponsuke was troubled.

「……That’s why I’m being troubled though.」

But, the craftsman players were grinning.

「Guild master, you don’t get it.」

「We were the one who build it.」

「We know every single weakness it has.」

Lighter spoke with a smile.

「Leave it to us! We’re going to let the NPCs who stole our base, just whose base it is! ――Now, let’s go.」

They were dependable comrades.

The flying ship charged into the midst of the bombardment. It launched a suicide attack toward Arcadia.

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