No Game No Life

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It has already been 16 hours since Jibril’s game started. The date: “Year 132 B.T.” was displayed on the “Map”. In other words, inside the game, 52 years had already pa.s.sed.

“Done, next! Hurry!”

“… too slow… hurry up, and mail it…!”

It has been 10 hours since they found out that the rules allow them to deceive units. In that time, Sora and s.h.i.+ro, without stopping their hands for even an instant, did nothing but write “Commands”.

“Y-you’re either really motivated or not motivated at all, it’s only those 2 extremes!”

Steph, who was in charge of mailing them, was making a full speed round trip to the “Mailbox”. Originally Sora, or perhaps even Steph, would have been able to reach the “Mailbox” by reaching out with their hands. However, since the three of them had regressed to the size of an infant, now it was too far.

“Y-you have a proper reason for making me run… right!?” Steph asked about the meaning of the heavy labor that she was enduring.

“Of course. The biggest factor in determining victory or defeat in a game would be…” Sora answers as he spreads the “Map” on the desk, and taps it lightly with his finger, and slides it towards the air.

“… Information, right?” Sora said as he projected an image of the world map in midair, which caused Steph to open her eyes wide.

“This was the Lucia continent!? S-since when were we able to see all this…”

Some “Scouts” barely illuminated the area around the capital on the blackened “Terrain Map”.

Using more than ten thousand of those “Scouts”, the whole continent was revealed, and that was currently being projected.

“H-how did you do this!? So many “Scouts”…”

Yes, Steph’s surprise was understandable. Up until now, the “Scouts” died in only a few minutes of their time, even in game time, they lived for 2 months at most. However, even in this h.e.l.l, where ashes of death rained incessantly, and where encountering the other races meant death; they were maintaining as many as four orders of magnitude of “Scouts”. This “Terrain Map” proved that their survival rate was raised. In that case, what Steph was asking about was the method to do that. Sora grins and answers:

“… I made them make a “Telescope””

“Aaah… As expected. After all, you were the type that uses cheats and trickery…”

Steph was disappointed from the bottom of her heart at the situation, but Sora objects with disappointment.

In this pitch white world with nuclear warfare, just one future technology, is cheating…?

“That was unexpected!? This is mostly according to the “Specifications”. What’s wrong with using a move within the specifications of the game!”

“… the materials… for the lenses… “Gla.s.s”… is… practically limitless…”

Even in the present Elkia, gla.s.s clear enough to make lenses is by no means cheap nor abundant. Steph is unnecessarily doubtful of s.h.i.+ro, who stated that in the era of the Great War it was “practically limitless”.

“It’s like that. After all, these idiots keep making as much as we want♪” Sora laughs as if making fun of them.

In that instant, there was another flash of light, and a power strong enough to drill a hole in the earth rained down from the sky… That’s right, in other words,

“… “Super high temperature high pressure impact” … the power to vaporize deserts, mountains… and even underground mines.”

──Just like a desert turning into gla.s.s in the past nuclear war.

“Gla.s.s” containing lead coming from cerussite. Those idiots were the ones that were producing it for us. An infinite amount of gla.s.s that, when polished, was clear enough to make lenses.

“Then, we just needed to mail a “Command” telling them to polish the gla.s.s thoroughly and make the lenses according to the plans.”

If they do that, then the units don’t even need to have optical technology.

The units simply followed the “Command” – the plans. Without understanding anything, the units combined 4 convexo-concave lenses and made a terrestrial telescope with 50x magnification. Thus, their ability to detect enemies, and their field of view on the map both increased. But, of course, if it was just that, the “Scouts’” survival rate wouldn’t increase so dramatically.

Calculating comparatively safer routes of transport, establis.h.i.+ng survival technologies, a method to farm even in this desolate world, implementing the technology to preserve foods, etc. They fumbled to disclose all that, and it resulted in a large number of “Commands” being given out, but,

“…Nii… I found it…” s.h.i.+ro said, and Sora jumped on top of the table – the “Map”.

