Chapter 68
-Why is the streamer being so scary by not saying anything...
-ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-That psychological damage hit hard as fuck...
-Adella, I may have hated you, but I never wanted you to become this miserableㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Who the fuck called her Amdella, you bastards!!!
-We went through all that trouble to keep her alive and drag her along, only for Adella's death in Part 1 to have been set in stone after all.
-Those fireflies, they're that thing, right? The ones that appear at the end.
-Don't spoil it; read the room.
-You've already spoiled everything.
-Why did she kill herself? Is she really dead? Really...?
The chat window was pandemonium.
Those who had known from the start that Adella would die had thoroughly concealed the information.
The story that plays when you bring Adella along and defeat Professor Jin Chronicle on Nightmare difficulty.
From the outset, almost none of the Korean streamers who cared only about speedrunning had gone through this sequence.
Because fighting with Adella in the party was always a disadvantage.
Whether Adella survived had absolutely no effect on clearing the game.
The shocking ending of Part 1, revealed by the few overseas ‘Adella fanatics (cat freaks or cat moms)’ out there, was something only people who had dug deeply into the community could know.
-Are you people even human?
-The only thing that's certain is that the story writer isn't human.
-So that's why the WoA Gallery banner was always Adella instead of Giselle or Luna...
-(Crying Adella emote)
-I've been on the gallery for a whole month and still had no idea. I just thought the mod was a cat freak.
-You bastards, give me back my cat!!!!!
Where Adella's blood had fallen, the Laurel of Life had reappeared, whole and intact.
When NoName picked up the laurel, a notification sound different from before played.
[Laurel of Life]
[Synchronization complete.]
[May the World Tree's blessing be upon you.]
[You can now use Circle 2 magic.]
[Level: 9 → 10]
[HP: 2400 → 3200]
...
Dead NPCs disappear cleanly once they move beyond a certain distance.
That was precisely why NoName couldn't leave Adella behind.
Instead, NoName carried Adella's cold corpse to the Abyss branch.
-Say something, anything...
-She's taking her all the way to the end?
-Someone try cheering our streamer up with a donation;;
-She doesn't exactly look like she's crying.
-Maybe she's just too shocked.
-Why is this rated 15? I'm going to report it right now.
-ㄴ2222Me too.
[‘SaveTheGradStudent’ donated 50,000 won!]
-NoName, are you okay?
Even the generous donation, made out of concern, failed to elicit any response from NoName.
-Fuck, that backfired!!!
-I thought our streamer was still just a high school kid; she's going to be traumatized.
-She was a high schooler?
-Didn't she say she was a girl? Is she really a high school girl?
-What the hell? Why did the entire building that was supposed to be there disappear?
The Abyss branch had already been reduced to rubble.
Straight furrows had been carved all over the ground. Jin Chronicle was responsible.
Had Jin Chronicle anticipated even the timing of the invasion?
He must have raided the main base while almost all the members were away, then encountered NoName's party on his way back.
Branch Director Gestalt emerged from the ruins with a groan.
“NoName? Are you all right? What is that in your arms?”
“...”
-Oh, please...
-She shouldn't have shown us this.
-I feel so queasy I can't watch...
-Then just turn it off. I'll post a summary in the gallery later.
-How am I supposed not to watch this?
“Don't tell me... No, it can't be?”
The sound of rain pattered down.
NoName had draped every piece of clothing she could over Adella, including her own coat.
The corpse she had gently laid down.
The branch director broke down sobbing the moment he saw her through the gap.
“In the end... in the end... it was my fault... It was my fault... I should've gone with her...”
-What happened to Repi? She didn't follow them, did she?
-She was kidnapped.
-Kidnapped.
-Even the Normal story is mainly about rescuing Repi.
-So this is when she was kidnapped.
-ㄴㄴ She was originally destined to be kidnapped much later.
-The streamer's HP is dropping in real time right now? She's on the verge of death.
-Cold meter! It's because she's been standing in the rain without wearing anything!
[‘Byeoturi’ donated 10,000 won!]
-Recover your HP quickly! You'll die too at this rate!
“You see, our Bampire race has the ability to see how long a person's natural lifespan is.”
[HP: 110/3524(3200+324)]
“Poor Adella had less than half a year left...”
[HP: 103/3524(3200+324)]
“My abilities were insufficient, so I could find no means other than the Laurel of Life. Ignoring headquarters’ instructions to simply wait if we wanted to save Adella, I acted entirely on my own authority.”
[HP: 94/3524(3200+324)]
“Perhaps I was placing my hopes in you. It felt as though I would lose this chance forever if I didn’t take it now... I thought perhaps, with the Forest Keeper’s kindness, I could borrow it, even for a moment, just a brief moment...”
[HP: 80/3524(3200+324)]
“Even if she was terminally ill, there was no reason she had to die like this... It’s all my fault...”
