[Let’s fight together here! / Don’t get in my way, just stay to the side!]
I didn’t really want to say such harsh words to Adella.
[‘Star Star Kirby’ donated 3,000 won!]
– Every time you pick the first choice, Adella loses 10% of her health!
Well, it’s just part of the choices, so there’s nothing you can do about it.
[▶Don’t get in my way, just stay to the side!]
Now was the time to focus on clearing.
I had spent way too long in the Materials Warehouse.
I had no time to look at the silent donation window pouring in as I dealt with the guards coming at me nonstop.
We were continuing our desperate fight in the Admissions Office, the last remaining location.
It was also a place of deep meaning for Adella.
But she always just got in the way.
[Now we have to work together! / Didn’t you hear me? I said to stay away!]
[▶Didn’t you hear me? I said to stay away!]
The Admissions Office wasn’t a system where you’d fight one mid-boss; it was an event where you had to defeat multiple elite NPCs.
They seemed to be instructors involved in selecting freshmen at the Academy.
It would be a bit presumptuous to say they were on the professor level with skills like that.
[No more! This is the limit! Help me, Adella! / You useless black cat!]
“…”
As I kept delaying my choice, the system naturally selected the second option for me.
[Operation time limit exceeded.]
[▶You useless black cat!]
… It was all for Adella.
Bringing Adella this far was indeed a miracle.
I couldn’t count how many times we had escaped death at the Observatory, in the Materials Warehouse, and elsewhere.
You need to repay the debt to the Gestalt Branch Leader.
The guards started to panic.
This proved that our flanking maneuver from the east was succeeding.
“We’ll slip out to the Northern Forest for now, then we can go back in once things settle down.”
Getting out wasn’t easy.
We hadn’t even made it into the Academy headquarters yet, so we were able to escape through the many alleys of the Holy City without encountering enemies.
Adella was huffing and puffing as she chased after me.
If she was a cat at all, shouldn’t she be nimble?
“Let’s wait here.”
I found a suitable set of stairs and decided to sit and rest to preserve stamina.
Adella trudged over and sat next to me.
“Do you think Alperion and Ciciela can come back with the Laurel…?”
“We sent 30 of our classmates. If they know the exact location, they’ll bring it back.”
“Right. They’re all stronger than me anyway.”
How long would we have to wait?
The quest window didn’t give us any hints.
“Forest Keeper, you really fight well. At the Observatory, in the Materials Warehouse, in the Admissions Office…”
Adella’s words trailed off.
She seemed unusually gloomy. Maybe the night sky was giving her too many feelings.
“In contrast, I… I was no help at all. If it were going to be like this, NoName could have gone alone.”
“If you hadn’t hit the ceiling in the Materials Warehouse, we might not have defeated the Warehouse Keeper.”
“No, you would have definitely won this on your own.”
Adella’s ears drooped. Her once lively tail was also lacking energy.
“The people you fought in the Admissions Office… they were the instructors who administered my entrance exam two years ago. They were all incredibly strong.”
“They were strong, alright.”
“Maybe I wasn’t cut out for the Academy. Just stealing in stinky alleys… in the end, we’ll all go back to where we belong. This is my place in life.”
[‘e평q평rq평e’ donated 10,000 won!]
– Well, you should have just moderately caused trouble.
“From the start, I was never cut out for this.”
Adella tossed a dagger into the air.
She tried to catch it in the hole of another spinning dagger’s handle, but her skill sadly missed the mark and failed miserably.
“Hehe, I can’t even do this… it’s really pathetic…”
[Move to the North Gate of the Academy and join ‘Abyss’.]
“Let’s go, Adella.”
“…”
Still, she remained unresponsive after the quest started.
She suddenly shook off her melancholy and followed me without a word.
*
There are things in the world called ‘necessity.’
Events that will occur no matter what.
So clear is the causal relationship that it’s rather strange if they don’t happen.
For example, ice left at room temperature will melt over time.
For instance, a state that engages in excessive invasion wars and tax pillaging will inevitably collapse from within.
This theory doesn’t only apply to a single phenomenon, it applies to the macro level as well.
In other words, a group that is so distrustful that even the branch leader can predict and give hints about betrayal will inevitably have traitors.
“Ciciela! Why are you alone? Where’s Alperion?”
Adella lunged out and supported the severely wounded Ciciela.
“Geez… the old man was right after all. Sadly, only half right…”
As Ciciela pulled the arrow embedded in her thigh, blood squirted out.
“Now I see why you two were sent on a dangerous mission alone.”
“What are you talking about—”
“Our mercenaries have all betrayed us. Everyone from Abyss District 15 has sided with the Academy!”
When they tried to steal the Laurel, their once-loyal allies suddenly turned against Alperion and Ciciela without hesitation.
What on earth happened?
I was sure something had gone horribly wrong while they infiltrated, but the allies didn’t say a word.
Yet, a skilled person is indeed a skilled person.
“The Laurel is here. I have to go help Alperion again. Forest Keeper, please don’t abandon Adella. Promise me.”
“Ciciela!”
“Quickly! Escape with it! Now!”
“I can’t…!”
“Forest Keeper, hurry and take her away!”
Suddenly, the world turned black and white.
The bear beastman yelling at me to run with Adella and the stubborn Adella both froze in place.
Not only that, the fluttering leaves, the ashes, and the embers were all trapped in the space as well.
In this halted world, I alone could move freely.
