Chapter 39
#039
1.
[ 1. Kill Seres Cassian. ]
[ 2. Kill Arbel Montraven. ]
“No, what the hell is this now?”
“Kill either my emotional-support cushion-slash-bonsai, Arbel, or Mommy Seres?”
“Are you trying to play mind games with the user now? Want me to bang a gong?”
Are you some kind of pure-love fundamentalist?
I was just trying to take the harem route, and you go straight Allahu Akbar on me.
“Ugh, fuck…. I’m so pissed my head is itching….”
What the hell is this situation?
“You called it a premium route! Premium means good, doesn’t it!!! Ah….”
I got it.
It really was premium.
If the previous choice was just a simple ‘branch point,’ this one feels much more like a quest.
There’s a time limit to clear it. And there’s a reward.
The clear itself is even very easy.
Simple.
Choose the option to kill Arbel Montraven.
And kill Arbel, who can only make sounds like ‘Uu… uuuh….’ and ‘Mm….’.
By killing a helpless Arbel, I’d be handed an SSR-grade perk.
A cheat-level reward, equal to a sack of gold spilled by God, landing right in my hands.
“No way? I can’t give up on the bunny girl.”
Then I kill Seres. How about this option?
This one… honestly, it’s a complete balance failure.
Seres is a 5th-tier mage.
Even raw force alone makes conversation impossible, and combat power isn’t even her only weapon.
I recalled my conversation with Seres from earlier.
The conversation we had after I learned about Mommy Seres’s Masquerade and incarnated bodies.
‘Director Seres, what happens if the incarnated body dies?’
‘You ask strange things, don’t you?’
‘I’m curious.’
‘The consciousness moves to another body.’
‘What if the incarnated body died before I lifted the oath?’
‘With the oath in place, it would have moved into another Masquerade, not the main body. Why?’
As soon as I got that answer, something clicked, so I asked one more thing.
What if I wasn’t there, or if I failed.
Meaning, if Yiming hadn’t reported Project Z.
And if Yiming and Gisela had teamed up and attacked me?
‘Amazing. Cedric, you can see that far?’
Seres grinned.
‘Then try guessing. Why do you think I gave the original document to Yiming?’
I only realized it late, even after seeing the future.
‘Originally, I planned to fake my death, draw the two of them in, then tie together proof of their conspiracy and kill them. By then, I’d have my own justification too.’
The Seres of the fourth loop didn’t die because she was putting on airs and got stabbed in the back.
That death itself was a trap Seres had set.
Yiming and Gisela were the ones who bit the bait.
No wonder she so readily built a united front…
To Seres, I was an option that would be a jackpot if it worked, and nothing more if it failed.
Director Seres of Twilight Resource Development was head and shoulders above me in strategy too.
It was a whole different level of difficulty from a helpless Arbel.
“Hah.”
I let out a deep sigh.
I racked my brain, my head heating up like a cockroach in crisis.
What do I do?
Think through every possible variable.
What if I can’t clear it within the time limit?
What happens if I don’t go along with the choice?
Are branch points and quests only different in name?
Where’s the exact save point? The moment I choose?
After I clear it, the result will be locked in anyway, right?
Is there no possibility of not choosing at all?
-Ding ding ding
A system message appeared with the alert.
[Please choose an option]
“I waited five hours! And you freak out in three minutes?!”
-Ding ding ding ding ding
[The choice will be auto-selected…]
“Fuck!!!!”
With the countdown looming, I finally made my decision.
[ 2. Kill Arbel Montraven. ]
It felt like my blood was rushing backward.
Honestly, I’d want to boycott the status window and everything else…
Even in investing, choosing your exit is important.
It’s true that both are utterly fucked choices, and hard to choose…
But when things are so fucked you can’t improve them any further, ‘kill Seres Cassian’ isn’t even an escape route.
You get trapped in a loop.
“…Hah, what the hell am I even doing.”
The moment I picked a choice, fatigue, skepticism, and helplessness all came rushing in at once.
I saw Arbel sleeping curled up.
A helpless, pitiful, defenseless figure.
Pretty. And cute.
But that’s all. Did I really need to keep taking care of her like this?