[HP: 72/3524(3200+324)]
The branch director explained to NoName where she should head next.
[HP: 48/3524(3200+324)]
Since the group that had stolen the laurel was the Imperial Family, he told her about several organizations believed to be under their control.
[HP: 23/3524(3200+324)]
He also told her that Repi had been kidnapped. It was probably their doing.
Apparently, Daniel had set off again to get her back.
[HP: 10/3524(3200+324)]
[HP: 6/3524(3200+324)]
[HP: 3/3524(3200+324)]
[HP: 1/3524(3200+324)]
[HP: 0/3524(3200+324)]
[YOU DIED]
[All stats will be recalculated]
[Current penalty (1): -15%]
[NoName(NoName)]
[World of Arseria – Priest Nightmare 10/10/10]
[Stream duration - 3:10:49]
[Viewers - 4043]
* * *
“Alpherion and Cisciela will wait at the academy’s eastern gate with six members. And you, NoName, I won’t be entrusting you with a difficult operation. You’re a novice, after all, and you haven’t been involved with our Abyss for long. You understand?”
“...”
“Hmm, hmm. I suppose I need to explain further. It’s very simple. Go to the academy’s rear gate, draw the soldiers’ attention, and run away.”
The system once again presented me with an infuriating choice.
[That sounds reasonable. I’ll accept. / Is that the best operation a bald guy can come up with?]
-What a shame; she had actually cleared everything.
-Isn't this the first Part 1 clear on 10/10/10?
-In the end, she died without reaching the Part 2 checkpoint.
-Once you beat the boss, it's basically a clear.
-If you put it that way, she had already been the first to clear it since Vallum.
-True?
-How long has it been since a knight in shining armor showed up in the story community?
-I've been watching nothing but ACK broadcasts every day, so it's nice to watch a story for once.
[You exceeded the input time limit.]
[▶Is that all the operation a bald guy can come up with?]
“Bald guy? Ahem, cough! I spent over two whole months agonizing over this operation...! Anyway, you can go with Adella tonight. It’s a simple diversionary operation, so it should be easy, right?”
Branch Director Gestalt kept clearing his throat and deliberately avoiding my gaze.
At the end of the finger the branch director pointed stood, without fail, a cat beastkin wearing a prim expression.
“Daniel and I will go around with each group and explain the details of the operation. In the meantime, introduce yourselves.”
Adella went to her room again before the operation meeting had even ended.
She wanted to finish the beer she had hidden in her room before the branch director arrived.
There was nothing more to see.
I immediately went upstairs.
Room 302.
I knocked on the door, but flung it open without waiting for a response.
The door hadn't even been locked to begin with.
“Huh?”
It was the same.
Adella was just as drunk in bed, holding a glass of draft beer and barely coherent.
[‘Wolrmot’ donated 2,000 won!]
-Should we just delete the account and start over from the beginning?
“Adella.”
“...”
“Adella.”
“Huh...?”
At Adella’s faint reply, my body froze before I knew it.
I sensed something out of place. I furrowed my brow, trying to find the source of the feeling, but nothing came to me.
“Oh, you again. You found me really quickly, huh? Did the meeting end early?”
Glug, glug.
Only after emptying the rest of the glass did she finally get up.
“Hic! Nyaaah! Haaah, Forest Keeper, what’s your name?”
After stretching as far as she could, she asked me the exact same question as in the first playthrough.
Here, I answered,
“NoName.”
and
“I don’t know who gave you that name, but it’s a real piece-of-shit name.”
That’s what you answered. It was exactly the same.
But what was this sense of incongruity?
Adella casually picked her nose, then blew on her finger.
Her expression held none of the seriousness it had shown before.
The fact that Adella from the first playthrough had died came crashing back to me.
I failed? Me?
No.
No, I did nothing wrong.
Not a single thing,
I did nothing wrong.
I cannot do anything wrong.
Because I have to be perfect.
My OCD was flaring up again.
I hated myself for being more enraged by the fact that I wasn’t perfect than saddened by having to lose a life.
Adella sat back down on the bed and began nodding off.
Feeling sorry for her for no reason, I reached out to pat Adella on the head.
“Nyaa? What are you doing? Were you just trying to touch my head?”
Flinch. Before I could even touch her hair, Adella ducked her head in fright.
Her face already red from the alcohol, she glared angrily at me.
“We beastkin have incredibly sensitive ears, so you can’t just pet us so carelessly! That’s rude, rude!”
Right. I had found the source of that incongruity.
Before, even when I thrust my fist right up to her eyes, she had clearly treated me like an invisible ghost.
Even when we were in the same space, our conversations often passed right by each other.
So I had chalked it up to the limitations of AI and moved on without thinking much about it.
But somehow, the Adella of the second playthrough had become more human than the Adella of the first.