Chapter 76
As soon as I saw the message, I used Time Stop and organized my thoughts.
\[Imposing a penalty!\]
\[The number of summoned Enemy Monsters doubles!\]
\[Enemy Monsters acquire Stage 1 Resistance!\]
There were a total of three Enemy Cores.
It seemed I couldn't just destroy them however I wanted; there was an order to it.
And if I got the order wrong, I would receive a penalty like this.
“Double...”
Does that mean six ogres will spawn at a time now?
It wasn't to the point of being a disaster, but if they kept doubling every time I got it wrong...
‘I'll be screwed if I get it wrong just a few more times.’
If dozens of ogres started swarming down each lane, I didn't think I could handle it.
Also, what was Stage 1 Resistance?
Did it mean their defense increased?
Anyway, it meant the enemy was getting some kind of buff, so it wasn't a good thing.
Let's think about this.
First of all, it wasn't Lane 1, so it had to be either Lane 2 or Lane 3, a fifty-fifty chance.
If I got it wrong there again, the remaining one would be confirmed, so I could just destroy that.
If I got it wrong again on one of the remaining two...
Including the one I just got wrong, I could fail a maximum of three times.
That would mean 24 ogres per lane.
Of course, this was strictly under the assumption that the order was fixed.
What if the order was newly initialized every time I got it wrong?
Hmm... That would be pretty hopeless.
I prayed it wouldn't initialize.
“Do I have to rely on luck again?”
Or was there some clue that could specify the order?
For now, I am using Time Release.
Pat.
Six ogres had just spawned.
I distributed Flame Strikes to wipe them all out, then ran to my Base.
Looking back as I returned, the destroyed turrets hadn't regenerated. That was a relief, at least.
I went to Lane 2 and checked the situation.
Even though the ogres had increased to six, Pli was handling them easily. This side was fine.
I immediately checked Lane 3 as well.
The Scorching Zone was also doing an excellent job burning the ogres to a crisp, not allowing them to approach the turret.
Good, up to six is still manageable.
I used Time Stop again and thought.
“Where should I push...”
I had to choose between Lane 2 and Lane 3.
I had no choice but to be careful.
If I got it wrong, the monsters would double again. That resistance thing would go up too.
...Rather than just guessing on a fifty-fifty chance, I decided to examine the field a bit more.
There might be a hint hidden somewhere that could tell me the order.
“I should push all the turrets first.”
If I got the order wrong, the core regenerated, but the turrets did not.
So I decided to completely push the turrets in all three lanes first and then think.
I returned to Lane 1.
I entered the enemy base and laid down a new Scorching Zone on the portal where the ogres spawned.
Fwoosh!
The newly summoned ogres burned and collapsed.
I could just leave Lane 1 to spawn-kill like this.
I hurriedly returned to Lane 3, where the Scorching Zone would have expired. So busy, so busy.
After wiping out the ogres approaching our first turret, I destroyed the enemy's first turret.
\[You have destroyed the First Turret of Lane 3!\]
\[You have destroyed the Second Turret of Lane 3!\]
I pushed the first turret and kept going right through the second turret.
Turret pushing was also done in Lane 3.
I ran to Lane 2.
“Now go block that bridge over there, Pli.”
After sending Pli, who had been blocking the ogres in Lane 2, to Lane 3.
\[You have destroyed the First Turret of Lane 2!\]
\[You have destroyed the Second Turret of Lane 2!\]
I pushed all the first and second turrets in Lane 2 as well.
I finished destroying the turrets in all lanes, alternating between Pli and the Scorching Zone to block the remaining two lanes.
Having entered the base of Lane 2, I carefully examined the core.
Hmm...
Of course, there was no way something like a number would be written on it.
I looked around the base while dealing with the spawning ogres.
It wasn't particularly different from our base.
Except for the fact that it had a red glow, contrasting with our base, which had an overall blue glow.
While swapping the positions of Pli and the Scorching Zone, I examined the bases of Lane 1 and Lane 3, and our base as well.
I wandered around observing various parts of the field for a long time, but...