We weren’t even anything to each other. We just acted awkwardly around each other in Arden, mistook that for something, and kissed.
I’d done my duty and then some.
All this shit just to see a bunny girl once.
I don’t even need to lay a hand on her.
If I don’t give her the medicine and don’t get treatment from Isis, she’ll just wither away on her own in about ten days.
Guilt would be diluted by time and fade.
“Sorry, Arbel….”
Today, I’m tossing aside Arbel, my emotional-support doll, and becoming a real adult.
“Like hell I would say that?”
I don’t know what the choice wants.
Exactly what is this? Is it trying to help me, hinder me, what does it want from me? What path is it trying to lead me down, or does it just want to laugh at a clown dancing to fate?
I know nothing.
But.
“Did I look like someone who’d obediently do whatever I was told?”
Then you misread me.
Go ahead, try to screw me over.
I’ll struggle until the very last second.
I’ll absolutely achieve the triple bunny girl: Arbel, Mommy Seres, and Petit Seres.
“I’ll show you exactly how stubborn I am, status window, you son of a bitch.”
The moment I made that vow.
-Ding!
Another system alert appeared.
======
★★ [PREMIUM FEVER!] ★★
≪Premium route initiated! While the route lasts, ‘Premium Fever’ will be in effect!≫
✧ [Growth Acceleration]: All growth mastery gains up ≪500%≫!
✧ [Shop Pickup]: Pickup rate for R-rank or higher items up ≪200%≫!
✧ [Fateful Encounter]: Chance of encountering major figures in the scenario ▲massively increased▲!
✧ [Special Enhancement]: You can enhance 3 ‘Jokers’ for free!
✧ [Disclaimer]: No ※death penalty※ will be applied for the next 3 deaths.
Ends in [ 479h : 59m : 02s ]
======
I quickly skimmed the various benefits.
A whole pile of eye-popping perks.
I almost failed to keep my expression in check.
Premium Fever? It keeps going for this entire loop?
“Hmm….”
Still, it doesn’t seem like it’s only bad…
But what good is all this after Arbel dies?
“Wait… hold on, look at this guy?”
My mind started racing.
Something’s off.
SSR reward on clear, an absurdly generous 20-day time limit, and even Fever Time.
Too much had been given to a route that could be cleared in one second if I set my mind to it.
Why?
Let’s not forget genre conventions.
It was weird from the very start.
Just having ‘kill Seres/Arbel’ as choices 1 and 2 already makes no sense from a balance standpoint.
And it’s a premium route, even including killing Arbel?
They give this much for just that?
I think that’s unnatural.
I imagined it.
No matter how I did it, I pictured myself breaking through this route and saving Arbel.
The image of genius necromancer Cedric, stacked with growth modifiers, all kinds of probability boosts, and death-penalty immunity, getting stronger by the minute.
The board had been set for growth faster than any previous loop.
“Status Window-kun! I actually complained every single time…! I whined that you only gave me shitty stuff…! But I knew you weren’t just some awful bastard!!”
Hope surged.
Maybe I can clear the route another way.
The status window set the stage for me, didn’t it?
[Special Enhancement]: 3 ‘Jokers’ can be enhanced for free!
This was the clause worth focusing on right away.
When I touched the sparkling alert, a new Joker was added to my inventory.
「Premium Joker Enhancement Ticket」
- Rank: Event
- Description: Try out the Joker enhancement function for free!
- Effect: Enhances Jokers of SR rank or lower.
- Note: Disappears when the premium route ends. Remaining uses: 3.
The Jokers I currently own are…
Measly Indulgence (C)
Missing Receipt (R)
Honorific Speech Coupon (C)
The Hotel Abyss, Suite Room Stay Voucher (UC)
Sudden Festival (C)
Exhumation Monocle (UC) 1/3
Evil-Repelling Talisman (R) 2/5
Mystical Contract Seal (R) 1/2
“A little ambiguous.”
It can be enhanced up to SR rank.
And enhancements are supposed to go on good gear.
It feels wasteful to use enhancement on cheap little junk, doesn’t it?
“Alright, decision made.”
At last, the direction of this route became clear.
Opportunities like this don’t come every day.