Two choices appeared before me, floating in the air.
[Good luck. Let’s meet again alive. / I can’t abandon my allies.]
Until now, all the choices I faced had not paused the in-game time.
Delaying my answer would prompt the NPCs to rush me and apply pressure.
But now, this particular question kindly froze time as if urging me to contemplate deeply before answering.
I instinctively felt that this was the most important juncture in the game.
After a moment of thought, I manipulated the interface in the air.
[▶Chat Window – ON]
This wasn’t a matter of pride.
Relatively speaking, I was the one with insufficient information.
Ultimately, I decided to seek help from the viewers.
“Please let me know. I don’t mind spoilers.”
A hasty choice in a situation devoid of information was a shortcut to death.
Besides, I had no idea how the creator had toyed with either option.
It could end up like a romance simulation game where accepting the confession from a junior suddenly results in being hit by a truck from behind, right?
Letters made of Hangul and Arabic numerals surged and crashed like waves.
-11111111111
-Always 111111111111
-Option 2 is a bad ending, 1 1 1 1 1
-Choosing 2 will 100% lead to your death
-If you go to help, all the students from the Academy will swarm out, lol
-Wow, WareSoft! You hid a disaster drift in a healing scenario!
-Guess they haven’t changed their bad patterns since Dark Soul.
-Fact) The same person wrote the story.
-When I played at normal difficulty, it was pure healing…
-What are you talking about? I’m so bad that even normal was super hard for me!
-That’s a bit…
-It seems like a somewhat philosophical development. Since I chose the nightmare where I didn’t care about story, aiming to clear by reclaiming the Laurel as quickly as possible, I guess I have to endure such sacrifices?
-That’s a crap philosophy.
-Did the censorship committee really check the Nightmare story when they reviewed the game? lol
-It’s not like they input dialogue one by one like a computer game; it’s all written in scripts about background and character personalities, so unless you’re an expert in this field, you probably wouldn’t know.
-Seriously, there’s no dream or hope here.
-Should I spoil this? Or not?
-The room leader gave permission, right?
-No matter what you choose, Alperion and Ciciela will die here, goodbye.
-AHHHHHH!!!
Certain gimmicks that can’t be avoided.
I asked again, to make an accurate judgment.
“When we go, is it impossible to save Alperion?”
-Yes, it’s confirmed.
-By now, an arrow must be lodged in his heart, and he’s probably a corpse by now.
-Ciciela also has a poisoned arrow in her thigh, so she won’t last long.
-Seriously?
-Is this what they call a masterpiece…?
-It’s not 15+, it should be rated 19+!
-How did they avoid the age rating restriction in Korea?
[▶Good luck. Let’s meet again alive.]
“Good luck. Let’s meet again alive.”
I didn’t feel at ease.
It felt awfully uncomfortable to send a comrade off to certain death.
If it was WareSoft’s strategy to make someone feel this awful, they succeeded splendidly.
The story mode of Wagal didn’t suit me.
I vowed that next time I’d watch all the speedrun strategies and clear it in the shortest time possible.
I forcibly grabbed Adella’s arm and pulled her away from Ciciela.
Since I had already made the choice, we were now under a time attack.
“Adella, though we weren’t super close in Abyss, you need to survive. When we return, I’ll let you party up however you want.”
“NO! NoName, let go of me! How do you expect my sister to fight again in that state?!”
“I have to go. The enemies are regrouping.”
“Hic… sniff…!”
I dragged the dazed Adella through the enemy crowd.
My flail, laughably called a magical weapon, was becoming dull.
If I took down ten, twenty more seemed to swarm in, and then killing those would invite thirty more.
-What the hell, this is Nightmare difficulty, I can’t breathe!
-This isn’t even Nightmare, it’s like they boosted all the enemy numbers by tenfold.
-My mana ran out ages ago; can you buy any?
-Is there any scrolls left? Come to think of it, the room leader has never used one.
-If I got hit even once, I feel like I’d get crushed to death; just watching makes my heart race.
-I feel like they’ve gone crazy with stamina management.
A one versus many battle isn’t called a fight.
It’s always the majority that wins, so it’s more of a hunt than a battle.
The prey only needed to think of one thing.
To escape at full speed.
Just a bit further, and the Academy’s North Gate would be ahead.
I checked once again to make sure I still had the Laurel with me.
[Laurel of Life]
[Synchronization is not possible during battle.]
Each Laurel had its own name, huh?
I confirmed what Repi had given me.
[Laurel of Reincarnation]
Reincarnation?
Does the reason why I return to the start of the game when I die have to do with the Laurel of Reincarnation?
The game developers were really incredible for not missing even the small details.
As long as I could get over the Academy’s walls, it would be difficult for anyone in the complex Holy City to find us.
“…!”
Suddenly, a massive ice spike descended from the sky to crush us.
I couldn’t let it melt. The specific heat of water is quite high, so the fire magic I had now wouldn’t suffice.
[High Level Spell: Turbulence]
I manipulated the flow of air just enough to skim by it. In that sense, ‘Turbulence’ was the most widely castable spell with minimal mana.
“You can’t even catch little rats like these. The guards’ level is showing.”
A middle-aged man in a neatly tailored suit descended from the sky without a single wrinkle in his outfit.
The glimmer of the moonlight on his monocle and the ticking pocket watch gave an impressive impression.
“Father…?”
Adella’s following words left me in disbelief.
