This is just a fan translation. Please bear inadequacies and mistranslated words being here and there.

[Infinite Dendrogram]

Chapter 9 Mary Adler

Kingdom of Altea . [Beef Eaters] Restaurant . [Holy Knight] Ray Starling

Me and Luke talk about our recent situations.
About how I died from PK, how I met Figaro in [Tombstone Labyrinth] , story after story.
For me, those are such rare events. Luke thinks so too.

May be meeting Luke was also one of those rare events?
It is troubling.
Why is default rate for encountering rare events in [Infinite Dendrogram]  that high?

“Ah, Ray.”

“What is it?”

“Turns out …I notice one thing from that talk about PK.”

Aa, it may be the same thing I was thinking.

“Mr. Figaro talked to you that southern PK will be okay somehow, right?”

“Yea, southern hunting grounds are okay now, I confirmed this fact from the streets.”

“But why is PK stopping in every hunting grounds, isn’t it weird?”

True. I was wondering about that until just now.
It isn’t surprising for Figaro who is a top ranker of the kingdom to make the PKs stop.
It will take him like three or four days, but PKers will not be able to fight back at all.
However, Mr. Figaro mentioned only about [Sauda Mountain Road] in the south.
It is strange that PKs at other hunting grounds stopped as well.

“Three possibilities.”

“Tell me.”

“First possibility, Mr. Figaro somehow managed to cleanse all grounds by himself.”

It is so far-fetched tho.
It is possible for that man to solve the problem of southern hunting ground.
It is also possible for him to mend the transport route to Battle city where his base located.
But he never have a reason to clean up all other hunting grounds.

“Second one is, Hmm, not long after PK problem in southern hunting ground died down, PK activities in other grounds ceased at the same time too.”

We thought that if we aren’t leveling in those grounds for some days, PKers will leave in frustration.
However, if we are thinking of those attacks as a calculated, systematic movement, an answer is there.
Let’s say that their aim is to prevent the growth of players from Kingdom of Altea.
It is obvious that they had to hold down all sides of the kingdom with this one aim in their mind.
Even if we secure back one place, it will be useless as they will never stop bothering us from other sides.
Even if their control over south fails, if other areas are under them, their reinforcement is likely to be sent from other areas.

“… …”

No, possibly the countermeasure taken by Figaro is not a small one as I think, but a much bigger thing …
Like negotiating with PKers, for example.
Then it is no wonder for things to settle in all areas.
But is there all to it?

Although Mr. Figaro is a nice guy … … Is he the type who moves like that?
I can’t prove a thing about it, but I feel like that kind of doing things is miles apart from the impression he gives.
He is a guy who is trying to kill an unknown opponent, aka me, at first sight.
Why? cause he seems to have a straight-forward personality.
To put it simply, he is just a muscle-brain idiot like Luke here.

“Hm Ray, what is the third one ?”

Oops, I was thinking alone for too long.
If we are talking about third possibility, it can only be a mass elimination method.

“Third, other grounds beside south are handled by different persons at the same time.”

“If Figaro did not handle all grounds by himself or if PKers did not withdraw, someone else on Mr. Figaro’s calibre did the same work in other grounds.”

When one is PKing at leveling grounds, there will be many people who despise those PKers.

Under such circumstances, looks like there are some persons who join hands with Mr. Figaro and they are actively terminating PKers.
A rare coincidence … …
But this method is the most possible.
So, I guess there exist so-called terminators or such.

“Congratulation! Your answer is right.”

“!!!”

Abrupt voice can be heard!

Before we realize, an unfamiliar woman was sitting there! Between Luke and me!
She is the owner of that sudden voice.
Although she is sitting next to me, I didn’t notice her at all until she suddenly join our conversation.

Although we were too immerse into our talk, that woman has a weird aura too.
That’s why we didn’t notice her.
Her black hair is about the same length of mine, about neck length.
She seems to be at same age as mine too.
The problem is her clothing.

Way too strange.

Let’s say, I get impression that she is the polar opposite of Mr. Figaro.
What she wear is not of fantasy designs, but a business suit.
She is on a complete tidy appearance.
A business suit that didn’t blend well with a fantasy setting.
Besides, she wear sunglasses too!

If only this is not a fantasy world game but a corporate office, her appearance would pass.
Strictly speaking, those sunglasses hanging on her forehead are totally getting on my nerves.
Wo…wow, there are suits and sunglasses in this fantasy world! I never knew.
Strange atmosphere and suspiciousness are breaking through my limit.

“Well, you are?”

Luke talks to her while observing.

“Oh, excuse me. The talk is interesting so I accidentally join in. I am always like this.”

A woman with a boyish tone says.
Contrary to my expectation, she didn’t hand out her name card.
But she show us a simple status window with some details.

Name: Mary Adler
Job: [Journalist] (Affiliation: [DIN] Publishing)

I was surprised when I found out there were some weird job classes like [Zegen], but to think there is [Journalist] too!
A wide range of jobs, as expected of [Infinite Dendrogram].

“What is [DIN]?”

“Short for [Dendrogram Information Network]! In the old days, it is known as Bunya.
An information shop with no borders, we collect information from countries here and there, sell it to interested parties, something like that?”

Right now, is your life even okay?
The kingdom is now at war with a neighboring country.
These kind of guys are the top candidates to be arrested for information leakage.

“There are many fans of [DIN] in circle of influential people of most countries.
That’s why I am specializing in useful information for citizens and [Master] alike.”

“For example?”

