Vol 6 Chapter 1 (2/2)

Roderick thought for a )

”The night will still come even if you skip lunch nya”

Nyanta answered the question in Roderick's heart Nyanta looked at the surroundings with interest as he brushed his whiskers, and then nimbly took out a letter from his pouch for Roderick

After reading the letter, Roderick felt troubled

This was a letter fro Horizon This part was obvious The contents were a request about investigation and development of the world, which ithin his expectations Their exchange of letters had been increasing recently

There are countless flora and fauna in this alternate world as well as ores andtheir effects in order to craft new items was incredibly fun Froah idea of the efficacy of each ingredient By organizing such knowledge, they were able to develop new exciting products

The Roderick Firh they worked on different aspects, the guild members were all dedicated to their fields in the same way

It was the sa hi his Round Table Council duties to the other guildshi+roe the most So he found it hard to reject shi+roe's request

And shi+roe's letters norht benefits to The Roderick Firm Roderick would commercialize shi+roe's observations and uilds and Adventurers as per shi+roe's request He had never lost out while working on shi+roe's requests

But the letter this time was not as clear as his previous correspondences

It had just a few lines

”That seems to be the case nya”

”Do you know about the contents of this letter Nyanta-san?”

”Not at all”

Nyanta shrugged his hands at the stunned Roderick Nyanta apparently had no idea

' I would like a catalog of ate their effects Especially the items with flavor text, would it be convenient?'

”Wait, anyway I won't decline this request But to investigate this, I will need Phantas to be expensive Is that why he is asking me for help?”

”There are no such treasures in Log Horizon nya”

”There should be quite a few at your place right?”

”Nya haha A lot of our fa phase, so we need money everywhere nya”

The calhter of Nyanta displayed the steady side of an adult He could only be described as a gentleman with his usual neat and stylish demeanor

Roderick sighed to signal his acceptance

Since shi+roe said so, this experih this research required a big budget, it was still a eable amount

The task of investigating these items was definitely most suitable for The Roderick Firm to take up Most of the recipes in Yamato could be found here, and there were fanatics ere more interested in research than food here

”There are several issues I want to consult you about Join me for lunch?”

”I already told you it's evening nya”

”Then let's have some ramen”

”If you insist nya”

Roderick and his long-time friend left the research lab he had stayed in for several hours This friend of his shrugged

Winter had come A meal with hot soup would definitely be delicious4

It was a freezing night

The h the city Kyouko sneezed loudly and looked around her That was a big one, how unfeminine

Soujirou would be disillusioned with her if he saw this She continued to rub her itching nose as she thought about this

For Adventurers above a certain level, a cool breeze in the winter was nothing to worry about But they would be lying to say it was not cold With visual and audio infor them 'this cold is unbearable', the cold attacked their psyche more than their body

That's why Kyouko was quickening her pace and was returning to her guild house

Probably half the uild house

The negotiation with the 8th District Shopping Center or rather, the idle chat with thee a She even et 3 salted salmons With this, some of her friends would definitely shed tears of happiness, this was the taste of their hometown after all

(If this goes well maybe Soujirou-sama will)

Kyouko smiled as she fantasized about Soujirou

(Lunch with just the 2 of us, the menu is rice ball of course, with salmon inside 'Soujirou-sama, there's rice on your face okay?' 'Eh? Where?' 'It's on the right' 'Eh? Where?' 'You are such a et that for you') Then she would eat it Fufu, so like that

Kyouko blushed in the dark alley

In the chilly winter breeze, the 12-cha at full power

The athletic Kyouko raised her teood rant Olive, she would have collapsed from a nose bleed by now Kyouko could not hold a candle to the anemic elf's delusions

”Ahchoo!”

She let down her guard i so loudly, that was careless of her

In h school, she was teased a lot for her sneezing 'Why are you acting like an old man Kyouko!' She could remember that even now, the lines of her schoolmate from the wind instrument club And she really liked that boy too How dare he compare a maiden to an old man That really hurt

With her one-track hed out loudly in class and was not really aelse to coreat talent frorand sneeze' No, wait, that would be evenKyouko thought about such things as she rushed towards the guild house

She just noticed that sneezing in this world was the sah this ithin expectations, it still seemed remarkable when she considered it in depth

(Just co to an alternate world is already unbelievable)

She retorted to herself

She was not in top condition because of all that sneezing

Soreen and icy stirred in the cold air

The night breeze going through the gaps between the abandoned buildings made the trees sway When she finally noticed, ain the darkness ahead of Kyouko

About 175 a sleeveless black tank top and leather pants His lie silhouette, but this level of strangeness was co the Adventurers of Akiba

What made Kyouko stop in her tracks was the silent intimidation she felt from him