There were no notable results.
I used Time Stop again and fell into thought.
...Was I really just supposed to guess and get it right?
Hah, I really hate that.
Having PTSD from the 4th floor, I had become truly reluctant to rely on luck.
But if there was no other way, what could I do?
Without agonizing over it too long, I decided to destroy Core 3... or rather, I reconsidered.
No, wait.
Let's try to gauge the Tower's intentions.
My choosing Lane 1 at the beginning?
That might have been intended by the Tower as well.
If there are numbers 1, 2, and 3, it's common to just pick 1 without much thought.
Then what about the next one?
Human psychology dictates that if you pick 1 out of 1, 2, and 3 and get it wrong.
Instead of going to 2 in order, wouldn't people usually pick 3 more often?
But what if even my thinking like this was the Tower's manipulation?
...Forget it. My thoughts are just getting complicated.
It wasn't rock-paper-scissors, and I felt there was no point in agonizing over it. Let's not try to play mind games for nothing.
It would piss me off more if I changed it and got it wrong, so I decided to just stick with my initial decision of 3.
Before destroying Core 3, I moved to Core 2 first.
I could save a lot of time if I chipped away at Core 2's health in advance.
After I chipped Core 2's health down to close to 1%.
Next, I charged the warp device and designated this place as a warp point.
With this setup, if Core 3 were the wrong answer, I could just warp right here and destroy Core 2.
\[9:59\]
I activated the warp device.
With Lane 2 blocked by the Scorching Zone and Lane 1 blocked by Pli, I moved to Core 3.
Because I would need to lay down a new Scorching Zone in Lane 3 before warping to Core 2...
Calculating the time to break the core and the cooldown of the Scorching Zone, I started destroying Core 3 to coincide with the warp device having about 160 seconds left.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I'm not asking for much.
It's a fifty-fifty chance, so please let me have at least this much luck...!
While dealing with the spawning ogres, I soon destroyed Core 3.
\[Incorrect Order!\]
\[A penalty is imposed!\]
\[The number of summoned Enemy Monsters doubles!\]
\[Enemy Monsters acquire Stage 2 Resistance!\]
“Fuck.”
A curse popped out as soon as I saw the message.
Nothing ever goes easily even once.
The broken Core 3 regenerated.
I immediately deactivated the Scorching Zone on Lane 2's side, waited for the cooldown, and laid down a new one in Lane 3.
\[0:01\]
The time hit perfectly, and I warped to Core 2.
“...?”
But when I arrived at Core 2 and looked.
The health I had definitely chipped down to 1% was back to full.
Ah shit, don't tell me...
If the order is wrong, does the health of all the other cores regenerate too?
I clicked my tongue once and started bashing the core with my mace.
Anyway, this is the last one.
If the order hadn't been initialized, Core 2 absolutely had to be the right answer.
Ogres spawned from the portal.
Doubled again, there were now a whopping 12 of them.
The ogres rushed toward me as I attacked the core.
I also launched skills to attack, but...
‘...They've gotten sturdier?’
I could feel that the ogres had become a bit tougher.
So resistance really did mean their defense got stronger?
Still, I dealt with them all without much issue and continued breaking the core.
I was more worried about the empty lanes than this side.
At this rate, it's going to start getting tough for Pli... Is he being pushed back?
I couldn't go check right now, so I had no choice but to smash the core as quickly as possible.
‘...This is the right answer, isn't it?’
It's not actually resetting the order every time I get it wrong, right? Right?
That would be crossing the line into pure bullshit, honestly.
Suppressing my anxiety, I destroyed Core 2 to the end.
And...
\[Incorrect Order!\]
\[A penalty is imposed!\]
\[The number of summoned Enemy Monsters doubles!\]
\[Enemy Monsters acquire Stage 3 Resistance!\]
“...”
Why is it that ominous premonitions are never wrong?
I immediately used Time Stop.
This is driving me crazy, seriously...
It really resets the order every time I get it wrong?
Now there are 24 ogres. Stage 3 Resistance.
