Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 99

Epilogue

Ponsuke and others were holding a celebration party in the Capital of Diligence.

The reason behind the celebration was that because they finally could move on ahead from the Capital of Diligence.

Next was the Capital of Sincerity.

It was the current frontline.

Although, even though it was good that they could finally go to the  frontline, it was already July in the real world. The time inside the  game had also progressed significantly. The clearing group was  conquering the World of Lust.

Perhaps the clearing would be finished in the middle of the summer break?

Such rumor was also spreading.

Anri sat beside Ponsuke and grumbled.

「Dammit……that woman, she kept showing up in TV show and commercial……even though I’m far cuter than her.」

Ponsuke could only smile wryly.

「No, well……yeah.」

But, Ponsuke too often caught sight of Anri’s junior recently in the advertisement when playing video.

She didn’t look like such horrible person. Rather he even thought of her as cute.

If there was problem with her than it was her poor body curve.

Anri was enraged.

「And the agency too! I’ll definitely sue them.」

It seemed she wanted to vent out her indignation over the horrible treatment that she received.

However, the orcs, Blaze, Lighter, and Lily who were sitting in the same table were reacting negatively.

Prey sympathized with Anri, even so he suggested to her to not do such thing.

「I don’t recommend you to do that. In case you sue them, the agency  too won’t be able to withdraw because of how much trouble it can bring  them. They’ll definitely bring it up until courthouse.」

Blaze also held the same opinion.

「The dispute can keep going for years if it enter the courthouse. Besides it’ll be hard for you to gather the evidences.」

Anri groaned gunununu while looking at Ponsuke.

「Well~, I don’t really know much about this kind of thing. Though the slavedriver Lighter might know a lot.」

Lighter was drinking alcohol from an adorably small mug for gnome.

「Ponsuke-kun, your words are really thorny lately. But, I guess I  agree with Prey-san and Blaze-kun. But still……how well an agency can  manage the physical data in their possession will greatly affect the  trust of their talents. It will also greatly affect the trust of society  for them.」

It seemed Lighter was also knowledgeable.

Anri puffed up her cheeks.

「That’s why, those bad guys should be dragged to court――」

Lighter laughed

「No, this isn’t something that simple. The problem is how you don’t  have evidence and how few the merit is for the agency to let you win  while the demerit is so big. In the first place, the agency might not be  involved with the leak.」

Ponsuke and Anri looked like they didn’t get it.

Prey explained it to them in simple term.

「There’s no merit for them to leak out Anri-chan’s physical data with  how damaging doing that will be to their reputation among their talents  and society. Bluntly speaking, it’s possible that someone just made an  avatar to your likeness.」

Even without using Anri avatar, it was possible to attract customer using avatar that just looked similar.

Rather player who could notice that the avatar was exactly like Anri was few in number.

Lily shrugged.

「In the first play, you said it yourself, that your junior is  suspicious. That can’t be a proof that the agency did it. If the agency  was involved they would stop it before it became an article because  their own reputation was on the line.」

Ponsuke understood the explanation, but Anri still didn’t understand.

Blaze explained.

「It means that it’s possible your junior did it on her own. You know,  right now there’s a device that can easily measure someone’s physical  data right? If she took your general data with that and spread it out,  it would be easy to create an avatar using that data and some simple  additions. If that was what she did, it also wouldn’t serve as proof  because she didn’t copy the data from the agency.」

Ponsuke was impressed.

「Blaze-san, you really know a lot.」

「Well, I had investigated for a bit. Apparently that kind of case happened a lot recently.」

Anri was enraged.

「THAT WOMANNNNN!」

Lily made a troubled expression.

「Besides, if you sue your agency, what will the other agencies think?  It’s fine if you were popular but you still hadn’t debuted right? You  won’t be able to go to other agency after suing one agency to court.」

Anri slumped on the table.

「My image is in the mud and nobody will scout me now! Even if there is any they all are just suspicious people!」

Lighter drank his alcohol and his face reddened slightly.

「Bluntly speaking you’re finished. But it’s fine isn’t it? That world is glittery but it’s filled with a lot of hardships too.」

Prey also nodded.

「Well, the world has its many positives and negatives.」

Anri lifted up her face.

「Then, I’ll gather evidences and sue that woman.」

Everyone was exasperated, but at the same time they turned their gazes to Ponsuke.

It would be necessary to rely on the information broker for something like that.

If it was the information broker who was leading the management now,  surely he would be able to secure the evidences. Everyone had such  expectation.