And, upon the world that was being projected little by little… upon the world map that was being revealed, units from a different faction - one group of the “objectives”, was displayed.

“As expected… They are “hunting”” Sora chuckles, they were hunting by moving periodically along a fixed route.

He touches the “Scout” and pinches out, it’s field of view is then projected in midair. And, with a full face smile, he opens his arms to the one across the telescope.

“Welcome, Warbeast-san ♪ We are friends, right～?”

“... I’d rather not have that kind of friends...”

Come on, I will scam you out of everything you have. Steph could almost hear Sora saying that, so she groaned a little.

──In a world contaminated by the black ash, where everything could be blown away the next moment; something like farming in settlements is not worth it unless you have the leeway of a high ranking race. Furthermore, if you have the physical abilities of the Warbeasts, then hunting and gathering is more reliable. But, there is a problem with the route and frequency.

“...Nii… the route calculations, are done…”

In perfect synchrony, s.h.i.+ro shows him a memo with the routes that she exposed in an instant. The pack (stack) of Warbeasts was making round trips along the six routes in about three seconds each. Three seconds… In game time that is almost every day, then that means…

“As expected… They are starving. Weeell then, it’s time for some fun “Diplomacy”, s.h.i.+ro!”

It is such a world. Surely there is also lack of prey, in other words. There is an opening to take advantage of them, that is, that they are a race with few in numbers.

Sora laughs a little at the expected glare.

Sora and s.h.i.+ro add just the coordinates to the “Commands” they had prepared beforehand, and hand them over to Steph. She mails them with a full-speed dash once again, and returns,

“S-specifically how… how will you turn the Warbeasts... into allies?” Steph asked, out of breath.

But Sora and s.h.i.+ro frown at her question, and answer:

“... how to… make allies... out of… the starving Warbeasts?”

“Do you want to serve Immanity in a silver plate to the hungry Warbeasts?”

Certainly, they have already verified that they can deceive units. But, even so. There’s the fact that promises, contracts, etc. are meaningless in this world. And the fact that if they sense Immanity’s existence it’s over. Those are solid facts.

In that case...

Sora announces with an evil smile that doesn’t suit an eighteen year old kid:

“First, we will obtain one “Elf Unit””

“... H-huh? It wasn’t diplomacy with the Warbeasts?”

To Steph’s question, Sora and s.h.i.+ro just look at the projected map, and answer.

──On top of the projected map, one “Scout” was moving.

And, when it reached the Warbeasts’ hunting route, it turned back and returned, just like that.

… What does that mean? Sora antic.i.p.ated that Steph would want to ask something like that, so he explains:

“I made it leave some food and then return - I also included a ‘love letter’, of course”

Fortunately, although they are crude, thanks to the improvements in agriculture, preservation technology, etc.; we have some extra food. Smoked chicken, pickled potatoes… for the starving Warbeasts, that will be a treat.

So that they wouldn’t be able to follow the smell, they made the unit cover it with the deathly ash, then they made it double check it, then they chose a route that they wouldn’t pa.s.s through until six days later, and finally they made it leave it and return.

After about 18 seconds of real time, the stack of Warbeasts picked that up. And, surely, they also read the ‘Love letter’ that Sora wrote.

“‘Love letter’... you mean a just letter, right? What are its contents?”

“A ‘diplomatic trade’ proposal”

That’s right, the letter that he wrote in the Warbeast’s language, was a proposal of trade between races. It was:

“That ‘For each Elf you kidnap, I’ll offer you this amount of food’♪”

To put it simply, it is a proposal for “slave trading”. That was what Sora said that with a full face smile. Normally, Steph would have fired off some severe criticisms, but,

“... eh? kidnapping Elves… can they really do such a thing!?”

Before that, she raised a valid point: in the first place, isn’t that impossible?

