Golden Rule Shop
Why Serengeti held her tongue.
She must have been worried that I was the Demon King, or something like the Demon King's avatar.
Since the shadow tried to dominate my body, it was only natural for her to be wary.
'So······ in the game, it was set up so the Demon King couldn't be killed, is that what you're saying?'
Hearing that, the outline came together to a degree.
Only a 'player' with special rights can kill the Demon King's essence.
But Knight King Wilhelm wasn't a player.
He was just a simple in-game character I moved with my mouse.
'If all of this was the goddess's plan, then the fact that I killed the Demon King only inside the game clearly wasn't part of her plan.'
The game was designed so you couldn't reach that point.
Only a player can kill the Demon King.
If so, it seemed I needed to examine the conditions for becoming a player first.
'If you die in the game, you get summoned as a player. But Wilhelm's death wasn't my first death.'
In my case, after Wilhelm died and I created a new character, I was summoned along with a message saying I'd achieved a 'hidden piece.'
But if a character's death was the standard, there was obviously something strange.
The characters I'd raised easily numbered in the hundreds.
Naturally, plenty of them had died along the way.
Yet I only experienced becoming a player when Wilhelm died.
Because I possessed unique items?
No. If that were the case, there wouldn't be so many people who became players.
If it wasn't some special item, then by what standard, and on what basis, had I been summoned?
'When the strongest character you raised dies, you become a player.'
That was the only reasonably plausible explanation.
Since I'd always liked hardcore games, I played by raising a character to a point, and if it didn't look like it would work out, I'd leave it as-is and raise a new one.
In that process, the fissure in combat power widened, and maybe that's why I wasn't summoned even when ordinary characters died.
Afterward I gathered everything needed for Wilhelm's growth with other characters, and to expand Wilhelm's own growth limit, I marched through years of grueling grind.
Even if his talent was less than Randolph's, the completeness of his body couldn't be compared.
It was truly the body of Extreme True Annihilation Grim.
At the end, reaching the level of a demi-god.
In other words, the environment was set so that only when Wilhelm, my strongest character, died, could I be summoned as a player.
·····And so, at last I achieved the feat of taking the Demon King's head, but.
'A blue screen appeared. It was probably caused by the Demon King's authority.'
The game's limit.
Wilhelm, who wasn't a player and had no rights, could never defeat the Demon King no matter how strong he became.
That affected reality too.
A blue screen popped up and made it so I couldn't even touch anything.
In the meantime, the Demon King tried to change bodies, and.
'Before the stars could be stolen by the Demon King, the goddess took Wilhelm's life.'
Game Over.
In the end, I had no choice but to start again.
Thanks to that, an unprecedented character was born, with maxed-out talent and thirteen hidden traits, but.
'My doubts were resolved, yet new doubts were born.'
Not every clue had been unraveled.
First doubt.
'Who sent Serengeti out of the Demon Realm?'
She returned to the territory still tied to a horse.
I'd vaguely assumed that if she survived in the Demon Realm, she'd return to the territory somehow.
Later, in the golden city Arcana, I was able to be sure through Hudson that she had indeed come back to the territory.
But I still can't easily guess how she returned.
Serengeti said she had no memories afterward, too.
Meaning someone intervened and let her escape without the Demon King noticing. Or, with superhuman survival instinct, Serengeti crawled her way back along the ground.
No matter how I think about it, the latter doesn't feel very likely, but.
'My body······ Wilhelm's body then, did it become the Demon King?'
Also, the goddess only took Wilhelm's stars and life, leaving the body itself behind in the Demon Realm.
There's a chance the Demon King used that body for resurrection.
There were plenty among the demon race who used death and moved corpses.
'Anyway, the Demon Realm got smashed. To activate a magic circle to kill me, the Demon King blew away half the Demon Realm. That means half of the great expedition succeeded.'
Either way, it wasn't a complete failure.
The great expedition achieved half a success.
That's why the Demon Realm can't stir again after the great expedition's failure.
Because the Demon Realm also took half, more than half, of a blow.
But
'Traitors. Those eight heroes besides me must have been involved.'
If there hadn't been traitors, might it have succeeded perfectly?
I have to find out who colluded with the Demon Realm.
'All the ones involved, I'll crush them.'
I won't let things slide anymore just because they're NPCs.
Everyone who obstructed me, who has obstructed me, who will obstruct me, I'll give them an ending that fits their crimes.
To do that, I needed rapid growth.
"Damn it! How many warps blew up?!"
"My sword! Where's my sword?!"
"Move fast!"
·····Outside was unusually noisy.
A monster wave.
The city was under attack.
Which meant.
'They haven't managed the warps for a long time. The warps have linked to the dark space.'
Not all continents of Pangaenia are connected.
After the war of Light and Darkness, the goddess Rhea died, and the continents sank into darkness.
That's why, at the edge of a city, you can see nothing but the 'dark space' beyond.
So the only things connecting the continents are warps.