But, Ponsuke shook his head.

「He’s really busy recently. I can’t contact him.」

Lighter recalled something and nodded.

「Now that you mention it, the overseas you said? It feels like they are getting desperate recently.」

Lily also spoke up.

「The number of Pandora players around me is also increasing. I had showed some acquaintances around inside this game.」

Blaze also nodded.

「My work partners are also getting curious.」

Prey’s atmosphere was a bit different than usual.

He rubbed his chin with his fingers while asking Ponsuke.

「Ponsuke-kun, have you heard anything from the information broker?」

Ponsuke shook his head.

「He didn’t mention anything except being busy abroad.」

Prey was about to ask one more question when Anri yelled.

「Listen to what I’m saying! I want to make that woman play no matter what!」

Ligther looked exasperated.

「No, we’re telling you it’s better if you don’t get involved with them. In the first place――we’ll be super busy after this.」

Ponsuke felt like Lighter was hiding something.

◇

Around that time.

Several spaceships were floating above the moon base.

They destroyed the defensive facilities and lowered down vehicles on  the ground. Soldiers wearing sturdy spacesuit appeared one after another  from inside them.

They were also using drones and other weapons. It was truly a scene of war.

But, not a single civilian on earth was aware that such thing was taking place.

The lean and tall soldiers of the mankind that lived in moon city were fighting back by wearing powered suits.

「These barbarians!」

「Kill them! Kill these earth insects!」

「Don’t let them move any furth――」

Amidst that, a female soldier leaped into the midst of the enemies.

She defeated all the soldiers and drones that assaulted her like it  was an action movie scene. She was exterminating the enemy force.

She was wearing a special black space suit that left no imagination of her body line.

She then used a drone to check the situation inside the facility.

「Found it. This way.」

She informed through the communication line that she had found the  facility that was their objective. Reinforcements were dispatched to  there in succession.

The woman was a Japanese, but the soldiers who were fighting here weren’t consisting of only Japanese people.

They suppressed the area and allowed the soldiers to gather one after  another, securing the safety of the place. Then a large capsule with  small arms and legs attached, a robot came.

The information broker was inside there.

He was looking at the situation outside from inside the capsule.

『As expected from [Mira]! You’re like a soldier from a movie. I never  thought I would be able to watch something like this in real life.』

The information broker was in great mood. The female soldier called Mira shrugged.

「No need for flattery. And? What about the moon base’s headquarters?」

The information broker was checking various information inside his capsule.

『Aa~, it’s fine. It has been safely suppressed. Still, these guys are  stupid aren’t they? Were they just planning to look down on us from the  moon?』

The information broker looked toward the soldiers who were lying  unmoving on the ground. He quickly moved to enter the facility after  learning that the safety inside had been secured.

The woman looked exasperated. She gave order to her subordinates.

「Come with me. We’re guarding the president.」

Her subordinates were like special force. They had the same emblem attached on their suits.

The name Silver Wings was written on the emblems.

A call came from their allies after they entered inside the facility.

『Oi, are these guys serious?』

『What a shocker. There’s almost no sortie.』

『Civilian? Do as planned.』

The opposition was weaker than expected. A lot of squads were in confusion because of that.

The defensive facility was certainly troublesome, but the moon base’s defense was abnormally weak.

The information broker laughed.

『Do you know? The lot in moon are descendants of the wealthy and  influential people who once ran away from earth. Apparently only the  middle classes and under classes remained on earth.』

Mira guarded the information broker silently.

She didn’t harbor particular like or dislike toward the information  broker, but she guarded him simply because she was ordered to.

『Those wealthy bunch must be thinking that those who remained behind  on earth got annihilated. It was reflected from their plan to one day  return to earth.』

Vivid traces of battle were carved on the passage. Corpses of enemy and ally littered the path.

But, most of the corpses belonged to the enemy.

『And yet the people who escaped underground came out to the surface.  They must felt panic. They tried to place the new reactor on earth under  the guise of technology sharing. A real bad substance could leak out  from the――』

Mira ran out of patience.

「And? What is it that you want to say?」

『Oops, pardon me. Well, to put it simply――』

The information broker, Mira, and her men stepped into a room. Allied soldiers were standing guard inside.

A lot of capsules were lined up there.

Similar to the capsule that the information broker was in, there was one person in each capsule.

But, the number was astounding.

The capsules were filled with liquid. The people inside them were all residents of the moon base.

It was as though they were sleeping.