A chill going down her spine made Kyouko stop and take a step back unconsciously

Displeased with the distance created, the man walked towards her

The pale illuhts set up by the Round Table Council gradually shone on thea black reen blade that sees

Facing the blade that sees, Kyouko's body reacted faster than her mind

Kyouko was an experienced level 90 Guardian Although she was known as one of the hareuild in Akiba

As captain of the 2nd battle party, Kyouko was a veteran in a fight

But that was all thanks to Kyouko's body of an Adventurer

The flash of silver seeh justher break out in cold sweat The first thing she grasped was the killing intent that was co to kill Kyouko The next thing to come up in her mind was the term 'PK' which was immediately dismissed by the term 'city zone'

(No, it is impossible to kill someone in the city zone)

(The guards will teleport over and stop you if you try)

So she just needed to hang on until the guards made their way here

The worst thing that could happen was dying But even if she died, she would just respawn in the cathedral This was the privilege of Adventurers There was nothing to be afraid of And there were no beings in existence that could send her, a level 90 player, to the cathedral so easily Guardians had the highest defense a ar the streets, the physical defense of her body was still effective No problem, she could handle this There was no need to panic

Kyouko tried to calm herself

But she failed

The , s her look deep down into his throat This ground the calmness Kyouko collected into dust

Too fast Even her level 90 dynamic vision could not keep up No, this was not speed, but a skill If she watched closely, he was squir the gaps between your thoughts up, closing the distance instantaneously

What she saas just the first few seconds of the strike of his sword

Kyouko looked at theout from her belly

Wrong

The man had pierced her with his sword

Instead of screas out Kyouko leaptBut the rin when Kyouko landed

Because of a bad status effect, Kyouko was bleeding profusely fro in the back-alley like a wounded hare She could not even scream properly, her limbs numbed like a fever patient

But even so, Kyouko fended off several attacks agilely thanks to her powerful Adventurer body

Kyouko continued to shriek unsuccessfully, trying to regain her coure out how to escape from this predicament

It see time

Much too long

Shaken by fear of the man who liked to stab as he pleased, Kyouko lost track of ti

”Ah, ah Ahhh”

As he pierced Kyouko's breast, the man's blood red maisted into a smile as he looked at Kyouko

”The guards aren't co”

After co these words, Kyouko's round noise This was against the rules, such things never happened before Kyouko swung her fist at the man in response to this unreasonable announcement

A blade sprouted out from her fist

This was a rather farcical scene Thestrike This was a speed and technique that surpassed the level 90 Kyouko Soujirou's Over level Clairvoyance h the attack

Kyouko continued to resist with punches and kicks

Although Kyouko had no , the body of Adventurers had the ability to toy with a bear in battle Her attacks were absorbed and devoured by the sword The single blade in the ht arm seem to split into thousands of copies to protect the man and cut up Kyouko

She did not get it

Why didn't the guards teleport here? Why was PK allowed in the city? Why was there a et it

Kyouko could not even think logically as she fought on, driven by a feverish heat If Kyouko seemed feverish, the man could only be described as insane Thearound, piercing Kyouko's body everywhere

The late night battle ended in silence

The breeze blowing between the buildings bleay the sound of the battle

Kyouko fell with her head full of questions The h her neck like he planned all along As the color faded fro the blade crystallize in the cold and disperse into the air

Although it was the middle of winter, the frozen blood looked just like the petals of a Sakura flower

Frostbite was settling in the wounds on her limbs Her inate from sorrow

Kyouko was sent to the cathedral in accordance with the law of this world When the young girl opened her eyes and reached the guild house where her co

And so, the ru with the inti winter chill

5

A ht

The news spread faster than the wind throughout the city There were 3 victiht A party of 5 fell to the Murderer on the 3rd night

Since veterans of battle guilds also fell to him, this proved the combat ability of the Murderer was beyond that of a level 90 Adventurer

It was believed initially the incident could be solved easily

Firstly, in this world of Elder Tales, nuth Even if the Murderer was stronger than let's say 3 people, the party systeroup of 6 to take him out if there was a need

There was another unique feature of this world Although all the victims died by the hands of the Murderer, they were still 'alive' When Adventurers died, they would respawn in the cathedral So witness testience on the Murderer were plentiful

Enbart Nelles

No guild

Level 94, Samurai

A head of dark blue long hair, aboth his eyes Metallic armor that covered his limbs

With these characteristics in hand, the investigation should have been a piece of cake The incidents happened late at night, but they could search for hiade and Honesty who suffered casualties were leading the search for the culprit

But after looking for a week, they didn't find the Murderer while the body count continued to rise

Adventurers killing Adventurers was known as PK (Player Kill) This was one way to play the ga Akiba, enforced by the Round Table Council Adventurers who persisted in PK activities were known as PKers (Player Killers), but would not be known as 'Murderers'