Can the Warbeasts even kidnap someone from the race that is the most skilled at magic? Sora answers this question:

“They can” He arrogantly councludes, and continues:

“It is extremely trivial. Very easily… even easier than taking a breath.”

Sora, who even included that method in the letter, just smiles darkly.

That’s right. The opponents are the ones who are the most skilled at magic, and are famous around the world, the Elf-samas, but…

“No matter what magic, or what power... they are all useless.”

Sora deepens his sneer and continues:

“That’s because we will create a situation where we won’t let them use magic. We won’t even let them resist.”

That was a secret technique using only the basic principles of the game, that is:

“Just with that, we will make them all powerless. Whether in the game right now, or the war in the past, that doesn’t change”

──Don’t let the opponent do anything that they want to do.

Do everything that they don’t want you to do.

Only that is true without exceptions, even in war.

“Do you understand? First, we will use the Warbeasts to bring an Elf over to our side.”

s.h.i.+ro continues the explanation dryly and dispa.s.sionately:

“...After doing, that… Next, using the Elf… we will make it sell… a different Elf.”

──Even if it’s just one, by bringing an “Elf Unit” over to our side, we will be able to use it for the next bout of “Diplomacy” In that case, we will dispatch that excellent magician-sama, from there, it will just be one after the other. In this way, we will pull all their strings.

Contrary to their too young appearance, the siblings made this conclusion with devil-like cruelty.

That sends a few s.h.i.+vers down Steph’s spine. Then, she looks at the projected “Map” with the 2 of them.

──All is going according to plan.

It is as if even reality followed Sora and s.h.i.+ro’s thoughts.

Just like they said, the group of Warbeasts appeared at the designated location with an Elf unit.

Yes, they were right… it was extremely trivial, very easy. Natural. Seeing that truth Steph opens her eyes wide, and Sora and s.h.i.+ro deepen their smiles.

──At that moment.

“...........................eh?”

──The Warbeast stack disappeared from the map.

Panicking, Sora projects the field of view of the scout that was doing reconnaissance from afar. When he did, he saw that both the group of Warbeasts, and the scenery around it, had disappeared without trace.

Displayed on the “Map” was just the “Elf Unit” returning trudgingly the way it came.

…………

Everyone is staring dumbfoundedly. Steph breaks the silence and asks:

“...Sora? You told them how to do the kidnapping, right?”

“Aaaah!! Wait, they actually did kidnap it and come , right?”

“... Nii… How, did you… intend, to… obtain it?”

But, in response to Sora’s strong reb.u.t.tal: ‘Did you a.s.sume something?’. s.h.i.+ro’s eyes were asking that, and at some point they had become cold and half-lidded. I see, it looks like the kidnapping went well, but then, how did he plan to bring it over to their side? s.h.i.+ro’s eyes were asking that question, so Sora responds:

“Eh? That is… By breaking its pride and heart, and teaching it the pleasures of this and that, they would make it obey everything we say. That’s why I instructed them to kidnap women first.”

“...wh, your idea is the worst!?” Steph guessed what he meant and opens her eyes wide, but Sora answers blankly:

“Eh?… If a group of orcs does that to an elf she submits, right?”

──Orcs, in other words, pig-men. Namely, Warbeasts of the wild boar clan.

Sora answered with doubtless eyes, as if he was saying something as obvious as the sun rising from the east.

……………………..

The response to that was a silence deeper than the sea, and a gaze cold enough to be frozen solid. But, not caring about any of that, Sora hits the table with his fist,

“Impossible…..! What was my mistake, what did I miss!? An elf getting caught by orcs and saying “Ku, just kill me”, and then immediately falling; those two scenes are a game’s modus operandi, they are creation’s providence, right! Making a l.u.s.t-starved “Ero Elf” (fromerly Elf) with an ahegao into a puppet. Just where is the mistake in this incredible and perfect plan...”

