Chapter 316 - A ‘Mobile’ Solution

As I stepped into a veil of warm sunlight, bright sparkles reflected off the blue waters that surrounded the islands of Macali. The distinct tropical feel of the place was vastly different from the barren lands of Purnesia. And it was not just appearances that made the two seem like day and night. One could feel a certain fullness or hunger within their bodies, caused by the presence, or absence, of mana in the surroundings.

Even more so than Sistina, Macali was a fountain of vibrant energy, powering just about everything. Thinking about it now, this group of islands was the closest that one could find to the ruins that we discovered. Yet, it was easy to forget how advanced their culture was when a whimsical king ruled, and people normally dressed in skimpy outfits that displayed none of the tech they used. I had it in my mind that futuristic societies would wear stiff looking jumpsuits that measured biometrics or something.

In contrast, many of the guards were equipped with the most typical of fantasy equipment – close combat weaponry and simple armors. Even the fancier ones merely looked like they were ready to hunt some gigantic monsters.

Gun weaponry was mysteriously absent, despite robots that could fire beams. Computer interfaces like the holographic devices Katalina now used were uncommon; much of the machinery was hard-wired to work with magic stones and enchanted with glyphs. This weird dichotomy of primitive and advanced methods made me wonder how it even evolved in such a way.

But then again, I recalled how the convenience of magic seemed to make humanity skip over a lot of inventions that made ‘modern’ otherworlders tilted their heads at. There were certainly a bunch of cooking techniques that weren’t ‘invented’ before I introduced them, only because cooking with magic had diverted those concepts onto a separate path.

The islanders of Macali skipped over physical augmentation, letting the bountiful source of mana power their tools and equipment for them. And just like the king who could hardly fight without being decked out in full gear, many people strengthened their armaments over their own bodies.

In a way, that concept itself was ‘modern’, as my home world certainly didn’t have people power up their bodies to a superhuman degree. Rather, we had weapons that could be used with a click of a button and tools to do the heavy lifting for us. All the while, humankind donned the most casual of attire, much like the skimpy clothing worn in Macali. I realized that I was being a hypocrite.

“Hey Mister, how about you spend a night with me? Only 50 silvers.”

I looked over at an attractive girl, puffing up her bosom nearly to the point of having them spill out her top. Her tanned skin and blondish hair made me think of a Gyaru on the beach. It was obvious what she was offering.

“Sorry, I’ll pass. Happily married, thank you.”

Her face scrunched up in disappointment. After all, I was wearing some pretty nice threads. Not fancy enough to hint to her that I was a king, so she likely assumed that I was some rich noble looking for some cheap thrills.

She brought her arms down and turned away from me, already scouting for her next target. My eyes trailed after her for a moment more, just enough to think, ‘Katalina’s are bigger anyway.’

“Look at you, checking out our sights! If you ever have a desire to venture, then you know where to find me!”

“Should you be saying that when you have seven wives already?” I turned to address the gaudily armored king who often got himself in trouble.

Koujiro put up a finger in protest.

“I believe in the policy of ‘Look, but no touch’. Us rulers have a certain liberty when it comes to taking a break from our ‘duties.’ An opportunity to get away and such.”

I pulled out my communicator and talked into it. “Hello, Liruru. Your husband here is planning to check out some fresh girls. You cool with that?”

Immediately, Koujiro dashed up to me and groveled for forgiveness. Apparently, he didn’t realize that I hadn’t even turned it on. I burst out laughing at how whipped he was.

“That’s what you get for dissing your girls. I can’t imagine what tricks Katalina would pull on me if I made her angry, but you have another six pairs of eyes to watch out for.”

“Alright, I guess we can get to business before you really get me in trouble….”

Koujiro led the way to the castle and down some stairs into the lower levels. For a national secret, it seemed like there wasn’t much security guarding the mobile suit that Koujiro rode. But then again, Katalina was partially responsible for its creation, so it wasn’t exactly unknown. Also, Koujiro’s abilities were probably best suited to pilot the thing, so not just anyone could hop in and take it for a spin.

But as a large set of doors opened to what appeared to be a hanger, my jaw dropped. Around the rebuilt mobile suit that Koujiro rode before, another seven were positioned around it in a semi-circle.

“Oi! What are you planning?! A whole royal fleet?!”

Given the more feminine designs of the mecha, it was obvious that they were meant for Koujiro’s wives. The sight of it gave me the same trauma as when the entire group greeted us for the first time, revealing that they were the rulers of Macali.

Certainly, this nation only had one Electi, so they had to come up with alternatives to balance the world powers. But I didn’t think that he would construct an entire squad of them on his own!

“What are you surprised about? You saw for yourself that a single one couldn’t even defeat your Master as a demon. So what else could I do but combine our powers into a team of ‘em, and at that point, it was just better to have one for all my girls.”

“Are you telling me that those can ‘gattai’ into-”

“Yup. Into a Mega Koujiro Buster!”

“Does that even have any stronger stats than the normal version?”

“No, but it certainly looks cool!”

At that point, it didn’t even matter. It wasn’t like there would be that many enemies that had the stats to fight off a gigantic mecha, much less eight of them. It was nice to live out one’s own fantasies when possible.

‘Speaking of which, I wonder if Katalina made any progress on that Peakstation 12…’

When I brought the degraded remains of one to her for analysis, it looked like there was a chance that she could recreate it. But when she realized what manner of device it was, she gave me a slight look of disapproval.

