Chapter Eighty-Five: A One-on-One Challenge Order

For some reason, the Eighth Fleet and the Zeon pursuit force, which had temporarily ceased fire, tacitly drew back at the same time. Graham Harbourn did not continue ordering a retreat, and Kruz did not continue ordering an advance.

An uncanny power bound the battle between the two sides.

Item: Duel Decree, from the Dynasty Warriors world. Costs 1000 points to use. It can forcibly compel both factions into a duel and designate one representative from each side to face off in a one-on-one contest. During the duel, no one other than the two duelists can influence the outcome in any way. The duel has no time limit. If one side leaves the duel’s area, all nonplayer units in that faction will suffer a morale drop of twenty points, with total attack power reduced by twenty percent. If one side is severely wounded and flees, all nonplayer units in that faction will suffer a morale drop of thirty-five points, with total attack power reduced by twenty percent, the failure rate of skill activation doubled, and the chance of weapon and equipment damage doubled. If one side is killed, all nonplayer units in that faction will enter full rout: all attributes temporarily fall by half, while movement speed, agility, and every attribute related to speed are doubled. When the selected representative is a main-circuit player, the item points possessed by both sides become the stakes, and the victor receives the opponent’s wager. The Main God Space will collect a twenty percent windfall tax. This item can only be used in instances of B rank or lower.

This item had been pulled from a clay pot smashed open with the fifty grams of mustache hair once traded by October First using Cao Zhang, the Mustached Tiger, as payment.

Needless to say, its effect was indeed powerful. It was a purely strategic item, but a fatal weakness made it the sort of thing most people would toss straight into the shop.

That weakness was its instability.

Because the item would, according to the situation at hand, choose the most representative figure from the enemy faction. That figure might be a feeble queen who could not lift a finger, or a top-tier general who could hold a pass against ten thousand men, or even the chief eunuch who controlled the court with a flick of the hand. In short, there were far too many uncertain factors. As for how many players had been killed by such a double-edged item, there was no need to mention it again. If it landed on an NPC, that was manageable; at least by investigating every person in the enemy faction, one could roughly estimate which figures might appear and prepare countermeasures accordingly. But if it randomly selected an enemy player, then the double-edged sword became a double-edged axe. Win, and you strike it rich overnight. Lose, and you are left with nothing but shattered dreams, while also paying with your life.

October First’s original calculations had been quite elegant. Having failed at stealth, he simply threw caution to the wind, spent all his assets, and used this item, intending to hunt down his enemy by crushing the other side’s commander, while making a little extra money on the side.

In the Eighth Fleet, the only truly representative figures could only be three: our protagonist Kira Yamato, the big-chested beauty Murrue Ramius, or the wise commander Harbourn.

In other words, if Kira Yamato appeared, it would be a duel against the Strike Gundam. If it was Murrue, then it would be a battle between the Archangel and the enemy machine forces, with Mu and Kira unable to take the field. If it was Harbourn, then the opponent would be Menelaus. Aside from the somewhat greater threat posed by the protagonist’s halo, the mobility of the modified Kabini was more than enough to toy with and destroy two large warships.

However, a low-probability outcome occurred.

Since the beginning of the story, Hao Ren’s actions had greatly affected the Archangel. Kira Yamato, as the son of destiny, had been deeply influenced by him, with changes in both thought and temperament. His beloved machine had been strengthened; Mu had changed weapons and upgraded his unit ahead of schedule from an A to an S, greatly increasing his strength. Murrue and Bucky Lulu had been restored to their bodies by a soul-transfer technique used by his subordinates, and thus, in both public and private terms, they held him in some measure of awe. Lacus Clyne, the “female lead” whose influence could be said to have altered the entire course of Gundam SEED, was still half-dead from Hao Ren’s schemes.

The result of all this was that the Main God judged Hao Ren to be the most representative figure in the Archangel faction.

And, just by chance, when October First used the item, Hao Ren was in merged form, while the Black Wing Warrior was cracking his knuckles, eager to request a fight.

Thus, the battlefield was left in a vacuum, and two S-type units faced off.

One black, one white.

The Black Wing Warrior and the modified Kabini.

Seeing the enemy he longed to destroy appear before him, October First was first taken aback, then his lips curved into the smile of one about to have his sworn vengeance fulfilled.

Having gone all in, he had five items and zero points.

By the way, Hao Ren had ninety-seven items and zero points.

Leaving aside for the moment why someone blessed with the Golden Rule would be this poor, the item count alone was already rather unscientific...

In truth, of those ninety-seven items, ninety-three were foods created with the Cage of Logic. Excluding duplicates, there were really only four kinds: ice cream, pudding, cake, and mapo tofu, exclusive to Tachibana Kanade.

Girls are all greedy little eaters; no one could deny that, especially not Hao Ren, who had eleven—no, thirteen—girls in his keeping.

A person who can pull steaming mapo tofu out of nowhere at any time is not someone you can afford to offend.

Looking at the silver-white Kabini standing opposite him, the Black Wing Warrior habitually pushed up his glasses, a question mark practically rising above his head.

Hao Ren, in his own bored way, had even installed a pair of sunglasses on the machine’s main display monitor, right on the head unit, making it look exceptionally cool.

“A duel? Revenge? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said the Black Wing Warrior under Hao Ren’s control, shaking his head from side to side.

“You killed my beloved older brother! And now you still dare—despicable!” Before he could finish his furious accusation, he was ambushed by Hao Ren’s cold shot.

As the one who had activated the item, and having likewise learned the effect of the Duel Decree, would Hao Ren waste words with him? Replying at all was merely a basic tactic to lull people into carelessness; on the battlefield, the more you talk, the faster you die.

Of course, these truths did not belong to Hao Ren himself, but were the experience of Little Dark, who had roamed the galaxy for many years while merged with him.

Without another word, the Black Wing Warrior drew its single-barrel beam rifle and fired. The large thrusters on the Kabini’s right shoulder erupted fiercely, the frame shifting sharply to the left to evade. The Black Wing Warrior, having missed, immediately spread its wings; the entire machine turned into a streak of black light and charged toward the Kabini. In response, the Kabini swept its tail fins upward once more, and more than a dozen remote bits reappeared, transforming into several streaks of white light as they shot out. The bits rushed and halted in rapid succession, forming a highly unusual arrangement. Their tiny muzzles constantly adjusted their angles, then abruptly unleashed a web of interwoven beam fire, forcibly cutting off the Black Wing Warrior’s charge. The Black Wing Warrior had no choice but to brake hard and withdraw from the barrage’s reach.