“... Nii, that’s not a game’s… providence… that is a thin book’s…” s.h.i.+ro whispers with half-lidded eyes, even though it is indeed incredible.

It seems that Sora is agonizing over his own mistake seriously, genuinely, and from the bottom of his heart.

“Actually Sora, in the first place… Orcs are not Warbeasts.”

──Wh-what!?

Sora goes weak on his knees, and grabs his tablet with a trembling hand. Then, he opens the entry about the “Exceed”, and screams to the heavens.

“d.a.m.n it! Are the orcs actually Demonia!? In that case, of course I failed!”

“No! That is not the reason why you failed, okay!?”

However, Steph’s voice did not reach Sora, who was cursing his own failures. What a basic mistake, he was conducting diplomacy with the wrong opponent!?

‘… No, regrets come later’ Sora convinces himself.

‘First, how will I recover from this mistake?’ Sora thinks, biting his nails and with a face full of impatience.

“──Diplomacy with the Demonia… but how should I take advantage of them…?!”

Demonia. It was a race that they hadn’t met yet, and had little information on. It wouldn’t be so easy to find an opening to take advantage o…

“Hey! I think you should apologize to the Warbeast units… can’t you at least give them something for free!?” Steph said, appealing for a compromise, but she was ignored.

Since they brought her along, they did a considerable number of things with the Elf unit.

──’In that case, those guys are satisfied, right? O rather I’m so jealous I could die. But please, forgive me for making you explode’ Sora thought.

“... Nii… isn’t this… an orc?”

The unit that s.h.i.+ro tapped was just a little bit to the south of the Elf unit’s road home. The unit’s name: 【Demonia・Orc 8】was clearly displayed, that was,

“Good play, s.h.i.+ro! Let’s use the scout to lead them on, and attack with a group!!”

Flying without hesitation, Sora’s pen was writing “Commands” with an unbelievable speed.

“W-wait a second! Didn’t you lose track of your objective!?”

She was pointing out that they couldn’t kidnap it like that, but…

“Shut up! All those who are elves have a destiny to go from being kidnapped by orcs and saying “Ku, just kill me” to transforming into Ero Elves! I have judged that the providence would not be fooled by the change in notation of “elves” to “Elves (Forest spirits race)”!!”

“How can you say that to the person who is supposed to be judging the most!!”

Steph screamed at her wits end, but they made her drop the subject. She mails the “Commands” that were finished. On the other hand, Sora was calculating calmly.

If it goes well, they would be able to spy on the movements of the Demonia, whom they don’t have enough information about.

The falling by pleasure part was… Well, even if they didn’t wish for it, if it was the exhausted Elf, they would capture-

──’And well, most importantly’ Sora thought.

Sora, with a lewd look on his face, prepares his smartphone and glares at the map. It is probably happening right now, right? An extremely lewd 18+ spectacle.

Sora selects the scout unit that is supposed to be looking at that through it’s telescope. In order to display that field of view, he just needs to pinch out with his fingers, however...

“... Nii, right now, you’re 1.8 years old… 18+ is… no good…”

“Hah, hahaha, ahahaha!! I thought you’d say that, my sister, however!” s.h.i.+ro blocked his move, but Sora responded with a perfect three stage laugh.

“One second of real time is eight hours inside the game! In the first place, it can’t be seen with the naked eye!” Sora yells a refutation as he readies his smartphone.

“But, with a super slow motion video, I can review it after turning back into an 18 year old, and save certain still pictures… Well, it will be displayed in at least one frame, right? Anyhow, I don’t think there is a problem, but do you have any objections!?”

As Sora speaks loudly and eloquently, Steph finally notices:

“Y-you… That was your objective from the start!?”

“Hm, you don’t understand anything at all, huh!? I’m always willing to do whatever’s necessary!” Sora said, and pinches out on the scout, triumphantly.

“That said, I don’t have any intention of missing such a delicious side-…”

‘...effect’. It seems that he wanted to end the sentence like that, however.