It was gradually heading into unmanageable territory.
What was even more dizzying was that I still hadn't managed to destroy even a single core.
...As always, it was a nightmare strategy that made me shudder.
I calmed my mind and calmly continued my thoughts.
It's fine. When I had a draw failure on the 4th floor, it was far more desperate than this.
But I eventually found a way.
“Think.”
Let's think, think.
Does the order really reset every time I get it wrong?
Then I, having gotten it wrong three times in a row, was already as good as doomed.
If I get it wrong even one more time now, it feels like it'll become completely unmanageable.
Unless I get everything right without a single mistake from now on, there's no way this can be cleared...
I'd rather hope that I was missing something.
But even though earlier I wandered around observing the Field for a long time, I couldn't find any hints regarding the order.
“...Destroy all three cores at the same time?”
What if I utilized Pli and the Scorching Zone to destroy all three cores at the exact same time?
...There was no way that was possible.
How could I destroy them simultaneously without the slightest margin of error? Even if I did, it was unknown whether it would be accepted as the right answer.
If I messed up, it might just instantly ring up 3 consecutive failures.
In the stopped time, I thought and thought again.
It was a situation where any flashing inspiration was desperately needed.
Come on, put some effort into it, brain cells, neurons.
If you can't come up with anything, I'm really going to die!
It felt like I had spent almost half a day thinking with time stopped, but...
Still, nothing came to mind.
It was the moment I thought, “Do I really have to leave everything to luck now?”
“...?”
Suddenly, it happened.
The core of our base, far away across the bridge, caught my eye.
A red core.
...Come to think of it.
Why is our core red?
When viewed, the colors of our side and the enemy side were completely contrasted.
For our side, the base was blue, the portals were blue, and the turrets were blue.
Conversely, the enemy side was entirely red.
But uniquely, only our core was red, exactly like the enemy cores.
I had noticed it in passing earlier, but I had just brushed it off without much thought, assuming that was just how it was...
“...Could it be?”
A 'could-it-be' imagination struck me.
What if that wasn't our core, but an enemy core?
It was an absurd idea, but Nightmare difficulty was never normal to begin with.
The thing sitting right in the middle of our base that I thought was our core was actually an enemy core.
The possibility that they had set up such a bullshit trick... wasn't zero.
No, the more I chewed on it, the more plausible it seemed.
Because it's weird, everything else is blue, so why is only the core red?
“Then where is our real core?”
That I couldn't know.
Anyway, I had to choose.
The question is whether to try destroying that or not.
I couldn't choose easily.
What if it was just my misunderstanding? What if that really was our core?
I would just be stupidly self-destructing and ending it all.
I agonized for a long time.
Eventually, I made a decision.
...It was a hopeless situation anyway.
Rather than praying to destroy all three resetting cores without making any more mistakes, let's instead pray that this is the right answer.
I used Time Release and sprinted toward our base.
Reaching the base in an instant, I started smashing the core with my mace.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The core's health chipped away little by little.
Ah... Wait a minute, is this wrong?
Is this really right?
Even while I was smashing it, my mind kept wavering back and forth.
No matter how I thought about it, it felt like I was doing something insane.
But then again, Nightmare wasn't something to be cleared with a sane mind anyway.
I don't know. Fuck it.
If I'm wrong, I'm sorry, humanity.
\[The First Turret of Lane 2 has been destroyed!\]
A message popped up in the middle.
“...Already?”
Our turret had been destroyed.
It seemed the first turret of the empty Lane 2 had already been pushed.
With the ogres having multiplied to 24, there was no way to hold out...
I didn't stop and continued to smash the core.
The last 1 percent of health.
My hand hesitated for a moment, but I squeezed my eyes shut and struck the final blow.
And...
CRACK—
The red core collapsed and crumbled down.
What revealed itself from within was a small blue core.
\[You have destroyed the Enemy Core!\]
\[Destroyed Core (1/4)\]
“...Hah.”
Looking at the message that popped up, I let out a hollow laugh.
It really was a crazy bastard, this Nightmare piece of shit.