Legendaria, city gate, Dark Knight, Mai Higaisha

  "I'm giving him 10 more minutes, and if he's still not here, I'm going ahead with the plan on my own. Who does he think he is? Pushing me—pushing us—for a month, then disappearing almost a week before his own planned deadline. And why is the anniversary Valentine's-themed?" Mai vented her frustrations about Sheko.

  Apparently, he had known about Kaizo going around kidnapping people and doing other shady things, and decided to wait until he could personally beat Kaizo to do something about it. Then, out of nowhere, he attacked an underground fighting ring—again, on his own—even though he could’ve asked Emilia and Nue, or the Ravens, or probably even Finn for help.

  He was just so self-absorbed. Even when he was doing something good, he had to do it his own way. It was still up in the air whether his assault on that ring had even been worth it—because now, they were on high alert. If he'd just taken a moment to think, to take it seriously, so much more good could've been done.

  She still went ahead with his plan to get Kaizo on the wanted list, even compromising with Sheko to delay the process so that they'd only be put on the list after today. It was another borderline psychotic plan from his mind. His logic made sense, but it was still insane:

  “If they know they are in danger of going to the Goal, they might run away and escape. But they can only respawn after their penalty expires, so their ban by Legendaria would be just as effective.”

  When Mai told that part of the plan to Emilia, her response was alarmingly positive. She said:

  “I'd love if Sheko has other ideas like that to police Masters. Frankly, anything to deter immortal murderers would be good... no offense to you, of course, but the panic of losing the King of Flora to a Master for their job is still fresh.”

  "You are being overly rash about this. You should've taken a nap. He said it would happen today in the real world—I'm sure he wouldn't mind a delay so you could rest," Raggedy tried to soothe Mai.

  It didn’t help. She was still pissed—especially with the lingering possibility that Sheko chose the anniversary knowing it was a love festival. She didn’t think he viewed her that way. Honestly, she didn’t think he viewed anyone that way. She enjoyed being his friend, but she hoped today wouldn’t get her placed on his infamous grudge list. She wasn’t even sure he was joking when he told her he had one.

  She wasn’t actually mad at Sheko for being late to his own revenge. Letting Kaizo roam free for even one more day—that's what made her furious.

  Kaizo preached etiquette on his channel about not hurting other players, then went and did the most heinous things imaginable to Tians because he thought it was just a game. How could someone spend so much time in Infinite Dendrogram and not realize the publishers were lying? Sure, maybe it was a game—if you shut your eyes and ears and just enjoyed the spectacle. But Mai was convinced: even if somehow the devs had managed to simulate thousands—maybe millions—of AIs more advanced than anything humanity had ever seen, that only shifted the issue.

  So say the Tians really are just AI… as if. They’re so advanced, they should still have a say in their fate. Infinite Dendrogram shouldn’t be a playground for kids to go around killing people without knowing better. How do you even start to unravel this mess? I guess I can just try being a positive influence—to cancel out all the bad.

  Even though Mai had said she would leave without him if he was late, she ended up waiting another ten minutes, giving him the benefit of the doubt—maybe he meant ten minutes in real-world time.

  Sheko made his entrance by dropping from the upper city, increasing his speed with a use of Launch, then slowing down through transparent solid-air platforms. Apparently, he wasn’t done enjoying the newest job he had found—something "too good to pass up," even though he hadn’t finished leveling his new high-rank job.

  She had to admit—it did look fun. She still had low-rank job slots, and flying through the air—or rather, launching yourself on bursts of compressed air like Sheko just had—was incredibly useful.

  Once the dust settled, Mai got a good look at him—and dreaded the return of the duster. At least it wasn’t as flamboyant as the crystal one from after the raid. This time it was a comfortable navy-turquoise coat with a bottom cut like feathers. Still—why? They were in Legendaria. Why was he wearing something straight out of a noir film?

  "What are you wearing this time?" she asked, her tone mostly positive but with some exasperation slipping through.

  "Hello to you too. And it’s not really my fault this time. The tailor I went to thought the coat looked really good on me and I caved. He already had a few designs when I came, but I honestly think he just really likes the design. If he knew the usual clientele for this coat, he'd like it less."