“...Huh?”

When they faced the “Map”’s display, there was a problem.

──The displayed orc units were gradually decreasing.

At first Sora, s.h.i.+ro, and even Steph thought that they were being defeated by the Elf’s counterattack. But soon, the three of them realized that that wasn’t the case, and tilted their heads. They did so because even after two long seconds, or 16 in-game hours, the units continued to decrease one by one. If they were just fighting normally, it wouldn’t have become so drawn-out. In that case, just what the h.e.l.l was happening...?

Among the three of them Sora gathered his wits the fastest, and gulped:

“Don’t tell me… The orcs are getting squeezed out to exhaustion and drying up? Is that it?” Sora said with a stiff face.

As if to support his argument, the Elf was now dragging along the last one of the 8 orcs, and was on its way back home once again.

Time stopped. How many seconds… how many minutes long was that cold silence?

Then, a few words were whispered:

“... nii … it seems, the Elves have… started to hunt orcs…?”

As if s.h.i.+ro’s mutterings had paved the way…

The Elf army (stack) was now waging war with the orcs everywhere, and had started to capture them.

──’Hmm… well then, what does this mean.’ Sora thought.

Sora was thinking as if it was someone else’s problem, as if he was observing from a G.o.d’s point of view, and nodded.

“I see. Since the Elves are endorsing slavery... Was that their intention?”

Understanding, Sora then remembered Kurami, who is Fiel’s slave.

...After several seconds of careful consideration, Sora spreaded the wings of his imagination with a good smile, but:

“I have never heard of anything like that!!!” Steph interrupted, and pointed her finger at the map so fast it made a whoosh sound.

“Because of Sora the Elves became… a, e, Eo Elves… just as you wished, right!? What should we do about this obscene change in history!? If Fiel-san saw this, she would kill us!”

──Ero Elves, for some reason she couldn’t say this and muttered unintelligibly.

But Sora aggressively flares up at the argument that stubbornly speaks about responsibility.

“Haaah!? The one who planned to transform one Ero Elf was me, I’ll admit that! However!!”

Making the same sound, this time it is Sora who points at the Elf unit,

“That means that if the whole race changed into Ero Elves, then they were that kind of race from the very beginning, right!?”

“Ack!”

“It’s no wonder I thought that Fiel’s unconcerned face was strange! Make no mistake, there is dirt behind that mask!! Haaa, I can see her doing all sorts of yuri stuff with Kurami!!”

Sora screamed that, and, suddenly, it occurred to him:

‘… That was unexpected, there is no way any race would be like that, right?’

Sora feels that it is Jibril who is making things considerably more complicated. What’s more, he can’t explain it very well, but sadism is truly the other side of masochism. The s.a.d.i.s.ts that destroyed the world to exhaustion were already unbelievably big perverts…

“... Nii… the orcs, keep decreasing… they will go extinct!”

And, as Sora was lost on his delusions and escaping from reality, the situation on the battlefield kept progressing. The Demonia were getting smoothly destroyed, and the orcs were getting captured…

“... kuu, why…” Sora hung his head and lamented deeply.

“As expected, they are overhunting huh!? Even that is the same as our previous world...! s.h.i.+t, just because they are orcs… just because they are genetically predisposed to have a high fertility, just because they are strong at night, all the orcs are getting stolen away…!? Is this something an intelligent life form should do!!?”

“Even though you understand that this is your own fault... how can you say that?”

He thought about the little bit of hope he saw using ero logic... alas!

It seems that right now, together with that hope, one race was going to be destroyed…

So this is war… how atrocious. Sora hung his head disappointedly because of that, however,

“.......ah”

To s.h.i.+ro’s single muttering, both Sora and Steph raise their heads.

Then, in amazement, the three of them realized that everything had occurred in less than 60 minutes. Though, in game time, it spanned more than three years.

What originated from Sora’s group’s trifling meddling was…

──An all out, full force war between the Demonia and the Elves.