“Isn’t this world just a bit more interesting than that of these fantasies?” she asked at the time. I could already see the musings of a non-gamer dampening my prospects.

Despite being virtually an end-game character in this world, part of the fun was the journey itself. I couldn’t simply redo my life and start a fresh new one. But in video games, it was as easy as a new save file.

I patted Koujiro on the back, congratulating him on achieving his dreams and aspirations. Together, we walked over to the one he piloted.

“Speaking of which, did you name the thing? Seeing as you have multiple ones now.”

“Ah, this one’s Raiden. And then Liruru’s is Big Boss, and Snake, and Gray Fox…”

“I get the point.” Holding up my hand to stop him, I forgot that he always named things in sets. It was something to be expected.

Also, the clamor of an entire group approached us, their footsteps getting closer as they echoed across the hanger. We turned to see Koujiro’s entire family heading toward us.

Seven ladies with seven kids. The scene looked more like they should be walking to a nursery, rather than hanging out around giant robots. But one look from the children’s eyes spoke volumes of excitement they had for the huge ‘toys’ that were in Daddy’s garage.

“Are you going to make a set for them as well?” I teased.

“Eventually.” Koujiro smiled, crouching down and letting the toddlers climb onto his armor and hang off him. “Maybe after they manage not to steer their remote-control ones off the stairs or into the ocean.”

Koujiro pluck them off one by one, giving them a kiss before returning them to their mothers.

“Alright, Daddy has to go visit somewhere special. I’ll be back by dinnertime hopefully!”

As he said his goodbyes like a father heading off to work, I contacted Katalina to let her know that we were ready. A super-size portal was waiting to take us to the coordinates, so the two of us hopped into the cockpit.

Aside from being strapped into the pilot seat, there were no restraints for tag along passengers. The best I could do was brace myself next to him as the door closed and the dashboard activated, unveiling a clear view of the hanger outside. And in Koujiro fashion, he didn’t simply walk out of the place, he ‘danced’.

“Chan chan~! Ai chiki chiki ban ban~! Ai chiki chiki chan chan~! …What? You can’t deny the catchy songs of that Sanshiro utahime.”

It must have looked utterly silly to see a large robot shuffling towards the exit before blasting off, but I was inside the thing. I couldn’t see the madness. But knowing that I contributed to spreading it to this world, I was half regretting it.

After that sendoff, Katalina sent us a set of coordinates to fly to, where the giant portal was awaiting. On the other side, a completely white expanse filled the peephole that we could see through. But looking closer, there was a faint dot that stood out like a stain that couldn’t be unseen once found.

“Looks like that’s what we’re jumping to.” I pointed.

Koujiro gave me a nod, invoking his Ascended powers and Champion’s Cowl to protect Raiden. Leaping through the portal, he cut off his thrusters as we were spat straight down from it, thousands of meters up high.

I was a bit freaked out, clenching to the pilot seat for dear life, but Koujiro looked out with a sense of calm. Falling such a distance no longer bothered him, not since he was stuck in an endless falling loop for over half an hour once.

Thankfully, it didn’t take more than a few minutes for the ground to quickly approach. The dot from before grew larger and larger, until more texture came into view. As I stared at it to keep my mind off the sensation of gravity, I had to squint to make sure I was looking at it right.

The view of a large city became sharper. Unlike the ruins that we went to before, there was nothing covering this one. Tall buildings distinctly stretched into the sky, and while some portions of it was wrecked, it was very clear that a modern city stood here.

“It can’t be a coincidence,” I mumbled.

“From the reports you guys shared, I couldn’t believe it either. I had thought that I was living in the most advanced place that this world has to offer.”

Before the ruin’s discovery, the magic tech that Macali kept to themselves made comparative advances in the world seem insignificant. When they had opened their borders and allowed for ideas to be copied, a boom in technology resulted. Now, it seemed like even Macali had to catch up.

“We’re landing. Brace yourself.”

Koujiro flipped on the thrusters to slow our decent. Gripping the reins of his machine, he hovered over to a spot where adding another crater wouldn’t matter.

The impact of our landing jolted my head to the side, smacking it on something hard. But as I was busy rubbing the sore spot, Koujiro shouted in surprise.

“Nanja kore wa!!!”

“Huh? What do you mean, ‘what the hell?’ What’s so surprising about-”

I looked up and instantly froze. The tall buildings weren’t quite as advanced as the ones I saw before, but there was a certain familiarity to them. But that wasn’t what cut me off.

Fancy signs decorated the place, faded but obvious that they were once brightly colored and meant for a vibrant area. Even stranger, Japanese was displayed upon them, aged by still legible. A sudden wave of nostalgia hit me, and apparently, Koujiro felt very much the same.

He nearly reached forward to open his cockpit, but I pulled his hand back.

“Wait, we’re not safe outside. First, we have to find a terminal or something and see if the ruins can be rebooted.”

“But, but, how? How the hell is this here?!”

For Koujiro, it was a sight that he probably walked right by many times before, but for me, I had only seen it in games and anime. The eye-catching billboards, full of drawn characters. The playful Japanese words that spoke of fun and entertainment. The famous crossing known to all otaku alike.

We had somehow landed in front of what used to be the district of Akihabara.