The three ‘immunity privileges’ that came in with Premium Fever are basically a limited-time ward talisman.
I’ll die without holding back and use Growth Acceleration to push my growth as far as possible.
I’ll farm points, use Shop Pickup to draw R-rank-or-higher Jokers, and use the enhancement tickets to boost their value.
“Alright, let’s try it?”
I’m going to save Arbel with an unconventional clear.
2.
After waking up with Arbel clutched in my arms.
‘Citizens of Necropolis, another morning has come today….’
I headed toward Aquarium Street while listening to the low-energy street broadcast.
Now that I’d chosen the option to kill Arbel.
How can I clear this run without killing Arbel?
The answer.
1) First, kill Arbel.
2) Then clear the route.
3) And then bring her back to life.
I decided to go ask quack doctor Isis to verify this theory, one even Nietzsche would admire.
“Is this possible?”
“Are we talking about insurance fraud?”
“Do you even have insurance companies in this godforsaken city? They’d probably all be bankrupt.”
“Come to think of it, no.”
Isis, who’d opened the door with sleepy eyes, answered with her usual deadpan expression today too.
Man, this woman really keeps her walls up.
She gets along easily with pretty much anyone, but none of my smooth-talking works on her.
“No, I didn’t come in for free, so answer me properly.”
“Who asked for money?”
“You said I had to pay to come in if it’s not business hours!”
“You only paid 3,000 Bios.”
“…I paid more here. Satisfied?”
“You should’ve said that from the start.”
Isis promptly took the 10,000 Bios and gave a little smile.
“What are you saving up that hard for? To buy a newlywed home?”
“Fulfilling a healthcare worker’s social responsibility through volunteer work.”
“Come on… even if you’re going to lie, at least make it believable….”
Man, I’m itching to slap her.
If she weren’t a mage, I’d have shown her how scary a death sentence is.
“So, a way to bring dead people back. Is there one or not?”
As Isis carefully checked the gold coins I gave her under the lamplight, she said:
“Can’t bring them back.”
“What rank are you, anyway?”
“You can’t beat me.”
Hah.
If she weren’t Arbel’s doctor, I’d go straight to Big Bro Yiming right now, give him a pair of stockings, and order a hit.
“You really can’t revive her?”
“Is Arbel in that bad a shape? If she is, why don’t you bring her here?”
When I pressed insistently, Isis laid the coin down, a glint entering her eyes.
“That isn’t what I mean. Just in case, would it still be impossible even if Overnus Pharmaceuticals or Twilight Resource Development got involved?”
“Impossible. Among the mages alive today, there’s no one who can bring the dead back. They might be able to ‘revive’ her, but not in the form you’re expecting.”
If it came to that, I’d planned to ask Seres or Yiming, but that won’t work either.
“Even with the Universalizer?”
“…Hmmm, that’d probably be impossible too. Death is death because it’s irreversible.”
So it really isn’t that easy after all?
This would screw things up.
Still, I’m not about to get discouraged now.
I just need to gather points and watch for variables in the shop.
There’s all sorts of stuff in the shop, so maybe there’s a Joker that can reverse death.
Even the artifact ‘Burning Life’ I pulled last time grants three minutes of power at the cost of lifespan.
“Alright, understood. Take care.”
Just as I was about to turn around and leave.
Isis poked my shoulder.
“Come to think of it, there is a way to bring dead people back.”
She didn’t look like she was about to give a serious answer; for her, it was a rare, mischievous expression.
“Hey, a person’s life is on the line right now. Is a doctor joking around?!”
“I’m a quack, so it’s fine.”
“What is it? Let me hear it.”
Isis said with a grin.
“True Ancestor.”
True Ancestor?
“If you have True Ancestor blood, you can bring dead people back to life.”
I feel like I’ve heard that word somewhere.
Memories burst forth like a flashback.
‘The document says ‘Awakening Serum Reagent Z,’ but I believe the true identity of that bioweapon is a liquid diluted from the blood of a ‘True Ancestor’ (眞祖).’
‘The purpose of this experiment is probably a clinical trial to control the True Ancestor. Securing resources is just an excuse.’
Yeah.
I had definitely heard it before.