Nightmare Fantasy Online

"What a race, ladies and gents! Team 'Darkland Walkers' is not competing with their best deck. Or so everyone believed at the start, but contenders Black Bone, Dawn, Dusk, and Aino have shown us just how wrong we are! They are currently in the lead, with the Homura Thawing Committee right behind them!" - Announcer

The announcer sure knows how to get a show going. The crowd is going wild for Bones and the others. Good for them...

"Ouch..." - Garami

"It still hurts?" - Palug

"For some unlogical reason..." - Garami

"Girl, you fell a 10-meter fall and landed right onto your neck! Not hurting would be way weirder! ...Ow..." - Rolf-Prix

"You're in no better shape yourself, mister have-no-bones-to-be-broken." - Garami

Phantom pains from VR games aren't unheard of, but they shouldn't have any lasting effects. I even contacted customer service but they concluded nothing was wrong with the hardware. So it's just my head being a jerk to my neck. The other two are in the same situation, so we left today's driving to the other four. Bones seemed to have escaped without lasting pains, lucky him...

"I would have recommended you to use a slimmer avatar instead of trying to live out your sexual dreams." - ???

"Sir Rolf! That's sexual harassment!" - Palug

"That wasn't me!" - Rolf-Prix

"Yeah...it sure wasn't..." - Garami

Someone entered our booth and started dissing me before the guys noticed her. It was an incredible feat, considering this girl could pass as a supermodel. She looks like a Dryad, or an Alrune, or whatever plant people are named in this game, except she has cold-blue skin, silver hair, and light-blue eyes. In short, she seems like a humanoid ice flower. There is only one player with this type of niche avatar in the game, as far as I know.

"What business has the great leader of the Homura Thawing Committee to do with us? Other than acting jealous?" - Garami

I spit out my venom to repay Cold=Rose, the player in front of us, for her underhanded comment from before. She's wearing an Eastern-styled short dress that fits the rumored samurai theme that the Homura country is so famous for. Other than the fact that it was frozen solid after the event with the rampaging Vile Queens. The dress didn't bother to hide the cold-hearted plant's figure, which wasn't exactly "flat", but it was far from as "bountiful" as one would expect from someone playing a humanoid plant species. 

"Ohohoho~. Please do not take it hard. I have just past experiences with using ill-fit avatars in other VR games, so I wished to give a piece of advice to my junior." - Cold=Rose

And where did she get that experience from?

"Whatever. Shouldn't you be cheering for your guild members right about now?" - Garami

"...Fine. I will be straight here. For the Committee, this event has lost its magic. All thanks to the list of event rewards we can trade points for after today." - Cold=Rose 

That one? I've been busy looking over what I can get thanks to the MOUNTAINLOAD of points we got for clearing the Darkland Fort race and defeating that giant Easter dragon yesterday. Honestly, when you only look at the event points, our Guild might have come in the first place. 

"Why did that mess up your plans?" - Rolf-Prix

"You see..., oh, fine. I will be honest here. A certain key item is required to thaw out the Homura Kingdom. Locating it is the main goal for our Committee at the moment." - Cold=Rose

"A key item, you say?" - Palug

"Yes. It is named the 'Core of Infernal Release', but other than that and its purpose, we have no information on it at all. It is honestly frustrating." - Cold=Rose

Infernal? Infernal...ahh. So that explains the sudden locust-like activity over at the Blastfields. That place is the closest location to a Magma element-based area if you start from Homura. And maybe that "Infernal"-bit also made the Thawing Committee prioritize the country with the highest demon population, aka the Umbral Kingdom.

"Yes, that is correct," confirmed the cold-looking plant woman when I laid out my theory. "But we did not locate anything despite having turned around every rock in the Blastfields except for the volcano located in the middle of the area." 

"Just telling you now, but I suspect that core you are searching for is not inside the volcano either." - Palug

"I second that. Inside that rock is a giant prison. It fits the 'infernal' bit, but it fails on the 'release' part." - Garami

"I-is that so..." - Cold=Rose

"Yup. Unless the item appears if you make a giant jail break from there, the odds are few something that important can be found there." - Garami

"And despite the many vicious criminals confined in it, I have yet to hear there being anything or anyone inside the prison with a connection to the Vile Queens, such as the one assaulting Homura during the 2nd event." - Palug

"*Sigh*... I was afraid that was the case." - Cold=Rose

Yeah. You people's locust-like assault on the Blastlands' materials left close to nothing for me to gather! 

"Hmm? Hold on a sec, when did you learn about that?" - Garami

"My Lady, I am a Courier as well as a knight. Gathering information during my travels is a prerequisite for my work." - Palug

That makes sense. Maybe I should get that class? Sounds like a good excuse to farm for game lore. 

"Then what? You thought that they would provide a story-related item in an optional event?" - Rolf-Prix

"...None of us exactly believed that idea, but since the Vile Queen who froze Homura was from the second event..." - Cold=Rose

"Then the unfreezing item could be from a different event. It would make some sense, weirdly, but that honestly feels like a misplay from the game's management. Even if the item wasn't in the game until after Homura was turned into a country-sized ice cube, they would have added the item through a patch instead of a different event." - Garami

"Yes... All the stress of not locating the item clouded our thought process back when the third event was being publicized..." - Cold=Rose

"Tough luck lady, but what's your deal today?" - Rolf-Prix

"That is... I wished to hear if you people, the front-liners of the Blastfields, so to say, had any info regarding the Core of Infernal Release. However..." - Cold=Rose

"I got zilch." - Garami

"And I second that." - Palug

"You won't see me traveling to a field that can make your car explode just by driving over the wrong rock." - Rolf-Prix

"*Sob, sob, sob*..." - Cold=Rose

Crap. Now she's crying for real. The "mature adult"-atmosphere around this plant lady has disappeared completely, leaving behind an overworked office lady in dire need of a vacation and a date. 