“For citizens, like how to efficiently bred pandas. ”

I remember I saw that one on the bulletin board.
It is quite light compared to our country’s situation.

“And for [Master], the hot story of PK terrorism around the Kingdom of Altea.”

About that story…
Does she know something interesting about how that case is resolved?

“You told me before that me is a correct answer, but do you know some insider’s story?”

“Wanna hear? 600 Rirs for one fact, a set of 4 facts is at a discount price of 2000 Rirs only!”

Indeed, I guess it is a reasonable fee to sell information.
It is frustrating but my curiosity is at its peak! I am dying to know what happened.

“I will pay.”

“Ray, I will also pay half of it!”

Me and Luke are paying her 1000 Rirs each.

“Thank you for purchasing!”

“First, hmm, let me tell you the conclusion.
The PKers that occupied the east, west, north and south of Kingdom here were all destroyed.”

Suddenly, she bombard my ears with those words.

“What do you mean by all destroyed?”

“Every PKers there are now in a state of death penalty.
There are still some left in each clan, but they will not come to work anymore as the situation is so so scary.
I can say those clans are dispersing.”

Each clan? Work?

“Erm …”

“En. There is no solid evidence to present but it is the truth.
Actually, those PKers are a gathering of more than one PK clan.”

“Gathering?”

I am told that they are not a lone group, but a gathering of PK clans.
Grr, the more we think, the more evident PK clans invade this country.

“Yes.
[K&R] at the east [Easter Plain] .
[Mad Castle]at the south [Sauda Mountain Road] .
[Goblin Street]at the west [Wez Fury Road] .
The three clans that take PKs for living were occupying the hunting grounds.”

Hey hey, the last name is a rip-off from Mad Max Movie.
Well… what about the north?

“What is the reason of their activities?
Looks like there were some people who hire them at a high price to do PKing.”

“Isn’t it the work of Drif Empire?”

When Luke ask her, Mary lightly raises her hand as if she is getting ready to answer and shakes her head from side to the side.

“it is just a hearsay tho. Right now, hasn’t confirmed the fact yet.
I will answer that I don’t understand.”

Well, because there is this cause for the war,
now it is likely for this country to fight back when provoked.
Sometimes, the reason is this simple after all.

“If you view it from the PK clans’ perspective,
the work this time is easy peasy coz they do their usual things and getting extra incomes just by changing the place.
but there is no such thing as a free meal as they are destroyed by the work of four [Master] so far.”

“Four people…”

Just four masters wiped the PKers at the east, west, north and south!
I can’t imagine such scene …
No… at the south, Figaro handle the matters.
Then, at other hunting grounds, there are also…

“Yes, as four [Super Class]  belong to the Kingodm of Altea move at the same time, the PK clans are annihilated.”

[Super Class].
Those who have evolved their [Embryo] to the final form, the seventh form.
They are the highest-ranking players.
Currently, [Super Class] are less than 100 people in the entire game.

“Unknown Identity [King of Destruction].
Figaro of [Infinite Chain] .
Moonlight Madness of [Moon World] .
Rayleigh of [Feast of Emperor].
They are the one that annihilated PK clans at each hunting ground.
Oh, top rankers from [Moon World] are together with Moonlight Madness too.”

“Aa…”

Figaro of Infinite Chain?
I think it is because he use chain.
Also, whatzup with Unknown Identity [King of Destruction].
He didn’t even have an identity, isn’t he a weird fellow?

“Well then. Please see here.”

Mary pulls out a crystal ball and putting it on the table.

“What is that?”

“Hmm, it is a media player.
I can project the video recorded with a magic camera.”

Magic camera …
Well, it’s a video camera functioning with magic.
But do you think anything is passable when you add the word magic to it. C’mon.

“Recently, as many incidents are happening in the Kingdom of Altea,
[DIN] investigate them secretly like a concealed turtle.
I even increased the information collection facilities.”

Hey. It is a legit voyeurism!

“The information gathering equipment recorded the end of this time incidents.
Here it is.”

Mary starts up her crystal ball.

“Well, you guys were talking about in the south, right?”

“Let’s start the show of…”

“Figaaro of the Infinite Chaiiin!!!”

~~~~to be continued~~~~

TN: Hi. I move my notes here as not to disrupt the reading exp.   ?
In this chapter, I stop trying to literally translate word from word.
I try to make it more easy to read, make sentences flowing better.
What do you guys think? Is it bearable?

EDIT: I noticed all words using <<Bla Bla Bla>> are missing. I tried to edit the whole thing with [Bla Bla Bla] instead. Is the words appeared as intended?

Something about this chapter:

1.It will not effect the story but for 嵐牛亭, I decided to name it “Beef Eaters”, like some normal restaurant.
Storm+beef+room/place is the literal meaning btw.
If it is in chinese “Stormy Pavillion” would be cute, but in western fantasy setting, that makes no sense.

2. [Super Class] – 超級 Chō-kyū , it is not a game class or something, just a figure of speech.

3.Moonlight Madness – 扶桑月夜 Chinese Hibiscus/ Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, a variation of hibiscus family known as “Rose of China” for its red color.

4.Feast of Emperor – 酒池肉林 Wine pond and forest of meat, one of a kind luxury feast of Emperor Xin.

For a record:
“A wine pool, a forest full of county meat, men and women naked, sexing the night away drinking.”

5.Author portrayed Ray as a beginner who has some gaming knowledge.
He often makes jokes at Ray’s gaming knowledge and positive thinking.
Most of Ray’s monologues are just like that.
I am sorry I fail to deliver them fully in English.