Chapter 28
1.
The argument cut off abruptly, and the surroundings fell silent.
Well.
If I were in the middle of an assassination and arguing with an accomplice, and some bastard suddenly butted in, I'd probably think, what the hell is this guy?
“Focus!!!!”
For a moment, I was flustered too.
Why?
Why the hell is that crazy bitch here?
Did she really come because I said let's meet again next time during the last loop?
That was just one of those 'Hey! Let's grab a meal sometime!' kinds of remarks!!!
Is there a system that makes her show up on her own after two weeks?
Like the previous hypothesis, is she an inevitable existence I'll encounter in the loop whether I use Universalization or not?
There's a time limit on this fucked-up starting point too?
Then how am I supposed to live!!!
Get the bastard who wrote this script out here!!!
Should I run now?
Maybe she just hasn't spotted me yet.
“…….”
No.
What would I even do if I ran?
I was going to reset this doomed run anyway.
Unless she's about to gut me on the spot, this means I get a chance to gather more information.
I need to find out what trigger, besides Universalization, makes that samurai bitch appear.
Fortunately, there are two actors here who can handle that role for me.
“What the hell are you?!”
Iming, furious like a relative over the mutilation of Seres's body, shouted viciously.
“Kisara Yagyu? Why is the executioner in the Necropolis….”
By contrast, Gisela's voice trembled thinly, as if she were staring at the hangman himself.
Even Iming, who'd been shouting beside her, swallowed hard the moment the name was spoken.
“Huh? You know me?”
Holy shit! So the samurai bitch's name was that!
After dying twice, I still didn't know because we never even introduced ourselves.
“What brings you here? I'm sure your prior consultation with the Paradise Management Bureau is already complete.”
“Ah, right. Project Z, was it?”
“Yes, Project Z was officially approved all the way up to the bureau chief. We've already received the official response that it's fine as long as we can keep it under control. The procedures and response system were all handled according to regulations too. There's no problem.”
“No problem, you say….”
Kisara let out a cheerful laugh.
“Oh? That's unfortunate.”
My mana circuits began to ache.
A wave of prickling killing intent raised goosebumps across my skin in an instant.
“I don't think so.”
Maybe because I'd already been hit twice, the signs were much clearer than last time.
Kisara was trying to cut me down right now.
“You fucking crazy bitch! Iming!”
“Shit! Leave me out of this! I have nothing to do with Twilight Resource Development!”
“Then just do nothing and die, you bastard!”
“Dammit!”
I knew it, but she's really fucking insane!
I knew she was strong, but the two of them were definitely mages too.
No.
If I remember right, Gisela was definitely a second-rank mage, and Iming, who'd been shouting back at her with veins bulging at the neck, was probably about the same?
Even if I use the Demon-Subduing...
—————!!!!!
A deafening roar like my eardrums were being torn apart thundered out.
A blast wave as if the air itself had exploded shook the Hang House violently in one furious surge.
And then.
“Fools. In the end, someone has to take responsibility for things like this.”
That was the end of it.
I don't even need to look to know exactly what happened.
Damn it, I can't even speak.
Two mages, taken out in one second?
Even Mama Seres can't beat that, can she?
What the hell is the Paradise Management Bureau? What the hell is an executioner?
Why is some batshit high-end talent like that chasing a piece of trash like me?
Do they even pay minimum wage?
“Today's my lucky day? I was already pissed from having to do a shitty out-of-town job… and now there's a bonus right next to it?”
As expected.
I knew it.
“Huu.”
I let out a long sigh and casually took the 'Coin Toss of Truth' from my inventory.
“It's a neighborhood you grow attached to once you live here.”
-click
Listening to the footsteps drawing closer and closer, I tried to steer the conversation toward anything useful.
“Cedric Montravien, right?”
“How did you know? Just from my voice. Haven't we met before?”
“I have an uncanny instinct that never lets me miss a target.”
“That's funny, considering you already missed once.”
“It's fallen, sure, but it was still an earl's house. How was I supposed to know the safehouse would be in this dump?”
Now!
I flicked the coin.
Catching it in my palm, I checked.
TRUE
[The statement made by 'Kisara Yagyu' is true]
['Coin Toss of Truth' remaining uses (1/3)]
Okay.
Trigger confirmed.
Kisara wasn't chasing me.
She'd never even imagined that I'd be in the Necropolis in the first place.
Project Z was the target, and I was just a freebie that happened to be standing next to it.