The Demonia’s creator - the “Demon King” intervenes against the overhunting Elves. Using a large scale counterattack they dished out a serious amount of damage and forced the Elves into a retreating battle.

Similarly, the Elves used their creator’s weapon - “Aka Si Anse”, to annihilate the “Demon King”. Thus, they thought the front lines would collapse, but there was another force reinforcing the Demonia.

They were the Dwarves, who thought that the “Phantasma killer” was dangerous. Using several Phantasmas they reinforced the front lines. The Elves were driven into a disadvantageous position once again, but there were other forces that also saw the Dwarves as potential enemies. Cooperating with part of the Dragonia, as well as the Fairies, the Elves expanded the front lines.

Like a rolling s...o...b..ll, the more the sacrifices increased, the worse the flames of war became...

The extremely chaotic and sticky situation of an all-out war. It seemed like it wasn’t going to end.

──But, disappointingly.

Without any warning, it ended abruptly. All of a sudden, light rained down on both armies. It was like a calamity pa.s.sed through. With the Flugel’s indiscriminate attack, both armies’ main forces were annihilated.

────……….

──And, maybe the “Scout” looking at the aftermath got blown away, but the footage stopped.

It was only a bit short of 60 minutes.

Amongst them, there was one person who gazed at the grand tragedy that was now just empty s.p.a.ce, and gained peace of mind.

Sora nodded several times, as if trying to convince himself,

“... s.h.i.+ro, let’s just say that everything was Jibril’s fault. What do you think?”

“... No objections…”

“All right, spectating is over! Case closed, well then, let’s return to the game!”

“... yeah～”

Saying that, they blamed all the super-large scale tragedies that they caused on Jibril, and nodded at each other as if nothing had happened.

“Someone, help! Two war criminals are running away! Where is the rule of law!?” Only Steph continued to complain about justice, the two war criminals (siblings) went back to writing “Commands”.

──However.

“Hmm… s.h.i.+ro, we have less time than I thought, let’s give it our all”

“... yes…”

With a complicated face, the 2 of them became serious and started to write fiercely once more.

“ Sora～So～ra～? If you’re going to say that everything is going according to plan, now’s your chance～?”

So you don’t have any intention of running until the end? Steph further presses for an answer:

“If you were to say that now, it would be so funny! I would roll around the floor laughing♪”

──In the first place, there is this 【Task】. The mistake that made it a struggle for their lives with Jibril. And the mistake with the Ero Elves incident; in the end, it only fanned the flames of war. As Steph blames him for the successive mistakes, even Sora starts sweating.

“Yes, hmm… certainly, everything is going far from the plan, right?… yes”

Sora averts his gaze and laughs. She made him admit it, albeit reluctantly. But it wasn’t just Sora, s.h.i.+ro was also making a complicated face…

“──And yet, everything is going according to plan. Also, that is not a very good expectation.”

“... In the first place, if she wants to win against us… Jibril has no choice but to do this…”

Those complicated faces… She finally realized that they were really impatient faces.

“..................”

Steph stopped talking, as if she was telling them to continue, and stared at them as if waiting for something.

“...This game. I told you that we can win it even with our eyes closed, right?” Sora answered without stopping his writing hand.

──If it was just winning. If they just had to defeat Jibril.

No bluffing, it is an easy win. Even a null game shouldn’t be so easy. To the extent that,

“──really, we can win even with our eyes closed”

“...yes. After all… if it is just winning…”

If it was just winning. If they even recognized that they had to sacrifice someone──

“We don’t have to do anything. Just with that, Jibril will self-destruct and lose.”

That’s right, for example: Actions like the indiscriminate attack from a little while ago. Actions caused because she notices Immanity - notices them. Those actions will inevitably lead to that result.

“...That’s why we are in a hurry. Here, mail these”

He hurried her on with a face that told her that they had no more leeway. Steph, once again, started running and mailed the commands...