  "The regular clientele being... young men ages 14 to 21 who think sitting in the corner of a room is a personality?"

  "Hey, it’s just the quietest place. I like reading while I eat."

  "Sorry, that wasn’t supposed to be personal."

  An awkward silence stretched for a moment before Sheko spoke again—though maybe he shouldn't have, given his next subject.

  "What’s the deal with the Valentine’s decorations? I thought it was the anniversary for the game."

  "Oh thank God—you didn’t know either. We’re good then, right?"

  "Wait… oh. Wow, yeah. We’re good. I didn’t mean anything by it. Kind of annoying, though. Want to postpone this, then?"

  Mai turned to Sheko and stared into his soul. Her armor was a soothing paladin-white, but now—towering over him—Sheko immediately regretted his words.

  "Kaizo needs to go down. If you hadn’t shown up, I would’ve gone after him on my own. Or well—I guess I’d still take the Ravens, but you know what I mean."

  "Ah. Sure. Didn’t realize you wanted to beat him that badly."

  "I don’t want to beat him. I want to kill him. If you helped piece together the case against him, you’d know why I’m so pissed. He actually has ownership over several slaves."

  "Wait, what? I knew he was an executioner for large debtors to some shady bankers—where did slavery come from? There’s no way his internet persona would’ve survived that."

  "Well, it’s not exactly as direct as you think. Basically, the bankers that employ him have their own apothecaries that sell basic potions across the country. The potions are barely worth the time it takes to brew them—for a skilled alchemist, at least. But the bankers force debtors to work terrible hours, locking them into non-compete contracts. They’re basically stuck. As a high-ranking enforcer for the bank, Kaizo receives a share of that income. So—on purpose or not—Kaizo has ownership over several people. It’s technically legal, but absolutely not just."

  "Yeah, okay. I followed. It’s bad. Maybe a little exaggerated, but I don’t know the working conditions. Sorry I left you to discover something this awful."

  "I think what I hate most is how hard it’s going to be to use it against him. It’s all based on investigating the places listed in the vault records you stole, and getting someone who works there to speak up. It’s still just accusations. Well, that part of Kaizo’s activities anyway. We managed to track down five of the ten slave-guards you freed, and they all testified in front of a constable that Kaizo executed a Tian without due process or even reasonable self-defense—right in front of them."

  "That sounds pretty ironclad, no?"

  "Sure—for Kaizo. But his team has similar crimes I can’t prove. I’m sure you’re happy your sister’s fine at least. She is helping us take him down, after all."

  "Not really. Kaizo’s a bad influence on her, and I should’ve realized how bad it was. It’s not that I think she’ll follow in his—uh, hoofsteps. I don’t think she’d keep it up without his encouragement. What I am afraid of is that she’ll realize too late what she’s done and won’t be able to recover from the trauma."

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Sheko paused for a long moment.

  "I’m probably quitting Dendro after today—whether we beat Kaizo or not. It’s why I haven’t logged in the last five days. I just don’t know. I came into some info about Infinite Dendrogram and… I’m not sure I want to continue, based on what I suspect."

  "What, you finally figured out it’s not a game? Having some existential dread? I got over that already. It should’ve been obvious to you if you spent more time with Tians."

  "What? No. Well—I mean, yes, I get that this isn’t really a game anymore. But it’s even more than that. I… probably shouldn’t talk about this here."

  "...alright"

  "Say you have Prismo’s contact info?

  "yes, is this related somehow?"

  "Not really. It’s loosely related. Mind asking him to talk to me later?"

  "I guess... Well, that got a little depressing. And we were already talking about a dark subject."

  "Yeah. Well, to be fair—we’re about to do something good. I kind of hoped the papers from the ring would be a good welcome-back present since I couldn’t be here when you got back. But... eh. Anyway—let’s go beat a centaur."