Then if I hadn't come to the Hang House, I never would have faced that crazy bitch.
“…….”
But hold on.
Was that everything?
No.
No way.
She's like a collection agency from hell, chasing me all the way there just because I touched Universalization once.
And she'd already taken my life twice in this route, and would soon take it again—the boss of the route that was about to kill me.
Remember the genre conventions.
A life in another world, endlessly and unfairly getting screwed over from the start.
If Kisara is the boss of this route….
Would God have handed me a convenient strategy like 'if you bash your head in like a turkey, you live'?
Kisara rounded the corner and appeared.
Just like the last time I'd seen her, she was breathtakingly beautiful, like a figure straight out of a painting.
“My, you got hurt quite badly. Where'd you roll around?”
“I ended up like this because of that shitty thing called Project Z or whatever.”
Think. Think.
There's only one question left.
I need to drag as many clues as possible into the next run.
But there wasn't enough time.
“Hmm, your sibling was boring, but... I had high hopes for you.”
Damn it, she's here. She's here again.
The line she always said right before cutting me down.
“I like the look in your eyes... but is that all?”
Huh?
That line got added a bit, didn't it? She liked my eyes?
Is that her type—someone drenched in blood and half-dead?
“Timeout, timeout, timeout.”
“?”
“I can't die this unfairly. Let me ask just one thing.”
I seized the opening and asked.
“If I hadn't been here, would you have found me anyway? Or was my luck just especially rotten today, and I would have crawled in here for nothing and died?”
“…….”
Silence.
The violet eyes that had been smiling until a moment ago lost their amusement.
“…That's strange.”
“What's strange?”
“I brace myself for death, and yet I see hope? That's strange indeed. Isn't that a contradiction?”
“I happen to believe in the afterlife. Heaven for believers, hell for unbelievers.”
Tilting her head, Kisara rested her hand on the hilt and said.
“Don't feel too wronged. Since I'm here, no matter where you are in this city, I would've found you soon enough.”
“Thanks for the answer!”
Nice!
Once more!
I flicked the coin low and caught it.
TRUE
[The statement made by 'Kisara Yagyu' is true]
['Coin Toss of Truth' remaining uses (0/3)]
“…….”
Ha, shit, yeah.
Of course.
Why is nothing ever easy?
“I've waited long enough, haven't I? If you disappoint me, you'll regret it.”
Sharp.
Dragging this out wasn't just to exchange questions.
“Uh... five seconds! No, ten seconds!”
At the very first coin toss, I'd actually already used it.
「A Copy of the Myobeop Chungseong Sutra」
- Grade: SR
- Description: A copy of a scripture containing the teachings of the mysterious insect chant.
- Effect: Summons a vassal of the Outer God for 5 minutes.
- Note: Does not distinguish friend from foe. Single-use.
Hey, you fucking bitch.
You think because I used honorifics I'll let you die nicely?
Not a chance.
I'll just dump Mahoraga and get out of here.
This is a good chance to gauge Kisara's strength, and also the power of the Myobeop Chungseong Sutra.
And if it comes to that, I can also reuse it once with the 'Missing Receipt.'
But….
“Just a second... it'll be here soon. I really called some insanely awesome friend. Just wait a sec. It'll be here soon....”
Why isn't it coming!
It's already been thirty seconds! Put that in the description if it's like this!
-ding
At that moment, an alert rang out behind me.
It was the elevator's arrival notification.
Wait... wasn't it supposed to be a vassal of the Outer God?
It came by elevator like a delivery guy? That's kind of lame.
“Hm?”
By the way... was that elevator always shaped like that?
No. The design was definitely different.
The elevator doors opened.
-clunk clunk
A lady in a pure white suit walked out, her heels clicking.
A perfect suit, a long staff in one hand.
She's got an absolutely killer body, though....
She had a goat's head.
-shring
A goat-headed employee walked toward me, drawing a sword from the staff.
Paint seemed to spread from behind the goat as the scenery shifted....
Before I knew it, the Hang House had taken on the appearance of an elegant hotel lobby.
I remember seeing this lobby before.
“The Hotel... Abyss?”
I knew the hotel was a threshold, but that vassal of the Outer God was a staff member from there?
The hotel was definitely a Tier-9 threshold.
I can feel it from here. That looks insanely strong! You're telling me it can even use Domain Expansion?
I froze there with my mouth hanging open, and locked eyes with the goat employee.
That square pupil is creepy as hell.
I forgot for a second!
