ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

Uwah, the intervals in between the attacks of this beetle were unexpectedly short. If I won’t manage to maintain my stamina bar properly, I might not be able to dodge it.

Having no other choice I started to run away, while the beetle was busy with stomping all over the dropped items that were still laying on the floor, turning them into clouds of polygons as the beetle ran over them. It made a U-turn to charge at me again, but I was no longer even there.

「Where the fuck are you aiming at, you moron!?」

「Stop provoking him, you idiot!!!」

Ooups. Talk about a bad habit.

It’s not that I hate this place. It was really fun and amusing in its own right, full of obstacles to overcome and things that would slow down our pursuers.

I used an opportunity to jump onto a tree that was relatively small and got onto the high ground to avoid getting myself rammed into.

I thought that the tree would be my shield. That this obstacle would prove itself to be too much for the monster and that it would eventually lose interest and go away. Boy, just how wrong I was. I clearly underestimated the tenacity of the monsters, and that their definition of “obstacle” was different from us players.

「Oi, oi, looks like this dude doesn’t care about where we are! He must really want to do us in!!」

You could hear a really disturbing cracking sound coming down from below us. Looking down and behind us, the beetle was still charging at us while knocking down any trees that were in the nearby vicinity. …… Incidentally, it seems as though it didn’t suffer any damage.

Now that I think about it, there were many fallen trees scattered throughout this area…… Was the culprit you, little beetle?

「What are we going to do!?」

「Shut up! Let me think about it for a second!」

The beetle was running straight towards us, crushing every single flower that stood in his way. ‘Why is it following us so persistently? It wasn’t the first time ever that we tried to taunt a monster, but it was the first time ever it was so successful. …… It was certainly strange, but we must have triggered some kind of hidden conditions without even realizing it.

「What was it that we did after coming here….. Ooups.」

「I’m falling! Oh my God, I am going to fall down! I don’t want to die!」 𝑓𝒓𝚎e𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯𝘰𝐯𝒆𝑙.c𝚘m

While we were running even further into the caves, I realized that some of the trees had those strange fruits growing from their branches. It was something like a pine cone, or more like an armored apple? Whatever it was, I picked a few of them and placed them in my inventory, with the intention of reading their description later on.

「Butterflies, bees, collecting…… Insect-type, mantis, stag beetle and…… nectar? No, but this area is way too……」

What comes to my mind is the storage bag that the butterfly from earlier dropped. Since the monsters in this area were all busy collecting it, maybe it was a sort of staple food for monsters in the area?

Now, what would be the most efficient way of acquiring nectar for monsters that weren’t bees and butterflies, monsters that were generally unable to collect it themselves?

「I’m suddenly getting flashback from the United Rounds!」

It was suddenly starting to make an awful lot of sense. Since it wasn’t able to harass the butterflies or bees for it, it was aiming to devour the nectar sack that was currently resting inside of my inventory. If you want to loot others, go do that in the frigging United Rounds!

「Hmm? Ahh, throw it…… Throwing item…… Others……」

So, does that mean I could use that nectar sack to distract the beetle from me and remove the aggro it was currently showing towards us!? Well, might as well……

「I’m going to do it! I’m going to throw this thing at it!」

「Why would you do such a thing!?」

「Emul, please remember that…… If it sounds stupid but it works, than it ain’t stupid! Anything to avoid having to taste the bitterness of utter defeat!」

Haah, it was such a drag that apparently Emul wasn’t able to understand the glory of this quote. Really it was far better to forsake one item and walk free than having to be defeated and robbed of your entire possessions. Relax, bunny. This is just a stupid game.

That stag beetle seemed to be a real handful, and the fact that it was able to sense the rare items in my possession was even bigger of a drag. …… Or rather, it was really frustrating.

「You say that, but we must put some distance in between us first……!」

Don’t worry, I already had a plan for taking care of that. Instead of letting it do as it pleased with us, who are weaker than it, let’s get it to have a go at someone its own size!

That is why I was letting it chase us further this whole time. Now, little beetle…… Let’s see how you fare against someone stronger than you!

When you speak of both colonies of bees and ants, there are some similarities between the two, like how they form societies divided into roles, with queen at the very top. In both east and west, the figure of Queen Bee or Ant Queen is something that gets eagerly depicted in various forms of entertainment. Games are especially potent ground for that motif, especially where the bees mobs appear.

Beetles were larger and more ferocious than bees, so when some of them saw the beetle charging in their direction, they began to hurry up and ran away. In that regard, it was almost the same as if the beetle was covered in “certain” curse makings.

Right now I was following a lonely Empire Bee Worker that was running away back towards its hive. It was a natural reaction for the bees to have, but since it was just a game, the bee had no way of knowing that it was being tailed. After a while, it managed to bring us to its hive.

「I can see it, I can see it…… It was such a chore dragging you here!」

It was certainly one huge beehive…… While looking at this huge hexagonal structure, I used all of my remaining stamina to overtake the bee. Right before me, there were different kinds of bees, maybe Guardians or Keepers or whatever. Anyways, it looks like they were programmed to fight anybody who would dare to try and get close to their Hive.

「Oh, you don’t need to worry about me, guys! I come in peace…… Yeah right!」

I then keep on running at full speed, but instead of going forward I suddenly slide to the right. It was a maneuver meant not to evade, but rather to make way. In the next moment the stag beetle smashed right into the Hive, where there was more honey and nectar than he could possibly imagine or eat in his lifetime.

「Hahaha! Look at that, Emul! Just look! This little sh*t is digging right into it as if it was a multi-course gourmet dinner or something!」

It was already too late for the beetle to do anything about it. The deed was done. It tried to slow down at the last possible moment and change its direction, but the momentum and speed did all the work, sending it right into the hive at full force.

And just as you would expect, the bees attacked the intruder all at once, making a short work of him. I would like to say here that it was a battle of giant monsters, but it was more of a battle of insects rather than anything else.

We watch this monstrous spectacle while hiding in the shade behind the trees. If I had to compare it to anything, it was like playing an RTS game with a strategy of charging your commander right in the middle of the enemy’s territory, only to find out that it was full of units that were way stronger than you are at the current moment…… It was oddly satisfying but also kind of sad to watch……

「We, we did it! It really worked! We managed to successfully lure him into the hive and dispose of it! Now let’s just run away before someone notices us and……」 ƒ𝘳ee𝔀e𝚋n૦𝐯el.c𝗼𝓂

「Say, Emul, this……」

I pointed towards the ground right beneath the hive, which was literally ridden with items, both normal and rare. Could this be that every time a bee died inside of this hive its dropped items would just fall out into the open like that? If I could see my face right now, it would certain be something like: “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Talk about a loophole in the system.

There was no sign of other players nearby. The beetle must have accepted its death for it quit struggling, and the bees were currently busy finishing it off. …… How about some quick scavenging, my friend?