"This tedious puzzle game ends now."
"DHGDR—Supernova Overload!"
As she spoke, the thrusters on SAM's back and right wrist roared to life at full power, instantly accelerating her to the absolute limit of her current capabilities.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The impossibly tough metal walls shattered and melted into molten iron as she tore through them. In mere seconds, she traversed over a kilometer, cleaving the entire "Amusement Park" in two.
...
Earlier...
Firefly journeyed northward, finally reaching the northernmost point of the planet. With little effort, she located the Dimensional Rift suspended in the sky.
This time, everything went smoothly. As she approached, a slight wave of dizziness passed, and Firefly found herself in an entirely new place.
Hmm, this is definitely an Otherworld-type Dimensional Rift, she thought.
Firefly glanced around, finding herself in a completely enclosed, square metal room. Each wall, including the ceiling and floor, had a square door.
Aside from the Six Gates, the room was utterly empty... well, except for the five people lying on the floor. Three men and two women were just waking up from unconsciousness, some peering around in confusion, others staring at Firefly in terror.
Suddenly, a burst of cyber electronic music filled the room. "Ha ha! Welcome to my [ Amusement Park ]! Here, you'll experience countless delightful little games... and contribute vast quantities of joy to my amusement!"
"Trust me, this process might be a little challenging, a little painful, but it's all temporary! If you can just survive to the end, you'll receive the grand prize I've meticulously prepared for you!"
Damn it... Firefly thought, sensing trouble. She had entered the Dimensional Rift expecting a massive slaughter to complete her "Iron Cavalry" achievement, but this seemed to be a puzzle-solving Otherworld, meaning there likely wouldn't be many monsters.
What puzzled her even more was the presence of the five people around her. She clearly remembered that there had been no one else near the Arctic Dimensional Rift. Where had they come from? Were they real people, or had the Otherworld automatically generated NPC teammates for her?
As she pondered, the cyber electronic music continued, "Now, I hereby announce the first game: the Game of Luck!"
"All six gates in this room will open for three hundred seconds. Choose freely—any gate you like! But remember, only one leads to survival! Come on, it's a dice-rolling game. Let's see how lucky you are!"
"Of course, you could also try a simpler approach. Six gates, six people—send one ahead to scout. If they survive, the rest of you can follow. If they die, at least you'll avoid a total wipeout and get a second chance!"
"Even in the worst-case scenario, at least one of you will make it out alive, right?"
"Hahaha—"
As the rules were announced, all six gates swung open with a series of clicks and beeps. Simultaneously, a recess appeared in the wall before them, displaying a countdown timer.
There's no denying this was a truly vicious game, especially with the added time limit. Under normal circumstances, the six participants would quickly descend into infighting.
And that's exactly what happened. The three boys around Firefly had already turned their gazes toward the two slightly more vulnerable girls, while those two girls were eyeing Firefly, who appeared to be the strongest among them.
The mediocre seek to bully the weak, while the weak scramble to cling to the strong.
At that moment, a boy turned to Firefly and tentatively suggested, "Um... we're all in this together, right? Your armor looks pretty sturdy, so maybe you could..."
Before he could finish, Firefly strode directly toward the nearest gate.
She had no intention of playing by the rules. Everyone has their limits. The Dimensional Rift in the Arctic Ocean had been the "Attachment" type, contrary to her expectations. And now, even though the Arctic Rift was an "Otherworld" type, it was still devoid of monsters.
All she wanted was to farm some points by killing a few mobs. Why was it proving so difficult?
Firefly felt like she'd just drifted off to sleep when the phone rang, jolting her awake—utterly irritated. A small spark of anger flickered within her.
Inside her helmet, she pouted, two tiny dimples appearing on her cheeks.
About five seconds after she stepped through the gate, green warning lights flashed throughout the room. Steel bars shot up from the floor behind her, sealing the entrance completely.
Clang!
Emerald-green raindrops splattered from the ceiling, accompanied by blaring cyber electronic music. "Wow, what a bummer! You drew the unluckiest and most dangerous gate right off the bat! Poor thing. Let's hope your companions don't wet their pants when they hear your screams as sulfuric acid rain melts your flesh."
Wet their pants? Of course not. The five original occupants of the room stared dumbfounded at the silver-white mech striding through the sulfuric acid. The figure calmly reached the far end of the acidic chamber and silently raised its right hand.
Thud!
A simple straight punch shattered the metal wall, embedding half its arm deep within. Then, gripping the other side of the breached wall, the mech tore a massive chunk free with a casual tug.
"Huh?"
"What the fuck!?"
"Holy shit!!!"
Ignoring the panicked shouts behind her to avoid collateral damage, Firefly repeated this method to breach another room before unleashing her signature move, Supernova Overload. What followed was the scene described earlier.
Metallic rooms blurred past Firefly's vision at breakneck speed. Finally, she crashed through a wall of earth, seemingly having escaped the Amusement Park's confines.
Suddenly, everything around her began to fade into a blurry haze.
Clearly, she had literally "cleared" the Instance in under two minutes.
"Sigh..." Firefly sighed wearily within SAM, realizing she was running out of time. Reluctantly, she turned back. A while later, on the beach of Borkum Island, a silver-haired girl swam ashore, wringing the water from her hair as she trudged toward the changing rooms.
Yet the trip hadn't been entirely fruitless. Firefly glanced at the System and saw that the completion progress for "Iron Cavalry" had increased by roughly one percent.