“Hey!”
I spat out at Kisara the line that ranks in the top three coolest things to say right before dying.
“I'm going first. Try and struggle for it!”
But the goat employee only glanced at me before passing me by and heading for Kisara.
“Hmm.”
That's a little embarrassing.
Looks like the extra trait for a sturdy stomach applies to the entities summoned by the Myobeop Chungseong Sutra too.
Looking at it again, sturdy stomach really does seem to be an SR-grade trait.
Seeing the surroundings suddenly turn into a hotel, Kisara let out an exclamation.
“Wow! You're a vassal? And one that can open doors at that! You called it?”
I don't need to buy any more time.
“Don't act like we're close, you cheap whore. You liked it when I humored you, and now you're grinning like an idiot.”
-kiing!
Sparks flew in front of my face.
Kisara's remote sword slash was deflected by the goat employee's sword.
“I was going to cut out your tongue. And you blocked it?”
At some point along the way, Kisara had a katana in her hand.
The waves engraved on its blade shimmered blindingly beneath the chandelier light.
“Go! Save your kin!”
The hotel employee's feet kicked off the marble.
-bang!
It slammed into Kisara.
I don't know what level the two of them are at.
But just from watching them from the side, I could roughly tell.
They're on a different level.
-kwarararararabang!!!!
Every time the swords clashed, the air screamed as if aerial bombs were going off.
Every single motion as they exchanged blows was invisible.
Even with Laplace's Eye straining to see, it was the same.
-boom!
With an explosion, Kisara was the first to be pushed back.
The hotel employee, sliding backward, then cut across in front of me as if to protect me.
A vassal of the Outer God is this strong?
“You're the GOAT! Go finish her off!”
If the Myobeop Chungseong Sutra can kill Kisara, the clear difficulty will drop exponentially.
“Please... please...”
I watched the battle with my palms sweating harder than during any bet.
“This hotel's way too annoying. What kind of rules are plastered all over the place like this? So...”
Kisara complained in irritation.
“I'll just cut it apart.”
Kisara's arm, and the sword that had lengthened like an extension of it, blurred.
-whoosh
The sucking sound of something being inhaled pierced my eardrums.
It's different.
It's fundamentally different from the sword strikes I'd seen until now.
-crack
The cracks that formed along the blade's path, like the graphics had just glitched a moment too late.
The cracks spread, and the hotel lobby scene shattered in an instant.
The luxurious hotel lobby instantly reverted to Seres's Hang House, wrecked in places.
And then.
Thunk.
Two arms fell.
The hotel employee's upper body, cut diagonally through, slid away as smoothly as butter.
-clang
The shattered sword-staff fell and rang out in a shrill cry.
“Ah, damn it.”
Yeah, somehow I figured it would end up like this.
No way was I going to let Cedric get away with a cheap win.
“That was pretty good though... hm? What are you doing?”
I'd been pointing a gun at my own head the whole time just in case.
“Let's never meet again!”
-bang!
The instant I pulled the trigger.
The last thing I saw was....
-ding
======
『 EP5. Reset Button 』
So you chose your own death in the end.
Death is the most certain defeat, but....
For you, it may be different.
<Run summary>
▶ Achievement: 「Selective Death」 achieved
- Your understanding of 'death' increases slightly.
- 30 pt awarded.
▶ Title acquired: None
▶ Challenge rewards: +52 pt
:::Challenges (New!):::
- Reach 'high' understanding of death. +5 pt
※ Death penalty is applied ※
[ Delayed Response ]
[ Resistant Claw ]
- Resistant claws grow. Even if you pull them out, they grow back.
- Permanently applied.
「The Evil-warding Talisman」 prevents [Resistant Claw].
2 uses remaining.
At the end of arrogance and foolishness, may you arrive at transcendence.
======
2.
My vision flashed white for a moment.
And once again, I was hurled into an abyss filled with death.
Into a space as unbearably frightening as a gambling addiction center.
But I didn't have time to feel uneasy or afraid.
I didn't have the luxury to enjoy the luck of scoring an achievement that let me pull one final relic gacha.
“Fuuuuuck, the save point bugged and I almost got fucked!!!!”
A chill ran through me.
It wasn't a mistake, and I hadn't heard wrong.
The final moment before I pulled the trigger.
The horrifying scene I saw was.
[ 1. Kisara's Resistance ]
[ 2. Paradise Management Bureau ]
It was the scene where golden particles were about to gather and form a choice.