However, if you leave a warp unmanaged for too long, a 'monster wave' erupts through it.
The problem is that managing warps costs astronomical amounts of gold.
'Looks like he neglected warp maintenance because he was broke, Marquis Weiser.'
Tsk. I clicked my tongue lightly.
"······ I'll finish this quickly and come back."
***
The dark space.
Also called the fissure.
If you descend to its abyssal depths, the rulers of the abyss appear.
If a warp stays blown open for too long, there was a chance they'd come out.
'Then it's ruin.'
The moment an abyss ruler appears, you can consider the city's fate sealed.
Transcendence of an ordinary grade can't stand against them.
Much less can the 'Garden of Knights,' where all the powerful knights are already dead, stop an abyss ruler.
If they come out, I'll run too.
If I don't escape before all remaining warps sink into the abyss, I'll be trapped inside the fissure forever. Then there's no way out except death.
Because the dark space cuts off all 'connections,' even a Teleport Book can't be used.
"Fight! We must protect the city!"
Marquis Weiser heaved his heavy body up on the walls and raised his sword.
·····Some knights were still blocking the warps that were working.
In front of those working warps, crowds of trembling citizens had gathered.
"Marquis Weiser! Safely evacuating citizens when a 'monster wave' occurs is a noble's duty. What on earth are you doing?!"
Priest Andrew shouted in the middle of them.
Why block warps that were functioning fine, that was his point.
At the very least, shouldn't the powerless citizens be moved to safety first, was his argument.
Marquis Weiser nodded.
"Priest Andrew! If you'll help, then so be it."
"Understood."
"Open the warps!"
When the knights stepped aside, some citizens took the warps and fled.
But because Priest Andrew said he would stay, most citizens didn't move toward the warps.
"You must get out quickly. Let's all meet again alive!"
"With you staying here, Priest, how can we leave by ourselves?!"
"If you delay any longer, the other warps will be affected too. Hurry!"
"No. We'll fight together! We'll protect the city together!"
·····It showed the citizens' blind faith in Priest Andrew.
And if they lose the city, they become wanderers.
Marquis Weiser knew that too, which was why he used Priest Andrew.
"Kwaak!"
"Stop them from breaking through!"
"Ahhh! My leg!"
Not far away, a bloody battle between monsters and knights was unfolding.
Some warps were inside the city.
Meaning fighting was already happening in the city's interior.
For now it was only small fry like dark goblins, but as time passed, stronger individuals would appear through the broken warps.
There were only two ways to stop a monster wave.
One was for an 'alchemist' to fix the broken warp.
The other was.
'Destroying the broken warp.'
That was the easiest and surest way.
But the road ahead was long.
Once a monster wave began, the numbers pouring out through the warps were basically an army.
With only the standing forces in the city, we couldn't carve a path.
But I couldn't just ignore it and go on my way either.
<<'Sub Quest: Protect the City' has begun.>>
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·····Because the sub quest had come right in front of my eyes.
Massive experience, could I really just pass that up?
And it wasn't only one.
<<'Main Quest 4: Seal the fissure of the Dark Space' has begun.>>
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·····No way this starts here.
Main Quest 4 began at an unexpected timing.
'This is the worst.'
I couldn't clear a main quest without any preparation or plan.
Even if I cleared it, if I didn't reach the rankings, it'd be a loss.
Running away and retrying would be the smartest method. If I didn't attempt it at all, it wouldn't count.
More than anything, the Golden Rule Shop.
'A shop you use with Fragments of the Broken Golden Rule?'
It was a right I absolutely needed.
That was why I had to enter the hall of fame rankings no matter what.
Normally I would've bolted without looking back, but.
'Priest Andrew. Serengeti.'
Priest Andrew and Serengeti kept catching my eye.
If this city vanished, the two of them would vanish with it.
The most honorable priest, and the closest knight who had thrown her life away for me.
'Even ten minutes in, the clear will be shot.'
The problem was that the quest itself had a time limit.
The hybrids that emerged every ten minutes.
Everything labeled a hybrid was absurdly strong.
A Black-Skinned Hybrid alone was a level 10 monster.
After that, it didn't need saying.
'We have to break through quickly.'
So we had to clear it within ten minutes.
But Isabella and Hudson alone weren't enough. Even with Hydragon added, same story.
Destroying all the warps within ten minutes was, no matter how you looked at it, impossible.
However, it wasn't that there was no way at all.
Jiiiiing!
I used the Teleport Book.
A moment later, a warp opened before my eyes, showing the scenery of the Rustling Forest.
"Oh! Our friend. Have you come back to the forest again? Then we must hold a festival today as well!"
High Dryad!
The master of the forest and lord of the Dryad, he was waving from the other side of the warp.
I smiled faintly and said,
"You'll have to help me out, my friend."
What are friends for?
Isn't that exactly why a friend-chance exists?
"······."
"······That······."
"Wh-what in the world is this situation······?"