Chapter 98.1

Chapter 98.1: 98.1

Chapter 98: Dancing on the Palm of Someone Else’s Hand Part 1

\n「We-well judging from the way in which the things concluded, I think it is safe to say that those three guilds were pretty crazy about us……」

After the members of the other guilds went home, we moved to the café “Snake’s Apple” that was also in this town. To my words, Pencilgton said:

「It seems that the “Black Wolves” were keeping an eye on Sanraku-kun for a while now. Well, it’s small wonder since we are frequently hanging out with each other for a while now, and people are always wary of me and those I’m associating with.」

「Aren’t you over-exaggerating a bit? Maybe they just wanted to know about Luukan’s attack patterns?」

「I don’t think that was their goal, Sanraku.」

The one to answer right now was not Pencilgton, but Katsu. \nOrdering and eating yet another cake, Katsu continued speaking while pointing towards me with his fork.

「As a professional gamer I can tell you that much. Even if it’s a standard display mode, the current Full Dive technology allows you to easily observe and memorize the patterns that your enemies keep on using. So understanding the patterns has a bigger role than you might think, Sanraku.」

Katsu’s face distorts in an expression of regret. Sure, I know it as well, information is key in this game, and depending on how much you know about your enemies, it can often spell the difference between victory and defeat.

「Story bosses are all good and well, because they tend to involve all of the players. But the same cannot be said for Unique Monsters. You need to invest more time and money in them, and they are clearly not for everyone. They are a problem that requires different methods to solve.」

「Now that you mention it,」

「Precisely. Next, the Library. They are a little bit better informed than the other two guilds, and from what I could see they can hold their own when haggling quite well. Meaning they know how to assess the value of information and the price to pay for it.」 \nGenerally speaking, the goal of every guild out there is to gain as many rare and unique items as possible and to conquer the newly opened places before anyone else does exactly that. That’s how it’s supposed to be. But that’s not what Library is after. They are fine with others gaining items and growing in power, with others discovering new areas before them. They only care to acquire as much knowledge as possible. All to better understand this world.

「Nevertheless, they are still people. And people can be tempted if you have the things they want.」

「You have to be a true maniac to be willing to pay twenty percent of someone’s debt just to acquire one book.」

「I’d say that’s an adequate price, since they are currently only three such volumes in the entire server.」

Putting it that way, that was actually quite a reasonable argument. For us it may not be worth all that much, but since there are only three copies of it in the entire game, it means that people would actually be willing to pay quite a bit of money just so they could get their hands on one of those.

「And finally, we have SF-Zoo…… As you could see, Sanraku-kun, they are like a fleetswarm of locusts. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that they are players and not actually monsters in human shape.」

\n「Sanraku-kun…… I don’t know what other secrets you are hiding right now, but maybe it would be best if only we know about them. For the sake of everyone else’s sanity.」

「I have no problem with that, however, if they were to offer me something really valuable in exchange for more information I don’t know if I’d be able to openly refuse them……」

It was a good thing that Emul was not here right now. Because of that I could answer honestly and after thinking matters through.

However, unlike Ashura-kai, I got a feeling that SF-Zoo wouldn’t try to break any sort of taboos. It means more or less that their action would not cause any direct harm to neither the players nor the NPCs.

「…… Oh well, we can cross that bridge once are actually on it.」

「If push comes to shove we can always help each other out. That’s what “guilds” are for, right?」