『They had been having an impossible dream ever since the ancient time. It’s laughable right?』

Everyone inside the capsule was watching their ideal dream using the VR technology that was shared from earth.

These devices were sending information to earth. The information broker and others learned about the moon’s plan from there.

Mira approached one of the capsules.

A naked man was inside, but his abnormally thin body didn’t provoke  any sexual feeling. Because of that it also didn’t provoke any disgust.

「My, if I’m not wrong this person is――」

The information broker peered in and checked the person’s name. Then he nodded inside his capsule.

『Now that you mention it, he is one of the envoys that came to earth  last time. This guy was really cocky that time but……it looks like he’s  already inside this capsule for more than three months.』

There were multiple rooms like this inside the facility. A lot of humans were inside the capsule and experienced VR even now.

The difference from Pandora was that each person was experiencing their own world as though they were dreaming.

Mira sighed.

「Astonishing. They aren’t even coming out from their capsules even though their life is in danger like this.」

The information broker approached the device at the center of the room.

And then he spoke with excitement.

『Well, their dream right now must be so fun that it made them don’t want to come out at all. Just like with Pandora.』

Mira objected.

「This is different from Pandora.」

『In broad stroke of――wait, this isn’t the time for argument. I found it, it’s this.』

He operated the device and the floor rose up. A machine that was created with moon technology came out.

The information broker yelled.

『Finally! With this Pandora will be completed! Come, let’s recover this device quickly!』

Some scientists and engineers who were led here by the soldiers started detaching the device.

There were also captured moon scientists who were made to help with the detaching after their family was taken hostage.

The many capsules stopped functioning all at once when the electricity was cut off.

Mira looked at the man who was now struggling inside the capsule.

The man once came to earth.

He looked to be in pain, but soon he stopped moving.

The force that was launched from earth and destroyed the moon base  facility came here only for taking the VR machine that was created using  moon technology.

◇

Inside an abandoned building.

Pandora’s former executive was holding his head in his wits’ end.

He was in such state after hearing the information that the former minister brought.

The former executive yelled angrily.

「Why couldn’t you stop them!」

The former minister answered calmly.

「I’m a diet member of the opposition now. There was nothing I could  do by the time I got my hand on this information. I never even dreamed  that other army than the SDF would also participate.」

The moon suppression that was carried out by information broker’s group.

And the fact that almost all of the moon residents had died had also shocked the former minister.

The former executive was panicking.

「We need those moon bunch to dismantle the new reactor!」

The former minister also understood that.

「――Do you think they’ll do it?」

The former executive pressed his hands on his face.

「They will. They absolutely will. They absolutely will make the new reactor go out of control.」

The world kept moving without any pause.

The former minister didn’t see how he could put a stop to it no matter what he did.

The former minister asked the former executive――about the man behind the information broker.

「And? Who is the one who wrote the scenario until this point?」

The former executive stayed quiet for a while before he opened his mouth.

「I don’t know. But――there’s no doubt that he’s the first Selector. The last Selector is that orc boy. It’s definitely not him.」

The former executive said that there was a Selector behind the  information broker but, other than that they learned nothing else.

「Good grief. Based from what Ponsuke-kun said, there are a lot of Selectors out there. Why don’t you know his identity?」

The former executive shook his head.

「It’s impossible to investigate him in my current situation.  Besides……he never show himself at the open. He’s making it look like the  information broker is in control. That guy is cunning.」

He exposed the moon’s scheme, pinned the blame on the previous government, and in addition he marched onto the moon.

They couldn’t imagine what kind of Selector was able to do all those.

And then, the pro wrestler guy tilted his head.

「Is he really that cunning? Somehow it feels like he’s just making it up as he go along though?」

The former executive yelled angrily.

「There’s no way he can do all these with just that! Do you have muscle for brain up there huh!」

The former executive had also gotten really frayed up from living in inconvenience for this long.

But, the fierce looking pro wrestler looked slightly happy from getting insulted like that.

「S-stop that. You’re making me a bit happy.」

The former minister showed understanding to the pro wrestler’s feeling while thinking about the first Selector.

(A Selector who can do something like this huh……is someone like that  really exist? But, certainly thinking back there are a lot of strange  parts until now.)

The pro wrestler said how everything seemed haphazard. The former minister thought that unexpectedly he might not be wrong.

◇

Ponsuke got called by Lighter and Blaze.

「What’s the matter? I won’t agree with increasing the quota no matter what.」

Lighter became angry.