  Sheko notified Tsuno about the plan starting soon through his recently acquired telepathy cuffs. Originally, he planned for her to be right there with him for the fight—to attack Kaizo's teammates so they couldn’t interfere. But she had already told him that she would simply get them separated from Kaizo for the fight. Since they weren’t part of his battle, as long as they didn’t interfere, she wouldn’t have to directly stab them in the back.

  She told him she had convinced Kaizo and GesStar to go grind the event monsters on their own, while she, Pearl, and Kurt stayed behind in a café enjoying festive desserts. Sheko then cut the channel with Tsuno and contacted the Ravens, confirming that everyone was online and ready.

  In theory, the Ravens were not required for the plan. As long as the rest of Kaizo's team remained in town when the fight started, they would probably be too late to interfere. Sheko insisted that if they did interfere, he would resort to using his Ultimate Skill—but remained insufferably cryptic about what it was.

  Mai had already told him what Raggedy's Ultimate Skill was, but he was still withholding his own, simply saying, "You’ll see," with a smirk that worryingly reminded her of his trick with Phantasm’s shadow summoning medium in the arena. She hoped it wasn’t anything like that this time. He had seemed sincere when apologizing to Phantasm—fabricating an entire criminal history on Kaizo so she would help him was a ludicrous idea to entertain. No, clearly they were right to go after him.

  Sheko cut the connection with the Ravens and switched to speaking with her telepathically, even though he wasn’t very far ahead of her on the trail. It was likely just a precaution, to avoid being overheard by anyone in the forest — even though the trail was already full of noise from nearby fights.

  The event monsters were just another annoyance among the rest of the festival. It felt degrading having to kill some random monster duo every few seconds and getting notified that she had received chocolate that could be traded for event rewards. She had just had a conversation about how Dendro was not just a game, and then—almost to spite her—the devs rolled out an event straight out of early social media browser games. At least, she had to admit begrudgingly, the chocolates were really good.

  <"So the preparations are in place?">

  <"Yeah, you should’ve asked back in town if you were worried, you know.">

  <"Yeah, sorry. Guess I’m not fully relaxed. Phantasm was technically higher level than Kaizo, but knowing how his Embryo works now, I know he was always less of a danger than Kaizo. Wukong doesn’t give any status correction. Meanwhile, all we’re sure about Kaizo is that he’s a druid, of all things. Apparently manhandling a mid-tier rank boss is just… unrelated to his main build.">

  <"You’re definitely stressing yourself out. We’re killing him—even if you can’t do it yourself. Anyway, I’ve been preparing so much I had to buy a new inventory because the last one’s completely filled.">

  <"Thanks. That’s reassuring—to know you think I’d lose. The arena itself is set up?">

  <"I wasn’t implying that. Just… rest assured you will get your revenge on Kaizo. But if you’re not sure, I don’t mind taking Kaizo instead.">

  <"No way. He’s mine. So... the arena?">

  <"Yes. The arena, as you call it, is set up.">

  The "arena," as Sheko referred to it, was simply a huge forest clearing that Mai and the Ravens had cut out on their own the week prior. They dug up the ground and replaced it mostly with sand—just enough to make any Geomancer’s skills that relied on natural terrain slightly less effective.

  In addition, they transplanted patches of crystal grass from the crystal cave—after confirming it was definitely a mineral and not a plant—so any Druid would need to invest more power to conjure plants in the area. Of course, those benefits were just incidental to the main goal: ensuring Kaizo and GesStar would be standing exactly where they needed them for the opening act.

  Sheko didn’t have a life-saving brooch when Kaizo killed him originally, so it was only fair Kaizo wouldn’t have one now.

  Sheko and Mai stood atop a small cliff, some hundreds of meters away from Kaizo and GesStar, who had just arrived at the artificial crystal forest. Thanks to their high DEX stats, they were able to clearly make them out. Several other Masters were still exploring the crystal plants, so they had to wait.

  Finally, as Kaizo and GesStar stood alone in the clearing, Sheko contacted Tsuno again to confirm she was still in town as planned. Mai couldn’t hear the conversation, but a moment later Sheko muttered:

  “Well, guess the Ravens get to play after all. Tsuno betrayed us.”