To begin with, the city zone of Akiba was protected by guards

If any violent incidents occurred, a uardroouards, would then move on scene to apprehend the culprits You could tell there was so from this point alone

The Round Table Council had already interviewed the guards at the guardroouards did not detect anything wrong when the incidents occurred In tered that no PK occurred

News of the Murderer spread like wildfire in Akiba

But that was not out of fear of the case

It was closer to being a ghost story or a paranormal occurrence

Death was not a risky matter to Adventurers

There would be so your radually made known to the public by the Round Table Council carefully Even so, a large part of the populace were very concerned with the risk of memory loss This was reflected in an increase in the nu in the city

But most of the citizens were relaxed about this news

That was because Adventurers who had died dozens of times commented 'The memory loss is not a problem at all' And they continued to function nor on as usual with their friends

In any case, the fact that Adventurers needed to live on in this world was inevitable

Even if they fell to the Murderer, they would not lose too much

Another thing was the high confidence level they had in the Round Table Council, although feould actually say it out loud

The governing body of Akiba, the Round Table Council that was formed less than a ible and intangible results The Adventurers rounds in the old world, but they shared a coht by the Catastrophe and the devastation that followed Their representatives who answered the call of duty and were capable of running an event as big as the Libra Festival were the pride of the Akiba citizens

Just the tere this case was

The unfatho, the demon that struck like a catastrophe did not cause too e It struck fear into the hearts of people, but was just treated like a paranor free out there, he would be caught eventually, that's what the citizens thought

Ever since the Catastrophe, there had been e incidents, with new reports every day Akiba, the biggest Adventurer city on the Yaion Mysterious things,incidents, worrisoated here

Certainly the Murderer was not a trifling matter

But there were ht now

The biggest news right noere the ”raid on Seven Falls” and the ”rise of the giant guild in Minami”

The Akiba expedition force that was victorious in the battle of Sand Leaf was finally starting their invasion of the Seven Fall Citadel The Goblin King as crowned in the 'Return of the Goblin King' quest would adjust his strength according to the activity of the Adventurers After being ignored by the Adventurers following the chaos of the Catastrophe, the Goblin King had becoest raid boss ever in the history of this quest He even sent an army in an attempt to conquer Sand Leaf

No oblins They were not a threat according to the gas

But there was still the possibility the knowledge of the gaht not translate perfectly to this world after the Catastrophe Even if the Adventurers didn't see the goblins as a threat, the goblins could be deadly to the People of the Land

That was the reason why the Round Table Council was sending an elite ar

A 450 men army led by commander-in-chief Krusty

The decision to send the ar peace to the northeast region of the land At the saotiations with the League of Freedom Cities Eastal

With Krusty and Issac the heroes of Akiba taking the field, along with Charasin and Akaneya supporting from the back

The burden on the other members of the Round Table Council also increased substantially They were ru or their guild halls, buried in work

News of the attack on the Seven Fall Citadel was one of the headlines grabbing the attention of the citizens

The 450 men army had already set off, and the people believed they would return victorious But the supply lines and back-end support were also crucial, so theythey needed to be prepared for, and could not be ignored

The other big neas the rise of Plant hwyaden which was do the west

Most Adventurers bore cos about the city of Minami

For the players in Ya body in Minami was similar to a form of dictatorshi+p

For a gauilds to coexist The chaos in Akiba evolving into conflicts between guilds was a natural progression

To unite all the guilds in such a shortof time felt a bit forceful

But it was hard to point out rong with this syste just because it was a dictatorshi+p Fro fro They were going about it a different way than Akiba, but it seeether in peace and harmony

For Adventurers playing on the sa to have old friends or co apart in either Akiba or Mina friends in Akiba tocomrades in Minami to relocate here were common

In the end, it was hard for the japanese to talk about politics in their daily lives

With the difference in Akiba and Minae and a bit of background But it ard to bring it up as a conversational topic, an issue all Adventurers were aware about

Speaking of the difference in population size, Akiba had more citizens But the Adventurers in Plant hwyaden were twice that of Akiba's biggest guild, Oceanic Systems

The people knew this situation would make waves in the future, but were reluctant to talk about it, creating an aard atmosphere

Between these 2 major pieces of news, Akiba passed each day full of tension steadily That's why the citizens didn't think h they were aware of him

The Murderer did not appear on the 4th and 5th day

But Honesty's patrol team iped out on the 6th day

The Round Table Council raised the alert level steadily Although no curfeas set, the citizens were reht It was not too bad if the victims were Adventurers, but it would be really bad if any People of the Land were to fall The casualties so far had all been Adventurers, but that didn't guarantee the safety of the People of the Land

At this point in time, no Adventurer understood what the appearance of the Murderer s