Strictly speaking, there's no need for me to go the way and help these guys, but the Thawing Committee has more than a few players behind their backs. Getting on their good side would be beneficial, especially since the Blackmarket guys have started to become restless when it comes to their demands, *gulp*... 

Also, I want some kimono fanservice. Aino has to share this desire with me, so it should be easy to convince her to help if that's needed. All we need is some clue to this core thingamajig...

"Oh, my! Contender Gorogrey's 'Giant Wishmaker' suddenly took off like a rocket! Is it just me, or is that magma coming out from the exhaust ports!?" - Announcer

Were my prayers answered already!? That "the author" guy's giant monstrosity from a 1001 Night-themed casino suddenly started to look like an erupting volcano! They passed by our car, which was currently in the top now after having knocked off the Thawing Committee's vehicle off the course. You guys! I'm trying to do business people with those poor fellows you guys sent down the abyss!!

FYI, the current race is being done in Al Azif's Dungeon. It's a flying, cube-shaped golem-like...something. How did that dusty old tome get his hands...papers(?) on that thing? Probably the same place where he got that rocket of a racing vehicle from. The giant pitfalls located on every floor in the flying Dungeon scream how devilish that Mimic is. So glad I didn't decide to join his demon-only gang. That guy is more devious than me!

"Th-that is-!?" - Cold=Rose

"Hold on, lady! Just cause that guy suddenly started spewing magma all over the place doesn't mean it automatically turns out to be the stuff you're looking for--!" - Rolf-Prix

"BWA-HAHAHAHA!! No one can ever outrun our Wishmaker! The hellish flames from the core of the inferno won't alloooooooo-!!" - Gorogrey

"Whoa-!? Contender Gorogrey just went out of bounds! The 'Giant Wishmaker's increased speed seems to have been too much for the driver, causing them to course out!" - Announcer

Aaaand down goes that idiot. Watch the roads, you idiot. Stupidity aside, that line about "inferno" and "core" is making Rolf's statement just now pretty weak. 

"...Welp, good luck trying to get your precious core from that idiot." - Garami

"So now we're just assuming he has the item? Isn't that a little too perfect!?" - Rolf-Prix

"Gorogrey is infamous in Umbral as being a troublemaker, albeit a talented one when it comes to treasure hunting." - Palug

"So the odds of him having found some awesome item during those hunts are high then." - Garami

"Hmm..., thinking about it, even if he doesn't have that Core-thingy, he should have something that resembles it to make that crazy nitro-magma booster." - Rolf-Prix

"-! Where can I find that doofus!" - Cold=Rose

"That is-" - Palug

"Hold on, there!" I shouted while covering the loose lips of this do-gooder rabbit. "What is it in for us if we help you guys locate that gambler idiot?"

I'm not going to sell myself short here! The Committee is a big "customer", so they'll be able to pay a high price if needed. Give me the gold, baby!!

---

"And so, you settled with not only giving them the information Sir Palug had, you even offered to escort this Cold=Rose person just for that?" - Bloom

"Hey, hey, how dare you call it that. Show some respect, Bloom. Some serious respect!" - Garami

After the event was done, the game was scheduled for a maintenance period lasting until the next night. We Dungeon Masters are given some special treatment though, allowing us to log in to our Dungeons and start pushing those Dungeon Master-limited rewards to use!

Oh, speaking of the event, Bones and the girls won their race. After that Author-guy blasted most of the competition off Al Azif's flying golem Dungeon, things were easy-peasy for them. What shocked me out of my mind was how they had a rematch with the summer bird from day 1. And won! Without any casualties!! Th-that's only because the rest of us risked our necks (literally) to defeat the dragon yesterday! Don't grow complacent, you guys! 

Well, thanks to that, our crew won the event with 167.721 points in total. The guys who got 2nd place, which was Al Azif's group, only had 82.921 points. Defeating those bosses gave us 50.000 points each. Without those, we would barely have scratched ourselves a spot on the top 10 list...

HOWEVER! We challenged. We won. We crushed the competition!! Bones and I, the ones who delivered the finishing blows to the bird and the dragon respectively, were given a message that we were to be given a special reward when the maintenance ended. Seeing as how the "Companion Creature" category on the event point exchange shop has been grayed out, I bet that we're to be given some special versions of those. 

But for now, the Dungeon! Then we can test our new friendly "companions" tomorrow. And the day after, we will meet up with Cold=Rose to find that Author-guy and have him spill where he got that magma nitro booster of his!

"And after that, I can start expanding the Darkland Fort in ways that I couldn't have imagined before! MWA-HAHAHAHA!!" - Garami

"Oh, no. She is in complete 'arrogance' mode..." - Bloom

Does this peanut gallery come with a slumber button? Eh, whatever. Let's have her do some good and give creative comments for the new stuff I'm adding to the Fort.