「Let’s talk about that matter later. Or rather, everyone’s treatment on me is really horrible lately!」

Blaze let out a dry laugh.

「Perhaps you should try placing your hand on your chest and look  inside yourself? Oops, actually we’re thinking to tell Ponsuke-kun  something. You are close with Anri-chan right?」

If he was asked whether he was close with Anri then it could be said so.

However, inside Ponsuke only considered it as a relationship inside the game.

「Yes. I think I’m close with her as guild member.」

Both Lighter and Blaze looked exasperated.

Lighter even complained.

「Are you an airhead? Or perhaps you’re dense? She’s already appealing at you that blatantly.」

As expected Blaze also criticized Ponsuke here.

「Anri-chan never be that clingy to anyone else other than you  Ponsuke-kun. She’s a candid girl who can easily get along with anyone,  and yet she will open up and grumble without reservation when in front  of you.」

For Ponsuke it was just a relationship inside game.

They had never even met in real life, so he could only laugh when being told that a girl was blatantly appealing to him.

「Are you saying that if we’re close inside game then it’ll also be  the same in real life? No, I don’t want to get misunderstand and get  laughed so I’m restraining myself. In the first place, everyone is  looking at Ponsuke and not actually me.」

Lighter folded his arms and fell into his thought.

And then he muttered something like 「No, I guess it’s better like this because it’s more convenient?」.

Blaze explained to Ponsuke.

「No, even so what she’s doing is completely――wait, that hurts! Lighter-san, why are you hitting me!?」

Lighter stopped Blaze from speaking any further, and then he pulled the talk back on topic as though making an excuse.

「No, yeah. You know! We are here today not to talk about that!  Actually, we want to talk about the junior that Anri-chan is resenting.」

Anri said that she absolutely wouldn’t forgive her.

If she kept going like that, she might one day went off to beat up her junior.

Everyone around Anri thought that she might really do just that.

「As expected that girl is horrible isn’t she? I also can’t believe that their agency just ignore it and made her debut instead.」

Blaze looked slightly troubled.

「Ponsuke-kun, this is a real life story.」

Blaze started with that sentence and talked about someone who seemed to be Anri’s junior.

Ponsuke too was dumbfounded after hearing the story.

「Eh? Umm, does she really need to go that far just to get job offers?」

Lighter explained to Ponsuke.

「You can easily recruit as many girl as you want into entertainment  business. It’s only natural for someone who wants to climb up no matter  what they have to do to appear from there. There are also a lot of  people who never do that kind of thing and become popular with proper  way. But, no matter the field there will always be a dark part to it.  It’s something that never changed even from a long time ago. And this  particular field is especially dark in that respect.」

Ponsuke fell into thought.

Even though it was Anri who got tossed away and abandoned, it was her junior who was actually in a more horrible situation.

She was doing in real life what Hotaru was doing, with uncles that had a lot of connection in the industry.

(What the hell……even though she sold out Anri-san, it’s like it came back to bite her in the ass with twice the hurts.)

Both Lighter and Blaze looked like they couldn’t talk about it in a  lot of detail because it was something that happened in real life.

However, Blaze sighed.

「I heard this from my acquaintance. It seems that the story of how  she brought down Anri-chan had spread as rumor. That girl, even if she  get popular she might get threatened from here on using that.」

Ponsuke looked at the two and thought.

(……Why are the two of them know that much?)

Lighter spoke to Ponsuke.

「That’s why, talk to Anri-chan carefully to not do anything stupid.  We’re already treated as a malicious guild right now. It won’t be funny  that if our member get arrested in real life too. Explain it to her,  that this girl is getting her just dessert IRL. Even that girl will  listen if it’s you telling her, Ponsuke-kun.」

Ponsuke said to Lighter.

「……It doesn’t sound convincing when Lighter-san told me that. It was you who used bomb in the Capital of Diligence wasn’t it?」

The power of that bomb was terrific and blew up the plaza of the Capital of Diligence into ruins.

Blaze too covered up his face.

If anything, Blaze was someone who just got dragged into that incident.

Lighter wordlessly averted his gaze.

「Oi, look this way!」

Ponsuke lifted up Lighter and shook him back and forth.

「I-it’s not like that! Let’s talk this out! I just wanted to test my  bomb’s power on the guard NPCs! The battle already broke out at that  time, so might as well! I didn’t expect that the explosion would be that  big! I’m not at fault!」

「It’s your fault no matter how you look at it!」

Ponsuke and co were going through joyful days without even knowing what was going on around them.

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