Chapter 53.1 : Sasebo Panic Starting From Eleven
『SYSTEM MESSAGE. THE EMERGENCY COMMISSION FOR GOBLIN SLAYING WILL BEGIN SHORTLY. THE MAIN QUEST OF THE EVENT IS TO GATHER POINTS PROPORTIONAL TO THE NUMBER OF GOBLINS KILLED . PLAYERS, PLEASE DO YOUR BEST SINCE WE PREPARED HANDSOME REWARDS FOR THE ONES WITH THE HIGHEST RANKS.』
Under the system message that was floating within the display in front of me was a choice whether to partic.i.p.ate in this event or not.
Though the three of me, Yukihime-san and Mop-san had already decided our option, it seemed like Aoi-san was still troubled by her choice.
I could guess that she wasn"t too keen to partic.i.p.ate in this kind of event, since it"s said that the ranking goes by individual unit not by party, so there"s no need for her to partic.i.p.ate in this event. I was about to tell her my idea. But,
「Sou-kun, are you going to partic.i.p.ate? 」
「EH? Yeah.」
「Then……… Me too. We"re a party after all.」
Though I have yet to see everything, our opponent were goblins. This frail girl was going to fight against much bigger opponents. I hesitated to tell her for a moment to not force herself, but it suddenly crossed in my mind not to pour cold water on Aoi who had showed a great deal of resolution to partic.i.p.ate with us.
She should have been scared, but she was squeezing every last bit of her courage to go with us to this battlefield.
In that case, we have to respond appropriately to her bravery.
「Thank you very much. Even so, don"t be so nervous, because I"ll definitely protect you, Blue」
「Sou-kun………….」
「h.e.l.lo, h.e.l.lo~~w there. The idiot couple over there~e, please come back to reality already~」
「C-COCOCOCOu………! ? 」
Tinged with a pink color up untill a moment ago, her face flamed red in an instant. WHO THE h.e.l.l IS THIS SUPER CUTE CREATURE!?
「Well then Sou-kun, I guess all of us are in for this event」
「Yes」
All of us chose to partic.i.p.ate in this event and then went toward the outside of the city where we were supposed to clash with the army of goblins.
■ □ ■ □ ■
Sasebo is a big city equipped with one gate on each one of the four cardinal directions. No, it might not be wrong to call it a fortress city since it seemed to be prepared for such events. After the gate of the rampart, which towered higher than the roof of the houses, shut tight, I noticed that there wouldn"t be a problem due to the existence of watch towers in various places.
「It seems that a fair number of players are gathering at the east gate」
「That"s right. Even so, the one with the most number of people seems to be the north gate. From the report of the scout, they said that the first clash is going to happen at that location. I mean this is the first event related to large-scale invasions of monsters in this game, It seems that everyone is already itching to slaughter those monsters」
When I looked at the surrounding people, it was just as Mop-san said: everyone seemed to be waiting for the large scale army of monsters with eager looks on their faces.
「Aren"t you curious about how many people are coming to the eastgate. The number is overwhelming……..」
「It might be around a thousand people」
A similiar number of people were gathered at the south and west gates, and since they said that the number of people gathering at the north gate is almost double the number of the other three gates combined together, it meant almost five thousand players were gathering in there.
I think that some players weren"t partic.i.p.ating in this event, but I think those players were the ones who had just logged-in or the ones who were rushing to one of the four gates after hearing the announcement. Or should I say that I"m almost sure of that fact now. The number of players should"ve increased with time.
Moreover, almost all of the players in this city were stalwart warriors who had walked through long journeys from the first area all the way to this city. So I could safely a.s.sume that there were especially tough guys amongst the ones who choose to go to Nagasaki.
「A lot more is coming」
「Well, hardcore gamers love this kind of events after all. Are you bad with this kind of crowds, Luu-chan? 」
「Uhm, it"s one of……….. My weaknesses. But, I can"t escape forever.」
「I see, that"s great Luu-chan. You"re such a good child.」
Yukihime-san patted Aoi-san"s head, whose face had already turned beet red with a completely different expression from the one a while ago.
This might be the power of an elder sister. I have the very same power for sure. Do I have split personality too?
「――Sou-kun? 」
「Sorry」
I reflexively apologized as I couldn"t bear to look at Yukihime-san"s smile that was hiding a profound darkness inside. I"m completely scared inside after seeing her smiling like that. But she could still see through it. Was it because of my expression? Did she find out about what I thought because of my expression?
「Yes, it"s your expression.」
I see. Weren"t you just holding a conversation with my mind? Anymore than this will be bad for my heart.
「As expected of you, Sou-kun」
Shut up, you pervert. Stop looking at me with that admiring gaze of yours.
While we were making such banter for dozens of minutes, the large army of goblins arrived in viewing distance of the gathered thousands of players at the eastgate. The amount of goblins was so large that they painted the fields deep green.
「They"ve come……… But…」
「Wow, there"s so many of them!」
「I wonder how many times our numbers their forces are 」
「Can I resign from this quest?」
「Me too……..」
「HAHAHAHA, THIS IS IT, THIS IS A REAL WAR!」
「Yup, this is really different from an MMO」
I kept hearing this kind of comments from various players who saw the armies of our opponent. There were those who felt intimidated by those numbers, some who became more spirited, and others whose expressions turned into ear to ear smiles.
But, I told my party member one of my ideas that was born out of fear.
「This is just a suggestion but, should we place one of our team members on top of the rampart to give out instructions? 」
「Why do you feel that way？ 」
Yukihime-san asked for an explanation and Mop-san was making an expression as if he knew what I meant when he heard my suggestion.
「Our enemies are a large army, but in essence, they"re just those weak goblins. Maybe that idea will cause everyone to lower their guards.」
In fact, I also made light of them until I saw their army but I changed my mind. And the reason is because―― I saw that there were those who commanded the march.
「No matter how I look at it, this army is a structured one.Compared to them, we are just a gathering of unstructured mobs. We basically have 0 sense of cooperation」
「…….. I really can"t refute that」