  “Wait—what? How do you know? Did you get Truth Discernment?”

  “What? No. No way I’m wasting a job slot for that skill. My telepathy cuffs don’t have the range to reach Tsuno in the city. But since Tsuno actually got my message, it can only mean she’s close by.”

  “Please get help. This is getting scary.”

  “Eh, I have bad experiences with therapists. I don’t know, maybe. But I don’t think this warrants worry.”

  “It absolutely does.”

  “Agree to disagree.”

  “…Fine.”

  “By the way, can I have the chocolates from the monsters you killed? They’re really good.”

  “Really now… Whatever, sure. They are really good though.”

  Finally, the last unrelated Master left the clearing. Not waiting a moment longer, Mai unloaded her newly bought inventory revealing it's contents, seven huge boulders.

  “You sure you can actually use these?” she asked.

  “Hm. I guess you’ll get an early showing of my Ultimate after all.”

  “Wait—what? You’re using it for the opening attack? If they survive this, aren’t you pretty screwed?”

  “Don’t worry, it’s not flashy like yours.”

  He walked to three of the boulders and marked them—nothing unusual there. Then he pulled out his new spear. It was forged from the same metal as his previous paralyzing spear but now ended in the horn of the crystal unicorn.

  “When did you go out and kill the boss without me? And why has no one told me you went?”

  “I went on my own. I wanted to prove to myself I could beat it like Kaizo did. And I absolutely WRECKED it! Sorry, but yeah—I did it. The coat’s made with its mane as well.”

  “Cool. So, you going to show me your Ultimate Skill now?”

  “Sure. Though like I said, it doesn’t look exactly flashy.”

  The spear pulsed blue like the boulders that bore Odysseus’s mark. Then a sphere of shifting fractal patterns surrounded the middle of the spear. As Sheko moved it, the sphere followed, and suddenly he lurched forward with its motion before stopping abruptly.

  “Yeah, I’m sure it’ll work. Would’ve been better to prep Red Cape just to be safe, but the monsters around here are getting on my nerves too much to farm stacks from them.”

  Without further delay, Sheko Launched into the sky, and the marked boulders rose with him. He deactivated the skill and started to fall with the boulders around him before hurling his spear, followed by the elephant-sized boulders like a furious god smiting sinners from on high. The spear shone red under its own magical power as it flew accelerating further with the boulders in tow.

  Kaizo and GesStar noticed the incoming attack only moments before it struck. Kaizo raised a thick, building-sized iceberg, while GesStar attempted to erect a stone wall—realizing too late that the sandy ground beneath him made his cast just slightly too slow.

  The fiery spear hadn’t even made contact with the iceberg before it began to melt under its radiance. Then, the still-accelerating spear and boulders tore through the barrier like a sheet of paper.

  They struck Kaizo and GesStar in a thunderous magical explosion, the spear’s enchantment releasing all at once. The boulders became a wave of slag, coating the mage and the centaur as crystal plants were blasted away in every direction. The duo was thrown back and fell to the bottom of the massive crater left behind.

  Far away, observing the results of their initial attack, Mai spoke.

  “This was really cool, but was it worth losing your spear like this? Seems incredibly wasteful to me. I still don’t fully understand what your Ultimate does—does it let you move your marked items directly now?”

  “No, it’s not that simple, and the spear is intact just spent” Sheko replied. “It’s a bit complicated to explain the trick. Anyway, I need to replenish my MP—it used basically everything I had.”

  “Your MP? Don’t you use SP exclusively?”

  “Guess the devs thought it would be too good if I could use it with SP or something. Anyway, let’s get going.”

  Sheko quickly downed several MP potions and, as usual, passed the mana poisoning effect to Raggedy.

  While he did so, Mai pulled out a potion of her own, infusing it with additional MP before downing it. She immediately gained an extra foot of height—and what looked like 200 kilos of muscle.

  Sheko Launched himself again toward the crater, while Mai took position at the cliff’s edge and then leapt off. The impact shattered the cliff face behind her as she shot ahead of Sheko—until he accelerated further, chasing after her through the air.