CH 166

Data.156 – Old Bowman, the First Battlefield

‘It looks like a lot of you realize it now, but I’ll just make it clear! The preliminaries will be a battle royale! All the parties that entered will be placed on this map and have to fight for their survival-nyon!’

Charin’s voice echoed in my brain.

Just as she had hinted at, the preliminary would be a battle royale.

Like this, they would be able to cut down the numbers quickly until they had the number of parties that they wanted.

And if you were lucky, you could take down much stronger enemies, which made things more exciting for those who watched.

However, it would all be over in a flash if you got killed, which was scary…!

With these rules, your whole party could be annihilated in an ambush, and it could all end like that…!

‘Only 64 parties will move to the finals! In other words, it will be decided as soon as there are only 64 parties left. However, the final rankings will affect how you are paired up in the tournament, so it will be to your advantage to continue fighting without letting your guard down until the end-nyon!’

Just 64 parties…!?

There were tens of thousands of players, and thousands of parties. But they would be cut down to 64 in just one battle…!

‘Furthermore, consumed items, destroyed equipment, and cool downs for charge attacks and miracle effects will be reset during the finals! So you can fight to the fullest without worrying about the next battle-nyon! Furthermore, there is no ‘chip system’ like during normal battle royales, so don’t worry! Now, let the battle royale…begin!’

It finally started!

First…we had to strategize.

We were 4 players and 2 Unisons.

Garbow and Gochu.

As Garbow didn’t cry out when he saw players, he couldn’t be used for scouting.

At least, that was the case for the old Garbow…

“Garbow. Gazer Fish.”

“Gar! Gar!”

Gazer Fish was one of the charge attacks that were included in Garbow’s new equipment, Multiple Fish Pod.

◆ Multiple Fish Pod

Type: Water and machine type Unison

Attack: 110

Magic Attack: 70

Weapon Skill: Doctor Fish

Weapon Charge Attack: Missile Fish, Gazer Fish

[Doctor Fish]

Unleashes magic fish with healing abilities inside of a pod and heals the target’s HP.

[Missile Fish]

Shoot 16 fish-type missiles.

Cool down: 3 minutes.

[Gazer Fish]

Unleashes 8 small fish with large camera eyes.

The fish mechs will move around on their own and notify the Unison when they spot targets that can be attacked.

After that, the Unison can decide whether the mechs will attack or chase after the target.

Cool down: 5 minutes.

Multiple Fish Pod was the evolved form of Goldfish Pod, which was used alongside Missile Pod and Garra Rufa Pod.

Doctor Fish’s abilities were much the same.

As Garbow’s magic attack was weak, the recovery ability would be low, but it was still insurance.

Missile Fish felt similar to Missile Pod’s weapon charge attack, 8-mount Missile.

While it could shoot 16 missiles, they did less damage, so it wasn’t much of an upgrade as a whole.

In terms of firepower, it was maybe a 50% boost.

Gazer Fish was a new charge attack that unleashed 8 scouting mechs.

The mechs would wander around on their own, and Garbow would alert me if they found something.

As was written in the text, the targets had to be ‘attackable.’

In other words, they would react to players if you were in an area where players could be attacked.

It seemed very useful at a glance, but it took some thought to use it right.

First, Garbow couldn’t talk…!

And so even if he found an enemy, he couldn’t tell me the precise location.

After finding an enemy, Garbow would first look in that direction.

And then he would let out a hostile cry, and I would have to guess the distance of the enemy by how loud he was.

If he cried loudly, then the enemy was far away, and if he cried quietly so that the enemy won’t hear, then that meant they were close by.

If the enemy was far away, I would order the mechs to continue to follow its movements, and if it was close by and noticed us, then I would attack it by having the mechs self-destruct.

…So, it could be a rather complicated charge attack, but being able to detect enemies from every side would be a big advantage during a battle royale.

And so I listened for Garbow’s cry as we made our plans.

“How should we move? Since there are only 64 parties going to the finals, I feel like it wouldn’t be a bad idea to avoid fighting and focus on our survival.”

As someone who had experienced the first battle royale, I knew how important that was.

In spite of getting the most kills, Necoco came in 1st place with 5 kills, and Satomi was 2nd with 0 kills. I ranked in at 3rd.

It would be smart to hide quietly until there were fewer players, rather than go around fighting and attracting attention.

The problem was, everyone would be thinking this…

During a battle royale, the field would slowly grow smaller, and you would take damage if you remained outside of it.

If too many parties were crowded in a small area, things would become chaotic, and luck would be a bigger deciding factor.

And so if you are confident in your own strength, it might not be a bad idea to actively go out and cut down the number of players…

Hmm. I wasn’t sure what the answer was!

“If there is one thing that I can say…it is that it’s dangerous to move while you are uncertain. Whether our luck is good or bad, we have to move as a united party, or things will fall apart.”

Everyone nodded silently at Satomi’s words.

And our conclusion was…

“…So we’ll barricade ourselves in that tower.”

“Yes!”

One of the reasons that I had been able to get the most kills was because of that stone tower.

It was strong, and would be difficult to break when attacked. And you had a good view of the whole mountain from the top.

If we camped up there, we could survive while picking off the enemy. I had already proved that it would work.

And so many other parties would likely be moving towards it.

We were guaranteed to encounter enemies on the way.

I wasn’t proud of it, but people recognized my face.

And so they would be the ones to be surprised if we bumped into each other.

I would take advantage of that and kill them in a flash…!

“Gar! Gar!”

Garbow let out his hostile cry!

It was quite loud, which meant that the enemy was still far away, but the entire party immediately grew tense.

“There will be no time to stop and talk from here on out.”

“Yes. We’ll have to stay on our guard constantly in order to be in the top 64.”

We looked in the direction that Garbow had cried and stepped into formation.

As the tough one, Anne was in the front, where she would draw the most attention. Necoco hid in the shadows and waited for an opportunity to ambush.

Gochu was behind Anne and would focus on magic attacks. Satomi would mostly be the healer.

Garbow guarded me, but he could take the other positions if the situation required it.

And I would shoot from the back while watching our surroundings.

As this was a battle royale, other parties could join in during a fight.

And so I had to be aware of a large part of the field at all times.

“Let’s go, Machine God Bow – Heaven Wind Murakumo…!”

It was already time to show the power of my new bow!