BXBX NOVEL Chapter 234: The Story of Unsightly, Biting Dog Part 1
Chapter 234: The Story of Unsightly, Biting Dog Part 1
「Emul? …… Oi, Emul? Are you alive, buddy?」
「S-S-S-S-S-Somehow…… B-B-B-Butt I cannot…… S-S-S-S-Stop shaking……」
「Noo, I’m really sorry for that, you know? But the explanation is at fault here as well, since it was not all that accurate. “Debuffs will be given to whoever attacks you”. I thought it might be good for you to touch it since you were not attacking. Now come here, open your mouth. I’ll give you a potion so that we can clear that abnormal status of yours…… There we go.」
「Abububububuh…… Geho!!! Geho! Geho! Geho!」
Oh, terribly sorry about that as well. My hand slipped there completely by accident.
「What would you do if we ended up getting buried deep within the bowels of the earth, huh!?」
「No, really, I am sorry for that. I was expecting something like that to happen, but it was even more exciting than I would have thought. Still, I would lie if I told you that at least a part of me was not scared there for a moment.」
「A part of…… Agggh, that’s it! I’m done! I’m done! I’m done! GEEEEEEZZZZZ!!!」
「Ouch, ouch, ouch, it hurts when you keep hitting my head like that, so could you please stop it? What matters here is that we are both alive and that we are safe and sound, right? So cut me some slack.
「No, that is beside the point! That was a total improvisation! There was nothing even remotely close to a plan behind that! I was prepared for another thing like that! But I was not prepared for something like THAT to happen!!! Ga, ga, ga, ga, ga, gah!!!」
Alright! Alright, already! Now please stop shaking my head so much!
With the limited acceleration we somehow managed to reach to the very bottom of the elevator shaft. However, due to the speed and the force it was really hard for me to handle the inertia properly.
Since I knew that it would be risky operation, I had a few contingency plans up my sleeve in case of emergency, but while we were going down so fast I really thought for a moment out there that this is it. I thought that we would be goners for sure.
「…… So? How was it, Emul? How did it feel to descend from the top to the very bottom so fast?」
「I don’t want to experience something like that ever again! Not in a million years! No matter what riches and what treasures you would offer me for that!」
Yeah, so…… I only started to notice, but for a Vorpal Bunny you sure cry and scream quite a lot, huh?
But oh well, it’s not that I was not expecting something like that.
「Emul, we are finally here. The lowest level.」
「Huuuuh……」
It also seems that this place chose to welcome us rather than get in our way. At least for now.
The lights around the floor light up once more. Seriously, how exactly do they even work? But what is important is that the whole place was now illuminated by those lights.
「What the hell, is this……!?」
「Ahh! It’s a hole! Another hole!? NOOOOO!!! I don’t want to fall anymore!!! I’m sick and tired of it!!!」
「Calm down! Emul, calm down! Calm the fuck down!!!」
Believe me, I don’t want to go through such an experience like that ever again either! But still, this scene, what does it even mean……?
I have no idea just how exactly below we have fallen, but it should not have been more than one hundred meters.
I thought that since we were so deep underground, the place that we would end up in would be a command room of sorts. However, upon arriving so deep underground, what we found out was another hole leading further underground. Just what was the technology that allowed for creating something like that so deep?
There was digging equipment scattered all over the hole and…… No, it was not all. Aside from that, there was a whole bunch of other tools and equipment that the purpose of which was unknown to us.
「…… Fumu, I feel like we may have skipped some processes alongside the way of getting here.」
「S-Sanraku-san! Take a look at that!」
「Hmm……?」
Looking in the direction where Emul was pointing while simultaneously hitting my head with his paw, there was an equipment peace of unknown purpose.
No, it was giving off a vibe similar to a computer, but surely it could not……
「Not that! The thing that is stuck to it!」
Stuck? According to Emul’s words, it seems that there would be something stuck into that machinery…… Oh, and there really was something stuck in there.
For me it looked just as if the two pieces of equipment were connected to one another by original design, but for someone who was unaware of that, it surely must have looked as if the one thing was stuck to the other. And there were three pieces of it. Or rather, they looked like something that could very well be combined with one another.
「Delta devices!」
「Hooray! We found them!」
So in the end, the items that we were looking for were hidden in the deepest parts of the ruins. The road here was twisted and really obscure, far from being able to call normal, but for now I would let that slide…… It was way better than having to fight your way out here through a sea of overpowered enemies.
But let us not get ahead of ourselves. After all, it is really foolish to just charge in blindly and take the items that just so happened to be laying there. First, we need to carefully investigate our surroundings…… If we carelessly touch the items, we might activate a trap or begin a surprise boss battle…… Ugh, my poor head.
「Wait just a moment, Emul. Let’s take a look around first, then we will take the items.」
「……? Okay then.」
Let’s see…… First, let’s take a look at…… this thing.
I carefully lean over the giant hole I nth ground, trying to see if I will be able to see what was at the very bottom of it. At the same time, I was making sure not to fall in by accident.
「Alright, and how about that……?」
Next, I tried kicking in some of the equipment that was laying around, to see if this accomplishes something. But even after waiting for a few seconds, I was unable to hear any sound that would have indicated that the junk reached the very bottom…… If you were to fall in there, it would spell your death for sure.
For the time being, let’s leave the hole alone. Because even if I wanted to, there was no way for me to investigate it, not without the help of a drone or something like that.
「…… A drone, huh?」
Sci-Fi stands for Science Fiction. In some instance it may also stand for Science Fantasy, but the general premise is always more or less the same: it describes a reality that lies way beyond the current humanity’s present.
In other words, even if it’s an interstellar travels or giant robots fighting one another in the midst of deep space, the common point of origin always lies in the modern technology.
「ShangriLa Frontier relies heavily on exploration, so even without specific skills…… Is that it?」
Even if that technology belonged to the alien race, it couldn’t have been entirely alien. Take the Tactical War Beasts for example: Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu and Seiryuu. All of them were based on the mythical beasts from the real world. So if we think about it in those categories……
In other words, the foundamental values are kid of like our own in real life, so if you look for the power source and power button, they should be around here somewhere…… Oho, bingo!
「Is the power even turned on? Huh? AR Holograph……?」
AR, Augmented Reality…… Unlike VR technology, which uploads the digital information directly into the brain, it is a technology that projects digital images onto the real world via holograms.
Nowadays it is used mostly to promote big companies and for live performances of famous artists, but I never would have thought that it would be possible to incorporate a technology like that for the sake of personal entertainment.
Now, the real question comes into play: which is better? A real amusement park recreated in VR with every detail? Or maybe a cybernetic theme park made possible thanks to the advanced AR technology?
But for now I let my thoughts come back to reality from those extra daydreams.
It seems that the separate video files could be selected by clicking on them on the holographic screen. Upon doing just that, an unfamiliar start up process started to take place.
「Oh wow! You can actually move that, Sanraku-san?」
「Okay, Emul. If you don’t touch anything, you cannot break anything. But on the contrary, if we don’t do something, we cannot make any progress.」
The touch panel keyboard had a really futuristic look to it. But the layout of the keys is exactly the same like that in the real world.
Is that supposed to be the “Enter” key? It should be, considering the keyboard’s layout. No, let’s see here…… Oh? Two of the three files seem to be corrupted? Or maybe it was just one?
「From the ends of the Earth to another dimension, I have played many Sci-Fi games before. So let’s see, whatever it is that we can do here……?」
I don’t really know how to repair Sci-Fi equipment, so let’s just see the last video that is available.